For Your Viewing Pleasure

Photography by AlexaRainy day fun - playing in a fort behind the dining room tableApparently Super Mario Galaxy 2 bores her
Artists at work

Caleb reading the comics and eating his breakfast

Sierra and Her BFF

And another picture of Audrey for good measure because she's so cute.

Teaching Time

So I haven't updated about school in awhile. We got started back last week after 3ish weeks off for Christmas break. It was an interesting week with passing around the stomach bug and Dave home one day and a fussy new baby. We seem to be getting back into the groove now, though.

Here is how I teach most days - with a baby strapped to my chest. And a needy two year old wanting to be held.
And here are Caleb and Alexa reciting their catechism questions.
What we are up to these days -

Caleb:
He got his first report card over break, and he had all Es for excellent except for one S for satisfactory in handwriting. He is my child; my report card generally looked the same way. In literature, we are reading about King Midas, and in history he is studying the Medes and the Persians. He is memorizing a poem for a poetry recital in a few weeks. He still loves to read small chapter books such as Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton (thanks to Oma for the recommendation), Encylopedia Brown, and others. The last book he read was Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary. He started the second book of his second grade math curriculum. We are working on geometry right now (angles, parallel lines, shapes and such), and it is a bit more challenging for him than the rest of the book has been. In science, we are almost finished with plants and will be starting a book on animals next.

Alexa:
She is almost finished with her set of 3 phonics workbooks, which were on the sounds of the letters. She knows all her consonant sounds but still gets caught up on some of the vowel sounds. I am now starting to focus on teaching her to read. She taught herself to write, but she writes in all capital letters and not very neatly. So I have started a handwriting program with her. She has finished 3 or 4 math workbooks this year (I lost count). She knows numbers up to about 20 and can do some simple addition.

Sisters

Good Daddy

Playing Uno with all 4 kids

Sleep

This is where I had planned for Sierra to sleep - a pack n' play next to my bed. Notice that it is empty. I tried to get her to sleep here for the first 3 weeks or so, but she woke up and cried every time.
I finally decided that she hated sleeping flat because of her reflux. She spits up a lot, and I think being flat on her back was painful for her (kinda like it was for me because of the horrible heartburn I had when I was pregnant with her). Anyway, I bought this and had it shipped overnight from Amazon (love having Amazon prime). It's a rocking sleeper where she can sleep semi upright. And she's covered up with the blanket that Miss Carol Ann made her. While she still is not a great sleeper, she sleeps much better now that she is propped up, sometimes even a 4-5 hour stretch at night.

Sierra - 1 Month

I can't believe that Sierra is a month old (yesterday) already! She had her one month doctor's visit today and got a clean bill of health. Here are her stats; she is long and skinny with a big head.

Weight - 8 lbs 10 oz - 25th percentile (still smaller than any of the other 3 were at birth)
Height - 21.5 inches - 75th percentile
Head - 39 cm (I think) - 90th percentile

I would tell you what she's up to these days, but pretty much she just eats, sleeps, pees, and poops. She does take a 3 hour nap most afternoons at the same time Jordanna is napping, which is wonderful. And she will occasionally sleep a 5 hour stretch at night, which is also nice at least when the other kids don't wake up during that 5 hours either.

Joy to the World

Performed by Jordanna and Alexa

Sierra's Baptism

Sierra was baptized at our church on Sunday wearing this gown that my mom made for my baptism (for more about why we baptize our babies see here). Our other two girls were both nine and a half pounds or more at birth and were too big to wear it, but our little peanut, Sierra, fit in it perfectly.
We were blessed to have both my parents and Dave's parents there to celebrate with us.


These two can be sweet to each other occasionally.

Sierra's Newborn Pictures

We had a local home school mom come take some newborn pictures of Sierra. You can check out her Facebook page here. Sierra was five days old in these pictures. So sweet!

More Fun With Oma and Opa

Dave's parents left today, but they managed to squeeze in a little more fun before they left.

What could be more fun than snuggling a sweet baby?
Saturday morning, Dave and his parents took the kids to the park.


And then Saturday afternoon, they took Caleb and Alexa to a Lego display .
This was my favorite picture.

A Visit From Oma and Opa

Dave's parents are here for a visit and to meet Sierra. The girls have all taken turns sitting in Oma and Opa's laps (and Caleb, too, while they were working on a puzzle, but I don't have a picture).


This afternoon, Oma and Opa took Caleb and Alexa to "the dinosaur museum". Meanwhile Dave was at work, and Sierra, Jordanna, and I took naps.

The Best of 2011

As I reflect on 2011, it's very easy to pinpoint the best parts of the year. It was a good year on the whole, but best of all was the arrival of two sweet baby girls.

First, Audrey in July. The Lord was gracious to answer our prayers on Molly and Nick's behalf and bless them with Audrey. I don't think I will ever forget standing in line with the kids to get donuts at a rest area in Ontario and answering Molly's phone call that their baby had been born and they were on their way to pick her up. I started crying and even told some random stranger behind me because I was so excited. And then thanks to a friend from church who gave me Delta Buddy passes and Dave still being on summer vacation and able to take care of the kids, I was able to fly up to meet her and spend a few days hanging (and I hope helping) out.

And second, Sierra in December. I'm thankful that she was born healthy despite some health scares (mine not hers) while I was pregnant. I'm definitely thankful that she was born right at Christmas break so that I have had a few weeks with Dave home to help out while I rest (including napping every afternoon) and recover. And before I jump back into homeschooling Caleb and Alexa while keeping Jordanna from doing bodily injury to herself or destroying my house and now caring for a baby as well. We are fairly certain that she is our last baby, and our family is now complete. So, I'm trying to savor every moment of having a newborn one last time.