just an update......

This year in school we've been going through the alphabet- doing a letter a week, roughly. We got a little behind and we were on T this week. I know, that leaves me still 6 letters to go. (I think I am going to double up though and try and finish it out this month. ) But each week we do a Bible verse that starts with the letter we are doing and read a story from the Bible about a Bible character with that name. And then we have a handful of color pages - the letter, a picture from the Bible person, some animals or other such thing. I have found a number of website that are helpful and I can quickly print some pages that feature our letter and are things the boys are interested in. Caeden has improved alot this year in his coloring skills. He is now picking appropriate colors for the picture and staying in the lines quite well. He has also found he loves to draw his own picture, color it and then cut it out. Colm is still in the scribble stage. Most of his pictures end up 1 color and he still looses interest pretty quickly. He can though tell you the sounds that all the letters make and what letter he is looking at. Through the week we often work on our memory verse and talk about or re-read the Bible story.

Caeden can read any short word that is phonetically correct. He is getting good at sounding words out and we have some small books that we are reading through at his pace. I think he is getting close to have it really click for him and I think we'll see huge growth in this area soon.

I try and sit down and actually "do school" with them, 2-3 times a week, depending on our week. But they sit and color every day, often multiple times. They also enjoy doing other play activities. They often get their tools out and "go to work", they often go "hunting" with their guns and "shoot a bear for dinner" or other game. Sometimes they just keep the bad guys away from their princess too. They love playing fireman. It's interesting to watch all these activities blend together as they play. They have quite the imaginations!

Alannah usually just follows along and plays with what she can- or they'll let her! She makes the cutest little car and truck noises with the little cars. She loves to sit and read books- she will sit and page through it babbling along and looking at the pictures. Often pointing out things with her finger. If I am on the couch reading, she will often get a book and come sit next to me and read as well. She has discovered she loves being outside. No more of her playing inside while the boys are out! She loves to wander around, picking up sticks and rocks and walking around. She's getting pretty quick too. The other day she found a mud puddle before I realized how far she was and she found though the boys seemed to have fun stomping in the mud, it wasn't as fun as it looked and she just stood there and cried till I got to her.

Alannah has pretty much dropped her morning nap. She was borderline for awhile and she still crabby moments through the morning when I wonder if she wouldn't be ready for a nap. But I am letting her sleep or lay in her crib a bit longer in the mornings and then she naps a good 2 1/2- 3 hours in the afternoon with the boys.

Well, this turned into a wordy update post, so I will end it now. It wasn't where I started out going with this when I began, but that's okay! Here's your update and I will try and get some new pictures up soon too.

Happy Mother's Day!

and for your enjoyment......!

Digital greeting generated with Smilebox

Might have actually turned out cute if they hadn't been so sidetracked by the tractor!

I attempted to get one of all 3 in this spot - thought it looked so nice and spring-like...... they were too busy playing and smelling the flowers for me to catch them all together.

This is a typically view of Alannah outside - always walking all over! She loves being outside and is usually my hardest to convince it is time to come in.

I will get a more newsy update posted later!

17 months

Aww sweet Alannah girl - where has the time gone? I cannot believe you are already 17 months old! You are such a little bundle of joy and love.

At 17 months you:

~ have 4 center bottom teeth, 4 center top teeth and 2 top molars

~walk, almost run, constantly- very steady on your feet

~LOVE being outside

~love the park, but hate the swing

(you loved them last year, but have cried "up" every time I have tried this year)

~sleep wonderfully through the night- at least 12 hours.

~are working on going down to 1 nap a day,

though about 3-4 days a week we still sneak a short morning nap in

~you babble often, talking to us or yourself but your real words vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds daily.

~ you love putting "pretties" in your hair- you hardly have enough to clip but you are so proud of a barrette in your hair

~you love to sit on the couch and read while I am reading. You will go get a book and come over and say "up" and then sit there and read aloud to yourself.

~you love mimicking the boys in coloring, playing with trucks or animals

~you can point quite well to express your wants and needs if we don't understand the words

~you love horses and dogs and they both have their own "sound" when you see one

~Vocabulary as I can think of it- up, yes, no, mama, da, bye-bye, hello, cheese, flower, hat.......

Easter pictures

This is me on the left and Alannah on the right, in the same dress, about the same age

(I thought it was rather funny that about half the ones we took of Alannah her hand was in her mouth and then when I pulled out my pictures I realized the best one of me has my hand in my mouth too!)

He is Risen!