I've been talking about writing a post about Big's school adventures for awhile now, but just kept putting it off. See the thing is lately I feel like Dorothy when she landed in Oz... just so confused.

I might as well start by letting you know this post is going to make me sound like a total braggart. The pride I have stored up in that little boy is amazing- because he IS amazing!!!

Big is the quiet contemplative type. Always eager to learn. So it was no wonder that he was reading well at 3. All his life if he's shown an interest in something Jay and I would dive right in with him and start soaking up the knowledge we needed to help him understand whatever it was that caught his fancy. This process works for him. He LOVES to learn. He LOVES being smart. The caveat is that he also HAS to be challenged. You know the saying 'idle hands are the devils playground'? This is so true for him. If he's not engaged he will find something to do, and most likely it will not be grownup approved. Once Jay and I learned that we were fine.

Then Kindergarten started. By his first few weeks of kindergarten we were faced with the rude reality that not all parents put the effort into their children that we had. There were kids in his class that had no idea what their real first names were let alone how to spell them. Big had known that for what felt like forever. When the teacher so proudly announced the list of words they would learn by years end we were floored. I, am, we, the....you get the picture. We soon decided that kindergarten was going to be mostly for socialization. By the end of the year Big had learned to read, write and spell all the words from k-3rd grade. He was proud of himself, and proud to be a 'smart guy'.

In the first year I had trepidation with more then school work. Big is a timid sweet boy, and we had issues with bullies. It sucked. I hoped the whole experience would be better this year...

First grade is underway now and we are seeing a lot of the same problems. He gets bored so easily with his work. He's tired of saying A says 'ah'. I don't blame him. If I'd known that for almost 4 years I'd be ready to move on too. His teacher is kind but new. Instead of challenging him like we discussed she gives him busy work like checking her markers. I know that there are things to be learned in school that are not academic, but I've gotten to the point where I feel like he's being dumbed down instead of learning. We have requested a conference. To top it all off he came home from school last week and told me that a kid grabbed him by his collar and socked him in the lip-it bled. So the bullies are back...great....

Here comes the tornado sweeping me away to OZ.
I always said I wasn't the 'homeschooling type'. I loose my patience easily, I have wretched spelling and grammar, and I suck at math. Does that sound like a teacher to you? I wrote the idea off long ago.....swirling, faster, faster, THEWACK!.....OZ
Then God started bringing these great home schoolers into my life. Wow, it can be great!! There are so many groups and co-ops, you don't have to do it alone. Everything great Big knows he learned at home anyways, the field trips and real life learning we could do! Would Jay go for it? .....hmmm, what is this place?.....
These thoughts have been heavy on my mind and in my prayers lately. Maybe, I am the homeschooling type after all? I don't know. I'll just keep praying, listen for God, and learning more about it until I feel I have the answers. If you would could you pray too? Not just about the HS thing (but do lift that up to Him if you think about it) but for Big as he goes to school. It's a scary Forrest filled with flying monkeys out there.....

Oh we're not in Kansas anymore people, good thing my God doesn't need ruby slippers hu?

Just thought I'd leave a quick post to wish you all a Happy, safe, and hopefully dry night tonight!

This week has been something else. Whew! I am totally TGIFin tonight. I don't mean to say it's been all bad; it's just been off with a few great moments sprinkled about here and there.

Jay was out of town over the weekend, and as you all know even with no plans that can be rough. Big always has an attitude backlash, and then a meltdown. He gets so emotional- wonder who he got that from hmmm.... Over the years I have learned what to expect and how to deal with it. It's just that now my blessings have expanded so.... Ok actually, let's fast forward to our current events....

This week Big was asked to prepare a one minute oral report on his favorite animal, and have a picture of it to share. He chose a Cobra. Hmmm, why a Cobra you might ask? This answer comes straight from his report 'I like Cobras because they scare my mama' end quote. Yes, he is a precocious child. Well we checked out a few books from the library and set to work. He typed up his copy, picked his pictures, and drew a few extra then set out to school this morning to give his report. Jay and I thought this was a whole class assignment, so you can imagine our shock when he came home today and told us there was only one other first grader in his school that was asked to give a report too. Turns out he went to all 3 first grade classes and did his report, then once finish held an open forum question and answer period....so Big..... I am so stinking proud of him!!!! I guess all the teachers were really impressed too because when we ran into them tonight at his schools fall fest they were just tickled by his report, and how he carried himself. He really is a stellar kid. I'm so blessed to have him.

Tiny finally broke her first tooth!!!!! She's so much happier now because of it. Let's just pray ( no really I'm asking you to lift me up in this) she stops biting me before it is in fully, cause her gumming has made me sore enough.

Little, my sweet wild child now says Love you. It's so precious and tender, I love it. Next to Hi, Bye, and actually; I love you is probably one the the most used sayings in this house. I'm HUGE on the I love yous, and I've been dying for her to say it back- she used to say bye when ever you told her you loved her. You know like I love you, goodbye. But now it's the real McCoy.
It actually sounds more like wow-whew, but it's genuine. Today before leaving Coffee Chicks she hugged all our friends goodbye and said wow-whew. Yes those are the moments I live for.

I've been going through some stuff. I think that's what really threw me off this week, because looking back now it seems pretty awesome. I'll share more about that Monday night though. I just wanted to count my blessings tonight, and wish you all a beautiful weekend.

Hugs!

A joyful heart is good medicine -Proverbs 17:22a

So here we are 5.5 months, laughing At Last!



....Oh what a divine sound!

Thank you Lord for this joyful child. She is my calm in the storm, and all around blessing in my life.
I love you,
Amen

Tonight Jay and I set a side a little time to do a Halloween craft with JUST Big. It was great. We don't get the chance to both be fully present with him very often these days and I miss that.

Our craft was making Mr. Bottle Bones. I saw one hanging in my friend Heathers garage a while back and knew we had to make one this year. It's so fun and easy! A little time consuming, but worth the effort. I have been saving those Milk Jugs for a little over a month...BUT I have extras if any of you wanna give it whorl before Halloween!

The link to make it yourself is: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10622. I LOVE family Fun they have such awesome Ideas!

We had a ball goofing off, and spending time with our ever growing boy. It was really neat seeing how detail oriented he's become, now if only he wouldn't get so frustrated......so like me..... I guess we are who we are hu?
I'm thinking we should make this a regular event. Big loves crafty stuff, and we'd get to focus on him alone. A win win if you ask me.

Over the weekend we took the kids to Smith Family Farms in Brentwood. It is such a great place to go with your family to welcome fall. They have all sorts of fun things to do, and for the price of admission ($9) you can pick any pumpkin you can carry.

We started our visit with a trip through the corn maze

As you can see Little LOVED it! Big did a great job directing our path (too good in fact, so we had to go again)

Then we checked out the Farmyard,
and took a few silly pictures:










After ohhing and ahhing over the animals, or in Littles case yelling "OHHH" WOAH" WOW"OHH"
We went to watch the barnyard show:
I think Jim-Bob gets better with time.The kids really enjoyed his act this year. Once the Barnyard Show was over we checked out the little Indian village, and the bee lady. Little thought the huts were OK, but mostly she enjoyed doing this:

Then we took our hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins. Big was a on a mission to find the perfect pumpkin (translation: better then Daddies). Little tried her best to pick up many a humongous ones, but in the end we all found pumpkins that were just right.

Just in case you are wondering if Tiny was there, of course she was! They were all being less then cooperative with the whole picture taking process. So we didn't even get one good shot of the three of them. Jay did however get this one of Big and Tiny:

Notice that I had the girls matching, for pictures OF course- best laid plans right?

We had a great time together welcoming autumn. These are the times I adore.

Happy Fall everyone!

....This is my life in a nutshell,or should I say Previa...LOL.....

I was trying to take a quick shot of my new do (what do you all think?) and I caught a perfect image of my life as a mom. I told Jay that when Tiny is sitting forward we should take a shot like this of all of us and frame it. I mean think of how often you spend in the car now a days! Just look at my kids, they were all so done by this point, and yet I'm smiling. I thought it was so funny, so I had to share.

So as of tomorrow morning my sweet Tiny is 5 months old. 5 months! I can't even believe it!! No, I'm seriously in shock and awe. I know I mentioned before that I think of her as my perpetual newborn. I just want to fully, totally, and completely enjoy her and the brightness she brings to our family. What was I thinking when I said I was done at 2?

So I thought I'd post the things she's doing, and the things I should be doing...now that I've woken up to the fact that I can not stop time.

1. She is rolling EVERYWHERE!!!!! Awake rolling, sleeping rolling, happy rolling, frustrated rolling, always rolling. She often gets herself in many situations like this:

2. She squeals Loudly.
3. I need to let her play with more toys. I'm always thinking "oh no she's too little for that....!" when have I ever done that?
4. She's working on sitting up.
5. I have yet to get her ears pierced. Little's were done months ago by now, again I keep thinking of it but....yeah.... you know....
6. She hates her car seat, and more recently her swing.
7. I need to actually feed her solids more often.
8. I know I need to do #7 because she's been gumming me ( She's teething....yuck....)and seems to think it's soooOOOooo cute. Yeah, no.
9. Her tongue is her new BFF. It's so funny. She's always darting it in and out of her mouth.
10. She knows and smiles with glee at Big, and Little. Even being so kind as to put up with Little's smothering signs of affection.
11. I need to let the kids hold her more. She's not nearly as fragile as I feel she is.
12. She's my sense of calm, my peace, my baby, and she's almost half a year old.



12 things, for the girl born on the 12.

Tiny,

I promise I'll let you grow up (someday), if you promise to always tell your mama you love her kay?

x0x0x0xMommy

I have never in my life met a child as dependent on her books as Little. She has always loved books. Even now she has a TON of other toys, but she spends most of her day with a book in tow. I love it.

So us going to Story Time at the local library has become a part of our weekly routine. If you have a small one and haven't checked out your L.L. you should. Their programs are AWESOME, and FREE (who would love that?) There is singing, lap rides, puppets, STORIES, and bubbles. fun, fun, fun!

Little thinks story time is just great. We sing the songs all week long. She's always excited when we pull into the parking lot. She waits in anticipation for the Library to open. We go in, sit down, and wait for it to begin.


Leah comes along too to help with Tiny so that I can have some one-on-one time with Little. This is the only point of trouble. Poor Little (or maybe this is a blessing in disguise) has no clue that she should even get one-on-one time with me. So from the moment Leah takes Tiny, Little get a little unhinged. She's constantly looking for them, calling "my awbwee". She locates them visually then carries on with the songs,and stories, until she realizes that I'm not holding her sister. Then the process starts all over again. It's very sweet.


So in my zest to find Little an activity she would love, I get to see how much she just loves us. I have spent time agonizing over her "getting enough time" from the moment I found out I was having Tiny, and now I see it was all in vain. She's happy to be with her sister, her mama, (and daddy, and buba) and a good book. She doesn't feel cheated. She can't even imagine (at this point anyway) life without her sweet "Awbwee".

Next week, I think I'll have Leah sit by us for good measure anyways though. If you're free Tuesday's @10:00 you should join us!

Sorry for the lull in posts. The last few weeks have seemed very chaotic and I haven't had much down time. So as my girls nap I thought I'd fill you in on them.

This weekend the Hubby and I decided we needed to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather so we went for a picnic at Heather Farms. It was fabulous!!! I love it there, but most of all I love moments where our family can just be together. Those lazy afternoon that seem to be hours longer then they are. I love watching Jay be the amazing father he is. Some how managing to find a moment to get completely lost in each of our children's unique little worlds, enjoying every second of his stay. It's all so lovely and perfect.

While at Heather farms we snapped this shot of them.


It took my breath away, made me delighted, and sad in the same instant. My sweet children are growing up so fast. They all seem so much BIGGER in this photo then I see them. As they insist on growing- big moments are happening in their lives everyday. It's so exciting, yet as their mother it's also shocking. Where is time going???? Why does it seem to be running faster every year, month, day, hour, and moment? I wish I had a way to slow it all down. The only way I know to do that is to truly be fully present with them. Savor each moment, every hug, every BIG accomplishment (even if it's really small), and each stage of their lives come what may. I try my best to do that.

In sticking with the BIG moments theme today here are a few highlights from each of of the kids lives.

Big: Look at this-------->
His face is changing! Suddenly he looks like such a BIG kid. He also acts like a big kid now. He's doing great in school. He even helps the other kids if he sees them struggling. (more on that later) We've been reading a lot of Shel Silverstien as of late and to my great joy; he gets it. Better yet he loves and cherishes the poems like I do. He's working on his second loose tooth. And to my great dismay he's began wiping off my kisses.



Little: Oh my beautiful disaster of a child. How I adore her and her craziness. This weekend she started using the word NO. I thought I'd dread that day but The way she says it is so unlike her I find it so sweet. Everything else she does is BIG, and loud. When she says no she says it in a soft, almost melancholy way. It's precious. She's totally in love withTiny. She's my little mommy. Always trying her best to "help" me with this and that. She's doing an amazing job potty training. She went number 2 on the potty for the last 3 days. She too is looking so big these days.




Tiny: Let's just start by saying GOD is good. Tiny's had the toughest start in life of the 3 of them. After a rough pregnancy, the jaundice hospitalization, and her poor vision she is still by far my happiest child. She's so calming, and sweet. I keep trying to make her stay my newborn but upon the birth of her sweet cousin on the 3rd I had to face the fact that she's growing up. Next to Destiny she seemed HUGE! She's chunked up nicely recently, and has now started eating rice cereal. She can get all around the room by rolling, and scooching. She's began happy screeching, blowing bubbles, and pouting... we are not so patiently waiting for a good belly laugh, but we know it will come sooner or later. He vision seems to be getting better, and that is truly a blessing. ( The patches are irritating the skin around her eyes, if you have any thoughts on how to help that I'd be grateful.)

In everyday moments BIG things happen in the life of a child. Savor them, celebrate them, and always remember how Blessed you are to be apart of them... I know I do...when I'm not crying because they are so fleeting....