Back in the Swing of Things

So I haven't posted in over a month. Lots of big things happened since then!

Christmas was great. I didn't get all of the crafts/activities done that I wanted to, but being big and pregnant does that to me. Not to mention we did not take a break from homeschooling, except for actual Christmas day. We all had a great time and really, what needs to be done except for praising and celebrating the birth of our Saviour?

My sister Crystal came to visit for two weeks for Christmas and we always enjoy that. She did have the flu almost the whole visit, so that part stunk, but we still had a good time with her on the few days she felt well. She gave the kids a trip to the top of the Tower of the Americas in downtown San Antonio as their Christmas gift and they LOVED that. We made an evening of it and had dinner on the Riverwalk as well. We also took a fun visit to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens before she left, as we have an under-used annual pass and we found a beautiful day to go.

Gingerbread house making

With Aunt Crystal at the top of the Tower of Americas
My sweet kiddos
With Santa at the 563rd Kids' Christmas party

Christmas morning

We spent New Years Eve afternoon/evening at Sea World, using those annual passes one last time before they expired that day. That was fun, with fireworks at 8PM to celebrate the new year with. Christopher and I stayed up until midnight watching tv (at his request!) and then it was 2010!

Then my favorite day of 2010 happened...January 4th, our sweet Anna Leella was born! She was three weeks early and the labor/delivery was not routine (it sucked!) and she spent a week in the NICU but it doing great now. She is 3 1/2 weeks old today and just as sweet as can be. I can't cuddle with her enough. Her brothers and sister adore her and love to hold her and give her kisses. It is nice to have so many helpers, especially Christopher who is almost nine years old and can hold and carry her around well.

We took two weeks off of schooling when Anna arrived and we have finished two weeks and are back on track. We have "traveled" to Africa, which in my opinion, is the most interesting continent to study, probably because it seems the least like our own. Christopher is in the process of making a giant African scene using a giant map of Africa he drew as well as painted, clay African animals that he has to make. We have great library books that we have been reading as well. He has started two digit times two digit multiplication, which seems like a big step up. We have fifteen weeks left of this school year for him.


Matthew is reading very well now and I think even surprises himself with how much he can read. He has started learning how to tell time, which will be useful because he's always asking how much longer until his next meal!


Gabriel is still tagging along with everything. He's so funny how he sits at the table and watches us do school. He found a Soduko book that he claimed so he can "practice his numbers". I'm not sure how he does that, except by randomly writing numbers in the blank squares. He also tries to jump in and read Matthew's words or answer Matthew's math problems.


Leah says a lot of words now and is slowly starting to put them together. She just got a new tooth (her 11th) and I'm not sure if it was hard for it to come out or what, but she's been pretty ornery for a week or so. She was saying for a couple of days that her ear hurt, and then I noticed a small amount of drainage, so I think it was infected, even with the tubes in. I think she's also looking for extra attention with Anna getting so much.


We've also started a new semester of our homeschool co-op. I help in the nursery for my teaching hours so that I don't have to leave Anna so young. Otherwise I would not have been able to do co-op this semester. The boys are enjoying their classes. Christopher got to choose three more classes this semester and he/I chose Math Games, Drawing, and Engineering.


So we found out that it is highly likely we will be going back to Offutt AFB in Nebraska instead of moving to Pensacola this fall. That is pretty disappointing, but we did like living in Nebraska, so we'll be okay :o)


So I've been cuddling with Anna through this whole blog today and she is still sleeping sweetly on my chest. I love this little girl. I think this is the most I've enjoyed the newborn phase. It makes me so sad that we won't be going through it again, but I am also excited about the next chapter in our lives.