Good bye January!

My stars, is it almost February? With all this warm, spring-like weather we've had this year, I have found it hard to believe it's really wintertime.:-) Bar none, January is nearly over and soooo much has happened this month!


Stephen turned 32 on the 23rd of this month **hmmm, just noticed 32 is 23 backwards** and we had a great celebration with my parents on that day. My parents gave him a gift card to Lowes and he enjoyed going and buying himself some stuff he much needed. Caleb and I "enjoyed" tagging along on that trip...well, after about four rounds around the store, the new wore off for him:-) BUT, Stephen got to do something out of the ordinary just for fun and after all, since it was HIS birthday, he should get to do something fun even if he is a "grown up":-) Mom and I always say that everybody should be able to have a day off on their birthdays.....somehow that never seems to happen after you're married, BUT it's fun thinking about it!! lol!


Audrey is doing very well in her schooling this year. She is halfway through 5th grade (AAAHHHH!!!)  and is maintaining a 96-97 average in all her subjects despite the fact that she has had some really tough sections in Language Arts and Science this year. Still, her Math has improved 150% this year and I'm pleased with that. Switched on Schoolhouse has been good for her in many areas and it has been a blessing to be able to use that curriculum this year since we've had a little one in the house who has been very unpredictable with his schedule needs:-) Her favorite aspect of homeschooling is that she can play the piano as much (well, for the most part unless I ask her to let ME play a bit:-) as she wants each day. She is doing very well with her lessons that she takes from Mom and amazes me with her incredible sight reading skills. She pulls out my advanced books all the time and sight reads, slowly but surely, through a lot of them. I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid with my Mom's books, but I was WAY older when I started doing that...lol...Audrey has definitely taken after Mom in the music area and I'm so thankful for that influence in her life! Audrey is my right hand these days and her capability to help run the house for me at times is a blessing! She can clean as good as myself and her cooking skills are improving and is learning how to handle the kitchen tools more skillfully. She is so even tempered, like her Daddy, and she's a blessing to us!


Adalyn is...well...she's Adalyn!!! Never has there been a more dramatic, entertaining, excitable, busy, crazy, noisy, little girl than Adalyn! I was warned before Caleb was born that my quiet, clean house, tidy schedule days were over...OVER??? I'VE NEVER HAD THEM since Adalyn entered our household! She's a nut, but we love her and the house is WAAAYYY quiet when she's not here...lol! She is doing very well in K5 this year **on the days we manage to get the work done** and her reading is really improving. Math is not a problem for her and I'm glad:-) I think having a much older sibling has given her a head start on a lot of things. She is learning how to be responsible for her things and how to maintain tidiness in her room...not perfection, just tidiness:-) She is very creative with her surroundings and as Doc Scovill says "you ALWAYS know right where she is...the trail will always lead you home" HAHAHA! He's got her figured out pretty good:-) She is a good helper though and she is not afraid to tackle a new household job. Sometimes I forget she's only 5 and expect her to do a little more than she's really able to, but she tackles it anyways with a sweet "Yes Ma'am!" and does her best! She loves to help with Caleb and is his greatest entertainment. Since he likes things to be wildly entertaining, she fits the bill to the "T" and does it well! LOL! Her piano was put on hold for a few months while we tried to get through the first few teeth with Caleb, but she started that back up this week and it will be good to see how she takes off with it again. Both girls love music and as my husband said the other night "what other 10 and 5 year old do you know that would be THRILLED to death when their parents brought them home a Brahms CD?" OURS!!! lol! I'm so thankful they love Godly and God-honoring music and that they have had such tremendous influences in that area.


Caleb is growing...growing...growing...way too fast. Too fast. The baby days are quickly fading away and he is demonstrating his desire for independence more and more each day. He's not crawling yet, but does scoot around on his little bottom so he can get to things a little bit better on his own:-) In many ways he's been my most challenging baby of the three since he's been teething from 3.5 months old on and has problems sleeping at night still even though he's made to cry himself back to sleep most of the time. Stephen and I still wake up though each time he does so it makes for looonnnggg nights:-) As I write this post it is 5:15 and I've been up with him since 3:15. Daddy had to be at work at 4 am so he couldn't help much tonight:-) Wouldn't have been too bad if Caleb hadn't woken up at 12:30 am:-) Ahhhh, the joys of parenting:-) He's coming along on his teeth though and, if he keeps this pace up, will have a full mouth by the time he's 15 months old. He, like his sisters, loves music and last night Stephen was singing his favorite song "If you're happy and you know it" with him and he finally got his clapping in rhythm. Sometimes he claps, but mostly he sits there and bounces his upper body to the beat. He also like the song "The B-I-B-L-E" and said "bible" for the first time last night as well! "Bible" was one of the words that both girls said before age one so I'm happy to hear him following in their footsteps:-) He is completely enthralled by the piano and begs Audrey to hold him and let him bang out his own tunes. It's funny to watch him because he won't play if there's no music open on the rack. He also bangs on the open book when he's ready for you to turn the page to a "new song":-) Such a silly:-) As of this month he says, "Dadda, Mama, Adda (for audrey and addy) Bible, dum-dum (haven't quite figured out what he means by that yet...lol!), Num-num for when he wants to eat and "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH" for everything else he wants, thinks he wants, or needs:-) He has figured out how to throw things, meaning his toys, around except that he doesn't throw them away from himself frontwards...he throws them backwards behind himself! It's a most entertaining sight to see, but at least he can't hurt anyone by the flying toys yet. We all still sit in front of him, not behind him, while he's playing:-) He's such a joy to have with us even though he doesn't sleep very well still:-) We wouldn't trade him for anything!


I still can't upload new photos as "the man" has not had time to work on it for me yet:-) But I promise to load some as soon as I can! Happy ending to January and blessings to the beginning of February!