The Nursery

It is finished! HOOOORAY!!!
If you know me or my husband, you know that the likelihood of us painting anything is very,very slim. We hate painting. Not in a "man, I hate spinach" type of way. More like a "I hate having surgery without anesthesia" or "I hate having one of my arms getting stuck in a chainsaw" kind of way. So, with that being said, I really was concerned that this newest addition to our family was going to be growing up in a boring, builder brown bedroom. Which really was kind of sad, because I really did have a vision of a soft, calm space for the baby.
Many of the things I wanted for the room were coming together. . .
the handmade art from Brother and Sister, the fluffy white rug, the handmade pinwheel mobile, the billowy white sheers, and the beautiful crocheted blanket from Gigi. It was all there and ready. But it just wasn't coming together the way I wanted it to in the bland brown room.
Then, in stepped Prince Charming.
Without a word of complaint, he single-handedly transformed the baby's room from "not quite" to "YES!!! Exactly!"
He is my hero. My savior.

I adore this room. 

The pinwheel mobile I made

That's Sister's artwork above the bookshelf.

We've purposely kept a couple of the walls blank so we can personalize the room after the baby is born. 

And Brother's lovely Tree he painted.

Morning in the room is my favorite time of day. This picture in no way does it justice. When the morning light comes through the sheers, the room gets all hazy and beautiful. It feels like you're inside a cloud. Magical. 

The room is so perfect for us now. I love going in there and just relaxing in its peace and calm. I can't wait until there is a little person living in there!

Projects

Wow. Can I just say January has been insane?! It seems like there has constantly been something going on! By the time the kids are in bed each night (insanely early lately, I might add. Gotta save my sanity somehow!), all I want to do is curl up on the couch with Rob. So, sadly, the blog has been a bit neglected for a couple of weeks. But today we are having yet another glorious snow day and Zach is graciously playing with his little monster, I mean sister, for me so I can attempt to catch up!

So what's been going on. . . .
well, as usual, a lot of art!
My cousin Nicole mentioned bathtub crayons in one of her blog posts recently, and as I read it, I thought they'd be a lot of fun for Bella. The very next day I was in Target and saw some randomly thrown on a shelf, AND they were on clearance! SCORE! As expected, they have been a huge hit!

This is just a small sampling of her bath tub art. She stayed in there drawing forever, as in until the water was FREEZING cold and I forced her to get out. Why didn't I think of these things before?! Thanks Nicole for reminding me of these wonderful gems!

We even took our spelling test with the tub crayons! FUN! Have I mentioned I adore homeschooling?

Lately, Little Miss has really been interested in the Solar System, so I'm trying to be proactive and jump on the opportunity she is providing for us to teach her. So, in addition to reading a bunch of books about the planets, the sun, and the moon, the Munchkin made her own solar system. A project that involved painting AND the solar system?! Little Picasso was in heaven!

She was even sweet enough to let Brother help. Notice. It doesn't happen often.

The finished product. She's obsessed with it. Her favorite planet is Saturn, because "It's beautiful and I like its ring." I love that girl. And her ability to find something beautiful in everything. 

Look What I Can Do!

Think She's Excited?

SNOW DAY!

It happened! On January 9, 2011 WE GOT SNOW!

Now for some of my friends, this is no big deal. Their snow starts in November and lasts through March or April. But for us Southerners, snow is something rare and magical! So you can imagine the kids' excitement when they heard the weather man mention that there might be snow. The excitement mounted to even greater proportions when the weather man said there was going to be snow. And when those first snowflakes began to fall, it just pushed the munchkins right over the edge into insanity. 

Little Miss was up at the crack of dawn, ready to bundle up and hit the slopes! Brother on the other hand, decided to take advantage of no school and slept until 9-when I finally allowed Bella to bust into his room and wake him. In the most gentle manner of course. It went a little like this, (in her best screaming whisper) ZACH!!!!! WAKE UP! IT SNOOOOWED!!!!!!! Being the great, big brother that he is, he groggily rolled out of bed, bundled up, and the fun began!

Since we get snow maybe once a year, and it only lasts for 2 or three days, most of us don't own any snow attire. Enter layers. Bella had so many layers on that she was seriously concerned that she may not be able to move. What can I say? I didn't want my baby to get cold. 

Brother was very fond of trying things that inevitably ended in destruction. Not so great for him. Awesome for my viewing pleasure!

Little Miss LOVED sledding down the hill! She didn't even mind dragging the sled back up the hill, because that just meant she got to go down again. And again. And again.

Everything about the snow was wonderful to her. 

Some of our neighborhood homeschool friends came to play too! Snow+ friends= super awesome day!

The face of a frozen, but blissfully happy little girl!

Headed out for round two

Don't know if you can see it, but she's giving a thumbs up. Adorable.

Another, "this is the greatest day of my life!" moment. She has a lot of those. I want to be just like her. 

Seriously, the kid couldn't have had more fun if she tried! As much as I dislike the cold, faces like this make me wish it snowed all the time.

What snow day is complete with out snow angels?!

Gotta try the snow. Apparently it was delicious because she ate a pound of it!

Of course there was snow girl making. Daddy is the best at it. Daddy and Bella together equal an unbeatable snow girl making team!

Snow Girl, Ashlyn, even had a tiara. Daddy is so awesome. He thinks of everything.

Love that face!!

SNOWBALL FIGHT!

Somehow, a challenge to roll the biggest snowball ever began. I think they did pretty well. It proved to be a big hit with the beasties. 

I love my crazy kids! heehee!

 For snow day round two, some more of our friends came to play, adding even more super awesome to an already super awesome day!

2011 So Far

January has been a crazy busy month already and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight! With the sapian coming in March, it seems our list of things to do get a little longer every day. Between all the "must dos" there has been a lot of fun too. . .

New Year's celebration. Roo was already in bed :(

Midnight is just a little too late for her. Honestly, she'd be fine with staying up that late, but dealing with her the next day is just a little too much for Mommy!

Lots of drawing of course. Here you see Princess and Prince Charming's version of Candy Land. 

 Getting her beauty sleep. Love that she is snuggled up with Baby Frog :)

 Helping Mommy bake biscuits for breakfast. Isn't the apron adorable? Cooking is an important homeschool skill. I should have been homeschooled- maybe then I'd cook more for my family. . .

 We've had some very fancy "tea" parties. Yet another essential part of homeschooling :)

 Lots and lots of reading. Lately we've been reading a lot of fairy tails; those are always fun.

 We even had a yummy yummy ice cream date with great friends! Bella and Miss M have been friends since pre-school, so for a really long time!

 Even though it's January, we've had some really pretty days! What better way to spend them than at the playground with the bestie?!

 And music time with Brother is always fun! Especially in jammies!!

There's a little peek into our 2011 so far! Hope your's has been just a beautifully busy as our's has!

Back to life. Back to reality.

Although yesterday was our official first day back to real life after Christmas break, today was our first day without Daddy. The house felt really empty without him. We've kinda gotten used to him being home all day after two weeks. Bella barely left his side the entire time he was at home, and when she found out he was finally returning to work, the tears were almost instant. Heartbreaking. Since I knew munchkin in particular would have a hard time missing her Daddy, I've tried to plan a few fun things for us to do to pass the time.  We started the day dancing to a little Bob Marley (yesterday was salsa music) and after we finish up school we are going to make homemade banana bread. YUMMY!! And just for good measure, after lunch, two of her buddies are coming over for a popcorn and a movie play date. Hopefully all of that will help with the whole Daddy situation.
On the subject of our schooling, we've had a slight change in plans for the math portion this semester. Poor punkin was "blessed" with both her mommy and daddy's pension for math. Seriously, if either one of us had to go back to "math school" we'd both be in the special ed class. It's pathetic really.
After struggling through a semester's worth of addition, my little girl decided that she no longer loved school. She hated it. All because, "those additions are just so hard!" And at 5 years old, we can't have that! So, we have decided to back up. All the way to the beginning. We are starting over in math. For now, no more workbooks drilling addition. We are making math fun again. Math board games. Math coloring sheets. Math computer games. Cooking, measuring, etc. After just two days of this, I can already see a difference in her. She didn't pout or cry this morning. In fact, she informed me that school was starting to be fun again. Music to my ears.

That really is one of the most amazing things about homeschooling-the ability to do what is best for YOUR child, no matter what everyone else is doing. That freedom is both overwhelming and exhilarating. It's easy to get caught up in "following the crowd" or trying to out-do everyone else. It's in those moments I really have to remind myself WHY I chose to homeschool in the first place. I get asked that question a lot. Although I could ramble on and on trying to express why, I will simply share something I found on someone else's blog. These are not my words, but they express my feelings perfectly.

We chose homeschooling so that we could be with her. walk beside her. delight in her new discoveries. We made that choice not because we felt that it was the right one and all the other choices we wrong, but rather because it was the most right for us at the time.
Mainly, we did it to give our family time. Time for being together. Time for exploring our interests. Time for pausing and working on the things that are difficult for us. Time to figure out what it is that pleases us.
What our passions are.
And time to just be still.

7 months.

I have had a request to post a pic of my enormousness (shout out to NONI!!), so here it is. No words really needed other than I'm 7 months along. No, there aren't two, or three, in there. Yes, I am sure. No really. I'm positive.