They are getting too big!

On most days I look at these children and can't believe how fast they are growing!  Katelyn loves to be a helper.

 I wonder at what point she will stop begging to help wash the dishes.  

 Michael got her all set up and let her have at it.  Works for me.

 Noah will be eight months old in another week.  His little smile melts my heart every time.

 And this silly face just makes me laugh!

Katelyn has been asking to get her hair cut for a long time and finally I gave in.

 She wanted it cut to her shoulders.  We're headed down to Florida for vacation in a couple of days and I figured a week in the pool and ocean would be a whole lot easier with shorter hair.

 It turned out so cute!  And it really fits her personality.  (It's definitely easier to take care of.)

Noah has started rolling all over the place.  He can get from one side of the living room to the other and pivots himself in all directions.  It won't be much longer until he's crawling.

Michael took this picture Sunday morning after church.  Such a handsome little guy!

We're super excited about vacation.  We're going to the same condo in Destin we went to last spring.  We loved it there and can't wait to hit the beach with both kids this time!

Noah is seven months old!

Noah's been seven months old for ten days already so I thought I should post these pictures before he hits the eight month mark.

 This has been a fun month.  Noah's personality is coming out more and more and he's so sweet and funny.  His new trick is to hold onto the spoon with his little teeth when we're trying to feed him.

 And then he gives us this look.  So how could you get upset with him?

 Noah has started to eat more solids this month.  He loves chewing on a graham cracker.

 Feeding Noah has also gotten messier this month.

 The little guy is ALWAYS happy to play with Katelyn and daddy.

 I love these three!!

 Silliness. Always silliness.

 Oma got Noah a new book and he loves it!

Noah has started taking a bath in the big bathtub with Katelyn.  He just splashes and splashes.  Michael says we should throw some laundry in there with him.  

This seven month old is such a fun boy! 

More fun school stuff

Katelyn is a great student.  She's a little sponge and loves to learn.  She has been practicing writing, reading and addition/subtraction.  She has memorized what perseverance means, what a preposition is, the classifications of living things, the five kingdoms of living things, the first two weeks of our history timeline (working on ancient history), she can count by 2's to 24 and knows most of the ten commandments.  Pretty good for our first couple of weeks.

 We made a lapbook to help her learn the ten commandments.  She really liked this project.

 She's such a hands on learner.  Anything that she can make, touch, interact with, she likes.

 She's pretending she's Moses on top of Mount Sinai with the tablets.  :)

 Here she is practicing putting the first week's history memory work in order.  

 She did it!  It really is amazing what a five year old can memorize.  

 We made a game out of it and she loved trying to beat mommy.  

Here she is practicing counting by twos.

I love being able to homeschool Katelyn.  It's definitely challenging but we are having a lot of fun and I am so thankful that we are able to help her grow spiritually and academically as fast or as slow as she's ready for.

First day of kindergarten

We have started our homeschool adventure!  Katelyn is officially in kindergarten!!!

Five years old.  She's becoming more and more independent.

We have a morning board that we start the day with.  It includes the date, the weather, our address and phone number, prayer list, bible memory verse and character trait to learn each month, and the memory work that we have for the homeschool group Katelyn is going to be part of on Tuesdays.  Katelyn loved the morning board and I think it's going to be a good tool for us to use.



 Katelyn worked on learning our phone number.  We also did a bible story, practiced writing her first and last name (she can do her first but now that we've changed her last name and it's hyphenated she has a long name to learn), and completed two math worksheets.  She did great today and was eager to dive right in.  

We started school on Labor Day because Michael was off work and we were both able to be there to celebrate her first day of school.  We had lunch and recess at Gattitown (pizza and arcade).  Nothing says recess like a carousel and inflatable bounce house.  Katelyn said it was the best day ever and she loves Kindergarten.