Things are about to get busy!

Check out the deer behind her!

Cutie pie :)

Well first off I just have to say how much I am loving the new camera we just got. We already have an AWESOME SLR Canon 30D that my mom got me for my birthday last year that I absolutely love. The only drawback to it is that it is HUGE, but it's great for taking really great, clear pictures and also for rapid picture taking. The only problem is that it isn't very portable for when we want to go hiking or going to be out walking all day. I wanted to get something that would take good pics but I could fit in my pocket for all our outdoor excursions....enter the Canon Elph SD1000. We just got it this weekend and I love it! It is SO tiny! It's about the size of a packet of Trident gum! I took the pictures above with it and can't wait to get out and take it on a hike. Speaking of hiking, we also got a new Sherpani hiking backpack to carry Kobe in. I was really hating our Kelty one and the way Kobe sat (or "dangled" would be a more accurate description) in it. I loved Sherpani the pack that Adam & Marie had for Morgan so we decided to get one for Kobe and he loves it. I'm looking forward to taking the new camera and backpack out this weekend for a hike!

Ok, back to the title of this post...things are about to get busy! I just got a call from my dad that he has some time off right now and wants to bring my grandma up for a visit. The only problem is that the time he has available to come is also right when my mom is going to be here visiting! So starting next weekend, we are going to have a VERY full house! I'm looking forward to it though. I love having guests, it keeps us busy and is always a lot of fun. Again, homeschooling rocks for yet another reason because Katie will get to be here with everyone during the days. I told her she still has to get her work done, but at least she will get to be here with everyone and not "miss" any school and I think that is so awesome! I just love the freedom we have to be able to take trips and have visitors any time we want and just fit her schoolwork in around it. Anyhow, I am really excited about having our family come and visit....now I just need to get the house in order!!

The school year has "officially" started. :)

Well things are in full swing around here! I am homeschooling Katie and started her a little bit earlier in the summer to give her a headstart so she can finish sooner in the Spring and take an extra long summer (and since I will have a new baby next Spring, I'm sure I'll need the break!) Our schooling was very relaxed over the summer (we took a lot of trips) but now that the school year has officially started, we are on a more serious schedule where Katie has to do her work every day. I'm so glad I started earlier to give us sort of a "warm up" to the curriculum. This Abeka curriculum is very advanced and in the beginning Katie went through a period of resisting doing the work and stalling and dragging her lesson out to take hours (on stuff that should have taken minutes) I was starting to have second thoughts but am now SO happy we stuck with it because that is all it was, an adjustment period, she wanted to see what I'd let her get away with. Now that she knows she HAS to finish all her work, she is doing amazing and really gets down to business and gets her work done quickly so that she has the rest of the day for fun stuff. It's amazing to me how much time must just be totally wasted in regular school because she can easily get started at 9am and finish by 1pm (with 2 recess breaks and a lunch break in there too!) She is doing a TON of work too and also art, spanish, some extra science and geography work that I got for her to supplement her Abeka stuff. She is getting the same education that she would in a good private school, except so much better because she has her teacher's undivided attention (instead of being 1 of 20, or whatever the ridiculous amount of kids they have in a classroom these days) She is only a couple weeks into the curriculum and is writing full sentences in cursive now - really good cursive too! She catches my mistakes and corrects my handwriting now! LOL I can't believe it! When we started the curriculum, I thought there was no way she'd be able to learn cursive so quickly, but she really has. I love that I can really work with her individually on each subject until she has completely mastered it before moving on to the next thing. There are no more "silly" mistakes on her papers now and she has the opportunity to learn immediately from her mistakes and correct them instead of just getting a red mark on it a week later from the teacher. I also love that we have SO much freedom, we can get up when we want (YAY for no alarm clocks!!), go to the pool/zoo/aquarium/musuem/library/etc. whenever we want (what is a rare "field trip" for school, we do on a weekly basis. I am just so loving everything about homeschooling. It feels so wonderful to be in total control of what she is doing/seeing/hearing and knowing that she is able to be who she is and develop the confidence to be herself without outside influence from kids teasing or pressure to conform. I guess I'm just glad she's not experiencing the "ugly" part of school that I did growing up. She is so happy and free and has such an innocence about her still that I just love. It's funny, I was talking to my mom the other day and she was saying that she thought I was brave for being willing to do these kind of things (home birth, home schooling, etc.). I thought about it and realized that all it really is, is refusing to get on the "conveyor belt" of our society, so to speak, and doing things the way you WANT to. It seems scary at first, going against the main stream but once you actually take the initial leap and do it, you see how wonderful it is to be empowered and make your own choices for you and your children based on what is truly best for them - not what is "expected". Then you realize that the truly scary thing would be to just "go with the flow" and NOT do the things you know in your heart are best. I honestly can't imagine going back to the rushed early morning routine of "school", Katie being gone ALL day, other people I don't even know having a huge impact on forming her opinions, sense of self and influencing her thinking, then our time in the evenings spent rushing to get homework done, dinner made and eaten and into bed early so she can get up early the next day and do it all again. Sigh. I get sad just thinking about it. One year was more than enough for me. I seemed like I had hardly any quality time with her then. Now we have so much time wonderful time together and her and Kobe have so much time together too. They have such an incredible bond, she plays with him all day and that time together is so precious and valuable. I know I'm starting to gush but I just can't get over how much I am loving everything about homeschooling, the Abeka curriculum and just so, so, so glad we gave it a chance. I know in my heart that we will never "go back". I found a really cool website that anyone who is curious about homeschooling might find interesting, it is: http://www.homeschoolinfo.org/

Another thing I am super excited about is that I just joined a local homeschooling moms group and have already met one of the moms on there who is super nice and also has a daughter Katie's age. On Monday we went on a "field trip" :) to a pool and had such a great time talking while the kids swam and played. We are going to go over to their house tomorrow afternoon to just hang out and let the kids play. Katie really seems to get along with her little girl and I'm so happy that we are starting to find friends around here. There is no reason that she should have less opportunity to play with other kids just because she is homeschooled, in fact she should have more because she certainly has more free time. Through this moms group I have also found out about more local resources for homeschoolers and it turns out there is a fabulous support system for homeschoolers around here. There is something called C.H.E.S.S., which is a one day a week program where homeschooling kids can go for enrichment activities like Chemistry, Music & Art and learn and meet other homeschoolers. So in addition to horse riding lessons, she will start doing C.H.E.S.S. once a week and also starts soccer next week. She is going to be one busy girl and I am truly one happy mom. :)

Well Lily got fixed today, poor baby, and it's time to go pick her up at the vets office. I also have my first midwife appt. today so I'm excited and anxious to meet her. My old midwife was so sweet and such a wonderful part of my pregnancy and labor, I hope my new one will be equally as wonderful. :)

Missing the noise!

We had a wonderful visit with the Parker family while they were here last week. Now things are back to normal and just too quiet! I loved having the house full of kids, little voices yelling, laughter and playing. Katie is REALLY missing having her best friends here 24/7! We had so much fun hanging out with them and we got to get out and go to a lot of cool places. We went hiking once up to Silver Dollar Lake and again at Red Rocks, had a picnic at the Platte River, took the kids to Pirate's Cove Waterpark, went to Morrison for dinner, took the kids horse back riding, and had fun just hanging out at the house and letting the kids play. I really hope that they end up moving close by here next year! Come on guys...there's that house right down the street.... :)

And to all our other friends, we really enjoy having friends come visit, so....if you haven't been up here yet - what are you waiting for?! We'd love to have you come over!!

Here are a few pictures from the past week.

In Vegas!

So in all the rush to get ready, I think I forgot to mention that we were going to Las Vegas for a week. Kevin has a conference here and we decided to make a family trip out of it. We are still here and the best part is that my mom decided to suprise us and fly in yesterday! She watched the kids for us last night so that we could go see a show! We saw Spamalot at the Wynn and it was hilarious! I LOVE live theatre, it's fun to be on the other side of the stage, it sure makes me miss acting a lot though. Anyway, it was so wonderful to have a night out to ourselves, we haven't done anything like that in ages. We even drove by the place where we got married almost 8 years ago and reminiced, it was so much fun! Today is my mom's birthday so we are all going to Excalibur tonight to go to a dinner theatre that has knights on horses jousting, it's supposed to be really entertaining for kids so I think it will be a really fun evening. Anyway, just wanted to update why I have been MIA. :) We get back late tomorrow night and then our best friends are coming to visit and get in the next day! Yay!!

Kind of old, but wanted to share

I made this montage when Kobe turned a year old, I know some of you may have already seen but I thought I'd post it for those who haven't. Make sure you have the volume turned up to hear the music. :) The song has so much meaning to us because it describes how he is our sunshine after the rain...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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Good news and more good news!

Ok, well the first good news I have to report is that I heard the baby's heartbeat for the 1st time today!!!!! I bought a doppler when I was pregnant with Kobe and decided to go ahead and try to find the heartbeat today. I'm only 9 weeks so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hear it yet but it only took about 30 seconds of searching and there is was....clear, strong and 170 beats per minute! Katie was so excited listening to it and I think it really made it "real" to her that there is really a baby in there! I was so happy to hear that wonderful sound because so far all I have gotten is the crappy part of pregnancy...nausea, bloating, fatigue...but none of the "good" stuff. It was so awesome today to hear that little peanut's heart just thumping away. Very reassuring as well because it's a total mystery what is going on in there! Now I know that the baby is developing and nice and strong. :) Now I just can't wait to see this little bugger on ultrasound for the first time! I was telling Kevin that it's funny, even though this is my fourth baby, everything is just as exciting as it was the first time. :)

The other good news is that Kobe's head is perfectly ok! When he was about 3 months old, his metopic suture (the suture that runs vertically down the forehead) closed up too early and formed a ridge. We took him to a specialist in SA who said he wanted to watch him for signs of pressure on his brain as he grew and that our main concern would be after his fontanel (soft spot) closed. Well his soft spot just completely closed so we took him to a specialist here in Denver today and his prognosis is that Kobe's head is perfect!! He will always have a slight ridge down his forehead but it is barely noticeable. So after 16 months of worrying, I can finally relax that my baby boy does not and will not need surgery! :) YAY!