Loving Abeka Academy!

So yesterday was our first day of school. Her desk and the chalkboard still haven't been delivered yet but she was begging me to start so we are using a picnic table as a makeshift desk for now. I decided to use the Abeka curriculum because I was so impressed with it when Katie was at Castle Hills First Baptist. I was really on the fence with whether or not to do the "Abeka Academy" (Which is the basic curriculum supplemented with DVDs and you also send in all tests and progress reports to them and they keep her records and it is all fully accredited.) We are only on day 2 and I am already SO glad we went with the Academy option. It is so cool, first of all everything is laid out for you with lesson plans for every day, with what pages to work on from each subject. The DVDs are awesome, it is a teacher in a classroom and she the kind of teacher that is everyone's favorite teacher, really sweet, makes every subject fun and interesting and gets the kids really thinking and active. I really feel like Katie is getting the best of both worlds, a really good private school curriculum and experienced great teacher that makes boring concepts fun and a full time private teacher (me) available to help her with all her work and questions. I can see that she is going to learn a LOT more this way than if I was just going at it alone. The curriculum is really advanced, they learn cursive this year and the end of the year reader books are really difficult! She is definitely going to be challenged and so far really seems to be enjoying it. I love the freedom of not having to get up early and rush around like mad to get her to school. We get up, eat a nice relaxing breakfast (where I actually have time to make eggs and pancakes, not throw a poptart at her as we are running out the door). I think I'm REALLY going to love it when I'm 6 months pregnant, it is snowing and below freezing outside and we don't have to run out the door every morning! The whole school day doesn't take more than 2-3 hours so she has lots of time to do other stuff like play with Kobe, go to lessons, go to the museum, library, play outside, get together with other homeschool kids and just relax. I wish I could have done this when I was a kid!! The reason I am starting her in June is so that she can be finished by March and take her summer break around the time that the baby is born.

So we just discovered that Kobe is a freaky genius. He has this amazing ability to find ANYTHING, it freaks us out! It started when I was looking for the broom, I asked Katie where it was and she didn't know so she, playing around, asked Kobe. He grabbed her hand and led her to bedroom and got down on the floor and gestured under the bed while saying "eh, eh" - she looked under there and sure enough there was the broom! Since then we have started asking Kobe where anything we can't find is. So far he has found a screwdriver, Kevin's toothbrush, my phone, the dog's leash, his shoes, and a few other things I can't remember right now. He still isn't talking all that much, maybe 20 words or so, but he can understand EVERYTHING and remembers where everything is, it's so weird! He also does this hilarious thing we call the "pissed fist" he scrunches up his face and holds up his clenched fist and shakes it when he's mad. He'll do it on request sometimes now too because he gets such a laugh out of us when he does it. I tried to get a picture but only got the tail end of it (it's the last pic).

Well Katie's phonics DVD lesson is over so I need to go help her with her seat work. :)

Foxy came back and pics of the kids playroom..

*Note - click on any of the pictures to enlarge them*

"Our" mama fox came back today. We found out she was back because Aslan went NUTS, he was barking the loudest, deepest most rapid, ferocious bark I have ever heard, I went running outside to see what was going on because he never barks like that at people. Sure enough, "Foxy" (that is what we named her) was pacing around in our driveway looking hungry and scared. He was locked up on the deck, thank goodness or else he would have chased her off. I put Az inside and ran for the hotdogs that we had bought for her (all natural, no nitrates - yes I actually searched for the nitrate free kind just for the fox. ;)) and we started throwing her bits of hotdogs off the deck, which she proceeded to gobble up. I finally got the sense to run and get my camera and managed to get a few good pics of her. I need a better zoom lens to capture her eyes, they are incredible. Anyway, that was our excitement for the afternoon.

Here are a few pictures of the playroom I am putting together for the kids. Half the room is for Kobe (you can't see all of it in the pic) and has a Hide n' Slide climber, a ball pit, a swing, a train table, toddler book shelf, toy box and tons of toys. The other half (which isn't finished yet) is Katie's space. It will have her desk and chair (for homeschool) and full size bookshelf, and her art bin and art supplies. Her bedroom upstairs has all her toys and TV and everything. I just really wanted to create an area downstairs where we can work on homeschooling and Kobe can be with us and play and be entertained. Of course Katie likes to play with Kobe in the "baby" side of the room - she is such a great sister and helps him up and down the slide and pushes him in his swing. In the picture of him in the swing, he is signing "swing". The whole room is attached to the media room, the wood post you see divides the two areas, we may or may not build a wall there to really make them seperate. It's kind of nice that Kobe can go play and we can keep an eye on him while we watch a movie, so we may just leave it the way it is.

We are still working on the playground outside, we just need to get the roof and slides on and I will take some pictures. We kind of got stalled on our progress with it because of the rain. Hopefully this weekend will be clear and we can get it finished. I'm so excited to have such wonderful play spaces for the kids, it sure makes my life a LOT easier and is so much fun for them. :)

Makin' S'mores....on our deck :)

Have I mentioned that I love Colorado yet?! It was a cool day today so this evening we made a fire in our new firepit table on the deck and sat outside and ate dinner while looking at the mountains and listening to the sounds of nature...oh and Katie singing a song she made up about camp fires and pot pies...silly girl. After dinner we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores..so yummy!! We were laughing because our backyard is the kind of place we used to "go" camping and all we have to do now is sit outside to "go" camping....then go inside and sleep on a soft bed!

I've got lots more to update but Kobe needs to go to bed, I'll try and write more later.

Good News......

It's faint but there are two lines!!!! It's still really early but I couldn't wait to test any longer. I've taken 3 tests and there are 2 lines on all of them!! We are so excited and happy and nervous and well, every other emotion that comes with finding out you are having a new baby. Lots of planning to do....what doctor/midwife to see, where to deliver - I'd love to do another homebirth but we are 30 min. away from the closest hospital so I think I'd like to find a birthing center in the city where I can still have a waterbirth but be close to the hospital in the event of an emergency. I DEFINITELY want to have another waterbirth though, it was such an amazing experience with Kobe that I am actually looking forward to experiencing again.

I haven't stopped smiling since I took the tests this morning, I still can't believe it and keep looking at the tests just to make sure. I'm so excited that Kobe is going to have a little brother or sister to be buddies with and play with. I loved what Katie & Kyle had together and am so happy for Kobe and the next one to experience that too. Katie is super excited to be a big sister for the third time - she is such an amazing sister and I know will be such a great help, she is already asking me "Is there anything I can do for you mommy?". She is such a sweetheart. I can only hope if we have another girl, she turns out as amazing as her. :)

I still can't believe this will be our FOURTH baby! I already can't wait to meet him/her!! I am so happy to be pregnant again and really looking forward to the next 9 months!!!!!

Oh yeah, my due date is March, 6, 2008 :)

A few random recent pics

Snuggle-bum....I love when he sleeps like this

Platte River

A rare time that I'm not behind the camera :)

Little Miss Equestrian Can you see the bunny? There are a bunch in our yard :)
Birthday party at Oma & Opa's

I am going to write an update tomorrow about the huge playground we are putting up for the kids. We worked on it all day yesterday and today and should be finished this week. It's going to be so awesome! I wish I had something like it when I was a kid! For now I wanted to post a couple pics that I have been meaning to post but never did.

The coolest dog on the planet....

This dog blows me away, I've never seen a dog like this! We decided to name him Aslan and he has already become a big (no pun intended :)) part of our family, we all love him so much! The reasons I say he is so amazing are...

.

He is only 5 months old, yet he NEVER jumps up on you or acts like a typical wiggly "puppy" - he has a maturity that you would expect from a much older dog.

He is incredibly laid back and calm, he lets Kobe climb all over him and just lays there and wags his tail and licks him. He never gets hyper - ever. He is sooooo gentle and calm.

He is very careful with the kids, he intentionally walks a wide arc around them when passing them so he doesn't knock them down. He never bumps into them or pushes up against them.

He walks on a leash PERFECTLY, he walks right next to you and does not pull at ALL - and he has never been leash trained!

He already shows protective instincts, we were outside in the yard and the neighbor's dog was running loose and ran onto our property, Aslan immediately jumped up and got in front of us and stood there on "alert" and started rumbling a low growl when the other dog started getting close. As soon as the other dog left, he relaxed and laid back down.

He puts up with Lily. Anyone who has ever met psycho Lily, knows how amazing that is! She constantly harrasses him and he never gets upset with her.

He shows zero food agression, you can take his yummiest bone away and he just looks at you and wags his tail.

The only "problems" we have with him are that he is afraid of the stairs and afraid of getting into the car. I'm sure that we will have him adjusted to these new things in no time though. He is just a puppy after all!

Oh and as of today, at 5 months old he is 85 pounds! It's hard to believe he is only half grown!! I'm SO glad we got him, we feel safer with him around already. :)

Goodbye ugly dead tree.....hello PIKE'S PEAK??!!

Hello Beautiful! What an awesome surprise! We had a some big ugly dead trees on our lot and I hired some guys to come and take them down. Imagine my surprise when after they cut the trees down, there is a straight on, breathtaking view of Pike's Peak right there off our back deck!!! You can even see it from inside the house, looking out the big window in the living room. We had no idea! Our house just took a huge jump up in value in the course of about an hour! It's kind of hard to see in this picture because the camera is focusing on the trees in front and Pike's Peak kind of blends in with the sky and the clouds. If you aren't sure what you are seeing in the pic, it is the big one behind and above the two smaller not snow-capped ones. It is snow capped which is why it blends in with the sky. It is MUCH clearer looking at in person. I need to figure out how to get my camera to focus on it so I can get a better picture. I still can't believe it's actually there, we thought we were giving up our dream of having snow cap views in order to have the stream and a big level lot for the kids to play - but we actually got it all! I'm so excited! :)

So Katie is at her second day of horse camp. Yesterday when I picked her up she said it was boring and that she already knew everything they covered. I told her after she finishes this week, I will put her into the advanced horse camp. Her teacher agreed that would be more fun and challenging for her.

I went ahead and enrolled her in the Abeka Academy homeschool, it was kind of expensive but I like the fact that we are accountable and have to mail in all her tests and then they keep all her records and it is fully accredited. If she ever wants to go to a regular school, all her records will be transferred from them just like she was transferring from a private school. It gives us the freedom in our days that I want with homeschooling, but the structure and accreditation of a private Christian school. The curriculum should be here in a few days and we are both really excited to get started with it. I love that Katie loves to learn. :) I hope she always keeps that love of learning.

Kobe is so funny, he loves to get into Kevin's tools. I can't keep him out of them! What is it with boys that is hardwired into them to like tools and cars and balls? After having had a girl and 2 boys, I can say with absolute certainty that they are just wired different! I used to think it was just that they were taught to like those things, but no, they just DO. He is also really starting to get into books. He loves to look at picture books and point to all the pictures when I ask him where things are. His language skills have taken off and he is picking up several new words a day now. He understands EVERYTHING, it's crazy!

I keep asking myself, what do I hope our next one is - a boy or a girl? I think I can honestly say that I would be truly thrilled either way. I have had 2 boys in a row and love having boys, I think it would be really fun for Kobe to have a brother and we already have all the clothes...

On the other hand, I REALLY miss having a baby girl, every time I see baby girl clothes I get all sentimental. There is something so sweet and precious about a baby girl. I think girls are a little easier as babies, they seem to be more cautious and get hurt less. Both my boys have been pretty rough and tumble. It would be cool for Katie to have a sister too. Even though they would be far apart in age, by the time they are grown up it won't matter.

I'm starting to think that this might be our "month".... I've had a lot of symptoms that are making me wonder if I might be pregnant. :) I think I will take a test on Sunday and see......cross your fingers for us!

We go pick up our new furry family member at the airport tonight at 8:30. We still can't decide on a name. Katie wants to name him Biscuit because of his color. Kevin wants to name him Arslan because it means "valiant lion" in Turkish (the breed is from Turkey), and I think we should shorten it to Aslan (like from The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe) We'll see when we bring him home which name fits. I'm so excited to meet him!