Robby, Joseph, Andrea, Me, Shaun, John Whitten, Clara and Lillian
Saturday, November 9, 2013
First Camping Trip
A couple of weeks ago we went camping with our good friends, the Austin's. It was so much fun hiking around the park with the kids and watching them explore the woods. They loved finding bugs and looking for animals in the trees. We cooked hotdogs over the camp fire for dinner, and of course no camping experience would be complete without s'mores! Lillian and her best friend Clara slept in the tent with Shaun, John Whitten and I. They where so excited to get to sleep together; it was so cute. Everything was going well until about 11:00 when John Whitten started having night terrors. Those things are so frustrating because he is not awake, so there is no reasoning with him or trying to comfort him. He will be crying for me while I am holding him, but he is just completely unaware of what is happening around him. So at midnight I got in the at and took him home. We came back the next morning around 7:30(and brought extra fire would because it was cold)! We played and hiked around a little more while the boys packed up the tents. We cannot wait to go again when it warms up in the spring!
Friday, November 8, 2013
Homeschool Highlights
So we have been homeschooling Lillian for a little over 12 weeks now, and I have been shocked with how well it has gone. Not to mention how much we both seem to be loving it. I will admit that after the first day, I was in tears by the time Shaun walked in the door. John Whitten had been horrible that day and it made everything so difficult. I was certain that we had made a giant mistake and was feeling so overwhelmed. Did I mention it was only day ONE!? Thankfully I have an amazing husband who is faithful in prayer for me and confident in my ability to teach our child as well as juggle our home and our little boy(and of course all the things that fall in between that). It took a couple of weeks but Lillian and I both got use to our new school routine, and I learned how to incorporate and engage John Whitten into our school time in ways that are beneficial to both he and Lillian. And the best part is that if things just aren't going well, than we step away and come back to it later in the day. I biggest challenge to me has been breaking my mind set from traditional school routines that I grew up with. Once I was able to let that go I felt a lot less pressure. We are usually done in three and a half hours, sometimes four and a half if its a science experiment day. Some days we split it up and do a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. It depends on if we have field trips or something else going on in the morning.
We also joined a homeschool group that meets monthly for meetings for the parents, and has field trips and play days four or five times a month. It's been a huge blessing, because it has given me the chance to meet a lot of other homeschooling families and created a great support group for me. Believe me if you have a preconceived notion to what homeschooling is you should really look into it. It is nothing like you would think. There are so many options now if you want to homeschool your child. It's crazy and a little overwhelming when you realize all your options. Like I said, so far so good. So we are sticking with it for now.
Learning about air at McWane
Field trip to the children's theater
Doing school at the park
School field trip to the apple orchard
Exploring caves w/ friends
She would do math all day if I let her
Mark And Rachel's Wedding
In September we traveled to Austin,TX to celebrate my little brother Mark and his beautiful fiancée Rachel get married! I was surprisingly optimistic about the 13 hour car ride that it would take to get from Birmingham to Austin, but I am glad I was because the kids where great! They seriously where perfect for the entire 13 hours! Shaun and I can honestly say that we enjoyed the drive there and back!
Mark and Rachel's wedding was absolutely beautiful. Rachel really out did herself planning this wedding and it showed in all of the little details. Lillian got to be their flower girl and I thought she did an amazing job! She took the job very seriously, and had been practicing at home for weeks.
I hate that the weekend went by so quickly. We didn't get to spend as much time exploring Austin as we had hoped for but we saw enough to know that it is a pretty near place, and we cannot wait to go back.
Coloring in the car
Trying To Get Back To Blogging
So I figured that it was time to get back to blogging. I have been so bad about it for the past year and even though I feel like I have had good reasons for it, I won't bore you and instead just skip to the highlights...
We has a great summer, pretty much spending every day at the pool. Lillian was swimming like a fish by the end of summer and I couldn't have been more proud of her. John Whitten on the other hand still sinks like a rock.
We decided to homeschool Lillian this year. For our family, we just feel like homeschooling is the best fit for us right now. And so far Lillian and I have both loved it! Lillian has really taken off with her reading and excelled rather quickly in math. Her favorite subject right now is math. She would do nothing but math worksheets all day if I let her. She is definitely her father's daughter. We are using the Sonlight curriculum and have been really happy with it. I am already researching first grade curriculums, and it's kind of sad how exciting it is to me.
John Whitten turned THREE September 15 and it just about killed me! Three and five were both really hard birthdays for me for some reason. It just seemed like over night he was a big boy! John Whitten wanted to have a Batman/Spiderman birthday party, and being the awesome Daddy that he is Shaun made a really awesome cake! I was pretty impressed with Shaun's cake making skills. It is crazy to think that it has been over a year since we have had a child in diapers! I have to admit that I miss his little tushy in his sweet cloth diapers. John Whitten talks non stop and has really grown up a lot in the last six months. However, one thing has remained the same...he is still 110% a complete Mamma's boy! And I love every minute of it.
Shaun and I are still pursuing adoption through NDSAN, and while the waiting is getting really tough-unbearable some days for me- we are remaining faithful that God will grow our family through a special needs adoption.
Well, of course no blog post is complete without pictures. I will be playing picture catch up over the next few days, so expect some random ones :)
Working on school work
Lillian first school project...a volcano!
John Whitten's 3 year old bday
His sweet three year old face!
Shaun's awesome cake! Pics don't do it justice!
Family hike
Field trip to children's theatre w/ homeschool group
Sweet cousins
This little girl grew up a lot this summer!
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