Tiny Talk Tuesday

"Put on me dress. Me dress and den me doe outside?"

Funny that he wanted to get dressed to go outside to play, but he asked for a "dress" in his first statement:)

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While Chris was outside this weekend a neighbor came into our yard and introduced herself to Chris. I wasn't aware of the visitor and so I was asking Chris later what she looked like thinking I had probably seen her before in he neighborhood.

Me: Chris was she a young lady or an older lady?
Chris: Well, she was a little of both!

He's very diplomatic:)

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During a school morning, I asked Chris to carefully hand me one of our books; carefully because he was across the room and I really didn't want him to throw the book:)

As he sat next to me he asked why he needed to be careful with the book. I told him that it was one of my favorite books to use with them and I was hoping to save it for Nate, too!

Chris then responded,"Well after Nate is finished with it can you keep it for my children? I want to have my children do school at home too!"

This seriously was precious to me.... how many of us go through times of questions wondering if home schooling really "fits our family". The days are long and sometimes emotionally packed and I feel guilty the kids are missing out...

but for my child to think about home schooling their own children someday:) Precious!

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We've been working through the Jesse Tree Devotional from A Holy Experience. We lucked out that Grandma gave us a mini tree that we set up in the school room... works perfectly!!

Chris is determined to call the Jesse Tree a "Jesus Tree" since all the stories talk about Jesus:)
And after our first devotional he snuck off and added a tree topper..... a CROWN!! Very sweet... and definitely appropriate for our Jesus Tree!!

Oh, the little boxes are a gift we recieved one year. Each box is labeled with a number 1-25 for the days leading to Christmas. Inside has a OT prophecy verse about the coming of Christ and then the corresponding NT verse.

We won't do all of them... but we'll definitely read the ones that correspond to our home school days;)

It's your turn!! Just leave a comment or link up:)

My Favorite Chris and Jack Pic

I LOVE this picture;)

It makes me soo thankful for our decision to get a dog... as crazier, louder and messier the house is now with Jack!! I really under estimated how much work having a dog in the house would be; nevertheless, having a busy little puppy like Jack:)

But to see my Chris snuggling and wrestling and playing with our dog...

PRICELESS!!

 Submitting the 1st picture to Shoot.Edit.Submit., Tell Your Story, and Give Me Your Best Shot! 

Chris' 7th Birthday & Vacation:)

While visiting with family over the Thanksgiving holiday we also got to celebrate Chris' birthday!!


 It's a mixed blessing having a birthday so close to a holiday.... Chris has yet had a birthday party with friends but he always gets to see family and so far has been at Grandma and Grandaddy's house to celebrate almost every year!!!

Even though he was hours from friends and we'll probably not have a "friend" party again this year.... Chris had an awesome birthday weekend:)

First we toured a huge aircraft on Friday:)

Then Saturday we went to play mini-golf,

ride the go cart with Daddy

and stop by Ritas;)

On Sunday, we had taco lunch, cake and presents at Gran-Grandma's.

And then they had a blast in Uncle Larry's leaves;)

We topped the birthDAY off with a quick dinner at McD's and a drive through a holiday light display:)

We had a great Thanksgiving trip and time with family. We stayed pretty busy but had a good time, too!!

And thank you to everyone who got to share Chris' birthday weekend with us:)

Chris' Stats
Chris is 47.5 inches tall and weighs  about 57 lbs!

He's doing 1st/2nd grade work... he's definitely liking Math more than Reading but we're making progress!! He's definitely our class clown only rivaled to Nate who is learning all Chris' tricks! And this little guy is the one who stretches his momma the most.... teaching her patience, grace and ways to creatively make home school fun for him:)

His favorites:

Color : Black
Food : Pepperoni Pizza (homemade without cheese)
Treat: Skittles
Subject: Art
Animal: Tyrannosaurus Rex
Do inside: Draw
Outside Activity: Play baseball
Toys: Legos 
Restaurant: Taco Bell
Book: anything about Dinosaurs
Movie: Lego Movies ?, Kung Fu Panda
PBSkids Show: Wild Kratts

Goals for his 7th year: Learn more Art

When you ask him what he wants to be when he "grows up" he'll respond "a paleontologist"!

What are your little ones saying this week? Link up or comment:)

More Wordless Wednesday at  NapTime MomTog, 5 Minutes for Mom,  Mama to 4 Blessings, Go Graham Go.

Nate's Sayings & 1st Zoo Visit

Nate seemed like my delayed speech little guy... it seemed like it took him forever before he said very much! But months ago he hit a word explosion and he's been entertaining us ever since... although he is a bit sassy :/

Here are some of his most famous statements:

Parent: Nate, do you have a stinky?
Nate: No. You have a stinky!

Parents chatting about Nate's hair getting cut.
Nate: Weave me hairw a wone.
(Grandaddy, I don't think you're going to win this one! Not yet... LOL!!)

Nate: Me drink weaaallly bad! aka he's thirsty and trying to get me moving a little faster:)

One night I was reading an alphabet book with him. We got to "E is for Elephant" and Nate asked,"Me wride that?"

It took me a moment to realize he was remembering kids riding the elephants at the circus we went to months ago!! And that he's NEVER been to a ZOO!!! NEVER!!

So we went...

with Grammie and Pey.

Obviously we had a blast!!

 Lots of fun looking at/for animals, enjoying a beautiful fall afternoon and spending time with Daddy, Grammie and Pey!! Loved this picture of Brian and Nate hamming it up:)

Nate hasn't said much about the zoo or animals! But we're getting a zoo pass for Christmas (yay!!) so we will get to visit the animals again and again:)


It's your turn!! Just leave a comment or link up:)

Wrapping Up The Stinky Week

We were challenged last week with a snotty, clingy 2 yr old and we managed:)

But this week was literally "stinky".... messy, poop on the floor, cruddy attitudes, lots of cleaning and even a visit to the doctor... I mean VET. Yes, the source of most of the mess was the puppy:/  I don't even want to remember how many times Brian walked through the door coming home for lunch or for the night and the kids were parked on the couch or in their beds for "quiet time"... aka, Momma-has-had-it, everyone needs to lay low so she doesn't go crazy .... LOL!!

Anyway, the flow of the mess has slowed down and we are praying Jack will soon be back to normal stealing all the kids' toys and laying around. He hasn't been acting sick, just bummed that he is tied up in the kitchen (on the laminate flooring) until his tummy recovers!

We did have 2 GREAT school days... productive, lots of learning:) And then three days of just staying sane (and clean!) with a music class, a giving opportunity and bits of schooling stuck in;)

Bible
We started the week strong. But when 3 mornings required scrubbing either the dog (and crate) or the floor where the dog spent the night.... as school time slipped away so did our Bible time. Thankfully we still read Bible stories when we read in the afternoon! So we still were learning:)

I plan to continue the #12 Way until next week.... why rush? We missed a few lessons that will easily be completed before our small Thanksgiving break.

Math
We did some:/  I think each kids completed at least 3 lessons... so not too bad.

I had them attempt to do a lesson at the vet office, but the friendly three-legged cat was a LOT more interesting than math... who knew?

Language Arts
Some of the highlights this week were

• reading 2 small passages from  The Trumpet of the Swan for writing:) We all loved reading that book aloud years ago... I was amazed how much the kids remembered.
• Anna doing a Grammar lesson orally in the car heading to a funeral visitation. Trying to sneak in a lesson that was on the list to be completed this week:) Daddy was driving;)
•  finishing The Great Horn Spoon by Sid Flieshman. We loved the book with all the twists and turns and very  memorable characters. Definitely glad we continued to read it after we finished with the Gold Rush topic weeks ago!

Science
With all going on I"m not sure how we got in soo much Science?

We started with showing Chris the water pressure activities from the end of last week.

 We did an extra water pressure experiment demonstrating that water likes to level itself out. We used a plastic tub that was bended in half. It was clear that the water levels on either side of the tube were equal to one another.

We also talked about density and floating. For the first activity I filled a bowl with water and told the kids to bring back 2 objects - one they thought would float and one they thought would sink.

They had a blast guessing whether the items would float or sink. We talked about the types of objects and reasons that they didn't float.  And then we added the definition of density and the list of items that sank or floated.




And then I changed the rules by showing them how to make an egg and a pencil with a tack float by adding salt to the water which changes the density of the water.


Nate got into the fun a little, too!! Some of our "tools" came from a water kit from a community resource. I gave Nate some of the water toys and he went to town.

New toys are always fun and they kids enjoy them.... for a minute:)

And then he was back to the measuring cup and spoon... who can pass up those "tools"??


History
We started the week with more review questions from SOTW vol3! It was a good review that we all needed. And then we pulled out the binders for SOTW 4!! Very exciting to be starting a new book and hoping to add a few more changes to our history times.

We only read the 1st section this week. And an appendix of a library book that was very informative about the Victorian Age in Britain. We have a couple of novels to choose from for the next couple of weeks whose authors were writing during this time period. And before Thanksgiving we'll have a map, chapter outline and hopefully more readings.

Music
The kids had a double music lesson last week. The music teacher asked that all the kids come to the first class so she could teach the kids hand bells:) It was very cool to see all the ages together playing their first hand bell song... a Christmas song to hopefully share at the rehab center around Christmas!  The second hour was devoted to recorder... so now I'm hearing Jingle Bells at home;)

Linking up to Weekly Wrap-Up and Science Sunday!