Math Award

Parker recieved an award at school for completing the 50 in a minute for first grade. He has accomplished sums to 5, differences from 5, sums to 10, differences from 10 and sums to 18. He passed off the first and moved on to the next until he had completed all that was required for 1st grade. He got a medal at a school assembly (Which also happened to by crazy hair day, the wig). I am so proud of him for working so hard and being such a great mathematician. He really is good at math, now if we can just get him better at his reading.....

St. Patrick's Day

I did a similar thing for St. Patrick's day as I did on Valentine's Day for the kids. We celebrated with all things GREEN. They woke up to a special package from a little leprachaun with fun things that were green and gold. Balloons, Gum, Bubbles, Shampoo, Shirt, and gold candies. They loved it. For breakfast we had lucky charms and green milk. No one seemed to eat their cereal that day.

Leprachaun Trap

Parker's first grade teacher is amazing. She is always doing fun projects and activities with the kids that really get their minds going in a fun way. One of the projects that we had to recently was to build a Leprachaun trap for St. Patrick's Day. I had no idea what to do, so we looked through the amazing world wide web and found some pictures and went from there. We built our trap using an oatmeal container, tissue paper, easter grass, marchmallows, toothpicks, lucky charms, and gold coins. It turned out awseome and the whole family participated, so it became a fun family activity. Parker took it to school and even caught a Leprachaun!! WOW!! He was thrilled.

Parker's Science Project

Parker participated in his first science project this year. I had a hard time coming up with something that I felt like he could explain all on his own in his classroom. We tried one project that had to do with density of liquids and the different liquids were supposed to stay separated in a jar displaying the different density of each, well we must have done something wrong because they all mixed making one big jar of mud looking liquids. So we went with plan "B" and inflated a ballon by mixing baking soda and vinegar. Parker liked it and it fascinated him, so I guess it passed the first grader test. He was prestty excited to present it to his class, when I got there to help him one of the balloons got a hole in it and didn't inflate properly, luckily I brought a back up, but I must not have rinsed the bottle out well enough because it didn't inflate like it should have either. So it was kinda bummer, but the kids in his class got the idea, and had even seen it earlier because another student did the same project. I think Parker had a fun time with science and now I know what to expect and can be thinking of something really cool for next year.

New Furniture

Matt and I decided that we deserved to spend some of our tax return on oursleves, instead of just paying off bills. So we bought an new couch, loveseat, and bed frame. The couch and loveseat were brand new and we got a really great deal on them. Both are leather and both recline. We only paid $1295 for both! The bed frame we bought used from some people that were just trying to sell it quick. We bought it for $250. We thought is was a pretty good deal it is well made and sturdy. Our other bed was falling apart, so we were excited about the timing in being able to get it. It is nice to get something new every once in a while. Although there are days when I miss our soft, warm cushion-y couches, I do like the durablity and easy cleanup of the leather.

We're Prego!

 

Matt and I are thrilled about our new addition coming to our family in September this year. We can't believe we will soon be a family of 6!! We will be very outnumbered, but can hardly wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl, and yes we are going to find out this time. We have also decided that this will be our last baby. :(  we feel like our family will be complete after this baby and I am not sure how many more children my body can handle delivering. It is quite the ordeal to have a c-section, and with each kids it gets harder and harder and I have also had preeclampsia and it gets progressively worse with each pregnancy. So we are excited to be completing our family and sharing the news with our loved ones.

 

I compiled a photo collage with all of these photos and showed it to my parents, Matt's parents, and Charyn to tell them the news. It took a few minutes before they got the message, but were very excited to be getting a new grandbaby or neice/nephew. After I told the grandparents, I published the picture on facebook and got quite the number of respnses and congratulations. It is so fun to share good news with others!

 

At this point in the picture, I am only about 6 weeks along. 34 more to go!

 

I shared the news with my parents when I was about 7.5 weeks. A few days after, I had some bleeding and was really worried about miscarriage. I called the doctor and we had a few blood tests to determine if I was still carrying a fetus. Those were 3 long, and emotional days. It is amazing how attached I felt to this new baby when it was still so small and tiny. In fact I hadn't even seen a sonogram of it or heard it's heart beat, but I was still so worried about losing this precious life. I cried, and cried and then I finally came to peace with whatever was to happen. I knew that Heavenly Father would bless us with another child it if was His will. I also knew that if I did miscarry, I would have the opportunity to raise this child in the next life. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of the plan of Salvation and the peace it brought into my life at this scary time. I took a blood test on Monday morning then had to go back on Wednesday to see if my HCG levels had increased or deceased. It was so hard to wait and not know, but I was feeling positive that I was still pregnant after I had talked to a few friends that had had miscarriages and realized what happened to me was quite different. Wednesday passed and I still hadn't heard back from the Doctor. Finally on Thursday morning I got a call to tell me that I was still indeed pregnant!! YAY!! We were so excited. After this little scare we decided not to share the news with anyone else until I was in the second trimester, just in case.

 

I was about 11 weeks along when we told Matt's parents and I was almost 12 weeks when we put the picture on Facebook. After reaching 13 weeks I was so relieved and knew that everything would be fine. I went to the doctor at 9 weeks and I was able to have an ultrasound where I saw the beautiful little baby in my belly and saw it's amazing hear beating. I could litterally see this litle tiny heart beating and pumping blood, it is such a miracle and I know that from the moment of conception, it is a new and miraculous life, seeing on the monitor just makes it that much more real!!

 

After the first doctors visit, I showed the kids the picture of the sonogram and asked if they knew what it was, Parker immediately said, "Another baby?!" I am not sure if he was happy or shocked. Paige was abslutely thrilled and from that moment on insisted that is was to be a baby sister. (Previous to us telling the kids, Matt was tucking her in bed one night and she told him that we were going to have 2 babies and we were going to name them Peter, and Pieper. Not sure how she knew we were having a baby, but I was sure hoping that she wasn't having sibling intiuition and that we would be having twins!) Paxten could have cared less and didn't really know what the picture was but he ooohhed and aahhed about it like he does when he sees any picture.

 

We are hoping to find out the sex of the baby at 17 weeks and are planning on having a special party to tell a bunch of family and friends. It will be a blast.

Valentines Day Fun

I am so far behind in the blogging department that I almost don't know where to start. I am sure I will miss some of the things that I originally thought about posting, but here are the highlights.

I wanted to do something fun for the kids on Valentines Day, because it is usually a holiday for adults, but I wanted to make sure my kids knew that they were loved and cared about. I decided to do all meals with a Valentines theme. For breakfast we had pink waffles and pink (strawberry milk)

The kids all got a goody bag with a few fun things from Matt and I, along with some treats. They also got a few little things from Grandma Yancey. Paige got an adorable dress with hearts on it. She loved it and wore it to preschool that morning.

 

 

I made the kids a special Valentines lunch as well. Parker took a lunch to school that day and he got a heart peanut butter sandwhich, red jello, hear cheese slices, heart strawberries, a red squeeze-it, and a hear shaped cookie.

 

Paige and Paxten (and Mya) got pink macaroni and cheese, strawberries, red jello, and a red squeeze-it and for dessert a heart shaped sugar cookie with pink frosting.

then to top off our special day, we had a heart shaped pepperoni pizza, salad, cantalope, sparkling cider and strawberry shortcake for dinner. It was a fun day and I think the kids really enjoyed it. We stayed home and watched a movie and had a fun time as a family.