thankful thursday

I'm really thankful that HE...


has grown out of THIS stage...



One down...2 to go. I also used up ONE of my alloted "portraits with a smile" from JM for this. I'll get ONE more this year sometime. *sigh*

Wordless Wednesday

Because I've felt guilt about it...

I keep telling Tonggumomma that I can hold my own against her in "old photo" contests. *giggle* So here is my evidence...the "good" photos!


I know I was in Kindergarten, probably the spring of that year. Why? The HAIR.


This was the Kindergarten FALL photo.


This is WHY I ended up with all my long pretty hair cut off. CURLY and LONG does not bode well for tangle free hair. ;)



Senior portrait....take a LOOK at just how curly it was....yes, PAST tense there.


First year of marriage...


By the time kids came along...I typically pulled it back...DAILY (that's JM ya'll...wasn't he just the CUTEST "little" 1 year old here, honestly 16 months which is how old Katie was when we got her? That outfit? it was either 2t or 3t, but I think 3t)


But sometimes I would leave it "down" and you can see how "non-curly" it is now, and how frizzy...and oh my I need some major hair help.



Then, while waiting on Katie's referral, I met "The Magic Hair Lady" who could do THIS to my hair....



*this is what it looked like without her magic touch* Be sure to COMPARE the curls to the Senior photo above, or heck even the one "pre kids" with the mountain view if you can see the hair....


That my friends is what having children will do to your hair. Hormones do some really funky things to your body. REALLY FUNKY.


I look amazingly ALOT like this today (same braids in fact, same length I'm fairly certain even though this was from 2007? or 2005?)


Okay, now you all can see the potential for the "fro" right? Don't worry....I'll scan and post it soon. Just for you Tonggumomma, just for you so you can feel less alone in the bloggy-land of embarrassing photos!


and I just noticed something ya'll...


We're about the same age here....he does look more like me than I thought! I can still see definite differences though (his face is rounder, his hair is straighter...but the eyes. Oh if I can find one of his eyes looking at me all serious....)

A momentuous event has occurred!

*point and shoot again - ignore the mess on the table behind them*

This is Samuel's NEW bicycle! It's 16 inches, he's 6 years old. Those who know our family will know when I say this was his reward. He has FINALLY done it!!!!!! *big grin*

For the others out there wanting to know, it's a Spiderman bicycle. In addition to the Spiderman bicycle we had to get a new helmet and pads as well (Spiderman of course). I asked why his Buzz Lightyear helmet needed to be replaced (wondering if I had missed a crash or something). Evidently, at 6 years old Buzz Lightyear is no longer "cool" with the other kids in the neighborhood. Which, BTW, there are 3 other 5-6 year olds on our street.

He's just like me.

I don't like change. I really don't. I get all anxious, and emotional when big changes are going on. I get weepy. I get all sad about leaving a house behind. You know...that kind of thing.

Samuel, we learned this past weekend, is just like me. We were sitting in the new house Friday night with our small loads of kitchen stuff and such. He came downstairs and knelt down on the floor. I heard the slightest little hitch, and looked over.

He was trying to hold back the tears.

He was sad to be leaving our home. He wasn't sure if he would really like this new house. He loved his home. He didn't mind sharing a room with JM. He liked how close we all were.

He was scared. He didn't like the change. Yet, he was also excited about the possibilities of the new house...but really, only when JM was around. JM is thrilled. JM is more like Dh in regards to change, they embrace it fully.

Me & Samuel? Eh, we take a little while to warm up to it. We're all discombobulated. We're all anxious and weepy, and sad about the silliest things. Like I'm going to miss our "growth wall" and even thought I wrote down the heights...it's just NOT going to be same. *sniff*

Looking forward to tomorrow...and my Thankful Thanksgiving post. I have so much to be thankful for this year. So very very much.

Homeschooling update - Samuel

Samuel is officially Kindergarten age this year, and as such we don't have a ton of things for him to be doing.

Science - we only do the homeschool classes at the science museum. He's got a great grasp of science already, and would say that he's early elementary level with physical science. He understands the concepts of different states of matter, life cycles of animals, the water cycle, the concepts of flight (lift and thrust), what chemical reactions are, survival of animals and how camouflage helps, how bubbles are made and how they "work," and oh so much more. Really he knows so much we are not even sure about as I'm only skimming a few of the things he's talked about.

Bible - we've been reading Bible stories, and he knows them quite well. That's as far as I'm taking him this year, well, besides working on memorization of verses.

Handwriting - he's doing very well for his age. He's in a 1st grade book for this, printing letters and sentences.

Math - he's doing awesome! He's more than halfway through 1st grade in math, has no trouble adding numbers within 100, or carrying. We've just about gotten to "borrowing" in subtraction. He knows place value, calendars, shapes, etc. He can add multiple numbers together, and really, he knows how to do addition and subtraction within 1000 as long as we don't borrow or carry. He is also doing the word problems on his own now. We're working really hard on all currency, and making "change" and using money.

Language Arts - he's doing well here. He's in the 1st semester 1st grade book now. He's reading books like Dr. Seuss ones to Katie. He has read easy readers from the library. He's tried to convince us he can read the Magic Treehouse books, but I'm not so sure of that. I am guessing he'll be there by mid-next semester though. He's definitely 1st grade level in reading comprehension at least, and possibly early 2nd grade. It's hard to tell as he is the most like me in learning style. He refuses to "perform" unless he's positive he's 100% mastered it.

Spelling - we've recently started spelling, and so far he's doing really well. This I can tell has been helped (and is helping) his reading skills. With this program, he's having to write sentences and stories as well. So far, he's up to about 3 sentence paragraphs. We're working on the correct grammar and punctuations, but not making a big deal out of it yet. I'm just thrilled he's writing 3 sentences that go together about a subject.

In his extracurricular activities, he's going to Kindergarten class on Fridays. It's more "fun" than learning for him. He loves painting, and singing, and doing the fun things. He also goes to a Storyhour class. I'm supposed to be recording what books he reads daily, but I've slacked off on that. Bad MOMMY! He's also going to Karate and doing very well. He's a belt behind JM, and yellow-stripe. As he just turned 6, we're all still really proud of him. He's the youngest in his class by 2 years. His forms look great, his sparring needs some work, and he still can not do a sit up. Given the discipline we chose, he's going to be doing this for years and years to come, so we're not in a hurry to get him through all the belts. My only concern is that I want to only have to take the boys to ONE class time per day.

Giving the boys some bloggy love..

I really do need to post more photos of the boys and brag about them more, but well, they hardly EVER let me take photos of them anymore. I don't really understand why either.



We were recently at our old college visiting with friends, and looking at the buildings we practically lived in. You know, impressing upon the kids that college is fun but also for studying REALLY hard. It was BEAUTIFUL there with the fall leaves, and sadly my kids had no real idea of how to play in leaves. See, we've only lived in homes with little tiny sticks for trees (young, newly planted ones). We've just not had good "leaves" in our yard to rake and jump in. JM wasn't too sure, and we think he thought himself a little too mature for such childish antics as throwing leaves around. Samuel, on the other hand, really had fun.




*darn it...one of Katie snuck in there...she had to warm up to the idea, but since Samuel was having fun and not one to ever be left out of fun that Samuel is having, she dove right in with gleeful laughter. Sibling peer pressure is a wonderful thing...sometimes.*

Where have I BEEN?!

It's busy season for me here in household. In addition to homeschooling, selling our house (and building another), freaking out about economy, and the joys of parenting a 2 year old...I've also hit the busy time with the photography.

*faint* 12 sessions this month, mini-sessions, and trying to get my own card photos done.

Remind me sometime to post some "real" images. Not just the snapshot I am trying to take to capture out life with the kids, and those are the ones I mainly share here.

Samuel's Day

It's 12:31am, and I'm sitting here thinking. Today is Samuel's birthday. He turns 6 years old. I remember this time 6 years ago, starving because my c-section required that I not eat 12 hours prior to it. I remember thinking of how in less than a day my life was going to change. It did. For the better. I was scared of that c-section because for JM's I had not been awake. This was my first birth to actually experience. I did not know what to think or expect, yet I had a child already. How strange was that?

Samuel came into this world charming everyone. He melted hearts immediately, and I remember breaking the rules that first night and climbing out of my hospital bed so I could pick him up...or just to stare at him.




He grew so fast, and I had my first digital camera (luckily) to more than capture all those wonderful memories.











I can tell from looking at these photos when I upgraded cameras and when I started learning more and more about photography.



Hard to believe he was just about 4 here. He's not changed too much has he.


these are all from 2007....



This was just a short 1 year ago...





Then we have 2008...











So, Happy 6th Birthday my special little man! I love you more to the MOON and BACK a gazillion million times.