To Catch You Up...

Well---I guess the Lord brought me to other things this summer. It was a fun and busy summer which included more time than a normal summer with Adam.

I will post some pictures of our summer as I catch you up and get back into my blogging.

We took lots of fun summer trips including Science Museums, Kentucky to visit Adam's family and Oregon to visit my family. Adam got to take a trip to Alaska with my Dad. He had a blast and brought home about 50 pounds of fresh caught Alaskan salmon, halibut and clams. Are you jealous? you should be, they are delicious.

Philip is sitting, pulling up, and doing a silly little army crawl all over the house. He is growing up way to fast, though fun to watch, very sad to see him get so big.

Addison lost 2 teeth this summer! He has been waiting for this day since his dentist told him he should lose a tooth around the age of 6. His first tooth hurt a little coming out, his very proud father pulled it for him, and was not as pleasant as Addison had hoped, so he waited EXTRA long with this 2nd tooth before he would even let his Daddy touch it. The 2nd one was so loose he didn't even feel it coming out.

James has become quite the little comedian...I wonder where he gets that from? He is absolutely hysterical at times, usually without trying, but sometimes he dreams it up and pulls it off! The things 5 year olds can come up with!?

Oh Isabelle, what can I say about her. She is potty trained and I praise the Lord daily for this! She is a princess and she wants the whole world to know it. She has become quite the little mama with her baby brother and takes very good care of him. She is going to be a strong women some day.

Adam was able to have a couple of days off throughout the week this summer due to his summer job. It was awesome to have him home, the kids were thrilled to go do fun things with him and I was happy to have him around alot. All in all we had a fabulous summer full of good times, great fellowship and fun trips.

Now,

The school year has begun for us. We took July off as we were going to be in paducah for 1 week and Oregon for 2 weeks. Addison is officially in 1st grade and James is officially in kindergarten. I cannot believe how quickly my babies have grown up. it dawned on me the other day talking to a friend that although only a very short time in each of their lives are they babies, it seems that is what i want to remember the most. maybe it's their innocence, or their dependence on me, or maybe it is something else, but we all say it as mothers. "They get out of that baby phase too quickly!" yet somehow we remember them as babies so vividly.

Both boys have a full curriculum and although it is a little bit more work as far as stuff to do goes, it has not been too difficult to incorporate them in together...so far. Isabelle has been learning her letter sounds. We have officially decided not to teach her the names of letters, but instead, teach her the sounds first. It is going quite well if i do say so myself. She knows 4 sounds perfectly and finds them in books, signs, and on clothing often...she is now learning 2 more to add to her vocabulary. I think this will help her to read better and quicker and with less stress on now learning the sounds instead of the name of the letter. I wish I had done this with James, especially with some of his sensory issues we have recently discovered, I think he would have had an easier transition this year if he only had to work with the sounds of the letters. He is learning his own sounds along with the ones that Isabelle is working on. he is moving along quickly, which makes my heart smile to see him doing so well. I think we will have 2 readers in this house by the end of this year!