Disney Trip Day 3- Animal Kingdom!

Our third day there, we had to do something, even though Lena wasn't feeling her best because we wouldn't have time to finish everything before we had to head home.

Super excited for Disney!

So that morning we headed out to the Animal Kingdom. Luckily, Lena seemed to be doing better, smiling and eating a bit and keeping it down.

The kids absolutely loved riding the tram to the actual park. Alta says that was her favorite thing the entire time, silly girl. The first view of the park for the kids was wonderful, they were in awe of everything to see.

 Immediately, they saw Chip N Dale and Rafiki, though they were on their way into the park and not signing autographs at that moment.

This is his suave face.

We headed into the park after our bag searches and ticket scans. We walked around a bit just taking in the sights until it was time for our first fast past. We spotted Daisy Duck and since she had a short line, she was our first character meet!

After Daisy, we meandered over to Africa to get in the FP line for the Safari.

Kilimanjaro Safari was excellent! It was a guided "jeep" (aka large bus/jeep thing, seating 5 or 6 people per bench) driven around the safari part of AK. We saw several types of animals. They seemed like they were all in an open area, but if you looked close, you could see there were barriers.  But Disney does a good job at hiding it. Some of the animals can come really close to the jeep, we had a giraffe standing within 10 feet of us.

After the safari ride, we walked over to It's Tough To Be A Bug, while waiting for our next FP.

Unfortunately, by now, Lena started fussing and became restless and just not a happy girl. We toughed it out in Bug, and once the show started, she chilled out a bit.

When we finished at Bug, we walked over to Dinoland USA because our next FP was for Dinosaur. We stopped and ate our packed lunch, while waiting for the FP time. Meanwhile, Lena started running her fever again and became listless. We decided that I would take the girls back to the hotel and take a nap and depending on Lena, we would come back that evening and catch Lion King with them, or I would just pick them up at park close.

While we were napping, Sam and the boys rode Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, and Kali River Rapids. They also caught Lion King, and the boys were called on stage to participate it the show! I am so sad I missed that! That is the tough thing about being Mommy, having to decide which child's needs come first. Obviously, Lena's came first in this scenario, because health was at risk as opposed to the boys' emotional health. Lucky for me, Sam recorded the entire thing, so I was able to watch them.

The girls and I went to pick up the boys and we came back, had dinner and relaxed.

Missed days 1 & 2? Click Here!

Happy 6 Months, Lena!

Lena is 6 months old today! She is such a happy little girl. I am not sure what her stats are because she doesn't see the pediatrician until December 3, but I'm guessing she is around 20 pounds. She is our biggest baby by far! 

She can army crawl anywhere she wants to go. She can roll both directions, which she does all the time. She started saying "dada" yesterday. She sleeps pretty well about 4/7 nights, usually only waking twice.

She cannot sit unassisted yet, she can only tripod for a few seconds before falling over. She is a smiling and laughing baby, but for whatever reason, as soon as the camera comes out, she will not smile or laugh. She's a stinker.

She loves her family, especially Landon. They have a great bond and he loves to tote her around and show her things, play with her, and generally love on her. 

She has started sampling food. So far she has had mashed potatoes, avocado, yogurt, shredded chicken, and bananas. She has loved it all and has done well with it. 

She is also still breastfeeding. She is definitely getting more formula than breastmilk at this point, but she is still getting every drop I can produce. I am hopeful that we will make it at least a year. 

Picture Post

Lena is One Month!

Lena Sue is already one month old! This past month has flown by.

At 2 weeks she started rolling from her belly to back, which seems really early. I thought it was an accident at first, but she has continued to do it, so it is the real deal. At 3 and a half weeks, she started smiling, but in the last few days, she has really started smiling. It melts my heart. She cooed a little today, but only twice, I hope she starts doing it more in the next few days.

I am not sure how much she weighs, but she is a chunk. She weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces at 2 weeks old, so I'm guessing she is at least 9 pounds, maybe 10 now. Her next appointment isn't until July 16.

Breastfeeding is the same as it was with the rest of the kids, it is hard. She is supplemented with formula since my breasts do not make enough milk to feed her exclusively. But she is happy and healthy, that is all that matters.

She is a great joy to us all. Her personality is starting to show and she is a very easy going baby.

Newborn

One week

Two weeks

Three weeks

Four weeks

Week 36

Baby day is soon upon us. I cannot wait to have it over with and be holding my beautiful daughter in my arms instead of in my body. I am exhausted, sore, achy, grouchy, and hungry all the time. I'm ready to have my body back, be able to sleep on my stomach again, be able to sit on the floor and be able to get up easily, hold my other kids in my lap, walk with no pain, and be able to breathe freely again. But most of all, I'm ready to look into her face and see who she looks like. Her brothers? Her sister? Me? Her dad? Or just Lena?

I still have a lot to do before she comes. Truthfully, I haven't really done anything to prepare for her yet. I still need to bring down the clothes and wash them and put them away. I need to bring out the baby gear and clean it and set it up. I need to finish all my deep cleaning so we don't have to worry about too much cleaning after she comes. I need to pack her bag for the hospital, along with my own. We need her car seat installed yet. I do have her diapers ready to go, so that's at least something. I have no fear, I know when she comes, everything will be ready for her. In fact, the same thing happened before I had Alta, because my mom was staying with us in her room until 10 days before she came, and everything was ready by the time it needed to be.

The other kids and I have had the tummy bug that is going around. It was awful. I'll spare the details, but it was not something I would like to ever see again. The week before the tummy bug hit, we all had spring colds. Hopefully, we have gotten over the sickness and everyone will be healthy now for a while.

We had a 4D ultrasound done with Lena, just like we have with all the other kids, and she gave us some pretty good shots, including a smiling one. She also has a lot of hair. The color is to be determined, all the other kids had different color hair at birth. Landon's was white blonde, Parker's was brown, Alta's was reddish blonde. I had black hair, Sam had blonde. We will see what color her's is soon.

And finally, her home for the time being.

Homeschooling: What I Have Learned

Now that I am a bit more seasoned in homeschooling, I thought I would share what I have learned and what I have changed.

First, homeschooling is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Not the teaching aspect, but the finding time and forcing yourself to get to it. It is so easy to say, "We will do it tomorrow." Then tomorrow comes, and something comes up, and you don't get to it, then you find yourself piling 3 days into 1.

The next thing I learned was, having a school room is dumb. Maybe it works for some people. But it wasn't for us, it was much easier to do school work at the dining room table, or living room floor, or even the kitchen table while I washed dishes. Not only that, but baby quatre will be needing the school room soon.

I also learned you don't need a lot of stuff. The posters, the big colorful calendar, none of that was needed. All you need is your curriculum, or books, paper, pencils, and you and your children.

A two year old is easier to handle while teaching your older children if you include her, give her a piece of paper, a coloring book and crayons, and she sits and listens, and learns. She sits right along with Parker saying "B says buh".

You also don't need to do everything all at once. In the beginning, I would do math, then language and phonics, then social studies/science/health, then spelling, then any extras. By the time we were done for the day, both boys were spent, I was spent, and we were tired of being around each other. Yes it got it all done and out of the way early. But then I changed it up, we still do math first because it is the most hated subject, but then we take a break, have a snack, play outside, play a game, watch TV, or whatever else. Then we move on to something else, take a break, then something else, take a break, and so on. Yes it can take all day, but there is no burnout, and the kids are learning quicker, there is no whining, no "Are we done yet?" Some days we do still knock it all out in the morning if we have somewhere to be or if the kids want to keep going. Some days we take one or two breaks, some days we take a break between everything. We take it day by day. The kids take the lead, and I am fine with that as long as it gets done. Yep, we might be practicing spelling at 6 at night, but it works for us.


One of the most important things I have noticed, is Landon is not as mouthy, he is not as colorful in his choice of words, and he isn't so into popular items. For example, this time last year, I heard Oh my God! several times a day. Now I hear, Oh my goodness gracious! instead. Last year he was saying crap, even though he knew that was a no no in our home, I would still catch him saying it. I haven't heard it in a while now.

All in all, I would say homeschool has been a success for our family. Is it right for every family? No. Is it right for your family? Maybe, that is a choice that every family has to make for themselves.

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween to my readers!

Today we had an easy day with school so that we could have our own little party after lunch.

I made the kids dirt cups. Chocolate pudding with crushed up Oreos and gummy worms.

I also made them the pretzel, kiss, and candy corn treats. 

And the surprising big hit, was pumpkin slime. It is really easy to make, I wanted to make regular slime, but our grocery store didn't have any lemon-lime kool-aid today, so I went with orange instead, and changed it to pumpkin slime. First you jello according to the package, while you are waiting for the water to boil, mix together a half gallon of water with two kool-aid packages, then fill up the rest of the gallon with a white soda. After the jello is made, add that to the drink, stir and add sugar to taste. After it sits for a while, it will become thicker and very slimy. If you want it to be slimier, you can add less water/kool aid/soda OR add another package of jello. I put it in clear cups that I had used a marker to draw pumpkin faces on.

After our snacks, we danced to the Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance, Monster Mash, and a few others. No pictures of that since I was getting in on the fun too. 

We then headed to my step dad's for Trick or Treat, then to my Dad and Nanoo's. We then came home and picked up Sam and headed into town for a rainy Trick or Treat. We only went to the fire station and to Trunk or Treat at the church before we got to cold and wet. The kids had a good time and we came home wet and happy, they got to eat a few pieces of candy and then headed to bed.