Home School

So the last month has been a little slow on the school work side of things for Adelle but she has kept busy with productive things. She is still taking three classes through Eagles Peak Charter School : Art, The Solar System for science, and The World Around Us for history/social studies. She is also continuing in the homeschool band with Orange Coast Music Arts learning to play the clarinet and recently added the drums class to her schedule. She is very excited to march in the Seal Beach Christmas parade this weekend playing Jingle Bells Rock on the clarinet. While I was busy taking care of the two little ones the last month Adelle has taken advantage of the free time at home to read what she chooses by herself.  Most importantly to her was finishing all the Harry Potter books and she has now moved on to Nancy Drew. Unfortunately for her all that free time is coming to an end. We started back with math and copywork last week and are adding back more subjects each week until we get back to our regular routine. Wish me luck!

 

200,000 miles

Our Subaru Forester (looks like this but not this actual car-I didn't have a photo handy!) reached a big milestone this weekend, 200,000 miles. We weren't in the car together so Joel took a video of it on his phone. (Is that against the hands free device phone law?)We are very proud of it. We've had this baby longer than we've had Adelle! We are especially grateful to our friend, Bryce, who has kept this car running without breaking our bank and taught Joel how to fix many things on the car. Though getting three kids into the back seat is not fun and making a minivan look really appealing, we are praying this car keeps running for awhile longer. 

One last photo

First Bath

Sueight thought I was a bad mom when I told her that Jude had his first bath this weekend, at

 2 1/2 weeks old. But to our defense his cord was not cooperating. It feel off after two weeks but continued to bleed and be all gooey so the Dr. told us at his 2 week appt (where he weighed 9.14!) to wait a couple more days for a bath. He didn't cry at all during the bath. What at tough guy!

Jude - 10 days old

Joel and Jude had a little photo shoot last weekend. Here are a few of the photos. Photos cannot do justice to how cute he really is! He is modeling some of our new prefold cloth diapers and a wool soaker that I made from a thrift store sweater. I made Maeve one too and some sweater pants from the sleeves. Felted wool is fun to work with. I also crocheted a few soakers for him and one for Maeve but the ones I made him were too small for him and the one I made Maeve was too small for her so he now wears the purple one with the ruffled edges. Oh well. What he doesn't know won't hurt him. I apparently need some help with my sizing on crocheted items. The booties I made him are too small too but our friends just had a baby boy 8 weeks early that I can send those to. Pray for little Keaton as he is in the NICU in Provo weighing only 3 pounds. 

Smith Family

While Joel was gone for two weeks in October working on a project for BYU Law School he got to go to his grandma's home in New Jersey and spend the afternoon with her and his Uncle David. I haven't ever met either of them and Joel hasn't seen them in 15 years but he had a nice visit. It was fun to see all the photos of the home where my MIL grew up. I have heard so much about it. All of our family is so spread out it makes it hard to see people very often so I was glad that Joel was able to visit with Grandma Jenneth and David. 

Dade's Quilt

One of my last projects to finish before Jude arrived was this quilt for our nephew. I purchased the fabric last Thanksgiving with the help of my SIL, Sharon. I thought the flannel lasso was perfect for our little Texas nephew transplanted to Seattle. But flannel is not that fun to work with so this will probably be my first and last flannel quilt. When I began quilting when I was pregnant with Adelle I thought I would make one for all our nieces and nephews but the year we had Maeve, we also had 4 nieces so that idea was thrown out the window. And this year along with Jude we will be have 5 new nieces/nephews so now if each sibling's family gets one quilt sometime in my life I will be doing good. I love quilting but it just takes so much time to finish one. 

Just the 5 of us...

It was a sad day Saturday because my mom left us after visiting for a month. As soon as we dropped her off at the airport Maeve declared that she "needed grammy". She has a lot of needs these days. So far we have survived 2 days being parents of three children without Mom's extra hands. We will see how well I do when Joel goes back to school tomorrow. It is so nice to be in a clean house. My mom worked hard while she was here and we appreciate it. Thank you!

While Mom was visiting we took her to Balboa Island for a balboa bar and to Ruby's Diner on Balboa Pier for dinner. Joel thought this photo of the cashier at the diner was pretty neat. She looked just like the picture of Ruby herself. 

Maeve waiting patiently for her chicken fingers. She is so sweet with baby Jude so far, giving him soft kisses and touches. We will see how long that lasts.  

Bees

What is happening to all the bees? We went outside this weekend to play in the yard and the sidewalk was covered in dead bees. We have seen a lot over the last few months but this was the most at one time. Since being stung by a bee while cartwheeling in the grass a few months ago Adelle is deathly afraid of them, even dead ones, so our play time outside was cut short. With all the bees dying what is that going to do to our orange trees?

It's a boy!!

Jude August

Wed. Oct 29

9 pounds 2 ounces

Soccer

I am sorry about the depressing message last blog. I'm over feeling sorry for myself. If the baby comes before Joel is done with the film I don't have to be pregnant anymore and if not then Joel will be there for the birth. Either way I am a winner! 

Here are some photos from Adelle's soccer game. She loves playing goalie. It is crazy. She likes to actually put her face down close to where other people are kicking. She is getting pretty tough too. I expected her to start crying the first time that she got hit but she has really surprised me. She is a pretty good goalie and requests to play there part of every game. 

No matter how tired the girls are during the game they always have the energy to run through the victory tunnel after the game. One of these games we will have a victory. We tied this last game so we are getting closer! 

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

This verse has been running through my head all week as the time for Joel to start shooting his thesis has drawn closer and no baby has been born. I told him that if the 22nd came and went without me giving birth I would have a mental break down. And I did. Now that it is over I feel a lot better. It is a humbling thing to realize that you really have no control over when you give birth. Somehow with the last two I thought I did. It is a frustrating thing to have what you think are righteous prayers not be answered, like having your husband with you when giving birth. So I have spent some time this week  being angry with God, with this unborn child,  and with every person that makes any comment about me stilling being pregnant. But now that I am faced with only the worst two possibilities I can deal with it. The worst being either giving birth without Joel or being pregnant for 12 more days until he is done shooting his thesis. Granted that would only put me a week overdue but considering I've never gone past 38 weeks, 41 weeks seems like a long time. Especially when the Santa Ana winds have struck again bringing 90+ degree weather and really annoying allergies. But all these things shall give me experience, and shall be for my good right? So we will keep you posted. 

Swinging

Isn't the placement on this swing hylerious. My parents got it for us on their last visit here and we already had hooks hanging from the porch so that is where it goes. Maeve loves it. She could swing for a long time (probably reminds her of the many hours of the day and night she spent in the infant swing) Recently though she has only wanted to swing when the neighbor boys are not outside to talk to. Brennan and Bean (Dean) are her recently boyfriends. Never mind that they are 3 to 7 years older than her. She loves them. I have to quickly get her into the house when we come home if they are outside or else I am stuck sitting outside watching her in 90+ degree weather. Once inside she happily talks to them through the window. We are just excited that she is not as antisocial as she was. 

Balboa bar

One of Michelle's and my adventures led us to Balboa Island for window shopping and the tasty Balboa Bar. Our ice cream was dipped in peanuts and toffee and was the best tasting thing ever. Adelle was very jealous when we came home and told the family what we did that day. She said she would want hers dipped in sprinkles. No surprise there. "But mom will never take me there" 

After adding to the weight we are carrying around we headed to the beach for boogie boarding. Alright women 7 months pregnant probably shouldn't be boogie boarding but it was lots of fun. Except the waves were much bigger at Newport Beach than Little Corona Del Mar where I am use to so we got beat up a bit. And maternity suits are not as tight fitting as regular suits so some people on the beach may have gotten flashed. I am sure that we were great entertainment. At one point I did a somersault underwater and was unsure if I would surface.  A week later I had some preterm labor and had to spend a few hours in the hospital. Not sure if it is related. I didn't mention the boogie boarding to my midwife. 

Pregnant Sisters

My sister, Michelle, came to visit for her birthday over Labor Day weekend. What a nice husband that would send her kid free for her birthday present! She is due 3 days before me.  Here are a few photos Joel took of us. I'll have to blog about our adventures when I'm not suppose to be making dinner!

Old Blog

For those that want to see our old posts, pictures, or videos our other blog is still available. I just won't be adding to it. Here is the link: www.homeschoolblogger.com/RYP

Daddy's Little Girl

Joel leaves for class and Maeve chases him down the street crying or stands at the door screaming for half an hour. I leave and she won't even stand up from her toys to kiss me goodbye. What can we say she is daddy's little girl. 

New blog again

So I set up this blog several months ago when I was frustrated with the limited photos I could post on our homeschool blogger site but then a friend told me about photobucket.com and that solved the photo issues for awhile. But now I can't add any photos at all to my homeschool blogger site so i am officially moving to blogspot. Hopefully blogspot.com isn't too hard for me to figure out. 

New Blog

I needed to move our blog because our old blog didn't hold as many pictures as we wanted to post! So we are going to give blogger a try. Please bear with me as I figure out how blogger works. For new viewers our old blog http://homeschoolblogger.com/RYP will explain that this blog is where we tell our friends and family what we are doing to educate our children at home. Plus everything else that happens in our little family's lives. Of course because I am the author I only publish information that makes me look good! :)