Merry Christmas

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas! We are still working on a name for our new baby. Hiram and Olivia had so much fun dressing up as Mary and Joseph, we thought they were pretty cute too!

It's A Girl!

We are very excited to welcome the newest member of our family! She was born on Saturday, December 20th at 6:08pm. She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. We don't have a name for her yet, we just want to take some time to get to know her first. We are very greatful that she arrived with little complication. At 38 weeks she was breech and we were concerned she might arrive by c-section. Thankfully she turned on her own. We came to the hospital at 9am on the 20th with a suspected abruption of the placenta so I was given Pitocin to begin contractions. By 4:30pm I was really feeling the contractions and the midwife broke my water. From there things moved along quickly and after a few pushes we are now a family of 5!

Hiram's 3rd Birthday

All Hiram wanted for his birthday was a sprinkle donut and a balloon. He was so happy just to get them he didn't even want to open his presents - what a great kid!

About two weeks before his birthday Hiram took up watching cooking shows. He saw a whole show about cakes and asked me to make the one he wanted.

Two days before Hiram's birthday Scott and I thought of a present that he would love - a picture dictionary. So I decided to look for one. I found this one at a garage sale the next day. It is in great condition and, once we finally convinced him to open his presents he was so thrilled he wanted to read the entire book!

Hiram's other present was a viewmaster and some reels. He saw this at a toy store with Grandma. He was so good about playing with it and then when it was time to leave, he put it down, said goodbye and that maybe he would see it again at his birthday - what a happy reunion it was!

Happy Halloween

We were going for The Bearinstein Bears, though most people thought we were a family of mice!

Fall Festival

We went to a Fall Festival where Hiram got to play games for candy and ride a horse. There were even hotdogs provided however I think Hiram is the only child that doesn't like hotdogs!

Scott's Birthday - Indian Mounds

For Scott's 30th birthday we went out to Pine Island and saw ancient Indian mounds. I know this doesn't look like much but after living in Florida for 2 1/2 years, this is a mountain!

The neat thing about the mounds where the Native Americans built their homes is that they are made of shells which was actually like their trash heap! After they ate what was in the shells they discarded them to make the mounds.

This is a view from the top of one of the mounds. The water is the Gulf of Mexico. It would be a great view if not for the sign.

Scott's Birthday - Boat Ride

After we saw the Indian Mounds we went on a boat ride around some of the surrounding islands.
We all had a great time on the boat.

We saw lots of birds and a few glimpses of dolphins.


We also saw many beautiful homes and even a boat on the back of a boat!

Beautiful Day

Our tropical paradise! We had a fun time on the island and best of all everything was free. (I don't think Scott would have liked his birthday as much if we had spent money anyway!)

Homeschool for Hiram

We decided not to send Hiram to preschool but instead have decided to home-preschool him. I looked all over the internet for a preschool curriculum and finally decided on Brightly Beaming Resources (http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html). On our Theme Board our letter and number are made from sandpaper (Montessori technique). Hiram is very excited about eventually attending kindergarten and loves to "have school" in the morning with me. Hiram has always loved a schedule (surprise surprise, is OCD genetic?) so I knew we needed a routine for school, here's ours:
Monday - Introduce theme and vocabulary word, read a story related to the theme and do a gross motor activity
Tuesday - Introduce color and shape, wear some article of clothing reflecting color, point out color throughout day, have some food of the color and color a picture with the color
Wednesday - Color printout of letter/number, trace with finger on board, trace in rice or flour, point out letter/number throughout the day
Thursday - Color a picture of our theme and do a fine motor activity
Friday - School is out and we are at the park

Imaginarium

My mom (Cindie) came to visit us the last week of August. While she was here we all went to the Imaginarium, a hands on museum and aquarium. Hiram had so much fun. We saw an alligator, a frog and a snake. We also dug for dinosaur bones, touched a cloud and stood in a thunderstorm.

Olivia's First Birthday

We were excited to celebrate Olivia's First Birthday on August 30th. She started walking about two weeks before she turned one. After giving Hiram real cake for his first birthday (and having him stay up until one in the morning!), we opted for Deceptively Delicious Spinach Carrot Brownies instead. Olivia got three my little ponies and a little backpack with her name and Olivia the pig on it. She hasn't been too thrilled with the my little ponies. I guess having a big brother that plays with trucks and tools has something to do with it!