Spring Update

I wanted to take a few minutes to update you all on Nicholas and Daniel. There seem to be so many new and fun things that they're into nowadays! Despite the challenges of some bickering and wrestling that often results in tears, we're enjoying this stage in their lives.

Nicholas: He has matured in so many ways the past few months. He loves playing Uno and creating things with his legos. School goes smoothly on most days, which is a big change from the fall, when he would often fight me on the reading/handwriting lessons. I think his confidence in learning new things has greatly improved, and he looks forward to our school time now. I am really excited about what next year will bring, when we really get down to business!

Above are photos of him with a reading incentive chart that I downloaded. Every day that he does "his best reading," he gets to color an arrow on the chart. After about five arrows, he earns a small treat. Today, we completed the chart and were able to go out to McDonald's for lunch and ice cream!

Daniel: Daniel is our little extrovert. He is soooo verbal! Chris and I often have to be careful about what we say around him, because he will ask about things he's overheard, even several minutes or hours later! Like Nicholas, he is also taking an interest in board games and puzzles, but story time is still his favorite. Daniel's favorite place on earth? Busch Gardens! (McDonald's might be a close second.) He absolutely loves to look at the map of the park, and point out all the different rides and attractions.

Daniel will attend an at-home preschool one morning a week in the fall. My friend who is teaching it is very artsy-craftsy and great with his age group, so I'm sure he will love it. This will also allow him to socialize a bit more and give me more focused school time with Nicholas that day.

Andrew: Not too much to say here except that he seems to be a very active little guy who enjoys ice cream as much as his mama! I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories to tell about Andrew in the coming months...

Nicholas Turns Five!

Our sweet guy turned five years old last Sunday. We celebrated by going out to lunch, then to Toys R Us to pick out a "big boy bike." Later in the day, we enjoyed a Nicholas-requested dinner of fish and mac-n-cheese, followed by earthworm cake. (If it looks familiar, that's because I made him this cake last year, and he wanted the same thing again!)

Today was his party. Six little boys and one brave girl came over for Star Wars Jedi training. Chris taught them some Jedi light saber moves, then the kids used them on him (as well as some other good-natured dads)!

Our Family Celebration

Running away from Jedi!

Chris gives a lesson in light saber moves.

Daniel finds a battle partner.

"Cupcake Ice Cream Cones"

Opening Gifts...

Happy Easter!

Chris reads to the boys about the Resurrection Egg for that day. If you are not familiar with them, each plastic egg contains a small item representing something from the Easter story (crown of thorns, stone, etc.). Each day leading up to Easter, we read a portion of scripture and opened one of the eggs. The boys loved it, and learned a lot.

We had a great time at the church egg hunt on Saturday!

My serious little man, trying not to drop his plastic egg on a spoon.

Nicholas, concentrating on the beanbag toss.

Daniel got a sheep painted onto his face.

We let them dig into their candy (which proved to be a mistake based on their activity level later in the morning...)

Handsome boys

My three sweet sons!

We have enjoyed a weekend full of Easter festivities, and are so thankful for the resurrection of Christ our Savior. Happy Easter! He is risen!

Visit from Grammie and Aunt Tori

This is my new favorite picture. Thanks for taking it, Mom!

Sisters!

Playing baseball in the yard with the boys

Aunt Tori was very sweet with Nicholas and Daniel!

We had a great visit with Mom and Tori this month. They were able to stay for several days, and the boys loved all the extra attention! Tori is starting her college search, so we visited Univ. of Richmond and UVa while she was here. We had awesome weather, too! Once again, we wished we lived closer to Grammie...

Pregnancy Pics

Jan. 2010 (17 weeks)

March 2010 (26 weeks)

Okay, so all of my friends who predicted that I wouldn't be as diligent in taking photos/documenting this pregnancy were correct. I have had Chris take about two belly shots this time around. I only hope I can find some time to scrapbook when Andrew is born.

Great Wolf Lodge

We recently spent two nights in Williamsburg's Great Wolf Lodge, a family resort with a huge indoor water park. The boys were able to sleep in their own "cabin" area of our room, complete with bunk beds.
Nicholas was able to ride almost every water slide, and he and Chris enjoyed going down them repeatedly. Daniel and I stayed busy in the toddler pool/fountain area and watching a huge bucket of water spill on people every five minutes. We all were able to ride the four-seater family water slide together.
Although the photos didn't come out very well because of the lighting in the waterpark, above are a few from our trip.

The L-O-N-G winter!

It has been a very long winter up here in Virginia- we've gotten around 30 inches of snow since December. Hopefully, spring is coming!

Here is an update on the boys:

• Nicholas is becoming more "big-brotherly" with each passing day. Although he occasionally instigates an argument or aggravates Daniel, he seems to be increasingly more patient with D's tantrums, often giving him a toy to pacify the little guy. It is sweet to see him being such a peacemaker. He is very excited about the upcoming birth of baby Andrew, and loves to feel my tummy when Andrew is kicking around.
  
• You may be wondering how the homeschooling is going. We have fallen into a comfortable routine of working for about an hour 3-4 times per week. Nicholas knows around 20 sight words, and is starting to transition to actually reading his (little) books rather than just memorizing them. We have recently started a kindergarten math program, which covers place value, addition, etc. He is a great student, and is eager to please! Next fall, we will begin "Classical Conversations," a weekly meeting with other homeschoolers where he will learn fine arts, science, history, geography, and Bible. I will reinforce what he's learning there at home during the week, in addition to teaching him math, reading, and probably Spanish.
• Nicholas will start speech therapy at our neighborhood elementary school next week. After some concern on our part that many of his sounds and words were not completely intelligible, we decided to have him tested, and he qualified for services. We are looking forward to having someone work with him on this!
  

• How N. made us laugh this past month:

Nicholas: So, Dad, what did you do at work today? (speaking to Chris over dinner one evening)
Chris: I worked on a software procedure.
N: That doesn't sound very kid-ish!

• Daniel is very much in the "terrible twos" phase. Although we still see glimpses of our laid-back little guy, screams of "NO" and "MINE" are more the norm these days. Daniel is very attached to his big brother, and the two will play together quite a bit. It's easy to see N's influence as D. loves all things Star Wars, and has even started watching episodes of "Voltron" on Netflix. Reading books and going to the library are favorite activities.
• We recently finished Daniel's new big boy room, complete with blue walls and bunk beds. Although the boys will not have to share a room, the bed will come in handy with visitors as we no longer have a guest room. Nicholas has wanted to sleep in the top bunk, and I think this has made the transition easier for D. Promise to post pictures of the new room soon!

• How Daniel has made us laugh recently:

Bev: Guess what, guys? We're going to Great Wolf Lodge tomorrow. They have a water park and bunk beds for you to sleep in.
Daniel: And food, too?