School 2015-2016, December-January

110+ days!
We did our best to continue our schooling over the holidays (taking a 2-1/2 week break), and to get a good start in the new year.  We're all looking forward to a nice long break after our new baby arrives, but until then, the more school we get done, the better.  Our goal is to hit 140 days before baby :)

In December, we were all in the Christmas spirit, along with plenty of Christmas Carols, Christmas stories ("The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" is one of our favorites), decorating cooking, making fudge, crafting gifts and ornaments, and attending a Nutcracker performance, our memorization/recitation, music composition listening, and art study reflect that.  We've also tried to select pieces that go with our history Renaissance and American early colonization studies.  Over these two months, we've covered a lot of great art:

Memorization: "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" (Twas the Night Before Christmas), "Wise" by Aileen Fisher, "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare, 13 Colonies, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.

Music:  Beethoven's 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy), Shubert's "Winterweis," Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite," Dvorak's "New World Symphony," Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony

Art:  Currier and Ives prints, "Hunters in the Snow" by Pieter Brueghel, Rembrandt Self Portrait,  "Ophelia" by Millais, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Vermeer,  "The Son of Man" by Rene Magritte

We have also done plenty of reading these past two months in our schooling.  The kids have had their noses in new book series.  Tesfaye has been reading the "Wings of Fire" series, Maegli has read the "Half Upon a Time" and "Perfectly Princess" series, and Davis has been reading the "Seven Wonders" series.  Our read-a-loud have taken us into the world of Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, All's Well that Ends Well, Winter's Tale, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Othello, and Taming of the Shrew (their favorite).  We've also enjoyed reading more "Penrod," daily excerpts of Beatrix Potter Tales (Maclaren's all-time favorite stories), and listening to audio books:  "A Christmas Carol," "Star Wars: Force Awakens," and "Treasure Island." 

Thoroughly enjoying lots of free time for building car models, experimenting with new art sets and coloring books,  sewing, shooting arrows, and dance parties, we've also covered a lot of ground in our History, Math, and Grammar. 

We've covered an impressive amount with our history studies these past two months.  Focusing on books (lots of reading and read-a-louds), art, and geography, we've covered:  Southern and Northern Renaissance, Martin Luther, Protestant Reformation, King Henry VIII (and his 6 wives), The Church of England, Good Queen Bess (Elizabeth I), Shakespeare and the Globe Theater, The Netherlands revolt and William of Orange, Sir Walter Raleigh, The Lost Colony of Roanoke, Mary Queen of Scots, King James, Jamestown, John Smith, Pocahontas, green gold (tobacco), slave trade, Puritans and Separatists, Plymouth, New France, and Henry Hudson - whew!  All this material has made for fun history study.

Mike has lead the kids in some wonderful science lessons on birds.  The kids made pine cone bird feeders early in December and then made a record of the birds spotted.  They've been studying wing structure and looked at feathers under a microscope.

The kids continue to make great progress in their math and language arts work. 

Math:  Burke, Maegli, and Hiwot are more than half-way through their math book!  Our recent lessons have been in measurements, fractions, reading and recording temperature, and carry-over addition using dimes and pennies.  Davis and Tesfaye will be moving into their next math book next week!  They've been working on multi-digit multiplication and long division.  Hendrick continues to make great progress in his LONG math studies - acing most assignments.  Maegli has proven to be an excellent math teacher to Kolpin.  She is an incredibly motivated worker and is often finished well before her siblings.  It's been nice to put her in charge of tutoring Kolpin in her free time.  Kolpin will be moving onto Saxon 1 soon!

Language Arts:  Our 2-5th graders have all been working on pronouns, at different levels.  Hendrick has completed his grammar book and has moved onto book 6.  All the kids have been working on spelling too.  Maegli has amazed us all, flying through spelling lessons and acing each test: "I just take a picture of the words in my mind, it's easy."  - awesome!   The younger kids have also started their Latin study. 


We sure are proud of the hard work done by each of our children.
Our goal is at least 7 more weeks of "Couch School" while mama's on bedrest before enjoying a nice long 6-week break when our newest baby arrives.  Let's Go!

Baby Girlie Room

Addy and Dabney are now roommates!

Our nursery was created a few years ago when we walled off an alcove at the top of the stairs.  It may not have a closet, but the 8' x 8' room is the perfect size for two cribs and a dresser (plus storage bins under each crib).

Dabney was super excited to have Addison move in.  According to Dabney, one crib is "Dab-ee room," and the other is "baby hi-ser, Ah-his-sen Moh-gan room" (baby sister, Addison Morgan's room).

*Chalk art by Maegli :)

I love getting these two girlies up each morning.  They lay on the floor together, giggling, as they are dressed:  "Ah-his-sen touch me.  Ah-his-sen get my dress.  She love me."  Addison is thrilled with any and all attention from her big sister.
It's a joy to watch this sweet relationship develop :)

We love these baby girlies! 

8 Months

Addison is 8-months old!!!

Our sweet Addy, with her larger than life personality, has us all wrapped around her little finger.  She is a cutie pie!  We are so blessed to have this amazing girl in our family. 

At 8 months:

sleeping 12 hours at night (sharing a room with Dabney!)

drinks 30 oz. formula/ day

practices her solid food skills with rice cereal

dry skin

crunches to a full sit from a reclined position

blows raspberries

snuggly
rolling

follows conversations

curious

chatters

takes a 3-hour nap each afternoon

when on her back, propels herself backwards using her legs

scoots on the floor

THREE teeth!!! (two bottom and one center left)

waves her arms

open and closes her hands

grabs at the spoon

clasps her hands together

CRAWLING!
crawling EVERYWHERE!

 social and happy to be held by anyone
mobile
pulls up to a tall kneel

loves to stand (supported)

gets LOUD right before falling asleep

grabs at faces

giggles
grinds/ clicks her teeth

can hold her own bottle

neck kisses make her belly laugh

loves to be with people

"da-da", "ba-ba"

holds tight to mama

has lots of energy

huge personality :)

stuck on paci

growls 

copycat

tilts her head from side to side 

(she's awfully cute!)

8

Week 27, 28, 29

Hooray for the Third Trimester!

We're doing well and growing bigger.  I've been trying my best to take it easy while also getting prepared for this new baby.  With planned bedrest close at hand, forced "nesting" has to happen now. 

With how good I've been feeling, it's not easy to plan for extreme limited activity for the next 7 weeks.  I've not been experiencing as many contractions at this point in the pregnancy as I've had in the past, but with my history of pre-term labor, it would not be wise to wait until threatening labor to go on bedrest.  So, bedrest starts next week. 

We purchased a deep freezer and I've been working to stock it with food for our family, to help make life easier while I'm on the couch.  We've been doing some needed deep cleaning and reorganization around the house, including moving Addison into the nursery with Dabney.  I've also been working to finish a few projects while I'm able - sewing a baby blanket, boy haircuts, and hair twisties.  We're super excited to have this new baby join our family and we're beginning to feel more ready!

*Praise God, the placenta previa has resolved and we are good to go for our hoped home birth as long as we can keep this baby in utero for another 8 weeks :)

Crawling

She's up, and she's moving!

*Addison is up on her knees for a few crawling "steps," then she flops to her belly to stretch forward, and gets back on her knees. . . nothing is safe :)

Snow!

 The Great Blizzard of 2016 skipped right over us, but kindly left nearly an inch (I'm being generous) in its wake - 5-8 inches had been predicted for our town, but that snow was saved for further east.  We'll take what we can get :)

We took a snow day (there was no point in trying to fight through a school day when all of us would much rather be outside).  It's always a chore to get the crew of kids bundled up, and we now have wet socks and gloves all over the house, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed hours outside playing and sledding.  To fully make the most of our snowfall, we scraped together a few big bowls of snow to make snow ice cream and maple syrup taffy, savored with hot cocoa.

We love snow days!

Roommate

For nearly eight months, it has been a joy (mostly) to share our bedroom with the cutest little roomie ever.  Thankfully, little Miss Addy has been sleeping through the night for the past five months, requiring only a few paci-pops (I reach down to her in the crib to pop in the paci).  But, Addison has graduated to being able to put in her own pacifier, no longer requiring paci-pops.  She's ready to move into the nursery with sister Dabney.

We will miss hearing our wide-awake chatty and giggly girl as we put her to bed in her crib each evening - she usually settled down beautifully once we were in bed too.  I will miss having this sweetness quietly watching me get ready each morning, grinning whenever I looked over to her.  Our time with her each evening and morning has been precious.  But it's time to move down the hall.  

Dabney is going to love having this sweet sister sharing her room.  But we'll sure miss having Addison with us. 

*Addison has been in our room longer than any other baby :)
*The timing is perfect, seeing as we'll have another baby to sleep at the foot of our bed very soon. 

Hiwot's comment after we moved the crib: "Your room looks so empty now.  It's sad."
I agree :(

Ice

Brrrr!  While the kids would love to experience snow, it seldom drops below freezing (we're spoiled and used to our mild winters).  The rare low temperatures are cause for much celebration in our household.  Upon waking to temperatures in the teens (!), the kids ran down to the lake to check out the ice.  They weren't dressed nearly warmly enough, and the ice could only hold them in the extreme shallows, but it was a very exciting morning. 

(Lake pictures taken by Hiwot and Tesfaye.  Mama stayed warm in the house :)

Birthday Girl

breakfast out with daddy (yay for a Saturday birthday!)

poppyseed chicken casserole for lunch (made by brother Hendrick)

strawberry cake

princess nightgown, notebook and markers, Lego Elves, "Perfectly Princess" books, "Twice Upon a Time," "Little House" Audio book, twirly dress,  design-a-room craft, raincoat

rollerskating

pizza and wings

movie night at home

An 8-year-old's dream day :)

EIGHT

Our fiesty, ballerina girl, expert chore avoider, drama, giggler, singer and dancer, jokester, "Lamby" lover, snuggler, emotional and sensitive, book worm, talented teacher, toy-filled-bed sleeper, creative make-believer, princess fan, all-things-pink, twirly-dress wearer, hyper-motivated school worker, long-hair dreamer, made-up game leader . . . is EIGHT!

Happy Birthday Maegli!  

Favorites:

food:  strawberries

drink:  rootbeer

dessert:  strawberry cake

restaurant:  Red Robin

music:  Kidz Bop

book:  "Half Upon A Time" books

audio book:  Star Wars: Force Awakens

movie:  princess movies

school subject:  math

color:  pink

indoor activity:  playing with Kolpin (playing make-believe games), and drawing princesses

outdoor activity:  skipping

with brothers:  kiss and hug them

with sisters:  dancing

with mom:  snuggling

with dad:  go out to breakfast and talk

outing:  Sky Zone and Magic Wheels skating

vacation destination:  Smoky Mountains

toy:  stuffed animals

princess:  Sleeping Beauty

superhero:  Hawk Girl

something I'd like to get better at this year:  riding bikes and playing chess

future aspiration:  singer

my life in 20 years:  I'm going to go to school and get married and have a lot of children.  I'm going to have 100 children.  We're going to live in the Smoky Mountains.  And, I'm going to be a famous singer.  

dislikes:  tomatoes, coffee (I only drink it once a year), fighting, chores, very scary stuff

 Maegli was our first girl.  She has always been a beautiful, fun, creative, "girly" balance to her brothers.  We are so thankful for the gift of her in our lives.  Her drama keeps us on our toes and keeps us entertained.  Maegli is quite a special girl.  She is a blessing in our lives.