He Knows My Name

Next up are some songs that my kids love singing and dancing to. The first one is "I am not frogotten". The 2nd one is "He's wild"

Psalm 139: 16-18 NLT

We will start everything off with a memory verse the kids learned this summer  at VBS. The extra kiddo is my nephew, he spent the summer with us and we miss him very much around here.

You Are Invited

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you are cordially invited to this years Salt And Light Academy Talent Show. The kids have been working real hard all  summer and they can't wait to share their talents with you.

WHEN: Saturday, August 27, 2011
WHERE: right here, where else would it be?
TIME: All day long
Featuring the very talented Little Man, Little Mama, Baby Girl and Baby Boy. With a special appearance from Ms N.(the dog).

Don't miss out on all the fun, see you there.

A New Homeschooling Year Begins 2011-2012

Wow, I cannot believe it is that time already. The summer just seemed to fly by. Our new school year started this past Monday August 1st. The kids could not be more pleased. They kept pushing me to start the schooling again. They have all these ideas of what they want to learn this new school year. Little Man wants to learn to type, Little mama cannot wait to start learning cursive and Baby Girl was starting to miss doing math with me at the computer. My kids are something else. I had to give them a "start date" so that they would back off a little. So this was it. They love being back on a routine, but, I really needed the break.

Life with 4 kiddos and a dog is very busy and it's about to get a lot  busier real soon. We have a lot of things plan for this school year. I can't wait to share all of it with you guys. But until then here are some pick from our 1st week of school.

Let's Play Catch Up (Little Mama's Edition)

My Daddy always used to tell me that little girls are special, and I can confirm to you that this is very much the truth. My life has changed so much as a result of having my little girls. I desire to be me more girly and soft. I started to notice things that were particularly feminine and ladylike. I'm more comfortable in my role as a women now more than ever. I love having girls.

Little Mama turned 8 years old this past December. She is so special to me. I love watching her grow and blossom into a sweet young women. She was my Velcro baby. Everywhere I went she was always with me, holding on to a piece of my clothing. I can't believe she is 8 already.
She was my surprise pregnancy, I found out that I was pregnant with her only 10 months after giving birth to her big brother. I didn't expect that, I didn't even think you could get pregnant so soon while still nursing a little one . I didn't think I could handle 2 babies at once, but there she was. She came into the world, into my heart and nothing has been the same ever since.



She is such the Little Mama. I can count on her to be my helper no matter what I'm doing. She loves to cook and knit and do just about anything else I'm doing. She never gets too tired of helping out. She is a strong girl, very grounded in her ideas and full of life. She is so much like me that it scares me sometimes.


Her smile says it all. She is very special. She greets each day with such excitement and joy. She laughs at herself and can make me smile on contact. She is gentle and loving and oh so kind and soft. I know one day she will be the best mommy to some very lucky babies and I just hope I can be there to see it.

Little girls are indeed very special and I am so grateful to be the mommy of not 1 but 2 lovely little girls.

How We Spent Our Christmas Break

Things have been really quite around here lately. We are all doing great. We have been enjoying the cold weather and taking some time out to catch up on some fun family times. Hope that all of you guys are doing well too.

And From our Family to Yours

HAPPY NEW YEAR

A Few Of My Favorite Things (Little Mama's edition)

Well hello everybody, I'm Little Mama and I'm here to share with you some of my favorite things.

The first thing I want to share is my favorite You Tube video, Dad life www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2_9H0jzXRM&feature=related I love the music and the funny dads dancing. My dad likes it too, He even sings along sometimes. I hope you check it out, I know you'll like it.

Another one of my favorite things is swinging on the swings. I like to go real fast and high. I can go higher than all my siblings. I go so high sometimes I can see the top of all the houses. It is so much fun.

Finally, I would like to tell you about my all time favorite thing to do. I love cooking. I love to help chop, mix, stir and anything else my mom needs me to do. I know how to stay safe and not get burn. I love to taste and help my mom add more seasonings. I even like washing the dishes for her after we are all done. My favorite thing to cook is Shepherd Pie and baking bread.

Thank you for reading my post about my favorite things. Please leave a comment telling me about some of your favorite things. I would love to read about it.

bye,

Little Mama

Random Thoughts

I love this weather, Last night it was finally cold enough to use the thick covers......

It's been so amazingly busy around here lately. I wish there was more hours in the day.......

I must get back to a good sleeping pattern. I'm a night owl and can easily be up until 2:oo AM every night of the week.......

Mornings are so slow for me. Most mornings around here start at 10. Maybe if I went to sleep at a decent time then I could wake up earlier and get more done.... What a concept...............

I need to start making Holiday plans, Advent is quickly approaching......................

Baby Boy celebrated his 1st Birthday last month, I still can't believe that we have had him a whole year already. How times fly...........................

We have made a lot of progress in the hair department lately. The girls are no longer afraid of getting their hairs done and we have all been learning a lot about our hairs and how to best care and style it. They now love to get their hair done and are using words live curly, soft, long and moist to describe their hair................

Speaking of hair I have been transitioning from my relaxed hair back to my natural texture for almost 7 months now. It's been been fun for the girls to see and I've had to answer a lot of questions about why I relaxed my hair in the first place instead of wearing it curly and natural. I'm learning a lot about myself................

I love my girls, they can be a handful most of the time but they are so real and unashamed of who they are and how God made them. I love that even though they are so young they are very confident in their own skin ....... I had to learn those lessons for myself a long time ago and I always worried about how I would teach my daughters to love and see themselves as the princesses that God created them to be. I can see now that I didn't have to worry about such things. My confidence in myself has helped them to be confident in themselves...........

Our family is very musical, we love to sing and dance and create music. There is always someone singing and humming in the background or putting on a show. Music helps us feel more alive. One of the songs that everyone is loving right now is Willow Smith's Whip My Hair. It is so fitting for our home. I will share with you now a video of the kiddos rocking out, I hope you get a kick out of it too......

Hair Love

My girls love everything that has to do with hair. Except pulling and brushing. They love looking at website searching for their next hairdo. They love to go shopping for hair accessories and products. They've been asking me for some time now if I would blog about their hair so here it is.

This according to them is their current favorite style. Little Mama call it "Half Twist"

Third Grade

Our Little Mama has started the 3rd grade. I can't believe how much she has grown up this past year. This school year will be a very busy time for her. She is at that middle ground between lower elementary and upper elementary.

This is what 3rd grade will look like for Little Mama :

Reading - Last year was a really big year for Little mama when it comes to reading. Her confidence level shot up and so did her ability to decode words. She is now reading so well, she shocked us all with how fast she progressed. This school year she will be working her way through progressive phonics "intermediate" books 8-15. She wants to start on the "advanced" books before the end of the school year, but, we'll have to wait and see how things go first. http://www.progressivephonics.com/
She is constantly reading. Her new favorite book to read is her brother's "Adventure Bible".

Handwriting - Little Mama loves to write. This year she has been writing a story that she made up about a young girl named Sarah and all the adventures that she experiences. I love watching her creativity come alive through writing. She will be working on "Printing Power" from Handwriting Without Tears. http://www.hwtears.com/ . She will also be doing copy work from the Bible.

Spelling - This is a new subject for us this year. Little mama will be working on Dolce Sight words on spelling City. http://www.spellingcity.com/

Math - Math U See is still our Math program of choice. Little Mama is doing great with it. This year she will be working towards finishing up "beta" and hopefully start "Gamma". http://www.mathusee.com/ Math is a little bit of a struggle for her. She is not very confident when it comes to doing her math work. That is quickly starting to change thanks to http://www.fun4thebrain.com/ . There she can work on her math facts while playing fun and challenging games. It is so much fun for her. Playing the math games has helped her learn her math facts without her even realizing it. We could not be happier.

Our Little girl is growing up. I love her willingness to try new things and her ability to laugh at herself. She is so much like me. We have so much fun together. She is such a hard worker, she makes us all really proud.

Another School Year Completed

Our homeschool year ended in May and we have been on "break " ever since. To celebrated the end of another school year we had a "Promotion Ceremony". Each Family presented their kids with certificates. Here are some pictures of our kids with there Certificates of Completion.

We Are Still Here

I know it's been a long time but we are still here. Everyone is doing great and I do plan on giving updates really soon. Until then check out these cute pics of the kiddos at play.

As Promised, Here They Are

This first one is of Little Mama's group. She is on the far right of the stage.

This next video is of Little Man's group. He starts them off with a little sign language and then joins them later on for the group finale.


I hoped you enjoyed watching our little one's perform as much as we have. They had so much fun and worked so hard to learn their parts.

What We've Been Up To

We have been really busy around these parts lately. With Piano lessons, music classes, dance classes, homeschooling, karate, a new baby and life, I have not had much time left to blog at all. I miss blogging very much and I hope to get back into it again.

Everyone is doing well. Papa has been working really hard as always providing for our little family. The kids are all trucking along with their school work and growing like weeds before my very eyes. My Mom is doing well and should be coming back to the States later this week.
As for me, I am doing my best at trying to stay sane. I've registered and began taking some fun classes at the local community school twice a week. I am taking belly dancing and Pilate/aerobics. I love being able to take time off during the week and going out of the house, to do something fun that is just for me. I have found that a little bit of exercise works wonders for my attitude as well as my sanity.

A few weeks ago the older kids performed for Palm Sunday. I really enjoy watching my kids perform. This was not Little Mama's 1st time performing a dance on stage but it was Little Man's 1st time. They both did very well and I could not be prouder. I will try to post the video later on but for now check out how cute they look.

Flash Backs

Having a new baby in the house again has really been a thrill. We are all enjoying these days with Baby boy. Time goes by so quickly... one minute they are sweet smelling, sleeping angels in your arms and the next thing you know they are about to turn 7 years old in a couple of weeks and want your help planning their big birthday party.
I've been a little emotional lately, not sad but very content and even a little unworthy of all that God has blessed me with.
My babies are growing up so fast........
To help me feel better and to reminisce about those good ole days I will be posting some pics and video of the kids when they were younger. I hope you enjoy watching these as much as I do.
P.S. It's OK if you find yourself getting a little emotional too, Everyone needs a good laugh sometimes.

baby girl when she was truly the baby



little man, I love seeing this kid smile


Lil Mama, so cute Lil Man, so handsome

I'll be back to post some more later, Gotta go, baby boy is waking up.....

My Two Girls

I enjoy being the mom of girls. There is just something very precious and special about having little girls.

Our girls are so "girlie" They love to sing and dance and play dress up.

Little Mama especially likes to dress up in her ballerina clothes.

And Baby Girl is really good at twirling in circles.

They are so precious

My little princesses.

May they always be this sweet and adorable.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

As you all know I've been gone from blog land all summer. I bet some of you have been wondering what we were up to? Well let me tell you about all the fun things that went on around here.
First, the kids all took swim lessons this summer. They had a very cool and patient swim teacher, Ms. D. She was able to teach them all kinds of cool things in the water. The kids loved her and hated to see the classes end. We miss her so much and we can't wait for next summer when we will have more swim classes with our wonderful Ms. D.

Little Man Swimming to the wall

Little Mama learning to float on her back

Little Man really loved his time in the water

Baby girl learning to turn and float on her back.

Little man practicing proper dive techniques

Baby Girl swimming to Ms. D

Baby Girl showing off her strong kicks

We spent a lot of time in the pool this summer. It seems like if we weren't in the pool we were either at the beach playing in the sand or at the park having a blast.

I love it that we get to spend so much time together. I love watching them learn new things and explore.

How about you?

What Have you all been up to all summer?