School Time

Water transfer activity

 



 

Leaves we collected, and put between contact paper

 

How we usually do school

 

Now that Sean's crawling all over, we tend to school whenever he's happiest playing alone, and usually a couple times throughout the day.  We have some workbooks that Julia works out of, but I try to add in some art projects, and also some Montessori style activities.  So far, homeschooling is going well and Julia seems to be enjoying it!



Happy Birthday, Tom!

 

 

This is a little late, but we had fun celebrating Tom's birthday earlier this month!  We just did cheesecake and gifts at home on his birthday, and then later in the week went to Pappy's Smokehouse downtown.  We got him a couple smaller gifts, and then for his big gift, I put a box of 9mm ammo in a gift bag with a card that said "Let's go shopping for something to put these rounds in!"  My parents and I went in together to get him a Beretta!  He was very excited, and has already been out shooting with it.  Here's to many more great birthdays!

On the move!

 

 

Sean's really enjoying his new found mobility and is always exploring!

Christmas Quilt

 

I've always wanted a cozy Christmas quilt, so I decided to get ahead of all the holiday rush and get my quilt done early.  I used a layer cake of Cherry Christmas fabric, by Aneela Hoey, for the zig zags, and then Kona solid white for the background. The back and binding are also Cherry Christmas fabrics.  I machine stitched the binding on, and it actually turned out better that I expected.  I'm not as pleased with the front of my quilt, however, and wish that I had used all gray fabric for that last zig zag, instead of gray and white.  But, I have a Christmas quilt, and within minutes of it coming out of the wash, Tom and the kids were using it on the couch, so I guess I'll call it a success!

Pumpkin picking and carving

Sean Ryan - 7 Months

 

Time is going by so fast, and Sean is growing and changing every day it seems!  He has two teeth now, and is sitting, crawling, and pulling up to standing all by himself.  Really in just the last two weeks he started crawling all over the house.  He is so curious, and just loves to explore.  I love seeing how his personaility is so unique and different from Julia's.  When Julia was a baby, she wanted constant interaction with us, and we could rarely just let her play on the floor by herself.  Sean, however, is happy just playing by himself or with Julia for a really long time, unless he's hungry or tired.  He loves crawling into all the rooms in our house to explore, and I'll never forget the first time he crawled into the kitchen to follow me.  He got this look of wonder, like, "woah...what is all this?!".  He also really likes homemade purees, whereas Julia really didn't start eating good amounts of solid food until she was about 10 months old.  I love seeing Sean and Julia start to play more together, it's so precious and priceless!  It's such a blessing to be able to stay home with them, I hope I never take it for granted. 



6 Months

 

 

Happy Half Birthday, Sean Ryan!  It's hard to believe it's already been six months, but oh my goodness, what joy he's brought to our family!  Julia is so in love with him, and in general, he's just a very happy baby.  Here are some of his recent milestones:

 

• His first tooth finally poked through this week
• He's pushing up on his hands and knees
• He's riding in a bigger car seat
• He's tried a few foods - smooshed up blueberries, chewed on some homemade pizza crust, avocado (not a fan!)
• He's starting to make "dadadada" sounds (Tom's work is paying off...he tries to get him to say Dada every day!)
• He loves bottles of every kind, whenever he sees one he gets excited and squeals until we let him play with it
• He can sit for a few moments by himself, and then he'll nonchalantly put an arm out and topple over :)

Airshow

 

This past weekend we got to see the Thunderbirds!  Julia has always loved airplanes and points them out whenever we see them, so this was quite the treat for her.  We talked with her about how the pilots fly the planes, so since then she's been talking about how she wants to fly jets when she gets bigger.  Last night at dinner, she even showed us with her hands how she wanted to fly and do "flips" in the air! 

Sunset

View of the sunset from our back porch

Flannel Quilt

 "Good night" side

 "Good morning" side

 I made my own binding!

 

I've been doing mostly quilting these days (except for a brass catcher I made for Tom), and this was one that I came up with in order to use up some fabric I've had for about a year.  The fabric is Anna Maria Horner's "Folksy Flannel" line, and I really love all the colors and prints!  I wanted to showcase all the prints, so I cut 8 1/2" blocks and did really simple quilting.  That's probably the last time I'll make a double-sided quilt though.  Getting the seams and everything to line up was a challenge!  I do love how it turned out though, and it's currently being used as a snuggle quilt for the couch.



First Week of Preschool!



Discovering what floats and what sinks

"Back to School" sensory bin

 



Doing apple prints

Sign of the Cross sequencing

Sorting stickers

Q-Tip painting

 

We've decided to try out homeschooling, for several reasons, but mainly because of how often we have to move, and we think that changing schools frequently would be stressful on the kids.  Also, with Sean's hearing loss, getting one-on-one instruction from me will definitely benefit him, and we won't have to worry about working with teachers to make sure he's getting everything he needs in the classroom.  Anyway, our first week of preschool with Julia was a huge success!  I decided to use the Catholic Heritage Curricula, and we really love it so far.  The preschool material is very light, and mainly focuses on letters, numbers, and faith.  Julia's been doing great, and having fun, and it actually only takes us about 45 mimutes a day top get through everything.  Most of the photos above are of activities I put together to supplement her curriculum.  Hopefully the rest of year continues smoothly!

Sean Ryan - 5 Months!

Five months has flown by!  I'm pretty sure that time is going much faster with two kids, more now than ever.  Sean is getting so big!  He's just about to 22 lbs, which means we need to move him out of his infant carseat.  Julia was in that same car seat until she was almost a year old!  Anyway, the photos is kind of hard to make out, so here are the milestones I noted:

• Rolling everywhere
• Plays with his toes...all the time
• First trip to Oregon
• Outgrew his infant car seat
• Laughs at everything Julia does!  (he also smiles at everyone he meets, he's one happy kiddo!)

 

Oregon Visit

Papa, Isaac, Julia, Tia Olivia, Hannah, and Sean

Isaac was SO sweet with Sean!

One of my favorites :)

Aunt Athena and Sean

Papa and Julia

We celebrated Hannah's Second Birthday!!

The best we could get with Julia, Mom and Tia Olivia

Julia looks so grown up flying a kite by herself

Love those feet :)

My silly goose

A visit with Gramma Bryant

 

We had a great time in Oregon!!  Our main reason for this trip was so Tom could go hunting with his family.  It was a successful hunt, and while he was away, I got to spend some time with my family too.  My Aunt Olivia came out for a few days, and it was so great to spend time with her and get to her more.  I also had fun with my sister and niece and nephew.  Julia had a blast playing with them too!  She really is getting so attached to everyone in our families.  It's nice to see that even though we live far away and only see everyone maybe twice a year, she stills bonds with them.  I have more photos from our phones I'll have to post later.