Updates....

Since my last posting, Elliot has been calling my name all the time. I hear "Mama, mama, mama!" quite often now. It is his newest and best trick. He now knows when he calls me I come running to hold him. He's a lover. We tried feeding Elliot some rice cereal this past week, as well as some carrots, and both times it did not go too well. I thought he would love eating solids, but he seemed not ready for it, and would not swallow the food...and pretty much spit everything out. I am going to take a break and maybe try again in a couple weeks. He is still being fed by me...100% nursing and loving it! Look at those thighs...he is not missing any meals.

Isaiah and Oliver are doing basketball this winter. Jeremy decided to take a break from sports, since Football really wore him out this past Fall. My Dad (their grandpa) will be coaching both boys' teams. Ken will be assisting. Today, they had basketball skills and team picking. Here's hoping to a good season!

Isaiah has also been taking a Pre-Algebra class from my Dad, a former high school math teacher. My dad has been teaching both pre-algebra and algebra to homeschoolers in the area. We are so proud of Isaiah, since this Pre-Algebra class is quite challenging. Isaiah is only in 6th grade, and this is an 8th grade class that he is taking. He has been very good about doing all his homework on his own, without us having to ask.

Kateri is still busy with Gymnastics and she recently moved up again to a higher division. It will be weird when she actually is in competitions, which is her goal in the next couple years.

Luanna is loving her dance class with Ms. Noreen. This is her 2nd year in dance and she is doing great in her class, and it is good to see her developing some independence from her sister.




Next week is our last week of Homeschool Co-op for this year. We will start up again in January. We homeschoolers like to finish the co-op before Thanksgiving, as the holidays are always busy for families. The kids have all enjoyed their classes, mainly taking a lot of art and phys ed classes this year. I can't believe Thanksgiving is coming up so soon! Christmas will be here before you know it.


...And yes we are still fostering Albert the beagle/hound. He loves to lazily lounge on on sofas, and he has great flappy lips. We've had him for 4 1/2 months now. Oooh oh!

"Mama, Mama, Mama!!"

Last night, Elliot said his first word! Can you guess what it was?

He was soooo cute! I put him on my bed to play with some toys, as I was getting ready for bed. I went into the bathroom and I could hear, as clear as anything..."Mama! Mama! Mama!". I rushed into the bedroom, very excited to see him as he uttered his 1st word, and met Ken, who was running upstairs, also very excited to see little Elliot talking! We were met with smiles and excitement from Elliot, who was quite proud of himself. Since then, he has been calling to me "Mama!" all day long today...at the car service station, on the way home in his carseat, and pretty much all day today at home. All the other kids have been so excited to hear his little vioce talking. And, he is so proud of his words too. I am so excited that he chose "Mama" as his first word. He is sooooo smart! I think he is my youngest talker. At only 6 months old, he is a real genius!

Elliot is 6 months old!

Lots is going on.....here are cute photos and fun captions:

Elliot was 6 months old on November 1st. Here he is in all his glory. I love his chunky legs and big smile! He is sitting up great on his own, and he is a very strong guy. I bet he'd be moving alot if he was not so heavy...so he stays grounded...the way I like it! He is pretty much always smiling when he is with me...he's a very jovial baby!


We had lots of fun on Halloween! Ken and the kids always have fun making the pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern, which they always do the night before Halloween. On Halloween, Isaiah and Jeremy were Alien brothers, Oliver was Iron Man, Kateri was a Victorian Princess, Luanna was an Angel and Elliot was a frog. The weather was perfect and warm that night, as we all went trick or treating, and later visited both sets of Grandparents.



Setting off on Halloween night...to start getting all that candy!


Ha! I bet you all thought that Isaiah was the taller one under that alien mask...and it was Jeremy!

Dad and Elliot, trick-or-treating on a warm October night.


Isaiah getting attacked by a spider!


Last night, was our first meeting night with our Daisy Girl Scout troop! We had a lot of fun, as we all met the girls for the 1st time. We have a great group of very nice girls. We are very excited to keep this troop going and have a lot of fun things planned for them. My co-leader, Lori, brought in some pots, soil and seed and the girls planted an indoor garden with marigolds and basil. We had about 13 girls last night, and a few could not make it. So, we will have a pretty large troop, with about 16-18 girls. I also recruited some of my sisters to help out. Kateri and Luanna were soooo excited for their 1st Daisy Girl Scout meeting.



Here are Kateri & Luanna making goofy, excited faces before their Daisy meeting.

Daisy Girl Scouts!

I realize I have not been posting as much lately. I've just been so busy with everything from homeschooling, dog fostering, camping and starting up a Daisy Girl Scout Troop. Yes, that is my most recent ambition. I've been super busy with it too. It all started out so simple...I called the Girl Scout offices to ask about the Daisy level of Girl Scouting, which is the 1st level for 5-6 yr olds. I was hoping to get Kateri involved this year, as I enjoyed Girl Scouts when I was young. Right away, the Girl Scout Council asked how involved I wanted to get and how soon I wanted to start...because they had no leader, but they did have quite a loooong list of little girls waiting for someone to start a troop. So, of course, I jumped in and took over the list of 16 girls! I had to call all the parents, set up a Parent Info Meeting (which I did last week) and find some co-leaders to help me out. I recruited my friend Lori, who also has a 5 yr old daughter, and I also recruited my sisters, Kathy and Megan to help out. We've been to a couple training sessions already too. And, I set up a meeting location (our community center) and dates to start the girl meetings. Our first Daisy Girl Scout Meeting will be Wed, Nov 5th. Kateri is sooooo excited to become a Daisy Girl Scout. We headed to the Girl Scout shop and bought the necessary supplies and uniforms for her.
Here are some photos of her wearing some of her Daisy things, including a Daisy t-shirt and Daisy cap. I also ended up buying her a Girl Scout mermaid with purple hair from the shop, since Kateri pointed out that she most definitely needed one to become a true Daisy Scout!

Camping

I've just been super busy lately with little time to write.

Last week, we all went camping with our homeschool co-op. We spent the week in a cabin in Cambridge, Ohio. The weather was so nice and warm. We all wore shorts all week! Ken took the week off work, so that was great. We also brought 2 dogs with us, Morgan and Fatsy. The other 4 dogs went to dog-sitters and the Barkley Hotel, which we ended up spending more on Lola and Albert than on our whole week of camping!

The kids enjoyed their time with friends and we had campfires every night.

Cute photo session

As you can see from our new Blog photo at the top...our photo session on Thursday with the kids turned out great. All 6 kids were in a good mood and every photo turned out adorable. We actually had a fun time at the photo shoot.
Enjoy the photos!

Updates...

Elliot is 4 1/2 months old now. I forgot to post a 4 month posting, so here are some recent photos of Mr. Chubby. He is already 20 lbs and is the happiest, cutest, cuddliest baby ever (no, I am not too bias, am I?). We started him using the "Johnny Jump Up", which he seems to like, as well as his fun red ladybug play center. It's been fun to be able to put him in different things, besides just his bouncy chair...or my arms.

Tomorrow I am taking all 6 kids to get professional photos taken together. So, hopefully that will all go well and they will all be in good moods...we'll see.

Jeremy is very busy with football, and really has only another 3 weeks left. Here are some cute photos of him in uniform.



We still are fostering Albert, the beagle. This has been our longest foster dog yet...about 3 months now. As with all the dogs who come here, he seems to fit right in here in "Beagle Heaven".


Isaiah with his beloved Lola. He is doing a Dog Training class with her this fall, and enjoying that.