Biltmore House

Thank you so much Lauren and Matt for sharing your Biltmore House tickets with us! We are so thankful that we got to go on a field trip with Merinda and her girls. The girls had so much fun and so did us grown up girls!
The Biltmore House allowed each person to have their own audio tour. (Headset) Merinda and I noticed that the girls were having a math lesson using the audio players. Every time we went into a new room there was a sign with a number on it. The girls had to look at the sign, find the number and punch in the correct number on their audio box. It was a great way to review the numbers especially for Ivy and Kylee. After touring the house, we took the girls to the winery. They tasted grape juice, sweet crackers, and red punch. We then went to Cheddar's for lunch and onto ALDI for some strawberries and blueberries that were only $1.69 each! Thank you God for a wonderful day with wonderful friends!

Growing SO fast!

Hayley is growing so fast! She is doing her best to crawl! She says da, da, da, da, na, na, la, da, over and over and over non stop! We love her and enjoy watching her change and grow each day! She wants to hold her bottle so bad! It's getting harder to feed her because she wants to do it. Brent decided that he would let her do it one day! She loves Carrots!

Sleep OVER

Ivy and Kayla have been friends for a long time. Heather and I used to get the girls together every week before Kayla started school. Kayla and Ivy are always begging us to let them have sleep overs. I am so thankful that Ivy has friends with parents who are teaching them about Jesus! Ivy and Kayla played dress up, put on make-up (which is only allowed on SPECIAL occasions), made a gingerbread cake with me, took a forty five minute bath in the BIG tub, watched the Joseph movie, read books, played with Hayley, danced and so much more! The picture with Brent on his knees was so special to me. When the girls got in bed, he went in and knelt by their bed and prayed for them both. I am so thankful that He loves Ivy and Hayley and their friends!

God, thank you for these sweet girls! Please allow salvation to spring up within them both. Please allow them to share a strong bond...the strongest...Jesus! May they hold each other accountable and spur one another on toward you!

Hayley and Eli

This was so precious! Hayley and Eli really interacted with each other today. Hayley was playing with her hair bow and Eli decided that it looked fun and he wanted to play too. Hayley would chew on it for a second and then Eli would chew on it for a second. It was almost as if they were sharing a toy! They really were sharing their slobber! Thank you God for these two precious little bald headed babies! We love you!

Valentine Party 2012

Several of us moms who are homeschooling got together at church today so that the kids could have a Valentine Party. Michelle did a lesson with the kids and Merinda made a craft with them. We had lunch together, exchanged valentines and the kids had a BLAST!! I did too! It is always so much fun to get together with Leilani, Merinda, Candice and Michelle! I love you ladies! Thank you for encouraging me. I love how God is working in each of you!

Valentine Cookies

Ivy was all girl today. She dressed up in my vest, scarf and high-heel shoes. She then helped me make valentine cookies. She even added the sprinkles. Then, she danced by herself for thirty minutes! Such fun!

Visit to Aunt Martha's

Brent was invited to speak at at church in Franklin called Mountain Grove. We had a great day! Memaw, Papaw, Aunt Sharon, and Johnnie Nell went to church with us. After church, Aunt Martha invited us to her house for lunch! We had fun visiting and Aunt Martha's pecan pie was AMAZING! I wish I had one right now! Aunt Sharon took our pictures!

Cousin Love

Smiles!

Ivy can always make Hayley smile!

Bears

We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods! I love this book! There are so so many lessons/units that we get to enjoy. After reading the chapter "Two Big Bears," we did a unit on bears. One day, Ivy woke up to "bear toast." Another day we got all the stuffed bears from MeMaw's house and our house weighed them, measured them and graphed our results. We also talked about the different types of bear species in the world. There are 8 different species. We talked about each one, cut out pictures of the bears and taped the pictures on our world map. It was so neat to talk about the world and where the different bears were found. We read other books about bears and had a great week! We also did a unit on maple syrup, dancing and a unit on owls!

100 days of Homeschool!

We had our 100th day of school twelve days ago! Here are a few pictures of Ivy counting out 100 whales for Ellen and 100 animal crackers for Trent. We also read the book Jake's 100th Day of School by Lester Laminack (a professor I had at WCU). I am really enjoying homeschool! In fact, I LOVE it! It does require a lot of planning and energy! I am so thankful that Brent did homeschool two days last week with Ivy. They were in basement one day from 8:00 AM until 2:30 PM. Then they took at 1 1/2 hour walk in the woods around our house! Thanks daddy!!!! On days when I wonder if I am doing enough with her, would she get more in public school or I believe the "world" (yes, sometimes I worry!) I want to look back at this blog and praise God for the time that we have with her.

Happy Hayley Girl!

Julie took pictures of Hayley! I love these!