Blog boredom........

I have been in a blogging funk because at this point for us life is pretty un-blog worthy and boring. We have not been doing much these days but staying home and trying not to be too tired of the weather. Sunday we finally got snow and it was so fun to go out and play for the afternoon, the girls went crazy and were racing against the warmer weather to get their things done before it was all melted. :) Grace and Daddy built a snow dragon (Justin sort of took over) and then sent them sledding down our street hanging onto them with a rope so he could just pull them back up, it worked quite nicely. We have such a horrible neighborhood for snow, it's built all around a big mountain with only two entrances in and out both requiring serious hill climbing. We left in the morning to head out to church and got to the top of the hill leading out of the neighborhood and there was a 5 or 6 car pile up blocking the whole intersection.....needless to say we did not go anywhere. It kills me that people just assume their little cars without 4 wheel drive or chains will make it up and down these hills on sheets of ice. Funny to see them all walking though after they try it. :)

We have a great sledding street because it's a dead end and it's just steep enough to make it fun.
He got his workout. :)

We changed rooms around and finally have the girls sharing for the first time, they have loved it and begged us to do it when we brought it up. They are sleeping really well (aside from Haylee's 4 am wake up but that not new) and it's fun to hear their conversations with each other at night, Grace will sing and Haylee just rambles about random things. Grace has been home from school these last two days and they have played so well together, I think they really miss each other during the day. This is a sort of panoramic view of the new play room, it's so nice to have everything in one room. This will eventually be a baby room but for now this is it.

This is their bedroom now:



The next thing is to get something to cover up their closet, I am so glad that it's all in one now but so hideous to look at, they also need matching bed spreads now.......add it to the list right????

Justin was saying that the girls looked really big last night at dinner and when we think of a baby they do already seem so big, and with another addition it will fly by even faster I'm sure. Haylee is writing her letters now, she still needs help with a few of them but knows the whole alphabet for the most part. We now are working on sounds the letters make. She spells quite a few words (Haylee, Mom, Dad, Grace) and knows her numbers and counts very well, they race to see who can get to 100 the right way the fastest. (Everything is a race with them, to be the "rotten egg" means victory.) I know her knowledge comes from Grace helping her out a ton, she is such a good big sister and works with her a lot. Grace is reading now and gets rewards with every book she completes. We have been using all different types of books so she is not going by memorization and she sounds the words out so well. We are practicing all of the "rules" and it gets frustrating but she's hanging in there. We are also working on time and so far she is doing well, it's so strange to explain things that make so much sense to me but are so foreign to her. She has also memorized the New Testament books and is moving on to Old Testament, she is thriving in Awanas, I am so happy that we put them in this year, Haylee is doing very well too, they don't have to memorize like the bigger kids but she is picking it all up very quickly and the lessons they are learning are great. Justin and I have decided that with our girls we will have to continue to teach them at home along with school/church. I really want them to have a great education and be able to work at their own level so if they are not challenged enough in school, or have areas where they struggle then it's all things we can do at home with them. Grace loves school though and I am so happy that we have great public schools here that are not over crowded and feel very small. I loved school (in the beginning anyway) and as I got older the relationships that I built with a few of my teachers and the influence they have had in my life have been so helpful. I can't wait until my kids start school and church activities and we can go and support them, I know Grace can hardly wait for choir and I'm sure will be part of the drama scene. :)

So I just figured I would update on my girls and share how they have been doing lately. Justin and I are so proud of them and have so much fun being their parents.....yes it's a struggle a lot of the time.....BUT for the most part it's great! Grandma and Grandpa are coming for Haylee's birthday and we are heading up to Vancouver....that should be some good blog material. :)