1. I snapped this shot of them yesterday afternoon while they played with the little purple car our neighbors brought over. They had the best time, and we have the best neighbors. We are happy to hold onto the car and the neat rocking airplane for them until they have new little ones arrive in their own family :)   2.  This morning, my parents arrived before the children were up for the day so that The Husband and I could make the trip to my specialist appointment in Houston.  It was a great appointment and Baby #4 is doing really well :). The doctor has high hopes that I'll make it to at least 36 weeks (10 weeks away), so that was great news.  We got to see the baby kick and squirm and open and close his eyes. He also had the hiccups for much of the time we watched him. It's all so neat to see.  He weighs about 2 lbs and 2 ounces (which is nearly a pound ahead of schedule, and all of his measurements look good.  We saw his sweet little face again...

1.  Yesterday, we got some news regarding The Husband's health. It explains a lot of the problems he's been having over the last year. And although it can be a scary diagnosis, it also is reversible with diet, namely an alkaline diet. I am SO thankful we've had him on Isagenix foods and supplements the last 6 weeks. It is healing him inside out. They have done amazing things for his body. Now that we have another piece of the puzzle, we can continue to work on ridding his body of the toxins that have made him so sick. I keep thanking God for bringing these foods into our lives and for His guiding hand in all of this, and I'm grateful I get to share it with others and help them find solutions for better health.  2.  I got tired of looking at the empty pots on my porch (I managed to kill everything I planted in the spring), so while Jack was in speech today, I ran to the local plant nursery and gathered up some pretty fall plants. Mums, marigolds, and two crowns of thorns...

1. Last Friday afternoon, Jack and I did an experiment with beans. He dipped cotton balls into water and put those with five different types of beans in a plastic bag. We hung it on the window to give the beans sunlight.  Here they are four days later! So neat :) Our caterpillar finally formed it's cocoon a few days ago. We check every day to see if anything has changed.  2.  My in-laws have been in town since Sunday, and we've really enjoyed spending time with them.  The kids have LOVED all of the attention. 

1. I decided that for the summer months, we'd do a simpler learning-time routine. I found this on Pinterest and modified it to fit our days.  Here's what ours will look like.  Instead of choosing books and basing learning time activities around them, I'll choose books and won't worry about making lesson plans to go along with them.  Simple summer :) We already began the new routine this week with cooking together on Monday. I had to get the soup in the crockpot by 8am, so it would be ready by lunch. I took the kids from their beds straight to the kitchen counter before changing them or even feeding them haha. But they enjoyed helping :). Please ignore their mismatched pajamas!  Ella enjoyed playing with the beans and did so on that blanket for nearly 30 minutes with no breaks and almost no interaction with me other than to show me her big scoops every once in a while :) 2. Our first harvest of our mini cucumbers!! I'm like a proud parent, and it's so ridiculous ...

1.  Jack has been, on his own, attempting to count the last week or two, so I decided our learning times this week would be geared toward numbers and counting. I selected nearly 20 books from the library, and we've been enjoying those. Yesterday, he painted the circled numbers at the top to match the ones I'd painted at the bottom.   Today's activity was super fun! I took out ten number flash cards and added star stickers to the sides. Then, I pulled out our clothespin container and had him clip the pins on the stars. Then, we'd count. We made it to the seventh card before he got tired, but I'd say 20 minutes of counting and clipping was pretty good for his age :) He pretended like the pins were alligators, so that made it even more fun :)  You might not be able to hear him, but he's counting, and I'm super proud of him! 2.  Also, a day or so ago, Jack asked me for tea. He's never had tea before, but they have a toy teapot, and th...

1.  We're learning about insects and spiders this week, but maybe I should have checked out weather books and found weather activities instead.  Our part of the state (especially where my in-laws live) got hammered by torrential rains, and a lot of people had significant damage to their homes.  My in-laws had to take up most of their flooring and will have to redo the lower sections of walls soon.  Here are our frontyard and backyard after just a few hours of rain . I can't imagine what it would have looked like had we gotten what they got :/ 2. Ella is doing a really good job of telling me when she needs to go to the bathroom and of keeping her undies dry. We're very pleased :)

1. This kid got a haircut from his Pop-pop and The Husband earlier this week. I LOVE it, and we think it makes him look like such a little man :) And, this girl has started potty training for reals! Two days and a few accidents later, she's also had a few successes! 2. I decided to take a break from lesson plans this week. I chose some books by one of my favorite children's authors and some books by my most favorite children's illustrators. We'll read and enjoy those, and our learning times will be a free time to paint or color or mold or lace as the day calls for it. Jack gets a kick out of me saying, "and this book was written by the same author/illustrated by the same man as this one!"  (I seriously ADORE David Catrow's illustrations and have for years and years. So funky and adorable.)

1. It's the week before Easter, so that's what I decided our learning time activities would be focused on. I wrote up these lesson plans after browsing through ideas on Pinterest.  If there's one you're interested in, let me know, and I can find the link. Mostly, I just see what's out there, and then I make it my own. Except for Saturday's learning activity. I found that baby here.  http://www.barefeetonthedashboard.com/2015/03/diy-resurrection-eggs-for-toddlers-and-preschool-kids/ It's great!  We checked out these books from the library yesterday afternoon and got busy reading.  These are my favorites so far.  Monday's craft turned out super neat, and both kids enjoyed it (although Ella was very happy when I cleaned her hands off, haha!). They love going over to the fridge to feel the puffy texture.   Today's was simple and turned out pretty neat, too. I'm looking forward to Thursday's activity :). 2.  This kiddo has spent A LOT of quality t...