Jan/Feb 2012

Adam turned 5 in February!

 Adam is generally very happy and easy going. He's learning to read without much effort on my part thanks to Reading Eggs and watching the older kids learn. He likes to play outside and build things. His current favorite shows are Garfield and Super Why.

The kids recycle ALL of the gift bags for any occasion.

Body part dress ups and Cars 2 cars

 Cumorah learned how to sit up. She is such a happy, smiling baby. As long as someone is paying attention to her and she can see what is going on, she's content! Isn't she adorable!!!

 This is Dash and Daisy, the guinea pigs that were the biggest surprise on Christmas morning. Somehow the photos weren't in that group, so here they are now. It has been fun to watch them get used to people, and us in particular. They start squeaking for treats whenever I walk into the room.

 At Discover Engineering Day the kids did lots of different activities. Eli laid on a bed of nails, they learned how sewage is cleaned and got to try cleaning "fake" sewage. They made an edible aquifer, and watched Dr. Picklestein do chemistry experiments and explode things.

November/December 2011

This is my first catch-up post, so I'll probably mix what happened "then" with what is happening "now."

 

Lincoln's 3rd birthday just happened to fall on Thanksgiving this year, so he got to have a super size party at Grandma's with all of his cousins. As far as he was concerned, everyone got together just for him. Unfortunately, instead of deciding 3 was big, he decided he was going to stay little. We've been battling Sunbeams (he's big enough physically to open the door and run out and down the hall) and potty training. I'm still not very successful with either. 

 

Size wise, Lincoln (3 in Nov) and Adam (5 in Feb) are almost identical.  I get asked often if they are twins. They are almost inseparable and Adam moving up to the older class at co-op made it so Lincoln will no longer go to a class he's been going to for over a year. Lincoln is a tease and can be very stubborn! We got a firepit from my dad and Stephen and the kids were out cooking hot dogs. Lincoln got close and Stephen warned him it would burn him. A few minutes later, he reached out and touched it. Stephen asked if it hurt to come get water on it. Lincoln folded his arms and said, "It did not hurt me." The next morning at church, we noticed blisters on the tips of several fingers. When asked if they hurt, he said, "They do NOT hurt me. I can touch hot things." He still refused to admit that it was not a good choice.

He is also a very sweet loving child. He loves to say "I love you the mostest." or "I love you to the (Stars or whatever) and back." He also likes to lay by you and pet your arm or face. Which is fine is you're watching a movie or something, not so much when you are trying to sleep.

Ryan, Tyler, and Jeanisha were part of a children's choir. They had a wonderful concert at Christmas. It's been fun to see how much the kids have learned about reading music.

Ryan has especially enjoyed the challenge of singing in two choirs and took 2nd place in the interval singing competition. (The instructor play a chord and asks them to sing the middle note, a note two above the top note, etc.) He has a great ear for music and is also flying ahead in piano!

In December the kids were able to be Santa's helpers making balls, blocks, and quilts with DHSA, our homeschooling group and then later had a special visit from Santa himself at our family Christmas party!

 Here they are lined up Christmas morning waiting to go see what Santa brought.

Cumorah's first Christmas

The Cars 2 cars in front were a BIG hit

Yes, those are REAL hatchets. They have been well used and well loved. Good thing we have lots of trees with branches to chop!

Notice ALL the legos, that's not the same box. Stephen said he wanted "Ten Thousand legos, so we can build whole cities in the basement." We don't have 10,000 but we now have A LOT (Thanks to Black Friday.) 

Now Stephen, I mean the kids, can build anything they want to!

They must have been good because Christmas was great!

Free AWESOME Reading Program

One of my kids' favorite online reading programs is offering a free 5 week trial. Go to  ReadingEggs.com Use Promo Code: USH39LGE

  My younger kids have used it and loved it and they just added a new section for older kids to practice comprehension. We haven't done much with that but the beginning readers part from k to about 2nd grade is awesome. I'm amazed at how well Adam is picking up reading with not much effort on my part. Lincoln loves the playroom stuff too and is learning lots of letters and sounds. It has helped Eli practice and improve a great deal this year, and Jeanisha just thinks it is fun. It also have a spelling program that Tyler has been using that he's enjoyed. (We put the words he misses into Spellingcity.com for extra practice).

Liken the Scriptures movies online FREE

My kids LOVE the Liken the Scriptures movies and have watched them over and over. Right now two of them are online free, Alma and King Noah's Court and Daniel and the Lions. Soon Daniel will be leaving and Esther will be added. All three of these are really cute. Go here to watch them.

Saving Money Class

Tonight I am teaching a saving money class at Relief Society. I decided it would be easier to pass out a link with the websites I use. Hopefully a bookmarked link will not be lost as easy as a regular handout. And if any of them change, or I find new better ones, I can update them here.

Favorite Websites:
 For coupon match ups and deal, start here:

FabulesslyFrugal Local coupon blog

Athriftymom        Local Coupon blog
hip2save   Amanda's Favorite Blog
Thekrazycouponlady  Another good blog

Ebates   Go here before shopping online and get a percentage back

Retail Me Not Coupon Codes

Coupons.com Printable coupons (print each coupon twice)

Half.com Books and movies

Pinchingyourpennies Forums, groceries, toys, household

Fatwallet Forum, especially electronics

Slickdeals Forums

Amazon.com Subscribe and save (remember to cancel after shipment arrives)

Watch for coupons/special offers

Zaycon Foods Bulk meat and fruit 

Bountifulbaskets Weekly fruits and vegetables

LivingSocial     Various Daily deals

Groupon            Various Daily deals

Citysmart           Various Daily deals 

Computersforkids Cheap computers for kids $35 to $65

 Companies who price/coupon match:
Walmart
Lowes
Staples (earn rewards then spend using price match)
Office Max (earn rewards then spend using price match)


Diaper Price Points from FabulesslyFrugal: here

Saving on trips:
Entertainment books for area lots of Buy one, Get one if you eat out a lot and like to try new restaurants or www.restaurants.com
Discovery Center is reciprocal to other children's museums
Costco City Pass

My favorite budgeting software: You Need A Budget

My kids are Geeks--- and we LOVE it.

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that it is cool to be smart and it's okay to be a little geeky!  In the past week, I've watched my kids dancing and jamming to the Articles of Faith, laughing hysterically over an Oxygen video, playing math games for hours (drilling facts is much more fun when it's animated), and having a blast building a solar system. We've started putting together a blog with just the fun school stuff that they want to show off. You can link to it here.

Tonight Ryan decided that he wanted to learn about logrithams. So he did. Yeah, Khan Academy because I didn't have a clue! After he watched a couple videos, his response was, "Oh, these are easy. It's just exponents in reverse."   Okay, glad you think so. :)

The other day he was holding Cumorah and she was crying and I told him just to dance with her. His response was "I don't dance. I don't want to dance with a girl." I responded, "Someday dancing with girls will be cool." His response, "I'd rather stay home and do algebra."

So now, I'm going to do a bit of mom bragging, so feel free to skip this part. :)

Ryan is 11 and is taking Algebra for high school credit. He loves it and is flying through the course. He will probably finish the entire years worth by Christmas. (There is an online component that makes sure he has mastered every concept and he's finished 75% already.)  The virtual charter school just tested him and Jeanisha. Most of his scores were in the gifted range and math was off the charts. His "weak" areas were spelling and editing, but on his writing, when spelling didn't count against him, he scored grade level 13.  Spell check is his friend! We will be having him do "single subject acceleration" in most subjects to keep him challenged and engaged, but not graduating too early. The charter school will pay for college level classes when he reaches that point.

Jeanisha also tested really well scoring over a year ahead on almost everything and at 4th grade level for math. Over 130 is considered gifted and she scored 153 on the math part! She is convinced she will catch her older brothers! She is 6 and doing multiplication and division in her head. Her strongest area is story problems!

I love that each of the kids can move at their own pace and not have to waste time reviewing over and over. I also love the ton of free online resources that can pick up when they pass me by. :) I also love that when they do struggle with something, we can keep working until they "get" it,

ER Weekend

Our weekend started early with Stephen coming home from work sick on Wed. night. He was coughing and said his head was going to explode. Thursday he slept the day away. By early afternoon he had moved downstairs to sleep on the couch and was completely oblivious to 5 kids running and playing right around him. I first realized something was wrong when he rolled off the couch to the floor and didn't even wake up. He was completely checked out and couldn't stay awake. He'd slept for about 17 hours straight at this point. I decided to take him into quick care. We barely made it into the car-- I thought he was going to pass out walking to the car. After that, I was able to keep him in a wheelchair. Quickcare looked at him and did some blood tests and sent us over to the ER. They gave him an IV and ran more tests and sent us home for him to sleep more and said to come in Sat if he wasn't doing better. He has a high bilirubin level, which means his body is breaking down red blood cells. He also has a high white blood cell count, so there is probably some sort of infection as well. Luckily he is not in pain and was promised in a blessing that he will get well, we just don't know how long that will take. He has continued to sleep about 18 hours a day.

Saturday morning I woke up in major pain, and he ended up taking me to the ER with kidney stones. Kidney stones are the only time I've ever thrown up because of the pain. It feels like hard labor, only with labor you get a break between contractions and end up with something positive at the end that you can focus on. :) I'd take childbirth any day! I am feeling much better with the pain medicine, but just have to wait for them to pass. My mom came up and took the 4 younger boys back down to her house, so Stephen and I have just been able to sleep the day away. Hopefully this passes soon and we can figure out what is wrong with him and get back into life.

Oh, and both times at the ER, we had the same nurse. She was nice, but I really don't want to be on a first name basis with an ER nurse. What are the odds?