Sisters

I think the question I get the most often recently has been which of my two older kids do I think Janie looks the most like. My honest answer is that she looks like both of them, and like Nate and myself... she just looks like she belongs in the family. Nobody likes that answer, they want me to pick a side. Well, the only fair thing to do is to go back to the pictures of the other kids when they were her age. There is no contest... picture after picture she looks just like Lizzie. I'll show you a pic of Micah first to prove my point, but then I'll show you Jane vs Lizzie... I'll let you figure out which is which :)

5 Months Old

Yup, that precious baby is 5 months old today! To give you a little insight into our baby girl, one of her nicknames right now is Janie Sunshine... it's perfect for her. Jane is quick to smile at her parents, her siblings, her grandparents and pretty much every store clerk or checker we pass while out running errands. The best word to describe her right now is serene. She is generally very happy and calm and quiet. Our sweet girl is consistently sleeping 12 hours a night now with no wake ups.... I think she figured out that we are better parents the longer she sleeps :)

Jane can roll over both ways, although she doesn't do it very often. She has discovered her feet and possibly her calling in life at the same time. She loves to grab and persistently hold onto my hair. When I protest she laughs at me and holds on for dear life. She often seems like she is in on the joke which reminds me very much of her big sister at this age. Jane's biggest fans are her brother and sister who dote on her and often get into fights about who gets to stand closer to Jane. Happy 5 months sweet baby girl!

Meanwhile, on Instagram....

Lizzie enjoyed her last day of the spring with Micah in school.

Janie was full of her typical sunshine on Mother's Day.

While on vacation in Georgia, the boys took part in a triple time out.

Jane and Liz enjoyed a girls day out while Micah was at preschool.

Quick project

A girl from our church is getting married this summer and she had her shower this weekend. So, I whipped up some kitchen towels that go with her colors on her registry and we added them to our gift. Nothing particularly impressive, but they looked cute tied to the outside of the package :)

Home is where the school is?

I'm not sure yet... luckily I don't have to be :) Lately I have been thinking more and more about the possibility of home schooling the kiddos once they reach elementary age. I love that we can cover the curriculum in home school in way less time each day than the over 7 hours a day they would spend if they went to public school. I love that they can be educated with a Christian world view at home. I love that my sweet gentle spirited boy could be spared potential bullying. I love that I could add in specific things I want them to learn like Spanish at a young age.

BUT, I'm afraid of them feeling like they missed out. I'm afraid of not socializing them well enough. I'm afraid of giving up all of that time to get things done. Mostly, I'm just afraid that I'll fail. That I won't be able to do it....... But then I realized... So what? What's the worst that could happen... they end up in public school?

That's not a bad thing.

I'm actually a fan of public school. I had fully planned on enrolling my kids until God started to lay home schooling on my heart. While discussing this, the hubs and I actually came up with the perfect solution. Micah has a summer birthday, and while I have no doubt that he will be ready academically for Kindergarten in 2013, he will barely be 5 years old at the start of school and the behavioral and social readiness probably won't be there. Soooooo, the plan for now is to spend the 2013-2014 school year trying out homeschooling. I'll go ahead and start doing Kindergarten with Micah and see how it goes. If it works well then we'll keep at it. If not, he'll be very prepared to start public school the next year. I'm REALLY excited about this plan.... the other great part of it is that I still have a year to prepare and research curriculum and co-ops and all that.

Anyhoo, that's what's going on with us at the moment :) I wanted to post vacation pics, but most were taken on other people's cameras and those people live in San Antonio and Paris (stinkin) France.... It may be awhile ;-)

Stink!

Soooo, part of the reason I was M.I.A. Last week was that our house got sprayed by a skunk... EW. He was outside, but the smell made it inside and made the house uninhabitable for 5 days. As a bonus we got to pay almost $300 to try and have it trapped.

The guy set up two traps and you know what we've caught in the week since? Possums...... THREE possums. I have to say, they are MEAN animals! I would have gotten a closer pic, but our latest capture was slowly rising to his feet while fixing me with a look of total hatred and hissing the closer I got. I know he's in a cage, but I didn't want to press my luck.

Jane's 4 Month Stats

Hey guys... Long time, no me :) We were on vacation then a skunk drove us out of our house (I wish I was kidding :P). But I'm back... Please contain your excitement.

Anyhoo, we went for Jane's 4 month appt last week and here are her stats...

Height- 25.75"...... 92%
Weight- 12lb 7oz....19%
Head- 16"...............35%