Ear Infection

Felicity had a fever all weekend, so I took her to the doctor today and she has an ear infection.

Even in the midst of not feeling well she can still be goofy.

Wonderful Weekend - Home and Family

On Friday, they poured the slab for our new home.

On Saturday night my brother Ben, from Pennsylvania got to come visit and spend the night.  He had been in a nearby city on business Friday and Saturday.  It was good to see him and catch up a little on how he and his family are doing. 

Sure, you can hold me Uncle Ben.

All our kids with Uncle Ben.

Another family picture.  So far we've had more in the past week than we usually have in a year.

Children's Book Review - Library Lion

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen is a cute story about a lion who likes to visit the library.  The lion then becomes a volunteer at the Library and he can come as long as he obeys the rules.  When he has to disobey a rule in an emergency he sadly leaves the library and everyone misses him.  How can he go back since he broke the rule?

Our kids really enjoy reading and listening to this story.  We have checked it out of our library several times in the last year.  It is a little bit longer story which hasn't been a problem for us, but if you have a child with a short attention span you may need to read it in a couple of short sessions.  I also enjoy reading this story and don't mind reading it a few times over the week or two we have it from the library.

More Family Pictures

Mimi visited Kent's Science class.

Katy doing her reading lesson with Pa and Mimi.

They broke ground for our new home.

Mimi did everyone's hair fancy.

We went to Babe's for Lunch

Enjoying the nice weather.

Mimi and Pa

My Dad and Mom came to visit from New York State.

Everyone with Mimi and Pa

  We loved having them and they got to see Felicity for the first time.

Celebrate my birthday with me for the first time since I married Jeff.

Birthday Trip to the Zoo!

We also went to a Science Museum in Fort Worth one day.

We loved having them visit, it was a nice vacation for all of us.  We wish we could see them more.

Felicity's Birthday

Felicity had her 1st birthday last week.

Doll Cake

Happy Birthday!

Birthday Girl!

Children's Book Review - Snow

Snow by Roy Mckee and P.D. Eastman.

We checked this book out of the library, the day before it started snowing last week.  Katy has really enjoyed it as she can read it quite well by herself.  Kaomi has had it read to her so many times that she has most of it memorized.  Kent has read it several times as well.  They love it.  I'm not sure why this one has been a favorite, but we kept it for an extra week and they are still enjoying it.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we have actually had snow while reading this book and they can relate to the story of having fun outside with the snow.  It's fun to read and the pictures just add to their imaginations about snow.

Backyard Birdwatching

Junco

Savannah Sparrow?

White Crowned Sparrow

White Crowned Sparrow

She likes watching "bir"

We also saw a Meadow Lark, but I was unable to get a picture, as it was too skittish.

Math Manipulatives?

There are all kinds of things out there to "help" with math, but so far I haven't invested in much.  We do have  a set of Cuisenaire Rods that I used when I was a child.  We only use them occasionally, I'm sure if I had them easy to access we would probably use them more.  We do use other manipulatives from around our home.  Both Kent and Katy's favorites are small snack items like raisins, chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, goldfish or bunny crackers and Cheerios.  They get to eat them after math is done :)  We also use dried beans or pasta, pennies, foam shapes, beads, small plastic animals, Legos, hot wheels cars and even stickers.  When we are ready to learn about time we have made a small clock with hands (attached by a brass fastener) or checked out a book from the library that has a clock in it.  When we want to learn about fractions we use graham crackers, and make various shapes with paper that they can play with.  When we learn about shapes we use blocks, foam shapes and items from the pantry that are the shapes we are learning about.  I'd love to hear what other types of manipulatives you use from your home, or do you have a math manipulative set?  What kind of manipulatives are your favorite for helping your children learn math?

Shoveling Out

After another 4-5 inches of snow yesterday morning, I would like to get out and go grocery shopping today while the sun is shining and the ice is melting.

Jeff leaving for work on Friday.  He returned home shortly saying it wasn't safe.

Sparrow eating cornbread crumbs.

Today's quote from Jeff: "I can safely say I have never had to do this before."

Look at our snow pile.  Remember we live in Texas!

King of the Mountain.

Kaomi, proud that she made it to the top.

Katy made this snowman all by herself with an icicle for its nose.

Snow Play

Counting My Blessings

This week:

Jeff was the only one who got sick.
It snowed.
We didn't lose our electric for more than 15 min. at a time when it was so cold yesterday.
We got to spend extra time together as a family (surprise vacation).
I talked to my mom in the middle of school one day, because Jeff was here.
I might be out of milk and almost out of bread, but we have plenty of other food in the house.
The sun was shining in our living room window and making it warm yesterday.
We had a sparrow come and eat some bread crumbs that I tossed out back, I hope he comes back with some friends.
We were all done with school today before lunch.
We handmade valentines this afternoon.
Right now the house is a mess and I don't care.

Snow Days

We've enjoyed having Jeff home for a couple extra days this week, because of the snow.  The kids have had Daddy help them with school and enjoyed playing with him and listening to him play his guitar.  Today we had several 10-15 minute blackouts in our electricity.  I'm glad they weren't much longer, as the house started to get cold quickly.  The sun was nice and warm when it was shining through our living room window.  We are expecting another day of pretty cold weather tomorrow and hopefully the electric will stay on for us.  Ken't CIM science class is canceled for tomorrow, as the roads are still very icy and most schools in the area will have another day of no classes.

4 ft. tall drift

Snow, Wind, Snow

Today it snowed and was very cold for Texas.  There is lots of ice, Jeff decided to stay home and not chance driving to work.  The temperatures with the wind chill factor were below zero degrees.  I didn't want to go out in the wind.  These pictures are from our front window.

We have snow drifts in the front yard and over the sidewalk and driveway.  Jeff said there is also a drift about 4 feet high by the side fence.  The pictures of the lights are the solar lights along our front walk and the light beams were really cool looking on the snow.  Tonight the foretasted wind chill factor temperatures are -15 degrees.