Monday, July 18, 2011

Busy!

It's been a while since I posted.  We are still here - life has just been really busy lately.  No current pictures.  We've been too busy to take any! What we've been up to:
Mom - working, doing a couple of consulting jobs on the side, taking kids to the Dr, taking care of the pool, being a mom (holding Celeste, feeding Celeste, making meals, cleaning the house, doing the laundry) dealing with the IRS (they think we turned our taxes in late, but we didn't, it will just take some time for them to figure that out), making a couple of blog books (huge pain in the neck!) trying to get caught up with the business' books, helping Mike start yet another business.
Dad - Taking care of our rentals, his two business', starting another business, church meetings, taking care of the kids one day a week while Mom goes into work.
Anna Elise - swimming, reading, decorating the wall in her room with flowers, helping with Celeste
Calvin - swimming, playing cars, making tents, chasing the wild rabbit in our yard, whining
Madeline - swimming, playing dress up, being cute
Lilah - standing in the pool without getting her face wet, playing puppy, biting and scratching, sitting in time out
Celeste - eating, sleeping, smiling and cooing, getting more independent

I've been spending countless hours going through pictures and reliving memories as I've created blog books from 2008 and 2009.  I just had to post some oldies but goodies (from 2005)!

Anna Elise

Calvin

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Ready, Set, READ!

We read a lot of books at our house.  When Anna Elise started 1st grade she got to stay up a half hour later.  We decided to use that half hour to read!  She got the Little House on the Prairie series for her birthday and she and I read those books every night.  At first I read to her, then more recently she has read a little and now she can read whole chapters.  We have just 1 more book until we finish the series.  When the kids got out of school we went to the library and signed up for the summer reading program.  Anna Elise checked out a 'Ramona Quimby' book by Beverly Clearly.  Today she finished reading her first chapter book completely on her own.  She loves reading and I love seeing her read 
Calvin is starting 1st grade in the fall and he is so excited about staying up late to read with mom.  We are trying to find a good series of books to read together.  I am thinking of Beverly Cleary's 'Mouse and the Motorcycle' books to start with.  Any other suggestions?