D - week

Let's start out by waving goodbye to March. D for DONE.

It's been raining here for two days and the weather this week was on-and-off. I'm quite ready for vitamin-D (ha.) and fresh spring air. The weather looks very good this week!

D

Monday: We made ducks to add to our growing wall of 'characters'. We now have an alligator, a butterfly, clouds, and a duck. Can you guess what we're going to make tomorrow for the letter E? I'm not giving away the surprise, you'll have to check back next week. :)

awww, kisses for the duck

Tuesday: We ate a D'Anjou pear and Dark chocolate almonds. (Yes, even I will admit that was a stretch). 

Wednesday and Thursday were kind of blurs with other busyness. We read about Daniel in the lions den and on Thursday we looked at uppercase letters and lowercase letters: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd.

Our verse this week: "Do to others as you would have them do to you" Luke 6:31

Friday: Hi, Uncle Dave! Thanks for taking time to Facetime with Lily (while at work!) - you rock. 

Other things from this week:

A break in the weather = pizza outside waiting for daddy on Friday.

oh Lily Jane

and then this happened one afternoon...

I love those tiny people SO much.

C - Week

C

Monday: C for Cloud. We made a rain cloud and a snow cloud. They call me Jill Nye. (..just kidding)

Tuesday: Taste-It: Cashews and craisins for snack and cucumber with lunch. We also made coconut cookies. "CC"!
These are my favorite cookies so I'll share. It's from The Sprouted Kitchen Cookbook. The cookies are gluten-free and are made without butter.

Coconut-Chocolate Cookies:

• 1 1/4 cups almond meal

• 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate (Sara used cacao nibs)

• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt (Sara used sea salt)

• 1/3 cup brown sugar (Sara used muscovado)

• 1 egg

• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together almond meal, dark chocolate chips, coconut, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg until uniform in color and doubled in volume.
3. Whisk in the coconut oil and vanilla, then add to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or even overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
6. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, place on baking sheet with 1-1/2 inch space in between each. Press down slightly to flatten a bit.
7. Bake until edges begin to brown, 7-10 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool before serving.

Wednesday: Cain and Abel are who we read about. Our memory verse for the week:
"Create in me a pure heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10

Thursday: More repeating "big A, little a, big B, little b, big C, little c"

Friday: Lily's boyfriend/destined-to-be-husband, Cal (short for Caleb) was the pick this week. Lily did FaceTime with him this morning and I tried to get a picture but it didn't work :(
Cal and his two sisters came over to play Friday morning so they also saw each other face-to-face, too. We had such a good time playing. Thank you for being Lily's FaceTime Friday, Cal!

"This girl is kinda boring.."

Snow Day!

It's March and it snowed 8+ inches here yesterday. Yuck! In the life of a slow-plower, you're usually working hours before the storm, during the storm, and hours after the storm. Depending on when a snow-storm hits, you can work days upon days. For example, if a storm happens during the day, you'll definitely be working through the night because that is the new time when most traffic will be off of the roads and out of the parking lots.
Anyways, Mark was able to home at the end of the day to play with Lily in the snow. This hadn't happened this year so it was pretty exciting for both of them!

Mark put his glasses on so Lily needed hers on, too. :)

Thank you for working so hard, Mark! 

B - Week

Boys in Blue :)

B

Let me start by stating that there are a TON of words that young children use that begin with the letter B. 

ball, baby, big, bus, book, boat, blue, banana, boy, bump, bye-bye, bottom, brother. See?

We had a good time this week. Here are some snap-shots from our B-week and what we did on our days.

Make-something Monday:

We made cute little butterflies out of coffee filters, clothes pins, and pipe cleaners. (sorry, forgot a picture!)

Taste-it-Tuesday:

Lily ate blueberries in her oatmeal and had a banana. Two, B's!

This week also included Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and bread.

Word-Wednesday:

We read about Bethlehem, The burning bush, and Bathsheba. 

Throwback-Thursday:

We revisited A and B. I also started to work with Lily on identifying the capital letter and the lowercase letter. I wrote 'big A' and 'little a' and 'big B' 'little b' and we played games like "circle the big B", etc.

Facetime-Friday: 

Lily chatted with Baba. B for Baba!

AND..tonight was pizza night. Happy PI Day!

Ethan: 6 months

Six months using the letter "S":

Smiley - We smile at you, you smile right back. Your droll little mouth is so cute!
Strong - Oh boy. You can arch your back and get your way. Literally, you'll go whichever way you're trying to go.
Screamer - If you don't like something, you'll let us know!
Silly - You laugh at the three of us very easily. We all must look really funny. ;)
Speedy - If I set you on the ground on your back, you're turned over before I can even stand-up. I bet you'll be crawling before 7 months.!
Stinky - Pass the matches, please.
Squirmy - See strong.
Silky - Your skin makes a grown woman cry. Your skin is so smooth and soft. You have few imperfections and I love to rub your chubby arms and legs and hold your soft little hands. I treasure how perfect your skin is now because someday you'll be a working man and have rough hands and you'll be too old for me to hold. You're very interested in your hands and feet right now. You hold on to your feet and stare at your hands.
Sociable - You're okay with friends/strangers holding you and smile at them.
Striped - Little boys clothes are pretty cute and you have a slew of striped pieces in your wardrobe. I guess we all do though because one of my friends noticed that all four of us were wearing stripes at church. Ha. Oops.
Slothful - No choice there, you're just not mobile yet.
Solid - You started eating solids two weeks ago when you popped your first two teeth(!) so far, you've eaten bananas, sweet potatoes, and peas. You're doing great and I think you're going to increase our grocery bill drastically.
Sweet - You just are. You're calm. You like to be held. You like the moby wrap. You are easily pleased with toys and frozen chewy's.

The Facts:
Height: 27 inches
Weight: 18 lbs
Eyes: blue
Hair: peach-fuzzlike and blonde
Clothes: 12 months
Sleep: 7pm-6:30-7am (wake up 2-3 times) and naps 2 times during the day

two teef!

26 letters, 26 weeks

Lily and I started our "letter-a-week" today! If we keep on schedule, we'll finish in the last week of August. As of now, she can correctly identify all her letters but has a hard time saying a few i.e., C, H, J, L, S. I'm hopeful that doing this will help her pronounce them and learn a few other things along the way. :)

We're going to be doing a daily activity/theme throughout the week to further help her learn her ABCs.  This is what I've come up with:

Monday: 'Make-something-Monday'. We'll make a craft using the letter of the week and hang in the kitchen.

Tuesday: 'Taste-it-Tuesday'. We'll snack on a food that begins with our letter.

Wednesday: 'Word-Wednesday.' We'll read about someone in the bible whose name begins with our letter.

Thursday: 'Throwback-Thursday'. We'll revisit the letters from the previous weeks.

Friday: FaceTime-Friday. Lily will pick a person to call/faceTime and share with them our letter of the week and something she's learned.

Week 1, of course, is the letter A

I'll round out our weeks with a post of what we did for each day. It is my hope that stating this will keep me accountable and it will help me use my camera more often for daily occurrences, not just special outings or holidays. If there isn't a post about the letter B, ya'll better comment on here!