update

Well, since Phil lost his job life has been kinda crazy. Homeschooling was very chaotic since our schedule was out of whack. We finally got that in order just to have the pregnancy get harder and me not be able to do much of anything. Phil wasn't able to get much done cause he had his hands full learning how to handle two kids and a house. It's definately not what he's been used to doing...We both felt bad not getting much school done, but Makenzie has done a little here and there. She's only got 2 1/2 pages left to complete in her kindergarten book and is over 1/3 of the way done with her 1st grade math book. Since she's had more unstructured time her reading has taken off all of a sudden. She's not great by any means, but she's definately starting to get it. When we read an easy reader she's able to read some of the words. She's also sounding out words much better (when she wants to). Since we are done with kindergarten then the rest of the year is gonna be spent on reading. We're going to add some history and science as well but our main focus will be getting a solid foundation in reading.

Nick's progression has been fairly good as well. He can sing almost the entire alphabet now. He's always missed a bunch of letters and now he's only missing a couple. He'll write letters sometimes but he doesn't really do it on purpose. He'll be drawing and then say "look I made a ___" Somewhere in his brain he's trying to put on paper what he's learning but can't do it when asked. I still think that's showing progress though.

Well, We had Nick's 3rd birthday party on November 6th. We had Mimi & Papaw, the Smith family, and the Whitesel family over. All of us adults were really tired and the kids for some reason went in the bedrooms, shut the doors and played quietly. It was so wierd, but the kids had a blast and us parents got to relax. It was a good time for everyone I think. Jan made Nick's for us this year. It was the first time I have not made their cake. I was somewhat sad about that but with the way things had been going for me, cake making just wasn't gonna be a good thing. I'd been so scatter brained that I was forgetting ingredients, forgetting things in the oven, ect. I just couldn't keep track of anything it seemed like. I barely got the party prepared due to being so tired, so I was very thankful that Jan made his cake. He had asked for spiderman. She made an awesome cake with buildings, a web, and spiderman. It was so cool that Nick didn't want to cut it. He was just content to sit and stare at it. About 90min into his party we finally told him that it was time to cut it. He still didn't want to but after taking his picture with it he allowed it to be cut. The cake was definately the highlight of his party for him. He got lots of spiderman presents, a cd player, pretend guitar, and other presents as well.

On Nick's actual birthday the next Tuesday we went to the Y for gym & swim. After that Phil, Nick and Keith went to chinese for lunch and then to do some guy stuff (work on scrap metal I think). Makenzie and I went to Rally's for lunch. It was unseasonably warm so we sat at the picnic table and ate. It was a great mother daughter time. We rarely get those times so it was special to me. Then we headed to my doctor appt. We found out I had high blood pressure and I was put on bedrest for the rest of the day. Bedrest on your kids' birthday isn't a good thing. We had planned to go to chuck-e-cheese or monkey joe's that evening. Instead, we had the Whitesel's over, ordered pizza and we all watched Toy Story 3 which we had got Nick for his birthday. It was a good evening, but I definately didn't get as much rest as the doctor wanted.

Football...

Makenzie while watching football "Mom, I always thought they wore hangers in their shirts, but I can see that under the white shirts there is actually something else holding them up." Had to explain about pads and how they are similiar to her elbow & knee pads she wears while riding a bike.