Whoa! What a month!

K, so you all know we had Matthew February 26th. It has been a VERY busy month since then! We have lost Russell as his former owners wanted him back, Mom and Dad came for a visit (dad went home 9 days before mom left) we got a new puppy (name is Patches and he's a Bichon Frise/ Shih Tzu black and white little fur ball) We've been here and there and seemingly everywhere, and Mom, Chantelle, Melinda and Andrew started heading back home today. I feel so blessed to have such an awesome family! They're such a blessing to us, in all that they are willing to do for us, and what we are able to do for them. We had 10 people here for the 2 weeks Dad was out for and 9 after dad left. If any of you know what my house is like, you know how tight a squeeze it was for mealtimes! But, that's what memories are made of, right? :)

Last week Mom and I made the effort to get to the homeschool book store and I picked up almost everything I need for next year already! There were a couple books that should be in this week sometime and I'm excited to start with the new books! The boys have to finish with the books they're on now first though. We decided that Caleb and Daniel will be doing different work next year. They seem to make it a competition to the point of Daniel just racing through without necessarily "getting" it, so to make it less competitive, they'll have their own different books. I also have to order some math manipulatives for them to be able to do their math problems without me holding up my fingers for them to count lol. 

We had our little man baptized yesterday morning, and were so thankful for the amount of support shown to us in how many people made the extra effort to come! We are so thankful for yet another covenant child that God has entrusted into our care. We covet your prayers as we strive to raise these children in the wisdom and knowledge of His Word.

The kids have also grown up in the last month. Caleb and Daniel are past the very basic math skills and are working on beginning addition. Caleb has grasped the letter = specific sound concept, so he's asking how to spell words, but I sound them out for him and he can usually figure out what letter goes with which sound. Daniel isn't quite that far yet, but he's starting to make that connection, and we have to keep reminding ourselves that he's over a year younger than Caleb, so we have to give him a little time yet. However, I would not be surprised if he has it by the end of the summer!

Lucas is doing AWESOME! His speech is so much better than before the tubes went in! We are so thankful that he's doing so well! He did catch a cold last week and seemed to get the coughing worse than anyone else. We even took him to Urgent Care to get it check out as he was up every 10 minutes with a coughing fit and crying for 2 nights (they checked out his ears and they were all clear). That got really tiring. I think I slept 2 hours total each night, and that's with Peter getting up half the time with Lucas too!

Kimberly is still as peppy as ever. She did form a special bond with my dad while he was here. She wanted him to do everything for her and was always on his lap. She is also talking a LOT. Chantelle taught her a lot of new words and she was learning at least one a day on top of that! She is constantly making us laugh, and can make even grumpy old men chuckle. :)

Matthew is a sweet little bundle of baby. He is a fairly good sleeper, although not my best sleeping baby. Most of my other kids were sleeping 6 hours at a month, but he's only doing 4 right now. I know, still not bad so I better not complain, right? I'm wondering what he'll be doing in a month as the others were through the night at 2 months... Except Daniel... he was about 6 months before he was through the night. Matthew has started to smile and coo for people, but he's pretty unpredictable yet, so I haven't been able to get any pictures of that yet... He's still a big boy for his age... he was 11 lb at 2 weeks already, so I'm curious what he's at now. He's got chubby cheeks that you can't help but kiss. He's a content baby and very alert while he's awake. He's already rolled over twice. He did it at 2 weeks (front to back), but hasn't done it since, which is fine with me! Makes him seem his age better when he's not doing such nonsensical things like that. :)

Well, that's a summary of the last month here... Next month will be spent getting into a routine again, so I may, may not be posting much here. Depends on how things go I guess. I have a few sewing projects that I'd love to get done, so that'll be where I'm spending my free time for a while. :)