Homeschool Planner Giveaway

Since I am going back to homeschooling, I have been doing a lot of research on the web for great products to help me on this journey. I found this blog with a chance to win a pretty neat sounding planner. Since I can tell you about it and give you a chance to enter as well as earn another entry myself by having this link, I thought I would. Good luck and thanks for reading this and helping me earn another entry!

Thank you, Cousin Sue!

Chad's cousin, Sue, blessed us this week. She gave us a box that had 5 dresses, 4 Polly Pockets, a My Little Pet Shop toy, crayons, glue sticks, heart lights, and tiara crafts! The girls were so excited. I made Dara change out of the dress that fit her because it is a great "church" dress. Eva didn't want to wear the dress that fit her today. Sabra is wearing the one that fit her. Cora was lucky and had three that fit her, so she is wearing one of them. They each are holding their new toys and have been playing with them all day! Thank you, Sue, for being a blessing to us!

Silly Girls!

Martha and Jaina just crack me up sometimes!



Jaina and Martha sucking each other's hands after I changed their diapers.



Jaina and Martha playing together in their crib.



Jaina giving Martha a kiss on the cheek!

Modesty

We have been talking a lot lately about modesty with our girls. We have been strict about what they are and are not allowed to wear for a long time, but it is getting to the point where we want to explain to them the "why" of our decisions. I found this link to a blog by a 12 year old girl and what she had to write about modesty and it reminded me about true modesty not just being about what we wear, but our whole attitude. I hope you are blessed by it as I was.

July Flashback

Chad's cousin just sent us some pictures that she took at a family get-together on July 5th. I thought they were good and wanted to share them.

Adventure to Muskegon and Michigan's Adventure

We headed down to Muskegon on Friday to stay with my parents before heading to Michigan's Adventure on Saturday. Our plan was to go visit my Grandma in the nursing home before eating dinner at my parents on Friday night. Chad wanted to get out of work around lunch time so we could head down, but he ended up leaving just an hour early. Just before we got to Big Rapids, one of our back tires blew--well, not actually--the tread blew off, but the tire still held air. It damaged the van body, but no one was hurt. We attempted to change the tire, but we couldn't get the spare off! Someone stopped to help us, but he didn't have any tools to help us get the spare off either. Since the tire still had air, we drove it to Big Rapids and went to Walmart thinking we would just buy a new tire and keep the spare as a spare. Well, we would have had to wait two hours to get a new tire so we decided to just spend $2 buying a wrench and put the spare on ourselves. Because of this extra time spent, we didn't make it to Muskegon until after 7 pm so we didn't get to see Grandma Friday night.

Saturday morning, Chad went to Sears and had two new tires put on the back (since we really needed new tires before winter anyway). Chad, Dara, Eva, Allyn and I went to see Grandma before heading to Michigan's Adventure. I hate that we can't see her more often. We think her Alzheimer's is getting worse as she kept making comments making us think she thought I was my mom instead of me.

The girls had a blast at Michigan's Adventure. The first ride we went on was Zach's Zoomer which we ended up riding at least a half dozen times during the day. The next ride Allyn was just an inch too short to ride, but Chad rode it with the other girls. We all went on the Logger's Run. Chad and Dara wanted to ride Shivering Timbers, so I took Allyn and Eva on the Sea Dragon (which they asked to ride). Allyn had a blast as she had her arms up the whole time and kept giving funny looks at the teenagers who were screaming in terror. She didn't know what their problem was! Dara and Chad rode the Corkscrew after lunch while I took Eva and Allyn on Zach's Zoomer a couple more times.

We had to leave at 6 pm because of me needing to feed the babies. Since I nursed them just before we left, my parents only had to give them one bottle while we were gone.

It was an extremely adventurous weekend! I don't have any pictures as I didn't want to carry a camera around Michigan's Adventure and I didn't think about grabbing my camera when we were on the side of US 131!

Martha & Jaina update 5

I know I've said it before, but it is amazing how fast these little girls are growing. I love taking pictures of them together because they are so alike, yet so different. We have been very blessed by people giving us matching outfits for the girls to wear. A friend found these dresses at JcPenny for only $2 each! I wish I had time to go shop the clearance sales!

I am a member of a twins group on-line and some of us decided to do a onesie exchange. I had to shop for twin boys. I didn't think it was going to be hard, but it was! Since I know Chad isn't into sports and I didn't know if the boys' father was, I didn't want to buy something sporty (and it is hard to find boy stuff that isn't sport-related), I ended up buying a onesie with a monkey and another with a giraffe. The boys look adorable in them in their jungle-themed room! (I received a picture of them). Anyway, I received two sets of onesies. The girls look adorable in them!

They are starting to play with toys more often. I snapped a few pictures of them fighting over these toys. I guess I better get used to them wanting the same things!

Jaina is getting much better at sitting up now. I fed Martha first one morning and put her in the bouncy chair while I fed Jaina. When Jaina was done eating, I thought I would see what she would do if I sat her in front of Martha. They smiled and laughed at each other for quite a while. It was so cute!

Martha didn't grow as much this past month as I was expecting her to. She only gained 7 oz which puts her at 11 lbs. 14 oz and she is 24" long. At this weight she isn't even on the chart for her age. I find this odd because she eats more often than Jaina and she nurses for 5-10 minutes longer than Jaina does. The nurse isn't worried as she knows that my girls usually are in the low end of the charts. We just need to pray that she has a larger growth next month.

Martha had her first taste of food (rice cereal) on August 3rd. She didn't know what to think at first! She doesn't really care for it mixed with water, so I have tried mixing in a little juice which was better, but still not the best. I will try mixing it with some applesauce next.

Jaina is growing just fine! She is 14 lbs 10 oz and is 24 3/4" long. Even though she is much larger than Martha, she is still only in the 25th percentile on the charts, so she is still below average than other babies her own age.

Jaina definitely didn't like the rice cereal the first time I gave it to her on Aug. 3rd! You can tell by this face. The next spoonful she promptly spit out! I have also tried it with a little juice which was better, but she just doesn't really care for the food at all (which surprises me). We'll have to wait and see what her reaction is when I mix it with applesauce.