Happy Fall

Fall has arrived in full force, and we are loving every minute of it! The weather is crisp and cold in the mornings, but the sun usually graces us with its presence in the afternoon, so we are having some really nice weather. Leaves are beginning to change color, school is in full swing, and change is definitely in the air. Therefore, I decided that this blog needed a little change, too. The biggest change being that I hope to actually start posting again! The purpose of this blog is for me to record our daily happenings for my children to read about when they are grown, and I don't want to regret being too busy with my days, that I did not take the time to record our memories.

Boss is the new principal for the Therapeutic Education Service Center (TESC) here on campus. He is in charge of four teachers, two aides, and roughly 15 students, with plenty of room to grow! Boss LOVES his new job (for which we are so thankful) and looks forward to going to work each day. He is working on getting his Ohio Liscense and is excited about all of the experience he is gaining each day as he works in the world of special education. In his spare time, he has been quite the handyman around our house! He recently finished laying new floors in our basement, so that we could make a playroom down there for the girls.

I am still busy with houseparenting (though we have only had two girls since June) and homeschooling Emma. On Mondays we have ballet classes and I have a Beth Moore Bible Study that evening. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday are school days, and on Thursday's I have staff luncheons and meetings. Our days are full, but I would have it no other way.

Emma is doing well! She amazes me every day with how bright she is. Her reading skills are coming along marvelously and she can now read short stories, though her favorite subject is math. Daily she ASKS to do her math workbook (she is a HUGE fan of worksheets), and she is picking right up on the concepts of money, time telling, and addition. She is still in ballet, though she does prefer a good, crazy, living room dance session every once in a while! She still wants to be an artist when she grows up, and is daily amazing us with all of the pictures she draws and crafts she creates! When I asked her what her favorite thing about fall was, she said drinking hot chocolate, eating chicken noodle soup, and wearing cozy pajamas. A girl after my own heart! Minus the chicken noodle soup.

Kate is still our little spitfire! Some big news in Kate's world is that she is finally potty trained! While it took her a bit longer to grasp than I had hoped, I waited until she was ready and she has had virtually NO accidents. We are so proud of our big girl! Kate is also sleeping great each night. Emma sleeps on the top bunk, Kate sleeps on the bottom bunk, and now that we have started locking the dog in the living room at night, Boss and I are sleeping like we did before we had children! Nice, seeing as all of that will end in around five months. Kate started ballet this year, like her big sister, and she was so excited to get her very own tap and ballet shoes. She is much more social than Emma, and loves all of the new friends she has made at ballet. Kate is the funniest little girl you will ever meet and we are so glad that she is ours.

Our new baby is growing! I am now 16 weeks pregnant, and am feeling great. I was more sick the first trimester with this baby than with the girls, but all of that passed when I entered the second trimester. We have not really bought anything for the baby yet (except for an adorable dresser that I found at an antique mall), but we have cleared out the baby's room, and are simply waiting to know if we will be decorating with pink or blue! Our BIG ultrasound is on the 22nd of this month, and we are so excited to know what this baby is. To be perfectly honest, Boss and Emma are rooting for another girl, but Kate and I are rooting for a little brother. Really, we just want a healthy baby, but it will be fun to find out whose intuitions have been right!

I do believe that catches you up to the most recent happenings in our lives. This weekend we will be going to a pumpkin patch, and coming up we have a Trunk-or-Treat at our church, as well as our children's home Halloween party. Emma is going to be her beloved Tinkerbell this year, and Kate is going to be the pink fairy, Rosetta, from the Tinkerbell movie. Happy Fall, Y'all.