Ready to Read

I am so glad that Branna and I have started doing "school". I have really seen her creativity and knowledge grow. I'm completely amazed at the the things she can do... things that I wouldn't have known or tried had we not been doing this.

Branna loves to create, draw, and paint. (Side note: For those of you looking for a no-mess way to paint, I found Elmer's Fast Drying Paints at Hobby Lobby. They are great! They're extra easy to get out and ready for immediate use. The best part is they dry immediately, so there is virtually no mess.) For each session, I have at least one age-appropriate craft that she can do. Over the last few weeks, we've been studying about Moses. A few of the projects we've done are: decorating a burning bush, making paper dolls who cross the Red Sea, creating binoculars with mylar to represent the 9th Egyptian plague of total darkness, and decorating "bug eyes" to illustrate the 3rd and 4th plagues. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the crafts, but I did get the bug eyes, which I thought turned out pretty cute.

The other aspect of our school is, of course, the learning. With each lesson, we have a story and a letter and/or number that helps to illustrate the point. For example: 'T' for 10 commandments. The website I found for the alphabet (http://www.first-school.ws/) has a print out with corresponding words for the letter. From the sheets, Branna has learned how to trace letters and even has been writing some on her own!

While Branna hasn't completely made the phonics connection of sounding out words, she has been "spelling" them (with some help, course). I know she's not really reading, but what a great step towards that goal.

Our Growing Family

We recently had our big sonogram to check the baby's anatomy and to find out the gender. The baby was growing perfectly and our due date is still April 12, 2010. (For those of you who don't know, that's also Branna's birthday... crazy, I know.) According to the sonogram technician, everything looked great. We were very happy to hear that.

Profile (Head on the right)

Leg and Foot

...And now for the big news: Branna is going to have...

a SISTER!

We're all excited. I can't wait to see how Branna and the new child will interact with each other. I know Branna's going to be such a good big sister. She's already saying she wants to help change the diapers. We'll see how long that last once the baby is here!

A Fairy Tale Halloween

Following suit with Branna's love for princesses, she decided to be Snow White this year for Halloween. It took a little convincing for her to get the costume on at first, but when she heard that she'd be getting candy, she was all for it! However, as soon as we got back home, she was very ready to take the dress off.

We also had a special treat this Halloween, since my mom, stepdad, and brother spent the weekend with us and got to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. I think they enjoyed being able to see Branna dress up as much as she did getting her candy! :)

As we were walking around, I thought how much different next Halloween will be. Branna will be 3 1/2 years old (I can't believe that!) and we'll have a 6 month old (I really can't believe that!) We're looking forward to what the future holds!