Holiday Wishes

With everything that's been going on over the past few months, it's been a while since we've been able to participate in a Little Helping Hands activity. This past weekend, we were finally able to get involved again!

As one might suspect, there are lots of opportunities to volunteer in the month of December. For our activity, we chose to wrap presents for children who have been taken out of their homes and placed in foster care. It was a really neat experience.

Each child made a holiday wish list. From that list, they received at least 2 gifts to open. Apparently, there were alot of generous donors! I was surprised and excited at the number of presents there were to wrap. Branna really enjoyed too, but often got distracted by all the neat toys that were being wrapped.

Branna and Daddy, sacking up...

and setting out the toys out to be delivered

There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of our second daughter, Saige. One year ago today, she was born. In many ways, I can't believe that a year has come and gone so quickly. In other ways, it seems like a lifetime ago.
I've gone back and forth for several weeks now about writing this post. I've still not found the right words. I want to remember my daughter on this day and the joy she brought to us for the short time we knew her in this life. I often think of the poem we put in Saige's scrapbook:

Please Don't Tell Them You Never Got to Know Me

It is I whose kicks you will always remember,
I who gave you heartburn that dragon would envy,
I who couldn't seem to tell time and got your days and nights mixed up.
It is I who acknowledge your craving for peach ice cream by knocking the cold bowl off your belly,
I who went shopping and helped you pick out the "perfect" teddy bear for me,
I who liked to be cradled in your belly and rocked off to dreamy slumber by the fire,
It is I who never had a doubt about your love,
It is I who put a lifetime of joy into an instant.

-Pat Schwiebert

I long for the day that I can celebrate a new life with her in Heaven. Until then, I will keep pressing towards the Goal, being diligent in my Christian walk to ensure my soul will be reunited with hers.

The Most Wonderful Time

I'm expecting that this Christmas will be extra special! I think that Branna is at the age where Christmas starts taking on its magical feeling and the anticipation of the season is present. Not to mention, that this will be Atlie's first, even though she'll only be 2 months old.

To kick off the season right, we got the tree set up. Branna would have been in more of the pictures, but she was too busy twirling to Christmas music!

Little Birdie Baby Announcements

Make a statement with Shutterfly birth announcement cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

This and That

Yes, it's been a while since I've actually made a post... for reasons, I'm sure you understand. Our new family is doing great. Branna is such a good big sister and a great helper. Branna has had some rough patches brought on by not getting our full attention, but overall things have fallen into place.

At 4 weeks, Atlie still doesn't have much of a schedule, so we mainly just try for a daily routine. Branna and I have still been doing school most everyday. After Atlie is fed and settled, we start.

Before baby, I wasn't entirely sure how school was going to work, but now I'm very glad that we've been able continue. It gives Branna (and me) a constructive and not-so-abstract activity to do together. (By not-so-abstract, I mean Branna has really gotten into pretend play. It's so much fun to watch her imagination at work. For instance, right now, she's really into Peter Pan. Playing the role of Peter, she pretends to fly or chase Captain Hook or save Tiger Lily. However, for me it can be mentally exhausting to be the co-star in her adventures all day.)

On top of the usual school tasks, some recent activities have included learning about the post office and Thanksgiving, of course. During our week of studying about the post office, Branna wrote and mailed letters to some friends, learned what happens when a letter is mailed, and set up her own mock post office.

Preparing her "mail"

Weighing it for accurate postage

The mail is delivered!

Our main Thanksgiving activity involved setting up a mock Thanksgiving feast and practicing table manners. I thought this activity was especially appropriate for us. Since we have a 4 week old, we won't be travelling as a family. However, Branna is making a special trip to Grandma Honey's house for the holiday... her first overnight trip away from home! I really wanted to practice good table manners and thinking about acting like a big girl. We'll see if our practice run paid off.

Dinner is served! (I think this is the same group that had mail delivered to them... they are popular!)

Pass the potatoes! (But remember to not talk with your mouth full.)

Lastly, I'll leave you with some great family pictures graciously taken by my friend Lisa.

Sisters

Introducing: Atlie Claire!

Atlie Claire

Born October 27, 2010 at 4:04 am

7 lbs 13 oz

21 inches

Big Fun in Small Places

Last week, I was 39 weeks pregnant and Branyon had to take a trip to Alabama. While Branyon was away, my family came in shifts to watch over us. While waiting for Branyon's return flight, we headed over to Callahan's, a small-ish general store in Southeast Austin. With live animals, fun western stuff and cute housewares, it's always a fun store to peruse, especially on Saturday's when they usually have some sort of live entertainment.

Branna Practicing in the Saddle (sorry about the belly)

This time, we had a super special treat since a group brought Ivory, the albino python, an African tortoise, and a blue tongued skink! The picture makes it look like Branna might have been a little intimidated, but she was anything but that. If she could have, I think she would have held the snake.

After getting her fill of reptiles, we headed inside to listen a Polka band. She loved doing the Polka with Ernie and wanted to go faster!

Diggin' Up Bones

Recently, our preschool mom's group had a play date the Austin Nature and Science Center's Dino Pit. It had been years since I'd been (I think Jess was Branna's age) so I didn't really remember much about it. I'm so glad that we got the opportunity to go back.

The before entering the Dino Pit, the Center has a small hands on activity area that the kids enjoyed playing in. The exhibit going on right now is called "A View From Space". (I really enjoyed the exhibit, too!)

I think the kids mostly enjoyed exploring the small indoor cave. But, they were relieved to know that that wasn't the Dino Pit. :)

The Dino Pit was really just a big sand box, but the kids had a blast! Before they got too dirty, I got a shot of Branna and her friend entering the Pit.

The Pit had all sorts of digging tools for the kids to uncover dinosaur "bones". (It was really just concrete replicas.) Here is Branna working on excavating a T-Rex:

When they got tired of digging for bones, there was plenty of sand to dig in for other things...

Like many people, our family sat down to watch a little football this past weekend, in particular the UT game. I've never really been into football, but Branna really does enjoy getting to watch it with her daddy.

As the camera panned over the crowd, Branna looked a little confused and asked "What's the sign for yak?" Not being familiar with that particular sign (or really even sure why she was asking that), I told I didn't know and that we would look it up on the ASL Pro website later. However, a few minutes later, she excitedly said, "Hey, look! They have an orange yak on the football field, too!"

Ding! The lightbulb went off: For whatever reason, she thought that the UT Hook 'em Horns sign that people in the crowd were making and the UT Longhorns field logo, was a yak. I don't know where she got it, but it was pretty funny that that was the connection she made. I guess we could say:

Yank 'Em Yaks!

( Roll Tide! ; ) )

School Days

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! The main reason (next to being completely wiped out at the end of the day and not have enough mental capabilities left to write) is that I've been getting Branna ready for preschool! As a lot of you may know, Branyon and my goal is to homeschool our children. Through a friend's suggestion, we purchased a preschool curriculum. I think this allows both Branna and me a good opportunity to get a school routine established before kindergarten. As you are probably aware, we had done some informal schooling, but I am very thankful to have an outlined structure and goals provided by Hands On Homeschooling.

Even though the creator of the curriculum lines out the lesson plans, there was still alot of work to be done on my part. Alot of my summer was spent preparing the lessons and getting our "school room" ready. I think if we weren't expecting a baby in October, it wouldn't have been necessary to make as many preparations as I did, but I wanted to get as much done before Branna's year got started.

This week the fruits of my labor came together as Branna had her first day school! She was so excited, I think partly due to all the anticipation of seeing me make things over the summer and hearing me say, "You have to wait to use/play with this... It's for school!" The night before the first day, she had a very difficult time getting to sleep. When she actually did, it wasn't very restful, seeing as she got up several times during the night to see if it was morning yet.

Our weekly curriculum consists of a Bible story, social studies, health science, physical activities, math, and reading/writing. Not all are covered in a day (except for Bible), but are at least touched on during the week.

Monday:

Of course, a good day starts with a good breakfast:

Branna seeing her "school room" for the first time:

We start our school with circle time. Each day, we start with a prayer, say the Pledge of Allegiance (US and Texas), have a few songs and a story. Branna thought our song time needed a little spunk.

Tuesday:

Today, we worked on gross motor skills where Branna improved on her hopping

Our weekly Bible story was about Annanias and Sapphira, so we made a money bag. I let Branna "sew" with some yarn.
We also had a discussion of patterns using sock colors. Branna decided using them for puppets was more fun.
Wednesday:

Today was cooking day! Our letter of the week was A, so Branna got to make applesauce. It was really good!

Thursday:

Field Trip! Not all Thursday's will be like this, but the group of moms with kids preschool age and under have put together a time to get together every other week. This last week was our first get together and we met for a low-key gathering at our church's annex. Branna had a good time playing with friends. (So did I!)

Friday:

Since we missed our school on Thursday, we tried to make up for some of it today. Usually, Friday's are for review, but this Friday, we did pattern blocks and took an pretend airplane trip to Eldorado, TX to see Grandma Honey.

Branna in the "airplane"

As I mentioned, each day we say the pledge and also have a Bible verse. In just a week's worth of time, Branna as memorized both!