Prayer update on Nate

Thank you for praying for my nephew Nate! A huge praise is that he was able to come home this week instead of being transferred to a NICU!! While he is stable right now and doing well, it is evident that he will face a long uphill battle with kidneys that are half their normal size. For now we are all just praying that he continues to grow and gain weight and that his little body would hold out and not have to face dialysis or a transplant for many, many years!!! Thanks again for your continued prayers for this sweet family!

Welcome Baby Nate! Please Pray!!!

On Wednesday a new nephew/cousin arrived in Phoenix! Congrats Reagan and Adam and big sister Tessa! We can't wait to meet him in December.



For those that are not aware, there have been some issues with Baby Nate's kidneys from the very first ultrasounds. Now that he has arrived, the medical team can do more tests to try to determine how to best help sweet Nathaniel Noah Turley. Please be praying with our family for this newest member. Please pray that the doctors would be given wisdom in how to treat him. Please also pray that Reagan and Adam would have a peace that surpasses understanding when they have to leave their new son in the NICU later this week.

Hair

Look! Gracie has enough hair to finally put a barrette in it! (kind of :) it didn't stay long!




Of course she sometimes just prefers her brothers' hats! :)

Jacob is 4 months old!!!

Happy 4 months sweet son! God knew when he gave us a #4 what He was doing for sure. Jacob is such a gentle sweet natured little boy, he fits in well with this crowd. He has a contagious giggle and smile. He is still a great eater and sleeper. This morning in the pediatrician's office he rolled from his tummy to back for the first time! He is talking and cooing, and started blowing "raspberries". He has abs of steel and can pull himself up to a sitting position when he is in his car carrier or bouncy seat if he is not buckled. He also has enough neck control now that he LOVES his bouncy entertainment seat! What a joy this sweet boy is to our family. Luke, Ben and Gracie continue to adore him. They are such good big siblings, always chatting with him and introducing him to new things. Of course under the careful eye of Mommy and Daddy, because Gracie decided she wanted to share her favorite snack (pretzels!) with him this week, but was caught before a pretzel went into his mouth thankfully!
He is now a whopping 16 lbs and 25 inches long. He is wearing all 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. Thank you Lord for another month with this precious bundle of joy!

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One Year Ago...

How time flies! This was just one year ago!

Then:



Now:

First Day of School

We have decided to follow a "year-round" school schedule this year so we can take time off in the fall and for Christmas. So, Monday was our first day of school even though it is Luke who would be typically starting Kindergarten. We will be home schooling both boys and taking it at their individual paces through our material. We are using Sonlight for our Core Bible/History with Singapore Math and Handwriting Without Tears. For Language Arts we are working through Sonlight's Kindergarten LA, with Explode the Code workbooks and some additional fun activities. We are looking forward to a really fun year full of learning and family memory making!

What is so great about siblings???

Each day as I watch our little ones play and interact I am just awe struck by how well they do together, and how much they love one another. That alone makes every stress and struggle worth it. I think it is one of the absolute highlights of parenting! It also makes me homesick for my sisters and brothers BIG TIME!!!



Just as a quick example, each of the kids has a piggy bank with four slots and "stickers" on each slot designating it for spending, saving, giving, and investing. On Luke's "saving" slot he has a picture of a bike. (When we first started the banks he did not have a bike....but now he does thanks to Grandma and Grandpa at Christmas.)

Well, for his birthday Luke received five, one dollar bills. He put one bill in each slot and asked where he should put the last dollar. I told him he could choose. He put it in the "saving" (ie. bike slot). I asked him, "So if you already have a bike, what are you saving your money for now?" His answer, "I am saving my money to buy Gracie a bike when she is big enough to ride!"



Precious, precious. See what I mean? Doesn't that just make getting up early and having limited free time to myself worth it?

Honey

"You may have tangible wealth untold: Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you will never be--I had a mother who read to me." (Strickland Gillian, 1936)


If you can't already tell by our blog posts....we love to read in this house A LOT! I am always in pursuit of good books for our kids to enjoy. It can often be difficult to sort through the abundance of mediocre and downright awful story books at the library, especially if I have children in tow. So, I found a book that has made this pursuit much easier!



This summer I bought a book that is worth it's weight in gold. It's called Honey for a Child's Heart, by Gladys Hunt. It is essentially a book about books! :) What could be better! Here is a favorite quote from this book, "Since words are the way we communicate experiences, truth, and situations, who should know how to use them more creatively than people who are aware of their Creator? The world cries out for imaginative people who can spell out truth in words that communicate meaningfully to people in their human situation....Truth and excellence have a way of springing up all over the world, and our role as parents is to teach our children how to find and enjoy the good and to reject what is mediocre and unworthy."

In this book, Hunt essentially spells out why reading is so important. The best part about the book, and why it is so helpful is that the last 2/3 of the book is an annotated list of children's books that are worthy of checking out. We have already found so many treasures by requesting books on this list from our library!

As we begin our homeschooling adventures, I think I will occasionally post about some of our favorite books.

We recently discovered an author/illustrator by the name of Patricia Polacco. So far we have adored every one of her books (and there are many!) Here are our three favorite so far!





Another recent favorite is this one about a little boy who lives next to a nursing home.(We especially enjoyed the wonderful illustrations in this sweet book):



We also finished our first "chapter book" to read aloud. When I first brought it home from the library the boys kept joking about sending it back or throwing it away because it had very few pictures. I was so discouraged! But, after the first chapter they started begging to read it every night and hated when I would not read another chapter to them before bed! :)

We are always looking for suggestions for books, so we would love to hear about some of your favorites too! Happy reading!

Happy 4th of July!!!