First of all I would like to shout a big WOOOOHOOOO for the fact that we now have high speed internet again. That was torture being on dial up for 4 months!!

Everything is going wonderfully here. Everyone has been going stir crazy with me on bed rest but it's going by faster than we thought. God granted me the gift of blindness...I'm now blind to the way my husband and children clean the house! I've given up getting huffy because it's not done my way. I figure once this baby gets here, I"ll give the house a proper cleaning.

We had some wonderful news this last week (although Kyra, my niece, didn't take it to well). We were ecstatic to find out that we are expecting a little GIRL!! Her name is Madeline Paige. I immediatly started crying during the ultrasound. Chris sort of went pale and said something about having to get a second job hehe. The boys could be heard cheering throughout the doctors office I"m sure. This was ecspecially exciting to my side of the family. There hasn't been a girl in the family for almost 21 years. My niece Kyra will be 21 in November. She was the last girl. God saw fit to give my sister, Tammy, and I a total of 7 boys between us. Now we have another little girl on the way. My mom and sister Nancy both started yelling and the first thing out of my sister Tammy's mouth (she's Kyra's mom) was "Oh, Kyra is going to love that bit of news." Sure enough, 2 days later my niece Kyra calls from Japan where she is stationed. The first thing she says is: "They have to be wrong, it's a boy. I'm not ready to be thrown from my pedestal." I laughed and explained that she will always be the queen, and Madeline will be the princess. Kyra will need to train her!" Secretly, I think Kyra is excited too. I'm now busy shopping online and trying my best to oversee her room being put together. Come to think of it...between myself and Madeline, maybe Chris will have to get a second job haha!

The boys have been busy with baseball. This is always a crazy time in our lives. Because of the boys age difference of 2 years, they are always on seperate teams. That being said, their games almost always end up on the same day at the same time on opposite sides of town or in some cases not even in the same town (they are both on tournament teams and travel). This has proven somewhat of a challenge since I'm on bedrest and now Chris is stuck being the taxi. Thankfully, grandparents have stepped in to help. I did get premission from my doctor to go to a few games as long as I promised to sit down and not get to excited (obviously he's never seen me at a baseball game. I'm all about cheering the entire time.) Oh well, I'm trying my best to follow his instructions. I was suprised to learn that I am allowed to go swimming. Well not really swim but more along the lines of floating. The pool opened last week so the boys and I are looking forward to taking some trips over there to relax. Given I don't get harpooned at some point due to the fact that my stomach is huge now and my bathing suit is black / white, I"m sure I"ll enjoy my floating.

I have also been busy putting together our curriculum and field trips for next year. That has kept me happily occupied during the day. Some of the books we will be using this year include:

Homeschool Family Fitness

A Catholic Garden of Puzzles

A Year with God

The Old World & America

Bible History

Writing Step by Step

Apologia, Exploring Creation with Zoology I : Flying Creatures of the 5th Day (we will be getting the experiment kit from Creation Sensation along with some fun extras)

Prima Latina (our beginning Latin program)

and Saxon Algebra 1/2 (pre algebra for Dustin) and Saxon Math 7/6 for Christian

We are doing the basic English, Religion, Health and Spelling from Seton for grades 6 and 7 too. I'm still looking for a good reading program. The boys were not happy with Seton's reading so I'm still hunting for something they might like. I"m also considering just making up my own curriculum for them. I thought about getting books they like (letting them pick them out at 1/2 price books) and then finding some Unit Studies to go with them. Some titles I'm considering are: Swiss Family Robinson, Where the Red Fern Grows, Chronicles of Narnia, etc... If anyone knows of any other titles or of a good reading program please let me know!

Some of our field trips include: Texas A&M Vet School Tour, Texas A&M Wildlife & Fisheries Tour, Renaissance Festival Homeschool Day, Texas A&M Entemology dept., Civil War Re-enactment (loved it so much last year, we are going again!), NASA Homeschool Day, Houston Children's Museum, Brazos Valley Musem of Natural History, Houston Zoo. We look to have a fun filled exciting year!

Well that is about it for us. I"m 21 weeks pregnant now. It was a huge relief to get past the point where we lost our son last year. I feel like I can breathe now and actually enjoy this pregnancy. We are working our way to 34 weeks where at that time, my stitches will be removed and we can begin the countdown till little Madeline makes her grand apperance. I ask for your continued prayers for our family. This has been a huge change but we are doing ok. I know Chris and the boys will be glad when I can get back to my "mom" duties though.