Preschool at Home - Week 1 The Letter "A"

A couple weeks ago I started doing preschool at home with Miss Eden. We are doing a letter of the week approach and so far it's going really well. She loves it and actually looks forward to it everyday. We do school time during the babies first nap and it's great because she gets my complete attention to herself. I have been having fun too!

Each day we review the letter and the ASL sign for that letter. I took sign language in high school so it's really fun getting to teach her.

Then we go over "Theme Words" - I show her the word on an index card and by the end of the week she can pretty much tell me what all the words are. I actually put a black and white picture of the object on the other side just to make it more fun.

We also read poems or nursery rhymes, review our song of the week & a memory verse of the week.

She is loving it and she catches on very quickly. We try to go to the library on Monday's to find books that start with the letter of the week and we usually do a craft or activity each day.

Here she is working hard...

For our first week we learned all about the letter A.

Here are some of the things she did and learned...

-Adam & Eve was our Bible story

-"A" Theme words - Apple, Astronaut, Ant, Alligator, Ambulance

-Poems/Rhymes of the week - Applesauce by Martha T. Lyon, Apple Song by Frances Frost & Ten Red Apples (author unknown)

-The song of the week was "The Ants Go Marching"

-Bible verse of the week was Genesis 1:1 (to the tune of "Here We Go Looby Loo")

(If you are interested, I get the memory verses from this website. I think this makes Bible memorization fun!)

-She learned fun facts about alligators and ants & here is what she made!

-She learned all about Africa too! Nick and I went to Rwanda before we got married so it was really neat to show her all the pictures and talk about our trip there. She learned that Africa is home to the largest desert (Saraha), the longest river (Nile), the tallest mountain (Mt. Kilimanjaro), the largest land animal (elephant), the tallest land animal (giraffe), the fastest land animal (cheetah) and the largest primate (gorilla).

Below is Eden with her African necklace she colored...

And here she is with Mommy's...

-She learned all about apples and how they start from seeds and grow to be yummy, delicious apples! I found a neat book at the library that has lots of good pictures and a story about how apples start as seeds, grow into trees and how the tree produces the apple.

We made homemade applesauce together and it was yummy! The babies loved it too. She also made this neato apple out of a paper plate, construction paper scraps that she tore and the leaf at the top is her little hand print.

-I also had her learn to trace the letter "A" and we worked on counting and simple addition and subtraction. I gave her a piece of paper I printed that had 6 squares on it. In each square there was a different number of dots. I gave her animal crackers and had her fill the squares with the right number of animal crackers according to the number of dots in each square. She did it so fast and did it correctly. I was very impressed!

She is so smart and I'm so proud of my little munchkin!

Here is a picture of all the stuff she did that week.

My happy student...

Have a great weekend!!

McKenna's Surgery Update

McKenna's surgery is on September 2nd.

That's if no one gets sick.

Please pray we all stay healthy & well - especially little McKenna bear.

Would you also pray for her doctor & the nurses assisting - Momma's gettin' nervous & still anxious about it.

Thanks friends!

Fun Friday Song Day

I've been listening to Pandora a lot lately and I love it because it plays awesome songs I wouldn't normally listen to otherwise. My favorite stations lately are Jimmy Needham, Shane & Shane, Matt Wertz and The Civil Wars.

Heard this song this morning and it's so good...

Check it out!

"Author" - Jimmy Needham

A Late Birthday Post

It's been almost a month since the babies turned ONE!!!

I still can't believe I have two 1-year-olds and a 3-year-old! Amazing!

God is good. We are truly, truly blessed. Despite the craziness of our lives we feel very grateful for such wonderful kids.

Here is a little slideshow of the babies birthday (the actual day) & then some pics from their little party.

This slideshow made with Smilebox

Surgery Update

Because we were all sick around the time McKenna was to have her surgery, we had to reschedule it. I wish I could inform you when the new date is, but unfortunately I can't. I have been jumping through hoops to get it back on our calendar and it's been quite the process (very frustrating). I will hopefully know something by Friday. Probably won't be until the end of August.

I hope you are having a super duper week!!

ps...my little twinsie girls will be ONE in just 2 days!!! I can't believe it. I'm currently in a state of denial.

Re-do please??

If I had super powers, I think I would like one of them to be where I can go back in time and re-do it.

That's definitely what I would do and I'd like to start it 9 days ago!

That's when the virus from you know where showed up at the Vann house. It started with Jillian on Friday night, then McKenna Saturday night, then Eden Monday morning, then me Thursday night, then my Mom Friday and my Aunt Saturday. Thankfully Nick & my Dad have not gotten and I hope and pray they don't get it. I'm so ready for this to be DONE!!!

Everyone experienced it differently. Jillian and McKenna both were throwing up and didn't have fever. McKenna's throwing up only lasted several hours, but she's had it the other way for about 6 days now. Eden only had fever for a day and half, but had blisters in her throat for about 3 days (Jillian had blisters too). I had nausea, chills, and fever but mine only lasted 24 hours - which is about what my Mom & Aunt experienced as well (they were around the girls b/c they were helping me - I feel terrible that they got sick too). Mine was like morning sickness with chills, body aches, and fever!! YUCK!

Jillian threw up periodically over 5 days. We took her to the hospital on Sunday because she was throwing up everything we gave her and was showing signs of dehydration. Her pediatrician advised us to take her to get her re-hydrated. We were there about 6 hours. She received 2 bags of IV fluids, anti-nausea meds, and some meds to help with her low blood sugar. She perked up pretty quickly and was acting hungry. We fed her some bland foods and pedialyte and we were able to take her home. She did great Monday & Tuesday and was finally acting more herself . Tuesday night she threw-up again, but we thought maybe it was because she had eaten too much that afternoon. She slept good that night, but the next day she kept throwing up everything. I took her to her pediatrician and he gave us prescription for Zofran and told us she was dehydrated and to take her on to the hospital for more IV fluids.

The doctor at the ER thought her vital signs looked pretty good and she wanted to try the Zofran first to see if we could get her to eat and drink before we tried the IV again. Thankfully, that plus a mixture of Maalox and Benadryl for the blisters in her throat helped her be able to eat and drink w/out having to do the IV.

Thankfully, we are all doing much better today and I am looking forward to a more normal week.

I wish I had cute pictures of the girls on the 4th of July, but unfortunately I don't.....because we were cleaning up pukey all day. :(

I would be happy never to have that virus in my house EVER again!!!!!!

If your wondering, my doctor called it the Adenovirus. He first thought it was Coxsakie (which I think is the Hand, Foot, Mouth disease), but since the blisters were only at the back of Eden and Jillian's throat and the fact that everyone experienced it differently, he thought it was probably the other virus.

I also need to say a very special THANK YOU to my wonderful and amazing family. My parents came to our rescue several times this week and my Aunt came twice to help me when Nick was at work. It would have been sooooo much more difficult without them here and I'm blessed to have such an incredible family.

Our Summer So Far - In Pictures

This summer has been so much more fun than last summer. I spent most of our summer last year on the couch, on bed rest, and poor Eden didn't get to do many fun summer things. I am determined to make it up to her this year and make it extra fun and special.

Here are some pictures of the girls and what we have been up to...

Splash pad fun...

They love watching big sister

Jillian

When they get splashed, they squeal and take deep breaths...haha

Splish Splash

Sprinkler fun

Exersaucers...

This girl loves to swing!

Cutie bug!

Silly Jilli

Sandbox time

Jill - Miss. Independent

Hello??

Celebrating Daddy on Father's Day

Daddy and all his girls

Daddy and the twinsies

Daddy's breakfast for dinner...Delicioso!

Belgian waffles with fresh fruit and syrup...

Chillin' in the stroller

Jill-Jill

Sweet girl

I had to move them to the grass b/c they got tired of getting wet

Fun Fun

Apple...

McKenna bear

She pulls up on EVERYTHING!

Eden loves to entertain her "babies"

Bedtime bottle

Hi there...

Love this pic of Kenna

She loves to play with books

Goodnight!

E & J

Have a great weekend!!

Little Miss McKenna...

July 8th is going to be a big day for this precious little baby girl as Nick and I will be taking her down to the Med Center for surgery. The day the babies were born we noticed a bump above her right eyebrow. We were told by the nurses, doctors, and her pediatrician that it was bone and probably caused by the way she was positioned in the womb. She was head down on my pelvis for a good 3 months at the end of my pregnancy. Our pediatrician told us that if it really was her bone, then by the time she was 6 months it would have smoothed out. Around 6 months it hadn't really changed and to us seemed bigger. At their check-up appointment our doctor suggested we see a pediatric surgeon because to him it looked like some sort of cyst. I took her a few weeks ago to to the specialist and he confirmed it to be a benign dermoid cyst. According to webmd.com, a dermoid cyst is a saclike growth caused when skin and skin structures become trapped during fetal development. McKenna's doctor suggested we do the surgery to remove it pretty soon because at this point it's just underneath the skin and would be easier to remove. If we waited until she was a toddler or until childhood, it has the potential to attach itself to her skull making it more difficult to remove and most likely will continue to grow. The surgery is a 30 minute procedure and she will be able to come home with us that day. Thankfully they don't have to use any tubes to put her under, just a mask.

I realize this is just a minor surgery, but it's still scary to think about especially since she is only 11-months-old. It makes this Momma nervous and anxious thinking about it. I know God is totally in control of this whole situation and He has really given me peace about everything.

We would appreciate some prayers for our precious angel. Please pray for her doctors and nurses, for her to cooperate well and for her recovery. Mommy & Daddy would appreciate some prayers too as we will probably feel very nervous that week and especially that day.

I will post updates here about the surgery and after.

Thanks for your prayers!