La-la-lu-lu

Josiah is talking more and more. His favorite phrases include, "Oh Wow!", "Hot Dog!", and "Oh Man!" This past week he started adding "Amen" to the end of our mealtime prayers. This Sunday he came home from the nursery saying, "La-la-lu-lu." We've decided he's saying "Halleluia". The nursery worker in his new class keeps telling me he is just the sweetest little boy. I'm so glad we have such a great church to raise our children in!

IKE: glad we're back

The kids and I got back into Houston yesterday afternoon. We had left the previous Thursday in order to avoid Hurricane Ike. Walter stayed here and braved the storm and says he is very glad we didn't have to go through it too. Our house had electricity restored on Wednesday, but there are many people who are not expected to regain electricity until next week. Our house had no damage, but the neighborhoods trees were not so lucky. The roads are barely passable because after a week of cleaning up, there are still broken treesbranches everywhere. Our biggest trees were the hardest hit, they lost several very large/long branches. We went grocery shopping yesterday and had to go to two different stores in order to find a variety of foods. None of the stores have anything in the frozen sections...and very little in the dairy or refrigerated sections. Walmart had some fruit. We had a hard time finding Lactaid for the kiddos. I filled my gas tank up in Katy so hopefully by the time I need more gas, there will be more available!
The Dental school has been closed all week, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather today and took the kids to the zoo. (The temperatures have been in the low 80's all week.) They have changed the zebra exhibit and you can actually see the animals now...Avery is very excited. She says her favorite animal is the zebra...or the giraffe...or the elephant. The kids rode the carousel for the first time today. I was a bit worried about Avery but she seemed to love it. Both of the kids love to pet the goats in the children's zoo!
Maybe this week we can get back to normal. We are so glad to be home!

Stepping Stones

We are calling our home school Stepping Stones Academy. If we have a name and official nametags, then I can recieve a teacher discount at several stores. I have found a great Home School Store that we pass by every Tuesday on our way to therapy. The science books I bought yesterday are linked to the Internet so Avery can learn even more online.

This week our unit is on insects and we're going to the Cockerell Butterfly Center on Friday. For a math project we made some beaded jewelry becuase Avery loves to sort and make patterns! She did a beautiful red necklace and bracelet (I did the clasps). We talked about how insects are very colorful...some to attract mates and some to announce, "Hey, I'm poisonous. Don't eat me!"

On Monday, Avery had her teeth cleaned for the first time. Walter said she did really good but she really didn't want to sit still. She keeps asking me if Poppa cleaned my teeth when I was little and I've explained to her that not everyone's Daddy is a dentist...I'm not sure she believes me though!

Best of All: I have lost one clothing size on my Body-for-Life for Women challenge!!!!!!!!! When I started I thought it would be very hard to give up white bread, but it has been much harder to give up French fries!!! We went to an Astros game with Les and Kellie on Monday and she was MUCH more excited/supportive/encouraging than Walter! I have picked out (and bought the pattern) for a really awesome dress to wear to Brittney's and Brady's wedding in April. Between the dress and Kellie's cheering me on...I'm hoping to lose two more sizes before I need to start fitting the dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!