It's Christmas Time...

Wow what a busy few months it has been. I am going to start using this blogger more often. I have not figured out how to add my family to my list but I will eventually.

So as you can see from the picture above that Katie is now going to the public school. We decided to visit the week of her birthday and by the end of the week we registered her. It was the best thing we could have done for all of us. She has already made so many friends and is doing really well. I also am enjoying having Shaylan all to myself. We have had some fun conversations and it really is so quiet here. No fighting or complaining. After the new year I am going to sit down with her and start working on her letters and numbers so she can be ready for Kindergarten next year. She went through her hearing and speech evaluation and I am surprised that the child can hear anything. She does need speech therapy and she also has to go back the ENT next month to see what they are going to do for her hearing. I am sure they will want to put the tubes back in which is nerve racking because she is older and will know more about what is going on. I know it is all in God's hands but as a mother I am stressing about it.

So far this Christmas season has been great. Last year we were so strapped with finances that this year we are making the best out of what we have. We picked out a great tree and the girls and I had a blast taking pictures for the Christmas card. They were little models and kept posing for the camera. We had so much fun and I hope everyone enjoyed getting a copy of the picture in the Christmas card.

I will be using the blogger a lot more after the holidays when I have time to sit down and think.

I hope and pray everyone has a safe and fabulous Christmas with their friends and families!!!!

Ahh, thanks to the help of my dear cousin in MI, I was able to add pictures. This was of our annual Pumpkin Day. We go to Indian Acres for pumpkins and then carve them that night. It was a gorgeous day and we had such a great time as a family. (sorry the pictures are backwards from how they occured in the day. I added more from carving and they put them at the top of the blog.)

Trying something new

So, I am attempting a new blogger. Currently I use myspace to blog, but I thought it would be fun to try something new. My cousins use this one so I thought it would a great way to keep updated on eachothers happenings and the silliness of our kiddies. Right now things are just great over here at the Richards' house. We did have a sad day Wednesday when our beloved guinea pig passed on ("to play with Oscar in heaben" as Shaylan says. She is headed to her speech and hearing evaluated in 2 weeks). The girls were devastated but over the weekend we went and both girls were able to pick out a new pig of their own. These pigs are well loved especially Shaylan's. She insists on holding it and loving it all the time. I have to set time limits for her so the poor pig has a chance to eat, sleep and poop in her cage. At least I know that the pigs will be used to being held and wont be too skiddish. Home schooling is going great. We dont really have a set schedule, but I try to do our school work in the morning which gives me the afternoon to do my housework and errands. We have decided that Katie will be attending our local public school next year. We are finding that her and Shaylan spend WAY too much time together and are beginning to fight more than usual. Next year Shaylan will be entering Kindergarten but we think we may hold her back a year. Since her birthday is late July, she will be a young five and because of her speech problems, we feel we should give her one more year to grow up a little. But who knows. It is only Nov and we have plenty of time to work with her and hopefully get her speech up to par. Jeffs jobs are going great. They are actually fighting over him at UPS because both sort aisles want him. Well he can only do one a night so currently he is on the B side which is the fast side. He likes it and I love it because we have no copays for doctors visits and we dont pay for prescriptions. I said no matter what, he is not leaving this job. My girls have become involved in AWANA at church. Katie loves it and is so eager to learn her verses. Shaylan likes to go but is not as eager but I am not pushing her. She is only 4 and I know if I push she will back down and not want to go at all. I have actually been helping out with attendance and where they can use me so that has been fun. I am trying to get Jeff involved but he has a hard time coming out of his comfort zone. It is something that I have been praying so hard for. Well I am going to figure out how to post pictures. And hopefully I will get this blog site down. Bear with me.