Twenty-Nine & Sixteen

 March 8th we celebrated March Birthdays. Grandpa Rob, Angeline & Myself are all born in March as well as my Dad, Aunty Lauren and Great-Grandma Evelyn. Not to mention many cousins and friends. Grammy made the delicious cake which we all enjoyed.

Yesterday began the first day of the last year of my Twenties! Jonathan took me to Absolute Spa for the afternoon and we enjoyed a couples massage, chicken salad, relaxation in the lounge and a dip in the pool! After we were all nice and rejuvenated we went out for dinner just the two of us. (Thank you Grandpa & Grammy for babysitting). It was a very wonderful birthday, a true reminder of how blessed I am.

 We also took some time yesterday to capture our first maternity pictures at 16 weeks pregnant with Baby #5. We thought it would be fun to get some under water pictures... love that our camera is waterproof! 3 1/2 more weeks until our ultrasound when we will be finding out baby's gender. It felt so nice to be in the water I think I am going to have to make more of a habit of it.

 (under water)

P.E.

Here are some pictures from David's hour long bike ride with Grandpa on Thursday. Bike riding is David's favourite activity for P.E. Not just bike riding but specifically bike riding with Grandpa.

Stampin Up's Sale-A-Bration...

Besides being a stay-at-home Mom and Homeschooling I am also an Independent Demonstrator for Stampin Up. You may have visited My Stampin Up Blog in the past which you can access from a link on this blog as well as the link I've just made in this post.
The reason I am mentioning this again is that Stampin up is currently running their Sale-A-Bration Promotion which is an excellent time to place an order or Host a Party. I will be placing an order on March 7th and am now booking Sale-A-Bration parties for the month of March (Sale-A-Bration ends March 31st).
Stampin Up's current catalogues as well as more information about Sale-A-Bration can be accessed on My Stampin Up Blog.

Last year I also started selling some of the cards I make using my Stampin Up products. If you are interested in having a look at some of my cards or placing a custom order please let me know. Last year I sold just under 50 cards!

February 6-21

When I last posted David's homeschool work he was just finishing his "All Aboard" book from our "Sing, Spell, Read, Write" Curriculum. The above pictures are samples of his work from the next book "On Track." In "All Aboard" he learned all his letters, how to write them and what sound they make. Now he can identify what letter a word starts with by sounding it out. He recently learned his short vowel sounds and has been putting sounds together. A lot of this is taught by song. A few days ago he started reading! I guess I didn't get a picture of "Picture Dictionary" which is a new work page from his new book that he does every few days. He traces a word, reads it and then draws a picture. We are so proud of him and excited and he is too! We are continuing to really enjoy this curriculum!

 In Math David has been working on addition as you can see in the above examples. I can't believe he is doing vertical addition! He has also been working on Skip Counting by 2's to 20 (below).

I also wanted to include this Valentines Day picture which was a colour by number picture. He also made 15 Valentine Cards for his classmates at the Resource Centre (sadly I did not think to get a picture of them before he went to school). He was really into Valentines this year and cut out his own hearts and coloured a lot of Valentine pictures. He has been doing a lot of crafts which I sometimes forget are part of school too. I will try to get some pictures of recent projects and make a separate post just for that. Term 2 is coming to an end but I am very happy with David's progress so far this year. I can't believe that soon we will be beginning his last Term of Kindergarten!

12.5 week Ultrasound Pictures

Yesterday we had our Ultrasound. It was great to see our little Baby Bean a bit further developed. Our last sneak peak was during our 8th week so a lot has changed since then. Baby was very bouncy! I don't think any of our other baby's were as active during our ultrasounds as this one. It's not twins... definitely only one baby but I think he (or she) has twice the energy. Come August we are really going to have our hands full! We have a follow up blood test to go with our previous blood test and ultrasound results but so far things are looking good.
I also had a doctors appointment today and got to hear Baby's heart beating for the first time. I am doing a lot better though I am still quite nausious. My Thyroid is low (also happened during first trimester with Samara) but this may be the cause of the extra nausea I have been experiencing this time around. Hopefully things will level out soon and we will have a smooth second trimester. Also I'm just waiting to hear back about my 19 week ultrasound which we will be booking shortly for end of March.

4 years

On February 7th Jonathan made a special batch of ice cream and we put together an ice cream cake to celebrate Noah's birthday and the time we had him here with us. David knew the next day was Noah's birthday because we had told him why we were making the cake. That night David took our "I can Only Imagine" book from Noah's shelf and brought it to bed with him. He asked me to sing the song for him. (Sue sang this song for us at Noah's funeral and a dear friend gave us a book with the words to the song when Noah passed away). David said that he remembered Noah. "I remember sitting on the couch with Noah and having our picture taken.... but I don't remember everything." I told him it was okay not to remember everything... he was only 20 months old when Noah died.
Yesterday morning at 3:30am I woke up, realized it was February 8th and began to cry knowing my sweet Noah would be turning 4. I cuddled up with Jonathan and shared my tears a bit and then went back to sleep. After we got up for the day when the kids were having breakfast we looked through Noah's pictures together on the computer.
Jonathan and I were able to have a few more moments to ourselves in the morning while Grandpa watched the kids. It was nice to have some quiet time just the two of us. After watching the kids Rob then went home to prepare a family dinner and we gathered together to celebrate Noah's Birthday. (Thank you Grandpa Rob for taking this on last minute!)
After dinner when it was time to get the kids home to bed David started having a bit of a melt down. We thought it was just too much TV 11 too much dessert and it was passed bedtime. The melt down continued on our drive home. Jonathan put him in his bed and talked to him for quite a while. I went in to say goodnight and the real reason he was upset came out... he wanted Noah to be here with us. He even expressed his anger at God that Noah wasn't here. It is hard for all of us to understand but as David gets older and continues processing his brother's death he begins to grieve on new levels (we were told this often happens when small children lose someone they love). David wanted to go through Noah's pictures so I told him we could do that in the morning.
This morning we watched the "Sweet Sweet Baby" picture slide show that our NILMDTS photographer Jane put together for us. That's one slide show I will never get through without tears. The one line that got me most... at least today is... "Sweet Sweet Baby...can you save me?.. save me from a night without you... Sweet Sweet Baby, can you save me? The way that I am born to save you."
When we learned that Noah had Trisomy 13 and that he would not likely survive many people said that God chose me to be his mother (and I believe He did chose us to be Noah's parents just as He chose us to be David, Angeline, Samara, and this next Baby's parents)... and in a way we did "save him"... though the choice wasn't as easy or as black and white as it may have seemed. Though Noah is no longer here... though we haven't been "saved from a night without him" he did save us in many ways through the lessons we learned. I wish I could be saved from all the nights without my Baby Boy... and all the many nights still to come. In the nearly 4 years since Noah died we have "learned" how to go on through the difficult times, through the birthdays and anniversaries and holidays. Some things may seem easier but I've really noticed this year that one thing in particular gets harder. There are now 4 years that separate us from our time together... and next year there will be 5.

Walking

Samara took her first steps before she turned 1... during the Grey Cup! She is nearly 14 months and she is now walking as her primary mode of transportation, though she does still shuffle and crawl. With her brother and sister running around she has been nervous about getting knocked over. I'm looking forward to her becoming more independent and learning to walk with shoes on outside so that we can play in the back yard more easily. It's definitely too wet to be crawling around out there. Also with another baby on the way I want to be careful not to carry her around too much. This video doesn't really do it justice but she doesn't like to perform so we have been having some difficulty capturing it.

January

 January we started back into school after a two week Christmas break. We struggled getting back to our routine ate first but I really wasn't feeling well which didn't help. Here are some pictures of David's work to summerize what he accomplished this month. Even though we started off a bit slow we ended up covering a lot. The first 3 pictures are examples from SSRW. We do an excersize like this for each letter of the alphabet. Numbering the order of events was new. I've notised a big improvement in David when it asks to find things in the picture that start with a certain letter. We also covered rhyming words.

For each letter we also look through a magazine to find a picture that starts with that particular letter. David can do this on his own for the most part (with the exception of some difficult letters that I have trouble finding a picture for).

David has developed more patience for colouring. When we started this was his least favourite task and he would often rush it and only use one colour so I have noticed an improvement in this as well.

The above math pictures are review. The below example is of unit 14 which we just completed. The purpose of until 14 was to make sure 0-20 was well known. I found it funny to cover this now since in the past we have already been talking about hundreds. As February begins we are moving into until 15.

Besides an increased interest in colouring and drawing David has been eager to complete the alphabet. We will be completing Z today! Also we have been doing a lot of spelling words... David has been writing the month, day of the week, our address and phone number as well as his last name. He sells many words from memory and we are working on others. He continues to express enthusiasm for other languages and I should really be spending more time working on french with him. I think this will be a main focus this summer when we have a break from our regular school routine and hopefully I can incorporate it better next year... adding some actual french curriculum.

10 Weeks

What about 10 weeks? Most of you can probably guess, have already guessed, or already know that we are 10 weeks pregnant with Baby #5. We had our first ultrasound 2 weeks ago to "date" our pregnancy at which point our Due Date was changed to August 25th. It was nice to see Baby and watch his heart beating. We will be having another more extensive ultrasound on February 15th which we are looking forward to as well.
At 10 weeks we can no longer keep it a "secret"... besides being excited for our new arrival I am feeling very pregnant and beginning to show as well. It's early but it doesn't take long after the first few pregnancies.
We are currently planning for this to be my last pregnancy and though 1st trimester is my least favourite of the 3 I really can't imagine doing it again at this point. So whether it's "Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails" or "Sugar and Spice and everything nice" this will be the last melon!
Here is our ultrasound picture from 8 weeks, 3 days....

After testing positive we celebrated by making pancakes... we hadn't told the kids at first but when it came time for my first doctors appointment David asked "Do you have a Baby in your tummy?" I wish I would have recorded his reaction... he was excited! Angeline is excited too... she says she also has a baby in her tummy.

Samara's 1 Year Picture

Fun in the Snow

Yesterday we were finally able to get out in the snow and play. I took David and Angeline down the hill (our street) in the morning... and back up so I got my work out in. We also attempted a Snow Man but the snow was so powdery that we didn't have much success. After rolling the bottom of our snow man back and forth for what seemed like hours I gave up. We have 2 balls stacked in the front yard so we might have a chance to make a head later. It is actually snowing as I type so we might get out to play again tomorrow but it is a bit hard with Samara.
I was surprised how long the kids lasted in the snow. In the end I had to promise David some hot chocolate just to get him in. Besides our attempt at a snow man they also made snow angels and rode their run bikes in the drive way. I had so much fun playing in the snow when I was young... it is wonderful to enjoy a snow day now with my children.
Let it snow!
PS- Thanks Great Grandma Evelyne for the Lion Scarf!

Christmas 2011 (In a Nutshell)!

Happy New Year...

I was going to end 2011 with a blogged Christmas letter but somehow the New Year has already found us. I will post Christmas pictures hopefully in the next few days as Jonathan has a few days off. We did have a lovely year end filled with lots of visits with far away family including my brother Ryan  (and Ashlin) from Grande Prairie and Jonathan's sister Lauren (and Brent)  from England. We are looking forward to a trip to the Island in January as well.
2012 is fairly brand new at this point but it is always nice to have a fresh start with each New Year. I am looking forward to going back to church this morning after missing a few Sundays before Christmas. I am looking forward to beginning school again with David after a few weeks off. Samara has been very cautious with her walking (mostly because of her brother and sister running circles around her) but she has been walking her way into the new year quite literally.
We are all looking forward to Winter changing into Spring and Spring into Summer. Another season of walks to the park, endless hours of play in the backyard,  and another garden to plant. Angeline will soon be 3 and I am starting to feel like the 2's have mostly stayed in 2011. By the end of this Year Samara will turn 2 and we will be tested in new ways through her unique self. David will turn 6 and in September we will begin another year of homeschool with Grade 1!
I'm not sure all that 2012 will bring but I am looking forward to each day filled with new experiences and new memories to cherish.
As far as New Years Resolutions??? Jonathan and I recently started MacArthur's Study Bible for reading the bible in 1 year... it's not so much that we finish it in exactly one year but that we make the time to sit down together and spend time in God's Word. I hope to continue in Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesdays with the kids studying the book of Acts... it is amazing what we have learned since September (and I have studied Acts before). I think we will put the kids in some swimming lessons, Jonathan plans to play soccer this Spring, and I am hoping to sign up for an exercise class of some sort.
From our family to yours we wish everyone a year filled with Strength and Peace to endure hard times and Love to make this world a better place.

The Neufelds

If You're Happy and you Know it...

Samara started clapping her hands last week... thought I would share a short video. 

Happy 1st Birthday Samara

Our baby girl turns 1 today. Happy 1st Birthday Samara Anne Marie! As I reflect on Samara's first year I am finding it hard to come up with the right words to express how much she means to us. Her kisses, smiles and cuddles warm our hearts. She is our sweetheart and she makes us laugh. We love her so much! She's always trying to keep up with her brother and sister and she does a pretty good job. She has taken her first steps but is cautious about starting to walk. She loves to dance (shake it Samara!) and sing... especially Elmo's song. She will often sit quietly studying a toy... you can see the wheels in her head turning. She loves noodles, mashed potatoes, carrots, yogurt and ice cream but will eat pretty much anything. Hope you enjoy these Birthday Pictures... Jonathan has some great ones on his camera as well which he will probably blog soon.