Pics of Rebecca and Gabe

Hey gang,

Rebecca brought Gabe over to our friends Aaron and Kim's house Last week. Aaron's quite the photographer and he got some great pics and put them on his blog. Check them out and if you ever need a photographer for something, he's your man!

Valentine's Day Lapbook

Olivia is standing in front of the poster we made to talk about love. It has her bible verses...1 John4:19 (yes, i just noticed that the poster is wrong), 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and Jeremiah 31:3. We talked about the specifics of what love is and how we show love.

This is the front of our Valentines lapbook. She used heart shaped cookie cutters and finger paint to decorate it.

The top pocket has hearts with numbers on them that Olivia put in order. She can now put them in order 1-20 all by herself. The bottom pocket (i need a larger pocket) has the Valentine that I made for her and its envelope. She helped me put it in the envelope and address it. Then we took it to the post office and bought a stamp for it. The postman showed her how he put it in a bin to sort it and then that it would go to the car of our delivery person. The next day we received it in our mailbox. Olivia was very excited!

The inside flap has our bible verses and the legend of St. Valentine. We read the book "The Story of Valentine's Day" by Nancy J. Skarmeas.

These are some mini books that we used to talk about our mail and the experience we had mailing the Valentine. The top one lists the steps in order with words and Olivia matched pictures to them. The bottom book is of two stamps she colored herself. She put a heart on one and a person on the other. Sorry we didn't open them for the picture.

This is another book we read called "Cranberry Valentine" by Wende and Harry Devlin. Olivia really enjoyed this one. We counted things in the book, like how many buttons were on Mr. Whiskers coat and how many ladies were in the sowing circle. We also talked about some of the common symbols of Valentine's Day, like love birds, hearts, balloons, cards, and flowers.

We also read "The Valentine Bears" by Eve bunting. We did some more counting of the hearts in the book and we also made a list of preparations that Mrs. Bear went through on her Valentine's Day to make it special for Mr. Bear. I wrote the list while Olivia told me what she heard in the story. The address flap is from our mail discussion. We are starting to learn our new address. I helped Olivia write the address.

This is her candy heart graphing. We did one each day for 3 days. At least she had to work before she got to eat her candy. She did this one mostly by herself.

Most of my resources came from homeschoolshare.com and the TotallyTots blog.

Kiddo Pics

Here are some cute pictures of the kiddos for y'all.

Olivia doing a wonderful job of learning to draw hearts. They aren't as easy as I thought. Keep in mind, I've got less drawing talent than a monkey.

Olivia learning about the letter D.

Olivia and Gabe playing together. Gabe is doing very well with sitting in his high chair and loves to sit and watch Olivia eat. He's getting really quick with the hand-to-mouth coodination and, if you're holding him, will try to grab food as you put it in your mouth. He also loves to grab cups and put his mouth on the rim like he's trying to drink.

Gabe's Dedication

Ok, We had Gabe's dedication over 2 weeks ago, but I was dumb and left the camera in my father-in-law's car, which we didn't realize until they were already near Charlotte. We got it back over the weekend, so now I can finally post the pics!

Gabe with his Great-granddad

Pastor Don Miller of Westover Church talking to us about dedicating Gabe.


Pastor Don speaking the verse we chose for Gabe. We picked 1 Chronicles 16:11 - "Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek His face always." Pastor Don said he'd never had anyone pick that verse before, which was pretty cool.

Pastor Don praying for Gabe and for us. We were so happy to have all the generations of both families represented on stage with us. From left: Mom and Dad Sarine, Granddad Baldwin, Dad and Mom Baldwin (sorry mom, you were hidden behind us), and then us, of course. There were a bunch of folks that came to support us as well and we thank all of you for being there. You've been a blessing in our lives and we're glad Gabe will grow up knowing all of you.

Olivia In The Snow

Olivia ran around in the snow this evening declaring, "It's Christmas!"

Olivia's Dance Recital

Olivia had her Little Gym "recital" last week and it was sooooo cute!



They also had to do a gymnastics "routine" on the bars.

She also did a ballet dance and a balance beam exercise, but, unfortunately, I screwed up and taped over it. :(

They were each awarded a medal for completing the course. Our daughter is such a ham.



And we followed it all up with celebratory ice cream cone. She always gets this god-awful, fluorescent-colored stuff that's got a blue dye that is practically a tattoo on her tongue and lips.