It's a BOY!

We had our official 20 week ultrasound this morning. I am so thankful to say that all looked healthy and normal. Praise God! We found out we were having another precious boy. Afterwards I went to Central Market and got some blue-frosted cupcakes to bring home. The kids were so excited to find out if they were having a brother or sister. And even closed their eyes and held out their hands to accept their "surprise." Very cute. Here is to another Risinger BOY!!!

My Little Wild Man

John makes me giggle at least once a day. That kid has some serious personality. Here is his newest trick. He makes me remove the cushions on the couch and then uses the springs underneath as a personal trampoline. Hilarious. I am waiting for him to propel himself off the couch, but so far it has not happened. . . yet.

What Homeschooling Looks Like. . .

I have been homeschooling Alivia for about 3 weeks now. I really enjoy it! It has been so fun to see what material they teach in Kindergarten and to share in the learning process with her. She is such an enthusiastic learner and often gets up on the mornings that we homeschool and awakens me with, "Is it time to start learning to read yet?" She is a joy to teach. Some of the harder moments have been trying to entertain Will and John while we homeschool but that should get easier as they transition into their full days at Covenant Preschool.

One of the most amazing things about this age is their ability to memorize. I am stunned at what she can retain and what Veritas expects them to memorize. We work on a memorization poem every month - last month it was "I See the Moon", and this month it is "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep." She is also expected to learn the entire I Corinthians 13 by the end of the semester. I was so doubtful we were going to be able to do it, but she is memorizing it faster than I am. Truly amazing.

I am so thankful to be a co-teacher to Alivia.

Will's First Day of 3-day Preschool

Will started back at Covenant Presbyterian Preschool this morning (finally!) He has been more than ready to start back since watching Sister go off to school for the last few weeks. Matt dropped him off and Mimi picked him up. They both said he went into the classroom without any hesitation. I pray that this year will go great with Miss Jenny and he will make some sweet friendships.

The Taylor (Walker) Twins

A few weekends ago Matt and I snuck away to Fort Worth for a quick overnight trip to see the newest additions to the extended Taylor family. Katherine Collins and Martha Cunningham were born to my cousin and her husband on July 1st. They are absolutely precious and Blair and John seem to be taking parenthood in stride.

Another exciting event that had just occurred a few days before we arrived was that my other cousin, Leigh (Blair's sister) got engaged! We met her fiancee for the first time and really liked him. They plan on getting married in Santa Fe on May 5th. It will be quite the shin-dig I am sure.

It was just so fun sleeping in, riding in the car with Matt and seeing family we had not seen in awhile.

Blair feeding Katherine, me feeding Martha

Baby Martha is so tiny! She is still a few pounds behind her sister.

Martha and Martha

Leigh and her fiancee Michael with baby Katherine

Aunt Jerry admiring her Granddaughter

Me and Leigh

We had a yummy brunch at the Modern Museum

Matt loved the architecture. I wish we could have visited the whole museum

Cousins!

Grandmother and Me

Dada Day

Every Saturday has been named "Dada Day" by Alivia and Will. It starts with doughnuts at either Super Donuts on Far West, Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts. Then they hit the Dollar Store and possibly a quick trip into the pet store to take a look at the dogs getting groomed and eye the future guinea pig that will join our family "when Remy dies." I happened to join them today for the fun along with John and also hit a few other places. We are in the process of slowly transitioning John out of his morning nap which makes it so much easier to do something fun as a family in the mornings.

I relish these Saturday mornings with no agenda or plan!

First Day of Kindergarten for Alivia!

Today was the big day. Alivia's first day of Kindergarten at Veritas Academy. Matt's alarm did not go off so we both awoke at 7:10 in a state of panic. Thank goodness we had Alivia's uniform all ready. Mimi came over and helped get her breakfast going and Matt and I frantically packed her lunch. We took a few pictures of our precious girl and were out the door at 7:35 am.

We usually will have 4 other boys joining us in the morning for the carpool, but today everyone came with their own families.

There are 7 boys and 4 girls in Mrs. Foulkrod's class. When we arrived, Alivia walked confidently into the room, found her chair and the round table and began coloring. She hardly looked up again. That girl is focused! I waved and slinked out the door with a few tears in my eyes. I stayed in the hallway a few more minutes and peeked at the activity. She is sitting with 3 other boys at her table (there are 3 tables with 4 kids each).

When the boys and I picked her up she said, "I am tired. Today we played freeze tag. I was the only girl who did not get tagged!" Some other comments were, "The boys made funny faces and I laughed at them." "I made a friend with another girl who is not in my class." "We had Spanish class today." She also started rattling off the months of the year by memory. I was amazed!

Tomorrow will be our first day of homeschooling. This is quite an adventure. We get our homeschooling assignments for the week a few days before it starts and there is a communication folder that travels back and forth between the class and home. She already has some work to turn in next Monday.

Alivia was bummed to realize that she won't be able to go back to school again for FIVE more days. She wanted to celebrate her first day of kindergarten with a party, but settled for some Amy's Ice Cream after dinner. What a special day!