Hot Springs

Here are some pics of the vacation we took in Hot Springs, Arkansas, well over a month ago.  Please excuse the poor quality, they were taken on a phone as our digital camera is broken Ryvre picking up quartz behind our condo Ember running around on the back porch a really poor image of the stained glass ceiling in one of the bathhouses...something about Neptune and nymphs... Ryvre and Willow at the bathhouse...the fountain (directly below the stained glass) is very cool too, but you can't tell by the pic.  It depicts a Native American myth, if i remember correctly. That would be a tank behind the kids.  It's a memorial in the middle of a little park we visited every day.

More Milestones

Ryvre can add!

i showed Ryvre how to add by ones yesterday; he got it on the first try!!!
He needs a little more practice writing his numbers (threes are sometimes backwards, and 5's look like S's), but besides that he doesn't need any help.  He's doing it in "number sentence" form too, so he's not just counting pictures. 

*proud mama*

Willow is learning to write numbers; she's just tracing them now, but she has been counting to twenty for quite awhile.

Ember is saying some important words like "cup" and "poop" (she says it like "poo-ep") but she still says "mmm" when she's hungry. 

At least SHE tells me when she's poopy, unlike her older sister.

Park

	At the Park Ember Willow; notice new hair cut Ryvre...his hair is still long, but it won't be forever.

Christmas Pics

Ember meeting her (second) cousin Landon

Ember opening presents on Christmas Eve

Willow on Christmas Eve

Ember with Great-Great Grandma Miller

Ryvre totally intrigued with his stocking candy (Christmas day)

Willow, with one of her favorite gifts

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

Love,
Ryvre, Willow, Ember
Dale and Michelle

Christmas and Cheerios

Christmas with the in-laws

Yeah, that's my FIL's rear.  Ironically, it was the only pic that turned out really well besides.  Ember wouldn't hold still long enough to make it into any of the pics.
And another reason i love toddlers...

She got her own snack.  Awefully proud of herself.

Still Learning

We are still learning, i just haven't been posting.

Ryvre spelled his first word the day before his fifth birthday; it was "bunny."  We have been spelling words aloud alot.  On Sunday, Dale discovered that Ryvre remembers the spellings of words better if they're sung...i feel very foolish spelling random words to a tune, but it does help!  He remembers the names of family members best, but he is getting the hang of a few four and five-letter words too; he doesn't remember them at first, but if we help him once or twice he remembers them for the next hour or so.  I also made a big kindergarten-style word list, and he is able to tell me most of the words on sight, most of the time, based on some of the letter sounds and memory.

Right now the kids are painting holiday ornaments (precut wooden doves and celtic crosses from the craft store).