My Dear Sweet Girl

Lucia is a lot like me in many ways, but she has a lot more redeeming qualities than I have. First of all, she's very sweet. The other day she says to me, "I love my family, but Sylvie is my favorite person in the whole wide world. I love her so, so, so much!" It's true-she is always sweet to Sylvie and helps to watch her and take care of her. She is also very sweet to Marco, despite his being difficult at times. The other day as we were getting ready to leave the park, Marco started to throw a tantrum. So I said, "Let's race to the car and see who gets there first!" So Lucia went back to where Marco was crying and held his hand and said, "Ready, set, go!" Then she let him beat her to the car and said, "Good job Marco!"
Doing homeschool with Marco is not easy because he wants in on all the action. As much as I try to keep him occupied, it doesn't always work. So, after I was getting a little frustrated with him, Lucia said she would teach him. So, she did her own lesson on colors. They sorted our letter magnets into different colors and then she took Marco on a "Color hunt" around the house-let's find something yellow, blue, etc. The whole time she was encouraging him and praising him. It was so cute! She is a very good sister. She always helps him clean his room and do his chores and lets him watch what he wants to watch. Sometimes I think she has an old soul. She is more mature than I am sometimes! I love her very much and am so grateful she's my daughter. I learn a lot from that little girl.

Random Pictures

A couple of wild turkeys on our back fence.

The sinful fallen chocolate cake Julio made for me-delicious!

Last week we had to do PE in the garage due to the rain. We made an obstacle course. Here is Lucia crying because she was so frustrated with the jump rope. This week she starts gymnastics and her science class. Finally!

Rain inside, rain outside and MLK Day

It's been forecasted that we will get 6 inches of rain this week! UGH! We got up to go to the dentist this morning. When we arrived, the power went out and so we came home. The was our morning. So, I tried to fill the wet afternoon with educational stuff inside. Since there was so much rain outside, I decided we would talk about MATTER today; solid, liquid and gas. We read a book on it and then to demonstrate, we did the old hot water in a glass bowl with ice in a pan on top. The kids could see the different kinds of matter together and how they change. Then we drew pictures of it.

Also, in homage to Martin Luther King, JR. we watched his Let Freedom Ring speech and talked about him. The kids colored his picture. Lucia pointed out that at the top of her picture where the hands are together-one has white skin and the other has black. She is such a perceptive and sweet girl.
Figuring out this whole homeschool thing has been harder than I thought. We get our curriculum this week, so it should be easier. I hope...

Another week, another post

Freshly trimmed bushes-new roof

The front room (kids are watching the tv)

Homeschool central

The master suite.

Master bedroom

Week one of homeschool is done. I have really enjoyed spending time teaching Lucia. It has been a lot of fun working together on her learning. We have yet to speak to her assigned teacher from the charter school-we enrolled last Monday and they sent us a beginner packet to start us off. The teacher was assigned last Tuesday, but hasn't called yet. I called on Thursday and they sent her an email, and still no phone call. So, we just keep doing our own thing, and I'm fine with that. I do really enjoy teaching. I guess what I don't like is the politics, behavior issues, and all the paperwork of teaching in a public school with 20 students with 20 learning styles and backgrounds. It's fun teaching my own daughter and tailoring the instruction to her learning style because I know her and I love her! Anyway, we have our dining room set up as homeschool central and that's where we do our work. My parents gave us an old secretary desk where we keep our supplies and we have a bookcase with all the kids books in there too. This last week we tried to do something each day. We went to the library, the mall, the park. We are still trying to get our routine down and each day we find something that works and other things that don't. I got a white board and that is where we post our chores for the day and our calendar. I've found that the kids can't do jobs without some supervision. They can't do too many at once. If we are going to go out, we need to do it before lunch. Homeschool works best when Sylvie is napping. Marco needs to participate or have something to distract him. Lucia has a kindergartner's attention span (about 20 min. at a time on one task). We need to do a variety of activities a day. These are just some things I've figured out this week. Trial and error-that's how it will be for a while.

I've had some requests for pictures of the house. I tried taking some, but our camera sucks and I haven't quite figured out how to use it beyond point and shoot. The house is coming together. Julio was very busy this weekend-he pruned all the bushes in the front yard, installed smoke alarms, and cleaned out the garage. I was so proud of him. Here a few shots of the house. I will take more and hopefully I can get a shot of our neighborhood turkeys (there are about 14 of them that roam around) and the millions of squirrels in our yard. Can't wait for nicer weather!

Have a good week!

A little family outing

Swinging!

Riding the train.

On the Delta King river boat.

Lucia playing school in the Old School House.

Yesterday we went to Old Town Sacramento-a tourist staple here. We haven't been in a while, but Callie (who I didn't get any pictures of) talked us into going. It was nice to just get out and walk around in the crisp air. We got salt water taffy and french fries, looked at the boat, the trains and the shops.

This week it is back to the grind. I have to get Lucia's school curriculum this week to start homeschool! I'm a little nervous about it, but I'm sure it will work out fine. I'll try to keep a log of how things are going. That's all for now!

La Traviesita

Here is Sylvie-La Traviesita which translates to our Little Naughty Girl.

She likes to climb on things. She went through 3 outfits in one hour yesterday. She climbed on the table twice to get into people's breakfasts that were left out. She got Lucia's plate of syrup, and then she got Marco's bowl of cereal and got it all over the kitchen and herself. (Can you guess who was supposed to be watching her? Mom was in the shower) Julio decided to get a baby gate yesterday to keep her out of the kitchen. But, we have to keep our eye on her every minute. She climbs on everything and gets into everything! What do we do with this little girl?

Christmas 2009

Our attempt at getting a picture of all the grandkids on Christmas Eve

Marco's getting away!

Cute girls-oh and Brian too!

Crazy Uncle Brian chasing the kids.

The Hernandez family

Marco and his trains

Lucia with her loot

Moving a week before Christmas is very hectic. We have decorated our tree three times this year! The first time-in the duplex, the second time in our new home, then said tree fell over and the stand broke, so the third time was decorating an older fake tree we had that is only 4' tall. That was not exciting! But after a crazy week of trying to unpack and get settled in, spend time with Tami and the kids-Christmas snuck up on us quickly. I wrapped all the gifts on the 23rd-it took me about 3 hours. On the 24th-Noelle's birthday- we went and saw The Princess and the Frog. It was so good! Despite having to chase Sylvie up and down the theater steps, I did enjoy it. So did the kids. Christmas Eve we did our traditional stuff-a yummy ham dinner, celebrated Noelle's birthday and then our crazy White Elephant Gift exchange. It was slightly less fun without the Aldama's-but we still had a good time. We then sang carols with Callie playing the piano and Tami gave a devotional. By that time, we were ready to go Santa hunting. We packed the kids in the car and drove around to see some lights. The kids were out before we got home, so Julio and I had our night free to put together stockings and set up gifts. It took Julio until 2 am to set up Marco's new train table. We were so exhausted.

Christmas morning was so much fun. I love having that magic back with the little children in our home. I know it won't last forever, so I try to enjoy it as much as possible. I couldn't sleep soundly, because I didn't want to miss hearing the kids sneak out of bed to see their presents. Lucia was the first one up at 7:30-I sent her back to bed. The other kids woke up a little bit later and so we took them out to the living room to see their gifts. They were so happy! I loved seeing their faces light up. Lucia got a Fancy Nancy doll for her birthday and didn't play with it, so I put it away in my closet for the past few months. So when she saw the doll under the tree with a bunch of new clothes and a new bathtub-she thought Santa had brought her another Fancy Nancy-I had to tell her it was the same one. She was ok with that. She got a lot of girly stuff and was very content. Marco was excited about his train table, dinosaurs, and new Planet Hero. Sylvie got a Winnie the Pooh ride-on train and some books. We then went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for another round of gift opening. With so many people in the family, it is quite the production! The rest of the day was just being lazy and eating! The best gift was being with the family and being in our new house!

We did a Shirley family portrait yesterday at the park and that wrapped up our time with Dan and Tami-they went back to Utah today. The rest of the group came over last night for pizza and a movie (Julie and Julia-the guys mostly left). It has been such an enjoyable time. I don't know when we'll see my sisters and their families again. It might be a while and that makes me sad just thinking about it. I'm excited for the new year-especially because I don't know what is in store for us. We would like to make some trips this year. Now that we're in our house, it's time to start travelling!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!