Reflection..

So I thought I'd take a moment to share some pictures of Jenna Mae's delivery and first moments in the world!
Every single day, I am full of so much gratitude and love for this little girl. She is such a huge blessing to this family and really fills in the little gap that we had.  I love nursing her and watching her smile (intentionally) at us.  I love her little, well big, cry.  I love the way she snuggles her face into you when she is sleeping. She is just so alert, as well.  Her eyes are always wanting to see it all, ever since she was born, she always had those eyes open. I am so grateful for her safe journey here and for the sweet little loving spirit that she has.

My first time seeing her!  It was amazing. I just soaked it all in and tried to make sure that I remember how it felt. I couldn't stop kissing her little face.  I didn't want them to take her away! We had such great anesthesiologists. One of them offered to take pictures in the OR for us, and we are so happy that he did! I love that we have these pictures!

The next day, my parents brought Jaden to the hospital to see her for the first time. Oh my goodness. That was so precious, and it made me adore and love Jaden even more for how much he loved being a big brother now. He's a great big brother, too!

Jenna's Blessing!

On November 23rd, Jenna Mae had her baby blessing!  My dad and Cory's family flew out to share with this special time, and the Bishop of our Ward came out as well.  It was such a great weekend!  Family is so important to us, and I'm grateful that both of ours were able to make it out...even though it wasn't all of them, it still meant the world that both sides were "represented".  It was a beautiful blessing...even if Jenna DID cry the whole time! :)

Presenting......

Jenna Mae!!

Jenna Mae was born on October 18th, through a planned c-section.  She was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19.5 inches long.  I can't explain the feelings I felt when I saw her sweet face for the first time, but I just had to kiss it a few times before they took her away.  I was so grateful that she made it and that I made it.  Babies are such miracles, and I am so grateful and blessed to have 2 of them!

Here she is when she was 7 days old!

First Day of School!!

So, today we had our first official day of Kindergarten!!  I think I was looking forward to this day just as much as Jaden was.  He was SO excited!!  He got to pack up his backpack last night after church and pick out his outfit.  He had a hard time falling asleep last night and woke up early.  Needless to say, he was ready to go!

He woke up and waited in my room until I was ready and dressed, and then he went and got his outfit on and backpack.  (He was so good about waiting and not going downstairs to peak).  First, we went outside to take some pictures, and then we came back inside to do more pictures and explore the new school area and kitchen.  He was SUPER excited about it all!  This made me so happy!

He's so proud of his new Avenger backpack, and he wouldn't let me not take a picture of it!

Going into school! ;)

Jaden and Max!

Cory had this great idea to "drive" Jaden to "school".  Jaden said "I'm already at school, Dad!" But, we finally got Jaden to go into the car, and he kept asking "Is this for real?".  Cory just drove him around the block, and brought him back, and he had so much fun doing this!  He was ALL smiles.

We had Chocolate Chip Pancakes for breakfast!

While I was cleaning up, we had about 30 minutes before school started, so he sat down on the floor and looked through his new backpack with the binders that he is to bring with him everyday to school and his new Avengers pencil case, that he loaded with new pencils, scissors, glue stick and dry erase marker. We have all of the other school supplies in our little table top spinner in the school area.  I seriously just loved his excitement about today!

Since today was the first day of school, we didn't get into any curriculum or core things at all.  We just worked on a lapbook that told all about him!  With this, he was still getting practice with spelling, sounding out letters, critically thinking about answers, coloring, cutting, and all that good stuff.  He LOVED doing this, and we lasted the entire day! I wasn't sure about his attention with this one thing, but since it was very involved he did great!  I have a daily schedule that we are going to be testing once we get into our regular schedule with english, math, science, music, art, health, and religion.  I definitely have more of a schedule than I did last year, but I continue having the heart of flexibility...because honestly, schedules are more of a guideline that will most likely be broken more often than not :).

Looking through his lapbook for answers to the All About Me worksheet that he was doing.  Some questions repeated themselves, and the ones that we already answered for the lapbook, he was able to recognize and search for the answer and copy that down on the worksheet!  He was very focused.. :)

We had our lunch break from 12-1245 (this gives him time to eat and play a little with Max...kind of like a recess, I guess).  He picked out a lunchbox, and was so excited to be able to use it.  I packed it last night, and PLAN to do that every night...so hopefully I can stay on top of things and keep this up! He was thrilled to be able to grab his lunch box, sit down, open it up for surprises, and eat it.  I just had so much fun today with him!

Today was a great day, especially when Jaden said, "Can we do this again tomorrow? This is the best first day of school."...It was a fantastic start to a new year...but don't worry, I've been doing this for a year (still not very long I know), and I'm definitely not oblivious to the challenges of Homeschooling...some days are just not gonna happen, but those that do happen are going to be great.  I am so thankful that Jaden is so happy and willing to learn from me and enjoys it!  I'll take this as long as I can get it :).  I love homeschooling him, and I can't wait for Jenna to get here and one day add her to the "class"!