another update.

It's November 17th already. 3 more days and I'm sitting at 5 months pregnant!! Can't believe it!!
I was 22 weeks yesterday. Baby now has eyebrows and eyelids and the teeth are forming under the gums! AMAZING! S/he looks like a little newborn now. Just growing and getting stronger now, really. I'm feeling okay. The nausea is getting better but I haven't quite had the courage to stop taking my medication. I"m on half the amount now and I'm pleased just with that. Feeling less nauseated makes me think that it might be a boy. And also that Baby doesn't move as much as with Maria of Esther. But then the higher heartbeat makes me think girl. Ahhh, we'll see. Just 4 more months now. The tough thing about this baby is that it's been super tough on my back. Especially with sciatic pain. It's normally only bad in the evenings. But sometimes it's so bad that it's super painful just to walk. Which isn't a ton of fun, obviously. But I'm super glad that it's just after the kids are in bed and that it's just going to last another 4 months. And the outcome will be SO very worth it!!

Maria's meeting with her teacher yesterday went super well. I was pleased. She was SO excited and ran to meet her and was jumping up and down and laughing when she came. It was so fun. Definitely getting over her shyness even though she's being home schooled. We're pretty much where we need to be for everything. Like I said before it's hard to know when you can move on to the next thing. So Science we're done now, pretty much for this term. Next we'll do either weather or animals. I'm pretty sure Maria would like animals better. I'm pretty interested in the little weather kid we get to use when we learn about weather. Either way, they'll both be fun. And we can take lots of field trips learning about animals :) I think tomorrow Maria will be done her 2nd book of Language Arts. I'm hoping to have her done both Math and Language Arts Grade 1 this year and start Grade 2 in those subjects next year. Esther was super fun and was answering questions alongside Maria. It was really neat. Pretty sure she'll be ready for kindergarten next year. A year early but she's so jealous that Maria gets to be in kindergarten and she doesn't.

And Christmas is just around the corner. I'm so excited to start decorating for Christmas. I normally don't get an urge to decorate till December but I think I'll let the kids hang stockings today. I have to add one more this year :D
We're not going overboard with Christmas this year. The kids have lots of family and get lots of great gifts so we feel we don't have to dump tons more gifts on them as well. They all get a pair of pajamas and an outfit and a stocking and that's it from us. But Bryant is making their bunk bed for Christmas as well. Exciting! We also each chose names out of a hat for our van Leeuwen family. It works out this year that a lot of what we chose for gifts helps out others. I bought a baby blanket for Baby from a stay-at-home mom that makes bibs and blankets to try and help financially and still stay home. I bought some hair clips and hair bands from another super great friend just starting out for the very same reason, will be going to an adoption fundraiser where they're selling some African things (Which I LOVE!), and finally I was able to buy a few things from the bazaar to raise money for the Abbotsford hospital. (My mom volunteers there and the girls stayed in the afternoon to help sell baking. Maria loved handling the money. SO fun!). I guess it's not a super big deal but somehow I'm glad that the money that is going out for gifts not only blesses the person receiving the gift but also the person I'm buying it off. Not that I spent huge amounts of money. But still. It's nice :)
Another thing that I've done with the girls last year and are doing again this year is that we've chosen two young missionary sisters that are in Africa and we're sending them a little Christmas package. I think it's a fun way to get them thinking beyond themselves and gifts at Christmas time. Of course we'll also be talking about the REAL reason for Christmas as well. But it's super fun for the girls to choose a gift and send it in the mail and then of course see the pictures after the girls receive it.
And of course the girls will be making some crafts to give away at Christmas time. I have an idea that I think is super fun and cute AND useful. And it's the kids' new favorite craft as well. I will post pictures later because I don't want to give it away. Even though my kids are NOT the best at keeping secrets! :)
Anyway. Enough about that.

It seems Danny has grown up SO much lately and is really learning how to play together well with the girls. This is SUCH a big deal to me because there was SO much trying to solve issues before. But now they're beginning to figure it out on their own. They love to play and jump on our big bed, and wearing all my shoes, and practicing ballet, and running around, playing ring-around-the-rosie is a new favorite. And they also love to play trains together.
it's so fun to see and hear them getting along so well.

Well, hmmmm. Maybe that's a kind of lame update but it's all I have time for. Until next time!