Shrove Tuesday 2013

Oh do our children look forward to this day every year!

Pancakes, bacon and sausage!

Candles and a festive atmosphere!

See the ever present homeschool corner?

Not just plain pancakes, but a cheery M&M's are a must!

 Our littlest boy getting in on the action!

 Having fun!

My biggest boy getting down to some serious business.  I forgot to mention the maple syrup and cream!

YUM!  Love our girl!!!  She's pretty big on the syrup and cream too!

Quick photo of grabber boy. Had to take that away and he wasn't too happy with that action.

 Our favorite Dad and husband!

FLL Robotics

The FLL Robotic State Champions

Joseph has been involved in First Lego League Robotics this year.

It has been a wonderful experience for him.  Winning was great, but it would have been a wonderful experience even without that.

He learned so much about research, robots, programming and engineering.  Not to mention

team work and working with a great group of kids.  Their coach did such a fantastic job.

  

 I did not attend the state competition, which was an all day event held at Georgia Tech.

However, Isabelle and I were watching via live streaming and were able to see them announce the winners!

The next competition is the World Competition held in St. Louis Missouri at the end of April.

The expect around 30,000 people from around the world.

Samuel's First Food

Samuel had his first little bites of food.  He loved it!

He wanted to do it himself!  

Christmas Lunch 2012

We were so happy to have a crowd for Christmas Lunch.  

In addition to our family of five, we were grateful to have Mom and Dad, Kelley, Lora and Sebastian,

Aunt Jan, Brad, Lesha and their three beautiful children.

Brendon grilled beef tenderloin, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!  

Mom took a little nap while dinner was being prepared, but she did notice me with the camera!

Now Dad, he did NOT notice me.  

He pulled the chair up to the fire and had a nice little snooze!

A crowd gathered and having fun!

Three Coker children.

 Here's Brad!

Dad and Sebastian

Mimi and Samuel

Christmas Morning 2012

"Santa" brings one gift for each of our children.

They both received the same gift this year!

I-Touch!

 Excitement reigns!

Mom and Dad apparently went a bit wild this year!

So far everyone still has their eyeballs!

A request of a few years...

Butterfly kit and Interior design drawing kit!

A special charm to add to the bracelet!  

Joseph is a master at the pogo.  In fact he absolutely wore out his old one!

 Very first Christmas for a much love baby!

 Playing in his Christmas PJ's

Christmas Eve 2012

Mommy being silly

Samuel being silly

We wait while Dad figures out the camera remote...

More silly waiting...

Oh look we are all together!  Where is Samuel looking?

 My special big kids!

We attend church on Christmas Eve and for some reason we have been eating Mexican food for several years now for our Christmas Eve dinner!  Then we come home and everyone is so excited for the Christmas Morning!  

Pre-Christmas Baking 2012

These two had the best time baking and icing Christmas cookies!

They may have had some icing by this point!

 Samuel getting in on the action!

A plate of fun, love and deliciousness!

Happy New Year 2013!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have all succumbed to the demon virus going around, and this bug likes to linger long past his departure date!  Brendon came down with it before Christmas and is still recovering, and we all fell like dominoes after that.  The oldest two children are well, but the grown-up and baby are still WAITING to be cured!

We enjoyed our Christmas meal and I will post photo's soon!  We had some great out of town visitors with us!

This New Years  Eve was a quiet one.

Brendon and I abandoned Weight Watchers for a week or so to enjoy feasting through the holidays, but  we are back on the wagon!  It's going well!  I have to lose two more pounds to get back to pre holiday weight.

School is back in session.  We have a full set of lesson plans for the rest of the year.

Hope to get photos up soon!

He's growing!

 

Last week

 

 One month and two months

 

 

Same Pose last week at 4 months

Samuel Update

 

He started using the exersaucer.  This is his first try and he wanted that horsey!

He's all over the place in there now.

 

 

I thought I should pump a little just in case we ever had an emergency or something.

Here we had a little leftover so for fun Brendon tried to give him a bottle.

He thought it was funny, but did NOT take a drink.

 

He likes the tried and true!



Love his little hand over his face!

Homeschool Classes

Isabelle and Joseph take a few classes as part of our home education.  I found a place that offered a la carte style classes, as opposed to a hybrid style homeschool or a co-op.  A hybrid does offer the convenience of a complete curriculum and a weekly day (or two) of classes, but the drawback is that you lose control and creativity of your own curriculum.  A co-op offers classes, but parents must participate in each class so there is no free day to do errands.

I found a place that offers classes for whichever subject you would like to outsource, and parental involvment is shared around.  I only needed to be there for 3-4 classes during the Semester. 

Isabelle and Joseph both took a writing class.  I have seen some really great progress in just one semester.  In addition to writing Isabelle takes a drama class and an art class, while Joseph takes a guitar class and a drawing class.

Isabelle in writing class

 

Joseph in writing class

 

Guitar class

 

Art class

Drama Class

 

Drawing Class