Good grief!  I guess I can only manage to get here once a month now!  I think about updating all of the time but just never get around to it. 

We did not get the 5.  They picked another family.  But now we are chasing a 14yo girl.  I’ll give you all more details as I get them. 

Jenna is doing well.  She lost both of her front teeth and she look so cute! I have new pictures posted as well.  She has been doing her school work so well. I hardly have to help her, I just correct her papers when she is done.  It is great.  In the morning when Jill takes a nap Jenna takes the little kids upstairs to play and I school the boys.  Then at naptime Jenna stays up and does her work and if she gets it done in time she can watch a show on TV.  It is a math show.  She has to write in her journal everyday for school and her entries are so neat.  It is nice to have one more insight into her little head.  She will be 8 next month.  the thought makes me sad.  She will be visiting Heidi for her birthday.  It was her idea.  So she will leave the first weekend in August and stay a week.  Jenna is so excited!  Of course Heidi is too! LOL

John is doing better with reading.  He seems to be better at remembering words after he has seen them several times.  His short coming is he can not sound words out!!  He will sit for half an hour saying f-a-t…..and never get that the word is FAT!!  So he and Jacob do their work at the same time and you will hear John f-a-t……and Jacob is over there guessing FAB? TAB? FIT?  Between John sounding it out for Jacob and Jacob finally slowing down enough to sound it out usually Jacob gets it first.  But after they have seen it a few times John gets it first every time.  I think John has had to improve his memorization skills because his critical thinking skills are not strong.  Seems like a long road ahead of him.  Everybody handles things differently.  School has been going remarkably well though.  The boys are reading like crazy and we are flying through the workbook.  I don’t feel like I have always felt with John that I can never move on because he does not get it.  And that was one of my fears, that Jacob would be ready to move on and John would not.  But it seems they are on the same level. John will be going into 2nd grade this year.

Jacob is your typical Kindergartener.  he thirsts for knowledge and has such a tender heart.  When we first got him he was so sensitive that if we just looked side ways at him and he would flip out and go in the other room to destroy something.  Well we curbed that behavior and had to toughen him up.  He had to realize that bad things happen and you will be told no once in awhile.  So he is doing so much better but now I have been really busy building relationships with the kids……  (On a side note I have HUGE fear of my kids going astray when they are older) and he has started with his tender heart again.  I lectured him yesterday for something stupid.  LOL  Let me describe……We are getting ready to go swimming next door, the kids are getting stuff together.  I’m in the other room and I hear Jenna “You are only keeping that because you know I like it.  I’m telling”  So I walk out of my room about then and see Jacob with a towel all draped over his shoulders and Jenna says “Jacob is just holding that towel because he knows it is my favorite towel and he won’t give it back.”  Well, as soon as I walked out Jacob handed it over to Jenna.  We all know that Jenna prefers this certain towel, she always uses it, and no one else has a towel preference.  So this is not really a discipline issue, he did not take it from her, he had it first.  It is a courtesy issue.  And he had already given her the towel because he knew he was being rude and I think he did not want me to see him being rude.  So I lectured him, told him what I saw, what I knew was going on, how rude he was being and left it at that.  He is stoic, says nothing, goes about his business getting floaties in the other room.  When he comes back in he has tears running down his face and he says he is sorry.  I’m in shock so I tell him not to apologize to me but to apologize to Jenna.  So he does.  But I was so proud I had to snuggle him up and tell him what a great kid he is!  :)  He is very bright and is the one that has a great sense of humor and when he is a tad older and can really get it going will be a riot!  He is already pretty funny, well the kids find him really funny.  I’m just waiting for the more mature jokes! LOL

Jessica has been doing well.  She gets older everyday and it even appears that she is maturing!  LOL  The next time I get a difficult kid I need to remember that “This too shall pass.” LOL  I have been saying “Yes, she has changed so much in just the last 6 months.  I almost killed her back them.  But now I’m glad I let her live.”  And that summarizes her! LOL

Junie is still a crack up.  She swims with just the floaties on her arms now.  She was such a spazz at first.  Had to have the swimmies and a ring and hold someone’s hand at all times.  Luckily those first few trips to the pool Jill slept the whole time because it was a pain.  Now June will swim with just the swimmies and she is all over the pool and jumps in and swims with her head under the water.  We have not been swimming as much as I would like.  With the daycare kids that don’t leave until 6pm it is hard to get over there at night.  So we just go on the weekends which is nice.  Junie has started to learn the letter sound song that the boys sing everyday.  So that is cool!  In fact Jessica knows part of it too.

Jillian is almost crawling.  She spends a lot of time being frustrated and screaming.  It is so charming.  At night she rolls over on her stomach and pumps her legs in her sleep.  She is dreaming of crawling! LOL  She better learn soon or I may find her a dark closet. ;)

We have been going to the chiropractor every week now.  We get a group discount! LOL  He has been great!  Jillian had a fever for 36 hours the other day so when Jeff went in for his appt he took her with him and Dr. Charlie fixed her up.  I felt so much better knowing that we did something to help.  An allopathic doctor would have said “Sorry, it’s a virus. Go home and give her some Tylenol.”  or worse yet “Here, have some antibiotics and go away.”  Jill is fine now.:)

We have been making soups for dinners lately.  The kids each had a day to make whatever soup they chose.  John thought potatoes, rice, cheese and bacon sounded good.  So we made that.  All of the soups have been really good! 

When Jenna comes back from Tucson she will be bringing Heidi with her to stay up here for a week.  She will be keeping the kids while Jeff and I go to Missouri to check things out.  Yes we are looking there again.  We will be leaving the 12th of August and taking a week there.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

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