Happy Birthday, Abigail!!!!!

Abigail... a few days old


Now my big 1 year old!!!
WOW!



cupcakes!


Me and my baby!


Yummy!


Excited to open presents


Yay!




We had such a fun small party for her birthday! All of our girls have always had a catastrophe happen at their 1st bday parties, so we planned a small gathering for Abigail, and sure enough she got a super-bad cough & cold that weekend... What is it with that?! :)

But she had so much fun.. loved playing with her new toys and even with her new clothes! ;) I still can't believe my baby is one!!!

Our September...

Celebrating getting our Anna back! :)
All us Africa girlies at Anna's church presentation.

Starting Official Homeschooling!


Excited!


My Honey's 28th Birthday.. and still so handsome! :)


And of course, our little darling.. growing up! :)
Enjoying every minute of her!

Look who's ready for school!

And um.. that would be me... the teacher! :)

And Leah, the student who starts KINDERGARTEN this September!
We are both SOOOOOOO excited!

Here is my treasure trove of school supplies/curriculum.

My Living Room School Shelves..
all in order and full of readiness!


Our main curriculum..
Sonlight's Core P 4/5 .. reading based-learning, how great is this?
I plan to teach Bekah right alongside.. :)


Language Arts/Phonics:
Sing Spell Read & Write..
same on I used in Kindergarten! LOVE this!


Math:
Math-U-See's Primer Level.. looks fantastic!
I had to have a math curriculum that I a Math-hater could
understand & teach and I found it!


Handwriting/Extras:
Various Dry Erase boards/books for practice
My First Calendar for learning



Music:
My First Piano Adventure Books by Faber & Faber
Leah's learning to play Piano! :)


Animal Science:
Frog Habitat, Ant Farm & Bird Watching (in winter)
This will be fun!!!!



In short, I am so excited to be starting school, and hope to make a great year
with Leah & Bekah learning all kinds of fun & new things.

I am very blessed to be able to homeschool, taking my time with each subject and work individually with her plus be flexible enough to double-up on school days, or take a day off if I want to.


And off we go.... :)

More Summer Fun!

Abigail's silly smirk

Abigail is CRAWLING! (As of August 1st!!!)


Goin' on the 2nd annual Helweg Family Camping Trip!
(Don't worry, the car is parked!!)


LOTS of beach time!!!!!!


And even a surprise from Mom & Dad.. a giant Trampoline!

Random Summer Picture Update!

YES! We are still alive! Blogging has slowly gotten replaced with facebook, but I will try and and least update once in a while.. :)
Here are some very random pics since I last posted! What a busy and fun summer!

Family vacation to Nickelodeon Universe in the Cities

New Piano from Auntie Anna!
Leah starts lessons this fall and is so excited!


Our big girl's last year in Cubbies!


Our girls with their Africa dresses from Auntie Anna!


Abigail's church dedication


Our two big girls.. :)

Easter fun!

Here's some pics from our fun Easter.. :) Had a nice dinner with family, and the girls even got an egg hunt! :) We all had such fun!

My 3 beautiful Easter "lilies"


Abigail has fun with Leah's hat


Easter egg hunt!



Beautiful Abigail Susanne



6 months old.. and 15 1/2 lbs!!
Healthy and happy!
Hard to believe she is so old already! But what a bundle of joy she is!

My Sewing...

It is official! The girls are growing so fast I can hardly keep up! Much less keep tabs on their clothes! :) (Or shoes! Arrgggh!) But I do enjoy getting to sew a couple new things each year.. :) As long as I get the time.. which was a lot harder with 3 kids!!!! :)

Here's what I did this Spring.

Two new dresses for Leah


Matching Jumpers


Matching dresses

They are so cute and turned out really well! :)

Where have we been?

We have had such a busy March! The girls celebrated their birthdays and Abigail's dedication as well.. plus getting sick the last part of March was unplanned.. but it has been great fun and good to slow down for a while now! :)

We continue to await Spring's arrival.. and keep busy at home! Abigail is getting to be so much fun.. playing and giggling. I love this age! :)

Here are just a few pics... :)

My two dress-up girls! Now 5 and 3!


sweet Abigail.. 5 months old now!


Dedication Day.. March 20th


Sweet smiles! :)

Enjoying my Baby!

One of my friends passed this on to me, and I LOVE it!

I put it up on my fridge where I can see it daily. Such a great reminder.. but I have already noticed that the desire to spend more time enjoying them when they are small increases with each new baby! I know it did for me with my third!!!! Enjoy.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, in 1958

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.




Enjoying my baby.... and still doing so as a 3 month old!

New Pictures!

And now some new pictures! :) More on the way..
Life is good.. just incredibly busy!

Leah & Bekah "read" stories together.. :)

Abigail.. 3 months old already!


And a real smile on camera finally! Goofy, but cute!


She is our chubby cheeked girl! 13 lbs!



And LOVES big sister Leah, who feels the same way about her!

Helweg Girls

New Years 2011

Leah - 4 1/2
Bekah - 2 1/2
Abigail - 2 months



I LOVE having girls! They are so fun!