The Adventures of the Luidhardts

Monday, September 12, 2011

Starting School.....

With our crazy last month and miscarriage, we got started on school a little later (just 3 weeks) then I had originally anticipated. On our first day of school, I put together a savenger hunt for them. I hid something that was new and special for each of them!

Grace was the official reader of all the clues but they all took turns trying to figure out the clues!! The clues took them to the freezer....

.....to the dog crate.....

.....outside near the hose....

....upstairs in their bedroom...

...outside in a tree...

...in the bathroom....

...outside in the sunflowers and a few other places till......

...they found their surprise!!

They all got brand new lunch bags!! Most days, we will have lunch at home but for the occasional picnic fun and co-op days, we thought it would be nice for them to have their own!!

Grace got Hello Kitty, Hayden got spiderman, Dax and Asher got Cars 2!

So here are the kiddos on their first day of school!!!!

Grace 3rd grade Curriculum

Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting Level T Book (It's the transition book to Curvsive)

Grammer: Easy Grammar Grade 3 book

Spelling: All about Spelling Level 1 and 2 (We just started this spelling program and they suggest to start at level 1 for all students)

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 Level 3

Math: Math U See Beta Level

Bible: Positive Action Bible Curriculum

Reading: At least 30-60 mins a day (It depends on our day and what we have time for, sometimes she does more and sometimes she has less. We usually do this during "Rest time")

History, Art, Art History, Music History/theory, Science and much more will be taught at our co-op through Classical Conversations. I will talk about this more later!

Dax 1st grade Curriculum

Handwriting: A reason for Handwriting Level A

Spelling: All about Spelling Level 1 (We won't start this till half way through the year)

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 1st grade

Math: Math U See Alpha Level

Bible: Postive Action Bible Curriculum

Reading: At least 30 mins a day

History, Art, Art History, Music History/theory, Science and much more will be taught at our co-op through Classical Conversations.

Hayden (age 4) Preschool

Hayden joins in whenever it is possible with the big kids when I am teaching Science, History or Art.

Curriculum: Letter of the week Preschool curriculum

Activities: Puzzles, games, and play time with Asher

History, Art, Art History, Music History/theory, Science and much more will be taught at our co-op through Classical Conversations. They have a 4 year old class so Hayden will be particpating in CC this year.

Asher (age 3) Preschool

He will join Hayden and the big kids whenever it is possible. Other wise, he is doing structured play time and random play time with Hayden.

At CC, Asher will be in the Toddler room and playing with other little kiddos!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The things I love about Asher.....

There are many reasons why I love this sweet baby boy!!

First of all, he's the baby of the family which makes him super special!! He doesn't like to be called a baby, he prefers Big Boy! We are constantly telling him that he is so cute, but he doesn't like either. He's always says, "I'm not cute, I'm Asher". He only likes to be called Asher or Iceman!! :) So then we say, "You're so Asher!"

He loves fruit and constantly is asking for it!! He still loves to cuddle with me at times which is sweet!!

He loves to do anything that the big kids are doing and never wants to be left out!! He's so smart and pay attention well!!

Asher and Hayden are two peas in pod and pretty much stick together most of the time!! He loves superheros and cars just like his big brothers!!

He loves to make us laugh by talking funny or being silly, but he doesn't like it if we laugh too much. He thinks we are making fun of him!! :)

He's one special little boy and we love him so much!!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Asher's Birthday Party.....

We had Asher's Birthday party on Labor day at our house. We wanted something pretty simple considering our last month!

We went with a Toy Story Theme!

Our cupcakes, because they are easy!!

I decided last minute to do a little cake for Asher too!

Blowing out the candles!!

Asher's 3 now!!!

Opening presents.....

A new game!!

A new football!!

We had a good time celebrating our awesome little boy with family!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Alison's Wedding shower....

Also on Asher's birthday, we had a wedding shower for my friend Alison. I hadn't been to one in a long time so it was fun to pick out a gift and attend.

I took Grace with me because I knew she would have fun!!

Alison with her bouquet of bows!!

Asher's 3rd Birthday.....

On September 4th, we celebrated Asher's 3rd birthday!!!

He is so cute and such a sweet boy!!

He was so excited to see his gifts!!

He got to pick a few to open that day and the rest we saved for his Birthday party.

He really liked his matchbox planes!

He's also into the superhero stuff too!!

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Well Child Checkup

We went for Asher Well Child Checkup and here are his stats!! He was 36 1/2 inches which puts him at 25% for height. He is in between 25-50% for his weight at 30 lbs. They even did his blood pressure and it was 80/56. He's a healthy boy!!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Last day at New Life.....

We had many hard conversations with many people over the weeks that followed the change at church. Obviously, lots of tears were shed by us and those who hated to see us go. We weren't the only ones that left, God led many others to leave as well. Gene did a great job with the Children's ministry in the short month and half that he the led it. It's funny how you wait and wait for something that you have dreamed of to happen and then it lands in your lap out of the blue, but we knew it wasn't for us. We just didn't have peace in staying there and taking the job. Our last day was August 29, just two weeks after our miscarriage. It was sad day but a hopeful one too. In many aspects, we were leaving a family and it was hard, but we know as Christians, that our family extends way beyond the walls of a church. It doesn't stop us from loving them any less.

We were hopeful too, because despite loving our time at New Life, there were many things we had hoped for in a church that New Life lacked. So many things that we felt God was taking our family into certain direction that a new church might be able to offer us. We were also excited about the extra time we would have and all the great churches in our town. We were driving 45 mins there and back 3 times a week for the past 8 years. (Plus, my time before we were married) We finally would be able to live and do church in the same town, which is important. God had definitely released us, even though it was hard, we had peace!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Our 5th baby......

We found out on Father's Day June 19 that we were pregnant with our 5th baby due March 1, a day after leap day! We were so excited because we had been wanting this to happen for at least a year. Everything seemed normal and I was feeling sick, like usual. I went in for our 1st ultrasound appointment on July 28th at 9 weeks. During this ultrasound, they could not find a heartbeat. I was so sad and was hoping they were wrong. My midwife felt that the ultrasound was accurate and that my two options were either to have a scheduled D&C or to let the miscarriage happen naturally. I opted for the 2nd choice. I was still hoping they were wrong and we were also praying that God would intervene.

Well, as the weeks went by I was still sick and had all the same symptoms. Actually, I felt really sick and was so tired this time around. Around 11 weeks, I was beginning to think we needed to head back to the doctor because I wasn't having any symptoms of a miscarriage yet and wanted to see if something had changed. A few days later at 11 1/2 weeks on July 15th, I started spotting which was the first sign of the miscarriage. It all started out pretty normal, and what my mid-wife told me to expect. I assumed I would be fine to stay home like many women that have had miscarriages before me. I knew it would be alot of bleeding but in my case it just never stopped. I went on like this for about 5 straight hours and I was getting so weak. Finally, I blacked out for a moment and Gene really felt we should head to the ER. We called my mom to come stay with the kids since it was late at night.

I arrived at the ER and my blood pressure was bottoming out and my heart was doing weird things. It was all pretty scary and I was incredibly weak. I was in and out of consciousness and in those moments I really had some scary thoughts. They got me hooked up to fluids which really helped to stabilize my blood pressure. My initial iron on the blood draw was 12.1 but they said it can take awhile to register blood loss. They took my blood again an hour or so later, and it was 7.8. At this point, they gave me a blood transfusion and sent me to the OR for an emergency D&C.

The D&C stopped the bleeding immediately. I stayed overnight in the hospital and was sent home the next day. The blood that I received brought my iron back up to 8.1 which was still really low. Women need to be at least 12. I needed to take it easy and I was still incredibly weak. By happenchance, the kids were already supposed to go to Gene's parents house that week so I could do some school planning. So I got to rest and recuperate all week and the kids had a fun at their grandparents. I didn't get any school planning done because I had to rest so much. It was hard to be that weak and it took me weeks to feel even somewhat normal.

They tested some tissue to see if it was a molar pregnancy but it came back negative. She said I had an abnormal amount of tissue and we never found out exactly why it happened this way. The week that the kids were gone was hard because I missed them but it was also good to be alone to process all that had happened. Gene was so great through the whole thing. We even got to celebrate our 24th anniversary a week early! Our friends brought us meals the week the kids got home so I didn't have to worry about cooking. It was a hard loss and took months to comprehend, but we look forward to seeing this baby in heaven someday! I'm so glad that God gives us that hope!!