Kindergarten Graduation

Ok so,yes, she was already doing first grade work. But what homeschooled kindergartener isn't?!! Our amazing co-op offered a kindergarten graduation so we jumped right on board! And it was great as expected! Liza felt super special, and we all had fun. (Poor Daddy had to work though.) My favorite memory for this was the class had learnt a song in sign language, and I was mesmerized by their cute, small, chubby, arms, hands, and fingers singing out the words of the song.
And Liza was so excited to walk up and get her diploma, sigh. It's a long way until we do that again for high school, I can wait, no hurries!

Love that baby girl!!

We all have those days

As I sit here and try to catch my blog on our last year, I'm going through all these old pictures and remembering the funny stories that went along with them. They may not be all that funny to others, but they brought laughter into our home and need to be remembered. And that's why I'm playing catch up. Hopefully my kids will read this and remember these funny tales of themselves, and realize why moms is as crazy as she is.

This one particular day Mae was having a difficult time with her math work. Which I completely sympathize with. I've always despised math. The thought of doing it would make me cry as a child. So to try and not pass along those discouraging feelings to my daughter I was trying to make it fun, an Adventure! But no such luck. She had to relearn everything we'd already done.

She started laying her head dramatically on the table and moaning. Oh Boy! I know that feeling so well! So teasingly I started checking for a pulse, asking if she needed me to call math 911!

Carrying the joke on from there she drops to the floor and sticks out a droopy tongue. "Oh No!" I cried, "Math has killed my baby!" Lots of giggling and silly antics ensued. However after the mood had been lightened, she was able to clear her head and finish the work.

A suggestion to all homeschooling moms out there, make it fun. Make it light. Make it happy. The spirit of The Lord is a teaching spirit, and we love to learn. All of us, not only children learn more effectively in a stress free environment. If math stresses you out and makes you want to cry, Pray, laugh, breathe, and try looking at it from a new viewpoint.

My lesson from a silly seven year old. ;)

Joyschool Days

When Eliza was much younger a few of the moms from church came up with the great idea to have their own Joyschool. They invited Liza to join, so I looked more into it. I found out that the Joyschool program is a curriculum you can buy and it's a lot if fun! But my mom friends and I just implemented the basic idea of a once a week 'learning' play date. We've now had Joyschool for two years, Liza for two Timmy has done one.

For Liza it helped fill that social need she has to get together with her friends, to laugh, create, and play imaginary tales. But now that she's older most of those friends are in public school. So we've enrolled in a huge family homeschool co-op.

For Timmy he loved to hear from other teachers than me. But they were Mommies he was familiar with so he was completely comfortable at their houses.

I've dug up some pictures from this last year of Joyschool at our house. So many fun times!

Playing with apps

Yes I'm still a newbie with my iPad. So I've decided to play a bit. I don't think anyone reads my blog anyhow so this is entirely for my benefit. Lol!

I think as soon as I can get my pics from my camera to the iPad, I'll be back in business folks! ;)

On a Roll

Wow I'm on a roll, I've posted once a year for two years!
In my defense we had to turn off our home Internet, and getting to the library to blog with four children in tow is completely unrealistic. However I just got the best Valentines/Birthday/Christmas gift from my sweetie, a new iPad. So I'm back up ad running, sort of. I really need to figure this thing out.
Holding down the vocal search button, while the seven year old walks by complaining she can't find any Socks!, the (Siri?) informs her she can get to the Sox stadium easily but it's "pretty far away". Stunned Mae just replied, "uhhhhh, thanks I guess."
Ahhhh, adventures in technology.
I don't think this post will have many pictures if any, I have no idea how to do that and all my best pics are on my phone. I do have lots of wonderful pictures to catch everyone up on the wonderful things we've been doing this year!

I have to say since I've been homeschooling this has been the most fun year! Not only do I get to do all the fun toddler/pre K things with Timmy and Molly, but Mae and Liza's grade school curriculum has been so fun! We have been making leaps and bounds in our educations around here.

Not only that but family life has had a lot of goings on as well.
Tim is starting college again soon.
Mae's about to be baptized.
Liza is getting so beautiful, and prove me wrong day by day. Lol.
Timmy has turned full fledged boy, and is crazy about super heros, particularly batman and Larryboy.
Molly has had her first birthday and I have a TON of things to catch up on about her.


I have one little brother that moved home and I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him until he came back. Now I don't want him to leave again. Lol.
Another little brother come home from his mission and get married! So I have another sister! That's an entire blog post right there, fun stuff!
Another little brother who has left for his mission to Ohio.
Another little brother who is about to get his Eagle.
My sister is now going to college, and taking care of my sweet niece, such a brave gal!

So you see I have quite a bit to write about. I just have to figure out how to use this thing and find the time to do it!
My cup runneth over. What on earth am I going to do when life gets boring?

Catching Up

Well considering my last post was JULY of last year, (holy cow), I'll do a sum up of catch-up. You see how horrible my journaling is!

I had a pretty ucky pregnancy. I was constantly sick and I never had energy to do anything. I had some wonderful things to look forward to however so I just muddled my way through.
There were some bright spots and blessings throughout the pregnancy.

1) I had the blessing of a terrific midwife and her nurses. And I had my mother around a lot more than other pregnancies, which I loved. In so many words, I had a wonderful support group.

2)There was one point where I thought I wasn't going to be able to afford dance for the girls this year but because their dance teachers love them so much, they made it possible for us to enjoy dance for another year.

3)Tim and I were able to attend Hypnobirthing classes. That prepared us for a natural birth. So many new things we learned! It was amazing.

4)Tim had the opportunity to star as John the Baptist in the play Godspell at our community theater. We've always loved theater ever since we were teenagers, so this was something he had a lot of fun doing. I think however that now that he's back in school he wont have too much time for playacting.

5)This is not so much a bright spot, but I'm looking for blessings in all the the things that happened while I was pregnant. A big thing that happened was that my Grandmother passed away. And my Grandfather is having a hard time coping. However things we have gained from this have been that my Grandfather now lives closer and we get to see him more. And my brother who is an MP was able to get some leave time to come visit. (Unfortunately, his wife couldn't get leave and she was sorely missed.)

6) I was able to have the labor and delivery I asked for. No it didn't go the way I'd imagined in my mind, but when does it ever? :)
I will make a post on my birth story, but I keep getting interrupted by children so I'm trying to go fast.

7)The girls were in another of Mrs. Fain's dance recitals. They loved it of course! And when it was time to start dance again this school year I didnt think I could afford it but we were really blessed and found a way! whew!

8)We (I) have been keeping up with school REALLY well! I'm so proud of us! There will be days that its a struggle for me to let the laundry and dishes sit for awhile so I can go do school with the kids. and I can tell they LOVE that!
They pick school over chores any day. I suppose I've done a good job making school feel like fun/play, whereas cleaning is defined as work. DuM Du DuM!

9)I got to meet one of my favorite authors, Michelle Duggar. I went to a political rally where she was speaking and I only was able to talk to her for a moment but she was very sweet, signed my book and gave me a hug. I was very excited about that, and then I saw that someone making a video of the rally got a shot of Mae clapping to the music! lol! When I asked her why she wasn't smiling she said she didnt know they were filming her!


10) I had to go back and add this one in, I had the coolest blessingways AND a shower for Molly! So many women get just one or the other, I have such awesome friends I was able to enjoy them all at both! A lot of these same women threw my shower for me when I was preggo w/ Timmy. I am surrounded by the best women! :)


Last but not least, after my Molly Girl was born, my younger brother David came home from his two year mission to California. I am SO proud of him. He's grown so much in two years, I cant wait to see what he's going to conquer next!

I have a long list of things I want to blog about, mostly so I wont forget about them later in life. But for now uploading some recent pictures will do. Thank you to any friends who patiently read my blog when I have the time to write. Its a very public journal, but I like it that way. I think I watch what I say better. hehe. ;p

Be patient with me friends, I have FOUR kids now! That may not be a lot to some people, but for me I have to pick and choose what I'm focusing on, and blogging may not make the cut all the time LOL!

Our Fourth of July

I guess dad didn't quite agree with the "Old Navy" aspect of the shirt considering he's a Col. in the Army. ;)



My goofy hubby of eight years now!!



Silly faces! Tongues out!!!




LOL, I love my dad, trying to be serious, yet get a laugh out of all of us. <3 :)


Our Fourth of July,...
Was interesting! We normally make it a family day and take the kids to see the fireworks, but this year Tim and I decided to celebrate our anniversary on our own. So we let Nonnie and Pappy take all three of them to a friends for a big fun BBQ. With lots of games, a trampoline, and kids their age. From what I hear they had a blast!

Plus they were with there uncles, and cousin and thats always a big bonus!!! :)

SO Tim and I went to downtown Greenville and had a wonderful dinner just the two of us then we walked around town for a bit. Then we went early to Falls Park to get a good seat for the fireworks. It was a perfect spot. Right in the middle of the river on an island made up of the rocks. The fireworks were directly in front of us!

It was so much fun getting to spend some time together and talk without having to find the potty in five seconds flat, or making sure nobody was drowning in the river.

But then,..the crowds came, obnoxious teenagers sitting behind us making out, cussing every other word. People directly in front of us smoking up a storm. (Being preggo makes me very sensitive to cigarettes.)

Then we had to walk back with this crowd that was easily more than a thousand people, marching to our parking deck. Along the way trying not to step on anyone or get stepped on.
Then realizing they downside to having flip-flops on when a man going the opposite direction than me drops his ENORMOUS bottle of alcohol he had stashed up his shirt right next to my foot.

No I wasn't cut, I dont know how, but the rest of the way my feet were sticky and I smelled like I'd had a little too much celebration goin' on!

When we finally get to the parking deck it takes us over an HOUR to get OUT of the parking deck! Not to mention home.

I love my country so, so much! But 12 minutes of fireworks wasn't worth that.

I really missed that year we had celebrated the 4th at Devil's Tower in Wy. Now that was a blast! Only about 100-150 people, karaoke, beautiful spacious skies, children running barefoot in the grass dancing to the music. And the fireworks lasted forever!

I guess I just love being out in the middle of nowhere. I love the country. The whole city scene doesn't work with me.

Besides all that, Tim and I had a wonderful anniversary together, and the kids loved being with their grandparents. So for our last fourth,,,, It was Interesting,.....AND FUN! :)

Little house, Big Love

I just realized that I have not formally announced that I'm pregnant with our fourth baby (due Dec 3rd.) Sorry about that! I guess the way life is if you post it on Facebook then everyone on the planet knows about it. :)

I have to say I was scared ay first, mainly because of the idea of four kids ages 6 and under, SCARY MAN! But Tim was so excited and giddishly happy that it caught on to me. Now here I am planning all the ways this labor and delivery is going to be different, calm, and a wonderful experience.

Tim on the other hand is having reality checks (enter my giggle here :p ). He's realizing we have a very small house full of furniture, and we just dont seem to fit as it is. Adding another person who may be small, but comes with its own line of clothing, bedding, bathing essentials, etc. (Not to mention these small people keep getting bigger.)

Without me even being prepared he starts sending me e-mails from work about bigger (more pricey) houses that we could move too. I was a little taken aback.

For me moving means a month of finding boxes and packing, saving for not only the deposit of the house but also the moving van and other expenses, and explaining to the kids why were moving further from friends, park, and dance class.

TOO MUCH HASSLE!!!!!

No thank you. I'll keep my ever widening preggo hips right here thank you.

Talk about heartburn. ugh.

I decided I could go about this one of two ways:
throw a tantrum and insist I was not going through all that stress. I can get away with tantrums right now, for some odd reason nobody but my mother in law bats an eye at it. I think they all know I'm insane while pregnant.

OR,


I could thank him for taking the incentive to go ahead and start planning for our family and its needs. He such a good provider, and he really was thinking of my sanity through all this, trying to find a house that had a "school room" for me.

I opted for the second choice. (yay me.) :)

I went along with the house hunting, and we prayed about it together. And even though he's still kinda keeping his eye out, I convinced him that I have the feeling were not supposed to move just yet.

I have friends and have read about people who had more children than we do living in just as small houses as we have. If not smaller, on account that they only had one bathroom and we have two.

I think if we can get rid of some furniture, rearrange, and basically simplify some things in our life, we can most assuredly fit another person to love in this little house.

My enthusiasm is still raging, as is Tim's! Were on number four!!! I'm so ready for another tiny around here. Ever since Timmy weaned himself and started doing his own thing, I've been wanting another cuddly one.

My main way of getting organized right now is getting the kids into a chores routine. That way after the baby comes everyone knows what their in charge of. The girls absolutely love it.

All I have to do is say, "Have you taken care of your juristiction today?" and they both jump up and say "Oh Yeah I need to clean the bathroom, today I want to use the cleaner on the mirror please Mommy." Or , "Oh Yeah I need to start a load of laundry!"

Hopefully when I'm having to juggle baby too, they will still be as enthusiastic. That way even though were in a teeny little house it will be a bit more organized, and we'll be able to appreciate all the "Big Love" around us.

Here's Hopin' !!!