Family pictures 2011

A friend of mine has a daughter who is getting her photography business going, so I had her take our pictures this year. She did a wonderful job. Looking at these pictures of my precious, eternal family makes me so happy and feel so very blessed. LoVe ThEm!

Me holding my little Noah Brian.

Um, this one is just about as precious as can be!!

Audrey had reached her limit, at this point. Her face makes me giggle!!

LoVe my BoYs!!

We survived the photo shoot with only a few tears!! Yay!! We went to Burger King right after this. Can you say "Whopper"? Yummmmm!

Biggest LOSER!!!

Some ladies in my neighborhood are doing a little competition similar to the "Biggest Loser" show; I have not seen it so I don't know for sure. Anyway, they did round 1 in the summer, and I could not participate, obviously. But, I am ready for round 2!! I have never done anything like this and I really would like to win......and lose........know what I mean!!?? We weigh ourselves each Friday and email the person in charge. If we gain we have to put $1 into the pot. What a bummer that would be!! I am going to have one "free day" a week where I can eat whatever I want. The other days I will be "good". I will shoot to exercise 5 days a week, but realize that might be hard.....Anyways, wish me luck. The competitition starts on Saturday so I have a few more days to get ready.........and eat a few candy bars...........

Finding our groove........almost!

Well, we are into our 3rd week of our school year and things are going better and better. We have been doing three days of full-tilt school, and the other days a little lighter. Today was a lighter day so we went to a park with a pond near our house. The kids rode their bikes and I pushed the little ones in the stroller. I ended up running a bit so yay, I got my workout in! Finding time to workout while I am still up so much in the night has been hard. We came back home, did math, researched come caterpillars we found while out, drew pictures of them, and played phonics games. Easier day.

Using Audrey's naptime has been huge! Today we played phonics games, on the floor which would have been impossible to do with her around. I still have things I have not added to the mix; like science but I know as the year continues to roll on, we will fit that in. We do tend to do more school when the weather turns colder and we can't play outside as much. I like to spend as much time outside as I can; just letting the kids play and explore.

So, I am feeling good about things and am loving being with my kids. They fight like cats and dogs, cry, complain, and so on, like all kids do, but I really am glad we homeschool.

On a different note, on the Davis County Homeschool group, someone shared a link of an article about homeschooling and it was pretty negative. So were some of the comments. It kinda amazed me that some people get so angry about homeschooling. Wow. I quit reading the comments because I really didn't want to waste my time doing it! Knowing that others don't approve of homeschooling doesn't bother me like it may have in the past. I don't feel like I need to justify my decision to homeschool, nor do I feel like I need to convince others how wonderful it is. Live and let live. You do what you want, and I will do what I want. I am not about to tell public schoolers how wrong they are for sending their kids to school. We are all doing what we feel is best and we are all lucky to live in a great nation that let's us have so many options. I do believe we as parents are all doing the best we can to raise our children the best way we know how. :)

Mourn with those that mourn...

I don't make it a big secret that we have lost too many precious babies, at different stages of gestation. Two were around 20 weeks. Both boys. All my losses broke my heart but losing those tiny sons were especially hard. I have wondered why in the world I have had to lose so many, and two so late in the game. I still don't know. I have grown closer to the Savior, for sure. I have gained compassion for others that have had a loss that I would not have gained any other way.

The other day I was on facebook, (yes, shocking I know. I am on there too often, aren't I?). Anyway an old friend I haven't seen since our Law School days in Iowa, made a vague post and I just knew something had happened to the baby she was carrying. I knew she was expecting, but wasn't sure exactly how far along she was. I sent her a private message asking if the baby was ok, and apologizing if I was wrong. I wasn't wrong. I wish I was. She went in for her appointment and there wasn't a heartbeat. Been there. It takes you totally off guard. It takes your breath away to hear the words, "There isn't a heartbeat". Then to have to go in, get induced and deliver your tiny one....no words can describe how painful that is.

So, to my friend "J", I am so sorry. I mourn with you and anyone else who has lost a tiny one. I hope that the Savior will ease your pain and help you carry this burden. Just know, you aren't alone...............

1st Day of School....Take 2!!

Oh, but first, here is little Noah on his blessing day! He looks so dang cute, huh?!! It was a good day.....

Here is how we ended our day: At the park. Audrey ran around and I chased her..... She thinks it is super funny to go in the road.

Seth, Addie and Sasha launched water balloons in a big grassy area where they could let 'er rip without worrying about them going in the neighbors yard. Every family needs one of these.

Well, I decided to wait until after Labor Day to begin our official school year. It went better than our "other" first day of school.

Things that were good:

• The kids now do independent scripture reading. Sasha reads on her own. Seth reads the BOM illustrated version on his own, and I read the same book with Addie. Yay!




• The kids each did: math, journal, phonics, reading, and pe. (We jumped on the tramp and went for a walk in the afternoon). Sasha did her Spellwell and was so happy to have only missed two problems on her math assignment. Go, Sasha!!




• Working during Audrey's naptime worked well. We will do this each day. We started our day at around 9:30 and stopped for recess (shower for me) and lunch at 11:15. After lunch I put Audrey down and we had "school, part 2" from 1-3:30.
  

Things that were not so good:

• Audrey made a mess of anything and everything! She ate a crayon or two. She scribbled on a workbook or two as we were laying on the floor in the living room working.




• Seth spent an hour mourning the ending of summer. I timed it. It was funny, but NOT funny all at the same time. When he finally got it out of his system, he got his work done.....mostly. He never did finish his journal and I just let it slide....this time! LOL!




• I went to bed completely exhausted and with a huge headache.

I was not entirely excited about getting up and doing it all again today......so we did an abbreviated version of school today. I am still so tired during the day, so I did the best I could today! We played dice math games and a dice game with parts of speech for something fun besides the workbook stuff. We ended the day yesterday, with a walk to the park so the kids could launch some water balloons with their new balloon launcher we got on clearance. It was hilarious.