Jeremy's Family Vacation Weekend 2013

Another highlight from our summer was a weekend with Jeremy family (missing Alex and Boky :( ) My pictures were rather scarce from the weekend, but here are a few to record that it did happen. 

Zachary (4 months), Joshua (3 months)

 The kids LOVED the tea party Grandma Flo made for them.  This may become a tradition! 

Family Life

More pictures from our spring/summer

My strawberry jam helper princess

Nate's sign.  I can't remember what it was for.  Let's just pretend he's sitting in our neighbors flower bed...

Brothers.  Notice the missing teeth.  Nate lost one soon after this pictures was taken.  I think they lost 3 teeth between the two of them in 48 hours.

Because I don't want to forget


Family night at the local state park

May 2013 -Mom and Dad's Visit

We enjoyed a visit from my mom and dad in May.  Dad and my brother Matt flew to OR to surprise Brandon and attended the service at he and Cindy's church when Brandon was licensed as an associate pastor.  Heather and I and our children (we missed Cindy and Anna, Adam and Ashton! :( )took the opportunity to surprise mom with a 60th birthday party.  By the time Dad and Matt got to OR and Mom's party was over I was so tired of keeping surprises!  You know that feeling where you don't even want to answer the phone for fear you'll tell someone something and ruin a surprise?  That was me for about 2 weeks.  It was well worth it. 

We moved to this house almost 8 years ago.  I've often dreamed of serving friends a breakfast on our back porch.  Mom's party was the chance I was looking for.  We invited a few of her close friends & family (from this area) and we enjoyed brunch and fellowship on the porch. 

Did I mention we missed Cindy, Anna, Adam and Ashton? :(

  While Mom was here she helped the kids and I make donuts.  Wow, were they good. Sorry about the weird color on these pictures.  Some day I'll learn how to use this camera! 

When Dad got back from OR he took the boys fishing.  They loved it.  Nate was very interested in cleaning the fish.  He did NOT get his interest from his mom.

This visit was the first time Dad got to meet Zachary (4 months) They liked each other just fine. :)

Saying goodbye. :(

Four generations 

7 Minutes

I told the kids they had to get ready for bed at 7:30.  That gives me 7 minutes to blog.

• We just go home from Family Camp at Covey Valley.  We had a great weekend.
• Todd Wilson (FamilyMan) was the speaker.  He was hilarious and very encouraging. 
• We stayed at Jeremy's parents house instead of staying at the camp.  We were too lazy to camp in a tent.  It we nice to be in a familiar place to sleep.
• The kids are EXHAUSTED but had so much fun.  
• I am sitting on the couch.  Behind me, on top of the couch, are clean and folded clothes I didn't get a chance to put away before we rushed out the door on Friday.  Beside me is a bike helmet with dirty underwear in it?!?
• I should note here that because we didn't stay at the camp we didn't have a room so the kids changed for swimming in the van.  What a mess!
• I haven't even opened the suitcase yet. There's always tomorrow
• Tomorrow night our church starts a week of VBS
• Neither Angela or Kate had their babies over the weekend. :(  (Angela, I'm much more excited about your baby than Kate's, but I only have 2 minutes left so I didn't want to use up to bullet points:))
• Zachary is sleeping and can't wake up.  He did great at camp, but didn't get very many long naps. Now he's catching up. 
• I pulled out our Sonlight instructors guide for this year (instead of unpacking!) I'm excited about this coming school year. 
• It's now 7:31.  Time for bed.
• One more, my cousin and her husband just loaned us their treadmill.  Now I have no excuse!
• Maybe tomorrow. 

Can you feel it?

Here is comes!

Ahhcooo!

So much better!
(4 months)

Blogging, facebook style

I love facebook.  I strongly dislike facebook.  I'll keep my reasons to myself.  I often think of posting something, but then I figure it would only be interesting to my mom and 3 friends so I decide not to bother the rest of my "friends" with it.  However, this is my blog and I can do what I want.  So, here is a running list of things I could post on facebook, but decided not to.

-Should children be allowed to say hate?  Or should they say "strongly dislike"?

-Isaiah and Nate started swimming lessons yesterday.  Isaiah had a hard time yesterday, but today was much better.  God's does answer prayers!

-Me: "Callie, where did you learn that?" C: From my friend online.  Isaiah: Probably on pinterest.  Me: dumbfounded

-Callie loves watching "baking movies" (full episodes of cooking shows) on foodnetwork.com Proof that she probably watches to many:  While eating a lollipop, "This lollipop gives me texture in my mouth", while choosing which show to watch, "Not the man man one"  I finally figured out that she meant not GUY Fieri.  Guy, man, get it?  The Pioneer Woman is one of her favorites.  Callie calls her "The Pineapple Woman".

-Zachary had his 4 month check up on Friday.  He weighs 17.6 lbs.  We call him chubs. :)

-Why do kids decide they want to learn AFTER school is finished for the year?

-We are finished with school for the year! We were a few days short of the 180 we'll have to have when we start recording days, but we finished the goals I had so I am pleased.  We did a lot of reading.  I figured we read somewhere over 2800 pages and that didn't include any extra books we read that were not related to school.

-My house needs cleaned.  I might go on strike until summer is over.

-I found $20 in a pair of pants that I hadn't worn for awhile.  I of course was very delighted.  Jeremy just shook his head.  I figure we're up $20.  He doesn't understand how I didn't realize we were down $20.  Now to decide if it was grocery money or "my" piano money.

-Quote from somewhere "Organized people are too lazy to look for things"

-Jeremy does not have a lazy wife. See previous post.

-Is it possible to organize and back up digital pictures and still have a sound mind?

-twentytwowords.com is a very interesting web site. They have all kinds of useless information that I find very interesting.  I'm not sure what that says about me.

-I'm very sad to not have a bigger garden this year.  A walnut tree on our neighbors property (bad for tomatoes I'm told) and ground hogs are the reason.

-We just found out that one of our neighbors is FEEDING the groundhogs. :(

-Isaiah is missing his two front teeth.  Someone mentioned that he looks older.  I think he looks younger and I secretly love it.  Sometimes he is way too serious for a 7 year old.  Seeing him with no front teeth helps me to remember that he is just a kid.

-Zachary is one of the most kissed on and loved babies in the world I'm sure.  He brings us so much joy.  He "talks" so much.

I love using " "'s

-Nathan: "Being a lifeguard would be boring.  Not many people drown.  It would be really sweaty".  ?

-And since this is facebook style blogging I end with "What a day!  I'm off to bed".

-Here is a great recipe for bran muffins.  (because no one should ever go to bed without first checking pinterest)

Homeschooling

Yes, we homeschool.  I realize I don't mention it much on this blog.  The thing I dislike (can I say hate?) the most about homschooling is the division that is felt between those who homeschool and those who do not.  Jeremy and I feel educating our children at home is right for our family, for now.  I realize some will read this and think we are some amazing, got-it-all-together parents and some will instantly judge us for this decision.  It just goes with homeschooling.

I hesitate to say much here because I don't want to paint a false picture of a perfect home with perfect kids getting a college degree at age 5.  Nope, you should see us most days.  We're learning a lot everyday.  Many times what we're learning has more to do with building relationships and getting a long with each other than learning the sum of 2 +2.  We're not perfect.  Homeschooling is an option and we're using it.  As we finish up our second year I'm happy with what the boys are learning.  There is much more I could say, but my main reason for posting was to link to this article by Ann Voskamp.   "The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling."  

So very well said.