My Sweet Princess

A special video I made about our Juilanna Faith...She was our step of faith in trusting God in the area of children...we were happy and content with two, but trusted God with three... So thankful we did, because she's been the best litle blessing in our lives! Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

 

Bluebonnets

Isn't the scene above beautiful? This past Tuesday, my grandma and grandpa were here along with my uncle from California. We all took pictures in the beautiful Texas bluebonnets. Here's a couple of my favorite pictures:

 

My neice, Caitlyn

Joshie and his little brother

Best friends and cousins

 I just love the spring time around here in Southeast Texas. What's your favorite season?

Josh and the lime

I know it's mean, but before I let Josh try a lime for the first time, I had to grab the ipod to take a video of his face....LOL

Days of the Week

We've been learning the days of the week lately and trying to get Josh to understand the concept and difference between yesterday and last year. He loves to tell stories, but he always says "last year" when it was only a week or so ago. He also says "yesterday" when it was a long time ago. So, a friend of mine gave us this cool magnetic calendar and every morning we have "calendar time".  

 There's a couple numbers missing, but that's okay. We also sing a song too about the days of the week. I tried to video it, but of course the munchkins were not that cooperative this morning and did NOT want to have ANY part of being on camera. :/

I also love how Joshua's sunday school class is learning verses now in the Bible. We've started learning the famous Psalm 23. He learns a vers a week and we recite it every morning, before meals, and one last time before bed. Seems to work really well with helping him remember. The cool thing is that since Jenna's just a year younger, she's learned it too, even though she's not in his class yet! Here's a video of Josh reciting his memory verse thus far. (He just learned verse 3 on Sunday):

Note: Josh gets easily distracted and you'll definately see that in here! haha...



Makin' It Monday

Spring Break is over...

It's so hard to get out of bed....

"Mommy, can't we stay home ONE MORE DAY"....

Just 28 school days left until summer, sweet munchkins....

Spring Break Fun

 One of the things I love about Spring Break is that I get to hang out with the family more and my kids get to hang out with their cousins and play. I grew up with strong family ties, so family time is important to me. This past Wednesday we all got together at Heritage Park to have a bbq lunch and play in the park. It was a blast!

 What are some fun things you do (or have done) over Spring Break this year?

Thankful Thursday

Our Truck circa 2010...

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness this week.  Since September 2009, we've been a single vehicle family. It hasn't been too bad, but I have to admit it wasn't in my "comfort zone". When you have a bench seat in the cab of the truck taken by three car seats, and you are squished between the driver and an infant car seat, it can make for some cozy tight quarters. But it's worked for us. And it got us from point A to point B....so no complaining.

You might ask "How do I get to school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday..." That's where it was a little hard. We'd have to leave by 6:10am in order to drop Jason off, drive up to drop Jayden off, and then back down a bit to get to school by 8am.....LOTS of driving involved, which means LOTS of gas being used! But that's what makes this weeks so much better....

Our "new" van!!!

A friend of mine that I've worked with the past four years sold us her van! We were overcome with gratitude as we've been looking for a second vehicle to give us more room for almost a year. We felt God give us a price to look for, and we couldn't find ANYTHING decent out there for that price. But that's where you have to let faith take over and cling to His promises. it definately wasn't in my timing, but I'm glad as I think we appreciate it so much more and He got the glory for it.

My friend approached me at school and told me about her van...quoting the EXACT SAME PRICE as we had been looking for a year ago! The cool thing is that it is in VERY good condition and it's a 2001 model....we were finding things 10 years older than that when we were looking last year...

Look at all the room!

We've been able to run errands during the week and go to the park and play. It's been such a blessing and the kids love having a little more space.... Mommy does too :) 

God is faithful...are you?

Four Months...

He was the baby we all prayed for....

His brother Josh cherishes him...

Our family is complete with him in it and his name means "Jehovah has heard" because God heard and answered our prayers....

He has grown SO much in the past four months - and I still get lost in his eyes at night...

WEIGHT: 14 pounds, 1.5 ounces  (6 lbs 15 oz at birth)
LENGTH:  26 inches (19 in at birth)

New things this month:

• Rice, barley and oatmeal cereal
• Rolling over both front to back and back to front
• "Talking" ALL the time
• Playing in the exersaucer
• Baby food (started squash yesterday)
• Grabbing at toys

Here's a few pictures from the past month:

He "talks" himself to sleep every night

Sometimes he talks himself to sleep while playing too

Playing and laughing in the exersaucer!

His first babyfood!

I think he liked it - he ate the WHOLE thing!!

My sweet Jayden-boy, I love you so much and am so thankful for you and the joy you've added to our family. :)



Storytime with Josh

Josh LOVES his baby brother... He has prayed for him and cherishes every moment with him. I am so thankful for his relationship and love for Jayden. I HAD to capture this on my iPod and publish it because I can already see their special bond . (Yes, grandma, it's a video - you'll have to watch it on the computer)

100 Things

In an effort to make my blog a bit more "interesting" and also help "newbies" out there get to know me and my family a little more, I've added a new page at the top called 100 things. Be sure to check it out and see how many things you knew about me and my life :)

Thanks for reading and following me and my family!

"Teach Me Tuesday"

I was inspired today by my friend, Maggie, to write this blog. She is a homeschooling momma of four (soon-to-be-five) cute, adorable, girls. I don't know how she manages to teach them all as they're at such different stages. So I thought I'd give my own "Teach Me Tuesday" a shot...

I decided to capture every moment around me last night at dinner and I discovered that there are SO many ways that they are learning and I am teaching...I just didn't realize it. Here's our journey at dinner last night.

It was Jenna's turn to help cook dinner. She wanted cheeseburgers and mac n' cheese. So she helped me:

We have to turn the bbq on first and let it get nice and hot before we can cook on it

We talked about how fire is really hot and it cooks our food for us.



The pot is a circle and we fill it half-way with water. It has to "make bubbles" before we can put the macaroni in to cook



Then we add the cheese and we mix it all around. We talk about how it "feels" and the color.

Josh is helping Julianna learn how to help out too. He knows which dishes are breakable and which are not and helps his little sister learn how to help mommy. :) They get to hlep with the dishwasher while the dinner is cooking.

 

Since yesterday was "Pi" day (3.14), we had piE and talked a little about how it is used to measure circles. Since the kids are still only 3 and 4 I don't go into too much detail. But Josh screamed out - "Hey, that box is an octagon!" LOL...



What ways do you "teach" and help your little ones learn?

Makin' It Monday

This past Saturday we had a garage sale....again. You see, we had tried to have a garage sale last weekend, but the weather was NOT cooperative. It had rained and a cold front blew through. It was in a sense the perfect weekend though because my dad and Sherrie watched the kids and I was able to get organized....

But alas, we had not many people, and the people we did have wanted furniture. We had mainly baby girl clothes....and if you say we may need those again, I'll just pray for me...LOL....

So we tried again this past weekend with a little help from a friend. It was a beautiful weekend, and we sold most of our items. The clothes we didn't sell, we are giving to UKFJ to help them get the funds they need to move. It was quite an experience though as it was my first garage sale without my mom. I've learned a few things....

1. Don't bother organizing your clothes into bins according to size, other people don't care and mess up your system.
2. Staple the bags shut that you place matching outfits in so that people can't take them out and NOT put them back
3. Have Jason on watch for the multitude of people who swarm the table at once and all try to pay at one time
4. Start your prices on the high end because everyone wants to talk you down to 50% your asking price! (Even though prices were already low, NO you are NOT buying that really nice jacket for a quarter!!!
5. Have a translator available for all the conversations that are going on about your merchandise and convos around you.
6. Things you never thought would sell, sell and the things you think will sell quickly, you will probably still have at the end of the day...like these jammies....

What are somethings you've learned having a garage sale?

Springtime...

You know its springtime when....

The stawberries are so red and juicy...

Flowers are blooming everywhere - especially the Texas bluebonnets (pics to come next week of kids in them!)

And overnight your backyard weeds become as tall as half your child!
(don't worry mom, we're weed n' feeding the backyard)

A Day in the Life of...

Joshua's dinosaur that he colored today during our "color time"

A lot of people wonder what I do on my days "off". I teach middle schoolers Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but am at home on Tuesday and Thursday...Since none of my kids are in school yet, it makes people assume that I have tons of time on my hands...I'd like to think that I've got the routine down, but it varies from day to day a bit. Here's what a "day in the life" of my is like on my days "off":

I wake up to laundry. With six people, four of whom manage to go through more than one outfit a day on occasion makes for constant laundry. This cannot be neglected or there will be a mountian waiting for you the size of Mount Everest. So, I wake up at 5:30am (hey, that's sleeping in for me!) and throw a load in the washer. Then it's downstairs to make Jason's lunch and unload the dishwasher.

6:30am rolls around and the kids start waking up. They all come downstairs and I usually make eggs and sausage for breakfast. Today they wanted strawberry oatmeal, so we had that. I let them stay in their jammies a bit and we watch the morning news. Josh is learning about weather so we talk about that. He asks frequently "what's the weather going to be like later today?"

Tuesday's and Thursday's are special because the kids get to watch a couple cartoons in the morning after the news. I let them watch two episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Junior. It's about the only kids show I can stand to watch (what happened to all the good cartoons, by the way?!). While they watch their hour of cartoons, I am answering school emails, entering grades, or doing something for school. Then it's upstairs to the playroom to play for an hour or two. in the meantime, I will fold and put away about two loads of laundry somewhere in between playing with the kids.

We come down about 10am for a early lunch-time snack. Today we had dinosaur chicken nuggets. I fix it a bit early because Julianna and Jayden go down for their naps at 10:45am. I then tutor Pre-Algebra for an hour and a half. This is when Josh and Jenna get to color with "big kid" markers, or write with things other than color wonder markers. Usually they just like playing and hanging out together. Sometimes they'll sit next to me and practice their letters while I am tutoring...

At about 12:30pm, Jayden's hungry for some baby cereal and will play on the floor with Josh and Jenna for a bit. Today he didn't make it very long as you can see from the picture below. (He's growing like a weed!)

After tutoring, I like to spend some special time with Josh and Jenna. I taught them how to play "Go Fish" today. it was fun and they enjoy playing games with Jason and I. It's funny to watch someone learn how to play a game you've played for ever. Also makes you think about how to explain it to someone who is very "literal". But we play together until 1:30 or 2:00. Then Julianna is awake, and it's time for Josh and Jenna to go "rest" upstairs....

Now that Julianna's awake and the other kids are usually asleep, or resting, I do a couple more loads of laundry and the dishes. I also try to clean the kitchen a little and decide what to make for dinner. I let her pick a special movie - today it was "The Brave Little Toaster". It's nice to also spend a little time with just her and make her feel special as well. Sometimes we'll play together with her toys. :)

At 3:00 or whenever the big kids get up, we ride our bikes to the mailbox (although we couldn't today because it was raining). Then we play outside until 4:30pm. A quick tidy up downstairs and vacuum to make the living room look nice for daddy follows (BIG fan of Febreeze). Then I start on dinner and the kids play with their toys. Daddy gets home at 5:30 - 6:00pm and we eat dinner. The kids like watching Wheel of Fortune (they repeat the letters that are called - so funny!), and then it's get ready for bed time for the little ones. Julianna is in bed by 7:00, Josh and Jenna at 7:30pm. Jayden is chilling in his bouncer, but usually falls asleep not long after. Jason and I usually spend some time together until he falls asleep. Then I come downstairs and work on some school work and get backpacks, clothes, everything ready for tomorrow's school day. I also get a chance to have my "God-time"... Bed time for me is usually about 10:00pm.

Whew - I'm tired, just talking about it again!

I hope you enjoyed walking through a typical day with me! It's tiring and at times frustrating, but it's such a blessing to watch my kids grow and learn before my eyes that I wouldn't change it for a bit! I don't mind staying up a little later to cherish those smiles and hugs I get during the day just for spending some quality time with them...