It's been a good week!

Today we're planning to have a Super Fun Friday!  I'm letting the boys "pick out" their reading lesson today.  We're finishing up some weather and cloud studies.  It would help if there were some clouds in the sky.  It's been beautiful for the bulk of this week, so we've been unable to observe the clouds outside.  Crystal clear and a gorgeous backdrop for the lovely fall leaves but no clouds!  We're also finishing up some research on the Peloponnesian Wars.  They adore history and science!  We have a blast with those subjects, especially.

Math-wise, we're working on time and measurements, so what better application lesson on a Friday afternoon than baking up some of Aunt Ruthie's Snickerdoodles!  If you've never visited the Sugarpie Farmhouse, you must must must!  I'm so inspired to get on in the house to fluff and feather my nest!  She is expecting her first grand-baby, and even that inspires me to have proper perspective for my season in life. I cannot imagine that day coming, but as many of the ladies in my life have reminded me time and time again, it'll happen before I know it!

We'll top off the afternoon with a trip to the karate school for weapons training.  I know that sounds scary.  It's not!  Deron is meeting me there and he's taking the kiddos home while I do a little birthday shopping!  I'll probably grab myself a mocha or maybe a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks with my discount and head over to Micheal's, Kohl's, and Target.  Deron has already given me my birthday gifts.  An assortment of Autumn cookbooks from the Gooseberry Patch!  I've been pouring over them like they're novels. I simply adore their cookbooks!

Hope you have a wonderful Friday and a gorgeous weekend!  Check out the videos of my little sugar and spice, Grace-pie!

I'm not sure what type of insect they're hunting here, but picture Ethan trying to catch a rabbit with a fishing pole and a carrot.  He stopped when he realized it could kill the poor, innocent little bunny, but it was a hoot watching him cast in the front yard.

Daniel enjoys school, most of the time...more often than not...sometimes...

Wednesday, I took the boys to karate for a "Summer Fun" day.  I told them they couldn't go unless they finished their work, so it was good incentive to get them moving.  I actually dropped them off for two hours.  I never do that.  It felt incredibly weird to leave them their.  But Deron said I needed a little break, and it would have been a nice break if Hannah had taken a nap like she was supposed to.  She cried the whole time.  "My BOYS....where's my boys?  I need to see my boys!  We need to go get my boys!"

My little girls can be so sweet!

In this picture, they're viewing the "Your Baby Can Read" DVD.  Hannah gets Grace a chair and wants her to sit and "pay attention," too.  Yeah, right!  The program is pretty interesting, but I think it can require too much time on the baby's part.  And unless Hannah's gung-ho about doing the additional work to read, I'm just going to continue letting her watch the DVD and play with her word cards.  She calls it her "school."  She also totes a legal pad and a pink crayon around to do "school."

I'm telling you...This one gets cuter every single day!

Grace is primarily walking, so we're working on shoes.  She still likes to scoot with that left leg under her, and as a result, that leg is the dirtiest little leg I've ever seen.  I really do try to keep my floors clean...{sigh}

This picture sums up how tired am I!  Doesn't she look comfy-cozy?!

Hope you have a good weekend! 

(And on a side note, to all my facebook friends...I deactivated.  I may reactivate one day, but for now, I enjoyed "checking it" more than, uh, once a day, and I realized how much those minutes had begun to add up for me.  I've decided for a once or twice weekly blog update which should make everyone happy since I'd sort of dropped off the blogosphere most of the time anyway.  Look for it Thursdays or Fridays.  I may begin to pop on more often with recipes and that sort of thing, but I should have an all pictures glimpse into our daily life on Fridays...mainly for the friends and family who miss out on seeing the kids very often.  Our love to all of you!)

I'm loving these long, slow, and lazy summer days! 

The essense of a good summer:

(And just so you know...Hannah can only have blue, green, or purple since she is allergic to certain red, yellow, and orange food dyes.  She'll break out all over her little face if she drinks/eats anything artificially made to be those colors.)

This summer has been wonderful!  We're playing in the pool and making "movie theaters" by day and catching lightning bugs and reading stories by night! 

The boys have become quite the little daredevils in the pool.  They've perfected the cannon ball and are trying to increase the number of flips they can do under water.  Hannah will get in the water...by the ladder.  And I think Grace could swim like a fish if we'd let her.  She purposely puts her face in the water.  Then, she acts surprised, and then, she laughs like it's all big fun.

The kids will get their first set of prizes for the summer reading program tomorrow, so that'll be exciting for them.  I remember going to the summer reading program at the library when I was a little girl.  Listening to stories and watching the reptile show every year.  Those are some very fond memories for me, and I hope they will be for my own children, as well. 

Uno is also a summer fun staple!  Countless games of Uno have been played around here!

Grace update!!  Little Miss took her first steps Friday, so as soon as I get a repeat performance, I'll post that on the video blog.  However, I have a few cute videos on there now.

I'm fairly certain that my boys turned into fish over the weekend!

Can you tell?

Hannah, however...

is not interested...at all!

I posted some swimming videos, so be sure to check them out!

Obviously, I've taken a long (and needed) break.  We haven't traveled anywhere since last month, and I haven't blogged for the last month.  Last month, I was feeling overwhelmed, and I needed to let go of a few non-priorities...which included the blog.

The "grandparents" are getting restless to have something on here.  So I'll give you an update.

Our camera is still gone...getting fixed, but the repairs aren't under warranty.  So I'm not sure when we'll get the camera back.  We need to consider the cost of the repair vs. the cost of a new camera.  However, my brother took a bunch of photos when we had a beautiful winter wonderland here two weeks ago, so keep that in mind as I share these pics with you.

My last post came to you February 11, I think.  Since then, we've found a homeschool co-op that we've enjoyed, visited family in South Georgia, had family come to visit us, gone fishing, continued karate, continued with our weekly library visits and speech visits, gone to the dentist, gone for Grace's 9m well check, enjoyed a beautiful 4 1/5 inch winter wonderland, and got haircuts.

The snow just started at church.

Ethan: He's nearing the end of K5, and will "officially" begin homeschooling this year.  I think we've decided to start our school year just after the Fourth of July.  Karate is going well.  He's learning so much, and he seems to have come out of his shell in that realm a little bit.  He's not really shy most of the time.

Now, let me tell you... He can't handle he cold.  I saw him go outside to play in the snow for a little while, and then, I couldn't find him.  I went to the bathroom, and low and behold, there he was soakin' his feet (and self) in the bathtub. "Well, my feet were freezing!"  We were, literally, snowed in for a few hours.  Our power was out, and no one could get up our hill and into our neighborhood, and we couldn't get out.  Deron was going to go down the road for more firewood and couldn't.  He had to park the van in the ditch and come inside.  I wasn't born to be a pioneer woman, that's for sure.  I like my electricity!

Church boys in the snow...Daniel, Joshua, and Ethan

Daniel: When we took the boys fishing last Saturday, it had just snowed the week before, and no one was getting any bites.  Daniel was very disappointed.  He needed to go to the bathroom, so I rolled our monstrous double stroller to the bathroom with him trottin' along behind me.  I was turning the stroller around to head back when I saw Daniel running up the walkway with a look of sheer terror on his face.  The two teeny weeny yappy dogs were chasing him and nipping at his heels.  When he got to me, he climbed me like a tree to get away from them!  He was truly terrified of those dogs...and we have a German Shepherd. 

Well, we got back down there to fish and the girls had had enough!  There was no playground, so we played ring around the rosy like a hundred times, and my stomach just ain't what it used to be. We played a little bit longer before the boys decided to pack it up.  I went on up to get the girls loaded and buckled in the van.  Then came Ethan and Deron with a soakin'-wet-to-the-bone Daniel hidin' behind him.  He was too close to the edge of the pond and cast his reel too hard and fell in.  He was so upset!  Deron said he had this look on his face that said, "what it the world just happened to me?!" 

He'd had "the ugliest time ever!"  It was the "worst day in his life" and he "never ever wants to go fishin again in that ugly pond!"  Poor things didn't even catch anything.  There's a catch and release children's pond, but they didn't want to release anything.  It wasn't a good trip for my little man.

She wasn't terribly impressed with the cold factor!  The girl was born in FL...what do you expect?

Hannah: She's two years old.  That is for sure!  Potty training isn't going so well, but she will train so no worries here.  She loves going to the boys' karate class.  Every time they shout "Aya!," she shouts, "Allellula!"  (Alleluia)  When we practice at home, she stands at attention like the boys.  When they go into a ready stance, so does she.  When it's time to do jumping jacks, she does her own version.  What's really funny is when she's dressed like a fairy princess while she does it. 

Oh...and there was one day I was cooking supper last week just to be interrupted by a fairy princess streakin' though the kitchen.  She had on her pink fairy princess wings.  That's it...just the fairy princess wings!  She's a mess!

It snowed for another 8 hours after this!  We were heading home at this point!

Grace:  Grace is doing so good!  She had her 9 month-well check last week.  Her weight is continuing to climb.  Thankfully, she's back on the chart...finally.  It's looking much better.  It really did look like a cliff dive.  The formula really does seem to have done the trick.  Although it doesn't explain the daily vomitting before they put her on the polycose.  We'll probably never know why she did that.  We had some formula coupons a few weeks ago, so we tried a different brand.  She started spitting up more and projectile vomitted twice and her digestive system wasn't working well.  So we switched back to the Nestle Goodstart and within a day or two, she stopped the extra spitting up and her digestion settled back to normal. 

We did find out that back when she broke her collar bone, there was damage to a muscle in her neck.  It's grown back too short, so she'll need physical therapy for that.  Poor little miss.

She's officially mobile although her methods of mobility are less obvious than my other children have been.  She's gettin' around!  She's also begun a little bit of separation anxiety.  (Mainly at the co-op, yesterday.)  She just doesn't really want me out of her sight for too long. She does fine with people she sees often, but we've just joined our homeschool co-op.  She needs a little more warmin' up time, I think.

Our church the morning after the snowfall! 

Chris did such a good job on the pictures!  These were so gorgeous!

The Lord has been good to us.  It's been a good month!

Deron was taking Ethan out to the road to ride his bike and noticed our front yard looked funny...wet.  And that it was.  There was 6 inches of water down in the crawlspace.  He quickly cut off the main water but wasn't able to find out where the leak was coming from.  We called a plumber and, thankfully, he was able to fix the problem in less than an hour!  He told us that we have a type of pipe that begins to break after 12-15 years or so.  We'll need to insulate, continue to patch, or get new pipes put in. We never did begin to lose pressure in the house during this, but it had to be leaking for a while.

I'm dreading the water bill.  Our yard is soaked!  It had to be a ton of water.  Deron said the leak looked like a fountain.  Too bad it wasn't summer and the grass could've gotten accidently watered, at least!  Thankfully, we can fill out a form and the water company will work with us regarding the water bill since there will be an obvious spike in it.

The kids are so funny.  They always know when things are going slightly haywire.  I ended up turing on a cartoon for them while we were trying to figure things out.  It's like on some level in their little brains, they want to help.  But they don't know what to do...mainly because there wasn't anything for them to do.  We needed them to sit still.

Anyway, Deron's going to let them help him dig a ditch today to make sure the water continues to flow away from the house.  We have a dehumidifier down there, but we're worried all this water will result in mold.  Things are never dull...never dull!

(Catch Ethan's lizard's story on my video blog.)   

I'm one of those people who really like the appearance of an artificial Christmas tree!  I like how...perfect it looks.  I like how easy it is to put up and how we don't actually have to go anywhere to get it.  We'd just haul it out and put it up.  However...Hannah broke ours last year, and I couldn't bring myself to spend full price for a new artificial tree!

At first, when I was looking for a Christmas tree farm, I saw the farm's wholesale prices and thought they were just as bad as the new artificial ones.  But Deron called the farm and asked them how much they were.  And lo and behold...definitely in our price range!  The prices listed are just for their wholesale products...not the "cut 'em yourself" Christmas trees.  We decided to give it a try.

Oh! My!  What a time we had! (Blocking out the whining children and the crying baby from my memory!)  I looked for a perfectly shaped tree...you know like an artificial tree...but the kids ended up picking it out!  We searched the field rolling the double stroller along.  Deron cut the tree down and hauled it up to the truck.  (Daniel only freaked a little!  He screamed for everyone to "stand back!  WAAAAY back!  It's gonna fall down!")  I've got to say, it looked a lot smaller out in the field than it does in our living room.  It's huge, but it was worth it!

The kids decorated some, but much to my pleasure, they got bored with it.  So I got to finish!  After they went to bed, Deron and I had hot chocolate with marshmallows in the glow of the Christmas tree lights and decided that we're not getting an artificial tree after the season is over.  We've officially made a visit to the Christmas Tree Farm a tradtition for us!  What a memory-maker!

I'll edit this post with pictures of the children with the tree soon.  My camera battery died.  Meanwhile, I've put a video over on my video blog.

What a messy little eater!

Deron says I'm always very optimistic when it comes to my "to-do" list, and he's absolutely right.  I do enjoy doodling about what all I'd like to do.  I think I just enjoy projects.  Two weekends ago, we really did get a good bit accomplished that day, and last weekend, we worked in the yard for the better part of Saturday.

Well, now I've decided to paint the majority of the downstairs living areas and the masterbedroom.  I would like to gradually add decorative and vintage pieces for a country style kitchen.  I'd like to decorate for the seasons...eventually, and using more neutral tones will help in that endeavor.  Downstairs, I'll be using a dark, dark brown for the area beneath the chair rail, and in the kitchen, I'll use a medium tone brown.  Above the chair rail will remain the same.  The mudroom/office area is a rather bright shade of green, but with a few decorative items and wall art, it'll blend right in.  I have enough leftover grayish-green paint from our home in FL that I won't have to buy anything to paint our masterbedroom....except primer, that is, seeing that it's currently very red!  The red is actually a beautiful shade of red, but our stuff doesn't really "go" in there.  It's a lot cheaper to paint than buy new stuff!

I'm excited, and I plan to get busy here in the next couple of days.  We put off painting in FL, and then we moved and barely got to enjoy it.  I hope I don't put things off ever again!

So, today we'll be purchasing paint and going to the library!

Today looks somewhat dreary outside, and right now, I'm sipping a nice, piping hot cup of coffee deciding how I need to spend the day.  What's on our to-do list this Saturday?

1. General cleaning,etc... The bathrooms need a once over.  The floors need to be vacuumed and mopped. Items from various places need to be returned to their appropriate homes.  Laundry needs to get caught up (or as caught up as laundry can get).

2.  A new household notebook.  My "organizer" is no longer a help to me because our family has outgrown it.  I made it when we only had two children and weren't trying to "do school."  We're in a new season now, and even though we only have one child actually doing school, we needed a little more organization.  I came up with my own organizer because nothing I found really suited our family.  So instead of trying to make our family fit into someone else's ideas, I worked on figuring out what would work for us.  I got a few new materials, and today, I'll put it together. 

3.  Our garage needs work.  I'm not looking to perfect it by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be nice to sweep it out and straighten it up a bit.

4.  We're planning to hang up picture frames and art today.  Without those "homey touches", it sort of feels like someone else's house... Also, I plan to take Grace to have her picture made today, as well.

5.  Exercise.  I don't think it has ever been so difficult to lose "those last few pounds."  My clothes still aren't fitting very well, and I've decided that even with the last of the baby weight gone, my clothes will probably still not fit well.  I was 20 when Ethan was born, and even if I hadn't had children, my shape would have changed.  Our neighborhood doesn't have good visibility on our hilly roads, so I won't be running like I did when we lived in our flat-a-a-pancake neighborhood in FL...for fear that I'll get hit by some driver driving way to fast around a curve or over a hill.  I've begun hardcore weight lifting again, and I'm doing various forms of cardio.  I like to do the stepper while I read or watch full episodes of Monk or Psych online.  Deron and I do "The Pit" workout (or 20 minutes of it, rather) together, too.  It's a mixed martial arts training video, and I really like it which says a lot because I'm, normally, not a follow-a-video type of person.

6. We'll be making a trip to the library too.  Herbie: The Love Bug came in, and the kids love that car!  We'll probably finish reading Robin Hood, too, at some point today.

I think today will be a good day!

We've been very busy moving and settling in, and we're still not finished!  Does one ever really get finished?  Anyway, we're beginning to get into a groove. I've been able to tweak the schedule, and I think we're all set to start school Monday.  I still have project-worthy things to do, but those things can be done on a daily basis.

I thought I'd take a second this Thursday afternoon to welcome you inside... (some pictures for Sis. Dina!)

boys' room...the window scared Ethan, so we scooted the bed down a little...

So we've lived back in Georgia for eleven days now, and we've already received my least favorite visitors!  Ants!  Rotten little pesky things they are.  I know they have their place in nature and all, but honestly,  do they really need to come inside to find that one itsy bitsy crumb on the counter?

We're feeling much better...still sporting a cough, but we're better for the most part.  Despite the errands we have to run today, we're feeling more and more settled.  In Florida, you can get your license the same place you get your tag.  Not so in Georgia.  We have to get our license first.  Then, we have to get our new insurance card.  Then, we go back to get our new tag and registration.  Deron is in dire need of new dress shirts, and Ethan had quite a growth spurt this summer and needs new jeans and sneakers.  I think we're going to try and get it all out of the way today.

Deron starts his job Friday.  Please pray for him as he starts something all together new.  They're throwing him in the lake...so to speak.  He won't have orientation until next week.  He'll be going out to a customer along with one of the engineers Friday...first day.  Nice, eh?  I'm sure he'll do great, but he's a little nervous.  So please keep him in your prayers.

Tuesday, I finally took Daniel to the pediatrician about his ears.  I was certain something had to be wrong with him.  He'd started complaining about not being able to hear me and asking questions like, "Why am I talking SO LOUD?!"  We decided it was time to have his ears really evaluated.  She couldn't even see his eardrum and ordered for them to use warm water to clean out the wax.  It was like a squirt bottle with tube that shot water into his ears.  Oh MY!  I was shocked.  The nurse was shocked.  The other nurse, who ended up helping me hold Daniel down during the process, was shocked.  The (for lack of a better word) yucky wax balls were larger than the gravel you'd find in a fish aquarium.  I don't see how they physically came out of his ears.  Other than the scratches on his ear canals from the wax exiting them, he's much better.  He told me yesterday morning in a normal tone of voice, "I can hear very well now."  (I sure do hope so!)  I've already noticed a difference in his volume...i.e. he doesn't scream about everything.  He stills gets frustrated and his volume goes up.  But he doesn't just scream while he's talking to you.  The nurse practitioner said he just produces more wax than your average person and to use peroxide two or three times a week to keep it from building up.  And, obviously, not to use q-tips at all...but I already knew that much!  So aside from the shocking size of all of it, I was thrilled and very happy to pay that $35 copay!  It was a good day! 

Although I didn't quite know what to say when Daniel piped up with Daniel-ism #28395 on the way to the doc's office: "Mommy, boogers from your nose taste better than boogers from your ears..." Yeah, he said that! 

"Daniel," I said, "Don't ever eat anything that comes out of your body!"  Did I really have to clarify that with my 3 year old?  Oh- Please don't let him say anything like that in front of the doctor!

Ethan has developed a mysterious fever.  He woke up during the night last night after a nightmare.  He was shaking and shivering.  First time that's happened in a long time, but I noticed how warm he was.  At 3 a.m., he was running a 102 degree fever, and today it's come down 100.4.  But it won't stay down.  There aren't any other symptoms, so maybe he's just fighting off some sort of infection.  Hopefully, this won't last long.  He actually fell asleep on the couch a little while ago...poor little thing!

I'm progressing some with Grace...any progress is progress!!  So what that boils down to is that she's not going to be in there forever! :-)  Hopefully, we will meet this little princess soon!

Miss Priss...ain't she cute?!

Hannah, say "cheese!"

So...Hannah wasn't content at all.  She was getting sick, and by the end of yesterday, we were ALL sick.  I'll spare you the details, but let's just say it wasn't pretty!  Today has been better, though...for the most part.  I think we're "on the mend!"

Ethan and Hannah had well checks this morning...go figure!  They were well enough to go, so I took them into town while Deron...who's sick too...stayed home with Daniel.  What an easy appointment day!

I can't believe how grown up Ethan's gotten.  He let the nurse demonstrate everything on him before they did anything to Hannah.  "See Hannah?  It's not so bad!"  he'd say, and then in a whisper, "but she's not gonna like those shots!"

"He needs to be safe, Mommy.  Can you buckle him in?"

Ethanism #3851:  "I do not want to be a mammal, and you really shouldn't call people vertebrates either!" Picture me-- dazed and confused with a few "who's the mama?" type of thoughts running through my brain ...uh...okay...--It was one of those moments I didn't quite know what to say...

On another note, all is well with Grace.  Nothing to report...LESS than 4 weeks to go...and counting! :-)

Monday night rolled around, and I was rationalizing bailing out on our homeschool group field trip to the zoo.  "I'm too far along to keep up with these little folks at the zoo all day." "I'm too big and they're too fast!" "What if it's too hot...what if it's raining...what if no one shows up...what if...what if...what if..."  Bottom line...I didn't know if I wanted to make the effort to go.

I'm so very glad I did.  The children did wonderfully!  They were so impressed, and they even got a chance to spend their own money to ride the merry-go-round.  I rode it with them...Now that was a sight! Everyone, it seemed, was watching the pregnant lady climb up on the horse to ride in circles while we listened to weird forest music.  We walked and walked and walked and the boys even fed the giraffes!

Sometimes, the extra effort is completely worth it!  My body wasn't sure it wanted to go, but the fellowship with other homeschool moms was so refreshing!  The boys got a chance to play with one of their friends from storytime, too.  He's 4, and Ethan and Daniel are 5 and 3, so it was fun to see the way their little minds worked together. (I forgot my camera, so no zoo pictures! Sorry!)

We didn't end up leaving the zoo until after 3:00, though, and when we got home, we ate supper and washed the truck.  We're getting it ready to sell.  Gas is so expensive, and we're going to get Deron a car that gets far better gas mileage than the truck.  Hopefully, we'll be able to get an old truck for around the house type stuff though before too long. 

The kids had a ball "helping," and to be honest, Ethan was a lot of help.  He worked so hard, and he really enjoyed himself.  Daniel, however, kept spraying us with the water hose while we tried to work, and Hannah kept trying to drink the dirty water.  That girl loves to dump water on her head, too.  During baths, she'll take the rinsing cup, fill it with water, and dump it on her own head!  She's going to enjoy swimming one day.  I can tell!  The truck looks so clean on the outside, right now. It makes me not want to sell it! j/k :-)

Needless to say, we all slept well.  In fact, the kiddos are still snoozing!

We're off to the library this morning, and I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon.  So another busy day!  They're doing an ultrasound, so I'll post Grace's "pictures" tonight or tomorrow.

We've had some version of whatever "crud" is going around down here.  Our days have been filled with lots of coughing, runny noses, itchy throats, and poor Daniel has a funky taste in his mouth.  I thought it was just allergies, and I think we're somewhat better, but it had to be more than just plain ole allergies.  We were feeling seriously run-down and awful, but the worst of our bad days only lasted a couple days.  Although we're still coughing and "runny-nosed," we aren't quite as run-down  and feeling just terrible as we were. 

I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon...my last quick check up...I can't believe it.  Next time, I'll get to see Grace via ultrasound again.  Daniel thinks that every single time I go to the doctor I'm bringing her home with me.  I have to assure him repeatedly that she needs to stay in my tummy a little while longer. 

We have company coming in tomorrow, and that hasn't helped.  We've explained to the kids that when Grace is born, Lord willing, my sister, sister-in-law, and mom will already be down here, so now, when I told them we had company coming in to visit through Saturday, Daniel and Ethan, both, broke out in "monster-grins" and asked me, "Where are you gonna be?"  We had to assure them, again, that she's not supposed to be born yet, and then, Daniel flatters me to no end when he lets me know in no uncertain terms that she could be born because I've already gotten big enough!

What has been the funnest part go-round has been how excited I see those boys of mine get over "getting to have" another baby sister.  They love to feel her kick and they have to kiss her every night...  It'll tug at your heartstrings!  I can't wait to see their faces when she makes her grand appearance!