Our First White Christmas!

Well first of all let me say I made no New Year's resolutions but maybe I should have made one .......to keep up this blog! I'll have to recap our 2010 in a later blog because this one is all about our first ever white CHRISTmas!

This was probably my favorite Christmases of all times! It's so funny how your thinking and emotions change from when you are a child to when you have children. The anticipation is completely different, the rush of excitement is a world apart but all still very present!

Christmas Eve is always spent at my Aunt Jane's house with our cousins. Aunt Jane lays out a spread of food like no other! Not only does she cook for us every year, she also prepares stockings. By now she has already started working on this years stockings. They are filled with candy, toys, socks, jellies, homemade ornaments, candles, tools...just an assortment of things that I use all year long until its time to go back! Sunshine really got into the stockings this year! She loved going to her "Aunt James" house. The boys talked all week before we went about how they couldn't wait to get out there and give her a big hug! I have looked forward to Aunt Jane's Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember! Its one of my favorite thing about the holidays!!! This year was no exception.

They had been predicting snow for Christmas day but normally that would mean it is going to be hot ans sunny outside. MZ loves snow more than anyone in the family and had been on radar watch all week, He had asked David on the way home from Aunt Jane's to see his phone so he could check the radar and David told him it was going to rain, no snow. I think we were all a little disappointed.

Normally the kids are awake on Christmas morning before 4 but because the night was a restless one, at 7 o'clock David came downstairs and woke me up by whispering in my ear "it snowed....and its everywhere!" I couldn't get out of bed quick enough! He ran back up the stairs to wake up the boys except he told the boys that "The man didn't come because it rained." They came barreling down the stairs oblivious to the snow or the presents! When I told them it had snowed they quickly forgot about their presents and ran outside!

The day was spent with family celebrating the birth of our Saviour and what better way to be reminded of the reason of His birth than brilliant, white snow all on the ground.....He washed us white as snow! It was a great gift from God to us, something we can't purchase from a store but something we all had wanted!

This is my favorite Christmas picture of all time!! MZ and Sunshine had built the snowman. She was cold and wet and ready to come inside but I needed a picture, she was in no mood for a picture! I love it!

The boys are going to TCPS on Tuesdays, they offer a "home school bridge" that allows home schooled kids get some extracurricular things. The boys are loving it! They have p.e., art, music, computer, etc. Also they can play sports with the school, so it looks like football in the fall!!
I thought that while they were at school it would be a great time for me to be more diligent about this blog.

Boys first day at TCPS

R.I.P. Lucy

This has been a difficult weekend. Normally I would only like to blog about good, cheery, happy things but this is about LIFE and as everyone knows, life is tough sometimes. I am blogging about my childhood dog Lucy. We got Lucy, a rat terrier, when I was in high school. Matthew named her Lucy after Lucille Ball. She was the only dog I had growing up that we kept longer than 6 months. She was spastic and feisty, she licked you every time you tried to pet her, she did not like anyone but her family and the squirrels outside the breakfast room door tortured her. When Lucy was a year old I left her outside, chained up; a couple of months later she gave birth to 3 puppies in my lap. After that mom got her spayed. Anyway Lucy died this weekend. Very sad. Dad was trying to build her an appropriate box to be buried in and nearly cuts his finger off. Big Daddy is fine, he did stubbornly refuse to go to the doctor to get stitches *rolling my eyes* but Nanni bandaged him and wrapped the horror-film-looking finger. A trauma to add to all the drama!
Lucy was a good dog to our family and she will be missed!

R.I.P. Lucy

Well Hello Blogspot

Ok so I could possibly be the worst blogger ever......or maybe just a really busy momma??? I think both would apply! Ha!



A little update: We have made it over halfway through our first year of homeschooling without killing each other! Successful...I think so! We have really enjoyed our traveling, 9 states in 1 year is a lot! The kids are all one year older, we're all healthy and life couldn't be any better! We bought a boat last weekend and are planning way too many trips to the lake already! Whoo hoo!



Now for the recent: I love to read, I am a bookworm, I have to make sure to do the dishes when I start reading a book! And now I am happy to say that the reading bug has finally bitten the boys! They are consumed with reading!! C read 3 "chapter books" in a week. MZ read an entire reader in 1 day and is almost finished with his first real chapter book!! This excites me so much I can not describe it in words!!

I was telling MZ how much fun reading really is, I said you can go anywhere when you read a book. I told him that if you're reading a book about china you can imagine you're in China. I could tell that did not excite him as much as I wanted it to, so I thought for a minute and said "you can read a book about the first Super Bowl and it will be like you are playing in the game!" Now that got him emotional!!

Boys vs. Girls

Lunch conversation with 3 boys:
C: "I pulled the 4-wheeler up to the front all by myself last night."
MZ: "I drove Daddy's truck the other day."
Max: "I drive the tractor for hours with my dad!"
C: "Yeh, I've driven a tractor a lot!"
MZ: "I want a 4-wheeler for my birthday that I can drive all the time by myself!"
Max: "oh me too!"

So basically a "one-up contest"!


Same day but two little girls.

Hannah:"I need to go potty."
S: " I need to go potty too!"
(in the restroom)
Hannah: "I like yous panties!"
S:" Thanks yous! I like yous panties too!"

Totally different with boys and girls!

We are TEA'd off!

Happy Birthday America!!

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went to City Hall and took part of a TEA party. I have marked my kids as right-winged, red-neck extremist...and should probably feel bad for doing such a terrible thing but well I don't at all! Here are some pictures of our protest....BEWARE, they are very violent and may not be appropriate for young eyes.........

Update

Yes, I know it has been a month and a half since I have updated the blog! What can I say....I'm a slacker. No, actually, we have been so extremely busy that I have not even really thought about it but today for some reason I did! Since school has been out several things have taken place. Mom and Dad's pool is finished and we are constantly in it! Second, FCS, the boys school has closed and we have decided to home school the boys! Third, the garden is in full bloom now and we are about to add more to it!
So the pool is finished! YAY! Thank you Nanni and Big Daddy for putting in a pool! We love it so much! The boys are fish right now! At the beginning of the summer Nanni suggested we get MZ some sort of life jacket until he sharpened his swimming skills, but there was no need for that. He is currently the master at the back dive and will probably be doing a back flip by the end of the summer! S was a little hesitant to get in right at first but in the past two weeks we have worked with her and she is now jumping off the sides and swimming to the steps with her floaties on and not screaming about it! Big Daddy challenged C to swim 5 laps non-stop before the end of the summer, the other day he swam 30 laps, taking a few breaks in between. The next day he said his shoulders hurt! Ha, he was just sore from all that exercise! They will all three have great tans and bleached hair by the end of the summer, well we all kinda do now! Ha! I have discovered that if I let the kids swim for a bit in the morning and then again for a bit late afternoon, they will sleep like bears all night!
Second, sadly FCS is closing. We love this school and are very heartbroken to see it close, but God knows what's best for us. With the closing of the school, Daddy and I sat down and discussed our options for next school year. We figured that with his work/travel schedule it would be a great opportunity for us to home school the boys. That way we can go with him and always be together as a family, which is top priority to us! And today all of our books came in! We are very excited about this new adventure God has in store for us!
Third, the garden.....well the garden is blooming....some. We planted in the middle of a monsoon and prayed that each seed we planted would grow....most have, thankfully. We will soon have corn, tomatoes, peas and beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, peppers, and squash!!! We can't wait to have our first home-grown meal!!!
We are enjoying our summer! Hopefully I'll be better about updating the blog of our adventures and travels! :)