June

WHOA! Just looking at all these pictures, I am having a hard time believing we did so much in June. And this is not a fourth of the pictures, which can all be seen on phanfare.

But I am supposed to type on here, actually write stuff instead of just posting pictures. Sometimes I forget that I need to write, that not everyone is on facebook seeing those pics I post there regularly or that everyone does not periodically check phanfare. But most people will read the blog, and it's the one that I am the worst about updating. So now I have a bunch of recapping, here we go...

It rained A LOT in June. This particular week, it was either don't let the kids go outside or let them be covered in mud. We chose mud. 

YUCK! Quite literally taking a mud bath.

 And we had TWO birthdays! John had to leave before Ethan's birthday on the 30th, but was here the weekend after Madison's on the 4th, so we had their two parties together at The Quarry Splash Pad. One of my favorite places.

                                                  Here is my newly 8 year old on her birthday! And what a birthday it was. No party today, but she didn't go without. First thing was a big pancake breakfast, then off to the pool for a few hours, then pizza for lunch. Daddy sent her a fruit basket from edible arrangments.Off to the movies to see Mirror Mirror, got a manicure with mom, and met the grandparents at The Cheesecake Factory in which she had a chocolate milkshake, dinner and a big cheesecake for dessert! She actually, not surprisingly, ended the evening with quite a tummy ache!

 And then Ethan was 2 on the 30th, even though we had his party earlier in the month, I just had to make him a little cake on his actual day, even though it was just us 4 at the house.

Showing "2" on his fingers, one on each hand :)

                                                                    I love this shot :)

                                            Madison's gift from us, she has been asking for one.

                        Madison's table on one side and Ethan's on the other to keep their parties kind of still their own and special :)

                                   Ethan sat at his table all by himself while we did Madison's lol.

And then we went on vacation! Well we 4 did, John went to work! We tagged along and did some fun stuff when he got off each day. First was Homa, Louisiana, near New Orleans. It was a good trip.

 Went to Storyland, super cool place! So adorable!!!

 Ethan got a kick out of putting Madison's shoes on daddy's feet It was cute.

Then we went to the beach! A friend of ours let us stay at a beach house with them near Galveston, what a blessing, nearly a free vacation.

                                                                         I love him.

I do not know why blogger decided to separate the Louisiana pics from the beach ones, oh well!

                                                                     

                                                                            Train ride

                                                 The boys fav part of Storyland, the pirate ship

                                                           What a busy, fun month!!!
We did do a lot of homeschooling, did much of nothing really. Madison got her summer break after all, only because we had some people living with us with kids and it made it too hard. So we just did some math most days to not get further behind on that.

So here is a quick recap of April and May

Our church celebrated it's 12th birthday, and had a crazy party. They made human ice cream sundaes by throwing ice cream and toppings at people, trying to make the best one. Madison loved that of course and said she can't wait for next years party.I would post more pics of it, but there are so many different kids in the pics and I don't know if all the parents would be okay with that, but they are all on phanfare if you have that password and link, if not, ask.

 They also played many games, one was a sack race she did with Papa Rob and then the three legged race she did with Nanny. They went to help me out with the boys while I did the pics.

Of course they got the eat some sundae's, too. 

 Today our church had the "Huffin and Puffin for Haiti" The adults did a 5k and the kids a 1k. Madison came in third place and was so proud of herself.

 I got to cheat a little being the photographer, I did about 2 of the 3 miles. Pushing 100 lbs of a kids and a double stroller and holding a 5 pound camera around my neck was HARD. But it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was fun and I will do it next year, without the boys!

 This monster zuchinni came out of our garden! Yep, I grow stuff, and it's edible!

A few weeks ago when John was home, we went to Blue hole one day, and Lake Georgetown another. Blue hole is a fantastic swimming hole, LOVE it. Lake Georgetown is a simple little lake, nothing fancy but nice and clean and safer as far as big slippery rocks goes.

 This happened because this house is cursed. I think. Pretty soon we will have a brand new house. In the past year it's had a new roof, septic work twice, new a/c unit, other a/c work, and now a new water heater. Our home warranty company is going to let us go after this year. Or raise our rate. No hot water for days. Now the dryer is broken. Who wants to start taking bets on what's going out next? I think only the kitchen appliances are left. Toaster arleady bit the dust and the fridge has a mysterious leak.

 For Mother's Day Madison made me HOT tea in wine glasses. How sweet lol. She tried to be very helpful the day before and help clean up and be good. On actual Mother's Day, things didn't go so well. The kids didn't get the memo. But I was still extra thankful that day to get to be their mother.

 Of course we had Easter a while back. That was fun, lots of people came over and it went well.

 We toured a local farm, and bought some of their fresh eggs which were the best eggs I have ever bought, I buy them at the local farmers markets often, but these were even better than what I have had.

                                                          My husband was looking hot.

 And we went to East Texas for my sisters son's birthday. It was a super quick and easy trip and the kids had fun.

Other than that, we have been doing lots of park days, lots of water and went to the quarry splashpad in leander which I love. We have been having a lot of fun getting out around here. We are doing school work still, we don't need a long summer break. We take breaks whenever I want or need to, all of the time so it makes sense to just do school year round. We  took 5 weeks off recently, and it was hard to  get back into a routine and it made Madison lazy. We also just need something to do in the miserably hot summer afternoons when we don't want to go outside come June and July.  I guess that's it for now! 

Spring Pictures!

See more on my phanfare. Contact me if you don't know what I am talking about. :)

Everything is going well here. Ethan is talking more each day. Tyler is totally potty trained finally. Ethan even used a public potty voluntarily yesterday. We just walked in and he started taking his pants and diaper off! Madison is excelling suddenly in math and is reading more than ever, 2-4 books a day. She never watches tv, only a movie if she has a friend over. Tyler watches way too much tv. Ethan just wanders around getting in everyones business.

 I have recently tried eating a "paleo" diet (meat based) and taking some things from that, I am going to try to eat less meat (maybe 2-3 times a week and eat a plant based diet. Not total vegetarian, but I just want to try it out and see how I feel on it. I am not making the rest of the family do it. I just don't care for meat and think it might work for me. But I am fine with going back to paleo if I don't feel great on it because I feel just fine on paleo. I am on Day 2 of no meat, but I will eat it when I feel like it. Guess that's it for now!

Trying to make a comeback

I have not blogged much in the past year. For no other reason other than life is just really busy. With homeschooling and 3 kids, and John coming and going, having a friend living here, and just life, I never take the time to sit and focus on anything. I spend plenty of time on the computer, but I am distracted the whole time. I always think I will update the blog when I get some quite time to focus but that rarely happens. It really only happens late at night when I am too tired to type up a post. I just read, research and go to bed too late and then wonder why I didn't spend that time blogging.

It actually feels like life is settling down now though. I feel like I can fit this in again now that Ethan and Tyler are more independent. Madison and I are finding our routine with school work, still trying some things out, but have a pretty good schedule down and am using a curriculum we both like so that is  going smoothly MOST days. It seems when John is here she thinks she is on vacation and gives me a harder time. Overall though, I  love homeschooling, it fits our lifestyle so perfectly. I can say that today because we had a really good easy day lol! Madison was more than happy to do her work, hummed happily while she did her math an got every answer right, asked "what's next?" when she finished one thing, started on the next assignment without me even explaining it to her. These are the days I live for. We finished in two hours with no breaks or need for one. Other days, not so much! She can give me hell and spend two hours on math alone, when it should take 30 minutes or less. Our curriculum is literature based and perfect for her. She reads 2 books a week for actual school work, but reads books on her own, sometimes finishing two a day. They are smallish chapter books like American Girl, those are her favorite to read on her own time. She also listens to books on audio after her hour of evening reading time, she can't get enough of books and I am so glad. I love them, too. She was behind in math but is catching up. Some days she pretends to not know how to add or subtract. Other days she breezes though and complains that it's kindergarten work. I have been using this website for math flashcards and I think it's helped a TON! http://www.mathfactcafe.com. Her handwriting has improved a lot the past month or two to a more age appropriate level I think, her reading comprehension skills are phenomenal, spelling is excellent for her age. She prefers larger books to small ones, likes to read independently, can read almost anything and understands it better if she reads it herself.

I started using www.abcmouse.com for Tyler last month and he loves it. He was having a hard time learning the color green. He would always call  it red until the one day we did the green book on this website, he knew green from then on. We do a new letter, number and color each week, which has coordinating music, books, coloring sheets, animals, ect. He gets to take care of an internet hamster and fish tank and decorate his own room by shopping with tickets he earns from completing activities. We only spend about 15-20 minutes on it at a time and not every day, it's perfect a 3 year old. It's a great way to get some time in with him while Madison does some reading. I thought it would only be for Tyler but Ethan loves it just as much. He claps to every song. Tyler is doing great, his sensory issues are not as big a problem for me as they used to be. They seem to come and go as far as severity. We may not even notice anything major for a long time then have a really bad day or week. A lot of things that were big issues are non issues now, like brushing his teeth or wearing long sleeves. There are some issues we don't know how to handle still but we will figure it out. He seems pretty normal for the most part, just hypersensitive at times, but what toddler isn't? His speech has exploded, he says anything and everything now. He likes to call people dude, still loves cars and construction equiptment like most boys, still prefers to play alone. John made him a sandbox and he will play out there alone for hours just as happy as can be.

Ethan likes all the same things, but his favorite thing is probably monster trucks, especially the yellow one we have. Ethan is nearing 2 (19 months) and boy is it showing! He is a turd! He has started hitting, biting,  and using this tone of voice that I now for a fact means "Shut up, mama!" But all he  is actually saying is "Mah, Mama!" He is still so emotional like always, running away to fall on the floor face first and cry into the floor when he gets upset about any  little thing, he is so dramatic. He is not hypersensitive lie Tyler to stimulation, but is emotionally so sensitive. He is still clingy to me but not as bad as he used to be. He doesn't take crap from anyone, which seems to be a characteristic of all my kids. He lets you know if you have offended him in any way with his go to hell look,  tone of voice, running off to cry, or actually coming back to hit you repeatedly. Usually all of those at once. He is a mess. What happened to the sweetest baby ever??? When he isn't being evil, he is still so ridiculously adorable and  you just can't help but want to cover him with kisses and squeze him. He loves to give kisses and tight neck hugs, but you never now when that kiss is going to turn into a bite. I don't now what to do about this aggression, gotta work on it though. He has such big beautiful eyes that make you think you could never punish him and he gives the most perfect puppy dog look I have ever seen on a child. He is learning new words each week and understands a lot more than you would think. When I ask him to do things I would not actually expect, he does them. I told him tonight I needed a trash bag for the trash can and he went and got one out of the pantry and put it in, incorrectly of course but he tried. When your a mom such little things make you so proud.

I can go out in public now without Tyler being the main problem, it's usually Ethan now. Sometimes it's both and those are the awful times I wonder why I ever leave the house. I actually like staying home more now than I used to. I guess I am getting old, about to be 30 and all ;). Things seem so different than they were a year ago. We started a garden this month and are getting chickens next month, who would have thought itt? Certainly no me. John is doing pretty good. He is going to start going to college soon. Nicole has been living here for about 6 months but is moving back to Indiana on Monday. I  have not been doing much photography at all. I do miss it, I keep saying I am going to get back to it and just don't. The days seem to full. I have been working on simplifying my life. We don't leave as much, don't have as many extracurricular activities or play dates, just one a week now. I am trying to be a better house wife, not my best quality. I save the fun stuff for when John is home, I am sure he appreciates that ;). I LOVE my church, have a few friends and good homeschool play group and homeschool events with them and still LOVE LOVE LOVE living in the Austin area. I guess that's it for now. That's the several months summed up. I will try to post once every week or two now, as I am also making myself take less phone pics and more pics with my camera.