YEAR ROUND SCHOOLING...

This year we decided to try year round schooling. I was a little hesitant at first because I love the summer off as much as the kids but, the pro's were really looking good for me and them. (less forgetting, breaks all the time to plan and play, etc...)

SO, this is our first week off of school after 6 weeks on. There is so many fun things planned and the kids and I are so excited to have a little break and then get back on schedule. We are making Halloween crafts, going to a museum and two parks, having grandma come one day and Aunt Jess come another, we are watching movies, making treats, and just SLOWING DOWN. Also, each day we tackle a room of the house to get it back into shape after 6 weeks of school. So far this is great! We will see what I think this summer....

my HUGE baby...

So Jacob is a LARGE boy... At his 4 month check up (last month) he weighed 18 lbs and was 28 inches long. That is bigger than Hannah was at 12 months, and as tall as Joseph was at 12 months. I take him in again in about 3 weeks and we will see how much bigger he is...

FALL

I just love fall.... The air is not as hot, the leaves are so pretty, there are fun things to bake, and we get to do canning. Okay, the canning is a pain in the butt. I am SOOOO glad to be done with my apricots, pears, and peaches. Today I finished making Jacobs babyfood too, and I am DONE with food preserving! Anyway, there is some great satisfaction in looking at all those jars and bags of food storage and knowing you did all that.

Death

So death is part of life... but how do you explain that to three little kids who have lost 4 loved pets in the last two weeks? About two weeks ago I accidently killed our chinchilla that we have had since Sarah was about 2. Later that week, Josephs guinea pig got sick, and died. Well, unknown to us guinea pigs don't want to live "alone" after their littermate dies so they just starve themselves to death. Hannahs pig died three days later from loneliness... Well the kids were just so sad that their love was not enough for this little pig and that she would do that. It has been another week, and Sarahs pig died from loneliness today. How do you explain to them that it was not something that was their fault or a punishment from Heavenly Father (which is the new idea) and that death is just part of the deal? Anyway, just throwing it out there for thought...

new family pics!!!!

well here they are!!! I think they turned out pretty cute....

I am thankful for KNEES!!!

SO.... On sunday we get out of church and I am standing next to the couch ready to put Jacob into his carseat and all of a sudden my knee POPS and I fall to the ground. As I am falling I throw sleeping Jacob on the couch and land in a big pile! Everyone is wondering what is wrong with me for throwing my baby and laying on the floor and I am in so much pain that I can't move, breathe, think, etc... Finally I crawl up onto the couch and tell them that my knee is hurting so bad that I am going to throw up. They run get Shawn, he takes me home and then to instacare. They do x-rays and find that I dislocated my knee and that it didn't go back into the right spot.... SO I get to wear this beautiful hip to ankle "knee immobilizer" for two weeks and then start physical therapy!!!! This is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me!

Caleb is Potty Trained!!!

Well, we are basically done potty training Caleb! He has only had one #2 acident in the last three days! We finally found some motivation for him... We have tried EVERYTHING, but he was not interested. But, I finally got him a "BIG bakugan" like Josephs and put it on the shelf for him when he was all done. So after four days of being "big", we are potty trained! Yeah Caleb!!!

Bluebell

Our new baby - Chester
Hannah with Chester

Joe with Chester

Sarah with Chester

The Three year old - baby Rain

Hannah and Caleb Riding away...

Sarah on baby Rain

Joe on baby Rain

Spirit and Chester

Hannah with Rain

Caleb on Rain

smiley jacob

now that we have him on the right reflux medicine Jacob is much happier and smiles at all of us!

Josephs 7th birthday

Well, my little Joseph turned 7 this month! I can hardly believe it... He is growing up so fast and is so smart. Joseph is the stable one in our house and love schedules, math, rules, timers, mechanical things, and anything predictable... this year he had a pokemon ball cake and it was pretty cute (I made it of course) Anyway, I am so glad we have this handsome boy in our family!

SLEEP!!!

YEAH!!!

Last night Jacob fell asleep at around 10:00pm (which is early for him), I wasn't expecting him to go to bed yet so I didn't get in bed until around 11:00... Well, at 4:30am I woke up and looked at the clock and thought "that can't be right." I looked again and thought "oh no, he must be dead (from sids-my biggest fear)". Anyway, I get up to check him and Shawn says, " I just checked on him, he's okay" So I got back in bed and counted the hours out and thought, "FIVE hours! I just got five hours of sleep, and all consecutively!" That is more than the amount of sleep I have gotten most nights total. I'm sure that he will not do it again, since none of my kids have ever slept that long before almost a year old. But, I got some sleep for the first time in 8 weeks!!! Of course our talking woke him up, but that's okay because I was REALLY FULL... :)

me as a baby

joe with his missing front teeth, then me with mine...

Well, my sister called and wanted some pictures of me for my mom. I am not good at scanning as you can tell, but I thought since I had them I would post for all of you to see how much my boys look like me.