Great Purchase

About six years ago we purchased a inflatable castle you can jump in and we think it's one of our best purchases for the kids. It such a special treat to get it out and they can play in it for a long time.
Here's some pictures of the kids playing on it the last time we got it out.


The two half-naked girls are Zoey and Kaia. They would rather run around in a diaper and panties then put clothes on and sometimes it's not worth the fight!





















































Zoey was getting bounced around way too much at one point so she sat in the middle and cried.























Josie saw me pull out the camera and made sure I got a picture of her!

Glasses

Indiya got a Doctor's Kit for Christmas this last year and we couldn't find the glasses to the kit for a long time. Well, we decided to clean under the couches and guess what Zoey found?? She absolutely LOVES to wear the glasses around and we can't help but laugh every time we see her in them! I don't think Indiya will ever get her glasses back. She'll have to be a Doctor without the glasses!

Doesn't Care

As Kaia gets older I realize what a special little girl she is. She reminds me so much of Josie. She is in her own little world and not very in tune with what is going on around her most of the time. She likes to play in the same room that Thayne and I are in even if there are no toys around. Yesterday, I was folding laundry in the front room and she came and played house with the socks in the sock basket. The biggest sock was Dad and the smallest sock was Zoey. Those socks had great conversations with each other and I even saw them hug each other a couple of times! Kaia is very sensitive sometimes. If one of her sisters is mean to her by not letting her play with them she melts to the ground sobbing. Her sense of humor is priceless. We can play jokes on her and laugh with her about almost anything. She really does bring so much happiness to our family!!

We went to Indiya's Kindergarten graduation and Kaia was insistent in wearing these socks. I even found the match to one of them but she preferred to wear them mismatched. This totally fits her personality!

Start em' young!

We are all fans of SpongeBob, here at our house. Even Zoey loves the little yellow guy! When the introduction of the show starts, she starts babbling like she's singing along with it. You put her in front of the show and she'll stay there for quite some time! Kaia and Zoey get along the best when spongebob is on because they are both glued to the T.V. and leave each other alone! I'd like to be one of those great parents that say that they limit how much their kids watch and agree with all of the "too much t.v." crap, but I'm not! We all love the yellow sponge and his star friend and chuckle right along with the kids while it's on!

Dear So and So....

Dear Old Lady in the hospital room next to mine:

I'm sorry that no one came to your room every time you yelled out that you needed help, but asking them to put you in a hotel room instead of a hospital room probably didn't win you any points. I'm so grateful that the narcotics I was on, knocked me out because I don't know if I could have slept with your constant yelling.

Sincerely,

The Lady in the room next to you who ate too many cherries.

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Dear Treadmill:

The constant stares have got to stop. I know you are there and I know you are needing to be used but I don't appreciate the nagging feeling you give me. I'm going to make it a goal to give you some exercise this next week so I hope this means you'll leave me alone!

Sincerely,

The Mom who has great goals but sucks at accomplishing them

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Dear Jaed:

When I ask you to clean the front room do you think you could avoid stuffing things under and behind the couch? When the couch can't rest on the floor because there is so much crap underneath it, we have a problem. Or when we sit down on the couch and hear a huge "CRUNCH" because a toy was smashed. I'm sure I never did that as a child and can't imagine where you inherited such a behavior (said with extreme sarcasim) but it needs to stop, please!

Sincerely,

Your Mom

Expensive bag of cherries

I was at the grocery store a couple of days a go and saw that they had cherries on sale. So I bought some and throughout the day I munched on them. I have to say that I was feeling pretty proud of myself for picking a healthy snack to munch on. Well by the end of the day I had eaten about half the bag of cherries and at about 9:00 p.m. I started to have a horrible stomach and back ache. I tried everything to get rid of the pain but by 1:30 in the morning I couldn't handle it any more so I drove myself to the hospital. I was rushed to get a CT scan and they found a blockage in my abdomen. I was admitted and told that I would be going into surgery soon.

I was scared to death!! I was alone, cuz Thayne needed to stay home with the kids, and I was told I was gonna be cut into...and I was on Narcotics to boot. Well, I finally met the surgeon at about 10:00 a.m., and he told me that he wasn't certain that surgery would be needed and that we would wait and see if my body could work the blockage out. What a relief! After lots of narcotics (cuz the narcotics relaxes your body they were hoping that it would relax my stomach enough to remove the blockage) my stomach stopped hurting and I was feeling a lot better. I was given something to drink (hot chocolate!!!) and if I didn't throw that up then I was gonna be ok. No throw up bag was needed so no surgery was scheduled!!!! They kept me until about 5:30 p.m. the next day for observation and then I got to go home.

The blockage was caused by the freakin' cherries. I can't digest certain skins on food and had no idea that cherries was one of those foods. So the bag of cherries cost me about $2 and well, we don't' have health insurance so I will be paying for the ER visit as well as one day in the hospital....hmm...so I'm guessing that the bag o' cherries are gonna end up costing me several thousand dollars! YIPPEEE!!!

Cynical

I found this quote on a random blog I was looking at:

Dirty Dishes
Thank Heaven for Dirty Dishes
They have a tale to tell,
While other folks go hungry,
We are eating very well.
With home and health and
Happiness,
We shouldn't want to fuss,
By this stack of evidence
God's very good to us.

I never thought of myself as cynical but I must be. I seriously rolled my eyes at this quote. Don't get me wrong, I do feel very blessed for the food we have in our home, and I certainly do pray for those that are in need, but I certainly don't feel those blessed feelings when I stare at my sink full of dishes. When I look at the mess that I have to clean I think, "HERE I GO AGAIN!".

No more Craft Room

Josie, Indi and Kai were all sharing a room and when it came time to clean it I was breaking up more cat fights then I ever have. I'm talking real cat fights. Pulling hair, wrestling each other to the ground, pinching, etc.. I really think the instigator was Josie. She absolutely hates to clean other peoples messes and if her mess is combined with another person's mess then it's all THEIR mess not hers. So, after me dragging my feet, whining and throwing my own personal fits I buckled under the pressure and gave up my craft room. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I really was sad to give it up but felt like it was necessary the happiness of my girls. We moved Josie into my craft room and she LOVES it. She cleans her room without being told. She organizes her toys, shoes and books and even makes her bed. She's always the first one to be done when it's room cleaning time and enjoys her own time watching her favorite show or playing by herself.

The cat fights did stop, but the other room still isn't getting very clean. Indi tries very hard to stay focused on cleaning but Kaia is the wayward girl. She says she's going to help and then starts playing and tries to persuade Indi to play with her, and Indi caves in. Even when the cat fights were happening there was some cleaning go on between break outs. What to do, what to do? At some point we need a house big enough so everyone can have their own room......I know....dream on!

As far as my craft space goes, our master bedroom is very large so I have staked out a corner and am quite happy with the set up. Thayne and I can count the time we spend in the room together (him on the computer and me at my craft desk) as quality time together now, right?

Dear So and So

I'm gonna start a new tradition on my blog. Every Thursday I will be posting little notes to people (or things) that I have come across during the week.


Dear Policeman that pulled me over,

I am so grateful that you didn't give me a ticket for speeding. I did deserve it and was ready to accept my fate but was thrilled that you didn't pass me a piece of paper through the window. I hope it had nothing to do with the fact that I know your wife and frequently purchase things from her home business. My kids went on and on about how "naughty" I was for speeding, that I'm beginning to think that their harassment was worse than a ticket would have been.

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Dear Cashier at our local grocery store,

Would it seriously kill you to be nice? Is your life so bad that you have to make others lives suck while they go threw your line? And, why do you have to be the only cashier available when I am in the store? Next time I'm going to wait in another line even if it takes me twice as long as it would have if I'd just picked your register.

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Dear Doctor,

THANK YOU so much for pulling the rotted piece of cloth out of Josie's nose. She has had HORRIBLE bad breath for over a year now and we had no idea why. Now that the rotted cloth is out of her nose (and we have no idea how it go there) we can cuddle up with her with out hesitation and not turn our heads when she is close to us. Josie has even commented on how well she can breathe and smell things now. It's like a whole new world for her.

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Unexpected

We've been in Washington for nine months and we really love this state. I can't say that I'm sold on the small town we live in but maybe it'll grow on me. So, my husband's boss decided (a couple of months ago) that he wanted to stop taking new clients which meant that my husband was without a job. Thayne was more upset that he wasn't upset. His boss was a very hard man to work with. I really think his boss was bipolar because his mood swings were ridiculous. So, here we are in a small town in Washington with no job and not sure what is around the corner. Two months after Thayne was laid off, his boss fell off a cliff and died. Two days before he died, a job Thayne had applied for called his boss for a reference......good timing??? His boss called Thayne after he received the call and told Thayne that he gave him a glowing reference....we still haven't heard about the job yet.

We went to law school so Thayne could be in a stable career....hmmm......."WHAT THE HELL" is the only thing I can think of saying. I really try to look on the bright side and count my blessings but that gets old really fast.

On a different note, our homeschool year is wrapping up and a nice summer break is something we're all looking forward too. Jaed and Josie did great this year. They were tested a couple of weeks ago and both received average or above average marks. Josie has excelled the most. She was so behind in school when I pulled her out but now she has surpassed my expectations. We have decided to keep them all (including Indiya) home next year for another year of homeschooling. I still don't know if it will be a forever thing. I'm just taking one year at a time.

Kaia is FINALLY potty trained. She turned 3 in Feb. but didn't potty train until March but she was my easiest to train. She decided on her own that wearing Dora panties was better than wearing a diaper, so there was no turning back after that.

Zoey...wow......she is a wild child. I think she is our new "Devil's Child!". She gets into everything, throws a fit about everything, and hits and swats at everyone. She doesn't cuddle very often, wants to eat all the time and refuses to eat anything that comes from anyones hand but hers. Her joy in life is SpongeBob!

Josie's Bday

I completely forgot to post pictures of Josie's 7th Birthday. She had a little party at my mom's house when we were visiting there. She invited her cousins and two friends that she had when we were staying there before moving to Washington. She was certainly the Queen for the day. She loved ALL of the attention she got and ALL of her presents. Her favorite thing was not having to do any chores (a tradition in our family) on her special day!

Josie getting her gift from Indiya and Kaia























Josie and her cousin Paige!
























Josie and her cousin, Haley (Paige's twin sister)!
























Josie and her cousins Brayden and Kassi!


















All of the party goers! The two girls on the end are Allison and Lily!

Doctor Visit

I took Zoey and Indi to the Dr. because Zoey has been sick for a couple of weeks now and just isnt' getting any better and Indi....well that's a story all by itself.

Since Indi was little (around 2) we've noticed that she gets fixated on something and obsess over it. You have to be very careful what you say to her because she can make it into something huge and obsess over it as well. For example, when I got my Cricut machine we sat the kids down and told them to never touch it because it was expensive and could hurt them really bad if they got their fingers stuck in it. Well, Indi thought that meant that the machine was a death trap. Everytime I brought the machine out to use it, Indi would run in another room or get upset and tell me I shouldn't use it because it will hurt me. No matter what we told her all she remembered is that the machine could hurt you.

Thayne and I have been wondering if she has OCD, so when I took Zoey in to the Dr.'s office I brought Indi with me. After explaining our concerns to the Dr. about Indi, she immediately diagnosed Indi with OCD. She told me that it wasn't an extreme case so she would not recommend any medication for it but did want to prescribe counseling for her so that it didn't get out of hand. Thank goodness there is a great child psychologist in our little town so we won't have to drive far for her to see someone.

Good Day

It was a uneventful day to day. I don't have a lot of these kinds of days so I try and appreciate them when I do. Jaed and Josie even got their chores done without being asked which is AMAZING! Kai didn't make any major messes for me to clean up, and the fighting among them was minimal! WHAT A GREAT DAY!

Zoey has been sick for over two weeks now so I guess I better call the Doctor. Her symptons are nothing major (runny nose, cranky, etc.) so I kept holding out that it was a virus and would go away but it doesn't seem to be doing that. She absolutely hates Doctors and it is quite a scene everytime we go, so if I can avoid it I do. And, because I homeschool, I always have to take my herd of children with me which is also a scene. javascript:void(0)

Oh, Kai!

I have given Kai three chores to do everyday: pick up the books, pick up the shoes and pick up the coats. If you ask her what her chores are she will tell you. If you ask her where the stuff goes after she picks it up she will tell you. So what's the problem? Well, we had a cleaning party this weekend and Kai was up to her old tricks again. I found shoes in the food pantry, I found the books in my room behind the door and Thayne and I caught her trying to shove a coat under the couch! What the heck? We laugh about it because she's only 2 (almost 3) but I think this is going to be a big problem as she gets older. If you try and talk to her about it she just laughs and says, "How you find it, Momma?". Here are some other things we've found in the food pantry that we KNOW she put there:

--dirty diapers (the garbage is next to the pantry)
--toys (you have to leave the toy room to get to the pantry)
--dirty clothes
--dirty dishes

If you really get after her and she cries it's as if you've killed her. She takes FOREVER to stop crying and then she comes up to you and says, "You cuddle me, Momma?". Well of course I"m going to and then it's as if whatever she was punished for never happened. What do I do with this girl?

Handmade Dresses

I took the plunge into sewing and decided to make my girls Christmas dresses. I found a way cute pattern (thanks Laura) and put my own little touch to it and viola! I am very proud of them and tell my girls over and over to make sure and tell everyone that their mother made them! It didn't take me as long as I thought it would and I am in love with them (oh, and my girls as well!). I used six different colored fabrics in each dress and there is elastic in the neck, arms, and waste along with three little pinwheels on the front. The only thing I'm sad about is that they are Christmas dresses and can't be worn all year round. I guess that should give me motivation to make more dresses for them!

Fibber

I prefer to use the word "fibber" instead of 'liar" when describing myself at the moment. I think I should blame it on the season because what do parents do the whole month of December.....WE LIE (well most of us)! Jaed has started to talk about where meat comes from and ya'll know that his biggest pleasure in life is to tease and torture his sisters, so you can imagine how the conversation went when Jaed told them about killing cows and pigs so we can have meat to eat. He didn't just stop there, one time I heard him describing how they kill the cow like he was some professional.

So now the girls are refusing to eat meat because they can't even think about eating a cute little cow. So here is where the fib comes in to play. I have convinced Josie and Indi that chicken, turkey and hot dogs are not meat because they don't come from a cow. It took a little time but in the end I was successful. I'm not sure why Jaed hasn't said anything, maybe he thinks if it doesn't come from a cow then it's not called meat. I don't care what the reason is just as long as he doesn't say anything, we're good................(to be continued when my fib is caught!)

Uncle's Birthday

Today was Thayne's brother's birthday. He's really a great guy!! He travels EVERYWHERE and right now is working in Africa. We don't get to see him a lot but the we make sure to always keep a picture of him around so that the kids know who he is. Today I took a picture of the kids wishing him a Happy Birthday and sent it to him via email.

I'm sure the picture brought a smile to his face!

Demon child

I would like to stay in bed today and never get out! Unfortunately, that's not something I can accomplish with little kids around!

Okay, I feel kinda guilty for my two sentence post so I'm adding more to this days post. Before Christmas, we were invited to a small potluck dinner with about four other couples, one of which was new in the area. When we were sitting down for dinner we let Indi go sit at the table with this new family because they had a little girl about Indi's age. The table we were sitting at was just next to theirs so we could hear their conversation. The wife of the new family asked Indi if she had brothers and sisters so Indi started naming all of them. When she got to Kaia, she said "I have a two year old baby sister and she's the Demon Child!". Thayne and I stopped eating and just started to laugh. The wife's mouth dropped open and she looked over at for some sort of explanation. I just shrugged my shoulders because I was laughing to hard to saying anything. After dinner I went right over to the wife and explained where the name "Demon Child" came from!

Thayne has been calling Kai our little Demon child since she was very little. She loves to tease and bug you to death, but in the next moment she can make you just want to cuddle her and love her. She truly has Thayne wrapped around her little finger. He is constantly laughing at her and calling her his little "Demon child". I hope she really doesn't turn in to one when she's a teenager!

We found this costume on the internet and we couldn't refuse to get it for her. It truly fits her personality (half devil half angel) !

Zoey's hair

Zoey was in need of a little haircut so I got the scissors out and did it. Really it was only her bangs. Thayne Jaed think she looks funny but her sisters think she looks like a princess and since we have more GIRLS than boys in our family.....WE WIN!

House rules

Jaed is getting at the age where he is starting to fight (or just complain) about our house rules. I mostly think this is because his friends are pointing them out to him and telling him that they don't have to do that. For example, Jaed has to be go to bed at 7:30 and his friend told him he was too old to go to bed at the time and that he doesn't have to go to bed until 9:30. Here are some other rules we have that his friends think are "stupid"

No sleep overs (unless there is an emergency)
No friends on Sunday
No friends over until chores are done
No movies unless we have seen them first
No playdates with other kids unless I have met their mother

I probably could think of more but these are the ones that have come up as "complaints" within the last little bit. My mom had TONS of house rules and I remember thinking the same thing Jaed is thinking now: "It's not fair!", "That rule is dumb!", "Why?", "I can't do anything!", etc.. We try really hard to explain why we have those rules but I don't know if it really makes him feel better. Unfortunately, the rules won't change because of the complaints because they are rules that we feel very strongly about but it still sad to see him look so sad. It brings back those days that I felt the same at his age.

Getting back into it

It was so nice having a long break from homeschooling and now it's so hard to get back into the groove again. I went with a different homeschool program for this next semester. This new one gives us a certain amount of money each semester so we can buy our own curriculum and if we have money left over we can use it for community programs for the kids such as swimming, gymnastics, music lessons, etc.. I'm really excited about it and it will be nice to be able to put the kids in more community activities so they have more social opportunities.

Jaed and Josie were tested right before the Christmas break to see how they are doing in their education and both them are at grade level or above. It was a good feeling to know that they're still learning even with me as teacher. Before I homeschooled them, Josie was not at grade level in many areas and now she is right on track or even above the norm.

Surprisingly, Indi has decided that after Kindergarten she would like to be homeschooled. I haven't decided if this homeschooling thing will be long term or not so we didn't agree to her request yet.

Diaper Changer

I've decided to teach Jaed how to change diapers because I feel like he is old enough and I'm tired of doing it :). I don't allow him to change poopy diapers because the first (and only) time he did it...well....WOW....was it a mess. It was all of Zoey's legs, over the bed, and some on Jaed himself. It was horrible to clean up so, yes, I learned my lesson the hard way. So, his assignment is the wet diapers and I do the poopy ones. Kaia is the easiest one to change because she understands the diaper changing commands: "Don't move", "Lift your bum up", "Go throw this in the trash". And as for Zoey, well she's in the stinker stage. She doesn't want to lay still even after you tell her to about million times and the last thing she is going to do is make it easy for you. Jaed often has to call in reinforcements (ie. Indiya) to help out with the chore of changing Zoey because if she's got an attitude at the time, it takes two people to change the diaper. One to hold her down, and the other to change her.

One time I asked Josie to change a diaper and I thought she was going to throw up on Kaia. She tried to do it with only two fingers on each hand and the whole time she was doing it she was saying, "Eww, this is disgusting.....ewwwww, I can't do it!". And remember that was just a wet diaper! If I need a good laugh during the day I ask her to change it because the site is HILARIOUS it has even gotten me to laughing so hard, I've cried.

2009 Collages

I made a collage for each of the kids from pics that were taken in 2009:

Family pics:























Jaed's pics:























Josie's pics:























Indi's pics:























Kai's pics:























Zoey's pics:

2009 Personal Review

Here's some questions that I someone sent me to answer on my blog:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
   Turn 35 years old.......I'M FREAKIN OLD!
   
   
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
   I can't even remember what they were. I'm sure they had something to do with exercise and healthy eating, but I sucked at it!
   
   
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
   Wow, tons of my friends did! I was a little jealous :).
   
   
4. Did anyone close to you die?
   My Dad.
   
   
5. What countries did you visit?
   Pfft.....like I have the time or money to do that!
   
   
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
   More money, more fun, and more sleep.
   
   
7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory?
   April 15th (the day my Dad died)
   
   
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
   Moving to Washington and starting a new adventure with my little family.
   
   
9. What was your biggest failure?
   Wow, a failure.....and the biggest...hmm.....I think I'll keep that one to myself!
   
   
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    Some dumb head colds.
    
    
11. What was the best thing you bought?
    The questions should be (at least for me) "What didn't you buy!". We bought a new Van.
    
    
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
    My kids, who amaze and delight me often. My husband, who made a decision to take a job even though it wasn't the one he wanted and does a great job at it and me and my siblings for coming together for my Dad's funeral even though some of us hadn't spoken for sometime.
    
    
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
    David Letterman, Tiger Woods, etc. etc. etc.,
    
    
14. Where did most of your money go?
    Food and shelter. Clothes for growing kids. Gas. My shopping sprees.
    
    
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    Getting my own craft room!
    
    
16. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    
    1. happier or sadder? happier
    2. richer or poorer? poorer
       
    3. Healthier or less healthy? Ok, less healthy....but at least I'm admitting it, right?
       
       
17. What do you wish you’d done more of?
    Exercise
    
    
18. What do you wish you’d done less of?
    Being crabby at my kids...oh, and my husband.
    
    
19. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
    My sister, Becki and my Mom.
    
    
20. What was your favourite TV programme?
    Lost, Brothers and Sisters, Ugly Betty and Days of Our Lives
    
    
21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
    My old fart neighbors!
    
    
22. What was the best book(s) you read?
    Hunger Games
    
    
23. What did you want and get?
    My husband to ge a job offer in Washington.
    
    
24. What did you want and not get?
    To live close to my sister in Washington. Her husband got a job in Tennessee so they moved.
    
    
25. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    I turned 35 and I hung out with my family!
    
    
26. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    Winning the freakin lottery!
    
    
27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
    Whatever is comfortable.
    
    
28. What kept you sane?
    My meds, and my husband.
    
    
29. Who did you miss?
    My Bloomington Friends!!
    
    
30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
    Sack up and move on!
    
    
31. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year?
    "That's my story and I'm stickin to it!"
    

Here we go again.....part 2

Continuing with the update:

Indi….is a DELIGHT! She is so dang obedient and a breath of fresh air. She does her best in what ever you ask her to do and loves to be complimented! She is still in the public school attending Kindergarten and loves all of her friends and talks about them constantly. She truly is the mini mom in the family and quite the rule enforcer! Her teacher told me that if she let Indi be the teacher for the day she would do a wonderful job! I love watching her grow and learn as well. She is constantly giving hugs and kisses and is right there if one of her siblings is upset, mad or crying to try and make things a little better. Her and Josie are best friends and (mostly) play well together. She is overjoyed when Jaed asks her to play and loves to play boy things with him (guns, legos, guys, etc.). Her positive that she has OCD, but as of now we are able to control it without medication, thank goodness. Right now her OCD is surrounding by washing her hands and making sure everyone else does as well. She refuses to play with her siblings if she thinks they need to wash their hands and they don’t.

Kaia…..is our demon child but yet so fun to have around. She LOVES to tease everyone. The whole month of December, every time one of her siblings got into trouble she was right there to tell them that they are now on Santa’s naughty list. She gets into EVERYTHING and is completely shocked and horrified if and when she gets into trouble for it. She hates to have her hair done, put on clean clothes, brush her teeth, and go to bed, but she loves to eat, play with her siblings, watch Dora and Spongebob, and cuddle at night. I’ve been trying to give her little chores to do so that when she turns three she will be ready for a chore list but her response to my chores is always, “No momma, I’m to little for chores!”. She has no desire to go on the potty and has even informed me that she will never go on the potty and will always wear diapers, which truly frightens me.

Zoey ….is precious! She has huge blue eyes that are mesmerizing to look at. Her looks could get you to do anything! She is not interested in walking but can get around quite fast with her little shuffle crawl. She loves to eat, follow her siblings around, look at her board books, crawl all over our dog, but hates to have her hair done (but that doesn’t stop me!), hates to be left in a room alone, and especially hates to be ignored! She loves to bee bop any kind of music, even when her sisters make up songs to sing. She is their best audience!

Here we go again.....

Wow, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last blogged (I find myself saying that a lot). Well, I’m going to start AGAIN! I’m dedicated to post everyday until the end of January…….I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

So, I know you’re all dying for an update and I wouldn’t want to kill anyone so here it is:

Thayne….had his first trial last month. He worked 14 hour days (sometimes more) and even into the weekends. It was a killer for him and me both. The kids and I missed him tons and I know he missed hanging out at home. Unfortunately, after a lot of work and tons of witness testimonies the jury found the Dr. not guilty. Thayne said that he and his boss were not completely surprised but still a bit disappointed. Now, Thayne is back to the 8-5 work schedule with weekends off, which we love! He still enjoys his computer games at night and thinking he’s going to sleep in on the weekends.

Ally….is enjoying homeschooling, having a home, and taking care of her family. I took a break from crafting through the holidays but I look forward to starting again. My list of ‘New Year Resolutions’ is quite long so wish me luck!

Jaed…LOVES being homeschooled. He loves learning period! He is very fun to teach because he is attentive, asks lots of questions, and remembers what he learned (even the day after J). When he’s not learning he’s in his room building legos, reading, or teasing his sisters. He can get his sisters yelling and in tears within seconds of being around him if he wants, but we’re trying to curve that behavior with changing consequences! When he wants to be, he is very caring to his sisters (especially Kai and Zoey) and does what he can to make them happy. He has learned to change diapers (wet ones only!) and does it when I ask! Jaed is a typical boy who loves to be loud, funny and rambunctious. He is a delight and entertaining part of our family!

Josie….is still on the fence about being homeschooled. On an educational level she is flourishing. Her ability to read has improved ten-fold and she loves to cuddle with me during a school lesson. She is not confined to one spot while she is learning which I think helps her to be able to focus on learning instead of focusing on classroom rules. When she is doing flash cards she is jumping up and down, rolling all over her chair, rolling on the floor, etc.. At first it used to drive me crazy but when I saw how much better she learned when she wasn’t restrained, I got over it! She does miss her friends and the social aspect of school but we try and make up for that by meeting together with other homeschoolers once a week and other field trips. Her and Indi are in a children’s community choir and she really likes it. They had their first concert a couple of weeks ago and she did MARVELOUS! I could tell that she felt so good and important! Josie still hates to share and chores take her about 3 hours to do because she hates it but she makes us laugh and smile all the time. She is so innocent in her thoughts and we have decided that she has no filter between what she is thinking and what she says which has had us laughing hysterically on several occasions.

More to come tomorrow......

Homeschooling

I have NEVER thought about homeschooling my kids. It just wasn't something I was ever going to do. To be completely honest, I thought those moms that home schooled were a bit off their rocker. That opinion came from complete ignorance on how homeschooling work and what the advantages were. I focused completely on the 'cons' which made my decision to NEVER home school a very easy one. Well......first I'd like to apologize to all my friends that home school for thinking that you were all a bit strange and off your rocker! I'M SORRY!!! I have done TONS of research about it because of the problems we have been having with Jaed at school that I feel like it is the right thing to do. I have found a great curriculum for them (Washington Virtual Academy) that is very structured. They even assign you a virtual teacher that you work closely with so that your kids are progressing and receiving the things they need. I have joined a local Homeschooling group (so that my kids don't turn out socially retarded) and plan to do many fun things with them.

I went to their school today to tell them that Jaed and Josie will not be returning after today. Josie's teacher was not pleased. She even said, "Josie is doing so well, why would you pull her?". Well she obviously isn't aware that Josie has been in school two weeks, and has brought homework home twice unable to do it because it wasn't explained to her. The first time it happened, I spoke to her teacher and she said, "Oh, I just assumed Josie knew how to do it. It was simple things she should have known.". WELL SHE DIDN'T KNOW IT! Josie needs the one on one attention in her school work so that she's not left behind like she has been. Jaed's teacher seemed alright with it (not like their opinions count!). My concern with Jaed is that he is not challenged enough in school. He needs to be able to go at his own pace and not be halted because the other kids in the class need more explaining. When that happens, he becomes bored and starts to do naughty things which gets him in trouble and sent to the Principal's office.

I didn't want to pull either of them unless they were ok with it. But the first time I mentioned that it was a possibility they both begged me to do it. Indi, on the other hand, said "NO WAY!". She waited to long to go to school that she's not going to stop now! I don't know if I could ever home school her because she is such a HUGE social butterfly that not going to school for the social atmosphere would be detrimental.

So, the Warner School starts tomorrow! Wish me luck and throw prayers my way!

Cakes with Dad

At the kid's school they had an open house and asked that the kids make cakes with only their dads and bring them in to be judged for awards. I helped Thayne find some simple cakes he could do with the three oldest and I think he did a great job! He's such a great Dad to be willing to participate in that stuff and the kids LOVE to be able to do things with just him. They each had a turn with him and enjoyed every minute of it! Unfortunately, the kids didn't win any prizes but they were thrilled to just have entered the contest. We decided that after the contest the kids would give their cakes to their teachers (because I did not want three cakes at home begging me to eat them!). Jaed's teacher decided to save the cake for the next day and let the class have it as a snack. He was so excited!!

Here's Jaed and Thayne making a LEGO cake!


























































Here's Indi and Thayne making a Rainbow cake!!














































Here's Josie and Thayne making a present cake!

NO PRETTY!

One of the best things about having girls is to do their hair. I have convinced Josie and Indi that doing their hair is a must and often tell them that it hurts to be beautiful (or pretty) to get them to stop whining and crying during the hair-do process. Of course, they want to be pretty because princesses are pretty so that usually quiets them down. Well, the story is not the same with Kai. When it's time to do her hair, she hides, yells "No" or just completely ignores me. Does she actually think that she will win this battle?? NEVER!!

Her new thing is to say, "I NO WANT TO BE PRETTY!". Even when I say that she can't be a princess if she's not pretty she simply responds, "Ok" and thinks that means her hair doesn't have to be done. This morning when I was doing all of their hair I called her in first but she yelled back, "Josie and Indi first, Momma!". Like that's going to give her enough time to either think of another excuse or find a really good hiding spot! Where does this 2 year old get this kind of attitude and how is she so dang smart? The smarts OBVIOUSLY come from me and the attitude must come from her Dad.

I told her one time that if she is not going to be a princess and get her hair done then she has to be witch with ugly hair. She instantly informed me that she wants to be a witch!

When I was editing these pictures, Kaia was standing right by me and she said, "Oh, momma, I so pretty!". As you can see, this is without her hair combed and the same hair-do she had yesterday!

First Day of School

Josie and Jaed started school today. Indiya doesn't start Kindergarten until Monday. Josie and Jaed were so excited last night that they had a very hard time getting to sleep. When Thayne and I finally pulled ourselves out of bed this morning, those two were dressed, wearing their backpacks, and watching T.V.. I told them to take off their backpacks so they could have breakfast and Jaed told me that he didn't need breakfast he just wanted to go to school. He's such a funny kid and always thinks he knows what is best for him. They both ended up having cereal and then bugged Thayne until he was ready to take them. I think I even heard Thayne tell Josie to quit bossing him around.

They got to ride the bus home and they were all smiles coming down from the bus. Jaed told me some names of friends he made and Josie said she made friends but couldn't remember any of their names (not unusual for her. She still calls some of her cousins different names because she can't remember!). They can't wait to go again tomorrow. They'll probably want to sleep in their school clothes tonight!

Now little Indi did not have such a great day. She was so sad to see her brother and sister go to school without her. She wouldn't smile all morning until I told her I would do anything she wanted for the next little bit. We played games, read books, colored and even cleaned :). She is so ready for school to start. I'm even a little sad for her that it's only half day, but it will give her something to look forward to next year. She is thrilled that she gets to ride the bus home with Jaed and Josie!

That grin doesn't show even a little bit of his excitement! He even asked Josie why she wasn't acting excited to go to school and we all thought she was. I guess she wasn't as excited as Jaed thought she should be!



























This is a different outfit she had on when Thayne and I woke up. I think she just grabbed the first outfit she could find. I had to override it and chose this one instead.



























Now Jaed's 'Mister Cool'! This is as close to his little sister as he wanted to get.
























Poor Indi...her life was falling apart. She was just in here watching me crop the pictures and said, "Momma when did you take that picture of me?". What a funny kid. In her mind, she was never that said looking.

Crafting here I come!!

So my craft room is organized and is ready for me every time I walk in it! I can hear my desk, my stamps and all my other fun stuff calling my name every time I get close to the room. I really could go in there, shut the door, and not come out all day. Making stuff with paper relaxes so much. I think i would be an even happier mom if I could have 5 hours a day to craft.....ok......5 hours is a lot but wouldn't that be HEAVEN!

I have decided to become a Close To My Heart Consultant (which means I sell stuff out of their GREAT catalog) so that I can hang out with other crafty women and make a little money to support my hobby! I plan to have at least 2 stamping clubs that meet once a month at house and each club will have 10 members. So if any of you want to come to my house (plane tickets are going down, you know) once a month to participate in my clubs just let me know!!!

So, anyway head on over to my craft blog by clicking on the link just to the left of this post called "My Inspiring Creations" and check it out! If you get a wild hair and want to support my crafting habit go to my consulting page: http://stamping.myctmh.com and order something or just check it out :)>.

Mom and Daughter Date

The town we live in is quite a hick town and once a year they have this HUGE Rodeo (along with a fair and a 3 HOUR parade!). Rodeo's remind me of my Dad. He was kinda a hick himself and would have loved to come to our house this weekend to go to the rodeo if he was alive. So, in his honor, Indiya and I went to the rodeo. It was no cheap date but it was worth it! We watch some horse bucking, calf tying, silly clowns, and team tying.

I know very little about rodeo's so the people around me were flooded with questions by me. Good thing they welcomed them and were even telling me things when I wasn't asking. Indi was enjoying herself as well as the popcorn, soda and chips. She never asked once if it was time to go. She got upset a couple of times when they were doing the calf rope tying. One calf was hurt pretty bad and a animal ambulance had to come out in the arena and take him away. After that, Indi was not a fan of that sport! She told me several times that she loves baby cows and that their moms were going to be mad if any of them get hurt. Then she looked around and asked, "Momma, where are the baby cow's mommas?". Like I know....but I pretended that I did and told her I was sure they were waiting around back for them to give them kisses. She smiled and relaxed a bit.

Playdates

As we have started to really settle in and gotten to know our neighbors, other than the cranky old ones, we have met a family two houses down that have two boys. Well, one couple has an 8 year old boy and then there is a mother and her 8 year old son that lives there with them. It's a bit non-traditional but they seem normal......I guess. Thayne took Jaed over there last weekend to meet the boys and their parents. The boys seem to get along well and Thayne said that the parents seemed ok, but we both are so paranoid that we don't know what to do from here. We told Jaed that he wasn't allowed to go in their house for a while and that if he wanted to play with the boys, they had to come to our house or ride their bikes. The boys have come to our house twice and have enjoyed themselves but now they are asking Jaed to come to their house. Thayne and I talked about it and decided that he could go over there for 30 minutes and then had to come home and check in. He leaves the house with his friends and both Thayne and I say a silent prayer that nothing will happen.

Before I had Jaed and worked with files of Juvenile sex offenders and learned all about their situations and how they were abused as children themselves. So much can happen in such a short period of time that you almost don't want your kids leaving your sight (or your home) for even a second. But, that obviously isn't possible so we prepare them and ourselves as much as possible. We are constantly talking to the kids about strangers and the other important stuff and hope and pray that nothing happens to them and if something does then we hope and pray that they will tell us right away. Unfortunately, pediphials come in all different types and you can't identify them by sight and behavior. This is when you rely on God to help you know if situations are safe for your children or not and follow any feelings you have. But it is so hard (at least for me!) to distinguish between paranoia and promptings sometimes.

Parenting is so hard and we make mistakes all the time but this is one situation I don't want to make a mistake in.!