August home school

I did eventually get my act together and get home school started. Maybe someday I will type up our schedule, but not right now.

 The kids painting of their own title of liberty from the Book of Mormon. We talked about the things that are most important in life and worth fighting for.

 Joseph loves sharpening our pencils for us.

 William really wanted to take Latin this year so I ordered some books and took one look at them and asked Russ if he would be willing to teach him. I don't know a foreign language and Russ does so it is easier for him to teach it and the way we do it is on school nights (three nights a week) William gets to stay up later than the other kids and do his Latin with Russ. Its perfect because it is a quiet undisturbed time and it gives them one on one time together that I think William really needs right now. I have also noticed that he is more motivated in his other subjects since he has been doing this. Also in the background behind William you can see our timelines we made of each of their birthdays. We did that on the first day to help them understand our history timeline we have up on the wall now. I need to take a picture of that.

 Russ took this picture of me and did a nice post on Instagram. He is home on Tuesdays which is a day that we do school so he can be there for some of it. One day I had an appointment so I briefly told him what to do and they had a lot of fun. The pictures below are of the hieroglyphics they made. Later that night Russ told me he had a lot of fun doing school with them and I responded with, "I know, right!?" It is so much fun to learn with them and watch them learn. It is fun spending that time with them. I plan on writing another post on my feelings about home school so far but I just have to say, I love it!

I also have to mention how easy it is to make it fun for them. It doesn't need to be overdone or complicated, they are easily pleased.

Grandpa's surgery 8/29

Somehow I missed this post about my dads surgery. He was having headaches, dizziness, and double vision. When he went to the doctor and had his head scanned it showed that he had a cyst on his brain. They did surgery to remove it because within a few days his eye had swollen shut. It turns out there were nerves tangled up with this cyst. 

Luckily all went well and he is recovering still. His vision is getting better all the time. He has been driving a few times and even rode his bike the other day. He looks normal now cause for awhile he could not control where his eye looked and it was all over the place. I am glad it's not like that anymore:)

Back to School

This year I felt a little rushed to get our newly painted room back in order for school. I also planned on doing things a little differently this year and that always take time and preparation. I decided to sign the kids up at a public school here that is a home school enrichment program where they go to school one day a week. They go one day a week and get to participate in fun things like P.E., computers, music, and library. Plus it gives me a day to run errands with only one kid and get some stuff done. 

The Sunday before they went to school we had a back to school dinner and then Russ gave them priesthood blessings.

Here they are before they left on the first day.

Joseph was sad to see them go and it made me glad that it is only one day.

William took off to his class room and never looked back. I took Gracie to her room and helped her find her seat. I even got a little teary eyed leaving her there. So far the school has been good. Gracie wanted to stop going for awhile but I encouraged her to give it a few more tries and I think she is passed that now. Usually when I pick them up and ask what their favorite part of the day was they say lunch.:)

Missed

Mark, Ashley, Sam, and Scout were here for the whole summer and that made the summer so much more fun. Before they went home we stopped by to pick up my parents car before we headed out to family dinner. This would be the last time we would see them.

Gracie sure loves Scout (we all do but man was she smitten).

I sure do miss that sweet girl.

And the kids sure miss Sam. The other day William was talking to someone and said, "I have a cousin who is only three but he sure knows his manners." It's true, Sam is one sweet kid and we love it when he is here.

After we headed out  to my parents to celebrate Connie's birthday.

we also celebrated a few day earlier by going to see the movie Austenland again, which was so funny and I highly recommend.

Science Center with dad

I spent the whole day that they were at school to try and get home school ready but I wasn't quite there so on Tuesday I sent them on a field trip with Dad to the science center.

I think they all loved the stomach slide with farting noises best. 

They all had a blast while I stayed home and prepared for school.

Our family is 10 years old

As our 10 year anniversary approached we played around with different ideas on what to do to celebrate but decided in the end to keep it simple. We watched our wedding video at home and then kids really liked it. Then we went to a nice little local restaurant and got something to eat for lunch. The kids had a good time cause Nacho Libre was playing on the TV there.

Then we went to the temple grounds and talked about how great the last 10 years again and we decided on our family vision for the next 10 years. Our goal is to be out of debt by then and to have taken a family trip to Europe.

After that we wanted to do something fun for the kids to we took them to the Mesquite groves pool where they have a really good time.

William and Gracie in the whirlpool

Joseph just wanted to snuggle in the towel or be held in the lazy river. It was actually a really cold day for August. I think it was 84 degrees.

On the way home we stopped at Bosa Donuts. All in all it was a pretty great day.

Later that week Russ' parents watched our kids so we could go out to dinner. We decided to try ZinBurger since we had heard so much about it. I was skeptical because of the hype it had been given but man was that a delicious burger and shake (salted caramel).

The past 10 years have truly flown by. So much has happened, so much growth. I can honestly say that the best choice I have ever made was to marry Russ in the Temple. He is my first, my last, my everything.

Sicks

It started with Joseph throwing up on the 4th of July and just got worse. I think everyone had their turn being sick, but Joe was the only one who threw up. The rest of us just got major colds and felt pretty bad. Russ and Joe seemed to take forever to get better. But finally when we left the month of July we left the sickness behind.

Becoming a Bobcat

This kid loves scouts.

Gracie's 6th birthday party

Our attempt at an Alice In Wonderland cake.

Waiting for her friends to come

Gracie and her best buddy Jonah and their decorated hats

With Presley and Joseph too

Time for the tea party, the brothers always have to join the fun.

Connie came on her lunch break to celebrate with us. Wouldn't be the same without Connie there.

William being a goofball and making everyone laugh.

Everyone with their hats and then it was time to paint the roses red.

They did so good and no one got paint on themselves!

Then they got to decorate cupcakes.

Time to blow out the candles

She told William he could help (she is the best at sharing).

These are little piggy candles I found for her.

She got a lot of fun stuff but the best part was sharing the day with all her friends.