More Chickens

On July 3rd our friends that had given us our other chickens decided to give us the rest of theirs because they were in Tuscon during the week and it was getting too hard to take care of them. Getting all the chickens was quite an ordeal. Some escaped the yard and Russ was up of the fence trying to get them. It was so hot trying to round them up but we eventually got them all...except one. 

A few days later Rusty and Natali found that it was stuck under their coup and had been without food or water but was still alive. When they brought it over it quickly became a favorite of Williams and was named Shadey.

The kids love gathering and cooking with the eggs. Here is Gracie helping me make quiche.

And they really love selling their eggs and making money. Joseph doesn't usually get paid but sometimes we give him some money so he doesn't feel left out.

 There was a hen with 8 chicks so we put them in the coup and let all the older chickens roam around the yard. We really like our chickens. Russ loves them.

He once was blind but now he sees! 9/13

For a very long time Russ went back and forth about whether or not to get Lasik eye surgery. He finally made up his mind to do it. We all went with him the day that he got it done in early September.

This was him sleeping after he got home. He was pretty out of it.

Look at that handsome mug without glasses. It took getting used to his face without them but now looking back at pictures with glasses looks funny to me.

One of Russ favorite perks is that he can now wear sunglasses and he sure loves them.

I am really glad he was able to get this done, I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to see and now he can! 

Growing baby 9/9

This little baby is growing. I took the picture above before church and posted it on instagram but later realized (with the help of my brother Kent) that it wasn't a very realistic picture and that in real life I looked much bigger so I had Connie take another picture of me (below).

On the 9th after having a birthday dinner for my mom at Joe's Farm Grill we hurried to an ultrasound so we could see this little girls face. She had her face turned back most the time but if I pushed on my belly we could see her.

Lips!

Cheeks!

Smile!

It made us very excited to meet this little girl.

Growing Joe 9/7

We decided to put Joe in the toddler bed we had down in the basement since he was already climbing out of his crib. He was pretty excited. 

Joseph also decided he wanted to be a big boy and go on the potty. I did't want to do this before the baby came because I know that he will most likely just regress but he just started going on the potty so I went along with it. Here we are in the library. I have to leave the stall because he always tells me, "you can leave me alone." 

It has been nice not having to change diapers and he hasn't had too many really messy accidents but he is not 100%. It is pretty frustrating so I just put him in diapers most the time and a lot of the time he will still go on the potty but in the event that he has an accident I am not stressed out. 

His biggest problem is when we are not home. He doesn't want to have to tell me he needs to go to the potty he just wants to go by himself so he will just go in his pants. 

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.:)