PLAYING IN THE SNOW

I got some more pictures of the kids in the snow including my little girls FIRST time in the snow! She is her mothers girl and didnt care for it much!! Also got a picture of our oldest who has lost more teeth

LET IT SNOW,LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

Well the weather here in Washington has been just crazy! Snow and ice for days now! A storm last night dumped about 6 inches down on top of the 2 inches of snow and ice we already had. About mid day today it started snowing again. Its 10:30 in the evening here and STILL snowing!! We are definately going to be having a white Christmas!

A Snow Day...Sort of!

Things here in Washington have been cold cold cold and snowy too! We have gotten several inches of snow today. The schools were closed and Daddy had the day off work too! My Oldest asked me early today.
" mom can we have a snow day?!" Laughing I replied "No!"
The pout I got could break a mommys heart! Then he said
"Why cant we play in the snow today?"

Sometimes I forget that things that are normal or common knowledge to public school kids doesnt even register with my little ones. My oldest wasnt asking for the day off of school He simply wanted to know if He would get to go out and play in it!! This evening thats exactly what they did. My boys headed out front with Dad for a snowball fight and building snowmen. Mommy and Our little Miss. Stayed in the house cozy and warm making dinner =-} It definately feels like Christmas now!!

AB1's Story

Today my oldest decided he would sit down and write a story. Off and on he has worked on it throughout the day. Asking on occasion how to spell this or that and I just had to share it!!He hasnt finished it yet so there will be another "installment" coming!

The Stourea of spider chasm

wuns upon a time ther wus a king. he was happy. he was called by some friends bycus the blue cristll wus stolln. The king sed i will get the cristll. and he wus on the way he hrd a noys it wus a goblin. then he grabd his sword and sliced the goblin. then he grabd its teeth and tied its teeth to a stik to make a dagr. then he wint and on the way ter wus a troll and he hit the troll with his sword and the troll screamed in terrr.

How awesome is that!! I must say I am SO proud!! He has thought it up all by himself and the story is all him =-} Here is a picture of the aspiring author!

Why do we homeschool?

Its so hard to answer that question! Its like asking a fish why it swims Or asking a brain surgeon how he preformed his last surgery and expecting a one sentence answer! People just arent ready for all that seemingly innocent question opens you up too!
We have always felt led to homeschool since our first child was young we knew that homeschool was the way to go for Him and any future kids.
We feel that we should put the Lord first in all that we do and that living the gospel should be our first priority. Homeschooling allows us to do that. Our attempts are imperfect of course but at least we CAN attempt it.
Homeschool also affords us the opportunity to introduce worldly things to our children when we feel they are ready and in the appropriate way.
In public school children are grouped together by age and taught in an artificial environment. Homeschooling lets our kids learn about real life by participating in it. We also feel that being around people of our choosing, who we feel are good honest examples for our children will help them to grow into the type of people the Lord would want them to be.
Spending much of our time together instead of spending most of it apart strengthens our family in a world where the family is attacked and weakened at every turn.Our family relationships are stronger because we work together, learn together, play together and live life closely connected.
In todays society young men are often left without good male role models. Because we homeschool our sons they can spend quality time with there Dad more than they would if they were in public school.
Each year we make goals for our homeschool. They typically consist of things like "So and so know how to do X,Y and Z by the end of the year. Or so and so improving in A,B and C by the end of the year. This year our goals have been different. We want our children to LOVE learning.
We want them to have a curiousity for the world around them. We want to provide our children with the resources they need to answer the questions they have.
We want to show our children examples of honesty, integrity,faith and loving kindness.
We want to raise children with true values who can think for themselves.

SICK KIDS

I am pretty darn tired! All three kids have been sick for the past two weeks and last night around four A.M. it came to be too much for this poor mom! hahaha Both boys were up last night with fevers complaining of head aches. I knew we just had to suck it up and take them to the E.R.
So we packed up all three sweeties and headed out. We sat in the waiting area for about an hour and a half. Somehow I had the presence of mind to grab one of the kids favorite books and so aside from the vomiting from A.B1 we spent the hour and a half happily reading "James and The Giant Peach."
Then I took the boys to see one doctor and dear hubby to A.B3 to see another. It turnes out the two youngers just simply have a cold/ flu that is just hanging on. AB1 has a sinus infection. All in all not to bad! After that it was off to the pharmacy.
We got all three home around nine and Daddy headed to work and the kids and I settled in for what promised to be a long day! All went fairly well though and we all got a nap.
I thought about how tiring and draining it is to take care of my three sick ones and how much it means to have my hubbys help. He is such a great guy and always willing to pitch in and help out. I don't know how our family would get thru what we do without him!!

Randomness

Just some general randomness here posting some pics of war paint and regular paint that we did today =-} and one of AB2 napping with the cat.

I LOVE THANKSGIVING

I just love Thanksgiving so much! Its such a special time to Thank Heavenly Father for all that He blesses us with and its a wonderful opportunity to make our children more aware of just where all there blessing are coming from.This Thanksgiving was especially fun and you know what we did? We just stayed at home! hahaha We didnt try to run ten different places and see twenty different people. We just simply stayed home and cooked and played and watched movies and enjoyed being together. It was blissful! We have TONS of leftovers! I wont have to cook for days! Turkey, stuffing, corn, greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls and two pies all for my little family of five!! I have put up some pictures of the day and some pictures of the kids wampum bead necklaces they made.I also put up pictures of our oldest battalion coin he received from my husbands battalion commander. Also are the beginings of the decorating changes. After our Thanksgiving meal I took down the pumpkins and gourds and put up the snow men =-}

Bathing Cuties

I got some really cute pic's of the kids in the bath the other day and I had to post them up. The three of them just crack me up some days!

A FUN DAY

Today was a fun day. A feel good day on my part. I just really tried to focus on the kids and enjoying them today. I know that sounds silly but sometime amid the housework, childcare, homeschool and everything else you just let your self be to busy to enjoy them and its a shame.

AB1 sat on the counter and read Dr.Seuss while AB2 and I made pancakes for breakfast, we did puzzles and played, we talked about Jesus and how cool it was to have the scriptures to teach us about him,I wandered up and down the hallways with AB3 just holding my finger and "showing" me everything. It was just a really good day.

AB1 also lost another tooth. He is very proud of himself and I cant help but giggle to look at him. His familiar smile has changed and is taking a bit of getting used too. The picture above shows his "new" smile as well as some chocolate from the chocolate chip cookies we made today.

AB3 was having a good old time playing peek-a-boo and laughing her head off and dear hubby got his glasses today. I have been lovingly calling him four eyes ever since! He doesnt get mad though because I follow that by telling him how cute he looks! haha

NEZ PERCE BREAST PLATES

This week we learned about the Nez Perce indians and made Nez Perce breastplates. The Nez Perce wore them mostly for decoration.

This week we also had a Family home evening lesson on preparedness. We talked with the kids about the difference between a "want" and a "need" and what the prophets have told us about being prepared. We all made goals that can help our family be more prepared. AB1 's big goal was to not ask to eat out, which is something he does every time we leave the house!

Not much else going on this week really!!

Mound builders

This week we have learned about a few different tribes and the one that caught the boys attention most were the Natchez indians. They were moundbuilders and since we used to live right next to moundbuilders park it was really fun totalk about the mounds, why they build them and then to build some of our own. Here are some picks of the boys making there mounds as well as little Miss just hanging out.