September Homeschooling Memories

Here are a few moments in our homeschooling day that I was able to catch on camera. These pictures show the little moments that I treasure during the day. In between these moments, our life is a crazy mess full of squabbling, mistakes, corrections, fighting, dirty dishes, laundry, chicken nuggets, and scattered toys. I am not complaining but just letting the reader know that we are real people living real lives. The homeschooling part is hard but these moments are what keep us going. If life was clean, that means my kids would be out of the house and all grown up. I am not ready for that, so bring on the crazy messy HOUSE!

Once a week, I get to rotate through the kids CC day with them to learn our new memory work for that week. This week was Andrew's turn. Isn't he adorable?! He was so proud of his abstract art work. Also, I was able to sneak a picture of his family history presentation. LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!

We love painting...probably too much but oh well. Oakley is absolutely in love with it. She walks around asking for "paint" and then for "let it go." Meaning, she wants me to print out an Elsa picture for her to paint. At least she know what she wants.

We took a field trip day to the Heard Craig Museum of Nature. During the fall they have robotic dinosaurs on display. The kids LOVED them, plus we were able to work on some memory work for CC by deciding which type of consumer each dinosaur was. YES!! I love it when fun and learning are combined. This first picture was of a deinonychus dinosaur that spat water at the kids. We were at this dinosaur for the longest amount of time. Andrew even started to play pretend and pull our his Iron Man moves against the dinosaur. Flips, spins, kicks, and tuck and rolls created an intense battle.

Every time we come to this museum the mini pioneer village is a huge hit. Add the dinosaur dig area and they kids were in heaven. It sure was a fun packed day.

Isaac is in a phase of baking and creating. Every day he asks to bake a cake, make jello, bake cookies, or anything else I will let him make. He got really creative one day and prepared our lunch with these silly faces. The strawberry cake was a jello cake. He was so proud of himself, and so was I.

Memories in September

We are a crazy family! A crazy family that loves to have fun, giggle, get messy, make mistakes, make memories, and eat food. This month has been full of adventure, mile stones, and joy. If you want to see a little bit of what life is like in our house scroll down. 

Oakley is my current dare devil. She is constantly climbing on anything she can get up on; even the top of her high chair to reach the light switch in the dinning room. Her newest jungle gym has been our tea set table and chairs. Oakley loves to climb on the table and jump off of it to the love seat. Her other thrill is to line up all of the wobbly metal chairs and walk across them back and forth.

We have finally reached the mile stone of losing some teeth! Isaac lost his two front bottom teeth and got a whole dollar from the tooth fairy. I was impressed at his bravery when I took a paper towel,  had him lay on my lap, and yanked the teeth out with my bare hands. It was AWESOME! 

 Oakley one day decided she wanted to climb under the couch. I think she was helping to get one of her siblings toys that fell behind it. She was so sweet but quickly realized mid crawl that she could just sit up. She started crying and Daddy had to come to the rescue. She was so happy when he pulled her out. She hasn't attempted that again. HAHA

 One muggy day the kids were filthy dirty but it was a bit too late to go to the pool and Austin and I were exhausted. As an alternative, I told them to go jump on the trampoline and that I would try to squirt them with the hose. It was the perfect solution for Mommy and her kids.

Left picture: Emeri was reading one of Oakley's favorite nursery rhyme books to her.

Middle: I love this picture. It shows a bit of the relationship that I would love my girls to have. Emeri doing Oakley's hair while Oakley is playing at the piano. So precious.

Right: Oakley came down with one of the Cinderella dresses. She loves to wear tutus or princess costumes. This one just made her glow.  

 PEACHES........PEACHES FOR SALE!! Sereen was so sweet to pick us up some peaches from Utah during their visit. We were SO grateful. They tasted absolutely divine and juicy. The kids were so excited to have their own too. Usually peaches are too expensive to allow us to each have our own but because Sereen got them in Utah, they were super cheap and were plentiful.

 I love these two boys! One day they just happened to wear their superman shirts together. I was clearing the table and turned around to this sweet scene. Both were sitting on the ottoman, holding their light sabers, and talking sweetly to each other. Such adorable boys! You two bring so much joy to our family.
The middle picture is of Oakley wearing some of my lip gloss. She loves to go through my purse and see what treasures she can find. She also loves putting on any make up I will allow her to while I am putting it on in the morning. She follows me right to the mirror and goes through my make up bag.
The last picture of Oakley is of a time when I needed her not to fall asleep in the car. She usually doesn't go back to sleep if she naps in the car. I was talking to her and giving her books to look at to keep her awake. I happened to look back when stopped at a stop light and saw this. She apparently was not happy to be kept awake.

 One day Andrew was begging his older siblings to play Ninjago with him on the trampoline. Neither was in the mood so he turned to Oakley and asked. She eagerly said "yyyyyyeeeesssss" and ran out with him. I was so impressed with Andrew for playing with her even though she is only two and couldn't play to the same intensity he usually likes too. I am hoping this was a positive thing that comes from homeschooling and only having each other to play with during the day.
The middle picture is of the kids enjoying some of the applesauce we made in Washington that summer. YUM YUM!
The last picture is of Daddy building a fort for the kids during movie night. The kids had worked hard that week in school and deserved an extra fun night. We even put the love sac on top of the couches for them to enjoy.

Elizabeth's 29th birthday

The Saturday after my birthday, Austin planned a fun get together at our neighborhood pool to celebrate. Jon and Jenna, Mitch and Kadi, Tammy, and Tamara Griggs and all of their kids came for a splash. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to the summer but hello to the last year of my 20's. EEKKK! Can you believe that? I can't. Well, at 29 and pregnant with our 5th child, I have much to be grateful for. Thank you Heavenly Father, for giving me so much. I have a wonderful family, a healthy strong body, a wonderful husband, great friends, freedom to home school, and so much more.

Jon brought his wake boarding equipment and let Isaac practice in the pool for a bit. Isaac did great for his first time.

Look at that smile! He loved it! What a big boy!! He almost got up a few times.

Here is my big belly! Kadi sneaked this picture, but I am kind of glad she did. I have been so busy that I have forgotten to take belly pictures of this little guy. Here he is 22 weeks along. The other picture is of my delicious cake from Tammy. It was delicious of COURSE! (love Austin's tan lines)

NAKED BABY!!!! Oakley pooped twice at the pool, wasting two swim diapers. I didn't have any more so the only option was to let those sweet cheeks shine!

Gender Reveal!!! Baby #5

So, for the last few weeks Austin and I have been trying to decide how we want to tell the kids what the gender of their newest sibling would be. Finally, we came up with the idea of having them each smash a cake in Daddy's face that has filling color of the gender (pink or blue). Okay, so it was definitely more of my idea then Austin's but he was a great sport about it. During the actual ultra sound appointment, we brought the kids and told the tech to only tell Austin and I by writing the correct Chromosome sequence on the screen. When we saw it Austin looked right at me and we both danced, yelled, squealed, and celebrated with our eyes. We couldn't wait to tell the kids!

A few days later Austin ran to the store and got the correct color of filling. He made the cakes and we told any family who wanted to come would be welcome to join in the fun. Here is what the finished cakes looked like. Great job babe! 

Here we all are ready to smash some cakes! The kids were so excited. They asked every day that week if "today was the day they get to hit Daddy with a cake!" Let the smashing begin! We started youngest to oldest and also only put the color in one of the cakes, but they didn't know that! Oakley was so excited she couldn't wait! She kept grabbing at her cake. Then...................................

when she finally smashed it she was so devastated!! She cried and cried and cried. No, she screamed and screamed and screamed. I could't tell if she was sad from her cake getting ruined or from her thinking Daddy was getting hurt. See, look at that face! It was so sad. Each time one of the kids took their turn she called out Daddy's name and cried again. HAHA It was ADORABLE!

Here are the other three taking their turns. Isaac's was the last one and his was filled with....................

 

BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep!!!! We are having another boy!!! Sweet baby Heath number 5 is a boy and he will be such a sweet baby brother. We haven't had a boy in 6 years nor have we knew we were having a boy in 8 years!!! (We didn't find out what Andrew was) The kids were so excited and they said they knew it from the start. Oh yeah, and apparently I don't give my kids enough sugar because they were eating the cake that had fallen from Austin's face off of the floor. -Grouse- Oh well, I didn't stop them, I guess I didn't mind that much.

After the reveal I helped Daddy smear the blue around a little more. You know, because he didn't have enough on his face already. AWE HA! And look Andrew was caught in the act of stealing and eating.  Guilty!

The final look! This is one excited Daddy! Sweet Baby Boy....WE CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU!!

Here is some good news too! Both Sereen and Kadi are pregnant with me! Hooray for cousins close together!!! Sereen was 29 weeks here, I was 20, and Kadi was 5!! Yipee!!!!! So glad we are all going through it together!

Here are all those who came to celebrate with us!! We love having family so close and so supportive!