Two months old

Princess didn't like laying down. But I wanted to see how long she has gotten. Only a month or so longer in the bassinet!

Lorelai with the bunny that Mimi got for her at Build-a-Bear.

LOREALAI

You are such a sweet laid back baby. You are a champion eater (as evidenced by your chunky little thighs). You smile a TON and have slept 6-9 hours a night since you were a week old!!! I am so in love with you sweetheart.

Her First Photo Shoot

My favorite Pastor's Wife in the whole world, Carolyn Noble, took these shots of Lorelai. She is just a month old in these photos.

Homeschool Room Blog Hop

Something new for us this year. I eliminated the school room and turned it back into our dining room. Honestly, all the clutter stressed me out. And until I live next door to an IKEA to get the room exactly as I need it, I just had to remove everything from the first floor. So all the bookshelves that hold "extra" stuff were moved to the basement and only necessities are upstairs. So here is the tour (and you can also see our remodel finished too.)

Coat closet: perfectly houses their work box "carts"

I organized my 31 utility bag and file box. This holds all of my lesson plans and any books we would need for the week.

Not sure how this ended up upside down. I am keeping four weeks of Sonlight plans in a binder at a time to eliminate the bulkiness of the blue binders.

Here are both items together. Easily can move about the house or on the go if we homeschool on vacation or at the grandparents houses.

Here is Reece's backpack that he can grab and go.

His binder. Another upside down photo. Clearly I am awesome at arranging photos.

This is something new this year. I am giving each of the kids four weeks worth of lessons. If they finish everything on Wed. then they are done for the week. But the difference is THEY KNOW what is expected and can plan accordingly.

Found this awesome notebook at Walmart and plan to use them to journal our way through their history and science lessons.

All supplies needed for the day in the backpack.

Avery's backpack with her binder (found at Potterybarn Teen) and all her books.

Electric pencil sharpener and supplies table in kitchen nook.

chalkboard that folds up and slides into the coat closet when done for the day.

Reece really wanted a desk so we painted the legs dark grey on this little table my Dad had made for him to use.

I am keeping the large chalkboard in the dining room and we will do our history lessons together in there. This is a calender from Melissa and Doug. Just need to get September set up on it for our first month back to school. Still need to hang our map above it.

The chalkboard in all her glory. And where Avery will do her lessons throughout the day. I am taking another new approach to having them in separate areas during their math and language arts time. Behind the chalkboard wall is the kitchen area. So they are close in proximity but enough separated to give Avery quiet.

The trunk has toys for Ellie to play with and hopefully keep her occupied during school time when she is not at preschool.

Thanks for stopping by today!

http://www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com/school-room-week-2013/

Working for their keep

Teaching the art of sorting and putting their own clothes away! I decided I was tired of doing the laundry by myself. When you sort and fold six people's laundry only to have three of them wad stuff up on their floor, it can send a person like me straight to Crazyville. So this mama decided it was high time they helped!

First thing I did was assigned each kid their own laundry basket and each one had a different color.

Next I told them we were going to play a really fun game..... Here are their sweet innocent faces before I broke the news. These smarty pants figured out it was work pretty quickly!

Getting to work. This is the munchkins in action.

And here they are all done. I then told them to go immediately to their rooms and put them away. With some groaning they did it.

All in all, it was a success. I had to lower my standards A LOT tho. Dressers were full of wadded up clothes, but I am learning to be okay with that.

2013-2014 Curriculum and Blog Hop

So I had my entire curriculum all picked out. I was piecing together from all different resources and wanting to do it on the CHEAP. Normally I am super excited about starting the school year, but this year I was stressing. Based on the items I was going to use to teach my first and third grader, I was looking at 2-3 hrs per week of preparation and lots of printing. I started toying with the idea of using Sonlight again. But with a cost three times what I had originally planned on I kept putting the idea on the back burner.

One night Shane and I were talking and I told him why I was stressing. I asked him what he thought. He said I was being completely unrealistic about how much planning time I had and basically I could enjoy the year a lot more with the lessons planned out for me. Hmmm, that was a first! My man was telling me to spend money! ha!

And the more I thought about it (and after finding out my sister was doing the same thing) I ordered Sonlight for both of my kiddos and felt a HUGE sense of relief when it was over! Now instead of stressing about lessons, I can cuddle my last sweet baby. And for that I can only say... thanks honey!

Avery: THIRD GRADE
*Core D- Early American History (this covers:History, Bible, Language Arts, Literature
*Horizons Math
*Classical Cursive Handwriting
*Science Core C (w Reece)
*Portraits of American Girlhood (adding this occasionally when it fits with the time period)
Art- class with an instructor
Ballet- at a studio
P.E.- with an instructor

Reece: FIRST GRADE
*Core D (just for History and Literature)
*Core B (Language Arts, Bible)
*Core C (Science)
Horizons Math
Art-class with an instructor
P.E.- with an instructor

Check out the Blog Hop to see lots of other curriculum ideas.

All of our Literature organized for the year with Core D stickers from Sonlight.

Because Avery loves American Girl right now.

Getting organized!

Everything all spread out.... WOW!

BOX DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

GIVEAWAY!!!!! What's in the Bible Vol. 1,10,11

We LOVE......


What's in the Bible? products! When they contacted me to do a giveaway I was ecstatic! I am just so thankful for such fun videos that teach my kids about the Bible. We own all available volumes and I am just so impressed with them. I'm amazed that even with a minor in Bible I still learn so much when I watch them with the kids.

They are definitely geared to the post-Veggie Tales crowd. So my three year old doesn't watch for very long. My eight year old can enjoy an entire episode in one sitting and my six year old can watch half the show. 

Also, for those of you that LOVE extra activities, want to use this for homeschooling, or have kids that love to color... there are TONS of FREE printables on their website! Just click HERE to see some freebies for each DVD.

So the fun part?????????? I have THREE videos to giveaway! Yes, that means you have a chance to win either...

First Prize: Volume 11- Spreading the Good News

or

Second Prize: Volume 10- Jesus is the Good News

or 

Third Prize: Volume 1-In the Beginning

Just answer the directions in the Rafflecopter Box below to enter. Giveaway is from Monday, August 12- Friday, August 16, 2013

Winners will be announced Saturday morning And DVD's will be mailed on Monday via USPS.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weekend Wrap-Up

Or the Post with a ridiculous amount of photos...


Here is Ellie who decided right before we left for church to color tiger stripes on her face. Apparently she has watched one too many episodes of Daniel Tiger.

Tiger ROOOOOOOOAR!

We decided to splurge and buy a bigger t.v. We wanted a 47 inch and of course once again Walmart was out of stock. So tired of waiting we grabbed a 50 inch. Umm, big difference. Now Shane is going to make a wall unit for this thing. And I am lamenting that my pretty lamps no longer fit on the table. That's what we call a first world problem.

My sis surprised me with this diaper clutch. Ok, the surprise was she called me to go to The Pleated Poppy and pick one out. Super cute and I have used it a ton in just the few days I have had it.

And this adorbs kleenex holder came too!

Avery hates wearing jeans and loves dresses. Nini made her this dress and she was so incredibly excited to wear it.

And this is Ellie who threw a TWENTY MINUTE meltdown because she didn't get one. Thankfully Nini offered to make her one right away! And those black circles are from a stamp she found and decided to make some more body art. Is this a precursor to teenage tattoos?

New mailbox! Hubby had a gift card to Home Depot and bought a mailbox. On his own. And it's pretty! I picked out all the flowers and asked for a rock edging. Hubs did all the work.

I bought this fern at HD and kept thinking it would "relax" a little. Umm, it looks like Medusa.

New (to us) couch! Shane hated our other couch. It was narrow and not "man-shoulder" worthy. So we found this beaut on craigslist. Only to arrive and find out we knew the people selling it. Small world! I have to admit publicly that it is insanely comfy! And much more kid friendly.

You know when you buy a $10 pencil sharpener for your homeschool and then you "have" to buy a $30 table to put it on. Yes, another first world problem. I literally had no where to put it now that we are homeschooling through out the house versus having a separate school room. The drawers will house art supplies and such too.