Fun Facts Friday!!

by Steph // Friday, August 12, 2016 // Comments off

This fun facts Friday is going to be a photo filled Friday instead!

Cause my phone was FULL of photos!

And most of them have not been added to my little scrapbook here!

They are random – but show life at its best!

Like a napping sweet baby!

Orthodontist appointments!

A coffee run after that appointment!

The first view we usually have at Clyde’s place!

Building memories with big sis Kayla while Mom is at the doctor!

Up and down this ridge I go twice a day to take and pick up Addie Mae from work!

One-on-one time with the sweetest baby girl!

A precious little man with the biggest dimples!

Those facial expressions that crack us up!

Enjoying SUMMER!

Haircut night that brings a pile of kiddos to watch!

No, a monkey does not live here! We do everything we can in bulk! It saves pennies!

My favorite grandbaby ever!

Cleaning day! Which is every Friday!

Sunday afternoons! The BEST!

If you are ever looking for this boy, this is usually where you can find him!

We love books! And puzzles! And a sweet baby girl learning how to initiate her own play!

We had some birthday fun this past weekend!

There has been some fall shopping going on! Thankfully, there were not too many needs – mostly just jeans and shoes for the boys – but everything for Eliza!

I am thankful that I never really need to be alone! Cause there is not so much of that with littles!

I simply love the little surprises I find on my phone!

We still have appointments once in a while – especially with our chiropractor!

Blake helped Addie Mae practice and practice driving – then she took her driver’s test and PASSED!!

A slow rainy afternoon with a DVD to watch is always good!

I drove the WHOLE five (maybe three?) minutes to the feed mill to take something to Grant one day! Grant is another one who had a driver’s test this week! And he now has a CDL license!

Blake was traveling yesterday, so the kids, Sadie and I had a late night blast in the hayloft last night!

The middle boys were a fast BLUR!

Well, that was quite a few pages for my little scrapbook, huh?

Life has been FULL!

Hope you all enjoyed this photo filled Friday!!

Did you read that? It’s FRIDAY!!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Our Sweet Baby

by Steph // Thursday, August 11, 2016 // Comments off

Today I took Eliza for her much anticipated haircut appointment.

More anticipated by her brother Tate than herself – which just gives you a glimpse into their personalities!

This boy talked non-stop from the moment we walked in the salon door. Oh my! He had SO much to tell Miss Michelle! Things like “My Dad picked me up in China.” “I am five now.” “I want you to cut my hair at the beauty shop too!”

What a hoot his precious boy is! He makes us all smile so much!

If you only knew how many photos I take of Tate to get ONE that is good. Or, in this case, somewhat good!

Eliza was BRAVE and STRONG – as this appointment had the capacity for disaster for our sweet baby!

There were strong smells, someone touching her hair, a tight cape around her neck, hair falling on her, and she was up really high in a chair. Wow! As I listed all of those things I am SO, so proud of Eliza! She did amazing today!!

Bye, bye six inches!!

Right after I took this photo, I pulled Eliza’s dress off of her and tried my best to get all the hair off of her!

But this is her “Mom! There is still itching on me!” face.

Once we got home I really got all the hair off her – and the sucker I gave her didn’t hurt either!

We all just LOVE her new haircut!! She looks SO grown up!

Here she is trying to block the photo Grant is taking of her!

We are hoping this new style will help Eliza cope with bath time. It has been a rough couple weeks around here at bath time. Sweet girl. Eliza is struggling to have her hair washed, combed and dried. She is already so pleased with her shorter hair, so hopefully things will be better now!

We love you so much, Eliza Claire!! You are SO cute, sweet baby!!

School Last Week

by Steph // Wednesday, August 10, 2016 // Comments off

For Tate and Eliza, our first week of “full-time” school was all about the letter N.

I did not take very many photos of school last week, but I want to include these few in my little scrapbook!

We made lots of crafts about the letter N.

Because crafts + littles = a WIN.

I always follow the My Father’s World Kindergarten plans with the littles – which is why we have the structure of a letter each week. Then I add a bunch of printables and all the other fun stuff I find!

The littles really enjoy being read to, and I had collected a huge pile of “N” books from the library. Here are a few from one day of reading.

Our first FIAR book for this school year is Follow The Drinking Gourd.

This book is set in the 1800’s and is about slaves escaping to freedom by following the big dipper in the night time sky.

SO many things to run with because of this book!

We have been learning about slavery, free states and slave states, southern plantations, cotton growing and harvesting, stars and constellations, measures of time, compound words, bird calls, Harriet Tubman, and so much more.

FIAR is probably my favorite curriculum that we use!

We painted night skies with the big dipper hanging in it.

Lane matched some compound words.

We did a lot of map work concerning the free states and the slave states before the Civil War, including an interactive map on line.

Last week was a very fun week of school! And a great start to our year!

As I am typing this, I realize I have not used my camera once since Tate’s birthday party on Saturday night. Drat!

This week has been fun so far too! It is “T” week! And we are still rowing the book Follow The Drinking Gourd!

AND – Addie Mae took her driver’s test and PASSED!!! WOO HOO!!

Hope you all are having a great week so far too!

Our Precious Boy is FIVE!!

by Steph // Saturday, August 6, 2016 // Comments off

Our Tate’s birthday was this past Wednesday and he is now five years old!

I know Tate is five years old, and I say he is five years old, but he does not seem five years old!!

This last year has went so fast!

We celebrated Tate’s birthday tonight as a family, with our traditions of dinner, presents and cake.

We kept things very simple, which was what was needed for Tate right now.

First up was a dinner of Tate’s choosing! But he did not understand how to choose! Tate does have favorite foods, but he will eat anything we put in front of him. Even if he says he doesn’t like something, we have him take five bites of it anyway and he always willingly does. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner he would say “Peaches, bananas, and cabbage.” Hmmm. So I helped him along by giving him some ideas! We had burgers, beans, cole slaw, fruit salad and yam fries. He loved it!