Roxie

She loves to curl up in the green chair. She doesnt really fit, but its cute!!!!!!!!

We love homeschool!

Today has been a fun day for school! We played phonics games, did our regular school work then went for a nature walk to find locust shells! We even found a locust that was in the process of breaking out of his shell!!! We love homeschooling!!!

Sydneys brush with a mosquito

Her poor little face is all bit up!!!!! Her lips are swollen and her eyebrow is swollen and her little cheek is so red! Its hard to see in this pic, but its so sad!!! She was like, IM ITCHY!!! umm... i can see why poor little baby!!!!! Good ole hydrocortisone and benadryl! She said to me, mom, im bug bait!!!!!

School 2009

So... we have started school for the year. So far it has been nice and calm, and alot of fun! Here is the picture for the year, Dylan looks a little "surprised" lol. He totally has this issue with the camera, his eyes are usually closed, or surprised! lol. He's so cute!

So we will use this as our official school pic!

A Day of Firsts

First day of homeschooling for the year, First time that Dylan rode his bike without training wheels, First time Marlee rode her bike without training wheels!!! So many firsts! I am excited out of my mind, that my children both hit such a monumental first, on the same day!!!
School went well, it was nice and calm and easy, to sort of ease us into the swing of things for the year. Doing more tomorrow, and then will hit full time on thursday along with the ps kids.
Happy day to all!
JL

Do I really want to do this????????

Ok, here is a confession. As the new school year approaches and all of my nieces and nephews go school shopping and start talking to my kids about how excited they are to go back to school, etc, and my kids begin asking questions like, why dont we go to school sometimes? I ask myself, do i really want to do this?? This will officially be our 8th year homeschooling, because I started at birth with my children. While I see all the amazings pluses, like how spiritual they are, and how smart they are etc. I just wonder, am I up to this for another year???? We are struggling with money, this would be the first year that all three of my babies would be in school, my youngest is starting kindergarten, i could get a job while they are in school, etc. Am I up to this?? In my heart I know it is right. I know that what Im doing is important. My only job, right now, is to be the best momma I can be, and a good wife and daughter of God. But I admit, Im not as pumped about this school year as I usually am. I think that being with my kids 24/7 is getting to me. Maybe I need a break. A little momma time. Or a bubble bath without interruptions, lol. Am I the only one who feels this way????? I will homeschool my kids, I will teach them the gospel, we will sing the hymns, we will do math lessons, I will snuggle my babies and know Im doing whats right, but do I really want to do this???????? ?any comments?Jaellejaelleerica@ yahoo.com

Summer Update

John and Sydney, there birthdays are only a week apart!

Sydney the Pirate

Angie and Marlee

Austin and Sydney Fishing

marlee's pretty hair fixed by Angie

WHY ARE MY PICTURES DUPLICATING????? OK ENJOY ANYWAY, I TRIED!! LOL

My goodness I have been awful at updating my blog, as my beautiful sister in law told me! How I love Krista!!!!!

Let's see, so much going on this summer, I think that is why I havent been updating, to busy and to much fun. We have had some trials, but I will leave those for another day. For now, the fun stuff!!

One weekend we went to Quincy to the midsummers arts faire. We had so much fun roaming around and they had a neat irish band playing with a woman doing irish dancing and me and the girls sat and clapped and watched forever! Then Sydney decided to give it a go, we were dying laughing!! She is such a fun little girl! So smiley and laughs all the time. But she is also darn onery!! Marlee loved getting to make a "funky hat" in the childrens craft section. For those of you who watch wizards of waverly place ( we do!) it was inspired by the song, whats that, a hat, crazy junky funky hat!! It turned out really cute !! Sydney made a hat too, and wore it the whole way through the faire!! She also loved petting all of the puppies that we saw, as people were bringing there dogs to the faire! She adores animals and has decided she wants to be an animal trainer when she grows up!! Dylan made a neat marble painting in the craft booth. He thought that was crazy cool, but was more interested in the construction that was going on in the park. Can't take the builder out of him!!

Marlee got to have a special day with Cousin Angie. I could have just hugged and kissed Ang for doing this for Marlee. Marlee wants to be a cosmetologist when she grows up, just like Ang, so Ang took her to her shop and let Marlee help dye someones hair ( she even got a dollar tip) wash their hair, and more. Then Angie did Marlee's hair up really pretty, and then took her to Burger King, to Goodwill shopping for new hairbows and some cute tshirts, then they went and picked up Angies little boy Alex, and took him to get some pictures. Well, the place that Ang takes her kids to get their pictures also happens to be a bridal and prom shop! So the lady let Marlee look at all the dresses and play dress up and I guess their was a bridal party in there, and they kept asking for Marlee's opinion!! She was in heaven! Then Ang took her home and let her hold their kittens, and play with Andrew and eat lots of ice cream!!! Super fun day!!! Of course when we went to pick her up, she was just glowing with happiness and Sydney could hardly be torn away from the kittens! That child loves animals! Dylan was super happy to play with Andrew!

Another day we got invited to a birthday party for John, Sydneys best little buddy, and we are super good friends with his family. It was a pirate party, with a sprinkler, etc and they had sooo much fun!! So did I watching them play and getting to talk with all the adults!

4th of July was fun. We went to the Arts and Crafts fair at Tom Sawyer Days. Our neighbors sell candles and we go to visit them. We got the girls little halo's with pretty ribbons and they felt so pretty. Dylan got excited because there was an older gentleman who was selling wooden cork guns that he made. Dylan loved it! So of course we bought him one! The older gentleman loved showing Dylan how he made it. It is fun watching my kids interact with other people.

The fireworks were interesting. We parked across the river like always, and it was so foggy, that when the fireworks went off, it looked like a red cloud, lol. So we decided after two or three pretty clouds, that we were going to go closer to Lover's Leap where they were shooting them off. We were sooooo lucky. We parked right at the bottom of the entrance, and opened the sunroof and we all stuck our pretty little heads out the sunroof, and they were perfect!!!! Of course we had to close the window, and just watch, because all the debris was hitting us on the head!!!! It was a wonderful time and we had fun. Marlee decided she wanted us to put on some patriotic music. lol. So we turned on the only patriotic music we could find-- the gospel station had on the statler brothers singing the national anthem!!!! ROFL. Love my babies!!

I took the kids swimming at Mark Twain Lake one morning. They are so cute when they swim. They are each so individual, and I love it. Dylan just plugs his nose and dives under the water and off he goes. Then he tries and butts in on peoples water football games, etc. LOL. He just swims all around. Marlee likes to lay in the shallow water and swish her hair like a mermaid. :)

Sydney wears a little life jacket and just swims all over the place like a fish. She still swims like she did the past two years, she put her legs behind her like a frog and off she goes!! We built some sand castles and had a fun time.

Tonight Marlee is having a sleepover with Nana and Pop Pop. They went to eat at "crab rangoon" which is Hunan. Then they went to the Dollar Tree and bought a piggy bank, lol. Then they had a pillow fight. I just checked in to say goodnight and they were watching a movie she picked out!!

Keith has been fighting a kidney stone, but thinks will be ok. Happy things for this post!!!

We have enjoyed playing outside, making lots of goodies, and catching fireflies. Perfect summer!

The other day our neighbors took us fishing at Huckleberry Park. Sooo fun!! Dylan was so excited. He did great !! Sydney sat with Austin, our neighbor and he actually caught a fish while she was helping him!! A beautiful day in the park!!

Ok, enjoy the pics!!