Homeschool Adventures

February 2017

I felt inspired to do homeschool this year with Hyrum.  It has had it's ups and downs.  I feel like it took us to January to get the hang of things.  Each day isn't perfect, and we are still fine tuning our groove, but it has been so sweet lately.  I don't know about you but I am not always perfect at stopping to play with my kids, especially when the housework is piled up.  Homeschool has made me stop and learn and play with my kids.  It has been really rewarding overall.

 ^Hyrum is learning subtraction right now.  I found some fun worksheets and resources on education.com.  Before Christmas, I was creating everything on my own.  This website has been life saver!  Look how cute Hyrum writes his numbers.  He does awesome and is left handed.

 ^ Look at this cute little miss.  She loves coloring and crafts right now.

 ^Afton is learning shapes right now.  

^The three books we read for school that day.  Hyrum is 73 lessons through the reading lesson book.  Afton is learning to memorize "llama llama i love you" and The Relatives Came is an all-time favorite from my childhood.

^After our reading lessons and math worksheets we had cooking school.  This was so fun.  The kids loved helping me learn the ingredients, measurements and tasting the banana cake at the end!  Cooking school will remain a regular part of our schooling!

I love my life!

February 2017

Last month I went to counseling.  I realized that I had many fears associated with my mother's death that were now hitting me because I ama mom, in a similar stage of life, as my mom was when she passed away.  Does that make any sense?

I had gone to this counselor before when I struggled with postpartum depression.  This counselor is a professor at BYU-Idaho who also runs his own private practice.  I love that he is able to help shine truth learned from the scriptures and the gospel and apply it to the real life problems and troubles we face.

I am in the process now of writing a paper on the lessons I learned from counseling.  I hope they will continue to help me and others.

I am not perfect at living in faith, or enjoying every moment, but I do feel like I have started to live life more to the fullest since I went a few weeks ago.

These past few days I have been so tired and haven't felt the best.  (Hello life with 3 kids and 3rd trimester of pregnancy, right?) I feel like the past few days I have just felt grumpy.  Tonight as I went into my laundry room and found clothes everywhere, including a mix of clean and dirty clothes together, I was so happy.  As I sorted the clothes back to where they should go, a smile crept up on my face.  I realized that I am so happy to have 3 little mess makers at my house.  I love this stage of life.  I am trying to figure out how to love it with the messes.  I do value order a lot, and I do feel like cleanliness is next to godliness.  I just need to figure out how to help my house feel orderly without getting overly stressed when there are messes.  Afterall, these littles won't be littles forever.  I know I will miss this stage of having my three little stooges running around making a ruckus everywhere they go.

 ^Afty with my clothes on :)

 ^This sweet little boy brings sunshine to my life everyday.  One of his gifts is helping people realize that "life is to be enjoyed, not just endured" -Gordon B. Hinckley

 ^Afty playing the pie face game.  Have you ever played it?  It's a riot!

^I took the three stooges to Target with me.  They loved trying on the the cool hats.  I will miss when I can't fit all my kids in one cart :)

Our Not So Little 6 Yr. Old

January 28, 2016

I have a 6 year old.  I can't believe it.  It seems like just yesterday I was holding this new baby in my arms, straight from heaven.  I remember the way our eyes met as we gazed into the other's for what seemed like forever.  Time stood still as I met my sweet Hyrum.

Today, I celebrate his birthday!  He is 6 years old.  He is energetic and fun.  He is such a good big brother.  He loves learning about the gospel.  He is very attentive and has an impeccable memory.  He is very aware of his surroundings.  He is the best big brother in the whole world!

He invited a few friends over to play in the snow and have "camo cake" the day before his birthday.  He wanted donuts and cheesy scrambled eggs and chocolate milk for breakfast.  We went on a treasure hunt to find his treasure chest that he wanted for his birthday that had gold chocolates in it.  Blaine took him night skiing for his birthday night.  The day after his birthday, we had some family over to watch "The Hyrum Movie" while we ate popcorn and had some of Hyrum's favorite treats (he loves sour gummy worms right now). 

I love this boy so much.  I don't always take the time to get down and play with him like I should, but I am always glad when I do.  I can't believe a 3rd of the time I get to have him in our house is already gone.  My how time flies.  I love the little man he is becoming and count myself so lucky to be his mama!

 ^This is the first birthday cake that actually looked like what Hyrum wanted!  I was excited to make this simple, but fun looking cake!

^All of us got our own spray bottles with colored water to paint the snow with

 ^Let's just say the kids painted a little more than the snow....windows, other people's faces...I was laughing so hard.  Good thing it was just food coloring and water!

 ^ I love that Hyrum is a friend to people of all ages.  This boy is 9.  His name is Corbyn and Hyrum adores him.  Corbyn made him feel so special when he came to his party!

Winter is long but it's Wonderful...

January 2017

I said to Blaine on January 2, 2017 and I quote, "I am ready to be done with Winter.  I am ready for Spring."

Blaine kindly reminded me that we had 3 more months of winter at that point :)  I don't know what it has been about this winter, the negative degrees consistently, the lack of sunshine, or the wind but it has made me really evaluate if I am tough enough to live in Idaho the rest of my life.

Tonight as I reminisce about the season, I am reminded about all the fun times we have had.  It has been a blessing to have a backyard for my kids to play in.  We have loved shoveling our driveway...a first for us!  My kids have stayed outside until they were way past cold building, and creating and playing in the snow.  It is magical to have so much snow.  I am grateful for this season.  I know I will be ready for sunshine, but for now I should just be content, shouldn't I?!

 ^Isn't the view from our backyard so magnificent?