So ready for spring....and a mild summer

Christmas journeys - Part Two

I know I'm a little late on part two but I finally made it.....
So Christmas Eve we were ready to celebrate.

 Our journey took us to Aunt Cynthia's. And Mimi got some well needed cuddle time with her Gammie.

The traditional playing of cards was a fun time by all...except me. My time was coming though. I was able to play Christmas night.











Christmas Morning!!!! Santa left Mimi a rather large sized horse....this was definitely her favorite.

 Lauren got something to work on her drawing skills. She does so well with her drawing and loves all the how to books.













Next Christmas breakfast at Gamma and Papa's house....

Grapes are always on his menu!

Fun Felicity/American Girl stuff for our fun lover.

A few trucks for our truck lover.

A rabbit hutch for our animal lover.

Next stop....the Wilson Family lunch....

This year was cousin Jessie's turn to host.

Neat story about these ladies. They wore dresses that belonged to Jonathan's great grandmother's mom and her sister. They were beautiful!

Another antique dress.

My favorite part of the day. The kids were belting out hymns and Thomas sang his little heart out!

Christmas journeys - Part One

 So our annual Christmas adventure began this year with an early visit from one of Santa's helpers. The girls had asked for kittens for Christmas and these two cuties were sent to them a week before. Apparently they just couldn't wait until Christmas.

 The girls have been such good mommies to them. The white one is Pearl and the tan one is Peter Pan. We've been listening to Peter Pan in the car so of course Lauren jumped at the chance to use Peter's name. One of our close friends, Jamie,  has a cat named Pearl...and Emily is just in love with her Mrs. Jamie so .....Pearl it is!

 Mrs. Jamie and Mr. Steve also stopped by one day bringing Christmas gifts of books!! Thomas just loves the books they pick out for him.

 Our next stop was Saysa and Uncle Jim's house. Here the kids received their ornaments from Papa Mac and Mrs. Jacque. Every Christmas year the kids are excited to put up their keepsake ornaments from them.

You can see Emily has already attacked the cookies and cake.

 This year they also received water bottles with their names. They've been using them most days around the house.

 Thomas was excited about his ornament too!

 The girls oogled the cash for their new purses. I think Lauren was more focused on George Washington's picture.

 And of course, Thomas got some more vehicles for his collection. That boy and his obsession.

 It was a fun night with family and the kids had a great time.

 But the big finale was in the garage!!

 Bicycles for everyone!.. Well, I didn't get one...and Jonathan didn't either but all the little people did. And oh the love! The girls really needed replacements and these have been just perfect.

We did have a little trouble getting Thomas off of his. He sat on it for a good 20 minutes before finally coming inside.

It was a good time. I think about Dad a lot this time of year. He would have been so fun with them....more like obsessed with them. One day we'll be together again.

Our adventures continue...on to Christmas Eve!

Thankful

We've had so much to be thankful for this year. Our new home just to name one. But I will say the last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy. I'm slowly getting on my feet cognitively and literally.

The thanksgiving weekend has been wonderful. I've had a bit of a chance to get some things in order. My mom and her sister have been here visiting and we have had a great time together. We've also been spending time with Jonathan's brother and he has been a great help around the little farm.

The last two days have been fun and tiring. The guys worked on clearing out the large trees from our future orchard and we all started working on clearing the fences. My brother-in-law has even gotten to practice blocking our driveway ;)

 

It has been great having him around and needless to say we have been living outside. The last couple days have been just beautiful...I love this place. We have a lot of work to do here but God has really blessed us with this land.

As far as school goes the educational experiences are endless! Relating what we are doing to what the first colonists to America went through...it really helps it to come alive. We've been taking a bit of a break from our structured lessons and moved to more, um, living school. I guess that's the best way to describe it. Next week Jonathan will be back at work and we'll start back to some of our more traditional learning. But the kids have really learned a lot lately and had a lot of fun doing it too.

How many two year olds do you know that know what a level is? My boy does...so what if he uses it to dig with he's just learning how to adapt...right? The girls have been attached to their Gran and loving this time to spend with her.

And we've all enjoyed sitting back in the golf cart watching the big guys work hard. Even Jeb, our dog, loves the entertainment.

We started the fence clearing today and I think it will be a winter long project. The way the vines have grown through the fences it will be a slow process. It was hard not to think of how this relates to our lives. Just how when we don't maintain the Godly boundaries in our lives things start to get woven in. And let me tell you it takes a lot to get them out.

God is everywhere in His creation. There is no better classroom!

Where am I?

No better time than 6am for me to finally sit down and catch up on all the goings on around here. So it's been about 2 weeks since my last entry and I'm having a hard time believing that it's been 2 weeks! The girls have been going to their homeschool co-op classes and little Buster and I have been helping out in the nursery there.

Lauren is taking a History Pockets class on American Indians, the Magic School Bus Science and ballet. The history was perfect for her since we are doing American History this year and she has enjoyed moving up to the older ballet class. She loves her science teacher and was able to earn a dollar from her by finding a word that rhymes with orange...yep there is one.

Emily is taking a geography class and ballet also. Their winter performance will be part of The Nutcracker. I took a bold step with her this year with geography. The class is for K-3rd. I wasn't sure how she would do since she is so quiet but she loves that class!

Monday was their last meeting for this session and they will only have ballet until their performance.

So that explains our Mondays....the rest of the time I have been working full blast on the house. I am repainting the kitchen cabinet and I'm really happy with the result. Jonathan has been working hard outside clearing for the orchard that we would like to put in in the next few weeks. Our list of things to do is growing (as we knew it would) but we have been slowed down a little by life.

Saturday morning Jonathan woke with pain in his lower abdomen. Yes, acute appendicitis! So off the the ER we go. My wonderful mom-in-law met us on the way to get the little ones and by 4 that afternoon our weekend getaway had begun. Awesome room service, cable, all the ice chips you want. It was heaven! We checked out before lunch the next day to continue our wonderful weekend at home. The kids had a sleep over with their Aunt Saysa and we were refreshed.

Not to be out done by my husband, and since he was getting an enormous amount of sympathy and all I decided I needed my own trip to the ER. So Monday morning I was off. Jonathan had no idea of my adventure and he had wanted to take the girls to co-op (because he felt so well) so when I called my uncle to meet me so he could watch little Buster he made an elective decision to take me on a tour of the Easely ER. I was so excited! Sitting in those comfy wheelchairs while havining excrutiating back pain was in deed a treat. So I left my tour with the UT Infection care package as well as bonus painkiller shots (yes it's still wearing off)

So the kids got an extended stay at their aunt and uncle's and Jonathan and I have relished this time together. It was like a vacation in another dimension.

School day

So, I've talked about canning with a two year old. But what is it like to have school with one? Well...he keeps you motivated and aware of time.

With this cute little guy you know you have a window of time in which he will be happy to play and build with his "Box". The "Box" contains whatever I find to throw in it. He loves it and can only have it during our more structured time of school (math, spelling, etc.).

Once that wears off you get this...

But the girls don't mind most of the time. And we were almost done.

We have been studying Tchaikovsky and the girls love that it is following along with their ballet lessons. They had fun coloring their Nutcracker pages and telling me about their performances they are practicing for.

You can see the girls different style of doing things. Emily just doesn't enjoy sitting too much. She likes to be fully involved in her work...love it! And she's been enjoying working on her Wordly Wise vocabulary builder. She asks to work on it every day. I started using it just to see what it was like but the girls really enjoy it. So it's a treat for them once they finish other work.

So that's what it kind of looks like on a good day with a two year old. Life is so fun and learning to deal with people who act like a two year old is definitely applicable for real world learning...I'm just sayin.

Wood Stove take Two

So last night and this morning Jonathan searched the internet and called around everywhere trying to find another stove. The problem was the style of stove that we had to have. He failed to find used one but did find one on sale about an hour away. While we were discussing when he might go one of our wonderful friends, Dave, unexpectedly stopped by. He brought a plate full of cookies to welcome us to our new home.

While we took him on a tour of what we had accomplished, we showed him our cracked stove. As he studied the damage he mentioned, "I might have a stove that would work...I have four." ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!

So our angel gifting us with cookies gave us an awesome deal of a new/used stove. It's twice the size of our old one and it heats our home perfectly! And it cost a third of what it was going to cost. All I could think of was how blessed we are and what kind of cookies or pie could I make for Dave.

We are so blessed!

Exploring our new backyard

We took a break from moving/unpacking and went exploring around our new home. We found several large rocks that the kids could pose on.

The woods on our property are just beautiful. There is a particular tree that Jonathan and I have named our favorite. It is a huge Beech tree. As with many things in nature it's size is difficult to capture in a picture. I'm looking forward to more attempts but for now..

There were so many beautiful things to see this time of year. Fall is definitely my favorite. It was a great time for the kids to find trees they wanted to identify as well as other neat finds.

I enjoy every morning I wake up here even though I'm exhausted from our move. Hopefully the move part of things will be over very soon. Until then I can still take a walk and see this.