IDVA Chirstmas party

IDVA (Idaho Virtual Academy). We sang Christmas chorals, decorated cookies, made ornaments, candy canes, and Christmas cards.

Lydia made a ginger bread house for the display. Joe put it together, Lydia did the rest.

Foriegn exchange student

Our foreign exchange student and his wife came to visit for a week. It was so awesome to see them.

How I met Joe.

1.Where did you meet? Joe and I met when a friend and I were picking up two other friends to go snow boarding. Joe was one of the friends.

2.What was the first thought that went through your head when you met? Honestly, nothing much. I was pretty nervous to be going snowboarding for the first time.

3.Do you remember what he/she was wearing? Snow cloths. A blue coat. (I think.)

4.Where was the first time you kissed this person? In the car on the way home. I know crazy and stupid right! (but fun)

5.Where did you go for your first date? First we went to his Grandpa Wadsworth's house to play pool and dance to an eight track, then to Garcia's for dinner, and then back to Grandpa's house for a hot tub and movie.

6.How long did you know this person before you became a couple? That depends on what a couple is. Met Feb 3, a thing as of Feb 5. Engaged June 8.

7.How did he/she ask you out? I mentioned to my friend that I had no plans for my birthday Feb 5th and he said he was going to take me out for my b-day.

8.Has this person ever proposed to you? Yes!!

9.Do you and this person have kids together? Yea Four great ones.

10.Have you ever broken the law with this person? Not that I remember.

11.When was the first time you realized that you liked this person? A couple hours after we met. When we were riding up the chair lift together.

12.Do you trust this person? Yea.

13.Do you see her/him as your partner in your future? Oh, yea.

14.What is the best gift she/he gave you? As lame as it sounds, his love!! If any of you knew me when I met him, you know I could very well say he saved me from myself.

15.What is one thing He/She does that gets on your nerves? Depends on the day. Mostly his rush rush rush.

16.Where do you see each other 15 years from now? Almost kidless. Crazy thought.

17.What causes the most arguments? My mis-communication.

18.How long have you been together? 10 years in Feb.

19.Are you Married? Yea, last I checked.

This was fun! I needed to do this after my "Crappy Day!" You all should take a minute to do this, it's fun to think back on what brought you together, and to see where you have been!

How did you meet your significant other?Answer all the questions HONESTLY and re post as "How I met _____"

What a Crappy Day!

No literally! We have decided it was time to start potty training Miriam. One of the greatest parts of being a parent. Miriam is doing pretty well I think. This whole process went a lot different with my other kids. Miriam loves to pee in the potty, but she has yet to poop in the potty and today I had to clean up two poopy accidents. What a crappy day!! At least this is my last kid.


I love the things parents talk about. It always cracks me up!

Our new home

Corbin

Family pics

Reading

Corbin is reading. I can't tell you how awesome this has been to watch. Being apart of something so very important for Corbin has felt so good to know I had a great part in it. I heard it was going to be as awesome as watching my kids learn to walk. I can't say which was better but I LOVED watching this.

The Pumpkin patch

Our kids went to a pumpkins patch for one of their school outings. They listened to the farmer tell how a pumpkin grows and then they got to go out and pick their own pumpkin. They had lots of fun. There was a pretty big turn out. Lydia ended up trad her pumpkin for four little tiny ones.

They also had a fun little maze and other fun things to play on.

sleepy sleep

Haircuts

One of the most common questions asked of us is, "have you ever cut their hair?" (In reference to our girls.) Well, most of you know Lydia had that taken care of several times over. (I think we are past that. Knock on wood.) We have cut a quarter of an inch from Jane's hair, and non from Miriam's. Until yesterday! I actually don't know if you would really count bangs as a hair cut. (Joe is not very happy about it.) I had to do something though. These hairs of hers always ended up in her mouth with her food. YUCK! Even if we pulled her hair up, stragglers would find their way down. Frustrating as all get out.

I feel we should cut Jane's hair because she hates it. I can't bring myself to do it. In my mind we are selfish to leave her hair when she struggles so bad with it. Oh the cost of beauty.

A trip to St George

We recently took a trip to St George. We had loads of fun. We spent lots of time at the many parks around. Joe was able to go golfing. And we played at the community rec center. They have one of the most awesome swimming places we have ever seen. Of course, I forgot my camera everywhere we went except one park.

Birthday party fun

We went to the park for Jane's Birthday.

Happy Birthday Jane

Jane is 3. Wow!

Our School

Many of you have been wondering how our schooling has been going. I will tell you, it definitely has it's good days and bad days. Today is really good today in the aspect of school because we are taking a day off. All of our kids except Corbin have been sick the last three days. One each day. I figure we need a recovery day.
I absolutely love teaching my kids. Watching them learn is just as exciting to me as watching them take their first steps. Corbin is so close to reading and it is just awesome to witness this process in him and to be able to share in his excitement as he figures it out. Of course, when he isn't figuring it out so easily it takes A TON of patience on my end. I know how to read and it seems so basic to me. I have to bite my tongue quite often. (It's getting pretty raw. Ha.)
Lydia is so funny. There is usually not a day go by that she doesn't do something or say something that makes me laugh my head off. The other day she was learning about explanatory, telling, and asking sentences. She had to take a test where she read a sentence and had to decide on the ending punctuation. One sentence read, "I see a fish is the tank" To this she put an explanation mark. I asked why she chose that and she said, "Because any kid would be excited to see a fish in a tank." (Duh- Mom!) Another sentence said, "She hit a home run" and on this one she put a period. When I asked her about this she replied, "Because baseball is boring for kids." Well tenqnically her answers were wrong, but after talking to her I decided she had the idea of what the end punctuations stood for. Which was the whole point. I do have to say, I am learning soooo much. And I was proud that she knew homerun went with baseball.
We have spent lots of time as a family. Lydia has been studying ancient Egyptians and since they have a display at our local museum we took a field trip as a family to check it out. Of course the kids liked the discovery room best. (Which had nothing to do with Pharohs or Egpytians).
Jane and Miriam have also been learning lots. Listening in on Lydia and Corbin's phonics lessons and participating in art and music lessons and lots and lots of stories. Jane knows her continents now frow singing our continents song.
Here are some pics of our trip to the museum (they wouldn't let us take pictures inside) and of some art work we worked on.

P.S. Lydia did not have a yummy drink. She has a habit of licking her lips until they look like they are going to fall off.

Corbin told me, "Take a picture of my balls." Just have to laugh at these moments.

Back to School

Our first day of our new school was exciting and it just gets more and more interesting. Besides being schooled at home we have been able to go to three school outings, Hiese Hot Springs for swimming, Barnes and Noble for story telling and book fair, and to the zoo for a back to school picnic.

Hurricane Pass

Last weekend Joe went with some friends and hiked the Alaskan Basin and Hurricane Pass a 22 mile hike. Here are a few pics he took.