School pictures 9-25-2008

I've read several blogs lately talking about school pictures. over at Adventures in Babywearing took her own pictures of her kids this year. I was so excited to do this also. It's so hard and expensive to get the childrens pictures taken separately and then together for Christmas. I do have 5 of them!! I also home school, so we don't have the option of school pictures, per say. So, before church Tuesday night I took 3 of the 5 outside to see what I could come up with......I figured out of the 100 pictures I took, one ought to turn out good, right? I was actually quite happy with how they turned out. Not sure which ones I will use yet. Here is a sampling of my efforts! Enjoy :)

Kaitlynn

My baby. The last one. The child that will probably be first at nothing among her siblings, lol. So, she will be the first this time. What can I say about Katie....She is a little bit spoiled (being the youngest of 5). She is a whole lot sassy and fiesty. VERY standoffish to people she doesn't know and a lot of times to people she does know. At 17 months old, she has already started to potty-train. I am amazed at this child, I have never had a child want to go potty on the potty this early. Will it continue........I do not know. I bought her a small kitchen set at a garage sale on Friday and she absolutely loves it. She also loves purse, and baby dolls. She is alot like Abigail was at this age. They do not look alike, but have similar personalities. This does not bode well for us.
I was so excited on Sunday because her hair is long enough to put in a pony-tail. It was sooooo cute. But, did not stay up once it began to dry :(

Fall party!

I got an e-mail yesterday from a woman from my church with Pictures from the fall party. We don't celebrate Halloween but our church has a fall party on Halloween night. Normally it's a dress-up party and there is a theme. This year was the old west. I was not able to go because I had to work :( My dear husband stayed home with the 2 youngest because there was a bonfire and he didn't feel

North Carolina

I have been locked out of this blog for a long time and finally got back in. IO am so thankful! A lot of changes between the last post and this one. We now only have 2 of our 5 kids at home. Frederick got his own place, Abigail got married and Josiah joined the Marines. We are now in North Carolina. We moved here several years ago to be closer to Fred's family. 

Fred and I brought Kaitlynn to stay with Abigail. She lives in Southern Pines since her marriage to Adam. He is gone to Fort Campbell to train for Special Ops. When we got to Southern Pines, Abigail was without power. There had been an ice storm and her power was out for just over 24 hours. It came back on when we were about half way home. We took the girls out for lunch at Waffle House and then headed straight back home. Miah had to work at 4pm and we got home just in time to bring him to Chick Fil A. We then played WOW. We have played this game on and off for 17 years. 

I bought 2 oil lamps off of Facebook Marketplace. I have been looking for a month or so to buy some. I need to grab some oil for them. I think Walmart has some even though the shelf holding the actual lamps has been empty every time I have checked recently. I think they will be helpful during hurricane season. I was thankful to find them and thankful that the seller met us at CVS when we were already out. 

Snow in May

We got snow the first 2 days in May. We've had a few nice days so far, but an odd spring. It will probably jump straight from cold to hot. It tends to do that. No easing into seasons here.

Freddy started his new job last week. Lenny's Sub Shop. He seems to like it, much slower than Chick Fil A. Abigail is still working for the Jones.

 I went to Chili's for dinner with Dana and Betty tonight. Had a good time, lots of talk about Walmart. Betty quit just before Christmas and I have been gone 1 year in January. Crazy. When I was there I thought it would never end.

Fred is working at home now. It is going good. Just getting used to him being home all the time.

Snow storms

Well, we have really had some snow the last several weeks! It's melting now, but the first snow we had 12 inches and a week later another 10 or so. Crazy. Absolutely crazy for Kansas. People freaked out, lol. The shelves in the store were cleaned out. We survived very well and I personally thought it was tons of fun! The kids played outside every day and we shoveled LOTS. Abigail even shoveled the neighbors out. They are older and in bad health. Now that it is warming up though, I want to be outside and want the snow to quickly melt, LOL.  Andrea Jones called today wanting us to walk to the Library with her, but unfortunately we are all sick. Some nasty virus. Freddy didn't work at all this week and Abigail worked 1 day. Fred took a day and a half off. We missed bible study tonight.

Sick again and Oklahoma trip

We are just getting over being sick AGAIN. I really thought with getting sick in September we would not get sick this winter. No such luck. UGH.
Josiah, Fred and Freddy did not get it. Fred got what we are now thinking is gout. We had thought it was tendonitis for a few days. Poor thing has been having kidney stone problems again too. He is a mess, lol.

Went to Oklahoma the first weekend in November so that Freddy could meet Miranda and we could meet her parents as well. It was a great visit and Abigail and I had a blast.  Miranda's parents did most of the chaperoning and Abby and I went shopping and lounged in the motel room. Fred kept the 3 younger kids. We had so much fun!!! Good church and good visit.

Youth night

Last night was Youth night and the older 3 went ice skating, first time this season! They were thrilled. Abby is the only one without her own skates, hopefully soon she can buy some. Looks like Friday night she will spend the night with Alyssa and go shopping Saturday. She is thrilled, they have been wanting to do this for a while.

I am slowly but surely getting stuff done around here. Decluttering and cleaning stuff out. I sold the basketball hoop this week for $20 more than what I paid for it, and gave away the railroad ties from the back yard. LOVE the feeling of getting rid of unwanted and unneeded stuff. I do not like clutter and like the house to look nice and spacious.

Sickies

We have been sick the last couple weeks. Katie started it by getting sick on a Thursday night (6th). She had a flu-like virus, maybe it was the flu. I don't know. My mom came that Sunday night (9th) and Katie was still sick. Wednesday (12th) I brought her to Urgent Care because she was lethargic and I thought she was dehydrated. It wasn't too bad though and instead of giving her an IV, they gave  her Zofran and Gatorade. We were there several hours, but after that she was much better. Miah on the other hand had already starting getting sick. The diarrhea got so bad, she wouldn't wear underwear. :( Poor baby, it was miserable. Then I got sick and Fred.We were sick just over a week and now we are on to the head, chest, nose cold. I thought the older kids had escaped, but Abby isn't feeling good now.  We have missed several weeks of church  now and it is still summer. Here are some pics, not real recent but cute :) Enjoy!!

Hurricane Isaac

It's finally raining!! Yesterday all day and a little today. It rained A LOT. Hopefully it greens things up. It has been so dry this summer. Mom is coming to visit in a week or so. Patty is coming for Thanksgiving.  My mom will come on the train September 9th. The kids are really excited to see her! I think we will go to Monkey Bizness while she is here.

Fred brought Miah to test drive cars and look at the Porsche dealership today. They also went for ice cream at Culvers. It was part of his b-day present. I want to start doing special  stuff with the kids instead of just presents. That's the part they will remember. I think they had a good time together. Everyone else was home today. Freddy took the day off to watch the Michigan football game.  Josiah and I made laundry soap and cleaned up. Then Abby and I made taquitos and black beans for dinner. All in all a good day.

Beautiful weather

Well, the last couple days have been totally different than the first part of summer. High of 72 last couple of days. Over one hundred most of July. Hottest month on record. Ugh. It was miserable, but now it feels strange. We have been outside almost every night this summer, too hot during the day.  Freddy, Abby and Josiah are at Youth night tonight. They are going to Worlds of Fun!! They got passes and have been going every week for the last 6 weeks.  Jeremiah, Katie and I are outside, they are riding bikes, I am on the laptop.

Abby lost her Nook Color last night. Apparently she sat it on the back of the Prius and when I took Freddy to work it must have flown off. We drove around last night and today looking for it, we also walked around looking for it. We have not found it. She is heart broken and cried the entire time we were looking. On a good note, she started being a mothers helper this week for a family in our home school group. They just had baby number 6. Abigail is doing great and the mother said she has gotten so much done the last couple days with Abigail there. She works 4 days a week, 4  hours per day.  I was worried it might be too much, but it's going well so far. She gets up every morning eats and does her school work and she gets picked up at 9:30 and I go to pick her up at 1:30.

Updates

Haven't posted anything for a while, tend to want to keep things private. But, I enjoy reading things that I had completely forgotten. That happens too often, lol. I will update you on our family--a lot has happened recently.  We bought a house in Lenexa about 1 year ago. Freddy got his first real job last week. He now is a proud employee of Chick Fil A. He has mowed yards for about 3 years and is actually still mowing for a friend from our homeschool group.

Abigail is now taller than me. I think all of these kids will end up taller than me!! She babysits for several families in our homeschool group and recently bought a Nook Color with her saved earnings. Normally she buys clothes and high heels, so this was a change. She is SO GOOD at saving her money.

Josiah is one of the most popular boys in our homeschool group, he has TONS of friends and is always leading the boys on some adventure. He has become very social and plays with all the neighborhood kids. In fact, we had bible study at our house Friday night and he had invited some kids from the neighborhood to come and 3 of them did!!
Jeremiah still doesn't read very much and has NO interest. Have learned this is not uncommon, which makes me feel a bit better. He is fabulous in math likes to fix things. My chain came off my bike and I was going to ask Fred to fix it, but when I was out getting groceries Miah fixed it. He was so proud, and I was amazed!!

Kaitlynn is her normal sassy self. Here is a child that is wanting to read and learning quickly.  She loves listening to her books on CD at night. Ramona is her favorite right now.

New name

The blog got a new name and hopefully will see a little more action.

It is so hot here right now. I feel trapped and almost claustrophobic. I NEED to go outside. My kids NEED to go outside. I hate being inside so much.  But, it is in the 100's here. I can handle one or two days of this at a time, but this has been going on for WEEKS. It is terrible, when we bought this house a year ago it was half dirt and half grass in the backyard. We planted grass in the spring, and this heat is not good for the yard. Did I mention we haven't had any rain either? A few sprinkles here and there. Not enough to do any good, so we have been watering the grass a TON. Today I hit bottom with being inside and emailed my husband my complaints. I knew there was nothing he could do, but it made me feel better and when he came home he gave me a big hug and I felt so much better. I think it was just the end of a really rough/busy week for us. Our small church did the funeral luncheon for our Pastor's mother. Brother Nix's parents are missionaries to Peru and flew in to visit for a few days before taking a trip to Israel in May. They never got to go on that trip because his mother got so sick before they left and was hospitalized. She passed away this past Sunday night and the funeral was Thursday. Such a sad time for everyone.  She was such a sweet woman, and I know her husband will be lost without her.

School pictures

I found a neat place out by Lake Olathe to take pictures of the kids. I sill have more to take, I want to get the perfect one of each child for their school pictures. Here are a few!

Catch up!

It's been a while, I apologize for that. I have been busy, as usual :) but when I come to post I don't know what to write about, my days have been the same lately. I wish I had some news as to when we we're moving, but I don't. Soon, I hope. Fred and the kids have been playing a lot of football. Around here each season brings a different sport. Fred has the whole neighborhood out there today. I am inside right now doing laundry, cleaning out my e mail accounts and cooking dinner, also blogging ;) We ran errands earlier and got groceries, so it has been a productive day. Today is my day off, so I have a lot to get done today. We are in the middle of inventory at work, so thank God I am not there. Katie is potty trained now, don't know if I mentioned that yet. When she was 17 months old she started going potty on the potty, but then lost interest and started going in her diaper again. She has been totally uninterested since until the last couple weeks and she is doing sooooo good. I love it! No more diapers soon.

Kids have been doing great in school. All A's so far. Miah really wants to read, so hopefully soon he'll make a breakthrough with that. He just turned five about 1 month ago. All the kids in our church are now in public school since the church closed it's Academy. I really don't like it since the girls Abigails age are telling her she should ask to go to public school. We had not even had talk of public school from her in several years. She used to want to go, but once we joined the homeschool group and she had lots of social stuff going she had no interest. We talked about it, she assured me she doesn't want to go. We wouldn't let her anyway, but I'm glad to know she's happy with the way things are.

End of summer...

Is it really? already? Where has the time gone? I thought by this point I would be moved back home. Soon, I hope. We haven't done as much this summer as previous summers. What we have done is spend a lot of time in our yard, at home. Lots of baseball, water fights, afternoons on the slip and slide, climbing trees, riding bikes, reading, and going to the library. Lots of family time.

I am amazed, the kids here are going back to school August 13. Isn't that crazy? We never start back to school until after Labor Day. It seems so strange to see the kids go off to school when it's still so warm out. I am so thankful to homeschool. We had gotten a little behind on our schoolwork this past school year so we worked through most of the summer. Not a lot, but a little each day to get it done.Miah learned to ride his bike with no training wheels last week. He just got on Bubs bike and took right off. We got Abigail a new bike a few weeks ago, and the boys passed bikes down. Freddy took his Dad's, Bub took Freddys and Miah took Bubs. Worked out really well. They are all really nice bikes. Abigail had gotten her old one for her 5th birthday and just finally got a new one at 11. It was worn out and too small :) Anyway the have been riding like crazy.

Now and Then --Miah

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Sweet and loving. He loves to swing and pretend to be spiderman. He will be 5 this summer, and will start school in the fall.

Now and Then --Katie

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The spoiled baby of the family. Just over 2 years old. Every day makes me laugh and smile.

Where we have been.

This is where we have been lately. We have had so much nice weather, so we go to the park as often as we can! These pictures are not quite a month old, and now the trees and grass are all green.

Kansas

When we left South Dakota we moved to Kansas. The prairie is beautiful. Kansas is beautiful. I wish I saw more of the prairie and less traffic, buildings, people, and houses. I was not meant to live in a highly populated area. Now the people in my "small" town would probably disagree with me saying highly populated, but to a woman that spent almost her entire adult life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, this is too much. I long to walk outside and see no one. To have my children play outside without 20 kids in my backyard......I sometimes just want peace and quiet and privacy. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so.
The one thing I LOVE about Kansas is the thunderstorms. Lots of them and they are magnificent here. I can't imagine what those poor people in he covered wagons thought when they came to settle this land. Now, we love thunderstorms in this family. A few of my children are a bit concerned that we'll be in a tornado when it storms, but they aren't in a panic or anything, yet. There have been a few stormy nights that everyone has slept on mom and dads floor. :)
The weirdest thing is that we don't have a basement, I mean how can you live in tornado alley and not have a basement??!!