Eagle Star Academy -2009/2010

All Dogs Go To.........The Willis House?.....And a Mini Jacey Photo Shoot

2010-03-31T10:48:00.002-04:00

Aaron went on a vacation to Florida with Heather's family a couple weeks ago. While they were away, we "babysat" 4 of their dogs!! It was fun but man, it got loud sometimes! Momo was eating an ice cream cone shortly after the dogs arrived..........I think they wanted her to share!

Kristen spending some quality time with Freckles!

We also had my brothers over installing our new living room floor that weekend. Jacey was enjoying herself too!

YUMMY!!

Kristen, Ian and the little cousins, Lil'Rob and Jacey

ME ME ME!!

I was trying to get a good picture of Jacey to use for her first birthday invitations......

She was more interested in the DS than getting pictures taken.

Oh! A shoe? Let's see if I can get this thing off my foot!

And there is a smile....

Almost there!

And the winning picture!

Enjoying Early Spring

2010-03-31T01:10:00.000-04:00

I bought Jacey a new seat since she like feeding herself and I no longer had a high chair. She loves it!

Randy tried Ian's new kite he got for his birthday one windy morning!

Just enjoying a morning out in the back yard.

Some school work outside!

A toothy grin!

Milo just being cute.

My Jacey getting sleepy!

Maggin and Milo kisses!

Ian tried riding Jacey on his 4 wheeler and she LOVES it!!

Pretty Kristen and her Milo

Stunt boy

My Momo Monkey is really growing up lately......

She is gettting so big.

Pretty girls

Just me

Look who's almost walking!

Having fun!

Jacey and I

Jacey playing with Papa ( Randy)....more like trying to steal his hat!

He's just about got the hang of his new bike!

Happy 5th Birthday Ian!!

2010-03-31T00:05:00.000-04:00

On March 14th, my last baby turned 5 years old! It is so much fun watching him learn and discover the world. He is such a neat kid and I am blessed to be his mama. I am so thankful to God for blessing us with him at the perfect time. We got up and headed to church that morning. We had told Ian, we had a big surprise for him. The surprise was a big inflatable slide and bounce house for his party! It was delivered and set up while we were at church. He was so excited when he saw it and spent the better part of the day playing. We ALL had tons of fun celebrating my little buddy! He had lots of friends and family come to his party and we all enjoyed a Spongebob cake ( I made it with some help from Heather) and ice cream.

I even played on the slide!!

Momo!

Ian and Milo

There's Randy, way up in the corner!

Aaron wrestling with one of the younger boys.

Aaron is always so good about playing with the little kids. He was getting them organized to play a game.

Kristen made sure she took all the really little ones for a ride down the slide. Here she is with Jordyn.(my cousin's baby)

Heather and Jordyn

Kristen and Jordyn

Kristen took Jacey one time but Jacey wasn't exactly thrilled about it.

My neighbor, Lisa, going down with the girls!

Kristen and Lil'Rob

Johnny waiting to try it out.....just to give an idea, Johnny is about 6 feet 5 inches tall standing down there beside the slide!

Kristen and John John

Michelle and Lil'Rob

Cake time

Laughing at everyone singing Happy Birthday

BLOW!

Some of the gifts!!

Happy boy!

REALLY happy boy!!

Trying out his new bike with some help from Trey!

There he goes!!

Sissy helped Ian put together one of his new building sets to end the day.

New monster truck pjs!!

I would have to say, Ian had a wonderful 5th birthday!! He is such a big boy now!

Monster Trucks!!

2010-03-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

As I wrote about earlier, we took the kids to see the Monster Truck show as an early birthday surprise for Ian. I'll let the pictures tell the story!
Before the show, we were able to ride on one of the "modified" monster trucks.

Kristen and Ian ready to ride!

Momo, Randy and I.

Very excited boy!

Waiting for the show to start.

The trucks all lined up for introductions.

And here we go!

OH NO! A flat tire ends this drivers day a little quicker than planned!

It was a fun Sunday afternoon!

And here is just a bonus picture of one of Momo's handwriting pages. She is really improving doing cursive writing.

Fossil Experiment.

2010-03-30T22:34:00.000-04:00

I mentioned a couple posts back that Momo had done a fun experiment in science. She was to make a fossil using different types of soil to see which one made the best fossil. Aaron and Ian helped her with this one.

Here is Momo out collecting her soil samples.

Samples of clay, sand and rich dark soil.

Ian was supervising.

Preparing to mix the plaster.

Cheese!

Look closely, Maggie and Milo wanted in on the fun!

Using a shell to make impressions in the dirt samples.

Pouring the plaster into the "molds"

All done and now it was time to let the plaster harden.

Unfortunately, I haven't taken pictures of the final results. I will try to do that soon, but I won't promise. They came out great though!

I'm Back.....At Least For Today

2010-03-30T22:20:00.000-04:00

I am going to try to do a quick update. I just honestly haven't been in a blogging mood lately. Actually, I haven't really been taking many pictures either. Let's see, where did I leave off last time? I did go on the youth leaders' trip I mentioned in my last post. It was great and I am so glad I was able to attend. Aaron did pass his driving test and is now a legal Georgia driver!! We had Randy's old truck repaired and it is in the shop right now being painted for Aaron. He is really excited about that and is enjoying the little bit more freedom driving is giving him. I, on the other hand, am not enjoying it as much. I am excited for him but man oh man, why do kids insist on growing up so quickly. Speaking of growing up, we also celebrated Ian's 5th and Kristen's 13th birthdays! We now officially have another teenager in the house. That's ok though, I really do love my teens and enjoy being with them. As part of Ian's birthday, the Sunday before, we took the kids to see the Monster Truck show in town. That was a lot of fun and was perfect timing since we also took Aaron to see monster trucks for his 5th birthday. We have been having some great weather and everyone is loving being outside. Spring is here! We are getting ready to plant the garden in the next week or so and are planning to make it bigger this year. I can't wait! Jacey is here almost every day during the week. I just love having her, she is such a sweetie. She is also getting ready for her first birthday. Aaron has an interview for a job as a lifeguard next week and it sounds pretty promising that he will get the job. He is looking forward to that. Kristen took a big step in her life this week. She went to West Virginia with our church youth group on a mission trip. This is huge for her as she normally doesn't stay anywhere away from home alone. So far she seems to be having a great time and I am sure she will have tons of stories to tell when she gets home. I think this pretty much sums up the past month around here. I am going to share a few ( or a lot) of pics from the past month. ( I will make more than one post)
Here is one of Momo and I about a month or so ago. This was after I had gotten a much needed haircut!

Jacey loves Aaron or Bubba as she calls him. He was playing and singing a song for her one morning.

Ian watching a 3D movie one night.

I guess Ian was too tired to go another step to the couch and he fell asleep on the coffee table!

We also celebrated Grandpa's 93rd birthday in Feb. We had a great lunch and afternoon of playing and visiting with the extended family and Grandpa was so very happy.

Grandpa at the table with some of the grandkids and great grandkids.

Grandpa and some of his grandkids.

Grandpa with his 3 sons and almost all of the grandkids and great grandkids. We were missing 9 people to make it complete

Of course it wouldn't be a normal family gathering without some music!

Cousins

Ian and Ryan playing basketball.

Ian and Anna....they are about 6 months apart.

Aaron chasing Gabby.

Girl cousins! Gabby is a month older than Momo.

Stike a pose!

I am going to close this post for now but stay tuned for more pictures!

Still Plugging Along

2010-02-27T01:13:00.000-05:00

Well, another couple weeks has come and gone. We have been plugging along with school lessons and have been doing well and accomplishing a lot. I haven't really taken many school related pictures the past couple weeks since it has been a lot of book work mainly. I still need to share the story Morgan wrote a couple weeks ago and she also did a really fun science experiment this week I need to post about. Life has been pretty normal around here. I have been babysitting Jacey most days during the week and we have been doing all the usual activities. We have had some nice weather and have enjoyed the little tast of spring, although the cooler days are still around too. I think I am ready for spring now though. I am ready to plant our garden again and start enjoying all that comes with that. I really enjoyed doing that last year and can't wait to do it this year. I am going on a trip with some of the other youth workers Sunday - Tues. I am excited about going and I am looking forward to it being a time of renewal. It is also time to start planning for Ian's and Kristen's birthday coming up in March. The year is passing so quickly! Aaron is going next week to take his driving test and he is also beginning to look for a part time job. I am going to close this post but will try to get some pictures up tomorrow sometime.

Snowy Saturday Morning!

2010-02-14T00:22:00.000-05:00

After all the fun in the snow Friday night we knew it wouldn't stick around long so we were up bright and early to enjoy it while we could. It was really neat to wake up to all the fresh, white snow outside. Ian was excited that is was still there so he and I went for a walk to look around the neighborhood. This was looking out our back door.

The front....

Ian was happy to see we had made a snowman while he was sleeping.

He was making a snowball! Guess who he threw it at?

I love snow covered trees.

A big snowball!! He threw this one into the water in the ditch.

So pretty!

Melting fast!

Ian said he loved how the snow said "crunch, crunch, crunch" when we walked on it.

When we got back to the house, Randy was ready to come out so we took Milo and Maggie to play in the yard for a minute. They had more fun in it this morning. While it was snowing Friday night, they were not happy about going outside at all!!

After we played with the doggies for a bit, Randy and I went for a walk. When we came back home, we added some finishing touches to the snowman.

Ian was inside watching us from the window while we were working on the snowman. When we were done I ran in a grabbed him so we could take this picture. It really was cold but he was only outside long enough to snap a picture and I ran him back in!

By around noon or so, the snow had pretty much melted all away. It was fun while it lasted though and it made some really happy kiddos!!

Friday Night!

2010-02-13T23:36:00.000-05:00

Well, we had an exciting night in southern Georgia!! We were blessed with a snowy night! I posted these pictures on facebook already but I still wanted to add a few here as well. We were excited all day with the thought that we had a chance for snow. It was cold and rainy all day and then finally around 7pm it began to sleet. No long after that we had a gorgeous snowfall!!

This is our first time out as it was just starting.

Kristen's friend, Olivia, spent the night with us and Heather was over too. Momo spent the night next door with Sara.

He was excited to begin with.

Ian trying to get Heather with a snowball!

I think Kristen and Olivia were trying to feed Heather a snowball!

Catching snowflakes!

Silly girls!

Kristen jumping in the snow.

A big chunk of snow!

The one and only picture I got of Momo in the snow.

Ian was freezing by this point and wanted to go inside. This is walking back to the house across our back yard.

I went inside with Ian so he could warm up. I was going to make some hot chocolate but the power went out. Ian fell asleep in the chair with me by the fire while everyone else stayed out playing.

Looking out the front door, just before the power went out.

Randy, Aaron and Heather came in for a bit and we sat by the fire and listened to Randy play guitar and sing. After Heather went home, and Kristen and Olivia came back from next door, we decided to go back out for a few more minutes.

Snow Ball Fight!!

The front yard all snowy and pretty!

Aaron, Kristen and Olivia working on a snowman.

Of course they also made snow angels!

By then it was about midnight and we had had enough fun for the night. It was time to snuggle up and get warm.

Our Week

2010-02-13T22:42:00.000-05:00

We had a productive week again. Monday was not the best day even though I had spent Sunday getting everything ready. I had hopes of getting all our lessons done Monday morning but that just didn't happen for various reasons. It actually ended up being a very long school day. Morgan was in a mood and didn't want to work. She insisted on arguing with me about everything, including 14 - 7 = 8. She eventually got over the mood and finished. After that, I was working with Aaron on geometry and it was really tough and we were both getting really frustrated. Needless to say, it was not a picture perfect day. That evening, or rather night, around midnight, Momo and I were laying in bed and she decided she would do some of her lessons for Tuesday then. Well, I sure wasn't going to stop her so at midnight she managed to work through her math, spelling and history lessons in about 30 minutes! It is funny to me how she likes to drag it out during the day but then when she decides to work at midnight, she can get it done in no time flat. I came to the conclusion that Momo is like the geometry proofs we were working on, no rhyme, reason or logic!! She worked really well the rest of the week and continued doing some of her lessons at night all week too. It's working so I am not complaining!
We had all of our normal weekly activities. Kristen's small group, Momo's TKD class, church and I babysat Jacey. We also spent some time playing outside and enjoying the weather. I didn't have my small group Thursday night so we just hung out and watched a movie.

Momo and Kristen working at the table.

Momo finished up the lapbook on North America she has been working on. Here she was gluing all the activities into the folder.

Momo also wrote her first real story this week. She was working on her plot pyramid here as part of her story planning.

Ian used some foam beads to do some sorting and patterning.

Kristen has been enjoying reading a lot lately. She had her nose in this book every chance she could get all week.

She is also working on a basic sewing unit in her home ec. She was learing how to sew on different types of buttons.

Jacey just takes it all in and adds more sweetness to our days!

Aaron's work is just not as much fun most days but here he is working on some history one day.

Momo working on a science lesson.

Ian played some file folder games. This one is matching letters.

This one is a patterning game.

Ian and Momo also had lots of fun playing with magnets in the colored rice we made a couple weeks ago. They are really enjoying this rice!

Momo enjoyed measuring with the rice too. She counted how many 1/4 cups it took to fill a 1 cup measuring cup and also how many TBS it took to fill the cups.

Jacey even had a chance to get her hands in the rice.

Momo typed her story on the computer as her final copy. I will share her story on here soon. She was very excited about writing it.

Thursday we had fun having Lil'Rob come over to play. He spend the whole afternoon with us and he and Ian had a blast!

That sums up our week of school. Stay tuned for the excitement we had Friday night and Saturday morning!

Maggie and Milo!

2010-02-13T22:05:00.000-05:00

Maggie and Milo are getting along great! I think Maggie is actually happy to have a playmate! This is how they spend the majority of their days.

Tug -o war!

After all that playing Milo crashes for a bit.

While we are doing school work, both of them are close by watching what we are doing or just napping until we are finished.

MILO!!

2010-02-02T19:42:00.000-05:00

We have a new member of the family! This one is another 4 legged baby! Kristen asked for a puppy for her birthday in March. We started looking and found some puppies that where available now so she got her birthday present a little bit early! We went and picked Milo up this morning. He is an 8 week old Mini Schnauzer, just like Maggie. He is so sweet and we all love him already! Even Maggie has taken very well to him. She is staying close to wherever Milo is and checks on him everytime he makes a noise. I think they will become great friends very quickly.
Milo found a comfy spot on Papa's leg.

Puppy kisses.

They love each other already!

A little while later, Kristen was snuggling with Milo and Maggie jumped right up there with them and laid down.

I just had to share this picture. Look close, I managed to catch Maggie with her tongue sticking out!

Maggie was standing guard while Milo napped.

How sweet are they!?

My Sweet Jacey!

2010-02-02T19:24:00.000-05:00

I am babysitting Jacey full time now and she is just so much fun. I love getting all that sweet Jacey lovin'! I just can't help but to take pictures of her. Isn't she the sweetest?

Happy girl!

DROOL! She is cutting her top two teeth!

Getting so big!

Randy and I had to go do some shopping one afternoon. Jacey went with us and insisted she needed this froggie! Of course, we were more than happy to buy it for her! She loves our frogs in the tanks!

And just because Jacey loves the froggies so much, here is a picture of Penelope too!

Momo's Birthday Party!

2010-02-02T19:10:00.000-05:00

We went to church Sunday morning. Momo doesn't usually want me to do anything with her hair but she decided she wanted to show her curls for church. Her hair in the back has a lot of curl underneath. She let me put some gel in it for her and this is how it looked.

After church it was time to get ready for Morgan's birthday party. We decided to have her party at Makin' Memories. I am so glad we did because it turned out really nice. All the kids had fun and can't wait to see the finished results of their painted pieces. Heather's mama, Kerri, made Morgan's cake. She asked to have a snowflake them for her party and the cake was perfect!

Not only was it pretty, it was very YUMMY too! When everyone arrived they were allowed to choose a piece to paint. This took a little while since there was so much to choose from.

Ian asking what he should paint.

Sarah Beth checking it all out.

Johnny and Jacey came too. Erin had to work.

After the picked a piece to paint, it was time to choose colors.

Aaron and Heather brought their lunch with them.

Ian picked a basketball and he was very serious about his work.

We tried talking to him but he quickly told us he was an artist and we shouldn't distract him.

Some of the guests getting their paint trays filled.

Momo getting ready to paint her heart plate.

Jacey waiting for her paint tray.

Let the painting begin!

Jacey and Papa Randy

Momo and Sarah Beth

Kelly

Ian's basketball didn't look quite like a basketball but he had fun anway. He is such a ham!

Momo's finished plate. It is so much fun to see how they look before they go into the kiln and then how they look after.

Time for cake!

The big kids painting.

Sara's finished piece.

Avery's finished purse bank.

Lighting the candles!

Cake and ice cream for Jacey!

Next was time for gifts!

Thank you to everyone who came to help us celebrate and special thanks to Miss Kerri for making the cake and Miss Stacey and all her helpers for opening her store for us. We had so much fun. I will be sure to post the pictures of the finished pieces when we get them all back.

Happy 8th Birthday Momo!!

2010-02-02T17:31:00.000-05:00

We are full swing into our birthday celebrations now. Momo requested the same wake up call as we gave Aaron for his birthday so that is exactly what she got! This is before we woke her up.

SILLY STRING!

Once she was awake Randy, Aaron and Ian gave her some flowers and she came out to the living room to find her 8 balloons.

Then she opened the gifts we gave her.

A really neat baby doll she has been wanting.

....a Battleship game from Aaron.

....an outfit

...another outfit

...some movies

...a little trinket box

What is this?

Momo was very happy with her WII!!

a game for the WII

It didn't take long to get the WII hooked up and ready to go.

The kids spend the rest of the day playing.

Papa even played.

Randy had to go play that night but we all stayed home and made some homemade pizza for supper. Heather came over and brought Momo an ice cream cake and a little frog cake too!

We were singing Happy Birthday to her.

Making a wish....

...and blowing out her candle.

As one of her gifts, Heather gave Momo a pedicure!

It tickles!!

And there was more WII playing for the rest of the night.

I think my Momo Monkey had a great birthday. She said it was one of the best ones ever! Momo is so special to all of us. She has such a unique way that just makes everyone love her. She is the most independent and strong girl I have ever met but that is one of the things that I love about her. She does her own thing and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Under that hard outer shell, she is so soft and tender and is always ready to share or give to others. She is the first to give something of her own to another person. As an example of this, just last night as Momo was telling me how much money she had been given for her birthday. I asked her what she wanted to buy with it and she said " I think I am going to save it so I can buy Ian something for his birthday. I think he would like some kind of car or truck or something." Momo, you are such a special part of our family and you have really grown up over the past year. You are beautiful and we all love you so very much.

Fun In The Wind!

2010-01-24T23:19:00.000-05:00

Heather's parents came over to eat a low country boil with us today. It was really windy outside and the kids were wanting to make a parachute out of a large piece of plastic we have. Well, Heather's daddy told us he had a big parachute and said he would go home and get it. ( They only live a couple miles from us.) Everyone had fun playing with it when he got back here. Momo's friend, Sara was over to play too. I'll just let the pictures tell the story!

It actually lifted Ian off the ground a few times!

After the fun, Ian got a little upset. I just couldn't resist a couple pictures of my pouting cutie!

We had another great Sunday afternoon!! Tomorrow will be back to lessons in the morning and getting Aaron ready to go out of town with his CLA group for the night. Jacey will also be here Monday and Tuesday. We will also be getting ready to celebrate Momo's birthday!! Check back soon for more updates! I am really trying to stay caught up here with my posting!

Blanket Buddies!

2010-01-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

Johnny and Jacey came over Saturday so Johnny could start painting Aaron's room. Aaron asked him to paint it as his birthday gift. It is looking great but I will wait and post the before and after pictures when it is all done. I did snap a couple cute pictures of Ian and Jacey though. As I mentioned before, Jacey has taken to holding a blanket and sucking on her fingers. Ian shared his blanket with her while we were watching Johnny paint. How sweet is this?

Just another cute one of Ian and Maggie.

Johnny worked all day Saturday and for a few hours today. It is looking really good!!

Friday Night Fun

2010-01-24T22:56:00.000-05:00

It was just Kristen, Ian and I here for most of Friday night. Randy was playing, Aaron was over at Heather's and Momo was spending the night with Sara. Since I had all the ingredients to make some colored rice to use with Ian for school, we made that. We had fun mixing it up but Ian wasn't happy that he had to wait for it to dry before he could play with it.
Here are Kristen and Ian getting ready to start.

Pouring the rice into bags.

Adding the coloring.

Time to SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE it up!!

Ready to put it into the oven to dry!

I will be sure to post pictures when we use it for some school activites. After we finished the rice, they wanted something else to do so they made some oobleck to play with. Oobleck is always a big hit!

We got it all cleaned up and then just hung out and watched a movie. Aaron got home and he and Kristen thought it would be great fun to drag me out of my bed at 1AM to play Phase 10 with them! It was fun so I wasn't too upset about it. I think we went to bed around 2AM or so.

Just a Few....

2010-01-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

After our fun day on Tuesday, we did get some school work in the rest of the week. I didn't take many pictures but here are a few. Ian was having some snuggle time with Maggie one night and they just looked so sweet together. Every night, Ian tells either Randy or I that " Maggie's been a good girl today" and " Maggie is a sweet girl".

Kristen worked on her Explorers lapbook. I will post more pictures of this when she has finished it.

Jacey has discovered she loves a blanket. Ian thinks it is great that she has a blanket like he does and she sucks her two middle fingers like he sucks his thumb. I had to get a picture of them together with their blankies.

Lunch time for Jacey!

While I had my high school girls' small group Thursday night, Kristen and Momo went next door to hang out. When they came home Momo was all sparkly!! Apparently, she and Sara had been having fun with the hair glitter and makeup!

Wow! I think this might the post with the least amount of pictures for a week! Not really, I have a few more pictures but I need to get them off the camera still so those will have to wait until later.

January Beach Day!

2010-01-23T18:06:00.000-05:00

We decided to take advantage of a beautiful day Tuesday. The weather was so nice so we drove to Tybee to go for a walk. It was still a little cool but that didn't stop us from having a good time. It was nice to have the beach almost to ourselves.

Ian waiting in the parking lot before going down to the beach.

Momo waiting in the parking lot.

So pretty and not a soul in sight! There were a few other people but it was almost like having the beach to ourselves.

Momo taking a break on the beach swing.

Rolling up our pant legs! Aaron had to roll Heather's for her since she was holding Jacey.

What is this stuff under my toes?

Run Momo!

Getting some water in his bucket...the water was ice cold!

My little beach bums!

Miss Priss!

Little piggies in the sand.

Surfer Dude!

Momo was showing me a tiny shell she found. It is on the tip of her thumb.

Aaron challenged Ian to a race down the beach. Ian won!! I thought this was a sweet picture of my boys!

I guess this seagull was tired and needed to rest a while.

Looking for shells.

Should I taste this stuff?

Well, that didn't taste great!

Maybe it is more fun to put it in the bucket with Momo.

Ian wrote his name in the sand.

Of course the love birds needed to leave their mark too.

My sweet hubby and I!

JUMP!!

Pose!

Girls!

Momo jumped in this one!

Heather's leap! Practicing for her dance class.

The love birds.

Sweet!

I have a picture of Ian and I that looks almost exactly like this one of Jacey and I. I just love baby sugar!

The sun was really bright!

Heading to the pier.

Under the peir.

Waiting for the rest of us up on the pier.

Alison, this is for you. Guess who I was texting?

Fly Jacey-bird Fly!

Just having some fun!

Loving each other....yes, they really do love each other this much!

All that fresh air made for a sleepy baby!

When we left the beach, we stopped for some yummy crab stew and fried shrimp for lunch. Then we went into Savannah to the mall for a little bit before heading home. It was a great day out!

Rainbow and Memory Match!

2010-01-22T00:41:00.000-05:00

Randy called me to look out the back door this past Sunday afternoon. When I looked I saw the beautiful rainbow in the sky. This one was rather odd because it was so low to the ground. We could actually see the end of it on the neighbor's fence. I called the kids down to see it as well. They wanted to go out and stand in the rainbow. They even mentioned "tasting the rainbow" as the advertisment for skittles candy goes!

You can't really tell in the pictures but the rainbow was in front of the trees.

Ian spent some time playing a few games Sunday afternoon too. Here he is playing his memory match game.

Who's In The Tank? A Ghost Story!

2010-01-22T00:35:00.000-05:00

I was palying with the frogs and trying to take some pictures of them to show my friend. Ian was standing on the opposite end of the tank from me and I snapped this picture through the tank. I thought it was pretty neat! That's Penelope standing there on the rock.

Later that night, Ian had the flashlight out again. This time he was telling Randy and I a ghost story! SPOOKY!!

Shadow Fun!

2010-01-22T00:32:00.000-05:00

Randy was playing with Ian with a flashlight one night last weekend. They were making shadows on the wall. That led to these pictures!

Polly and Pip!

2010-01-22T00:29:00.000-05:00

We have adopted two new frogs. These are also African Clawed Frogs but they are albino ones. There names are Polly and Pip. Since they are still a good bit smaller than our other ones, they are currently living in the (old) small tank with the fish. When they have grown a bit bigger I am planning to move them to the bigger tank. Aren't they cute?
Polly is the bigger one, Pip is smaller.

Can you find Pip hiding in the rocks?

Happy 16th Birthday Aaron!!

2010-01-22T00:08:00.001-05:00

I am still having trouble believe my first baby is 16 years old. Aaron is such a great guy and we are so blessed to have him in our family. He is an amazing son and he makes Randy and I so proud. He is also the best big brother to his younger siblings. He is so good to Kristen, Momo and Ian and it just warms my heart when I see him willingly spend time with them. I am excited to see what God had in store for Aaron's future. We love you so very much Aaron. I will never forget the day you were born. You were so tiny but so perfect. I am so lucky to be your mama.

We all went upstairs to wake Aaron up with a big Happy Birthday wish! This wish also included silly string!!!

We did help him clean it all out of his bed after emptying 3 full cans of silly string. When Aaron came downstairs, we had 16 balloons waiting for him!

He opened some gifts from us.

I gave Aaron a "charger"!!

We spend the rest of the day just hanging out at home. That afternoon, a few of Aaron's friends came over and we took them all out to eat at Masato's Jappanese Steakhouse. Gran Julie also came with us and Johnny, Erin and Jacey met us there.

Momo just being silly after we all ate dinner!

I baked a pound cake for Aaron and also brough sliced strawberries and cool whip. This has been his request for his cake for the last 10 or so years. We gave it to the waitress when we got there and after we ate, they brought it out and sang and played drums!

When we were finished there, our next stop was the bowling alley! Johnny, Erin, Jacey and Gran Julie were not able to come bowling with us but we still had lots of fun.

Ian got very excited after each turn!!!

After we bowled for about an hour, we went to the arcade for a few minutes.

Just Life, School and A Science Experiment.

2010-01-21T23:16:00.000-05:00

I never know what kind of pictures I will find when I upload the pictures from my memory card onto the computer. All of the kids like playing with my camera so it always makes for some interesting pictures! The following pictures are just a few that I came across in this batch.
Here is Kristen drying Maggie after giving her a bath one night. Maggie doesn't really enjoy her bathtime.

I am guessing Ian wasn't happy about something in this picture. Maybe he was just playing....

Ok, he is looking a little happier now!

I am guessing this was a self picture.......I had to share these gorgeous eyelashes though.

I haven't taken as many school pictures lately. I need to get better at doing that again. Here is Ian working on some lacing cards I made for him. He enjoys doing these.

We just love our frogs! They have adapted well to their new home. I don't think I have actually posted pictures of the new tank yet. You can see it here. Kristen was hand feeding them. Yes, the frogs will eat from our fingers. Penelope will even try to swim into our hand, Kristen says she is trying to cuddle when she does this.

Luigi waving hello!

I call this Home Ec!!

We all did school in the living room in front of the fire one cold morning.

Even Maggie likes to be close to the fire!!

Morgan worked on another science experiment. Aaron helped her with this one. She was learning how blubber helps keep seals, sea lions, walrusus and other sea creatures warm while swimming in arctic waters. She place a latex glove on both hands. Next she covered one hand with a thick layer of vaseline to act as blubber, and then placed a second glove on that hand.

The next step was to put both hands into some ice water and see if the "blubber" helped her keep that hand in the ice water longer.

It did help and she had to pull the single glove hand out first. She kept the blubber hand in the water almost twice as long!

Here is a picture of me that Ian took one night.

The Start of 2010

2010-01-20T02:03:00.004-05:00

The year has gotten off to a pretty good start for us. We started back with our school work on Jan. 4th. The kids have all been working really hard since then and we have been able to get a lot finished. We've also been having some fun too! Here is Papa ( Randy) before going to a funeral for one of our friend's mama. I was on the road that day to pick Aaron and Heather up from their trip to VA.

I babysat my Jacey one Sunday. After church we snuggled up for a nice Sunday nap. Kristen thought it would make a good picture. There is nothing sweeter than a baby to snuggle!

Momo had some fun doing a science experiment one day. She was learning about how some whales swim in the arctic waters. For this experiment she filled two glasses of water but one was left plain and one she added some salt into.

Stirring in the salt.

The next step was to place both glasses into the freezer for an hour. She discovered the salt water did not freeze like the plain water did.

While the experiment was going, she worked to finish her whale pocket book.

Kristen was working on her math. This unit was on geometry.

Momo doing some language arts. I think I caught her off guard in this one.

While we were working at the table, we noticed we has a few little visitors at the back door!

I guess this guy was on guard duty. He was perched up on the grill!

Momo finished the chapter on whales in her science and placed all the notebook activities onto her pages. She loves doing this at the end of each chapter.

Here she is working on the whale pocket book trying to finish it up.

This is the completed book!

Pocket 1

Pocket 2

Pocket 3 - This one has a model of a baleen.

A close up view of pocket 2.

A couple of the pages in the "As Big as A Whale" booklet.

Pocket 4 - This one had an activity using homophones and a ( Haiku) poem activity.

Momo's poem.

Penelope and Luigi just "hanging around" in their new tank!

Here is Maggie, doing one of her favorite things.....snuggling up on the couch with her blanket! She isn't really fond of cold weather.

Blog Awards!!

2010-01-07T22:15:00.003-05:00

I was given two blog awards yesterday by my friend, Alison at Wayzley Academy. I feel so special!

Both require me to nominate 10 blogs.. so I am going to nominate each of the 10 for both awards..

The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers who’s positivity and creativity inspires others in the blogword.

The Lemonade Stand Award is awarded for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude.

The rules for accepting this award:

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

- Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.( the Lemonade Stand one) or ten bloggers who inspire me

- Link the nominees within your post.

- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are the people I am sending the awards to. I don't have a lot of blogs that I read so I am not sure if I can come up with 10 but I will try! ( Some will be the same ones that Alison awarded as well)

1) Chelita at Shady Bayou Academy. Although I have never met her in person, I feel such a special connection with her.

2)Sadie from The Ugly Gray House. I have "known" Sadie for several years now and I just love to read her blog. She is so inspiring with her crafty and witty ways!

3)Rhonda at Alston Academy. She is just such a sweetheart and I just enjoy seeing her days homeschooling her three girls.

4)Emily from Lift Up Your Hearts. I appreciate Emily's honesty and the fact that she is such a tell it like it is type of person. She is just so genuine and doesn't try to pretend to be something she is not.

5) Sherri from Our Place. I love seeing how Sherri isn't afraid to get right in the middle of the fun her her kids.

6)Alison at Wayzley Academy. I am passing these awards right back to ya girl! I appreciate our friendship and also the fact that you don't always try to sugarcoat things and you just say what you feel!

7)Dani from The (not so) Amazing Adventures of Supermom. Dani is such a fun mama and is always putting others above herself. I think she is just amazing.

8)Jenn at Our Many Beautiful Blessings. I haven't known Jenn for a long time but the time that I have I have really enjoyed. She is a great mama and she loves the Lord and isn't afraid to share Him!

9) Tisha from Sowing Good Seeds. Another great mama. One of my fellow southern homeschooling mamas!

10)Jenn from The Suchniak Six. I love going to Jenn's blog to see all of her amazing pictures and the fun times she has with her family.

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Christmas!

2010-01-06T00:01:00.003-05:00

I know, I know! I haven't posted any Christmas pictures yet! I was going to post them all here but after uploading them on facebook I decided I would just post the slide show of my Picasa album here instead. We had a wonderful Christmas here. I think we all really enjoyed the season this year and it was just wonderful to spend the special time of year together. Randy and I took the kids to see some Christmas light displays one night as is our tradition a few days prior to Christmas Eve. My extended family came over to our house Christmas Eve for our annual family Christmas dinner. Gran Julie came over to spend Christmas morning with us and we are so glad she did. The rest of Christmas day, we stayed home and just played and had fun. Aaron left that night to go on a vacation to see some of Heather's family and to a UNC game for the week following Christmas. While they were away, we kept Heather's two mini schnauzers. The Sunday following Christmas we rode over to visit Grandpa and some of the Willis family. We also enjoyed several parties, church activities, ice skating, and more during the Christmas season. It made for a busy month but I wouldn't change a thing! As you can imagine, all the fun means I took LOTS of pictures! For anyone interested in seeing what we were up to in December as we celebrated the birth of Jesus, check out this slide show!

52 Books in 52 Weeks!!

2009-12-30T13:34:00.002-05:00

I really do love reading but I always seem to put it off. I saw this on a friends blog the other day and thought this would be a fun challenge for the new year! You can join too by clicking on the picture. Also, if you have a favorite book, please share with me so I have plenty to read this year!

We are Here!!

2009-12-21T20:56:00.003-05:00

Wow, I have been so slack here! I really don't have an excuse other than I have just been living life and haven't taken the time to get on here to update. I also have so many pictures to share, that I didn't want to take the time it will take to post them all! Anyhow, here is a quick update.
We finished co-op the week of Thanksgiving. We are enjoying the break. There have been lots of activities going on, CLA, Tai Kwon Do, church, youth, children's choir, drama for the adult cantata, outings, friends, school, life in general.....just busy-ness.
Aaron, Kristen and I went to a youth conference in Gatlinburg, TN the week before Thanksgiving. We had a great time with the group that went. Since then it seems the time has just flown by and here it is almost Christmas. I am just totally enjoying the season this year. We have finished our shopping and decorating and I have been working on some baking. The children's choir performed a couple weeks ago and the adult choir performed last weekend. We have visited Santa at the mall and will be going out to look at Christmas lights tomorrow night. I have a few friends coming over in the morning to make some ornaments and have coffee and goodies!
I think that is all. That doesn't look like much of an update but really, we have just been enjoying living life. I am going to make a slide show with some pics and post it soon instead of trying to catch up on two months worth of pictures. I will try to do a better job at keeping up after Christmas has passed and we are back to normal school days.

Aaron and Heather's Photo Shoot

2009-10-31T01:19:00.004-04:00

Heather's mama took Heather and Aaron to a park in Savannah one Sunday after church to do a photo shoot. I really loved the pictures they took! I know there are a lot here but I just can't decide which are my favorites!

Isn't she beautiful?

Heather was all tangles up in Apollo's leash!

My handsome son!

Aren't they cute?

Heather's Sweet 16 and Silly Kristen

2009-10-31T00:50:00.003-04:00

We celebrated with Heather last weekend for her Sweet 16 Birthday! Aaron's band, Against The Current, played for her party.

Momo having a good time at the party and looking cute too!

Silly Kristen picture number 1!

Kristen and Heather at her party.

Blowing out her number 16 candle!

Kristen and Emily.

Heather opening the gift we gave her.

And here are the rest of the silly Kristen pics!! I just had to share these!

Momo's Baptism

2009-10-31T00:37:00.003-04:00

Morgan accepted Christ as her Savior and Lord on Oct. 4th. She was baptised this past Sunday, October 25th. Here she is before the service.

Brother Jeff, just before Momo joined came down.

I am not sure why she was making this silly face. She was so excited and nervous though.

This is at home after church.

I am so excited about Morgan's salvation. It was such and honor and privilege to be able to lead her to Christ. I know God has a special plan for her live and I can't wait to see what it is. My prayer is that I can raise her in a Godly way so that she grows and matures in her faith and always places the Lord as her top priority. I am so thankful to have my Momo Monkey and am blessed to be her mama.

The Couty Fair and Some School Work

2009-10-30T23:55:00.004-04:00

The county fair was in town last week. To kick off the fair, there is a parade through town which ends at the fairgrounds. Aaron's band played on the church float this year. I didn't have my camera so I don't have any pictures of that. It was a lot of fun though! We all rode on the float with them. After we got the trailer cleaned up, we headed back to the fair for a couple hours. It was packed but the kids still had a good time. Aaron and Heather took off on their own so I didn't get to take pictures of them. Kristen didn't want to ride. Momo and Ian both rode as much as they could while we were there! This was the first ride they went on. It was a kid ride but it was a little fast and rather jerky. When it stopped, the first thing Ian said was " That thing made me freak out!" He said it was fun though!

They were happier looking on the other rides!

Kristen did ride this one with Ian.

Momo tried the big slide but it was a little damp from the dew and didn't go very fast. She was a little disappointed with that.

Ian rode this little mini Ferris wheel. It is hard to see but he is in there on the left.

This is the only picture of Aaron and Heather I was able to get. We caught them on the big Ferris wheel! AWWWWWWW!!

Back at home the next day, we were back to work. At least we can do school in our PJ's, snuggled up in a blanket on the recliner!

I made a few new file folder games for Momo so she was trying those. This one was a sentence game where she had to build sentences by taking a carrot out of each basket and then write the sentence. I think she likes this one a lot because I have found her doing it several times!

Morgan also started working on a pocket book all about whales. She has been enjoying reading books she checked out from the library about all kinds of whales too.

There was also our normal weekly activities and lessons that we didn't get pictures of. Life has just been so busy the past few weeks and the days are just flying by.

Kites, Lessons and More Apples!

2009-10-30T23:14:00.004-04:00

I am working once again to get this blog up to date. I don't remember exactly what order everything happened but here we go! We have had some gorgeous weather over the past few weeks. It has even felt more like fall more and more! Randy and the kids pulled the kites out one morning and had some fun flying them for a bit.

The weather was too nice to stay inside so we did some school work outside.

We worked on and finished up our apple unit. The kids enjoyed an "apple snack picnic" one afternoon.

Ian practiced the number 2.

Aaron played with Momo and Ian on the swings.

Here is Momo working on the Johnny Appleseed/Apples lapbook.

Ian helped with it a bit too.

We made a really neat craft.

Here is Momo's finished stained glass apple hanging on the door.

And here is Ian's.

We also made some more apple crisp.

Ian worked on a file folder game I made for him. He had to sort the apples by size.

He really enjoyed doing the apple lacing card.

Momo worked on the lapbook some more.

Just being cute as always!

I also made a file folder game for Morgan for practicing contractions with apples.

Ian played some other file folder games while Morgan worked on her reading lesson.

Time for play dough!

The big kids did their work!

Morgan used the orange dry erase board to practice her spelling words.

Ian was being helpful by cleaning up after play dough!

That finishes up this post. As you can see, we have been busy, having fun and learning at the same time!

Fishing!

2009-10-30T22:49:00.004-04:00

Randy and I took Aaron, Momo and Ian fishing one afternoon. Kristen was at the church working. We went down to a boat landing at the river not too far from the house. We didn't catch anything but it was fun.

Randy and Ian

I think Aaron was putting a worm on his hook but I'm not sure!

I snapped a few cute pics of Momo while we were down there.

She looks deep in thought in this one.

Casting! She almost made it across the whole river!

He was having fun even with no fish!

I even fished a bit.....Alison, I think I was actually texting you when Randy took the picture! Notice my cell in my hand!

Brothers.....

Just a fun, spur of the moment outing.