Ellie Swings!

Ellie got to swing for the first time and she LOVED it. She laughs and has a wonderful time. I had to get pictures of course. :) It is really hard ot get a decent pic of a swinging kid by the way.

It kind of makes me a little sad to think that not to long ago this was Kaden's swing. Why do they grow so fast??!!

 

 

 

A Picture Post...

I mentioned before that I had not gotten my camera cord out. Well I found it! So here are some of the pictures I have not been able to post yet.

I had to take this picture of Ellie. She is wearing one of Meghan's dresses from when she was that age.

Kaden playing with some of those learning toys... massive buttons!

On our trip out we stopped at The Big Texan. We've travelled back forth a lot and never stopped here so Nate thought it would be fun. It was! We got to watch a couple guys try to eat the 72 oz steak and all the fixins'. They didn't make it. haha

 

yes I am in a picture,shh... Nate took these. lol

Kaden's nice ice cream face.

 

Meghan and I had a field trip slash mommy daughter evening on day. We went to see a Cinderella ballet. It was really cute and Meghan had a great time. She says she really wants to take ballet now.

We had dinner at Olive Garden to end our date.

Ellie helping me unpack.

6 Degrees of Blogging: March 27

Welcome to the 2nd week of 6 degrees of blogging. I am having a lot of fun with it!

Don't forget, here are the rules:


*Start on your blog and clink on another blog's link. Keep clicking through to another blog until you get to the 6th blog.

*Leave a comment on their blog saying "Hey, I found you through 6 degrees of blogging! You are being featured on my blog today! (Leave your blog URL so they can find you and the featured post.)

*Write a quick blurb on your blog with the 6 degrees button, a link/button to your featured blogger and a few nice words about them and their blog. Encourage your readers to visit your featured blogger and leave them some comment love!

*Link your blog up on the MckLinky blog hop (feel free to grab the blog hop code if you want) so we can visit your blog and see who you found!

 
My featured blog for this week...
 
Joy The Baker
 
This blog is all about baking, one of my favorite things ever!! It must be one of Joy's favorite things as well. ;) She has so many yummy looking recipes and there are some fun personal tidbits thrown in too. She has a fun writing style that makes me want to go through and read everything she has written, if I only had time. I will keep working on it and you should too! Check her out and let her know where you found her!
 
 

Homeschool Blog Hop #7

By Request Theme For The Week: State Requirements

For the state of Arizona things are pretty easy to comply with. We are blessed because I know a lot of states require more. Here is what the HSLDA has listed for our state.

The parent must file an affidavit of intent to homeschool with the county school superintendant within 30 days after homeschooling begins. We do not have to file another affidavit unless homeschooling is stopped.
There are no teacher qualifications (as in a certain level of schooling for the parent/teacher) and we are not required to use the standardized testing. We do not have a required amount of days to homeschool but we are required to teach the subjects reading, grammer, math, social studies and science.

If you are interested in seeing what is required by your state just click here and then click on your state. :)
 
 
STOP: Please DO NOT add your link below unless you have a post published about the blog hop and the current theme, and the McLinky code showing in that post. Please ensure you have linked directly to your blog hop post and that the title includes the words 'blog hop' somewhere. All links added are checked via McLinky and those without these details are removed immediately. We are all enjoying this immensely, please play fairly as the majority of blog hoppers do! Thanks for participating, have fun!

First Day of Spring.... 12 Years Later

We have been back a week now. It has been warm and sunny everyday except for a few clouds and sprinkles one morning. This weekend marks the first day of spring and it has been very spring-like! I know many parts of the country got a fresh batch of cold and snow. I'm sorry! If you want a place to go that has none of that...

Anyway, 12 years ago on the first day of spring Nathan and I were married. Of course the first day of spring switches back and forth between the 20th and 21st. We were married on the 21st.

We took the kids and went out to eat at one of my favorite places Sunday after church. I love to get a half baked potato and salad and they have Pazookie's for dessert!! (it is a large hot under-baked cookie with icecream on top, yum! and we all shared it).
I told Nate that I didn't feel old enough to have been married 12 years! He replied that I didn't look it either. (everybody...awwwwww) I don't know that I believe him but at least he knows the right thing to say. His training is coming along nicely. hehe ;) No I do believe him, but it really doesn't feel like we have been married that long at all. I am proud of each and every one of those years though. We are very happy and in love and I think it is a great!

No pictures today as I still need to find and unpack the cord for my camera.

Six Degrees of Blogging: March 20

WELCOME to the debut of Six Degrees of Blogging! This is going to be fun! If you are not sure what is going on check out Julia's post at work, wife, mom... life.

Don't forget, here are the rules:

*Start on your blog and clink on another blog's link. Keep clicking through to another blog until you get to the 6th blog.
*Leave a comment on their blog saying "Hey, I found you through 6 degrees of blogging! You are being featured on my blog today! (Leave your blog URL so they can find you and the featured post.)
*Write a quick blurb on your blog with the 6 degrees button, a link/button to your featured blogger and a few nice words about them and their blog. Encourage your readers to visit your featured blogger and leave them some comment love!
*Link your blog up on the MckLinky blog hop (feel free to grab the blog hop code if you want) so we can visit your blog and see who you found!


My Featured Blogger for Today!

Freckles and Lace
So far this is a grand idea! I love Hollie's blog and I don't know if I would have found her otherwise. We have a lot in common. She is Christian and shares her love of God on her site and she is also planning to homeschool her two children. She has snippets about her kids, recipes and lots of fun posts. Check it out! I am glad I did!

Homeschool Blog Hop

Theme For The Week: 10 Random Questions

Time for a bit of fun this week. Just copy the 10 questions below and enter your answers after each one of them for this week's blog hop.

1. What time is it right now?
3:46 pm

2. What are you wearing?
jeans and a brown tank top

3. What is your mood?
reflective

4. What is one thing your children learned today?
Spilled iced tea will make you cold.. haha

5. What did you (or are having) for dinner?
um.. leftover Mexican food

6. What's one book you are currently reading?
Farmer Boy to Meghan. I read online too much to read books for myself. :) I even read the Bible online most of the time. Love magazines though.

7. What behaviour (in people) is the most common but also the rudest?
I can not stand lying. Is it rude though? hmm maybe people just not showing common courtesy.

8. What can you see out of your nearest window right now?
my car parked on the street

9. What are you currently praying for?
My husband to find a job.

10. What is your favourite hot beverage?
The vanilla latte's my husband makes me.

Moving on...

So we are deep into packing. We are planning to leave in 2-3 days. So very busy, but I wanted to post a few pictures from this past week.
  

 

Meghan working on a puzzle.

Kaden and Ellie ripping paper. :)

 

Here is how Ellie felt about her headband...

Meghan talked her into it for a minute.

I ordered some teaching supplies and they came this week. Here are the kids playing with a wooden puzzle and some connectable snowflakes. They had fun with other things too but I don't have pictures of those yet.

 

I am sure my next big picture post will have lots of moving photo's! Think about us as we travel across the country. :)

The Pioneer Woman- On Homeschooling

I wanted to share Ree Drummonds take on homeschooling. Click on over and check it out. Totally how I feel! Enjoy!

The Girls First Party

So we had our little party with my brother Matt and sil Glenda, their two girls and Glenda's mom on Sunday. We had a lot of fun.
First I have to post pictures of the cakes! Meghan wanted a horse cake and I decided to try to sculpt a cake for the first time. I started working on it and thought it was going right in the trash but I kept going. It first resembled a dinosaur to me but as I added more details it started to look like a horse. I am quite happy with it and so glad it turned out for Meghan. She loved it.

Here is Ellie and Matty's cake.

with their smash cakes

And here is Ellie at Incredible Pizza smashing her cake. She actually smashed it. haha There were these teenage girls next to us that were just laughing and saying cute she was. Maybe she was doing more and more because they were making a big deal out of it huh?

 

 

 

Here is Matty with her cake. She didn't get too messy but that little bit she did get on her hands she didn't like. Glenda said she doesn't like to be messy.

 

Nathan playing with her...

The rest...