Koah turns 5…way back on June 5th.

You have a laugh that melts my heart.

You are amazingly strong.

You are sensitive, and sensitive to the feelings of others.

At five you have a way of expressing your feelings in words so clearly.

You love cookies (just like me).

You rock at playing Sleeping Queens.

You are a hard worker and remember to do your chores every morning.

I love the way you tell me that you love me everynight.

You are creative.

You love to read and love to learn. You are self motivated to learn about everything you question.

You still love to dance especially between the hours of 5-6pm. It's the comic relief we all need when tension is tight.

You have this uncanny way of just rolling with the punches, both literally and figuratively. Being number 3 of 4 children, I guess you learn to go with the flow but your personality is just generally easy going. I marvel at this quality as this is something I struggle with on a daily basis.

You are a giver. Watching you open your heart and give so much to others both scares me, because I want to protect you from potentially getting hurt, but it also allows others to see you for the beautiful person you are. It has taught me not to be afraid and to give more of myself.

You rock at being you. Even when everyone else is telling you what to play with and what to like, you stay strong about who you are. I so admire this about you. I pray that as you grow you remain grounded in who you are; not allowing others to sway you to be and do things that push you away from what God has gifted you to do.

What a gift you have been to our crazy family? I pray that your determined, hard working spirit will carry you through hard times, along with knowing you have a God who loves and cares for you more than you can comprehend. I also pray that your tender, gentle, sensitive spirit will not be stripped from you. In the world we live in today this seems particularly difficult for boys.

I pray that you will always know that you are loved unconditionally and forever by me. I am beyond blessed and honored to called your mother.

Happy 5th Birthday!

Love,

-Mama

Freya you’re 3.

June 1st… better late than never.

 

My baby you are three today.

I love your laugh and the way you make each one of us in this family laugh.

You love to draw with markers, especially on yourself.

You are always dancing ballerina style and humming along to your dance.

You love shoes, mine in particular.

You love to create messes but through this I see you come alive with a fire to treasure and discover the beautiful world surrounding you.

My heart melts the way you greet me each morning with all smiles and hugs. You are so beautiful.

You are exceptional at verbally expressing when you are truly angry about something.

I would love to see the world through your eyes where you have no judgment and where you marvel at life's little gifts.

You remind me each day to look, listen, touch, and smell the world around me.

You are persistent and determined.  These qualities have created for some long, intense tantrums.  But these are good characteristics and I pray that the world will never steal this drive from you.  I pray that you follow your dreams allowing failure to strengthen and stretch you, instead of allowing it to rob you from growing.

It is my privilege to be your mother. I am so blessed you were given to me and that I’m the one that gets to watch you grow and mature.  I pray that this bond as mother and daughter would only grow stronger with each passing day. Thank you for reminding me to laugh and that a good piece of chocolate/cookie/cake can solve just about anything.

I am excited to see what I will learn from you with each passing year.  Let the good times roll.

I love you!

-Mama

It’s March… Not Back to School Pictures and Favorites

Yeah this post is from way back in September.  Yes, I’ve been called a procrastinator before.

When you’re a homeschooler you don’t have first day of school pictures to post on your blog or facebook.  So today we did our “Not Back to School” pictures on what would have been my now 3rd grader’s, 2nd grader’s, and Preschooler’s first day of school.

 

I tried and tried to change the font and color in these pictures so they were much easier to read but I had no luck.  So I’m keeping them the way they are and filling in the blanks.  Korben’s (3rd grader) favorite place is Bishop Lane, his favorite activity is building his website, favorite color; silver and the coolest person ever is Steve Jobs.  I think the rest of them are readable.

This idea of first day favorites was not my idea.  I need to give credit where credit is due. I got this idea from the blog www.jennyonthespot.com.  I saw that she wrote that this was also not her idea.  So who ever was the original idea holder for first day favorites, thanks!

Freya and Pumpkins

 

I will now pick up this gigantic pumpkin!

Instead I will now roll this gigantic pumpkin!

Oh forget it, I will just take a seat!

My Baby Freya Turned 2… back on June 1st.

 

My baby turned 2 on June 1st.  It is now October and I’m trying to get back into posting more.  This is her birthday letter that was written months ago.

Freya,

Happy 2nd Birthday! It's been quite a year with you.

We are still waiting for you to sleep through the night. Daddy and I are praying hard that this will happen soon.

You are so determined to let it be known that you are indeed part of this family and that you do also need attention. You have a scream that goes right through the other 5 members of this family. You smile when you have truly annoyed your siblings, especially your biggest brother.  That smile and laugh is unforgettable.

You love to play outside. And when you are crying, letting you outside is the miracle remedy. You also love playing inside the car which is mostly fine until you find my stash of candy and gum.  You have an obsession with shoes, which I can totally understand. You are constantly taking your diaper off to put on Kenzie’s underwear but haven’t quite mastered how to get “it” in the toilet. This has created for some huge messes in this house. You pick out your own clothes and you like to dress yourself. And you don’t like when I try switch up the outfit that you so thoughtfully pulled out.

I've learned a lot from you as a 2 year old. All messes can be cleaned up (Kenzie has taught me this one too). Water never gets old, no matter where it is coming from. Tricycles were meant for riding in the street only. Kitchen counters were made for dancing on. When all else fails, yogurt makes great paint. Pure maple syrup was meant to be drank. And that there is never enough chewable vitamins to make you happy.

 

You have certainly completed our family. Sometimes I try to stop and just watch you. I've found it difficult to juggle life's daily tasks with four children. But you so often remind me that I need to stop and take joy in the little things in life. You remind me that there was a time in all of our lives when we never judged one another but only loved and accepted each others differences.

I am so blessed that God has given you to me. I pray I still have the energy, as you grow, to teach you and guide you in the ways that God has directed me to. I pray that you have the desire in your heart to know the one and only God who gave His life for you. There are no words to describe how much I love you.

-Mama

Van Saun Park- One Year Later

 

 

 

My two middle children.  They rock!

HS Highlights

We’ve been riding on the homeschool roller coaster now for 2 weeks.  And as much as I want to have structure and routine, I learning to be flexible because we all need our breaks at different times.  I’m seeing the needs of each of my children and also seeing how unique each of them was created.  We all have a different vision and I love having the opportunity to see life through their eyes as I observe them in action.  We have had some struggles along the way but through these struggles we are each learning a little bit more about one another.  I’m glad I’ve made this decision and I’m excited to travel down the roads to come, where ever they may take us.

A few highlights from this past week:

         

 

    

We finished our paper mache globes.  We won’t be doing a paper mache project again for a long long time.

We had a bake sale with play-doh cookies.

Freya has begun to help herself to breakfast.

    

We learned about mountains and started to make our very own mountain ranges out of egg cartons.

We made gluten free cookies.  These went along nicely with our talk about mountains because they resembled mountain ranges as they cooled.

We flew our kites.

These are just a couple of the things we have been doing.  I’m excited to see where this upcoming week takes us.