It's Fall!!

Decided today would be a good day to start posting back to our family blog. What's been happening? Well, we are definitely in full swing homeschooling and keeping super busy during the wonderful fall season. I HEART Fall. One of my fav times of the year. The weather has changed considerably after a dreaded drought and heat wave this past summer. Temps were in the 100's for most of the summer. Crazy hot and I gained about 8 lbs because we weren't as active.

What are we doing with homeschooling? We are back with Classical Conversations! It really seems to work with our family and boys seem to soak up all the information like little sponges. It is amazing! Over at the Half Hundred Acre Wood blog, she give a perfect overview of Classical Conversations http://halfahundredacrewood.blogspot.com/2011/03/window-into-classical-conversations.html. Our meeting day is Mondays and we are at CC till around mid afternoon. The boys are also taking an art class after lunch so extends our day a bit longer.

When not at CC, our typical day looks like this:

Endings and New Beginnings!

It has been over 2 years since I last posted to our family blog. I think one of my New Year's resolution last year was to reduce the amount of time on the internet and social networks and focus on our family, home and spending more time with Pappa. It was a year that went by fast, furious and with it came lots of challenges that I wasn't prepared for; I guess who is ever prepared. But, thankfully, we handled it well and God has continued to show himself true and faithful.

I am excited about 2011. I feel it's time to get back to blogging because I truly enjoy journaling, sharing my life's simple adventures that seem to take us down a path that continues to shows us God's love, grace and mercy. I wonder... can adventures be simple? I think so but the adventure is so much.

My life really is very simple and I love it this way. I love spending time with my family. Cooking, reading, playing and just plain old snuggling. I think it's the simplicity that allows me to hear from God. The noise all around in this busy world seems to cause so much stress and confusion that it's hard to know which path to take.

Labor Day Weekend!

During the Labor Day weekend, Steve's family from Los Angeles came to visit us. We had such a fun time seeing , Nana, Auntie Dawn, Cousins' Parker and Spencer. Every day was an adventure.
* They arrived on Wed, August 27 around 6pm. We came home, relaxed and ate dinner.
* The next day, we headed to North Dallas and had lunch at this really cool McDonald's off of Monfort and IH635E. It's in the shape of a huge happy meal and inside is the one of the funnest play areas for the kiddos. Plus when you walk in it is so "elegant". I'm being totally serious. I should have taken photos of this one cuz I'd not been to a McDonald's like this before. Ok, that's probably enough about McD. I'm getting hungry. Oh, and yes, their french fries are still the best and probably the least healthiest ever but hey family was visiting and how often do ya get to splurge...lol! After McDonald's we headed down the street to Crate & Barrel to show Dawn the furniture at that store. She's interviewing with Crate & Barrel and may be employed with them soon and working in their furniture department. She liked what she saw and is excited! Finally, we ended our day at the Container Store buying, well, a few containers!

* On Saturday, we all piled in to our minivan and headed to Austin for our good friend, Caleb Little's 4th Birthday party. It was at Chuck E Cheese. Need I say more...the kids had fun while Dawn and I enjoyed the Pizza and salad bar, oh, and cake. Yum... Yes, I was sitting there thinking, "man, how many more miles on the treadmill is this going to cost me?" But, hey, we had family in town and how often do ya get to splurge...(wink)!

* Sunday was a slow day. Poor Spencer had a rough night and woke up with a high fever and made a few trips to the potty during the night. He spent the next 2 days in bed fighting the flu bug. It was a miserable time for him but he handled it like a champ and ended up taking Tamaflu and was better by Monday afternoon. Amazing. His fever broke and he was doing great.

* Monday afternoon we all piled into our minivan and headed over to Chick-fil-a in Grand Prairie to enjoy free chicken strips. They had a promo on Labor Day. If you wore you're favorite sports team clothing item, you received free chicken strips. The strips were great and we saved so much money. Then, we headed to the Parks Mall to visit Build-A-Bear and Roman was blessed for his birthday with a new stuffed dog, named Puppy. All the boys got bears and had so much fun. We quickly came home and they dropped Ethan and I off, and the rest of the gang went to a Texas Ranger game. What a night for all. Parker was featured on the jumbotron for hitting a home run in the kiddie area. They even set the fireworks off. So cool!!

* Tuesday was packing day since they were going to be leaving on Wednesday. But, we didn't let the day go by without doing something, so, we went to the Boy Scouts Museum, and spent the afternoon there. The boys had a great time and when I say boys, that also includes Steve. He's such a kid at heart. Then we headed back to the unique McDonald's off of Montfort & 635 and enjoyed a yummy, unhealthy, fattening, mouthwatering Quarter Pounders & french fries ... yikes! Ok now, how many miles is that going to cost me on the treadmill? I'm definitely not looking to my annual physical next week. We ended our day with haircuts at Cool Cuts 4 Kids. This was Ethan's 1st haircut so it was special. Probably not so for me cuz I wasn't ready to let go of our little boy's baby look. The moment his hair was cut he had become our little man. He looked so handsome.

Their trip had finally come to an end. It was so sad to see them leave the next morning but we all had such a wonderful time. Spencer and Parker even missed their first few days from school to spend time with us in Texas. We will miss them so much and can't wait to see them again soon.

Mommy, You Passed the Piggy Bank!

Isn't it amazing the words that come out of our little ones. The boys and I started our day with a few errands to run. Roman loves it when we run errands. I think he loves just saying the word "errands". It's so adorable when he says it. He'll ask me, "Mommy, are we going to run errands today?" Usually it's not but, today was the day, and he was so excited!

Before we left the house, I explained to him the different stops we'd be making. As I left CVS pharmacy, I was making my way to Chase bank and realized I had missed our turn. Instantly, the following words came out of Roman saying, "Mommy, mommy, you missed the Piggy Bank!" I sat there for a moment and thought piggy bank....and fell out laughing. It was one of those moments I had to cherish. From Roman's perspective he probably sees the bank as just one big piggy bank. Well, I guess it really is! So, we proceeded to the piggy bank to make our deposit. Roman was so happy.