Friday, December 13, 2013

Its only been 6 months!

I think I blinked and it's already been 6 months since my last blog post!  I use to faithfully blog at least once a month but our life has been so crazy this was the first thing to go.  I don't even know if people read blogs anymore??!!  Let me know if you still read it!

The last time I posted it was end of May when we made the decision to continue to homeschool.  Then summer hit and we had the time of our lives!!!  It was the best summer ever.  I will kind of recap what we've been doing from May until now and then do additional posts with pictures of everything. 

This summer we took a nice fun break from all the hustle and bustle of the school year.  We did continue to do reading and writing almost every day with Reece.  She started her 1st grade writing curriculum in the summer  - cursive!  We of course got the pool pass and made it there a few times a week.  In June I watched up to 7 children a day as a back up sitter for several families.  That was nuts!  We got a new toy for the yard - a big Banzai water slide which was given to the kids as a gift from our neighbors who love them like their own grandkids.  Both kids did gymnastics over the summer.  It was really one of the only things they both agreed on and that they could both do at the same time.  They also did swimming lessons for a month. At the end of June through July 4th, I took my best friend Kristy and her two kids (who are also 5 and 6 and girl and boy) to Branson to my in-laws condo.  We had such a great time!  The kids and I went back to Branson alone in August before school started for one last bang of the summer!  Brock pretty much finished the 53 Ford and we went to several car shows. 

This fall Brody started pre k at Sharing Tree preschool where Reece attended.  Reece started full 1st grade at home and also doing Classical Conversations on Thursdays.  It has been so hard keeping up on all our activities and responsibilities!  But everyone is learning so much.  Both kids are still in Awana.  Brody is in his 3rd and final year at cubbies and Reece is in her 2nd year of sparks.  Reece also started taking ballet this fall (as opposed to tap like she did last year).  She loves it! She of course tried out for the nutcracker again this year and got two great roles as Bon Bon and Soldier.  She loved every minute of it and can't wait to try out again next year! 

Another thing that has been going on at our house is a lot of loosing teeth!  Brody lost his first and Reece is on her way to loosing her 6th.  If she loses it before Christmas, she will be asking for her 2 front teeth! 

In September I decided to do something more with photography.  I had been taking pictures for people for a couple of years when they asked.  I absolutely love doing this but didn't really want to do it for a "living".  I wanted to offer something different than the other 50 photographers in town.  So I turned it more into a ministry where the profits are going to families in need.  Families who are adopting, families who have a child with an illness, etc.  I fell in love with taking photos when I was in the delivery room with birth clients and just absolutely love taking photos of families.  I have a couple of sites you can view if you want to check out what I am doing. My facebook page is under Purposeful Photography.  You can also find me under this link

We took the kids to Shedds aquarium for the day a month ago.  2 weeks later I traveled to Chicago alone on the train to visit my childhood best friend for the weekend.  Brock met us Sunday and we all went to the Bears game.  While at home, there was a tornado that went through and destroyed Washington.  We were evacuated at the game and our kids were evacuated at church.  It was pretty scary but fortunately ended well for us and the Bears won in overtime! 

Now that Nutcracker is over, we are looking forward to Christmas and what the new year has to bring!

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