Take A Guess

We're going birthday party shopping today {Sierra turns 8 on Friday!}, and while we're out I get to pick up a little something for myself.

I may be a tad excited about it

Any guesses as to what it is? ;)

In The Middle

Kenners is my "middle". If you have three children, you know what I mean. One of my main concerns when I was pregnant with Kam? That Makenna would become the middle child. Most of the time I feel like we are very conscientious. But, let's face it, Sierra is the oldest ~ she naturally gets to do more ~ and she sort of has a way about her that demands attention. I'm thinking this is an "oldest" thing. And Kam. Oh Kam. She is a handful. Have I mentioned that already? And she's the baby. She's loud, she's energetic, she can be a bit . . . pilly, and if Sierra demands attention, then Kam doubly demands it!

So, sometimes I worry that Kenners gets a little lost. It hurts even typing that because I want her to always feel how special she is to me. To always feel that she has my undivided attention. Ugh. Mommy Guilt. Anyway.

So, Sunday morning she seemed a little emotional. I could tell that she just needed some love and attention, so we decided that some one-on-one Mama time was in order. After church Sierra and Kam went to visit Nana and Grandpa, and Kenners and I spent some time crafting.

And drinking our own special drink we made. We called it a snowflake. Which is just what we needed in our 95 degree heat today.

Ahhhh. That's better :)

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So, lay it on me. How do you make the time for one-on-one?

My Feet Say "Thank You"

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You to Kelli from Random Thoughts of a Super Mom. I *just* received my package of foot goodies that I won through Free 4 All Fridays, and I'm lovin' it all! Kam is sporting the fancy polish . . .

And my feet love these adorable flip flops! Just please promise that you will NOT enlarge the photo. I *do* realize that my feet are in major need of a pedicure, and I'm a little embarassed. But I plan on fixing that tonight!

Thanks so much Kelli! What a wonderful surprise today!

Warning: More House Pictures

Thought I should put a disclaimer out there for y'all who don't want to see the millionth installment of our building pictures. Hence the warning.

You're very welcome. ;)

So, here it is! We've started siding. It is officially starting to look like a real house on the outside!

And there you have it. A little mini update. I'm thinking this siding business is a much bigger job than anyone anticipated. You can't tell so much from the pictures, but our house is very very tall. And that Tyvek paper is a pain in the you-know-what. I'm sorry, but I don't want Jeremy up there, three stories high, swinging from unstable ladder to unstable ladder. No thank you.

Anyway.

We are headed out for a play date with friends. Hopefully it will involve a pool as it is supposed to be near 100 degrees today.

I'll be back soon ;)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Growin' Like A Weed

Short on Time

I tell ya, the more I have to blog about, the less time I have to blog! Computer time has been cut WAY back due to life interfering again ;) Honestly? it's been quite nice. But then I get to missin' y'all, so I have to sneak on here. Anyway.

We've been keeping busy as usual. It cracks me up that I was worried about boredom creeping in this summer. Yeah. Not so much. With birthdays and shopping and outings and library days, we're anything but bored.

Some updates:

HVAC is offically finished {until after sheetrock, anyway}, and our siding was delivered today. After siding {and that could take awhile being that we're doing it ourselves. Yipes!}, we will start on electrical. We're progressing. Slowly, but it's progress.

The girls have been enjoying the trampoline. The only reason I share this super exciting update with you is because I want to post these hilarious pictures of Sierra:

Sorry, but I seriously crack up every time I look at them!

Oh yeah, we've also had a little visitor. Peanut, here, has been a part of the family for a couple of years now. One of Jeremy's friends found this little darling when he was a baby. His mama had died {the squirrel, not Jeremy's friend}, and Jeremy thought that maybe I could take care of him until he was big enough to head off on his own ;) I know better than to think that a human can take care of a wild animal, but I gave it my best shot, and after a few weeks we felt he was big enough and strong enough to be set free {that and he was starting to get a little snippy}. So, we set him in our oak tree, and there he stayed for several months. Then he took off, and we would see him from time to time, but we hadn't seen him in a long while. Surprise! He's back! We saw him sippin' some water out of Kitty's water bowl, and he's taken up residence on my tire. So we've been feeding him some sunflower seeds, and he LOVES it! Hmmm, that was a long story. Sorry.

Guess what else we've been doing . . .

Garage Saling!

Gramps, Sierra, and I headed out on Friday morning.

Sis found a princess alarm clock she just had to have.

Then it was lunch at McDonald's ;)

And a few more stops.

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I've been trying to get a little bit of reading in. I love to read, and it's always put on the back burner {shocking, I know}, but I've been making time for it ~ even if only for a few minutes a day. I want to talk more about this, but I'm thinking it's a post of its own!

Now it's on to preparations for Sierra's birthday {coming up shortly}, and then we'll be getting ready for school! How did this happen so quickly?

Friday Funnies

My dear dear bloggy friend, Heather, is hosting Friday Funnies each week, and I just had to join in. My girls are always saying something that makes me laugh {I just rarely remember in detail what it is!} But this week I made a point to write it down ;)

Time's a wastin'! Soon it won't be Friday!

Here we go:

While I was stripping the sheets off my bed to wash them, Kenners jumps under the pile of blankets and states: "I'm deep sea diving".

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While preparing lunch: {Kenners} ~ "Wouldn't it be fun if soup had candy in it?"

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Last week we had a big crawfish feed. The girls watched as Jeremy cooked them all, and I noticed Kenners looking a little pensive. I asked her what she was thinkin'. Her reply? "It's just sad that crawdads have to lose their life in order to be eaten". Indeed it is, sweetie.

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Sierra and Makenna have had a box full of Barbies and accessories for several years, but they've never really played with them. The other day they re-discovered them, got everything out, and played, played, played. Overheard while Barbie was at the "doctor":

'Barbie, you need to eat fruits and vegetables or else you will die.'

And a little later when Sierra was trying to decide what Barbie was going to wear to a wedding:

"Mama, Barbie's clothes aren't very modest."

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I'm sure there were many more funnies, but I'm still learning to write them down! And I'm starting to think that mine should be titled: Kenners Funnies ;)

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Did your little ones make you giggle this week? Head on over to Heather's and link up your own funnies!

Happy Birthday

Happy 30th Birthday to my love.

Yes, I am older than him {by six weeks} ;)

Yes, I do know that he's a hottie.

No, that is not a son that I've been hiding from y'all; It's my nephew, Jaymes ;)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Bouncey Bounce!

Need more Wordless Wednesday? Head on over to Tanya's!!

Like Oreos and . . . Milk

We found these while we were grocery shopping yesterday, and they are simply a must have for tonight. What's the special occasion, you ask?

19 Kids & Counting returns to TLC tonight.

It happens to be our favorite show. Really, the only show, that we watch together.

So we will get comfy in our PJs, break open the new Oreo Fudge Rings {uh, yum}, and tune in.

TV night and Oreos . . . they go hand in hand, don'tcha think?

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Anyone else watchin'? ;)

A{nother} House Update

It's time for another house update! It's been awhile, hasn't it?

This will be short and sweet, as there isn't too much to report.

The framing is complete, the windows installed, and HVAC is underway. In the next few weeks we will work on siding and electrical, and hopefully we'll be ready for insulation and sheet rock by the start of Fall. Progress, yay!

Here are our stairs. We're pretty excited to have stairs ;)

And the view of the left side of the house.

I mentioned before that it's almost impossible to get a front shot due to the fact that our current home is smack dab in front of it. And when I say smack, I mean it. Can you see it?

Hopefully I'll have more to report soon!

Back to School? Not us.

I don't write often about our homeschool journey. I'm not sure I've ever even explained how we got here ~ what made us decide to choose this path. I suppose the short version is that I never thought I had the desire to homeschool. I wasn't homeschooled, nor was Jeremy. It hadn't even crossed my mind . . . until we attended Kindergarten round-up for Sierra, in May of 2007. Something just didn't feel right. That entire summer I cried daily because I couldn't imagine sending my daughter away to school. And I did a lot of praying. In the end, I knew God was calling me to homeschool. Jeremy wasn't as convinced ;) But I think he now enjoys it almost as much as I do! And that, folks, is DEFINITELY the short short version ;)

Anyway, one of my very favorite bloggers, Jenny, at Our Nifty Notebook is participating in the Not Back to School Blog Hop going on over at Heart of the Matter, and I wanted to join in on the fun too! We haven't yet started our homeschool year {we still have a few weeks left of summer vacation to enjoy}, but I have finally chosen the books we will use this year. I have two homeschoolers now, don'tcha know.

Makenna

Makenna is joining us at the homeschool table this year ;) If truth be told, Kenners joined us most of last year too. We will be focusing on the three Rs, of course.

I've chosen Christian Liberty Press for Math. Sierra has switched to Horizons, but she started with CLP, and we liked it.

Makenna will be using Sierra's old Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

I LOVED this book. It was fabulous for Sierra, and I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it as much with Makenna.

I've also chosen Christian Liberty Press ~ The World God Made for Science, though it is likely Makenna will join in on Science with Sierra as well. At least for some experiments.

Makenna will join Sierra for History, and we will work on Handwriting together.

Sierra

We've chosen to continue using Horizons for Math. Last year I bought the workbooks, but didn't realize there was a Teacher's guide to go with them. This year I'm buying the guide too :)

I was not crazy about the Horizons Phonics & Reading workbooks that we used last year, so we will not be going that route this year. We're going to try Spectrum Phonics, Spectrum Language Arts, and then Literature Pockets ~ Aesop's Fables. Sierra is a fantastic reader {and she loves to read!}, so we will continue to read our Little House books together with questions after each chapter.

I've enjoyed the CLP Science Series. This year, Exploring God's Creation, is the last in the series, and I'm going to miss it. We will also be using a couple of the Young Scientist sets for hands on experiments.

I have yet to find a History text that I'm super excited about, but I cannot say enough about History Pockets {by Evan-Moor}. I LOVE them! Does anyone else have experience with these? We used Life in Plymouth Colony, Ancient Civilizations, and Native Americans last year. They make learning about history . . . fun! Each week you create a new "pocket" with construction paper, and there are crafts, vocabulary, and handouts that go along with the subject you are learning about. It keeps little hands busy, that's for sure. And the best part is that it is something that both Sierra and Makenna can do together. I may need to abbreviate some of Makenna's assignment, but they are learning alongside each other, which I love. I could go on and on . . . but I'll spare you :) But, if you are looking for a great history supplement, definitely check these out!

Along with History Pockets we will be using See the USA, and our text, American Pioneers & Patriots. And I have ordered Map Skills {Sierra loved her workbook from last year}

We will continue using A Reason for Handwriting, working more on cursive. And, of course, we will continue to keep God at the center of our studies by reading the Bible daily. I'm also looking into the Discover 4 Yourself Series. What a fun way to travel through the Bible!

And that's about it!

Whew! That was a long one.

If you're still with me, stay tuned for a quick house update later ;)