Quick Family Update

Life has been busy for our family lately.

The kids are doing well in school and have finished their first quarter.

Devon is really enjoying his 4th/5th split class and his teacher.

Ellie also loves her teacher and class and is doing pretty well in there too.

Devon is fully recovered from his little accident.

 

Ellie has been taking a dance class for the last couple of months and enjoys it, even though she complains every week about going. She ends up loving every class and having fun though. She's also gotten less clumsy. Nice little extra there!!

I'm trying to talk her into doing the next class that will be coming up. I think it's great for her. I still can't tell how she'll do with it. I don't want to push her into anything but at the same time she might need a bit of a push.

 

Devon will be starting basketball this next week!

He's pretty excited to play. He'll have practices for awhile and then start playing games in January if I remember right.

He didn't get on a team with his buddies but he seems to be good with that, as long as he is getting to play!

 

Jared is still working up on base as a contract employee. Luckily they kept their jobs with all the government fun that happened and they are looking at another year+ contract coming up.

He's also looking at starting to do some contract work for the church on the side as well!

Little extra money and some job experience outside of the military. Win-win as I see it.

He'll only be taking on small jobs right now since he'll be using his 'home' time to work on these.

Luckily, we don't do much in the winter, nothing like summer when we are gone about every weekend.

 

I am busy! I have been going almost constantly for the last two weeks and I get some time this weekend to relax with the family. I have been working on the Reflections stuff. I just finished up the big stuff right now. We recently had our entries judged and I got the paperwork done and scores tallied up to see who would get to advance to the next level. We had 11 entries move on and I got them turned in a week early! Mostly for my benefit though. I wanted to have time to fix anything I might have messed up with my paper work. No contact yet so I must have everything okay at least! I ordered trophies and awards and now I just get to set up an awards assembly and a little party thing for the participants....

I'm also still volunteering in the kids' classrooms weekly and this last week helped at the school book fair. Things have kept me pretty busy but I'm glad! I do enjoy this PTA position and have already volunteered to be the Reflections chair again next year. I'm looking forward to then because I will already know what I am doing, for the most part!

 

As a family, we miss camping but it has been cold. Today it snowed half the day...then we went out to the store and the pet store so Ellie could look at the adoption dogs.

We are planning on bringing a dog into our family soon.

We want an English Bulldog, even with all their possible problems, and are really looking forward to when we can get one. We've read up on them, watched some stuff, and recently got a book on them. The kids are looking forward to getting our little bulldog but I think Jared is the most excited. He fell in love with English bulldogs back when we lived in Texas. We knew a family back there that had one and after his initial scare at the size (She was a big English bulldog-Beautiful dog too!) he ended up playing with Daisy all night and just loved that dog...loved her personality and everything.

So we hope to get our little bulldog sometime next year, early on we hope! We know they are expensive, and they can have health problems but we are looking forward to having one and spoiling that dog with love and care! We've been waiting for the right time to bring one into our family and we feel it getting closer and closer to time to get one. We would buy one now if we could!

Disneyland first.

 

 



Back to School Pictures

So the kids let me take their pictures. I'm pretty sure I wrote about that before.

Well I've finally finished them and I'm posting a preview HERE.

 



Back to School

I hate the first week of school.

Getting into a new routine is never easy.

 

But so far things have gone well.

I haven't blubbered too much.

I'm not used to my quiet house.

I don't like spending my time cleaning or doing the laundry honestly.

I know I will get all that figure out though. I just need things to do.

 

The kids are doing really well and enjoy their classes and teachers. It's perfect honestly.

I have pictures the kids allowed (wanted!) me to take of them before school started.

I had heard of the idea of taking back to school pictures before the first day because it's less stressful and you won't be so rushed. I liked that idea but decided to make it a photo session (for practice) and the kids were totally willing! It's nice not having them run away from the camera screaming. ☺

 

My new life is different. I know I will get used to it though.

I've already been asked to do some subbing. I'm still debating on that. I will probably volunteer in that class first to see.

I like to volunteer. I like helping and getting something accomplished that day.

I like having a presence at the school. My kids know I am around sometimes.

They know I will be there and everything. Seems to make them feel good.

I am on the PTA and over the Reflection stuff (If I ever hear anything!! Gotta contact someone today)

I have things to keep me busy so it will be good. I just need time to get used to it all.

 

Pictures coming soon of the kids. Haven't been as fast processing photos of my own children!

 

School Already?!

I can't believe school is starting in two weeks.

The summer has gone so fast.

I feel like we haven't gotten to do anywhere near as much as we wanted. But I guess we still have time.

 

We have camped a few times. Not as much as we wanted but we still have camping weekends ahead before it gets too cold.

(One day that RV will be all set up to camp in winter with water line heaters and everything)

 

This year my baby will be in school all day. Sometimes thinking about it makes me want to cry, I won't lie. I am excited but sad at the same time. A chapter of my life is closing and a new one opening, so to speak. All of my kids in school....and me left with...well ME.

I already have plans to volunteer again (and have been asked already to help out with some stuff from the Kindergarten teacher my youngest had last year. :-) ) as well as focusing more on my photography stuff and hoping to turn it into a job a some point in the future. Extra money is nice and I love doing it!

 

I know though, I will walk home crying (or ride my bike home) that first day, and probably the second. I did when my oldest started school....in kindergarten and first grade.

I know I will do it again with my baby, but probably worse.

So if you see me on the way back from the school, crying...everything is okay...I'm just being the big baby that I am crying over my child starting school like the big kid she's growing up to be.

 

 

 



Fixing up

Slowly, ever so slowly, I am getting my house updated a bit, repainted, etc.

I still have many things to do...

like cleaning my carpet and getting the trim work and crown molding finished but at the moment, I am DONE.

 

So on my blog I mentioned being exhausted from working on the stair rail...

so here's the reveal..before and after.

 Before (with some sanding done so it doesn't look so pretty)

 Before

 After

After

 

It definitely looks different.

The dark parts now match my re-stained kitchen cabinets and the spindles are the color all the trim will be in my house as well as the crown molding (I guess that fits into the 'trim' category).

I still have so much to do, including finishing up our entry way. There is crown molding to add, the floor molding and the side of the stairs to paint as well. I haven't gotten the guts up to rip out the carpet on the stairs and see what kind of wood we have under there. I'm hoping for nice stuff that I can stain to match the 'wood' flooring we have in the kitchen (or our future 'wood' flooring when we redo that area!).

But as of now, I'm just done. Doing that stair rail broke me. The staining wasn't so bad...hand-rubbed everything...so nice.

The spindle painting....3+ hours to prime and then another 3+ hours to paint!! We're not including the sanding time I spent either!

 

So eventually this entry will be done, with pictures hung and all trim work up and painted but until then, this is what I've done and hopefully I get the energy to finish up the rest before a few years pass.

 



The Long Weekend

We got to spend the long holiday weekend surrounded by family celebrating many events!

It was busy, exhausting, and fun!

I still haven't caught up on my sleep yet.

 

We got to celebrate the 4th with family and a sleep over at my Bro-in-laws.

Then we got to celebrate my sweet niece's birthday the following day!

Then it was a trip back home to get ready to celebrate my own little girl's birthday!

She decided last minute that she actually wanted people at her party so we threw that together pretty quick. But we managed to pull it together and have some fun.

E was pretty excited about her b-day fun and wasn't too big of a monster.

 

Grandma was the only one brave enough to get into the cold water with the kids!

 

 

 

She got her new bike so she was pretty excited about that!

 

 

It feels like it has been so long since I've had a baby around! 6 years old! It's all going so fast!

 

 

Then on Sunday we all got together again for the blessing of my newest niece.

 

She is just absolutely beautiful and it was fun to once again spend the day with the whole family.

 

But Now, I am exhausted. We stayed up late, drove a lot and didn't really get much sleep at all. I will recover eventually but what a good time and a great chance to spend lots of time with family!

 

 

In addition to all this, my husband and sweet father-in-law went and pick up a couch/sectional from Costco for me on Saturday and waited for them to unload the delivery truck at the store to get it (Because the one that was there an hour earlier had already been sold! Knew we needed to jump on it like then!). We finally got the couches moved up Sunday night...I didn't want to bring them up early. I was afraid they would get stained with everyone here for cake and everything Saturday night. My legs are covered with bruises from constantly pushing the couch up with my legs as the pieces kept slipping through my hands as we moved them up the stairs.

But it looks great in the living room and I can keep the same color scheme!

(The throw pillow is really not THAT green, promise!)

But now it's got me looking around and seeing that it's time to change a few things around the house again.

Project time!

I think those words scare my husband!

The Kindergarten Grad

It's official...

Our youngest has graduated kindergarten!

Ellie had her kindergarten celebration this week...

They sang some songs, did a little dancing and played a slide show for the parents.

It was a fun time!

And now we just do the last few days of school of FUN

and next year....FIRST GRADE!

 

Our baby isn't such a baby anymore.

So exciting and so sad.

 

Happy Grad Ellie!

 



The Garden is in!

Finally finished the garden today! I think....

Okay, I want peas but they are gone everywhere I went. Maybe try somewhere else next week.

I left myself a spot for them!

 

This year we reused some old wood and made ourselves a raised garden...about 3-4'X12' long!

Pretty sweet honestly. We also made it 'greenhouse' like as well. It can be covered when it gets cold so hopefully we get ourselves a longer growing season.

 

I also FINALLY got my strawberries planted. They are hanging this year.

I'm sick of sharing them with the ants. (The ants don't share well.)

 

Trying some new plants this year.

Planted onions for the first time

and Eggplant (because I love my Eggplant Parmigiana)

Got some mild peppers as well...

and Some bell peppers...LOVE THOSE.

 

I even planted some cilantro.

 

It's a very different garden. On top of the squash, tomatoes and cucumbers I think we'll have a good mix.

(Planning on making salsa often....and pizza sauce if I can remember what I did that one year I made it! Throwing stuff together is a great way to cook...

unless it turns out GREAT and you don't write it down!!!)

 

I'm kind of thinking of adding a new box garden each year all along that back of the yard. We have quite a bit of space and could really have quite the garden if we wanted.

For now, this is a good start. We can always get things to grow well for us but the season ends too soon.

This year, hopefully the cover will help that!

 

 



Easter Weekend

Okay, yeah, I'm slow but at least I'm finally getting stuff up.

Easter was fun and the kids thought it was great. Ellie really loved it.

Mom and Dad got the kids some gifts and the Easter Bunny hid a TON of candy filled eggs this year.

Thank goodness the weather was nice because I don't know how he would have been able to hide them all in the house as he's had to do previous years.

 

 

 

Snow Day, NO SCHOOL

This morning about 6am, we started getting calls from the Davis School District that school had been cancelled for the whole district. It didn't seem too bad to us, but then again, we are close to the school. Jared took my car to work because it's heavier and has 4 wheel drive. It drives effortless through the snow and I doubt it ever switched into 4 wheel drive.


The kids, well, we went out in the snow for a bit. It's VERY cold so it was hard to stay out too long, but I got some quick pictures with my cell. We're hoping to go sledding this afternoon with Jared.


After being out there, yeah, it is a lot of snow. It went to Devon's knees, above Ellie's and close to mine. I measured about 16-18" of total snow. We had some left from the last storm. This one dumped close to a foot on us. Jared shoveled about 6" off the driveway last night and this morning about 4:45am Jared and I shoveled about the same again. I don't know where we would put the rest of the snow if it snowed anymore! Love the snow, it's beautiful but wow. This weekend we are supposed to get COLD. We are talking around 0 degrees. Some reports put us just above, some put us in the negatives. Guess we will see which one actually happens!

So onto the pictures