Back to School

Considering it is now almost Labor Day, I figured it was time to get our first day of school pics up on the blog.  Time moves so quickly these days.  I am always feeling like I am at least 10 steps behind on everything.

So I am not sure how or when it happened, but somewhere along the way, my munchkins have grown up.

It is exciting and terrifying at the same time.
I am so excited for the experiences that they are having at these stages of their lives, but I am also scared out of my mind that they are getting so close to growing up and moving away.

Oh, and there is one other thing that I was terrified about on the first day of school.

Watching my 11th grader drive away with my 8th grader in the passenger seat.
It was the first time that I had sent any of the other kids with Josh.  I am hoping that this whole driving thing gets progressively easier with each child.  So far, it had been okay with Josh.  He is a confident and cautious driver and I really am enjoying him being able to drive himself places.  And, I might add, by the 2nd day of school, I realized what a sweet deal it was that I didn't have to drive anyone to school!

After we sent big brother and big sister off to the land of high school and middle school, the girls and I got down to business.  They have been so excited to get started with school ever since the dozens of boxes arrived with their school supplies.  I am more excited this year because now I know what I am doing.  What exactly is that you might ask?  Just being a learning coach to these amazing kiddos, watching them interact with their teacher and classmates online, and seeing them learn and grow.  It is a pretty cool thing.

Since we had kind of a light day, (because let's face it, how much actual school work gets done on the first day of school?) we decided to pack up a lunch and make an impromptu trip to the zoo.  It was a beautiful day and even though the zoo was a bit more crowded than I thought it would be, we still managed to have a great time.

My little Ellie LOVES animals.  She really wants to be a vet or a zookeeper when she grows up so I definitely love watching her interact with the animals.  The girls convinced me that we had to go to the bird show and since I am a wonderful mother, I obliged.  (For those of you who don't know, I hate birds.  In fact, it was at this very zoo that one almost took my head off.  I was 2 or 3.  Honestly, I've tried to block it out.  It's too painful to think about. :)  Fortunately we all survived the bird show with our heads intact.  Although there were a couple of close calls with an owl.  Abbie was in heaven.  She LOVES owls.

It was truly the perfect first day of school.

Josh and Emma had a great day and drove to and from school safely.

Abbie and Ellie settled right into a routine and have continued to do really well over the last week or so.

Now, I just have to get myself into preschool mode...seeing as that starts next week.  Wish me luck!

February Happenings

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted.  I have been filling every spare moment that I can by working on my book.  I am happy to say that I have finished yet another revision and it is well on its way to being finished.  Yay!

I do want to post a few things before the month of February is over, since this blog is the only thing I do to scrapbook these days.  No time for traditional scrapbooking anymore unfortunately.  

We started the month with something that we have been wanting to do for a long time...

going to a Harlem Globetrotters game!

It was a lot of fun.  We had great seats and laughed ourselves silly.  There was also a lot of cotton candy and kettle corn involved.  It was a great family night and I am so glad that we finally made it to a game.

Josh had a day off of school so we decided to make it a family adventure day.  We found a great deal for one of the local tubing hills and set off for the mountains.  As we were driving and getting closer to the location we found ourselves wondering, "Are we even going to have any snow to go tubing on?"  We have had an extremely light snow year, as in there has been absolutely zero snow on the ground in the valleys since New Year's.  That is weird.  The mountains have received some snow, but definitely not their normal accumulations.

Fortunately with what has fallen from the sky naturally and what they were able to make, there was enough snow for us to have our tubing adventure.  By the time we had gone down the mountain one time, we were shedding layers.  It was a beautiful day and I loved spending it with my family.

I think Bailey was a little miffed that we did not take her with us because when we got home, she would not let us put the snow clothes away...

Valentines Day was an interesting experience this year.  Since we are having adventures in homeschooling, the girls were torn about what to do for Valentines Day.  They started talking about boxes a couple of weeks before the big day and then we had to discuss, "Who is going to fill those boxes?"  We knew there was going to be a UTVA activity that we could go to, but we were unsure if they would be able to bring boxes there.  They decided to go ahead and make them anyway and they turned out super cute.  

We didn't end up taking them into the UTVA party, but they were still able to put their candy in the boxes after the party.  Plus, they had fun making them and I love to see them use their creativity.  We also decided that we would make Valentines mean a little bit more than just candy and boxes this year.  So we decided to spend some of our Valentines Day with Grandma Holt.  We helped her vacuum, dust, and clean some things around her house.  It was a very fun day.

Other than that, we have just been up to our usual living life craziness...

 Abbie had to have two teeth pulled and she was a champion through it all.  Didn't even flinch when they filled her mouth with numbing shots.  :(  And it didn't stop her from being silly either.

 We had the opportunity through UTVA to go to see a portion of Swan Lake put on by Ballet West.  It was a fun experience, especially being in the beautiful Capitol Theater, but I am glad it was only one act.  I have to admit, I was snoozing....

 One of Ellie's fun art projects for school.

 Snuggling with cute little baby Rudy.  He belongs to my niece Natalie and her hubby, Mark.  He is adorable!!

One of the happiest moments for me personally was the fact that one of my favorite stores opened up a location close to my home.  Hooray!!!  Abbie came with me on our maiden voyage there and I just had to take a picture of her in the wanted poster they had outside.  She is a goofball.

It's hard to believe that February has come and gone.  The days fly by faster and faster and it's all I can do to just hold on tight and enjoy the journey.

Friday Fun

One of the great things about this school year is the opportunity we have to go on some super fun field trips.  A couple of weeks ago, we headed down to Thanksgiving Point and the Museum of Natural Curiosity.  It is such a cool place.  We have Penny with us on Fridays and love taking her with us on our adventures.

I think their favorite part was the wind tunnel.

We also met up with some of our virtual school mates because Utah Virtual Academy was having an outing at Cornbelly's Corn Maze.  It was a lot of fun, and the maze is absolutely incredible when you see the ariel shots.  Not so much when you are trying to find your way through it.  We made it safe and sound though.

It was a very warm day and we were super tired, but all in all, it was a very fun day.

Thankful Thursday 54

Back on August 28, I wrote a Thankful Thursday post about our new school adventure.

It was exciting.

It was different.

It was the start of a grand adventure.

The girls and I set off into the unknown land of online learning, and we really liked what we saw.

Still do.

It is a fun curriculum, the girls love their online class connect sessions, and we really like being able to do school in our pajamas.

The one thing that has thrown me for a loop?

It is one of the hardest things I have ever taken on in my life.

I knew it would be a challenge.

I knew it would take a while to find a good groove.

I did not expect to still be looking for our groove two months into it.

I know that we will get there, someday.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep it all together.

Some days are better than others, but that can be said for just living life in general.

There are a few things that I am really grateful for, and those are the things I am holding on to while I figure all of the rest of the stuff out....

1.  Our relationship is deepening.  The girls are becoming better friends and I am learning so much more about them.

2.  I love to celebrate with them when they "get" things.  When they get 100% on a test, or finally have the lights come on when a concept suddenly makes sense.

3.  I love taking them with me on our "Grandma Lunch Days".  These will be priceless memories for them when the grandmas have passed on.

I just have to remind myself to breathe and everything will be alright.

Thankful Thursday 53/Adventures in Learning 1

I am using this Thankful Thursday post to introduce a new series of posts that I am extremely grateful for and excited to write about.

Adventures in Learning!

I know that the girls and I are going to have some good, and probably not so good, adventures in learning this year.  Since the main purpose of this blog is to serve as a journal for our family, I need to document this part of our lives.

Today was a very Thankful Thursday for me.

After a week of school:

The meltdowns have stopped.

The excitement has returned and actually increased as we get to know the curriculum and learning style a bit better.

Things are looking up.

I am sure there will be more meltdowns.

We are all highly emotional girls after all. ;)

However, after the storm comes the rainbow.

That is what today was for me.

This is why we made this choice.

This is why I am willing to endure days that will bring me to my knees.

Look at these faces!

Watching them today during our P.E. time, nearly brought me to tears.

It's not every day that you have the ice rink totally to yourselves.

They were having the time of their lives.

Letting go, enjoying the moment, being themselves...and, loving themselves.

It was beautiful.

I had to laugh tonight when my friend, Jessica, posted this picture on my Facebook wall.

Just call me a crazy chick.

This gal is excited to have my girlies stay home.

It's gonna be a great year...I can feel it.

Mom's Turn

Today was my turn for a meltdown.

I did manage to have it internally, so there was not much damage done to the house or children.

I knew this school adventure would be hard, I just had no idea what to expect.

It is harder than I thought it would be.

So is marriage,

motherhood,

discipleship,

cancer,

and life in general.

So I will keep plugging away, because I know this is what we need to do.

We really love the curriculum and the style of learning.

It's just trying to coordinate everyone's curriculum and learn all of the ins and outs.

We will get there.

I just have to remind myself to keep breathing and to stay calm.

I leave this post with two quotes, which are more for me than anyone else.

This school year, as with life, is not a sprint; it's a marathon.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Whatever we don't complete today, can be done tomorrow.

I actually have had this hanging on my bathroom mirror for a couple of years now.

It's one of my favorite quotes in the whole wide world.

We won't quit.

We won't give up.

Everything will be all right in the end because we know that this is God's plan for our family.

He will help us through the hard times like He has helped us so many times before.

In the words of Dory,

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Thankful Thursday 52/First Day of School

So thankful for a phenomenal first day of school.
We have been anticipating this day for quite some time now- even more so than in years past.

School is always an adventure, but because of the changes we have made in how we are doing our schooling, we were a bundle of excitement, nerves, joy and sadness.

My Sophomore

(don't mind the silly smiley face...I just don't feel comfortable showing a picture of my house number for all to see.  Feels weird.)

With the new adventure for the girls, I feel like Josh going to high school kind of snuck up on me.  If I really would have been thinking, I may have shed a tear or two...but I was so preoccupied in making sure that the girls' day was successful, I really did not have time to be sad.

Who has any reason to be sad when your kiddo is so excited and ready to begin this new phase in life?

Ok, so he wasn't jumping up and down in an excited frenzy, but the twinkle in his eye told me that he was kind of looking forward to this day.

And apparently he has decided that the Piano Guys shirt will be his first and last day of school shirt from now on.  I told him he better stop growing or he might have a belly shirt by the end of the school year....

Now for the girlies

There was definitely excitement brewing here.

We weren't sure what to expect or how things would go, but we wanted to make sure we looked nice.  After all, it is the first day of school.

(Can I just say that Ellie's sense of style is one in a million and I love it.)

The excitement quickly turned into silliness (for the elementary girls anyway.  Emma is much too mature now as a middle schooler to participate in such shenanigans. ;)

Oh, who are we kidding.

We didn't stay in those clothes!

We did school at home today!

Break out the comfy clothes!

And the silliness continued....

and then turned into somewhat of a meltdown, which I sort of expected to happen, but I still found myself saying, "What in the world have I done?"

Fortunately after some deep breathing and a few words spoken probably a little too loudly, we hugged and kissed and moved on with our school day.

It was a super fun school day.

Bailey even got into the action.  :)

I know it will take us a few weeks to get into a good groove and establish a schedule that works, but I am feeling really good about this decision.

I am loving what I have seen from the curriculum so far and the teachers are really great.

We attended a couple of Back to School events earlier this week and it was a fun- although different experience.

(I forgot to take a picture of Emma.  Oops.)

This year will definitely be different.

Today we were filled with mixed emotions.

It was really weird not being at the elementary school today.

I love that school.

My kids love that school.

I missed seeing all of my friends there today.
My girls missed their friends a little bit too.

I have really felt like a rebel of sorts this week and I think that will continue as the school year goes on.  Especially when we are out and about and my kids will get the question, 

"Why aren't you in school today?"
Not going to a traditional school is really weird to some people,

but we are solid in the fact that we know this is what is best for our family at this time, for this school year.  It is a huge leap of faith for all of us.

But I think we are leaping into something really great.