My Sweet Nurslings

Kenna chillin in her cloth dipe
Madelynn....her eyes are still blue! 3 months old now

She loves the exersaucer now that she is finally big enough:)

Just thought I would share a few recent pics of the girls, they are getting so big. Gosh, how times flies.

Postpartum Weightloss Update

Just a quick update: 123~~~!!! YAY! I am so excited. I havent really bothered trying to loose anymore, but low and behold its coming off anyway:) I am not trying to loose anymore though. Really for a 5'5" medium frame, this is pretty thin, esp since I have DD boobies. lol. My sz 4's are falling off!

The New House

Well, the new house is coming along! The addition is all done, our new bedroom is beautiful and the girl's room is enormous. We have nice french doors and a private patio off our room along with a big walk in closet and canned ceiling lighting. The bathroom has been ripped out and restarted. The hardeebacker is up and everything has been bought for it. Nate starts tiling there Monday. After he tiles the shower, he will tile the entire house, paint, put new kitchen counters/sink in , put the new bathroom countertop/mirror/lighting in and then we will move in. The outside has a few things that need done too. We want to put an arena in for the horses and cross ties, but we will worry about that after we move in. I am so excited to be there. Its not far from our home now, but I want to live there so that I can walk out and see my horses every single day. My chickens will have more room there too and obviously the kids and dog and cats are going to love all the space as well. God has truly blessed us.

Trading Up

Isn't she just beautiful?

My sweet girl, Jersey

Tanner, Maddy and I with Jersey after we bathed her

Dont mind the shorts and boots, its been hot haha!

Well, I agreed to get rid of 2 of our so-so horses for one good, expensive one. I wanted a really good barrel horse with good lines and I wanted a mare. Geldings just aren't my style. I ended up finding Jersey on Dreamhorse and picked her up the next day. She is absolutely AMAZING! I got her for a very good price too because of the bad economy. She has great lines with Bar and Skippy so I am thrilled. She is also double homozygous so she is guaranteed to throw a paint if we breed her! She is only 6 and was trained 1.5 years ago so I love how youthful she is. She is just the kind of horse that you point her in a direction and she goes, nothing scares her or bothers her. She loves water, crosses busy streets and will REALLY get up and go when you barely nudge her. She is just so awesome. I cannot wait to go to our first gymkhana together. We are gonna clean house! So we now have the pony(Dandy), Jersey, and Speck(our appaloosa mare). Life with horses is a life I will never again live. I am truely living now. I can't beleive how much these animals complete me as a person. They are who I am.

Unschooling for the Skeptics

I have found an ingenious way to unschool, all while keeping my husband's nerves at bay so I wanted to share. If you print the content standards for your state for each child for each subject and keep them in a folder, you can mark off each subject throughout the year as you complete them......as life completes them. Its good because you can glance at them maybe once a week and know what is still missing and try and find innovative ways to entice your kids into finishing off these standards. It is the only way to keep Nate's reservations at bay with unschooling so I do it. Its actually nice in my own mind as well though to know that they are getting an education up to standard even without a standardized curriculum. Its hard though because the last thing an unschooler wants to do is measure their child up to other "public schooled peers." I don't do this, but my husband is prior military and now a cop so his nature is to have order in life so I must appease him in this as his helpmeet. I do think as years wear on, he will understand the beauty of no standards to measure against though. I always remember though that things can be done naturally and as part of life and try to make things flow with life, with a little nudge or excitement here or there to make sure certain things get done. As a parent, it is my duty to make sure my kids do get a fulfilled education as much as I do love unschooling and we still do it. I still consider this unschooling because I wouldn't make it boring, regular curriculum and I wouldn't do anything extreme to meet standards. I just do my best to pick these standards out of real life or create opportunities for these standards to be somewhat met. Just an idea for those trying to appease a skeptic! :)

Happy Homeschool Moments

I just want to say how much I enjoy homeschooling. I hope that I am someone's inspiration when they get tired, burned out or just plain want to quit as we all sometimes get. I was there a few months ago and I apppreciate and thank all you homeschool bloggers because you keep me going during those times. I am in an upswing right now though. I am completely in awe and happy to be homeschooling. We are having so much fun this summer, going to $1 movies, lagoons, aqua centers, swimming meet ups and other fun activities with our homeschool group. We are so blessed to have them. I dont know how any family goes without the support of a wonderful Chrisitan homeschool group because I dont honestly think I could. Our group is large and growing and local and supportive and meets frequently and chats online and just plain awesome! The leaders moved our group to an online meetup site recently so we can chat frequently and it has been so neat. My kids just plain amaze me at all they know. We have taught them so much about life and learning and joy and its just so cool that I get to be there and be the one, the one who does all this with them. I am so lucky, so blessed, so happy and try to always remind myself of why I do this when there is a down month sometimes and we all get there on occasion, but the bigger picture plays out and we realize why we are doing what we are doing. My kids are learning and happy and healthy and behind older peers socially who are getting more sexualized and culturalized the way society inevitably does. My kids aren't and for that, I can truely say, I am thrilled.

Some Current Pics

Dandy, our teeny lil 10 hand pony. He is AWESOME
Lexi(my sisters baby, 6 weeks old) and Maddy(just shy of 3 months), arent they adorable?

My sister and her baby Lexi, My brother and his baby Chevy and Me and Maddy