7 months/AKA 28 Weeks!!

There's the belly shot from today after I got out of the shower. We are getting closer, 59 days til my induction. I am really getting excited to meet my new daughter.

Learning Through Play

Kenna was so proud of herself that she stacked 3 cans together(she later added her Ba-ba to the very top)

Seeing things like this is pretty normal when it comes to small children, so why do we believe at a certain age that uneeded material should be crammed into kids' brains for their own good? Learning doesnt stop because a child has been deemed "of age" for the "institution" by some politicians. When you learn something you dont need, how long do you retain it? Food for thought!

Happy Birthday Wyatt!

Kenna riding Bob's tractor

fun stuff

game time

Me getting Kenna out of the ride

riding the roller coaster

Nana made this awesome cake, but it started falling before arriving at Chuck E Cheese so she laughed and said that it needed pumped up haha.

A basketball hoop for his room from grandpa

My little Wyatt at age 2
I think he was about 20 months here(see his little Gtube button on his belly!)
Here are the boys this weekend celebrating Wyatt's birthday at Chuck E Cheeses(my camera died after this so I am waiting for the rest of the pics from my father in law)

Opening a few gifts from the family! He got a new basketball outfit, Highschool Musical notebook and pencil set, and a cool professional water bottle the squirts sideways in the basketball players mouths!

My sweet Wyatt is 7 years old today. Its so amazing to watch Wyatt's journey as he grows. He has outgrown and surpassed everything that Drs predicted upon his arrival into this world. I had faith that he would and he has and is everyday. He is a miracle....a walking, talking, eating, breathing, reading, writing, upbeat, compassionate, empathetic, beautiful miracle boy. I am so grateful that my Father in Heaven entrusted him to be part of our family. Happy 7th birthday Wyattman!

3rd Trimester Pick Me Up

I did the color myself for 15 bucks. It took 2 boxes, but cheapy me got the Walgreen's coupon for 5 bucks off the second box of Loreal Excellence Cream. I am very happy with how it turned out. Turning 25 tomorrow and hitting the 3rd trimester this past weekend, I was feeling quite blah and needed a pick me up.

We Finished Maddy's Blankie

The final product! Every stitch is filled with love from all the kiddos
We put purple yarn in the corners of the quiltwork to go with the ribbon edges. Kenna is the all pink girl so we are doing nothing but tons of purple for Maddy so we can keep things seperated, thus the reason for the purple edges and backing.

The back is a pretty floral material. I am so proud of our accomplishment, we learned lots doing it and my kids have a new found love of sewing

Madelynn @ 26W4D

I had to see the specialist wednesday evening for a growth and amniotic fluid scan because I am measuring 3 weeks ahead. It was so nice to see our sweet baby who is indeed measuring large:0) Good thing she is coming early! He said other than being on the bigger side, she is beautifully healthy along with the fluid levels and blood flow to the placenta so it was a great ultrasound.

Her little nose and kissy lips, is this just the sweetest picture?(This is by far my favorite u/s pic I have ever gotton of any of the kids)
Aw my baby girl

side profile

Just Sharing a Family Hobby

Even Kenna enjoys a good game of Tennis
Kayla and Everett

Nate and Kenna

Okay, let's be honest...I wanted to share one of our family hobbies, but I also wanted to brag about our beautiful weather we are having in CA! Hehe, its been in the upper 70's for almost 2 weeks now in the "dead of winter." You just can't beat it!

We Made Cheese!

The items needed to make cheese
The curds and whey

Seperating the curds into cheesecloth

hanging the cheesecloth above the stockpot to drip away excess whey

The cheese!

We were eating cheese the other night and the kids said, "Hey, I wonder how cheese is made." Aha, a perfect moment to jump on. We went to the computer and watched the first youtube video about cheese making that we found. It was how to make Farmers Cheese. It looked so easy that we decided to go the next day and grab the "goods" to make it ourselves. Everyone took turns making it. It was a ton of fun. You can find exact ingredients and the youtube movie on foodwishes.org. Oh and the cheese was VERY tasty!

Ice Fishing

We went to our favorite lake today and spent the afternoon ice fishing. It was so neat to see the lake completely frozen over. First thing, Sandy(our dog) jumps straight onto the ice and falls through. Nate just about had to jump in after her, but luckily she got close enough to the dock that he grabbed her and pulled her up. After that, Nate took a big stick and jabbed another hole in the ice for the fishing line to go in. It was very educational for me because I have never been when Nate has taken the kids in the past. Oh and the best part, we actually caught fish even after the dog scared them......too bad Nate didnt bring a net and 2 of them snapped off before they reached the dock. Oh well, it was still a great adventure.

There is something so serene about a frozen lake
The waters edge and the water all just come together all smooth and snowy
Tanner with a fishy

HOLY COW YAY!

Yes, we are headed there! I am so excited to go to an unschooling conference. If we enjoy this one, we are planning to start saving for one of the cruise conferences. What could be better than meeting other people who do what you do when your such an oddball!? :) It should be really exciting and if you are interested in going, click the picture above and it will take you to the website with prices, hotel accommodations, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to see how inexpensive it is. Hope to see some of you there! Oh and there is a yahoo group that I joined as well, just for the conference if you are interested. Here is the link, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoodVibrationsConference/message/48

An Old Hobby Made Anew

Getting the machine all threaded and ready

Pinning squares together
Kayla taking her first shot at sewing

Tanner is a professional. I mean, this kid is seriously a lean mean sewing machine haha

And Wyatt man(Everett ran away before I caught him to get a pic)

What we completed today, so far!

Sewing was a hobby I had in late gradeschool. I was really into it and self taught myself everything I know about machines, sewing etc through lots of trial and error. As a teen, I reignited my passion, sewing tons of baby blankets for Kayla(as I was pregnant at the time), sewing couch pillows, curtains and other neat things for Nate and I's first home we would be moving to when he joined the military. I have sewed on and off through our marriage, but my machine has been collecting a lot of dust lately. I decided around Christmas to start collecting fabrics from thrift shops along with lace, ribbons, thread and other crafty things so I could start sewing again. I was enticed to pull it out this afternoon after church. I had no idea what to make, but the kids quickly came to my side to see what all the fuss was about. Before I knew it, we were all taking turns stitching squares we cut out into a blanket for baby Maddy. We are going to keep working on it until its all done and wash it and set it aside for her when she arrives. Its so sweet that Madelynn will have a quilt made with so much love by so many hands just for her. It wont be perfect to the craftmans eye I am certain as everyone is learning and I am kind of relearning again myself, but I can assure you that it will be just PERFECT to us! I can't wait to see the finished product. We are even planning on going down to Joannes and grabbing some silk ribbon edge to put on it when its final because all my kids have always loved silk on their blankie edges to rub and they thought Maddy might like that too. How thoughtful! I love my kids and my life and I wouldnt trade it for a billion bucks!

Pursuing Passions

What I love about being a mom is watching my kids grow into their unique selves. When they were really small, I loved to match them all and they all played tball together and everything was sort of done in a group. Well, they are at the ages now where they are all branching off into their unique interests. Wyatt became interested in basketball from watching Highschool Musical 1 and 2 and this past summer his passion became so intense. He practices daily as much as time will allow. We searched out basketball teams in our area and we signed him up back in November for the soonest available team which was January. He started the 9th and I can't say enough how much it just welled my heart with joy to watch him playing on his team and just enjoying himself. All the kids really enjoyed seeing Wyatt so excited and happy. It was infectious. He was so caught up in the moment and so happy, undistracted and if you know Wyatt, you know that he is so easily distracted, but because this is such a passion for him, he just went for it. We have had so much fun getting him basketballs, arm and head sweatbands, basketball shoes and shorts and just watching him flourish.

Green Eggs and Ham

Kayla, my little farmer girl, went out for her daily chicken check and she came flying in the house in excitement. The last of our chickens has finally begun to lay eggs and Jeepie is a special kinda chicken cause she lays GREEN eggs! The kids were all really tickled to see this egg. We officially have 3 laying hens now, but we will be getting many more as well a horse, come spring when we move into our new home on an acre. Can I just say that raising chickens from baby chicks all the way to laying hens has been one of the most awesome experiences for our family.....it rocks!

A Day in the Life of a Radical Unschooling Family

As we are getting much more serious about being complete unschoolers and continuing with peaceful parenting, I felt like documenting an entire day would help Nate and I see exactly how much our kids are learning through the day. Yesterday was a pretty typical day off with Nate, minus the birthday stuff of course. We had so much fun. Our family gets along so well and its just a blast to live a relaxed and happy life. Each day is different and new things come along. Today, Tanner and Kayla went grocery shopping with me. They each got a list and were responsible for getting the items on it including price checking, weighing and measuring fruits and veggies and checking ounces and pounds for the best bargains. They have been begging to "help" me shop like this and I was excited to actually put it into action. It took a tad longer than normal, but so what, it turned a CHORE(I am not a grocery shopping fan haha) into a ton of fun and learning. What math curriculum teaches comparison shopping?

We started the day with Tanner waking up to his birthday gifts from Nate and I. He got a big boy booster seat now that he has reached 4 and 40 pounds as well as some lincoln logs because Tanner loves building toys.
Kayla, Tanner and Everett building the log house
And WALA they did it. How brilliant
They followed the plans exactly and it turned out just right.

Everett helping me cook Tanner's birthday breakfast(sausages in biscuits) to dip in apple butter. This is an old family favorite.

After breakfast, Wyatt asked me to help read a bunch of his Spongebob books to him.

Next Wyatt and I measured out the 2 teaspoons of Motrin he needed for pain relief from his ear ache. Poor boy hasnt been feeling so hot.

They all decided to watch some PBS kids(free tv lol) while I worked out. Note the closed captioning we have on. They actually love it and I swear the boys are picking up reading in just the week we have had it on. They are suddenly accidently spelling and reading signs and other strange things that I never expected. Its funny and they are really excited and asked me to always leave CC on.

Me getting in my morning work out. (no, my Pj's arent modest, just ignore them)

Wyatt decided to go shoot some hoops since the motrin kicked in and he was feeling a little better.

I peaceful parent yes, but we do this weekly and the kids love it and do it joyfully because they know mommy needs some help and can't clean everything alone. I dont specifically make them do it at any certain time. They just seem to do it when it works for them which usually falls in late afternoon when I am cleaning. They are such sweet kids though, they will always lend me a hand when I need other things during the day as well.

Kayla is my animal lover, she enjoys checking the chickens each morning to collect the eggs and her and Everett help each other feed and water them. This is something I have never ever asked them to do. Those two just adopted this as something they love and they do it. I beleive they do it joyfully because they were never forced.

Everett decided to grab his books we got from the library the other day and read and check out the cool pictures of dinosaurs, his latest love.

Everett found the rock making kit in the fun closet and told me he wanted to do them so he grabbed the picnic table and he worked smarter, not harder lol. He put it on the trike and drug it to the perfect spot.

The kids doing their rock art. Wyatt went inside to watch TV and rest because of his ear.

Everett's

Tanner's

Kayla's(she found a heart shaped rock, very cool)

Everett then ran off to go on webkinz. They all love Webkinz and we own too many to count. I actually really love Webkinz too. They learn so much about consumer math, taking care of a pet, reading, typing, etc.

Here is Wyatt resting, watching TV

It was a cute show about recycling. The CC says, "they picked up your trash and dropped it off." This show actually tied in so well with them just having gone to the dump a few days ago, it was kinda funny that it ended up what he watched.

On our way to go hiking and fishing. We stopped at the grocery store and while Nate ran in to buy Cheese puffs and waters to go with our picnic lunch, we read from Farmer Boy.

The view in the car, driving the long dirt road to the new spot Nate found to fish, hike and shoot.

Having our dirt picnic before our hiking/biking. We sat and just listened to all the birds and enjoyed the quiet and desolation.

The kids riding their bikes to the big damn to go fish.

We made it to the dam. It was such a sight. It struck up lots of conversation about dams and how they are built from different materials. I think the kids will probably even want to try making their own.

Nate Shooting the BB gun

Checking out the river that flows into the damn

Nate trying to catch a fishy, but the kids kept wading in the water(yes, it was that warm! I LOVE CA in the winter)

Kayla is getting a really good aim, she shot the water bottle that Nate hung from a tree branch almost every time.

Even Tanner hit the target a few times.

Everett begs to shoot constantly, its definately a passion of his.

Nate helping Wyatt

The entire way along this dirt road, we saw random balloons and we were all laughing about it being a balloon graveyard. The mountains is where all those balloons go that get let go of ya know so hang on to your balloons so you dont pollute! This one was a "Happy New Years" one. We collected the trash and took it home to the garbage.

We got home and ate some pizza and then family came to celebrate Tanner's 4th birthday!

My mother in law made this tasty cake.

I guess Kayla snuck off later in a spare moment during the day and made this rock pal for Tanner's birthday. I thought that was so thoughtful and sweet of her.

Grandpa and Nana got him a really cool truck

and movie

Tanner making his wishIt was his idea to shove his face in the cake haha.

He also got this really awesome Matchbox car pop up station. It folds into a book size case.

Then everyone took baths

After baths, everyone layed down on the couches to veg and watch a little TV before drowsily heading off to bed. I dont impose a bedtime, they just sorta go around 7:30-8:30ish.

I hope you enjoyed living a day in our lives. I know we sure did!