Denver Part 2: The Wedding

The Kiss

 We went up for my cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and lots of fun.

The Cake

The Fam





The SleepyHead

My Uncle Alan, Aunt Niki, Haley, Rachel, Lauren, and Taylor
Seriously folks, could they be any prettier?!!!!

Ouray Part 2

Sorry these posts are out of order. We went on a family overnight trip to Ouray. This is the hike: It was a tiring hike for Jonah. When we got back he could see the car at a distance and started running while yelling," YAY, THE CAR!!! YAY!! YAY!!! YAY!!!"  I think we wore him out. He was so happy we were done. What's funny is that he never really complained while we were on the hike.

Leaving the playground. I love those boys.

Leaving Ouray. I love this place. (not this road though)

The Butterfly Pavillion: Denver Part 1



They had a small aquarium there. This guy was HUGEMONGOUS!




Pretty butterfly




My beautiful girl learning about butterflies.




We were all brave and held Rosie. I'm so very proud of myself. (and my kids)




That's Cooper's hand. This is actually a moth.



All of Us on the way. We stopped to drive up some road. Fun Little detour.



We went on a hike while in Ouray.




This is the view from our little detour mentioned above.




The view on the way back.



Homeschooling

So its going.....


Well. We've had our ups and downs, but overall its been good. I'm learning how to be HER teacher and she is learning how to be MY student. Overall, Homeschooling was absolutely the right decision and we love it. Some of the great things so far:

Watching Phineas and Ferb for recess when its rainy

Finishing before noon (not everyday)

Spending the extra time together

Being on a schedule

Being on a chores schedule! :)

Being flexible and changing the schedule if we need to



Some of the challenges:

Getting myself up early (I have to anyway for the baby, but I'm not much of a morning person)

on a side note: its really not that early, I get up at 630, kids are up at 700, we start at 800

Getting her to work quickly

Getting her to work quickly

Getting her to work quickly

not sure why: sometimes I think she's bored with the work, other times I think she doesn't understand and gets frustrated. FINDING the BALANCE--that's a little difficult. I'm learning patience, or trying to. She is very lacksadaisical in her work, but we are working on it.

THE BOYS--oh my I never realized how much the baby 'bothers' me until I sat down and tried to do school. Also the preschooler--he gets LOUD and distracting.

Doing School with the Preschooler: he's only 3 1/2, but I've been VERY non formally doing school with him. He likes to be silly and say the wrong answer when I know he knows it. FRUSTRATING! but all kids do it! Right?!?

So other than having to exercise patience, which I am desperately trying to get better at, things have been going well. Stay Tuned for: School Room Revisited

First Day of Homeschooling!

We started homeschooling today. I was a little nervous, but it went GREAT. We were done by 11:20. We had minor difficulties: loud brothers and baby brothers and working REALLY slow. Well, I turned on my mommy brain; and solved that problem. She was working slow because she was bored and already knew that material. I quizzed her on it (verbally) just to make sure and we skipped that page and moved on. Her mood perked right up and the rest of the day went smoothly! Charlie took a long nap, which helped a lot. Jonah was a little bit of a distraction cause he wanted attention. All those thing will iron out, so all in all it was a wonderful first day. Here are some pictures.

For more info on our first day check this out:  http://www.homeschoolendeavors.blogspot.com/

Summertime...

I made burgers and fries. Jonah likes burgers.

We decided to have a picnic on the porch.

My kids are silly. If one takes a silly picture, then the other one has to also.

Some kids are a little more serious, at least about eating.

Bike Ride



Getting Ready to Go.



We went on a family bike ride. It was so so hot. We rode up to a little cliff and Jesse and the oldest two went on a little hike. I hung out with...Sleepy head.
Can't blame him, it was HOT.

 

Coming Back. Aren't they handsome????

Date Night

Jesse surprised me with a date one night. He had me call dinner in to the Market and we went and picked it up. We went up 'West Mountain' and ate our dinner.The view from where we ate:

That's Us.

That's Jesse.

That's a rainbow.

Movie Night

I found out about an outdoor movie over by the hospital. They were going to show Despicable Me. We surprised the kids with a movie night, but it didn't turn out as planned. The kids were playing on rocks waiting for the movie to start. A little while after this it started to sprinkle....So Aliana made us a little tent.About 5 seconds after I snapped this picture of them in the tent the downpour started and we ran to the car. I looked like this when we got in.

It was one of the funnest nights ever and we didn't even get to see the movie.

New Family Portrait

I drew it myself. I got the ideas from stick figure drawings I found on the interenet.
I think Jonah looks a little more grown up than he actually is, and Charlie isn't
standing on his own yet, but it's still really cute.

Finger Painting

 It was the best day....

The Finished Masterpiece

Very Messy.

Also  Check this out: It's for Charlie's Birthday.   Balloon Wreath  Yes, this is my other blog---the homeschool one. Thought it would be fun to start.

June 10th and 11th--



Married 11 years: Aren't we cute?!



My 3 kiddos. I love Jonah's smile in this shot.

OH MY! He is too cute for words!

Jesse and I went on a hike/climb up at the campground Sat. morning. It was so much fun. Tiring, but lots of fun. We got farther north than we ever had. Made me want to go farther, but we had to get home.

I went to Blue Lake Ranch this afternoon with my mom and Laura. Got this cute picture of my boy.



This is one of the pretty flowers we saw there.