This Summer

We've had a pretty great summer! With just enough down time, and just enough fun time!

After little miss graduated Kinder, we prepared for a BIG trip to KY to visit my best friend, and her parents (who are like second parents to me.)

Believe it or not, I wrote a whole long blog post about it, and then I deleted it.

There's really not much on earth more frustrating than that... so just believe me when I say we had a GREAT trip and we cant wait to go back!!!

-We rolled back into town the day of my sisters Rehearsal dinner, Probably not on the top of the list of things for the matron of honor to do, but I okayed it with the bride and, Praise God, we made it home right on time!!

It was quite a lovely wedding, I must say. 

We had a blast!!!

and these guys clean up pretty darn well. ;)

-We celebrated Fathers Day!

They really DO have the greatest Daddy ever.

-We've eaten entirely too many snow cones....

-We took a day trip to Abilene just for fun!

We went to the splash park

(hello San Angelo.. why don't we have one of these?!?!)

and of course, The Zoo... Our plan was to go to the museum, but it ended up being closed, so we whipped back over to the zoo. We only had about an hour and a half before they closed, so It was a sign of things a changin' that we made it through the zoo in that amount of time. It is a small zoo, but with little ones, it was always a half a day trip for us.

-My MIL wanted to take the kids to NM to visit her sister, so I planned a camping trip for Nat and I. I know, not the most relaxing thing to plan to do when you have no kids; but, we really have been wanting to go camping, so we saw it as an opportunity to trial such a thing with no kids. 

PLUS, 

I married the most fantastic fella who did everything in his power to make the trip fun and relaxing for me. 

He cooked every single meal over an open fire… and let me just say, he's hired! Seriously, I may or may not have tried everything in my power to figure out how to build an open pit for him to cook over a fire every night. 

Ha!

 Then reality kicked in and I remembered he works waaay too many hours in a day to come home and cook me dinner every night. ;) 

Really tho, he would. I would be the one to have to put a stop to it.

I am super glad we decided to do this first round without the kids.. we came away with lots of great ideas!!

we went on a lot of bike rides!

and a few hikes.

We fished.

We tubed down the llano river.

That was heavenly… It really was too hot to tent camp. The only way we could get relief was in the water.

 It was lovely!

…and I got little teaser photos as such. 

The kids had a great time on their little get away. Aunt Shirley "lives in a hotel" aka.. an apartment that has a really cool pool! 

On our last day before we headed home, we made a little detour and went to Fredericksburg.

We just walked around and enjoyed some time together.

-We celebrated the 4th of July with the Roses. We had a great bbq and a great time together! 

-My children have officially grown gills this summer! We have done SO much swimming and I am super excited that we have approximately 2.5 kids that are good swimmers! Payton has really gotten brave and is doing wonderful! Stetson is at a point of sometimes being brave and doing great.. sometimes still depending on his floatie. I think by next summer we will be outta the red zone, and swimming will be a little more enjoyable for this mama. ;)

-We celebrated Nat's 27th birthday! 

and… (I promise I'm almost done)

for the kids special birthday days: 

Madelynn invited her good friend over and wanted to go get their nails done.

For Stetson's birthday he wanted to go bowling… with just mommy and daddy. We all wore our super hero shirts to support the little man.

and excuse me while I show you the scoreboard… 

did ya'll notice who won??

Seriously, I can never beat him at anything, so I'm pretty dang proud I beat him at bowling.

Oops… did I just say that out loud??

:P

Our last little birthday lady wanted to go swimming with the whole fam. 

It was a slight disaster… lets just say we left after one of the children had tummy troubles 

in. the. pool.

Yea… I'm fairly certain that every time we have gone to the city pool, we have been utterly embarrassed by a child "losing control" in the pool.

That evening we had a little get together with our families to celebrate all 3! 

 It was perfect! 

They're so blessed with so many amazing people in their lives!

We are winding down our summer and getting ready to start school! 

I love our crazy summers.

But I love when life slows down a little too.

5

My last little babe has turned 5!

Payton, Payton, Payton.

Isn't she a beauty??

She has definitely been my most transformed child. She is quite the unique girl! The past 6 months she has bloomed into her own little self.

Payton is my little animal lover! We've recently taken in a little dog that was found, and on his way to the pound! He absolutely loves this kids… but he is pretty into Payton. 

She has created her own little fashion! I've had to let my pride down and my perfectly, put together, always looking nice mentality has been thrown out the window. Its been a mama lesson! A good one at that. I am now to where when she comes downstairs dressed for the day, I smile and think -thats my Payton. 

I have grown to love, and look forward to what she picks for the day.

Like this Angry Bird shirt for instance, It kinda irks me. I got it at JBF, it was attached to another shirt that I wanted and I had every intention of getting rid of it. Well, she found it, and now wears it every single day she possible can.

She picks the wildest combinations! The other day I picked out her dress for church. (something that i don't do often, but sometimes I just want my kids to wear other things.) I picked a simple, grey cotton dress. 

Nothing girly. Nothing frilly. Nothing poofy, and surprisingly, she was okay with it! 

She went upstairs to put on a pair of bloomer type shorts…. instead, she came down with purple jean shorts, front of the dress tucked into it.. and then proceeded to go pick out a red and black lady bug antenna head band. 

This is Payton! 

We went to the mall and I needed to get some make-up form Ulta, and of course my girls wanted to try some make up so I told them they could put on a little eye shadow.

 (btw, side story… the MOST embarrassing thing happened while we were there… there was a girl, maybe 17 or 18 putting on make up… Payton, who is bad about staring, was watching her, I quietly told her to stop staring. Well… the girl thought I was talking to her! She quietly told me -oh I was just looking because they're all so close…. 

I was horrified! 

I smiled, hoping that she would re-think what I just said and realize I was talking to my daughter, not her. 

She walked off. 

Aghh! 

Anyways! When I saw Payton's choice of make-up…. It was very much her!

bright and mis matched! 

She is also very into wearing mis-matched shoes. 

The girls have several pairs of Old Navy flip flops… We often have to go on the search when Madelynn wants to wear her shoes. ;)

and heres another fashion choice! 

Lovely, huh?

Nat calls her two-toned… for obvious reasons.

Aside from being a complete fashionista, she loves to be outside, she loves to rides bikes and loves to get dirty!

Oh, and we have been instructed not to call her Payton. She is pretty adamant that that is not her name. She wants us to call her Pooty. A nick name that I've called her since she was a wee thing. 

I adore her. She keeps me guessing, and keeps our home mellow and sweet!

Happy 5th birthday my pooty! Keep on being you!

Our school room

While doing my extensive research on homeschooling, I (me and my type A personality) was shocked by the amount of  moms that were against having a "school room".  A lot of them advising against it…. Regardless of their reasoning, I couldn't comprehend that… and I personally feel like to each their own; So I decided to toss that piece of advice out the window.

Lord knows I couldn't homeschool without LOTS of resources, and LOTS of organization and LOTS of planning. I don't feel like I could pull that off without having a specific space to do so. So, we decided what would be best for us, and that was to turn our 4th bedroom into a school room. I am SO happy we decided to do this. (and shout out to my main squeeze for supporting and helping and making all my crazy ideas come true) We've (me- the brains, him- the brawn) been working on this room for months! I am SO thrilled to have the finished product, and although we haven't officially even started "school" yet… we have spent hours in this room doing arts and crafts, puzzles, and having fun. I love to have a space where the kids have complete access to all their stuff!

Heres the before: We had already taken the bed out, but you get the picture.

My trusty put it together man. 

and the after:

The shelf  in the corner is filled with teacher stuff, and also some pretty great books for the kids as we learn about different things (I went a little crazy at the book fair) The kids desks are in the middle, with each having one of the a set of drawers.

this is the other corner… the black shelf  is filled with kid items. Crayons, markers, learning games, arts and crafts stuff, Playdough, paint. All the way across the room is our little white board, with the shelf under it (which you can't see too well.) It  is full of toys, blocks and puzzles ! I wanted to have a lot available downstairs for the little 2 as they will have a lot more down time.

Heres my little corner. Not totally, Nat does more work on the computer than I ever will. 

Through the french doors.

I know this is silly, but even the tiniest details were planned from the beginning. We've always called this the "school room" because Madelynn would sleep in here on school nights. I smile now when we call it the school room because its a totally new meaning! Also, that color… when we bought this house, I hated it. We went out and bought paint first thing…. but it never got painted. Now, a year and a half later, I am obsessing over the color and think its perfect for a school room. 

Its fun, Its cheery, its happy… and I love it!

4

Our little man turned 4 years old!

 If you'd have asked me when I had a newborn, and a 1 and 2 year old, if I ever thought I would see this day, I woulda told you you were crazy!

 I vividly remember a time being asked how old my kids were and replying with 3, 2 and 1… and I had this feeling like I would never be able to say anything differently when asked. Silly, like duh, of course they'll grow older, but I was in denial! I think it has to do with that -just staying afloat, I don't remember the last time I slept, have I taken a shower today??- good 'ol days of craziness.

Our life is still slightly crazy,  but we love it! Stetson has added just exactly what we needed in our life. Our life would be so boring without him. God knew what he was doin when we had that 3rd ginormous little surprise in our life. Isn't it funny how that works??

He is hilarious! He is his dad, reincarnated... (Except not as naughty as his daddy was ;) Silly, goofy, loves to make people laugh, happy all the time! Well, I shouldn't say all the time. The boy has a mean pouty face… 

He is a mans man, and loves to wrestle, loves loud cars, big trucks, loves to fart…. (its always a competition… and he loves to gross his mama and sisters out) loves anything superhero (his favorite is the Hulk.)

At the same time, he is the SWEETEST little man. He loves to compliment. He often tells me I look pretty, or I smell good. He loves to pick me flowers!

If he stays this way, he will be the PERFECT man when he gets older. ;) 

He loves both his sisters, but he and Payton are still extremely close. It has been funny this year, they both understand that they're both 4. The other day I over heard a conversation they were having… They had this epiphany that he was 4.. and she was still 4 and they got so thrilled when Stetson said "that means we're TWINS" 

Ha! Had to do a little explainin'. 

 He adores his Daddy, and they definitely have a "Stick together" mentality. They are best buds and love to do everything together when they can. I am grateful that Nat has a little buddy… better yet, a mini me. :)

BUT, he has a little place on his heart for his mama too. ;) I'll just leave it at this, He is definitely the baby… and he is definitely my only boy. 

He is still very much into his "Buhlie" (blanket) We have made the rule that he (yes, its a person) stays upstairs after Stetson comes downstairs for the day. Sometimes when I can't find him and its quiet, I need not fret, he is upstairs petting his blanket. 

He loves to dance, and oh he has some moves.. 

But… per the usual, the video won't upload… :( 

So basically, he is a sweetheart, who loves to dance, loves his blanket and his sisters and is FOUR years old!

Happy Bday little man, we adore you!

6

My first born child turned the big S-I-X. 

How sweet 6 is!

We are in new territory. Six year old territory I suppose. I feel like till now, the next age thing has been "go with the flow"… like we just tackle it as it comes. But as we got closer to 6, I noticed she was changing. Not in a bad way, she's just different. I feel like I can really see her maturing. It has been fun!

Now I won't say that this little change didn't come with a little attitude. 

Whew Lordy, that girl has left my head spinning from time to time. She has 2 extremes. She is either extremely happy, extremely loving, caring, sweet, and angelic… or she is the complete opposite. There really is no in between with her.  A lot of her mood depends on how much sleep she gets. I can easily send her to her room and tell her to go to sleep. 

… and I think she knows...

 Giving us a little taste of the teenage years, I suppose. I have found myself wondering how this girl + hormones will be.

I do love her so, she is the epitome of an oldest child. She is a leader, she is bold, she is loud, she is opinionated. 

She is a clean freak. I see myself in her so much in that area… and then I feel bad for her; but at the same time, my heart bubbles over with the idea of having a super clean, super organized child. I was rearranging some decor around in our living room the other day and I had it set up like I wanted… she came up behind me and moved stuff the way she wanted it. 

I laughed… cuz that is so ME!

She is really looking forward to homeschooling next year. We have done a little work this summer, and with all that we do, she has told me that this was not the way she did it with her teacher…. or at her school. I have had to remind her many a times that this is our school and its ok if we do something differently; I am her new teacher and whatever her old teacher did is ok, but my way is ok too. I think she is finally getting the hang of things. We will see when we go full swing this school year.

She is such a little helper. I find myself depending on her a lot, which really shows her age. 

She deffinitely has to have her alone time every day. She will tell you straight up, and she knows when she has an attitude problem, that she needs to go in her room and be alone to re-group. 

She is a pro reader.. and loves to do so.

She is still a girly girl. Loves make up, loves to get her nails done, loves all things pink. 

… but at the same time, she has shocked us with her new favorite show…

Transformers Prime. 

Totally cracks me up because it is SO not her. She likes princess' and girly stuff, yet she will sit and watch Transformers all day if I let her. 

Another kinda big (unfortunate) thing we have run into as of lately is FEAR! My heart aches for her, as I am a very fearful person. I hate to have passed that on to my children. She is scared to eat food that may look different, because she thinks its will hurt her. 

 She often thinks that every day things will hurt her. She asks lots of questions about anything and everything, to make sure that she will be safe doing whatever she is faced with. She swallowed a bug, a little gnat, and she was bawling in fear that it was going to hurt her. Those are the types of things we face daily. Maybe its a stage. Either way, I am praying that fear away.

all in all, 6 is pretty dang exciting! I *think* it might be my new favorite stage in life. 

Changes

Ah! A whole post about me.. that is scary.

2014 has been good for me.. lots of changes! I am not into the New Years resolution hype, but Its always easier to start over new with a FRESH new year.

This is not something I love to be open about. I'm a rather private person in nature and lets be honest, Its embarrassing to me. I was at a point in my life where I was not happy with myself. I was overweight, and I had high cholesterol! Im 25... that shouldn't be happening!! 

So with that wake up call.... I'm now on a journey. January 15th I started it. Not only did I drastically change my eating, but I started going to a Bootcamp 3 days a week and I am proud to say that I have lost 26 lbs, and 17" off my whole body! I still have a long way to go, but I see things happening for me. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Its small, but I see it. I've had some hard days. I have ended many a days with ice cream. I've caved and given in to my hormonal craziness, and I think thats OK! All in proportion! 

I must make a shout out to doTERRA on this journey I'm on. (Yea, I'm one of those oil weirdys.) So much of my success has been because of a few things I take on a daily basis. They've helped me tremendously on my hard days, as well as my good days!

Whew! I can't believe I just let all that out… the REAL deal will be if I ever have enough guts to share my before/after photos. ;) 

Maybe someday.

Another kinda BIG thing in my life is our decision to Homeschool (*gasp*) I am almost positive I've told everyone I know that I would NEVER do that. Never say never (#1 lesson you learn as a parent) So yea, I'm eating my words now. Nat has always been an advocate of HS, I on the other hand, as the one who would be the teacher, was not into it, and he respected that. Many a nights we would talk about it. We were needing to make a decision about this coming  year, and as I prayed for guidance and help, and a change of heart if I needed it, slowly I began to see things differently. I had just what I had been praying for, a change of heart! I began to see that this could actually be possible. 

Its like my eyes were opened to the wonderful benefits of schooling at home. Its such a different way of life, and there is SO much more to it than "school" (as I thought it would be)… its living life with your kids.. with a little sprinkle of school time. :) 

I am excited, nervous, scared, and freaked out! I am severely scared of damaging them for life! I read several places that that is a completely normal feeling to be feeling. That was relieving. We are gonna give it a year and see how it goes. See how my social butterfly handles being home.

Big changes, big changes!

Life these days.

 Its been awhile! Life kinda got busy.. but I am realizing how much I miss blogging!

I'm kinda too far gone to do a "catch up" on life. Ha! That could take awhile. So... I'll just give you the short version of life these days.

Madelynn is wrapping up kindergarten... 3 weeks until summer (can I get an Amen!!) ...and then she graduates, and on to real life!! Ha! I kid, I kid. I absolutely know, and admit that I am an outta control, have no clue what Im talking about, weirdo mom who cant believe my oldest is graduating Kinder. You can laugh. I laugh at myself when it comes to this stuff. Check back with me in about 12 years when she graduates high school and leaves me. Ahh!

We have been extremely proud of her this school year! This last 1/2 of the year, they actually get grades and awards as opposed to checks and letters. We were pretty dang proud that she made the Deans list 3rd quarter! 

She is reading like crazy! Reading everything in sight. We are enjoying her reading us bedtime stories now. :)

Oh and ddid I mention she is growing into a lovely young lady? She has a heart of gold… unless she is tired. She is a COMPLETELY different person when she is tired. ;)

Payton has enjoyed ballet this school year. I am SO glad we were able to get her back into ballet after a not so successful first time around. I am thinking its gonna be her thing. She loves it. She had a recital last week and it was the sweetest!! We loved finally getting to see what she's been working on every week!

Her sweet little class. 

She has also very much enjoyed going to "school" 2 days a week. I think it has been great for her socially. She is a little like her mama and doesn't handle people very well. (Ha!) She's gotten into the groove of things tho, and talk of leaving her teacher/classroom gives her anxiety. My heart breaks for her, as I know the feeling. We are praying that away.

My Lovely! 

Stetson.. oh Stetson. What would I do without that guy?!? More and more I am seeing that he is his dad's son, Nat Jr. is what I call him sometimes. He is goofy, loves to make everyone laugh, and just all around loved by everyone. He is a joy... and 100% boy. He loves to get dirty, loves to be outside... and he has severe allergies just like his daddy... that part, I could do without. It has been a bummer of a spring for him. It has taken a lot to get them under control, but, I think that we are almost there. It involved a Doctors visit which I wasn't thrilled about. But I felt desperate for him. We are praying, praying, praying those allergies away!!

This picture decries him oh so well. :)

Since Dec. Stetson has also been in "school" 2 days a week. (So.. do the math and that means I've been childless 2 days a week.. more on that later) It has been wonderful for him! He absolutely loves it. He even asked one of his teachers if she could come spend the night with him... He is quite the ladies man. ;) He's been caught holding a little girls hand at church, and he knows a pretty girl when he sees one. Lord, help us!

Just look at him, tho. 

Days with these 3 are perfect! Life is so different now. My BABY will be 4 in three months. That seems so foreign to me... but they keep growin and we keep lovin it. They spend 80% of their day outside. Riding bikes, scooters, skating, jumping on the trampoline and playing moms and dads, or puppies and kitties. I could get rid of every toy we own and they would never know it. I am glad for that.

and me.... Shall I just save this for a whole nother post??

I think I will...