Outside Fun

The weather around here lately has been glor-i-ous! Lots of sunshine, plenty of breeze, and absolutely perfect temperatures. {Especially for this whiny mama who despises the heat.} We've spent quite a bit of time outside during the last few weeks. Check it...

 We are loving our swing set!

 Rufus enjoys a good stroller ride every now and then

 Donuts for breakfast at Logoly! {more on this day later}

 Picnic time in the backyard {have I mentioned how much I L.O.V.E staying home?!}

 This dude is so. funny.

 We enjoyed a fun fishing day with Pop & DDar last Saturday.

 Lorelai loved it! {despite her bored expression}

 "No, I wan do it by MYself!"

 Gotta keep that sass, even when you're fishing

 Working on her form

 This boy absolutely LOVES Sam!

 A Saturday morning walk turned into snack time for the donkey. Apparently my stroller is quite tasty!

Scooter time at Nanny & Pappy's house!

We love the sunshine around here! We're fortunate enough to live so close to all of our family. I love that we can spend so much time with them, especially while the kids are little. What precious memories we are making with our sweet babies!

Phone Dump

It's been a while I've never done a phone dump post. They always seem fun, so here goes! Be warned, there will be lots of cuteness in this post. And I am not at all partial... *ahem*

Happy Birthday, Daddy! Jeremy turned 31 on April 1. They had lots of love to give on this day! :)

A little learning time with Lo! We rarely do any form of "formal" schooling around here. Despite that, she's able to recognize and identify nearly all of her alphabet, as well as give the phonetic sounds of each letter. I'd call all of that play pretty successful!

 Professional Mess-Makers, right here.

 

 Pop and Trek-man. Relay for Life.

Why do my kids love playing in the back of a truck so much?

 Such a girly-girl!

 Err...he just wants to be like Big Sister!
*Disclaimer* Daddy wasn't home, and he does not approve of this photo and/or behavior.

Birthday dinner for Mommy. Mmm!

Lorelai and her very best friend, Rufus. 

Springtime fun in the sunshine.

There you have it! There are literally hundreds more, but I will spare you. I think I need to do this weekly. Maybe I can make it a Sunday thing! There is never a shortage of pictures around here. I tend to forget things, so I always want to capture the cuteness...and the hilarity that is our life!

Easter Poses

Just a few Easter pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 

Many tears were shed to obtain these pictures. Since we only get family pictures at Easter and Christmas, I'd say it was worth it.

Falling Off the Wagon

Have you ever set out to completely change how you do something? Maybe it's the way you eat. Or the way you clean. Or the way you dress. Or the way you spend money. Isn't it funny how "easy" it all is in the beginning? It only takes a few days for reality to set in!

I don't know about you, but any time I feel motivated or driven to change something, I always get super pumped. It seems so easy! Especially when you Google it. Stupid Google...such a blessing and a curse. I decided last summer that it was time to be proactive in saving some money around here. After all, when your goal is to be a single-income family, there have to be some sacrifices! 

My first step was cleaning supplies. I've blogged about these before, so I won't bore you with details. I started small, making my own cleaner for my kitchen counters. Soon, I had completely replaced every cleaning product around my house with natural, inexpensive cleaners.  

Laundry soap was my next venture. Simple, safe, and SO CHEAP! I spent around $12.00, about the cost of a large bottle of detergent, on my supplies last June. After nearly a year, I've only had to make my soap one other time, and my supplies are still going strong! I estimate I will be able to make 3-4 more batches before I have to buy more ingredients. Score!

After laundry, came shampoo! I saw the idea on Pinterest, and pondered it for a few weeks before ditching the store-bought, chemical-laden shampoo and conditioner for baking soda, water, and vinegar. My sister-in-law walked me through the process, and I've been dedicated ever since! Well...except the other night...I fell off the no-poo wagon. And I was so ashamed! After getting a tad discouraged with less-than-perfect results {still better than the grease ball my hair had become with shampoo}, I let myself get in a hurry, didn't make myself a new batch of shampoo, and used some leftover shampoo I had in my shower. And I SO regret it! 

But just because I fell off the wagon, doesn't mean I can't jump back on, right?? 

Happy Birthday!

Today is my love's birthday! I counted this morning, and this is the 9th birthday we have gotten to spend together. I count myself so deeply blessed to be able to share birthdays! 

Bless his heart, today really wasn't extra special for Jeremy. He has a wife that is absolutely TERRIBLE with this sort of thing. Seriously. No gifts. No card. Nothing. Like I said...bless him.

He loves me anyway, believe it or not! We did surprise him with balloons and silly string when he got home from work. And I did cook some of his favorite food for him. And he did get a bucket of candy as a "surprise." So maybe all of that counts for something!

Jeremy is so simple to please. Just another reason why we are perfect for each other. Anyone else would be disappointed with such a lack-luster celebration. Not my Jeremy! All he needs is a full belly and a comfy recliner, and he's a happy man! *I do plan to take him to see GI:Joe in 3D this weekend. Surely that counts!*



In other news...I'm trying to get better about blogging...again! Apparently Google Reader is heading out the door. So to keep up with the blog, you'll have to find me on Bloglovin! Maybe I'll improve my blogging habits in the future. I really would like to document more, for memory's sake. You can check out more about Bloglovin here: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

It's been a while! Instead of trying to play catch-up, I just want to post some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

We had a great Thanksgiving! It was low-key, just the way we like it! Well...as low-key as it can be with my wild family! We spent the morning hanging out at home and being lazy. Our afternoon was spent enjoying lunch and laughs with the Dunlaps, and Thursday evening we hung out with Jeremy's parents, munching on leftovers for dinner. *wonderful!*

Check out some fun pictures from our fun Thanksgiving:

 I am still amazed that we got a good shot of EVERYONE! *high five*

 I mean really...how cute are they?!

We had such a great time celebrating such a fun holiday with our family! I'm hoping to post my 30 Days of Thanksgiving soon!

  

The Week in Review

Let's just be honest. I've been a terrible blogger lately. Please forgive me! I think instead of trying to play catch up first, I'm just going to keep it recent. Hopefully, as time allows, I'll be able to add in a few things from the past few weeks.

This week, I stumbled upon a pretty cool website (via Pinterest, of course!) that has several printable packets dedicated to a specific letter of the alphabet. I stayed up til 1:00 Tuesday morning printing "H is for Halloween." Insane, I know! But they are very impressive! I only wish she had made them for all of the letters. 

Tuesday morning, we hit the ground running. We sang our ABeka song, did a few "chores", and introduced the letter Hh! I'm still adjusting to teaching my 2 year old. After teaching 4-5 year olds for the last 2+ years, and receiving no formal training, I've got a lot of learning to do myself! Trek loves saying the H sound, and he even walks around talking about "Homah Howas!" (Homer Horse, courtesy of ABeka.) Since Halloween was Wednesday, we decided to finally make our monster! The original plan was to make a ghost with the puff paint last week, but I dropped the ball on that one, so we went with a monster instead. He was much cuter, if I do say so myself!

(I'm an idiot and can't figure out how to rotate pictures from my phone...)

Be prepared for a mess if you tackle this one at home or at school.

I mixed Barbasol shaving cream, Elmer's glue, and blue food coloring, as per Lorelai's request. Next time we make this puff paint, I will use more glue. I was a little too conservative, and he lost a lot of his puffiness as he dried. But I still think he looks great! I cut out a simple monster shape from our roll of craft paper and let Lorelai go to town! Once she was done, we added lots of eyeballs and a super-cool mouth! Trek played in plain ole shaving cream while we created our Monster Man.

We took another shot at a sensory bin Tuesday afternoon, and it went surprisingly well! Trek kept the area relatively clean, and they stayed busy for quite a while. I just mixed black and white beans, buried a few spiders and skeletons and such, provided a few small bowls for pouring and scooping, and they had a great time!

Thursday morning, we spent some fun time with Grandma Eva at her house. I know I say this all the time, but I am so very thankful for all of our family here! They are always learning, wherever they are. See how much fun they're having learning about their colors and shapes? 

After lunch and a nice long nap, Lorelai and I sat down and tried to do some math and counting. She wasn't in much of a mood for learning, so we only worked for a few minutes before we moved on to making gummies! I found a great recipe here, and it was so ridiculously easy! Lorelai helped me stir...for about 10 seconds. She tried one tonight, and claims they are pretty yummy! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the process. 

This week has been fun! We're getting better and better at this school thing. All of the blunders are on me so far. Stay tuned...maybe I'll actually keep things updated around here!