Birthday fun

We went to the zoo with some friends today for Carson's 5th birthday.  We had his birthday party Saturday and today he wanted to go to the zoo.  We invited my friend Kristen and her three boys, Carter, Camden and Cooper.  I know, that is a lot of little boys with C names.  

I don't think they even really paid attention to the animals today.  They just enjoyed running around playing together.  They played in the water and of course Camron was trying to take his clothes off the entire time :). 

We were suppose to go out to eat tonight but since the little ones did not really nap we thought it would be better to bring some food home.  Well, B went to pick it up in the "hot rod" and of course he would get rear ended.  My mom had to go get the food from him and we ate without Daddy.  I was already putting the boys to bed when he finally made it home.  

Birthday boy

Today we celebrated Carson's 5th birthday.  His actual birthday is Wednesday but we are having his party today.  We have family and friends coming over to cook out and celebrate with us.  We rented a  big monster truck bouncer for the kids.  Tom and Deb are in town to visit so it was a great day.

I really can't believe how these 5 years have flown by.  I remember hearing people talk about their kid's growing up so fast and now I get it.  I'm so blessed to be his mommy.  Carson is a loving, gentle boy.  He has such a big, tender heart.  He is full of questions and wise beyond his years.  I love him so very much.  I can't wait to see the things God has in store for him.

Tired!

Did I mention that I am tired :(  Calen has had some major sleep regression and I'm worn out.  I know he is teething and I'm really hoping that he is back to his good sleeping soon.  B was gone last night so I had all 3 boys in bed with me and I think I had about 2 hours of sleep.  I really do not want to rush my children growing up but I dream about the nights that I have my bed back and can sleep all night.

My mom is gone to Florida so we went and spent some time over with my Dad.  I remember growing up that my parent's argued a lot.  It's funny because now that they are older and home together all day they hate to be apart.  I know my Dad misses her when she is gone so we tried to keep him company for a while.

The baby chicks will be 3 weeks old tomorrow.  Lucy is such a great mom.  She let's them jump all over her and she stays right with them protecting them.  I love to watch her teach them new things like how to scratch and look for food and how to walk up the ramp to the chicken coop.  The other girls kind of ignore them so that's good because I was worried about how they would act.

I started a spiritual journal this week.  There are a lot of thoughts that I don't feel comfortable putting on the internet so I needed a place to write them.  I also wanted to keep up with some of my favorite scriptures so I'm adding those as well.

Garden time

It's that time of year again.  I get so excited about my garden that I can hardly stand it.  It really is therapeutic working in the dirt.  We started planting today.  I like to space our vegetables out so I'm not picking everything at once.  This year I did some lettuce, spinach, green beans, black beans, corn, peas, okra, tomatoes, several different pepper plants, cucumber, squash and zucchini. 

Great day!

I've been neglecting the blog again, sorry.  I keep taking pictures and telling myself that I'll blog and upload them later and that just never happens.  I'll try to just give a quick update of what is going on around here. 
Carson will be turning 5 next month :(  I cry every time I think about it.  Seriously, I want to keep him little forever.  He is such an awesome little guy.  He is so sensitive and caring, a great big brother and helper to momma.  He also is feisty and has a mouth on him that occasionally get's him in trouble.  He is creative and a deep thinker and surprises me with just how much he understands.  We will start homeschooling this year and I think we are going to have a lot of fun. 
Camron is my little bear.  He is very hard to keep up with.  He is the cutest most daring little boy.  He doesn't seem to be afraid of anything.  I love his personality even though he wears me out on a daily basis.  He loves his momma and is such a cuddly little one but has a temper like his daddy.  He loves his big brother and asks for him constantly when Carson is gone. 
Calen is 5 months and is the best little baby.  He has the best personality.  He just sits and looks around absorbing everything going on around him.  He loves to watch his big brothers and you can tell he is eager to join them.  He has the best smile and he loves to cuddle with momma.  He rarely cries and as long as he is fed and well rested he is the happiest baby.  I'm anxious to see his personality develop as he get's older.
We broke up the ground for the garden last week.  I'm really excited about having an in ground garden again.  B and my Dad have been working on putting up a fence this week to keep the chickens and goats out.  I'm hoping to start putting plants in the ground some time next week.  I grew lettuce in a raised bed for the first time.  It is so good!  I've been eating salads for lunch almost every day.
The chickens and goats are doing great.  Lucy, the broody hen, decided she wanted to be a momma about 2 weeks ago so after doing some research I decided to get her 3 one day old babies from the feed store.  We waited until dark and put them under her and she has just loved on them ever since.  It really is amazing to watch her protect them and take care of them.  She is a natural momma.  All the animals are spoiled rotten.  All the chickens run after me like dogs.  The goats love to be out and around us while we are in the yard.  It's fun to have them all running around with us during the day.
B and I are doing great.  B is so good about trying to balance work and spending time with us.  He has really gotten into going to car shows.  He joined the Mopar club and he takes the Dodge and shows it off on the weekends. 
I think that is enough updating in one post.  I think my next post may just be pictures :)

Our Homeschool adventure

We started a very laid back preschool at home this year. I am really laid back about structured learning with young kids because I want my boys to be kids for as long as possible. I want them to explore things and figure things out on their own and just have fun. Carson would start Kindergarten this next school year and I honestly can't imagine my child having to be in school 8 hours at 5 years old. Sometimes I feel like this world is so "hurry up and grow up" that it bothers me.
I had planned on really waiting until Carson was closer to 6 before we started any "schooling" but he asked me to teach him to read. My boys love books and Carson has many of his favorite books memorized and will read them to me. He seems to be pushing me much more than I want him too but he is an eager little one so I'm following his lead. I'm a little OCD when it comes to organizing so of course I had to sit down and get a game plan in place. I'm one of those people that makes lists of my list :) It's a horrible habit! I had several weeks of stuff planned out for us just to see how it goes. It was fun stuff and we were using the "workbox" system.
I've made plans and guess what? We are not following them, LOL. We have been doing some reading lessons and they take 5-10 minutes. If we do other stuff it's strictly because he is asking. I have ordered a few things for him and will plan out some stuff for kindergarten but plan on following his lead with it. We will mainly focus on reading, writing and math.
A typical day around here looks like this

 and this

 and a lot of this :)

My oldest

Carson had Taekwondo testing tonight. He tested for his brown stripe belt. He has been taking Taekwondo for almost a year and he loves it. I can't believe he is going to be 5 in a few months. Where has the time gone? He is such a gentle boy, unless he is wrestling his brother :). He has a big heart and a smile that melts me. He is a great helper and actually enjoys helping. I told him I didn't want him to get too big so he said he would stop eating. LOL! He is also a FUNNY little boy.

A couple of memories from today that I would like to remember. One is a huge army helicopter that kept circling over the house. We've seen it before but today it fly by 3 times. It was so low and we were all running around in the yard yelling and waving our hands. They were so excited. Another thing is all the chickens were out in the front yard and the boys kept running around with them. They would bend down and dare the chickens to peck them :) I love just sitting back sometimes and watching them.