Graduation

Carson graduated from Kindergarten tonight.  I am one proud mama :)

Happy New Year

I can't believe we are starting a brand new year.  I can't wait to see what 2013 holds for our family.  I'm not really doing any resolutions this year.  My only goal for this year is a closer walk with my Savior. 
Brandon has been sick for the last few days.  Carson decided yesterday that he wanted fireworks.  I loaded all three little ones up and off we went.  I bought a big party box and shot them all by myself.  The boys enjoyed it and we were in bed by 9 :)  My husband did come in at midnight and kissed me on the cheek. 
We spent the day today just lounging around the house.  We did some school work and put together a puzzle.  We watched some cartoons and played the wii.  It was a great new year's spent with my favorite people.

Merry Christmas

Goat farmer

I am hoping to add that to my many titles soon.  I never would have thought that would be my dream job but my excitement is hard to contain.  My first order of business is coming up with a farm name and registering a herd name.
It all started with these guys :) and I fell in love

I recently purchased my first registered doe to add to our little herd.  She has been "exposed" to a buck so I'm really hoping we will have some babies in March.  My plans for this next year is to add a few more registered does to the herd, learn as much as I can about the breed and possibly do a few shows.  I may consider adding a buck at the end of next year but we will have to wait to see.  I definitely want to take things slow because I have three little boys and I'm homeschooling Carson.  I do not know anything about running a business so I'm hoping to keep it a "hobby" farm right now and see how things go.

Birthday boy

My baby is one. Where has this past year gone? I can still vividly remember your fast labor and birth like it was yesterday. You have been such a blessing to our family. You are walking and into everything. You look at your big brothers with such love and adoration.  I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you.

Big day

Today is the day we exercise our right to vote.  We live in this wonderful country were we actually get to vote for our leaders.  I think most of us Americans really take that for granted.  I know I do.  It's hard to imagine living in a place were you can't pick your leaders, practice your beliefs, say what is on your mind.  I know we are extremely blessed.
I also know that no matter who wins this election, God is in control.  He is our leader and I pray that no matter who wins that he is glorified.
B and I took all three little ones with us to vote.  I'm sure that was a site seeing us rolling up in the church with our big double wide stroller.  I really wanted Carson to go and experience it.  We voted while they ran around and played.  Now we get to sit back and watch as the results roll in tonight.  I am praying for change and for our country.
Update:  Not the outcome I was hoping for :(  I pray for our leaders that they will have our best interests at heart.  I pray that Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Logic of English

I decided to switch gears on our phonics approach.  I liked what we were using and Carson was doing really well with it but there was just something missing.  He was asking a lot of questions about things we were not covering yet.  I felt like I was constantly telling him we would learn that later or there was a rule for that and we would learn that later.
I was researching other approaches to teaching phonics when I came across The Logic of English by Denise Eide.  I loved what I saw but Essentials is geared toward older students and I wasn't really sure how to make it work for us.  I heard that the author was in the process of writing a foundations program for Kindergarten students but it was still in beta testing.  I inquired about it and found out they were opening up more slots for people to beta test.  I was a little skeptical about doing it because it's not finished and there are a lot of unknowns.  I decided to go ahead and try it after emailing with the author and asking some questions.
I am absolutely LOVING the looks of this program.  It teaches all the sounds of the phonograms up front.  It teaches spelling rules and incorporates handwriting.  It also teaches grammar.  I'm not sure I'll use it for grammar but it will be a great supplement to use if we choose something else.  The author has done a wonderful job of making this program so open and go.  We love that there are so many ideas and games to reinforce the phonograms and what we are learning.  I went ahead and bought the Essentials book and Teacher manual.  I doubt we are going to catch up but if we do and the program has not gone to press yet I wanted to have the other material to use.  The plan is to do foundations this year in Kindergarten and then start Essentials and work through it over a year and a half.