shepsonhome’s blog

i didn't realize how long it had been since my last post.  the pregnancy really threw me off there for a few months, but i am beginning to feel a lot better and even feel like i have some energy again!  we have been staying busy with school and bible study, as well as taking advantage of the gorgeous weather! (it is 85 here today! don't hate me). 

we took the kids to the pumpkin patch nearby and spent the morning picking pumpkins, bouncing in a bounce house, taking a hay ride, and checking out the livestock.  then, dave and i helped the boys clean out their pumpkins and then they carved them the next day.  it was a fun day for all :)  below are some of the pics we took of our crew!

woo hoo! 

it is official.  we sent off our affidavit this week to declare our intent to homeschool!

eeeek!

no, really.  i am okay...

we dug into it this week and i am super excited!  noah and joel each got individual instruction in their subjects as well as group teaching.  so far i am doing the majority of schooling when abbie is asleep so that i don't have to worry about her trying to 'join' us!

abbie always wants to do whatever the boys are doing. 

we are using a core curriculum of Tapestry of Grace with Noah and studying ancient cultures as they occur in the bible.  we are using a Five in a Row curriculum with joel that uses one book every day for five days and teaches different aspects of social studies, history, art, math, science, etc. throughout the week.  this week we were reading "The Story About Ping" written in 1933.  is is definitely a classic.  next week we will focus on "Lentil." 

joel focused on the letter "F" this week and next week we will tackle "B."

noah finished up his Handwriting Without Tears workbook and i just ordered the next in the series.

we are using Truth and Grace memory guide and the Catechism for Girls and Boys.  we start CBS in September and noah will be doing a study of the book of Luke along with me. 

we are using the Put On chart/workbook by Doorposts to focus on character building

noah is also using math and science curriculums geared to his age level (finishing up kindergarten workbooks and heading into first grade). 

every day we do 30 minutes of reading time, and noah usually chooses to read a library book during that time.  his reading is really coming along!  he read Dr Seuss' "Oh The Thinks You Can Think!" yesterday all by himself.  it was awesome! 

the only thing we are missing is a spelling/vocabulary curriculum.  i haven't found one i like yet.  grrrr.

we also had some fun outside the house this week!  we had a play date on tuesday, and a birthday party to go to at a beach!  we had so much fun at each :)

hope you all had a great week :)

another mom and i are trading kids!  at least, for one morning per week so that the other mom can get some quality alone time :)  this morning, all the kids were at our house.  the mix of kids includes noah, age 6, x-man at age 4 (soon to be 5), k-man (soon to be 3), abbie at 2, and little t at 1 1/2.  after the birthdays in august we will have kids aged 6,5,4,3,2 and 1!  for a few months anyway :)  abbie is the only little girl, but she manages to hold her own. 

this morning we had a lot of fun playing with cars and looking at books.  always favorite is the snack, and since i am not too creative with food, we ate goldfish.  after that we worked on our craft.  this morning i cut out fish shapes from 8x10 tacky board and cut out various shapes from multi-colored construction paper.  after that each boy got to decorate their fish.  i wish i had had cool sparkly stuff to put on or some glitter and stuff, but i put this together this morning, so, we made do with what was in the still-in-the-works craft closet. 

our results?

noah had an injury a few months ago that involved a shovel and his finger.  it was a bit gruesome and i was undecided if the nail would actually fall off or not.  well...it did. 

a friend of mine, heather, at the time of injury, told noah about the nail fairy who would make a visit if, indeed, the fingernail fell off.  i thought he would have forgotten about that, but i should have known better.

while we were at the chiropractor's office this morning, it finally came off.  it was hanging by just a small piece of skin, so noah yanked it off and was showing everyone!  in his excitement, he failed to follow mommy's wise advice to put it in his pocket or let mommy hold it and, well...

he (gulp) lost it. 

do you know noah?

do you know how devastated this little boy is that his fingernail is now GONE and he cannot show it to anyone else?

do you know how long we spent at the chiropractor's office on our hands and knees looking for the fingernail?

do you know that a 6 year old boy can cry non-stop for the entire ride home over the thought that his fingernail is now destined to be eaten by the vacuum and that the fingernail fairy couldn't possibly come to our house now?

do you know that the fingernail fairy will indeed make a visit, even sans fingernail, because she is very, very smart, and knows exactly when each fingernail falls off??

what the heck is a fingernail going for these days? 

anyone?

well.  we no longer have a baby in the house.  abbie is officially a toddler.  look out, boys!  she is on to your tricks!!  here are some pictures from her big day :)  enjoy!  thanks to everyone who sent her gifts.  she has had a lot of fun playing with them. 

well.  the month of june has soared by!  we had a good month, minus the illness that ran through here.  below i have put in some pics for you to see how some of our month went.  enjoy!  check out the collection on the sidebar, also, i may have others there not included below. 

i am going to try and so a sort of diary entry every week to keep everyone updated.  i am starting on monday and will post this on sunday night, so it might read a little strange when you read it.  bear with me, i am just trying to make it easier to follow the kids lives :)

monday was pretty calm and quiet.  we had some friends over for a play date so their mom could attend a conference.  we had lots of fun with storytime and snack, and then i braved it and added some homemade play dough to the mix.  it is amazing what 4 little boys will do with that stuff!!  their imaginations just fed off each other and they had a blast!  dave worked pretty late since he will be taking friday off as his mom is coming into town on thursday.  we got a call on sunday night that some good friends of ours are going to be in our area on saturday morning, so we will probably have breakfast with them and then head over to the great aunt's house to bbq and swim and have just a general good time :)  we tried a new recipe for breakfast "Leanne's pancakes."  it had both wheat and white flours, buckwheat flour, buttermilk powder and even some cornmeal.  i was hoping it was good, because i made a HUGE batch of it!  most of which is in the freezer.  despite being a little darker in the middle than normal...oh, my, goodness!!  noah declared they were absolutely the BEST pancakes he had ever tasted!  and i have to agree.  they were so good and hearty that we didn't have any sugar crash an hour later!  they were absolutely delicious!!  glad i made a LOT! (seriously, like 15 cups worth).  lunch was crustless quiche, and they scarf that up, even with the broccoli :)  for dinner i am making BBQ Fish...they probably will eat their mandatory number of bites, then fill up on the veggies...which is fine with me.  as long as i get two good meals into them each day, i am satisfied.

tuesday started off with a morning at the chiropractor's office and then we were off to a fun little place called "Toy Town."  think lots of little playhouses with different themes and dress-up outfits/toys to match.  they all really enjoyed it.  abbie tuckered herself out and went straight to bed when we got home.  the rest of the day was pretty low-key until we got to the "hair doctor's" and got everyone a haircut...even abbie-girl :) she looks very cute!!  and the boys always look so fresh with their buzz cuts!  dinner was left-overs as the fridge was full!!  dave got home pretty late and was in bed shortly after the kiddos.  i stayed up and watched a movie on our ROKU player.

wednesday morning heather watched all the kids for a few hours so i could clean like a madwoman!  there are just some jobs that you cannot do with children underfoot!  all this in preparation for a visit from grandma arlo tomorrow.  the kids relaxed in the afternoon and watched a few muppet's episodes.  we got a disc from netflix that has several episodes from season 1 on it!  they are so funny!  the kids love animal (of course) and the swedish chef.  pigs in space gets a pretty good laugh, too!  after dinner abbie got very grumpy and it turns out she was running a fever of 102.6  ugh!  motrin and an early bedtime for her.  only to wake up at 2 am with another raging fever.  i spent about an hour with her in the rocking chair until it came down and she could fall asleep again.  i didn't get much sleep after that...oh, well!

thursday was alright.  abbie was pretty grumpy with her fevers and needed a lot of mommy cuddling.  i finished straightening up and then we waited for grandma arlo and auntie karin to arrive.  they got here shortly after lunch.  the boys immediately started wrestling on her (yes, i said on, not with)  and they played for a few hours before they had to leave so grandma arlo could rest up for their next encounter :-)  abbie wasn't too interested in eating or drinking much, and was in bed early. 

friday morning i went to the chiropractor's office alone since dave was home.  the kids all eagerly awaited grandma's arrival.  i headed to IKEA after my appt to get the bookshelves and doors, etc to redo the loft area.  my plan is to put things together while grandma is here since the kids look at me like i am chopped liver when she is here anyway.  they aren't too interested in playing with mommy when she is here!  i end up getting lots of stuff done =)  friday evening i noticed that abbie had developed some blisters on her tongue and gums.  not a good sign.  i think we may have the hand, foot, mouth thing.  ugh.  that pretty much eliminates our plans for the next few days.  grandma arlo spent the night to avoid the evening traffic.  we had a delicious dinner of grilled chicken salad (with a yummy viniagrette dressing). 

saturday abbie's blisters were worse so i stayed home with the kids while dave went to breakfast with our friends from california who were flying out of phoenix in the morning.  we all had a restful afternoon so that we could go to auntie karin's for a very delicious barbeque and swimming fun.  abbie actually had fun in the pool despite her mouth.  she laughed and smiled more in the pool than she had in the last several days!  the boys love exploring in auntie karin's backyard (she has lots of desert landscaping, a greenhouse and a great pond).  we headed home around 8 pm, in a bit of a rush so that abbie wouldn't completely melt down while we were there.  but not before we had a delicious ice cream cake drizzled with chocolate!  man, i am never gonna lose any weight if i keep eating like this!! 

today is sunday, father's day.  happy father's day to my wonderful husband!  to my wonderful father!  and to my wonderful father-in-law!  we are gonna have a very low-key day since we are still dealing with illness.  dave got some of those yummy pancakes he has been craving, and then got to go teach the 3 year old class at church.  i got a reprieve since i got up with abbie at 4 am and haven't been back to sleep yet!  that and someone has to stay home with the grump. i hope you all had a wonderful week! 

just FYI...we may be changing our platform soon from vox to blogspot.  vox is getting difficult to use, and it takes forever to load on our computer.  i think it is because we use mozilla firefox.  who knows.  i will let you know when the change takes place!!

let's see.  what did we do this week?

on monday, we had some guests in our home in the morning so that their mommy could quickly get to their auntie's house to help with the home birth of their newest cousin!  all went well...and super fast!  the boys were here for just a few hours and we had fun playing outside and making congratulations cards for the new mommy!

on tuesday we had our 1st of 2 appointments for the week at the chiropractors office.  the kids are getting pretty used to this and enjoy their raisins in a box that i use to keep them in seats til i am done being adjusted. 

on wednesday we took an early morning trip to the zoo with the same friends from monday!  we had a lot of fun seeing the animals eating their breakfasts (we got there at 7:30 ish). and then spent some time in the petting zoo and children's area.  we finally tuckered out about 11 am and headed home, but not before enjoying some sno-cones. 

on wednesday evening, miss olive came to watch the kids while dave and i went to care group (our small group with our church that meets the 2nd and 4th wed of the month).  our senior pastor was there as a guest.  we got to eat dinner out at a local deli/bakery beforehand which was nice!  we also indulged in some yummy pound cake, strawberries and whipped cream...yum!

on thusday we had our second appt at the chiro's office, and the kids all got adjusted as well.  we began the countdown for grandma arlo's visit in one week!  the kids are super excited to see their grandma! 

on friday we went to a local park to play since the day was so beautiful (we have been in the 90's all week instead of over 100). after the park, we went to target to get shoes for the boys, a fishing pole for joel, and some new water cups since we have to take water with us everywhere...

on saturday daddy took the boys to the local pond/lake to fish for the annual free fishing day!  noah apparently does a better job of casting his line than daddy does.  he is a natural, per daddy.  joel had some trouble with his pole and was very disappointed that neither of them caught any fish.  as i write this, they are outside with daddy playing in our inflatable play pool.  abbie is taking her nap and will probably wake up soon...

hope your week was wonderful!

the kids are obsessed.  well, to clarify.  two of the kids are obsessed.  and only one of them is really obsessed!  we started swimming lessons again on tuesday.  noah had no problem acclimating to the water again.  he was so excited to be able to get back in and show off his stuff!  joel...not too happy.  in fact, he spent the first lesson getting in and out of the pool and screaming at his instructor (we dealt with it when we got home and day 2 was much better).  he did indeed stop yelling, although he got in and out a few times.  but on day 2 he went under water.  all by himself.  and didn't swallow any water...and in his words, 'didn't drowned.'  thank goodness. 

our obsessed one is abbie-girl.  seriously.  she gets this huge (and i mean huge..open mouthed, giggling) smile on her face that does not disappear the entire 25 minutes we are in the pool together.  she has to learn to shut her mouth, though, when we go under.  otherwise, she gets a mouthful!!  it was the only time the smile gave way to an 'oh-my-gosh' look, but the smile and giggle quickly returned.  she even jumped off the edge of the pool into my arms several times laughing hysterically as she did it!  she is a natural..and obsessed with the water.  i fear for her safety if we are around an unfenced pool with her...she will probably not even hesitate before jumping in!  needless to say, we limit our social engagements to houses with fenced in/gates locked pools.  way too much stress for me otherwise!! 

if i can convince dave to get in the water with her today i will get some pictures and post them for you! 

hopefully, you all had a great memorial day and enjoyed a long weekend.  i know we did.  but today, it is back to the grind!  i thought i would post a few pics of our celebration yesterday with the kids.  it was a bit difficult to explain the why behind the holiday.  they were more excited about eating cake and decorating their flags.  they spent some time outside with daddy in the earlier part of the day playing with the sprinkler toy...which abbie wouldn't go near.  then they had a relaxing afternoon watching wall-e (very cute movie) and hanging out with the tinker toys.  after dinner (t-bone steak and fixin's *yum*) we ate cake and made flags.  all in all, a pretty good day :)