My Funny Little Guy

One of the things that I regret about having fallen off of the blogging wagon is the memories that I have failed to record.

I WILL DO BETTER!  ;-)

This little guy DID make me laugh yesterday...

We were practicing his kindergarten sight words, and he got bored with the whole thing and said,
"I want to work on MANLY sight words...like rocket and motorcycle"!

Can't blame him for trying to add a little excitement to the list, can I?

Also, when I picked him up in the carpool line yesterday, he tripped over his own two feet and fell down.  He was totally fine, but looked up to see how his "audience" was responding.

He was deciding whether to create a big show or not.

His teacher (a wonderful, spunky 20 year veteran teacher),  told him that he was fine, and to "hop up". She then laughingly informed me that he was the most dramatic boy that she had ever had!

Wow...

We sooo know that he is dramatic...we experience this on a daily basis...but to have it confirmed...and to that degree...just wow!

Never a dull moment!

Our Summer Vacation

Yes, I know...I have again fallen off of the blog wagon, and have lots of catching up to do...hopefully soon.

However...

We just returned from a fun summer vacation to California last week, and I am proud to say that I have already ordered a photo book with our pictures from Snapfish!

Yea for me...that NEVER happens!

Here is the link if you would like to check it out.

Valentines Day In The Kitchen

Yesterday, Carson and I got busy in the kitchen to make Valentine's treats for everyone.  We made this recipe for Valentine's Confetti.  

Carson knows how to make microwave popcorn, so he got us started by popping our first bag.

After he popped the popcorn, I melted the candy coating.

We poured  it into the popcorn, and added the MnMs.  

Carson then stirred it up for us.

We spread it out on parchment paper to dry.

Carson sprinkled a few more MnMs, and some peanuts on top!  

He was feeling pretty proud of our little project!  :)

His attention span maxed out when it was time to fill the bags,

so I finished that part up.

We were both really happy with how the treat bags turned out!

When Caylie came home from CoOp, we started handing bags out. 

It was fun to give people a treat that we had worked together to make!

Caylie and Christian each made cards for everyone in the family, and they were 

very special. 

 I love things that are made by my kiddos!

Corey got us gift certificates to some fun stores, and then we all went out to eat at Chip's, one of our favorite casual restaurants. 

 It was a fun and relaxed Valentine's day!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Valentines Craft Time

Yesterday, Carson and I had some fun crafty time together.

I got him set up to make Valentines cards for his preschool teachers.

We started by ripping up pieces of scrapbook paper. I let Carson rip up some papers that he liked, and we put them in a little box.

Next, I took a sharpie, and drew a heart on the outside of two folded pieces of scrapbook paper that he would use as cards.

We used a glue stick to glue the pieces of paper inside the hearts.

After he finished filling in his hearts with paper scraps, I asked him to tell me a message to put inside the cards. At first it was all about rocket blasters and things zooming around, but eventually I convinced him that as much as his teachers would love a message about rocket blasters, it really needed to be about them, and Valentines Day...not rocket blasters...he finally gave in. :)

After I wrote "his" message, I drew dotted letters to help him "sign" his own cards.

The one with the white paper inside was a little bit of damage control after he got carried away and smeared the glue stick inside the card...just gotta go with the flow!

He is pretty proud of his cards, and is excited to give them to his teachers next week.

Writing the Waves,
Christi

OK...So I'm A Little Late Posting Our Fall Pictures....

One day in November, we went to a park to shoot some pictures for our Christmas cards. 

I didn't get my hopes up.

 It was a very last minute kind of thing, and kind of thrown together...in broad daylight...with a less than cooperative four year old! 

Sooo...I bribed him with ice cream if he would cooperate...

...and it worked pretty well!

Christian is old enough now that I don't have to bribe him to cooperate...

...but he thought that he

might as well get some ice cream...

ya know...since Carson was getting some...

Can't believe how much my big guy has

grown up in one short year!

Melt this mommy's heart...

My sweet, precious Caylie.

Beautiful on the outside,

but most importantly...on the inside.

Can't believe that she is 17 now.

 Time flies way too fast...

Oh, how I love these kids...

...and they love each other too

...most of the time anyway!

Counting my blessings.

Loving the little things.

And laughing along the way!

So, there ya have it...

another Christmas card to help remember these 

treasured times!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Thanksgiving Week!

Only two more days until Thanksgiving!

We are not doing school this week, and so everyone will get to enjoy some down time!

Tonight I plan to make a late night trip to the grocery store, so that I don't have to deal with the crowds, and then tomorrow, and Thursday morning, I will prepare the dishes that I am responsible for.

Mom and Jeanna will come over for the day on Thursday, and we are all pitching in to pull together our Thanksgiving feast! I can't wait to eat mom's dressing!!!!!!

I. LOVE. IT!!!!!

We hope to do some other fun family activities this week too.

We have talked about driving to Hot Springs, and visiting Garvin Gardens to see the beautiful Christmas lights. We have gone for the last two years, and it is such a fun evening! I think that it will be a tradition!

We also hope to have a movie night at home, maybe go to a movie at the theater, and have a family game night...if we can twist Caylie's arm (she's not much of a game player!)! :)

A funny Carson quote...

A couple of days ago, Corey and I were riding around with Carson, and he was in the back seat singing, "Rock Solid, Hey, Rock Solid"...a song that the kids sing at church a lot (about Jesus...the solid rock), and that he loves! Anyway, he paused for a minute, and then said, "Hey, how does salad rock?" Corey and I didn't even want to correct him, because it was so cute and funny, but we did! He has been singing that song for months, the whole time thinking that he is singing about salad!

Love that kid!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Halloween

We all had a fun Halloween night with our little monkey Carson tonight.

Both Caylie and Christian decided not to dress up in costumes this year. My teens are growing up on me....waaaa! :)

Kinley and her family came joined us for the evening. We decided to go to the Trunk or Treat party at the church that mom, Kinley, and her family attend.

It was a lot of fun!

One of our first stops with Carson, was at a booth where he had a football painted on his cheek.

Mom's group at church had a Veggie Tale's booth set up, and she was dressed up as Madame Blueberry! She and her friends were so cute! They had Veggie Tales music playing, and were doing little dances to the music, and giving out candy.

Carson was proud to have his Mimi dressed up as Madame Blueberry!

Caylie was pretty proud too!

There was a hula hoop booth set up where everyone had some fun!

Christian gave it a shot...

And Corey did too...maybe not so successfully!

Carson got loads of candy, and played lots of fun games!

After Trunk or Treating, we grabbed a quick dinner at Jason's Deli before calling it a night.

It was a fun Halloween!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

So, Here's The Plan...

So, for the record, here are our subjects for the year, and how we plan to tackle them...

Caylie...11th Grade

Most of Caylie's classes are going to be done in group settings. She loves "CoOp"! In our city, there are about 100 homeschoolers that attend a wonderful high school CoOp on Mondays and Wednesdays. Caylie's CoOp classes this year are...

*Art
*Algebra 2
*Spanish 2
*Writing

She will be taking Apologia Chemistry from a teacher that holds a few science classes in her home. Caylie will attend this class with 5 other homeschool friends.

Her "at home" subjects will be...

*World History (modified Sonlight)
*World View (selected memory verses and books)
*Grammar (ABeka)
*Vocabulary (Wordly Wise)

Last year, she did not do Grammar and Vocabulary, but we are adding them this year as extra preparation for standardized testing.

In addition to her academic classes, Caylie is excited about remaining active with the youth group at our church, taking guitar lessons, playing volleyball with our homeschool sports organization, and hopes to participate in some local theater.

Christian...7th Grade

Christian's courses this year are...

*Pre-Algebra (Aleks.com)

*Physical Science (Apologia)

*Writing (IEW)

*Grammar (ABeka)

*Vocabulary (Wordly Wise)

*Spelling (Spelling Power)

*World History Part 2 (modified Sonlight)

*World View (selected memory verses and books)

Christian also participates in our Homeschool Academy that meets one day a week. He gets to take Art, as well as several other classes. He really enjoys his days at Academy.

Starting in the winter, Christian will participate in a 4H Science day camp, called SEEK, that meets one day a week for 12 weeks. He did this last year and really enjoyed it. They spend most of the day outdoors, studying science. Last year they dissected fish, and lots of other "fun" stuff that I am happy to NOT be doing at home! :)

Christian will also remain active with our youth group, as well as participating in football, basketball, and guitar lessons.

Whew!

Never a dull moment around here!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Off To A Good Start!

Well, it appears that I have officially fallen off of the blog wagon!

Caylie has been begging me for months to get back to it, and I have had the best of intentions, but my "to do" list keeps taking over my life.

Another reason that I haven't blogged in FOREVER, is that in my mind, a blog is not really very interesting without pictures. Unfortunately, when I add pictures to my blog, and sometimes, even when I don't, Blogger throws the line spacing all out of whack, and then it takes me WAY to long to get it straightened out. Unless I have a good hour or so, which I never seem to have, I don't even try to blog. Frustrating!

A couple of nights ago, Caylie convinced me that even if I do not include pictures, that I need to be blogging, so that we can keep up with our family memories.

I had to agree.

I'm going to work on doing better. Even if it means that many of my posts will be pictureless.

Ugh.

So...

Today was our first day of school.

Caylie was sooo excited about heading back to CoOp to see all of her friends, and get into the groove of the school year again. She had her backpack loaded with fresh, new supplies, and was ready to roll, with a big smile on her face as I dropped her off this morning. I love that she loves it!

When I got back home, Christian was already sitting at the table, hard at work. We have tweaked our curriculum this year, so we worked through those changes, and had a really good day. We both talked about how much happier we are with homeschooling than we were before.

Sooo glad that we are homeschooling!

So. Glad.

I have been doing preschool activities with Carson most days throughout the summer. Both he and I really enjoy doing these activities, so I will continue to teach Carson this year, even though he is enrolled in a 2 day a week preschool.

Although we always welcome summer vacation, and the break from routine, it is also great to get back into the swing of things in the fall. I enjoy waking up and having a plan for the day!

Tomorrow I will post about what subjects the kids will be studying this year, and how we are going to tackle each one.

Writing the Waves,
Christi

What's Been Going On Around Here

Caylie asked me the other day to just be straight with her.

"Mom, just tell me, are you ever going to blog again?"

I assured her that I would.

But here's the thing...

With 3 or 4 months of homeschooling under our belts now, I can say that we are really enjoying it! I love it so much, and have frequently said that I wish we had started earlier! I am so happy that we made the decision to give homeschooling a try, but I've just not quite found the balance between getting all of my responsibilities taken care of, and still having time to do things like...blogging!

It's getting easier as I get the hang of things. I tweak things that need tweaking, and find ways for things to run more smoothly. Hopefully I will find more and more moments to sit down and blog. I really DO want to have a place where our family memories are recorded, and since I have decided to let blogging replace scrapbooking, I DO need to make it a priority...at least more so than I have been! :)

So here's the latest...

Corey has been out of town this week at broker classes, and so I have had my hands pretty full trying to juggle all that goes on around here. Corey is great to help me with shuttling kids around when he is able to, and without him here, I have been in and out of the house a LOT...which makes it even more challenging to get everything done!

Caylie has been preparing for a play with our local homeschool drama group. She is playing the role of Mrs. Bradley in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". The performance will be on Saurday morning, so this last week or so has been pretty focused on getting everything for the play taken care of. All of the actors are responsible for getting their own clothing together for the show, so that was on our "to do" list, and I am on the committee that organizes food and decorations for the reception, and that has needed some of my attention as well. Today she has dress rehearsal all afternoon. I am really looking forward to the play, and will try to post some pictures soon!

Christian recently started his basketball season with the homeschool team here. He has made new friends, and is enjoying it. He's been having some problems with his heel though. Whenever he plays basketball, he says his heel hurts, but then the pain goes away after some rest. We have an appointment this afternoon for him to get it checked out with an orthopedic doctor. Hopefully, whatever is causing the pain, can be quickly treated, so that he can play basketball without having pain!

Yesterday, Christian and Carson both had appointments for check-ups. The doctor said that both boys were just fine. Christian did have to get 2 immunizations, but he didn't mind too much. Carson, we were told, is in the 92% in both height and weight! We were kind of surprised to hear that. Caylie and Christian were always high on the charts as well, but we had always thought of Carson as smaller than they were at that age. Caylie is 5'7 now, and Christian is VERY close behind.

Well, that's the scoop on what is going on at our house!

Hopefully, I will check back in soon!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Carson's Quote Of The Day

Today, as we drove past a cow pasture, Carson asked, "Mom, do cows have middle names?" :)

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Road Trip...First Stop...Razorback V-Ball!

Tonight we arrived in Fayetteville for the weekend, just in time to catch a Razorback v-ball game.

As we entered the building, the Razorback mascot greeted Carson, but Carson was not sure what he thought about that Razorback! He didn't want to let go of Christian's hand!

He finally, cautiously, agreed to give the Razorback a high five.

After we settled in, and Carson had gotten more comfortable, Corey took him back to the Razorback to see if he would interact a little bit. Carson didn't want Corey to get out of reach at all!

Corey had a little bit of fun by walking in a circle around the Razorback, and watching Carson chase after him...he was NOT going to be left alone with that Razorback!

The big kids and I were watching and recording it from our seats and laughing at how funny he was! :)



It was a fun night, and we all had a good time.

After the game, we settled into our hotel for the night.

We had an early morning coming!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Carson's 3rd Birthday Party

Carson is 3!

Earlier in the week, we celebrated Carson's 3rd birthday with his 3 little buddies. Addie, Rachel and Will. They have been fun little playmates that he has really enjoyed spending time with, and their families are all friends of ours.

Mom came over and helped me quickly pull things together for his little buddies and their families to come hang out in the front yard, and have a very casual (but fun!) Sesame Street birthday party. It was a very laid back party. The adults sat around and visited, and the kids ran around and played in the yard. The main attraction was the Slip and Slide that Corey and Christian had set up!

Carson liked his fun Sesame Street birthday cake from Mickey's cake shop! Mickey's has done our family birthday cakes for years and years. There have been a very few exceptions here and there, when I have tried my hand at cake decorating, but I must say, Mickey's has me beat!

Here he is just checking it out!

Ready to dig in!

Here is the birthday boy sporting some cool shades and his whistle necklace hanging down over that cute little poochy belly. Talk about handsome! That's my little stud muffin!

While the Slip and Slide was lots of fun, the pinata was a pretty big hit too!
It was quite a battle for the kids to get it to break apart, but after many, many hits...

Christian swung the final blow, and the candy came pouring out!

Caylie did some of her photo editing on this picture of Christian breaking open the pinata!

Daddy wouldn't let a perfectly good pinata hat go to waste now, would he?

As we were winding things up, the kids played "Pin The Nose On Elmo"...some were much more accurate than others!

Our wet little birthday boy enjoyed opening up the nice cards and gifts that he was given before his friends headed home.

It was a fun evening, and when it was over, Carson was worn out from running around and playing so much!

We are so glad that you had a happy birthday sweet little Carson! You have added so much joy to our family for the last 3 years! We can't begin to imagine our family without you. You have brought many smiles, many laughs, and lots and lots of sweet cuddles and kisses! We all hate seeing the time fly by, and often talk about wanting to freeze or rewind the clock so that we can keep enjoying "Baby Carson", but at the same time, we sure love the fun little guy that you are becoming! We enjoy you so much! The next year will bring so many changes! You will be so different by the time we celebrate your 4th birthday. So here we go...it's going be a fun ride!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Navy Pier and Poor Little Carson

Well, I guess most trips have a "not so great" part, and ours was a sick little Carson.

In the middle of the night, Corey and I heard a pitiful little cry from the pack-n-play at the foot of our bed, and then he unmistakable sound of a sick little guy! We immediately realized that Carson was throwing up in his pack-n-play, so we rushed him to the bathroom. As we were trying to comfort him, and get him cleaned up, my mind was also spinning...we had a bed full of blankets and sheets that had to be washed, and had no washer and drier! Aaagh!

Oh well, we had more pressing things to worry about at the moment. We moved the big kids into our bed and we slept with Carson in the living room for the rest of the night. Every 30 minutes or so, until about 5 am, he got sick. Finally though, he fell asleep and rested.

When we all got up, Carson seemed to feel better, although he was kind of dragging. We already had tickets to a show and a boat tour at the Navy Pier, so we decided that we could still give it a shot, since Carson would be able to ride around and sleep in his stroller if he didn't feel like participating in the activities.

We still had the dirty laundry problem though. During the night, I had tried to wash sheets and blankets, etc., in the bathtub, but it didn't take long to realize that the bathtub was NOT going to cut it! As hard as we had tried, it is just almost impossible to get through a night with a sick child without creating a fair amount of yucky stuff, so we decided that we were going to have to get to a laundry where we could drop it off, and then pick it up after we finished with our activities of the day.

We found a taxi, and asked the driver to take us to the drop-off laundry.

I think that we flagged down the worst taxi driver in Chicago! It was like being on a terrible, never ending amusement park ride...and with a driver that would NOT STOP TALKING! Carson cried, and we ALL felt like we were going to be sick by the time we got out of that horrible car!

But, moving on, we had a fun day planned, and were really hoping to turn things around!

Here is a picture of Corey and the big kids after we finally arrived at the Navy Pier.

Can you tell that they were all still feeling car sick!?!?


We went to the show in the outdoor theatre, and although it was a good show, with lots of amazing acts, we didn't stay for the whole time. We had seen shows that were similar before, and since Carson wasn't too interested, we decided to move on, and take a look around before our boat tour.

The Navy Pier has a lot to see, places to eat, and fun things to do.

After walking around and checking things out, it was time to get on the boat. Carson had fallen asleep in his stroller already, so he got some rest, and we all enjoyed the interesting boat tour.

After the boat ride, Corey, Caylie and Christian rode the big ferris wheel, and I hung out with Carson, who was still sleeping in the stroller.

Since Carson wasn't at his best, we decided to spend the rest of the day taking turns in the apartment with Carson. Caylie and I did a little more shopping, and they guys hit ESPN zone again.

By the end of the day, thankfully, Carson was bouncing back.

After a pretty good night of sleep, we had another fun day planned...

Writing the Waves,

Christi