This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to 6 fabulous kids. We are in our 16th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach.

Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.



Sunday, January 31, 2010

365~031 Fishing on the bay


Saturday, January 30, 2010

McKenzie is 5 months!

Click to play this Smilebox greeting: faith 5mo
Create your own greeting - Powered by Smilebox
Make a Smilebox greeting


A little late in posting this, McKenzie is 5 months now!

365~030 Snow tracks


FINALLY!!! The weatherman kept predicting snow and we finally got some. 7 inches so far and it's only 930am.

Friday, January 29, 2010

365~029 Shark tail


Today we went to the VA aquarium for Homeschool Day. The girls and I had a blast seeing all the fish and animals. The overall favorite was the shark encounter, but Montana did not like it one bit. Her favorite was the Sea Turtles. I will post more pictures of the trip later.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

365~028 McKenzie's 5 months


my baby girl is growing way too fast!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

365~026 Slime


In disguise....

"Fool me once, Shame on you...Fool me twice, Shame on me."

--Chinese Proverb.

Five things

It's early here, and I thought I would write the five things on my mind...

1. my daily 1am email from my hubby. I wake up in the middle of the night to read it, respond and then back to sleep. Makes my day!

2. my 3 year old reciting parts of Psalm 23 to her Wonder Pets figures (she is listening and learning)

3. the smell of fresh laundry. You know when you go outside and smell it in the air, love that smell. (it's okay, call me crazy)

4. long, HOT showers. I know I have been in the shower too long when the light turns off ( side note- I am very water conscious, sometimes I just need a little bit longer in there to think and unwind).

5. Pepsi- not diet anymore, just regular. Got to get my caffeine somehow and not minding those extra calories right now.

Chat later!

Monday, January 25, 2010

365~025 Calm after the storm


We had a storm move through the area. Rain and howling wind woke me up very early this morning. The picture is the storm clouds leaving and the sun returning.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Saturday, January 23, 2010

365~023 Frog


this is the girls idea of how to scare Mommy and make her scream. It is hard to tell if it is fake when it's so early in the morning. Yuck!!!

Friday, January 22, 2010

365 ~ 022 Pay toliet


hehe...I have had this sign for a while now. It still makes me laugh at times.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

365~021 Steeple



Don't mess with my lion cubs...or hear me ROAR!!!

You know when you get that 6th sense, the Mom sense. I got that today and I was ready to pounce to protect my cubs. The girls and I needed to go and pick up my book for the Simple Mom book club today after co-op. I don't know what it was but it was almost tangible to me. I take that back, I do know what it was. It was God. God was telling me to guard my daughters and be alert.

Thank you Lord for keeping us safe today.

Grandma, don't be alarmed, all is well.

photo courtesy: onsafari.com


So I decided...

to keep the new commenting system. I like it. Plain and simple, hands down, like it. I know it is hard for some people to accept change, but I like change, in fact I LOVE change. I totally rearrange my house every couple of months. Drives my husband crazy at times but he still loves me :-) I know some of you voted for the regular blogger commenting, but for now I am going to stick with this one. If that means you comment less than I am okay with it...

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

365~020 Baby toes




One of my goals this year is to fit in time to reKindle my love of reading. I love to read, but let's face it most days I am only reading to the girls, which is very important. I want to find time to read for my own personal growth. I have already started the 90 Bible challenge and I am loving my quiet time learning God's word. I'm jumping on board with Simple Mom in her 2010 online book club. It starts next Monday, 25 Jan. and the first book up is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. I am so excited to take this challenge and since I don't sleep well anyways right now, why not spend the time reading and gaining knowledge from books.

Wordless Wednesday


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

365~019 Happy snowman


Comments make the blog world go 'round

Let's face it, it's true. Comments make everyone happy. I have seen a drop in comments since switching over to the new comment system. That makes me unhappy. So, here's the deal, see that poll to the left, pick our fancy and let me know if I should keep this comment system or go back to regular. No hard feelings or anything about it, just let me know how you feel. Thanks a bunch.

Chat later!

Monday, January 18, 2010

365~018



Madison & Mikayla had their first pre-team fun meet yesterday. Whew, what a long day! I have forgotten how long competitions can be since we have been out of competitive cheer. So, here are the girls stats on each apparatus. Not too shabby! Neither of them placed overall in the top three in their groups but it's all good, they had a blast and that's all that matters! Montana has her toddlers fun meet at the end of the month, she is so excited!

I've got a question for you all who shoot your children's sports. What kind of lens do you have? I need recommendations, desperately (see the last photo). I need to be able to zoom in from far away as I most likely will have the little girls with me at the bottom of the bleachers (because bleachers and little kids don't mix, been there...done that). Any recommendations would be great.


Madison & Mikayla waiting for the beam during warm-ups

warm-ups~point your toes


Mikayla on the beam across the gym


Chat later!

Officially official

I am so happy to say that my hubby is officially a Naval Lieutenant. Five years ago in February 2005 we found out the exciting, life/career changing news that would rock our world after 11 years in the Enlisted ranks. Mike was chosen out of thousands of candidates to become a LDO (Limited Duty Officer) Mustang on his first try!!! THANK YOU LORD!!! We would not be moving to Guam (thank you AGAIN Lord), we would be staying in WA for 3 1/2 more years and reporting to the USS Abraham Lincoln as an Ensign . This is a picture of Mikayla when she was two years old standing by her Daddy during his commissioning ceremony at the Seattle Seahawks game against his favorite team, the 49ers. I remember that day so well, surrounded by family and friends.

Grandma Sue (MIL),Mike & I, and Marie, Madison, & Mikayla

Uncle David & Danielle

Seahawk mascot, Blitz & girls




All of these people in the photo above all have a special place in my husband's life and career. His best friend, Craig, who is on the far left has been at his side since "A" School, to Warrant Officer 4 Benjamin (far left), who believed he had what it takes to shine in the Officer ranks. His encouragement and helping hand through the whole selection process was Awesome! Commander Erb , a great leader and woman, who swore Mike in. Mike recalls hearing his name called out on the announcement system and felt like he was being summoned to the Principal's office. Little did he know, what news she had in store for him. Normally you don't go the the Commanding Officer's office unless you did something bad. Chief's Bill, Garris, and Moffitt all encouraged Mike on his way, even though they would have rather had him go on to become a Chief :-).

Here is Mike on pinning day. Pinning had to take place after they left for deployment, so I didn't get to pin on his bars. That's okay though, I am saving it for Lt. Commander in a couple of years.

Great job babe, we are so Proud of you!!!!

Chat later!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Saturday school

It's all in the details with my girls. They love to draw, color, and craft so I decided what better way to get them to retain a bit more of their lessons than to do some note booking with our History and Reading lessons. We had another busy week this week and we didn't get to finish all of our lessons on Thursday or Friday so we did a bit of Saturday School today. The girls didn't mind so we just rolled with it. Marie had finished her lessons before we even started, she is such a go-getter, I love it! Madison and Mikayla and I didn't even start until after 10AM, because I needed to sleep. I haven't been sleeping good lately, it will get better, Mike's only been gone for 2 weeks. Hopefully by the end of February I will be able to sleep the whole night through, hopefully.

Okay, so I digress. In history we are learning about the Pyramids and Pharaohs of Egypt and what life was like. Madison and Mikayla are doing Sonlight Core 1 together this year and we are using The Usborne Time Traveler book
The girls have to write a minimum of two sentences to demonstrate understanding of the story we read. They have been doing very well with this format. Retention has been a lot better, especially with Mikayla. Marie is also doing the same thing with her History lessons on the Story of the World.


After the sentences have been written the drawing begins. The girls spent a lot of time drawing today. Really getting detailed in the pictures. Which I love. I let Mikayla write phonetically and have Madison look words up in the dictionary that she may have trouble with. Mikayla's writing and spelling is getting a lot better too. She is working hard at sounding out and she is remembering grammar rules too. All in all it is a win-win for our home school.
















5QF 1/15/10


It's 5QF (that's Five Question Friday) over at Mama M's. I am jumping back onto this meme, a day late but who's counting, and I hope to keep it up the rest of the year. Why, because it fun, that's why. And I need some extra fun in my life right now. Okay, so here's the dealio, copy and paste the questions into your blog and then answer and link up over at Mama M's. Easy peasy!


1. Worst trouble you ever got into as a teenager?


Let's see, I was a good girl, honestly. I remember one time my friend Sheryl and I snuck out of her house Thanksgiving weekend to go to Denny's when we were 17 years old. At 1030PM. We were young, and we were hungry. But we got caught. When we got back to her house around 1ish, her mom was waiting up...we knew we were Busted. She told me to go home. YIKES!!! I was SCARRED. My drive home usually took 3 minutes, tops. I drove slow, real s-l-o-w. I tell you I was SCARRED. I pulled into the driveway and went through the garage. I was totally expecting the parents to be in the garage waiting for me, they weren't, so I got even more scared. I opened the door to the house and braced myself, they weren't there. I closed the garage door and started to walk towards my room and then I heard my mom say, Jacquelin Marie where have you been.?!? I tell ya, I almost peed my pants!!! I was grounded for a couple of weeks. I wasn't allowed to read (yeah I was a nerd in high school) and I had to stay out in the family room instead of holed up in my room.
Denny's... Mmmm :-)


2. Are you a morning person or a night person?

I am a night owl. I don't sleep very well when my husband is deployed. So I am up reading or surfing the blogs.


3. Are you a one-handed or a two-handed Texter?

Two-hander on the Blackberry.


4. Democrat, Republican, or Independent..or maybe even Green Party (whatever that is).

No comment. Does it really matter what my political stance is or is not.


5. Are you a pet person?

Yes, as long as they are of the four legged kind, and they don't have scales. No hamsters, mice, rabbits, turtles or anything like that. I like dogs and we are going to be getting a Yorkshire Terrier, once McKenzie is a bit bigger. I would love to get a cat but the fur makes Marie's asthma flare.


Okay, now it's your turn. Head on over to Mama M's and link up. This week she is giving away a Visa Gift card. So if you want a chance to win then you've got to link up.


Chat later!

365~016 Wall mural

This mural was painted on the wall at the opthamologists office. Montana got
a kick out of it. She wanted the baby fish to swim away so it wouldn't get eaten. She also decided to catch up on some reading while we waited for McKenzie's turn.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

365~013 Competition Leos

Madison & Mikayla got their competition pre-team leos. Excited would be an understatement. I am so proud of them. They just got back into gymnastics right before the Christmas holiday break. They were out of the gym since June 2009 because of the move, where Madison made level 4 and Mikayla made pre-team right before we left WA. I know Madison will work really hard to get back into level 4 shape so that she can try out for the Level 4 Team in the Spring. Mikayla is doing so good too, she is getting over her fear of heights. Yay! We have a busy weekend, the girls have their first competition on Sunday afternoon. We are excited, lets hope that Montana and McKenzie will do well sitting in the bleachers for over 2 hours. It should fun!

Chat Later!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

365~012 Crazy hair day

Crazy hair time while fixing Montana's hair. She didn't like it, her sisters got a kick out of it, so I fixed her hair normally and we went off to gymnastics class for her.

Monday, January 11, 2010

365~011 Static hair

the cold weather brings the static to Mikayla's hair.

365~010 Sprinkles







Mikayla celebrated her 7th Birthday this past weekend. Auntie Allie gave the girls the Big Top Cupcake for Christmas so they were anxious to try it out. I let Mikayla, Madison, and Montana decorate it how they wanted, with a request of not too many sprinkles. I think they did a great job!

1st Day back

Today was our first day back after the holiday season. Let me tell you it was ROUGH! But we made it through the day. McKenzie decided that she didn't want to sleep last night at 1AM. Not fun. Nothing was physically wrong, so who knows. But 630AM came way too early after I finally got her to sleep. Needless to say I was exhausted by lunchtime. Here are some pictures from our day. Now, I am off to sleep while I can.