I can’t believe we’ve completed a whole year of homeschool! Wow, it went by a lot faster than I thought it would, and I enjoyed it even MORE than I expected to. Lily learned to read, write, and basic math. Oliver learned his ABC’s, shapes, colors, and how to count to 10. I take a lot of pride in the progress they’ve made this year .

A lot of people have asked me what we do each day and if I’m still happy with my decision to homeschool. So I’m writing this post to answer those questions.

First of all we’ve switched things up quite a bit over the months. It has kind of been a learning process for me. Trying to find the best way to teach them and make it fun. Recently we started up the work box idea, which basically is a box of their work for the day. I fill it with some work books, science projects, art projects, ect. I’ll do a different post sharing some of my ideas. Anyway, the work boxes seem to be a hit, mostly because I add new fun things each day. A lot of work sometimes, but Pinterest has been a HUGE source for ideas.

We usually spend about 2 hours a day on homeschool, which is pretty awesome because the rest of the day we spend doing hands on learning. Like taking care of the baby…

Taking care of pets (like the ones they catch in the yard)…

Planting our garden…

Learning measurements by baking cookies…

Creating art out of leaves and flower petals…

Learning to cook…

And make messes…

We’ve also found a ton of great ipad apps that the kids love. I like Starfall and ABCMouse the most.

Some other perks of homeschooling…

You can stay in your PJ’s all day if you want .

Breakfast can be a longer more enjoyable experience instead of having to rush out the door to be to school on time. We start school when ever the heck we feel like it. I’m so not a morning person and I’m SO not a punctual person . So this works out great for me.

We get to spend weeks at a time down at our St. George home.

Lily got to be there for the birth of her baby sister and gets to spend all the time in the world with her.

She also gets to spend lots of time with her little bro. It’s so cute to see her watching out for him and even teaching him new things.

People always ask me about the social aspect of homeschooling. Well, I pretty much plan a playdate for her each day and we have even spent our days socializing with other homeschooled students.

We’ve done lots of art projects…

Messy projects…

Book reports…

Science projects…

And tonz of field trips including, cooking classes, art classes, Discovery Gateway, the zoo, hiking, museums…

(Like how there’s a “DO NOT TOUCH” sign right there

We visited a farm…

And did fun family outings like spending the day at the lake collecting treasures in the sand.

There are endless opportunities to learn and endless amounts of things to do and see. So to answer your question, YES! I’m still happy about my decision to homeschool and loving every minute of it.

I hope you are all enjoying this Mothers Day weekend. Isn’t it such a great time of year? To take the time to celebrate mothers. I appreciate my own mom more than ever that’s for sure. Now I really KNOW everything she did for me on a daily basis when I was young.

I put together this short video exposing the “glamorous” life of a mom .

I’m not totally finished with Lily’s St. George room, but I added a few more things and I wanted to show you.

I love how the drapes turned out.  I bought some basic brown drapes from Target, then I had my mom sew on the pink ruffles using the fabric from the bed skirts that came with the bedding set I bought. Obviously I didn’t need the skirts since we have bunk beds.

I got the cute flower wall lights from IKEA.

Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? Are you feeling overwhelmed, inadequate, left out, frustrated, discouraged or unappreciated?

We all have those days or even months when we’re dealing with something upsetting or painful.  Whether it be the loss of a loved one, frustration in your relationships, or even just getting your feelings hurt.  Maybe it’s something someone said or did, or maybe something they DIDN’T say or do. Maybe you’re struggling with one of your children. What ever the cause may be, we have the ability to change how we feel. It’s just a matter of making the choice. MUCH easier said than done though right? I’ve put together a list of 12 steps that might help ease your pain or at least get you on track to having a better day. Repeat the following as long as needed and know that you WILL see better days ahead.

“What we feed will grow. You have to quit feeding those wrong emotions.”

-Joel Osteen

Step 1

SAY A PRAYER!

Of course you knew I was going to say that. Prayer should always be the first thing you do when you need help. God is there for us when ever we need him. All we have to do is ask.

Step 2

TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT

Talking about it with someone you love and trust is very therapeutic. Share your feelings in a non-gossiping way. I always feel better when I can express what I’m feeling as well as get encouragement and advice. My husband has been so great that way. He helps me see things for what they really are… A LIFE LESSON. He helps me figure out what the lesson is and how I can handle it in a mature manner. He’s always there to remind me that I’m a great wife, mother and friend, I tend to forget.  I’m sure you all have someone like this in your life, whether it be your spouse, a friend, sibling or parent. And if you don’t, then give ME a call .

Step 3

READ SOMETHING UPLIFTING

Go online and start using google. Or search the scriptures for answers you need. Find an article that speaks to you and seems to be just what you need to hear. Read it a few times and really ponder the message. You might have a favorite book or even audio that helps uplift your spirits and gives you those positive affirmations you need. I love Joel Osteen’s sermons. Here is one of my favorites.

Step 4

MAKE A LIST

You know how much I LOVE lists . Make a list of all the things you’re grateful for. Then make a list of all the good things about YOU,  remind yourself that you ARE amazing! We seem to forget so easily.  I’m getting better with this as I get older and wiser, but I tend to let peoples opinions about me REALLY get me down. I’ll go from feeling so happy, confident and grateful about my life to feeling completely worthless in every way. Because of one stupid thing someone did or said to me. Pretty pathetic I know.

Step 5

BE PROACTIVE

Let go of your pity party. Release those expectations you have of others and think of how YOU can make a difference in someones life. Look around you… is there someone in need? Someone hurting or struggling? If you can’t think of anyone then pray that you’ll find someone. Bring dinner to a family, or invite them over. Offer to babysit someones kids for the day. Visit the sick or elderly.

What are you good at? How can you use your talents to serve others?

Step 6

WRITE

Write, write, then write some more. Let it ALL out. Put down your feelings on paper. Don’t hold back in any way, then tare it up. You don’t want to hold onto anything that may be hurtful for others to read. Wait a day or two THEN try writing down your feelings again, this time in a more positive way. Try to see the lesson and write about what you’re learning from this.

Step 7

GO FOR A RUN

Get out and get some fresh air. Go for a run or a hike. Then when you get back make yourself a healthy smoothie or salad. You’ll be surprised what exercise, nature and good nutrition can do to your mood.

If weather is not permitting then you can always do a little yoga.

Step 8

IMPROVE YOUR TALENTS

What talent are you working on improving at the moment? Is it singing, writing, cooking, painting, playing an instrument, photograpny? What ever it is start working on it. Getting your mind off the negative feelings and channeling that energy into something thats helping you become a better you will dramatically change the way you feel.

Step 9

BE PRODUCTIVE

Turn on some uplifting music and clean the house, organize a closet or your garage. Just get busy and get things done.

Step 10

PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS

Children have a contagious way of making you happy. Just watching how carefree they are, their innocence and love for the world around them. We can definitely learn from these little babies. Enjoy the moment with them. Take it all in. Notice their little smiles and laughter as you play with them. Smell their hair, kiss their cheeks and look into their beautiful eyes. Seriously the best medicine.

Step 11

SOAK UP THE SUN

The sun always makes me happy. Get outside and sit in the sun for 10-15 minutes. If the sun isn’t shining then try sitting in front of a Happy Light.

Step 12

DO A LITTLE PAMPERING

Get a manicure or pedicure. Get a massage, get your hair done or go buy yourself a new outfit. Go out to dinner or a movie with some friends. If you don’t want to spend any money, then go take a nice long bath with some essential oils, put on some relaxing music, use some deep conditioner on your hair, a mask for your face, then give yourself a mani pedi and finish off the night with a good ol’ fashion chick flick.

May we all see better days and appreciate our struggles because they make us better in the end.

LIFE…

Sometimes it’s hard to understand WHY some things happen. We all know that we can’t have the good without the bad, but why does it seem sometimes the bad is much too much to bare.

Recently we were given some pretty heart wrenching news. Our dear friend Garrett Slack passed away from complications of Pneumonia. He was Sean’s very best friend since the 4^th grade. He was much too young to go. Happily married with 3 small children and one on the way.  Just can’t seem to wrap my head around this.

Last night I was reading through the last text messages Sean received from Garrett. They were planning to go to lunch this week. I laughed with tears in my eyes as I read their humorous communication. They had so much fun together.

Death has never really seemed REAL until now. I’ve never lost anyone that close to me before and although he was Sean’s best friend, I still miss him FOR Sean. Crazy how that happens in a marriage. You really do become ONE. When Sean’s hurting, I’m hurting. I can’t stand the thought of him being without this guy. I knew how great of friends they were, heard all their childhood stories and inside jokes. A friendship like that just cannot be replaced. He was even there the day Sean and I met and Sean’s best man at our wedding.

My heart aches for his wife and kids. My heart aches for Sean, not getting to enjoy more time with his best friend here on this earth. I’m so deeply saddened and even fear stricken.

I think as we get older and begin our families, our fear increases. Probably for the simple fact that we now have more to lose.

The more children I have the more my fears grow. I developed a fear of flying, of fear of motorcycles, fear of heights, fear of germs, fear of ghosts, fear of the dark, and most of all fear of losing a loved one.

We can’t always control what will happen in our lives and we pray to God that nothing bad will happen. Thats where faith comes in. Something I’ve been struggling with lately. Not faith that he exists, but faith that he has a plan for me and no matter what the plan is, it will never be more than I can handle. That’s a promise he’s made to us, but I have a hard time believing it.

We all know that our lives here on earth is a time to test our faith.

Every time things in life seem to be calm and going well, something always happens. Something that brings about stress. And we hate it don’t we? Change for the most part is not fun. We’d like for things to stay the same and just be perfect all the time.

There is a season and a reason for everything in life.

I’m reading this book called Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear by Max Lucado.

He mentions the summary of Solomon (Ecc. 3:1-8)

For everything there is a season,

a time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to build.

A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

Now it’s up to us to understand God’s plan for us. Trust in it. We can’t have the good without the bad.

 I found this picture posted on Garrett’s facebook wall just a few weeks ago with his comment below.

“So grateful for my amazing family…and our little boy on the way ”

-Garrett Slack

We’ve lived in our Salt Lake home for about 6 years now. When we first moved in it seemed to be the perfect home for us. It’s an older home so of course we had a few ideas as far as updating it goes, but the location, layout, size, was all just perfect. Over the years we’ve remodeled the kitchen…

BEFORE

AFTER

The dining room…

BEFORE

AFTER

The great room…

BEFORE

AFTER

the outside of the house…

BEFORE

AFTER

And recently we decided it’s time to do the master bathroom. The original plan was to just open up the space above the garage to give us a little more closet room upstairs. Then after they started we thought, well we might as well update the bathroom while we’re at it. Then we thought, as long as we have the contractors here we better just go ahead and make enough space for a sauna, steam room, and work out room… and uh why not just re-carpet the whole house too since the carpet guys will already be here. Our $35,000 project quickly turned into an $85,000 project. I forgot to mention that as soon as we started the renovation our whole heating system decided to give out which added another $20,000 to the total.

So here we are, construction and contractors everywhere we turn.

We cut out a little balcony in the great room which leads to all the extra open space above the garage which used to be attic space.

Here is a picture of our bathroom when we moved in…

BEFORE

We did a few simple updates right away. Changed the paint color, put in a new vanity, and switched out the mirror and light fixtures.

AFTER

So when we started this project we found a little hidden treasure that I totally forgot about.

This is about all the closet space we had upstairs. It was getting kind of crammed.

NOW, it’s going to be much bigger. Here’s what it looks like with all the construction. I’ll be sure to post the AFTER pics once it’s all done.

Open up the closet doors and you’ll see what we’ve got going on.

This is going to be my new DREAM closet. Can’t wait to show you when it’s all finished.

Such a mess right now. Everywhere I look there’s STUFF, and no where to put it all.

I finally got the tree in Brooklyn’s room finished. What do you think?

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. We made our way back to SLC last week after spending a good long month down in St. George.

I just wanted to show you a couple cute pictures real quick, I’ve got lots of fun things I want to show you in the next couple weeks. I’ve added a lot to our house in St. George and we just started a great big remodeling project in our house here. So I can’t wait to show you everything.

Lately our little dog Dresden has been totally neglected. Adding another baby to the mix has put her last on the list. So on Easter morning I used food coloring to make her PINK!!! Don’t you just LOVE it!!!

Needless to say making her pink solved her lonliness problem. She was the life of the family parties and Lily wouldn’t leave her alone. Dresden feels loved once again

The original plan was to color her hair the night before and say that the Easter bunny did it. I heard that beet juice would work as hair dye so I tried it…

yah, that didn’t work like I thought. It left her hair all sticky and nappy. So I googled “how to make your dog pink”, and I found a youtube video that said to use food coloring. By that time it was almost 2am so I bagged the whole idea of saying the Easter bunny did it. The next morning I gave it a try and it worked like a charm.

Isn’t this a great picture of little Brooklyn

A couple week ago my dear sister in law gave my kids some Hermit Crabs for Olivers birthday. I never even knew you could have a crab as a pet. Apparently you can get them the the pet store and they come all painted like this. So cute don’t you think?

Well at least when they stay inside the shell. Eeee, they kind of creep me out.

Lily insisted that hers slept in her room with her…

A couple hours later she came down and said she could hear her crab moving around a lot and it was scaring her. So we moved it down stairs .

The kids sure had fun with them though. They held them, cared for them, and even had races with them.

The pink one proved to be a winner.

Oliver grew quite attached to his until one day the little crab got sick of him constantly poking at him when he was inside his shell. So he gave Olly a nice hard pinch on his finger. That taught him .

The excitement lasted about a week and they soon forgot about the poor little things. As a result we sadly lost poor Amy (the pink one).

So we decided to give her a proper barrial.

But first we had to see what she looked like outside of her shell.

Dear Amy, you brought us so much joy for the entire 8 days you were with us. We will never forget your creepy little eyes and your scratchy legs that kept us all on our toes, literally. Rest In Peace dear Amy, you will be missed.

All in all it was a great little lesson for the kids. Helped them learn the value of taking responsibility for their own pets and the consequences if they didn’t.

Getting family pictures is always such an ordeal especially with small children. First you’ve got to pick the location, then decide on a wardrobe color scheme. You’ve got to pick the best time of day which is sunrise or sunset. We go with sunrise of course … I’m kidding. I don’t even know the last time I saw a sunrise. I’m definitely not a morning person. Anyway, so then you’ve got to get everyone ready and make it to the location before it gets too dark. And the kids all have to be well fed and in a good mood of course. Good luck with that one.

So last night we attempted this yet again. We were rushing out the door hoping to catch the sunset. Oliver had food all over his face, dirt on his pants and hair was a mess. As I’m chasing him around with comb in hand, Brooklyn’s crying because she’s hungry, tired and needed a diaper change. Lily was complaining about her shoes not fitting right. Sean was on a phone call (work related), and I’m sweating like a pig running around trying to make it all happen.

We get to the place, set up the tripod and timer and away we went…

of course it’s not possible to get one where everyone’s looking at the camera…

or smiling.

We got all kinds of fun ones though.

Some muscle man pictures.

One with the kids and their grandparents. Love this one.

We got the cheesy smile ones…

The bad angle ones. You know as a women, you’ve got to be standing just right in order to look your thinnest . Gotta love the ones that make you look 50 lbs heavier.

Then you get the ones that are just right. Not trying to brag, but I did like how the wind blew my hair just at the right moment and the lighting was just perfect. Then of course I was standing at the right angle covering up all my extra post pregnancy curves I’ve got goin on. Sean keeps telling me he likes me with a little extra junk in the trunk so I guess that makes me feel better.

Here’s Sean doing his famous cover boy pose. We could all learn a little somethin from this guy. Look how he puckers his lips ever so slightly and uses his soft bedroom eyes to top it all off. Utter perfection!

We captured a sweet “mother with her kids” picture. With Oliver picking his nose, Brooklyn looking like she has gas and Lily getting impatient with all the picture taking. Turned out just about right.

Oh now here is another great one by Mr. Sean Escobar himself. Wow! Is all I can say. Just WOW!

This one I’m definitely framing!

Adorable father son picture. Absolutely LOOOOOVE this one. This pretty much sums up their relationship. Oliver couldn’t be happier than when he’s just hanging out with his dad.

And of course we had to through in a couple lovey dovey ones.

I took all these pictures with my very own camera. One of my goals this year is to get better at photography so I can take great pics of my own family. I have the Canon T3i and I LOVE it! We used a cheap walmart tripod this time because I forgot mine back in SLC (we took these pics in St. George if you couldn’t tell). I used a couple different photoshop actions I bought from Pure Photography & Design and some free ones I got from the Pioneer Women. Also I use Photoshop Elements which is the cheaper easier version of photoshop.