More Preschool Time

We have been homeschooling now 4 months it is going better than ever. Jacob has accomplished everything we had scheduled for him to learn this year. We have learned all of our ABC's visually and sounds, Counting to 20, and he has developed a love for books.

Our not so fun Thanksgiving

It was kind of like a whirlwind a Thanksgiving we will definitely never forget. About a week before Thanksgiving Jacob and Emily both had flu like symptoms but recovered fast it was not long before David got the same symptoms so we assumed that he would get over it fast but by Thanksgiving morning David had a fever for several days that we could not get rid of. We took him to the hospital where we found out he had a tonsiular abcess with a bad infection. Unfortunately I was already scheduled to work the day so I got my mom to manage to take two kids all day to Palatka to my aunts house, thank God for her!

David had already been hospitalized for this same thing about four years ago and found him self in the same situation again being hospitalized until the Saturday night following Thanksgiving. And then being told that as soon as the infection cleared he would need a tonsillectomy:(

Zoo Preschool Class

We started this great preschool class at the zoo we did crafts, hands on animals, and ofcourse really neat snacks. Jacob really enjoyed it and it gave us a chance to see all that was offered to homeschoolers. We experienced snakes, mice, and hawks and many other great animals. Jacob was not a big toucher but I give it to him it was out of his comfort zone.

Halloween Night

This year for Halloween we headed to Bartram Springs for our Trick or Treating to Toni and Eddie Ponce's house. This is Michael's sister's house. They have had us every year so it is kind of becomming a great tradition everyone loves having the kids around. All the neighbors decorate and sit outside to pass out candy and it is a closed in neighborhood so it is perfect for trick or treating. We took our wagon knowing the kids would get tired of walking so we had decided to let Emily do every other house.

Well that was not going to work every house she climbed out of the wagon dragging her very full bag of candy and went running to the door. She loved running up she took off her minie mouse shoes after about house 2! Jacob on the other hand was like a pro looking for houses with lights on, ringing door bells, and saying thank you. All together it was a great night had by all when we were done we put the kids in there P.J.'s thinking they would sleep in the car but nope got home and all they wanted to do was dump out there candy!

Pumpkin Patch

Mandarin Methodist Pumpkin Patch

This year everyone got to pick there own pumpkins out David's to carve, Mom's to cook, Jacob's and Emily's to paint. The kids always love looking around for the perfect pumpkin (Ofcourse Jacob would have brought them all home if he could).

Our Charlie Brown Tree

For so long we have wanted to plant a new Oak Tree in our front yard. What better time than when our kids are young and the tree can grow with our family. We went just to look we went to a nursery that we drive by all the time. There were only a few trees left ranging from $50 (Our great great grandkids could have climbed in that one) HEHE! to $700. It was the end of the season and they all looked pretty gloomy. But there was one sad one that the guy offered us for really cheap if we took it home and planted ourselves and ofcourse no refunds for dead trees. Luckily we had just bought a new truck for David's birthday! So we went home dug a hole BIG enough to fit the entire family in, everyone helped dig the hole! Then David went and picked up what we now call our Charlie Brown tree. We were so excited for one that we all helped plant it and for two that we would watch it grow with our family!

Mickey's not so scary Halloween party

Halloween time with kids has mixed emotions its a scary and fun time. This year we had a space man, minnie mouse, and a pilot, lets just say they were so cute!

We started celebrating by going to Mickey's not so scary Halloween party at Disney World. We made the drive down and the kids had no idea where they were going. We have learned that if we are going somewhere exciting we can not tell the kids until we are in the parking lot otherwise we hear about it for weeks "Are we going today?", "Are we there yet?". We arrived at the hotel dropped our things off and headed to the party. Crazily enough we have been to disney so many times but yet we still got lost, so ofcourse the kids were going crazy dressed in there costumes and still having no idea where we were going. We finally made it rode the monorail over.

All the charactes were dressed as halloween characters and ofcourse Disney World was decorated beautifully! They had a sort of trick or treating road that you follow giving out more candy then our 1 and 3 year old would ever be aloud to eat. The lines were awesome 5-10 minute waits.

My awesome husband does not care for parades but he always gets there early and scouts out the perfect place for the family to sit. The kids just sit in awe and stare at the beautifully lit parade with ofcourse more candy!

Where are you from? Where are you going?

This weekend the ladies of Redeemer traveled up to Epworth By The Sea Retreat Center. Kory and I (my roomie) left about 2:15pm ofcourse after a trip to Starbucks. We both felt like two college kids escaping out of town both for the same reasons. You have two fabuolous moms me ofcourse being the mother of Jacob 3 and Emily 1.5 and Kory being mommy of Elijah almost 4, Ethan 2, and Amelia almost 1, we both had reason for escaping. We arrived after lots of great conversation to St. Simons Island where the retreat was being held and checked in. Our room was nice Kory said it smelled a little like her grandmas purse but where ever we were we were happy to be there. Kory had so bravely offered to do the powerpoint so she headed over and set up. Afterwards we decided to track down Sheila (my awesome sister in law) and Denise. Not being able to get in contact with her we started peeking in windows and knocking on doors until we came to one room we looked in the window and here was this table with a table cloth and a beautiful spread of cheese crackers and other things. We knew right away that was there room! We enjoyed nice girl time before dinner. Throughout the weekend we had laughter and tears for the things that the women around us were going threw. We learned to embrace where you come from and get a good outlook about where you are going. We learned that one of the hardest things in life is waiting on God to answer our wants and needs. And sometimes the things we are waiting on are not what God wants for us, so we must give these things up to God. We learned that forgiveness can be the hardest thing in life especially when someone hurts our child or someone we love. We need to summit all to God.
My favorite part of this weekend was getting to know women I thought I knew but really did not even know the beginning. Sitting on the grass by the marsh sharing stories with women of all ages about where they come from and where God is leading them. I will never forget the advice they shared and the experiences. I appreciate them becomming vulnerable and opening up to a young woman that they did not even know. I will never forget the special moments of this weekend!

Iron Chef Supper Club

So, this month was our month to host supper club we chose the theme Iron Chef which is a show on Food Network where they must make there dishes using a secret ingredient. As our secret ingredient we chose Cinnamon. We really wanted to get in the fall spirit so we chose something that we tend to stuff in the back of the spices during the summer. On September 25 at 6:30 everyone arrived at our house with there cinnamon dishes. We made a cinnamon pork loin and citrus cinnamon punch, there was a rice dish, carrots, and a casserole and for desert coffee cinnamon swirl ice cream (homemade) and cinnamon brittle. We voted on the best dish which was of course the cinnamon ice cream, it was amazing!
After dinner we played minute to win it. David has really caught on to this show and the challenges are really easy to duplicate at home. I think everyone had a great time the games really brought some good laughs. There was apple stacking, ping pong ball in shot glass, Oreo to mouth, cup stacking, paper dragon, egg on light bulb, yo yo with cups, and tissue box game. The pictures definitely bring back much laughter. Thanks to everybody for comming we had a great night.

Skidaway Island, GA

Our Labor Day camping adventure was to Skidaway Island, Ga.
We left Thursday with a tired daddy and Emily on breathing treatments and steroids for a lung infection. We arrived late Thursday afternoon set up camp. There was only a few other campers around we knew that was soon to change. Thursday night was all in all a nightmare, the kids were both overly tired but could not sleep and Emily was not feeling well and was wired due to her Albuterol treatments. Friday morning we woke up VERY tired but were hoping for a better day.




On a great note Jacob has been doing awesome on his tricycle in hopes for a new bike in the near future, so many kids riding bikes at the campgrounds really encourages him.

We took the kids on there first hike and came across a few interesting things, first a skull to some kind of animal and tons and tons of Fiddler Crabs. Being too excited to take their naps that afternoon we put them in the car and drove 30 minutes to Savannah.

Took a beautiful walk in downtown Savannah. The kids had there first bite of fresh Taffy, Gelato, and a souvenir toy.

Needless to say we wore them out so they slept great that night! Saturday morning the campground was filling up so we took a bike ride to check out all of the awesome campers around, then loaded up and headed to Tybee Island, GA.
Absolutely beautiful took the kids to an awesome park, had lunch on their pier, and went swimming in the biggest waves I have ever seen in person! By then the trip had definitely turned around from talking of going home early to having a blast. Our last stop was a hayride the campground was offering for Labor Day and the Interpretive center, where we bird watched and Jacob got to hold a baby turtle and pet a flying squirrel. I love camping as a family and the memories we make.

2010 Family Photo Shoot

For So long we have been looking for someone to capture our families true personalities. No posing, No fake smiling just us having fun in our everyday life. So we finally got a photographer to take us to the beach and she did just that. She let the kids run and play and it was truly a fun experience. You never know what your kids will do when they have a camera on them! Enjoy!

Emily 18 Months

Jacob 3 Years Old

Jacob to Preschool or not

Seems like since Jacob came out of the birth canal we have been worried about sending him off to school. You feel pressured by everyone around you starting to sign there kid up for preschool and don't want your kid to be left behind. So we did just that (because everybody else was) signed him up for a great preschool I made charts and talked to lots of moms in the area and decided on one. About three weeks before his first day I looked him in the eyes and thought what are we doing? We are home so why would we send Jacob for someone else to care for him.

Why can't we do everything they can do? I mean we are his parents the best ones for the job right? So I called the school that day and told them that they can give his spot to someone else who needed it. I immediately begin to research what he should be learning, what he should be doing daily, and what we should be spending our free time doing. Luckily I have lots of support to show me the way and answer the bazillion questions I have.
So I collected some things for us to use for school to make it fun and exciting. On day one I took his cute little school picture (in his P.Js of course), we started our day with what else but a great donut breakfast.

We now fill our days with field trips, craft time, music time, learning to recognize our letters, our numbers, sorting, counting, computer games, reading time, and of course playtime.

The greatness is we all do it together and half the time its so fun he does not even realize it's learning time!

Our First Camping Trip

Hanna Park
This week we embarked on our first caming trip. I planned for weeks the perfect menu and everything that we needed to bring to keep the kids occupied and tummies full. I am amazed at the amount of firsts that we experienced Jacob and Emily both went out and jumped the waves together I can not explain the smiles on there faces! After Emily went to bed we snuck Jacob out and roasted smores with him (we did not trust Emily around the fire).

He set in his little camping chair and did so good cooking his marshmallow and even blew it out when it caught on fire, after he was done he looked at us and asked if he could go take a nap!


We took walks around the campground and Jacob rode his bike and Emily rode her 4x4, we played soccer in the street, and we saw a family of baby kittens right behind our camper.

Jacob and Emily were suppose to sleep in the same bed but the first night there was so much giggling and playing that we had to split them up after that. It is so great when all they have is each other they make it work together.

Saturday morning we decided to take an early morning bike ride we ended up riding ten miles, lets just say the kids had a nice nap in the bike trailer. It was all in all another memory in the bank.