Fall Back

So I'm falling back into blogging. I actually missed it but life gets so busy sometimes and this is the first thing to go. Fall is my favorite time of year except for the fact that I am flat broke till spring. We have our anniversay October, my birthday October, Sariah November, Kacey December and Amber Mae January and then just throw in a little thing called Christmas in there and its no wonder were not standing on the corner with a bucket and a sign. But even though its hard it is still my favorite time of year. With the cooler weather and the beautiful colors on the leaves, the bugs are pretty much gone and you get to spend time with family. I love it! I just had a nice moment watching Amber Mae play outside with my next door neighbor. He's an older man probably in his 80's and the girls call him PaPa, his name is Paul and he is the nicest man and like a grandpa to us. He's helped us out so many times when things need fixing. I was just thinking that if anything happened to him I don't think I could live here anymore. I have two great neighbors on both sides of us. The other neighbors is an older couple with their children grown and every holiday they bring us holiday cookies. You really can't put a price tag on good neighbors. Why am I writing that I don't know but I couldn't imagine ever having nicer neighbors than that. Anyway back to my love of Fall....I am going to enjoy this cooler weather for now till it gets too cold than I can't stand it and am ready for spring.

Today at the pool

So today at the pool was nice....I ran into Danielle and Sally and their kids and all the kids were having fun...I snapped a few pictures and then they had to leave....and shortly after they left was when the craziness begins that is Amber Mae....why does she save it all for me and she's so smart to make sure there are no witnesses....so I'm moving all my stuff over to the chairs and I'm not sure why and I've yet to figure it out but since the stroller is just right there....Amber Mae decides to push the entire stroller into the baby pool.....everything and I mean everything goes in and I'm rushing to grab all the stuff floating around....no one rushed over to help...I'm sure they just thought it was too funny....it would have been for me too if it wasn't for the fact that at the bottom of the pool was my cell phone and Kacey's cell phone laying there...I've been drying them out and I think they will be okay...this isn't the first time my cell phones been wet....yeah, I dropped it in the toilet not that long ago, really gross....so I had to fish all my stuff out of the pool and then there were goldfish crackers swimming everywhere in the pool too....So we didn't stay too long after that...and trust me the brakes will be on the stroller evertime we are at the pool for now on.



Macy did a good cheeeessee for the camera here.

He's so cute!

I think they are both going through the crazy two stage....I think Amber Mae is a little bit further advanced into it then Macy.

heres the little booger that is causing so much strife in my life right now.....but i can't resist those chubby legs.

Some Summer Pics 09

Mae is such a water baby this summer she hates it when its time to leave.

we went to Dallas and spent the weekend with my cousin and his family...he has four beautiful girls and our girls have so much fun together.

This is what I call a Kacey sandwhich because as strange as it is Oliver has a Kacey also spelled the same way and they are the same age so thats Kailen in the middle.

Judy was visiting from Guatemala so I got to see her too.

Oliver and Julie's beautiful family with their four girls.

Julie, me and Alex (Olivers sister) when I was younger me and my sister would come and spend a couple weeks in the summer in Dallas with Alex and we would have so much fun together.

Kacey had fun making up dances with Kailen...we had to listen to the same song over and over while they practiced but it was worth it when they showed it off that night after dinner...I'm so glad I'm not the only family that has little girls dances as the nights entertainment for guest.

okay so Amber Mae is such a two year old and not afraid to push other kids off toys to get what she wants....its scary to see her being so mean....what am I supposed to do? I don't want her to be a bully...I'm really hoping that its just her age.

Changes

So if I'm going to be completely honest and I want to share my real feelings. I have to tell you how sad I've been the past couple of days and how hard it really is. Hopefully if someone has felt this way they will know what I'm talking about and I don't think I'm that different from others but I have been really sad and grieving the loss of Kacey not going back to school next year. Any change whether its good or bad is always a loss of something else, thats not to say its not good but it is different and a little like going into the unknown. I think for me thats when my faith comes into play and even though its hard or something that I'm not used to I have to remember that God knows all and that it is his will not mine. I'm even having a hard time that she's not doing cheerleading this year...even though she has lots of dance and music to takes its place its still a death of something else. So yeah I cried a lot last night...and its funny because she's not home from school yet but so far she has been taking it a lot better than I have (knock on wood). I haven't told her how sad I've been because if theres one thing I've learned in my life that even if it hurts or its hard to do that doesn't mean its not the right decision. That is the one thing I'm sure of. I know it will get easier... its just the transitioning that sucks. There definitely is a reason for all things.....its just hard not knowing what those reasons are.

It's been one of those weeks!

Why is it that everything seems to happen all at once....its been crazzzy this week. I can't really get into all of it because it's not exactly mine to tell. But lets just say that I'm searching for someone, praying for others and trying to figure out what the problem is. And it was Jareds birthday this week. So I will start with the good.

My beautiful husband and his brother Derek talking about music like they always do. I got him tickets to the Ben Folds concert coming up and I think him Derek can talk about songs they like and different albums for hours. So this week I've been listening to his songs so I can sing along at the concert....although I don't know that it helps much since I never know the words to songs and just make up my own lyrics.

I am the first to admit I am no genius at making cakes or decorating them. I got this idea from my cousin Pattys birthday cake. So I tried it with Jareds since his favorite candy right now are the crazy core skittles.

Blowing out the candles and no they were not trick candles this time...I totally learned my lesson on that one.

Jared took this pic of me even though my hair looks a little wild...its okay that was at the end of the party and I forgot to take more pics of everyone that was there. I hate it when I do that.

This is the little friend that came to visit us last night. Isn't he cute? We have a ton of these around our house and they make some pretty crazy noises at night. We think they may be the offspring of the tadpoles we raised a couple of summers ago because we don't remember them being around before then and now we realize what can happen when you introduce a new species into your environment. But I don't mind them I like their music.

Now for the bad...... So this is what else happened last night. Amber Mae was having a bad allergic reaction to something and I am yet to figure out what it is (I'm going to have to do some mommy detective work like Rachel) but it got so bad last night she was swollen from head to toe and red and itchy...that picture is after the fact because I was just trying to maintain my sanity at the time I wasn't thinking about taking pictures, so you really aren't seeing how bad it was....so we ended up going to the Emergency Room last night and being there till 2 a.m.....so they could give her some steroid medicine. She was better this morning, not as swollen but still itching some.

You can see her stomach is bruised where she had been itching so much...she's like that on the inside of her legs too. It was so sad to see her so miserable like that. Now I just need to figure out what it was that make her react like that. If you saw her on Sunday you saw how she is allergic to mosquitos, the side of her face was all swollen...well last night was so much worse than Sunday....she hardly looked recognizable.

Bar-B-Q

We had fun the other night at the Pepples house....just hanging out and letting the kids play and getting to know this awesome family that I had just met. Seriously they are so cool. Mary the mom and Jeff the dad and their amazing children (12 in all) and she homeschools them too which is even more amazing. Why is it that families that have a lot of kids are just the nicest and neatest families in the world. Could be that they get it....they get whats most important in this life. Here are some of the pics.

Judy and Ray

It was so funny because Jared made our hamburgers before we went and thought he was pretty cool with adding some minced onion and spices and I think even BBQ sauce.....until the Pepples pull out their hamburgers which were like 4 inches thick and packed with blue cheese and something else....they called our hamburgers baby burgers....it was pretty funny....I haven't even told them yet how we laughed about it on the way home.

Jared with his baby burgers.

Plenty of really good food....which by the way, Amber I need the recipe for the delicious bacon wrapped cheese pepper thing that was so good.

Kids eating....don't ask me what Rachels kids were eating because I don't even know the name of it, some wheat grass or something....I am so kidding with you Rachel...they chowed down on whatever it was.

Here's the babies waiting for someone to come push them along it wasn't charged which is probably for the best, they look like they could do some damage together.

Here's Vic being a little comedian and giving us a laugh with her little get up.

This is Mary, the awesome mother I was telling you about. We matched so I had to make this ink color match too.

I'll match Ambers shirt this time....don't we look beautiful!

My Pearls

You know how they say not to "cast your pearls before swine" well thats how I have felt about something lately that I've been hesitant to tell people about. Because for me its been a personal revelation something that I didn't take lightly and was a hard decision to make. I prayed and fasted and looked at all the options and things have fallen into place to let me know that this is what I should be doing for whatever reason and to be honest I don't even know what that reason is and may never know but if its what I'm supposed to do then I will try my hardest to do it. Okay so what is it I've decided to do its........ HOMESCHOOLING....there I said it I'm going to homeschool Kacey this year. I know your probably as shocked as I was that of all people I would homeschool...but I always told myself that as a mom I would do whatever it takes to make sure my kids have the best life possible.

I have lots of reasons....she will be learning more than she would at school in a shorter amount of time....she will have more free time to do more dancing or whatever else she wants to.....she won't have to change who she is to fit in with a certain crowd or be labled as a certain type of person.....she will be in control of her learning and not be limited by those around her.....we will be able to grow closer as mother and daughter....part of her curriculum will be studying the scriptures so she will grow spiritually....and many other reasons that I don't even know yet.

Yes, I'm worried... you always are when you do something new and unknown but there are so many homeschool groups and activities that she's not going to become a social outcast or freak and the curriculum I'm using goes by the highest standard of all 50 states and there is a teacher assigned to her to help her in anyway if I can't and they have field trips too. I'm just going to take it one year at a time and see how it goes but to tell you the truth I am so excited about spending time with her and getting to know her as she is growing up into a beautiful young lady, she is such an awsome girl, who wouldn't want to spend that much time with their daughter.