Girl Time

Once a week Aaron and the boys journey to Awana and leave the girls at home alone. I LOVE this time with my little beauty. We play dolls, bake goodies, read books and anything else that crosses our minds. For two whole hours the world includes only Elliana and I. Here are some pictures from our most recent girl night :)

Mama Elliana with her babies.

Elliana is feeding her babies.

Elliana reading books to her babies while they eat.

Cannibals

I mean really, there are many reasons why my family chooses to homeschool our children. And honestly I don't feel the need to stick up for our position. We didn't ask other peoples opinion before making our decision because really we don't care what other people think. That might sound harsh but it is true. I am not going to condemn anyone for sending their kids to public or private school. Those are not inherently bad choices to make. There are many great schools in our community and across the country. But more importantly it does not concern me and thus is non of my business. All that being said it always cracks me up when people say "What about socialization?"

Well here is your answer..Ohio School Official Pulls Biting Student From Teacher's Arm You think I am going to allow my kid to "socialize" with kids who gnaw on teachers arms???? That is going to help them in some way? Like if in the future they see someone gnawing on someones arm they will know how to talk to said person? I think I would rather keep my children at home where they are safe from cannibals :)

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!

My kids LOVE homemade cinnamon rolls. When they asked me to make some today I couldn't resist (although I did resist eating them!). Here is the recipe if you are interested!

Cinnamon Rolls
INGREDIENTS
· 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
· 2 eggs, room temperature
· 1/3 cup margarine, melted
· 4 1/2 cups bread flour
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 1/2 cup white sugar
· 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
· 1 cup brown sugar, packed
· 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
· 1/3 cup butter, softened
Icing:
· 3 T butter, melted
· 2 cups confectioners' sugar
· 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 3 T milk

DIRECTIONS
1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Guess I should blog...

Aaron and the boys are playing Battleship and my baby girl is napping (well almost, I can still hear her sweet voice mumbling). I am getting ready to join my little princess and enjoy an afternoon nap.

The reason for my laziness...I have yet another injury. I know I shouldn't complain. It has been months since my last set back. Aaron keeps reminding me that "athletes get injured". He is 100% correct. And I know the best I can do is minimize the amount and severity. As I attempt to be patient and wait for my knee to heal I am looking forward to my next goal.

Next September I will be running my first half-marathon. I am VERY excited to take on this next challenge.

Gotta go, my napping buddy is waiting....

Little Update..

Not much new is going on in our house this week. We are starting our 7th week of school. Things have been going great in that regard. I think the biggest struggle for me is keeping the right mood. I strive to have a certain atmosphere during our school time. I want my kids to feel comfortable, secure, loved, at home, peaceful, free of distraction, and reflective. I would like them to have that wonderful feeling you get when you are about to cuddle up with a great book. How the world sort of slows down and all you can think about are the covers, pillows and the book.

I have several tricks up my sleeve to help foster this environment. I light a good smelling candle. I keep the lighting not to bright, but not to dim either. The toys and other distractions are picked up before school starts and throughout the day (when needed). I strive to go slow and question the kids to make sure that they truly understand what we are learning. In other words I am not simply checking things off a list. I don't want to have that "gotta get it done" mind set. Homeschooling is a long journey and today is an important part of that journey. I don't want to rush through it, I want walk slowly and enjoy the sites along the way.

Here are a couple pictures-

Even Superheroes get hurt sometimes, and dads hugs are the best..

She LOVES her daddy..

Vacation- Part Two

On Thursday we spent the day visiting family and friends in the Quad Cities. On the way there we saw someone familiar on the truck in front of us.....

At my moms house the kids enjoyed riding the horses and hanging out with Grandma :)

Chicago!!!

Yesterday our family headed to Chicago for a much anticipated vacation. It has been about 4 years since our last stay in a hotel as a family so we were all very excited. We rolled out of town around 7:30 am. Our first stop once we hit the Windy City was Shed Aquarium. The kids loved all the neat fish, especially the sharks. After meandering through all the exhibits we hopped in the van and headed to Sears Tower. Now you all may not know this about me but I am afraid of heights.. actually terrified is a better way to describe the heart palpitations and feelings of EXTREME anxiety. I have not always had this fear. In fact, before we were married I would scare Aaron to death by going out onto cliffs in the Colorado mountains. But in my old age I have acquired this lovely phobia.

Anyway, we headed up to Sears Tower. After going through the metal detector (like that is going to alleviate my fears!) we got on the elevator and headed up to floor 103 (103 people!! That is crazy high!). The kids had a blast looking out over the city. I was doing ok until we noticed an airplane in the sky, very close to where we were. I looked at said plane once and never looked back. I did more looking out than looking down. But ya know they have this new thing you can do on the 103rd floor. It is called the “Sky Deck”. Apparently some genius thought it would be neat to suspend Plexiglas 103 floors in the sky.

Aaron and the kids jumped right in while I held back. You know when you tell your kids your afraid of something like spiders and they do everything they can to find a spider and scare you with it..can you see where I am going with this…they started pushing me out on this transparent piece of plastic…103 floors in the sky! I about had a heart attack. But then I realized that it would be a cool picture to take with my little girl. So I decided to walk out quickly with my eyes shut, sit down and look up at the camera and then get out as quickly as I could… After the Sears Tower we checked in at our hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton on North Water Street. It overlooked the river and the view was amazing! After admiring our room and peaking in at the gym (hey, I couldn’t help it!) we made our way to Lou Malnati's. The pizza was amazing and the company was even better. Once we were stuffed with pizza we trekked back to our hotel and relaxed until bedtime. The view at night was so wonderful. It only took us an hour to get the kids to fall asleep. It was so fun to hear them giggle hysterically when they were supposed to be going to sleep. This morning we hit Michigan Avenue for some more fun! The boys LOVED the Lego store. Elliana and I were very excited to venture into the American Girl Store. When we got to the front door I asked her “Are you ready to see some baby’s?” Her very enthusiastic response was “YEAH!”. We browsed for a very long time. Just admiring all the pretty dolls, clothes and accessories. It was such an awesome mommy-daughter time with my little girl. After a quick lunch, at which the boys realized how tired they were...we headed home….

Giving our kids an advantage

At MOMS group this morning our pastor encouraged us to give our children something that gives them an advantage, confidence or a sense of accomplishment. I read a great article recently that related very well to this topic. If you are interested, visit I Take Joy and enjoy the post entitled Reading as a source of soul strength..

Just some cute pics...

Elliana decided that she needed to stand on this clear Tupperware container.

She put herself in the toy box. Asher offered to close it for her, she did not accept his offer.

My beautiful boys...

hmmmm

I found this cute little website that calculates what a mom is worth. Apparently I should be getting paid $162,000/ year. Not sure who is supposed to be sending out those checks, but I have not received one :)

In all seriousness our jobs as stay at home moms are priceless to our families. If someone offered me a job with a salary of $162,000 I would refuse in an instant.