Happy Happy 11 Months To My Angel Baby!

Evergrace is less than a month from her first birthday! I am, yes, even with this being my third, shocked at how fast the first year flies by! Evergrace babbles a ton. When I tell her no she yells at me then presses her tiny lips together! Sister sassy! She can hold her own with her two older siblings. I could just sit and watch the three of them play all day. Not that they would ever spend a whole day playing sweetly, but the tiny bit of time they do is a joy to watch:)! She can say bye bye, MOMMA, daddy, hi, red, and no. She is a climber. She climbed in the refrigerator to grab cheese of the top rack. Her most impressive stunt happened when she climbed in to a covered slide at Joe's Dog House and I had a panicked because I couldn't find her! I was almost in tears! She was happily playing in a slide! She likes to climb the stairs and play in the potty. She isn't walking but very very close! She love the moby wrap still but has also started liking the ring sling again, good news for me. She loves food all food! Is still breastfeeding:)! We plan on continuing nursing for a while. She only likes to drink water. She wears 18-24 month clothes and is on the second to last snap on her cloth diapers. We are head over heels in love with our dragon! She is a handful but she is our handful!

This picture was taken one year ago today! I was 35 weeks!

Preoccupied..

Honestly, all I can do is think about moving! I have never been this excited to move! This is our final destination. This will be our 10th move in a smidgen over 5 years. This is it, and the house is worth the 9 prior moves leading up. I have always imagined our forever house as at least 2 stories and and approximately 100 years old. After experiencing that life with three small children, I am so over it. Our new to us house is one single story, can't express how excited I am to be the owner of one story ranch style house! NO MORE STAIRS! woooo hooo! okay, moving on:). Also we will have 5 bedrooms. Each of the kiddos will have one and still have one to spare! Gone are the days of Evergrace sleeping in the dinning room and not having room for guests. Josh & I are beyond thrilled! I am repainting all of our scuffed up furniture damaged by an absurd amount of moving! We take possession tomorrow! I have been counting down the days! Only one to go!

Really?!?!?!

Well....I did leave them with ice cream cartons unsupervised for at least 87 seconds! Really, who is at fault. Besides it is summer, ice cream for lunch is totally acceptable:)!

**we are not currently of a gluten free dairy free diet, in case you didn't notice:)! more on that in another post

***also, my wonderful and amazing mother is going to buy me a new breakfast set for my new house:) i love my old table and wanted to get matching chairs but they really clash with our new home so i am going to get new!

****um, hey mom, will you buy me new furniture? i actually have it picked out and on hold.....thanks! love ya lots:)!

i LOVE this man....

So very, very, much! Creating memories of bible reading & popcorn snacking:)!

Back on the wagon...

Or, I guess off the wagon, depending on which camp you're in. We decided to homeschool a while back. Much earlier than our public announcement. Recently, we decided on sending EJ and possibly G to preschool. We have returned to our original decision to homeschool...clear as mud? Just a little note to say we are once again and for sure going to homeschool! We are so excited about it and I am very excited that my best friend is homeschooling so I can look over all her lesson plans and compare them to mine....okay okay I am just going to copy hers! HA! I love the idea of choosing what curriculum I want MY children to learn. I have tons of choices, just so happens one of the best is Lindsay's! Other bloggers covered the "why homeschool" topic and did a far better job than I could possibly do so click here, here, or here even here ***if you care to read about why homeschooling is OUR choice for OUR children:) !
***I do not agree with every single word in some of these post but with the majority of it....enough of it not to write my own post:)!

Happy 1st Birthday Daxx!!

My favorite Great Nephew celebrated his first year! EJ & G love Daxx! One of their most played games is pretending that Emery Jai is Meagan and Guice is Daxx.
Party Pics!!

moonlighting....

I have spent the past several, 6 or 7 to be exact, weeks working as a server for Josh. I worked 1 or 2 shifts a week, about 4 hours a shift. I have to be completely honest and say it was great to get out of the house for a bit! Not having a job outside of the home is hard financially sometimes, but the financial stress pails in comparison to the mental strain. For me at least. Talking with people over the age of 4 twice a week without having to yell to be heard or saying just a second because I had to wipe a bottom was AMAZING! I LOVE staying at home, why else would I do it after all:)?!?! But it is super nice to get out, even if it was for work :)! The kiddos had as much fun as I did. They got to go to Mimi's! EJ & G would ask me no less than 100 times a day if it was time to go! We usually ended up getting in the car way too early, just to get them to settle down. E was less than enthused about the separation. She was borderline out of her mind about it. So MiMi called in reinforcements and had Uncle Jamie & Aunt Tina come over to help with the dragon. I am no longer serving, Joshua changed jobs in case you haven't heard. EJ asked me if I could find another job. I can tell that she values me as a stay at home* mom. G wants to still go to Mimi's, he told me that I can go but he doesn't want me to tell him no. Sounds like someone has Mimi around his little finger! My guess is that they ALL do! As soon as they walk in the door they start asking for snacks and juice! No matter what they have just ate. One day I had taken them to eat pie at the Branding Iron right before I dropped the off, it didn't change a thing! Even Evergrace would start demanding food the moment she entered. A HUGE thank you to MiMi, Uncle Jamie, & Aunt Tina!!!!!
Pics of the kiddos having a blast with Papa! They LOVE the wagon rides, every time we are there they must have a whirl! Yes, even Evergrace! I am convinced she has zero clue she is a baby! If the older ones are doing it she has a FIT to do it too!

I am not a fan of the term stay at home mom.....sounds, to me at least, that I am just to lazy to get a "real" job. I haven't come up with a label that fits exactly.....any suggestions:)???