The Girls- Summer and Fall Pics

Well I took pics in June and again in July in Montana, and then finally did more pictures while I was in Montana in September and here we are almost November and I am just getting around to posting them.  I love these girls!  Trying to get a good picture of 4 of them, not so much.  You would think it would be getting easier by now and it is somewhat except Olivia likes to be a pain in the butt when it comes to pictures. So if she looks a bit crazy that is why!  Tweens!  Lol!

Well I would say more, maybe if I could remember things and had more time. Ha! So I will just proceed with the pics of my sweet girls!

June pictures (ages....11, 9, 6, and 4)

Best Buds!

Why is Aubrey giving herself bunny ears? I do not know and do not remember!  Cute pic despite it...

July Pic in Montana on the gorgeous Flathead River (ages....11, 9, 6, 5).  Unfortunately I literally got this one picture and tried to get one more of all 4 of them and Rae fell and cut her knee open so we had to head back and that was done.  But I do like this one!  Pretty cute!

September Sister ictures and these are my absolute favorite!  I had been thinking of some "western" type outfits for awhile so I was glad these turned out.  After a tough night with Liv.  But we made them work finally!  So many cute ones I had a hard time narrowing it down and lots of fun color variations.  You may be able to see some of the ones where Olivia was being a little difficult and can we say tweeny?!!   Ages....12, 9 1/2, 6 (weeks from 7), and 5.

Buds!

Finally we did some pictures in Whitehall of the our whole family. And here are a few I took of just the girls.  More sweet pictures!

 I'm doing my best  to get caught up on my blogging, but man I have been so busy and tired in the evenings that I haven't been keeping up well and now I need to start working on Christmas stuff!  Just keep plugging, plugging, plugging!  That is my motto!  Hopefully you will see individual girl posts coming soon and of course our Montana trip in September and October Highlights!  Oy!

School Starts!

We started school on September 5th.  What I like to call a soft start, where we start with some math and then we add language arts, and so on and so forth.  We were also planning to go to Montana for 2 weeks so I was not super motivated to get a full load going only to put it on hold 2 weeks later.  And I was still thick in the preserving of tomatoes and veggies from the garden.  I have a lot of tomatoes in my freezer!  Lol!!

Anyways this year I am homeschooling a 6th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader, and Pre-K.  Yes Raelyn is 5 and old enough to be in Kindergarten, but we feel that with her summer birthday we would rather her be old for her grade than young.  But she is my most excited about school!  She loves to work on her books and do the Ziggy reading program we have.  Aubrey is working hard on her math and learning to read.  It is hard to learn to read.  Having taught 2 now I know this and it helps me to be more patient with her and her to be patient with herself as she learns to read.  She is doing really well so far and hopefully it will just click for her someday in the near future.  Claire is a lot more independent on her school work and is doing well.  And Olivia is very independent and plugging along on her school work.

The first day is always a fun day.  We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and I always try to find some fun first day of school presents.  The year there were some markers, notepads, lunchboxes for the little girls and dance pants for all.

The school room is my nemesis most days in keeping it clean. So after working on it (literally) ALL summer I finally pulled it together (mostly).  And got it a little better organized and picked up.  I am really trying to keep it maintained now and not let it get to out of control.  But these girls love to draw and always have papers and writing books, and pens, pencils, markers, etc. out.  I have a paper (and book) problem, but it is a good problem to have.  I am glad they love to draw, write, and read.

I really wanted to get a group shot of the 4 of them but a fight broke out and I gave up.  So no group shot this year.  That is just the way it goes sometimes.  It is not like I am lacking in pictures of these girls...lol!

Random August Highlights

Summer is so fun and flies by so fast!  August was no exception.  Two back to back camping trips, one birthday, lots of gardening and preserving, a solar eclipse, two rooms redecorated with one of them repainted and I think there was some yard work in there out in the dirt.

The kids love their kitchen and so do the cats...

The side yard is looking nice.

Sam's favorite nap spot in the summer.

 We watched the solar eclipse at Jodie's house and it was a really cool experience.  I wish we could have seen the full solar eclipse (hopefully next time we can make the trek!).  But it was still very cool to watch the sun shrink down, feel the air cool and dim, see the roosters crow, etc. The kids had a good time and nobody damaged their eyes so it was a success!  So fun!

From the internet, just thought they were cool!

Our garden bounty!  It was so fun to garden with Jodie this summer.  Yummy food to eat and share with others.  I am already planning out next summers garden and will be planning into my schedule all the extra time for picking and preserving!

For Olivia's birthday she wanted to redo her bedroom.  So even though I really didn't want to I obliged repainting the green walls into a grey and turning her room into a ballet room.  Here are the last pictures of her horse room before it became her grown up room.

 And Aubrey and Claire decided they were tired of frozen and wanted the horse décor.  So sadly I changed their room out too.  Here are the last pictures of their frozen room.

 Painting on the grey!

 Mostly done.  We moved some of the furniture around too.

 Hans and I were considering buying a tractor so I went with my dad to look at them one morning.  We probably would have bought it had they honored my dad's tax exemption, but they didn't and when it came down to it we decided it was a lot to spend and decided to not get a tractor.  They sure are cute though!

 Going away party for our friends!  The Ettlich family will be greatly missed.  One of the hazards of living in a highly Navy area.  Friends come and go a lot.  We hope they get to return one day soon though!

The Blackberry picking crew who ate most of the blackberries they picked!

 Dinner out with friends.  Love doing life with these ladies!

These are the Swedes pictures with Eric and Mary.  Hans and I met up with them here in Bremerton for dinner and it was a fun night getting to meet them and learn a little about Sweden.