Catching up....

It's been awhile since I've downloaded the photos from my phone and I finally got it done this week.  Thought I'd just post some random pictures of what's been going on around here to catch you all up :)

 We pick up a couple of friends from their school each Wednesday.  Last week, while waiting for them, Hannah happened to find my Bible in the door pocket of the truck.  It's the one I used at school all thru Jr and High School.  She loved sitting there "reading" it and flipping thru the pages, looking at all my underlinings and notes.

 We've been enjoying the fall weather and trying to take a break from our school work to take Max for a walk each day.  Hannah is her mother's child and seems to always find a tree to scramble up.

 Tess is doing GREAT living on her own.  She loves having her own apartment and doing things her way.  She has surprised me by being much neater than she ever was living at home.  Lord help you if she sees you aren't using a coaster on her coffee table ;)  She was a bit lonely however, so decided she wanted a little company.  That is Smokey, a little stray she picked up.  He is a dream kitten and LOVES lots of attention.

 There are times we like to get away from touch screens, computer screens, or even paper.... it's at those times the girls like to pull out their slates and chalk to work on spelling and math.  One of the great things of homeschooling is that you aren't stuck in a box and only able to do things one way :)

 All the girls got their autumn hair cuts at the end of September.  Hannah cut off the most, with enough to send in her braid to Locks of Love.  She loves her short hair and it's so much easier for her to manage.  The sandman LOVED her long locks and seemed to spend extra time playing in it every night, so each morning it was an ordeal doing her hair.  I have to admit our mornings are much easier.

 This is Hannah's Trevor.... They swear they are getting married.  He calls her "Honey" and she giggles.  They are like two peas in a pod :)

 It's not often Gracie has a great diabetes day, but once in a blue moon it does happen when her numbers are in range most of the day.  We had a day like that recently so we needed to celebrate with a chocolate chip frappe :)

 Paying bills is never fun.... unless it's the first time you have to do it:)

 Little Ms. Ginger Snap is growing quickly.  She is pure joy for all of us.

 I was blessed to go to Women of Faith in Kansas City at the end of September and Craig took the girls home to the farm.  They love spending time with the horses in a friend's pasture and would camp out there with them 24/7 if they could.  

Hope you all are having a great Fall season full of blessings, family time, and Spiced Pumpkin Lattes :)

They call me Snaps

Snaps, Snaparoo, Snapadoo, Snappy... It just seems to suit this spunky little girl:)

Our family is growing again

Meet our little miss. The girls acquired her from a neighbor the next culdesac over, last night. She's still getting use to things around here but I think she's going to be just fine :). We haven't agreed on a name yet. The ones in the running are Snaps, Vera, Ruby, or Stella.

Golden Nuggets

We finished our first month and our first unit in our school year this week, so that meant it was time to celebrate. We are using The Prairie Primer for our unit study and thoroughly enjoying it. It's based on The Little House On The Prairie books and the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Of course, we still supplement some of our core subjects like math and spelling, but otherwise we are able to seamlessly integrate all our subjects into our daily lessons.

Since we learned a little about the gold rush, I thought it might be fun to "mine for gold" as we celebrated finishing our first unit. Each of the girls had their own claim in which they could mine for gold. Scattered in their claims were lots of golden treats (ie fool's gold) along with gold cards that represented pure gold. On the cards were things to review from what we'd learned over the past month. Spelling words, math problems, and Bible verses. The girls had to answer each card correctly in order to collect all their treats. They had a great time mining their claims and realizing just how much they'd learned. Oh yeah, since we are spending the year studying pioneer living, I made each of them their own pioneer outfit. They get to wear their outfits whenever we have fun activities like today :)

Family Fun

Our family has gotten into Cowboy Action Shooting.  It's great fun for everyone and offers us the chance to live out a bit of history every month, along with dressing up, shooting competition, and the chance to pass down our region's history to our daughters in a way that is so much more fun than just reading it in a book.  We are new to the sport, but have really been enjoying it and look forward to watching the girls grow up with this as part of their heritage.  This weekend we went to Ruckus at Raccoon Creek.  The people are always so incredibly nice and just love to see little ones in tow.  Here are a few pictures of our time there.

 She loved sitting there because you could still smell the campfire from that morning.

 She looks like she's in trouble, doesn't she? 

 It was beginning to warm up quickly at this point; Hannah had reached her limit

Hannah turns 8 years old

Exactly a week after her big sister moved out, Hannah celebrated her eighth birthday. Wow! Time needs to slow down. Hannah is all about horses, so her birthday was all about horses as well. She loved spending the day as the birthday princess, and spending it with her family. Even Tess was able to get off of work and come to lunch with us to enjoy some birthday cake.

Flying out of the nest

I'm not sure how it happened, but the day arrived all too quickly...the day my oldest child flew the coop. After months of planning, budgeting, and apartment hunting, Tess moved out on her own. She chose a nice apartment, only a couple miles from home. She is LOVING living on her own and has surprised us all with her domesticity ;) Little Miss Hannah is still struggling with her big sister not living at home, but all three of the younger girls are really enjoying having their own rooms now :)