Happy Valentine's Day . . . A Little Late

On Valentine's Morning I was down here blogging, completely oblivious to the fact that it was Valentine's Day. Aaron and I had already gone out earlier in the week and the kids had their party the day before. Once again, my brain was jumbled in house stuff.

Well, one of the disadvantages to homeschooling (in the kids' eyes, particularly) is the lack of seasonal parties. Amber and I decided to go ahead and plan a Valentine's party for them . . . and they were all beside themselves with excitement.

Our party was complete with red, white and pink everything . . . drinks, cookies, balloons, plates, napkins, etc . . . They enjoyed heart shaped PB&J sandwiches and strawberry banana smoothies. After lunch they got to deliver their valentines to everyone's "Mailboxes" and then had a blast checking out their loot.

The kids each made valentines for their Daddy . . . ironically, Julie was the one who sat and worked the most intently. (I had to practically rip the crayons from her hands for naptime. That child loves to color!) The big kids chilled out for a little while and watch a Winnie the Pooh Valentine's movie . . . and the mommies enjoyed some quiet chat time. In all, the party was a roaring success!

The Coolest Mom Ever!

Yes, and I'm so humble about it! : ) Let's face it. Most of the fun and cool things are Daddy things. I read and snuggle, teach school and make meals, do crafts and art projects. But, I rarely get down on the floor and actually play, or anything of that sort. It's fun, b/c every now and then I can really surprise the kids, and they are thrilled beyond imagination!

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A few weeks ago (yes I'm a little behind - all of this house stuff tends to make me forget that life is still going on around me!) we had Paige and Sam Elliott at our house for two days. The kids were getting antsy, and trying to make their little 1 man princess tent accomodate 3 kids. Seeing that this really wasn't working, I told the girls that if they could get the basement picked up, I would make them a fort during naptime. They did their part, and I did mine.

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I listened to them as they went downstairs to see this finished product, and it was hilarious. Ali and Emma gasped, and Paige called out "I think I'm going to cry!" I couldn't help but to laugh : )

L-R: Megan, Emma, Ali and Paige

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Needless to say, the fort made for many hours of happy playtime, until Daddy had to take it down so that he could get to the computer!

Calling All Cardboard Boxes!

Yes, I was awake at 6:15 this morning and went right downstairs to do some blogging. Sleep has become an elusive thing for me these days. I spend my waking hours thinking about painting, arranging furniture, etc . . .
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All that to say . . . It looks like the Patton family will be building a house this summer!!!
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Nothing is in stone yet . . . but barring any wierd complications, we hope to have construction done in early June (Which our builder seems to think can be done easily.)
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Right now our "home" is just a big dirt lot, so there isn't much to see, but we took this picture of another house that he built (Ours will look the same, different colors). It will sit on a 1/3 acre lot . . . which we are very excited about!

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Here's the floorplan. In all it's 1300 square feet with a full (unfinished) basement. Size wise, it's certainly no mansion, but it's bigger than what we have now. The one major change that we will be making to this plan is that we're moving the laundry room to the basement. I'm not into main floor laundry . . . not even a little bit. We will keep the hook-ups upstairs (for resale value) and add additional hook-ups in the basement. We will also be adding a laundry chute! Yee Ha!

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I took many many pictures yesterday, but am only posting a few. The one picture I didn't take is of the great room (looking from the dining room.) Oh well. Here's the kitchen . . .

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And the dining room . . .

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We were met at the house by the builder's agent, our agent, the agent of the guy whose house we were seeing and the builder himself. It was great because we could ask all of our questions, get prices on upgrades, etc . . . The builder seems awesome and very willing to work with us. Angie (our agent) was very impressed. In a market like this, he is eager to earn our business (bonus for us!) and said he could break ground next week if we're ready!
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So, here begins our adventure! I'll keep you all posted!

Algebra?

I just finished teaching my second grader her first Algebra lesson! When I looked at her lesson for today, I felt faint. How can it be possible that my baby is learning Algebra? Granted, it's very basic algebra (i.e. n+5= 9), but their were some new concepts there that took me back to my school days. She has just learned terms like equation and variable, and been introduced to the idea that whatever you do to one side of an equation, you must do to the other. She learned it all amazingly well (especiall since math isn't exactly Ali's forte). It just doesn't seem right to be learning this in second grade!

Learning My Lesson the Hard Way

I am a mother of four. You would think I would know better. I can tell my kids to take it easy when their sick, keep up their fluids, get plenty of rest, etc . . .

I should do a better job of taking my own advice.

Start Friday afternoon, I was feeling quite a bit better. The I was reminded that this weekend was "Shakespeare in a Week" - a production of a local Classical Christian school that several teenagers from our church attend. They take a week off of regular school and put on a Shakesperean production . . . This year it was The Taming of the Shrew and I didn't want to miss it. So we quick called Grandma Patton and arranged to take the girls over their at 6:30. The play was great (Very different from 10 Things I Hate About You, which was my only previous exposure to the story. Go ahead and roll your eyes - that's what Aaron did when I said that to him . . . and admittedly, I deserve it.) By the time we got the kids, got home and got in bed, it was after midnight, and I thought I was going to die. I was groaning about how I had overdone it. I went to sleep and slept until after 9:00.

The next morning I woke up feeling much better! I was so glad, and quickly developing amnesia about the night before. My Dad called about the snowman, and we decided to go. Just before we left, I got a call from the Kellers, asking us if we would like to join them for a Trivia Night that evening. We just couldn't pass that up. So we headed off to my mom's house, enjoyed our snowman making, etc . . . And this time the kids stayed at her house. We had a blast at the Trivia Night. Our table came in 2nd out of 68 . . . pretty good, I must admit. We would have come in first had it not been for one category . . . COMIC BOOKS! Grrr . . . Well, by the time we got the kids and made it home it was 11:00. Another late night, but I wasn't dying.

Sunday morning we were all well enough to go to church. Afterwards we went home for naptime. By this time, our house was a royal mess, so we had some work to do. At about 4:00 we headed over to Aaron's parents' house for the Super Bowl. I spent the first three quarters or so doing some scrapbooking, but I put my stuff away early, due to some major sinus congestion/pressure. The fourth quarter was very exciting. I really didn't give a hoot about either team. I think it would have been cool for the Pats to have a completely undefeated season, but no tears here! We managed to get home about 9:30 and get everyone in bed in time to watch House. I did my prep for our school week while watching. With a few odds and ends left, it was once again 11:00 before I got into bed.

This morning was a rude awakening for me! : ) I know . . . I deserve it. I'm hoping to take it easy today, but there is a moutain of laundry calling my name. I guess we'll see!

Snowman

On Saturday morning I got a call from my Dad. He was calling to see if we were planning to stop by at all this weekend, and by the way there's a lot of great snow here for the girls to make a snowman with (Read: Could you guys stop by? I'd really like to make a snowman with the girls.) He is a strange and funny man.
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So, yes . . . we went to see Grandma and Grandpa Klarner. You have to understand something about my Dad. He takes his snowmen very seriously. The last time he made one with my girls, he was rather disappointed b/c they are content with a dinky little thing. Once a mini snowman was made, they were ready to come inside and have hot chocolate. Well, this year I prepared them, and they were ready. I also prepared Aaron. My Dad's philosophy on snowmen is that a really great snowman requires the strength of 3 grown men to lift the second ball on top of the first. Well, 2 grown men was going to have to be enough . . . and I prepared Aaron to be one of them.
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So, they got started. The snow was awesome! It was the super-packing type, and the snowballs got big fast. Grandpa did the big ball, Emma did the middle, and Ali (after much groaning and thinking that she was being overworked) did the small one.

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Megan managed to be completely useless, and just enjoyed snacking on the snow!

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And here is Aaron's time to step in. They nearly broke their backs getting that thing up there!

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Time for the head . . . quite a bit easier!

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And here we have the finished product - My Dad is even smiling for a picture!! Obviously he had a great time. : ) The girls named him "Frosty 2" - real original, I know.

Cute!

I love this picture. Aaron and I love to curl up with a good book in bed, and it seems that Julie has picked up on that. So, when I walked into the bedroom the other day to see the two of them reading, I couldn't help but to laugh. (It's especially funny, b/c she's trying to lie down and read, like Daddy, but hasn't quite figured out how to manage the book while she's lying down . . . so she's lying down with her body, but sitting up with her head!) Of course, Aaron is reading Dickens and Julie is reading Little People, but who's counting? : ) Over these past few days, I've also found that Julie likes to escape to our bed for some private reading time. If I can't find her, 9 out of 10 times she' on our bed, looking at books.

Pictures

I must admit . . . one thing that's great about snow days . . . fun pictures!

Julie couldn't keep herself upright on the sled while Daddy was pulling her, so Aaron put her on her tummy. She loved that!


The girlies suffered from a bit of snow blindness while I was trying to get this one. They could barely keep their eyes open!

Snow Day!

I have to admit . . . for the most part, I'm not a big fan of snow days. Sure it makes everything look pretty. But . . . my husband already has a 45 minute commute, and snow just complicates that. While my other friends long for these days, I reply with "Yeah, it's just a shame that Boeing doesn't give snow days!"

Well . . . it turns out that they do! Yee ha!! Yes, Aaron is home today. It's wonderful on many different levels, not the least of which is the fact that I am still sick. Right now he is outside with all four of the girls . . . I'm so glad I don't have to be the one to do that today!

Unfortunately, my girls are learning a hard lesson . . . homeschoolers don't get snow days. Thankfully, Fridays are light for us anyway.

Just Put Me Out of My Misery!

Before I start . . . I must mention that we have has a very healthy winter so far. As compared to last winter - it has been a miracle! I can't even remember the last time my kids had to go to the doctor. We have had little cold here and there, but nothing major.

I guess after so much healthy time, it was bound to come. The thing is that I'm not usually the one who gets it. It really is amazing how much stuff my kids get, but I manage to miss. Not this time . . . I have a nasty cough in my chest, my ears are freaking out, my nose is sore from so much blowing, my throat is killing me and my voice sounds like I'm dying! Doesn't that sound like fun? I'm really hoping that I have what Aaron had this past weekend. He wasn't feeling great, but it passed quickly. It seems that I have already passed up his misery. My fear is that I have what the Alligoods had last week. They had (and are still fighting off) a nasty bout of the flu. All 5 of them had it . . . fevers went as high as 106.8 (I didn't know that thermometers went that high!) and lasted a good week. They even ended up in the ER with Karis one night when her fever was still 105, even with Tylenol and Motrin in her system. Yikes!!

So, this is my prayer right now . . . "Please Lord . . . let me NOT have what the Alligoods had!!" The thought of it stresses me out! So, I'm trying to rest, drink plenty of fluids, etc . . . But I still have 4 kids to take care of! Sometimes it's easier when they are all sick too . . . then we could all just lie around doing nothing!

It's About that Time

Well, Julie managed to use the potty for the first time tonight! I know it was just a coincidence . . . she did tell me she needed to go to the bathroom . . . but I probably hear that 20 times a day from her. She sits on the potty many times a day (usually with her diaper on) and likes to call for me to tell me that she's all done. It's really very cute to me, b/c she's just mimicking her sisters. I think she sees the potty as a sort of right of passage and she's eager to do it. She turns 2 this spring . . . so I'm thinking about potty training over spring break . . . I guess we'll just see what happens. It's really kind of weird . . . I feel like just yesterday we were taking the paci away and now we're thinking about potty training. Yikes . . . but whether we start in March or wait til the summer . . . one thing is for sure . . . my diaper free days are fast approaching and that is a wonderful thing!!

A Trip to the Movies

Today we experienced our first entire family trip to the movies. We went to see The Pirates that Don't Do Anything, and decided to bring Julie along this time. Personally, I thought the movie was just okay, but all four of the girls laughed hysterically. Julie talked a lot, but she certainly wasn't the only one. She ate mountains of popcorn, drank root beer (I wasn't planning for that one - I accidentally left the sippy cup behind) and enjoyed some fruit snacks. I brought along the big guns just in case she got wiggly. Yes . . . a pocket full of Dum Dums! The funny thing was that while she was sucking them, she was also biting the stick . . . so she bit the tops off of 4 different suckers. Once the candy came loose, I took it from her and gave her a new one, as I had no desire to have my first experience with the heimlich maneuver. All together she probably only ate one Dum Dum, but enjoyed quite a flavor variety. For a little one who rarely enjoys sweets, it was quite a treat!!

The Kitty Hat

That's Julie's version of Kitty Cat. I love it, and it has stuck as one of Polly's many nicknames. It's a good thing she's our only cat b/c otherwise she'd be suffering from quite an identity crisis (who knows, maybe she is anyway!). Polly, Pollywoggles (which becomes Woggles for short), Kitty Hat, Polly Wolly Doodle, Stinky Kitty (though she isn't stinky at all) and yes occasionally, Stupid Cat. As is typical of cats, she sleeps many many hours every day. She often finds a place near us, yet out of the way. In this case, we were in the middle of school, and I guess she thought she was out of the way. Nothing like curling up with a good book!

Goal!!

I thought it would never happen! One of my goals for a long time now has been to run a mile . . . yes, I know . . . pretty pathetic. But when you're as pathetically out of shape as I am, a mile is a big deal! I certainly won't be setting any world records or anything, but I did it!!

Picture Time

Nothing much to say about these. It was time to take new pics of the kids and here are my favorites.