Mountain Drive & 6 weeks to go! Preggo Belly :)

 2 weekends ago we decided to crunch as much into a (Time Change, mind you!) Sunday possible... well, not really, but it kind of turned out that way :) 

I was on for serving in nursery 1st & 2nd service so before I ran out of the house, my amazing hubby took a few 33 wk belly pics:

 After enjoying the 3rd service sermon, we jumped in the truck & hit the jeep trails :) This is currently C's favorite spot... & the boys and I enjoy it, too :)

 My amazing little men:

S2

 Z6

 J5 (I love this pic!! Brings a smile every time I see it :))

 A yummy pastrami picnic:

 A hike to see the view from another hill:

 A little rest :)

 A little tree climbing: How many monkeys can you find in the tree? :)

 And an attempt at more belly shots :)

 On our way home, as the sun was setting, we took a side road,

 and a little hike,

 passed my favorite tree: manzanitas,

 and to a rock cliff

It was a good, full day... we loved every minute of it :)

MFW K: water

This chapter, of course, was fun :) We had a warm week & we played with water, what could be funner? 

We floated things, sank things,

 dissolved things, realized oil & water don't mix :),

 and even enjoyed some lemonade :)

 After tying the oil/water not mixing to ducks, we decided a visit to the ducks was in order, with lunch with Papa, of course :)

Then we studied how currents carry things

We also filled balloons with water and froze them. We were hoping to make a snowman but it wouldn't stay up :(, such is the life in Cali :) Anyway, we estimated how long it would take for them to melt, 

and then we watched the liquid turn to steam, measuring the remains.

I love the boys' drawings this week :) Z6 (top) drew his with color & then watercolored over it. J5 doesn't quite like to do what others are doing so he opted to just crayon and not paint, too. As frustrating as it is sometimes, I was just glad to get a drawing out of him :)

Water. It really is amazing. In fact, we can't live without it. Same with our spirit. We just can't live life to the fullest without God filling & quenching our souls. Eventually, we'd just dry up like a leaf disconnected from it's tree :/ It's a good lesson to learn :)

A very belated Christmas post :)

Hey! I completely, 100%, blame the old laptop for my not blogging for 6 mos :) I will never buy another Toshiba as long as I can help it. Enough said. Anyway, I'm finally finding my technology legs again... if that's possible... and here is our rundown of Christmas :)

The boys wake up starving so we started the day with cupcakes (grain-free carrot cake, pinterest fail :( ), & singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, which, of course, is the reason for the season :)

Then we tore into the gifts :) 

A many thanks to Grandma Laura & Grandpa Neill for the packages :)

And to Uncle Eddie & Auntie Amber for the explorer outfits :)

And to Uncle Brandon & Aunt Ashley for the umbrellas- now we just need rain!!

And to Grandpa & Grandma Walker for going in on Z's Dragonfly Helicopter,

(I love this pic of C&Z flying it!)

S's Little People Jungle,

& J's new bike! (yellow) Which, of course, we had to take for a ride :) It's a little blurry- kinda hard to take pics while biking :)

After the bike ride, we had a delicious supper of ham & fixings & then enjoyed a new game: Tumblin' Monkeys :)

Hope you all enjoyed yours... love ya!

The week at large

My desktop finally decided it was done with us. I hated it the moment C brought it home but now after all these years of pics put on it & docs made, I'm hating it in a different way: ugh, now I need to unload it!
C excitedly bought me this handy dandy laptop which at first I had some issues figuring out but now I am beginning to see the awesomeness as I am sitting in my comfy van in McD's parking lot sipping a Shamrock Shake enjoying peace, quiet, & my own uninterrupted thoughts. Aahh! This is good! I may find all new avenues with the possibilities :)
I am not only figuring out this new contraption, I am also, more importantly, planning my week to come. I made my coveted stop to the library and as at one time of my life I would be engrossing myself in a thick and juicy novel, instead I find myself pouring over 10 pagers with colorful pictures and dreaming up ways to enjoy them to the fullest with my little men :)
One of the books I picked up is called A Pocket Full of Kisses by Audrey Penn and is so very sweet. It's our theme book this week and I have a few crafts and activities to do along with it.
J4 (my numbers guy) loves number poems and I happened upon a book I'm guessing he'll love: One Two That's My Shoe! by Alison Murray. I'm predicting this will be memorized by the end of the week :)
Z5 has his last art class this week. He's going to be very sad when he realizes it. It has helped me realize I'm on the right track with him and has helped him enjoy art even more :)
We will also be taking a quick look through the book of Matthew, just 2 weeks, as I want to be in sync with Easter. This week also starts the memorizing of the New Testament Books of the Bible as well as The Lord's Prayer for our memory verse.
Hope this finds you enjoying your day and making every bit count! Love you~

and then we got busy...

Ugh. It has been too long since I posted last. I have a goal of posting every weekend but then we got busy...

You would think that with me turning off the computer during the day the house would be organized, the boys would be clean, and I would be nearly bored. Nope to all accounts :) 

So this is the last 3 weeks summarized into a few photos:

The boys and I went on a field trip to an old west horse ranch outside of Paso Robles but soon after arriving we realized the van went completely dead. We have never had a problem with our van (& haven't since) but it was without a doubt not going to start. C was just a few miles away working so he came up to our rescue. We could've called AAA but he had been contemplating coming with us that morning but decided to work and found this a ready excuse to come after all :) We were glad to have him :)

Soon after S turned 1, he realized not only are those red things in the garden strawberries, he was now tall enough & heavy enough to reach them (the fence is to keep the rabbits out :)). Every day he ventures over & peeks in :)

Speaking of S turning 1, he now has shoes! Many thanks to his Aunts & Uncles: he grabbed his birthday money and bought his first pair :) He's so proud of them!

We had hot weather! For 3 days it was in the low 100s :) I switched their lessons for the week to reflect that: one of the days they enjoyed a frozen treasure hunt (I don't think S was too thrilled with the first touch :) He did enjoy it later on)

Z is on a game spree :) We hadn't even finished eating supper when the cards came out:

and then the next day I came out from putting S to nap and found they started playing all by themselves. They are getting so grown up {tear}.

 I'm not sure how J got them (I can guess, though!), but he came in the house the other day with bug wings so we whipped some magnifiers out to see the textures & colors better. We are such a boy house! :)

I was desperate for a clean van so the boys did their books while I cleaned :)

1st rain day of the season! Yes!

On Thursday we went on another field trip to a 118 year old fruit farm. The rain let up just long enough for us to run out & glean 80 pounds! of apples off the ground and then it started pouring again. We were soaked! It seemed a shame to leave all those beautiful apples behind but now that I still have about 50 pounds left and I'm getting kind of worn out from peeling, cutting, cooking/drying, and figuring out what to do with them, it's probably a good thing we were stopped! :)  We will for sure enjoy eating all the "fruits of our labor" in the months to come!

C is in the backyard right now working on the new coop... should be done soon... hopefully I can blog about the finished project next weekend :) Love ya!