Homeschooling, the First Week

Our first week of homeschooling has gone wonderfully. I can already see a difference in Emma and how she acts. She's kinder to her siblings, more thougtful and has a much better attitude toward Ryan and I. It's funny, someone once told Emma that since she had started going to public school they had seen 'a big improvement' in her... When honestly, doing homework with her at night was a struggle, her attitude was horrible and she was a bully most of the time toward her sister and brother. Since she has been home, she WANTS to learn. The other night, she got a book and on her way into her room said to herself, 'I want to read tonight'... gah! She's never said that. I was stoked. Every morning first thing she wants is to do school, I love this, and I love this girl.

Emma found the magnifying glass and put it good use

And maybe the best thing, is that I get to set the schedule, it's awesome, I don't have to have school her the same time other schools are in session. Usually we're waking up around 8am, awesoome, I know, then it's breakfast, and then mama gets ready for the day and chores are done (I hate doing school with her when my hosue is a mess), lunch, game time and school for the day, the day usually ends with a dinner, a movie and if they've been super good, some popcorn.

My days are completely simple, I have very few things to do and that means the majority of my time can be spent on the most important thing. My family.

New Year's Resolution

It's a new year and I've seen a lot of my friends post or blog about their goals for this year. I've loved seeing all of them, they inspire and motivate me. But, I've always sucked at my new year goals, and they're generally the same every year. Like such...

1. Be more spiritual
2. Loose weight
3. Be a better wife/mother
4. Become more organized

And I fail every year.
This year I was reading a friend of mine's blog and I noticed that she only picks ONE goal a year and does her best to fulfill it. She does so many awesome things, and amazes me (and every one else) with her ability to accomplish about 587.19 things a day without breaking a sweat (Kimber, if you're reading this, I'm talking about you!). Her goal this year is to love. Just that, improve on loving. And I think it's something we could all work on, I do want to work on this, but I wanted to work on so many other things too and after giving it a ton of thought I realized what my goal this year will be...

HOME

That covers a lot though, huh? Not really, just my home and those in it. I have decided that when I'm here and any of my loved ones are too, they will be in a home they love. I want it to be a place of wonderful memories and them knowing that I love them and care about their thoughts and everyday adventures. I want this place to be their safe haven.
I will be organizing a whole lot more. Which will be easy, along with a new year, we are also renting a new house! So most things are still in boxes.
This year will be a good one, I can feel it. That's odd to say, but, I really do. When I think of the things I will be doing and where I see them going, it feels... great. There will be more baking, more playing, more movie watching in the dark with homemade popcorn, more forts made out of anything we can get our hands on in the living room, more porch swings while I hold my husband's hand and more snuggling 4 kids and reading books.
I will be making that old adage come true, I will be making my house, a home.

At the End of the Day

Since Ryan is out of town, being a mom of four kids can be a little... hard sometimes. So after the older kids are in bed and while I'm waiting for Kevlie to conk off, this is what I give myself to celebrate another day that I haven't flown off the handle with any of my wonderful kids.

Nothing too fancy, I know, but the $.50 wine glass helps with that.

It's simple, and I'm ok with that. After a full day of hearing and joining the kids in play (which can't seem to be done unless their internal volume dial is turned to MAX), something simple helps pull myself back to center. I get to sit, eat something yummy and stare at the Christmas tree with it's pretty lights. It feels good.

I've always been a fan of simple things, I've found that most of the time, they bring the most joy into our lives.

A Summary

First off, things have been good, really good. I completely slacked on making a post for Kevlie, and I feel like it's a little too late to make one now so here's a summary.

She's awesome. 'nough said.

Kevlie, right after she was born


Kevlie 4 weeks old

Kidding! She's such a cute and sweet girl. She was born Oct 26, weighed 7lb 5oz (a whole 1oz less then Kaylyn) and was 20in long. She is now 5 weeks old and it's gone by SO fast! I feel completely fine, after three weeks I was pretty much feeling like my normal self.
We've adjusted fairly well with our new addition, the kids love her to death and will do anything to help me with her. Her full name is Kevlie Sara Grover. Ryan has two kids named after him so he decided that one needed to be named after me. She is an excellent baby and we are so very blessed to have her with us. Father has put so much trust in us by giving us our children.

Ryan had his birthday on the 11th (he's 27 now!) Kaylyn had hers on the 22nd (she's 5!) and my mom recently had hers on the 26th (I don't know how old she is!)

Ryan was called out to work early so he wasn't here for Thanksgiving :( and won't be home for a little bit more. We miss him like crazy when he's gone and love being able to video chat with him and just normal chat with him. He's such a good part of our lives. I do think it's a little sad, I feel like he's misses a lot sometimes. But, that's what sacrifice is, giving up one good thing for something better, in the long run it will be worth it.

Emma is doing great, we got her report card, her highest score was in math 97%! with 80's and 90's in everything else, except spelling, we need to work on that. She's such a good big sister and loves knowing that she's such a big help to me. With our new baby, I haven't been able to walk out to the bus stop with her, which I hate, and if I do walk out with her, Emma is worried about Kevlie the whole time. I miss walking out with her, it's just her and I time and I didn't realize how much I love it.

Holding Kevlie after getting ready for church

Kaylyn, wow Kaylyn, I don't know what to do with this girl. I recently discovered that she knows almost all the letter sounds. meaning, she's about ready to read! Last night she sounded out the word 'can' from the book we were reading. She just turned 5, and I don't sit down with her every day to work on 'school' as she calls it. Her mind is like a sponge and I need to start being more careful with what she absorbs. She's quite the dancer too, her favorite time to dance is when Kevlie is in her swing, Kaylyn with stand in front of it and dance for her. I think it's kinda cute.

Kaylyn's new spot to watch tv

Daniel is such a cute boy! I remember my mom talking to me about how she had a hard time telling me 'no' when I was little because of how cute I was. I never knew what she meant, until this kid came along. I am so smitten with that boy! I just think he's so cute, even when he's dumping my flour all over my kitchen table. He's doing wonderfully though, still a monster, 4t clothes fit his torso perfectly, and his bottom half still fits into 3t. He won't be 3 until May.

Daniel with his 'Buzz Lightyear' face, that or he can tell Kristie is making a fool of him and he's going to hunt her down...

Hopefully I've covered everyone... We are all doing well and are very blessed to have what and who we do!

Hit and Miss

So, we were supposed to go in to be induced on Friday, but before that I was going to get a Foley catheter in (more info on that here) Thursday night, so I would be ready to go in the morning. After the midwife tried four times to get the thing in, and after much pain, it was determined that my uterus really didn't want to cooperate with us. She told me to hold tight and that she would talk to the midwife that would be on call while I was being induced to see what they could do. After talking with her she gave me a few options. 1: I could be admitted that night and they would start me on Cyotec then in the morning they would start some Pitocin. or 2: I could go home and wait to go into labor on my own. Because Ryan only has a week before he's supposed to leave for two weeks again, I went with being admitted that night.
After three doses of Cyotec and being on monitors for two hours, then off for two, they started me on Pitocin at 8 in the morning. At noon they checked me and I was still dilated to a 1. My midwife told me at that time that if I wasn't dilated to a 4 by 5pm she thought it would be wise to send us home and try again another day. I tried so hard to get myself into positions that would put the most pressure on my cervix while I was contracting, but, I didn't do so well.
At 5pm the midwife came in and checked me again and still, I was only at a 1!! So we came home.

Now, for the emotional aspect of this adventure...

I was crying after the midwife and nurse left from telling us it would be best to go home. I was so tired of having monitors on me and sore from being poked four times to get the stinking IV in and not to mention the contractions and I hadn't had solid good since 8 that morning. Over all we were tired and half of me was glad to be going home. The other half? Kinda feels like a failure. I kept apologizing to Ryan, I still feel like it's my fault it didn't work. Ryan was awesome about it, he kept reassuring me and when we got home he made sure I went and laid down to sleep then took care of Daniel (the girls wanted to stay another night at Nana's). I have an amazing husband. On the way out to the car I couldn't help feel a little angry that one of the carriers in the back of the van wasn't holding a baby and that the car seat stayed empty on the way home.
BUT, to top it off, my house was clean when I got home! It was a mess when we left it, no joke, it was bad. I had tried to do some cleaning but didn't get nearly enough done that I wanted. I wish I knew who cleaned it, so I could buy them something - I mean, pretend to bake them something- to say thank you. Coming home to that made my day better, and at the same time, I felt bad again, cause we came home without a newborn.

We will be going in again on Tuesday to be induced, Monday evening I will be going in to my midwives to try to get another Foley catheter in (I pray it works). That's if she doesn't decide to come over the weekend. I honest to goodness hope that she's ready by Tuesday, if she's not, and we have another failed induction then Ryan will be calling his boss to see if he can stay home another week to help with the baby. If he can't, then I might be having this baby with the support of my mom by my bedside rather then my husband. :/

Hopefully everything works out just the way I want it to, really, that would make me so happy... Here's to hoping!

Our Summer

It has been such a very long time sense I've updated our blog. It all started when we got our cell phones and got rid of our house phone and internet. We love our phones and they are so very convenient, but there are a few things they just can't do, like change our profile pictures on facebook, or update a blog. I tried different apps that were supposed to work with blogs but non really worked.

Anyways, so here's the update!

We are expecting our 4th child on the 22nd, although I'm thinking about changing the induction to the 20th, more on that later.


We are having a girl! Our 3rd, and I can't wait to meet another Ryan/Sara combination and see who Father has blessed us with. We were REALLY hoping for a boy, I thought it would be perfect, two girls, two boys, all that jazz, but it wasn't to be.
It was a little hard finding out we were having a girl, Emma cried as soon as the nurse told us, I made it till the next day, as I was cleaning out the drawer of baby boy things I had put together. We have all come to terms with it and in all honesty we are excited to have another baby!
We have picked out a name, well, we pretty much picked one out on the way home after the ultrasound. We were hoping to name the baby Kevin, in honor of my dad, but that wouldn't fly so well with a little girl, so we threw names around, first Kevlen, which was too close to Kevin and Kaylyn, so then we thought for a minute and Ryan thought of Kevlie, and it felt right. Ryan then went on to say that her middle name should be Sara, cause none of our kids have been named after me, but two have been named after him; Kaylyn Noel (Ryan's middle name is Leon, which spelled backwards is Noel) and Daniel has Ryan as his middle name. Although, my middle name is Danielle, so technically I do have a child named after me. But he's insisting on it. So Kevlie Sara it will be.

A few of our summer activities should be mentioned, mostly cause they rocked.

The Blue Angels! Oh, they were fun to watch, even now, Daniel will still talk about them and use his hands to show how they flew, and then tell you they were loud and show you how to cover your ears. And anytime there is a plane that the kids spot they immediately think it's the Angels. It was a lot of fun for the kids to watch them and learn more about them.



Eating Watermelon is seriously one of the best things about summer! I LOVE watermelon and the kids do too!



Emma turned eight this summer and was baptized! It was a little bitter sweet to realize that she really is growing up and learning to deal with all that comes with life.
Ryan made this cake for her, she's decided that her favorite color is blue, I forgot to take a picture but the inside was blue. She was totally stoked about it.



We decided to have her pick out her own dress, at first I was all about the white, but then thought she would enjoy picking out her own. She did an excellant job!



I love my girl! And we're so proud of her, she's made so much progress and continues to grow and learn.



Getting ready for the school year, which means, haircuts!!

Emma wanted to keep hers long so she can cut it short this upcoming summer.



Kaylyn wanted hers short enough she could spike it, we kept it a little longer then that, and she loves it!



And here's Daniel, cause he's just too darn cute!


Ryan now has a new job, he's working in North Dakota hauling water for the oil field. He's working two weeks on two weeks off so, to make sure he's here when we have the baby we will be inducing her on the 22nd! I'm super excited to have my baby! BUT, I was thinking. If I were to bump her induction date up to the 20th then her birthday would be 10-20-2010 or 10-20-10! How neat would that be!? It's such a once in a life time opportunity, that I'm having a hard time trying to decide what to do. The 22nd would work best, but I don't know if I can pass up a birthday like that. I need input!

Until next time! (which really won't be that long!)

A Bitter Sweet Birthday

Today is my dads birthday, he passed away 7 years ago in September of cancer. It was an incredibly hard time for me and my family. My dad is an amazing person, he rose up from a bad childhood, and odds stacks against him to become a successful and well loved husband, father and business man. He is a wonderful man that I look up to and hope to be like someday.
His birthday has usually been something that's made me a bit sad, as you can imagine. But recently I found out that my sister in-law was born on the same day, she is such a sweet and fun person, I love the way her and my brother interact. I think they compliment each other, mostly for the fact that if Josh gives her crap she'll give it right back to him. And with him being my older brother, I love to see that. To have someone who I think is a great mother and sister share the same birthday with my dad is a godsend and I'm thankful that I now have a better way to see and feel a positive today.

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