Trying to make this post long enough so I can get rid of the last one!

Okay so I'm kinda getting tired of that old post being there-from 8 MONTHS ago! We are starting our home school tomorrow so I probably should be getting a little more ready for that, but here I am. We have cleaned our office so much-probably still a lot could be done, but I'm happy with what we have done so far. We've got another desk in here for the kids, a bookshelf that was cleaned out and now holds a lot of school books. The kids picked out some fabric for me to recover some old cork board type things. That way they each can have a little space to display their work or whatever they want to. Hopefully we are ready for this. I'm excited about it-I need to learn some too. Someone asked me if I was qualified to be a home school teacher-I said I had my diploma. (I think most states just require a high school diploma.) She thought I meant college, but I said high school and she thought that was hilarious apparently. She wasn't incredibly supportive, but I guess I should get used to that. I think I am fully capable of giving our kids a great deal of knowledge, and more important knowledge at that. I have plenty of books to help me out, many people around me that are happy to help, a very intelligent husband, and many prayers going up on behalf of my kids and our home school. I think we can manage!

Daniel started working nights last week. From 7 pm to 7 am. When he gets home, he eats and then goes to bed until about 2 or 3. Sometimes he gets up to eat a quick lunch. It's a good thing he is a heavy sleeper, or we would have to figure something else out. Let me just tell you what I think about the night shift-it STINKS! Even on his 3 day weekend that he got, he was still having to maintain somewhat the same schedule so he wouldn't be totally messed up again when he went back to work tonight. Plus, I have a harder time going to bed without him, so I end up staying up later and then I don't get up as early. It is a permanent change too, so that gives me less hope. If it was just for a couple of weeks at a time, at least I could see an end, but it's just going to be like this. I don't know-I'm a little discouraged about it, but maybe it'll get better as we get more used to it.

So at some point, I am going to put some pictures and videos up here, but I haven't got the time right now. There are some really cute ones that I would love to share though. Check back in another 8 months! Hopefully it'll be sooner though!

An open letter

Dear Shellie's Mr. Home Invader (I'm assuming you're a mister because you kicked down her door),

Kindly return her memory card from her camera and if you're feeling generous, also all the pictures on her computer. You can keep the computer, the tv, and the camera, but she would like the others back. You can stick them in her mailbox in broad daylight, like you kicked in her door. Shame on you for violating her privacy and stealing away her precious memories.

Everet

I wanted to write a quick post about all of Everet's new developments. I say new, but it's been so long since I've written about them that they may not be so new anymore! His newest thing I think, is that he loves to climb on everything. If he sees something with a potential to get him up higher, he is on it, trying to go as far as he can. He can climb up to stand on the toilet, if the step stool is out in the kitchen, he's on the highest (of two) steps. He's tried climbing into the bathtub head first, but I was there to catch him. And if something or someone gets in his way, his wheels are just turning trying to figure out another way to do it. So after I kept telling him not to go head first into the tub, he hiked his leg way up there and grunted and almost made it in, but didn't have enough momentum. He's so ornery. I can already see it. Was I really that naughty when I was little to deserve four, FOUR ornery ones?! (Don't answer that, Mom!) I'm going to blame at least part of it on Daniel!

He is understanding more and "talking" more. He points to his eyes, ears, and mouth when you ask him. The kids were talking about eyes last night at the dinner table and I looked over and Everet had his finger inside his eye pushing his eyelid way up saying, "Eh, Eh." Ummmm, sometimes he's not the sharpest tack, but he knew what they were talking about. Maybe pain just doesn't bother him! He has been saying "toes" for a while, but he says it "go go," or sometimes, "coco." Also if you tell him let's go, he says, "go" and waves. He knows how to say the b sound, but most of the time, he says d instead. Like bye bye is more "dye dye." He says hat (ha) while putting his hands on his head. He also says hands the same way, but rubbing his hands together. We passed by the sink yesterday and he did this. He wanted to wash his hands. He says cat like "AT" because he's real excited about seeing our many neighborhood cats. He says Hi and also blows kisses. He loves to give hugs and says, "mm, mm" while he's hugging. He says "ruff ruff" for the dog, and "oooo" for the cow. Of course he says "mama" and "dada." I'm sure he does more, but that's all I can think of right now.

If he wants someone to hold him, he runs over and either grabs their legs or he'll stand there and shake and grunt with his arms at his side like he is just too excited to know what else to do. He also does that when I get the candy basket out! He's starting to get to where he likes other people to hold him besides me, or he'll go and play without me for a little bit, but he's still a mama's boy. He had a double ear infection last week, but we have hopefully gotten that taken care of-just a bit of a runny nose now. He is 24.6 pounds I think and 30 inches tall. A big, stocky boy.

We are going to Abilene this weekend for Nathan's birthday party/Davidson's Thanksgiving/Skillet concert PACKED weekend. Then after we get back Sunday night or Monday morning, we will unpack and repack to go to Pecos Wednesday. So I need to get busy I guess! Hopefully I can get this video and some pictures to load up quickly!

The video didn't really stop on a very flattering picture, did it? I thought this was cute and it also shows a little of what he has to put up with every day!

He climbed inside the drawer all by himself. When I first saw him, he was just sitting there looking at me as if everything was completely normal. But when I got the camera, he had already gotten up.

Pictures

I'm finally posting some new pictures. I got my new camera just in time for Halloween and Ema's birthday. The kids will not be taking pictures with this one!

Eli loved being this dinosaur/dragon. He wore it the whole 4 hours at the fall festival and through trick or treating-even in the jumpy cage!

Ema was a disco girl or rock star. She added some gloves and the scarf.

This was the best picture we could get of our little pumpkin because he's always on the move!

This is Elena's princess costume before she cut the sleeves off. We had trimmed them down, so she thought it would be okay to make it short sleeve.

Ema had some cupcakes from school. I thought this was funny!

We visited Grama at her office where she was a Certified Basket Case! She is so creative!

Now on to Ema's birthday parties...

Our friend, Amy, decorated this cake for Ema's concert party. I was VERY impressed, and Ema loved it too.

This is just one picture of the chaos. Trust me, it doesn't do it justice! It was CrAzY!

This is the kids watching the concert video that Daniel put together. They all had glow sticks or necklaces. We tried to have a mystery dinner. Daniel did a great job getting it all together, but sometimes you have to scrap things because of too much chaos. That's the only word I can think of to describe it!

Then the next day, we had a family party.

This is Ema with a gift from Great Grandma Dominguez in California. They share the same birth month, so Grandma gave Ema her birthstone ring. I'm not sure how old it is, but it is very special and Ema was much more thrilled about it than she looks in this picture!

Kyle and mommy & daddy gave Ema a nice guitar and not just a toy this time. She was really excited about it because she loves music so much. Hopefully she'll be able to pick it up easily! She also got some accessories for it and an exciting DVD to help learn the basics.

SO we had a big, busy weekend, but it was lots of fun. Ema got so many nice gifts- activities, nice clothes (the pants fit great by the way, Grandma and Grandpa!) and she got quite a bit of money and gift cards! We bought a pop-up camper last week and we HAD to sleep in it on Friday night! So Shellie, Elena, Ema, Eli and I slept in the very cold camper! Next time, we may be firing up the propane heater! On a totally unrelated note, I'm sure, all of us are fighting sore throats. Hopefully we can all keep from getting full-blown sick!

This is good

I thought this was pretty good. And this is even better.

We have take off!

This is what Elena did on one of the first days of school!

This was what we saw across the street when we went out for school one morning.

I meant to write this sooner, but haven't had a chance. I guess it was about 3 weeks ago, Everet started taking a little steps here and there, but he was really cautious about it. Then he worked up to taking maybe 3 steps at a time, but crawling was still his main way of moving. It was kind of like he would forget that he could do it so he kept on crawling. Last Sunday, he got it all figured out. (Coincidentally, it was the same day the Ema took her first steps 7 years ago.) We'd look up and he was just walking everywhere. Now he hardly ever crawls. He can walk all through the house. It's so cute how he shuffles his feet like an old man! Now he doesn't really want to be held unless he's tired or trying to get away from someone (ELENA), especially if we are somewhere new. Like Hastings last night, he was pulling everything down off the shelves, so I picked it all up, picked him up and he'd start doing the floppy baby move where he puts his arms up and tries to slide out of my arms. You know the move. It's fun and exciting to watch him grow, but at the same time I think, "he can't be walking already. The house isn't ready yet and neither is his mommy." But I do like the fact that I can set him down somewhere and not have to worry so much about the germs he'll get when he puts his hands down on the floor!

Ema and Eli started school on Aug 18. They are both really enjoying it. Their teachers are great-Ema's is a really bubbly exciting teacher, and Eli's is an older grandmother type which is good for him. Eli's class has tickets every week that allow them in to "Fun Friday." If they get a warning, they have to move their card, and if they keep up the wrong behavior, they get a hole punch. If you get 3 hole punches, you can't go to FF. He was telling me that a couple of people had to move their cards, but he didn't have to. I honestly don't know what he'll do if he ever has to move his. He is a strong boy, but he's very sensitive too. If someone speaks harshly to him, he goes to his room for a while. In that sense, I feel kind of like he may not have been ready for kindergarten. But he is so smart-he knows all his letters, shapes, colors, and he's been reading for a while now. He's always surprising us by reading things to us. At the beginning, we didn't know if he had just memorized things and was repeating them, but he was reading signs that he had never seen before. He is learning to write better now-more controlled. He is enjoying it very much.

Ema is also doing well in school. She is an excellent reader and speller. She gets into a little bit of trouble from talking or mothering the other kids. She tries to help them with their work, but the teacher is trying to get them to be independent learners too. Her teacher is trying to come up with some things to challenge Ema, because she gets bored easily. Especially with the beginning of the year review things. She is hopefully going to start the Rosetta Stone Spanish course that the school is doing and the teacher is going to have her test for the gifted and talented program. That would allow her to go to another location and do something fun and challenging with a group of other kids. I was in AA (Academically Able-do you think the people who came up with that name really thought it through?) but I remember how fun it was to get out of the classroom and go work on the computer or something. I can't remember much of what we did-just the getting out of class part. Of course, now the computers are already in the room, so they have to leave the building to find something new and fun!

Elena is enjoying the quiet time during the day, but she gets bored pretty easily. She's always asking me to play dolls with her. I do a lot, but I do have to try and get my jobs done too. Then she follows me around saying in a sweet, motherly (and sometimes British) voice, "daughter, you can't do that. Daughter, you have to sit here." And then there are the other pretend games like "bwetend you are a bad guy and you got me." or "you're Jenna and I'm lena, no you're Kyle, no you miss Jonana." and my favorite, "I was a princess, and you saw me." Whenever that one comes up, I cringe because-well I don't even know how to explain it. I pretend to be the prince and see her and come up and try to talk to her, then she goes and pulls a Snow White on me and runs away. Then I have to go chase her down and try and talk to her, and she keeps running. She also throws in some Ariel because she can't talk either. It gets a little annoying. But overall, we have fun together. She's got such a silly personality-she makes me laugh quite often.

Everyone is back home now after daddy took them to Town & Country, so I better get off the computer. I'll try to get some pictures on here too. Oh they posted at the top and now I'm too lazy to move them around! I posted some on Facebook too.

Funny lines from the 1984 Transformers

*Deactivate your mouth.

*Your knowledge is only overshadowed by your stupidity.

*Autobots, TRANSFORM.....Not you, Bumblebee.  (You kind of have to see the cartoon with this, but Bumblebee starts to follow orders, and then has to stop halfway and transform back to his robot self.

*I've got the plan, it you've got the cast-iron manifolds for it.

I was laughing at another one last night, but it's hard to put in words.  I thought the decepticon guy said "Rubbish," but it's actually "Ravage" or something.  A dog robot comes out of the guy's chest compartment.  But he talks in a weird computerized voice and he pointed and said, (in my mind) RUBBISH.  And then it took a few seconds for anything else to happen.  I just thought it would be funny to use that line sometime.