Our Summer... BUSY but FUN!

We have A LOT going on this summer. We always do, but this summer seems particularly busy. But we have some exciting things happening. I want to write it all out, for my sake, to see it all written out in one place. I'm not adding our regular activities like music lessons, karate, scouts and regular church activities.

So here it goes...

May


May 8 - My Birthday :)
May 11 - Melanie's Birthday (which I still need to add pics of)
May 13 - Mother's Day, 24th Wedding Anniversary and WE GOT TO SKYPE OUR MISSIONARIES!!! Best Mother's Day gift ever!!!
May 18 - Brandon's dance party
May 18-20 - Cabin with Cassie, Allen and I
May 20 - Brandon gets on a Greyhound bus for Provo EFY
May 21 - Melanie and Cassie blood work early am
May 23 - Allen takes test in Kingman - Cassie's doctors appointment - My dad's 74th birthday
May 25-28 - Cabin with family
May 26 - Brandon returns and we move him into his apartment in Cedar
May 27 - My dad's birthday party with family - 4:30pm... going to try and make that.... we'll see!
May 28 - Cassie flies out at 4:30pm to England for a month
May 29 - Melanie's doctors appointment at 9:30am

June

June 4-6 - High Adventure - Melanie may be missing this as much as I don't want her to.
June 12 - Driving to Vegas to drop Melanie off at the airport for her Tongan Humanitarian trip
June 14 - Fly out of Vegas for England with Allen, Chris and I
June 16-25 - Have a blast in the UK!!! And maybe head into other parts of Europe!
June 25 - Fly home from England with Allen, Cassie, Chris and I
June 30 - Pick Melanie up at LAX

July


No plans except preparing for my upcoming school year. But I have a feeling it will fill up as well, it usually does. We usually do school year round (at least light school in the summer months) but the kids will be learning a lot from their travels this summer, so that's good enough for me. I'm planning to start school the first or second week of August.

Now that it's written out and some of it has happened already, it doesn't seem as overwhelming. I'm excited for all the traveling, even though it gets a little stressful. But once there, we always have a great time! I'm very excited for Melanie's opportunity to serve the Tongan people. Her group will be adding a bathroom on to a school. They will also be spending 2 days in Fiji (one of my favorite places in the world!) They will be donating books and school supplies to a village out there. She's going to love it!!

Melanie's and Christian's Music Recital

This was Christian's first year of piano. While he's not crazy about it, he knows we think it's important for him to play an instrument, so he's very good about doing it. He doesn't practice like he could but he's promised to do better this coming year.

Melanie has been taking piano for 2 years and voice for 3 and a half years. She loves music and plans to major or minor in it in college.

Both Melanie and Christian took about a year and a half of violin but their teacher moved and we weren't able to find another one so I started Christian with piano.

Christian had 3 short piano pieces he played at the recital. Melanie played 3 piano and sang 3 songs as well. It was an early birthday present for me this year! Chris DID NOT want to play Happy Birthday... he thought it was too babyish, but I said he would be playing it for me and not to worry about what others thought about it.  I love watching my kids developing their talents!

Chris playing The Gift to be Simple

Chris playing Blow the Man Down

Chris playing Happy Birthday

Melanie playing The Entertainer

Melanie singing O Cessate

Melanie playing Amazing Graze

Melanie singing Early One Morning

Melanie playing Over the Rainbow

Melanie singing Far From the Home I Love

Happy Birthday Ali Lou!

Ali, who just turned 22, spent her first birthday away from home and family this year. She's serving an 18 month mission in England and loving every minute of it!

We couldn't not celebrate her birthday... so here's how we celebrated and may I say, it was delicious!

She sent home a few pictures of her time there celebrating.

Opening presents :D

MORE PRESENTS!!!

Me on my birthday! :D 

We sure do miss her! Next year we'll have one of the chocolate cakes and she'll love it!

Happy Birthday, Sister Ali Stout!! We love and miss you!!

Happy Easter

Today is Easter and it's been quite an emotional day for me. I've spent a lot of time reflecting on my Savior and his great and infinite atonement. I'm humbled by his sacrifice for me and all who have and will ever live. My heart is full of gratitude for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."  ~  John 11:25-26

My Baby's 13!

It's hard to believe that Christian is 13 now. We spent the weekend before his birthday up at our cabin - we had a great time. There was still some snow up there and the last 1/2 mile up to the cabin is a dirt road and we just made. Our daughter, Cassie, who is going to SUU came for the weekend. It's strange having so half the kids gone and our gatherings are getting smaller and smaller.  But I know as they all get married and start their families, that will change. Something I look very forward to :)

Opening gifts at the cabin

He is such a sweetie :)

A quick, chilly pic just before heading home.

As we were packing, Cassie decided to make Christian a cake. The oven in the cabin doesn't work really great and with the elevation, we needed to add more flour - which we didn't have. We also didn't have frosting. She added Nutella to half the cake, in case it wasn't going to taste good. But it was wonderful. We couldn't get pieces out, so we all just ate right out of the pan. Chris loved it :) Oh, did I mention that he's pretty excited to be a teenager :D

The cake after we started eating. We decided it needed some strawberries as well. It made it even better. Doesn't look great, but it was and made a fun memory.

On our way down the mountain, we saw a llama. This is the first time we've seen one in all the years we've been going up to Kolob Mountain - 16 years now. It was in the middle of the street and one of the girls thought it was a horse from a distance, but we were excited to see a llama!

He is so cute. He was enjoying being sung to. One of the elders added his own version of the birthday song and Chris got a big kick out of it :)  

I love him :)  <3

We love having the elders over. They are lots of fun!

Happy 13th Birthday, Christian! We love you, SO much! :D

A Weekend in Prescott

This weekend we went to Prescott, AZ to visit my husband's brother, Adam's family.  They recently moved out there after he purchased a dental practice.  I hadn't ever been to Prescott and I was surprised at how beautiful it is.  They will be seeing lots of us! Especially during the summer!

I wish I could say Christian had as much fun as the rest of us.  He was a little under the weather while we were there but he was a little trooper and still hiked around a little with us. 

Cute litte Charlie... so adorable!

Melanie and Charlie :)

My hubs caught a goose... I don't think we can visit a lake with a bird in it without him catching one for the kids.  

Adam and Ashley with Christian.  Goodness, Chris is getting SO tall!!! 

Melanie with her beautiful smile.  She was especially excited to go to Prescott because she got her braces off.  She wore them for nearly 4 years!  Her teeth look wonderful!

Me and my sweetie pie :)

I love my baby girl!

Me, Allen, Adam and Ashley with baby Cate

I love my baby boy just as much!  :D

Stout boys don't follow the rules if they don't see the point of them.  I just had to get a pic of them on the dam with the sign :)

Hike in the Hualapai's

We've become really close with the elders in our area.  We love them all but transfers are coming up and for sure a couple of them will be leaving next week - they've all been here for 3 transfers.  Before then, we all thought it might be fun to hike up at the Hualapai Mountains, which is about an hour from our town and just outside of Kingman, AZ. It was a beautiful day with my two youngest and Elders Meiners, Kynaston, Parker, and Glessing.

Chris and Elder Kynaston enjoying the park :)

The elk come right up to you.  They'll eat right out of your hand.

(L-R) Glessing, Kynaston, Parker, Meiners

Update: Kynaston was transferred to Boulder City, NV and Glessing was transferred to Henderson, NV.  However, Glessing will be heading to Brazil in a couple weeks once his Visa comes through.  They will be missed.

Week 6 - Dinner Menu

Sunday - Pork Chops, rolls, veggies, mashed potatoes

Monday - Sam's Club Pizza

Tuesday - Chicken wings & salad

Wednesday - Turkey, candied yams, veggies, rolls, BIRTHDAY CAKE & ICE CREAM!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR DEAR FRIEND, DEEANN!!!

Thursday - Breakfast for dinner - Waffles!

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Eat Out - There's a seafood (Friday) or prime rib (Saturday) buffet near our house were we usually get comped into either Friday or Saturday night!

Got Ants?

Yeah, well we all do at some point!

My darling children (who I truly love but they can sometimes be somewhat lazy) didn't do the dishes as requested one day last week.  I came home from errands to find the sink not only full of dishes but also full of ants!  There is nothing I hate more than finding ants in my house.... well there might be a few other things I hate more, but you know what I mean!

So, I'm going to share a little tried-and-true remedy with you of how to get rid of those little stinkers.  This was given to me about 20 years ago by a little old Japanese lady that was a tenant of mine at an apartment complex I managed... but you probably don't care about that part :)  Some of you may have already heard this little secret but here it is anyway...

Yeast and Sugar - that's it!  I've also used yeast and honey and they both work great.

I mix about a spoon full of each and put it on a piece of wax paper.  I then put it up against the wall they are walking along.  I've been doing this for the last 20 years and it works... every time!  Don't be tempted to kill them when you see them, just let them at the sugar and yeast mixture and it will get rid of them. 

Week 5 - Dinner Menu

I know I'm starting with week 5 (because it's the 5th week of this year), but I just thought it would be easier for me to put my recipes on my blog then make my grocery list on my computer, print it out and head to the store. I only make dinner and my kids fend for themselves for breakfast and lunch - I only have 2 kids left at home and they are 12 and 15, so they are very capable of feeding themselves.

For breakfast I always have the following things available to them:
pancake mix and syrup or nutella
ingredients for smoothies... frozen fruit, yogurt, blah, blah, blah ;)
muffin mixes
cold cereal

For lunches I keep on hand:
bread for sandwiches
lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, and so forth
stuff for salads
peanut butter and creamy marshmallow (the kids call them fluffer nutters and they love them)
They usually just eat left-overs though.

So on to my menu plan!

Sunday - 1/29 - Linger Long at Church - Left-overs

Monday - 1/30

 Swiss Chicken with green beans

Tuesday 1/31

Cottage Meatloaf with peas

Wednesday - 2/1

Beef Barley Vegetable Soup with Garlic Bread

Thursday 2/2

Chinese Pork Chops with vegetables 

Friday - 2/3

Left Overs

Saturday - 2/4

Eat Out

Something I Have Planned for the Laundry Room

You see that large empty space over my washer and dryer just screaming for shelving? Well, I have plans for that space... I want to add shelving of some kind and I'm debating whether to just add floating shelves or  something like this .  My husband has a guy who can built it for me (since my hubs has been too busy with work and school) but he's keeping that guy busy with other things for himself.  I'm debating whether to be patient and let him built the nicer looking shelves or just break down and put up the floating shelves up myself.  I guess I'll keep you posted on what I decide.

2011-2012 Curriculum Choices

2011-2012 Curriculum Choices - I'll post for each child individually.

Together School:

Scripture Study - The Book of Mormon Made Easier

I use the hardbound copy and each of the kids has their own soft bound copy to follow along.

Christian - 7th grade

Language Arts

Writing: The Complete Writer: Writing With Skill Level 1

Grammar: Easy Grammar

Spelling: Sequential Spelling

Literature: I choose literature to go along with our history studies

History: Story of the World Vol. 4

Geography: We study the geography that goes along with our history

Science: Rainbow Science

Math: Teaching Textbooks - Math 7

Personal Reading: I expect Christian to read at least one chapter from a book on his reading level.  He is allowed to choose the book as long as I approve.

Music: Piano lessons (practice 20-30 daily)

Physical Fitness: Martial Arts (3 days a week)

Melanie - 10th Grade

Language Arts

Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)

Grammar: Easy Grammar

Spelling: Sequential Spelling

Literature: (some of the literature guides are undecided - I'll add what I find for those later)

1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens using this literature guide.  Complete in 12 weeks.
2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn using this literature guide.  Complete in 12 weeks.
3. The Scarlet Letter - literature guide undecided 
4. To Kill a Mocking Bird - literature guide undecided 

Science: Apologia Physical Science 1st Edition

American Government and US Constitution (Part 1) - The 5000 Year Leap Study Course. 

Math - Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Music - Voice lessons and piano lessons

Physical Fitness: Martial Arts (3 days a week)

Organizing Paper

This looks like a somewhat decent way to store your paper and for me it worked for many years.  BUT, it took up not only the  three shelves shown in this picture, but two others.... that's 5 shelves I could have been using for something else, like BOOKS for example.  I wanted a different way of storing all that unused paper.

If you do notebooking or lapbooking, chances are you have a lot of paper in several weights and colors.  I like to keep the colors and weights separate from one another... just a little OCD :)  Anyway, I saw this paper organization system on a blog several months ago and I WISH I knew where it came from!  If you do please let me know so I can give credit where it's due.  Anyway,  it's so easy and makes so much sense, I can't believe I didn't think of it before.

All you need is a file crate and hanging folders. I use colored folders and put the same or similar colors in the files.  So here's my version of this system.

So easy! Now...  what to do with all those paper trays?  I know what to do with the 5 empty shelves! :)

Let me know how you store your paper.  I'm always open to new and different ideas!  I'm working on organizing my schoolroom better so any and all ideas are welcome!

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY CASSIE!!

Cassie came home for the weekend to celebrate her 20th birthday.  We, as a family, went to a Japanese steak house on Saturday night along with her good friend Whitney as well as Elders Parker, Glessing, Meiners, and Kynaston.
Sunday, after church, we had a nice lunch at home, then the had the most AMAZING chocolate cake using this glaze (I doubled the glaze, of course;) for her.  We gave her a sewing machine for her birthday and she loved it.  We had a blast with her this weekend!

Happy 20th Cassie, WE ALL LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Putting a Button with Code on Blogger

I'm not new to blogging, as some of you know.  However, there are some things I just couldn't figure out for the life of me.  One of those things was putting a button with code on my blog.  I'm guessing there are lots of you that are in the same boat I 'was' in.  Well as you can see by looking at the side bar of this blog I've got buttons with codes!!  And, I didn't hire someone to make them for me!  So I'm going to share with you the website where I found the easy instructions...

A Heart for Home has the code for how to accomplish this.  You just add your links and a couple a few other easy changes which are clearly marked and you're in business.  Trust me if I can do it, anyone can!

My Homeschool Story

I LOVE to homeschool! That's right!  I truly love to homeschool!

I started homeschooling my kids 15 years ago after my huband announced that's what we were going to do.  No discussion (at first), he just bought me a book about how to homeschool and said this is what he wants for our family.  He was also homeschooled for about four years and saw the value in it.  I, did not!  At that point, I was a little frustrated that he had dropped this on me and excepted me to take on this huge responsibility.  I have to admit that I put up a fight and he even broke down and allowed me to put the kids in a Montessori school for a few years after homeschooling for about 3 years - the easy early years.  But in time and after seriously praying about it and doing some homework about homeschooling, I decided I'd go for it again.

It was a very difficult transition for me.  I had 5 kids under the age of 9 and I honestly felt like I wasn't qualified to teach my kids.  I'd cry to my husband and he was a sweetheart about it but basically said things like...'you know how to read and write, then why not just show the kids what you know'.  Well, that was easier said then done.  I was becoming completely overwhelmed and wanted to give up.  My husband said that he'd rather our kids get no education then put them in public school and in our small town there aren't any private schools that go past the third grade.  So, I had to bite the bullet and get serious.  I had to stop all the whining and get to work.  However, I did take several months and let the kids just play and read while I put together some plans.  I also studied a lot from the scriptures and found many references about teaching our children, which I'll share with you in another post.

So to make a long story short... After a lot of prayer, pondering, studying and taking lots of deep breathes I began to homeschool my kids. And now I can say with all honesty... It's the best thing we've done for our children besides helping them develop a relationship with their Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We now have 4 children who are homeschool graduates.  Our oldest, Ali, is serving a mission for our church in England, but has only one year left before receiving her Bachelors in History after she returns.  Our next oldest, Jon, is also serving a mission in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission for our church.  He has one year of college completed.  Cassie, next in line, is a sophomore at a University in Utah.  Brandon, who is 18 is working at Subway right now but has about one year of college completed.  I'm currently homeschooling my two youngest, Melanie (age 15 - 10th grade) has about 15 college credits, and Christian (age 12 - 7th grade).

I will be forever grateful to my dear husband who encouraged me all the way and still does, for putting up with my ranting and whining, and most importantly for not giving up on his vision for our family.

If you are considering homeschooling, I would encourage you to fast, ponder and pray about it.  Give it a try and let the results speak for themselves.  You will not see changes overnight but you will, in time, see the fruits of your labor and they will be so sweet.