Here we are several years later.  It is 2017 and our family has changed a ton!  Isabelle is now 12 years old, and in the young womens program in our ward.  She just participated in Girls Camp and loved it.  I have been homeschooling her for the better part of 5 years.  I have been fully homeschooling all my girls for 3 years or so.  Gabriella didn't want to leave her school and friends, but through the process she has found even better friends and some really great things to be a part of.  Alexandria has been homeschooling is starting to read and is progressing.  She is having a hard time understanding how to speak and communicate in normal ways, but I believe that is due to personality and individuality.  Lily my baby is 4, taller than Ali and very social and has great reasoning skills.  I have our updated pictures and will post them.  But they are from last fall.  I still haven't put them up on my wall.  Eek!  I am so behind.

I will post about our entire homeschooling journey and the incredible friends and people it has brought into our lives.  I will also post about my family and the growth and opportunities they have had.  I will also post the very big changes and challenges our family has met with over the past few years.  The biggest and most heartbreaking being my mom's passing.  That event has led to a series of changes.  None or which are a blessing.  At least not to my vision, currently. 

Family Pictures 13

So, I have been stressing about getting family pictures and good baby pics of Lilly.  Finally on Sunday, we got pictures taken.  We got ready all morning, because frankly getting four girls ready plus myself takes a long long time.  We listened to the first session of conference that day, then we took off.  Not as quickly as we should have.  We took pics up at the Welches home on the mountain.  Then we drove around listening to the next session as we looked for another likely place.  We finally ended up at Muller park canyon again and got some pics there.  There was a small incident that took us a while to pic the gorse bush prick-lies off the Belle and Ella.  Belle got a few big ones, but Ella got a hundred little tiny ones.  That was not fun.  Anyway I think we got some OK ones and we didn't spend an million dollars to have someone do them for us.

School Decisions

I have had such a hard time deciding what to do for the girls this year with school.  It is difficult deciding to take your child out of the normal public school system to home school.  I always wonder what is wrong with someone when they home-school and here I am doing that to my daughter.  Nothing is wrong with her, but I am worried that she will become socially corrupt because of this.

Well we are loving it so far.  Belle does really well, especially in Math and we find ourselves far ahead of where her class at school is.  This is an experimental year so I will be more experienced and knowledgeable about all of this in the future.

I am keeping Ella in normal school this year, as it is hard enough for me to focus all day on three kids.  Hopefully she will continue to do well there.  She likes it and that is great.

Alexandria's Birthday - The Big 3

Our little Allie is three years old and I tell you what it is a cute and crazy age.  She had such a fun birthday party.  Surrounded by family and presents, she felt special and loved.  It was a great day for her.

Gabriella's Birthday and Grandpa's stories

My sweet Gabriella is Six years old now.  Wow, time has flown by.  I have enjoyed this baby of mine and will continue to enjoy every moment I am blessed with her in my life.  

So my dad has been telling the story of Rendercilla since I can remember.  In fact it is one of the clearest memories I have from my younger years.  I have been begging him to recite this story for over a decade and we finally got him to do it at Ella's birthday party.  She loved it!  And since she is sort of named after Cinderella, it is fitting ( we were reading a golden book of Cinderella to Belle when I was pregnant with Ella, and the name Ella is Cinderella's name, and both Aaron and I loved it immediately.)

We also got to here a few other stories of his including his Army days!!:) We were all laughing so hard, and Craig was laughing so much he was crying.

Crazy Wonderful time of life

I think this last year has topped any and all insanity and craziness that I have heretofore experienced.  I love having all four of my girls. It is so awesome to hold and love a beautiful child, a real spirit daughter of heavenly father. But, I have truly understood my sad lack of ability.  If I ever doubted my weaknesses before, I definitely don't now. To be able to feed all four, especially with one being a nursing baby, it takes my whole day almost.  Most days I remember to feed myself, eventually. But, the crazy and hardest time of everyday is bed time.  It feels like I spend so much time and energy trying to get the girls ready and in bed and to stay in bed that I could just sit and zone out for a while, but then its time to fall asleep myself.  Most days now I crash, I can't even remember falling asleep.  I think Aaron is getting used to putting me down into bed, so I don't wake up with a neck cramp.  

Well, lately things have gone pretty well.  Isabelle's Baptism was beautiful.  We loved having family and friends share the day with us.  But, it was quiet enough that is was spiritual and peaceful. Belle was glowing and so happy.  Watching her listen to her Grandpa's give talks, directed to her and their love and testimonies, was one of the most beautiful things ever.  I really loved how she loved every moment of that day and the week leading up to it. We did the Eight Days of Baptism Countdown and it was so fun for her to think of her baptism and have a reminder every morning of what baptism is.  A wonderful day! Baptized by her Dad, confirmed by her dad and her Grandpas, John Campbell and Herb Biesinger and most of her Uncles were in the circle, Chad, Craig, Barclay, Andy, and Trevor Farnes and Danny Wicker.  What a wonderful group of  men.  

 I can't believe we are having a baptism in our family!  Isabelle turns eight on Saturday May 25th.  She is having her birthday that same day, and what a way to celebrate.  We are excited, but I tell you what it has been crazy madness getting it all done.