Ashton's first piano recital

At home ready to go

With all the other students. Doesn't he look little? He was the youngest one.

Waiting his turn to play

With his teacher, Miss Hillary

Ashton was so excited to play in his first recital. He played The Silly Scarecrow and Two Ducks. He didn't make any mistakes and wasn't even nervous. I asked him after if he was scared and he looked at me sort of confused and said that he wasn't scared, he was excited! Only mama was scared. I was literally sweating and had butterflies in my tummy until he finished playing! Just like I used to get when I played the violin. He's very excited that now his teacher will be coming to our house for lessons. Don't tell him, but I am WAY more excited than he is! No more packing everyone up to go to the church for lessons! Whooo Hooo!
Good job, Ashton!

Corduroy

Some books we checked out on manners and friends

Ashton and Landon with their banks and the book

Cutie Pie Thea

We did a fun Before Five in a Row unit this past week. Well, I only did it for a few days, but we still had a good time and learned a lot. Corduroy was the book and we learned about being a good friend, manners, and different types of homes. We checked out books on all those subjects and got to spend some time reading them. We also learned about money. Thea took hers out of her bank and had a blast putting each coin back through the slit I made in the top of the almond can. Landon learned the names of all the coins and Ashton learned how many of each coin goes into a dollar. He then proceeded to spend a good amount of time counting all the money in his bank. Sort of funny as I remember doing the exact same thing as a child. Unfortunately, I was not able to do as much with this book as I would have liked, but we had memorial day that week and the boys went to a class at the Art's center on Friday. They had a great time, though and I'm glad that had the opportunity to go.

Cleaning!

What a busy morning we had! The kids and I did all the laundry from this week and cleaned the basement. It needed it so badly! We reorganized all the toys, vacuumed the finished area, swept and straitened the laundry room and even managed to get every toy from under the couches! I did the vacuuming and sweeping, but the kids did all the picking up and organizing. It was wonderful! It is hard to watch them grow up, but it is such a benefit that they can help out.
We have been doing laundry once a week and I do very little of it! Ashton sorts all the lights and darks out and puts the socks into each person's sock bag. Quintin puts the piles into baskets and carries them downstairs. Ashton (or any child) loads it into the washer. Normally I do the soap, but I taught ashton how today and hope he will soon be able to do it on his own. Landon or ashton switches it to the dryer when it's finished. Quintin takes it out of the dryer and carries it up for me. Normally I fold it all, but if the kids are not napping I have them help me sort and it gets done so quickly.

After our 2 hour clean up of the basement I asked Quintin, "now do you understand why I like to limit the toys?" He answered "yes!" very quickly. He was in charge of the task of dumping out the basket with all the train stuff in it and getting all the toys out that did not belong in there. It took awhile to get out and put away all those little legos, duplos, little people, playmobil and lincoln logs that had somehow made their way into the train basket!

Another thing I have started doing is giving the children "zones" to clean up. Every evening after dinner we do a quick clean up of the main floor. Landon cleans up the living room (the least messy), Ashton cleans up the den and Quintin cleans up the dining room. They are getting really good at their areas and it makes for a much faster cleanup. It also keeps the little ones from making quintin do all the work! Ashton really seems to have a sense of pride in his area so he does a very good job.

I have heard this quote a few times, "don't do anything for your children that they can do for themselves" and am taking it to heart. I assumed that the kids would resent it, but I get a very excited reply when I ask Landon to sort the silverware out of the dishwasher or ask Ashton to set the table. It makes life much easier for me also and I like that my children don't always assume that everyone around is there to serve them!

Vitamins

We take vitamins...lots of them! I believe that most food is very depleted of nutrients and it is very difficult to eat the right balance of food to get everything we need. So I try to make up for it with our vits. It is somewhat costly, but the health of my children is more than worth it.

Mama takes...
Mother and Child Postnatal Multis from Pure Essence Labs. I love, love, love these. They give me so much energy. I have tried switching to a less expensive multi twice and felt like crud. These are probably the best vitamins I have ever taken. Thanks Ann, for suggesting them to me and sending me bottles of them when I was preggers with Thea!!!

Bone Ami from Beeyoutiful. These are calcium magnesium supplements. Love these, too. They kept my braxton hicks contractions at bay while I was pregnant and kept me from getting leg cramps (that and the chiropractor!).

Vitamin C 500mg

Acidolpholus blast from beeyoutiful. If my stomach ever hurts I take 2 of these and feel better very quickly. Dan takes them if he's going to eat dairy and he dosen't get a hurt stomach.

Coromega - this is fish oil. I don't have fish burps and it helped my preggy brain a lot. This was the first pregnancy where I didn't feel completely stupid all the time and forget everything. The kids all take these, too. Great for helping with seasonal depression also.

The children take...
A muli (i have tried a few, but am still looking for the perfect one)

vitamin C

OptiKids probiotic/enzyme suppliment. This is great! Landon has stopped have IBS symtoms while on this. If i forget to give this to him for a couple of days i'd better be ready to clean up a bunch of runny poo (sorry...tmi).

Coromega

We also take...

Natural Factor's Echinamide (echinacea). We only take this during flu season. It helps so much. We also take it if we're getting sick.

Mareea at the picture people

Mareea is 4 months

I cannot believe it. My baby is 4 months already. Today I told Dan, "she's not supposed to be this big yet! She's still supposed to be all tiny and curled up on me sleeping. " Well, she is big. She's so big that she's outgrown her bassinet. Today Dan put up the crib and took down the bassinet. I'll have to get the pictures of that up later. Luckily, there were no pictures of me...I'm sure I looked awful standing there with a lump in my throat trying not to cry. My super sensitive husband picked up the bassinet and took it down the stairs saying, "and just like that...it's gone". Thanks, hon. I feel sooo much better now.
For some reason I am really having a hard time with her getting older! The only reason I can think of is that with the other kids Dan was always gone and I was so exhausted and stressed that it made it hard for me to enjoy their baby-hood. Or...it could be that now I realize how quickly they grow and how precious this time is! I am truly humbled and honored to have been given such a precious gift. I know I am so undeserving. God has truly blessed me.

Mareea

She's getting soooo big!! I can't even believe it. Recently she has found her voice and likes to chat with us and make lots of adorable noises. She's not a big fan of being worn, but loves to be interacted with. She is my most smiley baby so far! When we sing to her she gives us the biggest grins and coos and loves to hear rhymes and listen to books with her siblings. I really need to weigh her! It's hard to believe she will be 4 months on the 15th.

She is such a good baby. She hardly cries. If she does it's because she's poopy (HATES to be poopy), hungry or tired. We got her an exersaucer at a yard sale this weekend and she's beginning to be able to use it. She's still a little small though. Finally this week she can sit in the bumbo. Mareea dosen't like it as much as Thea did, but I think she will like it more in about a month. I think it exhaustes her to sit in it for very long.

Thats the update. Will post pics soon!

In business?

I've started to sew some baby things and am sort of trying to sell them. I posted them on a forum that I belong to and have sold a couple of the gift sets that are at in the bottom picture. However, I don't have much time and like to do other sewing projects also so I'm not really sure I'll ever sell much!