fluffy stuffing!

Just a week after his surgery, Derek and the guys put in all the insulation downstairs

These are the guys!  Look how dusty and dirty they are! The fluffy stuff was everywhere!

This is after it is all cleaned up...during the event it was a MESS!!

Even in the ceiling!

They cut slits and put in the hose and it would fill the space between the trusses with insulation
And now it is ready for Sheetrock!!!!

Little of this and that

Mylee got to go to "great to be 8"!! She will be 8 this year!!! 

I started going to Zumba on Wednesdays and I come out so sweaty!! 

Sunday afternoon nap....
You know its a great nap when
 you wake up looking like this! 

Cute boy!

Got gas so cheap! Haven't see these prices in over a decade!!

Silly boy carrying a lady bug in his shirt!

Kenna wrapped him up in a burrito and he just laid there! Funny kids!

All 5 go in for cleanings!

I took all the kids in for cleanings....The took up all the chairs!!

you can see them all the way down the line

Bk on the left and then Mylee next, then Kenna, Bia and then Saileen at the end,

Cavity free for this lady! 

This girl was a champ and cavity free as well!

Other than not being thrilled to have had to do X-ray's and her cleaning taking longer than she wanted it to, her cleaning was good! she as well walked away cavity free too!

Mylee had 3 cavities. She has some underdeveloped enamel, which makes her prone to cavities.  :-(

Small fry did well with the cleaning and had no cavities! His eye was buggin' him but he was still patient and did well!

I had a cleaning the Friday before and was also cavity free! I was very thrilled! And 4 of the 5 kids were, so I think we are on the right track!! Hooray!

A room divided

We got a room divider for Kenna and Jojo's room. We are using it for their dresser 

This is Mylee's side her drawers are the bottom 3 and the 3 above that are her dresser section

And on the other side is Kenna. Same arrangement with the dresser but opposite side

Right down the center you can see both sides.  The like it and they have 2 boxes with there special things and some book shelves and spaces for their dolls. They are pretty happy!
Saileen is still in their room, she is using the old dresser right now and is sleeping on Mylee's side.

The Electrical is done and this is when Derek was hanging the netting for the insulation.
1 step closer!!!

Winter months

We made some yummy graham crackers. They were so easy and delicious! 

Round 1, we dipped with milk....always fun!

Then comes the Mallow

S'mores is the yummy result!

We had Tony and Tim over when Saileen was babysitting and
 Tony and Kaliah had quite the time playing legos together

The girls did some projects on African Animals...This one is Saileens

The boy has figured out how to undress himself....Oh joy!

Under the knife!

Derek got his ankle surgery on the 16th of January

Prepped for surgery...nice flattering gown too! Ha ha

Cute little socks with bears on it!

And a rockin' cool hat!

Coming out of Anesthesia, was funny and groggy. They showed me the piece of bone that was floating around in there. It was about half the size of a pea and a triangle shape.  The doctor said it was just moving around in there and causing inflammation and causing problems.
  

Now he is in a boot and on crutches! I like to call him "gimpy"
He has been limited on what he can do so I have had to left and carry things that I normally wouldn't have had to. I will be glad to have him back to normal!!  For sure!  

Here is what it looked like at his follow up a few days after! Yucky! But healing well!
Glad he is on the mend! 

Kaliah Bia

My little Skeeter bug turned 5 today!!!

She is such a sweet little girl! She has many nick names like: Ski-ah, Bia Ski-ah, Kaliah Bia, Skeeter (she told me she liked that one), I have no idea where these names came from, but she answers to all of them!

She loves to play with MyKay and ride their balance bikes together.
She loves to play Ever after high dolls!
 Kitty Cheshire is her favorite right now! She just got it for her birthday today but has been waiting with baited breath for its release for months!!!

This is the duo riding their bikes together! Two peas in a pod, these 2 are!

She Hates to have her room dirty and if it is, it brings her to tears!

I adore this kid! She loves life and loves to make us laugh! She is still obsessed with horses! HEr horse sound is quite impressive!   

She is very opinionated, for sure! Everything from how her hair is done, to what clothes she wears to how her dolls are dressed! But, when she is set on something good, there is no stopping her! 

She loves Frozen, especially Elsa. She got an Elsa plush for Christmas and then got the Barbie Elsa from my Mom and the Polly pocket sized Elsa as well! She also got a Lego car set, which she put together all by herself. She loves Legos! She got a Sleeping beauty Plush in the blue dress, another one of her favorite things....Sleeping beauty. She got a nightgown from Saileen that came with a matching 18 inch doll size nightgown.

She is beginning to read, small 3 letter words like "sat" and "hat"  She is so proud of herself when she reads! I am proud of her watching her grow and learn! She has the darnedest time remembering the sound for the letter "d" though!

For her birthday she choose toast for breakfast, cheese sandwiches for lunch and egg burritos for dinner. Her dessert was brownies with cream cheese frosting and (natural) M&M's on top! It was Yummy!!! Some of her favorite foods are spaghetti, hot dogs, pizza breads, bean burritos, cream of wheat, apples and peanut butter, macaroni and cheese with applesauce, chips and salsa, she loves eating tomatoes all by themselves and she loves pickles, and smoothies. She always wants to drink the juice left over at the bottom of the bean bowl when we have black beans, bizarre, I know!   She loves chicken nuggets, sweet potatoes fries..and many more things.  On the other hand she does not like, Ketchup of all things!! Or bananas, or oatmeal. She only like hamburgers without the bun, and will only sometimes eat peanut butter and Jelly.

I love this kid to pieces! She is a joy to have in our home! She is VERY shy in public but at home she is the family jester! Once she warms up to you, she will entertain you for hours!!
She gets worried about things like "bad guys" or automatic flushing toilets, getting left behind when we are walking somewhere or if she will get what she asked for for Christmas.  She often comes to me and says "Mom, I just can't stop worrying about....." But she is very trusting and will listen to me reassure her that everything will be OK and then she will let me do the worrying for her. I can can often feel her sweet spirit when we do scripture study and she will even add her comments and participate in discussions. She will often come up to me and just out of nowhere say "Mom, I just love you" Or "mom, you are the best"  I just love her!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KALIAH!!!

The Graham

In case you were wondering, home made graham crackers baking in the oven makes ones house smell DIVINE!! 

Let the milk dipping commence!!

Yuuu---ummmy!

I think this could become a regular thing! So easy, so yummy!!
The school schedule has begun again, back into the swing of things! They are working on an animal project. Saileen is researching Elephants, Kenna is working on Giraffes and Mylee took Rhinoceros. They seem to be enjoying it! We still love homeschooling, even with the bumps along the way. It is a work in progress for sure, but everyday with my kids is a great day!