Our New Home

I have been meaning to post pictures of our new home but I am just now getting around to that!  Of course, since these photos were taken we have changed even more things around!  It is always changing and we are finding what works and what doesn't.

These were taken on a day that we were hosting a friend's baby shower and the others below were taken when we were getting ready for hosting a meetup playdate.  Do NOT think my house is nearly this clean and orderly all the time! :)

 This is the view from the top of the stairs looking down on the living room

 Dining Room

Kitchen

 The Eat-In Area--The kids LOVE eating here!

 (Ignore the clutter-- We were getting ready for a house full of guests)

View of the living room from the dining room

LOVE my Last Supper picture :)

These pictures are of the three bedrooms on the upper level.  Right now we have twin beds in Olivia's room, and a toddler bed and crib in the nursery.  Olivia sleeps in her room, Caroline sleeps in the crib in the nursery, and Ellie is still sleeping in her pack-n-play in our room.  By her first birthday, we are hoping to transition Ellie to the nursery with Caroline.  A couple of years from now when both the babies are sleeping in regular beds I would like to move the twin beds to the nursery and put a full/queen size bed in Olivia's room.  We are still a long way from that right now but I am so thankful that we have plenty of closet space in the girls' rooms!  Two kids can easily share a room in this house!

 Caroline helping me out with an action shot!

I miss the color of our old nursery but painting is just too big of a pain!  I still love their bedding so much :)

This is the girls' bathroom in the hallway!

 Master Bedroom (Bed not totally made... But you're lucky it's made at all!)

 Master bath

 This is looking up at the main level from the garage entrance.  We store shoes, bags, and coats here for now but we are planning to add a mud room area to our laundry room (which needs a facelift and wallpaper removal).

 Guest Room-- We also have our computer in a little nook to the left of this photo, but somehow I missed that when taking pictures. 

 The view from the bed in the guest room.  Those stairs lead down the basement where our school room is.

 Homeschool Room!

 Nathan's man cave could use some decor.... We are still in the decorating process!

I missed taking pictures of several things... The back yard, the laundry room, and the basement bathroom!  I will update soon with more pictures!  Thanks for looking :)

-Maegan

Picture Update

We have been so busy over the past couple of weeks!  I decided it would be easier to spill pictures and do a brief update and fill everyone in on all the details later.  I hope y'all enjoy these photos!  I have some adorable little ones to photograph!

These were all taken in our front yard.  The girls LOVE our new house and so do I!  The front yard is definitely the gathering place.  It is so shady and our street is quiet enough that we can play in the front yard any time we want!

How precious are these?!  We really had a great Independence Day celebration.  We took all three babies to the fireworks display in Jackson and NO ONE CRIED.  Talk about a milestone!  :)

These photos are actually a couple of months old, but I'm just getting around to posting them.  They are from our trip to Florida.  Caroline LOVES sliding and her face says it all.  Olivia is definitely an animal lover, and these were two of my favorites.  And our sweet Ellie has changed so much since these were taken.  I am so thankful that I have a great camera to capture close-ups of her precious little face!

Caroline is definitely the biggest Daddy's girl in the house right now and she LOVES dancing with her Daddy, obviously!  This was taken at my parents' house.  These two melt my heart!

My mom and I took the girls on a little weekend trip to St. Louis to visit the arch and The Magic House.  Olivia could not believe that she was actually able to go and TOUCH the arch.  It was such a sweet moment.  Right after this picture was taken, a serious downpour happened.  We ran back to the hotel drenched.  It was such a fun day!  There is nothing that girl loves more than jumping in puddles!

We have just started our official homeschooling journey and Olivia is flying through her kindergarten curriculum.  I am amazed each day at the things she is picking up.  It is a learning process for all of us, but it is such a joy and a blessing to be her mother and her teacher.  Caroline is now potty trained, only having occasional accidents.  She is so SMART and picks up on everything she sees her sister doing.  She is talking in 2-3 word sentences and is working on learning her colors, alphabet, and counting.  Our baby Ellie is finally sleeping through the night (at 10 months!!!!) and she is starting to pull up on furniture.  It is so hilarious to see her reaction when she pulls up!  She is ready to chase after her big sisters and do everything they do.  Caroline is so sweet with her, patting her on the back and kissing her cheeks.  Olivia is a very big helper with Ellie and offers to "watch" her while I fold laundry and do housework.  I thank God each and every day for the blessings he has poured on our family.  Just as any family, we are not without our struggles but we are always making it through by his grace.  I will update with more photos and info soon!  Love all of you!

-Maegan

Homeschooling Olivia

I am the world's biggest blog slacker.  I really had this idea that a blog would be so EASY and I could just jot down thoughts and VOILA!  A blog post would be born.  What a silly idea.   Anyway, my sweet husband bought me a laptop recently and I really need to put it to good use.  So far all it has been used for is Facebook and Pinterest.  I also got a fancy camera for Christmas so I will be sharing some updated pictures soon.

A little over a year ago, I started researching homeschooling.  We were in the midst of many transitions as a family.  I knew the Lord was pulling me towards homeschooling our children but we just had SO much going on.  I couldn't imagine how I could ever make it work and I wasn't sure that Nathan was completely on board with it.  Looking back on that time, I can recognize it as the "pray and wait" phase!  I was in constant prayer over what to do with our future and I honestly felt like it was so unknown.  I couldn't have imagined that a year could bring so much understanding and clarity.   The Lord has truly blessed our family and we have learned to trust Him in this transitional time.  I am SUPER excited to announce that we are starting Olivia in her kindergarten level curriculum this summer.  We moved to a new house recently, and the basement is one of my favorite rooms now.  I had to share pictures now that it is set up and ready to use!

 This is the view coming down from the stairs.  I am extremely excited about our makeshift white board!  We went with the DIY method and used shower board.  It cost about $20 for the whole board.  We picked up the desks for $5 a piece from a local homeschool mom.  LOVE them!  

 Our toy storage is always a little messy...  But we like to keep our favorites where we can get to them easily.  This is where we keep our felt board, our puzzles, sorting blocks, and some manipulatives.

 That bookshelf is supposed to be the dividing line between homeschool room and man cave.  The baby toys are in the man cave in this photo.  Ooops....  I do think it's awesome to have a big screen TV and comfy furniture in the same area as our homeschool room though!

 This bookshelf is school supplies and crafts that need to be out of reach of small hands.

 This shelf houses all of our non-curriculum books and teaching resources, along with a few games.  Notice the big books on the floor?!  We got those at a yard sale and they are AWESOME.  We have some finger puppets and crafts stored in the baskets and jars on top of the bookcase.

 I love that we can open the back door and get some fresh air if we need to!  This is right off the school room and we are planning to put a swingset back here soon. :)

This is the view looking back towards the stairs.  We do have a bathroom in our homeschool room, which will come in handy for arts and crafts when we need sink access for hand washing!     

Nathan and I went to a homeschooling seminar and curriculum fair in our town a few weeks ago where we got lots of new ideas from other parents.  It was really nice to go without the older girls (Ellie came along but she slept most of the time, thankfully!) so we could ask questions and really devote our attention to the speakers.  We browsed several tables full of different material.  Upon leaving, we both were in agreement that our favorites were Sonlight and Abeka.  I have always been a fan of Abeka, but I think the kindergarten level material may be a little TOO challenging for Olivia and the pre-kindergarten material is not challenging enough.  Since she will only be 4 1/2 when we start our school year, we wanted something more in between.  I LOVE Sonlight because it is a literature based program.  Olivia has such a strong love of books that I know she will respond well to the program.  We opted for Horizons for math and Handwriting Without Tears for handwriting and spelling.  I have prayed over which programs to choose and I think that we ultimately made the right decision.  Sonlight is one of the more expensive programs out there, but I do think it will be worth while, especially since we can reuse most of the materials for the babies when they get to kindergarten level.  The plan for now is to start Olivia's schooling this summer, and school year round.  I love the idea of being able to take a vacation (school free) whenever we want!  I am so thankful for our supportive family and friends.  We are so blessed to have each and every person God has placed in our lives.  I will update with more pictures soon!

-Maegan

'Tis the Season!

I cannot believe that it has been TWO months since I last updated.  I am sure the lack of posts speaks for itself, but life with three little ones is so much busier than it was with two!  I will write a post soon of all of the special newborn moments we have had and all of the details of Ellie joining our family, but for now I wanted to share some recent holiday moments.

Here is our family of five!  This was Thanksgiving Day at Mamaw & Papaw's house

Olivia is SO excited about Santa this year.  She is really old enough to understand the whole concept and we are involving her in as much as possible.  She understands the spirit of Santa and what it means.  A couple of weeks ago, we went on a mommy and me date.  We went out for a special lunch and then to the mall to see all of the Christmas decorations.  She was not interested in seeing Santa (she already told him her wish list when we were having Christmas portraits made) but she did enjoy looking around his "North Pole" set-up at the mall.  The photographers there even gave her some treats to take home.  Our local Macy's has an area set up promoting the movie, "Yes, Virginia" so while we were in the mall we walked down to check it out.  There was a desk for children to write their letters to Santa and I snapped some cute pictures of her writing her letter to Santa.

 "Dear Santa, I want a princess bike.  Love, Olivia"

 

  "Bye, Mail!"

Ellie is almost 3 months old now, which is SO hard to believe.  She is such a good baby!  She is sleeping on average about 5 hours at a time during the night.  She is so content and just so lovable.  I cannot imagine life without her.  Life with three girls is VERY busy.  Even when we are at home just hanging out (which is most days) I feel so busy!  I mean, seriously...  No one eats, sleeps, goes to the bathroom, gets changed, or gets into the car unless I am assisting them in doing so.  I know as they grow and become more independent this will ease up, but for now I will take it!  We are so blessed to have our happy, healthy children so I have no complaints.  

Could she be more beautiful?!  Our sweet Eleanor Ruth :) 

This is the wild woman of the house!  

I am so happy that Christmas is nearly here.  I love making new family traditions and following through with old traditions each year.  Nathan said when he was a kid, visiting the window display at Hutson's downtown was one of his favorite things to do.  This weekend, our nephews were here for the evening and we took them all downtown to see it.  They were all amazed!  I was impressed, too...  It was so beautiful!  After visiting the window display, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  On the way home we stopped for a scoop of ice cream.  They all had a blast!  I am so happy that they live close enough for us to make these memories.  It always makes me miss my sister and her babies!  I wish they lived closer! :(  Of course, I would need TWO vans to take all of them on outings like these! Ha!

 How adorable is this?!

I have one last little joy I need to share from the past couple of weeks.  Two words: Swiss Colony.  Mamaw has made it a tradition to send me Swiss Colony each year since I can remember.  It goes without saying that every year we will receive something delicious.  It just doesn't feel like Christmas until it arrives!  I am so thankful for our families.  We are so blessed to have so many grandparents for our children.  Remind me that I said this a couple of weeks from now when I am opening all of the toys they've handed out as Christmas gifts.

Merry Christmas!  

Love, Maegan