Valentine's Day At Our House...the quick version.

A wall of why we love Jake...

Chocolate chip heart shaped pancakes for breakfast...

Jake happy to have these pancakes while watching cartoons...

Lunch with Papa G. since his Valentine is still in NH with the new grandbaby...

Daisies, my favorite flower ever, from my Valentine.

London broil, twice baked potatoes, and salad for dinner-all things Aaron has been craving for quit some time now...

Aaron happily posing for 1 picture while saying "Steak!".  This is an amazing shot considering he is such a P.T.P.P....It's been a while since I explained that one so I will for any newbies around here.  Aaron is a picture taking party pooper-BIG TIME.  You would think after 15 years of marriage he would have learned to just smile and get it over with but nope....So, this picture is a treasure. :)

Me and my 2nd Valentine...

Heart shaped plates....

Moments later I tried again for a photo with a smile...No such luck. 

Giant heart shaped chocolate cookie....

And score!...The day before we went to Sam's club and while picking up bulk supplies of all sorts of things, we checked out the book section (one of my favorite places on earth....) and found a Valentine book for each of us.  Good excuse for a book right?  The 2nd Beyonders by Brandon Mull for Jake-$5.  The Host by Stephanie Meyer-$7 for me. And The Bourne Imperative for Aaron-$6.  Life is good when you can buy cheap books and use the excuse that it is Valentine's Day. :)

Our Home: Jake's room...

 As you can see I didn't have Jake pick it up before taking the pictures...I was on a time crunch people! Don't judge me....

 The dresser is the one my mom used growing up, than I used, and now after repainting & distressing it Jake is too.  (If you want a better look at it go here.)  I need to paint and distress something else...SOON!!!!

Jake's bed...or lack there of, but...

...thanks to a homeschooling yahoo group we got a great Ikea bed cheap with out having to take a day to drive up past Charlotte to get it and we made new friends.  SCORE!!!

Still no box spring so it looks really low to the ground...because it is!  Jake loves it!  I love that he is not on a mattress on the floor! 

Life is good in Star Wars land...other wise known as Jake's room. :)  -Enough blogging for one day-I have got to get back to Valentining it up!  I love holidays. :)

Our Home: Living Room, Laundry Room, 3/4's Bath, and Backyard

Those aren't my curtains (the homeowner left them) but they work!  That is the side door that we use all the time.  The front door actually goes into the playroom.  This room is bigger and has a bathroom off of it so guests can use it and we can keep the one on the back hall all to ourselves..which makes the germaphob in me happy.  No our friends and family aren't gross or dirty.  I just don't like to share my bathroom.  If you know me, this is not news to you. :)

The joys of homeschooling: you don't have to get dressed unless you know you are leaving the house. :)

Ignore the boxes and such that still haven't found a home and are living underneath my beloved buffet I inherited from Mom and Dad's downsize and then painted and distressed.  I have a project I can't wait to start that I am going to hang above it...

I love having our stuff back...Welcome home White Birch candle holders that Grampa Smith made for me.  You look so pretty on our cocoa table. :)

The living room leads to laundry room, which leads to the backyard...which is where Sadie wanted to be rather than inside.

I will have to update the laundry room when I get it organized....The owners left the dryer in it but I wanted to use ours...back to that germaphob problem I have.   Aaron is going move the extra one into the shed at some point.  Are you wondering where the washing machine is?  Old house charm! It is in the kitchen. :)

The shelves and cabinets in it are amazing!!!!  I have already started this organizational project-since I took these pic's I mean. 

The best shot I could get of the backyard in the 20 secs I was outside.

Back in the living room and right by the door to the laundry room is what is supposed to be the guest bathroom that we currently have to shower in.  We have to fix the shower in the bigger bathroom and I am hoping that will get checked off the honey do list soon!!!  The people we are renting from didn't realize it wasn't working...When I went to clean it when we moved in the nozzle fell off into the shower it was so rusted on the inside. 

Next is Jake's room!

Our Home: The Play school / Homeschool Room.

How lucky are we to have this amazing space to learn and play? Just ignore the fact that I took the pictures in its natural state. In other words: I didn't take the time to pick up all our stuff and this is a really good day.  There are usually Legos covering the floor.


I really could have moved the Cheezits box...Just pretend you are playing I Spy.  Can you find the Cheezits box, Bag for Caesars costume, and a chair that could have easily been pushed in? :)

 Don't you love the curtain that I tacked up?  It will eventually get hung up on a rod.

 This is where the magic happens.  We have brought back the plastic table clothe that we can write on and put our Foundations Memory Work for each week under.

Faces of History

We have been working the past few weeks on a research paper for Jake's homeschooling co-op.  (We love Classical Conversations!)  We are studying ancient history this year with C.C., so all our writing in Essentials was been based on it, and Jake decided to do his paper on Caesar Augustus.  After the paper was complete we had a faces of history night and all the students dressed as the historical person they had done their paper on (changing the research paper from 3rd person into 1st for the presentation).  It was so awesome!!  We are so blessed with an amazing homeschool co-op!!! 

King David (Gabe), Caesar Augustus (Jake), King Tut (Carter), & Aristotle (Jonathan)

 Sara (Sarah), Esther (Emily), Eve (Trinity), & Ashely (I can't remember who she was!!! Someone from the Bible...)

 Cleopatra (Mikayla) & Nefertiti (Adrien)

 Mary (Jeneay), Esther again,  & Alexander the Great (Cloe)

 Queen Hatshepsut (Kathryn) getting ready.

Our whole smarty pants Essentials class.

Papa G. and Daddy congratulating Caesar Jake on a job well done.

The 3 Stogies and good buddies.

Jake with Mrs. Davis, our Essentials tutor.  She is an English genius and we appreciate so much that she is willing to help us dive into Essentials! 

We are so blessed to be surrounded by amazing, Christian homeschoolers and friends.  I can't believe we only have 6 weeks left!!!!

I'm alive...

...But we still don't have Internet! So I am back to blogging "part time". :) We do have TV because apparently we can't live without it (we don't even watch a ton of TV but what we do watch we enjoy....plus we have a contract with Dish Network that had been on hold well over the allotted time it was supposed to be on hold..Ten months to be exact)!  We don't have a microwave either.  You don't know what you've got 'til its gone.  It is hard to eat leftover spaghetti without a microwave, but we are surviving.  I am at the library right now and I can't wait to make a quick check on all my favorite blogs to see how you are all doing.  This is a little of what we have been doing the past month and a half:

Celebrating Christmas while Jake had the flu and I had a respiratory infection.

 Enjoying a sweet dog that showed up at Nana & Papa's house for a few days.  I hope that her old owners found her or someone adopted her from the pound....

Celebrating Rere's 15th birthday.  Watch out SC residents this girls has her permit and is hitting the road!!!

 Unpacking....(more pictures of the new house soon...)

...a ton of boxes...and we still aren't done....

 Going to NH to visit the Powell's and the new baby that decided to wait until we got there to come.  Tina prego and heading to what would be her last Dr's appointment before....(More on our NH trip later)

 Braeden (that isn't how you spell his name but I can't remember how they spell it...) is finally here!  Welcome to the world little guy!  (More adorable baby pic's coming soon....)

 Making snow angels in NH.

 Playing Ninja Tag, Lego's, and a million other things with cousins.

 Sledding in NH.  (I am specifying NH so one thinks we actually have snow in SC)

 Homeschooling in our homeschooling/playroom...

 Watching Jake's Triops grow.  See the big one up close to the top of the water.  There were 6 that started from eggs but it seems the big guy ate all of them but 1...Sadie ate the food that came with them so we had to head to the pet store for more.  That isn't why the big guy ate them but I just had to write that so we can remember it and laugh in 20 years. :)

 Enjoying our new space...

 Frying things like Oreo's while watching the Super Bowl.

 Painting like Michelangelo did in our homeschooling co-op.  (More on homeschooling coming soon...)

 And here we are at the library right now.

I have about a zillion other pictures to some day come back and blog about.  For now I am good with a quick update to remind me of all the memories we have been making.  Now I am on to see what you are all up to! 

Back from Vacation...but still not blogging

We are back from vacation and unpacking the house.  We don't have internet (or TV.  We are like the pioneers or something! :) ) and don't plan on getting it any time soon.  So, I won't be blogging for a while.  I am not sure when I will get back to it...

Taking a vacation while on vacation....

I am taking a break from blogging for a while.  We are in NH right now visiting my sister, her family and their new addition Braedyn, who was born yesterday!!!  When we get back to SC next week I will be unpacking our new home (we moved in the weekend before New Year's and left on the 2nd to head up here...needless to say the house is full of boxes), restocking the pantry/fridge/freezer, helping Jake with a major homeschooling project, getting skinny... among other things! 

I shall return...