I have been off line recently.  Sorry!  I have collected a few pictures to share though.

Our annual Christmas stroll and the kids got to see Santa.

Here is the whole group....We had a friend with us.

Look who Joseph got to see at the library recently!

I have never had a star for the top of the tree!  After years of waiting and searching, I found exactly what I was looking for!  The tree is finally complete.

We made some homemade play dough recently.  I had no idea the hours of entertainment this would bring.  The downside, I have found it all over the house and the car!

The boys are excited to about the neighbors' decorations!!!!

The early part of December was very warm! We saw days in the high 50s. One night it was so warm, we did some ice skating in shorts and t-shirts! The ice was just holding up.

The younger two have had their December school programs and Benjamin has had his basketball banquet. Jacob is out of school today. This is the first year that we will get the whole 2 weeks off. (Usually the public schools go back to school the Thursday after New Years, but thankfully it falls on a Thursday, so we get more time off. Granny is coming up next week. She and I are taking the boys to a water resort the day after Christmas. Will spend 2 nights at the hotel and lots of time swimming, sliding, in the wave pool and basketball pool.

Winter is here!  We ventured out for our first sledding of the season.

Joseph is actually laughing in this picture

I always find it interesting how the snow settles on the trees.

We went sledding next to a pond.  I found these shapes on the almost frozen pond interesting.

For thanksgiving, the boys and I headed over to some friends' house.  It was actually the grandparents of some of the boys' friends.  We were there for about 9 hours and had a blast.  The boys got to do some snowmobiling for the first time and I played lots of cards!  Here was our view.  The family lives at the end of road in a house over 100 years old.  Lots of charm and character.

  

It was a great Thanksgiving.  Probably the first that my boys have ever experienced where you just go and hang out all day!  All of the kids were the same age as Benjamin and Jacob.  Everyone slept well that night after the snowmobiling, snowman making and running around.

Tomorrow is Benjamin's last basketball game!  It has been fun to see his improvement on the court.  He has quite a bit of drive running up and down the court.  Tomorrow is Jacob's first of four dentist appointments.  Seems that his body never produced enamel on his 6 year molars, so there was quite a bit of decay.  He has to get them capped since they are adult teeth.  Fortunately, he has enamel on the 2 other adult teeth that have come in.  The dentist said that he when he sees this, it is usually just the six year molars.  After Monday (when basketball is over) our life will go back to being a slow crawl.  Looking forward to it, since the snow is here.  It looks like both of my very part time jobs might be coming to an end too- we will see.

We are just plodding along.  Gearing up for the holidays.

B has 2 more weeks of basketball.  He has had a great experience, but I did not realize the toll it would take on me having games and practices 4 times a week, 20 minutes away!  (When it is cold out, I really don't like to venture to far.)  They had a basketball tournament recently and Ben scored.  His first basket of the season and of course, I was not at the game to witness it, but at least the brothers and dad were there.

Joseph plugs along with 4 therapies a week.  His language is getting so good and becoming more and more fluid.  I am guessing by next fall, he will be done with private therapy.  He is showing some pre reading signs, so we have started on some phonics.  He is an eager learner and really into drawing and coloring these days.  He is enjoying his twice weekly preschool class.

Jacob just cracks me up.  Him and I were recently picking up a few things for his teacher for the 12 Days of Christmas.  He saw some fuzzy gloves that he was instantly drawn too.  He picked out a pair for his teacher and then insisted on getting a pair himself.  They were 2 tone blue.  He loved them so much, he slept in them.

Hunting season is winding down for JR.  He got a small white tail recently.  We also have a friend that likes to hunt but does not enjoy the meat, so we will be getting his deer sometime soon.  JR is still hoping for an elk but only a week left.  He has quite a bit of work lined up for the winter.  Hopefully the snow will be slow and steady.  If we get huge dumps, like what New York is getting now, it will be a very tough winter for him.

Another quiet weekend coming up.  Just a birthday party or two for the boys.  Both Benjamin and Joseph were invited to parties and both of the boys are named Wyatt.  Another great weekend for curling up and relaxing!

Two recent photos that were taken on a school playground while waiting for basketball game to start.
Anytime Jacob is not at school, he wears this hat.  He just loves it and it wreaks havoc on his hair!  (yes it was just cut recently!)

This kid got a hair cut too and then decided while sitting at the table, to cut a section right in the front!

Look at my handsome boy.....

He is really enjoying playing basketball.  They are 1-4.  Last nights game was 49-24.  They hold their heads up and fight to the end.  I still need to find a basketball for dummies video so I can learn all the technical stuff to the game.  After the game, he and I went out to eat.  It was a nicer restaurant that had bar seating without a wait.  We chose the bar seating and he loved being in there.  All the TVs.  A couple next to us ordered the blackened salmon and it came out on fire - he thought that was the coolest!  He learned about what it means 'how do you want it (hamburger) cooked'.  He kept telling me it was hands down better than McDonalds!  It has obviously been a while since he has had a burger from someplace other than McDs!

Winter is roaring in.  On Tuesday, Veteran's Day, our high is suppose to be 11 and the low -1.  Seems a little early for THAT cold.  This is when it would be nice if Jacob were home schooled too and then I would not have to leave the house!

Benjamin has been working on a food menu for us.  I figured it was time he learned more of what goes into meal planning and mostly, the cost behind it.  He just does not understand some of my dilemma of shopping with cash.  When the basket gets full, you have to decide if you buy the granola bars, popcorn or frozen fruit, since you can't buy it all for snack.  He has $100 for a weeks worth of groceries, knowing that we have some stuff on hand.  He was so cute, he had lobster on the menu for his dad, until I told him lobster would probably be 1/5 of his budget.   He has some soda, ice cream, etc.  Will be interesting what he decides to cut, assuming he will have too.  I am also hoping he will learn comparison, brand name vs generic shopping.  He scoured over the grocery store ads and tried to put things on the list that were on sale.

We continue to enjoy our ants.  They are slowly dying off.  Not sure what is happening to them once they die.  It seems that the live ants are taking them apart and moving them to the top of a hill.  I watched for the longest time and only saw 3.  Then I dropped a few crumbs in there and within minutes they started scurrying around and I counted 9.  The kids have already asked if we can get more.  You can also buy more 'farms' and connect them all.  That would be fun.

We have several things going on next week.  Joseph still does 4 speech therapies a week.  Jacob has 2 dentist appts.  Benjamin has 4 games next week.  A busy cold week looming on the horizon!

We are in our 3rd week of basketball.  Benjamin had 2 games last week.  The first game they won and the second game they lost - by one point and it came down to the last 2 seconds.  An exciting game.  Got a few pictures......
He certainly was not camera shy...they are warming up..number 10

taking some practice shots

The other team had some big boys....The mascot is a cougar..which was my high school mascot.

The games wear him out.  I like it because they have to learn a scripture verse each week.  Most of them focus on teamwork...something the coach really drives home.  They have to wear khakis and button down shirt on game days and then they change clothes at the school.

Last week we once again changed things up for homeschool.  Seems Benjamin is wanting more control over his day, so trying to make it happen.  I think we are gonna end up doing one subject for the better part of a week.  Today we spent time on the French and Indian War.  I am just amazed what I don't know/remember.  I asked Benjamin who won the war..the French or Indians.  Neither won!  It was the British and they named it that because the French and Indians were their greatest enemies.  It was also the Seven Year War which I had forgotten about and the debut of George Washington, who lost.

Halloween, I did not even get a picture.  Because of Benjamin's basketball practice, I sent the other 2 with a friend after school and then we hooked up with them at 7:30.  The kids had a lot of fun.  It was 60 degrees.  I did not even wear a coat.  The warmest Halloween I ever remember.

On Saturday we went out and supported the local high school soccer team, as they were playing for the state championship.  They lost after a double overtime and a shootout.  The boys were invited to escort all players out on the field (young local soccer players went).  They enjoyed that!  I just watched the game wondering if one of the boys would one day be out there playing.

My camera was hijacked at some point and I found this picture on it.  A great picture of Jbird.

We have had some amazing sun rises and sunsets lately. I often don't catch them, but I am glad I got this one. Sure wish I had been up on a hill with an unobstructed view.

Benjamin will soon be studying ants!!! So, I thought it would be fun to get some.

The boys have loved watching them. They don't sleep very much. Often taking short power naps and then might go for a 3 hour sleep. When they sleep, all the other ants just walk over them. It took them about 2 full days to start really burrowing, but now they are working a lot. When we dumped them into the farm, we were told to refrigerate them for 15 minutes to make them a little sluggish. I am sure glad we did that. We lost a couple as we were putting them in. The boys would not pick them up...mom to the rescue (Jacob was not around though). They are fun to watch.

I always wonder what Benjamin really thinks about homeschooling. Usually when someone asks him, I am around. One of the things he does every week is pick someone to write a letter to. He wrote to his cousin Gaby recently and I was glad I saw the note.  (Spelling is something we still need lots of work on....If I always made him rewrite things, he would never write them to begin with.  I think his brain gets going so fast, he just spells phonetically.)

Benjamin has started home school basketball. They practice 4 days a week and the practices are 30 minutes away! However, he is enjoying it and they have their first game next week. About half of the practices and games start before Jacob gets out of school, so it is the juggling thing for me. However, to see Benjamin enjoy it is all worth it.

The quarter for Jacob ends next week, which means we are 1/4 of the way through!  Wahoo!

My computer motivation has been limited lately. By the time we finish homeschool and I do what needs to be done on the computer, I am done with computers.

This past weekend I went to Billings with a friend. Nothing but relaxing, shopping, eating and sleeping. So nice to get away for a few days and have no schedule. Other than my persistent cough that would wake me up, I came back ready to tackle the rest of the fall! I also brought a couple of projects home with me that I hope to start soon.

The boys got out of school early today and off school tomorrow and Friday...for statewide teacher training. We are getting together to play with a few friends, but not much else on the schedule.

Recently Joseph's preschool went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. (The older two boys both went with their preschool classes and weird to think this is my last organized field trip there. I look at all of Joseph's classmates' parents upon preschool pick up. Many of them are hauling younger kids for pick up. That is no longer me. I am phasing out of that season!)

Here are a few pictures from the field trip.

This is the apple press....the juice comes out of the small pipe in the middle bottom of the picture.  They had lots of bees buzzing around but they said no one has ever been stung because the bees are way more interested in the apples.

These pigs were a muddy mess...

This is a set of twins that live next door.  They are all in the same class and Joseph loves playing outside with them.  (Unfortunately they are moving to a different part of town...Joseph will be sad.)

At the beginning of the school year Jacob's teacher sent home a note that there would not be much math homework coming home. It is the first year of common core curriculum and there was a huge learning curve for the teachers and how to teach it. I thought 'what in the world'...it is second grade math? Well, Jacob finally brought home a math paper.

Now they have like a 3 step process, where they have to break down numbers before they can add them. Still not real sure why the need was felt to change the way the kids have been learning for years. Jacob's teacher from last year was telling me that he thinks in the long run kids will understand the processes better and not be so clueless in the higher grades. I am not convinced. Seems like if I continue to homeschool Benjamin that he will be learning the same stuff but not in the 'proper' manner. They are supposedly changing up the SAT/ACT tests to reflect this new style of learning.  Something that has all home schoolers and some private schools concerned.

The end of October is the end of the first quarter.  One down and three to go.  I think we might both survive this school year.

Off to call it a night.

Pictures from our week....

Jacob has his school's Fun Run this past week.  He ran his little heart out.

All the kids had stickers on their shoulders that would receive tally marks for each lap.  Here is Jacob getting a quick tally mark.

Waiting in line for tally mark.  I ran several laps with him.  One of them I was in a full on sprint trying to keep up with him.  I thought I was gonna pass out when I stopped.  Thankfully, he does not know about slow and steady so I still would take him in distance :-)

Joseph decided it was time to celebrate black bear's first birthday.

We pulled out the winter gear recently. The boys always love the hats!

On Saturday we attended a local Raptor Fest...Being a 'bird of prey" exhibit.  Jacob is thinking hard as he sketches the eagle.

Here is a hawk, that was injured and now in captivity.  I learned the peregrine falcon is the fastest bird in the world that can dive at speeds up to 250 msp.

A cute little owl.

The boys participated in an obstacle course of such....they were trying to beat the records of the animals...These were Jacob's numbers.

A lovely turkey vulture....

Great horned owl.  It was interesting to learn that most owls either have a an owl ear tipped forward or backward or their ears are asymetrical - different heights on the head.  This is so that owls cannot only determine if a sound is left or right but it allows them to determine if it is high or low.  Even with big eyes, their ears are the most used sense they have.  They can detect a mouse 18 inches under the snow.  They had an owl wing and an eagle feather.  The quickly waved the eagle feather up and down and the noise it created was pretty loud.  The noise created from the owl wing was undetected, another way in which they are able to successfully hunt.

This was some kind of falcon.

This is an owl skull.  Look at those eye sockets.  That is why owls cannot move their eyes but must instead turn their head.  They can turn about 300 degrees.

The boys had a great time and we will make it an annual thing going forward.

Gearing up for another week. I think we are finally hitting our stride with the schooling. Of course every week I think that and then we find a better way to do things! Benjamin finally started getting into history. He is having a great time piecing everything together with Jamestown and the early settlers.