Preschool is hard work 😉
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Tooth Fairy
Well, it's happened. I am the mother of a tried and true big kid! A week before his sixth birthday, Joel lost his first tooth. It was harder on me, than on him, that is for sure! I can't really wrap my head around my kids growing older. This, I feel, grows Joel up a WHOLE lot. I see him walking around with a toothless grin and a lisp, and I get reminded he's not a baby anymore! He's my little big guy!
He was extremely brave for the extraction. We only tugged twice. Joel was a little worried about how much blood there was, but hardly a wince came from him! 
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Evelean loves to DRAW!
She is going through a drawing phase. She's past her scribbling, and onto drawing real life things! This one is of our dog.
A year in Review
Since last year, our family has been tested, tried, stretched, bent, but we haven't broken! The beginning last year started with what I can only call a catastrophe that took a lot of time and healing to get through. I'm greatful for the Lord's eye over our family and his understanding of what our little family needed. The summer was a beautiful reminder for my husband and I of how much we love being together, and how important family is. I was able to be I the temple with six of my seven sublings and witnessed my brother make covenants that will bless his family forever! The fall brought a new surprise of our family growing! Unfortunalty, she came with her own bag of difficulties, and again, The Lord watched us and made sure we were cared for. We started homeschooling and joined a village of other families taking te same journey! Now just finishing up the year, I'm feeling better, our family is building stronger connections every day, and we are succeeding!
Joel is turning six soon! We've been homeschooling and he's really enjoyed reading and science. He still has an imagination that just doesn't stop! He loves movies and games and making prototypes with Lego's. He's mom jr. and likes to be in control and in charge. He succeeded in finishing his testing for yellow belt in Taekwando, and participated in spring and fall soccer. He loves co-op and spending time with friends.
Evelean turned 4 in October, and is still our fire cracker. She has and probably will always be our story teller. She has a vivid imagination. She loves animals and hopes to be a animal doctor someday. She also loves participating in co-op. Eve enjoys dressing up, and making messes. She loves to paint, draw, and pretty much anything that involves art or sensory play.
Jared and I just keep moving. :) We've had an interesting year of learning and growth. We've decided we're going to have our best year yet in 2015! Jared continues to work tirelessly for our family in his schooling. ONLY ONE YEAR OF CLASS WORK! We're excited to be done with the book work part of his degree. I'm still doing my trial and error of homeschooling with the kids and I'm excited to grow our family! It's been hard work, but all of it has been for the better.
Cheers to 2014 and hello to 2015!
My Young Women
My heart was made so full when I organized the gathering of my young women when I visited Elkhart. These are truly amazing girls and I'm so happy they were able to come together and catch up with me! I will be forever grateful for their love and their testimonies that kept my head above water. I love these women so much.
The Alpine Village
We went to a celebration calle "The Alpine Village" at a local church this year just before we left for Indiana. It was a really ornately put together Christmas town.
There were several awesomely decorated Christmas trees. This one was a pretty huge hit! It had Frozen dolls all over it.
Joel was impressed with the Truffula Trees.
The Santa was alright. Mrs. Claus was better. They did enjoy thanking him for the gifts.
The gym was beautifully decorated. They obviously have done this for years and it's a local tradition. All of the houses are built of wood, and well out together. Each house had a thing the kids could make or do.
This was a puppet show about the Saviors birth.... Kind of. More on that later.
They did have a cool "Snow" pit. It was little plastic shavings coming down from the ceiling. Very cool.
Now my soap box. This was no small production. It was free to the community, and tickets were in high demand. As well as it was, it was advertised as a Christmas celebration with a live nativity and village. As ornate and thoughtful as the Christmas village was, the nativity was the opposite. I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the nativity. They could have done so much and promoted the real and true meaning of Christmas and celebrated Christ's birth, but they chose not to. The nativity was a small after thought done by irreverent teenagers. I was very disappointed that I touted the experience to my children and "the most important reason why we were there" and it was a NOTHING experience. I was and am so disappointed in a CHURCH who chose to downsize the sacredness I Christ's birth and instead make it about an entertaining puppet show, that explained the nativity, but negated the reverence. I don't know... Maybe I'm just a crabby old lady now not in the loop with prodestent Christian traditions, but the savior is more than a puppet show and a cool Christmas village with a snow maker and Santa. But when Santa is your best set up, where does the Savior fit? Can we make Him no room? 
The band was decent, actually. I enjoyed the music.
Christmas 2014
As usual, the Toney's celebrated Christmas super early this year. Santa still treated is very well :)
Eve really enjoyed her Ana dress up dress and her unicorn.
Joel enjoyed his pirate dress up and his bow and arrow.
Jared and I enjoyed a happy day of happy peaceful kids :)
It's a......
The Toney's happliy announce that the new baby is a GIRL! We're very excited for May and for baby Sylvia's arrival.
Woo the Pumpkin
She Tuned 4, and Turnt Up!
October 10th, baby girl turned FOUR! Can you believe it?!
We had a nail polish party, and had a few little friends over.
This picture was the "was station". Apparently, water tables are an awesome idea. They played here forever!
One of the other momma's helped me out with the polish bar, and we did many a FABULOUS manicure :)
One thing I kind of hate is my friends buying my kid gifts. It bugs me. But never the less, she was well loved and adored her gifts .
I'm not sure navy frosting is ever a good idea. :)
Foot Massages
Let's be honest, las week was HELL. Monday was errand day, Jared's first day back to school, and shot day for the kids. Never fun. I had a flu shot done, and I got so sick from it! I mean, DOWN for the count sick. Not fun! On top of it all, my parents came for a visit, and the kids were just plain mean to me. Like, walk I to my bedroom (out of the clear blue) and say, "I really hate you mom. You're the worst" type mean.
Lots if tears were shed, and some forgiveness had to happen, but we're pretty much back in one piece.
Now you may understand my surprise when this morning, Eve came into my room this morning while I was getting ready and she plopped down and said, "you deserve a foot massage."
It's the little things that make it so much better, you know?
Homeschooling
We have made the decision in our family to homeschool our children. I have an EXTREMELY supportive husband, and a pretty good village that surrounds us. This decision has been more easily said than done. Because this pregnancy was difficult at the beginning, it made homeschooling a trial. I think in general it's a process, but ours has been uphill pretty much our whole journey. Lately, especially coming home from Christmas break, life, in general, has been difficult. Adjusting back to real life hasn't been easy. Lots of tears have been shed, and prayers lifted to Heavenly Father. This week has gone so much smoother. Not picture perfect, but well. 
I snapped this picture to remind me that sometimes, tracing the word "for" is a victory. Joel is a good, smart boy. He's my man :)
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