Some Normality

January was a very normal month.  It was a very welcomed normal after the holidays.  Once again, I wish I had more pictures.  I'm going to try and take more this month.  I am determined.  I don't even have any of Aydri in here.  Oops.

Here is Kendi doing an experiment.  We learned about how boats float.  Who knew that things float higher in salt water than in fresh water?  Not me.

We also went to the Dinosaur Museum.  We've been reading Dinotopia.

I have been trying to exercise again.  A lot of people roll their eyes at me when I talk about how hard it is to exercise.  I know what it's supposed to feel like to exercise normal and when things are feeling not good for you.  I haven't been able to exercise my entire marriage without getting down and out sick after one week.  So I started out at five minutes a day.  I got sick along with the rest of my family and took off about two weeks and started again.  After a week I upped it to 10 minutes a day, then 15 minutes after another week.  I am now up to 20 minutes a day, but the joint pain I used to have is coming back so I've backed off to every other day and I'm hoping to find some herbs to help.  I can't believe that I've been able to exercise long enough to build some endurance.  It feels so good to realize I'm stronger than I was a couple months ago.  I know this sounds pathetic, but it is huge to me.  I hope I'm in good enough shape by summer time to do some serious outdoor adventures this year.

December

This month has been a wild one. We were busy every single day. I like to be a little busy, but not that busy. I honestly hope that we have nothing to do in January. I'm sure I would get bored after a couple of weeks.

A few days before Christmas I asked Kendi if she knew what Christmas was all about. She told me, "Santa!" I felt like a failure as a parent. I think she sensed my disappointment and tried to guess again, "Snow?" We had been reading a Christmas Story everyday in December and I tried to keep most of them religious so I wasn't sure why Jesus didn't come to mind. On Christmas Eve it was Kendi's turn to say the family prayer. When she asked Heavenly Father to tell Jesus "Happy Birthday," I finally felt like a pleased parent again. Aydri is almost old enough to understand everything about Christmas now. She had figured out who Santa is, but never quite understood what he does. On Christmas morning we had to wake up the kids to open presents so we would make it to church on time. Kendi was so excited and jumped out of bed, but Aydri couldn't have cared less if Santa had come. She kept pulling the covers back up and rolling over. I finally convinced her to let me wrap her in a blanket and hold her. She didn't even care to open her presents. She enjoyed watching her sister open and play with hers. I had to let Kendi finish Aydri's presents so we could get ready for church. I hope she always has a selfless attitude throughout life. Later in the day, Kendi turned to me and said, "This is the best day of my life."

On Christmas Eve we had plans to do random acts of kindness all day. We wanted to focus on serving others and also help the day pass quickly. I was surprised at how many ups and downs I felt throughout the day because of this. We started by having the kids color some Christmas pictures to deliver to elderly people at the rest home. The lady we visited was sweet and glad to see us. We had the girls pool their own money together to buy a present for a child staying in the hospital for Christmas. I really wanted this one to work out because I figured medical expenses and being stuck in the hospital would dampen someones Christmas. Turns out, our hospital had zero children admitted when we got there and the people that were working were grumpy toward us. This really spoiled my mood, but Jared felt like it would work out for the best. Jared had suggested taking doughnuts to the workers who probably didn't want to be there on a holiday, but I didn't think they were as needy as a lot of other people. Boy, was I wrong. They could have used a mood lifter. We also left some change taped to the vending machines next to the ER. Next, we paid for someones lunch at a drive thru, hoping they were travelers. That was fun because the employees were just as surprised as the travelers were. Then we took doughnuts to the fire department. They were very grateful and showed the kids around the station. We also took doughnuts to the police department and gave them the child's toy. I felt really good about this because they told us that they often respond to domestic situations or accidents where small children are involved so I felt like the gift would go so someone who really needed it. All in all it was a good day and it got us into a Christmas Spirit. The kids were zonked out before we even got them home that night, which made things easier on all of us.

It was my families turn to have us for Christmas and it was fun to have everyone there. Tammy and Adrian made it from Missouri with their baby, Levi. Cari brought her boyfriend, Joe, and his nine year old son, whom Kendi has a blast playing with. Stacia brought her fiance, Jed, and his three girls, whom Kendi also enjoys playing with and Jana brought her recently engaged fiance, Joe, whom were planning on getting married a week after Christmas. This all made for an interesting and joyful Christmas. All of my siblings work in the medical field and it's not very often we can all be together on holidays.

The wedding was simple, but nice. They got married in the Bountiful Temple and had a luncheon afterward. We left the girls in Cedar with Jared's family, which was a hard decision to make, but so much easier on me and the girls. I haven't gotten used to the idea that Jana is married because it was so quick, but we can't wait to get to know Joe more.

Journal Post

Has is really been a month already? I don't feel like I have anything new to say and when I looked in my picture folder there wasn't anything to post. I've been feeling like we've gotten into a bit of a rut especially with homeschool and this just proves it even more. After next week we'll be taking a break until January. I feel like we'll be ready to start up again with new motivation.

It's weird to think that the school year is halfway over. I still feel like we're just getting started. I guess that's a good thing because we haven't got burnt out yet. I know that taking a break won't really be like a typical school break like it is for other kids. My kids will be asking me to do things with them all day and we'll end up doing a lot of school stuff anyway.

Jared is still working on the deck he started at the beginning of November. We've been sick and the weather hasn't been perfect so it is taking a lot longer than we anticipated. It's looking good though.

Kendi is still adjusting to school and a new home. She associates not seeing her friends as much as she used to to living in a new house, but really it's because everyone has started school and is busy. Every night lately Kendi seems to be having an emotional meltdown. A lot of her frustrations that she so dramatically sobs about are completely made up and I think she is really tired in the evenings. Hopefully it's just a stage. Despite being completely distraught last night she said Aydri could have her turn to unwrap a new Christmas book. I was shocked. I thought her breakdowns were about her having a selfish moment, but she was still really sweet to her sister.

Kendi and Aydri seem to have a bond like I've never seen before. The other day when we dropped Kendi off at Grandma's so we could take Aydri to the eye doctor, Aydri sobbed the whole way there. She kept asking for her sister. Yesterday, Aydri went to Grandma's house and Kendi couldn't stop talking about how she missed Aydri. I guess they really love each other.

Aydri is currently potty training. . . again. This time we've put her in underwear and we're not going back. We use pull-ups if we go out in public, but if she has an accident in them, even a little one, she walks funny and doesn't like it. So that feels like progress. I still have to remind her to go to the potty every couple of hours, but she has voluntarily gone by herself a few times which is a big deal, she often will ask for a diaper because she knows it's easier. We put diapers on her at night still, but one night we forgot. She made it until about 3 am before she came in crying and wet.

We are going to enjoy Christmas in our own house this year and so far it's been fun. Aydri is old enough to understand a lot of it and asks a lot of questions. Here is our Christmas card to you from us:

Journal Entry with Pictures!!

I figured that since I only update about once a month I should take the time to include some pictures. It is fun for me to scroll back through and see them too.

I can't believe how fast time has been flying by since we started homeschooling in August. I still feel like we just started. It's been four months!! I'm feeling really pleased with it so far. There are a lot of unforeseen benefits that I would like to mention. Our house gets cleaned every morning before school and because the kids are doing things with me all morning and we clean up after each activity the house stays cleaner longer. I always do the laundry during the 30 minute break that we take everyday so it gets done everyday. That used to never happen. The laundry situation used to be very scary. I feel like I spend a lot of quality time with my kids everyday which is so full-filling. I am learning a lot in this process along with the kids. Learning is so fun!! I'm becoming obsessed with reading and history!! I also feel like I am closer to the spirit everyday. There are so many things that I wouldn't know how to handle and I have to rely on inspiration to get me through. I love it!!

Jared and I have been released from the Nursery calling in church. Jared is the new Young Men's Secretary and I don't have a calling at the moment. Being released was bittersweet for me. Kids at that age are so precious and funny, but it would take me the rest of the day to recover from church. Jared is excited to be with the Young Men. He is really good at being on the youth's level. In a good way. haha. Jared is also still loving his new job. It is funny to see his health improve from the stress relief. We didn't even realize how much the stress was effecting him until now. He has a lot more time on his hands now. There is a painting in the works and I am especially excited about this one.

I just finished my four month course of herbs a couple weeks ago. I feel much better, but not over the Epstein Barr Virus yet. The Herbalist told me it may take six months and I think she was right. Most of my symptoms right now are managable and I could live the rest of my life happy if they stayed this way, but as soon as it starts messing with my sleep or my abilities to take care of my family then it makes me want to get better and get help.

Kendi recently got a haircut. It is very short. It took a day for me to get used to it, but now I think it suits her spunky personality. Not to mention, it looks better on a daily basis than it used to. It only takes a few minutes to comb it out.

Kendi is so much fun. She gets excited about everything we learn about which makes teaching easy, but she is so smart that sometimes it's hard to know if she'll be bored. Her current interests are cooking and art. She's loves the little science experiments we do and has fun with the history activities. Reading isn't her favorite thing to do, but she is really good at it.

Aydri is changing everyday. Sometimes she will say things and I don't know if it was her or Kendi talking. She loves to dance and never holds still. She loves to take bathes. She averages about three everyday. She will even give herself a cold one if she's already had one and I've told her no when she asks again. One good thing is that we do reading lesson right by the bathroom door so I can keep an eye on her and she stays out of Kendi's way so she can concentrate. Most of the time Aydri likes to join us during school and I'm surprised at how much she actually can do with us. She also loves to read books now. I can't even tell you how many books we read in a day. Lately, her eyes are looking worse so we'll be taking her back to the doctor as soon as I know our new insurance has kicked in.

For Halloween this year Jared and I decided to dress up. I don't think we've dressed up together, ever. We've talked about being Abby and Gibbs from NCIS for a few years and this year we finally did it. It was so much fun. Jared has Gibbs profile and we put powder in his hair and he looked surprising just like Gibbs. We tried to get all of the details of Abby. Random strangers were taking pictures of us.

Kendi wanted to be a musketeer and we had no idea that their was a Barbie Musketeer movie out. So we felt like we hit the jackpot when we found a tutorial online to make our own costume. Every part of it is homemade except the sword. We used duct tape to make the boots.

Aydri loves cupcakes. I think it was one of her first words. She did not want to go trick or treating at all. She had more fun handing out candy to other trick or treaters. Kendi did the same thing at that age.

We had so much fun that we have already talked about what we should be next year.

Journal Entry

I've been posting on leaftoleaf.blogspot.com about our homeschooling experiences more than I've been posting over here, but I still want to update what is going on with family.

Jared has recently started a new job. He is working with the Leavitt Group as an Internet Developer. I know you're all thinking he must have got the job because he is such great friends with the Leavitts, but they actually didn't know anything about it until after he was hired. Jared has been friends with guys in their IT department and would occasionally stop by to talk programming with them. A while ago they asked him to bring in a resume and at the time Jared didn't even want the job. Then they offered to use him on a consultant basis because he knows Java Script really well and not a lot of programmers do. Now he is working 3/4 time so he can get benefits. He is really loving it there. There is a lot less stress and no late night deadlines. He enjoys working with a group on projects and being able to be done with work by 2 pm. He is still working on old projects, but is finding people to take some of that load off.

I have become almost obsessed with homeschooling. It has become one of those good, better, best issues for me. I could spend all my time coming up with fun projects and ways to teach the kids, but I have to be careful not to let it take over completely. I've also learned that teaching Kendi one on one is the most fun and easiest way for her to learn so that simplifies a lot of lesson planning for me.

I know I haven't posted finished pictures of the house. The house doesn't really feel finished to me yet. We haven't ever spent much money on furniture or home decor because I've never lived in a place I wanted to decorate until now. I think I'll get more serious about furnishings during the winter when we're stuck inside more.

Kendi is blossoming right before our eyes. I love seeing the efforts of homeschool pay off. She has become more responsible and thoughtful and caring about things around her instead of just herself. Just today, she could tell I was tired after reading a bunch of books to her so she made lunch for her and Aydri all by herself. I love the way she does things to. She is so creative. Everything is decorated to the hilt. I have no problem letting her take an extra 30 minutes on her writing lessons because she wants to be creative with it. I use math and sometimes reading lessons to have her work on concentration, but I don't limit her to just one way of doing something. You can read more about our teaching style on the homeschool blog.

Aydri is in a funny stage right now. Everything she does and says is hilarious. She especially loves to tell jokes. She has quite the imagination and will play barbies and dollies by herself for hours. I'm surprised by how much homeschool she can do with us. I love having more than on kid to teach and spending quality time with both of them. Aydri loves to watch football. When the guys get loud, instead of crying like Kendi who is sensitive to loudness, she joins in and cheers too. It's cute. She watches all the BYU games with her daddy.

We are all doing very well right now and just wish time would slow down so we could spend more time in this fun stage of life we are in.

To See the Pictures

These days it seems like it's easier to post pictures to facebook. If you'd like to see them, just friend me over there.

Journal Post

I've always wanted to keep things real on this blog and not just post about the good things. I do not want this blog to be just a brag blog. I'd like to write about some exciting things we've learned about our health lately.

Jared has been to doctors and in and out of the ER with chest pain and near fainting spells and racing blood pressure for a couple of years now. These symptoms sound really scary and doctors weren't able to do much, but prescribe meds to help with the symptoms. The only diagnosis he ever received was GERD. After giving up on doctors and trying to self medicate he just decided that this was something he was just going to have to deal with for the rest of his life. Then we heard about Vickie Sorensen. She is a holistic Master Herbalist, which was right up our ally. She uses kinesiology to check the energies of your body. She discovered that Jared had a heart murmur that we already knew about, but his heart had a valve that sometimes beat backwards and caused momentary light-headedness. Stress made this worse. She found a brain injury that hadn't completely healed yet. And his GERD wasn't really GERD, it was candida yeast in his stomach that got out of control from using an antibiotic. She suggested some herbs to use and he is feeling really great now. His grim outlook on his health has turned out to be no big deal.

I also went to see Vickie because my health was deteriorating. I've been getting sick about every two weeks for several years now. I've struggled with a serious lack of energy and vertigo for as long as I can remember. Recently, I've had severe joint pain and fevers that last a week and a mysterious splotchy rash. It was to the point that I was having more bad days than good and it was effecting the well being of my family and not just me any more. With other symptoms that are too many to list Jared and I had done some research and discovered that I had all the symptoms of lupus. I had been to doctor's enough to know that they weren't going to do anything but prescribe pain meds. I don't have health insurance so I wasn't going to waste my time and money. Thank heavens for Vickie! She told me that my health actually wasn't that bad and that I just had a serious infection of Epstein Barr Virus. The same virus that causes mono in teenagers. Most people have this virus and it is just dormant in their bodies. For some people this virus will flare up constantly. It has spread to my brain and spinal cord and is causing me to not be able to absorb much of what I eat. I think this solves the mystery of my pregnancies. She put me on some herbs and sprouts to kill the virus, but we're trying to do it slowly over four months. I seriously went from thinking I was dying to thinking hey, this is no big deal. I still have bad days, but I can tell that the pains I feel now are healing pains. Vickie calls them healing crisis'.

We also took Kendi in. She was having severe tummy aches and sometimes vomiting. I should have seen this as an allergic reaction, but she's always been fine about food so it didn't even cross my mind. Turns out she is allergic to cow's milk. She also has some yeast and once we get her body back in balance, the food intolerances may go away.

We haven't taken Aydri in yet, but we plan to. If you have a mystery illness or are tired of taking meds with side effects, go see Vickie. You won't regret it.

Journal Post and Garden Stuff

I've always wanted to have my own garden and I've waited several years to finally do this. It's still weird to think that we own our own house and have our own yard and can do whatever we want with it. Starting a vegetable garden was a must. We are starting small this year to learn how and get the hang of things. In our final backyard landscape design, we have a garden space as big as our house. We've made room for a large greenhouse and space for outside plants and berry bushes. This year I tried to start seedlings inside using the Aerogarden starter kit. I can't say that it was successful. It really didn't work well for plants that get big fast or for seeds that are big to begin with like beans. When I moved them outside to start hardening off they snapped and withered. Next year, I may only try tomatoes because they are the only plant that really needs to be started early. And use a fan everyday to help them be more sturdy. Any suggestions are welcome.

Our other goal this year is to get our front yard landscaped. We've drawn up a design for that and can't wait to get started. We like the look of lawn and flowers and tree's, but are trying to keep it fairly low maintenance. Most of our neighbors have mainly gravel front yards and it suits the look of their modern homes. We've tried to stick to a country-cottage look and may stand out, but I hope that it adds beauty to the neighborhood. It's been fun to spend evenings outside with the family working on projects.

Jared and Kendi have been going to the pool everyday for about a week and half now. Jared is teaching her to swim. I've gone with them a few times and I'm very surprised at how well Kendi does. She can swim faster than me. hahaha. Kendi used to hold her breath and dunk her head until her nose touched the water and that was all she would do. Now, she will dive under and kick her feet so fast and comes up grinning. They only spend about 45 minutes and she wears herself completely out. I'm so proud of her and the progress she's made.

Aydri has been potty training for more than a week now. I'm not sure I can say that its going well, but it's not going bad either. As long as I tell her to go she does fine, but she never goes on her own. She has to go every hour or she wets in her pants. This is so different from when Kendi potty trained that I don't know what to do next to get her to progress. I've been pretty relaxed about the whole thing. I feel like maybe she needs a consequence that will make her stop wetting in her pants and going to the potty herself. Making her practice ten times by going from the place she has an accident to the potty is like a game to her. Time-out isn't going to do it and I can't bring myself to give her a cold shower. What kind of punishment is appropriate for a two year old? For the time being, I'm just setting a timer for every hour and hoping she'll catch on.

New Niece and Nephew

Yes, another niece on the Barnes' side!! Can you believe it? That makes eight girls and zero boys. hahaha. Little Kollete was born more than a month and half ago. She is just as precious as her sisters. Congrats Greg and Jaelyn on three beautiful girls!!

Tammy and Adrian just had their baby this week. A little Boy!!! That is big news on the Bulloch side. We don't even know what to do with him. Actually, with all the adventure that we're used to I'm sure he'll be just fine.
I think I see some Tammy in there. . . .maybe. I haven't seen him in person yet. Congrats Tammy and Adrian!!
His name is Levi and he shares his birthday with another niece of ours, the oldest pictured above.

And here is a semi-updated picture of the Barnes Family. It's missing Jerika and Kollete. Pictures are outdated before we can even get them on here. hahahaha

Leaf to Leaf Home-School

I've been working on setting up our home-school and it has been exciting. We really like the Thomas Jefferson Education style of teaching. You can learn more about it at tjed.org. Basically, it focuses on mentoring kids to become leaders through reading the classics the way that George Wythe mentored Thomas Jefferson. I don't necessarily want my kids to be political leaders, I just want them learn "how" to think not just "what" to think. I want them to be leaders of themselves.

I also like Diane Hopkins way of home-schooling. She is a mother who home-schooled her seven kids. I love the patriotic and religious curriculum that she uses and sells. I follow her blog and you can tell her kids are happy in their "old-fashioned" sense of morals.

I've started a new blog to track our home-school. You can find it at leaftoleaf.blogspot.com. Right now it is still a work in progress. It's mostly a place for me to keep track of successes and failures. It helps me to have something to look at to see what we are and aren't doing and what needs improvement and to show how much we've accomplished. I hope you'll follow us and find some things that you can do with your kids too. Whether you home-school or not. It would be fun to have multiple people reading the classics along with us.

Picture Post

I don't have as many pictures as I usually do. I guess that's what happens when you're busy. I hate that.

Poor Aydri was in time-out. I was trying to get a picture of her scowl. It's so cute. Obviously, she wouldn't let me. Here you can see the carpet that Jared laid all by himself. Good job, babe.

This is how Jared finished up the gables of the house. I'm so glad that we went with the Shakes siding on the house. It makes all the difference. This is the last thing we've had to do. How should we celebrate?
Kendi's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. She got some curl formers for her hair. These have been fun. I guess I need to take a picture of the finished product.
She had a Bug/Barbie birthday party. hahaha. We tried to go with the Mariposa theme. It was fun. My friend made this cake for her and it was great! The barbie had wings, but we couldn't make them stay and not ruin the cake.
A lot of kids came dressed up. They were so cute. We had to hurry and paint Kendi's face so she wouldn't feel under dressed. Kendi has been really into mysteries lately so we did a mystery game. The kids had to find clues and solve riddles to save Bug City from the Cockroaches.

Journal Post

We've been stuck at home with a bad virus so now I finally have time to post. Getting sick really throws a wrench in a lot of things, but it's nice to just stay home, chill with the kids and catch up on reading and blogging.

We are literally within 24 hours of finishing our house. We've got occupancy so we've been busy moving in and unpacking. Our loan is already in the process of closing. Jared isn't feeling well, but wants to get the house done so he is working on it anyway. Hopefully I'll get to organizing my pictures and post some soon.

I am in the process of setting up our Home School. I've been doing some reading about the Thomas Jefferson Education. I've found some curriculum's that I like. We will probably be doing a mod-podge of different things. I am really, really excited to start this adventure with my kids. I hope that it turns out to be a great thing for us. I'm starting a home schooling blog where you can follow us. It will be a record of our successes and failures. I will probably be posting more on that blog than this one once we start the school year.

Kendi is adjusting to the new neighborhood. She had so many friends in Sunset Ridge that it was very hard for her to leave. She has made new friends here, but all of them are boys. They don't play princess or dress up or pretend like Kendi is used to. She comes home covered in mud and aching from being rough on the trampoline and doesn't seem to miss all the girliness. We have a dear, sweet elderly lady up the street that takes Kendi to the library and out for a treat now and then. She is a spunky lady and we love her to death. It still hasn't sunk in with me that Kendi is five now. I feel like my life has been on hold for the last eight months, but it has not been for the kids. It makes me sad.

I can't believe Aydri will be two years old next week. She has really taken off with speaking lately. She talks to us in sentences and helps with the prayers now. She is so sweet when she talks. Sometimes she tries to act mad and throw fits like her sister, but she just can't pull it off. We laugh and then she ends up laughing too. Kendi and Aydri play really well together now that we have our own home. They play hide and seek for hours. They are sharing a room until we finish the basement and they love it. It is working really well. They have spent a lot of time playing with toys they haven't seen in a long time.

We have a lot of projects planned for the summer and Jared and I can't wait to do them together. It will be fun to just go at our own pace. We've got a front yard to landscape and hopefully a vegetable garden to plant. We have room for a big one, but I think I'm going to start small until I know what I'm doing. If only we could get over this terrible cold.

Big Helpers

We've never done tile like this before and weren't very sure of ourselves as we were pouring the mold for the seat in the shower. The kids stopped by with gma to bring dinner to us. They marched right in and started helping like they knew what they were doing.

Mud doesn't scare off these girls.

Cabinets

Please pardon the dusty floors and the tools scattered everywhere. We finally finished installing the cabinets, but the counter tops are not on yet. If you notice the cabinets match the board and batten around the room.

I thought this bump in would be a good place to add extra cabinets since our kitchen isn't huge. Jared designed this nice desk layout. There are outlets inside them so we can keep electronics out of sight. I'm big on hiding clutter. It will be fun to find an antique chair to sit at this desk.

Here you can see the bar and the wall cabinets.

Here is the other side of the bar. The sink will go in the middle. You can see the laundry room through the doorway.

I wasn't sure what I wanted for a railing and we didn't have it in our budget. We loved this newel post when we saw it, but it was a lot more expensive than the others. After trying for an hour to pick everything out we came across this newel post that was all broken up. They let us buy it for half the price and we were able to fix it. We really like how it turned out and think that it ties into the board and batten.

Someone should pick up that broom and use it.

Paint Dilemma

These are not great pictures, but it shows some of our progress. The night of Valentines Day, Jared and I stayed up late to install our flooring. We weren't feeling like we had made any significant progress for a few days so we decided to burn the midnight oil. We had a lot of fun.

Here is my paint dilemma. I fell in love with this color sample. It is Martha Stewert's Morning Fog. The sample is a really, really light gray- blue with a hint of green. I loved it so much that I didn't think to get a sample and try it on the wall before I bought a whole gallon. As soon as I rolled the paint on I knew immediately that is was not what I had in mind. It turned baby blue on the wall. I was afraid they hadn't mixed the color right. Jared (the artist, who is an expert at mixing colors) told me that it was an exact match. I even put paint on the sample and let it dry and sure enough it was a match. I want to close on the house sooner rather than later so I'm trying not the think about it right now, but it's driving me crazy. It's such a small room that it would be no big deal to repaint it, but there are so many other things to finish right now. Lesson learned: try out paint samples on the walls before you buy it and then paint the whole room. You can see in the picture where the natural light hits it, it turns baby blue.