Family Pictures 2017

You wouldn't guess it by looking at these pictures, but Ruby was the BIGGEST stink bug on the planet about pictures. She refused to be posed by the photographer. She said the photographer "wasn't her friend." And so I basically had to tell the photographer to let the 2 year old do whatever she wanted and pose everyone else around her. *major eye roll* You should have seen the look the photographer gave me like, "You let your 2 year old run the show, eh?" And my response? When I'm trying to get my $100 bucks worth out of family pictures...you better bu-lieve it baby! If Ruby ain't happy, ain't nobody getting a decent picture. That's just how it is with Type 3 two-year olds, heaven help us all. Funny though, because Ruby's pictures are some of my very favorites. Hers and Ollie's, I LOVE how they turned out. And I LIKE Lincoln's and Ivan's both. They both cooperated and gave good smiles. Adelia's and Cal's though....meh, I'm not over the moon about either one of their pictures. The photographer could not capture their real smiles. Which is sad because, they are my smileyest, happiest two kids. Weird hu? I'm not sure what was going on there. But overall, I'm happy with our family pictures for the year.

A World of Octobers

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers!"

 -Anne of Green Gables

Back to Homeschool

Annual "Not Back to School Party" at the reservoir with the LaMont's

Not Back to School Read-a-Thon Feast before we moved

Open Art Studio at the Springville Museum of Art

Field Trip with cousins to This Is The Place monument

carding wool

Ollie and Lisa panning for gold

Ivan, Ollie, Linc, Del, Aneya, Cal, Krystal on the train ride

Lincoln is taking a Robotics class through My Tech High

Lincoln's model air plane

Adelia's Nature Journal week 2 

Adelia's nature journal week 1

Stocking up our non-fiction shelf

Our family is taking a Nature Journaling Class through Bravewriter, it lasts the entire month of October

Linc started trombone this year

Ivan's nature journal week 2

Ivan's nature journal week 1

Lincoln's nature journal week 2

Lincoln's nature journal week 1

Ivan is taking art lessons from a local artist, this milk snake in colored pencil was his first big project.

Poetry tea time, fall theme

We are also doing a farm-tech class

The kids have been drying and laminating leaves and using them to spruce up our school room window.

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, 

Reasons the card, but passion is the gale.

-Alexander Pope

It feels so good to be back at the helm. It's not perfect by any stretch, and neither am I. I still wonder just about every other second whether or not I'm completely messing up their lives. Nevertheless, I am the captain, and we've found a rhythm. Our jive, it isn't the same as anyone else's....and that's ok....it doesn't need to look any certain way. I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I'm navigating through these waters trusting my gut to be my guide, and charting the course based upon the personalities and needs of my individual children.  It's rarely smooth sailin'...but a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, right?! :) Plus it's beautiful....life is beautiful.