Jakob and his Bear Badge

This Past weekend Jakob had his Blue and Gold Ceremony. This is the end of the year ceremony for the Scouts where they get awards and receive their badges that they have earned. Jakob had a blast preparing for it and it was so much fun (and emotional) to see my little man up there receiving the recognition for all of the work he has put into Scouts this year. This troop has really been great to Jakob and often goes out of their way to make him feel included as he is the only member of his particular den. Next year he will be a WEBLO and to commemorate his beginning of this journey they held a special Arrow Ceremony where they broke the arrow and told him it symbolized the two year parts of his journey as a WEBLO and then when he completes that journey the arrow will be put back together. He is so proud of that broken arrow! I am going to use it to try and felt some wool roving together to have a hanger for his patches with the arrow as the dowel. He is going to be soo excited!

"Signs up!"

Jakob's Shield. He has "designed" his mark for when he becomes an inventor. DJ for Dr. Jakob.

The theme was Knights of the Round Table. The centerpieces were "Excalibur"

Can you tell the men did the decorating? Duct tape EVERYWHERE!

Jakob's Scouting

Jakob has been Scouting this year and is one requirement away from finishing his Bear Badge! We are so proud of him as he works through all these requirements and learns and loves so much!!

Last weekend was his first Pinewood Derby. Wow. That's all I can say. The excitement the anticipation, the competition, the "try not to look so disappointed son its your first year". Ah my sweet emotional boy. I think he did fabulous and his car looked great. He designed it all himself and he and Daddy worked tirelessly on the weekends to get it "just right". It was a fun day for all.

He was very proud of his design and the cool way the colors overlapped from the spray painting.

Very precise these Scouts. What a production!

Jakob also had a Belt Loop College event that weekend which is basically a cram session for requirements or extra achievements that a Scout might want or need before their advancing ceremonies. This was another Daddy and Jakob event ( Hazel and I were at Ballet meeting her teacher's new baby girl) and they had a ball. So far Scouting looks like a great social choice for us. The flier cam in the mail today for summer camps..... not sure I'm THERE yet.

Gifts for Hazel's Birthday

Jakob made this lovely Happy Birthday Banner for his sister and hung it all by himself. This was her wake up surprise and the idea, creation and execution was all him. He was really proud.

I knitted Hazel this doll for her birthday. I'm so proud of how it turned out. All of the yarn was Grandma Messick's yarn that I got from mom when we were down for our Christmas visit.

I got this little "Easy Sew" kit that's a princess soft book. It's suppose to be for beginners and there are only three pages in it. I had to redo 2. :-/

She loved them all.

My girl is Four.

This week my baby turned four. Where did the time go? Just yesterday we brought you home from the hospital, a tiny and new. Five minutes ago you just started walking with you squeaky shoes! 30 seconds ago you learned to dress yourself and began to express yourself through your "style".

Well not really but it seems like it. For Posterity's sake here are a few of your current attributes:
You LOVE the color Purple

Reading stories and dancing to "Rock and Roll" makes your smile reach your eyes.

You HAVE to have no less than 15 stuffed animals (your babies) on your bed to sleep with every night. And any time that one is missing you usually know EXACTLY where it is. This still amazes me.

Your eyes are just as bright and beautiful as ever.

You really don't like to have your hair brushed and we have "the battle" over it every day.

You love your brother and can't imagine not having him in every part of your life.

You love your brother and can't imagine not aggravating him at some point in the day.

Makeup is still your favorite special thing.

Baking with Mommy is something special we share.

Everyday your memory amazes me.

You love to eat the snow. And that's about it.

Being a helper is one of your favorite things.

Oh I could go on and on. Hazel you have grown in so many ways. I am so very happy to have you in our life and wait with baited breath to see the wonders you will discover everyday.

Hazel's First Real Hair cut- Pictures by Jakob

Mike Finally gave me the go ahead to trim Hazel's Hair. Trim. That's it. With the fights over brushing every morning I seriously have contemplated the clippers. But I think she is happy with the results. And how 'bout my budding photographer?

It's been awhile....

Since I have been to this space. We are still alive but I have mostly been blogging over at Confessions of a Coastie Wife about our homeschooling stuff and my random thoughts. I have come back here since Angela linked to this blog for a Running Challenge blog that I have joined. Yeah thats right me running! Who would have thought right? Well after scanning my past posts for way too long I think it's high time I get back to updating this blog with all our family stuff. Now that my entire world is not spinning out of control since the transfer.

Basic update:
We are in Rhode Island now. We miss Florida. Let me clarify, we were spoiled in Florida with the weather, the friends we had made, and the CENTRAL AIR AND HEAT!!! But Rhode Island has SEASONS and that is something I desperately need. And snow. Jakob is in heaven.

Mike:
Landed the EPO position for a Station here in Pt Judith. Its a promotion to go with his advancement but basically means he's in charge of making sure everything that breaks gets fixed. He has a work cell phone that rings constantly which means he isn't able to leave work at work anymore. Its been an adjustment.

Me:
This transfer has been hard(er). I am having to really work outside of my comfort zone to make friends. I don't want to say that the people here are not friendly.... I'm just the outsider and that's different for me. I have been trying to balance life between homeschooling, my fitness (sanity), and my own personal interests. After much thought and crying and prayers, we decided that I just needed to put school for me on the back burner. I was hating the classes. I didn't see the point in all the bureaucracy and the service hours were all but impossible to complete without someone I trusted that was close who could watch the kids. It just makes more sense for me to be home right now.

Jakob:
Is growing so much. He's learning so well and has recently discovered a love for reading. He has joined Scouts and is loving it. He made a tool box the other week and thought it was great. He still loves his video games but is only allowed to play them on the weekends. He has decided that he will be an inventor when he grows up and has a journal of inventions going. Its great. He and Mike are currently working on his Pinewood Derby Car and he has a race at the end of the month. So exciting, especially since its something just for them.


Hazel:
Oh my, this girl is growing so much. She talks up a storm about everything and is so smart. For a brief period of time she was asking to learn to read but has since put that aside. I can't say that I'm sad about it. I want her to be a kid while she is a kid. She turns 4 at the end of the month and we are planning on going to the Children's Museum. She loves to play-pretend and has to sleep with a million stuffed animals at night.


Well that is an oh, so basic update here. I hope to just update here monthly for milestone sake. If your really bored check out my randomness and our homeschool fun over at my other blog.

A little bit of this and that...

We have been up to a lot here lately including getting ready for our new location. Rhode Island!! Here's a little peek at some of our fun. Hope you enjoy.

We painted egg shells for the letter "E" and Easter
Isn't he cute? ;-)

I was able to sleep in one morning and this is what happened when Daddy turned around! OPPS!

"We" concentrated REALLY hard on putting together a Sleeping Dootie Puzzle

Hazel's Egg

Jakob attempting the famous wooden egg (he really did well!)

Easter Egg Youth Service at our Church (I've got love like a fountain)

Climbing trees with friends

Rainbow Xylophones on Preschool coop

And that's only part of it. I am currently working on catching up with Hazel school posts on my other blog Confessions of a Coastie Wife. I have been a bit lax there lately since we have been so busy but now that the yard sale is over hopefully I can get back to some sort of routine.

Another Wonderful Week

Life is soo much better when Daddy's home. Not that we begrudge the work that he does, but we sure are glad to have him home to play with. See? Happy face!!

A little friend of ours turned one this week and since all we had to wrap her present with was Christmas Paper, we just flipped it over and decorated the blank side and mad our own. The kids REALLY like the stamping!

I love seeing this! I work really hard each week trying to find books for Jakob that would be interesting yet readable. This week's treasure find was the Dinosaur reader. He loved it! It's so much fun listening to him discover his readings and telling us all the cool facts he gleans from them.

Daddy's Back and Seaquarium!

We went to the Miami Seaquarium this week with Hazel's Coop. Jakob got to skip school and we had an awesome time. the shows were the best!
See that lady? Apparently I wasn't suppose to be taking Jakob's picture with these birds. After snapping a couple of times I realized she was talking to me and repeating over and over again, "You can't take pictures with these birds, please move on and take pictures with the birds farther in." Yeah I totally know where my kids get it from! ;-)

The best part of the week was the fact that Daddy came home! he brought us all little gifts from Puerto Rico. Hazel got this cute little summer dress....
both kids got little frogs...
And Jakob got a ship in a bottle! So much fun!
We are all settling back in with Daddy being home. We have adopted a new limbo status as Mike was informed that he would need to put in a dream sheet since he is advancing. We will know later if that actually means that we are transferring this summer.

I'mmm Baaaackk!

Ok wow yeah it's literally been FOREVER since I last wrote. So much has been going on and a lot has been hard to deal with, but this is not the post to get into that. Right now I wanna talk about the cool stuff we are into. And show off my beautiful kiddos.




They've gotten big huh? So beautiful a perfect mini me and mini Mike. They are growing up so fast I can't believe it!

Part of the reason I have been MIA with my posts is because my camera suffered a big boo boo and had to go to the Dr. Now that its back I can show you the types of things that we get into lately.
We have our school time at home. Hazel is soo smart and I am excited to have both my lovies home next year all the time!

We give Mommy "hairdo's". I really think this is her way of getting me back for brushing her curls.

We go to the Zoo and play!

And we go to Michael's and learn how to make H2O!!

As you can tell we have been into a lot of stuff here lately and loving every minute of it. I plan on keeping this blog for family members and such but I am starting another blog Confessions of a Coastie Wife. I plan on using that blog as a way to document and categorize the different things that are helpful as we homeschool, budget, and live life from post to post. Hope you all enjoy!!