Holy Cow it's been a long time since I've updated this. Summer has come and gone and we had lots of awesome weather this year and were really able to enjoy all that summer has to offer. Winter is here and so far it's been a pretty mild one weather wise. We started back homeschooling in September Isaac is in 5th grade and I've started Madelyn on Kindergarten. So far things are running smoothly we've done lots of fun projects and have been really creative with learning this year. This week Isaac will read the Story of Johnny Appleseed and then we are going to bake an apple pie...sounds tasty and fun. The kids are all growing so fast! Joshie has started potty training (well sort of) he shows interest in the potty and goes on it a couple of times a day, but its a start we're heading in the right direction. He has such a huge personality and keeps us laughing all the time, even when he's doing something naughty we find ourselves smiling at him and giving him hugs...I don't know how he does it I have to make myself discipline him. He's a tricky one. A couple days ago he took a red pastel crayon and made a red mark across the whole living room floor, which of course we couldn't get all out but he bats those big baby blues at you and says in his sweetest voice, "Mommy, are you mad?" and I find myself thinking how can I be mad at this cutie, he's just expressing his inner artist, right? Madelyn has her own way of manipulating situations, she just goes to daddy. If I tell her no to something, she waits until I'm not paying attention and goes and sweetly asks daddy for it and most times he gives it to her not knowing that I just told her NO!

So nothing major has been going on, just staying home with the kids and doing school. Michael has started his search for another job and we pray that he finds something soon. We are ready to start the next chapter in our lives and move out of this apartment and buy a house. The kids need a yard and we need more space in general. Though until then I'm choosing to see this small apartment as a blessing. We have become very close as a family. The kids play so well together and despite the big age difference between Isaac and Madelyn they are so close. We can't get away from eachother so we have to find things to do together as a family and it really has been a blessing.

We decided or actually Michael decided that we needed to get the kids a pet, he said we needed a class pet, but we're not allowed to have pets here so we decided to get them a mouse, well we ended up with 3 mice since all three of the kids wanted to pick one. They were so excited and spent hours watching the mice play, and putting them in the little balls they can walk around in. Sadly we only had the mice for 10 days because one of them, Nibbles, Isaac's mouse ate the head off of Missy, Madelyns mouse. We woke up to find a decapited mouse in the cage and the other mice huddled up in the corner. It was sooooo gross!! luckily the kids didn't see it, they probably would have been traumatized, like I was. We cleaned the whole cage out and never found the head. We were afraid that Nibbles may be a serial killer and go after her sister Mighty Mouse next, because she kept trying to get at her, it was crazy, needless to say they went back to the pet store. The kids were sad but we just told them they were sick and needed special care. They miss the mice though, but now they are trying to convince me to get them a lizard. Which I don't want. I don't want anything we have to feed live bugs too....yuck