2011: another year has come and gone

Well its been another year and we've been very busy through out it. For a recap: Spring: We finished our first year of official homeschooling. We have a little cabin in the mountains and the first part of the year I started fixing it up by tearing out all the flooring (and anythings else that we weren't keeping). For a surprise Anniversary gift, Ken got tickets for a cruise. He planned all of it, from his parents watching the kids to flying to the port. We had fun and while we were there we met a sweet family that I've been able to keep in touch with. In late spring my sister got married. It was a lovely wedding and reception. Almost all of my sibling are married so we won't have a wedding and reception for a long time. Later that month we got to spend a weekend with my sisters, brother and sister-in-law for memorial day and went to Carowinds, which was fun for everybody. Afterwards I went to the mountains and spent the week working on the cabin. Our summer was a busy one, we traveled to the mountains every other week to work on a big garden and continued to work on the cabin up there. We also kept busy at home working on the new school room (used to be dining room), the spare bedroom (got the wallpaper removed and painted blue and it now has the girls old bunk bed) and we also moved the girls room around (they didn't sleep in separate beds and so when we were given a double we moved it into their room and moved the bunk beds into Isaac's big boy room). We also got a visit from Ken's brother and his wife and we took them to the beach (they had never been to the Atlantic Ocean) and other site seeing around town. Fall continued to stay busy with school (aka the homeschool co-op) and a trip to Utah to visit my younger sister who had her first baby. He is so precious and the girls and Isaac loved holding, feeding and playing with him. We have continued to visit the mountains with intentions to finish up getting the house usable. I will post a few before and after photos when its completed. Winter We have enjoyed the holiday celebrations with spending time with family. We are now awaiting a visit from Ken's side of the family. We are going to spend Christmas in the mountains. The girls are looking forward to sledding, playing in the snow and building a snow man, and opening their presents of course. **Sariah continues to absorb information at a high rate. She is so easy to home school. She loves to read and is mastering spelling (we can't speak in spelleze anymore in front of Sariah because she just blurts out what we are spelling). She is enjoying math as we learn about money, fractions and time. **Chloe is so happy all the time and enjoys singing, pretend playing and spending time with everyone. She is still my little cuddle bug. She loves to play with my hair and cuddle up with me and a good book. She says she wants to learn to read so we are going to start her on 100 easy lessons soon. She is continuing to learn at home all the preschool things(letters and numbers and such). We decided to wait until next year to start her in the k4 class with our home school co-op. **Isaac has been growing like a weed, and is staying a bit ahead of normal. He has been signing and talking more and more everyday. He is still a great napper and plays hard. He is tougher than any other kid I've ever met. He is all boy and loves his trucks, cars and anything that makes noises. He loves to run (he has a unique running style that is adorable) and I think will be a great baseball player. He has a great throwing arm and can throw a ball from 10 ft that I can catch.