Our New Digs

Here are some pictures of our new digs!  I know you all have been dying to see what seminary student housing looks like, right?  ;-)  Well, at least my mom has.  So here you go mom:

We're in one of the family duplexes.  There's a whole bunch of these surrounding a cul de sac in our little neighborhood.  It's very quaint!

Living room

Front entry/Living Room.  The other doorway you see there goes into the kids' playroom.  Upstairs is our room, a half bath and the office.

Standing in the kitchen, looking into the living room.  Shoe storage in the lockers and a drop station on the counter there.  The door you see leads down to the basement (kids' bedrooms and laundry/storage).  If you continued to the right, you'd hit the other entrance into the playroom and our main bath.

Full view of the kitchen.  It looks big, but it's not.  The drawers are small and shallow and there isn't a ton of cabinet space.  But it works for now.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I had to share how prettily my cabinets are organized.  Okay, okay- full disclosure, I had to remove a couple bags of stuff tossed on top of the cute bins before I could take the picture.  But in theory, it would look like this all the time.  ;-)

Dining room.  

Family Organizing Center.  <3

The kids' teeny tiny playroom.  Those magazine holders are how we organize our children's books.  They're sorted into categories/series/authors and labeled with a photo.  

Liliana's "housekeeping" center.  She's been cooking food for the whole neighborhood.

Main bath

Micah's room.  He has the biggest room in the house, but when someone asked him about it, he still said "it's a little small."  While it may be "small" in his opinion, it's also way awesome!  Who wouldn't want a carpetball table in their bedroom!?!?!

Carpetball AND foosball.  He also has an entertainment center/TV that isn't shown.

Liliana in her butterfly bed.  The basement rooms aren't exactly the prettiest and we can't paint or anything, but this helped girl it up a bit.

Dress up/ponies and Rex's cage tucked back in the corner.

Her armoire, dollhouse, vanity and something I'm working on for organizing her clothes, but I haven't quite figured out how to jimmy-rig it yet.

We don't have a garage, so everything is shoved in this one narrow/long room.  Plus our laundry.  Plus my treadmill and workout mats.  Yeesh!

Upstairs is our office/craft room and bedroom, so we've been able to completely ban the kids from that level of the house.    It's pretty awesome!  

I can't wait to sit at that table and look out the window and sew (once we can take out the window air unit that is).  And yes, that is a beer fridge in the corner.  :-P  Seminary is stressful.

So there it is.  Home sweet home!

Update/Jolly Phonics

Wow!  It's been almost a month since my last post.  I'd like to say that it's because we were so busy packing/unpacking with our move that I haven't had time, but it's mostly because I've been so unbusy sitting in my lawn chair and catching up with friends that I haven't had motivation.

Sometime soon I'll post pictures of our new (temporary) home.  We're getting better and better at this moving thing.  This time around, 24 hours after we arrived we had only 3 boxes left to unpack!  Granted we'll get to repack them all in 10 months (hopefully) but for now, we've settled in quickly.  This move was also made easier by our Family Organizational Binder!  When I went to register Micah for school, fill out my paperwork for subbing, etc. I could just grab the binder and I knew I'd have everything I could ever need.

But on to the main reason for this post...Jolly Phonics!  So Jolly Phonics is a curriculum published by an independent British company that combines teaching phonics with cute little songs and actions.  Micah's 4K school last year used it, and we fell totally in love with it!  He has a literacy assessment in a few weeks for Kindergarten, so we started to review his sounds with him and Liliana has been picking up on it quickly too!

Here's the video...I LOVE the little British accents the kids have.



I also made some flashcards with the pictures/letter on it so they have something to hold while they sing it.

After a few days of reviewing these with the kids, Micah said that he wanted to learn how to read.  So we sat down this afternoon with some magnetic letters and I'd give him a three letter word and he found the letters that spelled it.  He spelled all of these words by himself!!!

The best part was while he was trying to figure out which letters he needed, he was doing the action from the song while saying the sound.  It's amazing how the kinesthetic connection really drives the language part home.  So if you're looking for a way to teach your kids their letter sounds...this mama HIGHLY recommends Jolly Phonics!

Minnesota Part 2- Water Fun!

We've spent the last three days out on the lake or playing in water.  Minnesota Heaven!  We even had a loon serenading us while we fished.

Usually I skip the slip and slide, but it's hot enough out where I had to join in the fun!  I even have the bruises to prove it.  ;-)

Jeremy and I on the lake.  We spent a lot of our summers when we were dating out on this boat.  Great memories!

Micah's first fish of the season!  They were practically jumping into our boat.  And we were even fishing with summer sausage.  :-P

Liliana's first fish of the season!  She said "I think we should give it a boat ride!  Fish love boat rides!"

My two cuties sitting on my lap while we drove.

They were pretending to be sharks.  <3

Water slide at Camp Lebanon.  Jeremy used to work there and his mom and sister still do, so we get to visit occasionally and play!  J and I took the kayaks out the other evening...beautiful way to see the lake.

I love little kids in goggles.  So super cute!

Liliana's first time tubing.  She LOVED it!  She didn't want to stop and then she took another turn later.

Micah loves tubing too!  

Swimming in the middle of the lake.  

Liliana was hesitant at first but when she figured out the lifejacket would keep her up, she was all over it.

We spent an hour just jumping off the boat into the water.

Wahoo!!!!

Even Liliana jumped off the boat.  With a little encouragement.  Of course, this strained Jeremy's healing from the hernia so he's been in a bit of pain.  Nothing like re-injuring himself right before moving!

Today, we're headed to a Splash Pad!!!  I'll take 100 degree heat and sunshine over the freezing cold and rain we had here last summer.

Minnesota Part 1

We're having an INCREDIBLE time with our family in Minnesota.  I've taken a ton of photos over the last 2 days and we still have 6 more days to go.  So here's MN Part 1...family time/wedding/Bowlus Days.  Enjoy!

Touchdown dance!

I told them to strike a football pose.  This is what I got.  <3

Liliana and Danyka digging in the dirt.  

Cailyn and I playing in the mud

4 of the 6 (going to be 7) cousins!

Why yes, that is Liliana cropped out of the right side.  She was being a cranky pants.

And then she fell asleep!  I think Buppa (Jeremy's dad) was loving the snuggle time, besides the fact that it was 90 degrees.

So pretty!

My sister-in-law Jenna, one of my favorite people on the planet!

Dancing with my son!  <3  He was cracking me up.  I love that boy!

Liliana and Uncle Gary 

The kids were dancing maniacs!

Micah was the life of the party at the wedding.  At one point, the wedding party was surrounding him clapping while he danced ferociously in the middle.  Here's a video of his fancy footwork...

Bowlus Days!  It was hot, but we all had a blast!

Micah with Uncle Joe (my brother) at the firefighter water fights!

Liliana and Nana (my mom)

In complete awe of the buckets of candy being thrown at her!

Micah participating in the tractor pull...rural life, here we come!

Now, it feels like summer!