Night At The Pool...

While I talked about this on the new blog, I figured I may as well share it here as well. I want to bring this space back to being all about the boys and just life. So here's a little documenting of something they love.

Being in Southern California, with this nearly year-round warm weather, we spend from around mid-March until late-October at our neighborhood pool. In fact, this month, we've been there almost every single day. The boys both love it! Caleb loves jumping in and being thrown up to do flips, etc. He's definitely still in the daredevil stage! Sam was once there, but he's much more cautious now. However, he's slowly getting back to that once-daredevil self and jumping in again. With that said, he's been wanting me to get videos of him jumping in. It's not often that I actually remember to bring the waterproof camera, but I happened to the other night and Sam decided he wanted to make a YouTube video about it. His goal right now is to be the next big YouTube kid, ha! I don't know that he'll quite hit that mark, but we'll sure try and start making videos more often!

Here are the boys at the pool. I love that I caught Caleb doing the Hulk Smash move in the pool, ha. He's always reenacting his favorite superheroes...

If you like it, make a comment. Sam is super excited about seeing what people think of his first video...

Splitting Off...

So, never mind the fact that sadly I'm not very active on here anymore, I decided to split off onto a new blog for many of my posts. I realize that homeschool-related posts have kind of taken over. What was once a grief-related blog after our daughter passed away, then turned a baby book for the Sam-man and a sad attempt at one for Thunder, it now seems to be all school-related. Sooooo....if any of you would like to jump on over and see more homeschool posts, deals that I find, and more FREE printables, join me at....

This Crazy Homeschool Life of Ours

and

check out the Facebook page

Growing Up Too Fast...

So, as I sit here skimming my Facebook On This Day page, I just can't get over how fast my boys are growing up!

All About Reading...

So since I'm on a roll, I may as well make another post while I have the chance, ha! I still hope to go back and do an end of the year response to the post I made last year about the curriculum that we used -- or in some cases, didn't use. However, that'll have to wait. This particular topic is fresh on my mind so I'll put it out there.

Looking Back Over The Last Year...

So, I've been terrible at getting on here. So bad in fact that I don't even know where to start! The last time I sat down and wrote was at the start of the 2016-2017 school year -- oops!

Welcome To Kindergarten...

It's hard to believe, but we officially have a kindergartner in this house! As you can see from the picture below, we also have a toddler that wants to be just like his big bro, ha...

Preparing For The School Year And The Rest Of The Alphabet...

We're less than a month away from school starting. I can't believe it! Even though our schedule isn't slowing down and I'm having a hard time finding a way to accomplish all that I wanted to this summer, I'm trying to get us prepared for the big day. I'm a planner and I know if I don't get things prepped and planned, it just won't happen. So while my mom was in town (keeping the boys occupied), I made a planner in photoshop that I plan to print out and use for lesson planning. Can I just say, I can't believe my kid is going to be in kindergarten?!

Homeschooling Adventures And The Letter R...

The past month has been a great one for the Moore house. Samuel has gotten involved with two separate homeschool groups, Caleb started his very own speech class, and we've been trucking along with pre-k at home. I can't believe Easter is just around the corner!!!

Homeschooling And The Letter Q...

So, I suppose I should just resign to the fact that I'm getting bad at getting on here again. I was doing alright there for a little while when the school year first started, then things got busy and I fell back into the habit of not getting on here. I keep thinking of all the things I'd like to get on here and talk about -- especially since I'd love to document things about the boys -- but I always end up choosing sleep over staying up to get on here. Sad, sad, sad.

Thanksgiving In Vegas And The Letter N...

The last time I was on here, I was preparing for Thanksgiving and our trip out of town. Now here we are...preparing for Christmas!!! It's crazy that it's just 3 weeks away!!! There's so much I want to cram in between now and then. We'll see what actually gets accomplished, ha...

Finally Back! (And The Letter M)

It feels like it's been forever! My Mac officially died, so I had to wait for Apple to install a new hard drive. Unfortunately, trying to catch up on everything has taken much longer than I would've hoped...

With that said, how is it that Thanksgiving is NEXT week?!?! I absolutely love this time of year! This is when Thanksgiving and Christmas start to merge in this house. Our house is decorated with the harvest theme (it has been since September since I don't care for Halloween), but I have to admit, Christmas music and movies have been in full force for the last week or two. Ha. To add to the fun, there are so many crafts and activities I want to do with the boys that are holiday-themed. Now it's just a matter of finding time for it all. We did start doing a couple Thanksgiving crafts today with Samuel's school, which was fun!

A Sad Day For My Mac...

So, it looks like my hard drive is giving up. If anyone has been looking for last week's Paw Patrol worksheets, that's why. For about a week now, I've been having issues with this 4 year old iMac and it looks like I might have to replace the hard drive -- makes me so sad! If so, it may be even longer before I create more work sheets since I've have to replace Photoshop and I have no idea what my serial number is to switch it out. Good times.

Fun Times With Numbers And The Letter L...

So after having a chaotic morning with Mr. Caleb (I adore that boy, but he definitely keeps me on my toes!), I decided to scratch our previous plans and go meet James for lunch. Afterwards, Samuel asked if we could go to the toy store before running our errands. How could I say no?! Unlike my usual willpower to not walk out with anything, I gave in today. I found an awesome "toy" that is similar to something I was already considering for our homeschool. So instead of the fun Hot Wheels toys that Samuel wanted, I let him "buy" this educational toy. Regardless, he was super excited! He is such an appreciative kid. You could give him new socks and he'd excitedly yell, "Oh!!! Thanks, Mom!!!!" And actually mean it. In fact, he did just that a couple weeks ago when I grabbed a new set of socks for him. Ha! He gets so excited and is genuinely thankful for anything that comes his way -- boring or not.

Pregnancy And Infant Loss Awareness Day...

October 15th has and always will be a special day to our family. It's a day to recognize and remember all babies gone too soon. At 7pm worldwide, everyone (who chooses to participate) is asked to light a candle to create a wave of light. I love that as Samuel gets older, he eagerly wants to participate and help with it. Tonight, he asked if he could light the candles (with my assistance) and as we did so, we talked about what they represented. We always light 3 -- one for each of our angels. It's such a little act, but has so much meaning…

Visitors And The Letter K...

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How is it almost the weekend already??? Over the past week, we had my parents in town along with some old friends that we haven't spent time with in years. It was great to catch up briefly and I can't tell you how happy the boys were to see my parents! We lucked out with our friends' visit -- they happened to have to work in Vegas and decided to head down this way for a little vacation afterwards.

Soccer And The Letter J...

If you've never watched 4 year olds play soccer, you should. It's quite entertaining to say the least. I'm one of the coaches for our AYSO Region's U5 team and feel like I spend most of my time just reminding them to stay inside the lines, not carry the ball with their hands and most importantly not tackle each other. During one of our practices, someone clotheslined Samuel as he was running onto the field. Instead of looking hurt or offended, he got up (looking like he enjoyed it) and started running around doing it to other teammates. Luckily, he's not alone in the madness. It's definitely fun, but crazy.

Sweet Faces...

The house is quiet with 3 boys asleep and I know I should be doing the same thing, but instead I've been sitting here trying to finally edit a few of the images from our trip home. They bring such a huge smile. I'm so glad we were able to meet my friend and her kids in Nashville for an overnight visit! Samuel won't stop talking about his girls and asks daily if we can FaceTime. It's so so sweet!

Summer Love

So, I'm a little behind on making Samuel's Paw Patrol letter worksheets, but for good reason. We spent a week in our hometown (Indianapolis) and just got back late last night. It was the first time we had been home in almost 3 years. It's hard to believe Samuel was 18 months old the last time we visited! Overall, we had a great time! I'm thankful Samuel was able to play with his cousins and Caleb was able to finally meet everyone (at 15 months old)!

The Letter F

Does anyone remember the game, Domino Rally? I think that'll be on Samuel's Christmas list this year. He loves watching videos of large scale sets on YouTube and has enjoyed lining up toys to do the same when available. While working on simple math last week with his Unifix Cubes (100 count), he ended the session by having his Hot Wheel run through and knock them over, ha.

13 Years...

Yesterday was our 13th Anniversary. Hard to believe we've been married that long! It was such a crazy year, but it ended in a great way. I said on my Facebook post that it might be one of the best yet, but then later got to thinking…wait a minute…we were absolutely miserable at Ft. Irwin and that lasted a loooonnnngggg 8 months, ha. However, the last 4 made up for it tenfold. It's hard to believe we've already been in this house 4 months -- enjoying civilian life here in southern California. Watching our two healthy boys grow up is a dream come true and knowing that James is home for good enjoying it with me is priceless.