Alabama Trip

OK it’s entirely overdue, I know! Better late than never they say.

So our month long trip was incredible!!! I think with the surprise of our elopement everyone forgot the REAL reason we took this trip to begin with. My Na-Na was diagnosed with cancer several months back and gave us quite a scare. Since then we made it a priority to go to Alabama again and see her. We had so much fun while we were out there and indulged ourselves with lots of family time. Here are several pictures we took while we were down there.

Here is Jazzy and my cousin Savanah swimming at my Na-Na's house. The kids devoured two shaved ice that afternoon, it brought me back to my younger years while spending the year with my Na-Na. she used to own a shaved ice place and I used to spend almost every day with her there with a never ending supply of flavored ice.

Jayvins new buddy! despite the age difference between my cousins and the kids (Savanah 12, CJ 8) they all got along really well. Savanah and CJ are so sweet with the kids and very patient.

How cute is this?! They almost look like sisters =) Savanah took such good care of her.

Lamberts Cafe is an amazing restaurant and now one of Nathan's favorite places to eat. They have amazing southern style food and a great family environment. You order an entree and then on top of that they have people come by with "extras" like fried okra, southern potatoes, mac and cheese etc and fill up your plate for free. The kids go a kick out of the rolls flying around. When you raise your hand up be prepared to catch a roll from across the room.

Here's the "garbage disposal" eating some butter

We also made our way to Gulf Shores and spent the day on the beach with all the kids and my Na-Na.

 The kids had so much fun diving in the water and building sand castles.

Jazzy got burried. I think this was Savanah's idea but she loved every minute!

This was my crazy idea. took all of 15 minutes to turn my beautiful cousin into a mermaid. She couldn't wait to get out of this.

Here's a pick of my Na-Na with the kids

Nathan also had his first attempt at Crawfish. the kids loved them to. Jayvin ate a tone, Ridge ate about 5 and then he said he was done. Jazzy didn't want to taste but she had no problem kissing them lol, I could not for the life of me get the little bugers out. I did fine the first several and of course by the time Nathan got me on the camera mine kept breaking apart. I'm having issues uploading videos but here is at least one

My aunt was so sweet and surprised us with a photographer at her house. we were supposed to do a session out side in front of my Aunts pond but we got rained out. Just as we were lacing up my dress it stared to thunder. we thought we could make it so we ran outside under the gazebo for a few shots when it started pouring. We tried to wait it out but it just wasn't letting up so I had Nathan and my Benji (My Aunts husband) with 3 umbrellas around me trying to keep my dress dry while we ran back inside. it was quite a sight especially since one of the umbrellas was a "sunbrella" and let all the rain in lol. Just as we got inside the neighbors motorcycle got hit by lightning and blew up.... luckily all the kids made it in safely behind us.

Here are a few pictures that we got in side. There are a ton more but I wont post them all.

The Kids School Progress

We have yet to “officially” start home school, however we do still put aside an hour a day for learning time. In the state of Arizona you can’t register your child intent of homeschooling till the age of six and you don’t have to register your child to start homeschooling till the age of eight as long as you put in an intent to home school through the state and just confirm you do not wish to start official schooling activities till the child is eight.

We will be moving into the family housing at the ASU polytechnics campus in end of October/beginning of November? We are still unsure what housing we will be getting but the smallest of the bunch will be a 3 bed/2 bath plus den. The den will be used for their home school classroom and we are already stocking up on supplies. We have decided on a Montessori curriculum which is something that we will just do on our own with no official school books. Montessori is all hands on and they spend little no time with book work.

As we go through our school year I will be blogging their progress and uploading videos on all the activities we do. Before we start I will have the kids re-tested to see about what level they are at. It’s been about 5 to 6 months (age 4 ½) since they were official tested by a professional. At that point the tested into a begging 1^st grade level and were reading at a beginner’s level (level 1). They knew how to add and subtract double digits on paper and how to add and subtract single digits by memory. They could right their name and copy full sentences. At this point I know they need to be re-tested because they are now reading at an advanced beginners (level 2), they can now add and subtract up to 4 digit numbers, they can do multiplication with numbers up to 10, they can do simple algebra (ex. 3 +__= 13 and 20 -__ = 15). they can also right full sentences by listening instead of copying.

Right now we’re starting to work with time and money so they are really excited about that. We picked up a teaching clock and are using a daily schedule that has a little picture of a clock next to each activity where you can draw in the hands yourself, this way they will have to figure out what time their next activity will be on their own. We also purchased a paper money and coin set to start helping with their money skills.

Like I was saying we do an hour of official learning time. Really it’s more studying then anything with practice writing and reading etc. But I’m really not a big fan of just sitting down structured learning. I rather get more hands on. So in reality we do school all day long. We always try to find ways of teaching while at the park, or the grocery store. For instance today while leaving the store jazzy noticed pigeons that were in the parking lot eating something off the ground. She pointed them out and just then 2 flew away. So I asked her how many was left. She answered 4, just then 4 more flew down, so I asked her “if there are 6 pigeons and 2 flew away and then 4 came back how many would you have” she answered 8. We are constantly doing real life riddles and word problems all day long. Our real life learning practice tends to hold up lines at the super market while we let the kids count out the change to the cashier and we definitely cause some road blocks in the isles while the kids are comparing prices lol but its 100% worth it!!

The kids are so excited to start school at the new house and we are excited for them!!!we will definitely keep you up to date with all our progress =)

Our Vows

were getting settled with a movie so I dont have time to really write so I thought I would just blog a copy of the vows we took. nathan wanted to do our own, I didn't so we compromised on these =)

From this day on I choose you, my beloved Krystal to be my wife,

 to live with you and to laugh with you;

to stand by your side and sleep in your arms,

To be joy to your heart and food to your soul;

to seek to bring out the best in you; and for you,  to be the most I can be.

to laugh with you in the good times; To struggle with you in the bad;

to solace you when you are downhearted, to wipe your tears with my hand;

to comfort you with my body; to mirror you with my soul;

to share with you all my riches and honors; to play with you as much as I can

until we grow old always loving each other sweetly and gladly.

then we had our ring ceremony

Dearest Krystal my love,

            this ring is the symbol of my love and of the hopes and all the joy

 I most dearly behold in you. You are my guiding light, my love, my soul's most mirroring shadow, and my closest friend. 

This ring is a symbol of my love and that I am choosing

to share my life’s journey with you, and I know that in marrying you

I shall become much more than I am. I marry you with this ring,

with the wings of my love  with all that I have  and all that I am

We took video and pictures but I dont have time to post right now so I will leave you with this =)

My wedding dress in the making!!

 I went in for my first dress fitting after the first time alterations. They took it in from a size 12 to a size 6 and I’m very happy with the results. The bottom of it still needs to be done, as you can see it isn't laying just right. But it doesn't help that its extremely wrinkled and I didn't think to poof out the bottom before I had nathan take the picture, its still all twisted because I had just turned around.

 

 There was a Hideous flower on the side that has the "pick up" (my left your right) that I had her remove. I will be leaving the whole dress plain for the wedding.

 However for the reception Im having a bit of beading added to the bust area and i will also be having the lady take the sweetheart neckline a lot deeper with more of a "V" shape in the middle. I will also be making a huge Crystal broach with feathers to put in the place where the flower used to be I may add flowers on another part of the dress... we'll see!

This is the type of broach I will be using (95% sure)

and I will be surrounding it with white feathers like this. I will probably surround it with more feathers then the one in this pic and I also want to add some ostrich feathers to it to round it out more. it will be placed with the feathers facing up on the side where the "pick up" is below my hip. 

I wont be wearing a traditional veil but instead a "birdcage" Veil that will go in the front/side. It will cover my eyes and nose and stop right before my lips. I'm making it myself so I will be adding some Crystals and feathers. The pic below is similar to what I will be doing.

I wish I would have fixed the bottom of the dress it looks like crap in the pictures!!!! 

Nathan's Attempt At Blogging

I decided to give blogging a shot even though it is far from my comfort zone.  Now give me a puzzle or a math problem and I’ll be in heaven.  Proof of that is in this blog considering it took me over an hour just to write this one.  Don’t ask where the time went because I don’t even know. 

I was really excited to get into school and pursue my engineering degree but I overlooked the fact that I would be dealing with kids that have just graduated high school who don’t even know how to spell the word “Maturity.”  Even though I am only 7 years older than most, it astounds me to realize the cultural and timely differences between us. 

            A blatant example of this was in my intro to engineering class that I took my first semester.  During our first day of class, the teacher wanted to make a point that the structure of the class was very hands on and project oriented instead of a dull, note-taking lecture.  Here is the video she showed: 

            I hope most of you can recognize what movie this is from and realize that it is a classic.  Or at least I thought because when the teacher asked the class how many knew what movie that was from, less than half the class actually could give an answer….. Man I felt old!  I haven’t even hit my thirties and I’m already feeling the generational gap.  Next thing I know, someone will say “Who’s The Brady Bunch.”

           

            

"where do babies come from mommy"?

The twins have a children's encyclopedia that they are OBSESSED with! it has a section about reproduction and the kids came and asked about the pictures that included the man and women's reproductive organs, sperm, eggs, fetus and a picture that explains sexual intercourse.We have always been very open with the kids. seeing the birth process of Ridge and Olivia has allowed them to understand more then some kids twice their age. TheY know where babies come out of and the whole birthing and breast-feeding process but they had never asked how the baby gets in the tummy till now!  So as they asked questions i answered them (thats our rule. if their old enough to ask then their old enough to know) one question led to another, i let them lead the convo and used all technical terms and am happy with the out come! now they can explain the whole process of reproduction with all scientific terms lol. im actually really proud of how much info they retained because the next day they went to nathan with the book and  explained the whole process from intercourse to delivery (vaginal and csections). Nathan pointed to some of the pictures and asked "well whats that" one of the pictures was a women's egg surrounded by approaching sperm. when asked "whats that" their answer went something like this ....


Jayvin- thats the mommies egg. (pointing to the egg) and thats the daddies sperm (pointing to the sperm
Jazzy- and only the strongest and fastest sperm who make it to the egg can turn into a fetus that turns into a baby!!!!
Jaynin- (with excitement) AND JAZLYNN AND ME WOOOON!!!!!


 he was very impressed.


Nathan went through more pictures letting them lead and came upon the picture of the naked women with a baby in her belly, obviously towards the end of her term since the baby was head down. Nathan asked "whats this" Jazlynn and jayvins answer....


Jazzy- Thats the baby getting ready to come out of the mommies vagina....
Jayvin- well jazzy the babies can get cut out of the mommies tummy too remember. like me and you did.
Nathan- why did you have to come out of mommies belly and not mommas vagina?
Jazzy- because i was baby B and he was baby A and A come before B but he was Birtched (breech) so they couldn't get us out of her vagina!
Jayvin- (in a defensive voice) well I was only like that cause i wanted to give jazzy kisses (pointing at the picture) because see my head was up here and hers was down there and that way i could reach her!!


To bad it doesn't work like that kiddo but it was so cute i let him think it!


I love how open we are with our kids, after all the human body is nothing to be ashamed of. so far they only understand that sexual intercourse is the process to make a baby and that it is something that is not suitable for kids. I left the feelings and sexuality out of it and will leave that for when they are a bit older to grasp those loving intimate feelings. 


  oh and jayvin says " a boy is called a man or male and a girl is called a female or wiseman" lol how funny i corrected him i said "were called wise women"

Kids Say The Funniest Things!!!

jazzy- how do you spell C? nathan- S-E-A or S-E-E Jazzy- (confused) how do you spell B- nathan- B-E-E Jazzy- (really confused) well what about W Nathan- D-O-U-B-L-E Y-O-U Jazzy- ok...well what about F? nathan- E-F or maybe E-P-H Jazzy- UGH!!! I ONT GET IT!!!!!!

poor child! just when she thinks she has this whole english thing down nathan bursts her bubble!!!