The LaRoe Family

Wow! My first post of 2010! I'm a little behind. There is no way I can catch up from my last post so I figured I'd start over highlighting our Summer. I guess technically it's still summer, but school has been in for 2 1/2 weeks already and we are in full swing of homeschooling so summer for us has pretty much ended. Preston started 1st grade and is doing so well thus far. He really is a great student and loves to learn. There is no way to survive homeschooling one while taking care of two other little ones without a strict schedule! I learned this the hard way last year, so this year (so far) I'm on top of it and our schedule has worked out wonderfully. Ella and Aaden have been really good while I'm working with Preston. They play really well together and entertain each other while Preston is in "school". Lots of work, but I love being with my babies all day. =) Here are pics from a few of our fun summer excursions....

Me and my Aaden at the zoo for his 2nd b-day

Yummy Birthday cake!

The kids and I went cherry picking with my parents in July. It was seriously one of the highlights of the whole summer for me. It was soooo much fun. The weather was perfect and the trees were beautiful. We ended up with 21 lbs of cherries by the time we were done. Needless to say I made A LOT of cherry pie this summer. =)

Aaden showing off his bucket of cherries

Bumpa and Aaden

Ella in the cherry trees

Our neighborhood has a swim team and this was Preston's first year on the team. It turns out we have a fast little swimmer on our hands! At the very first meet he beat everyone in his races by so much, they moved him up to the next division of kids for the rest of the meets. He absolutely loved his swim season and can't wait until next summer!

The start of his freestyle

This was right after the gun went off for his backstroke. There were 4 other swimmers in this race (you can't see all of them in the pic) and.....

Preston left them all in the dust!!! He won by a huge margin and Mike and I would have definitely won the award for most loud and obnoxious parents. =) We were so proud of him!

Ella started ballet and tap and here she is trying on her brand new tap shoes

All dressed and ready for her first class!

Preston trying on his brand new sparring gear. Preston, Ella and I all started Tae Kwon Do. Yep, me too! We absolutely love it and it is really great for the kids to learn such discipline.

This was Aaden trying on my sparring gear. Yes I spar too and yes I wear that fabulous helmet. =) Aaden wanted to spar Daddy...

The tackle....

....and the take down!!

Ella riding her big girl bike out front

We went boating with our good friends and had so much fun. Ella and Preston loved jumping off the back of the boat

Swimmin' in the lake.

Preston tubing

and little Ella tubing!!

Ella and her girlfriends

Kisses for Daddy. So sweet =)

A bit blurry, but this is Preston crossing the finish line of his race. Every Thursday for about 7 weeks the local college held a 5k race in the evening for the adults and a kiddie k for the kids. I raced in the 5k's with the running club that I have been training with and the whole family would come to cheer me on. Around the 4th Thursday race Preston and Ella decided they wanted to race in the kiddie k. After running their first one, they loved it and wanted to race in the rest of them. They even competed in the series final and each received a medal at the end (that's the picture of them at the top with their medals). Preston was a really good little runner and finished near the front of the pack every time! Ella was a ham and literally smiled the whole race and crossed the finish line giggling...she makes me laugh.

And of course our Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to our favorite place...Disneyland! We had a great summer , but I'm really looking forward to this fall and the upcoming holidays (they are just around the corner!!) Preston started AYSO so I'm sure I'll be posting pics of his soccer games soon!!

Wow! It's been a long time since my last post. This move paired with learning the ropes of homeschooling has turned my life upside down. I am busy every minute of the day and have had a hard time trying to balance everything and everyone. We finally finished having all of our flooring put in our house about a week and a half ago so now at least I'm not trying to do everything with workers in the house all the time. That was HARD. Mike finally had time to hook the computer up so now I can post pictures (yay!) and I feel like I'm maybe starting to get a hold of balancing my days as a mommy, teacher, wife, housekeeper and cook (wow, it only took the whole first half of the school year for me to figure things out...). It's been amazing to watch my precious Preston learn and grow before my eyes. That is one of the perks of homeschooling, being so involved in his development is priceless. Preston absolutely loves school and loves to learn. We have the best teacher, Mrs. Kacmar, to guide us both in this journey and I am so thankful for her. The program we are in through the school district is really amazing and would recommend it to anyone out there who is interested in homeschooling. Ella loves to sit at the table and do her "work" (coloring in her coloring books...hehe!) while I work with Preston. The tricky part was figuring out what to do with Aaden while the other two are at the table. It still is tricky and our schedule changes daily. When Aaden naps on time, the day flows really smoothly. The days that he doesn't want to nap, or only naps for 45 minutes (because Aaden is NOT a good sleeper) are the harder days. Even though these last 4 months have been the craziest months of my life, I'm so thankful for all God has provided for us. I love our little home we have created and am thrilled to finally watch my kids play in their very own backyard! =)

So much has happened over the last 4 months there are tons of pictures....so hard to choose which ones to post since I take pictures of everything! So here are some that highlight the last 4 months of our life.....

Right before we moved out of our townhouse Preston lost his first 2 teeth!

He was soooo excited for the tooth fairy to come. He was a little sad to give away his teeth though, so I suggested we write her a letter thanking her for visiting and asking if she could please leave the teeth. The next morning Preston was happy to see she left some money for a toy AND let Preston keep the teeth... ;)

When we sold our townhouse there was about a month of not knowing when exactly the day would be that we were to be out, so we ended up having to move all of our furniture out so we would be ready to leave when escrow closed (because the market is weird now and they literally give you a few days notice to leave). This meant that we were living in our place with 3 kids and no furniture. Not fun. Anyhow, we had the kids sleeping on air mattresses and this particular day I put P and E upstairs for their nap. When I went to check on them this is what I found.....

I guess that's what happens when you have a little sister....=)

Yes, when I say no furniture, I mean NO FURNITURE. We lived like that for about a month. I don't recommend it to anyone. This picture just makes me smile. This was Guncle (my brother) babysitting.

Our last moments at our townhouse...bye little house. It was so sad leaving....so many memories there. All my kids were babies there!

After we moved out of our townhouse there were about 2 1/2 weeks where we were homeless. We stayed the majority of the time at my parents house and visited Mike's parents in Lompoc. Of course we had to take a trip to our favorite beach!

Pismo!

This was the morning of Preston's first day of school. He was soooo excited to meet his teacher!

Does he not look so cute with his spider-man backpack? Yes, I was a blubbering mess.

Preston meeting his fabulous teacher and seeing his classroom for the first time!

FINALLY...WE GET THE KEYS!!! We didn't move in right away, instead we removed flooring and painted the whole place. About a week later we moved in. =)

I started painting right away while Mike and a bunch of friends helped remove flooring. This picture shows the lovely flooring that was through the ENTIRE house. Bedrooms and all. Needless to say, it is finally all gone!

This was the kids first climb to the top of our hill. It doesn't look like much until you see this pic....

Our hill is GIANT. It needs landscaping, but Mike and I are actually excited to turn it into what we want it to be. Oh yes, we have big plans for our big hill. =)

The first month that we lived in our house the air conditioner broke, the electrical panel went out, the dishwasher flooded, the kitchen sink backed up, the front yard flooded (sprinkler broke), and the water main burst. This was Mike and his Dad trying to fix the original broken sprinkler, which turned into breaking the water main, which then turned into another broken sprinkler pipe. It was about 105 degrees on this day and Mike and Chuck were out there all day. I took these pics because I thought maybe we would laugh about it later....

Mike's still not laughing.

Aaden helping Daddy mow the front lawn

Halloween! They had a blast trick-or-treating with their cousins!!

Of course another Disneyland trip!

Ella LOVES pickles. She asks for them everyday. We never thought to get her one of those giant pickles from Dland until this last trip. We showed her the pickle and her eyes were huge! She LOVED her giant pickle and ate the whole thing! She asks all the time if we can go to Disneyland to get a pickle. =)

Woody!!

Our living room after the tile was removed....

...and our living room after the wood was installed!

My friend and I ran the Malibu half marathon. It was beautiful, but tough. Insane hills on that run!

Yay!! We're done! Good job Jess!!

On Nov. 20 our Preston turned SIX!! I cannot believe I have a six year old. What a blessing that little boy is.....

Opening his DS game that he asked for

Blowing out his candle on his birthday pizookie. (A giant cookie with ice cream. He asks for one every year) =)

And as tradition on the eve of Preston's birthday......

The Christmas lights go up!!!

This pic just made me laugh. This was Mike and I attempting homemade doughnuts. The kids had a ball making them and Aaden wouldn't stop eating them. He cracks me up...my little monkey. Yes, Ella has a giant bandage on her forehead because she tripped over a toy, fell and bashed her head right on the corner of our guest bed. She was the first stitches incident in our family. She was so brave when she got them and hardly cried at all during the stitches. My brave little girl!