whew.

whew. it's been a LONG time. BUT i've needed the break. i honestly haven't read many blogs or obviously blogged myself for the past three weeks. it's refreshing to get the break, and i think sometimes i get too stressed out about blogging. oh man it's been X amount of days i "need" to blog. clearly the world can survive without me blogging, so i don't "need" to do it. it's a want for sure though!!

we've been busy too. and a good busy. so i'll just give an update on each of the kiddos because well...it's fun. :)

miss amelya:: LOST her first tooth!! it had been loose awhile and all of a sudden one day she was coming down the stairs and said uh oh?! she lost her tooth. like literally LOST it. not only was it out of her mouth, but it was missing all together. she was excited to lose it. we don't "do" the tooth fairy, but joked that daddy was going to dress up like a fairy and leave her a prize. it didn't happen. although i would've loved to see shaun in a tutu!! amelya is almost done with first grade! we all got sick a few weeks ago. YUCK. so we didn't do school for a week. either one of the kids was sick or this momma was sick. so it pushed us back a week. our last day should be june 9th. instead of next friday. so not really too bad. and really i'm thankful for homeschooling and sickness, because she didn't have to "miss" anything and make it up. we just started right where we left off. honestly. i think i could just skip the rest of the first grade reading material because it's so easy for her. she has taken off on her reading and is reading chapter books. but we're finishing it. and she wants to finish up the Bible reader anyways. :) she's also just plain growing up. i think it happened over night. i seriously look at her and wonder how in the world i missed her growing up. it truly flies by SO fast.

miss breigh:: will be five in a few weeks. and is very quick to tell you that!! we are working through kindergarten work with her in school. slowly. one thing i noticed about starting her before she was five is that she is not ready for some of the harder things. she is also NOT amelya. so i have to think of different ways to teach her and because of her age sometimes have to move slower. part of me wishes i would've just waited til fall to start because i think she would've for sure been ready. she was flying through my preK curriculum stuff so i figured she was ready for the K work. which in MOST ways she was. but the reading aspect of it she was not 100% ready for. so i'm slowing down that work and i think once fall comes she'll be able to fly through it. yesterday she did so well during school i was in tears! it clicked for her and it was so amazing to see. she has also been growing up too. i just can't believe she's almost five. it will be weird to have a five and a six year old.

miss caitlyn:: oh miss caitlyn. who still is not potty trained. and now it's sort of bugging me. she is clearly OLD enough to go on the potty!! after being sick the few weeks ago i needed to get my house back in order first before even starting to think about seriously training her. or i would've been stressed out. this week we're gone a lot, so i didn't want to start it then. so either this weekend, or next week...it's got to be train caitlyn time. i mean seriously...she'll be FOUR in september...this is LONG over due. she's been growing up a ton lately and the conversations i have with that girl are hilarious. i love it when they're at the ages to have conversations with. she's been doing great in school. she has all of her letters down, as far as recognizing them, and is working on writing her name. when i direct her she can write it all. but when she tries by herself the c is usually backwards and it's missing a few letters. :) but i'm not worried about that. she is only almost four. so it isn't anything that "needs" to be done right now. one of the main reasons we choose to homeschool is so we don't have to push our kids faster than they need to be. ((way off topic, sorta, but i heard that if you teach your child NOTHING. nothing at all. and put them in to school at 4th grade, it would only take them ONE semester to catch up. i try to remind myself of that daily. it doesn't matter WHEN they learn it, as much as that they do learn it.))

mr dustin:: i think mr dustin is getting ready to be potty trained. he wants his diaper changed immediately after he goes in it. ((unlike caitlyn who 99% of the time cares less)) i honestly just want to train them one at a time. but we'll see what happens. i can't imagine only one kid in diapers. that hasn't happened since amelya was a baby! so 6 years ago. but i also know it will be so nice and weird at the same time. dustin is turning into such a little boy. all you have to do is look at his black and blue eye. ;) he fell down the stairs the other day. he is also such a sweetheart. every morning i always ask for a kiss on each cheek. it's just our little thing. the other day i was putting him in his carseat and he goes kiss and points to my cheek. he wanted to kiss my cheek!! awww. i tell shaun it's because he sees shaun be such a good husband and daddy that dustin has no other choice then to be a sweetheart. ((and i kid you not, dustin and caitlyn have both just asked to wear underwear. and are now both wearing underwear. we'll see how this goes!)) thankfully i'm still getting naps out of dustin each day. he participates in school about 2 or 3 days a week. but other than that he's napping during school time. it's been fun seeing him learn the basic stuff though. i found a really cool game for him at a rummage sale last week that he's been loving to play for school. school for him is pretty much all play. because really, at these young ages, they learn so much more through play than they do sitting at the table doing worksheets.

miss evaleigh:: she's almost 11 months old! i can't believe it. she's finally gotten some teeth. the first one on my birthday!! and since then she's gotten two and a tiny bit more. the one is almost through, but not quite. she looks so cute with her little teeth. she is thisclose to crawling. she is by far my "latest" crawler. but i'm fine with that. amelya crawled at 6 1/2 months. the rest have been between 9/10. i like later crawling better! it will sure get a bit more interesting when she does start crawling all over. and it really hasn't been like she hasn't been getting around, she will roll all over, and has been pushing backwards for quite awhile too. i have a feeling once crawling starts it'll get crazy fun. i've weaned evaleigh during the day and feed her in the morning and in the evening. she wasn't nursing well during the day at all anymore so i made the executive decision to cut it out. and because she's at the perfect age we moved straight to sippy cups. although, she does not care for formula. she had, had it before but mixed with breastmilk ususally. or just flat out refused the bottle. i thought it was because of the bottle. but i'm thinking now she didn't like the formula. she wouldn't drink it at all, or only a small bit at a time. so i tried almond milk with her this week and she loves it. it has great nutritional value so i'm cool with that. i didn't want to go straight to cow's milk with her because she has had some issues with other dairy before. so we'll see once she's a year about doing that. i'm enjoying the early morning feedings with her though. she gets up around 6 usually and nurses, then goes back to sleep. as i hold her and watch her and feel her little hand on my chest i get all sentimental. knowing that our nursing days are getting to be close to the end. i have no desire to nurse much longer than a year. i'm ready to get my self back. so even though i feel a bit sad about it, i'm also seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

amanda:: well. i'm getting ready to move into toddler-ish hood. and out of babyhood. and i'm feeling sad, but not missing it. and that's when i realize i'm done having babies. i'm ready for the next stage of life. it's such a weird feeling, i think because it's one i haven't ever had before. i've always been ready for the next baby. now i can see pregnant women. newborn babies. and not desire it for myself.  i miss the tiny little baby snuggles, but don't "want" them. if that makes any sense? it feels so good to "know" we're done. to know it was God helping us make that decision. i also have been enjoying school. and am super excited to start 2nd grade in fall. it's all about the US and i loved learning about the states when i was in school so it'll be fun to learn it again and probably some new things. it's amazing what i've learned already only doing K and 1st grade. i've been getting back into my wildtree business. it feels good to be doing shows again. i had taken a bit of a break, but now feel ready to get that going. my PPD has been so much better. some days have been a struggle, but i know that it is going to be that way. even not suffering through depression people have days where they struggle. i just have been thankful for the clarity of mind and to make choices clearly. i feel as if the fog i had been living in for so long is finally almost all gone. God has seen me through such a dark and awful time in my life. but i know He has been here the entire time. which has made the fog so much easier to get through.

shaun:: works way too much. he's been having some long weeks. which some days make me feel like a single mom. it's a long day when he leaves before i wake up and gets home in time to put the kiddos to bed. but yet i'm thankful for a job for him. and that he does his job without complaining and grumbling. and for the Lord. when he hasn't been working he's been working at home. getting the lawn cut. and doing our field work. he took a day off of work the other week to work up the fields and plant them. it was fun to be a true farming family for a day. it was fun to have him home all day long. even though he wasn't in the house. plus the kiddos LOVE to go out in the tractor with daddy. and it gave me a bit of a  break too. ;)

overall...it's been a great few weeks. minus the sickness of course. :) the girls had their dance recital in the midst of our sickness. they held it together and did it. not as best as i've seen them do it, but given the circumstances...they did wonderfully. shaun has off this weekend. woo hoo. we're not 100% sure what we're doing...but it'll be fun. monday he is taking off (he doesn't get holiday days off working in the agriculture field) because we have our church picnic.

at the conclusion of this blog post:: dustin has had one accident, which seemed to gross him out, and he has sat on the potty about five times. and he is now wearing fruit of the loom undies like his daddies and is super excited to have undies like daddy!! ha.
caitlyn has remained dry. woo hoo. :)