back on bandwagon and a mile of pictures

It's November!  My last post was about Christmas LAST YEAR!!! I have really missed blogging.  I am a horrible journal keeper and I have loved being able to go through blog posts of the past and enjoy the memories again and again.  So much has happened since the last post, biggest thing was that we moved, which meant my computer (that had all my pictures on it) was packed away in storage for a few months.  Now that we have settled, I have decided I am going to put more effort into keeping up with my record keeping, so get ready for a mile of pictures. 

Here are a few pictures of the end of our homeschooling journey in Omaha.  I had to laugh when I found this journal entry of Kimball's.  Yeah, kinda a weird one but really made me laugh.  Let's check it out. (love the picture to go along with it too)

  

 Addie my little world saver is great at organizing and leading.  I love her "SAVE THE WORLD" club she created.  They walked around recycling and doing other save the world type activities, such as....I really have no idea. But I love that she took the initiative.

Here was another fun homeschool project that we did, growing bacteria.  We made our own petrie dish and grew bacteria with swabs taken of different areas around the house when we were learning about our bodies and staying healthy.  Very interesting.  the house plant swab grew the most, in case you were wondering.   

Here was the kids book chain that we made with all the chapter books we read.  Didn't do so great keeping track of each book but these were the ones we remembered to write down.  

One of the great things about homeschooling in Omaha was they had so many programs that helped.  We got to go to all of these really great shows as part of Omaha Performing arts.  So much fun!

This year, as part of American history, we were studying about Westward expansion.  It worked out perfectly that there was a Lewis and Clark museum a few minutes from our house.  This museum was a lot of fun because it is all hands on and the kids LOVED it.  We loved learning about history together.  

 This wasn't part of homeschool but Kimball gave me this as a Valentine.  It is a poem that he wrote himself and melted my heart.  In case you can't read it, it says "Harts can't be unlocked unless they have the key, wich is love."

 We celebrated our Spring birthdays. Avonlea is our little song bird and loves music so we gave her a little music player and head phones and she LOVED it.  She listened to music non stop for quite a while and the rest of us always knew what she was singing, since Avonlea just can't help singing along to anything...which drives her siblings crazy but Ammon and I love it.  I hope she never stops singing.

 She asked for a rainbow cake this year.  It was rainbow inside and out.

 Jaroms birthday was 3 days later.  We had NO idea what to get this kid.  We knew we would be moving soon and with 3 older siblings, there is not a shortage of toys in the house (which means a lot of toys to pick up for mom) We decided to go simple and get him some diggers, which he LOVED and some suckers which he also LOVED.  He was quite happy with his simple birthday which also of course included his birthday bath.

 With 2 birthdays so close together, we weren't in the mood for so much cake, so Jarom got a fruit pizza instead of a birthday cake.  Yummy!

 We had some fun visitors this Spring.  My sister Darla and her family live in Chicago area and they came and spent a couple days with us during their Spring Break.  Her son Brandon is kind-of a celebrity with all the younger cousins.  They seriously worship the ground he walks on, so I thought it would be fun to not tell the kids and have it be a surprise when we picked him up from the airport.  I told the kids we were going to a lake on the way home from our homeschool group to see some cranes that were migrating.  The lake was right next to the airport.  "hey while we are here, why don't we go see some planes take off.....wait is that BRANDON!!!!"  The kids were so shocked and SOOOO excited.  We took Darla and Brandon to the zoo and this is the only picture I got.  That is one freaky looking pig/bear!

 We also took them to the Winter Quarters visitors center

 Avonlea loved getting books read to her by Aunt Darla

 A funny little story about this tennis ball.  For those who may not know, Chloe is obsessed with tennis balls.  They are her binky and she always has one in her mouth.  She can find them wherever they are hidden and drops them at your feet and just stares at you until you play ball with her.  Well Chloe went in the room Darla and Brandon were staying in and started acting all excited and Barking at the table their stuff was on.  I was confused because that is how she acts when she can smell her ball somewhere but her ball was not in their.  Well Brandon had packed his clothes in one of his old sports bags and sure enough, in the bottom of the bag was one of Brandon's Tennis balls.  Chloe could smell it, and was going nuts until we gave it to her.  Sorry about the slobber Brandon.

 April Fools Day is always a favorite at our house, but sadly I can't remember what I did as pranks.  We had a fun prank played on us though.  Misty came over the night before and replace a lot of our framed pictures with their family pictures.  I just think of them as family so I didn't even notice for a while, then I just laughed and laughed.

 This was Addies prank.  She drew on all our family pictures and the wedding pictures in Ammon's and my room.  I have no idea where she gets this prakster part of her ;)

Jarom played a prank on me too.  I got him out of the tub and put him in jammies and he runs back into the bathroom and got right back in the tub....silly Jarom.  What a prankster. 

As May rolled around, we started saying goodbye to so many things we loved about Omaha.  

Goodbye Botanical gardens, we will miss you.

Goodbye Addies goldfish. Sorry but I don't think you will make the trip so well.  I hope you enjoy your new home in the big city.  Lots of new friends for you to make.

Goodbye WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL friends!  Oh how much we will miss you!

Addie and her friend Carly

The kids and their friends Sydney, Will and Carter.

Kimball and Avonlea with their amazing 'Let's Play Music' teacher Miss Mindy.

My craft night ladies.  Every week for the last few years, we had craft night at my house where we would just bring a craft to work on while we visited.  Oh the many many conversations we had that brought laughter to the point of tears.  We kept each other sane, as we dealt with husbands going through school and so many other life evens.  Oh how I miss, miss these gals.  

And goodbye Calls.  We wend on a double date before we left and went and explored downtown Omaha on bikes that we rented.  SO much fun.  I seriously had a perma-grin the whole entire time. 

 We rode across the pedestrian bridge to the Iowa side and had a picnic dinner and I brought some sidewalk chalk that we had fun with.  

Goodbye hOmaha

This picture makes me laugh.  We used my self timer and put it in a tree but it was leaning so we decided to lean too so that we would look like we were straight.  Haha, didn't work so well.  

Goodbye Creighton University!! No more tests!

Next came Graduation.  Seriously one of the greatest days and such a long time coming, yet it went by SO fast.  Our time in Omaha seems like such a short time now.  My mom and dad and Ammons mom and dad came out for the graduation and were kind enough to help us pack up the moving truck then went to the Friday night hooding ceremony.  We really wore those guys out.  

yeah, this shot didn't turn out quite how I planned 

 After the hooding we went home and cleaned more and our parents went to bed.  We snuck back outside to drowned our sorrows in some chocolate and Ben and Jarry's icecream with our besties.  I was having the hardest time knowing we were leaving.  So hard to leave so many wonderful memories and such amazing friends.  We have LOVED living in Omaha.

 The next day was graduation and this was one of the few shots I got.  They had to take off their graduation robes before they could leave the building so I'm glad I got so many pictures the night before.

Goodbye Village Green 2605.  You have been so good to us.

 Goodbye Call family.  Thanks for doing a silly dance for us as we drove away.  

Driving away was really hard and I'm not ashamed to admit that I had tears running down my cheeks for quite a while.  That just means we have wonderful memories to look back on. Ammon and I have gone through a lot of homesickness for Omaha.  We know if we went back, it would not be the same but we are so glad that that is where the Lord guided us.  We were truly blessed.