Did I forget to mention the big news???

In case you hadn't heard, and maybe you counted the stockings below and were wondering why we had an extra?


























Yep, you guessed it. We ARE expecting again!!! After getting over the shock & horror of it (that is a bit dramatic) we became very excited - I mean how can you argue with another precious blessing from God. It says in His Word afterall, that children are a reward. Thank you Lord, for this blessing and thank you for promising to help. (Isaiah 42:10)

1st Birthday / Anniversary / Thanksgiving

Spencer turned 1 year old on Nov. 25th, which was also our 9 year anniversary. We celebrated his birthday the next day after our Thanksgiving feast. In 2010, you can expect we'll be celebrating BIG for our 10 year Anniversary / 2nd b-day / Thanksgiving all on the same day! Below are some pictures of our turkey and also of Spencer's interesting cake experience.





Beautiful cake made by Grandma....so far so good...


Until he put his fingers in it and got "messy"...he was hysterical!

Some Phelps Randomness

I misplaced my camera for a couple of months (between October & December). So we took various pictures with our camera phones, below.

On a rainy day while going to MOPS, I thought I had the stroller pretty well weather proofed. Until I discovered it was all in vain because he had been hanging his head out the side (getting soaked) the whole walk, wanting to see what was going on!


Spencer being cute in his Chargers shirt.


A double rainbow we caught in Orangevale.


The boys just completed their Lincoln Log creation. (ignore the laundry also pictured)


We went to Apple Hill in the beginning of November, which was really fun. Because we began to home school, I asked the kids to predict something they might find. Nathan said, "The BIGGEST apple!" Below, he found it!





Where we live, we see wild turkeys all the time, which we find so funny. This time, we counted a total of 33!




Some before and after hair cuts:





Spencer & Emerson, birth buddies in costumes.

Preston as Tigger at Pottery Barn Kids halloween party with best friend, Tommy!

Clark Kent & Superbaby

The whole crew, in costume. We had mad scientist, Justin with us, Nathan was Darth Maul, Hannah was Sleeping Beauty, Preston was a green monster, Spencer was Superman.


This is what happens when you walk away from a 1 year old and leave his food within reach...






You know it's cold in California when you wake up to snow on the car!


Maybe you can't see it, but we had snow on the ground too!


Preston with a baby bunny at "Bethlehem Village" at Sunrise Community Church.


Dad thought he'd be cute sharing his cocoa with Spencer, much to my dismay.


... and the results of giving Spencer cocoa.


Royce surrounded by kids!


Getting our tree - Costco always has the prettiest and best priced noble firs!


Stockings are multiplying!

M&M Family Picture from Six Flags

In going through some cell phone pictures, I came across this one. We took this at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom this summer, after my awesome MOPS group went in on some family passes for us in May. These are the best stairs I have ever seen!

So we decided to home school...

Taking the blog back a few months, I would like to catch up on some of the happenings in the Phelps household, especially since I haven't gotten around to any Christmas Pictures/Cards or Letter yet this year (and it's a month past already!)

Back in October, 2009, we thought and prayed a lot about what to do about our situation with the kiddos. School was going along fine, but I was feeling like a square peg in a round hole. Hannah was super excited to start Kindergarten, Nathan was plugging along fine. We struggled to get homework done on a daily basis. He spend 7 hours there at school, and then we spent at least 4 hours fighting to get homework accomplished. Needless to say, I didn't feel like I had a whole lot of time with him for quality time spent & the negativity levels were pretty high. Little Spencer had to be whisked from his bed, without a diaper change most days, and with just a cup of milk to satisfy his belly as we rushed out the door to make it to school 5 minutes late. Returning 3 hours later would repeat that cycle of whisking him out of his bed from a nap & Preston just went along for the ride every day. Again we'd repeat this process a 3rd time to get Nathan later in the afternoon. I felt like I lived out of our car & my little ones suffered from being in the car so much and my older ones suffered from lack of quality time with me at all in the day.

After much prayer & discussion, we decided to home school and bring our schedule back under our control. I was nervous to tell Nathan & Hannah of our decision, because they were enjoying school. In the manner that God works, which is far beyond what I could comprehend or ask for, He solved this problem by having Nathan & Hannah ask if we could do school at home and not return to school. It was quite an amazing morning that turned into a whole discussion about schooling at home that I hadn't planned on having just yet. The kids were so excited and not that sad about leaving school. Their last day was just before Halloween.

We decided to charter with South Sutter Charter School for many reasons. For one, they offer me great accountability, support, and also the funding necessary for anything we need school-related, within the confines of their massive lists. That includes books, curriculum, project materials, art supplies, paper, ink, music lessons, P.E. classes, pretty much anything we could have wanted to do with the kids both with school and extra-curricular-ly (yes I believe I made up that word) that we wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise!

Above is a picture of the desks we brought home from a killer sale in Lodi and how excited the kids were. They flocked to these desks right at first and were very eager to get started with school. They still use the desks quite a lot, for school and otherwise, and it is nearly 3 months later.

It took sometime to get my curriculum in and we will probably be in a learning process for the rest of this school year, but we are excited to be on this homeschooling journey. There you have it, in case you were wondering! : )