Homeschool Valentine's Party

The Girls

The Boys

Our salt dough hearts

Emilia Painting her heart

Carson & Chip (a.k.a. Arnold)

Carson & Emilia

The week of Valentine's Day our homeschool group met at our church for a Valentine Party. I had volunteered to be in charge of this one and what a week. Vince ended up having outpatient surgery on Tuesday, I was already scheduled to work all night Tuesday night and could not get out of it, Vince had to be back at the doctor's office at 8:15 that Wednesday morning and the party started at 10:30!!!!! Thank goodness my gracious charge nurse let me leave around 4 am so I got about 3 hours of sleep, my mom had thankfully spent the night at our house b/c of the crazy, unexpected schedule, and offered or agreed to go with me to the party to help. After taking Vince to the doctor, I came home to finish getting ready and we were on to the church. I had gone earlier on Tuesday before Vince's surgery and decorated, thank goodness b/c I didn't know when I would have any other time. There wasn't much to it but we all had fun. We played Valentine Bingo - which gave the kids an opportunity to practice their numbers, find your matching heart mate, each heart was cut in half with a different pair of scrapbooking scissors and there was also a Bible verse on each one related to love. This gave you two ways to match your half up with someone else, knowing the Bible verse and looking for the same design. Then we all painted salt dough hearts with ribbon as hangers. I had also baked these on Monday since they had to bake for a whole 2 hours and then cool. I have to say they turned out really cute but they sure were a pain to make, the dough was a mess to get to roll out consistency!!! Not sure I'll do that again... and then we had our usual homeschool lunch of PIZZA. Thanks to my mom and Ms. Vanita Billingsley for going to pick this up for us. Ms. Vanita also made the cupcakes and my sweet friend Angie made goodie bags for all the kids.

Each child also brought their on Valentine's to share with their friends.
A tiring (for me!) but a fun, fun day!

Christmas.....

Mari-Todd, Emilia, Pressly, Carson, & Jack

My "gifts" from Vince


A special gift from my dad, I didn't even know he knew what this stuff was!!!

A pretty princess with a bow...

Sweet hugs....

My Daddy

THE pyramid!!

Just a sweet boy, with a new BB gun..

A pretty girl too

We had a lot of fun on Christmas at our house. On Christmas Eve we have started a tradition of having a family over for supper that is from out of town and rarely gets to spend the actual holiday with any of their immediate family. This year, Vince grilled the most awesome steaks and we had the best time. They bring their kids in their pj's and I already have mine in theirs and we just enjoy the "night before Christmas" Then I love to plan/prepare our Christmas morning breakfast, which is always a little more than we normally have. This year, Carson and Emilia begged my parents to spend the night and we graciously welcomed them. They seem to help get the kids in the bed and keep them there so Santa can come early! Of course, we were awoken around 6:45 but who can deny an excited child from getting up early to see what Santa brought???? So here we went. So much fun. We looked at all that Santa had left, then we ate breakfast casserole, sausage balls, monkey bread and fruit pizza. Then we all got dressed and enjoyed opening gifts from each other. Then it was NAP time, what I had been looking for. After a good nap, we made homemade Chicken Noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper and then were off to the movies. Another tradition we started about three years ago. This year to see the CHIPMUNKS!!! So cute. By the time this was over, it was time for bed and much needed rest. I have to say, we had a GREAT CHRISTmas and are so thankful for Jesus' birthday and the opportunity to celebrate it!

Christmas in Nashville

Carson & Emilia at the entrance of ICE

Waiting on our carriage ride!!!

Our family in the carriage

The weekend before Christmas we took a Christmas trip to Nashville, TN. Oh, what fun we had. We had taken a Christmas trip last year to ride the Polar Express in Birmingham, AL and this year the kids asked where we would go for Christmas. One of my friends had been to see ICE last year and highly recommended it so that's where we decided to go. We left on Friday afternoon and got to our motel room later that night. We were up and ready on a COLD, RAINY Saturday morning and at the ICE exhibit by 9:30. Got our parkas and went in to the 6 degree building to see the ~ 22 million (?) pounds of ICE that were carved to resemble a Charlie Brown Christmas, by approx 100 Chinese in a two month period. It was very COLD but unbelievable! We then went to Winter Wonderland at Opryland Hotel where Carson and Emilia rode the Christmas train, made gingerbread men and looked at all the lights. We went to see the Rockettes that afternoon at the Ryman and then we went to the Aquarium restaurant in the Oprymills mall for supper. What a day..... we were slightly tired and ready for bed, but had a wonderful time and lots of happy memories!

Christmas at our House....

Trumpet has come back!!!

Emilia's Manger

Carson's

Our Tree

Our Christmas decorations are out/up and our tree is just right and we are excited about CHRISTmas!! We got our tree the week of Thanksgiving but left it outside in a bucket until the following Saturday so that it would have water instead of just being at the store. The following Saturday Vince had to work but the weather was beautiful so the kids and I got our decorations out and started decorating the tree. We are going to be gone a couple of weekends in December and I wanted us to have plenty of time to enjoy it.

I have to mention that Carson was most excited about his manger. He had asked me for weeks before Thanksgiving to please get it down from the attic. My mom buys them a few pieces of nativity each year to go with their manger and then they play with them together, visiting each other's stable, telling the story of Jesus, etc.

And of course, our elf on the shelf, Trumpet, made his arrival back to our house from the North Pole, this past weekend. They love telling on each other to Trumpet, since he will let Santa know how they are acting, and also trying to find where he has "landed" the night before. It's sometimes hard to explain that it was too cold for Trumpet to fly, or he was sleeping so well, he decided not to get up right then.......:)

Merry Christmas from the Langford's!!!!

New Stove!

I am really excited about our new stove!! I have been wanting a new stove since we moved in this house 4 years ago but it wasn't something that I HAD to have right then. Several reasons for wanting one and NEEDING one were 1) when we first bought this house we discovered the hinges on the oven door were broken, Vince offered to get some replacements then to fix the problem but I hated to spend the money on hinges when the stove wasn't my pick in the first place. 2) I had gotten really spoiled to my previous stove in the fact that it had a time bake option, which I loved when I couldn't be home to turn the oven off but wanted hot food when I arrived, as well as it was self cleaning which also comes in very handy when you have a nasty oven, which is what my previous stove was!!!! 3) I had never had a gas stove/oven before and I wasn't sure how I'd like it and when I did get a new stove if I would want gas again or electric. Since I have decided that I LOVE GAS - it heats up so quick and now when I'm at my moms and think her stuff is never going to boil, I miss my gas! 4) Since the hinges were broken, it took great talent to either prop the door on a chair to get the contents out, OR prop the door on your knee while you removed the HOT food all at the same time trying not to burn yourself and/or spill the food. This is partly b/c if you didn't know you had to do this before hand, then the door would slam on the kitchen floor which is tile and there went the handle... so lately, not only did you have to prop the door up you also had to open the door at one particular end of the handle b/c if you did not then the whole handle would fall off. Needless to say, it was time to purchase a new stove. Thanks Sears for your recent great sale that I got an awesome stove that we all LOVE!!!

The new stove!!!

the old door propped oven and the MESS inside

The old stove

Waiting on my sign.....

I can hardly believe that our first semester of home school is almost over. We've finally made it to the final folder! At the beginning of our school year, I divided up each lesson into folders and labeled them week 1, week 2, and so forth. I pulled our final folder, week 13, off the shelf today. I am so amazed at how comfortable we've gotten with our lessons and how much easier it is now than it was those first weeks. Carson has adjusted to me being his teacher for a small portion of the day and I've adjusted to him being my student. We both can look at an assignment and not have to try to figure out exactly what to do with it. At times I've felt like crying, pulling my hair out, yelling, spanking his bottom and so forth but I can honestly say, I've had the best time, far better than I imagined.
For some time now I've debated on sharing my "homeschool testimony" and just never took the time but I'll give a small little tid bit on what led me/us to this decision.
To be honest (and not to offend anyone) I always thought homeschooling was kind of odd. I remember the first I ever heard of it was when I was a junior in high school. A friend of mine was moving from New Albany, where she was in public high school, to Michigan b/c her father had gotten a new job. Instead of starting school there, she and her little sister were going to homeschool. I remember her trying to help me understand what it meant to be homeschooled. Then I never put much more thought into it. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd be homeschooling my kids. I'm not sure where the thought even came from, but last year when Carson was in kindergarten at Calvary and the topic of holding him back had come up several times, I started thinking, why are we even considering holding him back? the answer to that was clear, if he stayed in his current grade, he would always be one of the babies of the class. That made me squirm! To think, he's a boy and a majority of the other boys in his class could be close to a year older than him was a thought to consider. The more I talked with his teachers and Vince and I discussed it, it became a clear, easy decision. One, that, like homeschooling, we had not thought much of before.
Then the more I thought of him going from a class of 13 kids total with two teachers to one of 19 classes of 20-22 with two teachers, I thought, how much can he be taught there?? I'm sure the teachers are awesome but I knew that I could review the kindergarten stuff in one semester and then we could pick up with first grade the next. So, after much research, visiting other homeschool moms, reviewing many curriculum's and a few tears, wondering if I was making the right decision or not, I dove in. I remember the day I called to inform the public school to take his name off the list was the Monday before they started on Thursday and I was a nervous wreck, still wondering if I was making the right decision. I had to pray myself up to just pick up the phone and after I did it, I still didn't feel any better!!! I felt like I was cheating him out of something.
Then that Thursday came and I remember we were in the swimming pool and I felt AWFUL that my child was "missing" his first day of school. I remember asking him if he wished he was at school instead of playing with us and he replied, "Nooooo MAAAAAAM!" which did make me feel some better.
I have to admit I'm sure I get on his nerves at times but this sweet boy has not once complained. He has never told me he doesn't like school, or he doesn't like his teacher or that he wishes he was at public school. I often wonder if he's really learning anything from me but then he will amaze me with things he knows. All I can do is pray that I'm doing the right thing and that God will give me the wisdom to make the rights decisions from here on out.
At times the question pops up, "am I going to continue doing this?" and I can honestly say that I have no idea. God knows how elementary I am and that I just about need a sign to drop out of the sky to sometimes get me where I need to be. All I can say at this point is, "Lord, I'm waiting on my sign!"

Our Volcano

I have to admit with two kids with strep throat we have not gotten our school work done as planned. Carson has not been taking naps for some time now, Emilia on the other hand still needs one every day. This week, Carson has gone to sleep with us everyday AND been the last to wake up. He must have really been drained! We did do a very little school work on Monday before he ended up going to the doctor on Tuesday, none Tuesday, a little more yesterday and the most we had done all week today. I think we'll just stop here for the week :) Anyway, our lessons were about rocks. We talked about different kinds of rocks and what they are made from. One being ignitary (I hope I spelled that right!) being formed from fire/hot/ignite.... so we were able to talk a little about volcanos and then make one!

Vince did make fun of our volcano and said it looked more like a ball, but if you've ever worked with air dry clay, what a mess. My main objective was to get something formed that I was able to stick my finger down in just to have a place to pour our lava! And it worked. We added baking soda in the hole and then poured vinegar tinted red with food coloring on top of it for our eruption. It was really neat.

Our erupting volcano
Before the eruption

Vince and Carson just before leaving for their first Tiger Cub Campout, and might I add, while they were both still well!
Tiger Cub Campout

The pictures below are from our homeschool Fall Party. The first being the group of kids that attended and the second a fun game that Angie came up with -Pumpkin Bowling. She used 2 liter bottles for the pins and of course pumpkins for the balls!!
Brooke, Clara, Madelyn, Grace, Carson, Jackson, Hannah, Emilia, Sara, Laura, Emma, Joshua, Elijah, Hannah, Lydia at our Fall Party
Pumpkin Bowling