Happy Birthday, Jake!!!

It's been awhile since I've been on here, and while that's no surprise to those that follow this blog, I found it fitting that on such a day as this, I come back to write...

Today is what would be our first son's 14th birthday. How has it been FOURTEEN years?!?! It feels like just yesterday, we were sitting in the hospital room at the Army hospital in Würzburg, Germany waiting and wondering to see if our son would survive. At just 21 weeks, my water had broke (for unknown reasons), and there was very little hope. James was there with me instead of in Bosnia with his company, where he was supposed to be that day. Sitting there in tears, knowing the worst was probably upon us. Then we received the news that his heart had stop and the dreaded news was received. I can't believe it's been so long. We were newly weds, having only been married just over a year at that point. So excited about having our little guy and starting our life as a family. Then this happened. After delivering our son, Jacob Tyler, silently, we sat there and just stared -- trying to memorize every feature. We knew that not only was this the day we got to meet him, but it was also the day we had to say goodbye. So much to swallow. I'll never forget how beautiful he was. His sweet little body was so fragile, yet you could tell he was his daddy's son with his features. Our son...how could it be that this happened? The shock of it all was overwhelming.

Night At The Pool...

While I talked about this on the new blog, I figured I may as well share it here as well. I want to bring this space back to being all about the boys and just life. So here's a little documenting of something they love.

Being in Southern California, with this nearly year-round warm weather, we spend from around mid-March until late-October at our neighborhood pool. In fact, this month, we've been there almost every single day. The boys both love it! Caleb loves jumping in and being thrown up to do flips, etc. He's definitely still in the daredevil stage! Sam was once there, but he's much more cautious now. However, he's slowly getting back to that once-daredevil self and jumping in again. With that said, he's been wanting me to get videos of him jumping in. It's not often that I actually remember to bring the waterproof camera, but I happened to the other night and Sam decided he wanted to make a YouTube video about it. His goal right now is to be the next big YouTube kid, ha! I don't know that he'll quite hit that mark, but we'll sure try and start making videos more often!

Here are the boys at the pool. I love that I caught Caleb doing the Hulk Smash move in the pool, ha. He's always reenacting his favorite superheroes...

If you like it, make a comment. Sam is super excited about seeing what people think of his first video...

Splitting Off...

So, never mind the fact that sadly I'm not very active on here anymore, I decided to split off onto a new blog for many of my posts. I realize that homeschool-related posts have kind of taken over. What was once a grief-related blog after our daughter passed away, then turned a baby book for the Sam-man and a sad attempt at one for Thunder, it now seems to be all school-related. Sooooo....if any of you would like to jump on over and see more homeschool posts, deals that I find, and more FREE printables, join me at....

This Crazy Homeschool Life of Ours

and

check out the Facebook page

Growing Up Too Fast...

So, as I sit here skimming my Facebook On This Day page, I just can't get over how fast my boys are growing up!

All About Reading...

So since I'm on a roll, I may as well make another post while I have the chance, ha! I still hope to go back and do an end of the year response to the post I made last year about the curriculum that we used -- or in some cases, didn't use. However, that'll have to wait. This particular topic is fresh on my mind so I'll put it out there.

Looking Back Over The Last Year...

So, I've been terrible at getting on here. So bad in fact that I don't even know where to start! The last time I sat down and wrote was at the start of the 2016-2017 school year -- oops!

Hello, Again...

Man, it sure has been quiet around here! It was quite a crazy school year and I suppose it shows with how absent I've been. Now with it being summer, things have calmed down a bit -- no classwork, no extracurricular activities (for now) and I'm finally getting photoshop set up on this new laptop so I can start messing around again on creating printables. It took long enough, but it's finally happening!

Welcome To Kindergarten...

It's hard to believe, but we officially have a kindergartner in this house! As you can see from the picture below, we also have a toddler that wants to be just like his big bro, ha...

Preparing For The School Year And The Rest Of The Alphabet...

We're less than a month away from school starting. I can't believe it! Even though our schedule isn't slowing down and I'm having a hard time finding a way to accomplish all that I wanted to this summer, I'm trying to get us prepared for the big day. I'm a planner and I know if I don't get things prepped and planned, it just won't happen. So while my mom was in town (keeping the boys occupied), I made a planner in photoshop that I plan to print out and use for lesson planning. Can I just say, I can't believe my kid is going to be in kindergarten?!

Paw Patrol -- The Letter V...

Is anyone else in shock that it's officially summer?! Where has the year gone?! I totally dropped off the face of the planet with these letters. I got so busy with other things going on in life that I gave my son generic letter writing worksheets for school. I never got a chance to sit down and work on these. Craziness. I guess I can look at the bright side, knowing that I'll at least have them completed in time for our 2 year old to need them, ha!  With just a few more letters to go, hopefully those of you that need them by the fall will have them in a complete set. I apologize for the madness.

Paw Patrol Letters S, T and U...

I've been sitting on these for a couple weeks, but I just haven't had a chance to sit down and upload them. So sorry about that! Before I get into anything that I've wanted to post about, I wanted to share a few letters with those using these for their preschoolers. I'll get to an actual blog post later...

Homeschooling Adventures And The Letter R...

The past month has been a great one for the Moore house. Samuel has gotten involved with two separate homeschool groups, Caleb started his very own speech class, and we've been trucking along with pre-k at home. I can't believe Easter is just around the corner!!!

#ChooseToSmooth #Influenster Campaign...

So, I can't even remember when I set it up, but I joined #Influenster awhile back and just now received my first box. Such fun! In years past, I was able to test and review various items, but definitely nothing as fun as this. The box I received over the weekend is one that will definitely get some use! Have any of you participated in their #voxbox program?

Homeschooling And The Letter Q...

So, I suppose I should just resign to the fact that I'm getting bad at getting on here again. I was doing alright there for a little while when the school year first started, then things got busy and I fell back into the habit of not getting on here. I keep thinking of all the things I'd like to get on here and talk about -- especially since I'd love to document things about the boys -- but I always end up choosing sleep over staying up to get on here. Sad, sad, sad.

Paw Patrol Letters O And P...

Here it is, middle of January, and I'm so far behind...again...

There is so much I've been wanting to get on here and blog about -- Olivia's birthday, Christmas with the boys, etc. -- but I just haven't had a chance to sit down and do so. However, I do want to post a few more Paw Patrol letters since those have been done for awhile. I'd hate it if people want to use them, but they can't simply because I haven't posted them. Until I get a chance to sneak away to blog again, here's O and P...

Thanksgiving In Vegas And The Letter N...

The last time I was on here, I was preparing for Thanksgiving and our trip out of town. Now here we are...preparing for Christmas!!! It's crazy that it's just 3 weeks away!!! There's so much I want to cram in between now and then. We'll see what actually gets accomplished, ha...

Finally Back! (And The Letter M)

It feels like it's been forever! My Mac officially died, so I had to wait for Apple to install a new hard drive. Unfortunately, trying to catch up on everything has taken much longer than I would've hoped...

With that said, how is it that Thanksgiving is NEXT week?!?! I absolutely love this time of year! This is when Thanksgiving and Christmas start to merge in this house. Our house is decorated with the harvest theme (it has been since September since I don't care for Halloween), but I have to admit, Christmas music and movies have been in full force for the last week or two. Ha. To add to the fun, there are so many crafts and activities I want to do with the boys that are holiday-themed. Now it's just a matter of finding time for it all. We did start doing a couple Thanksgiving crafts today with Samuel's school, which was fun!

A Sad Day For My Mac...

So, it looks like my hard drive is giving up. If anyone has been looking for last week's Paw Patrol worksheets, that's why. For about a week now, I've been having issues with this 4 year old iMac and it looks like I might have to replace the hard drive -- makes me so sad! If so, it may be even longer before I create more work sheets since I've have to replace Photoshop and I have no idea what my serial number is to switch it out. Good times.

Fun Times With Numbers And The Letter L...

So after having a chaotic morning with Mr. Caleb (I adore that boy, but he definitely keeps me on my toes!), I decided to scratch our previous plans and go meet James for lunch. Afterwards, Samuel asked if we could go to the toy store before running our errands. How could I say no?! Unlike my usual willpower to not walk out with anything, I gave in today. I found an awesome "toy" that is similar to something I was already considering for our homeschool. So instead of the fun Hot Wheels toys that Samuel wanted, I let him "buy" this educational toy. Regardless, he was super excited! He is such an appreciative kid. You could give him new socks and he'd excitedly yell, "Oh!!! Thanks, Mom!!!!" And actually mean it. In fact, he did just that a couple weeks ago when I grabbed a new set of socks for him. Ha! He gets so excited and is genuinely thankful for anything that comes his way -- boring or not.

Pregnancy And Infant Loss Awareness Day...

October 15th has and always will be a special day to our family. It's a day to recognize and remember all babies gone too soon. At 7pm worldwide, everyone (who chooses to participate) is asked to light a candle to create a wave of light. I love that as Samuel gets older, he eagerly wants to participate and help with it. Tonight, he asked if he could light the candles (with my assistance) and as we did so, we talked about what they represented. We always light 3 -- one for each of our angels. It's such a little act, but has so much meaning…