"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and HE will establish your plans." Proverbs 16:3

Yesterday was the very first day of a new adventure for our family. Yesterday was our first day of homeschool. Honestly, I never thought I would ever say (or type!) that sentence, but I truly believe that the Lord has brought me to this place and I am excited (and somewhat terrified) to see what this school year will look like for three little people who mean the world to me!

Ella is now 7 years old and in 2nd grade! WHAT??? I don't like that she is growing up so fast but I am thankful for her health, and at times, her spunky attitude! :) I've been warned for years that times flies after your kids are born, I just never believed it...until now. It's been 7 years since she was placed in my arms for the very first time. It's been 7 years since David and I sat in our hospital room and stared at our only child for hours on end. I better stop...or else I will just be sitting here bawling. :)

Ella is our strong, energetic and goofy child who is constantly on the go. I love her imagination, her constant wardrobe changes throughout the day and even her little meltdowns. She is opinionated, but caring. She will do well in this life, of that, I am certain!

Next comes Eden. My little Kindergartner!!! She is an adult trapped in a 5 year old's body. She is tender-hearted, kind, bashful at times and always acts like a little "momma" to any child who appears smaller than her! She craves learning new things and is a fast learner so I am hopeful that this year will be a breeze for her. Oh, and she likes to clean with me (and without me in hopes of surprising me!) which just makes me SOOOO happy! :) 

Next is my handsome little man - David Allen, or Bo as I have been calling him more and more these days. He melts my heart several times a day with his random "I love you, mom" and "you look beautiful today mom" comments. What 3 year old says that??? MINE and I love it! :) He definitely has his work cut out for him with two older sisters, but man does he love them. He wants to be involved in EVERYTHING that they are doing which is why he is starting Pre-K this year with me. There was just no way that he wouldn't get his feelings hurt if David and I left him out of the new classroom design! 

Last, but certainly not least, my heart and soul...Ivy Noel. I wasn't sure what our life would look like when we found out we were pregnant with our fourth child (a third girl!), but like many others before me, I cannot imagine life without her now. The older three ADORE her and practically smother her from the moment she makes a peep on the baby monitor. Most of our sibling fights throughout the day are over who gets to go upstairs and get her out of her crib! I can think of worse things in life, so I try to take a deep breath and just enjoy that they love her. She is about to be 9 months old. Sigh. She just started crawling, is drooling on everything and smiles ALL of the time!

Do I have my hands full and feel overwhelmed most of the time? Why yes I do. But thank you Jesus for entrusting these four incredible human beings to me!!! I love the Proverbs that I used for my title. It is one that I hold dear to my heart as I find myself playing a new role in their lives - teacher. I wanted to make our homeschool classroom experience somewhat similar to a public school classroom experience because Ella attended public school for kindergarten and 1st grade and I wanted her to understand that this IS school and not just "play" school. Therefore, my fabulous man helped me turn our fourth bedroom into an actual classroom and I LOVE it! He spray painted metal chairs and a table for me, hung an annoying 4x8 whiteboard that I found on Craigslist for $40, hung new curtains, helped me create a reading nook AND screwed an oil drip pan onto the wall so that Bo and Eden would have a place to make sight words with letter magnets! He even wrote a special message for the kids to wake up to on their first day of school. Love him!

We have a long year ahead of us and lots of new material to cover, but it is my prayer that this will be the best school year of their lives!!! 

Happy 6th Birthday to Ella

Ella requested Lalaloopsy as her theme

Blessed :)

Mrs. Kerrie came and did their make-up and painted their fingernails! 

Pink eyes!

They got to make their own mini pizzas while admiring another amazing cake made by grandma! 

Mommy and daddy with the birthday girl!

Ella with three of her classmates from school....Savannah, Milan and Chloe

Happy Birthday my love! You are a true joy and I love you bunches and bunches!!

Eden Kate Crandall

My precious Eden Kate is growing up SO fast! This was her first year of preschool and she did GREAT!!! I almost hate to look back at her first day of school picture because it is just more proof that I can't keep her from growing up. Because of the way her birthday falls (October 2nd) she attended the 3's class this year and then she will attend the 4's class in the fall.....and then it is off to kindergarten in the fall of 2014! AHHHHHH! :) I must admit that I am really excited that she will won't be in kindergarten this coming year because I fully anticipate A LOT of help from her with the new baby who is coming in December. She already talks to him or her in my belly and tonight she drew me a picture that was me, the baby in my belly and me holding a flower. It almost made me cry. :) She also told David that she was going to give the baby a hug and he was like, "well, you won't really be able to do that for a while," and she responded with, "yes I can, I just hug mommy's belly and the baby feels it." I'm trying to remember all of her sweet comments and gestures because she is such a little mommy and it melts my heart. Little D is over being "babied" so I am excited to give her someone new to mommy soon!

Here she is back in August 2012 and then just last week on her last day of 3's class!

I love you my sweet Eden Kate!

Final day of housewife training: cooking and a field trip!

Although we have lots of chores to do tomorrow to prepare for this weekend, I'm declaring today the final day of our housewife training because I won't have time to take pics tomorrow. :) Also, I didn't take any pics today of our typical cleaning routine (vacuuming, picking up toys and organizing dress up clothes) but here are a few shots of the girls cooking and going on a "field trip" with me.

First chore for Ella - helping mommy make cinnamon streusel muffins for breakfast.

Eden had a rough night of coughing so she slept pretty late this morning. I must admit that it was kind of nice to only instruct one!

A little after 11am we left Baby David at home with daddy and headed out to Sienna Salon & Spa where my favorite wax lady in all of the world (Patricia Gebing) showed my girls the importance of eyebrow maintenance! :) Although not a typical house chore, it is important to look good for our man!! On that note, if you're ever looking for an awesome massage, facial or waxing....Patricia is the woman to go to! PROMISE!

When we got home Eden helped me make a Pinterest recipe for soft pretzel bites for Auntie Ashley. I'd post a picture of the final product but they in no way turned out like the picture on Pinterest. Sigh....

It's been a challenging, but extremely productive week of housewife training with the girls. I appreciate ALL of the positive feedback and words of encouragement because it wasn't easy. I made the decision to turn off the TV (in the daytime), turn on worship music and let the girls help me with any chore that needed to be done. I started to get discouraged because we had a few tantrums and meltdowns along the way, but my Aunt Elizabeth made a comment last night that really made me feel good about not giving up. She said that most women don't take the time to teach their kids how to cook and clean because it's a whole lot easier to just let them watch TV while you do it. SOOOOO true!!! However, my girls have asked me every single night what chores they would GET to do the next morning so I know I made the right decision. It won't be long before we have fights over who HAS to do the chores! :)

day three of housewife training: cooking, laundry, vacuuming and toilet paper duty!

It was a busy day at the Crandall house. We started the day by making daddy some chocolate chip waffles - yum!

My girls are ALL about the "pouring" steps in a recipe. It's where we have to practice taking turns the most :)

I was a little nervous that Eden's turn fell during the milk pouring step, but she did it without spilling!

Once breakfast was all cleaned up we moved on to our dinner prep work. One thing I am super passionate about is teaching my kids (the girls and David....once he is old enough) the importance of caring for others when life seems a bit challenging and they need support from friends and family. My gift of support always comes through food! When a friend has a baby or is recovering from an illness or surgery, I like to bring over a meal or two. Tonight we volunteered to take dinner over to my grandparent's house since my Memaw recently had a stroke and is still taking it easy. I decided on crockpot BBQ chicken sandwiches, baked potatoes and fruit salad.

The girls are getting the BBQ sauce ready for the crockpot

Say cheese!

One last stir before we poured it over the chicken

All done! Now on to the next chore....

LAUNDRY!!! Please do not judge me. I know this looks like a ridiculously huge pile of dirty clothes, but to be real honest, it's only one of the three piles that need to be addressed!

No laundry shoot in this house so the best part of doing laundry is tossing it down the stairs :)

Now on to vacuuming! My mother-in-law and my mom have both blessed us with vacuum cleaners over the years so both girls got to vacuum at the same time. They actually like to vacuum (like their momma!) so this was more of a "fun" chore than it was a learning experience.

Even daddy took a turn at training today! He showed Ella how to hold the cord so that she wouldn't roll over it every single time.

And the final chore of the day....and the most important....STOCKING TOILET PAPER IN ALL OF THE BATHROOMS! :)

Took a little help from Pinterest and made my Memaw a healthy snack! "You are the apple of my eye," "We go bananas for you" and "You are pearfect!" :) She loved them!

day two of housewife training: Unloading/loading the dishwasher and feeding brother

We hit the ground running today! Ella was at preschool all day so it was just me and good old Eden - but she didn't miss a beat!

First chore = unloading the silverware from the dishwasher

The day she's been waiting for....PERMISSION TO PLAY IN THE SOAPY DISH WATER!

She loved every minute of it!

The foot stools that David bought them for their bathroom have come in very handy!

After about 20 minutes of scrubbing the same bowl, she finally loaded it into the dishwasher :)

Putting a box top into our special ziplock bag. We've been clipping them for months now. I probably only have 30 or 40, but my wax lady's son collects them for school so I thought we might be able to help!

Love this picture :) Final chore of the day was helping me feed David.

Yep - not a day goes by that poor David doesn't have to play dress up with the girls :)

Silly kiddos....