Second home

For the last six months we have been living in San Diego and absolutely LOVE it! If the shipyard told Brandon that they needed him down here permanently we would jump on it, but that is very unlikely to happen. San Diego has so much more to offer then Washington I think. The weather is perfect, the beach is at my front door and the kids are constantly entertained. We only have two weeks left in San Diego and I am so sad about leaving. San Diego feels like a second home. I hope that we can soon return and enjoy all that San Diego has to offer!

The beach is right across the street so I've been able to capture beautiful sunsets! 

  

Practice makes perfect!

Since Andrew was born in 2008 I have had the privilege to be a stay at home Mom (SAHM). Brandon was blessed with a Engineering job right out of college that gave me the opportunity to stay at home. Raising kids can be quite the challenge some days and I wish I could switch jobs with Brandon at times and let him clean up the constant mess, poopy diapers and deal with the meltdowns. But then again, I don't think I'd make a very good engineer  so I will stick with the constant mess, poopy diapers and meltdowns. Over summer I decided to give myself a bigger challenge and home school Andrew! 

Before our TDY trip to San Diego I didn't even think about homeschooling Andrew. That was until I started interviewing preschools in San Diego and saw how poorly ran a lot of them are. I'm not saying all are bad down here, but the majority within a 10 mile radius of our house are bad to my standards unless we wanted to pay $1000 a month. Back home in WA we only pay $230 a month for preschool so I was not about to pay $1000 a month for  play time. The schools I interviewed were a joke. I actually had one teacher tell me that Pre-K children are not capable to read yet so they don't focus on reading readiness. WHAT, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! I immediately left that school and came home to talk to Brandon about what I had come across at the pre-schools. It was that evening that we decided it would be best to home school Andrew. I will admit, I was a little nervous. I have a early childhood education background, but was I ready to teach my own son everything he NEEDS to learn before kindergarten? After the first day of teaching my smart little man I knew I could do it. We stocked up on learning supplies from Lake shore learning and started the home school journey.

After six months of homeschooling Andrew I couldn't be more proud of him. Andrew has come so far since June. After talking to a few teacher friends it sounds like Andrew is well beyond kindergarten level! Andrew is definitely like his Daddy and loves math and science. (Future Engineer someday?) Not only has Andrew come so far but so have I. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Andrew's face light up with joy after accomplishing an assignment. My little man definitely loves to learn! My patience has been tested to the limits and I have come out strong. I'm not always the most patient person so for me home school was a true challenge sometimes. There were some days that I wanted to throw in the towel. I knew that throwing in the towel would only affect Andrew in the long run and that was not a option. Andrew and Ava's schooling is my main focus right now. I want my children to be successful and responsible children and adults.  I knew that I had to push aside my own battles and focus solely on Andrew. If an assignment wasn't working like I thought then I would re-evaluate it and approach it differently with Andrew. Like I said, Andrew thinks like Brandon so he tends to be a bit stubborn sometimes. Okay fine, maybe he's stubborn like me too :) 

Once we get back home next month Andrew will be enrolling in pre-school at the church again. Andrew is mainly being enrolled because we want him to be completely ready for kindergarten in the fall. I still plan to supplement his learning at home which will be a two hour session when he gets home from pre-K. Also, with Andrew being back to school I can then focus on Ava's schooling more before she enters Pre-school in the fall. I can't believe I am talking Kindergarten and preschool, my kids are growing up too fast. I guess it's time for another baby then right? ;) 

Andrew's main focus lately has been perfecting his letters...

Think, think, think!

Andrew loves to color

Practice makes perfect!

We're back!

A few years ago I started a blog for the family and failed miserably with it. I didn't post like I thought I would have and eventually gave up on blogging. I love following my blogger friends and that is why I have decided to give this another shot! 

My sweet little friend over at Marissa Lynn Photography has given me the courage and inspiration to start up blogging again! I follow Marissa's blog daily and love to see what she has been up to in her life and business. Marissa has recently started 'Project Deployment' and I love the idea. Check out Marissa's blog to read all about it.  After reading about Marissa's new project I told myself that I can do that too!

I recently bought a DSLR and have a love/hate relationship with it somedays! Between the manual, photography blogs and classes I am slowly learning how to use the beast. I thought that photography would be easy to pick up on, but it's not. Well,  it's not easy for me anyways. I force myself to use manual as much as possible but trying to remember all the "rules" I get lost. My goal before our Hawaii trip in February is to go from good to great in manual mode.  I am hoping that this blog will improve my photography skills. From now on my camera will sit on the counter so I am reminded to take daily photos and share them with you. I would love your feed back as you follow my blog and get a peek into my daily life as a Wife and Mom!  

The kids with Cousin Aubree!

My favorite boys :)