Milestones: Isla is 8 Months Old!

 

8 months old and just as happy as can be!

 Oh Isla, you are growing like a weed! Every time I turn around, you are doing something new! Over this past month you learned how to crawl and a couple days later you were standing! I can't keep up! You are my little shadow all throughout the day and it is a struggle with everything else I have going on, but you are also a light in my life that keeps me grounded and stable, reminding me of what is important. You LOVE your siblings and the second your eyes open in the morning you are looking around for them and then you get the biggest smile on your face once you see them! You still have two teeth and are teething with those top ones :(. Lucky for me, ever since you turned 8 months old, you suddenly started sleeping throughout the night, or only waking up once at night! YAYYYY!!! It has been sooooooo long since I've gotten any sleep so I really appreciate it! As you can see from these pictures, you are the happiest baby! But you have also gotten pretty grouchy lately as I have been spending soooooo much of my time trying to help the kids with online schooling while you cry at my feet :(. Hence, another reason why I've decided to homeschool Austin. I can't let you suffer through all of this. Not my sweet, happy Isla... 

Isla, you make my life complete. You are the light in my day and I can't help but hug and kiss you constantly! Luckily you absolutely love being adored, so it works out great for both of us! :)

Right after you learned how to crawl, you started standing!! I need time to slow down because I'm not ready for this!

This was a particularly rough day as we navigated this new way of schooling and you were right by my side during all of it. At least I have you to love on!!

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You are always at my feet crying while I try to cook! So in comes the tupperware cabinet to keep you busy! :)

Rock n' Roll Isla!

vs. Rapunzel Isla :)

This is the first time you crawled! I was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and you crawled right in there to find me and make a mess with the fridge magnets! Yay Isla! :)

First Day of School!!... and the insanity that has ensued ever since....

 

 Because of the pandemic, our county decided not to open schools this year and to have all the kids do online school. It has been one of the toughest moments of my life because I want my kids to have a normal life and for Evie's kindergarten experiences to be awesome but our freaking government would rather live in fear, like everything else this year. So I cried and prayed and stressed myself out to the max about whether I should homeschool them, but finally decided to give CCSD a chance to prove themselves. It was really exciting at first because Evie's Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Smalla, showed up at our house to give Evie her golden ticket that tells her what house she was put into (their school does Harry Potter style houses) and to introduce herself. Evie was ecstatic and was so excited for school! Austin also got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Brown. in the car drive through as we picked up his school supplies from her in the parking lot. This is the extent of human interaction these kids have gotten from school and it sucks. But we pushed through and did our best to make it all exciting! Every day there was crying and my stress level was so intense from all the technology issues, internet outages, server crashes, and just outright insanity, that I have gotten a stomach ulcer, felt suicidal, find myself freaking out over everything, and half of my body went numb. So I knew something needed to change. 

Evie's teacher showed up with her golden ticket saying she now belongs to the House GLOSSARIUM! Her house color is purple!

She immediately raced next door to find out what house her  best friend, Bella, got!

 

Since then, I have bought a Christian based homeschool curriculum and tomorrow is Austin's last day of online school with Ellis Elementary. I was fully prepared to pull Evie from school as well, but after our experiment yesterday to homeschool and "see how it goes before we officially pull the plug," she decided she would rather stick with online school. She loves Mrs. Smalla and her teacher even called me from her personal phone and begged me to keep Evie in her class. So I am doing what's best for everyone and doing both styles of school. While Evie is logged in with Mrs. Smalla, I will be homeschooling Austin. Then, once Evie is done, we will all do some combined homeschooling lessons to supplement what Evie isn't learning in class. So she will have the best of both worlds and Austin will be done with all this testing Bull Shi* that our county for some reason thinks is more important than teaching the kids while they struggle to learn online.... I can't even tell you how angry all of this makes me.I never thought I would be homeschooling my kids but this year has been a complete shit show and it doesn't surprise me at all that the school district made some pretty stupid decisions that were not at all in the benefit of the kids. 

Our homeschooling experiment went pretty well on this beautiful fall day! We had random cool weather and took our learning outdoors!

Austin was especially in his element and told me this is the style of learning he wants for the rest of the year. Online schooling has been so hard on him.

I was really surprised that after this beautiful day Evie still wanted to do online schooling, but she is such an extroverted child and NEEDS social interaction in whatever way she can get!

With how crazy everything is and how fast life changes, I wouldn't be surprised if we mix things up again 5 or 6 more times before we get this school year all figured out, but such is 2020!! In the meantime, I will enjoy more one on one time with my boy as we enter the world of homeschooling and Evie will enjoy all her fun on the computer with her amazing teacher!

LaFeber Life Lately: Saying Goodbye to Summer!

 As school is approaching and life has become completely insane, I have been trying my best to get everyone to the pool and enjoying what is left of our summer! I'm going to let the pictures do the talking :).

Snuggling with Dad in our new fuzzy bean bag! Isla sure loves her Daddy!

Labor Day weekend fun at the pool!

Crawling around and putting everything in her mouth! Pretty typical these days :)

Always happiest at the pool :)

Friday Night Tradition: Homemade mini pizzas!

Austin built himself an army tank!

Online schooling in the raw... It has been rough.

We got out of the house and drove to St. George to Visit Grandma Wiegel and celebrate Gracelynn's 2nd birthday!

It was a beautiful day as we celebrated our favorite baby cousin!

It felt amazing to get away from all the online school drama and just chase the ducks and tease the swans at Grandma's house.

The kids have gotten pretty good at doing chores!

Austin asked if we could meditate before school and I was once again aware of how stressful this has been for the kids, as well as for the adults. I could kill the people who decided to not let the kids go back to school because their mental health is at risk and nobody cares!

Another Friday Pizza Night at the LaFeber house!

Krispy Kreme donuts for the win!

Austin and Isla, forever little buddies :)

We love having Daddy work from home so we can spend more time with him!

This year's monsoon season consisted of only one rainy day :( but we will take whatever rain we can get!

Isla's first experience with rain!

Finding a lady bug at the pool was the highlight of Evie's day!

These pool days have saved our lives this summer!

Just look at that smile :).....

This rowdy crew needs lots of pool days to keep us sane!

The kids and I both LOVE our tea parties! We learn ettiquette and manners while we have fun pretending to be different people and coming up with all sorts of fun stories to share wile we drink our tea :).

LOVE LOVE LOVE

I've been reading LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS to them at night and they love it :).

Isla LOVES grass!

Look what we learned how to do this summer!

Isla crashed Mom and Dad's day date while the older kids were in Mesquite with family ;)

On an early morning walk with Isla because everybody else was still sleeping.

Doing a little gardening, just to have a rabbit or rat eat it all a couple weeks later :( :( :(

Look who has been losing teeth this summer!

The kids used their money they had been saving to buy some pet fish! They've been begging for a dog so I thought we'd start here.... ;)

Evie's fish died immediately and then the replacement fish ALSO died a day later....grrrrr!! So she and I have been making MANY trips to the pet shop lately! This fish has lasted quite a while, thank goodness!

Austin got to spend some special time with Grandpa Nathan and had a great time!

Meanwhile, Evie had a blast sleeping over at cousin Gracie's house

Building lego forts and having army battles with Dad!