Hannah - The Amazing three year old biker

This was a big weekend for little Miss Hannah.  She learned how to ride a bike all by herself!  Yay!!!  The excitement and pride in her eyes was unmistakable.  She is so psyched up that she can ride her bike.  She rode around...and around...and around...and around...and around...and around our cul-de-sac this weekend.  She rode through the grass and over the bumps, in the water and around and around and around and around.  She loved every minute of it!

Yesterday, I even took the girls on a two mile bike ride!  TWO MILES (or thereabouts) She did not complain or whine or anything.  She was wiped out when she got home...but very excited over her accomplishment. 

She can not start on her own (yet), but I don't mind giving her a little push.  I think being able to stop without falling is much more important than being able to start.  That will happen really soon.

I can't figure out how to get my videos from my phone onto my computer ....Jeremy???  Help please :)

It's Classical Conversations Time Again!

I feel like we have been here longer than 3 1/2 weeks...but that's all it's been.  We are fully unpacked and trying to settle into our new normal.  Finally, for the first time in months, I am able to fall into a better routine with our schooling.

We now have a "school room" to store everything in and hang out in all day, which makes it fun for me. We have two small white boards up, a cool rug mag of the USA and a perfect size table for the girls (now I need to build some perfect size chairs.  Maybe this weekend...)

Reading with bear.

We have joined a CC community here - so we are ready to go!

Our first week we talked about the 14th amendment, which coincided perfectly with Marin Luther King Jr. Day.  We talked a lot about slavery and the civil rights movement that followed.

Our science for this semester is chemistry, which is fun.  We get to do some fun experiments, and so far we have made molecules from colored marshmallows and toothpicks (anytime we can eat our demonstrations, the better!)

We also made an atom out of fuzzy balls and fuzzy sticks

Yesterday, Nicole free drew a map of the USA...we are going to label it later.

We have started an official math curriculum with Saxon Math 1 and Saxon Math K (for Hannah).  It's a little weird to follow a book closely.  Nicole's is way to easy for her right now. I skipped ahead a few weeks, and although it's still to easy, I can see that the curriculum is building a foundation for the more difficult ideas, so we are starting here.  Hannah is having fun using the little teddy bear manipulatives.

Oh...this is the BEST math game.  It's called Math Dice JR.  You roll the dice and have to add and subtract the colored dice to make it match the answer on the white dice.  Nicole came up with this all on her own.

The girls also get A LOT of play time in.  I would guess they get far more than their public or private school friends.  They always go outside and play in the evenings when the kids get home from school.  One of their favorite things to do is draw with chalk.

They also play pretend with their stuffed animals and toys.  This is our reading bear, having a bad day.  Apparently, he is throwing up in the garbage can ;)

Nate is having fun playing with trucks and balls and trains...and his basketball hoop in his bedroom that he got for Christmas from Uncle Justin and Aunt Erica :)

The other night, he hurt his cheek and eye.  The girls were wonderful big sisters and quickly got him some ice.  Isn't he sweet?

We are having fun and grateful that our family is together. 

Moving Day

Moving Day came with great excitement.  Each child got to ride in a big truck which made it all the more special.

Hannah got to ride with Uncle Chris...they talked all about Hannah's birthday
(Chris...if you don't come down for her birthday party, you will have one very disappointed neice to deal with!)

Nate got to ride with Daddy in one of the big moving trucks.  He said Varoom Varoom...and fell asleep a few minutes down the road ;)

Nicole go to ride with Gramps. Nicole so distracted Gramps (trying to get him to sing Mickey Mouse club house) that he made a wrong turn.  But, it's ok...he figured it out and made his way to the right house ;)

**Mommy rode all by herself, woohoo!!**

We had Greg, my brother-in-law Chris and our friends Aaron & Samantha help us move that Saturday.

Aaron and Sam were our first overnight guests, follow by my mom and dad the next night. My mom helped me unpack and organize the kid's clothes (thank you mom....they would probably still be in their boxes if you hadn't of helped)  My mom also played outside and met some of the neighborhood kids.

Nicole and Hannah played kickball with the neighborhood kids on their first day here.  The kids here are so sweet and welcoming to them.  I am more than grateful for that!

My dad helped Jeremy with a ginormous wasp nest (seriously....HUGE!) at the highest peak of our house.  And....most importantly (at least to me), he saved our house from a major sewage catastrophe!

Jeremy had to drive a borrowed truck back to its home...while he was gone, my dad heard the toilet bubbling and some yucky stuff came up through the sink.  He quickly began investigating and found that the our sewage drain by the street had begun to back up and overflow into the yard.  After more investigation and work, he found that there was a large stick in drain causing the backup and was able to remove it.  It's been find ever since.  Whew....if he happened to NOT be here....we would have had a scene from Meet the Parents on our hands, very very quickly.  Thankfully though, it was nothing serious, and a very easy and cheap fix :)

The next weekend, Greg and Valerie came up. Greg ran wires with Jeremy for a day and half and Valerie helped me decorate our living room and kitchen.  It was great fun.  I'm glad that each of our parents were able to come and visit so soon.

My living room!  We picked out the rug, picture, lamp, tree and pillows.  It's so nice and restful:)

Tonight we have our friends, The Hale's coming up for the weekend.  Nicole is busily making welcome bags for Peyton, Caulder and London:)  No work this weekend...just fun!

The Island of Pirates

After Christmas, when we owned our new home, but didn't have the time or man-power to move in yet, we were really in limbo (as far as where to live). We ended up staying with Jeremy where his new company was putting him up at...on a beach.  Score for us!

The view from our room was wonderful.  We had a big two bedroom room with a kitchen (Yay!)

Because of all the craziness in our lives the weeks before, I decided to take these few days and do only two things :1. Clean our new house, about an hour away and 2. Play with my kids.

Nathan...love this little boy!

Unfortunately, a cold front came through and we couldn't use the beach the way I originally planned.  However, I must say that I enjoyed the beach far more with pants and a sweater on than I ever did in a bathing suit.

They were so cold...but as soon as they saw how big the beach was...they took off running and screaming like wild children :)

The kids and I had a blast while Jeremy worked (sorry honey).  The beach was HUGE!  The biggest beach I had ever seen.  The wind was strong and very cold, but we enjoyed it (well, Nate cried quite a bit...but the girls loved it).

They dug holes

Nicole's lower body was completely covered

Played race with the waves (Hannah got so wet one day that her sweat pants kept falling down, haha)

The enjoyed the beauty of God's creation (so much so that I "caught" Nicole wandering off singing praises to God.  She told me that the beautiful sky and water just made her want to sing praises to the Lord!  What a pure child like faith and love for the Lord she has...I LOVE it!)

I love this picture

And this one too

I forget why, but one night Jeremy had to work really late. So...the kids and I put a pizza in the oven and ate cookies and watched a movie, after taking a sunset walk on the beach....it was perfect :)

Amazing sunset

Our final morning, we were even able to get out there before the sun found it's way out of the clouds.

Beautiful sunrise

This was an extremely peaceful few days that our whole family needed...it was great!  And, I would definitely want to vacation here again!

Saying Good bye

Our last few weeks living in Naples were filled with visiting friends and doing some of our favorite things :)

We had a fun play date afternoon with Ashlynd, Aleya and Cord (all basically the same ages as my three

Nicole and her buddy Ashlynd

Played a lot outside with Sydney, the little girl who lived across the street.

Nicole taught Sydney how to be a lizard catcher

Met Abigail and her mom (and brother) for lunch on an impromptu lunch at Chic-Fil-A

Went to Il Primo to make our own pizzas (this is the first place I plan on eating when I'm back in town...I don't know why, but I want me some Il Primo).

 (I thought I had pictures from this...I guess I didn't)

Went to "family night" at Chic-Fil-A to get the kids' face painted.

Hannah wanted a Christmas Tree

Nicole decided to get a balloon hat instead.

After that, we went downtown for the Christmas parade (my favorite parade of the year :)

And, I even got to go out for a "girl's night" with the other CC tutors from our Naples community.  I already miss them and the kids in my class. Our new CC class starts on Friday.  They have been extremely hospitable to our family by bringing us meals for the past 2 weeks.  I'm looking forward to getting to know them:)

My fellow CC tutors; Nicole, Sharon, Me, Gabriella, Michelle, Sarah, Jennifer

What Christmas is all about

I put this on Facebook on Christmas day...but I want it in our family history too.
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After church last night, Nicole was really quiet in the car. We asked if she was asleep. This is what she said.
"I'm just thinking about Jesus mommy. My head is full of thoughts about Him. I can't think of anything else! I'm thinking about how He created everything. And about how he came as a little baby and had to sleep in a manger full of hay, not even in a crib or a bed or anything.

And... I'm telling Him that I believe in Him and trust Him. And I know he died on the cross for me. And I love Him with all my heart.

My head is just full of thoughts about Jesus. I can't even think about anything else!

(momma was crying tears of joy at this point, that was the sweetest Christmas present anyone could have given)

Merry Christmas from the Rearden's!! May your thoughts be full of Jesus today!

A Chapter has closed

Whew....when I think about 2011...that's what comes to mind..."Whew" with a dramatic fall into a comfy sofa.  I don't think I have ever said this before...but I am SO glad that 2011 is over!

By far, it was the most stressful and difficult year of our lives - however, much was learned through it, our knees are calloused by it (not literally because I don't often kneel when I pray, but you get the point...we prayed a lot), our hearts were broken by it, and we labored heavily through it. 

I want to share the story, primarily for our own record keeping, but there is so much I just can't share on the internet (because you never really know who is reading, or who could be reading).  So, I will be vague enough to not get in trouble, but detailed enough that we can look back on Two Thousand and Eleven and set it as a stone of remembrance of God's provision in our lives, just as the Israelites did when they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised land.

Although the year started out joyous with the sale of the company and the weight of non-ownership off our extended family's shoulders, reality quickly tackled that joy and wrestled the next 12 months with it.  An incredible amount of stress and difficult decisions became Jeremy's daily life.  Even while on our "dream" vacation in Colorado, nearly 2 days was spent off the slopes and on the phone dealing with issues.  The stress-free vacation we had been saving for was taken. 

A few weeks later, we found out we were pregnant, unexpectedly and couldn't even share it with our family for another month.  During that time, the stress continued to build as we both began to feel physical side effects because of it.  Just as we had accepted and began to look forward to number 4 running around the house near Thanksgiving, it was taken.  The loss was just as unexpected as the pregnancy.

The summer months are a blur to me.  Jeremy was stressed, I was stressed, our kids were even stressed (looking back, I can completely connect the issues we were having, specifically with Nathan, to the stress levels in our lives).  Each day, we counted it as one day closer to Jeremy's 3 year contract being over (it was not even a year yet)

September came and I started thinking about making one of those paper chains things...you know, like a countdown to Christmas...only it would be a countdown to December of 2013 (a pretty long chain, haha).

Near the beginning of October though, Jeremy was told he would take over a 40% cut in pay and benefits, or he could be released from his three year contract (but not released from his non compete).  After much thought...A LOT of prayer...and legal counsel, Jeremy put his two weeks notice in. 

This is where it gets good....and where we see God's hand in everything.

That very day, we got an accepted offer on our house.  It had been on the market since the beginning of the year.  We had thought about taking it off, selling for less than we could, we had even though about renting another house to let ours be vacant.  But, NONE of that was God's plan...it was us, trying to make something happen.  We are so grateful that the Lord sustained us through our desires to wander and that we did not do those other ideas. 

All of a sudden, Jeremy had no job,  and we were getting rid of our house (which meant we would soon be homeless).  What does a family do?  Take a vacation to TN of course ;)  A much needed...Stress free vacation (Ok, not for me...I was dealing with buying a house somewhere else (to remain mostly un-named, because you know...this is a public blog, and you never know whose reading ;)  It was a great vacation and visit with Jeremy's sister and her family. 

We returned to difficult - not stressful- just difficult situations.  Jeremy was working out of town and coming home on weekends.  I was packing boxes and moved into Jeremy's parent's parent's house Thanksgiving weekend.  We expected to close on our house in Naples on Dec. 9th.

Nope...not gonna happen.  I learned a few things during the month of December...

1. I NEVER want to be a realtor
2. The Government is always slow
3. It's important to find a good realtor (our Naples realtor was very good....or realtor here was not.  It would take much restraint from me not to kick him in the shins if I saw him at Target. haha - don't worry...I won't...but I will probably be thinking about it)

December was full of lots of ups and down, seeing my dear husband only on weekends, spending Christmas without our own home, staying with family and at friend's homes who were out of town.  We even spent a few days in a hotel.

But finally, on one of the final days of 2011...we close on our house in Naples, and our one here a few days earlier...and on...December 31, 2011....we closed a chapter in our lives...We Moved out of Naples.  The move would have been more difficult if circumstances were different, I am sure...but I couldn't have been happier to finish the year in a new home, with my husband by my side, and my children playing in the street with all of the neighborhood kids.

Good bye 2011....Hello 2012.  I realize this year could be even harder than last year...but for now, it has been incredible.  We do miss our family, but so far we've seen someone every weekend ;)  Our lives in Naples have changed, at least for now.  We are nearly settled where we are now.  We are looking for a church and hoping to make friends.  We are playing kickball in our back yard with a bunch of 9-12 year olds who fight over who gets to play with our preschoolers (haha).  We have a bigger house to host our friends and family and Jeremy has a job he enjoys and a boss who appreciate him.  His commute is rather long, but hopefully that will change.  For now, the first 9 days of 2012 have been far better than almost any day in the previous year.

We are thankful to the Lord for leading us through the difficulties of the past 12 months...and trust he has used that time to prepare us for what lies ahead.