October 2 - 8

Kyle was off this week, so that always means a little shift in the flow of our days. This week it meant we needed to get some more things done at the old house in preparation for closing. We are now waiting on the appraisal to be completed. It has been ordered so we are thinking it should take place in the next few days.

Sunday’s service was so good. You can check it out here if you want too. After church we did some grocery shopping and then we were home long enough to put the groceries away and turn our selves around for small group.

Monday Kyle did some projects around the new house, and then joined us at Co-op for lunch. When we were done at Co-op we made a quick trip to Princeton to borrow a truck to make emptying the old house easier.

Tuesday, I had to do my health screening for insurance. Levi and Emilia came with me. Emilia slept and Levi entertained the nurses with book talks on the various books he has been reading. He also asked lots of questions about every sign hanging in the office. I passed with flying colors, which was a relief since I hadn’t officially had my blood sugar tested since leaving the hospital after Emilia was born. Then it was on to violin. Levi did really well at his lesson this week, and so did I. I only had one rhythm that I wasn’t playing correctly. Levi thought it was funny his teacher had a sign up that reminded you to practice only on the days you eat. His conclusion was we are not practicing enough or we need to eat less. In the afternoon, we walked to our old house and then Elaine and Landon rode their bikes back, while the rest of us walked.

In the evening Elaine had Heritage Girls and we met the realtor to sign papers agreeing to the inspection response.

Wednesday, we worked to catch up around the house and get school work finished. Kyle hauled off boxes and did more sorting. Then we all headed to the old house to sort stuff and bring another load to the house. We have accumulated much in our 16 years of marriage. Some we have been saving from even before we married. Like these awesome plates and napkins.

My mom says I can have a Shirt Tails birthday party when May rolls around.

I get up around 5 each morning to have some quiet time before the rest of the house is awake. Emilia sometimes joins me. You would think her crib would be more comfortable, but Thursday morning she didn’t think so. Every time I laid her down she would cry out, and I wasn’t wanting the rest of the house to wake, so I would pick her up. She would fall back asleep just like this.

Thursday we worked on school work and more sorting and more moving. Moving with 5 children is a drawn out process, nothing is quick..

In the evening I went to see To Joey, with Love. My friend Shawna invited me to join her. It was such a special film. I hope they are able to get it to DVD or streaming. Kyle handled getting kids to choir, and a trip to Meijer with the younger two.

Friday we had breakfast, gathered stuff for car school and headed to Princeton to return the truck to Grandpa. After lunch we finished up our school work, and then had rest time. I think we only got a true rest time once this week, it felt good to have some quiet time at the house. Then we took Elaine to a Horseback Riding Event with Heritage Girls, and the boys and I ran some errands. Then it was home for movie night.

Saturday we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa, since Landon had a birthday party to attend in Princeton, it worked out nice to spend the day with them. The weather was beautiful. Emilia loved the swing. She giggled and laughed the whole time.

                                                                                                          

It was a full and blessed week!

                                                                                         Until next time,

                                                                                            

September 25 - October 1

This week was fairly routine, if there is such a thing. Sunday we had church and small group, with attempted rest time in between. Monday we had co-op. Elliot is really enjoying his math class. He is recognizing his numbers and loves all the games. This week they got to fish for numbers.

On Tuesdays Levi has violin lessons. He is taking lessons through the Suzuki program at the University of Evansville. Part of the methodology is for the parent to learn along side of the student. So guess who is also learning to play the violin? I have learned one "song" already. It is called the "Monkey Song". When his instructor told me the name of the song I thought, "How appropriate, that I learn the Monkey Song with one of my Five Little Monkeys!"

In the evening on Tuesday we did a science experiment to see if sugar or honey would make a fluffier bread. Our conclusions were based on how the sweetener reacted with the yeast. Sugar won by a land slide.

Emilia gets where she wants to go these days. Here she is getting one of Elliot's magnet games on the side of the fridge.

 On Wednesdays the boys have started AWANA at a church here in Newburgh. They were invited by friends we met through homeschooling. They all enjoy it, but I think Elliot has to be the cutest and most excited about being a Cubbie. Unfortunately, this week he woke up with a fever and couldn't go. He was devastated. His teacher sent home the sweetest little post card.

Thursday night was the first night of Kids' Choir at church. Landon, Elaine, and Levi are all in choir. They will be learning songs to sing during the Christmas services this semester.

I was making salad to take to the Suzuki picnic and Emilia reached in and grabbed a whole handful. She actually seemed to enjoy her lettuce.

Friday was spent catching up on chores and finishing up the weeks school work. Saturday we celebrated Levi and Papa's birthday at Riviera. Then all the boys got haircuts. So thankful for those! They were all quite hairy.

Saturday evening was the Suzuki family picnic. At first we kinda felt like outsiders being newbies to the program, but we ended up enjoying our selves before the night was over.  

This next week we will be working to get the rest of our stuff moved over from the old house. Still waiting on the appraisal and inspection response to be completed, but the closing date is quickly approaching. We are praying all the house stuff is wrapped up by the end of the month.

                                                                                 Until next week,

                                                          

                                                                                   

September 18 - 24, 2016

This past week was quite eventful for the Carnahans. 

On Monday our Home School Co-Op started back up. The kids were ready to see their Co-op friends. Landon will be taking guitar and Basic Automotive. Elaine is taking a Reading Class and Choir. Levi is taking Choir, and Elliot is taking a Hands on Math Class.

 We were thrilled to find stools just like we were looking for on clearance at Plow and Hearth. We got 5 for the price of 1 or 2. Now the kids can do breakfast and lunch at the bar, and when all our school stuff is spread out in the dining room we don't have to move it for lunch.

We just slide Emilia's chair in for now.

Had to grab this cute picture of the kids eating lunch.

 Elaine has become quite the helper in the kitchen. She is very close to completing her AHG cooking badge as well.

Making white chicken enchiladas.

The finished product. Yummy

Levi turned 6 on the 22nd.

He requested a PJ day and oven babies for dinner. 

We ate an early dinner so Daddy could join us before he went into work.

Elliot really enjoyed the farming sensory tub I put together for him. I used popcorn and an International Harvester tractor toy. I also put in some measuring cups. All the kids eventually wanted a turn. 

 On Thursday we officially listed the house on Treelane Dr. The listing went live around 8:30 that evening. Someone wanted to see it the next morning at 7:30 am before they went to work. Glad I didn't have to get all the kids up, dressed, and leave the house ready for a showing at that time in the morning. We had an offer by lunch, and by 3:30 in the afternoon we had a signed purchase agreement. Not to mention all the other showings that occurred Friday. God blessed us more then we could have even imagined. 

On Friday we celebrated Levi's birthday with pizza, cake, ice cream and jumping at Inflatable Fun Factory.

He got several new books. He has already finished one of them. He has asked me to email the author to see when book 19 in the series will be released. It doesn't come out till next month, so he decided he would go ahead and start the Prince Warriors Series. He may even be more of a book worm then his mom!

                                                                                               Until Next Time,
 

                                                                                         

\

Were are Moved

We are now living and schooling in our new house. We are really enjoying more space and and new layout. It was a rough two weeks, and another two weeks before we had our old home cleaned and all the little projects checked off. Of course we still have lots of boxes to unpack but that will be done little by little as we adjust and decide where things need to go.

I have decided to just recap the last few weeks through pictures and then hopefully I will be able to get back to our weekly recaps.

Teething Biscuit at Riviera

Messy carrot face

Emilia has seemed to enjoy everything she has tasted except broccoli. I think that had more to do with preparation then actual flavor. We aren't really in any kind of routine, just trying things here and there.

I had lots of "help" packing. Elaine and Landon did pack a good portion of their bedrooms and toys in the basement.

Meal times during the move were sometimes a challenge. Once we closed it was easier to begin eating over at our new home. 

First lunch in our new home

I had prepared several freezer meals ahead of time to make things a little easier. Chicken, broccoli, rice casserole for the win on our "new" Jenn Aire.

Leftover pizza and a history lesson.

We love all the sunlight in our new dining room. We also do our "sit down" learning around this table.

Who knew microwave shopping could be such an adventure? - Photo by Landon, he was sure we would  want to remember this.

Sometimes the lack of sleep crept up on us.

Emilia has changed so much over the last few weeks. She is crawling all over the place and pulling up. She has also not slept much at night and been teething, but we still love her sweet smile and cuddles.

We love our new home and look forward to lots of fun memories.

                                                                                                 Until next time,

                                                                                     

Monday and Tuesday it was back to business as usual. For morning time this month we are learning the hymn Trust and Obey and Ever Be. We have memorized 5 poems and are starting our 6th. I would highly recommend IEW's Poetry Memorization program. We all enjoy the poems and seeing how many we can recite. In Bible we are studying the Fall of Man how that has affected everything from that moment on until Jesus sets it right all right again. It always gets the kids in their Bibles searching out scriptures.

On Wednesday we got our school work started and then my Grandma came to help pack. A little after lunch my cousin Kirsten came too. She brought some boxes and packed as well. They both were a tremendous help.

Landon started Math 5 this week in the newly "decorated" room. 

We had to send in a little monkey to grab that picture on the mantel. We needed it in another room after Kyle had moved all the packed boxes in front of it. Ooops.

On Thursday Kyle moved lots of mulch and we had school in the morning. Then in the afternoon I was able to work in the boys room. Mainly I cleaned and sorted so it will be easier to pack when its time. Friday was a really sweet day. The kids and I enjoyed our school time. Emilia took good naps and was very smiley all day. I was able to get caught up on some regular household chores and more sorting and packing. Kyle got home late from work, but we still enjoyed grilling brats on the deck. The kids had a movie night with popcorn. They love having movie nights where they get to "sleepover" in the basement. 

Emilia has started trying a few solids. Mainly she played with them. She has tried a broccoli and fruit blend, banana, and guacamole. She was not a big fan of the broccoli, and kept shuttering when she would get much in her mouth. I think she would have preferred just some steamed broccoli, so I plan to try that next time we have it.  She loved the guacamole and kept reaching for more, which made her Daddy very happy. I am sure all the Mexican mommy eats has helped in that regard. 

Our Saturday should be relaxed for the kids and more cleaning and sorting for me. Next week we close on the new house, so I will post some pictures and details then. 

                                                                                   Until next week,

                                                              

Back to Reality

This past week started still on vacation in El Paso. Monday, Kyle and I had a lunch date (with Emilia napping in her seat) at Taco Cabana. We shared steak fajitas, and discussed some house things without interruption. Kyle made his homemade pizza for dinner, and it was enjoyed as usual. 

These girlies had so much fun together. This day they wanted Gram to do their makeup. They also made a spa treatment using almost a whole bottle of  grape seed oil...ooops.

Tuesday was spent swimming, doing laundry, getting airplane trip snacks at Walgreens, and packing. 

Wednesday, Gram made everyone eggs and bacon, and we loaded up for the airport. We had three legs to our trip. El Paso to Atlanta, Atlanta to Detroit, and finally Detroit to Evansville. We got to the airport around 10:00 and easily went through security. Then we waited...which was actually the only time that day we waited to board. Once we landed in Atlanta, we grabbed Chic-fila, by the time we made it to the gate and did a quick restroom stop, it was time to board. The kids had to finish eating on the plane. After we had already boarded and they had cut the air, we were told the pilot was waiting on a new seat before we could take off. So we sat in a very warm airplane while Kyle and I calculated the chance of us actually making our flight out of Detroit. I texted my mom, as she is very familiar with the Detroit airport. She was pretty sure the only way we were going to make that flight was if Kyle ran ahead to have them hold the plane. So we sat back and tried to rest up for our mad dash through the Detroit airport. The flight from Atlanta to Detroit went well. We landed and as soon as Kyle could physically get off the plane, he ran carrying Elliot to our gate. It was not a short distance and he felt like he needed knee replacement, but he did get there in time for them to hold the plane. I ran with the other four kids as quickly as we could, very thankful for moving walkways. As we approached the gate Levi accidentally got on the walkway moving away from the gate. He was exhausted from a long day and from running, but he was managing to still move toward the gate! Kyle lifted him over the side and we boarded the plane. Our luggage even made it to Evansville!

I think we needed some groceries.

Thursday we met the home inspector at the new house at 8:00 am. The inspection took about 3 hours, but all in all went well. We were eating lunch when I realized Landon needed to be get to his orthodontist appointment. We got there just in time for them to call him back. We don't have to go back for another year, so yeah for not having to fit braces in the budget. In the late afternoon we got groceries, and I worked on unpacking. 

Friday morning was spent doing laundry, unpacking, and packing for our weekend trip to Princeton. Kyle and Landon worked in the yard all morning. They were dripping it was so hot and humid. After lunch Kyle headed to bed, as he worked nights this weekend. The kids and I spent Friday afternoon and evening at Grandma Kolb's for a family get together. It was nice to catch up with my aunts and cousins. We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then celebrated my nephew Jesse's birthday on Saturday. 

I guess he thought he might want a midnight snack at Grandma's house.

Sunday we went to church. It was nice to see everyone as we had been out of town the past two Sundays. Elliot moved up to the preschool class, he said it was a lot of fun. 

After church he was serving up some interesting snack options.

After church we ate lunch at Sam's and then got our Sam's groceries. The kids love going on the weekends because of the samples. This only happens occasionally as I try to avoid weekends because the store is so busy. Once home I started some meal prep for the upcoming week and laundry. In the evening the kids decided they wanted to watch Star Wars IV, so I popped popcorn for dinner and they were all set. I enjoyed catching bits and pieces as I walked through working on laundry and sat to nurse Emilia. It is still one of my favorite movies. 

Monday morning its back to school...and packing. Hopefully we can work around the empty packing boxes.

 

House Hunters

To catch everyone up on the house situation, we have been looking and not looking for a different house for about 3 years. As our family has grown we have outgrown certain areas of our current home but at the same time we love much about our current house. We have also had several contractors come to look at our house with the intention of adding an addition or remodeling, but the cost has always been more then we felt would be a good investment.

The Monday before we left for El Paso, Kyle came home from work saying he had found a house online that he thought would be a good fit for our family. I checked it out and agreed, so we contacted the realtor and went to see it late that night. We both really liked it and it would give us more space in all the right areas. We met on Tuesday evening to see the house again and to make an offer, our offer was accepted on Wednesday, and we started all the paper work on Thursday. If all goes well with the inspection, which will take place the day after we get back from El Paso, we will be moving at the end of August.

August will be a high energy month. We will get back from our trip, pack up our current house, move, ready our current house and list it. Carnahan Academy will still be in session, and Kyle starts another Master's class the week after our scheduled moving weekend.

Once we are past inspection and all that fun stuff, I will post more pictures and details. The new house is 5-7 minutes from our current home in South Broadview sub-division. We appreciate prayers during this transition time.