Merry Christmas To All!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope everyone had a fantastic day with families yesterday, and was able to relax and enjoy. As for our little family we had a wonderful day. We have really enjoyed this Christmas break and have enjoyed some quality time together. (That will be in another post) Our Christmas morning started at 5:30 am with Rylie waking up very excited to see what Santa brought her. We had to watch cartoon for an hour until it was a decent time to wake Jackson. Once everyone was awake, including Paw-Paw who stayed the night with us the kiddos awoke to their big present under the tree!
We couldn't stop there... next were the stockings.





By 10:00 kiddos we spoiled (thank you for all the wonderful gifts, calls, and love!) and the living room was filled with presents and wrapping paper. Every toy had to be opened and played with and every piece of toy seemed to be strung from one end of the room to the other. But, it didn't matter. It was Christmas and we had the day to enjoy. Cooking began around 11:00 with a wonderful menu ahead. The weather outside was freezing (below freezing) so we were very thankful to be staying in all day. Our house was warm with a fire bellowing, and the oven cooking. Our day was filled with relaxation, game play, eating, and naps. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband and two healthy and happy kids!

Sledding Fun!

It's beginning to look a lot like winter! ( I know me and the Christmas songs, go ahead sing it out loud and get it stuck in someone elses head :)

Here, at home we got pounded with snow a couple weeks ago. The storm brought us a total of two feet in two days! It is amazing how much snow can land on top of us! This day in particular we were snowed in and not moving. We (well Rob) did a lot of shoveling while I stayed in and baked cookies. He got a great idea to build a sled hill with all the snow that he was clearing from our walks. Rylie took complete advantage of this and bundled up and faced the storm. This wasn't the most fun of storms, considering the winds were in blizzard conditions. We had areas in our backyard that were bare with no snow and then drifts that were five feet high. But, this didn't stop Miss Rylie, after last year she couldn't wait for the snow to fall again!

Jackson was a hoot to watch. We had him so bundled up that he could barely move. He would fall backwards on the sled and be stuck on his back. So, needless to say this frustration created him to go inside early. But, while he was out the two of them had a lot of fun. Rylie is such a great big sister, she would pull him around and sled with him, for wanting to play so badly she was very patient with him!

We have two little snow bunnies that we will be constantly fighting to get them into the house!

Silent Night....

There is something very peaceful to me about these two photos. Enjoy these two photos, and a quiet moment :)

'O' Christmas Tree 'O' Christmas Tree....

Yes, it is already that time of the year again! I feel like I just sent out these pictures last year. It really is amazing how fast a year passes once you have kids. Christmas is filled with many traditions, one of our traditions growing up was decorating the Christmas tree. We had a system, the lights were put up, mom put on the bows, we decorated, and then one of the kiddos got the privilege of putting on the star. It is amazing how you start to create your own traditions, and honestly I LOVE IT! I was so excited for Christmas this year and going out to find our tree.

It's funny how I didn't grow up going out in the snow and finding a tree and chopping it down, and now that is all I want to do. The first time I did this was with Rob and his family and I thought they were nuts taking me out to actually walk about and find and chop and carry back a tree (oh not to mention I am 5 months pregnant :). Are you crazy! Well now I am right there with them. Last year was pretty much lets just drive down this long windy road until we spot a tree and then lets snap some pictures and call it good. Jack was little and Rylie really didn't care, so we just called it a day. Well, this year was a lot different. We stopped walked looked at a tree, shook some trees free of snow, rolled in the snow, and loaded back up to start all over again. We were out in the snow looking for the "perfect" tree for over two hours. But, this is the best tradition ever! Rylie loved it, Jack had a blast (once he woke up all the way) and I wouldn't trade this tradition for anything. We load up the truck with warm clothes, hot chocolate and some special snacks for the kids and enjoy a day away.

Jackson talking to Daddy about this tree. He was very adamant on getting his attention as he continued to whack him over the head until he looked up to see what he wanted!

Here are a few of many pictures that I took of our day away! Decorating the tree will have to be a whole separate post!

Loves to you all!

Look at that Hair!

As we are all very aware both of my children never had hair! Jackson's seemed to come in very slow! I heard all the "wonderful" comments on my hairless little girl, oh I mean boy. I thought maybe he got daddie's genes and would stay bald :) (Just kidding Rob). But let me tell you what a proud mommy I am, my little boy FINALLY has hair! At 16 months old Rob says he needs a hair cut. My response "HECK NO!" He just got his hair its time to enjoy it! So here you go enjoy Jackson's hair, or at least pretend to for my sake!

Pedicures

What do ALL girls love? Yes, pedicures! Rylie loves to sit on our kitchen floor and set out all the colors of nail polish and paint her toe nails and finger nails. She loads on every color that she can open and every nail is a different color, but she is so proud of herself when she is finished!

Well this night was no different than any other night she sat forever deciding on colors and perfecting her nails! Except there was one little thing I forgot to mention, her brother was there! Yes, Jackson decided to get in on this pedicure extravaganza! While I was painting Rylie's right hand Jack came in and sat on my lap, well, he wanted to see what the girls were up to... so we showed him!

Swimming Day

Field Trip Day!
A few weeks ago we took a field trip to the Durango Rec Center to go swimming. We had a fantastic time! Another nice thing about only schooling Monday-Thursdays we have Friday to find new hikes and enjoy a day of nothing but fun! We have really taken advantage of our Friday Fun days!
So, this trip was filled with lots of milestones for my two little kiddos! This was Jacks first time at the pool since he began walking and he is a daredevil so I needed four eyes on him at all time! (Good things moms have eyes in the back of their head, right?) There were many times I was scooping Jack out of the water as he was just floating face down. I would scoop him up and he would clap, he was so proud of himself! Now, let me remind you he watches his sister every night in the bath go under water and then clap, so he figures “why not” this is what you do when you are in the water!

Now Rylie has ALWAYS been my little water baby! She loves to swim and scare me also by seeing how long she can float on top of the water holding her breath. I have to say I have two little daredevils that are afraid of nothing. She swam and played all day, and of course we had to go down the slide many times. The parents were getting pretty tired of going up and down the slide so someone suggested they go by themselves. I thought “there is no way my little Rylie will go down that slide by herself!” Wow, once again I proven wrong by her, she ran up those stairs so excited to go by herself!

It really is amazing how quickly they go from being so little to so independent! Every day I am shocked with something that these kiddos do! Thank you for letting me share their new found independence with you all!
Much Loves!

School

Hello Family and Friends! Wow has the last couple months just flown by. I can't believe the colors are already changing and fall is settling in! So as falls settles in we have finally found ourselves getting into the comforts of school again. Although this time around, school is just right out my front door!
I am loving teaching this way, I love the kids and I love the challenge. I am teaching five kindergartners and four second graders, and it is wonderful. The time that I am able to spend teaching these kids is great and we have really built a great classroom. Rylie is in kindergarten with us and doing amazing! I was a little worried that maybe I was pushing my little four year old too hard, but I have found out that I am not. (So going off on a mommy brag: My class had to go to the library to meet with a public school teacher to take this test called DIBELs. She checked the kindergartners on letter recognition and they needed to know 10 of the letters in one minute and then the second part of the test was they looked at pictures and she would ask what the pictures began with or she would give them a letter and they would have to point to the picture that began with the corresponding letter and to be ready for kindergarten they needed to get 8 correct. Well, the day was coming to an end and Rylie was there playing and I asked her to test Rylie for "fun". Remind you Ry is 4 and not "legally" in kindergarten, but she tested her for me. Rylie scored a 27 in letter recognition and a 16 in the picture sounds! I am such a proud mamma!)

Here are some pictures of our classroom. The first picture is what the garage looked like on Saturday the 15th and by Monday the 24th we were ready to roll!

This picture isn't updated, but now on top of those storage bins I have made a cushion seat with pillows to hide classroom storage. This is where the listening area is at, so its nice and comfy :) In the corner on the table there are three computers for the kids to use that we have connected to the internet.

These shelves are filled with books that I have collected over time and also games, and art supplies. We had to utilize every area for storage and organizational tools!

Overall, I am amazed everyday that we have a classroom in this garage! Our next project is building "fake" walls on the outside of the garage doors to help insulate and keep us warm during winter. I am not sure how this works but I have AMAZING parents that have stepped up and said they would love to build these walls so we aren't freezing and I'm not paying an extra large heat bill!
So this is our classroom in a nut shell! We love you all and next update will have pictures of these growing kiddos!

With Love!!!

The McCabe Family

Here He Comes!

Catch up on Life!

I will try to make this short and sweet for everyone J We have had lots of people wondering what is going on in our lives with work, jobs, kids, ect ect… SO to fill ya all in!
Let’s start from May when I was laid off from work… this was a very hard year for our small little Lutheran school. I was laid off due to low enrollment. There were a few things going on at the school that just wasn’t fair, but I took the layoff and knew there was nothing I could do but pray for something to happen for our family. Rob was given his contract the beginning of June and we contemplated on him signing his contract or hitting the road. With this economy we decided it would be best for Rob to keep his job here and start looking for other jobs for me to just “get us through”. Needless to say May and June were very emotional and we had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do. Daycare was going to run me close to $1100/month for both kids. I wasn’t going to find a job that was even going to be worth paying that. So, I settled on the fact that I will be a stay at home mom and I knew that the Lord would provide for us.
July came and let me tell you we were all ready for a break. Off we went to Florida! Middle of July I was receiving phone calls from numerous parents asking if I would consider homeschooling their child… WOW I was in shock! Parents were frustrated with the unfairness going on at our school and wanted to pull their children out and have me school them. Through July a parent and I worked hard to make sure what I was going to do was legal and that we weren’t going to get in any trouble. We found out that I can only have nine kids in my home before it becomes a private school. Many many hours later, I have nine kids coming to my home to begin schooling next Monday! This is a huge adventure for me and I am so excited to take it head on. I will also be schooling Rylie during this time. She will be schooling with the kindergartners as she is very ready academically. Jackson will go to one of the little girls’ parents and play with her little brother and sister. The schedule is perfect half day school Monday-Thursday and no school on Friday. I will be teaching K-2 all from our garage. My amazing husband gave up “his” garage and “his” space to create a classroom. I am so thankful to everyone that has pulled together to help me and my family. Hopefully our garage will be complete this week and I can post some pictures of my new classroom!
That is my job summer search in a nut shell… now another post coming up on Jack!

You know your in Trouble When...

So, this is Jackson newest, most favorite spot to sit. Now, Jackson doesn't sit well, obviously he is a one year old boy! So, he has fallen off this table now and doesn't care, where do I find him... yup right on top! Now you think this is bad....Here is my little boy becoming a little daredevil. He has no fear!Oh, mom your watching... are you going to stop me!?? I continue to sit and wait for him to get mad because he is too scared to continue and is stuck... but nope... not scared!Alright mom... here I go all the way!

HAHA... I made it mom! Now what do I do :)
So you know you are in trouble when they are climbing EVERYTHING before walking! Yes, that's right Jack is not walking yet, but he is a dare devil so I am in TROUBLE once he starts walking!

Much Love!

McCabes :)

Florida Comes to an End

27 days in Florida and we enjoyed every minute of it! Rylie thought she was ready to come home, she couldn't wait to see daddy, but once we hit the plane big alligator tears streamed down her face. She had a great month filled with lots of new adventures!

Out on the river Rylie and Jackson both had turns riding the jet ski! They are just amazing little dare devils, nothing seemed to bring fear to them!

This day Jackson thought it would be a lot of fun to keep taking off on his own! He sure was a crowd pleaser though, with his "hi" to everyone on the beach! Kiddos hanging out on the boat! As long as we were on the water, near the water, anything to do with water, these kids were happy campers!

Hey Captain! You can't be sleeping, your driving the boat!
Well, that's our summer in Florida! We hope you all enjoyed the pictures of our family vacation!

What Happens When...

I interrupt our pictures from Florida to share a little laugh I had this morning! What happens when a big sister plays dress up with her little brother?

Yes, that's right Jackson end up being Rylie's "little Princess!" He actually played along great until she had bows in his hair and she was trying to put heels on his feet... that didn't go over too well!

We love you all and I will finish updating you on our Florida trip soon. As for now we are home safe and playing catch up!

Summer Time in Florida!

What an amazing month we have had so far! We have spent the entire month in the sun, and boy can you tell! These kids are coming back to Colorado as little coppertone babies. Rob left here on the 11th and we had a fun family gathering before he left back home. We went over to my Aunt Kim and Uncle Kevins house. Rylie was in their swimming pool for literally 8 hours, she is swimming like a little fish! We are trying hard to get her to not plug her nose, and to swim with two arms. She gets it for awhile but its a bad habit to break! As you can see daddy still plugs his nose :)

The boys all had a contest of who could splash the highest. Rob wanted to show off a little more after being "teased" for plugging his nose and showed us his big boy trick! He did jump pretty high!

What a great day with family! Later that week we went to Great Grandma Sheila's to visit and swim in the pool. Jack and Rylie both had a blast playing in the water. Rylie is getting much braver and was letting us throw her high in the sky!

Jackson was loving the ball! Imagine that, he is such a boy, the rougher the better when it comes to playing with Jack!

Another great day in the water for these kiddos! The weather has been so warm that sitting by the water is the best way to spend our day!

More to come.... from our summer in Florida! We love you all!!!!

Full of Firsts!

Wow! This week has been full of first events for little Jackson. We took our first family airplane trip to Florida on Wednesday. The kids were amazing! We took three different airplanes to get here and everyone Rylie couldn't wait to board.

In Durango you board the plane outside and walk up the stairs into the plane. This was neat for Rylie to be so close to the plane.

The kiddos watching out the window while flying
On Friday we all were blessed by the wonderful weather and we went out on the boat another first for Jackson. There were 9 of us that went out including my mom, Daryl, Aubs, her boyfriend Dylan, Rob, Pitts, and the two kiddos. We found a nice little island area that had a rope hanging from a tree and a good area for the kids to crawl and swim.

The boys scoped out the tree swing to determine how they were going to swing out into the water.Rob took the plunge first and found out the the water is pretty shallow and it would be best to land on your bottom!Rylie was amazing. She was a little fish, she even decided to drink the water on numerous occasions.

Rylie and my mom getting ready to go out on the tube.Rylie loved the tube she even asked to go faster so they could go over the waves. She would take her hands off to wave at the other boats and put her hands into the water. She has grown up so much this past year. Last year in Montana she wouldn't swim or get on the tube, now we can't get her out of the water!

Jackson crashed on the boat. We were out for tubing and Daryl was taking sharp turns and flying over the waves and Jackson managed to fall asleep through it all!

So first plane ride, first boat ride and first birthday all within 3 days! We had a little gathering to celebrate Jack turning one. he was so funny watching him eat his cake. I remember Rylie not touching her first brithday cake at all and Jack was complete opposite!

Look at that face! He was so happy when the cake came out!

Hmm... I am not too sure about this... lets just touch it and see what its like!YUMMY! I think I'll two fist this cake!He polished off his piece of cake!

Happy birthday Jackson! We have had a year full of fun! Love you all!!!!