A magnificent post....

I feel so accomplished knowing this post is finally completed! I have been working on it for weeks now! I just haven't known where to start and its taken forever to finish! Click on all the pics to enlarge.

Lots going on in the Strickland home. We have been buzzing around like busy bees here.

First off, we refinished a bathroom, put new flooring in our living room, and installed a garden.

The kiddos bathroom is now waterproof and needed to be with four kiddos splashin' around! Our amazing dad did all the tile work! Someone graciously donated all the tile- we are so thankful to have a good looking bathroom now!









The same person gave us some extra wood flooring. (PTL!) And we were able to replace the abused carpet in the living room. Once again, Joel installed all of it, with of course my emotional support. Isnt his work wonderful?







The last big addition to our home was a garden. We have been studying creation through Botany. We have been learning alot of seeds, flowers, and all kinds of plants. All of our learning is hands on. We have dissected flowers, started light huts for plants, we now have lots of Herbs like lavender, thyme, rosemary, mint, basil, and parsley growing.








Right now our garden has roses, tulips, daffodils, lantana, the herbs, strawberries and onions in it. We plan to grow more flowers in the butterfly garden, and more veggies like carrots and corn. So exciting!








Everyone has worked in the garden. Our dad built the fence and helped with the tilling. I headed up the mural with lots of helpers, and we all enjoy digging and planting in the garden.








Here are some pics of the mural on the fence.








Also, Kayla turned 10! For her bday we all gave her ten items each. She got ten roses from her dad, ten undies from her momma, ten quarters from her sister, ten pencils and ten chocolate hearts from her brothers. She also had a Garden party to celebrate her 10th. We made a delicious dirt cake, ate veggies and fruit, and everyone got to make a plant. It was fun! She got lots of great things for the garden. We cannot believe how much our Kayla has "grown".

Since Kayla's now 10, she was able to go learn to Scuba dive! She attended a class for a week and last weekend went to Aquarena Springs to dive. She loved it! And was so good at it, however, she refused to complete an important task- flooding her mask. Thats when you go under water, take off your mask, then put it back on, and blow out all the water with your nostrils. This is something she will have to work on. We dont really have that many good pictures of Kayla scuba diving, but heres one that will do just fine.







Homeschooling is going really-really well. We are in a place where we all take joy in school at home. The girls are learning so much and everyone is enjoying eachother. I think we have figured out a system that works for everyone. I will share more of that in another post, but this is the boys staying busy while we do homeschool.









Kayla and Emily enjoy taking piano. I noticed they have started to make their own piano music. This is the song "Flowers Grow All Day Long", another favorite song is "Chocolate Chips Are Yummy" Such talent!








The girls are both preparing for their first Science Fair project coming up. Im proud of all their hard work. The name of their project is "All About Seeds". I will post pics later!

Valentines came and went pretty quickly! We were able to celebrate momentarily between sickness and scuba. Here are a few of our favorite Valentines. I actually had a dear friend bring me a Valentine over- its the Winnie the Pooh in the back. :)







These boys are constantly on the GO! They sure do keep things lively around here though.