Before school starts again...

As my Christmas break winds down I come to the realization that I have not blogged about any of the happening in our family since early/mid November.

With a birthday, a baptism, a ballet recital, and of course, Christmas, we have been fairly busy.  It was quite fair for me to say, on Christmas Day, that my break was really beginning (9 days after my last final).  So here a month by moth explanation of what has been going on here.

NOVEMBER

Josh turned 8 in mid November and he was one excited boy!  He always feels that he has to wait the longest for his birthday to come around (Kate is in June and Eric, October).  I try to explain to him that he waits as long as everyone else, but, well, you know how logic works with kids.

His favorite part was, obviously, the gifts, and he sat by them while everyone else around him played.  He was patient, while being impatient.

We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and when a child turns 8 we give them the opportunity to be baptized.  Josh made the choice to be baptized and we did this special event on November 20.  Josh was baptized by his Dad.  It was such a special day.  Brandon and I sure are lucky to have such a great kid like Josh as our son.  We are so proud of him for making this decision.

 For Thanksgiving, Brandon's Grandma came from Ohio to spend some time with everyone.  Here is a picture of her with all of her great-grandchildren.

DECEMBER

December brought in Katie's first ballet recital, the reality of finals, the threat of snow (at the same time) and Christmas!

Katie took ballet with Miss Sarah over the fall and LOVED IT!!  She tries really hard to do her best at each class and was so excited for her recital.  She even performed a solo!!  I was amazing to watch her dance with confidence and with pride.  She was not afraid and we all loved watching her.

The very next week brought my finals, the kids last week of school (with all of its accompanying parties/gift exchanges) and SNOW!!!!!

Thursday afternoon, the day before my last final it started to snow and it never let up!  The picture of the kids playing is from that same afternoon/early evening.

Don't you just love Albuquerque snowmen?  All in all, we received 6 inches up in the highest part of the northwest section of the city (where we live).  I studied while watching the news hoping for a delay at UNM so that my final would be cancelled.  UNM has a policy that if the final is cancelled for a delay or a school cancellation then your grade stands as it was on the last day of class.  I was good with that since my final was with my hardest professor in my hardest class at 7:30 in the morning.  No such luck as UNM was the ONLY thing running in the city on that Friday morning.  But, whether it be a gift for showing up to the exam or my incredible knowledge on the subject, I discovered that I did EXTREMELY well on the test and managed a B+ in the class (I had an 84 before the final).  I don't normally acknowledge my grades (because I doubt anyone really cares) but this professor is very difficult and hardly ever hands out A's.  I was happy!

Next up came Christmas. I had the great idea that I would make a lot of gifts for people and the kids.  Not sure that I will do that again.  So stressfull when you cannot devote a lot of time to making them before the 17th of the month.  But all went well and we had a nice Christmas.



So that is just all the big stuff that we did.  I also...baked through several pounds of butter, flour, and chocolate, took kids to various play dates watched a TON of college football (quack quack) and hung out with friends and family.  I also finished painting the bottom half of Katie's room and sewed some curtains for the half bath (that I messed up on and must redo), cleaned out closet and small rooms.  I read books that I did not have to report on or remember in anyway.  Brandon and I finally made it to Harry Potter and had some other time together (thanks Steph) to take care of things that needed to be done.  I also watched a ton of tv and learned to digi-scrap (thanks Steph).   It was busy, but it was good. 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled life.

Water Fun

Brandon and I were sitting on the couch one afternoon watching the kids in the backyard playing.  They were supposed to be playing in the sprinklers, but they had decided instead to fill up the lid of Kate's turtle sandbox and make the worlds' smallest swimming pool.  Brandon and I looked at each other, thinking the same thing -- we needed to get the kids a swimming pool for the backyard.

Later that week we managed to fulfill that parental duty.  The kids, especially J, love it!

Eric has not been in it much.  He is too cool, I guess.

We have also been spending a lot of time at the pool in our community.  We never made it there last summer, dorky, I know.  But we have been making up for it this summer.  It is a wonderful pool, nice water and the perfect size.  With lifegaurds too!!  I seriously think that I have the brownest kids on the block! 

THE GREAT WHITE SHARK by Josh

Josh had a science project on the animal of his choice.  He picked the great white shark.  He had so much fun picking out the fun facts and pictures.  He did not have so much fun cutting out the kazillion pieces of paper that he had to put on his poster.  I, too, had a hard time, but only because I was trying hard not to take over the cutting and gluing.  Josh did an excellant job and was rewarded for his hard work with a 100% from his teacher!  He is so good at school and I am really proud of him for all his effort!

J's snowman

Josh had the chance to make another snowman for a class project.  Brandon helped him make it and it looks great.  But I am not biased or anything.

Trimmed down paper plates for the body, buttons for the eyes and the buttons, and chocolate chips for the mouth.  And lots and lots of glue.  Add a little fun boonding with Dad and son = a cute snowmen and a happy boy.

the FIRST day of school

Today is the day. It finally came. The first day of school. Not that I didn't enjoy my kids being home for the summer, but it was getting harder and harder to entertain them and the fighting was getting bad. In short, they were bored.

Here they are all ready to head out the door for the bus. I have always taken them to their first day of school, but this year neither of them wanted me to take them. I was disappointed, but I guess that it is good that they are so independent.

Eric claimed that he was not excited to go to school. I don't really believe that, I am sure that a part of him is excited to go. He was very reluctant to get his picture taken though! Despite that isn't he a handsome kids? SO grown up! He started the 4th grade today. We met his teacher last week and she was very nice. She said that she is not that big on homework as long as the class work is finished. Eric always finishes his class work and so I am very excited to not have to much homework from him!

Josh was super excited to be in the 1st grade. He is just too cute! He was very anxious to get out the door and onto the bus. He was the one pushing to go by themselves. We met his teacher last week and she seems very nice and very patient. That is a good thing for Josh. They will get along well.

So it is just me and Katie chillin' at home, at least until next week. That is when we make a big change around here. More to come on that later.

the HOUSE: Joshua's room

One beautiful and wonderful day J's room was clean. Very clean (I did help a little). So I took a moment to get some before pictures. Truthfully I have no idea when the after pics will come, but I do have a plan for his room.

From the door.

From the window.


From the closet door.

The closet. Not too great on cleanliness, I know. I took these picture to show what great closets we have in this house. They are quite large and hold a lot of things Perfect for people with kids! I am convinced that the architect of this home plan had a bigger than average family. There is room for everything and more!

The how and why of the tooth fairy pillow

Josh is at the age where is starting to loose teeth. He lost his second tooth the other day. So that evening I stayed up to sew a tooth fairy pillow.

Why, you may ask? Well, I thought every kid had a tooth fairy pillow growing up. I really did! Then I learned that no everyone had them, but I didn't care. I had one and I wanted my kids to have one too. I did look around to buy one, but I quickly learned that they were not available so I brought out the sewing machine to make one for Eric. He loves it. Now it is Joshua's turn.

please ignore his dirty face!

He LOVES football. So I took some scrap sports fabric, brown felt (felt holds the teeth really well before the tooth fairy comes. less stress for everyone if it stays put!), batting, and a clip art football. I cut the felt into the football shape and added the "laces" to the top of the football. Then I sewed the bottom part of the football to one side of the fabric.

Then I put the two wrong sides together and sewed three sided together.


I turned it right side out.

Then added some batting.

Then I sewed the fourth side closed. I added a zig-zag stitch all the way around to make sure that it would not come undone. Plus, it looks good.

Viola, the finished project. Super easy and I have the worlds happiest kid.

from Josh

At school Josh made me the best Mother's Day card. Not only did he make me younger, but skinnier too! And check out my shoe size!!!

My little Bug is just the best kid ever! I love him so much! This card really made my day. I hope I get something like this every year!

Josh's lost tooth

Josh lost his 1st tooth the other night. It was quite an adventure!

The tooth was really lose and we thought that he might loose it during the night. So Brandon got him to hold still long enough to get it out. Now when I say that he held still, I do not mean that he did it quietly too. He screamed the during the entire process.

Here he is in a less happy state while Brandon was taking a break from pulling.


Here is the poor little guy while Brandon was working his mouth over.
And here he is as happy as can be after the tooth came out. He was even happier the next morning when he discovered that he received a visit from the tooth fairy!

You have to check out this video. And keep the sound on, but low. You have to hear him screaming over this! Once again, sorry for the bad quality.

Happy Birthday!

My sweet little J waits anxiously all year for his birthday to come. It frustrates him that he has to wait longer than anyone else to get his birthday. Finally his "un-patience" has paid off.

My little bug has turned 6.

He was VERY excited. We had a family party this year. He picked a Transformer cake (super yummy cake from Sam's, by the way) with homemade vanilla ice cream (also super yummy.) He also wanted to have pizza for dinner.

He could not wait for his presents! It was killing him to be patient a moment longer while I took this picture of the many gifts he received.

This is the toy that he has been pestering us about for months. Bakugan. It his opinion, day over. "No more gifts please, I got what I wanted!"

As you can see it killed him to open the rest. He also received a Bakugan game board, a Darth Vader laptop, the game Trouble, and some Iron Man toys. Plus a couple of other really fun things.


What a spoiled little man! But he totally deserves it! You are a wonderful boy, J. We love you so much! Happy Birthday!

The next step

It has happened, the day J has been waiting for. The first day of kindergarten. I know that he was thinking that this day would never come. Especially because all the other kids started back on Tuesday. It was killing him to have his brother go off each morning while he was stuck here with me.

He was more confident then I thought he would be. He needed a little guidance getting to the playground. He found his teacher who told him where to put his bag. He put his bag down and went and played. All the while I am standing back watching. When the bell rang he ran to where they line up and in to the classroom he went. No goodbye, no hug, and of course no kiss goodbye. Now, I am glad that he has the confidence to go like that, but I needed to say goodbye to him! I had to go find him in his classroom to give him a hug and kiss and wish him a good first day of school. Then I left. At least he let me give him a hug and kiss. Eric will not let me kiss him, and barely lets me hug him. On his first day of school I could tell that he was embarrassed that I walked him to his classroom. He has been doing okay this week. I think that he wasn't ready to jump into the work part of school yet. But he is doing well.

Now today will be different for me. Just Kate and I. But I have the day planned. We are going to be busy and have fun. For next week to work I go.

J was already for me to take his picture this morning while I had to coax a smile out of Eric.