Zoo feild trip and Mothers Day weekend...

 So Larry bought me another new camera... didn't like the one I bought, so I was playing with it on our zoo trip. I like it a lot better and will return the other one! Here the cuties are looking at the Mt. Goats.

 Leopards. Ruth was so good at the zoo! She didn't fight the stroller (this is a major miracle if you know Ruth). I let her get out when we were looking at animals and she rode to the next animal and she stayed with me and never tried to run off!!! It was probably the most relaxing trip to the zoo I have ever had!

 She loved the tigers! This one was really active he wandered around and then hiked up the hill right at us. Ruth loved roaring and making all the animals sounds to each animal we saw!

 She loved the Zebra!

 Hippos, Rhinos

 The Lions were a hit! They loved the statues and the animals. They were napping when we got there and then they woke up! Even the "daddy" lion did wake up after this picture.

 Lion rides and a dental check up!

 Ruth LOVED this monkey! He swung across the top like monkey bars and she thought it was SO funny!

 Saturday the boys helped Daddy on our roof. Don't send me crazy messages about how wrong it is! They ALL have harnesses on!

 The girls helped me plant the garden... This is the small part of the garden, we just put the beans and lettuce here. We also planted 30 tomatoes, 6 cucumbers, 9 different peppers, and several other things.

 When all that hard work was done it was time to cool off in the sprinklers!

 Ethan got a taste of mom's water fighting skills... unfortunately he got me back! :)

Ground Hogs Day fun

Since it is Ground hogs day I thought it would be fun to do some thing with our shadows. It was perfect because we have a beautiful sunny day today! The first one is Hayden's shadow and Ryker in the stroller

This one is me... Hayden drew it.. She did pretty good

Jace did great at holding still! I loved how his cowboy boots show up in the shadow.

Hayden's first one and our cute bucket of chalk

Cute kids with shadows. Ruth didn't get hers drawn, she wouldn't hold still... imagine that!!!

Joys of Toddlers/ Preschoolers

Ruth is the Joy of our home! Ok they all are pretty awesome but there is something about a "baby" that everyone loves. She may not be A baby but she is our baby and she fills each day with EXCITEMENT! She is 23 months old, wears 12 month (some 18 month clothes), is potty trained, and makes a funny sound like kkkkkk kkkkk when she needs to "go" and I never have to remind her. She climbs EVERYTHING, she will even push chairs to get to what ever she wants to climb, This morning she fell off the piano because I turned around saw her on it and told her to get down... she fell getting down (I should have helped!) She loves to yell mom mom mom mom mom mom till I look right at her and say RUTH. She loves peek a boo, and will say it every time you put clothes on her, she loves to be tickled, hates to wear clothes (prefers totally naked if possible), loves to drum on EVERYTHING, this morning we discovered her "art" on her bedroom wall she did in the night. Luckily it was chalk so it washed right off, she will attempt to copy things the kids say, like DUH BOB, (hers comes out more like Buh bob!) She gets new words all the time, she won't stay in a shopping cart to save her life. (I say this thinking of my old self who would probably judge a mom for saying "I can't make her stay put" I would have though yeah right just make them... I can't she can get out of the seat belts even when I cinch them as tight as I can, and she can climb out of the baskets too...) But she makes everyone laugh she is so stinking cute, and all of these things are things that I just love about her. These pictures I just had to take because she has found where I HIDE the pan lids and loves to get them out and bang them together. You can see she makes a funny face some of the time because it is loud in her face. She also loves to put them on the floor and rub them around (making and awful sound on the wood floor). She cracks me up. It is even funnier when she does this when daddy is home because he HATES it. But I am just cool like that so I let her. Larry says it is because I spoil her, I say it is because it just isn't worth the fight, it doesn't bother me, and it isn't hurting anyone... Anyway She is tons of fun, high energy, and makes me so so glad that she is the last one. She will keep us busy enough for 3!
Who wouldn't love this Peanut. (Peanut has been her nickname since the minute she was born at a whole whopping 5lbs 7 oz)Preschool so far (the whole 2 weeks of it) have been a lot of fun for Hayden and myself. Last week we did letter "A" number "1", circles, and Red. This week we did "B" "2" squares, and Orange. This was her letter B art notice it is covered with Band aids and buttons. Then today we made Brown Binoculars, and drew pictures of B lettered things all over them then went on a hunt for B things all through the yard, and house. (We found LOTS!) Then I read "Betty Bunny loves Chocolate Cake" and had her find all the B's in the book as we read. I have to say I LOVE teaching preschool to one kid! I can think of something that morning while in the shower that goes with what we have been learning and have enough of what ever it is I need, plus it is so much fun to just be focused on the one. I hope things continue to go this well all year.
I should post about the rest of the kids too but I did just post Ethan in his football gear, Brock is doing football too but doesn't have his shirt or anything yet. I will have pictures tomorrow from his first game I will post about him later. Amelia and Hayden are both taking dance lessons from me now. I lost my babysitting job since she lost hers, so I don't have the money to pay for the lessons they use to take. Besides that I went to college to do this and it was the reason I took dance was so that I could teach it when I was the mom... I finally rounded up a few students, I have 6 in Hayden's class and 4 in Amelia's. I am teaching in a friends garage for now. It is pretty exciting for me, a little scary, but fun at the same time. I will post pictures of that later.

Preschool

This is Hayden's Pre- K year. So she and I are doing a Mommy and Me preschool just her and I. We made this apple and she is painting it. We work on one Letter, number, shape and color a week. She LOVES it and I have to admit so do I! I love getting one on one time with my kids!

Preschool graduation

Hayden let Ruth try on her Graduate hat! SO cute! We had a fun little party for the kids we did preschool with. We had lunch and then gave them all diplomas and hats.

Hayden and her best friend Claire!

The graduating class of Mommy & Me preschool year of 2011! (minus one Mr. M, who was sick :( )

Hayden's year ended the same way it started. A pouty face girl in the group shot. She pouted the first day because she wanted to be by Claire and NOT Ian, This time it was she wanted to be by Claire and we took to long getting everyone rearranged for that to happen. Then she had to keep the face just to keep up the act. I had to try pretty hard to keep up the act!

Last week Hayden's mommy and me preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day and all the kids had a great time! I just loved getting super cute pictures of my little girls!

 

 

 

 

Some of our kids were missing and we had an extra come a long! We missed Claire and JJ missed part of it. But the kids had a great time!

"Pre-school"

I think I have talked about how Amelia and I are doing Pre-school at home this year. Well I have been meaning to talk more about it because it has been so much fun for both of us! Each week we focus on a Letter, number, shape, and color. We are also working on other things like opposites, rhyming and things like that. But we always do a craft that goes with the letter of the week. Sometimes more then one. And other times we do one that is just fun. Our very first week when we did "A" we stamped on our A paper with an apple that we cut in half, and we made a paper mache apple. Each week we make a letter and hang it in her room. On "B" week we made a Band aid, and button collage on our letter B.... you get the idea. This week we are on J. So we did Jar painting. So we used Jars to stamp on our big J. (when it is dry it will join the letter wall in her room!) I bought these really cool paints that you can use on windows and glass and we use them on our big glass door to practice writing her name and letters we have learned. (You can see the ghost I painted there a few weeks ago just for fun in the background of the first picture).

Amelia stamping with her Jar

These are the apples we made the first week and the pumpkin we made last week. I wanted to use a balloon to do the pumpkin but I didn't get to the store in time. So the pumpkin is a little small but awesome still. Amelia is becoming quite the expert at paper mache. She really does it all by herself. She doesn't like me to help her! She gets it pretty smooth on her own. I would say as good or better then I do. She loves it! In fact Lucia, our friend that comes to our house to do pre-school with us doesn't like her hands to get dirty so Amelia did her's too. It was pretty cute!

Here is more of the jar stamping but you can see the cute pumpkin face we made last week in the background. I think I love doing preschool with her as much as she does. It is one on one time we haven't ever had before and it lets me appreciate the sweet smart little girl she is. After all next year she will start Kindergarten! At least we only have 1/2 day kindergarten here. That will help me ease into not having her with me all the time! I love this little girl!

Weekend up date!

(No this picture wasn't taken at my house! I actually took it last year at the tulip festival but it is tulip season even though we have had snow the last 2 days)

So it has been a week since I wrote anything.... mostly because I thought I didn't have anything to share. But we did have a semi busy week. I have had lots to do and think about for primary. In fact as much as I love my calling in primary and I love the children... it may not have been the busiest week of things to do for primary but one of my more emotional weeks for primary. We have a lot of moving around and changes happening in the ward and with the trickle down effect we have changes to make, as much as I hate to do it! I just have some teachers that I love because I know that they are so great with the kids, they love them and serve them in a way I can't imagine anyone else doing.... then we have to replace them! It is hard for me to say good bye to them and replace them. As well as many other things we are facing! Anyway I love the children and pray for the best for them!Now on to our family and goings on around our house!
Tuesday I got to teach preschool at our Mommy and me preschool for Amelia. It was fun we learned about the letter X and the sense of touch! This was the funny part. We spent a good 20 minutes talking and sorting out a sack full of thing I brought according to how they feel, (like bumpy, soft, hard, scratchy, smooth...) Then I gave them each a sheet of paper and we were gluing things down and labeling them as to how they felt. I pulled out a match to represent "hot" and all the kids went silent (they are all 4-5). One of the little boy's dad works at a fire station (he isn't a fireman though) he said, "we can't have matches! I better give this to my dad" I was so proud of their reaction and I felt dumb too because I hadn't even thought, "this might not be a good idea." So I taped it on their papers anyway and told their parents they could take it off or cut the tip off... Oh dopey me! Who gives 4-5 year old's a match!!! DUHH!
Saturday we had friends over all day (8 kids total in my house all day!) It was a lot of fun though. The kids really played quietly and had a fun time. I loved it at lunch time I was sitting with Allison's girls and for some reason Brooke and Jannelle have been shy with me lately and I asked them why. I told them they have known me forever and I am their friend! I reminded them of all the fun things we have done together, like when I use to have them one day a week while their mom was finishing up school, and how I went to see them the day they were born, all the birthday parties... I thought I love these sweet girls like they are my nieces! How lucky am I! It is so nice to have people around you that feel like family even if we don't share the same last name, or blood! To make the day a little more special when Alli was done at the baby shower she came to our house to take care of all 8 kids while Larry and I went to the temple with our ward. This was even more fun for us because we were able to travel with friends and get to know more about them. (For those of you who don't know they split the wards here almost 2 years ago and Allison happens to live on the North side of town and we are one the south, so we are in 1st ward and they are 3rd!) This does make it nice for ward temple nights because babysitters are easier to find! It was a wonderful evening in the temple! We had over 20 people from our ward in one session! It was great! Something about going to the temple with people from my own ward makes me feel closer to them! So it was a wonderful weekend and I felt blessed by the end of Saturday night!
Sunday night we put the kids to bed and while Larry and I were getting ready for bed we heard one of the kids up and moving around. So very shortly Ethan walks into our room and tells me he has thrown up. Great!!! So today I have spent the day cleaning up the mess of having a sick child!!! Poor guy! Hopefully he will be better soon!

Sheep Barns!

Our "Mommy and Me" preschool went on a field trip to the OSU sheep barns to see the lambs being born. Which happens to go with this weeks theme of baby animals! It was fun. There were not a lot of lambs yet because it was the first day they were open to the public but it was still worth the trip! I just loving going every year to see the sweet little lambs! So here is a peak!