Play Dates

My kids get so excited to see other kids.  We have watched Emily a couple of times and Wyatt loved it.  He talked her ear off and they had a great time playing.

Yesterday they had fun playing games together.

Every Tuesday we get together with my mom and sisters.  Hallee and Wyatt love to play with Tessa and Rockwell. I have been trying to get a picture of these girls smiling for months and I finally did it!

We went to Rockwell's this week and he had a party all set up in his room waiting for Wyatt.  So cute!  Yesterday they came over here to play.

Audrey and her kids came over to play yesterday too.  It was a lot of fun and all of the kids had a great time.  We haven't been getting together much since Katie left.  She is the planner of the group!

The weather has been great this week!  The boys had fun having a picnic with their friends.  I have loved getting out and enjoying the sunshine! 

I took the kids to story time this week.  Wyatt loves it and even Hallee enjoyed it.  They loved their Lion faces.  We ended up going back again yesterday.  Wyatt thought it was so cool that Rockwell came too.

Wyatt hates showers.  Whenever I give him haircuts he cries through the whole thing because he is dreading the shower.  One day this week he told me that he is a big boy and takes showers now.  He asked me to start the shower for him and told me that he would take one on his own.  I finally went ahead and put him in and he was fine.  You could tell he was nervous, but he did it anyway.  Now he wants to take them every day, funny kid!  Keith took him to Sports Clips for a haircut last week and he screamed through the whole thing.  He decided he wanted to be a big kid and try that again so he said, "mom, I like hair cuts now, can I go back to the place where you don't get naked?"  I make him get in his underwear when I cut his hair at home, so I guess that was the best way to describe it for him.  He has also been making up a lot of stories lately.  The stories usually involve him getting punched in the face and then him punching someone in the face.  The other day his apple punched him in the face.  I'm always surprised with what he comes up with!

Jonah has a desk under his bunk bed and he calls it his office.  He has been "working" in there a lot lately.  The other day he went down there and wrote this.  He said he is working on a book about George Washington.  I thought that was impressive.  He has been learning about him at school.  We took him to the library and got him a book on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln so he can finish his book!

Jonah is such a smart boy, but sometimes his common sense is lacking!  He came up crying this morning and said his hand hurt.  I looked at it and it was swollen (this is after school, it was so much worse this morning).  I realized he had these rubber bracelets on that he got at school.  He had tied them together and wore them all night and they were so tight.  I got that off and called our friend who is a nurse because it looked horrible.  She said to elevate it and put ice on it.  It just so happened that Jenna (the nurse) was driving them to school today so she looked at it when she picked him up and said it would be okay and just take time for the swelling to go down.  He was feeling better and felt good enough to go to school.  That was one of those moments that I couldn't help saying, "I told you so."  He knows he isn't supposed to wear bracelets to bed!

The other night I had a horrible headache so we did scripture reading in my room while I was laying in bed.  The kids thought it would be fun to pile in bed with me.  My head hurt so bad I couldn't even open my eyes!  Keith was great and took over while I waited the headache out.

Free day at the Zoo

Wednesday was a free day at the zoo.  I knew it would be packed because it was 60 degrees.  At the last minute I decided to take Hallee and Wyatt first thing in the morning.  We got there at 9:00 AM right when it opened.  We stayed for an hour and a half and we were able to beat the crowds.  It was packed by the time we left.

Wow, Hallee looks old! 

I decided to leave the stroller in the car.  Both of the kids like to get out and walk and it is easier to chase Hallee around when I don't have to worry about keeping track of our stroller too.  It was fine until it was time to leave, that is when you just want to put them in the stroller and rush out!  I had to carry Hallee out because she kept stopping to look at everything.

Wyatt loves maps.  He opened the map and told us where we needed to go first. 

We started out at the Elephants and it was getting a little crowded so we rushed down to the polar bears and stayed ahead of the crowd the rest of the time.

Oh man, I love these two! 

We have been playing outside a lot this week.  I didn't realize how bad my winter blues were until the sun came out this week.  I have had more energy and felt so much happier!

Wyatt kept wanting to hold Hallee's hand and she didn't want to.  She finally did for a while and Wyatt was thrilled.  He likes to be in the big kid role!

I think the kids like the fake animals as much as they like the real ones. 

We stopped at the small animal building on our way out.  I think this was their favorite part.  They were so excited as they ran from animal to animal.   We had a lot of fun and I'm glad we went. 

 We rushed home and ate lunch so I could go into the school.  Thanks to my mom watching the little two I was able to go into Caitlyn and Jonah's class.  They both love it when I come in, which makes me feel good. 

Building Project

Last week I took the activity day girls to Lowes for a building project.  Keith was there to show them how to do it so I just had to walk around and help everyone.

We took all of our kids so they could do the project too.  Hallee went straight for the hammers.

Wyatt loved hammering in the nails.

Caitlyn loves Activity days. 

Keith is such a patient teacher. 

Hallee just wandered around and had fun climbing in all of the wood!

They made these cute claw games.  They have had fun playing with them.

Cute Kids!

I always think my kids are cute, but sometimes I look at them and think they are so cute I can't stand it!  The other day Caitlyn and Jonah both looked so cute before school so I made them take a picture.  We had their parent teacher conferences last week and all of their teachers were very complimentary.  They are both so smart and work hard in school.  I told them the thing I am the most proud of is that they respect their teachers and the other kids in their class. 

Caitlyn is doing great and has passed off all of her multiplication and division facts and has moved up a few reading levels this year. Her teachers love her and always have good things to say about her.

 Jonah's English teacher had great things to say about him.  I was a little nervous about his French teacher because she is very blunt.  She was so complimentary of Jonah.  She showed us his math scores and said, "this is boring, I don't want to talk about this, he knows everything."  She talked to me about how he is doing with the French language.  She showed me the test she gave the kids to test their competency and showed me what the goals were while they are in Elementary school.  Jonah tested above goal in everything.  She said that he writes in French better than the kids she taught in France.  On one part of the test they gave Jonah a picture and he had to write a paragraph describing the picture.  He scored really high on this one.  She said he wrote a perfect paragraph that made sense and was even spelled correctly.  It was so fun to hear about how well he is doing.  It is amazing to me that in a few short months he can already communicate in French.  She said his accent is great and there are very few students who are on the level that he is.  She kept saying that it was really good that we put him in the program because otherwise he would be really bored.  It was good to hear that because that is the reason we put him in the dual immersion program.  Okay, I'm done bragging, for now!

Speaking of cute kids, look at this kid!  He is so cute!  Wyatt has been stuttering a lot lately.  Jonah did the same thing at his age and grew out of it so I'm not too worried about it.  I think his mind is just working too fast for his mouth to keep up with it.

Wyatt wanted a shoulder ride the other night.  He is so fun to play with.  He always says the funniest things.

Hallee is her usual spunky self!  She has started saying a couple new words, but she still babbles more than saying words.  She loves to tattle on the other kids.  She will come and say something to me with a sad face and I have to guess what happen because she won't be happy until I figure out what happened.  Once I figure it out and ask her, she will nod and run off.

She loves to go in our room and get into everything that she shouldn't be getting into. 

She still loves to streak any chance she gets.  Here she is running from me the other day when she took her diaper off.  I'm sure I'm sending mixed messages when I tell her no and then take a picture.

It was so cute to see Hallee and Keith having a tea party the other day.

Last week we took my mom to lunch and then went over to her house for her birthday.  Wyatt and Rockwell had a great time playing!

It is so nice that Wyatt has a friend at grandma's.  He told me that Rockwell is his best friend!

It is almost impossible to get a picture of Hallee and Tessa.  They are both too busy and never look at the same time, but oh they are cute!

Dante and Alexys slept over Thursday night so my parents could have a night away.  They were really good and the kids had a lot of fun. 

Keith took Jonah and Dante to the Lego movie on Friday.  They had a lot of fun. 

Saturday I dropped Caitlyn and Jonah off at grandma's and took Wyatt and Hallee to Rockwell's birthday party.  They had so much fun!  Tiff filled the basement with balloons.

It was a little boys paradise. 

The boys all had a blast playing with the balloons and jumping on Paul.

I made the kids pose for some pictures before church yesterday.  I was really proud of myself that we made it on time to church.  I don't know why I have such a hard time with that.  Keith usually has meetings all morning on Sunday.  I always think I have plenty of time and then we end up running late. 

I think Keith was a little surprised to see us walk in ten minutes early!

Valentine's Day

My mom gave the kids valentines and Hallee was in love with her new book and card.  She wouldn't put them down.

Keith helped Caitlyn make her valentine box.  It was hard to top last year, but Caitlyn was really happy with her refrigerator. .

We had a little present for each of the kids.  Wyatt and Hallee were excited with their cookies and Caitlyn and Jonah got some rainbow loom bands.

I think Caitlyn and Jonah were more excited about their Kidz Bop cds.  I got the music free off the library website and just put them on a disc so they can listen to them in their room. 

Jonah put the cd in and they all started dancing and running around.  I love when they do this. They are all so cute and they all have so much fun dancing and playing together.

Keith and I even got a night out.  We went to Brick Oven with Adam and Emilee that night.  Great food and great company!  It was a much needed night out.

How was your day, dad?

Wyatt is such a sweet kid!  I was listening to him talk to Keith the other day and he asked him how his day was.  How cute is that!  The other night we were at my parents and some of the kids made up a dance to a kidz bop song.  Wyatt sat down there and watched them and then he wanted to do the dance.  He had memorized most of it and it was so fun to watch him.  He is just so cute! 

Caitlyn and Hallee started dancing with him too.  It was so fun to watch.  Caitlyn went off to play after a while and Hallee and Wyatt put on a little dance show for us.  Now whenever Hallee hears that song she will start dancing and yell, "mama" to make sure I am watching.  So cute!

These two are so funny.  They are like every brother and sister sometimes they have so much fun together and other times they are fighting like crazy.  I love watching them play together.

Wyatt was feeding Hallee the other day.  Sometimes she won't let me feed her, but she is happy to let the other kids feed her.

I sure love these two!

Jonah finished up his Jr. Jazz season.  He did so great.  I was so impressed with his improvement.  He worked hard and did a good job of being a team player. 

Jonah was star of the week last week.  We had fun making his poster. 

 Last Saturday I was really sick and was having horrible pains in my stomach.  While I was working on his poster with him I said, "oh, I think I'm dying."  Looking back that was a real dumb thing to say, but I can be a little dramatic when I'm sick and I felt horrible.  Anyway, Jonah had a fever that day so he wasn't acting like himself.  We put him to bed and he fell asleep really quick.  A few hours later he started screaming and wouldn't tell us what was wrong.  We took him upstairs and got him calmed down and gave him some ibuprofen for the fever.  He went back to sleep and a few hours later he was up screaming again.  It was really scary because he wouldn't stop screaming and he wouldn't tell me what was wrong.  At one point he yelled, "help me, please!"  He was also saying a few things that didn't make any sense.  I was terrified so I went and woke Keith up.  He finally got Jonah to talk and Jonah said he had a nightmare that Keith and I drank alcohol and died.  I guess I freaked him out and that was mixed with some fears he has been having since Jen died and it all came out that night. Jonah doesn't talk or express himself, he keeps it all inside and just explodes at some point.  Keith gave Jonah a blessing and we talked about his fears and got him back to sleep.  A couple of hours later he was screaming again, but this time he was still asleep and I just rubbed his back until he went back to sleep.  Poor kid.  I felt like the worst mom ever.  I'm glad that he got it out and he seems to be doing better now.  I hate that my kids have been exposed to so much death already.  They talk about Kip dying and they know that Keith's oldest brother died as well.  I probably shouldn't promise them that I won't die, but sometimes I do. 

Wyatt finished up his soccer class.  He had so much fun. 

He looked forward to it every week.  He loved to do all of the drills they did.  He was really funny to watch when they played an actual soccer game.  He would run around and always be near the action, but it didn't look like he wanted to be right in the action. 

One of the boys in the class brought all of the kids a valentine.  Wyatt was pretty excited about it.

We had a hard time keeping Hallee off the court.  She loved when the class was over and she could go down and kick the soccer ball.