First day of school!

Today was the kid's first day of school.  Jayden is in 4th grade and Ashlyn is in 2nd.  They were very excited and also nervous this morning.  I am excited for their new teachers this year. 

Jayden has a hard time with me taking his picture outside his classroom.  He tried to have me just take his picture at home so everyone wouldn't see him.  It's funny to me to notice little ways the kids take after me.  I really wish that they didn't take after me in this case.

Jayden's teacher does a lot with technology.  He will be doing a lot on the computers, like learning Powerpoint, and his class even has some iPad's they get to use sometimes.  Jayden is very excited about his class!

We've really enjoyed having the kids at this school and are very glad we found it!

WICKED!!!!!

Last year we heard that Wicked (the musical) was coming to Salt Lake and we decided we HAD to go!  We bought the tickets 5 months ago and have been trying to wait patiently.  I've been playing the soundtrack basically every day for the past couple weeks.  The kids love the music too.  They all sing along with the songs and beg me to play their favorite 'Popular' song over and over.  We finally got to go last Friday!  IT WAS AMAZING!!!  Seriously!  I was so sad when it was over and ready to go again the next night.  Of course, we got a pic by the poster so we would have something to remember the night with.

We ate at The Cheesecake Factory before watching the show.  HOLY YUM!!!  Holy expensive too!  Both of us really like the sandwiches we ate, and were slightly disappointed with the Cheesecake.  Mine had a chocolate crust that wasn't advertised as having chocolate (which I hate- unless it's white chocolate) and not enough raspberry.  Johnathan ordered the snickers cheesecake and said it didn't really taste like snickers.  I'm glad we went, but I don't know when we'll go back because it was a lot of money. 

What a fun night!  Thanks for going with me honey!

Look-a-likes

I went home to Lynndyl for a day to pick up the kids from visiting Grand-parents and helped my mom change her family pictures wall.  I found a picture of when I was Ashlyn's age and was taken back by how much she looks like I did.  What do you think?

 

Don't you love my dress?  Yes, I was raised in the 80's!

  My mini-me

Jacob's Drawing

In church yesterday, I noticed Jacob trying really hard when he was coloring.  What initially tipped me off to notice him was he was quiet for about 5 minutes with hardly any moving.  Since that beat his record of no talking by about 4.5 minutes, I decided to check and see what he was doing.  He really doesn't like to color all that much.  Mostly he just scribbles for about 10 seconds and wants to do something else.  It was fun to see him working so hard.  After he was done with his picture, he turned over the page and started drawing on the back.  Here's his drawing:

I know it's really hard to see (I couldn't get it to scan any darker), but I was so impressed with it, I had to share!  If you look hard, you can see that he is drawing people.  Our family in fact.  He started with the one on the far left and moved to the right.  He included hands, feet, ears on top, 2 eyes and a big round nose.  One of my favorite things as a mom is to see my kids learn new things. 

Olympics

My cousin Kim and I decided to hold our own Olympics with our kids.  It was a lot of fun!

 We started off with our own Opening Ceremony

 The torch relay

Let the games begin!

 The javelin throw (with skewers)

 The shotput (with a marshmallow)

 The hurdles

 Basketball

 Discus throw (paper plates glued together)

 Badminton (with a balloon)

 Our Medals ceremony!

Future Olympians?  Possibly!

Jacob's growing up!!

Jacob has been learning lots of new things!  We've been working on learning his letters and writing his name.  He did such a good job the other day I have to share it!

It's been a real struggle to get him to sit and learn!  He doesn't like to sit.  He needs to be moving and playing!

Jacob has also learned to ride a bike!  For Christmas he got a balance bike (a bike with no pedals) and has learned to balance so well that we figured it was time to move onto a regular bike.  He was super excited to see the "new bike" that was just like Jayden's!  The only problem was he didn't know how to pedal.  He got frustrated very easy and just wanted to use the balance bike.  We told him that he could ride with us (instead of in the trailer) when we ride bikes every other morning if he learned to ride his new bike.  It took him a while to get motivated to learn the new bike, but he finally did!

He even learned how to start off by himself, so we don't have to give him a push!

The kids have also been finding lots of snakes in our yard.  It gives me the creeps, but they LOVE playing with them.  Here's Jacob showing off the little baby one.  One day they found 5 snakes!  YUCK!!

Feeling Sick

I was feeling sick the other day, actually for 3 days in a row, and they happened to be Johnathan's work days.  I really wasn't feeling like making dinner one night, so I decided the kids would make it for us.  They were absolutely excited about it!  They really were! 

I just let them work out who got to do what, and they did a fabulous job of taking charge.

Jayden & Ashlyn cracked the eggs (didn't get a pic)

 Jacob mixed the eggs.  Then Ashlyn cooked them.

 They all helped put the biscuits on the pan.

Voila! The finished meal!  Scrambled eggs and biscuits :)

I was surprised at how well they did!  I am sort of a perfectionist, but I forced myself to just let them do it all with a little coaching from me watching at the table.  It was hard for me to not fix the biscuits that weren't lined up just right (I know it doesn't matter, it just bugs me...), but I didn't!  I've decided the kids need more opportunities to cook.