Friday, December 10, 2010

Santa and the Community Center

We have lived here for three years and I always hear how great the community center festivities are, but we have never made it over there. This year, we broke our mister scrooge mentality and went one street over to see what it was all about. They had a santa ornament craft, a hay ride, caroling, hot chocolate, cookies, and pictures with santa. All for a price that I like....FREE. Who says you can't find entertainment for a good price? The kids really did have a lot of fun. I am glad that I was talked into going. Jacob stayed home with Gerald, because he was GRUMPY. But the rest of us had fun.


"The Hay Ride"


"The Hot Chocolate After the Warmest Hay Ride I Have Ever Been On"



"The Craft"



"The Carolers"



"The Texas Christmas Tree"


"The Closest My Kids Will Get To Snow Here in Houston"


"The GIANT Snowman"


"The Singing Snowman"



Ho Ho Ho
Merry Christmas!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Joys of the Holiday Season

My kids remind me everyday what December is all about. I try to keep it focused on Christ as much as I can, but the television is corrupting my children with all the toys and must haves for Christmas. I have had many talks about why we have Christmas and the real reason that we celebrate. It is so fun to have children that are this age.

I find myself getting excited because my children are excited. Growing up my mother was the same way. As we got older and sleep became more important then christmas gifts at 2 o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by my mother because she couldn't wait for the sun to come up to open up gifts. Such a great memory of my childhood!

I know that it isn't all about the gifts, but I love to be able to be on the other end of giving my children presents. There is something that makes me so happy to see their smiles and excitement on Christmas morning. I can't wait until December 25th!

Just a funny thing that Mya said to me the other day that I would like to share..... While watching a christmas show on television this week she turned to me and asked, "Mom, if I am closing my eyes, but not really asleep, do you think that Santa will still come?"

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

New Camera



The old camera finally became unoperable. It has served us well for the last 5 years. Sadly....it was dropped to many times. The battery had to be taped closed, and the screen went out about a month ago. I couldn't see what pictures I was taking until I went home and looked at them on the computer.


I have had the camera a day and I think that I am going to be taking a lot more pictures. Feels good to have something that actually works!

Today we went to the park and it was freezing (I know that all of you up north have no sympathy) so we went over to the library and let the kids play in the kid area. Jacob loved the big bear and was so cute that I couldn't resist taking a picture. He is getting so big! He is crawling all over the place and we call him a mountain goat. He wants to be on top of everything. This is him trying to tackle the bear......
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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Mya Won Principal's Pride



There was an assembly today for principal's pride. The kids have to try really hard to win it. They have an award ceremony every six weeks to honor the kids. Mya got an award for outstanding academic performance in reading. She was so excited!








Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween

















Happy Halloween!
Yes, we have a third child....but Jacob didn't make it to the ward party. He stayed at home with dad.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Monday, September 20, 2010

Where or Where does my time go?

Has it really been a month since I have posted? I feel like a whirl wind has hit our home and everyday blurs into the next. It is almost midnight and I am just finishing up homework and it is pretty much the only time that the house is quiet all day so I thought that I would update everyone on what is going on.

Mya loves first grade! She is so eager to learn new things and she always comes off of the bus ready to tell me what her favorite thing that she learned was. She is our little reader. She will ask us if she can go up to her room and read books. She was so excited about the scholastic book orders (because they didn't get those in kindergarten). She came home with the order and just about every book was circled. She told me that she only circled the ones that she was really interested in reading.

Keegan can write his name. We have been practicing lower and upper case letters and how to write his name the right way because that was something that I overlooked with Mya. He can count to 20 and we are trying to be able to get to 100 but that won't be for awhile. His favorite show is Chuggington. Anything with trains will get his attention. He begged for weeks to go to walmart so that he could get another battery for his electric train. It's sad that I couldn't find just one double A battery, but I went a got the economy pack so that it won't happen for a long time.


Jacob is great. I don't want to jinx myself, but he has been sleeping all night for the last three nights. It is great to be able to have 7 hours of sleep again. I think that I was a walking zombie at one point. He can roll from back to front and front to back, he kind of does the inch worm thing. His favorite toy is the saucer right now because he figured out that it spins and jumps. He is always on the go. He is also one of the happiest babies ever. He will smile at just about anything and anyone.



I have been super busy watching kids during the day and going to school in the evenings... and long into the night on some occassions. During the day I watch three other kids and Jacob and Keegan. Five kids under five never leaves for a dull moment. I find myself laughing at least one time a day about something that they say or do. Some days are better then others, but I wouldn't have any other job right now. I love being able to stay at home with Keegan and Jacob. I am taking four classes right now. Communications 350 and 450, Business 321, and Family 160. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will know how to communicate. It was really rough the first week because BYU-Idaho was upgrading their system and I couldn't access anything that I needed to. I am determined to graduate in April so if my next post is a month from now you will know why.... and hopefully understand.

Not to forget about the most important person in the family.... Gerald is doing good too. He is super busy with school. This is his going to be his fourth year at Northshore. And I personally can't believe that we have been in Houston that long. Some days it seems like we just left Idaho. He really identifies with the students and likes who he works with.



Random picture of Keegan at the splash park with all his friends. Pictured is Cori, Keegan, Keegan and Joely.
*These pictures I stole from Kareena off of facebook because my camera is out of commission for awhile and my mom was begging for some updated pictures. Thanks Kareena!

Monday, August 23, 2010

School



Back to getting up early, packing lunches and riding the bus. Mya is a big first grader now! She was convinced that she was getting up earlier this year then it was last year (it was the exact same time). The exciting thing this year is that Mya and Aiden (one of the boys that I watch) get to ride the same bus and they are going to sit by each other everyday because they are best friends. The one thing that she was adiment on wearing on her first day of school was her new twinkle toe sketcher shoes. They blink.....and their beautiful she tells me.






She had a great day today. The best part was the new playground. "It's lots bigger and better." I was informed. She said that her teacher Ms. Simon is super nice (but aren't all teacher's super nice on the first day.) A couple of her friends had to move their clothespins because they weren't following the rules, but Mya told me that she wasn't ever going to move her clothespin this year because she wants a prize from the prizebox. I can't believe that she is in first grade already!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Summer.....

As summer is coming to an end I just thought that I would update what we have been up to.

This is a picture of Jacob right before his first outing to the swimming pool. As you can see he has learned a new trick.... spitting! And he is really good at it too! He loved the pool. He sat back in his little floating device and soaked up the sun.


The last activity at the library this summer was with dominoes pizza. It was really cool to see the "professionals" hand toss the pizza dough. The had activities for the kids.....hula hooping pizza dough, jump roping with pizza dough, and letting the kids try hand tossing it. The best part was when the brought in hot pizza to eat!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Glasses

During parent/teacher conferences last year, Mya's teacher informed us that we should get Mya's eye's checked. Mya was complaining that she couldn't see the things on the board and so her teacher moved her to the front of the class. Gerald took her to the eye doctor and sure enough she can't see.
She picked them out herself. And whe you ask her what color they are she will tell you that they are purple and pink. The thing that sold her on that particular frame was the hearts on the side. Can you blame her?

Mya went to the community center with a friend today. She was the lucky one that won the door prize. Imagine how excited she was when it was a box full of princess stuff. It as a fun activity with ice cream sundays that they got to make themselves, door prizes, and fun. I am so thankful to live in the small town of Crosby where they have lots of fun things for the kids to do during the summer.