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.

Mya's Cheer Debut

Family Pictures

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!

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!

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!

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.

Summer Library

I have learned a lot at the library this summer. Such an educational experience in little Crosby. Today there was a presentation with animal naturalists. They had a dove that the kids were able to pet and I learned that a dove can turn it's head all the way around because it has twice as many bones as we do. I also learned that when our parents told us not to pick up a baby bird because then our scent would be left and the mamma wouldn't want anything to do with it was a false statement. I guess that parents don't know everything. Most birds don't have a great sence of smell and won't even notice. So when you see a baby bird that has fallen from it's nest, go and put him back!

There was also an emperor scorpion there and I learned that when we think that it is black the rest of the scorpions see themselves as green. When you hold it under a black light it turns green.

The coolest animal was the flying squirrel. One person held him and the other person held up a small bag and the squirrel jumped from the person into the bag.

I was a little nervous when they pulled out the Red milk snake. Mya wouldn't go anywhere near it, but Keegan was brave. Some milk snakes look like coral snakes so that they can scare away possible predators. They gave us a saying so that we could tell them apart. "Red next to black is a friend of Jack; Red next to yellow will kill a fellow."

Jacob

Here is a cute video of Jacob playing on his floor matt. Mom has been bugging me about new pictures of Jacob. I thought that she would enjoy this a little more.



Here is a little clip of Jacob playing in his johnny jumper.

What's Going On....

We have been REALLY lazy this summer. Spending lots of time reading books, watching movies, and sleeping in. We will probably continue to do this for one more month until reality hits again.
Mya turned 6 on July 3rd. She was happy to have a friend from school come and spend the night with her. They didn't go to bed until 10 which is late for my kids because bedtime is 7 during school. I was unhappy when they both decided to be up at 6:30 the next morning. The next day we went to the fourth of july parade that they had here in Crosby. I have become a fan of the parades because they are short and there aren't typically a lot of people that come out so the kids get lots of candy and I don't have to fight traffic. Keegan's favorite of course is the police cars and the fire truck. Mya said that she liked the boyscouts. I am hoping that it is because she knows some of the boyscouts and not because she is boy crazy. She is super excited to be going into first grade when school starts in August. I can't believe how big she is getting already.
Hope that all the rest of you are enjoying you summer too.