Friday, October 28, 2011

Andrews first oral report

Andrew had to give his first oral report this week. The assignment was to write a 5-7 sentence report on a book they had read, decorate a pumpkin to look like the main character, then give an oral report to the class about the book.
He had a lot of fun decorating his pumpkin (which he did all on his own). We coached him on the written part and he decided what he wanted to tell his class.
He did his report on Sunset on the Sabertooth. A magic tree house book. And he painted Jack on one side, Annie on the other and a magic flute.
I was able to go and watch his report. I was so proud of him! He doesn't get nervous in front of people and actually enjoys it.
Great job Andrew!!!

Pumpkin patch!!!

We were a little early getting to the pumpkin patch on Friday so we decided to take a little detour to some cotton fields. Driving by these always reminds me of Georgia and I've been wanting to take a picture here since we moved here.
Then it was on to the Banducci's pumpkin patch where we were set up to learn a little about pumpkins and then go through the corn maze and end with Ben being able to choose his very own pumpkin!
Sierra, Ben, Ty Butler, Olivia Ammareal, Cammile Ammareal
The kids were so well behaved! I was very proud of them, they watched VERY intently too and seemed to really enjoy the presentation.
All of the kids at the corn maze. There were so many who wanted to be involved in the preschool groups this year that we actually have 3 that do field trips together. Today there were only 2.
Ben and his pumpkin that he chose. It looks like it has a pony tail.Sierra was wandering around and when I found her she was lounging in the pumpkins. She had a blast climbing all over them and exploring.So of course Ben had to have his picture taken!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Ben and Sierra

Today while taking Ben to play with his friends Michael and Preston he asked if Sierra could stay too. I told him I would ask Michaels mom. When we got there Ben wouldn't get out of the car until I asked. Luckily Sis. Hunter said it was ok.
It was the sweetest thing to have Ben WANT his little sister to stay and play. The whole way over Sierra kept saying "Michael, Michael" she loves to play with Ben and his friends and I'll charis this time that he still loves to play with her and missed her when she's napping.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Preschool

We have been doing a Joy School type preschool again this year for Ben. It has been FANTASTIC! We love the moms and kids that are all involved. Ben LOVES to go and is learning SO much. This week and next week are at our house. I thought their snacks turned our so cute so I had to post them. We made monster teeth with apples, peanut butter and then the kids chose either raisins or candy corns. The original recipe called for candy corns, but I tried raisins to be a little more healthy. I think they all pretty much chose candy corns.
We're also doing Zoophonics to help with their letters. IT WORKS AMAZING!! I have the letter I so these are our Inny the Inchworm puppets. With their triangle bats. I wanted to take a picture of the bats because they came up with different ways to put them together. I was so impressed!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Andrew piano recital

Andrew had another piano recital today. With them being on sunday afternoons, once a month, we haven't been able to attend any this year. (we have church until 2). But, since his teacher was leaving church early and he hadn't done any all year we decided to let him perform today.
I also found out he practices better if he has a recital to work towards:)
He did AMAZING!!! I'm so proud of him and really enjoy hearing him perform. Great job Andrew! Next year we can do more.

Aagghh!!!

Andrew wanted to move Daniel from his swing to the family room so that he could play with him. I told him I would do it but he asked if he could. I told him I would watch him to be sure he was doing it right. As I was walking behind them Daniel had a look of fear on his face. It was pretty funny, yet as I went to take a picture, he smiled!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Father Son camp out 2006

We were going through flash drives and found some pictures from before we started our blog. I thought I'd go ahead and add them.
These are from the father son campout that Bob took Andrew on just after he turned 2. It was also just before we moved to Everett, WA from Greeley, CO. They went with my dad and our nephew Connor.

Andrew doing his favorite thing......Running!!
Chillin' with daddy at the camp fire.
They had a group campfire where they sang songs.
And they didn't just chill the whole time...

They brought out Bows and Arrows for the boys to shoot
And had a rope course for the boys to try out too. Andrew wasn't too sure about it. I don't think his face would be much different now....I think he may have a small fear of heights.


When they got back Grandma had a tricycle waiting for him. It's finally needing to be replaced. Not bad after 5 years!






Friday, October 21, 2011

Daniel is 2 months!!!!

Daniel had his 2 month check up today. He was 7lbs 9oz when he was born and today he tipped the scales at 13 lbs 4oz and he's 23" long!! I'm tellin ya this kid can EAT!!
He has started to coo and smile at us which the kids LOVE!! Ben especially, when Daniel coos at him he gets SO excited and tells me all about what he's saying. My favorite quote of Ben... "he talked to me! He loves me" or "he smiled at me! He loves me!!"
Sierra won't let us leave him behind. (not that we would) but she makes sure he gets in and out of the car, and she loves to help burp him and hive him a bath.
Andrew just thinks he's the cutest baby and wants to hold him when he gets home from school.
How did we get so lucky to have such amazing kids who love and take care of each other.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Sierra and her "puppy"

Sierra was playing outside when I found her "leash". She decided it went with the puppy on the front and now she won't take it off.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Benjamin

A while back Bob wanted to try keeping his camping food cool with dry ice. He had quite a bit so he let Ben "play" with it. It entertained him for a long time!
Ben likes to get a hold of my phone and take pictures of himself

And not only take pictures,but make silly faces while he does. I actually have about 40 in succesion as he took pictures while making faces. I don't want to delete them because they're pretty funny when you can go through them fast.

I rarely know what's going on in that brain of his. He's so creative and actually enjoys playing by himself.
Ben is such a joy to have around. He's so SILLY! Yet he can also be pretty defiant when he wants to be. Lucky for us it's not very often. I've also gotten really good at ignoring him when he does, he gets over his defiance pretty quickly.
We love you Ben, thank you for bringing so much joy into our home. I think you will have us laughing and crying for a LONG time!

Sierra

While unloading pictures from my phone I found several pictures of Sierra that I thought were too cute NOT to share.
Sierra learned last spring the joys of dipping your Wendy's french fries into a frosty. She LOVED it and will now only eat her Wendy's fries this way.
Her first pigtails and deciding to have some input in how she dresses. Unfortunately I haven't been very good at capturing them all. Even my favorite....her cute black and white skirt paired with Ben's starwars t-shirt and Little Green Men socks.
She loves the pool and loves her brothers. She had to have goggles on just like Andrew.
Check out that wild hair! This picture reminded me of a picture my parents have of me at about the same age.Trying out a new style to help control the wildness that is Sierra's hair.
This is what happens when Mommy is feeding Daniel, daddy's on his way out the door to get to the Priesthood Session of conference. He was wearing his clean white shirt and she was a little less messy, so he didn't want to get her down and decided to just give her more even though she had mentioned that she was done.
I guess she really was, when I went in to get her out this is what i found...spaghetti EVERYWHERE!
A better shot just before I hosed her down in the bath.
I was in the middle of making bread too so she decided she would 'help' me. She wanted her own bowl with some flour, I wouldn't give her any for this very reason. Well, I forgot to put the lid back on the flour so she helped her self. Note the clothing...Andrew had taken off his t-ball tshirt so she decided she needed to put it on. At least she had on clothes! She would run around naked if I would let her....and she does at times (well, at least with a diaper)
Sierra's so sweet and so helpful. We are truly blessed to have her in our family. I just can't believe how big she is and how fast she's learning new things. I love taking the time to slow down my life and marvel in what she has to say.

Daniel

He's growing TO FAST! I
can't believe he's already 6 weeks old.
Waiting patiently to go home.What a happy peaceful little boy. He does LOVE to be held, and he's definetly finding his voice. We're so blessed to have you in our family and are enjoying watching you grow and watch the world around you.

Andrew singing/swimming

During the last few weeks of summer Andrew took a singing class that was put on by Jessica Ellsworth while she was home from college for the summer. Andrew did it last summer too and LOVED it! This year his solo was I Don't Wanna Grow Up from Peter Pan. He did AMAZING! I wish I could get the video to load. If I ever figure it out I'll post it.
He also wanted to take swimming lessons again, yet the time that his class would be going on he was at singing. So, he was able to have his own private lessons at the end of classes. Because they were done at a friends house this summer there was a lot of flexibility. I think it worked out for the best. He really thrived having the one on one attention from Kaitlin and she has AMAZING patience with him when he wouldn't dive.So, she had him work on jumping in and touching the bottom of the pool. He almost did it! The Petersons pool is 10' in the deep end. He was so excited that he could almost do it, that it gave him the confidence to do it at home because our pool is only 6'.

I'm always amazed at how much they progress over the 2 weeks that they have swimming lessons. This year was especially fun because we were in CO at the beginning of the summer and both sets of grandparents could see that they were still a little timid...not quite remembering everything they had learned last summer.( I hear that's normal) But both grandparents were here at the end of the summer and were able to see how much BETTER they were and how confident they were in the water.

I'm so proud of you Andrew for facing some of your fears and for working so hard! We'll dive next summer...at least you'll go under the water now and get toys off the bottom of the pool. You wouldn't do THAT before Kaitlin worked with you.