Memorial Day Swim

It has sort of become our Memorial Day tradition to go swimming. That's really our only Memorial Day tradition. It's usually our first swim of the season with Dallin, which the kids think is the greatest thing ever. This year it was almost our very first swim. I tried to take them about 3 weeks ago but it was overcast and windy and they were frozen after 15 minutes or so. This kid LOVES the pool and is very sad to leave each and every time.

Going "BOOM"!

It was so nice and refreshing in the water. We'll definitely be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer, being that I can't sit outside for 2 minutes without dying of the heat and humidity with my big belly.

Zach's favorite is the waterslide. They made new height restrictions and poor Connor isn't tall enough. He kept trying to escape and go up there and Dallin would have to go chase him down.

This is one of the things the kids love about having Dallin there. He's so patient and will let them harass him all they want. Mommy isn't so nice and patient. It was really crowded, but we had a fun time!

Frodo Fish Strong

Well it happened. Rodimus the fish died. On Thursday morning Zach went to feed him and said "Wow, Rodimus is really tired this morning. He's laying on his side! I've never seen him do that. I can't even wake him up. I'll just feed him after school I guess." A few minutes later I walked past and said "Um, I think Rodimus is dead." Zach was actually okay with it, but Jacob was really sad. We left for school a few minutes later and when I got back I found this on the little fish tank. It was Jacob's farewell.The kids all pitched in a couple of dollars and after school they all picked out a new fish together. They're excited to all get turns feeding him now. This is Frodo Fish Strong (according to Zach). We just call him Frodo.

On Thursday night Jacob had pack meeting. This was about the only "good" picture I got. He is a Bear now and got a couple of awards. Then they had a "crossing over" ceremony for 2 boys that were moving on to boy scouts. The pack was "lighting the way" for them. Jacob was upset because he couldn't get the flashlight to work. Oh well.

Today was the last day of school!!! We're all so excited. I'm happy that we can relax for the next couple of months and take it easy until the baby comes. And not worry about homework and school stuff. We went to the boys' class parties, but I used up the rest of the disposable camera from the campout. So pictures will come pretty soon. They both had ice cream sundae parties. In Zach's class a couple of parents came and did balloon animals and face painting. Savannah & Connor loved it!
After school Jacob started reading the Lord of the Rings series. He has been waiting for a few weeks now and was very excited. He has a computer game and knows most of the characters, but I told him he had to wait until summer to read the books (so they wouldn't distract him from his school work). He won't be watching the movies anytime soon though, for sure.

This is our new summer chore chart that starts tomorrow. I saw this on a friend's blog (thanks Becky!) and am excited to use it. It will be much more flexible than our previous chore charts because I can just choose each morning what I need done or what the kids need to do (including piano, scouts, doing school-type work, etc.). Connor's chart is one that Jacob used years ago. It has little pictures that you cover up with a bee when they're done. He loves it already.

Congratulations to my brother Steven for graduating from the Police Academy today and also to my parents on their 34th Anniversary! I wish I could have been there with ya'll!

Pictures from our day...

I have some random pictures from the day I wanted to post for journaling. For Mother's Day/my birthday I got a new kitchen table, since we're outgrowing our previous one. It came yesterday and Dallin put it together today. I love it! It matches our blinds and cabinets much better than I thought it would. It's bigger than it looks too. It seats 8 and has a leaf to seat 10. We ordered the chairs separately, since this table didn't come with matching chairs. The chairs are just like these, but in black. The kids had a great time with the box and the foam. The bottom of the box was padded, so it was actually comfortable to play in. The little slinky Connor is playing with is his first-ever prize for filling a line on his chore chart. After he got his prize he kept sweeping and dusting every few minutes, trying to make me give him more stickers for today. Gotta love good motivation!

Savannah went to a princess birthday party this morning and had a great time. She wears this play dress almost every day lately. I got it at a yard sale for $1. Jacob had fun roller skating this afternoon for quite a while, all by himself. I'm surprised at how much he loves it and how determined he is to get better. I guess the yard sale skates were a good investment!

The rest of the afternoon was spent decorating their doors. I don't know how it started. Savannah kept coming and asking me for tape, and I found out this is why. She used a stencil for the stop sign. The bottom sign says "No boys in my room"

When the boys saw her door they of course had to follow suit. My favorites are those that say "Whoever enters is in our control" and "Authorized Personal (personnel) Only."

ABC Party!

Savannah is done with Mommy preschool! She was very excited to finish up her letter wall in her bedroom. Each week we added a new letter.

In the beginning I was just going to have her paint the letters. But by the 2nd week I thought it would be more fun to use things that corresponded to the letters. In this picture we have B buttons, C clouds, D daisies, E easter eggs, J jelly beans, K keys, L ladybugs, M money, N noodles, S stars, T tape, U underwater, V velcro. We'll probably leave it up for a few weeks, but then we're going to finish decorating that wall to match the rest of her room.

F feathers, G glitter, H hearts, I (just painted...didn't know what to do), O o stickers, P paper clips, Q question marks, R ribbon, W wavy wiggles, X x-ray, Y yarn, Z zipperI promised Savannah that when we finished preschool we would have an ABC party. She's been so excited. I let her invite 4 friends. I think Connor had more fun than anyone though. That kid LOVES letters. We started out with letter stencils doing our names.

Then we played an alphabet matching game.

We frosted cookies and squirted out the first letter of our name.

Connor thoroughly enjoyed his cookie.

My friend Erin helped me out for the party. She read the kids Chicka Chicka Boom Boom...our favorite ABC book.

Then we built an alphabet train.

And played an alphabet balloon game.

Then we of course pulled down the balloons to play!

We ended watching a little bit of The Letter Factory movie and colored more. It was a fun time!

The boys have their "Wellness Day" today, which is like a water/field day. I usually go to this and bring the other kids to watch, but being pregnant I knew that I wouldn't last outside in the heat. I'm sure they're having a great time anyway!

Winston

Dallin has many nicknames for all of our kids. His favorite one for Connor is "Winston." Yesterday at church a lady that we don't know asked Connor what his name is. He looked up all shy and said "I'm Winston." I just started laughing and she said "Did he say Winston?" Then I had to explain...

This is for Grandma...Little Winston singing Twinkle Little Star & Popcorn Popping.

Campout at home

Last night we had our "girl campout with Connor." Dallin took Jacob & Zach camping (those pics are on a disposable camera and will be posted in the future sometime). Savannah was so bummed that they got to go camping and she didn't, so I told her we'd have a campout at home...inside. She said "It will be a girl campout! But with Connor!" They loved helping to set up a tent in the family room.And play in it all afternoon and evening.

For dinner the kids got McDonalds. We got the movie "UP" from a Redbox and settled back to watch. My kind of camping when pregnant. Except that I only lasted about 10 minutes in the tent before I was so stiff I had to get out. Luckily Savannah didn't mind if I was outside on the couch. Her 2 requirements for our camping night were sleeping in a tent and eating brownies. I told her s'mores would be more appropriate, but she insisted on brownies.

Connor took this picture and I didn't crop it at all. I was pretty impressed.

The other highlight of the night were the glowsticks that Daddy left behind for them. Oh, and staying up late. Savannah lasted until 9:00pm.

In the morning I was so surprised to wake up at 8:00am to a quiet house. At about 8:15 Savannah came in and said "Mommy, I just can't sleep anymore." Connor had come out of his room earlier and she sent him back to bed. She said that she was waiting for me to come out. Sweet kids let me sleep in! It was a fun night!

Tuesday...

A couple of weeks ago Dallin decided to plant some pumpkins for the kids for Halloween. He also planted some squash I think. Zach was the kid who wanted to help him, so it has become their project together. Every day Zach goes out to water the "garden," although half the time is spent watering the fence, bugs, or whatever he thinks would be fun to spray.Yesterday I had my one-hour glucose pregnancy screen. Connor & Savannah played at a friend's house. When I got back I told Connor that I went to the doctor and he immediately ran to get his "step-a-scope" to listen to the baby's heartbeat. I think he's actually excited to be a big brother. We've been talking about ways that he'll help and he says "I hold the baby. I feed the bottle to the baby. I sing the baby songs."And yes, that would be my 6-month belly.We had Family Home Evening on Tuesday instead of Monday because of the boys' Gallery Night at school. That is when all the artwork is displayed. We finally found Zach's after a walk all around the school. He said it is a still-life of a crocodile, a bottle, and a bunch of other stuff.

Jacob's is an abstract tree with tissue paper and watercolors I think.

After that we went over to the middle school track. On Saturday Dallin and the kids found a mother bird guarding her eggs by the "sandbox." (long-jump pit) Connor was trying to chase the birds and this one just stayed there and kept squawking at them. She was guarding 4 eggs. The kids really wanted me to come and see. In this picture the eggs are right below Savannah's knees. They're brown with black speckles.

She got scared off when we first got there but then came back and squawked at us all pretty good and ruffled her feathers.

We're excited to keep checking on them so the kids can see the baby birds up close!

Update 5/14: I just figured out what kind of bird this is. It's called a killdeer. Apparently the baby birds can be gone within 24 hours of hatching! They are like baby chicks and can walk around as soon as they're dry. We'll have to go tomorrow (Saturday) to see if they're still there.
Update 5/15: We went to see the birds this morning. The eggs are still there. They take 24-28 days to hatch, so it could still be a while, depending on when they're laid. After reading about them I noticed better what the parents were doing. They go a few feet away and pretend like they have a broken wing, so you'll follow them. Then they flap around and move away, leading you away from the eggs. If that doesn't work then they just get mad and go back and cover their eggs and squawk at you. They're fun birds!

Mother's Day

I'm so appreciative to the school teachers and primary teachers who helped make Mother's Day a special day. My favorite part of the day was being invited to a special Mommy snack time at nursery with Connor. So cute. Connor wouldn't surrender my gift though. He loves his soap with "gloop" and "jewel buttons" and "string."

I had to include this picture from Saturday. This is how Connor prefers to wear his hat...like a pirate with one eye peeking out.

Well worth it...

As you know I use this blog as a family journal. At the end of each month I copy and paste each post into Microsoft Word. Then I reformat it in Word so it is more condensed and looks nice. I include the pictures, but they're very tiny to go along with what is written. At the end of the year I take what is applicable for each kid and make them a printout to add to their journal.

Well I finally finished 2009 today and added it to the kids' journals. I showed Jacob and he spent the entire afternoon reading it. A couple of times he came in and said "This is so great! It brings back such good memories." A few minutes ago he said "Thank you so much for doing that for me Mom. I love it!". I just heard him giggling in the other room as he's reading it. All of the hours spent making the journals was well worth it, just in those few words. I love you Jacob!

And that is exactly why I do this blog.

The Fewth Day

On Saturday Dallin & Zach planted some pumpkin and squash seeds in the backyard. Zach has been watering them every day. Today Zach asked Dallin if there was anything coming up yet. Dallin said "In a few days." Zach said "That's what you said on Saturday, and it's already the fewth day!"

Nie's Motherhood Message

This was definitely too good not to share. Reminds you why you're a mom and makes you love it. Happy Mother's Week!
http://www.youtube.com/user/mormonmessages?blend=1&ob=4#p/a/u/0/KHDvxPjsm8E

Yard Sale Fun

This morning I went to neighborhood yard sales and got some awesome deals. I got clothes and shoes for the kids (some brand new with tags), a costume for Jacob, roller skates for all 3 older kids, and this pop-up tent and "Rocket" for Connor. I thought about saving the rocket for Christmas because it's in perfect condition, but that's 8 months away and who know if he'll like Little Einsteins by then. He LOVES them and has been happily playing all day. Zach has been asking to have roller skates for a while now, so he was very happy. What surprised me was how persistent Jacob was. He was out there for a long time with lots of falls, but just kept trying and trying.

I think he's going to have a very sore bum for the next few days. But he still had a smile on his face!

I got this portable swing for the baby for super cheap. I offered half price and they gave it to me! It will be so nice to have with us when we go to Arizona with a 3-month old baby for Thanksgiving.