Awesome April

April started with Spring Break at our house.  On Monday of Spring Break, I arranged a fire station visit with our preschool group and friends.  We went to the station just down the street from our house and the fire fighters were great.  They were giving us a tour of the station when a call came in.  The kids got to watch and they raced out to help somebody.  They said the call was close so we could wait in the parking lot for them to come back.  We did until we heard another call come in and watched them drive by to go to another call.  We weren't too disappointed because we all had fun and we got to see them go into action!  The captain called and offered for us to come finish our tour.  Because it was Spring Break and everyone's schedule was different, we ended up there with different friends but had a great time.  This time they showed the kids the truck, let them shoot the hose and try on their equipment.  Thank you, Fire Station 11!!

Claire driving the truck

Will's turn

Will riding in the back

Claire listening to people in the front talk

Cutie pie peeking out

Just a little too big

Our group that day with the nice firemen

 

Carter and Danny had already left to Yosemite for their annual "Man Camp" with Danny's childhood best friend, Gary and his son.  On Thursday of Spring Break I headed to San Diego with William, Claire and my parents for some more fun!  I realize I am not the best at capturing everything (like pictures of anyone besides the kids) but I'll always have the memories (like my dad swimming in the freezing indoor pool (heater must not have been working) and walking down to the Gaslamp District with William looking like this:

He did get lots of attention.  Another great memory was watching The Croods together and William getting stuck in the seat.  That boy!   I really liked the Croods...the dad in it reminded me just a little of my cute dad;)  Claire proceeded to act like a cave girl as we walked back tot he hotel from the movie and that also go lots of attention;) We got zoo passes and had a fantastic time at the Zoo. 

 

 

And then after all that fun, we got to go to a super fun birthday party at place called My Gym in Rancho.  The kids love "baby Caleb" (Danny's coworker's son) and I would recommend that place for a party to anyone.  It was great!

 

All the while, the boys were having the time of their lives in Yosemite.  Danny is in charge of his own post on that one although here is a beautiful picture of Carter boy because I realized I have hardly any of him from this month!

 

Claire and Danny got to attend a Father-Daughter disco dance at school.  He said he's never heard (at least never paid attention to) the lyrics of Butterly Kisses and he is already getting emotional thinking about Berry Girl growing up. 

Date night

 

Dancing queen


 

William sustained a head injury in nursery with a Lego to the dome. 

 

I am always searching for balance and have plenty of things I am not doing right or don't feel the best about but one thing that is working well right now is our Sunday Special time.  Danny is gone for meetings for most of Sunday and has been for the last couple years.  We have 1 pm church this year and we have a pretty good routine.  Actually, things did change a bit lately because his calling at church was changed to be the first counselor to our new Bishop Naegle.  We are good friends with the Naegle family and are happy to serve along with them.  So our current routine is to relax a bit in the morning, eat breakfast togther and then say good-bye to Dad.  Once the kids are all ready for church, we start our Special Time.  I rotate who I am with and set a timer.  For the alloted amount of time, I do whatever the child wants me to do with them. The other kids rotate through playing on friend.lds.org, sometimes I have an art project, playing quietly together, etc.  This picture is from Special Time with Will.  He requested Mr. Potato Head:).  The great thing about spending time with each child is they feel loved and validated and I feel connected with them.  In fact, I am looking forward to my game of Pokemon in the morning with Carter.  It's been a busy week and he has been spending so much time reading Harry Potter (he's on book six) I feel like I never see him.  After we all finish it is usually time for lunch and to pack up for church.  Another Sunday thing we love to do is watch Adventures from the Book of Virtues .  They teach life lessons through classical narratives and it is perfect for the Sabbath. 

 

 

 

Happy Sabbath to y'all!

 

 

 

On Friendship, Preschool and Baking

In my mind, I write beautifully elegant blog posts.  When I sit down to write one, it never ends up so eloquent but I will give the description of this picture perfect moment my best effort.

 

I have been blessed, throughout my life, with great friends.  Really, really great friends.  Friends who support me, encourage me, laugh with me, inspire me, sweat with me (running buddies, you know who you are), amaze me, comfort me and listen to me.  When Carter was little I had a group of friends who approached me to do a "joy school" (preschool co-op) with them.  We joined and it was great!  I realized I loved teaching and planning and I loved Carter getting social interaction and the weeks preschool was not at my house, I loved the break I got.  It only lasted a while because I sent Carter to a "real preschool" once he was old enough and Claire didn't ever get the joy school days.  Last fall, my friend recommended the book Teach Me, Mommy to me to work with William while both kids were in school.  I really like the curriculum because it is very simple and basic.  It is not learning letters and numbers, it is learning about plants, animals, ourselves, jobs, etc.  In the fall, I would hold "Mommy School" a few times a week with William and would also have it with friends when they came over and with my sister-in-law April before her second baby was born.  In January, I decided to enlist some awesome friends to join me in the co-op.  We have had a blast!! 

 

I love preschool because it teaches cooperating, sharing, taking turns, patience, listening to someone other than mom and the love of learning.  The picture above is from a day we learned about bees.  I asked William what he wanted for snack and he said cookies.  Also in January, we started a real food diet.  It has been a journey and there have been some concessions I've made (Cheerios and Go-gurt simple, namely) but the blood, sweat and tears have been worth it. I still love to bake and adapt recipes to make it a whole food.   So, on the preschool morning, we decided to make peanut butter cookies, with honey to fit our theme.  The recipe is here.   I changed the flour to spelt flour as it is a whole grain.  As we made the cookies, we counted, took turns and talked about the different foods that went in to it.  

 

As I snapped the photo, all the thoughts I just wrote down swirled through my head...how much I have been blessed with good friends, how much I love these adorable children and teaching them, how preschool is of divine origin, how I love baking and adapting it to our new and improved lifestyle and how lucky I am to be right here, right now. 

The Month of March

March came and went much too quickly and now April is almost over!  These highlight photos are not in specific order. 

Rub-a-dub-dub two cute kids in the tub

We learned about community workers at our preschool (more on that in a future post) we have and went to visit Nana with cousins Peyton and Jovie (not pictured) at work so we could see how she helps our community. 



How we started the Easter photo shoot:)


I love Claire's pose in this one!

This boy is always doing funny things but doesn't want attention for them!

Not looking at the camera, but they sure make me happy!

We are fortunate enough to live within walking distance to our park and library.  Yes, indeed, this is how we roll:)

We sent this photo to Danny with a message "I need a hair cut!" (he is the barber around here)

We have fantastic parents who kept our kids so we could get away during Danny's spring break to Sedona, AZ.  It was beautiful, relaxing, rejuvenating, heavenly, I could go on.  Here we are atop Cathedral Rock!

On an evening bike ride with Daddy

Swinging in cousin Kollin's backyard--it is one of the perks of having your aunt be your piano teacher--right, Carter? :)

A rare photo of the whole family--saying goodbye to Elder Gantulga--he was heading home to Mongolia after serving a mission in our area for two years.  He is the sweetest guy and it was always interesting to hear about his life in Mongolia!

Claire posing in a tree at the park

Ready for the Easter egg hunt at Grandma & Papa's.  Jake & Amy came to visit for the weekend and we had a fun party at the park complete with bubbles, wiffle ball and a rocket (thanks, E!)

Not only does Claire look like Hayley's daughter, they had matching Easter dresses on!

At Nana & Boppies we had two egg hunts...one for the little ones in the front yard and the big ones in the back yard.  Here are the four oldest ready to hunt!

Tate & Jovie (the two youngest Todd grandchildren) also wearing matching colors (unplanned) with Nana

A great month was had by all! 

 



February 2013

Carter & the rest of the Lollipop Guild from his class play of The Wizard of Oz--they spent a lot of time practicing and they all did a great job!

We headed to Idyllwild for a snow day and were so glad Nana could join us.  William and Claire lasted 30 minutes this year before crying they were cold...next year we need to have better gear for them:)  It was beautiful and we were home in time for naps (my idea of perfection:)).

Carter reading the Claire and Peyton one evening at the Todds

Claire and her hot cocoa after the snow

William loves the carousel at the grocery store by our house (as you can tell)

We went on a tour of the March Field Museum over the long President's Day weekend.  William loved this little plane.  Our docent was an adorable Scottish WWII vet in his 80s.  He saw a future for Will in flight.  I'm all for it (I want to travel for free;)). 

Cutie on the Carosuel

Carter had to write an autobiography so we made a digital storybook and went through lots of old photos in the process.  This is him at almost seven months.  We called him "Snaggle Toof boy."  It was fun to have him write about his sweet little life of eight years and his teacher LOVED his report!

January

I read an idea in Family Fun or Parents magazine to do a monthly photo of your big kids (just like so many do with their infants) as a way to capture who they are and what they are doing.  I decided that is the kind of blogging I might keep up with:).  

Carter had a particularly eventful month.  He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was a very special day for all of us.  We had a lot of family to support him and he was baptized with two other cute girls from our ward.  After the baptism, our family came over to our house.  We made a time lapse video of Carter.  It really has been a blink of an eye from baby to eight year old.  I wish time would just slow down!  We asked our parents to share their testimonies with Carter and it was a wonderful occasion.  He has really taken his covenants seriously and it is sweet to watch him grown and learn.

Fortunately a friend took these photos for us because I never took the camera out of the bag. 

Carter and I read the book The Boy Who Dared this month.  I grabbed it randomly at the library and found that it is about an LDS boy who lived in Nazi Germany and stood courageously against the Nazis.  It is such a good book!  I cried and cried as I read parts aloud. 

Carter also started Boy Scouts and is enjoying it greatly!  

Miss Claire, or "Lair Bear" as William likes to call her, has gone from girl who would not be in photos to this:

I'm not sure how this has happened!  She is as full of spunk as ever.  She suddenly likes her hair done (most days), wants to wear makeup all the time and has asked when she's getting her own phone!?! She is sounding letters out quite well and catching on to reading.  Math seems to come even easier for her.  She is a fantastic sister and loves to have little children to boss around unless they start messing with the computer when she's trying to watch a show. 

Prince William (affectionately named by some ICU nurses) was asked to be the ring bearer in one of his favorite nurses' wedding!  I did warn her that I'm not sure he will walk down the aisle; she said it will just add to the fun.  The wedding will be in May and we are looking forward to it.  William can ride his Strider (balance bike) like a crazy man (I have to run to keep up),  likes to watch Youtube videos of Lightning McQueen and either has us laughing or pulling our hair out:)

Pey Pey and Will on Mt. Rubidoux celebrating MLK day