Do You See What I See?

Do you see what's missing?!!!

Kate has been working on getting this front tooth loose for a while. She noticed it was a little loose a few months ago and slowly but surely it has gotten looser and it was even sticking out more than the other one. So tonight I felt it and it was super loose, but she didn't want me to pull it out becaue she wanted to try first. It didn't come out. So I tried with a kleenex and it came out pretty easily. She was crying because it was bleeing and then she was crying because it looked funny with it gone. It's hard to grow up.

Checking out her new smile. She was better once I told her she could stick her tongue through the space and reminded her the tooth fairy would come.

Preston's First Day of School

Preston with his preschool teacher Mrs. Christine Buttelman. It's his 2nd year of preschool and he was excited to go on the bus to school. He's at a new school so we went last week to see his new classroom and see his teacher. He had this teacher for summer school so at least she's not new.

First day of school! Up and ready and waiting for the bus...

"Bye Mom!"

Getting on the bus. Kate wishes she could ride a bus! She gets to ride the bus whenever she goes to her friends house after school. Now in the morning it's me and Lindsey. She's my shopping buddy. Preston gets home at noon and my neighbor is picking up Kate from school at 2:30 so I don't have to wake up napping kids. SOOO nice of her!

Kate's in 1st Grade!

Kate's in 1st Grade!!!!

She was kind of nervous to go into 1st grade, but once she met her teacher and found out several people from her kindergarten class were in her new class she felt better about it. After school she said, "I think 1st grade is fun now". Well, that's a good thing! She also said it was a long day. She's used to half day kindergarten.

We walked to school with some neighbor friends.
L-R: Jacob, Logan, Anshu, Elsa, Dallas and Kate

Kate at her desk. She is most excited for 2 recesses and eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Kate with her 1st grade teacher Mrs. Pederson

I made this chore chart for Kate so in the mornings she knows what needs to be done before she can play the iPad or watch cartoons. Well, the first morning of school I told her to start getting ready and she said, "I know! I already made my bed!" She is on top of it. I hope this continues!

I made this school bus cake for her after school treat. I got the idea from Family Fun. It wasn't too hard to make, but the kids didn't really eat it. Hmph! Kate wants ants on a log tomorrow for her after school treat. That will be easier to make and she will probably scarf it down!

Blast to the Past

We had our family reunion over Labor Day Weekend and the theme was "blast to the past"-to my parents' past, their traditions and memories. Everyone gathered at Boulder Resort (aka my parent's house...I'll have to give the background story on that name). My mom had some fun things planned for us this weekend. And of course, she cooked up a storm and we all left 5 pounds heavier. We met up at Jared's football game in Warden on Friday night.

Our own little cheerleaders for Jared

Jared the stud muffin! He's the quarterback and when he was on defense a player from the other team clipped him in the back and the referees didn't do anything about it. You should have seen us react! My sister, my brother-in-law and me were so mad! The player was doing other dirty stuff too- he wasn't nice. We were saying we were like the mafia- hurt our brother and you mess with us! haha!

My parent's used to go to the Ellensburg parade (we did too growing up) so we went there on Saturday morning. Jeni made all the tie dye t-shirts for everyone. They turned out cute.

More spectators! Woot woot!

Hailey posing as the cute cowgirl

Kate was having a melt down over something...then 2 minutes later she was...

FINE! Hmmmm!

All the grandkids! This was taken at my Grandpa Paul and Grandma Helen Gene's house. After the parade, we went to this park where my Dad used to play baseball and it had toys for the kids to play on. My parent's brought food for a picnic and KFC chicken. Well, we whip out the food and start dishing up and a swarm of bees are suddenly upon us. It was crazy! We were walking around holding our plates trying to get the bees away. We were sitting far away from our picnic table trying to see if the bees would leave us alone...they didn't so we packed up in a rush and went to my grandparents to finish our picnic. Dumb bees!

My parent's pulled out some things from their childhood to show us and they shared some stories. I loved this picture of the kids intently listening to my Mom. Kate liked my Mom's dolls and troll she had growing up. We had a quiz later that night on the stories from my parent's past. It was fun and Jeni won that game. Then we had a "Stake Dance" and my Mom had a bunch of music from their era and we fast danced and slow danced. We also played a game where we came up with names of people or things and played guys against girls- it was like Catch Phrase where you have to describe the word. It was fun and us girls won. We also played a bunch of games of bump on the basketball court and played bocce ball. Lots of games!

On Monday, we said goodbye to Jeff, Sadie and Reagan as they made their trek back to Idaho. Then the rest of us went up to Moses Lake to their aquatic park. The kids loved it and afterwards we went to Derek and Sara's for pizza. We hung out there before we left for home. It was my first time seeing their house and Sara does a good job decorating. It was fun to see all her crafts she's made and bargains she's found from random thrift stores.

The "Blast to the Past" was fun. My Mom made us little photo books with some pictures of my parent's when they were little and they were so adorable! Hearing them talk about their memories and childhood makes you realize how fast time goes by.

What We Are Doing

Kate will be going into 1st grade next week! She is excited for two recesses and being able to eat in the cafeteria. The joys of all day school. :) She is kind of nervous about her teacher and classroom since it will be all new. I think she will do just fine. It's all new to me too since I don't know any teachers at the school. She did swim lessons this summer and will probably do a ballet class again this year. She really wants a bigger bike, likes watching you tube videos (we have to monitor those!), likes to play with friends, play with barbies, color and dress her dolls. She went and stayed with my parent's for a week while I was at Girl's Camp and she's still talking about it. She loves her cousins (they squeal when they see each other) and loves to swim. She's emotional (uggh!) and very persistent (not like me ;)).

Preston will be starting his second year of preschool. He will be at a new school this year. He went to a different school last year, another school for summer preschool and now a new one! Three schools in a year! Yikes! He will be with his teacher from summer school. She wanted him in her class. She's teaching this class where there are 4 kids with Austism, 4 kids with developmental delay (Preston will be one of those) and then 4 typical kids. We felt good about it and I have a friend from my ward that her son was in a class like that and she was very happy with it. His class last year had 12 kids with differing levels of delays. I think this new class will be great. We took him to his eye appt and was told to have him wear his glasses more (he got them several months ago and I haven't been having him wear them) and to patch his good eye more consistently so his bad eye will get strengthened. I guess your eyes develop until age 8 and then they are done. So to get the best vision from his bad eye we need to make him use it more. We patch every other day for 4 hours. He doesn't like it, but is good about leaving it on until we tell him he can take it off and boy is he ever excited to take it off! Lindsey is the one that will rip off his glasses and/or patch so we have to keep her away from him. He loves trains, Thomas TV shows, playing with cars from the Cars movie, doing puzzles and playing on the iPad. He will ride the neighbors trikes, but not his own. He still has his quirks and gets frustrated with transitioning to different things and sharing toys/taking turns, but he's improving. Too bad you can't snap your fingers and have everything be fixed. ;)

Lindsey is climbing everything. She is very entertaining to watch. She likes to plop herself down on your face, arm, leg, stomach...it doesn't matter to her. When Kate dances, Lindsey joins in and gets herself dizzy. Even her mini tantrums are funny. Kate thinks she is the funniest baby we have ever had! haha! (I tell Kate that she was a funny baby too!) She waves hi/bye, says mama and dada and then pretend talks like she knows what she is saying. She screams when you take something away from her that she wants and she teases Preston by taking his trains from him. She runs away fast! She really is fun to have around. It's amazing how different she is than Preston when he was a baby. Development does wonders! She's still taking 2 naps, but not sure how much longer that will last. She's an early riser, up at 6:30 am or earlier! not good! She's a pretty good eater and is hanging onto a few chubby rolls. Here eyes are definitely brown (all the other cousins and my kids have blue so she's the first) and her hair is getting longer. Fun times!

I went Camping!

My family took me camping for my very first time! We went to Ensign Ranch and camped with Melanie & Milo and their kids along with Grandma Dee Ann. I loved getting dirty. I liked eating rocks, sticks and anything else I found on the ground. Nathan, Kathryn and Dane entertained me a lot and took me on little nature walks.

Here I am sitting in a camp chair like a big girl.

I slept in the smaller tent. I was bundled up in 2 layers of pajamas because it got so cold at night. My family and Grandma Dee Ann slept in the bigger tent. I slept bad the first night and really good the second night.

Uncle Milo and my Dad had to move this heavy picnic table over to our camp area so we could have a extra one. A man from Ensign Ranch came around in the morning to make sure no one was stealing picnic tables from other campsites. He used a loader to move them around because they are so heavy. You wouldn't want to get caught stealng one! haha! This one was a freebie so we got it.

Me with Preston and Kate eating Pirate's Booty

The cousins found a creek nearby and instantly made it their fort and secret play area. Kate even swam in the cold water! Reed and Preston threw rocks and sticks in the water.

Roasting marshmallows and making S'mores. We were lucky to be able to have a fire. There was a burn ban in the county, but the place we stay at is pre approved to have contained cooking fires. We sure needed the fires for the cold nights. Grandma Dee Ann from Las Vegas was freezing! :)

The older kids rode horses. They loved it.

We went for a canoe ride. It didn't last long though. My Mom and Dad were not doing good at working together to steer the canoe (!), I was about to go overboard because I was moving around so much, Kate was whining that she was done and Preston was playing in the water. It was a short ride.

The slip n' slide was the favorite. It was open all day long so we spent several hours there. I went down with my Mom and kind of liked it. I was a little scared at first, but was fine. It was really hot so it was nice to cool off.

L-R: Reed, Dane, Kathryn, Kate, Nathan and Preston

The die hard slip n' sliders!

It was fun to camp with my family. I will have to tell them to take me again!