January 19 - 24

I am trying something new. Since I don't seem to do very well at writing on my blog, I am going to be tying two projects into one. I wanted to do a better job of taking pictures of my kids, my friends, and our life in general, so last week I started to take at least one picture a day. Once a week I am going to post pictures from each day of the last week. That way even if I don't write very much at least I will be able to look back and have an idea of what we were doing!

Tuesday - Kate had her 4 year well check up, and she had to get 4 shots. She was very brave and only cried a little! Here she is showing off her Snoopy band aid.



Wednesday - It was cold and rainy, so we made some coffee and rice krispie treats. One of my favorite combos!



Thursday - It rained all day! I don't know why and most people here think I'm weird, but I love dreary weather. This is the view from my living room, and I love seeing the grass and the trees with no leaves in front of the gray sky.


Friday - We went out by ourselves for the first time in forever! This is Brian with his bib on at Kings Fish House. He's messy!



Saturday - I forgot to take any pictures...oops!


Sunday - This is our friend, Franz, reading Kate a story. Franz moved to France today, so we won't see him until December. Sad :(

Scary

Brian: That is a giant BMW dealership.

Kate: Giants! I'm scared of giants...and dinosaurs.


It's amazing how she only seems to hear what she wants to hear.

3 1/2...almost 4

Kate is now officially 3 1/2. She has been saying she is almost 4 since probably around February, and already is planning for her next birthday party. Every so often she reminds me who she wants to invite, and that she needs balloons! She is really growing up, and becoming such a little kid. She definitely knows what she likes, which is princesses, watching her shows (Curious George, Clifford), drawing and coloring, and her friends. She has been difficult lately (that 3 year old attitude, I guess), but she is so sweet most of the time and says things that just kill me. She is an amazing little girl, and I feel so lucky that I get to hang out with her everyday!

Skating Shoes

On Thursday we told Kate that she was going to go ice skating with her cousin Stephanie. All day she was very excited about her skating shoes. She loves all types of shoes already! She was a little freaked out at first, but after taking a break she wanted back out on the ice. After about 40 minutes, she just wanted to lay down on the ice and make "snow angels". Brian had to finally drag her out. I have a feeling we may be spending more time at the ice rink, which is ok with me. It's nice and cold in there!

Eyebrows

Yesterday Kate was in the bathroom standing in front of the mirror with a very strange and concerned look on her face, so I asked her what was wrong...

Kate: My eyebrows are brown.

Me: So...

Kate: I don't want them to be brown.

Me: What color do you want them to be.

Kate: Pink!

Me: I don't think so.

My Little Ballerina

Kate had her first ballet class on Tuesday night! It was so cute seeing her dance around. She had so much fun wearing her little tutu and ballet shoes. We were only allowed to be in there for a few minutes, so we don't have too many pictures. At the end of May they are having a little recital, so I'll put up a video and pictures then.


The next morning Kate advanced from intermediate survival to bronze jr. at her swimming lessons. She has been taking lessons at Swim Kids with her friend, Grafton, for about a year and a half. They stood up on the podium and received medals. So funny!

California

On Halloween we drove to California to see my family and friends for the weekend. I was very excited to go home, because I had not been there since April. It was the longest Ventura drought I have ever experienced. Hopefully, it will never happen again!

We did the Halloween thing with my parents, my sister and my brother-in-law, and my three little nephews. Kate was so excited to get to dress up with her cousins! Kate was Tinkerbell, Austin was Peter Pan (we planned that), Zach was Mr. Incredible, Ian was Winnie-the-Pooh, and Everett was a dinosaur. Here are some pictures from the parade that they do in my parent's neighborhood every year.

After the kids were done getting candy, etc. we went to my friend Ruth's Twilight Party. She did an excellent job! Yeah, Ruth! It was very fun, and I'm even more excited for the movie now.

The next couple days we spent with my family. It was nice to actually get to hang out and spend quality time with all of them. We even had a slumber party that night. I don't think it worked out that well for Tamara, but it was fun to get to all stay up late together. We went to a baby shower for my friend Kristen that night too. It was very convenient that most of my friends were there. I miss all of them a lot! (The next picture is of my best friend Ruth's daughters with Kate and Ev, and the one after that is all of the kids at the shower.)

Monday we went to Disneyland with my parents. Kate loved it! I can't wait to go back, and take her again. Everett did really well too thankfully. Kate's favorite things were the Tea Cups (she calls them the Coffee Cups, haha!), the parade, and Pixie Hollow, where she met Tinkerbell. Next time we go to Disneyland we will stay longer though. One day is not really enough with little kids, because you can't go very fast. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go again soon!

Farm Animals

Two weeks ago the theme for school was farm animals. I honestly barely remember what we did, because the last week has been kind of crazy. I didn't do everything with Kate that I had planned since we were both sick, but below are some pictures of one thing she liked. We read a book titled Mrs. Wishy-Washy, which is about an old lady who washes her farm animals when they make a mess in the mud. I bought her some plastic farm animals, it was called a Farm Animal Toob. I thought it was weird! Anyway, she made a painting with her farm animals and some mud, aka brown paint. After the farm animals were dirty, she cleaned them all just like Mrs. Wishy-Washy. I was finally brave and just let her paint on her own that day. She actually did really well, no messes!

We read some other books about farm animals, she really liked one called Barn Dance by Bill Martin, Jr. She also learned the letters N and O. I was planning on taking her to the zoo, because they have a farm section and they added a new Little People Farm area. It didn't happen since it was still too hot and we were sick. Hopefully soon!

Dinosaurs

On Saturday we went to the Natural History Museum in Mesa. Kate liked seeing all the dinosaurs, and panning for gold. Mostly she just liked playing in the water. I'm sure she had no idea what we were trying to get her to do. Before we left we went to the little museum gift shop and let Kate pick out something. Brian was showing her the little dinosaurs, but she wanted a bag of rocks. She played with them for a long time yesterday, who knew rocks could be so entertaining.

Kate waiting to watch the flash flood reenactment. There is a Tricerotops and a T-Rex that move and roar on this "Dinosaur Mountain".

Ben & Everett's first boat ride

Last Sunday it was actually cool enough to go on Papa's boat. Kate was very excited, she has been waiting all summer. It was the first time that Ben and Everett were able to go out on it, and it went very well! There was no sea sickness, and everyone made it back alive.

First Suns Game of the Year

Last week Brian took Kate to one of the Suns preseason games. He is a brave man! Actually, it went pretty well. She didn't make it for the whole game, but they did stay for half time. Kate's favorite things were the gorilla and Steve Nash. Good girl!

Next

This last week I have been reading a book that my friend Ruth told me about called The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. It is a book about homeschooling using the classical education approach. I had never even heard of this, which is sad since I was an education major. It is an approach that the US education system has gone away from, which I now believe is one of the major problems with our society today. It makes so much more sense then what is being done in schools now. I feel that I was given a pretty good education at College Heights. I never knew exactly why what they did there seemed to work, but now I know it was because they were somewhat using this system. I have no idea if it was intentional, but hopefully it was! I would love for my kids to learn this way, so I'm thinking about teaching them myself. We'll see!

For Kate's preschool I have lessons figured out until the 2nd week of February, and then I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I wanted to do something more literature based, but I wasn't sold on any of the programs I had seen for her age. Then I found a book called Storytime from A to Z. I haven't ordered it yet, but it seems like what I was looking for. There are 26 lessons, one for every letter. Each lesson is based on a book and then there are different activities that go along with the letter and the subject of the story. I think Kate will like it!

Saturday Morning

I was just sitting here drinking my coffee, not really doing anything. That doesn't really happen very often. It's nice! Anyway, I thought it was time for a little update. This last week in Kate's school the theme was Dinosaurs. Kate actually really likes dinosaurs. For about 5 months the only book she wanted read to her before bed was How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen. She also has a stuffed T-Rex that she always sleeps with. She liked playing with some miniature dinosaurs that I bought her. We did some classification with them, which she really likes doing. She loves sorting things and putting things in order, even if the order doesn't always make sense to me. I taught her a few factual things about dinosaurs, and then showed her on a world map where different dinosaurs lived. It always surprises me how much she loves maps. Maybe she will be a cartographer when she grows up. Do they still have those anymore? We also went over the letters L and M, and reviewed the numbers 1 thru 5. I have a feeling she is going to be able to write all of her letters before she can even read. A little backwards, but she really likes trying to write the letters. I wasn't even planning on teaching her to write yet, but she always asks.

Today we are going to the Arizona Natural History Museum. It will be Kate and Everett's first trip to a museum. They have a lot of dinosaur exhibits, so it should be fun. I'll put pictures up later. Then tonight Brian and I are going to his parents annual Wine Tasting Party! Yeah! I actually get to have wine this year. I've been pregnant for 2 of the parties, and not being able to have wine at a wine party is not that fun.

Another first for this lovely Saturday...Brian is at Dunkin Donuts right now buying some yummy breakfast. Well, I've actually never had doughnuts from there, but supposedly they are so good. I'm excited to try them!

Kate's 1st Haircut

We finally took Kate to get her first haircut. Since Kate was practically bald until she was a year old, I had a hard time wanting to cut her hair. It was getting kind of crazy though, and quite a few people told me that it would probably start growing a little better if she had it trimmed. A friend said she would do it, and so we took her in. She was very good in the chair. She barely moved, and she did everything that Julie told her to. I think Kate actually liked it even though you couldn't really tell by the expression on her face. She says she wants to go back though!

Fall pictures!

A few weeks ago we took Kate and Everett to Portrait Innovations to have their first pictures taken together. It's a great place to go if you have one near you. Pretty good prices, and the photographers actually have real cameras so they can move around. Most of these types of places have stationary cameras so you're just trying to get your kids to actually look at the camera. Here are the adorable results!

3 Months

Yesterday Everett was 3 months old! He is the cutest, sweetest little boy. He already lets me sleep through the night, how nice of him. He smiles and laughs at all of us, especially Brian. He is "talking" more everyday, and I'm afraid he is going to be just as loud as Kate. He can almost hold his head up when he's laying on his stomach, but he's not on the ground as much as he probably should be because of Kansas and Kate. They don't like to leave him alone. He's grown a lot in his first 3 months...5 1/2 inches and almost 6 pounds. He's a big guy! Here are some pictures from his 3rd month.