A is for airplane!

About a month and a half ago Peyton and I embarked on a new adventure with a few other mom's and their kids. We have begun preschool! It is an awesome group of moms who I am delighted to have teaching my daughter. I get to teach my own little girl and her friends, but I also have 5 other moms to share the burden with. My friend Barbara already had a curriculum set up from doing preschool elsewhere and we decided to just jump in and follow it. This last week we started over at the beginning of the Alphabet with letter A and an airplane theme (we also have color, number and shape as well). Sandy Humann, one of the other moms, set up this amazing field trip to Chandler Airport. We got to look at her father in law's plane and see the parts of the plane that the kids had learned about the day before. We also got to ride in the airplane, a little four seater. It was so much fun! Peyton and I were in the group that went up first along with Connor Linford. They were so cute the whole time. Connor kept saying, "Roger that" and Peyton was just commenting here and there about the things she saw, her little voice so quiet I didn't catch what she was saying. They were both grinning from ear to ear though. What a great experience for such young children! When we were back on the ground watching the other kids get their turns Peyton told me that she wanted to go back up, I guess 20 minutes was just not enough for her.

Ninja, Flight Commander, Robin, Princess P, what do they have in common?

They all belong to me!
Oct 28
Every Thursday I help in Benji's Kindergarten class. The Thursday before Halloween they got invited to go trick or treating at the district offices. Peyton saw all of the kids there that morning in their costumes (we had to bring one to Ben because I didn't know they could dress up) and she wanted to get dressed up. She sat like a little angel while I curled all of her hair into ringlets, even the ones that are already in ringlets got curled, and did her make-up. She wanted to be a fairy, in her same costume from last year.

She was very happy.

This was Ben getting off the bus, it was his first school bus ride and first school field trip. I grabbed the spider-man costume because it was the most handy and only one piece. He was happy to have it, he only complained later that I didn't bring the mask. Shame on me.

Oct 30

Halloween for the most part. Trunk or Treat.

Micah was a ninja. Nana Paula got him this costume for his birthday, an early birthday gift. He was not up for something reused, recycled or repurposed.

Jacob was a flight commander. Aunt Lindsay got Micah this costume for his birthday a few years ago on after Halloween clearance. Jacob was very accomodating this year and had no complaints about reusing, this costume was never even worn for Halloween, it was perfect. He was the cutest pilot or flight commander I've ever seen.

I found this at Goodwill for $4 several years ago. Jacob wore it for Halloween once and now it's Ben's turn, a very adorable Robin.

The Linfords gave us this very pretty princess dress (a hat too) that was Lauren's. I am so glad that Peyton wore this, she was so stinkin cute. We had a nap issue that day and she went to sleep about 30 minutes before it was time to get ready. I had to wake her up (not a good idea) She did not want a costume on, any costume, she didn't even want to go to trunk or treat. My sister Morgan came over early and helped me to literally tackle her hair with a few curling irons and we did without the make-up. It worked, I am so happy she got out of her funk and was dressed up so cute. At the time we took this picture she was still in her funk and did not want to look at me, that's ok, you can see her curls better this way! Oh, her little crown comb was from Stefanie Adams in the conference basket she gave us (she's my VT).

First trunk of the night, Sis. Tanner. The boys were off on their own. Peyton moved slower that molasses, she didn't even make it to every trunk before the candy ran out. She was enjoying it though. She gave away most all of her candy anyway.

Suckers are one of her favorites, funny, I always traded suckers or ended up throwing them out as they were the last thing left.

We had an old fashioned stick pull. Next to the chili and cornbread it was my favorite part of the evening. All my kids lost. They were all paired with people about twice their height though. Leg length makes a huge difference. I beat Margaret but she was good competition, then Kendra beat me (mostly because Margaret wore me down and Kendra's about a foot taller than me, no, really, I could have taken her). Melissa Bogle beat Kendra (but only because I wore her down and Melissa really is like a foot taller than Kendra, maybe 2 feet taller than me) I wish we had pictures of the girls, it was really fun.

Oct 31

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we opted out of trick or treating and instead let the kids dress up and pass out candy at my moms. It was perfect really. They are always wanting to pass out candy but never get to because they're always out trick or treating. We also picked up Grandma Kay and brought her with us, it was a nice night.

Still more backtracking to come. Next up, candy corn parfaits.

Kindergarten Zoo trip!

Ok, so I have gotten a little behind in my blogging. I have been busy trying to keep the kids entertained and trying to stay cool (our airconditioner hasn't been working for the last week). Thanks Barbara for having us over this afternoon and helping us stay cool! I also have a new obsession that has been occupying all he free time I can muster up, collecting free digital scrapbooking stuff and organizing it. If you are into this, check out my frequented sites section to the right and there are 3 or 4 great places to check out. Anyway, there are a few other things going on too, and you'll hear about some of them in an upcoming blog!


I was very fortunate to have been able to chaperone Jacob's clas fieldtrip to the zoo on June 5th. There were only 3 kids in my group, Brooklyn, Mikayla and Jacob, and I was able to bring Ben and Peyton too! Here we are in the reptile house...
Ben, Jake and Brooklyn

Since Tyler works right across the street he was able to pop over for a little while, it was so nice to have him with us, even if it was just for a short time.
Here is my group, Jacob, Brooklyn and Mikayla
Jacob was checking out the Lemurs
Ben and Jake

This is Jacob's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. DeAmaral. He was so fortunate to have her. She was the perfect teacher for him and he learned and grew so much in her class. Thanks Mrs. D!!!

not enough time in the day

I normally do several blogs at a time about once every 2 weeks and then I post them one at a time every few days. This time is going to be a little different. I have been so busy doing other things lately. What you ask, I'm not sure, I'm all over the place, so now as Peyton naps and Micah is in school and Ben and Jake are playing at Luke's house, I will do as much as I can as fast as I can! I have so many interests, I love to read and to scrapbook and to have a clean and organized house and play with my kids etc, etc. I think that at times I try to do too much, I'm spreading myself a little thin. I have been spending more time with the kids, and I honestly don't think there is anything else better I could be doing than that. My other "project" is organizing and editing all of our digital photos, we have about 3 1/2 years worth. I am rotating, removing red eye, uploading to Costco and saving them on my external hard drive (Happy Mother's Day to me!) After I'm done with that, I plan on burning them on a disc. So, my kids think I am now attached to Tyler's laptop that he is now letting me use for all of my photo needs because it was slowing our dinosaur computer down too much. I am very excited to get organized and caught up with all this stuff. For those of you that don't know me too well, I am a project girl. I jump in all the way and go until I'm finished, from one project to the next. This summer I am looking forward to and planning on going through the entire house and minimizing and organizing everything. Ok, so now here are some photos from the last few weeks.


May 8
Diego is not your typical chihuahua, he loves kids, especially cuddling up to them when they aren't bouncing all over the place, it took him no time at all to get comfy with the newest member of our family. Peyton is now mesmerized by him and loves trying to grab him.

May 9
I was able to chaperone Jacob's field trip to the Ag Farm at one of our local high schools. Tyler had taken the day off so he could take the boys up early to Father's and Son's, also known as the Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration. I don't have any photos of that because they were all taken on Micah's camera, so maybe I'll get that one next time. Micah got sick just before they left, he was just laying on the bed until it was time to go, and then when they got up the mountain he threw up several times and then they found out that Auberry Ward had snaked all the campsites, so they had to drive around a bunch to find another place, which Micah tells me was not nearly as good as the one they went to the last few years. Luckily he felt better quickly and all 4 boys had a good time, just not as good as last year! Anyway, Jacob's field trip was fun, we got to see several different stations which I'll picture some of them below. That night I had my first annual girls night. My mom and my sister came over and we watched 3 movies (one was Legend, really good) and ate Subway and ice cream. My sister spent the night and slept in Tyler's place. It was a very fun evening, even with the pretty big argument that my mom and my sister got into at the beginning of our evening. I will definately do it again next year.

We sat next to each other on the ride there, it was Jacob's 1st bus ride!

Carpentry is a skill that farmers need in order to build barns and pens for animals.
Wow, I was surprised that they gave a bunch of kindergartners hammers and nails!
Jacob trying out his hammering skills, this was something I did a lot as a kid being that my dad was a roofer. I didn't realize it until this day, I don't think any of my kids have hammered nails into wood. I was a pro by age 5.
We got a tour of the greenhouse, pretty cool (not the temp though!), it was also very big.
Potato sack races, I guess too fill in some time, I don't know if that's a popular activity with farmers or not!
We learned all about dairy cows, and about beef cows. Did you know we use the oil in cows for our toothpaste? Just about every part of the cow is used. This is Jacob milking a "cow".
Very loud sheep.
Jacob didn't want to get very close, I guess it's been too long since I've taken him riding.
He didn't want to get too close to the mama pigs and their babies, I think the high school kids scared them with a story about getting their finger bitten off. It wasn't true either!
Roping!

I think you got him!
Lunch back at the school, what a hot and busy day!


May 11
I got to sleep in on Mother's Day and then all 3 boys and Tyler came in singing "Mother I love you" with a breakfast tray of toast, yogurt, pears, cheerios and milk. Each of the boys made a card for me and they were all very cute, I especially got a kick out of the inventive spelling in Jacob's card. Tyler gave me a somewhat large box to open and before I opened it he made sure I knew we could take it back if I didn't like it. He told the guys at work what he got me and they seemed to think he might be in trouble. That was my external hard drive. He knows me very well and is the best gift giver. He knows what I want, even when I may not. I have never been disappointed in his gifts. The rest of the day wasn't fantastic, the kids had a hard day for some rehson, oh yeah, they were really tired and worn out from Father's and Son's! The morning was so nice though that it was allright that the rest of th day was poopy. Jacob gave a great talk in Primary too, he read the whole thing all by himself and Tyler had helped him a little to write it.




I painted Peyton's toenails and my toenails the same color. Tyler didn't like it too well, but I thought it was very cute. It did look rather surprising though, to see such little toenails polished.


May 16
Peyton looked so cute in her orange sunsuit from Nana Paula that I had to get some pictures. She is such a good sleeper and a very happy baby. Sometimes she sleeps 11 hours during the night without waking up, maybe that's why she is always in such a great mood, she's well rested!





May 18

Peyton is already 4 months old! Today I stayed home from church with Jake and Peyton because Jake woke up with a fever of 103 and a sore throat. He seemed fine but because of the fever I really didn't think he should be around other kids. He helped me give Peyton a bath and we read from the Friend and played games on pbskids.org. It was nice spending one on one time with him. When the rest of the family came home we read some from the newest Friend and then got a game of Life going, we had to break for dinner and the game didn't end until almost 8pm! I actually won, it was fun. We are playing a lot more games lately because Ben is now at an age where he can do pretty well with a little help.