Smarty Pants

Emily gets homework in preschool every Thusday. About 1.5 months ago she had a DVD to watch. The DVD was one that taught a few sight words that kids learn in kindergarten and 1st grade. Oh man, the movie was dreadful. The word would pop up on the tv screen and then the word was repeated 100 times over the next 30 seconds, okay maybe not that many times. The word would be written in normal type and then it would be changed into some sort of cartoon. For example the word MY would be a whale. Anyway, Allie sat down and watched the video with Emily. After it went through once Allie started saying the word as soon as it showed up on the screen before they even said it. I thought it was just a freak thing. About a week later I wrote some of the words down on a piece of paper and asked her what they said. She got them right. I wrote words that were similar to the words that she knew to see if she would say the wrong word, she didn't she just told me that she didn't know that word.

I finally took the time to record her reading (recognizing) these words. There are a few more words that she knows but these are the only ones that I had flash cards for.

As you can tell she still has the normal 2 year old attention span and can't sit still for very long. She is such a smart little girl.

Josh 4 Months Old

It is hard to believe that my little guy is 4 months old already. He is such a happy little guy.

He loves playing with his toes, chewing on his fingers and playing with his toys. He loves playing peek-a-boo especially with his sisters.

He went in for his 4 month checkup and everything looks good. Here are his measurements

Weight: 13lbs 15 oz- 28%

Length: 25.6 inches- 73%

Halloween 2009

Emily and Allie LOVE LOVE LOVE Dr. Seuss books. They really like The Cat in the Hat. So we decided to have a Cat in the Hat themed Halloween this year. I looked at costumes online and it was going to cost about $80-90 to do costumes for all 3 kiddos. I felt like that was a lot of money for one night and didn't think it would be too hard to make their costumes for a lot less. So I gave it a go.

Emily and Allie were Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Joshua was The Cat In The Hat.

I think that their costumes all turned out great and I spent $15 instead of $90. Wahoo.

One last photo op before heading out for a night of fun.

Tyler was gone out of town for work so it was me and the kiddos. The girls were so good and held hands as they walked down the sidewalk. It made it nice and easy to keep track of them.

The Cat In The Hat looking on as Thing 1 and Thing 2 go up to a door to get some more candy.

Me and Josh out Trick-or-Treating.

The loot. Emily and Allie got so much candy.

Emily and Allie loved their costumes. They loved walking down the sidewalk and having kids yell out "Look, Mom, it's Thing 1 and Thing 2". It was fun. Joshua was a champ the whole time and didn't even fuss. We had a great night.

Pumpkin Party at Grandma and Grandpa's

The past couple of years, Tyler's mom and dad have had the grandkids over for pumpkin carving a few days before Halloween.  The kis get to dress up in their costumes and then we carve pumpkins.  The grandkids are all still to little to be running around wilding knives so they tell us what they want and then the adults carve the pumpkins and all the kids run around.

Thing 1, Thing 2 and The Cat in the Hat

Emily was excited to dig in and clean out her pumpkin.

As she really got into cleaning her pumpkin, Emily would make grossed out faces and then she would say over and over "It's so squishy and gross" then continue to clean her pumpkin out. She didn't mind cleaning it out and even helped clean Allie's and Josh's.

Allie stuck her hand in the pumpkin, touched the "guts" and was done. She did not like the feel of the pumpkin squishing between her fingers and wanted nothing to do with it.

I'm a bad mom and didn't take pictures of the finished products. I was too busy eating the donuts and drinking the apple cider that we had after. Yum Yum!

Accomplishments

EMILY
Emily has learned to ride her bike without training wheels! And without Mom and Dad breaking their backs from bending over as they try and hold on to her seat.
Nope, she did this all on her own. Tyler bought her this cute little pink bike from Kazam. This bike has no pedals so basically she pushed herself around on this bike and just learned to balance. Her and her cousin spent about 2 hrs cruisin up and down the sidewalk on this thing. A week or so later (the weather was too cold to get out any sooner than that) Emily got her normal bike out and gave it a go. She had gained confidence on the Kazam bike so she wasn't scared to try out her own bike without training wheels and without Mom and Dad holding on. It only took her a few minutes on her bike and she was off on her own without training wheels and even more important she was in control of the bike. It was amazing how fast she got the hang of it. Now Allie enjoys playing on the pink bike.ALLIE
On our way to Jackson Hole for the LOTOJA in September Allie decided she wanted to be potty trained. She has gone in the toilet off and on for the last few months but I never really pushed it because it was too hard with a new baby. The drive to Jackson was 10hrs long as we followed grandpa on his bike. She stayed dry the whole way there! She has been dry since then (1 month). Day AND night. She has only had 2 accidents (both at night)!! JOSHUA
Josh is now 3 months old. He is always smiling. He loves smiling at his sisters. He has also started to laugh. It is so cute! He gets the hiccups every time just like Emily does. He is also sleeping through the night. He usually goes to sleep around 8pm and wakes up around 5:30-6am.

Oh, man! I love these kids. They make me smile.

Black Island Farms Field Trip

Emily's preschool class had a field trip to Black Island Farms today. We made it a bit of a family trip. They took us on a tractor ride around the farm and showed the kids the different plant they they grow. When we came to the pumpkin patch the kids were able to go and pick out a pumpkin that they wanted to take home.

Emily picked out one that was all lumpy.

Allie was very proud of the one she picked.

Our little family after picking our pumpkins.

There were a bunch of different activities that the kids could do while we were there.

The girls and Tyler enjoyed riding in these barrels pulled by a 4-wheeler.

Jumping in a giant inflatable pumpkin.

Emily and her friends from preschool enjoyed making trains and going down the slides.

Emily and Allie even enjoyed going down this steep slide together.This is about as good as pictures get with 3 crazy kids!! LOVE THEM!

What a fun day!! I'm glad that Tyler got home from his business trip in time to go with us. It was fun spending the day together.

LOTOJA 2009

My dad just completed his 4th LOTOJA this past weekend. 206 miles from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole Wyoming on a road bike. Do we think he is crazy? Yes. Do we still love supporting him? Yes! He raced in the Masters 35+ group and finished 18th out of 70 in 10hrs 2 mins. VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE!My dad!The kids did amazingly well sitting in the car for that long. Lots of sugar and movies helped in that department. Just as he crossed the finish line.Champion! Still able to smile after 206 miles.The amazing support crew! Look real close, I think Josh and Tyler are making the same face in this picture.My handsome little boy!

This is how we found the girls the next morning.

It was fun supporting my dad on his journey. We love road trips but they are a bit more difficult with children. We still had fun and my dad did great!