Star Student

Jan 17 — Ashley / kids — 3 comments

I snatched this picture really quick this morning before Graysen headed out the door to school. Luckily at the end of a crazy week last week she got something she had been recently really hoping for… to be the Star Student of the Week in her class. So this is her week!

I kept worrying that she would become the star student right after I had the baby or some crazy time like that, so I was glad when I heard her happy news and glad that it happened over a holiday weekend too (more time to make the poster). However, I was even more grateful when I realized how easy it was; her teacher already had a large poster-sized print out for Graysen to fill in.

So Graysen went to work quickly drawing pictures and getting things on there. I, however, being the picky mom I am didn’t want it to be too easy (or sloppy). I wanted her to take her time and make it nice and put in some extra effort. So after some coaxing and more work then was probably needed by her mom and dad, she added a bit more to it to make it fun, thoughtful and more colorful. Now what three things to bring for her special star student show and tell this Friday…hmm?

A few more school related things:

I finally took a picture to preserve the memory of the family turkey project. It lost a few pieces after being transported to and from school, hung at school and laying around our house for a while. We were all supposed to work on it together as a family and use whatever we wanted to fill it up.

Carter’s preschool Christmas sing was a lot like the Halloween one. We had one cute, but tired-looking boy who sang a little and did a few actions here and there. I kept trying to encourage him to smile and get into it.

Aunt Amber got to come to this one, which was super fun. Thanks for the company and Esther help!

My kids definitely need more practice performing, because Graysen’s Christmas performance a few days later was pretty similar. We had one beautiful little girl, barely moving her lips or arms for the actions. (I wish I could easily post the videos here for proof.)

Graysen in the sea of students transitioning after singing their Christmas songs.

In Graysen’s classroom earlier that morning (after the crowds cleared)…

Her class sang us some cute songs before we went to the entire school sing where she sang with her grade. Our school is a bit lopsided, lots of young students and tons of first graders with less of the fifth and sixth grades.

What Graysen wanted for Christmas this year…

Seriously a candy cane is all she asked for and I didn’t prod her for more. I tried to focus more on “giving lists” with my kids then “wish lists” (more on that later). Last year, Kindergarten peers influenced her to want and ask for a pillow pet though she had never heard of them anywhere else (somehow Santa gave in and got one for both kids), but this year it was a simple candy cane.

Both my kids were super excited about giving me Christmas gifts that they made at school. Carter made a hanging magnet board and was so proud that he helped with it. He didn’t want me to wait until Christmas to open it.

Graysen started giving me little hints about what her gift was (she’s like her dad- doesn’t keep a surprise well) then accidentally told me what it was. She modge podged tissue onto a nice jar and inside was a little tea candle. She had it all carefully wrapped and eagerly brought it home wanting me to open it right away.

I love the excitement of giving and I love the cute school, handmade gifts.

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Kidlins and Blessings Lately

Jan 16 — Ashley / Enjoy Good Things / kids / Parenting — 3 comments

As Christmas neared Esther knew that she was one of the best gifts we could have. So she taped herself up.

Of course she was right.

I feel so blessed lately. And I know it has a lot to do with seeing my sweet Esther explore and experience the world. She is growing quickly and also quickly getting into mischief, but I can’t help but delight in her cuteness.

She is always doing something to make us grin. Last night after dinner and just before pajama time she finally had her Sunday dress off and was running around in her white onesie and little white leggings with a hot pad on her hand. She was so excited to put that hot pad on “oohing and ahhing” over it and looking so adorable as her little legs carried her around the room.

Then there’s how every time Chad comes home from work and we greet each other with a kiss, she wants in on the kissing fun and takes turns sweetly kissing our cheeks. I also love her little “diddle diddle diddle” she says as she tickles someone and often it’s herself. It’s the little things like that, that make Chad and I look at each other and smile at the happiness and joy that parenting brings.

How do kids just know right away that olives will fit perfectly on their fingers.

Of course I’ve also been feeling extremely overwhelmed lately. We somehow survived most of the holidays without a sickness, but then afterward managed to get every one we could to everyone in the family. (OK, not every sickness, super glad for that.)

Poor Graysen has probably had it the worst, not only with different sick bugs, but other crazy happenings. This week I was so sick and tired (and pregnant) that I didn’t hear her knock at the door when she came home from school. She thought we weren’t home and luckily was at a sweet neighbor’s for a while until I came to.

Then later in the week during her recess she had a major bang as the friend she was pushing on a swing went so high and flew right back into Graysen’s face giving her a huge bloody nose and cut and swollen lip and also causing her to slip and fall on nearby ice .

Luckily her friend Easton grabbed the duty guard who ushered her into the nurse’s station in the front office. Graysen’s bloody face scared all the fifth graders and others on their way to lunch (or so the principal told me), but she was extremely brave and waited for me to come and rescue her. I felt so glad that I could, but realized it even more when Graysen mentioned to me that the office secretary asked her if her Mom worked or if I would be available. It’s times like these and many many others that I am glad I made the choice to be a mom at home and for Chad’s full support.

Graysen has been a smiling champ through it all. (And might I add her smile is now one less baby tooth. That’s tooth #2! And the new ones are getting big too.) She really is a sweet girl, a hard-working student and a great big sister.

I also have a wonderfully patient little boy who is about the best-behaved kid around. Well… he is learning how to be more of a rowdy boy and is now often heard using his deepest, scratchiest voice- that’s even when he’s not sick.

For some reason if Carter does catch a cold or cough it usually starts off as the worst case of the croup. It is bad. He’s had it so often (the doctor and I have determined he must have a small trachea area, which causes him to get croup more then other kids) that I have finally learned to go into the doctor right away and get it remedied so we can all sleep better and my little boy can keep on breathing.

More Carter goodness: It has been so fun seeing him play with Esther. Carter loves making Esther happy and greeting her and entertaining her at her crib-side in the morning or after a nap. He usually loves to take care of her and to make her laugh.

Carter can entertain himself for hours (which has been very helpful as I have been extremely out of energy this week) and he is a diligent student. He makes life easier and more full of love as he sweetly shares his love for us in words and with the “I love you” sign often.

Cute morning face…

To add to my blessings (and my feelings of being overwhelmed) comes baby #4. Our new little one will be here in less then a month. There is so much to do before that time and really no energy left to do it. I have so much on my list, from things to clean and organize, things to buy, new sleeping arrangements, date nights and temple nights I want to get in with my hubby and more. A new baby will be here before we know it!

Although this is my fourth pregnancy I am still amazed at this stage where I have a large baby inside me. She is moving and kicking and wiggling all around. Even the nurses are amazed when they see her elbow or hand or foot slide across my bulging belly. What a miracle.

We are blessed and life is full and good.

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Christmas Downtown

Dec 22 — Ashley / Christmas / Deseret Book / Enjoy Good Things — 6 comments

This year Deseret Book succeeded in creating a fun and magical holiday window display with their gingerbread cookie making machine. Everyone that visits gets a free gingerbread man cookie too!

Chad had to be there to take pictures of its unveiling, so I loaded up the kids and made the trek out to join him.

We enjoyed the window from the inside and outside…

After the excitement of the new Deseret Book Christmas window, there was even more excitement as David Archuleta soon arrived in the store to a large crowd of screaming fans.

(Speaking of David Archuleta… have you heard his recent announcement? It made me cry. Chad and I are both so happy for him! What a sweet boy.)

Here are Graysen and Carter standing in front of David Archuleta and some of the signing commotion.

After this we ate sandwiches in Chad’s office while he uploaded photos to the DB Facebook page.

Then we took a little time to enjoy the lights on Temple Square.

What a beautiful and uplifting place anytime of the year, but so magical near Christmas time!

Hopefully you have made a stop there this season if you live anywhere near. What are some of your favorite places to visit during Christmas time?

Merry Christmas! …Just three more days!

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The Smells are Rotten

Dec 06 — Ashley / New Places / Pictures — 4 comments

But the views are amazing!

This Fall break we got some motivation from my parents and took a family road trip to Yellowstone. We had a fun little group: my parents, my sister Natalie’s family with three kids and our family. This is one of my only group shots… And yes it’s blurry, but the non-blurry one had more people hiding behind people. This is everyone that came. Hidden from view: I’m attempting the shot and Chad is carrying Esther on his back.

Cousins and Granparents

My kids loved hanging with their cousins and grandparents and loved taking turns riding with a cousin in Grandma and Grandpa’s car.

Sorry, Bry was blinking, but I still love this picture of the two boy cousins.

My Awesome Hubby

Chad was such a cutie on the trip…

Like always. Such a good and helpful Dad. He drove every bit of the trip: there, all around Yellowstone and back. (Of course that meant I was on food and kid duty in the van, but that went well, because we brought loads of food, CDs, DVDs and the kids each brought their own activity bag of fun.) Chad had lots of stressful driving: dark, raining, curving roads and lots of time behind the wheel. Woah! He’s so kind.

And so buff too, carrying all three kids up the stairs at once. It was near the end of the day and they were all ready for a little break.

Actually I was happily surprised at how well all the kids did. They were each happy hikers as we took trail after trail and even did it all in the cold. Brrr! Esther was a good girl in the hiking back pack or stroller.

Tired

We were all tired though from our long, fun-filled days and late nights. The two boys took a rest during the Old Faithful movie.

And kept sleeping…

“Yellowstones”

During our first hike Graysen looked for and excitedly found yellow stones. :)

Animal Sitings

As we drove through Yellowstone, it was so fun to search out the windows for animals and then to suddenly see an animal herd in the distance or a bison right next to us on the road. (And thankfully none on the road or we might have had a problem like last Fall Break’s deer dilemma. Thankfully no craziness of that sort!)

We saw lots of animals too: elk, bison, Bald Eagle, wolf, geese, raven, etc.

Elk herd in the water behind us…

This Bald Eagle was flying along with us for a while as we drove…

Here is what a Raven left behind after a visit to Natalie and Nic’s truck…

He opened the zipper on their cooler bag took out and ate all their pizza and left beak holes in the bag. Nice.

Homemade Vacation Meals

The food we ate was heavenly and we also saved ourselves a lot of time and money. Nat and Nic got a room with a large kitchen so we enjoyed two dinners there, where we ate a delicious crockpot meal with meat, potatoes, carrots and onions, fresh garden salad, homemade hot bread (I brought dough I made at home, stored it in the mini fridge in our room and put it out to rise the morning we wanted it.), and delicious, easy and warm peach cobbler with whipped cream.

We couldn’t have made the bread and cobbler without the oven, but making a crockpot meal is a super idea for any hotel stay! I brought enough food from home to feed my family plenty of meals and we actually never ate out once our entire four day trip. Our hotel did have continental breakfast, but if we’d stayed somewhere without that I would have brought shelf stable milk and cereal. Pasta salad in our cooler was a good meal in the van and on-the-go and a great way to bring and use up our veggies and food that could have gone bad if we left it in the fridge while we were gone. We brought lots of bread with all sorts of sandwich options and easy to pull out healthy snack foods: fruits, nuts, cheese, etc. and maybe not-so healthy ones for fun too!

Yellowstone Music

If you do ever go to Yellowstone with kids (or without) you  might want to bring along this fun Yellowstone kid music. All the kids loved listening and were soon singing along. I enjoyed being able to pass it from car to car so we could each take a turn rockin’ out to songs about bison, fires and rolling along in Yellowstone.

Family and Creations

I’m not the best at taking initiative for planning a family vacation. They often seem overwhelming and hard to organize, especially if it’s new territory. Do you all have vacation planning tricks?

This one was really great and doable. We loved being with our extended family and enjoying time with our own little family too. (We even made a fun stop to our old stomping grounds… Rexburg, Idaho where Chad and I met and courted. I’ll have to post on that stop sometime. So fun!)

We loved our time together and the opportunity to experience and appreciate Heavenly Father’s amazing and unique creations in Yellowstone.

After our trip the kids each made little trip books. They wrote stories and drew pictures about what they enjoyed, which of course included swimming at the hotel and eating the breakfast buffet.

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Missing Tooth Club

Dec 05 — Ashley / Happenings / kids — 3 comments

Little things Graysen did here and there spoke volumes to me about how anxious she was to join the “missing tooth club.” She’s the youngest of her grade and has seen countless of her friends in kindergarten, church, the neighborhood and now in first grade lose teeth… and lots of them.

Occasionally Graysen would pretend to lose a tooth and pull a piece of ice or corn out of her mouth. Sometimes she would tell me her teeth were wiggly, though they were as sturdy and strong as could be.

Then Sunday, November 20th, as we were nearing an end to our family dinner at my parent’s house Graysen’s cousin, Hannah, who is 11 months younger then her lost her first tooth. Graysen was so ecstatic for Hannah and wanted to be right there while my sister Lisa pulled it out. Then Graysen ran to get some tissue for Hannah’s mouth. Graysen was so sweet and kind.

Later that night, I almost felt like crying a bit because of her sweetness and partly because she still hadn’t joined “the club.” (Though my sister, Lisa, who is a dental hygienist made me feel better when she said that losing teeth later meant she’d have her permanent teeth later and so maybe longer and stronger.)

I never expected what happened the very next Sunday. Graysen woke up with a loose tooth. I didn’t believe it at first, but sure enough it was very wiggly. She wiggled it all morning and excitedly showed our family. She couldn’t wait to tell her church class too. When I saw that her new tooth was already poking through, I was just as anxious to help her get it out as she was to have it out. (I don’t want her new teeth coming in crooked.)

So after church we sat on the couch and she bravely let me wiggle this way and that. She didn’t want to do anything else until we go it out. Push and pull. Wiggle. Wiggle. Soon her little gem was in her hand and a hole in her mouth. No noticeable wiggling one day… to out the next afternoon!

She immediately thought about how fun it would be to show her cousins, classmates and everyone! And she said I could put up pictures on the computer to show everyone. So here they are. :)

Getting ready for the tooth fairy…

The tooth fairy came…

One happy girl!

P.S. I probably should have told Graysen’s tooth fairy to just leave her some pennies, since Graysen doesn’t care much about money value. What did your tooth fairy do for you growing up? What does your kid’s tooth fairy do now? Graysen’s tooth fairy is named Fofinya and is quite girly so I’m assuming Carter’s will be a boy and be quite manly. :)

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