the TREE is up

We left all of our artificial trees behind with the move so we went with a real tree this year. It's so fun to decorate it with the kids. We have been collecting ornaments each year for each year that remind us of something they did/loved that year. They absolutely love to hang their own ornaments on the tree and talk about each one. Maggie has a sledding one from her 2nd christmas because she was a sledding fiend :) Jackson has a Jango Fett from his 5th christmas because he was a little obsessed with Star Wars and dressed up as Jango Fett for Halloween that year. Hailey has a ballerina from the year she and Maggie took a dance class together. Caleb has a spiderman from last year :) and a powerranger from this year. I'm working on getting them all into little picture books so we remember who got which ornmanent and when. It's already getting a little hard to recall!!

Hailey is playing with our two Lego Advent calendars. They LOVE these. Caleb and Hailey will play with them for an hour each day when we open new doors. A little hard to keep track of all the Lego pieces though. They are fairly well trained to keep them right with the calendar boxes...... :)

Ice skating

These crazy littles were pretty awesome skaters this time around. Which is amazing since it's been a year since we've been skating..... Last time Caleb had to be held up and lasted all of 15 min. This time he could go it alone and it took him all of 5 min to figure out the toe pick. He would use them to stand up after falling down. Hailey was zooming around on her own too. Last time she used a really big cone and pushed it all over. Maggie was off the wall and all over. Last time she would barely let go. And Jackson...... who learned how to do a few 360's in a row. He said he just taught himself. We go skating again in a week. They will be even more confident and crazy! These are both online school sponsered activities. I love that their online school has a lot of outings like this to give them social opportunities but they are a little farther away so it's not people we could easily make playdates with.

Sledding

First real sledding this season. there was hardly enough snow to cover the grass but the kids were so excited to be out sledding! They had a great time. Caleb absolutely loves it. All of our kids have become sledding fanatics at age 2-3 and they have yet to grow out of it :) It's pretty fun to see the joy they get from it. I remember so many fun days spent sledding with my siblings. We had an awesome sledding hill right outside our front door. That was excellent.

Dinner theater

As a date night - I took the girls to a dinner theater show of "The Nutcracker". It was pretty fun. It was just at a regular restuarant and the actors perform around the tables. The kids got to interact with the performers A LOT. They would get up and dance during the songs and help with little things throughout the show. They loved it. They are begging me to take them to see Cinderella around Valentine's Day.

School

By far, one of the best things about homeschooling is the freedom to drop everything and do something else for a little or a long while :) We took an impromtu field trip to a bird refuge that's nearby. The kids loved it. I thought they might get bored because it's an hour of VERY slow driving and there really were not very many birds around there this time of year. There should have been swans and eagles but we only saw a few swans. They had a great time checking out the different stop points. They even made some videos pretending they were hosting a nature show.
While I miss the freedom it gives me when they attend a regular public school, I love the freedom that homeschooling gives them.

Just another day

Costumes play a big part in day to day play at our house :) This was a week or so ago. Caleb even insisted on wearing the Batman out and about. At Costco, he would stand there with his hands on his hips and then wave to anyone who walked by. It was very entertaining.
Hailey loves her bee  costume from Halloween. She wears it often. Years of Halloweens have kept our costume box well stocked.

Backyard

This is why we bought this house over so many others that we looked it. It was one of the few that had some trees for shade in the backyard. I think we will miss the  MD shade a lot come UT summer :) These little trees will help a little. Jackson found a nest up in one of the trees that still had some robin egg shells in it. That was pretty exciting for all of them.
Maggie made it outside to help with the leaf pile :)

Crazy Fall weather

These pics were taken two days apart. The snowy day came first..... it obviously didn't last long. It was sunny and dry enough 2 days later to play in the leaves. The boys had a lot of fun with that pile. I'm not sure what the girls were up to....... This is pretty typical for Utah weather or maybe it's typical for Fall anywhere. The temps and precipitation vary a lot from day to day.
We had to dig though a number of boxes to find their snow stuff. We managed to get everyone suitable dressed and out they went to play. They made a few snowmen but didn't last long without sleds. We now have sleds but no snow. There is a little hill in our backyard that should keep them busy between trips to the larger hills.

School out and about

This is school. It's not at home :) When we moved into our house we had some trouble getting the internet connected. When you school online - that's a bit of a problem. While we could do a lot of the kids work without the internet, they have classes that they do live with their teachers each week. Enter free WiFi hotspots...... we frequented quite a few McDonald's that week. I don't think the kids minded that very much. Hailey was kind of annoyed that she had to do school when there was a play area RIGHT THERE!! Now everything is up and running at the house and we are back to home-school as usual..... well, most of us are. Hailey started at the local elementary school about two weeks ago. That had been the plan all along. We (I) almost enjoyed homeschooling enough that she could have stayed home - she didn't want to. She didn't really like having 'school on the computer' as she called it. It was really hard for her to not be face to face with her teachers when doing lessons and she knew that the plan was for her to go into the regular school when we moved. She loves her new class and teacher so it's a good move for now. It was really hard to fit her Kingergarten stuff in amongst the other kids lessons.

House

Just two days before Halloween, we moved into our new house.
(we moved into our last BC house the day before Halloween in 2006 - pretty crazy) We were very grateful that we made it out of the apartment in time. It gets stressful when the end of the month is coming up and you have to move but the house hasn't closed..... yikes. Enjoy the one and only picture of the clean kitchen :) It no longer looks like that. All the kids were out riding bikes in the street as soon as we had them unloaded. There isn't very much traffic so the kids are excited to have so much more space to ride, ride ride.
It feels really, really good to be out of the apartment. Most of you have heard me say that this is not my favorite house but I would choose it over an apartment anyday!
We have been here for about three weeks now. We have gotten a lot of the unpacking done - it's quite hard when I homeschool during the day. Now we have a lot of organizing to do. I am excited to plan, organize and decorate. I will probably like the house more as we go.

Drug free week

 

 

 

A lot of schools do fun activities to celebrate drug free week and the kids online school was no different. However, there wasn't a school or classroom to show off their craziness too.... they did get a lot of attention when we were out and about though. They loved it. That lack of attention/interaction daily is the hardest part of homeschooling. We are working on getting together with more people though - that should help.
We did get to send in the pics and their teachers shared them with everyone during class connect (a lot like skype). They liked that.
It was fun to do their hair. It's always interesting to mix their ideas with my capabilities. I have to tone down some of the craziness so it can be done :)
They had crazy hair day, crazy sock day, and pajama day.
Caleb wouldn't look at me for a good pic.......


A lot of schools do fun activities for drug free week and the kids online school is no different :) The different part was not having a school/classroom to see your crazy stuff! They got a lot of attention when we out and about though.

Pumpkin patch

Soon - to - be - pie pumpkins
The kids loved running out through the field to pick their own pumpkin!

There were so many activities for them to do! I loved the hay bale slide. That had all kinds of potential in my mind..... too bad we just have a nice, grass yard.... but Grandma and Grandpa have some good space for something like that :) They all liked the short corn maze. I was happy that you really couldn't go the wrong way in the kids version. Last time I did a corn maze it took a REALLY LONG time.
There was a corn box to play in, an animal train to ride on, tire swings to try, funny pictures to take...... the kids loved all of it. They also enjoyed getting to meet a few kids from their online school face to face.

Pumpkin

We went to a Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago on a field trip with the kids online school. We went out on a wagon ride and picked pumpkins. Maggie needed to do a pumpkin project for school so we decided to make pumpkin pie from the real pumpkins. It was pretty fun and turned out delicious :) It was also surprisingly easy. We did two pumpkins which gave us 6 cups of puree. That made 2 pies, cookies, bread, pancakes and french toast!!

Hiking

We have taken quite a few walks in our attempts to get out of the apartment. The kids love to explore, get dirty and throw things (boys!!). The weather has been beautiful for almost two months now. That means a lot of hiking and biking. I love happy and active kiddos! This walk was on the trail along the Ogden river.

Off she goes

Hailey is officially training wheel free! The day she got her cast off we ended up taking the training wheels off her bike. She caught on to the balanceing right away but turning was another matter. I think she was keeping her arm really stiff since she had the cast on for the last few weeks and she couldn't make the turns. The next day she got it figured out :) Brave girl. She took a few spills but kept at it. At one point I put winter boots on her to protect her legs from the pedals. That's always the worst part when they are just learning - the pedals hit their legs and it really hurts!! It took her a few more days to figure out how to start on her own - I just had to give a push to get her going. Now she is an old pro and has even learned a few tricks from Jackson. Three down, one to go! (Caleb actually just started riding without training wheels two weeks ago (mid October)) Crazy little 3 yr old!

Hailey is 5

Hailey's birthday is at the beginning of August. We were lucky enough to have of our MD friends here visiting so they celebrated her birthday with us. That was great because she was sad that she left all of her friends behind and couldn't invite them to her birthday. All of the girls got together and came up with elaborate party plan for her. It was very sweet. She loved it! They had her all dressed up with a sash that said "birthday queen". The other girls had attendant sashes, they laid out a 'red carpet', threw rose petals and announced her at the party :)
She loved being the center of attention and opening her presents. Such a cute, fun loving little girl. I always joke that you could give her scissors, tape, paper and pens as a present and she would love it. It's true. She absolutely loves to write notes and cut out little things and tape them together :) Then she wants me to mail them to her friends - with no last name and no address....... She loves it when I find note cards and stuff on sale to give her.

First broken bone

At the end of July (just a few days before her birthday) Hailey broke her wrist. She just fell at the playground. She was hanging on the side of a playground bridge and when she fell she landed on her wrist. We weren't sure there was really anything wrong with it because she calmed down fairly well and was even using it, although quite gingerly. When she was still favoring it a lot a day later we took her in for x rays. Sure enough - it ws a buckle fracture. That was why it wasn't so obvious that it was broken. She only had to have a cast for three weeks. At first she loved it :) Summer casts are not fun at all - we had to figure out a way for her to play and swim without it getting wet. Our first few attempts with bags and tape didn't work but on our visit to WA my Mom came up with the idea to use a dishwashing glove. Genius. With some waterproof tape at the top she was good to go. That cast got really, really stinky :) but she still got to join in all the activities!

Rafting

Since I am playing catch up all these last posts may or may not be in the right order :) A few weeks after moving here Matt's company sponsored a camping/rafting trip. Happy to be without a million projects and anxious to get out of the apartment - we decided to try it. We got to the campsite fairly late so it was already dark. Luckily I had glow stick necklaces with us. They were great! Each kid had a different color and I could keep track of where they were in the dark. I think that will have to a camping staple - at least for the younger ones :) We just camped the one night - our truck hadn't come with all of our stuff so we didn't have our usual tent. We bought a 4 man tent and squeezed everyone in. The next morning we set out on a rafting trip. The older two loved it. Hailey loved it until she got tired..... Caleb loved it until we went through a bit a  rough spot and he got splashed by the really cold water. Then he would cry whenever he could hear rapids coming. It wasn't long before he fell asleep too. That's him and Hailey crashed out on the benches of the raft :) It was fun but rather long for the younger ones and too tame for Jackson, Matt and I.......

See Caleb's fangs in his picture? He has pretty big canines :)

In the swimming pool

With a swimming pool here at our apartment complex there was whole lot of this going on. All of the kids love water and have no fear. Maggie has the greatest respect for it bu tit doesn't slow her down. She loves learning swimming strokes and practicing. Hailey wants to swim but can't quite get it yet (at the end of the summer she was doing really, really well and would go without her lifejacket almost all the time). Our kids wear lifejackets not because they are afraid but because I am - of them drowing in their fearlessness. I can handle one dare devil at a time :) so Hailey and Caleb would trade off who had their lifejacket on. With Hailey getting to be  stronger swimmer we let Caleb have his lifejacket off more also and he was started to swim some on his own too...... next summer should be pretty fun :)

One down

Just after we moved back here to Utah, Hailey lost her first tooth. She was very, very excited :) She was still 4!! She was so very happy to find her dollar under her pillow the next morning. Kids and their excitement are so much fun.

Camping with mosquitoes

Just to help us remember.... :) We took a last minute camping trip last Friday night - to a campground all of 15 minutes away from us. The weather is getting cold very quickly and Matt has really wanted to camp. I threw everything in the car and we picked Matt up from his vanpool and headed out. It was perfect weather. We explored the campground - went to the store to buy bug repellent - made smores around the campfire - went to the store to buy pullups..... (the store was only 5 min away). We brought the kids scooters and Caleb's bike. They had a great time on all those paved roads. This campground is near a lake so we headed out that way on a walk. We passed a group of scouts sitting around a campfire, then walked out towards the beach. The water is low so it's quite a ways out and through quite a few weeds. Matt looks back and says - "I think the scouts are watching us." Not long after we find out why..... they were waiting for the fun to begin. We started to get bitten by a few mosquitoes, then a few more, and more and more until we were literally running back towards the campground for cover. Maggie was in front of me - there were probably 50 mosquitoes on her shirt and legs. We had sprayed everyone down but not well enough for that attack :) We were all running and swatting and screaming in some cases..... Hailey hates mosquitoes more than she hates bees. I don't think that is an adventure the kids will soon forget :) The next day we found an area of beach that was thankfully - mosquito free. I think that time at the beach was probably the kids favorite part of the trip. As a practice run I would say it went fairly well. Caleb didn't go to sleep forever because he doesn't like the feel of his sleeping bag. He finally laid on top of it with my jacket covering him. Once he was alseep I had to sneak the bag over him since it was so cold. Everytime he woke up he would get back on top and ask for my jacket. I think I need to get a fleece insert or something because he slept on top of it the last time too...... I also hated the inside of sleeping bags as a kid. My Mom sewed a sheet into mine to help (thanks Mom!).

Mammoth Caves

On the way to TN we were headed right past Mammoth Caves so we decided to stop. I was really hoping we wouldn't get roped into a long tour but all they had were 2 hour tours. We chose to risk it. They loved the first 30 minutes of it. Jackson loved the entire thing, Maggie most of it. Caleb was ready to done shortly in and Hailey had to go to the bathroom for the last 1/2 hour so she (and I) were pretty miserable. She ran up the hill to the bathroom crying, at the end, because she had to go so bad. However, if you ask her about the caves she doesn't say it was a horrible experience...... :)

Trip to TN

Way back in May we went to TN to see Matt's brother graduate from Optometry school. This is a picture of almost all the grandkids on Matt's side. One of his sisters had a very newborn (and a 2 yr old) so her family didn't come, and another little baby is not in the pic so 3 of them are missing. Oh, and they are all by age except Caleb at the end who refused to switch places with Olivia beside him :) He's about 9 months older than she is. They all have a lot of fun when they get together.

PJs and hair

Apparently Maggie couldn't find a pajama shirt so she created one..... I told her that while that was very creative she might get a little hot..... and a regular shirt would work just fine. This girl likes to be properly dressed for the occasion :)
On our recent trip to TN we stayed at a few hotels along the way. After a bath at one of them Matt showed Maggie the hair dryer. It was love at first sight. Now she wants to use it all the time at home :) It's kind of funny that she really had no idea what one was......wait, I think I used it once or twice to speed up the nail polish drying on her nails...... I'm kind of impressed that we even have one. It takes forever to dry my hair - at LEAST 10 minutes - and we all know that I'm not the most patient person when it comes to - well, pretty much anything! Although since Caleb loves to help by holding the hair dryer for the girls maybe he would help me out too :)