Newest additions to the family...

Introducing...Hopper and Fuzz Ball.
This past week we have made some major improvements in both our front and back yard. During the many, many hours spent outside moving dirt, rock and wood chips we have found a few pets.

Maddie's 1st day of Preschool

Today was Madelyn's 1st day of Preschool. Several of us moms have gotten together to do preschool again this year. Maddie has school on Tue and Thur. from 8:30-11:30. There are 5 girls and 3 boys. All but one will be going to kindergarten next year. My kids kept asking for me to take a picture of them from behind. I'm assuming to show off their new backpacks this year.
Today Maddie learned about her body. She was traced and then she glued on different pieces to represent the body parts/organs she learned about today.
The yellow sponge represent her brain.
It's hard to see but there are 2 styrofoam balls for the eyes.
Marshmellows for the teeth.
Plastic bag taped to a straw that she could make the pretend lung expand and colapse by sucking or blowing into the straw.
Egg carton for the spine.
Red balloon for the heart.
Pink felt for the stomach.
Braided red yarn for the muscle.
Hard long pretzel for her bones.

She had fun and is excited for school again on Thursday.

Hunter's 1st day of school.

What a great 1st day of Kindergarten picture. He looks like he just got trapped in a pair of headlights. LOL I took many many picts and these were the best of them all. The 2nd one looks like he's ready to be searched. Oh well!!!

So Hunter is in the afternoon kindergarten class. School starts at 12:15 and ends at 3:00pm. He did very good. I took him up to the playground which is in front of his classroom. He asked me to stay and watch him play. After several minutes of playing he came back to me , held my hand and asked if I could stay all day with him. I must have given him a good little pep talk as he took off playing again. When the teacher came out and blew the whistle he came running back to me. I helped him find his line and stood next to him until his teacher started leading everyone in. The little girl in front of him was in tears, her mom was in tears and this mom almost lost it but she held out till she got to the car. He's definetly not my baby anymore. I've come to the terms that he's not a toddler any more either. He's most definetly a little boy who's growing up too fast. But who's kids don't right??? He was excited to get to school today so yesterday must have been pretty good for him.

Is it $50 worth?

I don't think I'm very creative. I can't come up with cool ideas but when I see one I feel like I can generally copy it. I saw these outfits on ebay a few days ago and just couldn't believe that they were being listed for $49.99. There was one outfit about to end and the price was up to $75. Who spends that kind of money on 1 outfit that will be too small for their child in about 9 months? Anyways I spent the $3.00 on the fabric I used, $2.50 for the shirt and another $2.50 on the pants at Stepping Stones (thrift store). It cost me about $8 and it took me about 5 hours. 5 hours is a little long being I did this project on a sewing machine I had never used. It took me a while to figure out the tension using an awsome foot pedal that gathers the material. Regardless I love the outfit. I originally made it thinking Maddie would use this as her 1st day of school outfit. Seeing it turned out just as cute as those on ebay I'm wondering if I could sell it. Even if I only sold it for $30. I am definetly going to go through the fabric I already have and make another one.

Are you ready for school?

aOne morning last week all three of my children were up at 5:30 AM. Kory and my brother who is living with us got up shortly after and left for work at 6:00AM. I packed everyone into the van and we headed to Wal Mart. Everyone got to choose their own donught for breakfast and we did our school shopping. Being at Wal Mart at 6:15 AM was great. The store was almost empty, it was quiet, I could hear myself think, and we each had our own little personal space. Best of all there were no lines when it came time to check out. Maddie is going to be in Preschool one more year. She was asked to bring a little notebook, a pencil, and a gluestick which we forgot to put in the picture. She wanted a new box of crayons and at $.33 box why not.
Hunter's list of needed things were a little different. He's going to Kindergarten this year and is so excited. His favorite item was a Spiderman folder to keep his papers in. He also needed a pencil box, a box of crayons, and a pair of scissors. The part that broke the bank was that he also needed a package of multi colored construction paper, 4dozen pencils, 1 liquid glue and 2 glue sticks, 2 boxes of wipes, Anti-bacterial wipes, and a box of klenex all of this was to share with the class. $30 later we were finished with our school shopping. I'm glad I only had to buy class room supplies for 1 child this year. Next year for 1st grade I noticed they wanted the same as kindergarten with a few differences of 5 packs of glue sticks and 6 boxes of wipes. I'll have to start stocking up earlier next year.
Hunter also had to have a few shots to start Kindergarten. I went in thinking he was going to get 2 shots. We came out with 4, 2 in each arm. Thanks to our Pediatrician's office that we no longer go to. This was the 3rd time that Hunter had to get an extra shot becuase the same shot was given too soon. He did really good. He doesn't need any more shots until he's 11/12 yrs old. One child down, 2 more to go.
He's pretty proud of his shots. He will not take the bandaids off because he wants to show everyone that he got 4 shots.

Sheep's Bridge

We recently returned home from spending some time in Utah with family. The first few days we were there Hunter and Maddie both particitpated in a rodeo for 18 and under. I can't get the pictures transfered from cd to my computer for some reason. I'll have to post those when I get it figured out. I was quite impressed with my little cowgirl. After a couple of days in Kory's home town we then went to Hurricane to my mom's. While there she took us to Sheep's Bridge or as Hunter continues to call it London Bridges. There were plenty of rocks to climb on.
Lots of sandy beach to play in.
With plenty of frogs and tadpoles to be caught and released.

We found a nice shallow place that the kids could play in. The river was peaceful at this spot making it a good starting place with the innertubes.

Being we didn't have any life jacketts for the kids Aunt Hanna was great at keeping close to the kids.
They loved the current of the river and the mini rapids they were able to go over.

They were all a little nervous to begin with but after several hours they were going down by themselves. Of course Grandma, Mom and Aunt Hanna were close by.

Sheep's Bridge is a favorite spot that the youth go to often. I wish we had a place like this close by.

St. George Splash Pad

While at my moms, we ran into St. George to check out their new Water Park. It just opened this summer, it's next door to the Tabernacle and the best part is that it is FREE. It has a little river that winds around that the kids are able to walk through, climb over rocks and play in the mini waterfalls.

On the other side is a mini splash pad where lots and lots of water shoots up out of the ground.

The kids had so much FUN here. Thankyou Grandma.

Grandma Christensen's

While in Utah Emily became quite attached to her GG (Great Grandma Grow). Everytime GG came over Emily ran to her chatting ruf, ruf (dog) and he,he (horse). Being it was over over 100 degrees everyday we were there Emily had a hard time finding someone willing to take her outside during the middle of the day to see the animals. Her GG came to her rescue. It didn't matter how hot it was she always took her out. Thankyou GG.
The last day we were at Grandma's we pulled out the slip n' slide.

Emily got a little to close to the water. She ran to Grandma for comfort.
Maddie and her favorite aunt, Aunt Hanna.

Project Complete

Many of you have seen these bags around. Last time we were at my inlaws (in Utah) I saw a lady with a purse similar to this at church. Last week I attended a baby shower for our bishop's wife and she was given a diaper bag similar to this made out of Capri' Suns. I've seen them a few other places and decided to try making one. You can find them all over the internet. I found a lady who made a back pack for her child out of capri suns back in 1992. I was impressed. This is a diaper bag for Kory's sister who will be having her 4th girl in October. I wanted to get her something a little different.

It has 2 pocketts on the outside of the bag. On the inside I put a total of 6 pocketts. The print is hard to see in the pict but it's a lady bug print. It took me 1 day to sew the inside fabric, 1 day to sew the actual bag together, and then 2 wonderful days unpicking seams and re-sewing thanks to sewing machine that skips stiches and doesn't feed the cloth through. I'm so glad it's done (so are my kids). I think I'll make another one but I NEED a break from the good ol' sewing machine.

Reaping from the garden...

Friday afternoon we picked our 1st yellow squash and zuccini. Since then it seems these fresh vegetables are growing an inch a day as we've been able to pick them on a daily basis since. It's a good thing we enjoy squash cause we've got lots!!!

Maddie turns "4"

Wednesday was Maddie's birthday. She was so excited to turn "4". After breakfast we rushed to the movies to see the "Bee Movie". Daddy came home for lunch and the birthday party.

Maddie wanted a butterfly cake.
She was so pleased with Grandma and Grandpa Christensens gift. It was the mini princess's she's holding in her hands along with the yellow outfit. Thankyou Grandma. Maddie says she had a "Greeaat Birthday".

Scavenger Hunt

Our family generally gets home from church about 11:30. We have lunch and then start cleaning up both the breakfast and lunch dishes, by 12:30 we're usually done. After lunch Emily goes down for a nap, everyone else lays down for about 30 min. Sometimes we fall asleep and sometimes we don't. We generally spend about an hour in a half playing games with the kids, we then read a few books and then everyone gets bored. So the T.V comes on, the WII is played and movies are watched for the rest of the day.

Kory and I have been saying for a while that we need to come up with more sabbath day activities to do with the kids. So this past week I found this idea on the internet and changed it a bit to fit our needs. So sunday after "rests" this is what we did.

We all met in the family room and I read the first clue to begin our scavenger hunt. clue #1 A family that reads together has fun learning together. Clue #2 was found inside one of their favorite books. They brought the book back to us, we read it together and then read the clue, A family that searches the scriptures together learns how to become an eternal family. Of course clue #3 was discovered in our scriptures. After reading some scriptures daddy read the clue, The family that sings together feels close to each other. That clue led us to the piano where we sang a few primary songs and then read clue #4 The family that has family home evening together grows together. This led us back to the family room where we always have family home evening. I talked for just a few minutes on the importants of family. We then found the next clue hiding underneath a couch cushion. Clue #5 read Watching good television programs and movies together can be fun family entertainment. We spent a few minutes talking about some of the cartoons I won't let them watch and compared them to some better ones. The next clue was found among our movies. Clue #6 read Going on vacation can bring a family closer together. We talked about our upcoming vacation to Utah. The following clue was found taped to the van door(the van is used when we go on vacation). Clue #7 said A family that works together gains respect and love for one another. This clue led us to the front door of our shed where the next clue was found. Before we read it we thanked the kids for all their help in the past weeks working together on our shed, pulling weeds, taking care of the garden, etc. The next clue #8 read, A family that prays together feels close to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This led us back to the family room where family prayers are always held. We discussed how we can be a little more reverant during prayers. That clue was hidden under the couch #9 said, A family that plays togehter learns to love being together. This clue led the kids to the game closet. Their was a note telling them to pick one game and take it with them. They also found the next clue in the closet. When they brought it back to us we just read the following clue. Clue #10 said A family that has meals together gets to know each other. The last clue led us to the kitchen table where we proceded to play a few games together. After we were done I thought we could have made cookies together and eaten them around the table while playing games. I decided though I really didn't want a cookie making mess on a sunday.

The kids had a blast doing the scavanger hunt and have asked daily since when we can do it again. I didn't think to take pictures but it was a fun little activity that helped take up some time and kept us together as a family. Just thought I'd pass it along.

Picnic and some fun.

Last week I along with a friend took our kids to Fain park for a picnic and to feed the ducks. Kory even came be to eat lunch with us on the grass. I'm going to assume that becuase we were there at the hottest part of the day, is why we didn't see a single duck. We looked and walked almost around the whole pond but never did see a duck.
While walking around the pond in search of the ducks we did find some massive boulders.

Along the way we came across a very little pond of water. We let the kids dip their feet.
The water was shallow and clear enough that the boys were successful at catching one very small crawdad. Despite their best efforts the little tadpoles were too quick for these two 5 year old boys.

Game Night

Last Friday we had a ward activity "Game Night". It was very informal and a lot of fun. Everyone brought a board game and a finger treat to share. It was great to see the kids get into the games.

This game, I think is called Caroom. Kory and I played this and it was really fun. Kory's been talking about it since. He'd like to find it. It's supposedly an older game and very hard to find. The couple that brought it found theres in a 2nd hand store.
My camera will only take 17 pictures so I'm very picky at what picts I save and which ones I delete and retake. I know I had 17 good pictures to go through but somehow only these 4 loaded to my computer and when I went back to my camera the others were gone. The pictures almost make it look like a primary activity but it was a ward activity with many adults present.