Hunter's New Read's

When Hunter started kindergarten severl years ago he didn't know how to read. I wasn't concerned becuase most of the kids in his class couldn't read either.  About Christmas break I started to get a bit concerned becuase to me it seemed the majority of his class was reading and he still wasn't. His teacher told me not to fret about it, that he'd eventually catch on and be just fine. I fretted anyways because that's what I do but she was right. Hunter finally caught on and there's been no slowing him down. His summer between kindergaren and 1st grade all he did was read. He started with the series, The Majic Tree House, and read almost all of them that summer. By the time 1st grade started he was beyond the majority of his classmates in the reading level department.

Last year we were at a new school with new criteria. Each kid with their teacher at the beginning of each quarter picks a goal. Seems like it's usually around 20. Hunter than reads books during school and at home and than tests on them; synopsis, vocab, etc. and is given a score. Depending on his score determines the amount of points he earns that go toward his goal. Each book is worth a different amount of points. Last year Hunter wanted to read the Harry Potter series. His 3rd grade teacher talked to me about this. She was concerned that the book was above his comprehension/reading level. Apparently Harry Potter is a 6-7th grade level book not 3rd! Together the three of us decided to let Hunter try. If he didn't score well than we'd know that he needs to pick books closer to his reading level.

 It took Hunter over a month to get through the 1st book but he did it. He loved it and he scored a 100% on his test giving him his 20 points needed to meet goal. Yippee! His teacher was impressed and never again questioned him on what books he wanted to read. Well that is until he read and tested on the 2nd book of the Eragon series only scored a 32%. Oops! I believe that series is still a bit ahead of his reading level or the fact he read it in one day may have played a big part too. It made Hunter feel pretty good to learn that he was the teacher's 1st kid ever to read the 1st five books of this series and get a 100% on all the tests. The only reason he hasn't continued on with the series is because we don't own the books and there's not a library near enough to go to during this past summer. Now that the school year has started again he was anxious to check out book #6 from the school's library. He was quite disapointed the 1st week of school to find that it was already checked out. So instead he brought home The Red Pyramid.

New grade, new teacher. School has only been in session for 5 weeks. His goal for this 1st quarter is 23 points. As of last week he only had 4 points towards his goal. However this book is worth 20 points so I wasn't concerned. I bet I get 2-3 emails a week from his teacher about her concerns with Hunter reading this book. She doesn't think his reading level is at a 5-7th grade level and that he won't score well on the test. Really???  He's in 4th. I know he can do it! These emails are telling me where the whole school is at and his class on the percentage of goals reached so far. Hunter was only at 20+% to meet his goal. She told him he could finish the book but that after that he needs to read the MUCH smaller chapter books to ensure he reaches goal. I'm beginning to think she's just worried that Hunter isn't going to reach goal and therefore make her classes score look bad. Hunter finished the book last week and well within the quarter. He scored another 100%. I knew he could do it and so did he! I felt like emailing the teacher with a great big Told Ya!

I was a bit suprised to get another email from her last friday. Despite his AWESOME score she still wants him to read smaller chapter books. Ughh!!! Supposedly she still thinks he can't handle the bigger books and is too young to understand the vocabulary. Yet he got all the vocab question's right on the test! This has bugged me all weekend long. I've talked to her about this already and frankly I don't mind him reading these larger books. I've already read these myself and don't see anything wrong with my 9 year old reading them.  And quite frankly I think it's great he's reading bigger books that is more challenging to him. Heaven forbid he be challenged? So today Hunter came home with a much smaller book that his teacher asked him to read. It's supposedly on level, whatever that means!

I've been thinking about this a lot and have decided that we will use this experience as a life lesson. As Hunter grows up he is going to be asked to do things that he doesn't want to do or knows that he can do better at than despite what somebody else thinks. Chances are he will have this happen during scouts, in college, on a mission and in the work place. This is just life. So he and I have decided that he will do what his teacher is asking. At school he will read these smaller chapter books during the assigned reading time and test on them. At home for his assigned 30 minute reading each night and whenever he chooses to read by choice he can read whatever he wants! It is his choice to test on these books he reads at home. After talking about this he got a huge grin on his face and informed me that he still wants to test on these bigger books at school. If he reads a little more at home he can still finish one of these bigger books in the school's quarter. If he scores well on the test he can reach double his goal! To him that would be way cool! I'm glad we have found a happy medium that will work for all of us.

Emily turns 6

Miss Emily had a birthday last week.

She is now the big "6".

She woke up to our traditional pancakes with candles!

              For luch we had her favorite; lasagna, homemade rolls, fruit salad and corn on the cob.

 It was like Christmas at our house. This girl was spoiled! I guess that's what happens when big sister and brother earn money and want to buy her a present from them too. Loven' the brotherly love we've got going on here.

 Her birthday cake request was a barbie cake. Being I just did a barbie a few weeks ago I wanted to do this one differently. So searching on pinterest I saw something like this and copied it. I love the way it turned out!

 Miss Emily loved it too.

Happy Birthday Miss Emily!

We love you!

Facts about Emily

1. Likes to color

2. Loves to be read stories

3. Likes to watch 101 Dalmation's

4. Loves Barbies

5. Loves kindergarten

6. Loves the color pink

7.Likes to play outside

8. Loves to take bath's

9. Loves to change her baby sister's diaper's even when there's a present inside!

10. Likes to help mom in the kitchen

Emily's Hair

I love my girls hair. I love doing it. I love putting it up in fancy styles. I love the "neatness" that I can create with their hair. For the most part my girls love this to so it's a win-win situation. About a year ago Emily started going through that much despised stage of wanting to do her own hair.

Why oh why do my girls go through this? Why can't they stay little?

With the length of her hair she just couldn't do it. She couldn't get the brush through it's length, she could never get all the tangles out, it was very frusturating to her. And so after much debate she won and I cut it just above her shoulder's. She loved it! Since then she's loved being able to brush it by herself, put clips in by herself and wear headbands something else I despise.

Six months later her hair is long again, not as long as it was but it's getting there. I love this length. I love the hairdo's we do. I love the braids, the fliperoo's and all the different styles we can create. Being she catches the bus a little after 7 each morning the hairstyles that will last for more than one day have become my favorite.  My problem is she's still independent and wants to do her own hair or tell me how she wants it and then expects me to do what she wants. She's only 6. Why can't I still have that choice?

 The other morning she came down the stairs with the BIGGEST grin on her face. She turned around and said, "Mom, look at my hair! Didn't I do an awesome job? Bet you didn't know I could do piggies by myself did ya? Yep, I'm AWESOME!"

What was I to do??

I put a grin on my face, took her requested picture and sent her on her way.

She is AWESOME!

I just hope she'll continue to let me do her hair some day's.

The time has come for me to cut the apron strings and let her do her own hair a bit more.

This won't kill me right? I survived this stage with her bigger sister and I will survive this stage once again but oh.... how I will miss it!

Randomness

A few weeks ago I was approached with what I think is kind of a cool opportunity that I have signed up for.  This coming January I am going to take some EMT classes that the Kanab hospital is offering. All my training and certification will be free if I sign up to run on the ambulances for one year. In our area everone that is certified is considered a volunteer. They get paid for the runs they make but we're not sitting in a buiding or in the ambulance waiting around. We aren't "scheduled" to work at specific times but will all take turns being "on call". At the moment there are only 5 EMT's in town all of whom work full time jobs elsewhere. The summer and fall seems to be the busiest time as they are in charge of all the valley and Cedar Mnt. 

Knowing that I will be busy next semester with a different kind of schooling I doubled up on my normal classes for this semester. BIG mistake. I have most definetly over done it. I can't seem to keep up on anything! I am going to school full time, being a mom is a full time job along with working 2 part time jobs. I just can't do it all.  I use to be able to plan my month/week and now I feel like I have to take each day one at a time. Everything is falling behind, my laundry, dishes, housework and blogging.

Here's just a few pictures of randomness that has taken place in the month since I last posted. I am on the countdown 4 weeks of school down just 11 more weeks to go. I keep telling myself that I can do this but... I will never do it again!

Kylie hit her 3 month mark. 

She smiles all the time, sleeps through the night and is starting to giggle when tickled.

Aunt Sheri loaned us her bumbo which this little girl loves. She likes to sit in the middle of our island and just watch the chaos going on around her!

 This mom needs recess too. It's starting to get quite chipper in the mornings so I 've had to pull out some of our winter accessories. Brayden and I went outside and spent some time together. This is him saying,"not another picture"! 

 During our recess we kicked balls, played on the slides and swings and just chased each other around. We had a good time just he and I.

 One morning last week Brayden came running to me saying we had a chicken in the house. I thought he was being funny and just laughed it off. Some time later I heard that dang chicken. Someone had left the very back door out in our hallway open and one of our roaming chickens decided to roam right inside.

 We planted a garden this past spring and have enjoyed the vegetables that we got. This past month we have had 2 horrible hail storms. The hail has been so big that the siding on houses have been broken, green houses that have shatter proof glass has shattered and windshields have been broken. It's been crazy! After the last hail storm this is what our vegetables in the garden looked like. Those are zuccini and a watermelon that was NOT ready.  Needless to say our garden is done for.

 We lost lots including most of the fruit on the local trees. Before the hail storm I was able to put up cucumbers, beans, peas, corn and tomatos. I'm glad I harvested what I did before the hail could get to it. This past week I spent a few days canning pears and peaches that we bought from up north. I'm tired of all the canning and can't wait to be done. 

Labor Day

I took the kids out of school the friday of Labor Day weekend for a very much anticipated event in our lives. Miss Emily got her cast off after having one on for 12 weeks and 3 days!

Wooo Hooo!

I think was more excited than anyone else.

Last year Kory ended up working on Labor Day. Up until almost the very last minute we were under the impression that he would have to work that day again this year. So our plans were a bit last minute but we had fun all the same. Early that afternoon we met my family at Duck Creek on Cedar Mnt. for a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day.

 Lots of tree's to climb.

 Ginormous branches to move around.

 Hunter caught a horny toad that eventually escaped and ran into the water for hiding. Aunt Hanna was trying to help him get it out of the water but was never able to find it. It was a great afternoon spent. My parents, Christina w/Elena and GG & GGpa were all able to make it.

Later that day we met up with 2 of Kory's siblings at the pond for a dutch oven cook out.

 Here's Maddie and Ruth fishing

 Hunter and his cousins shooting at pop can's

 Miss Emily fell into the pond's bank and got a little muddy. This girl does NOT like getting her hands dirty. Cousin Emma was trying to show her how rubbing a chunk of dry dirt will get the mud off.

Labor Day ended up being a great day spent with family and yummy food!

2012 School Year

It's that time of year again....

It's Back to School!

My kiddo's started this past monday.

Staying with tradition all the "going to school" kids were given a special blessing from dad sunday night. After the blessings were done the much anticipated gifts were opened. This was a tradition that was done in my family growing up and I've continued it with my kids. It's always fun to start the school year off with a new outfit. Brayden felt pretty special that he was included too. I had every intention of teaching preschool again this year and so included him in my "school shopping". After discovering that I only had 3 kids preschool age this year in town I opted out. I spend a lot of time and money preparing for preschool and to me it just wasn't worth it for 3 kids. Next year I will have more and so will do it then.

 Over the past few weeks I couldn't help but notice all the back to school ideas floating around pinterest. I saw this idea a while ago and fell in love. I remember as a child wanting to be a baby nurse, a mom, a dentist, a hygienist, a sign language interpreter and I'm sure there were many more. I know my kids will want to be different things too during there childhood. I love that I will be able to capture it this way.

Miss Emily started kindergarten this year. You would think it would get easier as each child leaves the nest and starts to attend school. As the bus pulled away that morning I allowed myself to shed a tear or two. I miss her. Emily was so excited for school to start. We put the kids to bed at 8 the night before and at 10 pm Madelyn came down to complain that Emily wouldn't stop talking about SCHOOL! Then she was up the next morning at 5 getting ready. The bus picks the kids up a little after 7 each morning. She needs to get up fairly early but 5 was a little much.

 

Miss Emily loves the outdoors. She loves to ride horses and spend time around the farm animals. She absolutely loved the County Fair this past weekend. She loved walking around seeing all the different animals. It wasn't suprising to hear her say she wanted to be a Cow Girl when she grows up.

Here's Miss Emily in her 1st day of school outfit. This girls loves, loves, loves dresses. I knew getting her a new dress for the school year would help make her day. I purposely got her a long one instead of a skirt so that she could sit modestly on the floor during class. I hope it worked.

New dress, new shoe but same ugly red cast. Just 8 more days to go with the cast, I hope!

My 3rd grader this year.

(This girl suffers from allergies so badly. Being at the fair and around all those animals all weekend did not help! Her eyes are so puffy!)

It was no suprise to hear Miss Madelyn wanting to be a baker. This girl loves to be in the kitchen with me. She likes to help me cook but her love is baking. She's getting better and better about following recepies. Right now she can make chocolate chip cookies all by herself and they turn out great! She learned how to make banana bread at Grandma's a few weeks ago and has made it several times at home for us. For the fair she wanted to make banana bread to submit but we didn't have any banana's. We did have zuccini from the garden. So with a little help she made that. She thinks she likes zuccini bread better than banana bread now.   

 Madelyn loves dresses too. I hesitate to let her wear them to school because she is so active. She loves playing soccer, basketball, playing on the monkey bars, etc. Those kind of activites just aren't dress appropriate. As I started to school shop I found Emily's dress 1st. When I saw this dress in Madelyn's size I decided to get it. So glad I did. She was beyond thrilled. The dress was made even better knowing it was identical to little sister's just different colors.

We've got a 4th grader!

 (Hunter was embarrased that mom made him hold the sign. Mom's embarrased that she mis-spelled the word millionaire. Oops! Maybe it's a good thing I'm going back to school too! )

Hunter loves money. He lives for money. He's always asking how he can earn money or what can he sell for money? One afternoon Kory's boss came over to chit chat. In the conversation he mentioned that he had something "pattened" and was paid a couple million dollar's. Since then Hunter has wanted to know how he could become a multi-millionaire. This kid will do anything for money. Hunter has this habit of teasing and annoying his sister's. What boy doesn't do this right? Anyway's we've started having him pay his sister's a $1 for every time they have to ask him to stop more than once. It's working. He hates having to give his money away. Money defenitely motivates him right now!

 Hunter's a very smart boy. He excells is school. When he puts his mind to something he follows through and does it well. It wouldn't be suprising to me at all if one day he is a Multi-Millionaire.

Big Boy, Brayden

Brayden was quite excited for school to start too. He came down dressed that morning and helped pack everyone's lunch. He NEEDED a lunch too so he packed one for himself. He kept saying he was going to school with Hunter. When I told him he was going to stay home with mom he said, "yep, I don't have shoes on". He then went back inside. While he was gone the bus came and picked the kids up. Brayden came out the door just in time to see the bus pull away. Oh my did he have a melt down. He kept asking me to take him to school. In his little mind because he was dressed, had his shoes on and a lunch he was going to school too.

On tuesday our 2nd day of school the kids were gone before Brayden was awake. He soon came down the stairs and asked where Hunter was. I told him that he and the girls had gone to school already. He plopped himself on stair, put his chin in his hand and said, "I'm so mad at Hunter. He left me AGAIN!"

It was the funniest thing. Wish I had it on video tape!

Showing/Selling the Pigs.

I have learned A LOT over these past few months living the country life. One of them being farm animals. Having kids raise animals to sell at the county fair is a BIG thing in this area. Last year we moved in right before the fair and so didn't have the chance to have this experience. This year we were iffy... o.k it was I that was iffy if we were going to participate or not. Most of the kids have their choice of raising goats, sheep, steer's or pigs. Frankly with Kory's schedule I knew that the majority of the help the kids would need in "raising" these animals would fall on my shoulders. Having 5 kids to raise by myself it seems lately why would I want to raise animals too? 

Hunter wanted to do a steer but to buy one we were looking at $800-1,000. We don't have that kind of money and second  I REFUSE to raise something that is as tall as I am and out weighs me by several hundred pounds. Let's not forget I grew up in Vegas. I have no idea what to do with a steer! I also wasn't a big fan of goats. Last year Kory's brother brought about 10 of his to our yard so that they could "mow" our grass/weeds and volunteer tree's. Those darn things CONSTANTLY got out of there made up fence. Being they are nocturnal it was without fail that on a daily basis they would get out around dusk. If I took the sometimes 2 hours to gather them all back up  into there pen they'd just get out a few hours later AGAIN!! They loved to run up and down my wrap around porch during the night. It echoed so badly. I felt like I didn't get any sleep until close to dawn when they'd finally settle down.  It also didn't help that twice last spring while I was trying to "help" a goat that had gotten himself  "stuck" in a wire fence that dang thing rammed me with his horns and sent me flying to the ground. So again the goats were out in my book. Then we've got to talk about the sheep. They bellow if that's the correct term and can be quite loud. I know it's a bit selfish but I don't paticularly like cutting Kory's hair or my boys. To me it would be worth the $20 a month to have someone else do it. I'm just not fond of cutting hair. Why oh why would I want to shave a sheep that probably has 10x the amount of hair/fur/wool whatever you want to call it? I have a hard enough time getting my 3 year old to sit still for a 5 minute haircut. How am I suppose to shave a sheep? That leaves us with pigs. At the beginning of Spring we were told that pigs were very hard to come by. When we learned that we might not be able to get them this year I'll be honest I didn't shed a tear. We let everyone know that we'd still be interested in getting pigs but if they were that hard to get this year instead of getting one for each of the 3 oldest at $150 a piece we'd only get one and have all the kids share it. After almost a month went by and I thought I was out of the woods. Then one weekend when we were out of town Kory gets a call saying his brother-in-law was on his way home with a trailor full of pigs. The seller, in Idaho, had plenty of pigs and so 3 pigs were bought for our family at $175 a piece. Not only were we not going to be home when our pigs would be delivered, we hadn't made arrangements for the pigs to live anywhere nor did we have feed! And.... I only wanted one at $150. Not 3 at $175.  Oh happy days for me! I was not happy!!!!

Let's just say Kory spent some time on his phone figuring everything out.  

Needless to say we didn't start our 1st year of raising farm animals the right way. This past weekend was our County Fair. We loaded up our pigs friday morning at 8am to head down to the fair corrals. On our way out of town I was informed that because Hunter is in 4-H he was suppose to wear a white shirt with the 4-H patch. I don't know about any other mom's but I don't normally buy my kids ANYTHING in white. It just doens't stay white! Especially since moving to the country.  Lucky for us I had bought Hunter a white polo shirt about 4 years ago on clearance in a size that would fit him now. I guess worse case scenario he would have had to wear his white church shirt. As far as the patch goes.... We were just out of luck for this year!    

When we unloaded our pigs they had to go through a special shoot that weighed them. Thank heavens they all weighed over 200 pounds so they made the cut in weight. The "perfect" pig should weigh 250-260 pounds or so we've been told. Hunter's pig weighed 256. Madelyn's 243 and Emily's 244. Not bad! We put them in our assigned stalls and then waited for our turn to use the "baths".

Oh my! Oh my! I thought I could get wet bathing my toddler's. By the time we were done bathing the 3 pigs we were just drenched. It's a good thing mom thought to make everyone wear dingy clothes to bathe the pigs in.

Miss Emily bathing her pig.

Madelyn and her pig.

Finally Friday afternoon came the big event. Here's Hunter "showing" his pig. He basicly walks his pig around the arena with a pig stick. There's about 6 other kids his age in the arena with there pigs and the judge. The judge "judges" the pig. He tells the audience the good things about what he see's in each pig and what pigs he thinks could use some more time on feed. Hunter did good for his 1st year.

Madelyn missed the cutoff and so she is in the pee wee 4-H. They didn't have to wear the white shirts which I was quite happy about since she doesn't own an all white shirt. I didn't care for how the schedule had the 4-H (older kids) go 1st and then the pee wee. Hunter showed his pig about 5pm. Madelyn didn't show her's until after 8pm.

Emily "showed" even later. Grandpa Christensen was here and so he went into the arena with her to "help".

As I said, I've learned a lot this year.

Next year IF we do pigs again things will be done differently.

I want my kids to have the proper clothing and the patches to wear that most of the other kids had. It didn't matter if they were in pee wee or not. During the sale it was funny to see some of the kids "make up" there animals. For instance goats had bows attached to there horns. Pigs were covered in glitter! Who would have thought?  From the very beginning I have felt like things were just thrown at us with no warning, no time to be prepared for what we were suppose to do with the pigs and it NEVER stopped! Everything was so last minute it. It was always, "Oh by the way....". 

The kids did O.K with their sale. We are about $330 into each pig. Hunter's pig sold for $450. Madelyn's sold for $475 and Emily's sold for $550. Kory and I both think the only reason Emily's sold for higher was becuase people took pitty on the "little girl with the broken leg" out in the arena.

Next year we are NOT buying pigs at $175 a piece. I think that was just ridiculous but I understand the buyer who bought them was trying to find a place he could buy 20+ pigs from for everyone in town. At the time I was seeing "show pigs" on KSL and Craigslist for $50-80 a piece but they only had 1-2 pigs. Next year we'll buy our own pigs. Lesson's were learned this year and now we'll know a bit more for next year. We did alright for our 1st year!

County Fair Ribbon's

As mentioned this past weekend was our county fair. During the previous week we started gathering all the fun stuff the kids made this summer that they wanted to submit to the Children's Fair. Each object/project submitted would be given a white ribbon. At the end of the fair all those white ribbon's were worth a dollar. If your project was a little more unique or better than average you could earn a blue ribbon worth $3, a red ribbon worth $2, a sweepstakes purple ribbon was worth $5 and trophy was worth $15.

Despite Hunter's deer caught in headlights look he was quite thrilled to discover that his pine wood derby car won sweepstakes. Woohoo!!

 He was a bit disapointed with only getting a white ribbon on his duct tape wallet. Can you tell he didn't want a picture taken?? I thought his wallet turned out good. No one else had submitted anything made from duct tape. I really thought he would have been given more than just a white ribbon for this creative idea. I'm not sure how the judging went it certainly didn't make any since to me. Numerous young boys submitted their pinewood derby's and I thought he would have recieved a white ribbon for it with as many as were submitted. But... somehow he won sweepstakes.

 Hunter also submitted a saddle bag that he sewed out of canvas (I missed taking a pict.). He made this bag in a 4-H sewing class. Despite the fact that there were 6 identical saddle bags submitted (all made at the same sewing class) his was chosen to submit to the State Fair. Go Hunter!!!! Hunter also submitted a rope he tied together at scout's one night. He recieved a red ribbon for it but refused to allow mom to take any more pictures of him. The day before the entries were to be submitted Hunter decided to make no bake cookies. Another red ribbon for Hunter. After adding all the ribbons up he earned $11 for his 5 submissions. Needles to say he was quite pleased.

 Miss Madelyn did a good job for this being our 1st year too. She made a pillowcase dress at a 4-H sewing class. She not only earned a blue ribbon for the dress but it was also chosen to be submitted to the State Fair too!

 Madelyn's recycled Kool-Aid bag was given a blue ribbon. 

 Another blue ribbon for her zucchini bread.

A blue ribbon for her bracelet she made. She spelled out spring on the bracelet.

Madelyn earned $12.

 Miss Emily submitted her favorite, chocolate chip cookies. Red ribbon for her!

 One day her and I sat down and made something useful for our family. We made another hot/cold pack. She picked out the fabric, cut the fabric, pinned and pinned and pinned the fabric (I think this was the part she liked the best.). Then with her sitting on my lap she sewed it together. She struggled a bit once the bag was filled with rice and she needed to sew the opening but she did it. It turned out so great that the little bag not only got a blue ribbon but is also being submitted to the State Fair.

 Emily also submitted her bracelet that she made that spells out her name. One red ribbon for her.

That's $7 for her. 

 Brayden is only 3 and quite frankly I really struggled with coming up with a unique/different project that he could do by himself. After racking my brain and searching online I decided we'd make an airplane out of popsicle sticks. He painted all the sticks by himself, he chose the orange paint. Once the paint was dry he helped squirt out the hot glue and he placed the sticks with very minimal amount of help from mom. Red ribbon for him.

 Being everyone else was submitting baked goods mom helped him make his very own batch of cookies. His FAVORITE candy is M&M's. Being I had some on hand I had him add those instead of chocolate chips. One more red ribbon for Brayden.

Brayden earned $4 for his 2 submision's.

 Together my kids earned $34. I think the best part is that my 4 oldest (the ones who understand) each had something that was chosen to be submitted to the State Fair. How cool is that???