The joy of learning

B and I did about 15workbook pages while M did his homework tonight. He is learning patterns and rhymes. He has mastered the patterns finally and we are trying to get better at rhymes. You never think how hard something is to first learn until you teach a 4yr old. It makes sense in YOUR brain but when you try to put it into their terminology it is pretty different. We've got phone number, address, counting to 100 by 10's, letters , sounds etc down. SOOOOO much more to always learn. M actually came home the other day and asked me what symmetry is. Again, you know what it is but when you have to explain it to a kid.....geesh. Where are the words? I still remember when M came home in kindergarten and was doing imperative sentences. I had to google it to make sure I was teaching him it right!

1st place

M won his 1stgrade contest in building a whale for their winter festival. His Dad and him came up with a sock stuffed with newspaper. They used string for mouth , googles eyes, it even had the water spout with water coming out , made out of twisty wire and the whale had his fins stick out with carboard stuck into the sock. My clever boys. He won a free arm band to his festival at school which was great since it was $15 for it and he got to play all the games for free the whole night.

Sunshine day

Today is a happy day. The sun was shining warmly (finally) and the boys got to play football with their dad and then we all threw the basketball around. Big breakfast B cooked. Tonight M had his basketball game. I love watching them play. I look forward to next yr when B can play too!

Winter festival

We took the kids to M's school winter festival tonight where they got to play games,do a cake walk, jumpy stuff, icecream and pizza, etc for 3hrs. They had a blast and we came home with a homemade chocolate cake that M won 5min. before it ended. All the money raised goes to the teachers to use in their classrooms so it's for a great cause.

My Dad

Today I am thankful my dad drove all the way here and we got to have lunch together. I thought that was so sweet and it made my day!

Love you

Today I am thankful that my kids say, "I love YOU more" when I say , "I love you" and we can go on and on about it.

A man

I went to physical therapy a couple days ago and when I was walking in, there was a man in a wheelchair that didn't have legs and he was just talking to someone smiling and laughing. I thought to myself wow. What an inspiration. I was rushing that day and that made me stop and think how we should appreciate every day, what we have. He sure was.

Our animals

M came home from school today asking for a puppy. We have a 10yr old dog and two cats. But he tells me that Jimbo needs someone to play with (he doesnt like the cats) when he is not around. He said that he could carry the puppy around all the time and he can't do that to Jimbo. This reminded me of when I begged my parents for a dog. So funny remembering that.

Heating pad

Today I am thankful for a heating pad. Whoever invented that was highly intelligent! LOL!

I was looking at the boys today at church and thought how much they have changed in maturity. I remember when they couldnt even sit still for 10min. and I had to constantly entertain them with snacks and toys to get them to sit thru church and today they did good even when it ran over. And i looked at M at one point with his eyes closed praying and thought how wonderful that was. I noticed our preachers daughter who is in college now stood up with some of her friends during a song today and was really getting into it with her eyes closed. Shelooked so confident in God and I thought to myself that I hope some day that I can look at my kids and see that same confidence in God.

Basketball

Watching M play basketball is so much fun. The kids are at their grandpas and B is cooking us some hamburgers! Yum!

So proud

I was so proud of M practicing his piano songs today. wow! He can really play it good. Amazing what a 7yr old can do!

Playing school

I asked M to play school with B today since I was laying in bed with my back hurting today. It makes me smile to think about them talking to each other while they were doing the kindergarten work book pages. B was very proud of himself copying his last name. M was really patient with him while teaching him how to do the workbook pages.

Trouble

B yesterday when I picked him up from school, "Mom, I only got in trouble one time today." Me- "What did you do to get in trouble?" Him, "I don't know but I won't do it again".

Thoughts of a 7 and 4yr old

(out of the blue this conversation comes....)
M told me on the way home from Walmart that if he was poor and it was snowing that he would live in Walmart and come outside to eat the snow.

So then B says if someone is poor they should live with someone.

House

Today I am thankful we finally got the house refinanced. Geesh, that makes me never want to ever do that again. It took sooooo long.

Scrapbooking

Jayme came over a couple of times this weekend to scrapbook which was great. I got some more of M's teachers scrapbook done (her end of the yr school gift I am making for her). I hope some day that the kids sit down with their wives and their kids and look at the scrapbooks I have made them. So much time and love is put into them.

Mommy Drink

B always sees me drinking my Slimfast and I call it my mommy drink. So the other day he asks me if Daddy's can drink it to. LOL!

Phases

Me hearing the kids in the other room talking:

B, "M, you need to play with me".
M, "How about tomorrow? It is already dark."

The kids thoughts

Last night before bed, M was telling me that he was going to be a doctor and a basketball player when he grows up. He said he was going to find a cure for cancer.

Today B said matter of factly, "Jesus is old."

Wednesday

I had physical therapy this morning and then hit the grocery store. Then came home and got kids and we went to Walmart to get M some basketball pants since he is outgrowing everything and only had one pair of athletic pants! Also got him undershirts since those are too small too! I keep telling him to quit growing! LOL! Then we met friends at McDonalds playground. Day 3 of snow and they just cancelled school for tomorrow!

More snow days

Day 2 of snow days. Tomorrow will be #3 for no school this week. The kids decorated Rice Krispy houses (thanks to a kit Grandma Powers gave us). We played school (with Blake) and made necklaces and the kids played in the snow. (this does not include all the IPAD and DS time haha)

Snow!

4inches of snow. The boys played outside a couple of times and B had put whitebeans in the crockpot last night. I made hot chocolate. Perfect winter day.

Relief

I have a little relief in sight now that I just got 100 pictures put into albums. I kept thinking I'd scrapbook them but hasnt happened and now that I have started to do M's teacher one for end of school i decided to put them in a regular album so I wasn't overwhelmed. Now I will just scrapbook a few major things. I am always about 6mo behind in ordering pics since I take soooo many. But I just finished putting all the summer ones in albums and will order Sept-Jan tomorrow. You just can't scrapbook everything. It takes wayyyyy tooooo long. And it takes the fun away from it if i feel overwhelmed so i am not going to feel guilty about it because atleast they are labeled in an album! I have a school scrapbook for the boys, a sports one, and a general one that gets what else I have left to do when i have time. I pray someday that they will look at these albums, and scrapbooks and cherish them like I do!

3wishes

When I was putting the boys to bed, M said he had 3wishes.
1. Mommy's back gets better
2. He could be the tallest kid in his grade (he says he is the 2nd tallest??)
3. He could let the Jeanie get out of the bottle and give him all the wishes he wanted!
He is sooooo clever!

Generic

Apparently M has been craving Lucky Charms because today I let him get the "generic" ones at the store and he hugged me twice and said thanks mom!!!! Then he told his dad about it when he got home from work, but made sure to tell him it wasn't the expensive ones, it was the "generic" ones. Looks like I have taught him something about money. LOL!

Washing hands

I ordered a printed copy of my last year's blog. I am very excited to get it. It comes with the pictures and all in black and white. I want to the kids to have it so they can read all the stories about themselves some day.

I told B to wash his hands (for the 100th time ) and realized I needed to give him something to help him wash longer then 1second so I told him to sing happy birthday while washing and he was so cute. He sang, " Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to mommy, cha cha cha. "

1st day

Today I am thankful for B's teacher who called me on my cell to tell me that B had quit crying 5seconds after I left him at preschool. She didn't have to do that and it really eased my mind. 1st day back for the kids. When I picked them up they said they had a good day.

Spaghetti sauce

M ate a whole bowl of spaghetti with actual sauce on it tonight! First time ever.

Missing

M went to stay with his Nanoo tonight so has been gone all day and B has said about 100 times how much he misses him!

Preacher

2011! Geesh! Tonight I am thankful for our preacher at our church. He is moving to another church and I am very sad but very thankful that we got to know him. He baptized B and was present when I got baptized. I can't imagine a better preacher then him so his shoes will be big to fill.