Spring Preschool Presentation

Brandon came in....saw all the people....teared up...and spent the remainder of the time under my chair hiding. *sigh* I didn't even get upset this time. I've come to accept it. I just rubbed his back and told him not to worry about it. No use trying to force him. It never works. At least he's finally vocalizing WHY he won't participate. He's intimidated by all the parents. Grandma K said he does AWESOME during practice so she said she'll record the next one for me to watch. LOL. Love that lady!

When did my little boy get SO tall and grown up looking? Oh my goodness, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this picture. He's never been the "tall" one in class. I'm having kindergarten anxiety already. Thank goodness he'll (mostly likely) have the same teacher the girls had! That gives me comfort. He'll do great with her. She may not be "Grandma K", but she's pretty close.

And here's a cute Carter picture. He'll be here at preschool before I know it!

Activity days

I love my activity day girls. They are mostly all 8 or 9 years old, so they are excited to be there and feel so "big" having their own activity night. I'm really enjoying being with them twice a month!

Yesterday we talked about the importance of being a good friend. Then we made friendship bracelets. Can you tell who the oldest girl is? Hint....she's the one "too busy" to look up and smile for the camera. Lol. I guess after a while the idea of going to young women's always trumps Activity days! Oh well.... 😊

Brandon's FIVE!

Today is Brandon's fifth birthday and he's had a GREAT day! He got to start out at preschool celebrating with all his preschool classmates. Then we took a few of his friends to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids played games, ate pizza, got a cool visit from Chuck E., Brandon got to go in the "ticket blaster" and they ended the party picking out prizes from the prize counter. I'd say it was a pretty successful day for him. 

Here's a little about Brandon currently.

What's your favorite color? red and blue

What's your favorite tv show? Power Rangers

Who's your best friend? Elijah

What's your favorite thing about preschool? playing with my friends

What's your favorite primary song? Every single one

What's your favorite movie? Despicable Me

Where's your favorite place to go? everywhere

What's your favorite food? mashed potatoes

What's your favorite dessert? brownies

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Daddy

Where do you want to go on your mission? Hawaii

If you could buy any toy, what would you buy? Every boy toy

What's your favorite thing to do outside? Swing on the swing and jump on the trampoline

How much do you weigh? 40 pounds

What's your favorite restaurant? Subway

What do you like to do with Ashlyn? wrestle

What do you like to do with Leah? wrestle

What do you like to do with Carter? Wrestle (are we seeing a theme)

What do you like to do with Daddy? Wrestle

What do you like to do with Mommy? Snuggle (That's my boy!)

The gang

Carson, Audrey, Elijah, Brandon, Ryan and Carter

Playing games. Lots and lots of games.

Dancing with Chuck E. 

A little bit of mommy and daddy love!

He loved the crown and medal he got!

Blurry but it's all we got of all of us. 

(The girls were at school. Don't worry we'll celebrate with them too.)

That Sam's Club makes some serious dark colored icing. It was ALL over the place.

Love those kissy lips. Even with red icing all over them.

The ticket blaster was a party favorite!

Crazy face boy! He loves his legos.

Man it looks like Christmas around here! 

He got some awesome loot! 

Who's gonna clean up this mess? Oh....I made Leah do it. I'm so nice!

We sure love you Brandon! You love to snuggle one minute and wrestle the next. You are all boy and then some! And we couldn't be happier that you are a part of our family!

A Lovely Saturday

 Today was quite a nice day. Paul got up early and took Leah and Brandon with him to help clean the chapel while I slept in a bit (with Carter playing IPad next to me in bed that is). He dropped them off at 9:30 and then headed out to a funeral that started at 10. He offered to help clean up after the funeral luncheon, so he was pretty much gone until 2 pm. So instead of feeling sorry for myself that he was gone so much on a SATURDAY (like I sometimes do), I decided to take the kids down to the pool for a bit. They were MORE than excited to go incase you can't tell from the picture. Unfortunately, as I have been trying to tell them for the past many months, the pool was not heated yet and it was pretty darn cold. It didn't stop them from getting in, but they definitely spent more time in the hot tub with me than in the pool. We came home, got cleaned up and had lunch. After Paul got home and Carter woke up from his nap, we took the kids to the park for a while and then stopped at Rubio's Mexican Grill for dinner. I LOVE that place and could go every week. The kids were all pretty darn good today, which is probably what made it a "lovely" day for me! We are on the official countdown to summer. yahoo!

Oh and last night Leah bathed Carter for me. Isn't that awesome? Now if one of the girls would just agree to changing his diaper. 

Hehe... I'm so naughty

I've been going on a walk a couple times a week with a few friends lately. The weather is so nice and we're trying to enjoy it while it lasts. We usually walk down this one road where there isn't much around and we're usually gone for at least an hour or so. Well, I forgot to have Brandon use the bathroom beforehand, so yup...he's definitely doing what you think he's doing. Right there on the side of the road with cars whizzing on by. Haha....Poor boy will probably either think this is the coolest picture ever someday, or he will hate me for it! Knowing him, it'll probably be the first.

And so as to not end on a bad note, here's my handsome little guy with one of his many many MANY trio block creations. He is constantly building and rebuilding. Sometimes more than he would like, as his little brother likes to destroy. So we are working on that.  But I try to tell Brandon it's just another opportunity to make a cooler creation. So far, he's still just mad when Carter wrecks it. I can't say I don't blame him! 

This one was made special for his buddy Elijah. Brandon requested I take a picture of him with it and send it to his mom to show him. So that's what we did! So glad for good friends for my kids.

Take your Kid to Work Day

This year's theme at Dreamworks was of course "The Croods". Ashlyn and Leah were hoping to be in "Eep's" group, but they got in the "Grug" group (the dad. I think that's his name. I could be wrong.) Anyway, they of course had a BLAST and always tell me it's the best day EVER!

They got to do fun activities, have lunch with their Dad and then the kids who had a parent currently working on "Dragon's 2" (that would be Paul) got to draw pictures of dragons that might make it into the actual movie, which comes out next year I believe. 

After the festivities were over, the girls got to hang out with their Dad at his desk. I'm quite sure Paul got just about NOTHING done that day, but he's a good sport and loves having them for the day!

Next year Brandon will be with the girls too. Don't know how that's all gonna work out? Paul might just have to leave after the kids are done with their activities. LOL!

Oh my goodness, my girls are getting so big. It's killing me. But I love it at the same time! Aren't they just the cutest things ever? I sure love them!

I have to thank Paul for remembering to take these awesome pictures of the day. He's not the biggest picture taker, so I was very happy he remembered. Although it might have had something to do with my constant reminders too! Hehe......

Today

As the kids were walking out the door this morning, Paul and I heard a "thunk". Knowing that Brandon had Paul's IPad in his hands, we knew it wasn't good news. And knowing that it already had a few cracks in it, we figured it was bad. And it was. The screen is totally shattered. Glass was on the floor and everything. I took it to the Apple store planning on having it replaced, but I forgot to back it up before going, so I have to go back on Monday. That's a $250.00 "oops" right there guys! OUCH and double *sigh*. 

While there, I ran into an old friend from Texas. Her and her family live in Valencia and we run into each other from time to time. She was looking at the turtles with her youngest daughter. She told me a funny story. She said a friend of theirs had two little turtles that they didn't want anymore....just like the ones in this picture. So one day the husband came to the mall with them in his pocket and carefully slipped them into the pond with the other turtles. I thought that was hilarious. So now they come to visit their friends turtles at the mall. You can even pick one of them out of the pack because it has a scratch mark from these people's dog on the back of it's shell. So if you are ever at the patios at the mall, try and find him. I wonder if the workers at the mall ever noticed there were "extra" turtles in the pond. Pretty funny huh!

Leah Brag

I gotta brag about my little Leah for a bit, so please indulge me.

She is a super star at school! She loves it. She loves going, she loves structure and she loves having a schedule. She loves being with her friends and socializing. She's never happy when there is a day off and usually counts the days until she starts up again (I try not to take it personally. Haha).

This week was a big one for her. Not only was she the only one in her class to get 100% on her math DCA (benchmark) test, she got to have a subway lunch with her teacher because of it AND she got the Principal's Award with her name on the marquee as one of this week's Valiant Vikings. It's a hard award to get and I'm SO incredibly proud of her for how well she does in school! 

Keep up the amazing work Leah. WE LOVE YOU!

This is what her Teacher wrote about her and what the Principal read over the PA system Monday morning! We knew she was getting the award before Spring Break started, so Paul was sneaky and went into the teachers lounge during morning announcements to hear it. 

Spring Break Part 4

One more outing for the week. The zoo. I finally renewed my pass so we could go again. And Friday is the perfect day to go because the Condor Discovery Center is open that day. The kids loved it. They had all these cool little areas for the kids to work and play in. They dug for treasure, fed a baby condor (well, a fake one anyway), played on walkie talkies, and looked for hidden animals in holes.

After that, we headed over to the petting zoo to brush the goats. We don't usually come to this section, so it was a fun treat for the kids.

Carter kept getting in trouble for trying to hand feed the goats. Oops.

Then we went into "The Lair" where all the reptiles are kept. It was warm and humid in there and it got hard to keep track of my kids, so I wasn't too sad to be done.

And yes, I drug Becky along with me AGAIN. Poor girl. She probably just wants to run and hide from me. Beth and Michalle came with us too. But they stayed longer. Me and Becky left at noon to go meet our respective hubbies for lunch. Funny thing is we ran into each other again on the freeway home. Guess she just can't get away from me. 

We LOVE meeting Paul for lunch. Today was especially yummy. Flank steak pitas with tomato and cucumber salad and chocolate oreo cupcakes for dessert. Yum! He's one lucky guy come lunch time. I'm afraid my dinners pale in comparison. Last night we had spaghetti and meatballs. Wow! Embarrassing. Good thing he's not too picky and loves me anyway.