Big Girl

I took these pictures the other day on Eden's first day of preschool here, but I thought I would post it today since it is her birthday. Of course I'll post how we celebrated later, but I just wanted to capture the excitement today. Four is one of my favorite ages. She is so excited about life and everything that is happening and so sweet and is even starting to get a bit reasonable. Don't get me wrong, she is still demanding and strong willed but she is also seeing outside herself more and more and she is usually so fun to be around. She was really excited to start preschool and be with her new friend Madison from church, it's all she talked about for the couple of days before she started. She is so social and has been missing her friends and her joy school from last year so it was nice to find a nice little home preschool with someone in one of the wards here. She has also been looking forward to this birthday all year. Everytime she was in a store she pointed out things she wanted. I told her to put it in her list and she would hold up her hand, make an imaginary mark and say "check!" She has also been telling me how she wants balloons and cupcakes for her birthday for months. I'm so happy to celebrate with our sweet and zany little girl today!

Chores

There's a couple of people out there that want to know when I come up with one of my creative ideas for getting chores done. Today we did a fun one that worked. I wrote down every chore I could think of that I would like done and I gave each one a point value. I then told them that they had to complete 75 points worth of chores. They could choose whatever they wanted but they could only choose one at a time, so someone else could get one that they wanted if they didn't choose it early on. It worked really well, I had very minimal complaining and then they asked me if they could earn halloween candy for doing extra points above the 75. That worked well to get the last lingering jobs completed. I will definitely try that one again! In the meantime (and after Eden did a few jobs) Eden, Tucker and I did some bouncing on the exercise ball!

Go 'Niners and other Sunday antics

Deia was playing with Eden and Tucker and the Armoire on Sunday, they had fun getting in and out and then Tucker wanted Deia to get in.

There was some cardboard on the floor in the family room and Jordan decided to break out some break dancing moves...

but no one wanted to be left out of the picture and the dance fest turned into a wrestling match as most things do with boys, and Tucker thought he was in on the action by just laying there on the floor!

It was Eden's very first primary program and I had to get a picture before we left. She did a great job except that she is so tiny, no one could see her over the podium, even while standing on the step stool. She did have no problem speaking loud and clear into the microphone, she is that one kid, you all know from your own wards, the one that puts there mouth right on it and practically yells! So there was this big loud voice with no one to look at!

The boys did great in the program of course, but there is a little story there, ever since Brady's first primary program 7 years ago, Sam has been trying to get the boys to say "Go Niner's" after they say there part, joking of course because he knew they would never do it. So of course, this time before church Sam told them he would give them two lollipops if they did it. Jordan, always a candy lover, did his part and then as he walked away mouthed "Go Niner's" which I didn't see and didn't know about the offer. I just saw Sam, Brady and Jordan all cracking up after Jordan's part. Luckily, I don't think anyone else noticed and Sam learned his lesson about underestimating what Jordan would do for candy!

Lazy Friday

As you can see from the picture it is a Lazy Friday evening around here. The new Spongebob movie is on and we have Deia and Eli for the weekend so they are all enjoying the nice big couch! Sam is interpreting as he has been doing a lot of interpreting on the weekends. While they are doing this I've just been thinking that this has been a pretty good week. A lot of the things that have been getting me down feel better today.

I like lists so here is my list of things that helped me feel better this week:

1. I had two long dates with Sam this week, that's the most time I've spent with him in ages, we went to dinner and the ward temple night last night which was really nice and we drove to MH just the two of us a couple of nights ago (thanks to my sister and Sam's parents and sister for making that possible with babysitting help)
2. I got to hold a newborn baby fresh from the hospital, there are not many joys greater than that
3. Sam and I had so much fun visiting with our friends, it was hard to leave, we have just loved having couple friends that we mesh so well with and we've been missing our date nights and game nights with our friends so it filled us up enough to get by, now we can look forward to them visiting us sometime
4. I visited with Shamay and held her new twins, even though I've been back in the area for a while, I was so busy getting settled and dealing with sick kids that I hadn't had a chance to connect with what I already knew here, plus its always fun to talk to Shamay
5. I went to a school meeting, pretty boring, but at least I finally have a better feel for the school
6. I went to the ward playgroup and got to chat with some people, it wasn't long, but its the first time I've just chatted with the women in the ward and finally feel like I know some people a little bit
7. I may have found a preschool group for Eden thanks to going to that playgroup
8. My old playgroup just finally felt normal today. I don't know what the difference was, but it was really nice and I have missed that
9. I got green pillows for the couch... I've been feeling like we've moved in but I haven't really had a chance to make it ours yet, that's the first step and now I finally have a color besides brown in the family room, I still have a long way to go, but its a start
10. I made out my Christmas gift list and actually bought three gifts this week, another start that feels good to be going
11. I mailed out several changes of addresses, something that has been hanging over my head
12. I bought a mullet for $2...no explanation for that one, but I just love a good deal and someday I'm sure it will be put to good use!

Happy Friday!

Little minds

Just like every parent thinks, my kids are geniuses! Eden is doing one of her favorite things, putting together puzzles. Each week I bring one box of toys out to the family room and this week was puzzles as you can see the box spilling out into the room, she spent hours with them. Actually, the genius part is about Tucker more than the others although they are all brilliant, but Tucker seems to have this mind for figuring things out more than any of the other kids did. He will keep doing something over and over again until he figures it out and also since he was really little he has been able to put things together or match them up or stack them ahead of what I remember to be normal for the other kids. I'm sure it is not really genius behavior but I do think this will definitely be one of his talents or strengths. On Saturday I got out these magnetic pattern blocks for Eden where she spent hours matching the shapes onto pictures. When Tucker woke up he had to be a part of it so I got him this cake pan and he made designs and matched of colors and sides for hours as well. I just had to take a picture because it was so cute to see him laying there concentrating so hard on his design, but of course he had to look up and say cheese as soon as he saw the camera!

Halloween pictures 2009

Sneaky boy

I left the room for 2 minutes at most and Tucker wasn't even in this room. This is what I found when I came back!