Brett quote of the day

Brett asks some pretty deep questions for a preschooler. Today he asked,"Does counting ever stop?" Here are some of his past thought provoking questions..."If you say 'last night' does it mean there are no more nights?" and "Why is it never tomorrow?"

Saving the World

Recently, I have decided that I can make some simple changes to help our environment. Nothing earth shattering, nothing that I really even have to think that much about, but every little bit helps, right? We have replaced many of our light bulbs with the ugly curly ones, I bought the kids all their own reusable water bottle and I am switching to reusable grocery bags. I really like the bags they hold much more and are easy to carry, I just have to remember to take them in the store! So, what easy things do you do to make our world better?

17 years and a Deacon

Yesterday was our 17th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going out to dinner on Friday night. We used our new "free" babysitter. The kids made us brownies for dessert last night. I am truly lucky to have such a great husband. He works so hard at work and at home. He supports me in all that I do. I am so blessed to have a priesthood holder in our home. Actually, now we have two, because yesterday Bryce was ordained a deacon. I love how excited he is about it. He is all ready to pass the sacrament next week. What a happy weekend!

Let's Play a Game

We have a lot of games at our house. Board games, card games, computer games, video games of all sorts and varieties. My first suggestion to the "Mom, I'm bored" situation is usually, "Go play a game." The kids love to play. Ty likes trivia games, because he loves to ask questions. Paige likes games with personal interpretations. One of her favorites is "Whoonu". Brett likes anything anyone will play with him and let him win. Dave and Bryce both enjoy games with strategy and logic. I love word games. I love making big or interesting words. I like long lists of words and big stacks of letters. I like playing word games on the computer and discovering new words. Quiddler and 4-way Spell Down are two of my current favorites. What is your favorite game?

12

Somehow Bryce has grown up while I wasn't looking. He turned 12 yesterday. This morning he warned me that in 364 days he will be a teenager! He had a party with a few friends on Saturday. Bryce got a "Slip and Slide" that comes with a skim board for his birthday and the boys had a great time with it. On Sunday he endured his last Sharing Time in Primary and had his interview with the Bishop. He is glad to finally be joining the Deacons Quorum. Last night we played Putt-Putt to celebrate and for FHE. Everyone did suprisingly well, we had lots of fun.

Teachers are the Best

Last night we had our annual teacher appreciation dinner at church. It was such a nice evening. The program included good speakers, a cute poem, and 3 musical numbers, and the sweetest prayers by 2 primary children. The primary sang "I am a Child of God" and the youth sang "We'll bring the world his truth." We had around 40 teachers attend which is twice as many as we have ever had before. The boys teachers were unable to attend, but Paige had 2 teachers there and one of them was her gifted teacher who taught Bryce for several years and was happy to claim him for the night. I am so grateful for the wonderful teachers my kids have had. They have shown them love and understanding yet challenged them to push themselves harder than they thought they could. They do a job I just don't have the patience for and I hope that this special night showed them just a little bit about how much they are appreciated!

Spell them? I can't even pronounce them!

I can't image getting a spelling list like Ty has this week. When I was in 5th grade I had never heard of the things on this list. It is Louisiana week at school, so Ty's teacher gave them a Louisiana spelling list here is what he has to spell:
bayou
beignet
cajun
creole
fais-do-do
file'
gumbo
jambalaya
jazz
lagniappe
levee
Mardi Gras
mudbugs
po boy
poo-yie
praline
pirogue
Twelfth Night
vachers
zydeco

After all my years in Louisiana there are still a few words on this list I am not sure about. Good Luck Ty!

My Little Reader

Brett loves to read. Here he is reading Dr. Seuss. "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". His teacher is amazed at how well he is doing. I love that he wants to read to me! He doesn't like to read the books he gets from school though. They are embarassing!

Brett quote of the day

Saturday evening Brett is getting out of the bath. As I towel off his head he says, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" I wrap the towel around him and he looks at me and says, "Do you understand 'OW'?"

Where does the time go?

I can't believe another week is gone. I'm not even sure what I accomplished in the last week. Dave just walked by, "That's really interesting," he says with just a touch of sarcasm! But, here are a few of the interesting things we did this week anyway. The kids went to the dentist and we had no cavities, hooray! Brett went to a fun birthday party for playgroup this week and got to wear his spiderman suit. Spiderman is one of his new favorite things. Paige had a field trip to the arts and science museum. She loved the planetarium. I went to a fun and inspiring enrichment meeting. Friday night we pulled weeds and put down new mulch. Saturday morning was spent cleaning the church and buying paint and window trim. The kids just loved that (another touch of sarcasm). But, the weather Saturday was as perfect as it can get and we ending the evening with friends at a fun barbeque/birthday party.

Brett quote of the day

Brett loves that he is learning to read.
He reads signs whenever we are in the car.
Today on the way to school he asked,
"Why does that sign say Park already!"
It was a street sign: Park Rd.

Oh, and last week he asked,"What does entemer mean?"
"Where did you see that word?"
"That sign said Do not entemer."

Oh Ty!

It was a great weekend hanging out at home watching conference. So many great messages, I can't wait to read and study them when the "Ensign" comes. I was enjoying Elder Ballard's talk. He mentioned things that children can do to help their mothers, such as pick up their toys, make their beds, say "thank you" and "I love you." Dave commented to the kids that it was an inspired message. Ty says, "Expired message?" "INspired" "Oh, darn." No such luck the message is still good!

By the way...he took first place in the pinewood derby this week!

The big boy is getting too big!

It' s not just Brett growing too fast for me. Bryce walked a girl home from school yesterday! They ride the same bus and when they were told it had broken down they decided it would be faster to walk (It really isn't very far). They both know they can't walk home alone so they stuck together and beat the bus home. He doesn't admit to liking girls yet, but puberty has arrived at our house. Help!

Brett has figured out the DVR

Brett just came to tell me that he was watching the show with Batman and his "assistant." He told me just how he found it on the list, read it, and selected it. He also can get on the webkinz site by himself. I am not ready for him to be big!