Catching Christian doing good.

I love how sweet and thoughtful Christian can be sometimes.

The other day I caught him doing good on camera a couple times. He made this card for Victoria because he misses her when she is at school and he wanted her to know that he loved her. Here he is giving it to her. So sweet.

That same night I caught him washing the dishes for me after dinner! Isn't he precious? That is a lot of work for a four year old.

I think that he is glad when I notice.

Sadly, I am often quick to scold Christian for doing wild things. But, when I take a second to understand why he did what he did, a lot of times it makes sense. And, a lot of the time he is actually trying to be good and helpful and I misinterpret. I need to remember to be quicker to notice the good and praise and slower to correct.

The non disturbing parts of the zoo

Christian, Grant and I had a fun time with grandma, Lorel, and Ella.

the bears

So many amazing animals!

A giraffe and Christian in his "zoo hat". I told him in the morning that we would be going to the zoo. He changed into this outfit because the shirt had an alligator on it, and the hat was his zoo hat. He also put on his hiking boots, so he really looked like he was going on a safari. It was hot though, so he switched to his favorite crocs. He's so funny.

Christian and Ella-So cute!

Grant totally took it all in too. We had a good time.

Disturbing day at the zoo

I saw the monkey playing with something in the water. At first it was just batting lightly at it and I thought it was just playing. Then, it picked it up by the foot and was playing a little too rough. When he put it down, the poor bird wasn't really floating properly a top the water. Oh dear, what is that monkey doing with that little duckling?!!!! It was upsetting to watch, but we couldn't help it either. I know, I'm sick. I'm not the only one though. A few other people stopped to watch as well. I did tell a zoo worker though. She walkie talkied to another worker who soon came over and waded across the water to get it.

We talked to Jim Andelin later and asked him about it. Nice to know the zoo's owner, right. It turned out that it was a baby swan. He said that usually they don't swim over there, but the mother swan was sitting on the other eggs waiting for them to hatch. The poor thing was only 1 day old. Welcome to the world! Eek. They are going to try to help it heal. He said its wing was broken.

The Fun of harvesting 1 Zucchini!

So, we had high hopes for our garden this year. But, it didn't do so well. Mainly, we didn't do so well. Also, every tomato that started to grow was promptly eaten by a squirrel. Not one made it to red!

The good thing is, we still had fun watching 1 zucchini grow. It was hidden under a big leaf, so the squirrels didn't find it! The kids picked it the other day and it was kind of a big deal.

They wanted to take funny pics with the solo zucchini, so here they are!

I think I have mentioned that Christian is slightly obsessed with mustaches.

Silly, silly V

Oh, dear!

And zuchini mama.

Christian starts Super School!

Christian went back to school on Monday... at our house!

He was really excited to start back into school. Some things are different this year. Sam moved and Laurie is doing a different school. :( Christian was sad about that and commented, "It's too bad that Sam had to move." At the same time he was glad to have two more friends, Ansen Beck and Zane Greene, joining him here.

We are creating our own school this year.It will be a lot like what the moms and I did for Victoria, Makayley, Josh, and Carter a couple years ago. It will have some differences too.

Alicia came up with the name and theme for the year. It is called Super School! The boys are the heroic super learners! They have the power to learn!

Here's Christian in our living room, getting ready for his friends to come!

As you can see, he loves school and was excited to get started.

Then the kids came!

Here are the boys with the things that their moms made. Alicia made a Super School Picture poster. She was nice and included the siblings pictures too. I made a little show and tell bag. Priscilla made a great calendar and weather board. The boys were happy to start.

School was here first. We studied Ss for School this week! We also learned about the number 0, squares, and the color blue. It was amazing how easy it was to put together a lesson that introduced them to our school and the way we want it to run.

Super School Schedule:
Start- went over some basic morning components including windows, date and weather, letter of the week, number of the week, shape of the week, show and tell, etc.
Singing time
Story time
Stations/Sorts
Snack
Sleep
Social Studies
Science
Sports

This is not a schedule that we use everytime or anything I just used it on Monday to introduce them to some things that we will often do at school and to show them some Ss words.

Anyway the boys were great! I was really pleased. Here are a few more pictures from the week at school.

Zane did a great job tracing Squares.

S snacks(breadsticks)

Ansen enjoyed writing S in salt.

Christian set a great example at rest time! They were all so still for 5 minutes! (They don't really need a rest, but they need to know how to lie down quietly so they can do it in kindergarten next year. Rest time is a time when a lot of kids have a hard time with talking and rolling around. I think it can also be a good thing to have quiet time for rest and for self introspection.)

And lastly, the boys with their "Sammy the Squares". It really was an introductory week and served its purpose. The boys know what school will be like and had a good time!

Naomi came to visit!

Last Sunday, our friend Naomi came to visit our ward and to come eat with us. We were planning to have her for a nice Sunday dinner. However, we had a house showing and she was so kind to go with the flow of our crazy household. Instead of enjoying a nice meal, she helped watch the kids as we picked up a bit more after church. Then we took a totally different than planned meal- a picnic- to the park at the end of the rode. We had a great time anyway.

Naomi is a friend who used to live in our ward a couple years ago. She was always so positive, optimistic, and charitable. She watched Victoria and Christian on several occasions, hosted fun girls night outs like dirty bingo, and was V's sunbeam teacher too. We see reminders of Naomi around our house a lot. She gave us some of our kids favorite toys(Victoria's cat used to be Ali's) and the snack plates,bowls, and cups we use on a regular basis. Her kids, Aaron and Ali, weren't here this time as she was on a business trip that she was able to combine with some personal time. It was great to see her!

Playground on our street!

So, the park at the end of our street now has a new playground! They took the caution tape off the playground on Saturday, so after Grant's party we couldn't wait to walk down and check it out!

Nice to be within walking distance of a park.

Christian rode on the "squirrel?"

Grant looked totally old rocking himself on this rocket.

We pushed V back and forth like a ping pong ball.

Weeee! It was fun!

When we got home, Grant couldn't handle another exciting minute. When I can still help him fall asleep I feel like he is still my baby! I'll savor this as long as possible.

Grant's 1st birthday party- dog gone fun!

Baby Grant turned one last Thursday! We celebrated with the Marshall side of the family on Saturday. Grant had a dog themed party since he loves dogs, points at them excitedly, and sometimes says "dog" or "woof."

His cake- wasn't sure what it was going to look like. Kinda like Ralph from the Muppets, I think.

He recognized that it was supposed to be a dog, so that made me feel good.

The cute little birthday boy in his only clean shirt picture. We gave him one of these dog food pieces right as the party started and the brown drool stained his birthday shirt.

V and C with the puppy chow.

For party games we did dog training: fetch, roll over, beg, lie down, sit, jump over this stick, jump through the hoop, etc.

The kids had a fun time with it. It was fun when Grant really did some of the things we asked the little puppies to do, like crawling through the hoop.

We also played dog, dog, cat.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday!

Dad helped him blow out the candle.

He tried the cake.

Honestly, he totally preferred the apple juice.

Grant had a fun party! Thanks to the family for coming and for the nice presents. He is enjoying them!

Grant Turns 1!!!!!!

Grant turned one on Sept 10!!!! We could hardly believe that it had been a year, but he does seem like a one year old. We had a party for him on Saturday, but tried to make Thursday a good day for him too.

We hosted playgroup. Rain was predicted so we went to the River Romp at Chesterfield Town Center instead of a park. He likes playing there, so it was a good choice for him.

Also during the day we did a lot of playing and looking at books. See what I mean about he acts one. He loves to pull everything out.

He helped Danny make dinner too.

and loved his smoothie!

Not the most exciting birthday ever, but he was a happy little baby anyway. He's so good, even with a runny nose, wheezes, and coughs. We love him!