Fall Time Lunch

The girls and I had a wonderful time yesterday. We went to Thanksgiving Point for lunch and a stroll around the gardens with some of the girls from Jason's side of the family.
Laura has loved being able to see her cousin Emily (only 4 months apart) twice in the past two weeks. And, she should be able to see her next week as well. Emily will be staying over when Keri has her baby for Laura's first sleepover.
It was great to chat and just be together. But, I think Laura's favorite part was the ice cream.

Weekend Activities

We did quite a bit this past weekend. Karyn and I took the kids to the Aquarium for a field trip for preschool. We began with a stop at Wendy's for lunch and then to the preview exhibit for the new Living Planet Aquarium. It was kindof small, but the kids enjoyed it anyway. Sara was wonderful through the whole trip and enjoyed staring at the fish.
They really enjoyed looking at all the fish (the jellyfish were my favorite.) Laura also enjoyed playing in the coral reef and driving the pretend boat on the Great Salt Lake. But, she did NOT want to touch anything. After touching the sea cucumber I didn't blame her!!

On Saturday we took the girls to get their individual professional pictures taken. Laura got her 4 year and Sara her 3 month. It was a bit of a fire drill, but we got some good pictures...there were even some that captured a smile from Sara and Laura's real smile. We didn't attempt any together pictures; we are going to wait until the next time for those. Instead we just manage with the ones we take at home.
After the pictures on Saturday we stopped at the cabin briefly to get a few things done. The rain really did limit it to a few, but progress was made on both the deck and the swing.

Finally, on Sunday, Laura was assigned the scripture for Primary. We had worked on memorizing it all week at the dinner table. She did a beautiful job. She walked up and recited it perfectly, all by herself. She enunciated beautifully and impressed all the adults in the room. Here is a video of her doing it at home. We are so proud of our beautiful, smart and spiritual little Laura.

Preschool Outline - E and Fall

The favorite from this preschool was the mosaic trees. Didn't they turn out adorably?!

CIRCLE TIME
Show and Tell
Pledge of Allegiance
Calendar
Recite the days of the week
Recite the months of the year

LETTER - Ee

Tracer page
Write letter Ee and review letters Cc and Dd without tracer pages
Sound

MATH – Counting and recognition

Count to 40 together
Flashcards of Numbers 1 – 20: recognition
Number 5 worksheets and writing

THEME – Autumn/Fall

Movement and Music
Treasure Hunt for Nuts and Sticks and Blankets like the animals do in the fall
Dancing like the wind and a leaf falling to the ground
Singing
“It’s Autumntime”
“Autumn Day”
Instruction
What animals and people do in the fall
Animals gathering food
Animals getting fat to hibernate
Read Book “Bear Wants More”
Art
Mosaic Trees: punch out leaves in autumn colors and have girls paste flowers and leaves on blank trees to represent the different seasons
Snack of Nuts and Pretzels and juice

Preschool Outline - D and Fall

The favorite thing from this preschool was definitely making the book for daddy. Laura was just thrilled to leave the Daddy book for him on his plate at dinnertime.

CIRCLE TIME

Show and Tell
Pledge of Allegiance
Calendar
Recite the days of the week
Recite the months of the year

LETTER - Dd

Tracer page
Write letter Dd and review letter Cc without tracer pages (also write 4 here)
Sound
Read Book “Make Way for Ducklings”
Move like a Doggy
Make a book about Daddy to give to him
Color page of Dancing shoes

MATH – Counting and recognition

Count to 40 together
Flashcards of Numbers 1 – 20: recognition
Number 4 worksheets and writing

THEME – Autumn/Fall

Instruction
Description of Fall/Autumn
Work on names and what the world looks and feels like in Fall
Birthday and Holidays in the Fall
Snack of Pretzels to represent the sticks of trees without leaves

Super-di-Duper Saturday

This past Saturday we were finally all feeling better from the nasty bout we have had with colds lately. So, we had to get out and do some fun things.

Barbie was visiting the zoo to promote her new movie and we had to visit too. Laura got to choose whether she wanted to wait in the line (about an hour) to meet Barbie or to go see lots of animals. She chose the line. Both she and Sara were excellent in line.
Laura loved meeting Barbie. She also really enjoyed the CD of music from the new Island Princess movie that she got free. She listens to it on her DVD player and sings all the songs along with the CD.
After the zoo, we stopped by the Conference Center to see Mom and Dad and get some non-glare pictures behind the pulpit.
Since the girls were still being so good, we went to see if we could get in the studio. (It was in use when we went with the family.) We were able to get in and see where they film all the stake conferences, General Conference sign language translation and instruction videos. Note whose seat Jason is in for the next broadcast for Stake Conference!!
We also got to see some more neat things. I got a pictures of the backside of the organ, the HUGE wall that shows the height of the Conference Center (the door is big enough that a semi-truck could drive through) and a big picture of the auditorium.



We went to lunch with them at the Nauvoo Cafe for super yummy sandwiches. Then we stopped off at the temple so Laura could touch it. Whenever we see a temple Laura asks to touch it, so we did.
Seeing her there got me all emotional. I realized that someday she'll be in these places in her wedding dress...woah. And just knowing that my tender girl wants to feel the spirit of the temple got to me. Oh, how I love my eternal family.

Busy Days

The past two days have been crazy busy. They were busy with great things, but busy nonetheless.

Monday began with preschool for Laura at Lily's house. Fortunately, Karyn agrees with me and we'll be swapping our younger children while the other runs preschool. Things should go much more smoothly that way.

Monday afternoon I got together with one of my oldest and bestest friends, Steph. We had the greatest time catching up and getting to know one another's children. She is one of those rare people who has grown up just like I have and where our friendship always picks up exactly where we left it with no effort despite how long it has been since we've seen each other. Here is a picture of our darling babies (yay for chubby ones!) and us with our kiddos. That evening brought another trip to the cabin. It was a big work party to get the shed moved to the newly built deck. The moving went very well due to the pallet jack Mom and Dad rented. The kids loved playing on it afterwards as well. Sara liked hanging out with her cousin, Alex.
Today, Tuesday, Laura started her new dance class with her friend Emma. The teachers were wonderful! It was amazing how even at 3 years old, what a difference it was for her to have a friend there. Both girls were wonderfully involved because they had each other. She loved it so much that she asked me when it was over, "Why was that so short, Mommy?" And I got to explain that time flies when you are having fun. Aren't the two girls adorable in their leotards?!
This afternoon I went Visiting Teaching for the first time in the new ward. It was great to get acquainted with the ladies and make some new friends. Thank you to Karyn who watched Laura for me so I wasn't that obnoxious lady who hauls ALL her children with her to another's home!

Three Months Old

Sara recently turned three months old and here are her comparison pictures. Yep, she is that cute and she likes being naked that much! Oh, and I must draw attention to my favorite thing: those thighs!

Laura had to do it too. She set it up all by herself as we were photographing Sara and said, "Mom, take my picture." Luckily, we talked her into staying dressed for the occasion.
And, you have to see how much Sara loves her sister. She interacts more with Laura than just about anyone. You can really hear her talking to Laura.

Catching Up

We've had a crazy week and a half and just haven't gotten much posting done. This will just be a summary post to get it down in the journal. Here's all the fun and cool stuff we have done:

1. On Labor Day we went out to a great dinner/lunch with our friends Brian and Steph. The kids had a blast running amok in the restaurant and we had a grand time catching up with them. Steph is darling when she is pregnant and I hope the little "Anti-Barf Bag" I made for her helps her to feel better.

2. Laura and I both got haircuts. I needed to eliminate the length on my hair that always falls out post pregnancy (gag). Laura needed hers evened up. Her curls got cut off which made me super sad, but it is thick and beautiful. Check her out!

3. We all did lots of clothes shopping. We enjoyed the Labor Day sales and got some great stuff at the outlets in Draper. We got the dresses for the girls for our family picture as well as a lot of winter clothing for Laura at Osh Kosh. J and I got a smokin' deal on some Reef sandals.

4. Laura has played with her friends both Fridays at the park. She loved it and I loved talking with their mommy's.

5. Laura and I also made some Pink Oreos. Man, that girl loves to bake and man, do I love a convection oven. It may convert me from a "cooker" to a "baker."

6. I had even more fun with my lady friends when the 4 of us from the old presidency all went out to dinner to celebrate Andrea M's new job. Have I mentioned that I love these ladies so much! We chatted until they kicked us out of the restaurant. I really could not be more lucky to have such a fun, supportive and uplifting group of women in my life.

7. We started a new project at the cabin. Mom and Dad bought a great swingset and we began digging the holes. It was ROUGH! Fortunately, we learned that water helps loosen the "cement" that is the ground at the cabin and it should go faster later. Good thing, because the beginning about killed Dad and J.

8. We spoke in our new ward today. We got the assignment kindof late so it really took up our free time this week...the main reason we haven't posted. We spoke on service and it went well...at least I say Jason did awesome and he says I did the same. It's always nervous for me to speak and introduce myself to a new ward. Thanks to Mom and Dad who helped watch the girls so we could speak and provided a friendly face to look out to. Hopefully we are off the hook for a long time now.

9. Jason and Laura got to go to the Peter Breinholt concert. I was super bummed that I couldn't also enjoy the free tickets from Brian, but the sick baby would not have made the evening enjoyable for anyone. The two of them had a wonderful time snuggling and dancing to the songs. Laura also enjoyed hanging with some new friends in Joseph and Lindsay's kids who were there as well as Brian and Steph's little ones.

That about covers it and hopefully I won't get this behind again until sweat equity starts!

Preschool Outline - Weather, Letter A

It is time once again for preschool; we started yesterday. Poor Laura still has two more years until she starts Kindergarten (stupid deadline delaying my brilliant little girl!). Instead of paying for 2 years of preschool, I am getting together with my darling friend Karyn to do a joy school for our girls. Thank heavens both she and my mom were elementary school teachers and are very qualified to run one of these.

I thought I should post my outlines for each preschool class so that I have access to them when I do this again. And, some of you all might enjoy these and the expertise I've gleaned from Mom and Karyn as well.

I didn't make it through all this material yesterday, but I thought I'd put it there anyway. Perhaps I didn't make it because poor Sara had diarrhea and I changed her pants 5 times and her outfit 3 times in the course of our 2 hour preschool. This experience really made me question my decision to do preschool. Thank heavens for Mom who helped with the preschool as I dealt with crap (literally) and held poor Sara in between episodes!

Anyway, here is the outline (which unfortunately did not format well when I copied it over from Word):

CIRCLE TIME

1. Show and Tell
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Calendar
a. Recite the days of the week
b. Recite the months of the year

LETTER - A

1. Tracer Page
2. Sound
a. Read Book “Caps for Sale”
b. Apple Tree Finger Play
Way up in an apple tree (arms above head)
Two little apples smiled at me. (thumb and index finger make O’s)
I shook the tree as hard as I could (make motion like shaking ree)
Down fell the apples (hands flutter down)
Mm-Mmm were they good (rub tummy)
c. Apple poem
Alice is picking some apples for Ann,
Apples for Al and apples for Dan.
Alice is picking some apples for Pete,
Apples for Dad and apples to eat.

MATH – Counting and recognition

1. Count to 100 together
2. Flashcards of Numbers 1 – 20: recognition
3. Numbers 1 and 2 worksheets

THEME – Weather

1. Movement and Music
a. Dancing like wind with scarves
b. Singing
i. “Rain Rain Go Away”
ii. Rain Finger play
Patter patter pat (clap clap clap)
Down the raindrops fall (hands up, fingers moving as hands lower)
To give the thirsty flowers a drink (cup hand w/ finger tips together)
And help them stand up tall (stand straight)
And the petals open wide to say (cupped hands gradually open wide)
“Thank you God, for rain today.”
iii. "Rain is Falling All Around" and dance to words
2. Instruction
a. Precipitation pattern – evaporation, clouds, precip
i. Show vapor in a pot
ii. Show pictures of different kinds of clouds – look outside to see the kind of clouds that day
iii. Incorporate concepts of bigger and smaller, lighter and darker when looking at clouds
b. Temperatures
i. How they affect the world around us (changing leaves, flowers, what we wear, etc)
ii. How they affect precipitation – the kinds of precipitation
3. Art
a. Make a cloud on blue paper with cotton balls
b. Cut out snowflakes

Sara Updates

Despite a cold that she just can't seem to shake, Sara sure has gotten more fun lately. First of all, she has gotten stronger and more sturdy. She's great at holding up her own head and doesn't seem so floppy. Also, she is just BIG. When we went to her doctors appointment last week she weighed 13 lb 15 oz and was 25 inches long. Yep, that puts her in the 97th percentile for both. Look at my preemie go! Fortunately she loves the swing and doesn't have to be carried all the time! (I'm not sure she loves how Laura decorates her while in the swing, but she is wonderfully tolerant.)
She has had her first bottle from Daddy and Sister and did quite well with it. (What else is one to do when the poor thing is so stuffy she won't nurse?!) Laura absolutely ADORED giving her sister a bottle and asks me at least once a day now if Sara will be eating from a bottle today.
Sara is also in love with her bath. She coos like crazy and gets so peaceful when she is in there. And, she puts up a major fuss - an "I'm mad" cry - when it's time for her to get out.
Most importantly, she is really really smiling a lot lately. We love doing whatever we can to get her to smile. She smiles with her entire body...throwing back her head and cooing. It is adorable. She prefers to smile while lying down; I think the cheeks are just to heavy to lift properly for a smile if she is upright.