Sunday, September 30, 2012

Fun Overload

I've been trying out some new hairstyles with Paige.  She really likes this one with her hair in a pony and flipped out.  She's also getting pretty good at fixing her own hair.  I was so worried about her as a baby and even 2 yr old with no hair.  And then when it started growing in, it was so frail and stringy.  But it has grown in so nice over the last year.  It's getting longer and longer and it is really thick.  I think shaving her head when she turned 1 turned out to be a great idea!

Darci on the other hand had great hair as a baby, but the older she gets, her hair is turning thin and whispy.  It's hard to fix, especially with pony tails, so most of the time, she gets pig tails - which fall out within a few hours.  I wonder if it's too late to shave her head.....?  She still has almost 2 years before kindergarten, I think it will grow back!  This is her waiting at 6am to see the hot air balloons lift off in Safford, which did not lift off because it was too windy. The night before we went to the Salsa Fest and sampled about a dozen salsas.  Derek liked all the hot ones, Kevin liked the chunky ones, Paige liked 1 or 2, but not the "spicy" ones.  Darci liked the chips. 

Here is Paige wearing the pretty hat Grandma Toni made for her.   Now if I could just convince her to keep her hat on....

 When I pack a lunch for the kids, I also pack one for Darci to eat at lunch so she doesn't feel left out. This one I tried PB&J banana tortilla roll ups.  I like to think I'm pretty clever using cupcake wrappers as food separators.  I give them a juice box once a week...
 


Saturday, Tad's work, Freeport McMoRan had a company picnic in Safford at the fairgrounds.  Unfortunately Tad had to work the night before and the night of, so he was sleeping, but I took the kids anyway.  They had so much fun!  The company went all out and did a really great job.  There was so much food, so much food!  And ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn, drinks, jumpy castles, face painting and petting zoo.  And it was all free and no limits, which the kids loved. We ended up staying there longer than expected and we only put sunscreen on before we left and of course I got sunburned.... The kids didn't get too red, I think they were moving around too much, but I was just standing there watching them.  Well at least I made it through most of summer without getting burned.  When we got home all I wanted to do was take a nap... unfortunately, the kids were a little too wired for that!



Grandpa, this train would go good in your yard too!







 

 

 



 




Food....







Dilly bars....


Face painting...






 Cotton candy....





Other things that we've been doing.... Kevin and Derek are doing soccer - but on separate teams.  Kevin scored 2 goals his first game.  He practices everyday at school and I can tell... he's not afraid to get in there and kick the ball.  Derek is also doing much better at it this year.  No goal yet for him, but he's been close and it's only been 2 games.

I started back at school trying to complete my Master's degree in nursing leadership and management.  I'm hoping hoping hoping to complete it by the end of next summer.  I can work at my own pace, which is nice.  I can speed it up for a few weeks and then take a few days break and so on and kind of plan my homework around the nights Tad is working.  

The election is coming along... I am back knocking on doors.  I was hoping that by now the weather would be cooler than it was this summer when I knocked on doors the first time. But most of the time it is hot and miserable.  But it's been really fun.  I wish I would've done something like this years ago.  I've been a quiet person most of my life, so knocking on doors sounded scary at first, but it has been great to talk to different people and meet different people.  It's definitely gotten me outside of myself for a while.  Hopefully all this hard work will pay off in the end!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Videos

Here is a little video overload for all the grandparents...

The first two are the kids playing outside in the playground making pretend tracks and cities.

 

 


Here is Kevin reading.  First is an easy book from school and then just to show you how great he reads, I had him read a verse in the scriptures.  Then there is Paige reading the same story and another library book.  She is not quite up to Kevin, but if she tries she reads easier books pretty well.  Her problem is she doesn't want to sit still long enough to sound out words so she focuses too much on the pictures and just tries to tell the story instead of reading it. 
 







 


Paige would rather be doing this.....


Monday, September 3, 2012

Having Fun

I noticed that the antique shop on the corner had some cute girls dresses in the window, so I went in and found the girls each a fancy dress.  








Darci learning about the letter D




Derek helped me make some 'dinosaur eggs' with flour, dirt, sand, and salt.  We let them bake in the sun overnight until they were hard and then they pretended they were scientists and cracked them open.
  


 





The pumpkin plant finally started to die, so we picked the 2 small pumpkins that were growing.  I guess we wont have a porch full of pumpkins this year like I was hoping!




Derek still likes to sneak the camera and take pictures of himself.