The Matteson Family

Complete Silly

2012-02-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

How many stuffed animals do you see on Michael's lap? I need to get a picture of how many he has in his bed now. Its getting a bit ridiculous (but harmless so who cares). He's such a little snuggler and a sucker for anything "soft and cozy" like my other yidders.

When Michael finds bibs around the house he puts them on himself and just walks around. I need to get him that one that says, "my mom put my cape on backwards." Sean came around the corner and found him sitting on top of the bin shelf in the living room. He must have got up there by stepping onto the baby stroller, but we're not exactly sure. Maybe his sister was an accomplice too. He just sat there and played with the blocks with picture of Dominic all over them.

See? How on Earth did he get up there without falling?!!

When Dominic is working in the garage with his friends (we have so much to label now that we have to hire 3 neighbor kids to come and help a few times a week) he cannot stop talking.....which impedes his work. On this particular day I told Dominic that if he didn't stop moving his mouth and working with his hands I would get out the duct tape (mostly joking) he giggled and asked, "Can I have some duct tape anyways?"

Sure Dom. This lasted about 5 minutes.

We love chocolate chocolate chip cookies at our house. Just replace 3/4 of the flour with the same amount of cocoa powder and viola! Amazing chocolate cookies. Michael made a mess with the beater.

I love how the ends of his fingers are sucked clean on this next picture. I showed him his face in the mirror and his look of concern for his messy face was priceless. Michael does not like to be messy or wet. In fact he can't stand having any drops of water on himself.....and really gets concerned if my shirt gets water on it. So funny. Sean was kissing and licking the chocolate off of his fac and Michael thought that was pretty funny, putting his cheek out for Dad to do it again.

We got out the trains for the girls to play. Usually they bide their time with Polly Pockets, but I think they are beginning to lose their novelty a little. So, we got out some different toys. I love toys like this that I know will last a lifetime (even though they cost an arm and a leg to start off). We will never get rid of these trains. We've had them since Dominic was 2 and apart from the ones we let him take in the bathtub whose paint started to come off (oops.) they are in mostly perfect condition. I can't wait to see my grandchildren playing with them someday.

We love Americas Funniest Home Videos. I like to watch it with my kids though, because every now and then there are ones that are just a little less "family appropriate" and I can pause and skip. However....I love the show and get many laughs right along with my kids. Michael shows a little more concern for the people that get hurt but he still thinks its funny. Check him out:

I also included a song of Michael singing. He doesn't actively participate in singing while he's at church learning many of these songs in nursery, but when he gets home he busily sings them while playing with his toys. Its music to my ears. I love trying to figure out which song he's trying to sing.......sometimes it can take me a while. My batteries died right at the end of the video, but he gets a good amount of songs out that he knows. I think my favorite one is "Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog."

Oh Michael

2012-01-24T00:56:00.000-08:00

You are stinking cute.

Another Homeschooled day

2012-01-24T00:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't leave the house today. Not once. I stepped 3 feet out my front door to grab a package from the postman because it was raining, but other than that...I was home all day long. I don't mind. I like being home. We were busy, not bored in the least.
Dominic did go to wrestling today, just I myself....did not leave the house (or Penny or Michael).

Dominic has quite the weekly list of things he has to get done for the week for school. He chooses what he wants to do and when (though I usually dictate the breaks) and then marks them off on the checklist that I give him every monday. Its pretty extensive, I think, and every week I'm so proud of what he is able to finish. This week we had a breakthrough in his writing and reading comprehension skills thanks to a new text we started using. I was so proud of him as it was something that 4 weeks ago he didn't have the skills to do but he's been diligent, even though its his least favorite subject, and he's making great strides. He really is learning by leaps and bounds this year and I know he would be learning if I sent him to school too, but I feel this time with him is so rewarding and beneficial to our whole family that we wouldn't want to do it any other way at this point. He's already told me that next year he wants to home-school again. That makes me feel good. Not only is he learning in this environment, but that he's enjoying it also.
Not bad for a first time home-schooler. I am one proud parent/teacher right now.

So, while this assignment looks kidish and silly, its part of a life science skill about learning that all organisms are classified into different phylums. He doesn't know that's where we're going with it yet, but this activity will help him understand that when we get there. It will give me a reference to teach him from. Then he proceeded to get out the stretchy cord we have and make me a button necklace. It was actually kind of cute and I'll probably wear it once or twice before we need the buttons back to play with.

He has taken up guitar lessons and I'm very proud at how well he is doing. His teacher wants him to learn using a guitar pick and this has been quite the adjustment for him....he prefers his fingernail....but he's getting it.

When he learned to type earlier this year, he quickly learned that if he could break his old habits of where he thought his fingers should go and where his fingers should actually go on the keyboard.....he could type quite fast. He's pretty quick now....not as fast a typer as I am, but not far behind. He already told me that he knew that it would get easier over time (just like typing) but that for right now, its really hard to use the pick and slows him down and is sometimes frustrated with it and has to play a few songs without the pick. I love that he's thinking that way. We, of course, did a million other things for school too. I'll have to take pictures of a typical WHOLE day for him. He would probably enjoy seeing that someday.

Keep up the good work Dominic, I tell you all the time but its here in writing too for you to read several years from now too: You are going to do amazing things in this life, and its all happening and being built upon right in front of my eyes. I see it in you. Can you see it in yourself? You are amazing.

Penny has TAKEN OFF in her reading. She finished the hooked on phonics Kindergarten set about 3 weeks ago and I have not been able to keep enough books around from the library for her to read on her own. Its a hard level to get books for. She can read, but she can't read everything.....but once she learns a word, she rarely has to re-learn it. So, I found this awesome template online and immediately printed and laminated it last night knowing exactly how I was going to use it today. So, I took a library book that she hadn't read yet, that had tons of words that she knew, but quite a few that she didn't know also, and put all the unfamiliar words on that back in permanent marker (you can wipe it off later if you go over it with a dry erase marker or with rubbing alcohol). These words are from the book right next to it.

Next, we took each word, one at a time and read it, built it (with bananagram or scrabble tiles) and then had Penny write it with a dry erase marker. She loves this part! We then wipe the board and go to the next word.
Read, build, write.
Its so simple, really. Genious who thought of it! I can see how this will really help with spelling too. I wish I had done this with Dominic.

I thought we would get through like 3 or 4 words a day and then come back to it the next day......but she did not want to stop and did the first 5 words in one sitting and brought it back to me later in the afternoon and did another 7 words.

Each time that we did another word, we went over the "old" words we'd already done, reinforcing them in her mind again.

She even mastered how to write an S today.....something that has been hard for her for some reason. =)

After we did a bunch of the words, we read up to that point in the story. It was amazing. She knew all the words we went over without having to avoid them by being silly and distracted. This was her method of letting me know she doesn't know a word ......she stops reading and acts silly. Then we sound out the word and move on. Though sometimes I push her to read a book because she hasn't read one to me in a day....she is usually the one begging to not stop.

*update: She finished the word list in 3 days and then read the book all the way through. She still had to sound out a few words, but rarely was it one of the words we had worked with on the list. This gets an A++ in effectiveness and we'll definitely keep using it.

Michael played close by with his tea set. He loves to pretend to drink out of little cups. Sometimes, if he insists, we actually put real water in them and sit him on a towel. Oh the fun he has!

He then thought he was pretty clever to dump out the Mr. Potato Head's and put his whales and mickey mouse (did I mention he added another stuffed animal to his collection? Yes, its now 2 whales, 2 angry birds AND Mickey Mouse.....and actually at bedtime this evening he begged to have Penny and Dominic's angry birds also so he's in his crib with 2 whales, 4 angry birds and Mickey Mouse. Silly boy.)

He found it funny that he put the lid on them.

He LOVES to get inside of containers. Doesn't matter how small. He has stuffed himself into some pretty small ones though.....the funny part is that he usually asks Daddy to get in with him.

While I started dinner, Penny and Michael colored together. She was cute in that she said, "I'll just share Thomas with him because if I get my color-by-number out he'll just try to color in mine and that will make me sad. He doesn't mind if I color in his with him though."And they colored like this for a good 20 minutes or so. Amazing.

Another thing Penny learned how to do today was blow up a balloon! I wish I could have gotten the reaction on her face with the balloon in her mouth when she finally was able to push air into it. Her eyes were huge with delight!

She then blew it up over and over and over and over and over till finally the last time she blew it up, she asked, "why does it look like its all wet inside?"

"Hahahahaha.....uh, well, because it is Penny, thats your spit."

"Ewww, gross. I think I'm ready to tie it now."

Eva, seriously, how did I get your child?

One of the many times she let the air out. I love this picture.

The she drew me on the balloon. hahaha....does my nose really look that big?

Then she drew Daddy on another one.

And she wrote a note to him. She asked me how to spell Dear......I love her handwriting.

And of course, with the curls.....she drew herself. I love that she draws eyelashes on herself....she definitely has them.

and a message to herself. So cute.

So we had a busy day at homeschool today. Just the way I like them.

Here's a funny video of Penny at dinner. I showed her this trick and she immediately had to try it.

Weekend at our house...

2012-01-23T23:42:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a very busy day. It wasn't especially nice out or anything, just busy. We had had a busy evening the night before visiting the Sportsmans Expo at the Cal Expo Center with all the kids (plus Stella and a friend for Dominic) for a few hours on Friday night in the pouring rain. The show was indoors, but it was a good quarter mile walk to get there (thank you to the 6 umbrella's that I had in the car!) I reminded Sean of the fun adventure it would be to run to the show in the rain with 5 kids in tow. Adventure was a good word for it. We also got asked a jillion times if all the kids were ours. Hee hee. That was kinda fun actually, They are all about 1.5-2.5 years apart so it was possible that they could have been. We didn't take a single picture while we were there......but I wished we could have gotten one of us all running in the wind and rain to get to the car after we were done. It would have been a site to see. Thank you double stroller for keeping the youngest two dry!

So anyways, Stella stayed for the weekend and our Saturday started with a 9am basketball game followed by the girls going to G-Grandma's to play. Michael and I came home for a nap and Dominic and a friend played while and Sean worked (love you sweety) in the garage on the business. That was dreamy. I don't always get a nap, in fact I rarely get a NAP. Sometimes I get a rest on the couch, but rarely a nap. I needed it.

I then made whole wheat (white wheat, have you ever used it? Just as nutritious as red wheat but without the strong flavor. More like using white flour....but its not, its whole wheat) rolls to go with our home made tomato basil soup that I was brewing in the crock pot all day. Dominic ended up being sent to his room before dinner even started. He's never been good at keeping his mouth shut about dinners he doesn't like and I've only as of late realized that he just doesn't have to join us at the table when he decides to be like that. It always ends in him ruining the dinner atmosphere because of his constant complaining about what we're eating and how much he has to eat and how he.....blah blah blah. It effects how Penny and Michael eat and I've had it. So he was sent to his room while we ate and then re-invited to the dinner table to eat by himself after we were all done. He didn't like that.....and it happened again tonight (with one of his favorite dinners) only two nights later. I excused him from the table and sent him upstairs (not in trouble, just away from the rest of us so we could eat in peace without the constant complaints about something in his dinner). I hope he's getting the picture and I don't feel bad because I'm not starving him and telling him he can't eat......he just can't eat with us when he acts like that.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways. There were some pictures in this post. When I make bread rolls, there is usually a little bit leftover from this recipe (see link for yummy recipe) and Michael and Penny LOVE to play with it. Since Penny wasn't back from Gma's yet, Michael got to play with it all by himself (she got her turn when she got home and he was all done with it). This dough got a good 3 hours of playtime before it went in the garbage. Well worth not making it into rolls.

And yes, thats baby #4 inching his/her way into the picture.

I love his busy face and that he knows what to do with kitchen utensils. He helped me make the dough, pouring cups of this and that into the bowl. Playing with rice and beans has made him quite the expert pourer.

Lately, this is the face you get if he notices that you have the camera. This is his "cheese" face. I. Love. It. Is it the flash that makes him think he needs to squint his eyes? Hee hee

I could seriously eat his cheeks. He liked it when I rolled it out nice and flat for him, but I had to use the big roller.....the little roller was his. I tried to use his and he took it away and said, "No, dat My pin. Dat yours one. Dat one mommy's."
Yes sir.

I remember loving the taste of raw bread dough as a child and taking snitches. He takes whole bites.

Then he found the faces and decided to color a little. He likes to use the green and draw boogers on everyone. He thinks its quite funny and....well, it is.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand then after dinner, I got out the sugar cookie dough I had made earlier and had chilling in the fridge (see why I needed a nap?) to make some cookies for the YW at church the next day. They are much easier to transport when they have sat undercover overnight and the frosting doesn't stick to the touch. These are the most delicious sugar cookies I have ever had. I got the recipe from my sister and they are to die for! They almost taste healthy as they aren't super sweet because they have sour cream in the batter. My kids love it when we make these (and so do the YW).

Michael got out the rollers again and went to town, though I'm not sure what happened to "his" roller.

Stella and Penny were cutting out shapes like mad-women. There wasn't quite enough room for Dominic to be at the table yet so he was playing x-box and came in and cut his out when the girls were all done. Penny had a lesson in starting at the edge of the dough instead of cutting them out right from the middle. Great Grandma was over for dinner and the cookie making.

Still busy. We had just about every holiday covered with our cookie cutters.

And then Michael tasted this dough and all the "mmmmmmmmm, so good." comments commenced. When he says this, he requires a response so if you don't say something back, he keeps saying it until you do. He was so vocal. It was pretty yummy.

Another cheese face.

These two girls were so goofy with each other and excellent sharers. I loved hearing them ask each other to, "please pass the star cutter," or whatever it was that they wanted. It was music to my ears.

Mouth full cheesy grin.

Penny is ALWAYS crossing her eyes and making silly faces. She's the comedian around here lately.

Stella loves to pose for the camera. Such a pretty girl.

Hahahah.....don't you want to eat the cookies they are making?

Frosted and ready to go for the next morning. Sean ate one the next day and then realized that I probably made them and covered them for a reason (like, so that nobody would eat them). He could not stop laughing as he told me he ate one....only because he knew how ridiculous it was that he didn't think of it BEFORE he took the first bite. Its a good thing I stinking love him. It was pretty funny....but perhaps you kinda had to be there.

So, by Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in the evenings, I was experiencing sciatic nerve pain. I look back on my weekend and think.....uh, no wonder. We did a lot. Today (Monday) I had none. Guess this mama is just gonna have to slow it down a little and do more from the chair instead of on my feet. Like, maybe I could have asked Sean to come grate the soap for our laundry detergent since my grater wasn't wanting to stick to the counter. You know, the little things. Thanks for taking a picture babe. You're always there for me.

More Randoms!

2012-01-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

Again, two ones of anything are a hit for Michael. He also cannot eat without a fork...no matter what he is eating. I love his "just woke up" face and hair. This is by far, one of my favorite ages.

We had a friend in town for the week and he come over after business every day, late at night, and slept in our livingroom. The kids LOVE this blow up mattress. I can pretty much bribe them to do anything if I tell them they can blow up the bed. Afterall, its so fun laying there while it smooshes you just before it picks you up off the floor.

I don't know what I did with the buckles for the high chair, but they are missing. Michael takes full advantage of that fact. He's never fallen out.......but he sure does crazy things.

I love this dress. I found this dress probably 3 years ago at a thrift store with tags still on it. She's been wearing it for the last 2 years and its one that I seriously LOVE. She looks so pretty in pink...and its a good thing too, cuz more than half of her wardrobe is PINK.

Silly girl.

Making cookies has definitely become a WHOLE FAMILY affair. We need a bigger kitchen.

These robot blocks are so fun. I'm glad I bought a few packs of them. The kids can really build quite high with them. We have 3 sets and have found that any more than that many packs would be higher than you could build......and anything less and you don't have enough to share. Penny always insists that I take a picture of each of her creations.

Dominic wanted to do a soap carving. What cracked me up was his preparation. He prepped his area, got out his knife and then proceeded to stick out his arm and slowly trace a circle in the air with the back of his knife (covering the blade with his hand). I asked him what he was doing and busted up laughing at his very frank, "duh" like response.......wanna know what it was? hahahhahah "Blood zone mom, I'm clear to start carving." Dominic, please don't stop being you, I just love you.

He's also started liking to do his hair in a faux-hawk. Not sure where it came from really, just out of nowhere he started coming downstairs with his hair done. So cute.

This kid loves his 49ers helmet. I love the chin strap that comes with it. Too much.....seriously too much cuteness inside that helmet. Also take notice that he's wearing his sister's Sunday Dress shoes. Nice tough there bub.

Penny decided to make a cheese and graham cracker sandwich. She at the whole thing but then said, "I think I'm just going to have a normal graham cracker now." Silly girl.

Face Templates

2012-01-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Yet another great idea I found on Pinterest. Okay, I know I resisted the site for quite a while, but have actually found that I don't spend any more time on the internet than I did before because when I find something cool like this...I immediately jump off the computer and do it! If anything, it has given me so many great ideas on how to create wonderful things to help my kids create a learn......and I used to scour the internet for all these ideas and then save them in an e-mail and it was so hard to find them again later. Now I have a place to PIN them. Once I caught that vision...it all made sense.

So, I found this idea on pinterest and immediately searched through Picasa to find the perfect pictures, cropped them to 8 1/2 X 11 size, printed them out on cardstock, laminated them and set them on the table with dry erase markers and gathered Penny and Michael for the invitation do do whatever they wanted with them.

Penny was busy and wasn't really interested right away, but Michael loves markers and couldn't believe that I was giving him one to play with outside his high chair. He immediately started to scribble on the faces and name parts of the face; ears, eyes, nose, hair, chin, cheeks, etc.

He giggled after the got them all done and then ran across the living room to the easel, grabbed the eraser and then holding it over his head like an orangutan, ran back to the table. So hilarious.

Penny finally joined in once she saw how much fun Michael was having (Dominic was still upstairs playing with legos). She liked to outline the shapes of the parts of the face. It was fun to see their different developmental stages. They kinda did the same thing, explored each part of the face, but there were differences in how they did it because of their age.

I did some silly ones on Michael and Penny which gave her some more ideas.

She put a flower on Daddy's head and are those braces? Not sure. =)

Dominic even came down after we all went upstairs and left a gem. He gave Daddy hair coming out of his nose and wrote the words "loaded diaper" on Dad's forehead. Such a boy.

I love this one that Penny did of herself.....just lots and lots of bows in the hair.

I can see that these are going to be loads of fun over and over again.
Thank you Pinterest, I love you!

Pooptaste

2012-01-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

Michael calls toothpaste, pooptaste.....which of course puts Penny (and the rest of us) in a fit of giggles.

He can say toothpaste, but he calls it pooptaste.

We went to pick up our babysitter last night and the following conversation between he and Penny ensued:

"Michael. Can you say pooptaste?"

"No wown-say pooptaste."

"Aaaaaaah, he said it!!" --giggle giggle "Can you say pooptaste again?"

"No. Don wown-say pooptaste."

--bwahahahahhaaha "say pooptaste again"

"Nooooo! Don wown-say pooptaste!"

-bwaaaaaaahahahaha "he said it again. Can you say pooptaste again?

"No! No! No! Wown-say pooptaste! No wown-it pooptaste"

-bwahahahahah

At which time I had to ask Penny to stop because he was actually getting mad. He really really REALLY didn't want to say pooptaste. Ooooooh, funny kids. It is pretty cute though.

Camera Dump!

2012-01-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Michael is a goof. He likes to switch out his plugs for a nice fresh cold one. =)
This time though, I took both of them from him and put them both in my mouth. He laughed and said, "Two ones!" and yanked them out of my mouth and put them in his.

He also has started a cheesy grin when we pull out the camera. I love this kiddo.

My three handsome boys.

Penny loves to do school work. Not everyday, but if Dominic is working hard on his work, she'll often go pull out her folder and work on whatever worksheets I've printed up that week. She loves these ones because we decided to use the banangram letters to spell it before she writes it. She's getting to be such a good reader now and can read a whole book to me at bedtime (level 1 or level 2 depending on how hard that level 2 book is). I love this shot though, with her bum and feet in the background and that cute little hand on her face.

Michael's stuffed animals have become quite the collection around these parts. He has to have his "two ones whales" and his, "two ones ang-gy birds." It makes for quite the lap full.

Penny, in the last few months, has become queen of the silly face. She is constantly crossing her eyes and being silly.....even with food in her teeth! Its hard to discipline her sometimes because she'll just bust out a goofy face.....but we do it anyways. There have been several times where I have had to tell.her its not appropriate to be making cross eyed silly faces when she is in trouble and I'm talking to her about it. Sean and I can still hardly keep from laughing though.

I remember one time my aunt drinking some coffee or something as she drove me home and I was so in shock that she was drinking and driving. Michael doesn't let a little hunger stop him from getting from point A to point B. I love how his hand is crossed over to push the button.

And he found a nice little storage spot for his bottle. I just about died laughing.

This little girl is good on her balance bike. She could probably easily learn to ride a two wheeler at this point, but we don't have the driveway where she could practice day in and day out........so we haven't bothered to take her to the playground and teach her.

Our neighbor has this ceramic dog on her porch as her doorstop. Michael is obsessed with it and I can often find him over there hugging and petting it. Its usually a crying fit when I make him leave (because he also likes to ring her doorbell).

Dominic has gotten pretty good at guitar. He's not amazing but its all been self taught so I've been quite impressed with his progress. We have him in guitar lessons this semester thanks to our home schooling vouchers. We'll see how that goes. He's already gotten a few good pointers from his first lesson. His favorite place to play is either on the beanbag or in front of the pellet stove. Now, put the beanbag in front of the pellet stove and he's in Heaven!

Michael has discovered that painting is fun. For some reason, the last time I put this out for him I had a little cup of water and a teeny paintbrush and well....it just wasn't that great of a success as he just dumped the water over and dug holes in the paint. Then I found this brush and had the great idea to just put a bit of water in each color and THEN let him paint. Who cares if the colors blend, he has a great time and he makes abotu 3 or 4 pictures each time. Its tons of fun and a lot less stressful for me.

His shabby hair was getting to be a little too much and so I gave him a trim. This cape lasted about 2 minutes before he was trying to get his arms out. Surprisingly, Michael does better than Dominic for haircuts (even with their 8 year age difference).

Getting her nails done. Now that we have afternoon church, I usually have time to paint Penny's nails Sunday morning and get some girl time. We haven't done these flowers in a long time and they are super cute. She loves them and they stay for a good 1 1/2 weeks.

She was teaching Michael how to write the alphabet. I had to pull him away though because he kept trying to erase them and that was stressing her out. I love her letters.

We went to this cool park. All the kids were on the tire swings at some point during the day. Naomi and I really had these kids spinning, to the point that they basically all got sick (but didn't vomit). Good times. I love that in this picture, Dominic isn't actually holding the chain......I USED to love the tire swing....though if I was to go on it now I wouldn't last a few seconds before losing my lunch.

I got this great drill set for Michael for Christmas. He LOVES this drill and gets quite in focus both drilling them in and out. I love his fat little lips.

She's learning how to play XBox and loves it when the sharks eat her. She's goofy.

I caught Michael stacking his banana pieces. He likes to make his food into snowmen and then sing the song and eat them as they "melt"

Michael loved this activity. I have this container of large sequins in different shapes. he likes to shake them out into this pan. Its a fun activity that is fairly mess-proof. At one point though, he and Penny knocked the pan over 4 times in like 2 minutes (cleaned up with a small dust pan and hand broom). It was frustrating and funny all in the same breath. We put them away after that but we've played with it several times since then. He just likes to shake them and watch them fall out.

Other favorite guitar playing place. I put some packing peanuts in the bag as it was getting a little flat. Worked like a charm.

Some forgotten pictures

2012-01-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

I meant to blog these other pictures of Penny Grandma's visit but blogger was giving me problems a month ago and then they got forgotten. I can't pass these up. =)

Dominic and Penny went with Penny Grandma to stay the night at Great Grandma's. Penny packed her bag all by herself and Dominic did his as well. Its amazing the difference between the two pieces of luggage. Reminds me of the typical packing job of most male vs female travelers.
Penny's bag was completely stuffed and I asked her, "Did you grab pajama's, toothbrush, a change of clothes and a pullup?" her reply... "Oh, no, I forgot those things." Apparently stuffed animals and games and toys are more essential for sleepovers than clothes and toiletries.

The funniest part? The conversation that ensued between siblings once everything was finally packed.
"Dominic will you carry my bag for me?"
"I have to carry my bag AND my sleeping bag Penny, can't you carry it?"
"Well no, its too heavy!"

Oh man, we couldn't stop laughing.

She fell asleep and got in some much needed snuggle time with Penny Grandma. 4 year old snuggles are the best!

Michael insisted on being at her side at any given moment. He calls her Great Grandma and can't be convinced otherwise. So what does he call Great Grandma Matteson? He calls her Grandma.

Making necklaces with Penny Grandma. Always a chatty bunch.

Come visit again soon! We love you!

gingerbread Houses

2012-01-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

I had just a couple more Christmas posts to get through before I can move on to the new year. Sean's cousin got Penny this cardboard gingerbread house and paints and so after we got home from church on Christmas day, we started painting it. Daddy helped also but got a little sleepy 2 panels in and so Penny and I finished it up. It took a total of 2 hours but was so fun. She loved the one-on-one time.

She told us what colors to put where. She was very particular. She insisted on doing the tree.

She loved that Daddy joined in on the fun. She was all sorts of giggles and super chatty.

She had lots of opinions to share. It was quite funny.

At one point she told him it was okay to mess up a little because once we got the house together, we wouldn't even notice. I loved the head rubbing assurance.

Doing some finishing touches on the roof.

and completely assembled. This was a really fun house and she and Michael love that it has windows on each side.

Weeks previously we put together our traditional gingerbread house. We pulled out the Halloween candy we had saved for the project and that worked out wonderfully! I was a little bummed that the kit we normally purchased went the extra mile and put the house together for us. Thanks, but please don't rain on my traditions....I know you were trying to be helpful but I'll put it together next year please.

Kids had fun though and I didn't really need to help at all this year (except for the coconut that they wanted to add as snow on the edges.

They were both really cute and creative.

Toddler boy just sat around and ate the candy.

G-gma joined us too. She likes to come over and help with the traditions, and we like that she has become a part of those traditions.

I love my kooky kids

And so it went on the fireplace mantle until we took Christmas down. I place it on the table and came back to this:

I love the snow white headband too....there is no shame in this household.

Oakland Temple Lights

2011-12-30T00:59:00.000-08:00

My brother Nephi came into town last Thursday (he took Dominic up to Alaska and stayed for the week) and we had planned to go see the lights at the Oakland Temple. They go all out decorating the grounds with a huge nativity and lots of lights and a big star of Bethlehem. It really was very pretty. I love that you can walk on the rooftop of the Oakland Temple and see the whole Bay.

Sidenote: Before the temple we stopped in to Six Flags for a few minutes because we have season passes and had one free day pass. Nephi and Dominic went on the roller coaster Medusa 3 or 4 times and Penny was able to ride her favorite roller coaster, Cobra with Dad twice. It was a super short six flags visit, but it was a lot of fun. Dominic loves that he enjoys the bigger roller coasters. I wished I could have gone with them but....I'm a little too pregnant for that at this point.

So, anyways, back to the temple:
It was chilly out (hence my kids with hats on) but my sweater was plenty fine to keep me warm (though it was a breezy sweater). Nephi and I were giggling at some other friends we met there, Andrea was wearing a full on parka with fur around the ruff. I told her she needed to be on the next flight to Alaska, not Nephi. Hee hee....just teasing you Andrea but you need to thicken that blood of yours! ;P

After we got our family pics.... I wanted one with Nephi but there were people in the way and I almost didn't want to bother asking them to move and yada yada yada. I'm glad I got this picture. In fact, I love this picture. I don't think I have many, if any, pictures of Nephi and I. I love my Phi guy.

All over the temple grounds are stone benches. Michael found it necessary to stop at EVERY SINGLE ONE and say a prayer. It was stinking adorable. I'll have to get a prayer on camera because he's very good at them, "Hev Faduh, Thank Is Day, Is Food, Is Blessings, Home Safe, Jesus Chri, Amen" Melt a mama's heart.....

We had also met up with some friends (Sean grew up with Chris) at the temple and then headed over to get a bite to eat. They had paper on the table and gave us crayons. Awesome. I haven't seen Nephi draw in a very long time and it was fun. Dominic was flaberghasted.

Taking only minutes, he can draw masterpieces. I love seeing these monsters...I mean, I was the reason they came to be (inside story and its too late at night

So Dominic decided that since Nephi was drawing 'The Dominator" that he would draw a similar "Nephinator" I loved how he did his best at imitating Nephi's style of drawing.

Looks like Nephi right?

Saying a prayer again. Darn camera was too slow and took the picture after he got his head up. Its seriously the cutest thing ever.

Penny dug right in to the dessert.

Thanks McDougans and Nephi for a fun evening! Lets get together again soon!
Sean, did you change their last name? I swear I put in McGougans. Or is it McDougans......argh, I'll never get it right. Laugh it up fuzzball.

Randoms!

2011-12-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I take too long to answer a "Mommy all done!" call from the high chair and matters need to be taken into his own hands.

Rice and beans never get old! Don't you love the glow of the pellet stove in the background? This baby heats our house so well. We've figured that taking into account the cost of pellets, we're saving about $50 a month on our electric bill (our house it completely electric, no gas).We were very blessed with a small electric bill (compared to other 'all electric' homes in the area) .... the Lord knew what we needed and he provided for us in more ways than one. There was a reason this house felt so good and so right the moment I set foot inside it. We didn't know how much utilities would cost in this home....but when the spirit confirmed it, there was no denying that our needs would be met and this was to be our home.

Funny way to fall asleep, maybe that foot was really hot?

the tea set is put up high for a reason, so he can't get it at any given moment (though this is his tea set to play with) Doesn't stop him anymore. He has discovered that a couch or stool are very useful for getting to those hard to reach places.

Michael really likes to play in the flour. I've been trying to deter this urge by offering rice and beans to play with any time that I catch him in the flour. It, for the most part, has worked....but sometimes the temptation is just too much. I was very stern with him this time.....

and so the next time he brought the flour to me and asked if he could play in the flour. What a good boy......."but the answer is still no. How about rice and beans?" He loves to play with rice and beans, maybe the problem is that I have the #10 can of them hiding behind the couch and he can't just get to it and open it when he wants to like he can the flour.

We went to six flags for Christmas in the Park and had an awesome time. We didn't take many pictures, but this one of Shouka swimming right next to the window we were standing at. What an amazing mammal. She is so massive and she kept making pass after pass after pass. The kids (and I) were absolutely stunned by her enormity!

See? He uses the stool to get what he wants. Nothing in the drawers are ever safe anymore.

Michael loves to copy Daddy and so that means he gets to play with the 10 pound kettle bell. He lifts it up and says "Heaby, heaby. I strong." So stinking cute. He really is super strong.

Our neighbor has a huge oak tree in front of their yard and Penny loves to go out there every time the wind blows and rake up the leaves and play in them. She's such a poser.

Have you seen his taco tongue? Its awesome. He's saying the word "leaves" here and I caught him at the Sssss sound. This is what his tongue does for the ssss sound. Personally, I can't even do it, I'm not sure how he makes it happen but its cute and he knows it.

Shaking the rake super hard trying to get the leaves off. She meant serious business raking those leaves.

We found these decorating beads at the dollar store. They are wet and slippery and absorb water and get bigger. All 3 of my kids love to play with them (and secretly. so do I...its very therapeutic feeling).

Reading books with Great Grandma. She comes over and helps watch the kids while I go to Young Women's every Tuesday night. Sean is here, but he's usually working in the garage. This has been a great way to get our Grandma time in every week and the kids absolutely love having her over. She's over probably 2-3 times a week to play with the kids. So often, in fact, that the other day Daddy came through the front door and before Michael could see who it was, he jumped up and proclaimed, " Yay! Grandma's here!" We all started laughing.

Penny fell asleep and Michael kept crawling up to her and saying, "awww. Cuuuuuuute." and then hugging her. He did it so much that we had to move her because she was starting to get woken up and her hair pulled etc. He sure loves his sister (never mind the hitting bout he's been on the last few days....it won't last. He's already figuring out that THAT behavior doesn't fly at our house.)

I was knitting my mom a scarf for Christmas and Dominic was knitting himself one. He has been really excited to learn how to knit and he's quite good at it. Who knew? He had a friend come over one day who begged me to teach him also.....so I did. Boys can knit...they really can.

Michael was not in the mood for a picture (Dominic was already gone for Alaska) before we went to our family Christmas party.

Penny was all for posing though. I love this girler.

Making popcorn is the most fun ever.

He put on his own Santa hat, said a few "Santa Santa Hhho hhho hhoo" 's and then proceeded to play with legos. He loves this santa hat. Whenever he says

She is her mommy's daughter. Monkey feet and all.

Sometimes I can't find Penny....there is usually a reason.

Cheese!

Christmas 2011 !

2011-12-26T23:23:00.000-08:00

Oh what an awesome Christmas we had. It started off with putting up the tree in early December. Sean had 2 of his wisdom teeth pulled on Friday and Saturday morning wasn't up to coming with us to get the tree, so I trudged out with 3 kids in tow to the tree farm to find that perfect tree. We found one after about 5 minutes but it looked a little tall, they assured me that it was okay, they could cut it until it was the right height. I'm never doing that again. Once they cut off some of the main bottom branches, the tree just didn't look right but we didn't know that until we got it home and in the stand. It was still a nice tree, but not the perfect tree that it was when we saw it.

Anyways, we put it in the stand and then waited till the next day, when Penny Grandma came to town, to decorate it. Sean took pictures while the rest of us decked the halls.

One of my favorite parts of decorating is pulling out all the old ornaments. The kids really enjoy this too and love finding these treasures of memory associated with each one. It was cute to hear Dominic tell Penny the stories that went behind some of the ones that she didn't know.....and she in turn told Michael a few as well.

I was giving Sean, "the look" that he gets when he's in trouble for whatever the reason may be. =) (jokingly of course). My belly has started to show. I'm almost 19 weeks in this picture.

Penny Gma and I strung the lights on the tree but we were one string too short. I gave away all our extra white lights last year as we hadn't used them in years and years and were just lugging them around. Guess I should have kept a few more (oh well, a new strand was only like $2.50)

Dominic was good at spreading the ornaments out this year and not bunching them all in one area. He and Penny put almost all the ornaments on by themselves.

Penny was in Christmas heaven!

She insisted G-Gma put a few ornaments on the tree also.....and of course G-Gma always does anything Penny tells her to do. She just can't say no! =) Its cute, these two.

Dominic passed the torch off to Penny this year to put the angel on top. Its not that he didn't want to, but I'm not sure Dad could have lifted him that high without dropping him into the tree. Penny was quite proud.

Here is the tree all lit (and the extra strand of lights finally put on). I love the look of Christmas in my own home. I find myself stopping and staring before I go up the stairs because it just brings so much joy and peace into my heart. Sean stopped and stared when going up the stairs for different reasons. He bought himself a new TV for his birthday and it makes our living room look a thousand times better (its the first TV he's ever purchased in his life, all the others were given to him by someone)

We had Christmas a week and a day early since it was Dominic's year to be with his Dad up in Alaska on Christmas day. Believe me, the kids didn't put up a fight and I have to admit....its kinda nice being all done when everyone else is finishing their last minute shopping. The stocking were hung and the presents were wrapped and all we needed were the kids to wake up! Sean and I stayed up much too late watching a movie and excited for our kids to open their presents (its hard to say who is more excited in our house, the kids or the parents)

We don't let them come down until we say. We have to snap a few pictures and make sure we're all set. We like seeing their faces when they see all the presents under the tree. Michael had no clue what was coming, but it didn't take long for him to figure it out.

Before Stockings even, Penny insisted that Michael open her present. She's been so excited for him to open up the angry birds stuffed animal she got him. He was beyond thrilled and could have stopped there. But of course, the stocking had chocolate in them....

Nothing wrong with chocolate for breakfast on Christmas day =) Penny's favorite present came in her stocking......a princess electric toothbrush. She brushes her teeth like 4 times a day now....well worth the $5.

I thought Michael would see his truck we got him and not be able to contain himself, but we had to point it out until he understood that he could play with it. Then he didn't want to open anything else.

She's a multi-tasker like her mom.

Had to stop for a milk break.

Dominic was completely surprised when he opened the XBox 360 with kinect. He'd been begging me for one and I had to play the mean mom and make up a story about how, "we don't need another gaming system in the house!" See, with the wii controllers, Sean can't play the games he likes to play with the kids.......so now we have both. Its been fun to see Penny play with Daddy on the lego games....she really gets to giggling.

She loves the cookies and cream hersheys bars. I think she ate like 5 of them.

The tag reader was her big present. She loves it!

Michael has had so much fun with this pound and play toy. I really wanted good quality toys this year that would last for a few more kids and everything I got for them has been a hit! I wasn't sure if this would be too babyish but after a few minutes, I knew it was perfect. He LOVES this toy!

This girl and her sticky mosaic's. She can SIT and DO for hours. She is my crafty girl

Dominic was "helping" Penny build her sets, but was actually doing them for her. I kicked him out because he said it was too hard to teach her and just easier to just do it himself. Ha! Not the point Dominic. I sat down and taught her how to build legos and how to use the pictures to see what was different and build upon the last step. She definitely needed help, but she had so much fun doing it.

This was a neat toy that I got for Michael that Penny has put to good use too. This tool has different drill bits that all work within the same screws. It will drill them forward and into the case and backward and out of the case. The kids love it! I'm just glad we invested in rechargeable batteries a few years back. =)

Another favorite thing in her stocking, her very own pink hairbrush.

Snacks on the go. I went to the farmers market after opening presents and these grapes are so delicious! Michael ate almost half the bag that morning.

These robot blocks are awesome. I got a few sets as I wanted them to really be able to build high with them. They are lots of fun.

Daddy had picked Penny's lego character up over his character's head and Penny thought that was the funniest thing ever. She was all fits of giggles playing video games with her dad and said something along the lines of, "its a good thing I'm 4 now and can play with you when Dominic is in Alaska otherwise you would have to play video games all by yourself and that is boring." Touche Penny, Touche.

Michael likes to push the buttons on the tag reader. I love the chin resting in his hand. As Michael would say, "mmmmmmmm. So good!"

Dominic really was here that day, but somehow we missed getting any pictures of him playing kinect, building his bionicles, playing with his lego motors etc. There are some awesome pictures on the Xbox though as proof of what he did all day! =) It took me 3 days to get to the bottom layer of Christmas and have it feel officially, cleaned up. Our house was well played in.

On December 25th, the actual celebrated Christmas day, I put out this lit Christmas present and in the morning we talked about the true gift of Christmas; Jesus Christ. We had a quick discussion about why we needed a savior and then watched a cartoon depicting Mary and Joseph and their journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus, the angel proclaiming the birth to the shepherds and the wise men seeking him. It was actually, the perfect Christmas morning with no fluff of presents and messes to clean up. It was very calm and peaceful and the spirit was in our home.

I wouldn't mind having Christmas early every year and then Christmas day be like it was this year....just our one true gift of Christmas.

I asked Sean today (December 26th) if we could take down the tree tomorrow so that I could prepare the house for school to start next week. He looked at me with a sad face and said, "don't you want to savor the Christmas season and milk it till after new years?"

Of course I do. And so it stays. The lights on the tree are no longer on, but the box under the tree is shining bright and I like it.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Never a Writer's Block

2011-12-21T23:30:00.000-08:00

Penny was writing away the other day, at the table, just minding her own business....writing a story. Don't you hate it when you're writing and your brother walks by wafting a terrible smell your way and thats all you can think about? I mean, so horribly bad that you can't write anything else except

Micl iz Pope

(Michael is poopy)
I could not stop laughing when I found this.

Oh Penny dear, we love you so.

Penny turns 4!

2011-12-20T23:00:00.000-08:00

Penny had her 4th birthday at the beginning of December. Even as I type that, it seems weird that I'm not typing that she turned 5 or 6. She seems so much older than 4 to me...I just feel like she's been around, always, though I do not wish to rush the time.

So, she had decided on a princess party, and at the last minute decided on a few princes that HAD to be there (eek! Seriously? I bought all princess stuff)..... but since it was her party, we rearranged how the party was to take place and invited the boys along too! It was a crazy mad-house, but it was a lot of fun.

That morning, I surprised Penny with a new Snow White Costume. She was set on being Belle (her Halloween costume) until she saw this one. So fun.

And since my friend had a Snow White costume in my size, I wore one too. Funny story. I had to pick up one of the boys from Kindergarten just before the party and was already dressed in my costume. I was hoping to be able to drive right up to the front door and let him hop in......but alas, there were too many cars and I didn't have time to sit and wait (party started in 10 minutes)....so I had to get out and go get him at the door.

1) I was wearing a princess costume and it was December. I got a lot of stares.

2) He was not all that excited to be picked up by a princess

3) The jaw dropping glances I got from all the little kindergarten girls made it totally worth it. A princess came to their school......and there were a few that were absolutely stunned. So funny.
4) The gold glitter in my car (from the bottom hem of the dress) still isn't gone

The girls all bedazzled tiaras (which took a good 30-40 minutes and was oh so fun for them!)

The boys put stickers on shields (which took all of 5 minutes) and then chased Dominic around the house with swords. Dominic was a good sport as they sometimes just couldn't control themselves and he would get punched or kicked in all the flurry of fun.

And then the boys went out to the garage where they were instructed that the girls had just been kidnapped by the dragon and it was their job to slay the dragon. This would have been a good time to tell them that they could only hit the dragon in the chest with their foam swords, no head shots. Poor Dominic took his first battle blow to the face and that ended that. Upon better directions (totally my fault) he came back downstairs and let the boys try again. I have the best 9 year old ever.

I love this shot of all the girls crammed into the cardboard castle with their tiaras on.

They slayed him good (though he did not get hurt this time) and everyone was able to go to the table to decorate their own cupcake (holy sprinkles batman!) and eat it..... upon decorating I spontaneously decided that ice cream just wasn't needed. Nobody seemed to care and it was one less mess.

The on to presents! I could not believe how many polly pockets Penny got. She is set for life. So fun for her though, she really does play with them a lot.

Dominic was really excited to give her this and purchased it over a month ago with his own money. He knew she would love it and she does. Again, her Polly Pockets get a lot of play time.

Michael ran around while presents were being opened and knew just what to do. He'd seen the boys fighting with the swords and went and slew all the adults in the room.

Penny Gma and Great Grandma joined us for the party. What fun we all had watching.

He was all giggles when Stacey got bonked. So funny.

Thank you Stacey for helping....who knew it would be so crazy! Well, I knew, but you were a huge help!

It was a fun day and I'm so glad we got to share it with so many friends! Happy Birthday Penny! I'm so glad you're growing into the beautiful fun little lady that you are. We completely enjoy you in our home and wouldn't have you any other way! You are our princess!

Handel's Messiah

2011-12-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

I love Handel's Messiah. My mom loved listening to it while I was growing up and it stuck with me. I remember her telling me to listen to it and then sitting and trying to understand the words. Its not hard to feel the spirit and be in the mood for Christmas with it playing. One thing I loved about listening to it in my house (if I remember correctly) is that it wasn't just at Christmas that it would be playing.....it could be the middle of July while driving in the car too.

So, recently, our community had a community sing along and were perfoming Handel's Messiah. Anyone could come and be in the choir and had the practices worked into my schedule, I would have signed up in a heartbeat. However, they did not. I did look forward to watching the performance and invited Great Grandma to come along. I expected to have G-gma, Dominic and I watching it together at the church and Sean could stay home with the littler kids. Well, then that weekend rolled around and we had an extra six-year-old in the house with us. Sean was really tired Sunday and needed to go to bed earlier than usual (his usual bed time is 8:30 because he's up at 3:45) and the performance was at 7. So, that meant that I had to take 4 kids (age 9, 6, 4, 1.5) to watch a long musical. Oh joy.

We gave it our best and found seats on the side so we could go out easily if we needed to. We needed to often. I felt bad for the people behind me with all our interupptions so I took the youngest 3 (Dominic and Great Grandma stayed to watch the whole thing) and went out in the hallway (2 minutes into the performance) and let the kids do whatever while I tried to listen. It was frustrating. My kids were playing ring-around-the-rosie at the top of 5 stairs on the landing. It was not how I expected this musical would pan out. I really wanted to sit and enjoy it.....and that just wasn't happening. I was trying to see the gold lining, G-gma and Dominic (and the people who were behind us) were enjoying it without interruption. I'm glad Dominic was listening and enjoying the music. I wasn't feeling like I was being able to enjoy it though and I'd really been looking forward to it. I was frustrated.

Until the last song. Taken from the New Testament, Isaiah 19: 6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Even from the hallway I could feel the power of this song and I was reminded that Christ is such an amazing gift to us from our Heavenly Father. Given to the world as a baby to become the Savior of mankind. He is wonderful, my counselor, my Mighty God, my Everlasting Father, my Prince of Peace.

He knows me. He loves me. He feels my sorrows, my grief, my frustrations. He's gone beneath all that. He is the only one on this Earth that I can turn to that I can truly say understands me because he's been there. The only one, every time!

And so what started out as me feeling like I had wasted my time coming to the church to try to watch the Messiah, ended in strengthening my testimony while my kids played ring-around-the rosie by the stairs. I think sometimes Heavenly Father has to throw in his tender mercies wherever he can between the diaper changes and the snotty noses. I had been so daft as to think that the spirit couldn't leave the performance hall and would get stuck at the doors and not make it out to the hallway. That unless it had my full and undivided attention, I would not be able to enjoy Handel's Messiah. How silly of me! Didn't my mom already teach me that it doesn't matter where or what time of year you listen to it? That the message is strong and must and CAN be heard, even in July...and even in the hallway by the stairs.

For unto us a child is born...

Random Cuteness

2011-12-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

There are days now and then, because we rarely leave our yard during the day anymore, that I have more errands that can be run and still allow for Michael's nap. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does.....he does things like fall asleep WHILE EATING CHEETOS. If I had been able to pull over I would have just so I could have gotten it on video. Seeing him chew on his last few bites of cheetos while fighting to keep his eyes open is something I never want to forget. Love him. Cheetos are pretty darn good and I totally get it.

Michael asked for help in the garage and when I came out there he handed me this 49ers football helmet (from our costume corner) and asked me to help him put it on. Once we got it on, he RAN over to the tricycle and knew himself ready to ride. I love that he knows he needs to wear a helmet to ride a bike........

someday we'll worry about teaching him what is appropriate bike riding attire.

A few hours later Dad found Dominic's head squeezed into the same helmet while working on labels in the garage. He was so mad that Dad took this picture.....I love it. Die hard fan.

Michael came over and got from off the couch, pulling on my pants and telling me to get up. He brought me to the easel where he proceeded to PUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLL on the mat underneath while saying, "beans. Beans BEANS." This boy loves to play with rice and beans. He's really good at pouring now and can help me add ingredients when I'm baking in the kitchen. I usually have he AND Penny helping me bake from the sidelines now. Rice and beans (with bowls, spoons, measuring cups, strainer, funnel & empty water bottle with narrow top) can keep him busy for hours at a time......not even kidding. Best. Toy. Ever.

This little Penny has really matured in her gymnastics abilities this year. Its fun to see her actually be able to do things that were REALLY hard for her last year. She can kick herself up to a headstand against the wall and hold herself there, she can do a bridge and get her head off the ground, she can do a cartwheel (kindof..but she gets it and is practicing and getting better). She LOVES gymnastics.

Plastic knives are the best knives to have kids help cut olives. They cut them so well without squishing them but they don't cut their skin. Michael LOVES THIS TOY and loves cutting real food too. He absolutely loves cutting olives so after Penny is all done cutting olives on taco nights, I usually let him cut until his heart is content too. He can actually do it when he isn't holding the knife upside down.

Michael was trying to WALK up the stairs instead of crawl up the stairs and couldn't quite do it without losing his balance because of how far he has to step up. So, when Penny walked by, he stuck his fat little hand out and said, "Hand hand. Hep you." So Penny proceeded to hold his hand and help him all the way up the stairs. I was so glad the camera was right on the couch because I did not want to step away to miss this moment, but totally wanted it preserved by photo too! I love these yidders of mine and feel so blessed to be their mom.

Thats right, I bought a cardboard Princess castle for Penny to color and use during her princess and prince birthday party (pictures coming soon). Dominic, Penny and I went to town for hours and hours and only put a small dent in the coloring....its been fun, but we sent it over to Gma's house to give the kids something to do while over there (and to get the monstrous thing out of our living room!).

If you ask Penny to make a crazy face, this is what you get.....every time.

She colored Belle's dress and hair all by herself but asked that I color her skin because her hand was tired.

These vines were fun until 30 minutes later I looked over them and noticed I had only done one half of all the vines on the box. Holy cow!

Michael was especially snuggly one morning, but not with me. He wanted Penny for a bit....then Dominic. Everybody loves his snuggles. I love his soft, rosy morning cheeks, puffy lips and his swollen morning eyes. You are amazing Michael. We love you so much.

Snuggling with "Donimic" .... He used to say his name right and then all of the sudden, he's started switching the N and the M around. So cute....so cute. You should hear him try to call for him......the veins in his neck poke out and his body goes stiff and he yells "DOOONIIIIMIIIIC!" up the stairs. Seriously, love love LOVE this kid.

We're getting close to Penny's birthday party pictures where I'm dressed up as Snow White. Are you excited to see a pregnant Snow White? hahaha...Stay tuned.

King Tut

2011-12-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, we studied about the boy pharaoh , King Tut, a few weeks ago and so I decided it would be fun to make a mask of Dominic's face and make and paint it to look like King Tut. He had so much fun with this, he wants to do a bunch more and put them all on his wall.

We first made the mold of his face with a roll of plaster cloth (about 4 inches wide and 15 feet in length cut into various sizes of smaller strips to cover different parts of his face) after applying tons of lotion (we should have used vaseline and it would have come off easier, but it was fine. I can't imagine vaseline on the face in huge amounts is good for the skin). We then used what was left of the roll (about half) to make up the rest of the mold for him to look like King Tut.

This stuff dries really fast and so it didn't take long before it was ready to paint (maybe 20 minutes total?) though we had some other things to do and came back to it a few hours later.

He designed what colors to use and where based on some pictures he had of King Tut and on what he wanted.

He added the black around the eyes to make him look Egyptian. He painted the white part of the eyes with glow in the dark paint. I LOVED seeing his creativity come out during this project. I've really learned how to just sit back and let him let the juices flow. I'm always floored by what he comes up with when I shut my mouth and tie my hands behind my back. He is very creative.

The finished mask. I helped him with the touch-up so that there was no white spaces left after he'd given it one coat. He learned a few painting techniques. I don't think he'll ever forget who King Tut was now. Its hanging on his wall in his bedroom. Again, he wants to make a bunch more and hang them all on his wall. I think this would be a great idea except walmart only had one roll of the stuff and I so I guess I'll just have to order some from online. =)

Penny wants to make one too, but she wants it to be with Dominic's face because she's freaked out to put that stuff on her face and make it harden. We'll see, I think with some coaxing, she'll do it and she'll be really proud of the finished product too.

She painted a ceramic kitty while he painted his mask.

And Michael just sat around being cute and eating yogurt. Later, Penny lovingly gave him a piece of paper, a paintbrush and poured out some paint on his tray so he could paint too. Thanks Penny (though once she did it I just smiled and let him paint away. It was a great idea to put the paint on his tray, I just would have taken his clothes off first.)

Birthday!

2011-12-14T22:22:00.000-08:00

Sean's birthday was the Sunday after thanksgiving (same as my brother Spencer). We woke up in Ladera Ranch, Ca at 5am and started the 6ish hour drive home. Isn't that just what you want to do on your birthday? We made it home by 12:30 so we actually made really good time by leaving so early.

Dad brings out the crazy in all of us.

I love Sean's smile. This is the same smile I have captured in a picture when he held Penny for the first time. Melts me.

Penny made Dad a birthday present tower (can't you tell by the party hat on top?)

Happy birthday sweety! You are an amazing father, husband and friend. I'm so glad I chose you for the eternities (and that you chose me too!).

Moss Beach!

2011-12-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we packed up all the kids, shovels and beach chairs (and snacks....always important) and headed to a tide pool in the afternoon and played around looking for crabs, starfish and seashells. Moss Beach (off the PCH) was a beautiful private beach with amazing homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean in So-Cal. So darn pretty.

We spend a good 1.5 to 2 hours combing the beach before the sun went down (it happens so fast!) and it was time to go home for dinner. Dominic had a blast exploring with his cousins his age and Penny was thrilled that my sister Julia brought her shovels (definitely on our list of things to get this summer. She LOVED digging!) Michael didn't so much did the beach as he doesn't like sand very much and so we were glad we had the back pack in the car still and he spent most of the time on Sean's back.

It was nice to be able to spend some time with Sean's brother and my sister and their families out somewhere where the kids could play and explore with us.

This is only 1 of about 30 pictures we got of Penny shoveling. We'd pull her away to go see a hermit crab, or a sea star or whatever else (she hated the rocks covered in mollusks, they creeped her out and she didn't want to walk around them) and she would quickly return to her shovel, completely content to dig holes in the sand.

One of the bigger crabs we saw that day. I counted probably 10 or so sea stars that I found. They were really neat and my bro-in-law Dan was even able to find one that wasn't attached to anything and so we could hold it and such. You were not allowed to take ANYTHING from this beach, not even a sea shell. But that was okay, thats why its such a neat beach.....because all the wildlife stays there.

Sean found a few hermit crabs and was showing them to Michael. He was really fascinated by the crabs and over the next 3 pictures you can see how he went from curious, to joyful to wanting to pet them. So cute. He loves animals and usually says with a scrunched up face, "aawwwwwww cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute." Its pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

Denali and Dominic were scaling this rock behind them until I reminded them that its super easy to go up but not so easy to come down. They realized I was right. I had to help Denali down a little so she wouldn't slip. I did that one time when I was pregnant with Penny. Dominic and I went climbing up a rock that didn't seem so steep until we turned around to go down. I then realized that it was really stupid of me to climb the rock so high, 6 months pregnant, with a 5 year old who doesn't understand his boundaries about climbing, in flip flops. We crept down the face of the smooth granite rock with prayers being said the whole way down between my gritted teeth. Angels were with us that day thank goodness.

Michael getting some reprieve from the sand while he sits on his uncle Dusty's lap.

This picture melts me. Penny and Brody are about 8 months apart in age (she the older one) and I love this shot of them.

Serious digging had by all.

Michael got in some serious snuggle time as the sand was stressing him out (he hates it!). This was while Sean was hiking back up to the car to get the backpack. In the meantime, he made himself at home on top of the baby bump with his arms tucked in underneath him. So cute. I love that he is so snuggly still.

And then the backpack came to the rescue. Hallelujah!

More digging with her cousin Dylan.

I love this picture of Dominic. Even though he's not smiling, I love the lighting (though my camera isn't that great in this lighting and didn't quite get it in focus.

Brody loved showing everyone his Clam Shells. Over and over and over. He was pretty proud of this one.

See the scenery?

She's our Sand godess.

Michael got out of the backpack just before the sun went down and decided to try to dig a little. Keep practicing son, keep practicing.

See my baby bump (I'm in the background). I'm 17 or 18 weeks here.

This picture makes me laugh, not because of Sean and Michael....but because of the dog named Denali in the background. She kept running around on all fours barking. Silly goofus.

Just as the sun went down behind Dominic's ears. Lol.

Love this shot

Thats all folks! Isn't Moss beach beautiful?

Brothers

2011-12-07T22:38:00.000-08:00

I love it when these two get together. There always has to be at least one attempt to see who would win at wrestling. Neither one thinks the other could beat him and its seriously funny to hear. The talk before the actual smack-down is usually the best part, but the all-out-brawl is pretty fun to watch. These were the only pictures I got that didn't show parts of bums, bellies or backs.

I love these brothers.

Turkey Day

2011-12-05T23:13:00.000-08:00

We went to Southern California for Thanksgiving break and got to spend time with my brothers and sister and Sean's brother as well. We drove in (8.5 hour drive because of traffic. 2 hours more than it should have been) on Wednesday night and crashed at my sister's house so we could wake up the next morning and do the Dana Point Turkey trot. Its a fun tradition that my sister Julia participates in and whenever we are down there, we do also. This was the first year that Penny ran it and Dominic and my 3rd. Dominic really wanted to do the 5K with me, but I didn't let him (mostly, I wanted to be able to run it and wasn't sure he would be able to keep up). He ran his 1 mile and then jumped back in line and helped Penny run her mile. I believe the 5K would have been just fine for him.

This is a new way that Penny likes to pose. Very princess-y

Dominic held Penny's hand for much of the race and Sean said he was so encouraging and really kept her going. She ran the whole 1 mile and did so awesome. Its an emotional thing, watching your children complete a race. Its hard work and they are so proud when they finish. I find myself fighting back the tears when I watch any race, but especially when its my kids (which usually has something to do with the emotionally charged music they are always playing at the finish line too).

It was a great race and Daddy and I were so proud of our kiddos. Dominic, for running hard for his whole race, encouraging Penny so well on her race and for running 2 miles and not just one. Penny for running her first race ever, running the whole time, and being stinking cute while doing it. She seriously said over and over, "I can't believe I WON that race. I ran the whole hard time for 1 mile and never EVER stopped. I can't even believe it." She said that they gave her a cool necklace when she finished. Of course its a necklace...what else would you call it?

They did stop for a water. Its cute, the adults run through it and throw their cups on the ground, the kids stop, sip, sip, sip....walk over and throw their cup away.....and then trudge on. So cute.

Seriously, he was so encouraging. He's such a good brother.

See how fast they are going? Her hair is being swept away!

So, we ended up ordering Dominic's whole photo gallery (because he was in every single picture that Penny was in plus the ones from his own race so it was like buying 2 for the price of 1 photo gallery. ....which is a steal of a deal if you know how much event sponsored photography costs. Here they are below. So glad they got us all at the finish line after we got Penny her "necklace"

These first two are while Dominic was running his one mile race on his own. He ran it pretty fast though we never even knew that they started so I didn't time him (and their clock wasn't timed for their race either. Lame)

This was at the finish line. I had already run my 5K and had Michael on my back so Dad could be with the kids. I joined them in the last 200 yards for the race across the finish line. Yay Michael! He was almost asleep until I started half-way jogging.

And a big photo finish! Annie, any way you can take that guy out of the background? He's totally trying to steal the spotlight. ;)

Then on to my brothers house for Turkey dinner. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures so this is what I've got. Michael LOVES my brother Nephi. Actually, Michael loves everyone but he really REALLY liked Nephi. I think it was the nerd glasses (jk Nephi).

All the kiddos (sans toddlers) at the kids table. This lasted a whole 10 minutes before they were bored and off doing something else with their parents trying to round them back up to the table to finish their meal. Okay, just me...I had to round Penny up several times. She ate hardly anything, there was just too much going on. But, since she did help me cut the green beans for the green bean casserole, she was brave enough to eat it and loved it.

Michael ate nothing off his plate and found a stash of pretzels. Dominic's favorite dinner is turkey dinner and when we are at Jon's house there is always a plethora of soda to choose from (which Dominic tolerates, but doesn't loves but its a social thing to do so he gets a soda and sips out of it).

Jon had Michael giggling up a storm with is tickling finger. All Michael could say was, "Again! Again!"

Michael attacked the buckles on the booster seat.

"Kiss it. Kiss it." Every now and then a buckle would pinch him.

My brother has drums in his garage......Penny asked for a band for Christmas.

Cute candid of the Matteson girls.

Michael just really wishes he could still be a baby. He's funny and tries to sit in baskets and buckets all the time.

And thats it, those are all the pictures I have of the days events.

This year, we are very grateful for our health, our home, our freedoms, the Savior, family, friends, a job, a business, a prophet, missionaries, great food and lasting memories. I have a great life and am thankful for all my blessings. God is good and the gospel is true!

Still Catching Up

2011-12-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

So, I'm still playing catch up. I probably have about 5 posts to go before I'm caught up to today. I got a phone call from a friend after my last post because I didn't look pregnant enough. Rest assured, I'm showing now, these are just old pictures still.

A few weeks ago I watched a friends 4 kids while she took a job for the weekend. They just came over during the day and evening and they are really REALLY well behaved kids. I love having them over. We also had Stella over to play that day as well. Everyone played beautifully. I had to chuckle though because they were all right next to each other playing and there were 8 of them total (including my kids). I had 8 kids in my house for several hours and I survived (and got good sleep that night!).
It was a fun day.

One day I made dinner rolls and Michael and Penny played with the little bit of dough that wouldn't fit in the pan. This recipe is the perfect amount of elasticity and not sticky at all so they were able to play with it and not have it stick to their hands or the rolling pin. Not even kidding, this kept these two entertained for more than an hour.

Michael can really maneuver himself around on the ipad. Its quite cute. He loves "birdsy birds" or Angry Birds as the rest of us call it. He also has a toddler school game that he plays and can correctly identify colors, shapes and letters. Its pretty cute. He has to use his thumb to select things though because when he uses his pointer finger, his other fat fingers hit the glass and mess him all up. So cute.

Dominic has been a lego building crazy machine! Ssssssssssshhhhh, we bought him some motors and what not for Christmas so he can actually put what he's learned in his lego engineering class to work. So excited for Christmas day.

Penny decided that a graham cracker and cheese sandwich sounded really good and so she made herself one (really she wanted a graham cracker and since she recently learned how to cut cheese, she decided to use her newly found skill in making herself a snack). She ate the whole thing without complaint but the next day asked for just a plain graham cracker with no cheese. Silly girl.

Just in case you tilt your head down, you'll still be in direct proximity of your plug Michael. Oh, how we love you.

I could not help but snap this picture of Penny one morning. The sun was shining on her so perfectly and she just looked so yummy.

Someone gave us another Mr. Potato head and my kids LOVE playing with them (now that we have two and more than one person can build at a time). Putting things in holes is right up Michael's alley and he can play with Mr. Potato for 30+ minutes. I love hearing him giggle when he's done something he knows is silly.

Whats a game of Mr. Potato head without putting his glasses on?

Penny can be completely silly sometimes. She was dancing for me on the stairs. Goofball.

I love the backs of kids who are focused on something. He's getting so big! Where has the time gone?

I'm alive

2011-11-30T00:36:00.000-08:00

Our Computer was really slow and then crashed so forgive my blogging hiatus. Catching up with some random photo's now:

Penny and Dominic LOVE perler beads. Dominic has discovered that he can make ninja stars and tron discs out of them and so we now have zillions of those. Penny has started to grasp the order of doing these not just in a myriad of random colors. See the flower with the different colored petals? That's the first time she's attempted that.

I found Michael and Penny like this one morning when I was buzzing around the house. Guess he couldn't find me and went with second best mommy in the house. =)

Sometimes, Michael makes messes faster than I can clean. It is in those times, that it just makes more sense to stop cleaning and redirect him so that he make one small mess instead of destroying the entire kitchen. Unfortunately, I didn't get that memo on this particular day. Free play is good for them right?

Dominic is ending another season of flag football. He's a foot taller than everyone on his team this year (he's just the oldest on the team is all). He's doing really well and has made some killer plays and quite a few touchdowns. One play he rushed the quarterback and tried to block the throw but the throw was made and he then rushed down the field and caught up with the kid who caught the ball before he got to the end zone. Awesome play. Dad won't stop talking about it.

Michael likes to walk the small ditch between the grass and the fence. Its his little path.

This picture just about did me in. Penny lovingly tries to put chapstick on Michael and he surprisingly obliges. Hilarious, I tell ya!

To keep toddlers entertained. Stuff soft toys down their shirts and let them struggle to get them out.

Once they get it out they will spend the next 5 minutes trying to figure out how to put it back in.

Fun had by all. I love this grin.

Penny snapped a few pictures of football mom watching from the sidelines.

I LOVE this age. He's so darn cuddly and every night that I put him to bed I just want to freeze time. He's big enough to do things and not NEED me every hour of the day, but he still needs my cuddles. Its a good life. I love, love, LOVE that he has a favorite stuffed animal. These whales are so loved by Michael.

After getting Michael to bed every night and getting a few minutes of cuddle time in with him, I head over to Penny's room and read her a book or two. She's getting really good at reading from books and will often read a few sentences before she has me take over (I'm a little faster than she is). Its pretty darn cute to see her little finger follow along.

Dominic is a book worm at bed time. He loves it when he reads and reads and reads and then stops to stretch or something and then notices that he's read 70 pages and didn't even realize it. He loves it when that happens. The other day he scared me coming out of his bed after 11 to tel me that he just couldn't put the book down! I love that he's really engrossed in it this year. Books he's read this school year so far are: Animorphs 1-4, The Call of the Wild, The Son of Neptune, The Lost Hero, right now he's reading Holes. I know I'm forgetting some. Anyways, he's a night time book worm.

We went to Disney on Ice with Stella for her birthday. So fun. These two were on the edges of their seats all night.

I taught Dominic and one of Penny's older friends how to knit. They both really enjoyed it.

Seriously, I love these whales because he loves these whales.

We got a pellet stove installed into the place where our wood burning insert used to be. I LOVE it. We can keep our downstairs nice and cozy and still come out $80 cheaper than our old heating bill that didn't have a cozy downstairs. Love it, can't wait to get the full use out of it come the colder months.

This girl can get silly.

Starfall.com has THE BEST online interactive reading books for kids Penny's age. We even got their one year subscription and got a bunch of bonus books and games we loved it so much. After she's ready for the day she loves to come and do some starfall!

Getting their snuggles in.

We have introduced Michael to the life of Thomas the train. Its a little frustrating for the other kids, but they are getting good at understanding that we have to show Michael how to play with the tracks instead of yell at him for messing it up. Its cute to see them turn into teachers instead of territorial worriers.

but sometimes the box is just more fun.

I love the no pants look with the diaper just barely poking out. I could eat all the cuteness going on in these pictures. I love being a mom.

Dominic loves to play with cardboard and decided to make a wearable train. So funny. Penny loved running around with it on.

Good one Dominic.

Making cookies with 3 helpers takes a bit longer and makes a bigger mess, but it makes the cookies taste better. Just saying. Dominic calls that, adding our secret ingredient of extra love ( I tell him that's why my food always tastes so good)....extra love makes everything taste better.

Squirrels can be taught how to color too.

Dominic always tells me he loves a chubby baby in tight pajamas. I'd have to emphatically agree.
Michael, please don't grow up too fast. We kinda like you.

Apple Hill

2011-11-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

I love Apple Hill. I love that we live so close to Apple Hill. If you've never been, its basically a community of farmers and growers that sell various types of produce all over the community. You can drive from one farm to the next and explore what goods they have. Some of them you can pick yourself, some of them pick for you and have displayed and ready to purchase. They have the most amazing array of apple donuts, pies and apple cider.

I haven't been fond of apple juice since I was a teenager due to drinking some once and then getting sick (not sure if those two were related or not). In the last 4 years, I've finally been able to drink it again and its yummy again (though I still find that I can't drink a lot of it)

Anyways, today we went to one of the farms and they have an animal section for kids to feed the animals and explore. There were only sheep, cows and chickens left as they are closing the animals portion for the winter, but we thoroughly enjoyed them just the same.
I mostly wanted to go because my kids aren't around animals enough and are quite timid (except Michael, he just came unafraid of animals).

I am proud to report that all 3 of my children fed the sheep without the insistance of me. They did it of their own free will. I was VERY proud of them.

He loved it when they "baaaaaaaaa" 'ed. He was fascinated by the sounds they made and I think was shocked that they actually made the sounds that he's seen on TV or that we have told him. Every time they bleeted, he bleeted back. So funny.

See how untimid? He's not an animal wisperer by nature (though he loves animals). I'm going to put him in horseback riding lessons with our homeschool vouchers to try to combat some of his phobia with animals. He is sometimes timid to pet a cat. Needless to say, I was very proud of him.

To feed the cows, stay far back and just toss the feed into the pen. Penny was not about to let the cows eat from her hand. Their moo'ing was quite loud and scared Michael, but from far away he thought it was pretty cool.

He fed the sheep over and over and over and over all by himself. They nibbled on his fingers a few times but it really didn't bother him. He made me kiss his owie and then he moved on (I tried to wipe his hand off before I kissed the sheep slobber).

After the animals, we went to an apple orchard and picked 23 pounds of granny smith apples. I have some applesauce brewing right now that will be perfect for breakfast. I can't wait.

We learned a few things. You don't run through the orchards (perpendicular to the rows) because it breaks the branches, messes with the drip lines and overall its just not good for the orchard. You don't climb up the trees (for the same reason) You twist the apples off their stem otherwise it can break the branches. Penny patiently learned how to twist her apples off. She liked picking all the cute little apples.

Dominic, on the other hand, found some of the biggest granny smith apples I've ever seen. We weighed his biggest one and it was .87 pounds. Eat that in one sitting! he picked a whole two bags full and could have picked tons more. I loved the excitement in his voice when he found a tree with a lot of them that he could reach. The words he chose were music to my soul, "I found apple heaven!"

Picking blueberries in Alaska growing up was a favorite past time of mine. Whenever we found a patch worth sitting and picking at for a long time, we called it blueberry heaven. Those were the best.

Sometimes its just too silly to pick and pick and pick when you have one already in your hands that you'll never finish eating anyways. This little guy had the time of his life and fell asleep only moments after pulling out of the orchard.

Thanks again Apple Hill! You are always so good to us!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm finally blogging about Halloween. We had a cup of water spill on our other computer and it pretty much jacked it up and had to be sent in to Dell to fix (we had all the data backed up thankfully). However, our old computer didn't have Picasa on it anymore and frankly....I'm really busy so was grateful for the blogging hiatus. Anyways, Sean re-installed Picasa on the old computer so I really have no excuse to document our lives. Here goes Halloween:

Penny could not decide between two princesses. Trunk or Treating on Saturday she decided on Arial. I was able to put my $20 laminator we got from Costco to use. Can you tell what I made?

Dominic and Michael were black and red ninjas. Dominic picked these costumes out and did a great job getting them to match. If only he had chubby cheeks to match Michael. Also, he was nowhere to be found the whole night so I don't have a single picture of him at the church. We got there 30 minutes late due to his football game and so when we arrived he took off running to make up for lost time.

Now, don't you just love the cheeks on this ninja?

He loves this costume (I was surprised to say the least. I honestly thought we would end the night with hoodless ninja.)

You should have seen the ninja jump from the kitchen counter to the table. It was incredible! Just kidding. But it is a perfect landing stance.

So on Halloween night we met one of Dominic's friends and went around with them. What ended up actually happening was that we started out together and the older kids ran ahead with the other adults and Sean and I trailed along slowly with Penny and Michael. It was perfect cuz we didn't have to slow Dominic down at all. I think we'll plan to do something like that every year.

Here are our 2 ninja's and our Belle (she switched costumes to a different princess on Halloween night).

This was the last we saw of Dominic and his friends that night. =)

Sometimes a princess just has to improvise.

I love this little ninja

He wasn't so fond of Sean's mullet wig. He kept trying to take it off.

But Sean was relentless and wore it anyways. For some reason, I love this photo. My husband looks hot (even with a mullet) and my kids are a blurry dream. We had a lot of fun this night and the kids could not get enough of knocking on doors and getting candy.

Sometimes though, you just have to sit down and shake that box of fruit chews! He randomly would sit down and look in his basket often. Other things about Michael. He insisted that the person at the door put the candy in his hand so that he could drop it into his bucket and then yell, "yaaaaaaaaay Michael!" He also tried to walk into just about every house as soon as they opened the door. There was another family right behind us for many houses that had a boy who was Michaels age dressed up as a cow. Michael followed him around trying to pet him.

The other adults with the group that went with Dominic said that they were out and about and they saw a little girl in a Belle costume trip and fall and Dominic immediately sprinted towards her and helped her up to make sure she was okay. He was a little embarrased when he noticed that it wasn't Penny and he'd been talking to her like it was (with his big brother, "I'm so sad you got hurt voice"), but still helped her up because, well....thats just the gentleman he's always been.

She's definitely our princess.

Again, you just got to inspect that bucket now and then and make sure nothing is falling out.

This was a really fun Halloween as all 3 of our kids had a blast. It took 9 days to eat through our candy. We pulled out all the really colorful candy (the kids chose the kinds with no influence from us) to use on our Gingerbread house in a few months. I think that will become a tradition every year as it decreased the candy we ate by a stuffed gallon sized bag.

The Biggest Loser and her trainer

2011-11-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

We went to a Halloween party at a friends house a few weekends back and finally were able to pull off a costume this year (normally we are totally lame about costumes and don't come up with anything). Anyways, meet the biggest loser and her trainer. I should have taken before and after pics. =)

This makes my arms look anorexic.

Thanks for a fun party friends!

It was a fun night.

We've already got ideas for next years costume

(wow, we're on a roll. 2 years in a row perhaps? We'll see if we can pull it off)

Camera Dump!

2011-10-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging. We're all so busy that blogging just doesn't get done sometimes. We are taking pictures though so eventually, everything will get blogged. Here are many pictures that don't need their own post or that just never got blogged from the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Penny fell asleep listening (and watching the bouncing ball over the words) to primary music on the ipad. So sweet.

We made Garden cupcakes. The frosting was a disaster because I was in a hurry and just didn't do it right....but it was fun nonetheless. Garden cupcakes have frosting that is flavored and matches the color. Like pink was strawberry flavored, green was mint flavored, yellow was lemon flavored etc. With tons of sprinkles. Penny learned how to make them by watching a video on ABC foods (ipad game).

Sometimes Michael just takes matters into his own hands and tries to get out all by himself!

I haven't been filling out my menu chart because food just tastes funny to me this pregnancy and well, if I stare at what I'm going to be making for too long on the menu chart it doesn't sound good. So every meal has been spontaneous around here.

Dominic has been one happy child as of late. He hasn't had any bouts of uber frustration that I can think of in over a month (where he stomps up the stairs, slams his door and throws himself on his bed because he's angry). He used to have one every other week or so. Anyways, he really is much happier this year....and he wasn't unhappy last year, just I've noticed a significant difference.

We've had a few really silly laughing fits in the last week and I caught one on camera. I love his genuine, "that is the funniest thing I've ever heard," laugh. Its contagious. Sean and I usually end up in tears right along with him whenever he finds something this funny.

I love it when they do work together. Sometimes its even on the same chair.

We had a FHE at the temple the other week. It was drizzling rain, but we decided to go anyways. It was perfect and we were the only ones there.

Penny was the only one who wanted an umbrella.....she was also the only one who probably didn't need one. She insisted that two hats are better than one when its raining. =)

I love this shot of everyone.

She was being a goof with that umbrella.

He has to stop and smell all the flowers. While leaning over the ledge he noticed that it was wet and cold.

There were lots of slugs out. We had to be careful not to step on them. Dominic tried to get this one to walk onto his finger but quickly figured out how slow slugs are.

All my canned peaches are in the pantry and such a treat. We have eaten one can of pears and one can of peaches a week. So yummy. Michael doesn't even use his hands.

Saying the word Peaches no doubt. I love his taco tongue.

This has been such a fun game for Michael. I made this for Penny when she was a toddler and we've had it around and I found it the other week and Michael has been addicted. I drilled holes in the top of a #10 lid and put it back on the #10 can. Then gave him some pipe cleaners. Its pretty therapeutic and great for fine motor skills.

Lego building!

I love finding this at night.
Sometimes she won't be quiet and so Dominic will give up on his reading and read a book or two to Penny till she's tired. Then he can get back up in his bed and read to his liking. I love hearing him read to her (she loves it too).

Fort building 101:

My little homeless baby.

He loves hats. When Sean saw this picture he totally was shocked at how much it looked like Penny to him.

He was loving sliding off the couch (shhhh, don't tell him he's sliding. He thinks he's jumping!)

Yay! He celebrates each "jump"

This was before her haircut. I love this face.

And thats it, I'm pretty much caught up on blogging. Till next time...

Big D

2011-10-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

Dominic in the fat suit had me in stitches.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

2011-10-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this wasn't in the aquarium, but it was just up the street from it.
Crazy butterfly house!

The MBA does a free home-school day for home schoolers and so we took advantage of the early sign up days and scheduled our visit! It was a great way to spend the school day (Dominic wishes every school day could be that fun)

We started the day off at the sea otters. They are so cute and they were both munching on their lunch of sea urchin while spinning in the water. They seemed very social and loved to come and stick their noses up to the window. Michael and Penny were in fits of giggles!

And yes, Penny and I both got A-line haircuts. I love them. This hairstyle is just so easy to manage. Though, my hair doesn't look fabulous in these pictures because really, this is what it looks like when I shower and go.....but thats a HUGE improvement compared to what it looked like before with a shower and go effect. =) I'm more than pleased with our A-lines.

Next, we went through the jelly fish displays and on the way in there was a school of sardines that would circle the tank. There were literally thousands of shiny silver fish swimming around. Michael was in heaven!

He laughed and laughed and signed and said "vishies, vishies!"

The jellyfish were on of my favorite places. They had really relaxing music playing and they kindof dance. They had lights on them, or perhaps they had black lights and it made them glow, I'm not sure which but it was beautiful.

Their movements looked like ballet.

This was my favorite jellyfish tank and everyone was hovered around it trying to get a close up of them. The colors were so vibrant and it was truly a sight to behold!

We arrived at the large fish tank just in time to get front row seats for their morning feeding. This tank was full of different fish, including; white sharks, hammerhead sharks, sardines, sun fish (weirdest looking fish ever, look it up) and some Mahi Mahi (otherwise known as dolphin fish). There were a few more but I don't remember their names. It was cool to see all these fish in one tank interacting. The sardines stayed in their little school and it was fun to see them all change direction and shape frequently.

We learned many interesting facts about the different kinds of fish in the tank. Did you know that the sun fish doesn't open and close its mouth? Nope! Its mouth is like a vaccuum and it stays opened and it just sucks stuff in and then pushes it out. While it does this, the razor sharp teeth it has lining the cavity inside its mouth shred the fish into a pulp and then it suctions it inside when its good and ready. Interesting way to eat and Dominic has tried to duplicate it a few times without much success. =)

The sardines.

The kids could see right down into the tank and up the tank. It was huge and I was so happy they made it so easy to view what was inside. It made the experience really neat to watch. The window to the tank was probably 20 feet high and 60 feet wide.

This big blob of a fish is the sun fish.

Eventually, Michael needed a nap.

These windows were funny because they were dome shaped but the dome was going into the tank and it gave an illusion that the dome was smaller than it was so reaching out for the glass felt like you were falling into the tank! Needless to say, Penny did not like that. Dominic freaked out because he thought he was falling into the tank but then started laughing when his hand finally touched the glass.

I forgot my belt and was literally pulling my pants up ALL DAY LONG. Something about my belly beginning to push my pants down and me not having a butt that don't make for pleasant jeans wearing.

After that, she wanted nothing to do with this window.

We went through the aquarium with our friends (they home school too) and Dominic and Emma were side by side taking everything in! It was fun to have a friend there.

This was a neat little viewing spot. They had floating magnifying glasses and Dominic was so excited to show them to me!

They had an anemone model that you could get behind and then stick your hand through the hole. It scared the crap out of Dominic because he didn't know that that is what it was and our friend Jason stuck his hand through and grabbed him. So, Dominic thought it would be a good idea to do it to Penny. This was just before the meltdown of horror and pain inflicted upon her when her armpit wouldn't fit through the hole he was yanking her arm through. Oops. Sometimes 9 year olds just don't think things through all the way. We still love him.

This was pretty neat showing how the water crashes over and against the rocks at the shore. My kids could have sat in here for hours. Every 20 seconds or so a new splash of water would rain down the glass at high speeds.

the touch pools were really neat. Dominic touched a sea cucumber and starfish and tried to reach the manta rays but wasn't able to get his fingers on one. Penny had no interest in putting her hand in the water.

The 2 younger yidders anticipating the waves crashing down.

This is what I looked like mid-way through the day! Whew! It was tiring, but so worth it.

Love this little guy and this blur of a girler.

The fishies were everywhere!

Seriously, sometimes I could eat him.

He loved the bird exhibit. They rescue birds from around the area and bring them to their sanctuary. There was no barrier between us and the birds and they were the most long legged, long beaked birds ever. I didn't catch the names of everything because I had two fast little kids to keep up with. But this was one of Michaels favorite exhibits. He was giggling and pointing and chatting away!

I love her new haircut. She was a busy girl this day too and was old enough that she didn't need our constant care like Michael. She's at a fun stage of exploration.

This was Penny's favorite exhibit because there was a pink fish in the tank. She also liked the pink seahorse we saw, but I didn't have the camera on me at the time so we didn't get a picture. That's my Penny, anything pink and its her favorite.

The splash zone kids play centers were awesome! They had a whole area just for toddlers and this wall of fishies squirting water was genious! I want one of these in my house someday. Michael was in heaven (Penny put her mouth under one of the spouts of water and took a refreshing drink....eww!)

They had a waterbed like trampoline that was a lot of fun to jump on.

He seriously stood there for probably 30 minutes happy as a clam.

Don't mind us. It looks like he's next to me with his arm around me, but he's actually sitting quite a ways behind me.

This is how Michael jumps off a padded ledge

This is how Penny jumps off the same padded ledge.

The shape sorter was fun!

We had such a good time at the aquarium! Dominic was thrilled to spend a whole day there and not have to do any REAL shoolwork. We were happy that we were able to make it a family affair and not have to pay admission. Though, now that we've been, its definitely on our list of places to go back to.

Camera Dump!

2011-10-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

I love Michael's little toes. Actually, I love babies toes in general. They just look like little edible peas lined up so perfectly in a row waiting to be nibbled on.

I bought this frame at Michael's and absolutely love it! I think it was only $20. A steal of a deal if you ask me! Its well crafted. Michael loves to stand in front of it and point everyone out. I often hear him in the hallway naming people and know he's standing in front of the picture frame. =) It took me a long time to narrow down which pictures I wanted to put in it....it was hard to pick out only 21!

Following in his brothers footsteps. Keep it up Michael, he's a good role model.

Penny was being kinda grouchy and resistant about having to put away the silverware so Dominic ran out to the garage, grabbed some silly hats and started playing silly music in the kitchen to liven up the mood. It totally worked! He's always full of great ideas to keep everyone happy. We love having him home.

Penny writes and colors all day long. So, let me explain her train of thought. She wrote her name and then circled it. Then she wrote my name and circled it. Then she said they looked like bubble names. She then wrote the word pop. Then she remembered that she has a balloon in the garage and said to me. Mom, if it pops I still want to keep my balloon in the garage. Later I looked over at the board and knowing that kids at her level spell phonetically began sounding out her letters and noticed she wrote, "I wil wont it." Translating to 'I will want it." She was writing down that she would want the balloon after it popped. I am continually amazed at how her brain soaks things up around her.

Lately she has also been writing math problems on everything like 4+1= 5 and 2 + 2 = 4 etc Sometimes she actually makes up a real math problem and sometimes its just numbers strewn together to look like a math problem. Its so fun to see her progression though. She doesn't start kindergarten for 2 more years. My question is, if we don't homeschool her in 2 years....what on earth will she do at school?

Dominic has been learning to type this year. I purchased this typer on Ebay (we used one like this when I was in 5th grade). I wanted something that wasn't on the computer while he's learning it and rather something that he could just pull out and focus on without being distracted by, "can I play video games when I'm done?" since thats usually the bulk of what he does on the computer. Anyways, we're 7 weeks in to having this dandy machine in our home and he can type (without looking) home row and top row. He hasn't added the bottom row yet. But today he did 17 wpm with 91% accuracy. I'm pretty darn proud of this guy.

So, its not all THAT exciting to watch but I'm so proud of him I couldn't help but share!

He's also learning to play the guitar. I'll have to record him playing a few songs. I'm teaching him (though I don't play the guitar, its been fun to learn myself) and he's self teaching also. He's doing really well. Next semester I think I'll actually have him be with an instructor. He LOVES it!

Go Dogs Go!

2011-10-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Michael's favorite book.

He knows it by heart.

....but when you're mouth has run out of watermelon, even a good book is not worth finishing.
I totally know the feeling.

General Conference

2011-10-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

Whew! We watched all 4 sessions of conference and I was happy that the kids did so well. I got to watch all 4 sessions of conference....thats a miracle. =)

This is what my kids looked like Saturday morning enjoying their packets. Michael was loving being a big kid and coloring just like them.

Penny cut out about 20 of these watches and put them on her arms, legs and muscles. I was picking them up for days, but the time it took to color, cut and tape them on her appendages was so worth it!

Michael was entertained by putting tape on the back of his hand and watch him try to take it off. The legos in the background lasted for a while too. It was fun to keep him entertained. He went down for a nap for the second session.

Giggles!

This is what my living room looked like after all the activities of the morning session. =) So worth it. My favorite announcement was that the Provo Tabernacle was going to be restored and not just restored, but also become the 2nd temple in Provo. That made me cry. I loved that building and was so heartbroken that it burned down a few years back. I went to several Stake Conferences in that building (Elder Hales came to speak to us there) and was always amazed at its architecture. This made me so happy. And really, a second temple in Provo?!! Wow. Thats amazing.

For the second session, we made a tent for the kids to sit in like the people listening to King Benjamin's sermon (while eating popcorn). We read this story the night before in preparation. This was a big hit. Dominic did not leave the tent the whole session.

Penny, on the other hand, went and colored on Daddy's lap (notice he has a paper watch on too! She made sure we all had one).

Penny and Daddy did not last long, they were out in like 15 minutes. Sean had worked all morning and with a warm body on your chest, it was just impossible. =) Snuggle time was much needed though. He can listen to the session later.

Penny went on a cut and glue frenzy. She was having so much fun cutting out shapes and gluing them in the correct place. I don't remember Dominic being able to cut this well at 3.5. He was still doing fringes around the edge. =)

ON Sunday morning we had a friend come over and watch with 4 of her kids. It was fun to have some company and we had plenty of things to keep the kids busy and listening.

Color, Cut, Glue.

Michael loves the wooden food from Melissa and Doug. He cuts and cuts and cuts and then comes and lets us know to put them back together by saying, "Hep you. Hep you."

He doesn't quite get the knife right every time, but he's starting to get better and better. I love the concentration and sometimes effort which will physically show by his struggling hands and grunting.

He joined the big girls now and then at the tiny craft table. =)

and asked daddy to open up the animals on the ipad.

It was a great General Conference Session. As always, we were uplifted and edified by the words of our prophet, apostles and other church leaders. My favorite talks were these:

President Uchtdorf's Forget Me Not
Sister Thompson
Elder Anderson
President Uchtdorf
Elder Bednar
Prophet Thomas S. Monson

My favorite one for Sean was from
Sister Dalton

Just kidding, I really liked this talk too because its exactly how we should be treating our husbands too. Like the Kings they are.

Toothbrush, Scissors mishap and Pinewood Derby

2011-10-04T23:16:00.001-07:00

I love Michael's body shape. He is not built like a Hirt, but instead like a Matteson.
Meaning, he has a butt.

And he's obsessed with putting his own toothpaste on anybody's toothbrush.
We all have about 4 toothbrushes that we use because with 4 we are bound to be able to find 1 at any given time to be able to use for brushing teeth. The other 3 Michael will have indefinitely carried off somewhere looking for a tube of toothpaste.

Penny was brushing her teeth in my closet. So silly.

She asked me if I could see her. Notice the bandaid above her eye? Yeah, she was trying to open a package with a pair of scissors. Makes my heart skip a beat thinking about what could have been. She barely missed her eye.

Michael is trying to plug the panini press into my phone cord. He was at this for about 5 minutes and sucking HARD on that pacifier. He was in total concentration mode.

He finally gave up and started playing with the knobs.

Penny had slipped and bonked her bum and I was holding and comforting her on the kitchen floor. Meanwhile Michael was having a hard time undoing the buckle of Penny's helmet (all that hard work has paid off, he can buckle her helmet all by himself) so he came and sat on top of her and asked for my help. She thought that was pretty funny and cheered right up.

This kid loves corn. He also loves the show Caillou. To hear him say it is awesome. So, watching Caillou and eating corn is a piece of heaven for him.

Since he's really good with fine motor skills, he's been really enjoying his oversized legos. He calls them his "Go's" . He's pretty good at them until he gets one that's not the same height on one side and then stacks another on top of it. That's when he starts saying, "Hep you, Hep you."

Our friend Mindy came over for some help with blogging and she left her computer bag on the floor. Michael walked over to it, said "box." and then sat inside of the bag and closed the top on top of him. I think he just wanted to go home with her and play with all her fun toys.

Dominic is getting so big. As I sat there watching he and his friend play guitar hero I couldn't help but remember when he was just such a little squirt. Where does all the time go? I love this guy.

He knew he was doing something funny when he looked up and everyone busted up laughing.

Okay, so a few weeks ago was pinewood derby. Dominic had a really great time with me making his pinewood derby car this year (Sean just really didn't have time. His schedule was crazy last month). We cut it out at a friends house and then sanded, added weights, painted and (yes) mod podged it. It had to have a crafty aspect thrown in there. He made lightening bolts in microsoft paint and then printed them off and we pasted them on with mod podge. We then added layers and layers of mod podge to up the ounces a bit too. It turned out looking really nice and did really well.......we thought.

His is the one that this guy has his hands on.

See that look on his face? He went away a little discouraged and I didn't know how to console him. His car won every race it was in except one (against the 1st place car). They had done all the bracketing digitally and so it was hard to follow how they placed people. They also timed the races with their digital track. We weren't sure how he was able to beat the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place winners and get 10th place. It was an hour late in getting started due to setup of the track taking longer than anticipated.... and I was just too tired to stay and figure it out. He went away a little discouraged but still proud of his car. I'm happy I got this picture of him completely celebrating his victories! It was a really long, but fun night and I was proud that he was still able to congratulate the winning cars, eventually (even if it took a day or two).

Way to go Dominic. And must I say, you look handsome in the Bear uniform.
I'm proud of you Dom Bomb!

Canning Peaches

2011-10-04T22:59:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our house in August 2 years ago I told myself that this was the year I was going to try canning. And I did. I canned peaches and spaghetti sauce. I've always wanted to do that. And it was so refreshing to each peaches all winter long that tasted fresh and delicious.

Last year Michael was still pretty little and I justified not canning peaches because I just didn't have time.
I regretted that decision all . winter . long.

So this year, even though it was a low peach season (we had a late frost) and the peaches are a little pricey up the hill. I promised myself I was going to can some. I canned 17 of these jars. Each jar holds about 3-4 peaches.
And they are so delicious.

My kids won't eat regular canned peaches when we have these around (unless its the kids that is smothered in heavy syrup)

It was a lot of work and soooooooo worth it.
And we will savor every. stinking . bite .

Napa Valley Ragnar Relay

2011-10-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

Mid September, I participated in the Ragnar Relay from San Francisco to Calistoga California, a total of 189 miles. We were a 12 runner team with each runner doing 3 different legs. I was runner 10 and had a total of 20.9 miles to run, my first leg being 7.9 miles, second leg 6.2 miles, third 6.8 miles.

I will also preface this post with I signed up for the race 6 weeks before it started (Karen, on my right in the first picture suckered me in) and found out that I was pregnant 3 weeks before the race.
I did not run for a whole week 3 weeks before the race (pregnancy fatigue hit me hard!) but had been running up to 10 miles at that point. I ran 3 times 2 weeks before the race with each run being around 6 miles.
I did not run the week of the race.

I was a little nervous that I would be too fatigued by leg 3 but knew that I could do the first two and was hoping that the adrenaline of being in a race would be enough to get me through that third.
I knew I could only push myself if I felt good though, I had to remind myself.... I was 7 weeks pregnant.

There were ragnar signs that marked the path and gave directions and turns. The best signs to see were the signs that said, one mile to go. That last mile never felt so good!

For my journaling purposes:

Run 1 was actually pretty tough. I started in the late afternoon around 3pm and it was pretty hot out (mid 80's) but REALLY windy. The first 4 miles were somewhat flat and then I knew at mile 4 I had a 1.5 mile climb. It was tough and the wind was blowing in my face the whole time. Running up a hill is hard enough and SLOW enough you really don't need gale force winds slowing you down. I felt like I was running as slow as a turtle but I was giving it all I got. There were a lot of men that were runner 10 and a lot of the long legged ones passed (in running they call it a kill) me. I killed 2 people, and one was walking, does that count? I had to pee really bad just before the hill and checked behind me to see that there was nobody in sight and dashed behind a bush. I'm pretty sure I got thorns in my shorts squatting and was peeved that I felt like I had to go as bad as I did when I really hardly went. Whatever though, the sensation went away and I popped out of the bush and went on my way. I finished my 7.9 mile run in 71 minutes.

Run 2 felt so refreshing and good. I started my run at almost 1am with the most uncomfortable headlamp imaginable. This run had no hills and I was grateful for that. When they asked if anyone had headlamps I told them I had tons and so I brought them along. I didn't stop to think that it wouldn't feel comfortable wearing a bulky camping headlamp that bounces around on my forehead with every step. ugh... you got penalized for not wearing one though so I just tried to ignore it. Anyways, I was scared that I was going to get cold on my run and wore my zippered hoodie, but after 1/2 mile into the race I pulled it off and carried it in my hand for the remainder (I thought about throwing it on the side of the road and bidding adieu but I love that hoodie!) It was so refreshing to run at night and I ran really really fast for me (considering that I'd already run once that day!). I finished this run of 6.2 miles in 50 minutes and killed 5 people.

Run 3 It was a hot morning already and after my second run, my toes were in a lot of pain. 4 of them were blistered up really bad around the ends and into the toenails. It was really ugly and really big. Other than my toes though, I felt really really good. I told the other 5 people in my van to stop for me at 2 miles and then again at 5 miles and if I gave them a kill sign it meant that my toes were hurting way too bad to continue and I wouldn't be able to finish. They could see how bad my toes were. I started out running really slow, I thought. I could feel every step in my toes. I borrowed a team mates garnet watch so I wouldn't have to wonder how many miles I had left and I could gauge my pain with how far I had left. I remember that first mile being really long and attributed it to the fact that I'd already run 14 miles that day. I trudged through miles 2 and 3 feeling pretty good actually (my body had ignored the pain from my toes and they didn't really hurt that bad anymore). I picked up the pace a little knowing that at mile 3.4 I was halfway done and could start telling myself I'd already run farther than I had left to run. I killed a long legged runner (he wasn't walking), this felt good. I passed tons and tons of vineyards and the scenery was amazing! There were some grapes right on the side of the road and had I been able to see them ahead of me (instead of as I passed them) I would have tried to snitch one. I didn't dare stop moving my feet. I had 2 starbursts in my hand for fuel and tried eating one but it made me not able to get the air I needed so I quickly swallowed it and drank some water vowing not to eat the other. I passed it off to a girl who was walking (my second kill). All of the sudden, at mile 4.5 I saw the '1 mile to go' sign. What? My run was supposed to be 6.8 miles. I was somewhat relieved, but also felt gypped. "I'm doing fine! I don't need a gimme here!" I picked up my pace again and almost sprinted into the next exchange point immediately inquiring why the garnet said 5.5 and I thought I was running a 6.8 leg. the owner of the garnet chuckled....her stride is obviously shorter than mine and it was set to her stride....so for every mile it told me I'd run, I'd actually run 1.3 miles. Thus, when it told me I had run 4.5 miles I had actually run 5.8 miles and thus only had 1 mile to go of my 6.8 mile leg. It was a nice treat to be tricked in such a way. I finished my 6.8 mile run in about 65 minutes. I don't know exactly because my phone had died and I didn't time it but it was right around there. I felt really REALLY good after that run....but my toes hated me.

So, I made all 3 of my runs and with only 5 horribly blistered toes to prove it. Its been almost 3 weeks since this race and I have lost 4 of those toe nails (surprisingly I already have 4 new ones). My feet are not pretty. But, it was worth it.

And, we finished 74th (or something like that) out of 149ish. We weren't there to win it...just finish. But, my brother had a group of friends in the race and, they won our mixed (boys and girls) division. That's some crazy running right there.

Notice I don't have sneakers on. I could not get my feet back in them. But, look at that smile!

Thanks Sean for taking care of the home front so I could go do this!

Sean's mom came and helped watch the kids on Friday so Sean didn't have to take a day off work and then Sean had all Saturday to play with the kids. When I got back into town early Saturday evening around 5 or so, he was ready to have me home and a bit cranky. Poor guy was just hungry and tired I think.
It still makes me laugh hearing him tell me why he was cranky.......and what was I?
On nothing, I just ran a FREAKIN RAGNAR, but here let me help you with that! lol
Just kidding sweety. After an hour or so playing at the pool with the kids we came home and I showered and went to sleep.......that was the best 11 hours sleep I've had in a LONG time.
I've never slept so good.

I'm not sure I ever need to do one again though.
1 is good.
Unless its with my family. *hint hint*

I bought a new pair of shoes and my toes are happy with me again. My brother convinced me to buy a pair of Merrell's and I think I'll love them. I haven't actually run in them yet. =) My toes have just barely forgiven me so I've not been in a hurry.

New (to us) Car

2011-10-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

We got a new (to us) car on Friday. We were looking online for Suburbans or Yukon XL's not in a huge hurry to buy something right away but definitely looking for a great deal. We weren't expecting it to come up so soon! We had it inspected by our mechanic and were given the green light.

Its a GREAT car and has been well cared by one family its whole life.
Sean was excited that it has custom rims, wheels and tail lights. It also has a doohickey on it that makes it rumble when you step on the gas....definitely a man thing (since I don't even know what to call it). I was hoping to be able to get one with leather interior (so much easier than cloth with kids) and this one has it. Yay! Kids are excited that it has a DVD player in each row of seats (so 2 DVD screens in the car).

We are happy to make this new Suburban our family vehicle.
And as soon as we can sell the pathfinder (this week we hope) we will have rid ourselves of car payments.
My, what a blessing from our Heavenly Father.
Life is good.

Chips? No, how about a cookie

2011-09-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

And by cookie he meant granola bar.....just to clarify. This video cracks me up because the laundry basket was springing the door to close every time he pushed on it and so he started pushing harder and harder, which only made the door close faster. He was doing this for quite a while before we were able to find the camera. I could not stop laughing! We only caught the tail end, but you get the idea.

Oh Michael, your forever raiding of the pantry is always amusing. Recently he has discovered what marshmallows are "mallows, mallows." Yeah, I had to hide those a shelf or two higher.

and yes, he's wearing an Eskimo Joe shirt. Thanks Owen.

Ward Campout

2011-09-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

During Labor Day weekend our ward had a campout at some member's property an hour away. It is a very serene place that really reminded me of Alaska. There was a creek that ran through it that I could have sat and played at all day long. We set up camp in the afternoon on Friday and stayed through Saturday in the early evening.

They had a kitchen that was fully plumbed and a covered eating area as well as a bath house with 6 separate bathrooms, 4 of them with showers.

Michael was so dirty! It was perfect. I loved just letting him explore and he had dirt in every nook and crannie!

They had a trampoline and the girls took advantage of the opportunity to jump alone while all the older kids were swimming in the pool and going down the waterslide.

Seat Drop!

This is the home made waterslide. The pool and slide are lined with old billboards. The pool is then lined over the top of the billboards with one huge blue tarp and then filled with water from the creek. I can't remember if it was chlorinated or not....I do remember that it was FREEZING!

Dominic after he just came down the slide.

There was also a shooting range and Dominic got to shoot the gun a few times.

I brought our gold pans and we went gold panning in the creek. This was the perfect creek to explore in! Dominic walked a good distance up stream with some friends just exploring and playing. I loved doing this as a child.

Penny and Catherine used this huge leaf as an umbrella to block the sun.....until it wilted.

The boys got out the slouce box and were actually able to find a few good sized flecks of gold. It was a fun dig.

The girlers.

I was helping Dominic pan for his gold. We didn't find any.

Seriously dirty. He was in hog heaven sitting there in the dirt for a good 30 minutes or so.

See how pretty? They have a nice lawn all set up to set up tent on and then the rest is just au-natural.

Ladybugs are so funny. He was tickled that this ladybug was walking all over his fingers.

I even went down the slide once. Sean was probably the most entertaining (apart from Trent's flips) going down the slide. He would howl and hollar the whole way down and then squeal when he hit the water because it was so cold.

Here is a video of Dominic going down.

Proof that Sean was there:

And then, on the way back we got a flat tire..... I was so proud of Sean for not letting that ruin his weekend! It was a fun family adventure to get a flat tire on the way home when all you want to do is go home, shower, unpack and go to bed.

California Capital Airshow

2011-09-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to branch out a little and actually schedule fun things to do that we don't normally do. Groupon has actually been really helpful in giving me ideas.

So, some tickets were up on Groupon to the California Capital Airshow. I put it on my calendar and we waited for the date. There are some serious pilots out there who can do amazing things! However, we weren't really as prepared with what to bring as we weren't sure what to expect. Next year, we'll bring camping chairs and have a home base to come to where we can eat, sit and watch. We really just spent the whole time in the kids center as it provided shade and activities for the kids. It was like pulling teeth to get them to stop what they were doing and come watch the airplanes. It would have also been helpful if it wasn't so blooming hot out!

However, we did have a good time and it was overall a great activity for the kids.
They started with the Star Spangled Banner being sung while this guy parachuted the flag from out of a plane.

Michael was tickled pink to have been able to catch some fishes. He could have done this all day long.

They had some bouncehouses that Penny and Stella couldn't get enough of. There were no shoes allowed on the bouncehouses and it was all set up on blacktop that turned their feet BLACK. Can you see the bottoms of their feet?

So fun!

I love the flying curls. She had so much fun on this slide over and over and over again.

I even went down it with Michael, but he really didn't want my help. He wanted to do it "all by himself."

Jumping Bean!

"Mih" break.

Michael was thrilled to draw all over the ground with chalk. He even tasted a few of the sticks of chalk.

Penny made a beautiful necklace that took a really long time.

Michael had fun with the hoola hoops. He kept telling me that they were circles.

He even mastered some two hoop tricks. hee hee.

So Big! I wish this picture was from the other side.

I love this face.

Stella, the Diva.

Proof that Dominic and Sean were there. They ran off and went and saw the big planes and went inside them and what not. Stella and Penny were more interested in the kids crafts so we just stayed put.

This lady, bless her heart, needed some serious art skills. The kids didn't care but I had to look away to keep myself from giggling.

The fake tattoo table was a BIG hit. I put a whale on Michael's arm and he hugged and kissed and loved on that thing till it came off. His favorite animal is definitely a whale. At night, when I put him down for bed I usually sit in the rocker and feed him his bottle until he's done. Then he used to snuggle into my chest and fall asleep. Lately though, he puts his head down for a mere second or two and then says, "whale, whale, whale." Which means he wants me to put him in his crib so he can snuggle with his rainbow whale. He uses it as a body pillow that he hugs and nestles on top of. Its so stinking cute but that darn rainbow whale is stealing my loves!

It was a great show, but next time....we'll be more prepared (with more than a stroller and some snacks.)

Up to

2011-09-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

These are some of the random, daily things we've been up to.

Penny busted out the alphabet on her own a few weeks ago. She's doing really well with reading and writing and sounds out words wherever we go. Sean and I can hardly S-P-E-L-L anything out anymore without her sounding it out in her head and telling us what we are talking about.
Little Booger.

Sean and I were really giddy one night and decided to draw mustaches on our children....though we weren't brave enough to do Michael's (he surely would have woken and been up all night). It was funny because when the kids came downstairs in the morning and saw each other they both asked the other what was on their faces. We all had a good laugh.

Michael loves to pretend he's driving. He seriously thought he was a big boy in the drivers seat!

Michael LOVES markers. He could color all day long. Problem is, he really really REALLY likes to color on the carpet. So, if he colors it has to be in his high chair. He doesn't seem to mind.

Dominic earned enough money this last year to purchase an ipad (we paid for half of it since we use it too). He and Penny have a few silly things that they like to do on it. There is a video of The Pancake Man that puts them in stitches.

Here is the video:

Michael has discovered how to lay down in the bath tub by himself and then turn over and get up....then re-turn him self so that he can be laying on his back again. Its fun to watch because sometimes he moves in circles trying to turn over. Pretty entertaining. There have been a few times where his face ends up underwater and he's gotten scared, but for the most part he handles it really well.

Penny and Michael loves this game. I've been doing this since I was 9 or so with my siblings. My kids love being raised up and then dropped onto my shins. Scares them every time.

These two can be so incredibly sweet sometimes. Penny doesn't get to play some of the games in Dominic's slide because she messes up the levels so she is content to just sit and watch him play.

2 minutes after the last picture was taken she was out and I stole her from Dominic and we got to snuggle. She as seriously dead weight on me but I love our snuggly time.

Penny got a tea set from a friend and Michael loves to drink out of the teacups.

All it took was for Penny Gma to feed Michael a bottle and then he was fine to sit and snuggle. He sat like this for about 10 minutes with Gma rubbing his hair. And then all at once, the moment was over and he was up and playing with something else.

Ice cream. Michael is answering my question to, "Is it good?" He says.....'Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm"

I love these yidders.

Penny likes to show Great Grandma all the new things she has learned on the ipad.

Penny's in the slot are one of the funnest things to watch little fat fingers try to do. I love the concentration on his face and steadied breathing that comes along with this activity.

He was being goofy when I caught him playing with Penny's helmet. It was really really quiet for like 15 minutes. He seriously sat and played with this buckle trying to figure out how to fasten it for 15 minutes.

Dominic taught Penny how to make a paper airplane. She's getting pretty good at it.

Wahoo!

Monday nights FHE lesson went well and then I put the kids in the car and told Sean to check a noise in the back of the car. When he got in to see it, I shut the back hatch and we drove off to get some ice cream. Dominic thought that Sean was unaware of the plans but I cleared it all with him before hand. He just went along with the "surprise." Dominic was so excited all day long to steal Dad and trick him into not working.

So, this is a picture of Sean pretending to be annoyed at sitting in the back seat. When really, he loves being in stadium seating.

And the real faces of the night. It was a lot of fun and Dominic was so thrilled to have fooled Dad.

Penny and Dominic built Mount Olympus out of blocks at Gma's house.

The other day Michael got into the flour AGAIN. However, I was in the middle of cooking and so Penny, on her own accord, went and got the little vacuum and cleaned the mess up without me asking.
Our FHE on service a few nights previous was still fresh on her mind.
I so appreciated it and let her know how much help it was when she did things like that.

Bike helmets and Michael are almost inseparable.
He doesn't care the size, or the activity that he's doing. If there is a helmet nearby, he'll find it and put it on.
I love it.

Switched

2011-09-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just can't do it anymore. We made the switch since this last mess to frozen gogurts.
Still a mess, but not as much and he still gets his yogurt that he loves.
He won't let me feed him.

A few months ago we were at Costco and we got their soft serve ice cream (frozen yogurt). He refused to eat any because I wouldn't give him the spoon to feed himself with but I seriously was not going to try to contain the mess he was going to make with that spoon! He seriously didn't eat one bite of the 20 I offered to him if that gives you an idea of how seriously he takes feeding himself.
He wouldn't even eat ice cream if he couldn't feed it to himself!
There was no settlement to be made.
"Let me do it, or I don't want any."

It was ice cream for goodness sake!

Silly bug.

Magic

2011-09-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

My sister Annie is a very talented photographer. She's been taking our family photos since Penny was 1 month old and I have absolutely fallen in love with many pictures from each session that she's done.

Another thing she is great at is editing photos. We take so many photos and many of them I post on my blog (but believe me, not all of them!) Every now and then, she sees a gem and she pulls it off, doctors it and e-mails it back to me. I love that you do this Annie! Its such a special treat.

BEFORE:

minus the peanut butter and jelly/rice cake/chocolate teddy graham face and freckle on my scar plus tint, shadow and color alterations
AFTER:

Here's to creating memories.
Thanks for making my night!

XX or XY Chromosomes

2011-09-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

So, while explaining to Dominic the genetic makeup of girls versus boys and if the man or the woman got to decide (contribute to) if it was a boy or a girl,
who knew that Penny would be paying such close attention.

As soon as I put the marker down she picked it up and said,

"Okay Dominic. Here's how it works."

and then the following video ensued

We can't wait to meet you FeleXa.

Later in the evening they were both chanting their preference.

Penny chanting - XX and Dominic chanting -XY

I guess we covered science twice today.

Randoms

2011-09-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of silly pictures that capture our lives in the last week or so that just don't belong in their own post so here goes:

Michael is a monkey and when he's ready to eat he lets me know. If I don't respond fast enough, he takes matters into his own hands. He hangs on and pulls and pulls trying to get up saying,
"rrrrrrrrrrrg, heaby, heaby!"

When Dominic is doing his schoolwork it isn't rare to find either Michael or Penny or both doing "homework" right alongside him. Michael loves to "color"

Penny loves to give a try on the Type Right II. She actually can do home row with her fingers on the right keys and get 13 letters per minute without taking her fingers off. She just started doing it without instruction. Love her.

Sometimes, life slows down a little and you savor the moments like this. Sunday afternoons always feel like this for us because Daddy doesn't work.

Buttering pancakes can be hard work but when you're 3 going on 4 you can do everything "all by myself."

Penny's foot somehow ended up in Michael's carseat and instead of shoving it out like he usually does, this time he decided to tickle it. This game lasted for a good 10 minutes and had them in stitches. Hilarious!

Also, Sean was driving so my hands were free to take these pictures without endangering us.

Did I say Sean was driving? That was until Michael took over the wheel. This kid was LOVING being in the front seat while Daddy ran into the store for something (oreos).

I love this little girler. We girls are outnumbered but not for long, right Penny?

He found the button to roll the window up and down. He thought that was pretty cool.

And seriously, I could just about die watching this video. He figured out how to turn around in circles on purpose but he has to use the momentum of his arm in front to do it.
I am so in love with this bundle of baby its ridiculous.
He is such a ham!

Bike Rides!

2011-09-09T23:50:00.000-07:00

Its been getting dark pretty early (7:45pm or so) so we've had to put our bike rides earlier and earlier in the evenings. We don't go more than a couple of miles, but the kids really enjoy getting out and going fast!
So far we've gone a couple of times a week the last few weeks.
Now, if only Sean's bike was working he could join us.

Dominic is really learning the rules of the road and Penny loves that she gets to ride like a big girl this year!

Thank you Sean. You always seem to get my best side.

Yes, people look at us like we're a little crazy but its more than just the bikes we ride. =)

When Dominic was in second grade (and I was pregnant with Michael) I used to ride him to school on back with Penny in the seat in front of me (she was 1.5)....now THAT was a heavy load. This feels like feathers in comparison.

When we get home, Penny usually likes to ride her other bikes around a little. This balance bike has been awesome! She can really balance well without the false sense of security that training wheels sometimes create. She started out not liking this bike very much but now that she's got the hang of it, she prefers it.

She's a silly gal who loves (understatement) pink.

So check her out. The bike actually has a hand brake that she knows how to use! So funny. She loves seeing the skid marks that she leaves on the cement.

Funderland!

2011-09-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

I was a little hesitant to take my kids to Funderland when friend invited us along because its a very small park, with only 8 rides and they are geared more towards the 4-6 year old. However, after asking on Facebook to my local friends, it was determined that even Dominic would probably still have fun. So, we decided to drive the 30 minutes to the park and give it a try. These kids had A BLAST!

To our surprise, Dominic didn't even have school on that day (some teacher inservice day...which is funny when you home-school because I'm actually the teacher, not the Supervising Teacher but whatever....we took the day off).

Michael's favorite ride were the horsies. He got bored about half way through though and I'd pull him off and he's hug the horse for the rest of the ride. He's such a lover.

He liked the fishy ride. I tightened him in there REALLY good because I knew he would try to stand up and get out.

This one made me nervous so I had Dominic ride behind him and he was instructed to grab him and make him sit if he tried to wiggle. Luckily, he couldn't make it the time that it took to buckle all the kids in and I pulled him out. It as perfect, he got his aiplane fix without even having to ride.

There was a little log ride that they really like too. Dominic and Sophie went on this SEVERAL times.

This was a quaint village type drive. Very cute.

Penny needed a turn on the fish.

The rollercoaster wasn't much, but it got just enough speed that Dominic enjoyed it probably 10 times over again, if not more.

Penny and Tucker enjoyed the train. Actually, we all enjoyed the train, albeit the part where we had to go by the maintenance shop where they were spray painting something. =)

These two went on a lot of rides together. He and Dollie are 1 year apart and have a lot of fun whenever we get together.

We were there for close to 4 hours and Michael konked about half-way through .

Penny liked the carousel, but after two times through, I couldn't go around again without getting sick. =)

Our Fish

2011-09-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Penny can finally swim a distance and stop and catch her breath and then swim farther. She still gets nervous when she has to stop and take a breath, but each time we go she gets more and more confident. This last week she figured out that when she stops she can get higher in the water if she spins a circle while she is stopped. She swam probably 15 meters without my help. Way to go Penny!

Michael is going to be an interesting challenge when it comes to swimming. He really doesn't seem to enjoy being in a pool though he loves bath time.

Archaeology

2011-09-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

For our history curriculum, we are studying ancient history and civilizations. During the first chapter, they talked about how we know information from those times. Archaeologists are able to study these people because of the things they left behind and we've taken those clues and made our best guesses about how they lived.

So, to help Dominic understand this, I set up a dig site. I wish we had actual dirt in our backyard, but piling lava rocks and wood chips over objects worked just fine too. He used a paintbrush and chop stick (official archaeology tools) to uncover items and then mapped them on his paper.

He, at first, didn't understand why he needed to and how to map them on his paper, but quickly learned the why and the how. It was fun and he had a blast. Penny even went inside and found a few things to hide for him too........

He was able to then take the things I did (toothbrush, cords, toy car, chapstick, childs book, spoon, credit card) and write how he thought they applied to the daily lives of the people who used them (us!).

Michael got in on the fun to but mostly just wanted to explore.

That was so much fun that Dominic then hid all the objects again and Penny got to find them. He was all smiles while she was searching for them.

Her glee with each find was awesome. It was like Christmas each time.

Chubby baby, always on the move!

He was mad when it was time to come in, but he was definitely ready for a nap by the time we were done.

More and more we are finding time to do things together as a family. Its been a fun challenge to get everything done in a day. Some days are better than others. There is constant whining from Penny lately and Dominic resists things that he just doesn't want to do. But, we're finding ways to get around those walls and its been interesting.

Time Capsule

2011-08-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

My brother took some old negatives from my parents house and had them put on CD at Costco. I'm so happy that he did. I've never seen some of these pictures before and its so fun to see my parents in their beginnings. Some of these pictures almost brought tears to my eyes knowing how much happiness they had captured on several rolls of film. Without digital photography I imagine you had to take pictures sparingly. You didn't shoot 200 photos of Christmas, you took 5 and hoped that some turned out. I'm so glad these never got lost, damaged or destroyed in one way or another. These are gems.

My parents look like kids on horses! They are probably in their early 20's I'm guessing. So fun to see them this young as I don't remember seeing very many pictures of them so young and I certainly don't recall those years (I wasn't born yet!).

I now know where Michael gets his set of cheeks. I absolutely LOVE this picture.
I have always thought my parents are beautiful people...but again, I don't remember these years very well. I love that we are all dressed up, no doubt in our Sunday best, with our Christmas stockings hung in the background. I'm probably almost 2 here.

This picture looks like my brother Nephi and I standing next to each other holding my son, Michael In a dress). hee hee. But, its of course, my mom and Dad holding me.

This was a picture I remember seeing many times. It never gets old.
Pug nose size 7 months no doubt.

I love these next ones too. This is an amazing photo shoot considering there are 6 kids in it and no adults.

Wow, we must have been such well behaved kids, we are always looking at the camera.... again, my cheeks (I'm sitting on my mom's lap with my brother Sam in my lap).

And yes, no stroll down memory lane is complete without a picture of my mullet differential. Thank you mom for always giving me what I wanted. Nephi, I loved that shirt of yours...in fact, I secretly wished that it would have fit me whenever you wore it. Sam, your boys are your clone. Dad, you only look a little like Sadam in this picture. I love my family. We were only 1 child short in this photo (Joe wasn't born yet).

Thanks Jon, for sending these out.

Thats all for now!

Pictures

2011-08-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

All 3of my kids dressed in their Sunday best. Typical picture, nobody looking at the camera. =)

She's so heavenly when sleeping (she's heavenly when awake too....just extra squishy and peaceful with her eyes closed and her lips all smushy.)

This is Sean's sister Courtney and her mini-me. We were so happy when she told us she was coming to visit. We didn't tell the kids, just that a surprise was coming that evening. All Penny could do was giggle when she arrived and Dominic was pleased to see her. She was kind/brave enough to sleep in the tent with the kids at Gma's (minus Michael) the first night. She stayed up late with us the next night and played Settles of Catan with Dominic and I after Penny and Michael went down for the night. Courtney is always fun to have around.

We went to Lotus Park for family home evening and picked blackberries. Well, I picked 3 baskets of blackberries while Sean and the kids played in the river. They met up with me and munched on a few. I didn't wear pants so my legs were pretty scratched up. Sooooo worth it though....I love picking berries.

School this week was just fine. I switched Dominic's Language arts curriculum to Easy Grammer and English, The First Language. I like these so much better than Writing With Ease and am really happy we made the switch. I also was able to stop using Houghton Mifflin Math (what they use in the schools) as our Life of Fred books came. He's really enjoying them and learning quite fast! If he keeps a steady pace he should be ready for the pre-algebra book by January. We have hit a few bumps now and then when a lesson drags out for too long (because he's going too slow usually) but I've stuck to my guns and redirected him and helped him recognize burnout and address it. He's learned that in the middle of the day, a fruit smoothie helps wake him up and rejuvinate him. Taking a 10 minute break to make a cold smoothie takes less time than slothfully moving through a lesson. He really is enjoying it and I'm finding that I'm more calm than I've ever been.

Penny loves her Explode the code book and can do many of them all by herself now. She loves this page the most where you have a picture of say, a can, and then you have to circle the letters to write the word and then write the word. She loves it, loves it, loves it. Sometimes she likes to write a letter WAAAAAAAY too big just so that she can erase it. So funny.

She does these all by herself with a little direction at the beginning from me. She amazes me.

I love that she also has the arm pieces to her Belle costume.

This is what happens to Dominic's face during burnout. Hee hee

Camping Foiled

2011-08-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

We were all packed up to go camping on Friday and for reason I don't wish to list here (I hurt the feelings of some pretty important people in my life for deciding not to go) we went 1 mile away to Great Grandma's and set up our tent in her backyard. The kids were dead set on camping and I so was I.

Our car was all packed with food, toys, supplies and clothes.
Did you know that you can't make a reservation in California on any state campsite without 48 hours notice? We must have looked pretty silly having a fully loaded car and pulling into Beals Point at Folsom Lake to try to get a first-come/first-served campsite only to be told that they had none available.

This was after I took some things out.

And here is where we parked the tent. I really wished it would have worked out to go camping in the Mountains like we had planned and this certainly did not cut it for me, but my kids love sleeping in a tent no matter where we are and Great Grandma sure enjoyed the company (though at 96 she didn't join us for the night in the tent).

They played and played after it was set up. Michael loved the sound it made under his feet when he walked around. He likes playing this game where we rest our chest on his feet and then he pushes us away. He was playing it with Dominic and in hysterics. It was funny.

So, Sean and Michael went home to sleep so that at least one of us adults could get a decent nights sleep and Sean hadn't had much sleep in the last 2 days already. He was running on empty and was in bed before 8pm.

Michael uses his rainbow whale that Dominic got him as a body pillow every night. I thinks its so adorable how he snuggles it under his body and tucks his hands in.

The next morning, the kids were still snug as a bug come 8am. Dominic got a little cold but was too lazy to reach above his head and grab his sweatshirt so he just slept in the fetal position inside his sleeping bag. Silly kiddo. Penny kept coming out of her sleeping bag and I......well, I should have blown up the matress instead of sleeping on the hard ground.

WARNING: This photo may scare you. I woke up and thought, "Man. I feel like I just got run over by a truck!" That is the precise moment I snapped this picture and upon inspection decided that I really must have gotten run over by a truck. I was so tired that whole day!

Number 4

2011-08-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Not that that phrase will keep me from typing though.

We didn't expect for this to happen so fast as I only stopped nursing Michael a month and a half ago (and for my body nursing is a birth control until I stop). With Penny it took 10 months after I stopped nursing (and an appointment made but not needed with a fertility doctor) to get pregnant. Needless to say, we are super excited. I haven't been tired at all (yet)

or sick......I don't usually get sick and I hope that this time is no exception.

My running has my body ticking like a well tuned clock and I won't be stopping. But, I'll listen to my body and do what it tells me. Rest assured, my long runs aren't hard anymore so I'm not concerned about over stressing my body. The last time I did a 10 mile run I was running with my mouth closed at mile 8.5 for over a minute. My body is used to it already so its not stressing the pregnancy.

Another reason I wanted to start running so quickly after I had Michael, I wanted to be in shape BEFORE I got pregnant so that I wouldn't have to stop just because I was pregnant.

Okay, I think that's probably a enough jibber jabber. =)

Yay for 4 kids (or 5? Could it be twins?). I secretly always hope that I'm having twins.

I know, I'm crazy.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

2011-08-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

The Thursday before summer was over, we took the kids to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom about an hour away. Dominic had earned a free ticket last year with his reading so we headed off to take the whole family. We love this theme park!

They not only have great animals, but great rides too and if you pick the right day (so the crowd is small) its the perfect outing.

The dolphins are always one of my favorite mammals to watch swim. They just move so gracefully and always seem to have a smile on their face. Michael loved seeing all the fishies.

These chubby feet are so yummy.

She started out really cold, with babylegs and a sweatshirt on (It was probably 75 degrees) but quickly got too warm sitting in the sun. Her hair went from okay to bad in the 2 seconds it took to get her sweatshirt off.

Dominic brought his friend Austin along and we were so glad that we did! It gave him a chance to play and go on more rides. He would have had fun without him, but it was nice for him to not have to wait for us to tend to the kids at every ride.

Penny and Michael rode the hopper (frog). She went on it a few times while he was sleeping so she already knew how fun it was and started telling him all about it. He didn't care for it too much, its bounces were a little too jerky for his liking.

It was fun to see him do all the signs for all the animals that we saw. Here he is signing giraffe.

The Butterfly sanctuary is my other favorite place in this park. Its a huge room that is lush and humid and full of butterflies from around the world. My hands were too full chasing around kiddos (Sean got to hot and left after a few minutes) that I didn't get anymore pictures. At one point Michael was playing with something on a tree branch. When I got down to his level, I noticed that what I assumed was a leaf, was actually a butterfly disguised as a leaf. He was touching it so softly (thank goodness, you aren't actually supposed to touch any of them).

My favorite ones were the tigerswallow tails (those were my childhood favorite) and the one that was decorated to look like the eye of a bird. There were some really bright blue ones that Penny really liked.

I would love to have a butterfly room like that one.

We brought Michael's walker along so he could cruise without falling and boy was he cruising! He also has an obsession with sunglasses and so he wore his around for a bit.

Penny liked the walking escalator that took us through the shark tunnel. I wondered why the sharks didn't eat the other fish but couldn't find anyone to ask. My friend Lisa was able to ask though and the rangers said they didn't eat the fish because they always cut the heads off the fish they feed them so they have never made a connection of food with the fish swimming around them. I thought that was really interesting.

Penny wanted one of these ginormous suckers and I obliged. She was very good about sharing it with Michael who needed a bit about every 3 breaths.

Dominic and Austin waiting in line at the Tony Hawk ride. Apparently it would be more fun if you were taller, they jerky corners caused them to bonk their heads on the side of the basket they were in.

Two good looking boys.

Penny found this sylvester drop ride absolutely thrilling. She was a little nervous the first time she went, but by the 3rd time on the ride she was putting her hands up and having a blast! I love this smile!

Dominic got soaked in the acme playground.

Michael was so close to falling asleep in the stroller toward late afternoon. He had his foot resting up like this for forever but he never closed his eyes.

Even though we missed her face in this picture, I absolutely love it. The bandaid, the chicken legs, her hands in the air, the dimple in her chin that lets you know she's smiling and the spots on the ride where the paint has worn from all the kids that have been on it before. I just love this picture!

Dominic was a good sport and went on it with her too. He said it was actually a pretty fun ride. It shot you up quite a ways (slowly) and then dropped you, free fall, in three sections back to the bottom.

Michael loves to play with Dominic.

These two could not get enough snacks. It seemed like they were constantly eating, and well, they were!

This is my favorite place to nibble on my kiddos. Its always so ticklish.

Dominic wanted so badly to play this game. I gave him $10 to spend in the park on whatever he wanted and so he used part of it to play this game. The hammer was so heavy he could hardly lift it. Pretty funny to watch.

I was brave and touched the manta rays. They were surprisingly squishy, like Tofu.

It was a fun day at Six Flags. We didn't buy season passes this year because we thought we wouldn't want to go very many times, but next year......we're so game.

My kiddos

2011-08-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Michael thought he would stand up on the step stool and see what all the hubbub is at the workstation. He had a lot to say about this but it was all jibberish.

Penny put on her fancy hat and played with macaroni and cheese boxes on the floor like they were building blocks. She's so funny.

The kids got their face painted at a home school picnic. Dominic's took FOREVER and since they did it with poster paints, it dried all funky and felt like dry skin. He could only handle it for so long before he wiped it off. We all had a good laugh about this picture though.

And while that last picture made us giggle, this next one of Dominic had us in stitches. Preface: Dominic asked me to take a picture of him doing a spin kick. Apparently, in order to do a spin kick, you also have to make an absolutely hideous face to go along with it. Pretty silly kiddo.

This was more the action shot we were trying to get, except I was hoping that the shutter speed would be faster and his arms and legs would show.

Michael opens the pantry and brings us food all day long. He loves Pirate Booty. His favorite food from the fridge is cheese.

Home School

2011-08-21T00:13:00.000-07:00

I have no pictures to post, but rather my recordings of our first week of home school. We got a lot accomplished. In fact, I'm sure its the most learning Dominic has ever done in one week. We don't have all our curriculum yet, so we really just focused just on what we did have on hand; scriptures, math, typing, art, PE and some language arts with spelling.

We start with scripture reading each morning. So far, he just reads one whole chapter as they have all been a good length. He then has a huge art pad that has each page divided into 4 sections and he draws what he read in the chapter with a caption of what his drawing is. He loves art so this has been a great way to express his art skills and do some reading comprehension. We also get to talk about scripture concepts and stories and he is really into it. I've read right along with him, moving to General Conference talks and other type readings as he finishes up his chapter. Its been the perfect way to start our morning.

I bought a Type Right II a month or so ago knowing that he loves typing with (I didn't want him on the computer doing it) and he has really blown me away with how well he has picked it up. He has home-row down pat and can type 12 WPM with 93% accuracy using those keys. Very awesome for his first week.

Math has been review so far, this next week we'll actually step into more math that he has to learn. I'm excited for that, he's really good at math and it will be fun to see him go at his own pace.

We went on a few bike rides to get some exercise in in the middle of schooling. All the kids enjoyed that and it wasn't too hot because it was still early-ish.

Explode the Code has been really fun for him and Penny has even joined us for her own Explode The Code Workbook too. She's working on workbook 1 and doing it just fine (I think thats a 1st grade workbook?) I've made her stop a few times so she doesn't burn out half way through a page. Dominic laughs at all the silly things they come up with but at this point, its pretty easy. I'm thinking of pulling vocabulary words from it because we've come across a few that he doesn't know what they mean. I like these books.

Writing With Ease is where we struggle. He use to love them, but this year he's fighting me about doing them. I might have to re-think using them. Friday was our first day where he burned out before our break and actually started shutting down. Uh-oh, honeymoon over. He took a break and then picked up right where he left off and didn't even get upset when I pointed out corrections. But its just not worth it when there are so many great programs out there, we'll just have to see if something else works better for him. I have other curriculum that I could use in its place, but its not here yet. We'll see how this one goes.

Thursday we did schoolwork for just over an hour and then he headed off to Six Flags with another home-schooling family. I sent him with paper and pen to take notes on some things and he did. He even told me he counted all the teeth in the sharks mouth, one by one, because he wanted to write down how many teeth a shark had. Just in case you wondered, the specific one he counted had 80 teeth. That made me giggle to imagine my 9 year old standing there for 4 minutes or so counting teeth. So cute.

Overall, it was a great home-schooling week! Here's to the rest of the year ahead of us! Bring it on!!

I feel organized, relaxed and accomplished at the end of my day as opposed to what I thought would be chaos and stress if you had asked me what kind of home school experience I might expect to have a few years ago. We're definitely ready for this chapter and its been so good to have Dominic home!