Picture Tagged...

I am usually a poor sport when it comes to being tagged, but I thought this one looked simple enough. I am supposed to post the fourth picture from the 4th folder in my picture file. Here it is... (I'm a little nervous to see what it's gonna be....)

Oh, this one's easy. I was more expecting a picture of my big toe or half of Jack's face or the back of our car. My kids find my camera (even though they have one of their own) and take the most random pictures. But, I can't bring myself to delete the craziness because they make me giggle. If you ever want a new perspective of your house (and sometimes of yourself), give your kids your camera for a day and check it out!

So, this picture is us at Lego Land in Southern California. It's one of the few ones that I took that day because I had already decided that I was just going to enjoy the day and not be so concerned about taking pictures of everything. So, I set them up by the fountain, took a couple of shots and that's about it for the day! Oh, I now remember that I did take at least one more picture....it's the one of Spencer bawling his eyes out in front of the sign that indicates that he is too short to ride the bumper cars. That's a good one... Anyway, that's it! Hope you enjoyed the brief look into the fourth folder in my picture file!:)

Tagged...Linda, Sarah, Robyn, Andrea and Krissy! Have fun and can't wait to see what you come up with!

So Cute....

Little Old Married Couple

Spencer and Carmyn. These two kids are so incredibly cute together! They play together a lot and have developed this old married couple relationship. It has become so natural for them that it just cracks me up, but also scares me a little bit!
The other day, they were playing Hulaballoo, which is a game where you put different shaped and colored mats on the floor and the DVD tells you which one to step on. The first thing the guy says is to make sure you take your shoes off. Spencer looks down and says, "I have my shoes off already!" Then, without skipping a beat, he heads over to Carmyn who has now taken a seat on the floor, and he starts taking her boots off for her. She saw him turn to her and raised her leg up to him as if they both instantly knew what he was going to do!
On Thursday we went on a pre-school fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch. (I, being the lame mom that I am these days, didn't bring my camera.) Anyway, they had some slides there and after going down the first one, Carmyn did not want to go down the second one. Meanwhile, Spencer has been down several times and then realized that Carmyn isn't joining him. I asked her a couple of times if she wanted to go down the slide and she most definitely did not. Spencer came running over to her, out of breath, and said, "Come on, Carmyn." "No." He put his hands on his hips and told her, "It's really not scary. I already went and it's not scary at all. Come with me, I'll stay with you." And off they went. He grabbed her by the hand, led her up the stairs and then towards the top, let her go in front of him, he put his hand on her back and then ushered her to the top of the slide. My goodness! There's lots of women out there who'd appreciate that sort of treatment and a three year old girl is getting it!
I have tried really hard over the past couple of years to teach him to be a gentlemen, but I was more intending for him to practice on me! He holds doors open for her, carries her backpack into school for her, puts her shoes on, they are either walking hand-in-hand or he puts his hand on her back and leads her along, he always makes sure she is taken care of and he is very protective. They even bicker at each other at times, but rarely do they fight or make each other cry.
It's just so interesting because it comes so natural for him to treat her like a queen. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised...he has a very good example of that at home. His father is also known for treating his girl like a queen. :) I'm so grateful for the good example he shows to our children. I just had no idea his influence would have such an early effect!



I guess all of this doting can really wear a gent out!Opinion poll: I have had an ongoing internal debate about whether or not I should let this sort of behavior occur. Would you even go so far as to consider this a "relationship"? Am I crazy? I just don't want him to get in the habit of being with "a" girl and having a sort of relationship. I know that sounds silly. They are three and four and I know it's all so innocent, but I don't want it to become so natural to him that when he's older it's not so innocent. Although, they, nor I, have ever used the term "boyfriend" or "girlfriend", they can act like it, but I am also very against little kids having "boy/girlfriends", no matter how innocent it may be. I just think it teaches them too young to get into relationships and when they get older, it escalates from there. However, I do like that he is learning how to be a gentlemen, and the two of them are best of friends, they get along great and they are just so dang cute together, but, oh I don't know...I'm rambling...what would you do if you were his mom (or dad)?

Calling All Ideas!

Well, I was officially transferred(?) from the Stake Primary Secretary to the Stake Primary Music/Nursery Leader today. What I am hoping to get from you are all of the wonderful ideas that you or someone in your ward have used during Singing Time. I have to do a Stake Primary Music Workshop, and it is mainly to share new ideas on how to teach and practice primary songs. So, please share all of your wonderful ideas with me!! I know I can count on you guys!

Kidism

I was helping Kamae practice piano and she was getting really frustrated and almost started crying. I told her to stop playing, calm down and explain to me what she's not understanding so I could help her. She put her arm across the piano keys, laid her head down on her arm let out a huge sigh. I asked her again, "Kamae, you have to tell me what you don't get so that I can help you." She lifted up her head and loudly said, "F 'n G!" I just bust up laughing, but of course, I couldn't explain to her why!

First Day of Pre-School....A Month Later

Spencer had his first day of pre-school at Knowledge Adventure on August 26th. I got talking to the owner at a BBQ (she's actually a sister-in-law of a friend of mine) and we ended up trading piano lessons for pre-school! It's perfect! Also, Spencer gets to go with his best friend, Carmyn and it's only about 2 blocks from our house! He absoluetly loves it and his vocabulary and "team work" skills have grown tremendously!

*If you look closely, you can see on the very bottom of his chin where he biffed it! He tripped on a rock and abruptly introduced his chin to the tree trunk!

Robyn and I decided to take these two munchkins out to lunch at Carl's Jr. to make their first day of school even more special. My friend, Krissy, even agreed to hold on to Jack for a little while so that we could make it just about them (thanks, Krissy!) If you haven't seen Spencer and Carmyn together, you should...they are like an old married couple! They just crack us up! I have some more pictures of them together, so I'll elaborate more on it in another post.I was totally teasing Robyn on this morning because she was all emotional about Carmyn going to pre-school. I couldn't even mention anything about it without her getting teary. I was laughing and saying that she'll get over it real fast and that I have been counting down these days. So, I am walking Spencer down the stairs on our way into pre-school and he is holding my hand. I squeezed his hand and then he squeezed mine back. The flood gates immediately opened and there I was with tears streaming down my face. I was trying to hide it because Austin was right behind me and I know he'd think I was ridiculous and I know for sure that Robyn would have had a hay day with that!:) Talk about eating crow! I think I cried a little on Paige's first day of kindergarten, but other than that, it's pretty much been a non-cry fest for me. I was a little caught off guard myself, but when he squeezed my hand it was just like he was saying, "It's okay to let go, mom. It'll be okay." Ahhh...how am I going to handle my kids going off to college? I can't even think about that one...getting teary-eyed just thinkin' about it...

First Day of School...A Month Later!

Sadly, I still haven't found my camera cable, but Austin borrowed a USB adapter from a co-worker that let me plug my camera card straight into my computer. So, I now have some of last month's pictures! Hooray!

The girls started school on August 18th and they go at 8:00 in the morning! If any of you know me very well, you know how much of a stretch that is, but once we got in the habit, it actually hasn't been too bad! In fact, I even find myself waking up at precisely 6:57am...even on the weekends...grrr... Don't fret, though. I am awake long enough to look at the clock and then I'm off to the land of nod again! I know...shocker!









Paige is now in 2nd grade and has a first year teacher, Mrs. Hendershot. She is adorable and I am impressed at her enthusiasm and confidence. We also have a brand new principal who was the director over the student teachers. I was told that he picked the cream of the crop to come and work at his school and so far, I can vouch for that! She's from Benicia, CA (one of our bitter rivals in high school softball), but I didn't hold that against her!:)


Kamae is in 1st grade and fortunately has Mrs. Hacking, who was Paige's kindergarten teacher. She's a veteran teacher (she's technically already retired, took a year off and now is back!). She knows what she's doing and is pretty strict, but loving at the same time. I was a bit frustrated with the lack of progress in kindergarten last year and I am glad that she has Mrs. Hacking to pick up the pieces. I know she'll make great progress this year!

Let the countdown begin....

Big lessons from a little boy

Spencer walks upstairs with a handful of Honeycomb cereal. Jack starts grunting that he wants some so I ask Spencer if he will share.

Spencer: "Sure. Whenever Jack wants some, I will share."
Me: "Spence, that's so nice. Thanks for sharing."
Spencer: "I will always share with my brother and sisters whenever they want something. I want to obey."
Me: "You have been really good about obeying lately. That makes me so happy."
Spencer: "Yeah. I like to obey because I want to see Jesus. Mom, that's how you see Jesus, right?"

My heart just melted. Yes, Spencer, that's exactly right.

Retro Post- Utah Jazz Half-time Performance

Well, since I can't post anything current, I decided to go back through older pictures and see if there was anything I skipped over! Of course, I found some, but I can't believe I didn't post about this fun event!

The girls' dance company was invited to perform at the Utah Jazz game half-time last April! It was such a neat experience and I am so happy my girls got this opportunity. There were lots of extra late-night (well, late for my girls) practices, but all of the hard work was worth it! I took them out of school for the day and we headed up to the Salt Lake Energy Solutions Arena for their afternoon rehearsal. It was awesome because the arena was empty and we pretty much had the place to ourselves!





After the rehearsal, we went and got some lunch and then went to my mom's house to get them ready for showtime! We did hair and make-up and got them all dressed in their costumes!

They were so excited, but once we walked in and they saw how many people were there, the excitement got mixed with nerves! We watched the first quarter of the game from our nosebleed seats and the longer we were there, the more excited they got! After the first quarter we headed down to meet their dance team! They did so great! Unfortunately, not everyone there was interested in the half-time show, including a group of four men with front row seats. They decided to stand up and carry on a conversation, standing the whole time right in front of Paige. I wanted to walk down there and give them all a swift kick to the rear!:) Luckily, my mom got some pictures of her because I couldn't see her at all from where I was video taping!! Grr.... However, the camera man followed Paige on their walk off of the floor and she was on the Jumbo tron alone for about 10 seconds and I was able capture that on tape!:)