Charlie's Preschool Graduation

Charlie graduated from preschool last month. He has been with Miss Krysten for two years now. He has loved being in school and socializing with friends. I asked him what his favorite parts of preschool were and he came up with three favorites: Dodgeball, Flubber Friday's and his best friend Jackson. I have loved his teacher. She is patient, loving, and activitly involved in their education. Charlie has learned how to do simple addition and subtraction, read and write. I have loved seeing him learn and grow. He just eats up everything you teach him. I can't believe he will be starting kindergarten in August. I am going to miss him.

Charlie and a self portrait of himself

Mr.Andy, Charlie and Miss Krysten

Miss Krysten made a candy train and gave them a book about the journey ahead of them

Charlie and Audrey watching a slide show of themselves. His teacher sent us home with a copy. It's the cutest slide show with video of them talking about what they want to be when they are older and their favorite experiences.

Claire

Claire is 2 and is definitely acting her age. She is busy by my side all day long helping me take care of the baby (she calls Witty), cook, clean, do laundry, go to the bathroom you name it. She is determined to potty train herself. She is constantly taking her diaper off and saying she has to go potty. We were at the science center and they had a display of how bathrooms work. I look over and Claire has stripped naked and was sitting on the model of a toilet! She likes to be included in everything and if the boys don't include her she will whack them with something followed up with a quick "sorry" so she doesn't get in trouble.
Even though she gets in trouble and drives us crazy we absolutely adore her. She has the most beautiful little curls and the sweetest little voice. She loves to read her stories with me at nap time and bedtime. She has three favorite books that she has memorized and does little actions to. She loves her little nightgowns and likes to twirl and dance in them. She loves to get ready with me in the morning and put lip gloss on her cheeks. She loves to dress up and wear everyone's shoes. She is always eating and is constantly getting in the pantry and fridge and saying "I'm hungy now." We love you Claire.

She's Here

Olivia Sue was born on Sat. Jan 23 at 4:12 pm. She weighed 8lbs 7oz and has a head full of beautiful dark hair! She is the sweetest baby. She never startles and rarely cries. I wish she was sleeping better but hopefully in the next week things will get better. Charlie adores her, Jack will give her a kiss on the head and run off to play video games, and Claire thinks she is a baby doll and tries to mother her. The biggest challenge is keeping Claire from picking Olivia up. I had put Olivia in her bouncer and walked into the kitchen. When I turned around I saw Claire holding Olivia in her arms. Jon's parents are were here for the first week which was a great help. Jon's mom laid Olivia on a blanket on the couch. Olivia was sound asleep. Jon's dad was sitting across the room in a chair and I was in the kitchen helping Jon's mom with dinner. I looked over to see how Olivia was and I noticed that Jon's dad was holding her. Then he told me Claire had carried Olivia across the room and handed him Olivia! I am going to have to keep Olivia attached to me or locked in a room to keep her safe from Claire. Both Jon and I are enjoying all the snuggles of having a newborn sleep on your chest and make all their sweet little noises. We couldn't imagine life without this sweet little one.

Zoo Lights

A tradition we started last year was taking the kids to see Zoo Lights. The Phoenix Zoo has 2.5 million lights on display. The kids loved it. On the bridge they have a display set to music and the kids loved dancing to the music and watching the light show. We always start the evening out with dinner at In-N-Out Burger. I would have gotten a picture but the boys were crazy running around outside. Claire of course was a gem and sat and ate all her food. Love that little girl. Hopefully this baby girl will be just as sweet.

Happy Halloween

It been awhile. It's amazing how 3 kids and being pregnant consumes you! We had a great Halloween. We started it out with a church playgroup party at my house, then we had a mom club Halloween party, Hall of Flame fire museum party, trick or treating at the nursing home, then Charlie's school Halloween party and finally Halloween day we got to go trick or treating. I was pretty tired of dressing the kids up. Charlie was a SWAT guy, Jack was Fireman Sam, and Claire was Minnie Mouse. On Halloween day Charlie decided to be a Ninja turtle and Jack wanted to be Spiderman. Claire loved getting candy and would not let go of her bucket. The bucket even left litttle red indents in her arm.

Swim lessons

I put the boys in swimming lessons this summer. There is a mom in our ward who teaches lessons out of her pool and she is amazing! Charlie and Jack completed 4 weeks of lessons and Charlie is now swimming all by himself. Charlie could be in the pool all day. He loves to jump and get dive rings off the bottom of the pool. Jack hates the water and cried for the first week but Erin got him to go under water, jump in the pool, float on his back and swim a short distance. When we go swimming I can't get Jack to do all the things Erin taught him. Jack still prefers to play on the step but he will swim in deep water now with a floaties on.

Jack swimming

Circus

We went to the circus on Friday. Before the show started we were able to go and meet all the clowns, acrobats, and get up close to the animals. The boys loved it. Their favorite part was the clowns. They were laughing so hard. It was just Charlie's humor watching the clowns kick each other in the bottom and drop things on each others head (Don't worry I told him not to try this at home). Charlie even got to try on some of the costumes. I couldn't believe how heavy the costumes were. Jon works downtown so he was able to walk over and watch some of the show with us. The actual Circus was really loud and the boys weren't as into it. They were more excited about the snow cones and cotton candy. I don't blame them. It was a lot of fun. I got a babysitter for Claire since it was so close to nap time. The boys loved having mom and dad all to themselves. The especially loved going to Dad's office afterward. The secretaries give them tons of candy and just fuss over them. It was a great day! Charlie trying on costumes Jon and the boys Charlie and Jack cracking up at the clowns Acrobats Clowns

Happy Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day. Charlie was so excited to give Jon a tie he had made. Jack got mad a tore up the tie he made but he picked out a some sour patch kids to give Jon instead. Claire has just started saying "Da" which just warms Jon's heart.

Jack was my little helper making apple pancakes with apple syrup for Dad's special breakfast


For dinner we had Luke and Lauren over and we grilled Salmon with brown sugar, lemon and onions and homemade potatoes and other yummy stuff Jon requested.


Jon we love you and think you are the best dad ever!!! Like Charlie always says "I just luv ya." Jack loved telling you Happy Father's Day all day.

wildlife Zoo

We went to the wildlife zoo with Charlie's preschool class. I have been wanting to go because you get to do so many hands on activities with the animals. They also have an aquarium with hands on exhibits like stingrays and sharks and some different types of coral and starfish.

Here is Jon, and the kids feeding the giraffes. Giraffes have 18" long tongues that work like hands. It was cool but theirs tongues are a little slimey.

Family picture in front of the Giraffe. Claire has become miss independant and wants to do everything herself and walk everywhere so she is not to happy to be held in this picture

This black panther exhibit had a cage above our heads and when we looked up the black panther had jumped at Jon. It was actually scary to have the animal up so close. The kids loved it!

Charlie was scared to feed the parrots at first but he overcame his fear! I was so proud of him. Jack was fearless and loved feeding the birds. Poor Claire tried grabbing one of the birds heads and got bit.

Jack feeding the birds

We took a break and played on the playground while we took kids to the bathroom. I thought Charlie looked so cute relaxing on the bridge.

Of course my little fireman Jack had to go down the firepole. I just love that kid!

Claire was thrilled to find a baby goat.

The boys touching the starfish and other aquirium life. This was a very fun trip and the kids had so much fun.

Jack's 3

Happy birthday Jack! I have taken forever to do this posting but life has been nuts with all the family visiting. I can't believe are little Jack is 3. Of course he wanted a fireman party complete with a firetruck cake. The party was great and the best part was that Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jeff where there. Jack got a fireman water gun backpack. I bought two so he and Charlie could have a squirt gun fights. They loved chasing grandma all over the yard squirting her as she screamed. They had the best time. So did my mom. Jack got a little bounce house and a bell and horn for his bike. He was so excited about the horn on his bike. I am sure our neighbors aren't as thrilled.

Things we love about our Jack.

1. He is one of a kind
2. Nobody giggles as loud or as long as Jack
3. He loves firemen and pretends to put out fires and shouts "Bow-Bam"
4. He has so much energy and if you try to chase him he will fall down with laughter before you even get him

5. He loves Charlie and always tells everybody in proud tone that he's Charlie's little brother

6. He is pure muscle and is so easy to toss
7. He loves his blankets which he calls His Blue and His Other One and then he will lay down with his Lighting Mcqueen cup and drink his milk
8. He loves to eat and will always come up to you and ask if he can have a bite. If he likes it he will tell us that it's yummy for him

9. He is always on his little spiderman scooter of his little trike.
10. He loves to put things in his pockets. Large items like a size D battery
11. He loves bells or horns or anything that makes noise
12. He adores his daddy doe and loves his momma

Jack we love you tons and are glad you are part of our family!!!!!

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Green Onion Eaters

We were out in the backyard playing tonight when Charlie stated, "I'm a carnivore." We talked about that briefly and then discussed that we are really omnivores because we also eat plants. Charlie thought that was interesting so he started walking around the yard, picking leaves off of the plants and eating them. "Look, I'm eating plants." Of course, Jack followed his lead.

Jon wasn't sure that was such a good idea, so he went inside to get some lettuce to feed to the boys as a safe leaf. He came out with two green onion stalks. Apparently we were out of lettuce.

"Look boys, these are green onions. They are safe plants to eat. Try it -- it's a little bit spicy."

So the boys both ate a stalk of green onion. And they went to bed smelling spicy.

3 stitches

Thursday after preschool I went to pick up a little pink table I got for Claire. While we were there Charlie found an awesome teenage mutant ninja turtle car for a $1 which he immediately began driving around the driveway. I was talking to the lady when Charlie runs up to me crying. I bend down to see what the fuss was about when I felt something wet on my leg. I looked down and I have a bunch of drips of blood on my leg. I look again at Charlie and notice his chin is bleeding. I looked closer and it was a huge gash. I immediately added pressure and the lady got me a wash cloth to hold over the wound. After a couple of minutes it stopped bleeding and I put gauze and band aid on it. Charlie was very upset. He was also tired and hungry so were Jack and Claire. I called our pediatrician and she said he would need stitches since it was on his chin. I decided to go home and feed the kids and put Jack and Claire to bed. When Jon got home I took Charlie to Urgent Care. They have a place here call Good Night Pediatrics so Charlie had a great pediatrician who put 3 stitches in his chin. Of course he had to bring his new ninja turtle truck with him. He drove it all the way into the clinic and then proceeded to tell the receptionist all about it. When the nurse came Charlie had her laughing as he was talking all about his toy. What a funny guy. He's hurt but so excited about his new toy. While we waited for the doctor Charlie had me playing battle with the turtles. Charlie was so brave. He only cried a little when they numbed him up. I would have too it looked so painful. I couldn't believe how still he sat as they were doing the stitches. What a brave little boy!
The wound. Which Charlie says happened by falling on the driveway. I didn't know that could happen from falling down.

The stitches

My brave little guy