Catching Up - January 27th - Feb 7th, 2014

If I had unlimited time, I'd like to make this blog nicer.  But time is limited right now.  Camden is napping and the boys are playing Wii with Landon - so I'll see what I can bust out quickly.

Tracy Sutak hosted a bunco night.  It was so fun! I've played once before but had forgotten how to play.  I loved meeting the new people in the ward and a neighbor (not from church) just a few houses down on our street.  On the bottom row from left to right: Lynn Chang, ?? French lady, Dayane Kendrick, Tracy Sutak, Melissa (neighbor), Bridget Raymond, Katie Nikolaus.  Then moving to the top row left to right: Me, Lyndsi Reid, Jennifer Hull, Alissa Gardner, Ashley Rutledge, Resa, Ann Hatch, Laura Brown, Sarah, and Brenda Ginos. I don't know some last names.

 

 We had Max Allen over and they decorated paint brush cookies.  It was amazing how they turned from crazy to calm and focused.  I didn't want the colors to stain, so they ended up in just underwear.

 

For some reason, I'm having a hard time enlarging these photos.... I'll work on that later...

 

 

I've been stressed about homeschool.  I think the main problem is my lack of sleep.  I'm up 2-3 times a night with Camden.  When Landon and I sat down, we talked about what we wanted to do.  It always relieves stress to make a plan and take some action.
Below we're doing science about plants.  They are looking at seeds and gluing them to a paper.  When I had that actual vegetable in the fridge, I'd pull it out to show them.  For example, we took seeds out of the tomato packet.  Then, from the fridge I pulled a real tomato and showed them the seeds inside.  I also read a few 'Let's Read and Find Out' (science) books over the week on that subject.  They're really good books.  I ended up buying a bulk lot off ebay.  We also planted some seeds and see what happened if you did or didn't have light, air, or water. We grew the seeds in a CD case (saw that online) with wet cotton balls inside so we could watch the roots and stem grow.  The kids loved it.  I drew a picture of the different parts of a plant and what they're named and the kids colored them. We watered our plants and took a cutting from a plant to watch the roots grow. We looked through a seed catalog.  Ok - I did too many plant activities but I love this subject!

This was funny from music time.  Tyler has instruments (maracas?) in his pants.

 

We enrolled Britton in a 5 week tennis session.  He's pretty good and ready to go to the next level already.  Makes sense. It's a 4-6 year old class and he's on the older side.  The classes are held at the Rochester Tennis Connection.  Ty loved the gumball machine they had there!

Cam's bottom teeth continue to grow.  I showed the boys the video of 'Charlie bit me!' I love that little boy's face! And Camden finally got the hang of bouncing in the doorway jumper.

 

Cam's been turning himself over in the middle of the night and breaking out of his swaddle.  He would get his feet caught between the bars.  It took about two weeks to transition him out of being swaddled and him becoming ok with sleeping on his tummy.  Now he just instantly turns onto his tummy.  I remember the other boys doing the same thing.  It's always hard (less sleep for me and baby) when they're transitioning like this.

 

Ty had his first dentist appointment.  The boys love Dr. Mensing's office because they get so many goodies/ a prize.  Tyler, as expected, was cheerful and helpful and had a good time.

 

I want to remember to do more sensory activities with the boys. They become so focused and enjoy them so much.  Here they are playing with snow.  At first I had scooped the snow and brought it inside.  But then they wanted to scoop their own.  Of course!

I took that strengths finder test that Bob is doing coaching for.  I was a little surprised at my results, but it makes sense. 
And bottom: this just has to be a classic picture when you have kids at home.  I feel like the toothpaste just wants to mock me - especially after I just cleaned the sink.

 

Continuing to be overwhelmed at home, I began looking into preschool options.  I thought I'd probably see about having Britton and Ty do something 2-3 times a week so I could get a break.  I am so tired.  Landon is gone by 6 -7am and not home until 5:30-6:30 pm and I can't seem to catch a break during the day.  I scheduled and then toured: Kingdom Kids, Bethany Preschool, Aldrich, and the local elementary school, Gibbs. Below is a picture of me sitting in on a class at Kingdom Kids. 

I had never previously listened when people discussed preschools because I wasn't planning on using them.  Even public school.  But it was good to talk to people and tour and look into options. To make a loooong story short (after emailing Tasha, talking to Tricia Christensen, looking at nanny options, weighing the pros and cons, praying, talking about it with Landon, etc.) we decided to enroll Britton into Kindergarten.  I kept going with the thought of, "Let's just TRY it." It isn't that much of a commitment.  It's only afternoon kindergarten with 3-4 months to go.  It's better than what he'd be doing during that time anyways (which is 60 minutes quiet time and iPad after that).  Britton wanted to try it, too.  He was getting excited and kept asking me if I had 'called kindergarten yet'. 



On Thursday, we met Landon at McDonalds for lunch.  My goal is to meet him (at his work or out) once a month to have lunch with him and the kids during the work week.  Anyways, I went to the Edison building to register Brit.  It felt surreal.  I had never imagined or really planned on enrolling him into public school.  But when I had conversations with myself about why not to enroll him, I couldn't think of many good reasons and kept going back to, "We're just trying it. We can always change if we don't like it."  I don't like making decisions where I don't feel there is a clear answer or a right way.  But Landon kept assuring me there's no right or wrong way.  And the kids who do well are the ones with involved parents. 

 

Also in those two weeks, I had Stephanie Savage over.  I read most of the book called French Kids Eat Everything (while nursing).  And Britton said something funny: when changing Camden's diaper, Britton remarked, "Camden's got a lot of cracks!"