Grandpa's 89th Birthday

Ezra's Shenanigans

This is every little boy's dream. Sneaking into big brother's treasures while he's away at school.

 I want to capture his littleness forever. I love his love of Wassi and his need to ALWAYS have him. And the way he just curls into a ball to sleep.

 Monkey see, monkey do. And the other day when Ezra said "butt crack" Daddy gave a look at the kids wondering who taught him that and Cora promptly replied, "Monkey hear, monkey repeat!"

  Our lunch play date at the mall

 Always lining stuff up

 Lately, Ezra is either naked with snow boots or wearing the Elsa dress. There is no in between.

 Look at this skinny little guy!

 The best of friends. They melt my heart.

Random Photos

Waiting in the car for Cora's bus.

Cora had a 2 hour ophthalmologist appointment and rocked it. We celebrated with by sharing a huge donut.

 She cracks me up, haha!

 We love when Daddy is home!

I planned this date night - we went shooting because we have two guns and I don't even know how to use them. So I learned how to use both the pistol and revolver and we got some target practice in. Lance has better aim with the pistol and I have pretty darn good aim with the revolver. It was so much fun, we'll definitely do that again! Although I would like to go target shooting outside somewhere.

 I love this sweet baby!

 Kimball's latest obsession is experimenting.

 Kimball's love monster cupcake he decorated at a primary activity.

This is the bouquet of beef jerky that I got Lance for Valentine's Day and a note that read, "Nothing says I love you like stinky breath."

Lettering Samples

Kimball has been writing various notes and posters and placing them all over the house. This one says, "I love you, good night. Always believe there is good in life too. Life isn't always fair but I now you already now that. Not very many people now that, because I trust you. Good night!"

 "Be... strong, careful, confident, kind truthful, and have courage! Because I am a child of God."

 This was the very first sentence of Cora's that I could make out. It says, "I love mom."

January Acitivities

Here are a few of our January activities: 

Engineering names and structures with gum drops

 

 These are the two new pets that the kids got for Christmas, Gus and Fred.

At school Kimball learned about land formations and built this landscape from play dough. There are plateaus, mountains, meadows, rivers, lava, volcanoes, and rocks.

January gave us quite a bit of snow, 10" in one week. The kids loved building snowmen, recess time became that much more exciting, and we did lots of sledding. I love that Cora gave her snowman hair and is holding it's hand. :)

 Our street, a beautiful winter wonderland.

 Sledding for FHE in the dark = best family activity EVER!!!

Our Life Lately

Cora has been doing really great in Kindergarten. After the first few months her teacher had been noticing several things that were just off when compared to other students. So we decided to do another evaluation and she qualified for special education services in 5 different areas: speech, OT, adapting skills, cognitive skills, and I can't remember the last one. Our first IEP meeting went great, I think all of her new teachers and therapists will be really great for her. She still gets to stay in the same classroom with the same teacher, but will be pulled out of class here and there for therapy. She's really loving it and doing well. Because she has an IEP, she now qualifies to take the special education bus. She was a little bit scared but did really well and after taking that bus for two weeks, she decided she wanted to start riding with Kimball. And ever since then, about 2-3 weeks ago, she's been riding the regular bus with Kimball. She keeps meeting and squashing her goals and continues to grow in all aspects. We are so pleased with her progress and her team of teachers/therapists at school.

Kimball is doing well in 2nd grade, despite his class being a little disruptive at times (he HATES that no recess or less lunch time is a punishment, and I don't blame him one bit). He wants to start playing baseball this spring and with our mild winter weather, has been outside batting and playing catch a few times. He still loves to read and tease. He loves learning new things, lately it has been wanting to learn cursive and more science based topics. He's had his little chemist set out the last several days experimenting away. This January he started attending the primary boys activities and he REALLY loves that! We've been working with him on memorizing the articles of faith and he's got the first two down so far.

Ezra is just a little shadow of the older two kids, mimicking exactly what they say and do. I don't want to forget, for the last several months he's always called Kimball "Booey." It's the sweetest thing ever and he still calls Cora "Sissy." But his speech is coming along nicely and now it's just "Timball." Ezra is still a horrible swallower and after a consult this last week, he's now scheduled to have his tonsils and adnoids removed next month. He LOOOOOVES it when the kids get home from school so he'll have someone to play with. His favorite thing to play with is his cars and whatever Cora is doing. He's definitely got a sweet tooth! And for some weird reason he has separation anxiety whenever I leave the room, especially if the kids are at school. He has to be in the same room as me at all times. Even if I'm just going to the bathroom or switching laundry real quick, it doesn't matter, he HAS to follow me or he cries. He must like his Mama. :)

I'm getting very antsy for spring and to start working outside again in the yard. Lance's removal business is going well and every month we seem to keep hitting a record number of calls. I think the local call volume is the same, he gets more and more out of town calls all the time.