After School Talks

One of my favorite times of the day is when the kids first get home from school. I thought I would write down some typical conversations I have had with each of my children when they get home from school.

Rachel-She walks in the door and throws off her backpack. Then she either goes to the kitchen for something to eat or gets on the floor with her feet up in the air. I don’t know if it helps her get more blood flowing to her head or what but she loves this position for talking. “How was school today?” I ask. “It was the greatest!” or “Today was the worst day of my life!” And then she tells my all about it. The day Mom and Gwen were here to do Salsa, I didn’t have much time to listen to her after school, but I did hear her say that there was a new boy in school. Later that night when things had calmed down Rachel said, “So, you know how there is this new boy in my class.” “Yes, tell me about him.” “Well, he’s kind of cute and he lives in Clarkston next door to Miss Peterson and…on and on and on.”

Kyle-He walks in the door and throws off his backpack and heads downstairs to get his chore clothes on. When he comes back up I ask, “How was school today?” “Fine,” He says. “What did you have for lunch?” I ask. “We had this really good mashed potatoes and gravy and a brownie and meat and I ate it all gone because it was so good.” As he is telling me this he is walking out the door to feed calves.

Kaitlyn- She gets home at lunchtime. So, while she eats her corn dog we talk. “How was school today?” I ask. It was very good. I played horses with Katie Jo and some other people and we had a cookie, two crackers, and milk for snack and on the bus me and Teagan kind of broke up.” “And it was still a good day?” “Well I was sitting by Cassidy and Teagan drew a picture of me and Cassidy and X’s on Cassidy, then when Cassidy got off the bus me and Teagan had a talk.” “So how do you think Cassidy feels?” “Good, cause Tegan gave her a hug when she was getting off the bus.”

Another day Kaitlyn had a headache and she was just sure it was from the time the gate fell on her. (This happened about a year ago.) She said she told Teagan, Cassidy, Jared and Bryce the whole story about the gate falling on her while they were on the bus.

Camoflouge

Kaityln asked me if I knew what camouflage means. Then she told me exactly what it meant. She was very proud of herself. The next day she brought home this picture of flowers with a buterfly that was camouflaged. I love Kindergarten!

Kyle went to the BYU/Utah State Game

Kyle got to go to Provo with Anthony, Courtney, and Rob to watch the BYU/USU game yesterday. He had a great time. He saw Joelle and Grandma and Grandpa and said they had really good seats. He also saw my Uncle Neil and said he was really lucky 'cause he got to sit up in a room to watch the game. When Garrick asked him who he cheered for, he said Utah State. But then Garrick saw the BYU shirt Grandpa had bought him. Kyle just told him that they weren't selling any Utah State shirts at that store!

Kaitlyn's Out of Speech!!

I got a phone call on Friday from the speech teacher at Lewiston Elementary. She said, "I have tested Kaitlyn twice now, and she seems to be able to say everything. Would you be disapointed if she doesn't need to come to speech anymore?" I was very happy. I thought Kaitlyn might be disapointed, but instead she was very proud of herself. It really is amazing that less than six months ago she couldn't even say the "K", "G", and "F" sound, and now she has mastered those sounds in words and sentences. I think learning to read and seperate the sounds out really helped her hear the sounds, and it gave her a lot of practice saying some of those sounds that are difficult for her.

Trevor is Growing!!

I took Trevor to his 2 month check up this week. He weighed 12 lbs 14 ozs. and was 23.5 inches long. He is in the 75th percentile for both his weight and height. That is up from the 25th percentile for weight and height at his 2 week check. The sad thing is he has an ear infection. He has had a little cold, and been alittle fussy-but not up in the night screaming like my other kids were when they had an ear infection. So I guesss it might be hard to tell with him if he does have an infection. Hopefully this is his first and last.

He is getting to be so fun. He will smile and coo, and the kids all work really hard to get a smile out of him. He only does it when he wants to. Like when we got the camera out today he didn't want to smile.

Then we got the camera out again, and he was full of smiles!!

Rachel bore her testimony.

Rachel bore her testimony in Fast and Testimony Meeting yesterday. She was so scared,but she did a great job. She said she felt really good and peaceful when she got done. Kaitlyn thought she wanted to bare her testimony too. But when she got up there and saw all the people she was too scared. I bore my testimony for the first time in this ward (we've lived here almost a year). I was thinking about how much I loved to hear my mom and dad's testimonies when I was a little girl, so I was glad Kaitlyn "tricked" me into getting up there.

Rachel had an activity day on Thursday. Parents were invited, each girl had to tell a story about one of her ancestors. Rachel told about Grandpa Garrick. SHe was one of the only girls that got up ther without her mom or dad and just told the story from memory. I was so proud. But this experience also remindid me that RAchel is not normal. MOst kids do get scared when they have to speak in front of people. I sometimes get frustrated with Kaitlyn and Kyle becasue they can tell their talk to us at home perfectly over and over, but when we get to church and stand in front of the primary, they suddenly forget the whole thing. THat has never happened to Rachel, she does best when she has a big audience.

Freezer Corn

It wasn't as hard as I was expecting. Today I did about 60 cups of freezer corn. Most of the corn was from our own garden. I didn't want to do it, but I was feeling some pressure from some neighbors who don't even know it is possible for someone not to even know how to do freezer corn. Don't worry, I didn't tell them. I just called my friend Wyndee to find out how to do it. My kids picked the corn and shucked it. I cut it off the cob, cooked it, put it in bags, cooled it down, and stuck it in the freezer. If I wouldn't have had to stop several times to feed and hold TRevor, I think we could have done it in a couple of hours. SO I think that is something I could handle doing each year. I don't think I can do Salsa by myself though. Katie did it, and Garrick thinks I should be able to, but I don't want to try. NOt this year at least. I hope I can come to Declo and do it, that would be much more fun.

Kid Rodeo

Last night we had a little Rodeo with a bunch of our friends. We cooked hotdogs and hamburgers for the dinner. We brought some calves, the Whittiers brought their sheep, and the Smiths and the Wards brought horses and ponies. I was really impressed with Kyle's sheep ride. I did give him a few tips before he rode (for those of you that don't know, I was a pretty good sheep rider many years ago). Anyway, if we had been giving out prizes Kyle would have won 1st place hands down. We tryed to get a picture, but it didn't turn out. THere is a picture of him just after he finally fell off. Anyway he rode way out past the middle of the arena, and in the end he was just holding on around it's neck. The sheep did step on his hand, and he had no desire to ride again, but it was an awsome ride!

Anyway, it was fun for the girls to ride the ponies, and it really makes me want to get a horse the kids can ride. There is this little pony of our neighbor's, but it likes to buck. If we ride it enough it might get tired of bucking- I guess we'll see.

Kaitlyn started Kindergarten

Kaitlyn started kindergarten on Thursday. She didn't want me to take her to school- she wanted to ride the bus with Rachel and Kyle. Rachel took her to her class, and she was just fine. She doesn't need me anymore. I guess that's good. Before school started, when people asked Kaitlyn if she was excited for school she would just say, "I don't know yet, I haven't ever been." After we went to her kindergarten screening and she spent some time with her teacher, she said, "I think I might like school." Now that she has been two times she says, "I wish I could go every single day to school!" So lets hope it lasts.

She also told me that some of the other kids in her reading group said, "I kinda know how to read." And she said, "I totally know how to read!" SO I guess it's good she's confident. (She really does know how to read pretty good if I do say so myself!)