Brooke is a Beauty!

Sleeping Beauty!

I know I have shared what a well behaved baby that we have, but she even puts herself to sleep. Over the last few weeks, I have found her asleep in a corner of the family room, on the couch, in my closet under the clothes and behind the shoes (She loves shoes.), and our favorite- in the tunnel of the play structure. Notice the boys are in the background watching her sleep.

Funny girl!

Primary Program

Here we are about to embark for church and this year's Primary program.

It was fantastic! Kim did so well teaching the kids the songs and even getting them to learn sign language signs for one of the songs. The whole audience was still, watching the children sign "I know He lives." Of course there was the kid who talks too loudly in the microphone, the kid who never sings - just waves to his family, the kid who is more interested in what his neighbor is doing than actually participating, but it was what we come to see each year. I remember that Kim and my first Sunday in our new ward after being married it was Primary program Sunday. I remember attending church that week for the first time as husband and wife and looking forward to seeing our own children someday participate in a program. As Kim and I celebrated our 12th anniversary this weekend, it was a special feeling to sit with my two little ones and watch my wife and four older children perform. I love them all so much and Primary program Sunday is a great showcase of it all.

Since it was a special day, we got all jazzy and snapped some photos to boot. Here you go:

Phonemic Awareness at 18 mos.-Amazing!

Brooke making the "O" sound with hand motions

Um, ya. I have been teaching phonemic awareness for about 15 years, and although I knew it was extremely important, I never witnessed first hand with my kids soooo young, that they are able to actually do what we are asking them to do. I have been using Robert Barrata-Lorton's dekodiphucan (not sure how to spell it anymore)for nearly all 15 of these years. I have thrown in a little Jim Stone and various other programs as well, but the principles of sound blending, isolating, etc. came from Barrata-Lorton's research. OK so enough teacher mumbo jumbo...

I taught preschool about a month ago and Brooke sat in during our circle time. I thought she was simply watching the kids but not processing anything that was taking place. The class then reviewed the sounds a few times over the course of the next few sessions, but literally no drill and kill at all. I have not touched the cards in four weeks!

We were reading scriptures a few nights ago and the kids wanted me to have Brooke repeat the words too like Cooper does. I humored them and had her repeat word by word. As she was saying the words, she literally began to do the motions that I superimposed on the sounds. There was NO visual cue at all nor any prodding from me. When I had her repeat the word no, she literally started turning her index finger in effort to mimic the sound "n" (like the propeller of a plane)and then proceeded to raise her hands next to her face and say "o." I about fell off the couch.

I then just did the motions with again NO visual and NO auditory. She then replicated 8 sounds with no help from us. I taught the kids 14. The boys and I were flabbergasted! I have never witnessed an 18 month old with virtually only casual exposure attach meaning and purpose to the sounds! I can't wait for next week when we learn sound blending. I am making her take a turn as well! Simply AMAZING!


Brooke making the "E" sound with hand motions

Bookends

The beginning and the end. These two have so much fun with each other, and Aiden is so good at caring for his little sister. She's lucky to have him, and we're all lucky to have the both of them. The other day, I looked out the kitchen window to see this. Just the two of them enjoying some time on the swings. While I look forward to the fun times ahead, I will definitely miss these moments.

Baseball

Kim and I split up this Saturday. Split up the baseball game duties that is. Last week, we just plain overheated Aiden before his game even started, so this time I stayed home with him while Kim took Gager to his game. It also meant that we got no pictures of Gage. We know who really handles the camera department, don't we?


Aiden at third, ready to head for home!


On deck. The pitcher walked him, so he has yet to get that elusive first hit in this, his first season of baseball.



Aiden's the catcher. Sometimes he plays a little far back; he says he's afraid to get hit by the bat. Thankfully he didn't have to catch the entire game this time. He got to play first base too, which he enjoyed.

Hijole! Que Salsa!

When I found out that I could get 20 lbs. of tomatoes for $10, I thought to my self, "I should get like 40 lbs. of tomatoes and make like a ton of salsa! Ya, and I'll use child labor, er, I'll get my kids to help and it'll be one of those bonding experiences!"

Here's part of the 30 pints we did. While not a ton, it was tough enough.

Here's the family part. I had the kids separate the cilantro from the stems. See how much fun Jace is having!

OK, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

Woo wee mama! I was roasting, blending, canning for what seemed like forever, but now we have a pretty good supply of salsa. Maybe it will get Kim through the next two months - she does like the spicy stuff.

Little Trip to RC Willey

Photos courtesy of Aiden


The new table, which is in fact two identical tables.


Grey enjoying the latest costume catalog upon the new sectional.



Brooke enjoying the same catalog once Grey was finished.




One not so massive plant that looks like it is overtaking the family room, but in fact shows you how ginormous this sectional actually is.

We made a little trip to the RC Willey clearance center on Friday (dangerous, always) and we left with two tables and an enormous sectional, just in time for conference! The boys seem to think that they could fit themselves and all the cousins on this thing (I beg to differ) but the thing is quite large. Thanks to the ever helpful brother-in-law, Derek, two pick up trucks and ratchet ties, we got all that stuff home. Now, we just have to figure out what to do with the old couch. Maybe Buddy wants another one (we've had the same couch for about 10 years now.)

Autumn Rain

Not quite November Rain, sorry Axl, but we'll take it. I'm sure you can't tell from these pictures, but we loved having a little bit of the wet stuff come our way. On Sunday, it was crazy that it dumped on us for five minutes and then it was dry and the sun was out. We'll take it for as long as it lasts.


Cooper and his broken Disney umbrella. You can see he didn't really use it much.


Jace just a wee bit wet.


Aiden drenched.


Brooke before it started coming down.