Letter Factory

On a trip to see the progress of the construction on Grandma and Grandpa Smiths house we passed the Sugar Beat Factory. On the way by Sarah said, "Look it's the Letter Factory". The Letter Factory by Leap Frog is one of her favorite shows. She continued to call all buildings we passed the Letter Factory. It is amazing how fast she is growing. Every day we are surprised as she points out new letters and numbers. The other day she said, "how do you make an E, so I can write Caden's name". I walked over to see that she had started writing his name in permanent marker on one of his toys.

"I Can't look mom, I'm concentrating"

The kids have been having so much fun playing outside now that the weather is getting a little nicer. Sarah has really sparked an interest in "experiments" and
caden has decided to follow. We grab, water, vinegar, baking powder, lemon juice, and what ever other odds and ends I can find in the house and get to mixin'. Sarah started all of this. If I leave stuff laying out on the counter for too long, i find her standing on a chair at the sink mixing stuff up, left-over dinner, soap, water, and spices. She's a little chef. . . . or scientist, I don't know!!!!
Well, the kids have enjoyed the sunshine, especially Hannah. She's discovered a new world. She loves to play outside. She crawls/walks around in the dirt, picks stuff up, throws it and on occasion, tries to eat it. FUN!!!!!

Caden has found a new love, baseball. Him and Daddy play out there for a long time. "not underhand, in real baseball they throw it over, that is what Daddy does", is what Caden says to me when I try to play with him. He is really good. He can really hit that ball.

Aren't boxes fun!?!

Sarah got quite a workout pushing his hefty little girl around, and Hannah got in some good laughs.

Can't wait to get out there and grow our garden

The kids have been really excited about getting into our next house so that we can get a garden going. We met with the landscaper the other day and he said that he would make us some raised garden beds. We came home and asked the kids to help us plan what goes in them. this is what they came up with. Caden is especially excited and he drew and wrote a lot of the plans on the board.

Hannah's first!!!!!!!!

April 11th

To be continued. . . . .

Horray for sun!!!

On Saturday the sun finally came out after a really long and cold winter. We were all so excited and the kids have really been wanting to go hiking so we took them to Camel's back. What a fun time we had. It was our first time taking Hannah in the stroller and she really liked having Daddy run down the trails with her. Caden and Sarah had a ton of fun collecting rocks and throwing them in the water. Caden slid down a big rock face and hit a bump that took him flying into the sand. It was so funny. Sarah decided to try and slide down the dirt on her bottom, Wasn't steep enough. Now that it is warming up Hannah is having so much fun playing outside. she loves to crawl around in the dirt.

So many things to be thankful for!!!

We have a dry erase board in the dining room and I like to use it with the kids when we do little activities or mini lessons. Usually at luch I will write sentences for Caden to illustrate, letters for Sarah, spanish words, or more recently the food pyramid (we needed a healthy food talk). The other day I asked Caden what we should talk about at lunch and put on the board. He said that he wanted to write down 100 fun things he likes to do. We made the grid and began writing. I told him to think of the things he was most grateful for. Sarah got in on it too. We had so much fun thinking of all the fun and wonderful thing we are surrounded by. It took a good 30-45 min of talking and laughing and walking around the house to get ideas. Caden even wrote many of them on the board himself. We had so much fun. The biggest reward was when we only had a few boxes left to fill, Caden asked me to write on one that he had so much fun writing on the board with Mommy. What a fun afternoon we had.

Sometimes. . . .you just gotta do something CRAZY!!!

WHY!?!?!?. . . . that is what i often hear from Caden when i tell him that he is too big to take baths with mommy. He tells me that he wishes he could be a baby again because he misses all the stuff we used to do together, like take baths. I was trying to get ready to take a bath, the questions kept coming and it was the end of a cold day after a very cold, long winter. I thought, what the heck! The kids needed to get out some energy, and they hadn't gone swimming in a while. Get your swimming suits on kids!!!! Bath, swimming style! Hannah thought this was just the greatest and Caden and Sarah got out there goggles of course. I'm glad I took the time to do something crazy and out of the ordinary, we had a BLAST!!!

"I'm so big"!!!!

We switched Hannah to a forward facing car seat. She seemed so proud of herself and excited!!! It was so cute to look back and see her looking at us. I think that it was so nice for her to have a different view of things.

Proud cousins

On Monday, April 7th, I became an aunt and he kids got there first little baby cousin. Dawn and Daniel had there little girl, Jenna Noel. She is just precious. It is such an awesome feeling to have suddenly gained a new title. Now, among the many things I call myself, I have the privilege to call myself aunt. I have had three kids and I love them dearly and now I see that the heart has room to grow even bigger yet.
My little Caden and Sarah were so happy to see there little cousin. Caden was especially good with her. He is so good at holding the little baby and calming her down. What sweet little kids I have.

She Walks

I made the mistake of filming this on my camara and turning it sideways. Oh well. Hannah started walking a few days before we left on our trip. The cutest part is she nede a cheerleader to get her motivated. Luckily, Caden was more than willing to provide that service. Hannah is just so proud of herself. She gets really excited and seems to hold her breath, clench her little fists, and goes for it. Way cute. I love it!!!

After writing the last post about SanDiego, Scott and I had several other adventures. We tried to go to mexico for a day since we were right there on the border. We heard it would be a worthwhile trip. NOT SO!!! All I can say about that is, won't ever do that and I better get myself a passport. They almost didn't let me back. Thought Scott was trying to smuggle himself a mexican wife across the boarder. My license was proof that I can drive a car, not that i am a citizen. SCARY!!!!! After that, we decided that we were done with the tourist stuff and we stuck to the beach. Although we were kind of chilly, laying on the beach (in our long pants and jackets) talking to Scott, listening to the ocean, and relaxing, were some of the most amazing times. we took a day trip to Torrey Pines Reserve. AMAZING!!!! Words and pictures can not describe the beauty. There are miles of trails to hike through and all the while, you are surrounded by fields of flowers, the ocean on one side and the beautiful city scape on the other. It was breath taking. Scott and I are already planning the next trip, with the kids, they'd love the hike.

Not so sunny SanDiego, minus three.

Scott and I finally decided to venture out. We left the nest and left the little birdies at home with Grandma and Grandpa, and 36 week pregnant aunt Dawn. We debated where we should go. Scott, wanted to go somewhere simple just to get away, like Seattle or Portland. Then of course, the thought of a vacation got me crazy in the head and I started thinking extravagant!!! I really wanted to go somewhere warm and without having passports, Hawaii seemed the obvious choice. my overly practical husband did not want to "waste" a day in flying and layovers so with the help of the friendly people over at expedia we chose to visit San Diego. Brrrrrrr. . . .luckily, they've got plenty of huge malls here because wecould see that our luggae filled with shorts and t-shirts wasn't going to cut it. they say that it is 10 degrees cooler here than normal. Despite the chill, it's been fun to see how life is lived in neighboring states. (I think I like the slower pace of what is known here to the locals as the "potato state".) What made the trip all worthwhile are the dolphins and whales we saw off the pier. beautiful!!!!!!!!