Friday, April 22, 2022

February Moments

Moments in February.

Isak surprised me by reading Harry Potter by himself.  He was committed and finished the first book in 7-10 days (I can't remember exactly how long it took him to finish).  Then we watched the first movie together.  It was so cute to hear him frequently say, "In the book it was like this..."  or "I remember this part from the book."  He comprehended the story pretty well.  
My sweet mom has been so sick the past few months.  She has been so sick that she hasn't been able to do her favorite hobby of making cards.  I was so happy to receive a card from her in February.  When I thanked her for the card, she let me know that it took her four weeks to make.  She would do a little at a time until it was finally finished.  Not only is the card beautiful, but it's also inspiring to me, just like my mom--she's beautiful and inspiring.
5 year olds being creative.  They taped four pieces of paper together and then drew big monkeys on them and colored them with practically every color of marker that we have!
Check up eye appointment for Noah.  He has done such a great job wearing his glasses this last year.  He did well for his appointment too.  He still needs glasses.
We ended up just getting him the same ones because he looks so cute with blue glasses.  Although, there was a green color that we might get next time.
Isak drew a great picture of his elephant, Sam.
Sometimes Nels doesn't make it home in time for dinner.  I decided to train the kids to help me with everything that Nels usually jumps in does when he is home.  Sofie washed some dishes, Kira loaded the dishwasher, Noah swept, Isak picked up toys around the apartment.  They actually did pretty well and with happy attitudes.  
We took the family to a restaurant called Cook Out.  Hot dogs, grilled cheese, burgers, fries and shakes.  Something for everyone.  :)
Just snuggling the kids after school.  They need lots of love when they get home.
Isak started and finished the second Harry Potter book!  So I got to watch the second movie with him.  I love our Harry Potter time together.  
Isak also finished this 500 piece Star Wars puzzle by himself. 
Here's my Sofie.  She is seriously so cute!  She chose her outfit and it just made me smile so I asked if I could take her picture to remember how cute she is at age 5.  Rainbows and unicorns and missing her two front teeth.  
Even Unicorn shoes!

Isak loves to build and he doesn't want any help...guess what all of these pieces will end up being??  I think he finished in March...so you'll have to wait and see.  Heehee.
Home from church...Cuties...with Pandas.
I love how Sofie loves...she's not afraid to put her arms around her brother and sister.  She keeps us together.  

Noah has been working so hard on learning to read, spell and continuing to improve his speech too.  He was determined to make a sentence out of some letters he found.  When he realized he didn't have all of the letters he needed he asked me to print some...He spelled "Cars in here."  Then he put a car in the fridge so it would be true.  😂
Cozy reader here:
We get the kiwi crates.  We rotate through different crates so everyone gets one thing a month that they are interested in.  Isak built the mechanical tumbler box and a walking robot. 
Sofie and Noah shared a crate about mirrors and illusions.  They got to paint...
And build these glasses that use mirrors to show you what's on the floor without looking down.  Also, see the green box.  It has a mirror in it for a magic trick.  
Lots of fun and so different from our usual things we do.  
We were all sick and missed church.  So we watched a video about how to draw the plan of salvation and then talked about it.
Sewing a new project...
Sofie wanted to learn too.  She's working on a pillow for her pandas.  :)
We made mint chocolate cookies.  
So I started to learn the guitar.  We use the Fender app for lessons.  It's pretty good.  I learned a song and you can play it in feedback mode to see how you do.  It took me 4 or 5 times playing it to get a 98 score.  I was so happy!  (It's April now, and I haven't picked up the guitar since we moved.  😔  I'll probably have to start over and relearn things once we get settled)
Here's some fun books we have been reading.  Lots of animal books.
So many good ones.  We really enjoyed them.  I found them on a book recommendation list somewhere.
Here's Noah practicing his reading...
I surprised the kids with a post it note in their lunch.  I even tried to draw their favorite animal.  Haha.  I'm not a good drawer!!
Come Follow Me activity.  It was about when Abraham's servant goes to find a wife for Isaac.  He asks Rebecca for water and she offers to also give water to his 10 camels.  I held up a gallon of milk to show how much a gallon is and that one camel drank 30 gallons in just a few minutes!  So we had a pot and 3 glasses.  They put 30 cup fulls into the pot.  We had a boy team and a girl team.  It was fun to do and helped show what a kind, giving and hard working person Rebecca was!  
A beautiful drawing by Kira...
We went to a ward activity.  It was Bingo night with treats and some other games too.  The kids liked Twister.  
Last picture... my cute kids after church.  
That's it for February.  Home a lot.  Games, reading, learning, playing...sick sometimes.  We did our best to enjoy the good times and make it through the harder ones.  Due to the poor weather, our house was delayed.  We did not close on February 28th...We'll see what happens in March.  😊

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Outdoor in February

 We made it outside a few times in February.  We found a new park.  Cason Park and Trailhead.

The kids were so happy to play for a bit.
Then we hit the trail for a few minutes.
It goes along a little river.
Another day we went to Gladys Blanton Park.

Noah loves his monkey named "OO oo."
That's it.  Kind of a cold February.  We were inside a lot.

Lunch Dates with Nels

One reason Nels and I were excited to move here was because Nels now has a short commute.  Just 15 minutes.  So we decided to take advantage of it and meet up for lunch once a week.  

We have been loving it.  We sometimes try new places and other times we go to the tried and true places.  It's been wonderful to meet up and talk without kids.  :)

One week we tried the Local Taco.

Chips and queso and 4 different tacos.  Nashville hot chicken (and it was HOT!), steak, chicken lime, and BBQ taco.  
Another week we tried Burger Republic.  So good!  We splurged and shared this amazing S'mores shake.

I got the Farm Egg Burger.
We met up on Valentine's Day for lunch at Outback Steakhouse.  Great lunch.  We talked about and researched fun vacation options and learned what each other likes...beach, pool, mountains, etc.  Fun conversation and dreaming about fun things instead of worrying about all the stressful things we have right now!
And the last week.  We went to our favorite...Red Robin. YUM!  😀

 We have just loved spending time together and eating delicious food.  Two of our favorite things.  😁

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day!
When the kids got home from school they saw these Valentine's for them...
A panda card and box of chocolates for Sofie!  So happy I found those!  Unicorn, dino, puppy, monster, whale.  I tried to find something for each of them...and then candy too.
They all took valentine's to school.  Sofie and Noah made these cute bags.  Don't you love Noah's glasses on his and Sofie's bow on hers?!  All of them enjoyed going through their class Valentine's.
I love this Valentine shirt...Little guy, big heart!
He's making a heart with his hands.
One with everyone!  Love it!
Cutest sisters!
I made these fun kabobs.  I made brownies and cut out heart shapes for it too.  The kids enjoyed them.
It was fun to celebrate loving each other.   💕

School

 A few photos that tell about how school has been in February...

Sofie and Noah celebrated 100 days in school!  So they counted 100 items to bring to school.  They both love to count!  Noah brought stickers.

Sofie brought buttons.  Isn't she the cutest panda?!
Ah! Sofie panda grew a mustache!  Haha!
They dressed like they were 100 years old...I just bought mustaches for Noah...he already wears glasses.  :)
They colored their bag for 100 items...
I bought Sofie glasses and a chain for her outfit and she wore a dress...and had her hair in a bun.

Here they are...100 year old, five year olds.  😂  I asked Sofie to stand up, but she said, "no, mom.  I'm old!"
Their teacher did such a great job!
Here's their class..
They played a guessing game for the items they brought.

Another day, they learned about bees and pollen and honey...I love how their teacher sends me pictures!
Going to school every day is tough.  So usually on Friday, I make sure to have a fun treat for them to enjoy and celebrate that we made it through the week.  This time it was Hershey's hearts...
Here they go...waiting for the bus at 6:50 a.m.

Sofie and Noah each have about 10 minutes of homework that they do with me.  Letter and sound practice and sight words and sentence reading.  Also, they can count by 2's, 5's and 10's.

Isak and Kira usually have some math problems and then 20 minutes of reading, plus writing a summary of what they read.  They also learned the state shapes.  So we practiced and learned those too.

Thankfully, they are pretty good about just doing homework right away.   I love seeing what they are learning and being a part of it.  And that's a little glimpse of our school life right now.