Fall time Play

My kids have been eating up this cooler weather in the evenings.  They have been outside usually from about 6:00-7:30 every night.  They play a new version of Angry Birds out there as well as a few other made up games of theirs.  Maggie is pushing her baby in  the baby swing in these pictures. So cute!  I just love how close these 2 still are even with 2 years difference and being a boy and a girl!:)  I hope they are this close forever! I do feel for Parker. Poor kid tries so hard to play with them, but his version of playing with them is throwing everything that they like.  They are always begging me to keep poor little Parker (and Biscuit) out of their room.  I really can't blame them.  Parker is still in a little destructive phase and he only wants the toys that the other 2 kids are playing with.  Fun times for everyone.  At least Parker will have have a playmate too next year.  There are some advantages to having kids close together! Last night Maggie invited me to a party outside.  She set up all the chairs in a circle and then rolled down the hill, sang some songs, ran around in circles, swung on the swings, slid down the slide and then the party was over. It was very entertaining watching her and I love her love for having parties.  Such cute kids!

Dance Time

Dance time is back! Maggie is so excited to be back in dance after a long summer without!  After a new leotard, tights, tap shoes and ballet shoes I am so glad that the actual class is such a great deal each month! Maggie is already talking about the Christmas recital.  She says she is dancing to a song from "Lilo and Stitch."  I don't know what that has to do with Christmas, but we will see!:)  I love having her in dance class and she looks forward to it every week.  Doesn't she look so cute in these pictures?! Who knew it took 5 takes to get her to open her eyes AND do a pretty smile.  She is all into saying cheese and doing a huge smile with eyes closed, so this is progress!:) What a pretty ballerina!!

Maggie's First Day of Preschool

After waiting all summer, Maggie has finally started her first year of preschool!!! It was a glorious and happy day for all of us!:) I love the girl, but she can be a little tiring and can talk your ear off with out even taking a breath.  We were both so ready for this day to come.  I am doing a co-op preschool with 4 other ladies.  2 of them are in my ward and the other 2 are friends with Alice-Anne.  I had some doubts about whether I could handle teaching kids again.  I hadn't been with other people's kids in about 5 years and have not really missed it. After so many years working at preschools and day cares I had been burned out and needed a break. But after meeting and talking with the other moms about everything I was way excited.  We have preschool on Monday and Thursday from 10:00-12:00.  Each of us have the kids for one week, which means that each of us only have to teach once every 5 weeks! I loved that idea.  We have a preschool book to go from and we have a letter of the day for each day.  We also have the preschool day planned out, so that we all go off of that and can give the kids consistensey with that part.  Last Thursday we decided it would be a good idea to have the kids go to each house, so they could see everyone's house where they would be taught.  So we each had about 10-15 minutes at our house and showed the kids where class would be, where the bathroom was at and do a small activity with them.  It was a lot of fun! I am so excited about this and Maggie is loving it so far! She had her first real day yesterday and was soooo excited to have actual homework to do just like her big brother.  She kept telling David and Dad that she had to finish her homework that night for preschool.  They talked about the letter "A" and Maggie informed me that she had a lot of apples that day and didn't need anymore that day!:)  It was so cute to hear her tell us all about school.  I have my first rotation at our house in a few weeks and I am really looking forward to it.  I got some cute puppets and music instruments for music time and a new easel for circle time.  This is going to be just perfect for us.  I loved going to the store with just one kid and then still having time to have some down time with just Parker! It was a great day!!  I am so glad Maggie has this to look forward to every week!

First Day of First Grade

David started First Grade on Wednesday, August 29.  He was soooo excited to be back in school.  He was also excited to be able to eat lunch at school!  He was up by 7:00a.m. that morning or maybe earlier.  He goes to school from 8:45-3:20. It is a big jump from his 2 hours in kindergarten.:)  He has a great teacher, Miss Gurney.  She is very sweet and seems to love what she does! I have LOVED only having 2 kids. It makes going to the store much easier and one less kid asking for snacks all day helps too!:) David is doing great with his reading and is above where he should be for his age.  He has gotten 100% on his spelling tests and is getting better with his handwriting. He is such a smart kid and we are glad to have him in first grade and learning so much so fast!

Wyoming

Parker and Meme

The kids playing at the hotel playground.

Meme helping Maggie out at Grandma and Grandpa Turnbull's old property.

Oliver, David and Meme enjoying some yummy pizza

Maggie, Parker and Oliver at Great Grandma Turnbull's ranch.

Jillian, Maggie, Oliver, David and Tyler loving the see-saw and Parker being the on looker.

The Turnbulls!

Me, Giselle, Sherrie, Parker, Maggie and David before we headed out.

Maggie, Jillian and David enjoying one of the many car rides we had in Wyoming.

Maggie and Parker really enjoyed their pizza!:)

So on Thursday, August 23 I was talking to Sherrie and I asked what she was doing that weekend and she told me that her and some of the family were going to Wyoming that afternoon.  They were going to help her Grandma (David's Great Grandma) celebrate her 95th birthday!! She said she didn't tell us because she knew I wasn't feeling too well and I probably wouldn't want to make the 8 hour trip to Lusk, Wyoming.  Little did she know! :)  So I called David to see if he wanted to go and surprise them on Friday. Sadly he had been overloaded at work, since starting his new position and he was in charge of food at a ward party we were having on Sunday. He just could not make it work to go. The good news is that Giselle was free to go!:)  So Friday after my appointment Giselle and I packed up the kids and made the 8 hour trip to see family.  It was a long ride. Giselle is about 10 days behind me in her pregnancy and we both have a need to eat constantly and couldn't just eat anything either.  But we made it into Lusk a little before 1:00 a.m.  The first night we stayed in Grandma Ion's (David's Great Grandma) old house.  I don't know how in the past 2 times that we have been there I have not gotten any pictures inside of it.  It does not have air conditioning, so we all make beds in the living room, so that we can all have enough air circulation.  It also has a ton of breakable things that Parker goes right to and loves to get my blood flowing by picking them up.   There is also no shower. They have baths, just no shower heads...so the next night Giselle and I talked Sherrie into going in with us and staying at one of the motels in Lusk.    It had 3 queen sized beds, a working shower, no breakables and a tv that Parker couldn't reach! Everything that made everyone much happier! So we got the room for Saturday night and it was pricey, but worth every penny for a good nights sleep! Saturday we spent the day going to all of the places that Perry and Vee (David's Grandpa and Grandma) lived at, when they lived in Wyoming.  The kids were pretty good for the most part.  I think Giselle and I were the biggest babies there. Not only were we exhausted, but we were also continuously needing to eat.  We saw the land where Vee and Perry's house was located, when they lived there so long ago. We saw Grandma Ion's  ranch where Sherrie and Ricki (David's aunt) used to have sleepovers! We visited the graves of all of their family. (Giselle and I actually went to the hotel for this part, because we just went there last year and needed a good rest to make it the rest of the day.  We went and had some yummy lunch at the pizza place there.  We also saw the place where Ricki went to school. It is now a church, but still set up in the same way. 
We got a lot in on Saturday and it was fun to see some of those places and here some stories about their life living there.  Lusk is an amazingly small town.  There are no real stores there. The closest Wal-Mart is about 90 miles away.  They have a general store with your basic shopping needs.  At least this time we really knew how little there was there, so we packed to survive for the 2 days!:) Including all the foods that we might need.  Good times!  Sunday morning we had breakfast at our regular restaurant with Grandma Ion and then visited for a little bit.  Then Giselle and I packed up the kids and headed out around 11:00.  It was a fun mini vacation and we loved seeing the family.  Lots of funny memories to laugh about as usual!