"P"-cock

Andrew has been having some troubles with speech production & he is working with a speech therapist. For the past month we've been working on the "p" sound with different vowels & consonants.

Karen, a friend from Kansas, wrote on her blog about her experiences in Haiti & working at a school in Jacmel. (They were there during the earthquake, you should read about their amazing experiences there!) She wrote about how some of the children were having a hard time with the "p" sound & so the teacher crumpled up a piece of paper, put it on the table & made a game out of it. The kids would put their mouth by the paper & try to make a strong "p" sound which would blow the paper across the table. I was so excited to go & try it with Andrew. It worked really well!

Another fun thing I found at the blog No time for Flashcards, was to make a peacock out of the letter P. So, on Tuesday, we made Peacock Ps & each time he colored or placed a feather on the paper we made different sounds with the letter P.

We had a lot of fun doing this project & will certainly be trying lots more of them! I love all of the awesome ideas out there on blogs. They certainly help me out!

Happy Kansas Day!

Yesterday was Kansas Day. I know, exciting. But, I really like Kansas. So, in honor of this momentous day, today I made Sunflower cookies. The kids really liked them. I would have made them yesterday but I was out of sunflower kernels.

They were very yummy!

Megan found this fun Kansas quiz: http://www.quia.com/rr/95040.html

And it certainly was nice that KU beat K-State today! And BYU beat Utah. It was a great day for college basketball.

A Little Drinking Problem

This little boy loves his drinks & is constantly asking for another one. We can't get Andrew to say (or sign) the word "drink", instead he just makes this slurping sound. It's funny, but cute.

I Love A Good Fiesta!

The kids were pretty sad that I was going on a trip without them (especially Joseph), but I was eventually able to peel them off of me and head out on my little adventure.

I decided to stop in Las Vegas on the way to Arizona. It didn't take long to figure out that Las Vegas, New Mexico is not quite as interesting as Las Vegas, Nevada. The sign said that it's historic - I can't confirm that, but I can confirm that it does have a gas station.

I eventually made it to AZ and stayed the night with a buddy from my missionary days (thanks, Ryan). The next day I met up with my brother and his friends and hung out until going to the game with them.

Me and my younger bro (I can't really call him my little brother since all 3 of my brothers are bigger than me).

Final score: Boise St 17, TCU 10. You gotta love it when the right team wins (especially when you drove 12 hours to attend). After the game, we went to In-N-Out for a celebratory meal.

And I took a picture of cacti. You know, cuz I was in Arizona.

On the way home, I saw a sign for the Mormon Battalion Monument, so I stopped and checked it out.

It's in New Mexico, close to nothing.

Just under two thousand miles in 3 days, that is a great way to have a vacation (as long as you have books on CD, plenty of munchies, and a football game to go along with it). Thanks for getting me a ticket to the game, Cheryl! That was a super Christmas surprise.

Christmas 2009

We enjoyed a lovely, fun, cold, snowy, white Christmas in Kansas. It was fun having some of my siblings & so many cousins for my kids to play with.
On Christmas Eve, we had a reenactment of the Nativity. That is always an enjoyable time. It's great to see the kids really get into their parts & being so cute.

I love how much Andrew loves his big sister.

All of the kids in their Christmas pajamas (taken just before Lexie started throwing up-lovely, I know).

Opening the stockings on Christmas morning.

Andrew decided to start throwing up, too...

Joseph's present from Rick, which Joseph asked to open everyday for about 2 weeks.

Rick opening his exciting present (tickets to the Fiesta Bowl)!

Andrew thieving his cousin's Christmas present.

Aunt Janae did Lexie's hair for Church. So cute.

Church was cancelled because of all of the snow that we enjoyed. But, we held our own meetings. It was really enjoyable. For Sacrament Meeting, Erik & Stephanie gave talks. Then Mom took all of the grandkids for Primary & taught them a great lesson & even had a craft while the rest of the adults had a nice lesson. Rick & Mindy gave great thoughts & then everyone got to share what their favorite symbols of Christ are at Christmas/favorite hymns. It was really fun. I always enjoy learning from my family & miss having these experiences often because we're all so far away now. It really was an awesome way to spend a "snow day".

Once we got home we got to have another Christmas. The kids thoroughly enjoyed all of the fun, exciting, & thoughtful gifts from everyone. Thank you.

I'll just put a little plug in to encourage everyone to go & work on their family history. We received some really great & thoughtful gifts from our siblings this year & a couple of them I think would be neat for lots of your families. Of course, keep a journal. One of my sisters typed up my dad's journal & gave us all copies-very cool. Then another sister typed up the oral history of my dad, that my brother & sis-in-law recorded years ago. It's been so neat to read through that. And another, my brother had all of us (parents, siblings, & spouses) write down missionary experiences & compiled those. It's been awesome to read these experiences as well. And a nice surprise, my dad's homecoming talk was in there, too. Anyway, just a few of the many great family history ideas out there that I think could benefit many of your families, too.

Thank You, Aunt Megan!

Lexie & Joseph look so cute sporting the new scarves you made them! They love them! (Seriously, Joseph wears his almost everywhere! Since Lexie just got hers...I'll keep you posted.)

Thank You, Andrew.

Andrew decided that we should reorganize the bookshelf, today. Thanks, since we had nothing else to do...

Thoughtful, isn't he? The cute little stinker.

Lexie's Dreams

Lexie brought home one of her assignments that she did in class today. The assignment was to write down dreams that you have for yourself, the country, & the world. Here is what she wrote...

Dream for myself: Go out in Haiti and help the construction workers.

Dream for my country: Make people love each other.

Dream for the world: Make people know that God loves them.

What a sweet little girl! We love her so much!

Santa Sightings

The other day we went to the mall and surprised the kids with a visit to see Santa. Lexie was very reluctant to meet Santa because she knew he would ask what she wants for Christmas. We didn't understand why that was an issue until she finally explained that she wants a vanity and she thought that Santa would say she was too young to have one. Joseph had no reservations and excitedly took the opportunity to let Santa know what he wants for Christmas. As for Andrew, he wasn't about to sit in that strange man's lap. He was happy to get reindeer antlers and an activity book, though. We tried to teach Andrew how to say "Santa", but instead he calls him "Ho Ho Ho."

After seeing Santa, we warmed up by the fire before going home for hot chocolate.

The next day we had our ward Christmas party and Santa made another appearance. This time we got Andrew to sit with Santa for a picture - he was so excited.

This morning we went to the Air Force base for another visit with Santa. The sponsors of the event were so nice to provide breakfast, a picture with Santa, and tons of nice presents from which the kids could choose.

They had several craft activities and games for the kids to play while waiting for Santa to come. There was stationary for the kids to write letters to Santa, and we were really impressed with the letter Joseph came up with:

(Dear Santa, Thank you. Joseph)

Storytime?

Tonight Rick told Lexie & Joseph they could each pick out a bedtime story. Joseph said, "Instead of a bedtime story, I just want to read the tags!"

I think he is definitely the most excited about Christmas.

1st Grade Asian Festival

The 7 first grade classes at Lexie's school have been learning about various countries in Asia. Today they had their Asian Festival where they "travelled" around to the 7 different countries which they have been studying & tasting different Asian foods.
Since one of the countries they studied was Russia, Rick let Lexie take in some of his things from his mission to Russia (shapka, matroishka dolls, & coins).

We also took in a big pot of Borscht. (Thanks for the recipe, Tiffani-it was delicious!) For some reason most of the kids weren't excited about trying a beets & cabbage based soup, but those who tried it actually liked it.

Cheryl got to travel around to the different countries with Lexie to try all of the different foods (YUMMY!), while Rick got to serve the borscht & entertain the classes as they rotated around.

Laundry

I opened the dryer to pull out the boys clothes & all of this fell out on the floor. Awesome...

What do you find in your dryer (well, other than clothes)?