Recap

I tend to forget about this blog sometimes. Especially with how busy life is. Between work and family and everything else life feels a little like it's going a million miles a minute. So I'll try to recap things a little bit.

October 2012:
-Took a weekend off and drove up to Boise to see great friends and go to the Boise Temple Open House.
-While there ended up at an Urgent Care Facility because Hannah got her hand stepped on and fractured her pinky finger.
-Had lots of fun for Halloween with A Pirate, A Lalaloopsy and Minnie Mouse.

November 2012:
Nothing too super exciting. Thanksgiving with Family at our house and games after dinner. Lots of fun!

December 2012:
-Celebrated Hannah's 7th Birthday
-All 3 kids home sick for a week! Mom went crazy!
-Went to Temple Square to see the lights a yearly tradition
-Fell and fractured the metatarsal in my foot. :(
-Had a lot of fun over Christmas and New Years Celebrating our Savior's birth and ringing in the New Year with family.

January 2013:
-More sickness and a weekend hospital visit for little miss Abi due to an abscess in her neck as a result of strep while dad was out of town. :S
-Found out we were expecting Baby number 4!!!!

February 2013:
-Superbowl Sunday with my brother and his family.
-Celebrated my sister Heidi's 30th birthday with a surprise party! We got her good!!

March 2013:
-Celebrated Josh's 34th Birthday!

April 2013:
-Unexpected Emergency Room visit for kidney issues for me. :(
-Found out we were adding yet another girl to our little (or not so little anymore) family! Why mess with a good thing right?!
-Celebrated 12 years of Marriage with Josh! Love him!

May 2013:
-Celebrated Emalee's 3rd Birthday! My how time flies!
-Had a wonderful Mother's Day
-Lots of End of School Activities
-End of yet another school year. And a wonderful one at that. We will truly miss the teachers the girls had. They learned and grew SO MUCH this year! So proud of them!

June 2013:
-Stitches in Hannah's foot
-Celebrated Abi's 9th Birthday!
-The girls took the Front Runner Train (for the first time) to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

So there you have it (if anyone actually reads this blog anymore). Maybe I should really try to keep up with things here and there!

"Try Harder"

I'm not sure how many people actually read this blog anymore. Not that it really matters since Most of what I write here is for the purpose of remembering it later. And that should give you and idea of the type of journal writer I am.
Anyway, earlier this month we had parent teacher conference for the two older girls. We were very pleased to hear things like your daughter is doing great in class. She is very kind I everyone. And she's right where she should be or she's doing very well in this area and I'd like to advance her to a level higher to push her a little.
When we met with Abi's teacher she gave us a paper explaining to us that she had given it to the students to rate themselves in different areas. The choices were "Super" "Great" "Good" and "Try Harder" most of the areas she marked super, great, or good. There were only two areas in which she marked "try harder". Those two areas were math and getting along with others. Her teacher told us to maybe we could talk with her about the worksheet and find out why she would rate herself the way she did. And to let her know if there was anything she could do to help in those areas.
I was concerned that maybe she didn't feel like she had that many friends. Or something. She had told me one day that for recess she couldn't find anyone to play with so she walked around the playground by herself. So sad.
When we got home that evening as we were putting the girls to bed we talked a little bit about the meetings we had with their teachers and how pleased we were with how they were doing in school. And I brought out the paper and asked Abi about it. We went through each item. And she explained why she would rate herself that way. When we got to getting along with others she said something that blew me away. She told me "there's this boy in my class and when the teacher is talking sometimes he'll get up and crawl around on the floor or talk to others." And when I asked her what that had to do with her she said "I just think I could be a better example to him".
Talk about a proud parent moment. She is such a great example to others and such a sweet, kind, and caring girl. And she amazes me everyday. Love you Abigail!

We have a two year old!

Little Emalee turned 2 last month! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! She can be so sweet yet such a little stinker when she wants to be! We can't imagine life without her though!

Here's her 2 year stats

Height: 35.5 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 28 lbs (70th percentile)

Head: 18.6 inches (50th percentile)

And now a little back story on getting those stats.........
I had no idea when we walked through the door at the doctors office what I was in for. Little did I know that the minute they picked up Emalee's chart and called us back that I was actually with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
As soon as we walked into the exam room and the nurse told me that she needed Emalee in just a dry diaper and then walked out Emalee turned into Mr. Hyde. As I was trying to take off her shirt she was sitting there screaming and holding it on her face. Then we walked out for her to be weighed still screaming she wouldn't sit on the scale or stand on the "big kid" scale. So to get her weight I ha to hold her and then be weighed on my own so they could subtract and get her weight. Then in order to measure her height I had to pin her down on the exam table so they could mark the top of her head and then her toes on the paper and measure that. And quite frankly I'm surprised at how fast the nurse got her head measurement because she wasn't having any of that either. Then she screamed throughout her exam. After which she got a shot. But as soon as we were back in the car and on our way home she was all smiles again. Welcome back Dr. Jekyll. Seriously! Oh how I LOVE this stage.
A few other things about her at this stage......
She has picked up biting. (But not a lot thankfully.)
She talks a ton!!!! (So stinkin cute!)
She loves to play with her sisters squinkies and Polly pockets. (much to their dismay sometimes)
She loves her cousins and friends and squeals with delight when she gets to play with them.
All in all I'd gladly suffer through the not so much fun stuff just to hear her giggle and see her smile.
She's such a cute little stinker!
We love you Emalee!!!!

Six year old Sillies

Sometimes I wonder what goes through the head of my six year old.............

Wednesday night (the 25th) I had scheduled to meet with Abi and Hannah's teachers at school for SEP's (parent teacher conference type thing). My appointment was at 6:30 for Abi and 6:40 for Hannah. And I had an HOA meeting at 7. Little did I know when I left the house how the next hour would go. I got to the school a couple minutes early. Josh had a meeting so I had them with me and a friend stayed and watched them after meeting with her daughter's teachers. At 6:45 Abi's teacher was still meeting with the parents from 6:20 (or so I assume). Luckily the people behind me had cancelled or something so she didn't have another appointment until 6:50. So since she was running a bit behind I decided to go down to Hannah's class and see how it was going there and if I could get in and then go back to Abi's teacher. But when I got there Hannah's teacher had not even called the 6:20 parents in yet! At this point I was becoming extremely frustrated and angry. So I went back to Abi's class and her teacher finished up and called me in at 6:50. She had nothing but good things to say and we finished up and I decided that meeting with Hannah's teacher was just NOT going to happen that night. So we left.

After dropping the girls off at home I rushed over to my meeting. When I returned home that evening I sent Hannah's teacher an email asking if there was another time I could meet with her since I didn't get to that evening.

Well I received an email back from her teacher last night. The first part of it was nice. Stating how Hannah was doing in school and how much she enjoyed having her in her class. And then I read the following paragraph and started laughing!

"I will mention, though, that right after we got back from Christmas break I noticed she seemed really sad, and she had mentioned a few things about missing her dad or something like that. More specifically, when the question of the day was "Did you have a good christmas break?" she was the only student who answered "no" and when writing a new years wish, she wrote "I wish for my dad to come home." I know it's not my business, and I haven't talked to her about it, so i don't know if she is being over dramatic about nothing, but I thought you'd like to know about this, and that she is expressing these feelings at school. Like i said, most of this happened a few weeks ago, not so much lately."

So this morning I talked a little with Hannah about it. And then I took a little trip to the school to explain to her teacher that her dad and I are not separated or anything of the sort. I'm not sure where it all came from. Her dad worked overtime for part of November and most of December but he was home for more of this Christmas break than he was in any years past. Silly girl. I'm sure Hannah just doesn't understand how it was all perceived. So I told her it's ok for her to miss daddy when he's at work or out of town but if she's having a problem or she's sad about something to come and talk to daddy or I. So funny! I have a feeling that I'm going to have to explain a lot of wild things over the years. :)

WOW!!!

It's really been a LONG TIME since I updated this! YIKES! Things have been SUPER busy and at times stressful around here.

Without going in to too much detail I guess I should give a quick recap of what's going on around here.

August:

-Josh's Brother DJ left on his mission to Mexico. We are so very proud of him and the choices that he has made and are enjoying seeing him learn and grow through letters.

-Another year of school started with Abigail in 2nd Grade and Hannah in Kindergarten. Both are doing very well and enjoying their teachers and classes.

-I hiked Timpanogos with a wonderful group of Friends. And when I say I hiked Timpanogos I mean to the top not just to the cave. It was a lot of fun and very trying at the same time. And I need to do it again to prove that I can do it WITH OUT getting hurt! :)

September:

- As a family for FHE we visited the 9/11 memorial or Healing Field in Sandy, UT. A very humbling experience. We felt a renewed sense of patriotism and learned more about those events and the people affected by them.

October:

-October was filled with Birthday Parties for good friends and lots of Halloween activities and events. The girls were able to dress up in their costumes several times and ended up with almost 18 lbs of candy! We had a lot of fun partying with friends and family and especially enjoyed being able to have Josh with us this year! For Halloween Abigail was a vampire and Hannah was a witch with Emalee dressed as Princess Leia. Josh even dressed up for work.

November:

Not a whole lot happened in November.

-I was pretty excited to NOT have to host Thanksgiving at our home this year. We've had it at our house for the past 3 years and I was very happy that Josh had the day off for the first time in 5 years. So we spent the day visiting with family at their homes. :) And the next day we packed up the kids and went to spend the weekend with my very good friend Kirsten and her family in Idaho. It was a relaxing and fun filled weekend.

December:

-Hannah celebrated her 6th birthday! And even better than that is that for the first time ever she was not sick on her birthday! We were able to have a friend birthday party for her the following week. She chose Rapunzel as the theme. Happy Birthday Hannah! We are very happy to have you as a part of our family and can't imagine life without you! We love you!

-My grandma celebrated her 90th birthday and we had a big family get together to celebrate with her. Happy Birthday Grandma! I love you so much!

-Christmas was split into a few different celebrations this year. My family and Josh's mom both had their "dinner" on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day we got to get up and go to church to celebrate Christ and his birth there. Then we came home and opened presents. After which we went to spend the rest of the day with Josh's dad. We had dinner there and then we were able to talk to DJ in Mexico for a little bit. We had a good Christmas and we are glad we have so much family whom we love to spend it with.

-The day before New Years Eve we woke up to a note on our van from the guy that lives across the street. He had backed into our van that morning on his way out to work. :(

-That same day I took Hannah and Abi and a couple of their friends to Heidi's spa up in Layton where they do Princess Parties (for Hannah's birthday). They all got mini face massages; hand and feet massage's and their toe nails painted. It was super fun!

-New Years Eve was spent up at Josh's Dad's house with his dad and Kris and Jennifer's family and his brother Michael from St. George. We had a lot of fun ringing in the new year and playing games with them.

Climber

Needless to say she's in a toddler bed now.

Hello?

I've been thinking a lot today about manners. Partially because of a story I read on KSL. My children seem to have ok manners. I've had a lot of people compliment me on how polite they are. Lately however this has not been the case.

We had taught them that when two people are having a conversation they need to wait until that conversation is finished and then say "Excuse me" before they say what they need to say. Somehow they've gotten away from that and it is a constant "Mommy; Mommy; Mommy or Daddy." It drives me crazy and it's something we are working on on a daily basis. Along with others on the list that make sense to me since I've read them. But some of them I hadn't really thought to much about or focused on teaching to my kids. Though they are all necessary.

Anyway the article I found on KSL was titled Does your child have the proper manners? Check the checklist. And it had some great things to say. They also link from there to an article titled 25 Manners Every Kid Should Know By Age 9. A very interesting article which puts things in a good perspective.

However the thing that has made me thing the most today is in the KSL article where one of the people they interviewed talked about phone etiquette and how her mother would call and "train" her children the "proper way" to answer the phone. She talks about how the "proper" way is to answer the phone by stating your name. For instance "Hello. Coleman's this is 'so-and-so' speaking. Which I've heard before. I however was raised differently. My mother always told us "Don't ever tell someone who you are until they've told you who they are. They called you."

It may not be the correct way but I don't really see how there's anything wrong with it. In fact it seems to make more sense to me. I'd rather my kids not introduce themselves to someone over the phone unless they know who it is calling them. So when someone calls me and the first thing they say is "Who is this?" My response is generally "You called me, who is this." Unless they introduce themselves first. Is that wrong?

How were you taught? And how will you teach your children?