Kindergarten Note

I'm not a super braggy mom, but I do use this blog as a family journal, so this post will be a bit that way.  Karleigh got a note sent home from her teacher today, and I wanted to remember it, and I know I will lose the note or throw it away.

"This is just a quick note to let you know how well Karleigh is doing in kindergarten.  She is happy, fun, kind to others, and interested in learning.  She is a good asset to our class.  You have done a wonderful job getting her ready for school.  She knows her letters - all the upper and lower case-as well as her sounds.  She is ready to read...I appreciate all the work you've done with Karleigh.  I am looking forward to reading with her this year."

Karleigh is really loving school.  She also LOVES creating things.  She spends a few hours every day coloring and cutting and pasting things.  She especially loves to make things for people, so I am sure many of you will be the lucky recipient of one of her works of art.   

Show Some Humanity...

It's still pretty toasty here in St. George.  It's been in the mid to high 90s all week.  We are trying to soak up what's left of summer, because hopefully it will be cooling down soon!  We went to the downtown splash park yesterday when Karleigh got home from school.  There are 2 parts to this splash park.  There is a little stream and then a sprinkler type splash park.  We played in the stream for about an hour, and then Grayden wanted to go over to the sprinkler, so we did. 

As soon as we got there, Karleigh started complaining and whining about being too cold (it was 95 degrees), wanting to play in the stream, and about a billion other things.  I was being pretty calm with her, trying to deal with her constant complaining, as she tried to convince me to go over to the other side of the park with the stream.  I kept telling her no, because Grayden was having a lot of fun and wanted to stay.  I told Karleigh she could go over to the stream because I could still see her, but she didn't like that idea either.  Anyways, all of the sudden, Karleigh throws her hands up in the air and says in a loud voice, looking straight at me, "SHOW SOME HUMANITY."  What the...who says that???  Obviously she has watched Tangled too many times.  But that beats today's comment.  I was telling Grayden to do something this morning and in the background I hear Karleigh say,"That's what she said."  I would like to thank Brad, her uncle Steve, and of course The Office for this one.  She really is like a sponge.

Sleepy Gray

Sometimes I feel guilty that I still make Gray take naps.  I always wonder if he is too old for it.  Karleigh took naps until the day she started kindergarten, so I don't know why I feel this way with Gray.  The other day I just let him watch a movie instead of take a nap, and this is how I found him. 

He is pretty much The Grinch without a nap, so I think I'll keep the routine going as long as possible!!! 

Bishop Pickett

Last weekend, we dropped Karleigh and Gray off with Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler and headed to Washington.  We drove to Vegas with my grandparents and flew into Portland on Friday night.  On Saturday, for the first time ever, we got to go to the temple together with my entire family.  It was such a neat experience to have us all there together. 

The reason for the trip was for my dad.  He got put in as the Bishop of the Vancouver 7th ward.  I am so glad we got to be there to see him get set apart and to share in the experience with him.   It was a very uplifting weekend!  My parents both got to speak in church on Sunday and did a great job.  I look up to my parents in so many ways, and I know that my dad will do a wonderful job as the bishop!!!  We love you, Dad!!!

The Monson Family

Last week, Becca and her family came to Saint George and I got to hang out with them one day.  I have known Becca since we were 7 and I always love when we get to get together.  We went to a splash park and Cafe Rio during the day, and then that night they came over to our house for dessert.  Karleigh and Grayden had lots of fun with cute little Hailey. 

Me and Becca went and saw "The Help" that night.  I love when I get a night out, and the movie was great too!!  I highly recommend it!  It was so great to see Becca and her family! 

Blocks

The other day, me and Gray built a house out of blocks, and then he wanted to take pictures with it.  He ended up taking about 6 pictures of the blocks...He had to get one from each angle...

I love this boy!!!

Grandma Wheeler!!!

Grandma Wheeler has meetings in St. George this week, so we are lucky enough to have her stay with us for a couple nights!!!  She read to the kids tonight for about an hour...The kids loved it. 

I also finished my wreath tonight that I started on Labor Day....

Baby Kayson!!!

Bryce and Ashley had their baby on September 8, and on Sunday, we got to go and seen him.  He is seriously the cutest thing!  He is TINY!!  He was 5 pounds 8 ounces when he was born.  The shoes in the picture below are for 0-3 months, and look how huge they are on him.  It was so much fun to hold him.  It made me very excited for our baby to get here. 

Karleigh and Grayden could not get enough of Baby Kayson.  I can tell that Karleigh is going to be a very big helper!!!  

Soccer Game #2

Gray had another soccer game on Saturday.  During his first game, he was really into it and would get stressed out if he fell or didn't do well.  Before the 2nd game, I told him just to have fun and not to cry, and just to do his best.  He definitely took my advice to heart.  He was a total goof ball out there.  He kept falling down on purpose, trying to make people laugh.  It was seriously driving me crazy to watch.  Hopefully we can find a happy medium, where he can try his best and still have lots of fun!!! 

He is super cute out there and I love watching his games!!!

PJ Day

Last Thursday, Karleigh's class earned a party, so they had a PJ day...Here she is all ready for school...

Listening

Last night at dinner, Brad asked Karleigh why she listens to her teacher so well but she doesn't listen to us.  She replied that they do a lot of fun things in school, so that is why she listens to her teacher.  She then made it very clear that we need to start doing more fun things, like crafts.  Soooo....Anyone know of any fun kid crafts, because apparently if I start doing fun things like crafts at home, Karleigh will start listening, which would be awesome.   


P.S.  Baby countdown is in the 40s....Yay!!!  We are so close. 

Soccer!!!

Gray man had his first soccer game on Saturday.  He had been running around with his shin guards on all week, getting ready for the big game. 

Meet the Three Green Ninjas!  This is his cute soccer team showing off their muscles.  They played the Tigers this week. 

The game was so fun to watch.  They practiced for a while before the game and then the have four, five minute quarters.  It's still in the high 90s here in St. George, so Grayden was HOT!  Every time we would yell, "Go Grayden," he would stop and look at us, so we had to stop cheering for him too much!  He did a really good job.  Grandma Dody and Grandpa Norval also came and watched him.  We had lots of fun cheering him on!!!   

All-Star Reader and Special Helper

Karleigh's school is doing a fun reading program called, All-Star Reading.  She has to read 150 minutes a week to get a gold medal at the end of the year and she gets different prizes and such along the way.  She is taking it very seriously, and really wants to get the gold medal.  She got to decorate a pendant for the program to hang outside her classroom for the year.  She got really into the project and spent lots of time on it!  It turned out cute!

This week in school, Grayden got to be the special helper.  The night before he was the special helper, his teacher sent home a basket with a book in it and a poster, and he had to read the book, finish the poster, bring a toy for show and tell, and bring a snack to share with his preschool friends.  He was beyond excited about being the "special helper."  Usually, when Gray colors, he spends about 2 minutes on it, and then he's finished, but he spent at least an hour on his poster.  He told me the answers to the questions, and then he traced the letters I wrote.  For show and tell he brought a Batman Car.  He is having so much fun with preschool this year. 

Gymnastics

Karleigh started gymnastics on Wednesday.  I grew up loving gymnastics, so naturally I hoped that Karleigh would feel the same way.  She ended up LOVING it!  Before gymnastics, I was trying to take some pictures of her, and these are the poses she gave me. 

This is her trick of the day...She learned how to do a back bend. 

I think Karleigh will be great at gymnastics.  Every day she asks how many days until she gets to go back...

Labor Day 2011

I look forward to Labor Day every year!  I love camping, and the fact that all I get to spend the entire weekend with some of my favorite people, just makes camping even greater!  I have to say that we missed Candice, Bryce, and Ashley!  Candice got to go to Italy, which sounds amazing, and Ashley's doctor gave her the no-go since she was about ready to have a baby (more on that soon)!  Bryce did bring Makenzie up, and it was so fun to have her around all weekend!!  It was a relaxing weekend with awesome weather, lots of yummy food, and familiy!  Brad's extended family and all of his grandpa's brothers and sisters come, so it's fun to see people we only see once a year. 

Great Grandma Wheeler thinks that 3-years-old is a good time to introduce kids to pocket knives!  Grayden was thrilled.  He had been waiting for months, because he knew that when we went camping, he would get his pocket knife.  The kids had fun whittling wood all weekend...I even enjoyed doing a little whittling of my own. 

Of course there were many 4-wheeling rides.  Karleigh and Grayden both love to ride.  Brad took Gray an a really long ride on Saturday.  They were gone for a few hours, and came back so dirty, but they had fun. 

Karleigh...whittling some wood...

The kids had fun just sitting on the four wheelers and pretending...The little girl at the bottom of the picture is named Addi.  She was stinking cute.  She had a little crush on Grayden and would just grab his face and kiss him all the time.  It was funny! 

Karleigh was lining up jelly beans so she could feed the birds...

The kids both got to go on a little horse ride. 

All the cousins had so much fun playing!

Mandi put together a craft for us to do (Thanks Mandi).  I haven't quite finished mine, but I stole this picture from Mandi's facebook of hers.  I can't wait to finish mine and hang it up.  You wouldn't believe how long it took to make all those little flowers. 

Overall, it was a very fun trip!  Thanks Wheeler Fam!!! 

Color Days

For the last 2 weeks, Karleigh has had color days at school.  Each day, she was supposed to wear a specific color.  They had a snack that was that color and did some activities with that color.  I tried to get a picture of her with her colorful outfits, but I missed 4 days....But these are the ones that I got...

Yellow Day!

Blue Day!

Green Day!

Orange Day!

Brown Day!

And because Grayden is cute, I thought he needed to be a part of color days as well...