Tanner's Recognition

April 28, 2011

Each child at Two Mile Prarie is selected at one point throughout the year to receive an award.  They give these awards out at the assemblies they hold once a month.  Last year, Tanner was awarded in the very first assembly of the year.  This year it was the last. 

In a sea of children, being singled out and recognized can feel really great!

The Principal calls them up to receive a certificate and a new pencil.  She then reads the words that the child's teacher has written on the certificate.

Congratulations Tanner!  We're so proud of you!

After all the children's were excused to go back and sit with their classes, Tanner came back and stood with Lexie while the assembly finished out. These two are such good friends.  They really miss each other when school is in session.

Easter at Bass Pro

April 23, 2011

It is Easter weekend and there are so many family friendly activities to do in Columbia.  We made our way over to The Bass Pro Shop for their Easter egg hunt.  They hid the eggs throughout the store amongst the merchandise.  They had employees/volunteers everywhere re-hiding the eggs as you walked by!  They kept an eye out for the little guys who just couldn't find an egg.  You could find 5 eggs, then go to the back of the store to trade them in for 5 pieces of candy.  For the older child, this kind of Easter Egg hunt might be depressing, but for the younger child, this was perfect.

After the cash in on candy, they had a cute craft foam project the kids could each do.  Then we went out onto their dock and devoured our candy.  The day was perfect.

Two Peas in a Pod

April 19, 2011

These two have had one amazing year of friendship.  Every Tuesday and Thursday Emma comes to our house while her mom drives Tanner and Noah to school.  Then on Thursdays Lexie goes down to Emma's for a long playdate. They play Groovy Girls and dress ups.  They talk clothes, accessories, and anything princess.  Emma's grandma always serves them a plate full of delicious and nutritious goodies as a snack that Lexie brags about when she gets home. And of course, it takes me an hour to pry her away to bring her back home.

We LOVE you Emma Rose!  We will miss you terribly!

Shooting kisses

April 11, 2011

We have a family rule in our home that we shoot KISSES not BULLETS.  With three boys in the family, we're hoping this rule sticks for as long as possible! 

Every morning as dad leaves for work, the kids RACE to the window to catch him as he pulls out of the garage.  They peg the glass with their shooting kisses in hopes that dad will catch some of them and perhaps even shoot back at them.

We loves you so much dad!  We miss you already and will have more kisses for you when you come home!

Truck Show

April 6, 2011

Every year the Parents As Teacher's organization here put on a big "Truck Show" for the kids.  Rain or shine, if it has wheels, it's there for the exploring!  I've been wanting to take the kids to this each year, but one thing or another has kept us.  This was our last year and we definitely didn't want to miss it!

Here is our neighbor Tim.  Better known at our house as Noah's dad!  Tim manages a whole fleet of these big MFA trucks.  He was our first stop at the Truck Show!

if only I had some handcuffs to go on these little mischief makers! 

The Truck Show was terribly noisy because the kids knew right where the horns were in the vehicles.  The horn was half the fun mom!

Maybe someday Derek will get his dream of owning a farm and Tanner can take his dates out on our tractor or riding lawn mower!  This picture is so classic Missouri!  When we lived in Kirksville people would drive their riding lawn mowers to work.  Ahh, the memories!  Missouri, we are going to miss you!

Colin and Nate hooked up to try out this tractor for size.

Rollerskating

March 29, 2011

Our dear neighbors, the Arbuckles took us rollerskating!  it was our first time and we loved it!  They had these cool "crutches" for the little ones to use.  Because I had a baby there, I couldn't go out on the rink, but Lexie didn't seem to have a problem finding someone to take her around! This was a sweet girl we didn't even know!  She just spotted Lexie and took her under her wing.  (You'll have to forgive the quality of the pictures, the room was very dark and everyone was moving.  The combo makes picture taking tough!)

When she left, Amanda came to the rescue!

Colin "played" video games the whole time. 

Laurie did get him to go out for a little bit and he did great! 

Tanner had a wonderful time!  It is interesting how we navigate to that which is easy.  Tanner would have been content to hold onto his crutch the entire time and say he had a great time rollerskating.   Laurie was good to encourage him and before we left, he was rollerskating around the rink without holding on to anything or anyone!  Jumping out of our comfort zone can really help us go far!  I was very proud of Tanner.

The wise man built his house upon a rock

March 28, 2011

I taught a class in primary about the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.   I had so much fun with it that I decided to recreate the lesson for Family Night. 

Here are my two "houses".  One on a rock, the other on sand.  I like the "castle" look as the house is meant to represent out testimonies of the Savior.  Isn't that how they should be?  Magnificent and grand!  I used a dixie cup to mold the sand and some one inch gravel from our yard for the rock.  I placed everything in a shallow rectangular tupperware bin.  When I poured the water, I tried to be unbiased by pouring it right in the middle.  Watching the sand crumble and fall was fun!  The kids loved this visual.

Here's Lexie's "rocks" for our Family Night treat!  (Chocolate covered marshmallows!)

Trains and Two year olds

March 19, 2011

We took the kids to see the train show in town.  Lexie found one to ride.

We saw micro trains.  These little guys were about the size of a match box car.  It was fun to see how everything in the set is built to scale.

Next we saw the medium sized trains. They even let you run the controller here.

Finally we saw the big model trains.  The display for these trains was amazing.  All these fellas are volunteers and definitely train lovers! They have their own train club where they get together once a week just to play trains.  I can see Colin doing this someday!

Lexie and Tanner loved watching the trains too, but Colin won the award for "most fascinated".

 I can't believe I got a shot of him looking away from the trains.  You can tell by the look on his face, he's trying to get Dad's attention to tell him all about this train.

Forgive the multiple shots here, but it's Colin's face you must see. I didn't have a problem getting everyone else to smile, but Colin was in his element.  i don't have time for a photo mom!  These are TRAINS!

We did, indeed, have to console him a great deal in the walk back to our car.  He cried for loss of sight of these beloved trains. 

The Monkey's Uncle

March 13, 2011

Look what Uncle Alan and Aunt Rosa brought for the kids! They scored BIG points in the "Favorite Aunt & Uncle" Arena with this one!  The sad part was that they had to skip town and didn't have time to see the kids have at it.  No worries though, I took pictures!

Thank you Alan and Rosa!  We loved having you here and we hope to see you again soon!

ps: and the winner was......LEXIE!  She had the toughest hit.  Or should I say, her brothers paved the way for the winning hit!

Valentine's Party at Two Mile Prarie

February 14, 2011

The Valentine's day party at Tanner's school was delightfully easy.  After our Christmas party, I needed it to be easy!  I made a bunch of PEANUT FREE, heart-shaped sugar cookies and asked a couple of moms to bring sprinkles.  The kids decorated, we played a few games and read a Valentine's book.  I love to bring Lexie with me to this party.  She fits right in!

Daddy Daughter Date

February 12, 2011

This was a special day for Lexie!  She had a date with her dad!  They both got all dressed up and went to the church for some refreshments, games, and dancing.  Lexie was aglow with it all and soaked in every minute of her date with dad.  She seemed to be on cloud nine for several days afterwards too.  Mom was only a tad bit jealous!  

MU Gymnastics

February 11, 2011

We had such a wonderful time last year going to the MU women's gymnastics meet that we wanted to go again this year.   This time we brought Emma with us!  Kate took Tanner and he and Noah had a late night together while Lexie and Emma were in their element at the Hearnes Center.

I didn't get as many cool shots this year as you can see, I had my hands full!  But it was fun to go and just cheer them on!