Friday, December 12, 2008

When Will I Ever Use This In Real Life?!

I'm BACK!!!! It's not that we haven't been busy, just on blog-post-burnout. We have been quite busy actually. I've always wanted the stereo-typical soccer mom title. Run, Run, Run, and to be the "cool mom". I don't know if I still have the "cool mom" title with all my kids, but we do run, run, run.

So far this school year Than has played soccer and bowled and the youth bowling league. At this time both activities are done. He is also involed with AWANA at church which is once a week. And let's not forget school.

Being a homeschool project myself, I am asked somewhat regularly why I don't homeschool my own kids. I'll tell you why. I can't teach above average children and keep them challenged the way my son needs to be challenged. And I love them tooooo much to subject us all to that kind of torture. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against homeschooling, it's just not for my family. It's a calling from God that I don't have.

After parent teacher confrences, something I have always loved, I realized somethings not only about myself but about Tony and our mixed gene pool we call our children. Than has always been above average(gets it from Tony). This was confirmed yet again. He reads at an 8th grade level, but chooses not to most of the time(also from Tony) and has totally skipped 5th grade math and is in 6/7 grade math, which is taught by a different teacher than his home room teacher. We were told at the beginnig of the year that he was bumped up to the advanced class and to not expect anything over a C. Going into confrences he had a B- and that it could be higher, we still neede to go talk to the math teacher. I was sooooo proud of him, he was above what I was expecting. After talking to the math teacher we were told that indeed his grade was a B- and to be able to stay in the class he had to pull the grade up to and A. What? An A? Why?
Totally caught off guard by this report the controll freak in me came rearing it's head. What do we need to do to get this grade up, 'cause by golly I won't have any child of mine dropped down to a lower class! Here is the answere we got: Than needs to ask questions when he doesn't understand things, Than is not showing up for all the "extra credit" study time before quizzes and tests' (being at school at 7:30), Than needs to try the extra credit work(problems that the students only have to attempt to get 10 pts toward their grade). Oh, the Than is a quiet kid thing again(get's it from Tony). I simply don't get the quiet thing!
So, in the three weeks since confrences Than has brought his B- up to an A-, has been asking questions, showing up early when necessary, and attempint the EC work and getting it right. Oh yeah, I also kinda threatend him with being tutored, which would entail him talking to someone. You can do anything when you have a very persistant and vocal mother behind you.
We are so proud of him, I knew that grade would come up.

I know, I know, where am I going with all of this? One of things Than has to do is bring his math homework home so that I can check it before it's turned it. I'm finding I remeber a lot more than I thought I did from ???? years ago when I was in 5th-7th grade. Right now he's doing fractions and decimals. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

The answer to my title question. When will I ever use this in real life? When you have kids and they need help on their homework. That's when!

Two main things I came away from confrences are: 1) Tony and Than are more and more like each other every day. They don't like to talk, be around too many people, and apply themselves to their fullest potential. 2) I may need to go back to school so I understand how they are teaching kids these days.

Dani is still in dance once a week and absolutly loving it. Her confrences went great. She is slightly above average and such a little mother to the class.

Gretchen and Becca are still my babies at home and we are all loving it.

Hope this post makes sence to all of you.

Outside Fun

I took these pictures the other day, Dec. 10. As you can see there is no snow on the ground and barely any on the mountains. We took advantage of the unusually warm Dec. day and played outside for quite awhile.


beautiful Becca, I just love that faceclean faces are totally over-rated


Gretchen and Nevaeh



Becca having fun on the big swing. This is the best I could get, she wouldn't leave her eyes open.





Pancakes Anyone?

Gretchen has been asking for pancakes for breakfast and since we were out of milk I decided she would get her wish. All the girls love helping in the kitchen and pull their little chairs in to "help". Gretchen is getting really good at putting the ingredients in the bowl and learning how to use a whisk. Here are pictures from start to finish. Enjoy!





















Beautiful Eyes

I know that I'm a bit partial to my kids beauty, but you have to admitt these brown eyes are beautiful. Can you tell who these eyes belong to?



Dani's School Christmas Program

I vow every year that I'm going to get good seats at my kids programs. Our seats weren't too bad, but I hope to have better seats for Than's program next week. I was having a hard time getting my camera setting right so this is the best picture I got. The school divided the classes for the program and put the kindergarten class with the older class which is nice.
I think I have my settings and lighting figured out so I can get more pictures at Than's program.

A Morning for Us Goes Something Like This......

A typical day in our house goes something like this: Than gets up and in the shower ( I wait in bed for the water to go off) I get up and we start getting breakfast and lunches, double check the backpack, and Than heads of to school while I wait for my babysitting kids to arrive. Gretchen gets up between 6:30 and 8:30. I prefer the later time myself. She gets her morning milk like most people get their morning coffee. Most mornings she wakes up pretty happy and goes off to play with the kids. Thankfully she waits for Becca and Dani to wake up before going through her entire wardrobe. Becca and Dani get up around 9:00 (Dani is in afternoon kindergarten so she can sleep in). When Gretchen knows that the other girls are awake to fashion show begins. The outfit of choice lately is either a swimming suit or pj's. We take Dani to school at 11:30 and from that time Gretchen usually has changed her outfit 3 times. Pj's to swim suite to something in the dress up trunk back to pj's. I have fare warning that we are about to leave and take Dani to school. The pictures below is what she decided was warm enough to wear out and about. Thankfully it was a pretty warm day out.



The inspiration behind these pictures is my friend Kathy. She thinks it is so funny to take pictures of crying children. Becca just got in trouble and put herself in time-out. This is a new thing of her's. She goes and sits by the wall (where the babysitting kids go to time-out) and cries and cries.






The 3 Little Princesses

My sister Erin and her kids, Cam and Bailey, were here for a week in November and the kids got to spend some much needed time together. I didn't get any pictures of Cam that turned out good, but had a lot of opportunites to get pics. of Bailey with Gretchen and Becca.



We can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks for Christmas. Hopefully we will get enough snow to play in. We love you tons.


Vampires are still in the air

Dani got this lovely mouth piece at the Harvest Carnival. Gretchen and Becca thought they were the funniest things and loved playing with them. My petite little Gretchen doesn't have big enough mouth the accommodate such accessories. Becca on the other hand had no problem donning the beautiful mouth piece.






Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Halloween/Harvest Carnival

I know that I'm soooo behind on getting this post done, oh well, better late than never. Than didn't dress up this year, he is outgrowing the costumes but not the candy.
Dani was Wonder Woman, Gretchen was Mulan and Becca was a monkey.
Because the weather is usally so cold here,and I'm just not in to the whole
trick-or-treat thing, I just take the kids to the Harvest Carnival. They get so much candy, it's warm, and I don't have to be as worried that something will happen to my kids.
The one place I do take the kids is my aunts house. This year she bought all the kids an extra treat(pez dispensers). After she let the kids pick out the pez she said they could go pick out a candy out of the bowl. Gretchen decided that she didn't want the pez and put in under the table that the candy bowl was setting on and emptied the candy bowl into her bag, and yes my aunt let her keep all the candy plus the pez. When no one was looking I put some of the good candy back.





















Who Does Becca Look Like?

My friend did this on her blog with her two kids so thought I would give it a try. I was very surprised at some of the results, especially Becca's.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogies - Family pics

Who Does Gretchen Look Like?

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Who Does Dani Look Like?

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots

Who Does Than Look LIke?

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family history - Family search

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Pumpkin Fun

Carving pumpkins was a lot of fun this year. We got our pumpkins from my mom's garden so that made it special for the kids to use Grammy's pumpkins. All the kids totally got into it and I have to admit so did I. I'm not usually bib on this activity. Than the squeamish child that he is really struggled with the pumpkin slime. I rather enjoyed watching him squirm(is that bad of me or what). Thanks Mom for all the pumpkins.














Becca's pumpkin. "Mr. Potato Head" pieces to put on pumpkins. These were a huge hit. Becca loved rearranging the face as you can see all puncture holes.





the middle pumpkin is Than's and the other is Gretchens. Can you guess which Disney Princess is on Gretchens?






Dani's pumpkin. Can you guess which Disney Princess I am?








Parents Day at Dance

This was parents day at Dani's dance class. The parents are only allowed to go on the specified day to watch otherwise they are now allowed in the room. Mandie went with me to help wrangle all my babysitting kids and took the pictures. Dani absolutely loves dance. I'm so impressed by what she is learning(I know nothing about ballet) and her balance in pretty impressive while she is doing all the positions. She now tells me that she can speak French because of the position names. Good job Dani, I'm so proud of you! Can't wait for the Spring recital.










doesn't this look like a comfortable state to be in while teaching dance