Ice Skating

Today I got to take the kids ice skating. Garen is still wobbly and learning and gets a little frustrated falling down, but Maddie zooms by me backwards and has far surpassed my ice skating skills.
It was really fun to spend the afternoon with Maddie and Garen, after ice skating we played in the play place a while, and then grabbed lunch at Sage Creek bagel, and then rented Despicable Me to watch.

I never knew what Garen was going to do next, cry or laugh hysterically, or both at the same time-

Maddie at her ice skating lessons-

Mustang Basketball Game

We finally made it out to see the Western Wyoming College basketball team. The kids had a great time running up and down the bleachers, eating junk food, and the cheerleaders even gave Maddie a pom pom, a t-shirt, and braclets. We will definitly be going back to see the Mustangs play again. (Even though Sophie is terrified of the Mustang mascot)

Through The Years Girl Scout night

Thanks to my mom we had a plethora of vintage outfits from 1920's-1990's. The girls loved dressing up in all the different dresses and hats! Each girl was assigned a decade and had to tell us some things about it. Then I had a huge bag of things like, Cinderella, playdoh, slinky, Rollerblades, Sorry board game, and tons more and the girls had to guess in which decade it belong to. They earned their Try-it patch and hopefully learned a few things too!

Preschool Adventures

Acting out Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Garen is showing Carter the empty poridge bowl)

building with blocks, but Garen choose to make a pattern instead-

oh, there's a tower-

Singing the ABC's while Garen points to the letters-

Swimming Lessons

I've been doing the mom and tot swimming class with Sophie. She is pretty scared of the water and a little unwilling to try things like going under or floating on her back, but she's getting better. And I enjoy getting to do this class with her while Garen does gymnastics.

binoculars

Sophie was down in the preschool with me the day we made binoculars. She loves them. She walks around the house saying "I see_____" and she pretends she exploring. It's really cute! Thank goodness for toilet paper rolls!

finger printed and Iris Scans

I took the Girl Scouts to the police station this week. They got to each get finger printed and then they got their eyes scanned and put into the system. Now if they are ever lost of can't tell their phone number or parents name they can just scan their eyes and they are all in the system. Pretty cool.
The highlight of the trip was the police dog. Good thing he was super nice cuz their was 15 kids chasing him, hugging him and mauling him! The girls also got to see the shooting range and hear from officer meddler ways they can be safe during this cooking selling time. It was a fun night and I think Maddie enjoyed it too.

Wonderful Long Weekend

Weekends used to feel just like any other day because Andy always was gone. Now that he is home, weekends are the best. And this weekend was even better because Martin Luther King gave us an extra day off. Saturday I got to go work out then Andy took Maddie and Garen ice skating and to play basketball. It was Garen's first time ever ice skating and Andy said he did pretty well. (no pictures since I was not with them). I stayed home while Sophie took a nap.

We spent lots of time relaxing, playing MarioKart, and I even filled 9 black garbage bags with stuff to get rid of! Later we took the kids to see Tangled at the movie theater-cute show!

Monday morning we all went to IHOP for some breakfast. It was fun having 3 whole days to just spend with my family.

trying out gymnastics

Garen has always been nervous and unwilling to try new activities. So when he out of the blue asked me if he could do gymnastics I jumped at the chance. Today was his first day. He started out a bit shy and just sat and watched while they stretched. But as soon as they moved to the bars he was right there. He loved it and can't wait to go back. His favorite was the trampoline.

Sophie's real first time playing in the snow

looking on the bright side of things

Don't get me wrong, there's not a day goes by that I don't feel blessed and find so many things that make me happy. But today was exhausting. I have this awful cold that just won't seem to let up and it's taking away my sleep. I forced myself out of bed this dark cold morning at 6:45. Went through my usual morning of getting everyone dressed, fed, hair done, lunches made, bags packed, Garen out by 8am, Maddie out by 8:30, a quick set up of the preschool with Sophie on my heals and then the next 6 hours I strained my voice and held back my coughs while I taught preschool. The kids were good and we had a lot of fun, I was just tired. Following preschool was a primary presidency meeting, then hungry kids, and homework. I just wanted to go to bed and it was only 5pm. I still had to look forward to baths, bedtime stories, teeth, etc. I could hear the strong winds outside and I knew how icy cold it was out there and I peeked out the window and saw this beautiful sunset. It made me smile and gave me just enough motivation to finish the night out happily and even give my kids an extra hug.

Garen

Me: "Garen did you get all those toys picked up in your room?"

Garen: "Yes, but I don't want you to look."

Garen enjoyed today. His other preschool was cancelled unexpectedly so my friend that drives the boys to school just took him to her house to play instead of bringing him right back home. He had a great time with Alex. He got back just in time to eat lunch and come to my preschool. He loved playing with all his friends and had a blast playing superheroes during freeplay. Then his buddy Max got to stay over after preschool to play while we had a Primary Presidency meeting. He had a day full of play and loved it!

Sophie Mae

Sophie looking super cute sporting her new sweater from grandma Sue.

New Primary Classes

We started the New Year off with a great day at church in new primary classes. Maddie started in CTR 7 (which means she's turning 8 this year-yikes!). And Garen moved from a little Sunbeam to a big CTR 4. I worried he would have a hard time with the change in classrooms and teachers but he had no problems and loved his class! Sophie's still in nursery of course but she did move from Junior to Senior nursery! They are growing up so fast! I am so grateful for wonderful primary teachers that make my kids excited to go to class and that teach them so much!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Twenty-ten came and went in a flash. It was a great year for us full of growth and blessings.
2010 recap:
*Maddie turned 7 and started second grade
*Garen turned 4 and started his second year of preschool
*Sophie turned 2 and pretends to go to mommy's preschool
*Andy finally escaped retail madness and bad hours and got a job at Bridger Coal which is treating us well so far.
*I started my second year teaching preschool in our home and continue to serve in the Primary Presidency
*Andy got called as Elder's Quorem president
*We gained a love for Rock Springs and the people in it
*Maddie and I stayed busy coming up with fun things to do for Girl Scouts
*We had lots of happy moments and lots of laughter and look forward to another wonderful year; hopefully this one doesn't go so fast!

2011 came in with a bang-actually several bangs-okay it was just 12 little party poppers the kids shot off. The kids went to bed before midnight and Andy and I enjoyed watching the ball drop together in Peace and quiet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!