Monday, November 28, 2011

Gratitude


We did the gratitude leaves that we have been doing for the past few years and I wanted to share what the boys told me they were grateful for throughout the month of November.  It seems that I had a lot of repeats this year.  I am still working on trying to get them to realize how important it is to be grateful for certain things, but I am glad that they are starting to realize what it means to have gratitude.
Vance is grateful for:
Going to Grandma and Granpa's house
Playing outside
Dad and Mom
Pepperoni pizza
School
Movie Theaters
leaves
Mrs. McNeely
Mrs. Evans
Being able to play in the snow
New toys
Painting pumpkins
Family
The Bus
Mario Galaxy 2
Grandma Porter
Chase
Grass
Sid the Science Kid
Angry Bird Toys 
Tanner
Tanner is grateful for:
Grandpas (we wrote this down three times)
Christmas Trees
Snacks
Video Games
Mail
Brothers
Toys
Being able to play with Mom
Books
Sunbeam Teacher
Snow
Mom and Dad
Being able to paint pumpkins
Grandmas
TV
Going to Grandma's house
Porter
Thanksgiving
Vance

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Blessing Day


My littlest nephew, Elliot was blessed today.  He is a sweet baby and we were glad to be there to share the day with my sister and her family.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving

I am hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We sure did.  My parents and little sister have been in town. 
 What's Thanksgiving without a little pie? 
 And some napping?  Tanner and Jillian were tucking the angry birds and piggies under a blanket next to Rose while she napped.  She woke up into for a photo though.  :)  Although, I did catch Mom snoozing in the background.  What is in babies that makes you need to nap when you are holding them?
 This would be Tanner asking Rose why she had holes in her ears.
 Little bit of Just Dace to work of all the food they ate.  Tanner especially needed it with that one roll he ate (most of) and a piece of pie, talk about a big eater...
 This is a fun sorting game that Stephen folded for the boys.  They were enjoying it.
 Chloe and Porter wanted to "Just Dance" as well.
My parents brought some books for us to borrow and Tanner has had a great time getting Grandpa to read them to him.  I think he is going to be my book worm.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Vance and Origami Trees

Stephen found this fun new tree design to fold and Vance wanted to help show them off.  Here is proof that the kid can give a really cute smile for the camera despite what his school portraits look like...

Anyway, last Wednesday we were able to meet with Vance's teacher and see how things are going at school.  Stephen decided that since he wasn't sure if he'd ever have the opportunity to go to one again he better take advantage of it now so his mom was kind enough to watch the boys while we did that.  Stephen and I were both very quiet at school so I was unsure how Vance would be.  I soon realized this was not the case for him and his teacher reconfirmed that last week.  It sounds like he is pretty much the same kid at home as he is at school.  I do feel bad for his teacher though, because Vance is very obsessed with "what's next" that he hardly pays attention to what is now.  We are going to work on having him take more time to do his best work at home and at school.  He is good at math (we can thank Stephen for that because I had no hand in that aside from maybe passing a gene from my dad along). He is a bright kid though and he gets along with his peers.

Vance also started riding the bus this week.  He is loving that.  He doesn't have a long bus ride either to or from school, not like when I was his age.  Anyway, the boy is growing up.  Before I know it he will be as tall as me and reading like a pro.  How does this happen so quickly?

Saturday, November 5, 2011

I survived Halloween

I lived through Halloween!  Yay.  I haven't taken any pictures since.  I did want to show off the boys with their trick or treat bags Grandma Jeppson made for them.  They are cute bags.  Sorry, the boys didn't really get it when I told them to show me the pumpkin's faces.
 Holly's kids were very cute.  Sean and Holly were even in costumes.  The night before Halloween Tanner asked me what I was going to dress up as and I told him he wasn't.  He did not think that was acceptable at all.  So he started giving me suggestions, "How about a mummy?"  I told him I didn't really want to be a mummy.  "You could use toilet paper." he responded.  Thanks, but no thanks buddy.  Finally  after a few more suggestions Vance interjected, "Mom doesn't have to dress up Tanner!"  Apparently, that hadn't occurred to Tanner because he gave the simple response of  "Oh, okay, you can just be Mom."
Now we are excited for Thanksgiving at our house.  Our boys were very confused by the snow we had this morning.  They associate snow with Christmas.  Last year we were telling them that just because it was Christmas doesn't mean that we would have snow.  This year we are telling them that just because there is snow doesn't mean that we've skipped past Thanksgiving!