Monday, October 22, 2012

Enjoying Fall

We are enjoying Fall.  On Friday we carved one of the pumpkins we had brought home from the pumpkin patch.  Well, I carved it anyway.  If you saw the video I posted on Facebook then you know how well it went when I told the boys to clean out the pumpkin guts.  Vance was the only one to actually get a few seeds and he did it delicately.  There have been many years that he has acted just like the other two did.  "YUCK!"  I blame Stephen because he thinks the whole carving pumpkin process is yuck too.  One reason we paint our pumpkins, not to mention way easier for the kids.
 We took the boys to the Bountiful temple grounds on Saturday.  It was very busy with weddings and people attending sessions, but it is a lovely temple and grounds are still enjoyable to walk around despite the busy-ness.  Porter looks like he thinks he owns this world in this picture.  Makes me laugh.
 Porter "reading" to me.  He doesn't like to be left out so he will pull out some of his favorite books, grabbed the timer (his older brothers have to read between 10-15 minutes) and goes to town.  He has the Mo Willems books pretty well memorized so it's pretty entertaining to hear what he remembers as he "reads".
 Tanner coloring a Scarecrow book he made for preschool.  Sometimes this is as exciting as life gets.  :)

Friday, October 19, 2012

Fall is in the air

Fall is in the air! Here are some pictures from the past weekend and a half or so.  Porter loves to lay on the floor and pretend to nap.
 Vance had school pictures taken at school.  We opted not to buy any since they didn't really turn out last year and my little sister took some cute pictures of him this summer.
Sleeping boy.  So precious.  Look at him snuggling with his frog.
Tanner with a spiral ghost he made during preschool.
Stephen's family had a little reunion in a park last weekend.  It was wet and kind of cold.  One of his cousins is a volunteer firefighter though and the boys had fun checking out his fire truck.
Porter is showing me how reverent he can be just before church.
An owl Tanner made during preschool.  I think it turned out cute.
I realized this day that I had only taken pictures of preschool stuff and none with Tanner in them so here is my photo of the day- monster activities that Tanner did for preschool.


 Vance recently got two new pairs of glasses.  His old pair kept breaking and he needed a new prescription on top of that.  He has been wearing the other pair, but I made him put this pair on to show off.
Yesterday we went to a pumpkin patch that we found last year.  It has a maze that is perfect for my kid's age and a great selection of pumpkins to pick from.  The boys had a great time playing in the maze and picking out their pumpkins.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Potty Training and Stuff

I haven't posted for a while.  One day Tanner was playing Angry Birds on Stephen's phone and Porter hopped on the chair next to him with his snack to watch.  So cute.

Porter was being cute playing with this Apatosaurus.
Vance has daily homework which includes reading at least 10 minutes to me, a super speed reading where he is timed on sight words, super speed math where he is timed on a math card, then he practices his spelling words for the week.  He can also write his teacher a letter about the book he read that day for extra points to go towards a game they play on Fridays and Vance, who is always motivated by rewards does a daily letter.  Here he is working on a letter.
A cute picture of Tanner, Porter, Elliot, and Jillian when the Gallands were at our house one day.  I was actually taking a picture of Porter and Elliot being cute together and Tanner and Jillian were eager to be a part of the picture taking too.

 Vance and Tanner participated in the primary program this particular Sunday.  They did a great job.

Last Monday was the big day.  Potty Training day!  Oh boy, my least favorite thing to do, but boy is it nice not to have to change or pay for diapers.  We had a rough three hours, but then things started to click in his little head and it got easier.  The dinosaurs actually ended up being a huge help.  I had them talking about how cool the potty was and he made sure they were all turned towards the potty and when he would use it the dinosaurs cheered for him.
 We talked about different kinds of dinosaurs for a week and a half during preschool.  Here is Tanner with a stegosaurus.
Porter bonked his head on the wall and left a sad bruise on his head.
Porter was having fun playing games.  I let him hang out just in a t-shirt and underwear the first few days he was getting used to potty training.
 Tanner with an apatosaurus he made with a paper plate.
Conference Weekend!  Yay!  One of our favorite weekends of the year.  We enjoyed it and even had Rose, Glen, and some of their friends down here for a little bit of it.
 Vance built a temple using legos during one of the conference sessions.
 Stephen was so tired at lunchtime he laid on the floor and fell asleep.  When Porter was done eating he came and laid by his dad.  I told him that it was time to nap and he insisted he should nap on the floor with his dad, but I said no.   He has gone 3 days with no accidents so I think things will only get easier on the potty training route.  Yay!