School Stuff

A couple of weeks ago Vance had to do a seed collection.  We found some seeds and he even got his Aunt Mandy and Grandma Jeppson's help getting enough seeds for the project.  He collected a sunflower, lemon, tomato, hollyhocks, carrots, spinach, and apple seeds.I offered to help him get more, but since he only needed 6 and we got 7 he thought that was sufficient.

 This week Tanner is the student they are spotlighting so he and I made this poster about him and he got to take it to school and talk about it.  They hung it up and he will get to do a few different things this week so his class gets to know him better. He didn't have enough room on the poster for everything he wanted, but we thought this summed up a little bit about him.

Tanner's Birthday

Well, my Tanner is now six.  He is a funny kid and we are grateful to have him as part of our family.  I shared these pictures on facebook, but wanted to share some favorites on here as well.

The kid is a little ham when he wants to be.

 I wanted to take some pictures of him on his birthday so we did this before school.

 This might be my favorite picture of Tanner and Porter.

 This is a cute one of all three of them as well.  Vance let Tanner pick out the shirt Vance is wearing since it was his birthday.  Vance really gets into giving the birthday person every privilege possible.  Haha.

 About ten minutes before Tanner came home from school Stephen suggested we put up a sign on our front door for him.  I had the fonts downloaded already and so I whipped this out.

 Here's Tanner's cake.  Yes, I was pretty lazy about it, but I didn't want it to turn into a cake wreck and with black frosting that was  entirely possible so I just made something on photoshop and printed it off.

 Blowing out the candles.  He didn't mind being sung to too much this year.  He did have a hard time getting those candles blown out though.  He enlisted Jillian's help.

 He was very excited to get all of his presents and his facial expressions showed it.  This one is probably my favorite expression.

 I won't put all his present pictures on here, but thank you everyone who gave him something.  He has been having a lot of fun with his gifts.

Tanner's 6th Birthday Video

I asked Tanner what his favorite Piano Guys song was and he told me it was "Michael vs. Mozart" so that is what is playing on his slideshow of pictures over the last year.  Tanner is quite the kid.  He is brilliant and yet his strong emotions lead him to be defiant and stubborn too.  I am still trying to figure out the best ways to help him learn and grow are.  I probably always will be trying to do that.  One thing for sure is that I love this kid to pieces.

Glen visits

We were bless to have my brother, Glen visit us this week from Idaho while he had a couple days off work.  He convinced Stephen to play video games with him while he was here. (He really had to twist Stephen's arm...cough, cough...uh no.) Poor Glen had a cold while he was here.  I felt bad for him, but I'm glad he came.

 Porter has really been enjoying preschool and wants to do it everyday.  I did it every day, but Friday with him last week.  I am all for it, but it is hard to plan and keep up with it when you do it that much so we probably won't keep that pace.  We did read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" one day and did activities.  He loved that.  Later, Tanner volunteered to read the book to him again.  I love when they spend time doing that together.

 It was my mother's birthday this passed week.  Hope you had a great one Mom!  I took a couple of pictures this morning before church, but not of Vance.  In fact, no pictures of Vance this week at all. I guess with him gone all day.  I will have to try and remedy that.

Keep Smiling

Here is an oldie, but a goody of Tanner when he was two years old.  Some advice to keep in mind.

Enjoy the Moment

Here is a picture taken by my younger sister Rosemary.  I added the text.  Only afterward did I realize this is probably a good quote for Vance because he is always worried about getting things done and moving onto the next thing that he forgets to enjoy the moment. :)

September Means Birthdays

We made it through the first week of school. For Tanner that meant going Monday with me, Tuesday he had his assessment, and then starting school normally on Thursday.  He was so excited to ride the bus.  Here are he and Vance getting on the bus on Thursday.  He said that was his favorite part of the day.

 Vance is enjoying school.  He is doing a seed collection already and knows lots of kids in his class from previous years.  Tanner is still adjusting and so we'll see how things go this week.  His teacher and I have talked about putting him in a higher grade for reading groups for 45 minutes of the day since the kid is reading 2-3 grade books with ease.  Hopefully we can get that all worked out soon and get him into the swing of things.  I think his teacher is good, but keeping Tanner learning will be a challenge I think.  The kid is just a smart little whip.  It is almost embarrassing.  I don't want people to think I have been shoving education down his throat, he just came like that and I have guided him along.

September is a big month for birthdays in Stephen and I's family.  We kicked off the birthdays yesterday with my nephew.  He had a cute train cake.

 Here are he and Porter playing with one of his birthday presents. I think these two will be good friends even though Porter is a year older.

September also includes my mother, Stephen's mother, Tanner, my older sister, Stephen's oldest sister, and one of my brother-in-laws birthdays.