Another week

Looking over the pictures for this past week I am realizing that we didn't have an overly exciting week.

Since Vance and Tanner write down the things they are grateful for on their leaves each day Porter was feeling left out so I give him a pencil and a leaf each day for him to "write".  Then I go back and write what he said down so we know for the future.  He is funny though because he ask, "How do you spell that?"  Sometimes he'll even start naming letters.

 Tanner drew this picture and wrote "This is Batman" by himself.  I thought Vance had done it at first, because I didn't realize that Tanner knew how to write sentences on his own.  So there you go,  little smarty pants.  I think it's funny that he wrote "This is batman" but who the heck is the other guy?

 Tanner reading to Porter.  He was reading a booklet that came with the movie "Brave" that we bought this week.  My boys weren't scared at all of the movie even though there is a scary bear.  However, Tanner got emotional to the point of tears at a couple of emotional parts. It was bad enough I had to turn of the movie at one point and talk things out with him.  He has a sensitive side.  Reading the book actually helped because he realized everything turned out alright in the end.

 Tanner playing on the Wii.  His latest favorite game to play has been Batman 2.

 This is a lousy picture, but these are some mini stars Stephen has folded lately.

 Sunday night= movie and muddy buddies or as Porter calls them "money buddies".

 Tanner doing some Thanksgiving activities.

Birthdays, Snow, and Stuff

We have a "Give Thanks" tree and leaves that the boys put up each day of things that they are grateful for.  We have done the gratitude leaves for several years now, but this is the first time we have a tree to go with it.  I tried to make one and it looked terrible so this tree is one that Stephen made for us.

Porter just looks so sweet when he is asleep.

 This kid practically lives in his cape lately.

My little sister turned 20 on Friday and we celebrated with her on Saturday.  Here is Vance working on a sign for her on Friday.

Rose at her birthday party.

 We went to Stephen's parents house on Sunday evening to celebrate his dad's birthday which is today.  Porter and Grandpa were sitting on the couch playing with phones.  It was fun.

 Just a little picture of Tanner hanging out after getting up from a little nap.

Happy November

I have let myself get behind on blogging.  Oops.  Here is Tanner reading "The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything" while Porter put visuals on the flannel board for it.

 Leaf rubbings Tanner did.  Actually the red one I did to remind him how to do it but the other two were his.

 It snowed one night/morning and on and off throughout the day.  Thankfully it didn't stick for more than that day.  Vance was super excited for it though and was ready to go in his winter gear well before he needed to catch the bus.

 Porter loves his super hero cape.  He will wear it all day long for days at a time.  He also loves chips... :)

The boys in their costumes.  My mother-in-law was kind enough to sew a bunch of things for us.  Here they are at Mandy's house for a Halloween party.

 Stephen found some directions for these fun skeleton hands, pumpkins, and bats.  They are all super cool.  The bat's wings flap too and the pumpkins have little jack-o-lantern faces.

 Tanner wanted to talk about witches and wizards for preschool one day.  I couldn't find too much about wizards that didn't have to do with the Wizard of Oz or Harry Potter, but he did enjoy this coloring sheet and we watched Sword in the Stone.

 Porter has learned how to control the mouse for the computer.  I admit this makes life easier for me.  I have some educational child-friendly sites favorited on the internet and he knows how to pull them up.  The downside is that whenever I am at the computer he will come over and say, "Hey, you're in my seat!"

 Halloween!  We went to my sister's trunk of treat with her again like we did last year.  I think I have the cutest super hero, vampire, and bat ever in existence.

 Vance came home sick from school this day.  We let him relax and even play a little on the Wii.  It only took about two minutes of being home for him to perk up and feel better.

 Cute Porter.  Do I need to say more?

 Apparently I can't get enough of Porter's cuteness.

 Tanner all ready for church.

 I thought the sky looked really cool around 5:00 this evening especially against the fall looking tree so I took a picture.

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.  :)

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.

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!