Friday, May 29, 2009

Christine's First Field Trip

On the last big kid day (all kids who will be in kindergarten next year) at Christine's preschool, they went on a field trip to the zoo. Michael, Emma, Jacob, Emily (a little girl I watch), and I tagged along too. After seeing the animals we went to the play area and had a picnic. The kids had so much fun, and it was a nice way to say goodbye to her class and teacher.

Michael had his long lens on which was great for the animals, but not so for people. Most of the photos with people in them are pretty close up and/or don't have the whole group in them.


Emma the lion and Christine the goat. Sometimes I think that this really should be their home.


Christine and her buddy Rain were some of the few kids that got to see the wolf. Everyone else got bored and walked on. I guess sometimes she gets rewarded for dawdling. Michael was the only one to see the tiger. He finally woke up after everyone else left.


My girls really like Dora and Diego, so it was neat for them to be able to see a real red panda. There were two eagles there, these birds always seem so majestic to me. Both had been injured which was why they were living at the zoo.


This horse is enormous. We have a better picture of the horse, but this one has Mrs. Smith (even though her head is down). Here is part of Christine's class (minus Emma).

Christine loved school this year. She enjoyed learning new things and adored her teacher. She tried to start many arguments with, "Well, Mrs. Smith said..." Almost every Saturday she would say, "Today is the day Mrs. Smith sleeps in." She really was a wonderful teacher. Most preschools here are faith based, which I was a little worried about. I wanted to be the one to teach my kids about our faith. I didn't need to worry though, her curriculum was wonderful. Every week they would work on a letter and correspond it with a bible story. Mrs. Smith would have a song that went along with the story and could explain it simply enough that the kids would understand the general idea of the story. She was perfect for Christine and we will miss her. She will be wonderful for Emma though, she has the perfect balance of love and discipline. Christine is so excited to start kindergarten. We live across the street from the elementary and she talks about going to school almost every day. I hope she keeps her enthusiasm for learning, we'll see when the homework starts piling up.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Emma's Birthday Party

When I uploaded the camping pictures, there were almost 200 photos. So, the next few posts are things that took place a while ago. Bear with me.

These pics are from Emma's friend party. We didn't plan a big shin-dig, just had her friends come to her favorite park to play and eat cupcakes. She had a blast and so did her friends.

Our beautiful birthday girl.

She wanted blue cupcakes that tasted like strawberries. We compromised and did blue cupcakes that tasted like blueberries.


The best big sister.


Grandma Linnea, Jacob, and Grandpa Brian. Grandpa Wynn - the only way we can take his picture is when he doesn't know it's happening.


Our good friends Colin and Josh. These brothers are weeks apart from the girls. It is always exciting when they come over.


We love Megan, she is one of Emma's best friends. Austin is our busy little friend. There is always an adventure looming when Austin is around.


Lydia is a year younger than Emma, but she insisted on inviting Lydia. She is the sweetest little girl. Blake is so polite. We love to play with Blake. He was definitely our cupcake king.


Kisses from the birthday girl. Emma loves to swing.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Dan's artwork

We have a friend that does amazing pencil drawings from photos. Here is the link to his page so you can check out his work. http://photostopencil.blogspot.com/ My stick figures are iffy at best, so I really admire his talent. Good luck Dan!

Surviving Camp

We had such a good time! We went with my parents, my brother Jeremy, his fiancee Carmen, and his kids Brandon and Ashton. It was so fun to have Jeremy's kids there. My kids adore their family. Our first night was cold, but the kids stayed warm. My parents went to Lovell on Saturday night, and when they came back Sunday afternoon they brought extra blankets, so the next two nights were toasty. Jeremy and Carmen had to leave Sunday night, but Brandon and Ashton stayed with us. They got to go to Yellowstone with my parents that evening and our big event for the night was Emma falling in cactus. I think she actually rolled in it. It was everywhere! I felt so bad for her. We had her laid out on the picnic table in just a diaper while Michael pulled out the needles with tweezers. We ended up having to throw her pants and shoes away because they were covered in needles. After we got what we could see out, she fell off the table onto the nice hard ground covered with gravel. This trip also produced her first black eye (I don't even know how that happened), a goose egg on her forehead (car door), a fat lip with scratches on her cheek (Christine hit her with a stick), and many other bumps and bruises. She still said she had fun though. Christine had a blast dragging each member of Jeremy's family around. She loved getting to know Ashton better and liked to be wherever she was. Jacob was a trooper. He is such a good baby anyway, and he kept it up at camp too. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Jeremy tried to teach the girls how to rope. For those that don't know her, this is Carmen.

This was how a good portion of the trip went for Ashton. Christine wanted to ride on Jeremy's shoulders until she got up there. This was one of the beautiful views.


Christine and Emma playing Go Fish. Ashton and my mom playing a clapping game (I can't remember which rhyme they were doing). Michael and Jacob hanging out.

Christine on the bridge. Carmen helping Christine. This is how Emma wore her hat most of the time. It reminded me of a certain young man from Lovell who used to drag main a lot with his hat like this. Ashton on the bridge.

Emma's many colored face. Carmen and Jeremy.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Camping

We're going camping this weekend. I'll post details when I get back. Wish us luck!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I'm Sorry


She gets it from both of us really. Without direction from anyone, this is how she arranged the fish as she took them out of the game. Both girls also have the sometimes annoying habit of arranging store shelves. If they find a product out of place they like to put it back in the correct spot. If we're not in a hurry, this is only a minor annoyance - but when are we ever not in a hurry when grocery shopping?

Monday, May 18, 2009

Conversations

Emma likes to buckle herself into the booster
that is too small for her now.
Christine's hats from Granny.

Here are some recent conversations with the girls.

Christine: Mom what are all of these holes in my shirt?
Me: Those are called eyelets.
Christine: Emma, these holes are eyelets.
Emma: Chiteen, why do you have holes in your islands?

Christine: Mom, mirror is a long word.
Me: Not really.
Christine: But it has a lot of letters in it doesn't it.
Me: Only 6.
Christine: But it's long to say.
Me: (trying to end the mirror conversation) Sure.
Christine: Is it long in Spanish?
Me: I don't know what mirror is in Spanish.
Christine: Me neither, even though I speak Spanish almost all the time. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. Muchos glacias.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Jacob's blessing



We blessed Jacob on May 3rd. Now that the camera has been uploaded, I can get busy blogging. I'm so disappointed that the only pictures we have are of Jacob. Church was at 9:00, so getting 4 adults and 3 kids out the door was work enough. By the time I got home from church, the girls had already changed their clothes and were playing in a dirt pile. Oh well, at least there are pictures of him.

We had a BBQ at Wynn's after church. Our good friends the Wilde's and Dahle's were there along with Tori, Mike's uncle Mike, Pat, Lisa, and my parents who also came to the blessing. We had so much fun with everyone and were glad that so many could come to celebrate with us.

Birthday Pictures

She's a shoe girl, just like her mom.

These were the hot items. Grandpa Wynn got the girls new bikes for their birthdays. I hope Christine remembers in November that she got her birthday present in May.

Granny Cindy got her this neat "van" (fan) with a candy bracelet.

Jacob and Christine got Emma some books to finish a series they've started.

Christine loves to ride her bike. Unfortunately it was raining Tuesday night and they could only ride in Grandpa's kitchen.

Granny got a can of silly string for each girl. They quickly used all of it in the kitchen. They loved it and mom is still finding silly string!

Granny got Emma her own Care Bear. Now Christine's will have a friend.

She loves her bike. It has a water bottle and a pouch to store things in.
She pedals pretty well and then tries to go backwards, which makes the breaks come on.

Her friend party is on Saturday, pray for nice weather, and nice three year olds!