Happy Birthday America

Our 4th of July was laid back and spent at home. We had the kids take naps (which shockingly they ALL did! woo-hoo) and then we ate dinner--we grilled some yummy brats and chicken.

After dinner we had a bit of time to kill so we headed over to the pool to swim for about an hour.

Then it was off to watch fireworks! We stopped by Sonic to get some treats--the kids were really excited!

And then to Plano for some fireworks. We've found that a GREAT spot to watch the firework show put on at the Oak Point Nature Preserve is at the Los Rios LDS Chapel in Plano. We can avoid the traffic and most of the crowds and still see things just fine while having some grassy space for us to sit and relax and we've told enough of our friends that we were even pleasantly surprised to find some of them there too!

Happy 4th of July!

Summer Activities

This summer we've enrolled the kids in a few activities:

Sam has done a Bobby Moffat soccer camp. It wasn't all we'd expected it to be and Sam thought it wasn't that fun--(it was unusually hot early this year)but he stuck with it and finished. He still wants to play but would prefer just to play and not do any more clinics!

And Kaitlyn has enrolled in some ballet classes. She's been asking me for awhile to try ballet, we thought a few classes in the summer would help her decide if she wanted to do it in the fall. And she's decided she'll just stick with the piano for now. Which she's really doing well at!

And we're swimming--A LOT! like 3-4 times a week. It helps that all my kids LOVE the water and are so happy in the pool. We've found that it's best to go first thing in the morning before the water gets too warm and the pool is not as crowded. It also helps that we go right after I've done my run on the treadmill!

Matthew WAS an easy baby....

But now, he's Trouble with a capital T!!

This boy has hit a threshold of "into everything" that none of my other kids ever came close to. Maybe it's because I don't have a flexibility of just running after him all day long like I did with the others but this kid is CRAZY!

He has a knack for finding all things dangerous or expensive. He's broken my glasses, tweaked his dads. Can find the lone pair of scissors in a room, or the lone marker. He LOVES digging in the trash (took out an empty dishwasher detergent bottle and poured the extra soap on the carpet and bleached a spot) and playing in the toilet (ew!). And he's amazingly adept at opening cabinets and drawers and emptying the contents!

And a couple weeks ago he learned how to climb onto chair and from chair to table. He loves the phone and anything with buttons. This especially drives dad crazy in his upstairs media room. And all of these things he runs around doing ALL DAY LONG, and in an instant.

I have to admit I find myself putting him in his high chair or pack and play on a regular basis to keep him safe and to keep my sanity! Heaven help me, this boy is all over the place! It's a good thing he's super cute--Matthew, you were such an easy baby why are you being a handful of a toddler?

We survived and almost thrived

It's usually a dreaded week of the year: SCOUT CAMP

A week where I pull duties as a single mom while my husband uses a week of his vacation time from work and takes the youth from our church on their summer activities. Off and on for the last 8 years or so we've endured mountain biking, camping, rock climbing, etc. Stephen loves it, I support him.

So this week in his absence we stayed busy: (sorry for the lack of photos--Stephen had the camera)

TOY STORY TRILOGY:
We watched the whole Toy Story Series 1, 2 & 3 This was pretty fun, we own the first one and that's all my kids had ever seen so on Monday night we reviewed #1 (a perfect FHE activity!) and then on Friday night we borrowed #2 from some friends and THEN when dad got home on Saturday we watched #3 which we rented on Blu-ray. They were really cute. I think I still like the first one the best but the last one was pretty cute too!

SWIMMING:
Every morning, except for Tuesday (we had doctor appts) we hit the community pool by 9:00 and would swim until Matthew needed a nap, at around 10:30. This was so ideal for us as Lindz and Sam just finished some swim lessons last week so this let them get even more exposure to the water and let me reinforce what they'd learned. The pool was not crowded at that hour so I could keep a better eye on my kids. And it allowed my kids to get a bunch of energy out and helped them be pretty mellow for the rest of the day.

CHORES & LESSONS
Another way we stayed busy was a chart of chores and lessons that we did faithfully each day. My children already do a daily chore but in the summer we add to that chore list as they are home and around to learn AND with them all being home, keeping the house in order is a lot more work. That combined with Kaitlyn's daily piano practicing and Sam's reading lessons, we were pretty full.

DEVOTIONAL
My favorite thing about summer is the added time in the mornings where we get to really study the scriptures and go into more detail teaching and explaining the gospel found in them. This week was 2 Nephi 31 and it was fun to create a diagram showing a path that leads to heaven that has a gate you must pass through to get on. Doing this diagram with Sam and Kaitlyn really helped it click for them. They were all into it and it was a great mommy moment for me!

The other thing that they're really into is "marking" their scriptures. Parts that they really like, they'll highlight and mark up. Sam even has taken to opening his scriptures on his down time and "looking for words that make him feel happy inside" and marking those. Sometimes I wonder if it's going to get out of hand and if they'll miss the concept of highlighting because it seems so much like being able to color in a book (total no-no in our house) but for now, if I'm guiding it it's working ok.

Throw in a couple doctors appointments and an adventurous purse shopping/kick board shopping/sonic ice cream treats outing with our favorite Rachel Hay--one of my most special friends--love this girl. (And my new purse is super cute!) And that was the week!

So that's how we did it, we just stayed busy. And know what? I LOVE having all my kids home with me and planning our week of activities and doing special things with them. Bring on the rest of the Summer!!

Memorial Day Weekend

We decided to take advantage of the extra day off and take a trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa McKneely for Memorial Day! It was a great visit, as always. We love spending time with them and cousins and just getting away from our own life for a couple days. Here are some of the highlights:

We DID fly some cheesy cheap kites, or tried to without much success, We DID help to cut down a dead tree, we DID listen to Grandpa McKneely''s favorite song, "Stars and Stripes Forever" really loud and march around the house AND--

Kids helping grandma make cakes and muffins in the kitchen:Getting our swimming legs used to the water again: A walk down to the pond where we went canoeing: And this little guy finally decided that he COULD walk and was really taking to it by the end of the weekend and is quite sturdy now a week later! He's loving his new "trick"!!

Kaitlyn End of Year stuff

So Kaitlyn has been quite an involved little girl this year....she played soccer for the first time this year. She had amazingly patient and encouraging coaches who made it fun for her. I think she sometimes even surprised herself with her abilities. One memorable moment was in a game a little over halfway through the season where she ended up with the ball and began to dribble it up the field and she almost shocked everyone, including herself by scoring a goal but didn't quite make it there. Her coaches and all of us on the side were thrilled for her! It was like it all clicked. There are days when she wants to play again, but she really wants to try ballet too--so we'll see.

A really fun thing that happened close to the end of the school year, when her favorite children's author, her Grandpa Lewis. He came to her class and shared his books and gave a little lesson on what it takes to be an author and taught each class member to draw their own duck!! She even prepared a sweet introduction about him and here is a photo of her getting up and reading it:

Then there was the end of year class party and class awards. Kaitlyn was recognized by her teacher for being a super great reader AND for being very responsible! I've really enjoyed being active in her classroom and really feel strongly that parent participation improves learning and improves the education your child receives. I have come to love her teacher oh so much--she LOVES Kaitlyn and I love anyone who loves and cares for my child. I just hope she can teach more of the McKneely kids!! Thanks Mrs. Donahue!!

Sam's End of year Fun!

Sam is 5.....he starts Kindergarten in the fall......he's getting way too big!

Here are some of his end of the school year activities:Their musical performance where they sang "I am a pizza...." Sam was a GREAT performer, especially considering he'd missed a whole week of school and practicing while we were on vacation.
They have "water day" at school where they have fun water play and they get to paint their faces. Sam became a Tiger--I tried to tell him that tigers aren't allowed in my van, but he didn't buy it!!

And then there was the end of year picnic--which happened to be rescheduled due to weather, here is Sam with one of his BEST friends, H....And his AMAZING teachers, who have grown to be my friends, Marcy Griffith and Laura Crutchfield
These ladies are key players in my mom support system, always encouraging me and offering me good sound parenting advice! LOVE THEM! Feel so blessed to have found true partners in raising my kids!! I feel so wonderful about leaving them in their care for preschool!

But school now is over--BRING ON SUMMER!!