Soph's Open House and First Day of Preschool

Sophie before her Preschool Open House in UT. She was pretty nervous and shy, I was a little surprised. I think with the move and everything that her little life has been turned upside. All of this change is hard for them to understand. For this first couple of weeks they kept asking to go home, aka WA. She clung to my legs and wouldn't talk to her teachers or anyone when we first got there. I wanted to get irritated with her, but I tried to see things from her perspective. I just kept encouraging her to go and play and to meet new friends. It took her awhile, but she finally relaxed and made a friend. :)

I love how Noah is creeping into the picture. That boy loves to pose. :)

They are so cute together. They really truly love each other and Noah gets so sad whenever Sophie leaves.

Me and my big girl. One more year til Kindergarten...cra cra.

Cheese!

Outside of her preschool. My little Washington mole children are having a hard time with the bright sun here. Tragic. They'll get to used to it. But for now most of our pictures look like this. :) haha

And these pictures of Soph before her first day of Preschool! She kind of did the same thing as the Open House, but her preschool is great and had a cute little scavenger hunt and dinosaur footprints leading to the door of the preschool to help the kids loosen up a little. The scavenger hunt helped the kids to find where the bathroom was, where the books were, where the toys were, etc. Noah even had fun and was pretty mad when we had to leave. They had the best toys!! I must find them somewhere for Christmas or something. 

He really couldn't get enough of these magnet building toys. 

Soph with the duck puzzle she did.

More Noah. :) He was so happy to be there. I hope to one day have a basement like this to make as a playroom just for them. That would be heaven. Some day....

Soph with her new friend Marissa. They get along so well! Since they are both pretty shy, I'm so glad that they became friends. I don't really know her mom, but I hope to get to know her better to do a playdate or something. They really are well matched. 

I know that Sophie is going to do well in this Preschool. I'm so grateful how everything has come together for us here. I was so nervous about finding her a preschool so late into the summer, but things have worked out just fine. She loves it now! But she is in the afternoon preschool class from 12:30-3 pm, and man are preschool days hard! She is still in the stage where she needs a nap most days, so she comes home after all that mental and physical work and is exhausted. By 4 pm she is in complete meltdown mode. I've learned to let her watch a show and have a snack for about 30 minutes, then I've been trying to take them to the playground or somewhere where she can't think about how tired she is. Then we come home and have dinner and then bed. With Josh getting off late though, like 6:30 and not home til 7, it's hard to do early dinner 3 days a week. And Noah's naps have gotten cut short on preschool days now too. I'm on a waiting list for the morning class, but that would mean having to make all new friends. Might be worth it though to have our days back. We'll see what happens. But so far this preschool has been great and I hope it will help me to teach her how to read. She wants to soo badly, and has some words memorized. This little girl has the BEST memory! She memorized her entire Merida book, she got one of the leap pad pens for her birthday from Gma and Gpa Dickinson that reads to her. This is not a little short book. It has big hard words and is long. You can turn to any page and she'll recite it to you, word for word perfectly. It's kind of incredible. I'll have to take a video and put it on here. Blows my mind. But now she just needs to connect the words she's saying to the text on the page. We've been working with her, not as much as I should with moving and all. She'll get there though, it'll just click one day and then the floodgates will open, I just know it. But this preschool is going to help her tremendously. They focus on phonetics and sounding out words so that the kids can read anything. 

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read all of that! This is going to become my journal so get ready for some writing. :) You lucky dogs you.

I mustache you a question, and other fun goings on

These two are so silly. :) 

The kids and I had a little picnic in WA a few days before we left. Sophie took this picture, not bad my dear. 

My pretty girl! 

My cute boy!

I don't know. But it's a rare picture of me with at least one of my children.

And this was from the Fourth but I forgot to add it to that post. I wanted to prove that I was in fact there. :)

Fourth of July

So for the Fourth of July this year we were in WA still. It was actually the one day I was glad it was overcast there because otherwise it would have been too hot. I know, I know. I can't believe I'm saying it either. :) We went down to the waterfront and did the Freedom Fest with Josh's family. They got a room at the Silver Cloud Inn the night before so we took the kids and hung out there for most of the day. We were supposed to stay for the fireworks, but since the kids missed their naps they were disasters and I wasn't feeling so hot from all of the extremely healthy fried food that we partook of earlier in the day. So we decided to head home about 6 and just do our own little fireworks at home. It was a great day though and a nice way to close out our time in WA. We love the Freedom Fest and I'm sad that we'll probably be missing it for the next few years. The kids loved the airplane show and walking around to see all of the cool booths and things. There was even a pole vaulting tournament going on, random, that was soo cool to watch. I would definitely cause some serious damage trying to do that, both to myself and the audience members. :) haha We were all glad to go to sleep that night. :)

I found a way to bypass iPhoto--booyah!

Let's see if this works!

Testing-- 1, 2, 3!! :) There should be pictures of Soph's preschool fieldtrip to Schilter's Pumpkin Patch in October of 2012...yeah, I have a lot of updating to do.

Like I said, booyah Apple, booyah.

Valentine's Day

"When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew." -William Shakespeare

Love you honey, you are the love of my life. So glad we're in this together forever. :) We still look hott, even if we have gained a few extra pounds....;) Happy belated Valentine's Day all! 

Pictureless Post

So since our iMac is starting to give us the first troubles since we've had it had and has decided to not let me open or use our iPhoto (boo!), this will be a pictureless post. Just wanted to write things for memories someday. This winter here in the great northwest has been more mild than the last few, but the rain is still so hard for me to get used to. I honestly don't know what to do with our kids. I grew up outside, all the time. Literally. I loved to horseback ride, go on walks, play soccer, run, go out in the desert and make forts, anything! So I really struggle with knowing what to do with our kids when it is wet 90% of the time. And if I hear one more person tell me that my kids are waterproof I'm going to squirt them with a hose. They may be waterproof, but when you're little, it's awful hard to walk in the mud without falling and to not get cold and miserable from being wet. And the playgrounds aren't very useful when all the slides have little ponds at the bottom and all the swings are full of water.

Don't get me wrong, it is absolutely stunning here, but growing up in the desert I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I just don't have the vision for it yet. I miss the sun. I miss warmth on my skin. The smell of the sun as it warms the earth and grass. Being hot. Even sweating. I miss it. My southern Californian, high desert, Pearblossom heart is missing home. I know people love it here, but I don't know if I can ever love having the rain around for 9 months out of the year. Especially with little kids.

Alright, enough of that. The kids are doing great, besides wanting to play outside more (we do play outside, but for limited amounts of time, i.e. until someone gets soaked enough to start crying). Sophie is in Preschool Tuesday and Wednesday from 9-11:30 with Miss Tiffany and she LOVES it. I'm learning that she has a little bit of a hard time playing with other kids. She's always been very calm and go with the flow. She's never been hyper, a climber, rambunctious, etc., so when she's around kids who are (which is almost every other child), she doesn't quite know what to do. She also loves movies and computers, phones, etc. way too much. We really have been limiting her. But kids do come how they are in their likes and interests and overall tones, and she is a mild, relaxed kid. It's great, but sometimes I want her to be crazy and hyper while she can. I hope that I haven't been so controlling as a parent that I have made her into a little adult. But she has always been that way to a point, even as a baby. I guess we just do the best we can and hope not to screw them up too badly. I mean I guess I came out ok, and my parents are crazy...just kidding mom. :)

She really is such a good, sweet, sensitive girl, and when she's around kids who are more calm like her, she does just fine. I am learning to love her as she is, and to see the talents and gifts that she possesses instead of comparing her to other kids. She is great and I don't want to change her. I do want to encourage her to try new things and to experience life to its fullest.

She is now a Sunbeam, and because of Noah's difficulties in Nursery I haven't been able to sneak a peak at her in sharing time or anything yet. But this Sunday I hope to be able to catch a glimpse of the cuteness. She is so excited to be in Nursery and loves to sing and answer questions. She is our smart girl and her teachers love her.

Noah, on the other hand, though sweet and sensitive as well, is like a tornado. He literally makes messes faster than I can possibly clean them up, and many times it wears my patience thin. I have been learning a lot as a mom of 2 toddlers, and sometimes I am not at my finest. But I learn and say I'm sorry if I was too harsh or if I yelled and we move on to have a better day. The beauty of children is that they honestly forgive and forget. The moment you hug them, say you're sorry, and tell them you love them, they wipe their eyes and ask you to have a tea party with them. I can truly see why the Savior admonishes us to be more like them, in every aspect. They are so pure and so full of love. Little Noah especially. It is so fun to see the differences between he and Sophie. He is very much a boy, in every aspect. He loves cars, trucks, balls, running, throwing, tackling, etc. He isn't a climber either, thank goodness, but boy is he attached to us, especially me. That is one of the beauties and downfalls of living so close to family. He is never watched by anyone else.

Nursery has been especially difficult for him. You would think the world is ending the minute the closing sacrament prayer is said. He gets very clingy and starts to pout. The pout turns into watery eyes. They watery eyes turn into crying and then sobs. It is literally the saddest thing I have ever seen. He is just now starting to be able to be left in there after over 4 months of going to nursery. But he is doing so good and I have never been prouder than to look in and see him dancing and playing with the other kids. He still is soo upset when we leave, but he is able to calm down now and actually participate. He is so tender and sweet. But he will hit you if you anger him. So watch out. Like I said, a tornado.

Josh is doing well at work. He likes his job, but sometimes the compensation isn't what he wants it to be. We're hoping in the next little bit that he'll be put into the branch manager training program and then be put in as a branch manager somewhere. We're not sure where, and technically he could go wherever there's an opening in the country, but we'll see what happens. I would like to go somewhere warmer, but he's a Washington boy through and through. Like I said, we'll see what happens. :) He is teaching Seminary right now for church, which means a 5 am wake up call for him, poor guy. He loves teaching the kids and starting his morning out teaching the Gospel, but boy is he tired. It's been a lot harder for me as well, which is not something I was expecting. He basically goes to seminary and work, comes home, eats, prepares his lesson in our room, then goes to bed. He does the best he can to help, but it's been a lot more responsibility on me to get the kids cleaned up after dinner, entertained for a couple of hours, and then ready for bed after spending all day with them. I will never take that time for granted again when he is no longer teaching seminary.

And I am doing pretty good. I have a good friend base here, and our ward is awesome, but sometimes I feel misplaced here, like I didn't choose it. I don't know how to explain it. I just never thought we'd settle here. I always pictured us somewhere else, so the longer we're here, the harder time I'm having adjusting the idea I had for our lives. We may not end up here, we don't know, and that's the part that is the hardest for me. I like to know what's gonna happen and then to plan for every possible variation of that scenario. And then to talk about it over, and over, and over--again, and again, and again. Poor Josh. :)

I do like it here, but I just feel unsettled. Like I said, I don't really know how to explain it. I want to live somewhere we both choose. Maybe I'll just have to switch my attitude and choose Washington, since we ultimately go where there's a job. But we'll see.

As a family, we are truly so blessed and grateful for all we have. We are happy, healthy, and optimistic for the future. There's not much more you could ask for. :) Sorry this is so long, but it is a blog and I am a talker. Ciao!