Fall Happennings

Eeeek! It's been months since I updated. Maybe it's because I am getting older or because my kids aren't babies anymore but I feel like time is just going by way too fast!

When school started I had a hard time. Adjusting to being home all by myself wasn't as exciting as I thought it was going to be and even though I almost always had stuff to do to fill my time the house was quiet, too quiet. I had to plan things to do to be social an interact with other adults or I would just sit at home all day, every day and I found out soon that being alone all day is incredibly depressing! I am not a social person (like at all!), I would rather be home with my family than anything else so it felt weird to me that to help maintain sanity I needed to be social.

I would love to get out and do service or help at the school, I even thought about getting a job but for the next few years I will need to take Austin out of school for a time to work with a language therapist since he is dyslexic.

Austin and his good friend Tai at the Thanksgiving feast. 

I pick him up from school, bring him home where he meets with Ms. Faith and then drive him back to school.  It really chops up my time into small fragments and makes it hard to commit to anything. However, we have only been doing this since September but the results so far have been AMAZING!!! Well worth it! Not only has Austin's attitude towards reading changed but so has his ability to read. We have noticed small things like reading his fortune at Pei Wei one night, reading us his primary program part when he hopped into the car after church one day, reading billboards as we drive along the freeway, but the real shocker came one night when we sat down to read scriptures. Austin got a set of scriptures for his baptism and he likes to follow along as we read. This particular night he asked Jaren where we were and when Jaren told him what verse we were in he just started to read! Jaren and I looked at each other with wide eyes and neither of said anything. We didn't want to make a big deal out of it but we were both so happy. He just took off and read that night! Now every night at scriptures he and Caleb take turns reading. Then this last weekend we were in the car coming home from church and Austin taught us a few of the rules he has learned from Ms. Faith.

Sometimes Caleb is home when Austin meets
with Ms. Faith. If he's here he usually hides in
the pantry and eats a snack while watch-
ing a movie on the iPad.

1.If you have a word that ends with the sound "k" and the word is only one syllable long then it will end in the letter "k". Example: Sick, Pick, Rock, Sock, Mock, Lock, Puck, Luck, Chuck, Nick, Click, Drunk, Sunk, Silk, nick ... Anyways, you get the point. But if the word is two syllables or more then it will end in the letter "c". Example: Panic, Traffic, Electric. Jaren and I had fun thinking of new words and testing this rule.
2. This one says that in a word, if you are wondering weather or not to use a "c" or a "k" you should look at the letter that comes right after it. If the next letter is an "I" or and "E" then you would use a "K". But if it's any other letter then you use a "C". Example: Cookie, King, Blanket, Pumpkin, Kite. I thought of the word skate and skunk and Austin wasn't happy that they didn't follow the rule so the next day we asked Ms. Faith about them. She said there will always be words that don't follow the rules but Austin will get to a point where he knows them all and knows which one's follow the rules and which one's don't.
Have you ever watched those spelling Bee's and you sit and wonder how in the world those kids could ever know how to spell those ridiculously long, hard and not very often used words? Now I know that the kids know all these rules that Austin is learning. When I told Ms. Faith that Austin was teaching us his rules she was so happy to hear that because once you can teach it to someone else that means you really understand it.

Diving off one of the blocks at a swim meet. 

When we take Austin out to meet with Ms. Faith he's missing PE and legally they have to offer the kids a certain amount of PE/week and the only way I could get the school to agree to him missing PE was them knowing that he goes to swim practice five days a week. He's been doing swim team for a year and a half and most of the time he doesn't complain about going. He has friends on his team and likes the social part of it. He hates the meets! I think he puts too much pressure on himself. His dives off the block are the best on his team, no doubt about it! His favorite stroke is the breast stroke, it's also the one he's the best at. His least favorite is the butterfly. He has quite a few Personal Best buttons that he had me attach to his backpack this morning and he loves it when he gets some ribbons.

Yay Austin! 3rd place! 

Sometimes while Austin is at swim practice Caleb and I will go to Costco and recently they've had these huge bears that Caleb begs me to get every time we go.

And after swim practice Caleb likes to climb the poles in front of the building. As of yet he is the only child I have seen who can climb these. Most kids can't climb them at all but little Caleb just climbs all the way up to the top ooohing and awwing everyone around him.

One day after swim pactice we went to Walgreens to get, well I don't remember what. Oh yeah, candy corns! Ha! I wish I didn't love those things. Anyways, as I was looking for the bag of just candy corns and not all the other stuff like pumpkins and acorns I looked up to see this.

Austin

Caleb

I laughed so hard! Is that not one of the ugliest things you have ever seen? Me and the boys spent a long time taking turns wearing it, taking pictures and laughing.

On Tuesdays we have nothing after school and the boys love that day because they get to play with friends. One day in the early fall we had the Anderson twins over and Austin had his heart set on making a flying bicycle. I used to tell Austin that things like that weren't possible but then I watched the movie Jobs. You know the one, about Steve Jobs? And I realized I shouldn't be telling him things like that. I should be encouraging him to try.

Pilot Austin getting ready for take off

Walking the bicycle, really a tricycle, down to the runway. 

Getting ready for take off.

The crew with their captain. 

Caleb playing outside ... On a Tuesday!

I also try and use Tuesdays for dr's appointments, dentist appointments or anything else that may need to be done. We have a pretty cool dentist's office and at our last visit the boys discovered that they can get free hot cocoa and they were pumped!!!

Caleb got his first and in this picture he is teaching Austin how to use the machine. 

Mmmmm, nice hot cocoa! 

For the boys birthdays this year we gave them the option of either having a birthday party or picking a fun place to go to. They both chose to go somewhere fun. Caleb, whose birthday is in September chose to go to Lego Land. He invited the Anderson twins to go with us.

Lincoln (Or Spencer), Caleb, Spencer (or Lincoln) and Austin

Again, the gang. I can't tell the twins apart yet. 

The birthday boy!

 For the boys birthday presents this year Jaren built an addition onto the playground. He added a few of the obstacles that are in the American Ninja Warrior show. Both Austin and Caleb are obsessed with that show. They know all the people who are in it and they have their favorites. Almost every day they would take things out of the garage and make their own, fake course so that they could train to be the next American Ninja Warrior so it only seemed natural to build them some of the obstacles.

At Lowe's getting some of the things they needed to build their running steps

1st step is well under way

 For Austin's trip he chose to go to Sea World in San Antonio. We left on a Friday mid way through the school day and started the five hour drive down to meet Jaren who was already down there on business. We spent Friday night at the hotel in their pool and then headed to bed. On Saturday we got up and decided to take the boys downtown since Sea World didn't open until Noon.

Inside The Alamo

On one of the bridges on the river walk

Playing games at Sea World

One of Caleb's prizes. He named him Cooper. 

The boys favorite show. And actually, mine too! It was really really good.
There we acrobats who could do some pretty amazing things!

 Austin turned 8 this year which in the Mormon church means you can get baptized if you want to. Austin got baptized at our church building in Mesquite on November 1st by Jaren. He wanted to keep it small and personal so we just had family and close friends. It was Jaren's parents, Zac and Andrea and their kids, Elizabeth and her kids, Shay with her kids and then the Zollingers. Cindy Hansen played the piano for us, Leslie Grady directed the music and Austin's primary teacher, Sister Taylor also came.

 When you turn 8 you get to join scouts. And if your one of Ron and Lisa's grand kids you also get to go to Disney World with them.

At a scouting field trip to the fire-station. 

Austin's troop, 792. Bowen, Jace, Ethan & Ky. Caleb came along since Jaren wasn't home from work yet. 

Disney World with Grandma and Grandpa!

Okay so we took Caleb bowling one night and that isn't nearly as cool as 5 days with
Grandma and Grandpa in Florida but hey, Caleb will get his turn in two years. 

So towards the end of the year I kind of stopped taking pictures! Urgh! Here's only a few pictures from some biggies that I should have more pictures for:

We went to Lego Land to celebrate with the Kearney's for Luke's birthday. 

HALLOWEEN!!! Can you believe it? This is all I have from Halloween! I am so mad! 

For Thanksgiving we rented a bounce slide for the kids. That's all I got pictures of on Thanksgiving, was the bounce house. And I decided this year that we need to come up with some Thanksgiving traditions. We have none! Zero! And Thanksgiving came and went like it was nothing special and I didn't really love that. So please, if you have any traditions that you love then leave a comment. 

Right before Thanksgiving we headed down to Houston to stay with Elizabeth and crew for a few days. The boys really love playing with her kids and we had a good time. It was the first time since we were turning 19 that we spent our birthday together. Elizabeth's mother in law, Jan, set up a service project at the local food shelter. Caleb absolutely loved it! He is my little thinker and organizer and he thought separating the food was so much fun. He got right to work and would cheer when they brought more food in to separate.

Robbie and Caleb waiting for more food. 

Austin, separating. 

Austin and Kate stopping to smile. 

 After we were done at the food shelter we went over to Rob and Jan's house (Elizabeth's in-laws). They just moved to a new house and they had a toy room that was meant just for the grandkids. It was, without a doubt, the coolest toy room I have ever seen! It was like something out of a magazine and the kids could not get enough of it. I even got some good Christmas gift idea's while we were there. When Jan came up to say hi Austin told her how cool her toy room was. I love that he would think to tell her that.

 The next day was our birthday and we had plans to go out to lunch before we had to drive back to Dallas. Before lunch we took the kids to the park and they had a great time.

Unlike Thanksgiving I feel like Christmas time around here is done right. We started the holiday cheer with decorating the tree while listening to Christmas music. 

And a large part of why I feel the Christmas magic more than the Thanksgiving pride is due to this little advent calendar that I created after seeing one similar on Pinterest a few years ago. 

I made it with the help of my very crafty and wonderful friend Leah! Well actually she made it with my help! Each of the dates has a Christmas activity in it and every day the boys get to pick one out and we do it that day. Some are big activites that can take hours, other are small. Some are really fun and others are well, calm! But they all have to do with Christmas and for the 24 days before Christmas the boys have something fun to look forward to. Examples of things they pull out are: read a Christmas book, do a Christmas craft, color a Christmas picture, have hot cocoa with candy canes, make a Christmas treat, watch a Christmas movie and eat caramel popcorn, bring gifts to teachers, read a scripture about the birth of Jesus ... you get the point. They really love pulling it out every morning and seeing what they get to do that day. This mornings was get a Christmas gift for your brother. Here are some of the bigger things they got to pull out this year. 

Go to the downtown Christmas Parade

Don't let Caleb's face fool you, they LOVED the parade! It was a huge hit! 

Grandma's Christmas Party. Lisa has a grandkids Christmas party every year where she has the grand kids over and has a little party. The parents get to go Christmas shopping which is exactly what Jaren and I did. 

The boys with Addie and Nolan on a sleigh ride at Grandma's Party

Go to The 12 Days of Christmas at the Dallas Arboretum. Caleb was being so cute. He was constantly posing for pictures and he looked so handsome.

Go to Santa's Village with the Petersen's. 

The Petersen's - Heath & Jennifer and their five kids from oldest to youngest: Savannah, Sade, Tess, Max and Dane

Decorate Gingerbread Houses

As a side note I want to mention that Caleb is doing really really well in school and I couldn't be happier about it. I was worried about him heading off to school this year. While Austin is a social butterfly who thrives off of being around other people Caleb is a total introvert and wants to be home with his family (wonder where he got that from?). I can picture Austin at school, I can picture him talking to new people and making friends. I couldn't picture Caleb at school. I was worried he may hate it and complain. But not once this year has he complained about going! Every night when he gets home brings in his stuff, shows me his things in his folder and makes sure that he gets his reading done. He is proving to be rather responsible about it all. At his conference with his teacher she mentioned how he easily he makes friends, yay! Way to go Caleb. 

Caleb really loves showing us all of the things he does at school. He really takes pride in the things he does and I like sitting down with him and seeing how excited he is to show me all the things he brings home from school. We built this rather large magnetic board in his room so he can hang his school things on it. 

The other day when I showed up at 12:30 to get Austin the lady at the front desk told me she was just about to call me, that Caleb was sitting in the nurses office and I could go see him if I wanted to. He had just collided with another boy and had a big bump by his eye, he had just lost a tooth and he had a fever (according to the nurse, it was like 99.8). He came home with me and was totally fine. The tooth fairy did pay him a visit that night. 

Caleb lost his first tooth in school on December 15th, 2014. He was 6 years old!

The Parent Pig out Picnic at the school! You only eat things that start with the letter P.
We had Papa Johns pizza, popcorn and Pepsi! 

At Caleb's school this year they are doing ELU's (engaged learning units). For this one the kids learned about the different states of matter. Here is a little video of Caleb and his group and one way they learned about the different states of matter. The little boy in the beginning of the video says "This is our ELU, crayons matter." 

And Caleb, the poor little guy is still having testing done to see what's going on with his tummy. These are from when they did a pretty cool x-ray. He had to drink a special liquid that you could see on the x-ray and I got to watch. What he drank went into his mouth, down his esophagus, into his tummy and then moved on into his intestines. Thankfully, everything internally looked normal. 

Waiting to head up to be x-rayed.

Every brave patient deserves a new stuffed animal. He got to take this home with him! 

And I'll finish this with some completely unrelated pictures that as it turns out, all happened to be taken on a Sunday. Different Sundays, but all on a Sunday. 

Jaren and Caleb were at home this Sunday because Caleb had thrown up. Sacrament meeting went over a half hour late that day and Austin pretty much couldn't handle it. We took this picture and sent it to Jaren and Caleb at home. 

Taken in the hotel room in San Antonio the Sunday we left to drive home. 

When a busy week catches up with you this is what awaits you on a Sunday night.