Things We're Thankful For

It's been a fun tradition in the month of November to (most days) write down something we are grateful for.  I love all the cute things the kids say.  The month always starts with the obvious things, like family, our home, etc. But as the month goes on they have to start getting a little more creative and it's really sweet what their little minds come up with.

Here are some of my favorites from the three big kids:

 

Olive's are so sassy and adorable.

Olive's last one is "pajamies" which is what she calls her PJs.  :)

Bentley's handwriting is a little tricky, so to clarify his say "I love my Book of Mormon." "Getting Home." "My mom."  Could this boy make my heart melt any more?!

Eden's drawings are darling, and I love that each of hers are something educational.  I wouldn't have expected anything else from her.  She loves to learn and is a sponge for new information right now. 

Olive's Preschool Turkey

One day a week, Olive goes to a preschool class taught by a friend in the ward.  This is by far her favorite day of the week.  She would go every day if I'd let her, but I'm just not ready to give her up more yet.  She always comes home with the cutest projects.  This turkey was one of her favorites and she insisted that she got her picture taken with it.

Happy Thanksgiving Olive!

Karly and Bentley Love

Bentley Loves Jumping in the Leaves

Though it's not much of a pile, our tree is finally getting big enough to at least make a little mound of leaves to jump in.  The girls will jump in once or twice, but Bentley loves it the most and will rake and jump over and over again.  I love that in all the pictures I took, he is just a blur.

Pesky Siblings Messing Up Olive's Show

One particular afternoon, Olive prepared a dance show that she wanted to perform for me.  She specifically requested that I get it on video (which I did), and as some funny things were unfolding, I also decided to snap some pictures during the action too.

Olive can be very silly and light hearted when she is on stage, but she can also be a very serious performer when the time is right.  She had the music blasting and was performing one of those serious numbers for me.  Before long, her siblings started to see what was happening and slowly began to sabotage her performance.   These pictures make me laugh because you can totally see that she tried to ignore them, her frustration started to show on her face, but that great performer never broke eye contact with the camera.

Oh Olive, I sure love you.

Stories and Songs at the Balloon Museum

Every Wednesday there is a free story/craft time at the Balloon Fiesta Museum.  The days with extra singing and dancing time is always Olive's favorite.  That's her there in the front row, right in front of the teacher with her arms raised in complete joy.  She loves it.  Karly usually sticks pretty close to me in the back, but she is also thoroughly entertained.  I love the free entertainment for my kids, and that I can sit and enjoy that beautiful view of the mountains!

After the story time is done, we usually wonder around the museum for a bit and see all the cool and interesting hot air balloon things.

I love being able to spend this fun time with my girls and friends!

Kindergarten Math and Writing

Going to the Family School has been an answer to my prayers.  I absolutely love the schedule, the increased time I have with my kids, my level of involvement in their education, and the fact that they can work at their own level and at their own pace.  Bentley is in a Kinder-2nd grade class which gives him the opportunity to move up in the curriculum way faster than he could ever do in a regular school.  He is thriving and loving the challenge.  I'm so grateful we have the opportunity to be there. He's only been in school three months and he's already at this level:

This writing is his dictation work.  I read the sentence aloud and he has to transcribe and then mark the grammar. His spelling and knowledge of nouns and verbs already is so surprising to me.

We love family school!