Look at my talented children.
Love these little papers from preschool. A different order every time, but she's got all the important letters there!
Painting with Layla.
It's hard to decipher here, but this is a moose that Brian went running with. Yikes!
Aunt Lindy asked all the grandkids to draw a picture for Grandma's birthday. McKay and Layla drew great pictures of Grandma in less than five minutes. But this one...this girl had draft, after draft (she just couldn't get that head quite right) after draft until it was finally perfect.
Some day I suppose I will miss how exciting the first snow of the season is for kids. Especially for four year olds. After the kids left for school, we had to get right out in it and build a snowman of course! The snowman was so small that Bentley, our neighbor's dog, kept eating the body before we could get the head on. It didn't dampen our excitement too much. We always hot chocolate after.
I took the beehives thrift store shopping. This was their 'sassy' picture. It was satisfying teaching those who were interested how second-hand shopping can be awesome. It was super annoying to deal with those who weren't so interested in shopping and were more interested in riding children's bikes around the store. Either way, it was a fun night.
Isn't she the cutest?
These are pictures from when KSL came to Grovecrest and filmed a segment on our school. Of course my kids wanted to show up at 6am and be part of it. So we did! They both got some good shots on camera, especially Ellery who was right in the front. It was exciting for sure.
Since I'm already talking about my famous children, I might as well add this little tidbit. This happened like two year ago, but I just now got a physical copy of the primary sharing time manuel that it was printed in. McKay and his friend Taylen's modeling debut!
Layla and Travy after their Thanksgiving feast.
This child goes to the doctor more than the other two combined! This was when we thought her foot was broken due to a wild jump down the stairs. She wouldn't' walk on it for days, couldn't wear a shoe on it for over a week (good thing she has hard-soled slippers!) and it was bruised and swollen. But, thankfully, not broken, just a sprain.
These are just to prove how if either of us has any sort of a climbable angle to our bodies, Layla will jump right on. I'm giving the FHE lesson and yes she is in a swimsuit in November, blowing up a balloon. Is that weird?
Ellery will complain sometimes about how Layla tries to talk to her when they are laying in bed. I once asked her what they talk about and she said, "Well, she'll ask me about the Corbin in my class, and then tell me about the Corbin in her class. Like, 'My Corbin has black hair, what does your Corbin have?'" I thought that was pretty adorable and sometimes wish I could hear what else they talk about. Ellery pretends to be all annoyed by it, but then when class pictures came home and they sat like this on the stairs, Ellery pointing out each classmate as she described them to Layla, I know she can't hate talking about Corbin all that much. These sisters make my heart so happy to watch.
This view was pretty cute too.
I am the room mother for Ellery's class and Mrs. Sharma had a birthday in November. I brought roses to school the morning of her birthday and gave one to each of the kids to surprise her with as they went into the classroom. They also each wore orange or pink- her favorite colors. It's fun to volunteer- I really like it- and being a room mom doesn't take as much as I thought it would. But even if it did, there is something about the pride and excitement on my kid's face when I'm there that is so worth it to me. I love those faces.
While I was there waiting for school to start, I got to see McKay on the soccer field. I honestly don't know how he stands to play this everyday- it seemed to me that there were absolutely no rules and kids (usually the ones with or right by the ball) will just shout out random calls like referees and the group either goes with it, or argues about it. And there are no real goals. It just seemed like madness. And yet he totally loves it and plays it everyday.
Snuggles in the morning with my buddy.
McKay had a free haircut at Sports Clips, and since he was a first-time customer, he got this free "shave" and warm-towel massage. She didn't shave him, but he was sure wrapped up like a mummy in those warm towels while the stylist massaged his head. It was my favorite thing that happened that day.
I'm not even going to pretend that I know how to spell the name of the soccer player that this new 'do was inspired by, but I'll give it a go. You are looking at the mini Carlos Salsado. A few things about this new haircut. First, I have never ventured out of the haircut that I know how to on him, and I thought it was maybe it was a good time for a change. Second, won't it be so fun for him to remember how he had this trendy haircut and maybe think it's awesome still, or maybe be happily embarrassed by remembering "the Salsado"? This is a very popular haircut for boys at the moment and right now it feels just fine to be joining in. Third, he loves it!
There is this lovely little park in Highland that I don't know why we don't visit more often. But on Eto's birthday, while McKay was at his party, Jana and I took the rest of the kids to feed the ducks and play on the playground. There are a lot of ducks in this pond and we all loved looking at all the different kinds. They enjoyed our bread, but did not like our corn tortillas. I also had the kids collect a bunch of acorn tops that I wanted for a craft I will probably never do. That was still fun for them though- seems like kids like to collect things, even if there is no purpose to it. I have a lot of acorn tops now.
It's been awhile since Brian got out his guitar, but it's always fun when he does. He used to make up songs about the kids all the time, while strumming his guitar. I'm assuming that he's singing a song about McKay here.
