Student of the Quarter, Harvest Party, and Randoms

Maisey was student of the first quarter again this year! We are so proud of how hard she works and how well she behaves at school. Her school had a celebration at a restaurant in town for her and her fellow students of the quarter.

 This is Maisey's teacher, Mrs. Watts. She is seriously AMAZING! Maisey loves her because Mrs. Watts talks fashion with her. I love her because she is so positive with all of the students and really knows how to make learning fun!

Mrs. Watts talked about Maisey for a few minutes at the dinner. She told every one how Maisey can read 200 words per minute! She said the next fastest student reads 129 wpm. And the goal for the end of first grade is 120 wpm. She also talked about how she can pair Maisey up with any student in the class and how Maisey can help her partner stay on task. 

We stopped for ice cream sundaes on our way home from the dinner!  We seriously love this girl so much! 

 Today was Gage's Harvest Party at school. 

They were short volunteers, so I said I could come in as long as I could bring Miley with me (usually they don't like you to bring in other kids). They gladly accepted my help.

 Miley loved being able to tag along with big brother. She sat right behind him for circle time. It was so cute!

 Gage during play time!

 Gage made a beautiful tree (this was the station I was in charge of).

 I have 104 Miley selfies on my phone. 

And after the Harvest Party was over I stopped for some treats to regain my sanity!!! 20 preschoolers and a strong-willed toddler is a lot of work! :)

Other randoms from the week:

 I taught art in Maisey's class this week. This time I left Miley with a friend and it was wonderful!

 I was trying to clean out my closet and let Miley sit in my sink and play. Apparently if you play with bronzer like it is symbols this will happen. And apparently, if you don't wash it out of your sink for a few hours it will stain it. Oops!

 My week is not complete with out a Panera stop. This time it was for a asiago breakfast sandwich. YUM!!

Our week would also not be complete without Gage ruining something. Luckily this week it was a $3 paci and some silly putty from a birthday party goodie bag. It's amazing how dang sticky silly putty can be. We only have two paci's left, and when they are gone, THEY ARE GONE!!

Shopping, Basketball, Nursery, and More

This is my lame attempt at keeping my blog updated! 

 I've been scouting out the Black Friday ads because we have a few big purchases in mind! We are going to have to tag team it this year and pay for a babysitter because I need Shaun to be at one store while I am at another. Unless, we can find a good deal online before then. . . Let's hope!

 Gage tried doing his own hair one morning. He used the entire container of spiking pomade ten minutes before school started! That was a stressful morning with a lightening fast bath!

 I really enjoyed watching Gage's basketball game this week. He really does get better each week and this week there wasn't any punching at all! Progress!

 And I have to add that he had the cutest fan club there cheering him on!

 While Maisey was at a birthday party Saturday afternoon, Shaun and the other kids and I ran to the outlets to do a little Christmas shopping. I love, love, love shopping with Shaun! It doesn't happen very often (read: like 3 times a year), and I love it more when we don't have any kids with us, but this was still fun!

 Sunday was Miley's first official day of nursery! She was all smiles before church because she had no idea what was coming! We expected a lot of tears, but she didn't cry at all when Shaun dropped her off! We kept peeking in at her and she was eating snacks, climbing up and down chairs, or doing puzzles.

 There were a few tears at the end because she was the last kid picked up. She probably thought we were leaving her there forever, poor girl!

 Gage "surprised" me with breakfast this morning. He was so proud of himself and kept calling himself "restaurant man". Uh.. . too bad he forgot the cereal!

 This babe was devastated when she saw her blankie go into the dryer! It made for a very long hour. I tried distracting her with treats, games, and shows, but she just kept walking back over to the dryer and screaming!

 I may be addicted to these! Sooo lame. What a waste of calories, I know! But I always have them because Miley is addicted to them as well!

 Gage plays with the ABC Alaska train puzzle everyday! He knows almost all of the animal names now, and some of them are hard because they aren't common animal names! 

I worked out today! We are going to attempt family pictures on Saturday, and an extra three pounds off my bod wouldn't hurt right now! I haven't consistently worked out since school has started! We'll see if I can get in all five days this week!

The End!

Fast

Seriously, how does the time go by so fast? Today is only the second time in 16 days that both older kids were at school at the same time! I had SO much to get done today. 

 This is what my to do list looks like:

Pick up perscriptions

Calendars at Michael's

Buy a particular Christmas gift that was on sale this week

Birthday gift for Maisey's friend

New shower curtain

Make baby shower invitations

Deseret Book

Returns at Outlets

 

  I'm about half way done with my list and I just looked at the clock only to see that Maisey will be home from school in 10 minutes and the afternoon chaos will begin!

Ahhhh, but I enjoyed listening to Christmas music while I was doing all of that! 

40 more days!!!

I'm not sure if I'm more stressed or more excited!

Miley: 18 Months

 This sweet and sassy girl is 18 months old today, and she has the attitude of an 18 year old! She is so spunky and opinionated, and loves to get her own way.

She is still obsessed with shoes. As soon as she wakes up in the morning, she goes straight to her closet for shoes. She changes pairs often throughout the day. Sometimes I even put her down for naps with shoes in her crib, just so I don't have to listen to her whine! Her favorites: these brown boots, green crocs, and her hot pink converse all-stars.

 She is very opinionated when it comes to getting dressed. If she doesn't want to wear something she kicks her legs and makes a growling sound while you try to put it on. She doesn't like wearing this sequined shirt and often times takes it out of her drawer and puts it in the dirty clothes so her mommy won't make her wear it. I get a laugh out of this every time! And if her Elmo shirt is clean, that is a must wear! She walks around all day pointing to her tummy saying ELMO!!! She also likes putting her coat on and brings it to me multiple times a day to put on. She then stands by the door begging to go outside once she has it on. 

Her favorite place to sit in the house is the bathroom sink. Any time a bathroom door is left open, I can guarantee you she will be sitting in the sink. She climbs up onto the toilet then uses the toilet paper roll to climb onto the counter and then plops her self down into her little oval throne. If she happens to do that in my bathroom she likes to play with my makeup that is out on the counter. Luckily she doesn't know how to open anything or turn the water on. . . yet!

 She likes to brush her teeth and she makes the motions for it by sticking her finger in her mouth and rubbing it back and forth on her molars. That means she wants you to find one of her many toothbrushes. That is her toy of choice when we are driving or running errands. She also doesn't have any personal boundaries when it comes to whose toothbrush she can use. I have found her a few times using my sonicare brush. Oops!

Her hair has these sweet little curls at the bottom that I absolutely love! I run my fingers through them any time she will let me. She also has more hair at this age than the other kids. I wonder how long it will stay like that?

 Miley has a very sensitive spirit. The older kids added the YouTube video "Charlie Bit My Finger" to their favorites list on the iPod so it is easily accessible. When Miley sees this she says "Owwww" and starts crying. It really is sweet and kind of funny. She also doens't like when the big kids watch America's Funniest Videos. She screams and cries anytime someone gets hurt.

Sometimes she crawls around the floor like a baby and giggles about it. She knows when she is doing something and getting attention for it, because then she will step up her game a little and continue doing it. She's a smart girl!

 She is a paci and blankie girl all the way. She has learned how to reach them out of her crib during the day and comes walking down the hall with them. She has only had two pacis since she was born and it is amazing that we still have both of them. It's going to be a sad day when mommy finally stands up to her and takes them away. 

Miley is my animal lover. She chases the neighbor cats around the cul-de-sac and can't let a dog pass by with out attempting to pet it and make a panting sound. She recently discovered this giant horse at Wal-Mart that may just have to find it's way under our Christmas tree. She also loves Elmo, but I'm not sure he counts as an animal!

 Miley weighs in at 23 pounds (unofficially, her check-up isn't for a few more weeks) and has 12 teeth! She takes one nap a day and is awesome at bedtime. She is still a major mommy's girl, but is getting a little bit better when I leave her with a sitter.

She loves to jibber jabber and she occasionally mixes in one of these words: all done, football, go, up, hot, drink, shoes, socks, cheese, more, no, dad, mom, sissy, gagey, ball, that, what, poop, nana (banana), and thank you. She won't say words on command though, she has to initiate them.

I love this sweet little girl to pieces!

Carousel

The kids didn't have school today, so I was trying to think of something fun to do that I could do with three kids by myself, wouldn't cost a ton, and that the kids would think was special. So we headed down to the Riverfront Park Carousel! 

 This is how Miley looked during our first ride. She was being such a scaredy cat and I'm not sure why. Usually she loves the carousel!

 During our second ride, Gage opted to drive the covered wagon. . .

 . . . and Miley and I opted to be passengers in his wagon. That went much better!

 They have started decorating the carousel for Christmas! It will be fun to go back down as it gets closer to Christmas.

And then. . . the meltdown came.

Well, we tried!

Apple Night

I was in charge of the combined young men/young women activity at church last week. We decided to have an apple night.

 Of course my little side kick was happy to help me get things ready!

We started the night off with an apple relay. Then we split them into groups to participate in three different stations.

 Station #1 - Who could make the longest consecutive apple peel. A 14 year old boy won!

 Station #2 - Bobbing for apples. The boys especially liked this station.

 Station #3 - Caramel Apple dipping. 

 After the groups rotated through all of the stations they got to eat their caramel apples while playing Apples to Apples.

When I got home, I sliced up some apples, put my feet up and enjoyed this bowl FULL of caramel! 

YUM!!

Maisey - Soccer and Art

Maisey's soccer season ended last weekend with a come from behind win!!! And it was so cold, windy, and rainy. :( In that way, I'm glad soccer is over. But I wish Maisey could keep playing because it was fun to see her improve each week. She definitely got more aggressive and she was one of my best defenders! 

 

 My mom was available to babysit last week, so I got to do an art project with Maisey's class. We did an Andy Warhol inspired project where we traced leaves and colored them in with crayons and then used water colors for a background.

They turned out beautiful!!!

Gage - Picture Day, Sick, and Basketball

 Gage had picture day at school last week. I left before he actually got his picture taken, so I sure hope the blue paint that came home on his shirt happened after pictures were taken!

The day after Halloween I picked Gage up from school and the first thing he said was, "Mom, my brain hurts." Then we got home and he told me he was going to go rest. I told him to eat lunch first.

 Before I could make lunch, he was asleep in his bed. That should have been my first clue he was not feeling well.

 That afternoon we were outside playing and he fell asleep being pulled around in the wagon. Clue #2.

 When we took his temp he was 104* and we decided to have him stay home from our ward trunk-or-treat and carnival. He didn't even care. Clue #3.

By this time I realized we might be in it for the long haul!

 We kept him home from his basketball game and team pictures on Saturday.

 And we kept him home from church on Sunday, school on Monday, and school on Wednesday. By Wednesday afternoon, you could tell he was starting to feel better because he was back to bugging everyone and getting in lots of trouble!

That sure was a long week for all of us!

Gage played in his second basketball game two days ago!

 He was shooting around before the game started and made two baskets, granny style. He was so excited.

During the game I saw him down in his football position and I snapped a picture real quick (I was coaching the game this week because Shaun wasn't feeling well!). He is sure a funny kid!

That's pretty much what Gage has been up to lately. I kind of miss my cuddly sick kid, but I'm so glad he's not puking and coughing anymore, and sleeping through the night again!