Well, the last few days I have been working on putting my blog posts (which I printed a few months ago) into a book as a family journal and have realized it has been a week since I added a new post. Life has just been busy crazy normal life around here.
Last week the kids had their Parent Teacher Conferences. All of their teachers told us they were a joy to have in class, well behaved, great friends to others, and doing well in their learning as well. They all have wonderful teachers which makes it so much easier. I am there once a week for each class which I love. I get to know the teacher and other class members as well as being aware of what is going on. In our school district grades are 4,3,2,or 1 instead of A,B,C,etc. Rylee had all 4's except social behavior which was 2.25. I was not shocked at all when her teachers (she has 2) told me she liked to talk. I wonder where she gets it! ;-) Anyway, I told her if she got it up to 3.5 I would give her $10. They all love school and their teachers and are doing well.
I have been trying for a few months to teach Jenna to spell her name. Everytime I would ask her she would just spew of some letters. I figured I don't need to stress about it and then last week I was scrapbooking a page about her. I showed her her name and now she wants to spellit for everyone. The only letter she can't remember is the "J". As soon as I tell her the "J" she can spell the rest. She is very proud of herself. We have been playing a lot of Dora Candyland lately and Jenna doesn't even get too upset when she loses.
Mike & I have been a couple fun date nights, which we haven't been good about doing on a regular basis until recently. One night we saw the movie The Prestige, which we both loved. One of the best movies we have seen in quite some time. This last Saturday we had a whole day together. We went and had massages, ate some really yummy BBQ (if you want some good, southern BBQ try Sugarhouse BBQ), saw the movie Stranger than Fiction (another good one), and got ice cream at my favorite place, ColdStone. We left at 12:30 in the afternoon and when we got home about 8 p.m. Michelle (babysitter) had the kids all bathed, in pj's, and in a bed made on the floor downstairs (their favorite weekend reward). It was really nice!
Our weather over the last week or so has gone from beautiful to cold! We even had a little dusting of snow on the ground this morning. Of course the kids were excited, Jenna ate snow (gross, dirty snow) everytime we went somewhere today. I just don't think I am ready for the cold and snow, but I will adjust just like every year.
I started a kickboxing class on Monday. I have never done kickboxing and really liked it. A friend of mine is teaching it and other friends are taking the class too. It was hard and I was a little sore today, but not too bad. I am excited to go tomorrow (I never thought I would be excited to excercise). One of my friends had the idea of doing a 10 pound challenge with each other. So we are going to do weigh ins once a week and keep track of what we eat and have our own little support group. The first one to lose 10 pounds gets lunch on the others. I have been so lazy the last few months with excercising and bad eating. I keep putting off trying to get in shape and so was excited to try this.
Well, that is what has been going on around here, besides the normal school, work, gymnastics, piano (I am taking lessons now as well as Ry), church, homework, play, etc.
The 3rd time was the charm for us this year getting our Christmas tree. Our original plan was to go lastnight so we all headed out for the adventure. Our first stop was Shopko so that each of the kids could pick out a new ornament (one of our fun traditions). With that task accomplished we headed outside and found it was lightning, thundering, hailing, snowing, etc. We decided to wait until today. It snowed off and on today but it was ok (just really cold!) this evening so we headed to our usual tree lot. We have gotten our tree at the same lot for the last few years, but this year found their prices were greatly increased. We didn't really want to spend $60, especially for just an ok tree. So we loaded the kids, who were very concerned we were leaving without a tree, into the car and headed to another tree lot. Yeah!!! We found a great tree for a great price! We were all excited to finally have found our tree and to get out of the cold and to go home and start decorating. The decorating is always a bit caotic, but fun. The kids love it! We think the tree turned out perfect!
