Reader and being silly

 

Gideon likes to suck on cups, then make loud noises in them. Ayla does it too, and sometimes with random things like a funnel and birthday hat.

 

 

Ammon is like his dad and loves to read. He is often seen reading at the table. I love how much he loves to read. Over the weekend he read a whole book and he was so proud of himself! Right now he really likes the non fiction stories from the "I Survived" series. He's read about Hurricane Katrina and Titanic.

 

 

This really is a happy face. He didn't want to get off the bus Wednesday. I think the big steps may scare him a little bit. His teacher says he is doing really well in school, even participating in most activities now. He loves to run around with the other kids at recess. Thursday he was very excited when he came home, saying that he liked the bus.

 

Blue and Gold Banquet

Last night was the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. All the scouts made dessert with an Olympic theme. We made a bobsled. It's out of rice crispy treats, but the marshmallows were dyed blue. We made some crispy treat balls and rolled them in melted chocolate chips for the helmets. Unfortunately the engineer of this project (yours truely) didn't know how to account for the helmet size according to the bobsled space previously made. As a result, only three teammates made it on the sled instead of the original four man team. The USA is a string of Twizzlers pull and peel, with Kit Kat for the ski runners.

Ammon won the contest with the Best Theme award.

Tshirts are fun

My new favorite crafting addiction is making boring shirts more fun with iron on tshirt transfer paper. It's so awesome!! I should thank Joann's for having a super sale this week on the shirts (4 for $10...seriously a steal!). I also found ...a really cute rhinestone iron on design there...it's on the bright green shirt, and I think it's my favorite one. The yellow one is getting some buttons sewn on the pennants to bling it up a little more. I'm contemplating adding a ribbon bow as well, but I'm not convinced it will wash up and still look nice unless I sew the whole thing to the shirt. The fire truck is actually a City of Henderson truck I found online for Gideon. It's from station 98 in case you were wondering :). I made everyone in the family a "Frozen" shirt with their favorite characters. Ayla's is Sven because she loves everything fluffy. Gideon's favorite part of the movie is the snowman monster, so he got that on a shirt. Zenock likes Kristoff, Ammon chose the trolls, Brady likes Olaf the best (perhaps it's due to similar personality traits?), and I did Elsa because there wouldn't be a "Frozen" movie without her. 

 

 

 

She said "Dada"

So far, Ayla's word list is this at 21 months:
Hi
Bye
All done
Hello
Okay
Uh oh
Uh huh
Dada
Mama

She does a great "Hi-5", signs all done, shakes her head no when she doesn't want something, makes the ambulance or fire truck siren sound, makes a petting motion for live animals and those in books...yes, she tries to pet the book,  and does a grunting sound for counting to three before running a race in the house. We run from the front door to the couch, and sometimes the back door.

Toddler games

Fire Station 94

We had Family Home Afternoon Thursday. Gideon is a HUGE fireman, fire truck, ambulance fan so we scheduled a tour with the station closest to us. He and Ayla were really nervous at the beginning, but warmed up a bit before the tour was over. We have some amazing people providing emergency services in our area...and we are so grateful they were able to give us a tour and let us sit in their fire truck. We also got to see the living quarters part of the station, where they relax and eat meals, and sleep when they aren't on a call. One of the firemen rang the bell you can see on the front of the truck, and they also turned on the ambulance lights for Gideon...Ayla loved them as well.

Valentine Surprise and Preschool

The kids nursery leader left them a surprise on Valentine's morning. We woke up to a decorated door and two treats on the doorstep. The picture below is the best I got since she grabbed a treat and bolted down the street as soon as I opened the door. Gideon made a quick order of opening his little box and eating half of the candy before I knew he had the box.

This sad little man started preschool at the kids elementary school on Tuesday. I was doing my shift at the Red Cross, so Brady got to take him to his first day. The teacher said he cried for a little while, but then calmed down enough to observe the other kids doing their school thing. The next day he participated a little bit more and was really happy to go home when I got there. The third day he was not quite as sad and actually tried some of the activities. He also got to ride the bus home for the first time. He wasn't crying when the door opened, but I could tell he had been crying for a while before getting home. My hat is off to the wonderful bus driver and two preschool teachers. These people are so patient with the little kids...I'm so thankful there are great programs available to help my little buddy continue improving on his speech and vocabulary. Going into preschool he is working on four out of the five areas they tested him on in the evaluation. I forget what exactly they are...but the one he did successfully and is at the appropriate mark for his age is fine motor skills. This kid can match shapes and object like no other kid I know at this age. He does very well at shape puzzles and matching cards like those in the memory game. I am really hoping this next week is better for him and that he gets over his fears quickly. I know it will with time, I just hope it's sooner than later....for everyone's sake :)

Ayla the goof

She saw Ammon sitting on the floor and made a big production of sitting between his legs in just the right way so that she was comfortable too. It reminded me of a dog making circles before laying down.

She's the necklace queen around here. It's even more fun when she makes a necklace in nursery and then claims Gideon's necklace as her own too. The headband is actually a necklace she put on herself.

As you can see, she was laughing on the chair, but I don't know what was so funny. Most likely, she doesn't either :)

We get the most awesome hair creations with soap. Wednesday night she had one that was right on top of her head, just like the troll doll hair from the 90's....or maybe it was more similar to a unicorn's horn...either way, it was really cute.

This is how she helps on the computer.

Friday for breakfast she had three friends share her cherrios and chocolate milk.

Say "cheese"

This is what happens when we ask Ayla to say "cheese" for pictures...every time

Date numero cinco

For Valentine's day we did our 5th date for 10 years of marriage. The purpose is to try new things that we otherwise wouldn't normally do. Tonight we went head to head in a little shooting range competition. We each shot 2 guns each, with 4 magazines at 2 different distances, 20 and 25 feet, per target. Green Valley Range was a really fun place, ten minutes from home...an extra bonus since we normally go out in the desert about 20 to 25 minutes away. We also tried Freddy's Frozen Custard, a yelp.com 5 star dessert. We love trying new things!

Ayla the goof and GO BRONCOS

Ayla learned how to take off her shirt. Ammon made a poster to cheer on the Broncos last week. He was pretty bummed when they lost. We had a Superbowl party at Debbie's. Ayla was loving eating the yummy food while sitting on my lap. She loved the deviled eggs and potato salad.

Happy Chinese New Year

We went to the mall tonight and were surprised to hear lots of loud drumming. We walked around until we found the source of the sound. At first Ayla was very excited and wanted to pet the dragons. Then they came close to us and she got scared and cried for a while. Gideon also high-tailed it out of the stroller when they came close. He refused to get down from me.

Momma

Just a quick note to document that Thursday Ayla looked at me and finally said, "Momma." She actually said it three times because I wasn't looking at her and she was trying to get up on the recliner but needed help. It was funny because she got a little louder each time she said it. Earlier in the week I heard her in her bed shouting for "Dadda" because she was ready to get out of her crib from nap time. Our little giggly girl is getting bigger by the day :)