Cole's Family Birthday!

Well, today was busy but a lot of fun! We had Carl's family all come for a pulled pork sandwich lunch, with baked beans and strawberries. The sandwiches included the pulled pork and coleslaw (from Stater Bros. which was very good!) and then we had some chips and for dessert a delicious cake made by Grandma! You can see in the photo of Cole with his cake what a great job she did! We always take the cousin shot and this year marks the arrival of another cousin! Tobias is being held by Kaleigh and he is only 2 weeks old! Neither of the big boys wanted to hold the little guy, but Kaleigh did great! Taryn is the little girl in front of Spencer on the left and Trenton is being held by Tyler. Spencer and Tyler also have an older sis Jackie who is away at Trinity College in Illinois. Cole had a great time and got some money and a bunch of legos and other cool stuff! Omi sent money for a gift and he was thrilled to get the "Apple tree House" which is in the photo of him. The one in the kitchen is Carl's dad, his sister and his aunt (dad's sister), they are putting together their sandwiches and all the fixin's. So one party down, one to go! Whew! I just have to keep the house clean for a week! Then the boys come to play!

Happy Birthday Cole!

Happy 9th Birthday, Cole!

Photos coming after parties!

Happy Birthday, Sistol!










Have a Great Birthday, my sister dear! I miss having you near, to talk to and go out with! I am glad you have such a great family that makes you laugh and that loves you so much! Hope you enjoy your day! Love you lots!

I am so Proud!

Well, today Cole was recognized in Chapel for his participation in the Math Olympics! He got a second place ribbon and a medal too! Carl and his mom went to see him and got these photos. Cole is definitely his Dad's son. Not like me, that is for sure! I am a math dope. I can't figure my way out of a paper bag! Kaleigh, unfortunately, is more like me when it comes to math. Good thing is she is very talented in other areas! But today was Cole's crowning moment and I am very proud! He took numerous tests that had to do with reasoning type math rather than the comprehensive type math. Don't ask what that means, because all I know is that most of his problems were word problems which is the worst possible math outside of algebra to me! So, they had about 29 kids in the 3rd and 4th grades that participated. 18 got ribbons and only 4 got medals! Cole was one of the medal winners! I think Carl said that out of all the questions, he got an 85% or more and that got him second place! So YAY Cole! He will get a small lego set for his effort!

What I like about teaching Preschool.

I was told many years ago (even before I had my own children) that I would make a good preschool teacher. I really didn't think so at the time, seeing as I didn't really like kids...yes, the nieces and nephews weren't so bad, but I did like going home to a place without the little rugrats! Obviously, at some point Carl and I changed our minds. Mainly the fact that we no longer worked at Disneyland made it easy to see that all children weren't horrible little beasts! Anyway, we had ours and then we ended up having the kids go to a private school that we couldn't afford without me working there. I got my ECE certificate and started teaching. I was terrified at first, but then I realized that the person that had told me I would make a good preschool teacher had been right all along! I enjoy teaching (for the most part) and there are more good days than bad (this year has been tough), but I really enjoy the creativity that goes along with it! When I first started teaching four year olds, they had some lame crafts. I asked if there was a chance that some crafts could be updated, and was met with a very enthusiastic YES, Please! So since then I have worked to make the crafts and other aspects of the curriculum a little more fun and new. One other thing I have done is made up some special days of fun for the kids. One such day, as you can see in the picture, was "Silly Dress Day". This stemmed from April Fools day which normally we take photos at the end of March with the kids putting on funny hats and we put the photos in our classroom window, saying "April Foolishness". It is fun and the kids love seeing themselves. Well, since Easter vacation happened at that same time this year, I decided to have "Silly Dress Day" instead. I send a flyer home before the break, saying that the week they return our class would have a silly dress day. So last Friday we (yes, me too!) all dressed up with mismatched socks and shoes, funny hats, inside out clothes, and anything else we could think of! As you can see we had quite a few participate. The girl in the front with the "Fro" wig, didn't want to dress up, and took off the wig and sunglasses right away. Everyone else was fine with it. I had fun dressing up too! I didn't get a shot of myself but basically imagine messy hair with flower clips everywhere and swim goggles as a headband. Lots of stripes and different shoes and socks and an apron tied on backwards! It was fun and the teachers had a blast too! So, sometimes my work is fun! I look forward to the next fun thing!

Another Spooky Tree

This one is again, from Oak Glen. It isn't so much spooky as it is weird looking...but hey, that can fall into the Spooky catagory!

The way the branches are so thin compared to the truck makes it eerie looking. It got a little less spooky when the sun came out. At dawn it was more eerie looking, but I didn't have my camera at that time!

Easter 2010 Photos

Easter was great! Outside of the fact that I have a work thing hanging over my head that I might get in trouble for when I get back, I tried to relax and enjoy Easter with the family. We had a good meal and yummy dessert and the kids got to search for 215 eggs with their little cousin Will! So three kids and 215 eggs! Whew! The older cousins got to hide them this year and I think they enjoyed doing that too. What was funny is they are both very strategic and it took them a while to hide the eggs. My sis in law Lisa and I went out and took some of the eggs to hide so we could move things along! We just dropped into bushes and so on. Spencer and Tyler were very methodical and were trying to find the perfect spot for each egg! I think Will had the most fun! Cole kept yelling out, "I think my bucket is getting too full!" Kaleigh was more subdued, but when Cole took one of her eggs she was going to pick up, she was not happy!

Competition is fierce in egg hunting! But having a lot of family there is always nice. It is very different from what I grew up with. Nice. So I hope everyone had a nice Easter, this was ours.

Happy Easter, 2010!






Happy Easter to friends and Family! I had more photos of our nice day, but I forgot my camera at Grandma's house! So I will post more photos later! This was a pretty flower that I was able to photograph up at Oak Glen! Purdy!

Things to do at Oak Glen

So outside of a decent place to sleep, good food, beautiful scenery, there are quite a few things to do! We do have services we go to (after all it is a Conference Center and we go to listen to speakers and Missionaries) and crafts to do, but there are fun things for the kids to do outside of all that. There is a little Putt putt golf course that is free and of course there is the game of British bulldog to play (I have explained this game in the past, so if you don't know what it is just ask), but this year they brought back the Pine wood derby races. This is where Kaleigh and Cole's Uncle Scott brings his equipment and the kids get to design their own cars, paint them and then race them. Kaleigh and Cole both participated but didn't win. The photo above has Kaleigh's car "the Lucky Penny" and another car racing down the track. They had the 14 and under group and then the 15 and older group. They all had a great time! Carl helped a lot since the kids could not work on the machinery. Some of the older boys knew how, but mostly the dad's did the machine work.

Things to See at Oak Glen

Ok, so I don't really know how these photos will be aligned in my post so you'll just have to figure things out! While at Oak Glen we like to look at the different animals! Sometimes we see a lot and other times (it was cold this time so a few less than usual) not so many. We did see a lot of squirrels, a couple of Jays that didn't want to be photographed, and a woodpecker and a nice plump little robin! The kids don't usually see these guys, but this time the birds were out a lot!

I turn into the amateur photographer and try to get as close as I can to get some nice photos! Enjoy!

Oak Glen 2010 - Family

Well, I am not exactly sure how long we have been going to Oak Glen but those who have been reading my blog know, that we go once a year and I have posted many photos of our trip. We go up on a Thursday, stay Friday into Saturday and leave on Saturday afternoon! It is a fun family time that we can share. Lots of things to do, people to see and things to see too! So there will be a couple of other posts including a shot of another "Spooky Tree"! Enjoy!

Oh the photos above are of the Chapel in the trees, the prayer chapel with Kaleigh and Cole in front, and then me and our family.