Early Childhood Class

Miles!!!

Miles!!

Levi is in the red shirt on the end!!

Levi is almost finished with early childhood class. He has sure changed a lot since the first time we attended. Just two weeks ago he ate a Cheerio without choking on it for the first time there. I have really enjoyed getting to know other moms and seeing their little babies grow as well.

Family Home Evening!

Patrick and I were asked to host family home evening for a less active youth in our ward and we did. We had a lot of fun and it kind of lit the burner under us to really start doing our own family home evening. So last week we watched Special Witnesses of Christ and actually went for a walk for the activity. It made me feel good to actually plan and carry out activities and lessons to help us grow as a family. I feel like if we keep our family home evenings up that our kids wont be able to say that we didn't try to be a good family when they get older. Anyways, here are some pictures from our walk.

Next Idea

Wouldn't it be great if we had a talent swap board? For instance, I would love to learn to play the piano, but I have no money for lessons. I do however have a degree in teaching, and would be a great tutor/babysitter. My friend Cindy's daughter Cassie wanted to learn the piano too, she she traded free babysitting for piano lessons. Wouldn't it be great if there was a bulletin board somewhere where we could post our talents and write down what we would be willing to swap for them?

Example:
I would can tomatoes for you if you would quilt for me.
( All meterials supplied by person asking for them - and time should be equal)

I would babysit for you if you would mow the lawn for me

This would be a great way to get things done or to learn new things without spending an arm and a leg!

Ideas I have floating around my head

So now that I don't work at a 9-5 job everyday, I find I have a little more time to develop ideas before things around me get so crazy that I can't even remember my own name. Here's the latest idea I have.
I would love to home school Levi. I don't want to do it at home however, and I don't want to do it by myself. My big idea is to get moms of kids roughly the same age as Levi to start a little mini school with me. I am hoping for around 8-10 little boys to be in Levi's class.I love girls, however, boys and girls learn better when seperated from each other.
I would like to do it at a place like our church. The kids wouldn't feel like it's home so they can do whatever, and they would have to get ready just like they were going to regular school, which helps with learning being on time, managing your stuff, and learning a schedule.
Each mom would take a subject she is good at. For example, I could take math or reading or science. I would teach that subject for 3 days, and then help in the class when I am not teaching. Each mom would teach/help for 3 days, and be in the nursery (taking care of younger siblings of other boys so moms could help at school) 1 day, then have 1 day off. This would be so that everyone would have a day off to get stuff done, have time to spend with their other little ones, and still be a contributing member of the school. School would last probably 8-12, then it would be over for the day. The ratio of adults would be roughly 1 to every 2 kids in the class, 2 in nursery, and 2 off for the day.

Kindergarten

The schedule for the day would look like this:
8:00- 8:20 Writing or letter activity.
8:20 -8:30 Fun Songs/letter songs and sound songs
8:30 - 8:40 Calendar
8:40 - 8:50 Star Word
8:50 - 9:10 Star word activity
9:10 Recess
9:25 Snack
9:35 -10:35 Centers (Math, letters, reading, science/social studies)
10:35-11:00 Sharing time
11:00 - 11:20 Math activity
11:20 - 11:40 Story Time
11:40 -11:50 Sing fun songs, letter songs, good bye songs
11:50 Writing activity until mom/dad take you home to lunch

So maybe this is ambitious, but if I could pull it off, I bet our kids could really take off as learners because they could really learn at their own pace!

Funny Funny Levi

Weird news and every day things

Daddy and Levi

Daddy and Levi getting ready to scare Mommy

Scary! Put him down!

Pretty eyes. They are starting to look green sometimes.

I love how the background looks black. This is actually my living room!

My stud muffin

This was just funny and cute. To me at least

Another picture? Really mom!

So it is another week here in paradise. We think our car brakes have gone bad, so the car is at the mechanics right now to get fixed. At least we had our tax return came before all of these major fixes came up! On the up side, some one special bought me some Oreo cookies today! How awesomely sweet and thoughtful. Patrick is at church right now for Scouts, and I should be working on my sharing time, but I love to wait to the last minute. Nothing like pressure to make me more creative!

Today I went to Natalie's house to celebrate Andrea's birthday. We had soup and some kick butt rolls. We played a few games and then we all just sat around talking. I find it so interesting how quickly life changes. It dawned on me today that I was officially part of the mommy club today. I had my baby, I hung out with other moms, I swap babysitting, I run errands all day long, and find talk about babies fascinating. I now find nothing annoying about 4 babies screaming at once, and love it when strangers talk about how cute my baby is.
Speaking of which - the weirdest thing happened. I was talking to my mom in Illinois yesterday, and she asked me if I knew that my kids picture was displayed at the HyVee ( an Illinois/Iowa grocery store) there. I knew nothing about it! Apparently the have his picture to show an option of how to do different kinds of photos there. I never devolpoed any pictures there- so exactly how did they get his picture, and aren't there laws about getting permission from people before you post their picture somewhere? I don't know if I should be flattered they thought my baby was cute enough to put up or mad that they jst got a picture somehow and stuck it up there.

The Joys of Home Ownership....

Here are the huge chucnks of ice laying in the snow after they shoveled them off the roof.

Here are the guys steaming the ice off and then shoveling it off the roof.

Our 6 inch thick layer of ice on the roof.

See the waterfalls running down the side of the house? That is Bad Bad Bad.

So during the week from Hades, the first major thing that went wrong was one of our brand new windows started leaking. We called the window people, and they thoughtfully sent someone to check it out 1 week later. Any ways, long story short, we had an ice damn that caused water on the roof to back into the house any way it could. Hence, water came in through where the window frame and the house. So we had to call a company to come and get rid of the ice damn. $400 later, and our roof is ice free. Now to find someone to make sure there is no wet insulation in our roof.

Levi's 1st birthday party!

Levi went to his first birthday party yesterday.The party was for his good friend Miles, who just turned 1. We arrived late, but we still were in time for party games (pulling tissues out of the box), and watching Miles eat cake. It was really fun to see how Miles was disgusted by the frosting on his hands, and watch Levi start pulling tissues out of the box and try to eat them.

Levi has really grown a lot this week it seems. He is rolling from his back to his belly. He is trying to crawl, but ends up scooting backwards :). He is starting to actually chew his puffs instead of trying to swallow them whole and choke. He loves Baby Mum Mums. His top two teeth are iin, and he's working on more! Mom is running out of Tylenol and Motrin!

Levi got to see him Grandma and Aunts when we went down to Illinois/Iowa. Nana Trainor did our taxes- Woo hoo! We are going to be buying a new car seat and baby proofing our house.