Aleeya and Hailey Curtin

Aleeya and Hailey really seem to enjoy each other. Hailey flaps her arms like she is trying to fly when she sees Aleeya.

Aleeya enjoys having someone down on her level to play with!

Preschool Coloring Page

The preschool theme for April 23 was Creative Movement. Carter had a great time dancing and displayed some moves that were hilarious, if not slightly disturbing!

For the craft the children were listening to music and drawing what they heard. The song was ocean sounds and Carter REALLY got into it. He drew on both sides of his paper and then wasn't ready to finish and come and tell the group about it. This is by far the most detailed picture he has done.

How we spend our days..

For the sake of keeping a history, this is a run down of how we usually spend our days. Carter likes to know what is going on so we talk about each day of the week and this is how we label them: Monday-Family Home Evening, Tuesday-Relief Society (this means he will have friends over to play with while I have a meeting or he will play with Dad at night while I go on visits), Wednesday-Playgroup, Thursday-Preschool, Friday-Free Day, Saturday-Soccer, Sunday-Church.

We seem to have the opportunity to have friends over often. I always enjoy having kids come and play because I think it is easier to watch my own kids when they are playing with others. They don't need me to be a part of the play and I can just observe.

Our next door neighbor, Olivia, comes over several times a week and she is a joy to have. Olivia is six, so she is a good role model for Carter about how to be a good friend. She also is really loving towards Serena and Aleeya.

I enjoy having a clean house, so I have enlisted the help of the kids in this endeavor. Carter and Serena help with garbage, cleaning the floor, picking up toys and Serena likes to help set the table. Both of them also really like to help me cook. I want to give them this opportunity, but I do think my stress level is always higher when we are cooking, due to the fact that they both WILL NOT stay off the counter and they are a little to eager to measure and dump ingredients with or without direction.

We try to do homework everyday, which consists of doing a coloring page from letter or number books or doing an art project. Basically, "homework" is a fancy way of saying coloring or craft time.

Music is also a big part of our day, I like to have the radio on during the day and so the kids know a lot of country songs. Both of them really love to perform and sing and dance. Our friend, Jamie Smith, loaned us a karaoke machine and they love to sing into the microphone. I will play primary songs on the piano and they will sing. They also love to play quiz show where I ask a question and they answer into the microphone.

Now that it is nicer weather we can play outside to release energy, but during the winter we did a lot of dancing. I have the tape "See Me Run" from when I was a child and we listened to it and did the actions at least once a day for many weeks.

I dream of being able to say that we don't watch television. But for the sake of sanity we do have a quiet time everyday and the kids watch cartoons. Curious George and Backyardigans are favorites, but so is SpongeBob Square Pants(I wish they didn't like this one).

Overall, I think we have a pretty fun schedule and we stay busy!

Carter thinks he is Adam Lambert

Lynette took some videos of the kids. I have no idea what Carter is saying or where he learned to dance. I am assuming that this video will come in handy when he is dating age.

For future reference, Adam Lambert is a contestant on the TV show American Idol.

Serena doing the peach punch dance

This is the video that Lynette took of Serena. She is holding peach punch packets and container.

We got a van!

2007 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT
Aleeya enjoying a nice spacious ride!

We finally broke down and spent the money and got a van. I am really excited that we were able to find one with relatively low miles, power doors and stow-in-go seats. We looked for what seemed like forever, but that way we knew when we were getting a decent deal.

Aleeya exploring the wonders of rice cereal

Aleeya is starting to eat rice cereal. She is not an expert by any means, and more ends up on her face and clothes than in her belly! She also really thinks it is funny to spit it out all over. I can't wait for foods that stain, like carrots!