Lanaea: Our Singing Diva

I have said this over and over again, but truly, Lanaea is such a JOY!! She constantly makes us laugh and is so enjoyable. She loves to talk and will talk your ear off if you let her. You may not understand half of what she says, but she talks to you as though she knows exactly what she is saying. As we have been letting Kelsey perform for us at Family Home Evening, we have given Mylee and Lanaea the chance to show what they have accomplished in the week too. This particular night Lanaea showed us her singing talent. She went on and on and on!! It was SOOO adorable!! On a side note, please excuse my un-clothed 2 year old. This is her choice of attire for most days.

June 2012

June has been a really busy month. We've been busy with baby preparations, swim lessons, gymnastics, soccer, residency graduation for the outgoing residents, and Blake's triathalon that was held yesterday at a near-by lake. A sweet friend of mine threw a baby shower for me. It was such a fun event and there was a good turn-out. My friend had worked so hard to make it special and nice. She had prepared all the food by herself and there was A LOT of it!! I couldn't believe all of her efforts. I mostly got boy clothes which is exactly what I needed. There were a couple of sizes I needed so I exchanged some clothes for different sizes. Our little boy is all ready to go now--I can't wait to meet him.

 We signed Kelsey and Mylee up for swim lessons this year through Texas Tech University. Kelsey improved significantly--from not swimming at at to swimming all by herself!! Swim was every day for 2 weeks and my girls looked forward to it every day. I couldn't say that I did with a 9 month belly and 2 year-old in tow, but we survivied and it was a good experience.

 Mylee loved her class and her teacher was so cute with the kids. I realized I should have signed her up for the class above her because there were kids still in swim diapers in her class!!! What?! She enjoyed it though and it was a good first experience at swim lessons.

 Kelsey swimming with her teacher.

 Kelsey jumping off the diving board.

 My little side-kick at the pool. She learned during the two weeks to be content her these lounge chairs--hallelujah!!

 Mylee and her class going on an adverture

 Every year the Orthopaedic Department hold events surrounding graduation. On Friday the 3rd, 4th, and outgoing residents present research they have been working on throughout the year. Blake did a good job at presenting his. That evening the department holds a nice formal dinner along with a program honoring the outgoing residents. They present awards, share words of wisdom, etc. The dinner was delicious!! I look foward to this event every year--it's not every day I get treated to such a menu!! The next morning they have a golf tornament at a nice country club in town. That is followed by a family picnic at an attending's house. My girls look forward to swimming in their pool every year. It helped that we had just finished swim lessons too.

 Lanaea would paddle around the pool like the picture above. It was so cute! She is the least afraid of the water of all my girls. She is fear-less like her daddy.

 Yesterday, Blake competed in a triathalon for the sprint distance--500 meter swim, 17 mile bike ride, 5K run. He was dissapointed he hadn't had more time to train--he only swam once!! But he did awesome and it was so fun to go as a family and support Blake in an activity that promotes a healthy lifestyle. We arrived extra early to see the kids' race. Kelsey got excited about the possibility of doing it next year. It's always fun to feel the energy and excitement at events like these. I think it's good expose our girls to events like these to help encourage them to have a healthy lifestyle. I would like to compete next year.

 This is what it looked like at the start of the swim.

 Blake transitioning from the swim to bike.

 While Blake was racing Kelsey and Mylee played in the lake. It was a great sandy beach!

 Lanaea hung out with me in the shade and waited for daddy at the different transitions.

Blake at the finish line!

May 2012

Kelsey finished 1st Grade in May and we mostly continued on with our normal routine. I continued to work on my preschool curriculum--which is one reason this blog has been neglected so much--Blake continued to work like normal except for one week that he took for vacation. Before we had talked about going to Pine, Arizona to stay at Blake's grandparents' cabin, but we didn't think it was the best idea with me being so close to my due date. Instead we stayed home and worked on projects--yea!! I was actually really excited about it. We got the girls' dresser that we acquired for free in Vermont from their dorms when they were remolding painted white. We also got Lanaea's trundle painted white. We varnished the baby's changing table that I had sanded down. Blake got a lot done on a new rocking horse for our girls. We worked on little projects here and there around the house and enjoyed multiple movie rentals from redbox that week.  

 For "K" week Mylee and I went to the dollar store to purchase a kite to fly. FYI!!! don't buy kites from the dollar store. We started to walk to the park at Kelsey's school, but ended up having to turn around because the wind tore part of the kite, so we went back home to fix it. This time I drove over and just as I got the kite situated to fly it broke again. We never successfuly flew it. We ended up leaving the park with all my girls in tears. It was sort of funny and frustrating all at the same time. The next day we went back to the dollar store to return the kite--luckily they let us and we got beads instead which entertained all my girls for hours!!

 Enjoying the Texas heat!!

 This is Kelsey at her rewards ceremony. She received an award for reading--which didn't surprise me at all. She's read 10 of the Box Car Children series books and she is currently reading Little House on the Praire. She's a champ at reading and she'll even set her alarm to get up early to read! She has determination like her Daddy.

 During one Saturday we were all working in the yard, trying to get things cleaned up. At one point, Blake was working on something in the garage and told Lanaea that she had to stay in the backyard. After not hearing from her for a while, he went back to check on her and this is what he found :)! She had fallen asleep by the backyard gate next to the garage where Blake was working. Sweet little girl!!

 This is the present Kelsey and I made for her teacher. "#2 pencils for a #1 teacher" and on the back we had her teacher's name, "Mrs. Frick". It turned out really cute!!

 Kelsey on her last day of 1st grade!

 Kelsey with her teacher Mrs. Frick.

 For the past couple of years our stake holds a food drive for our local food bank. To kick off the event our stake hosts a 5K and 1 mile race for the community. Admission is free. Kelsey, Mylee, Lanaea and I did the 1 mile run (well we walked--I was 8 months prego!!). Blake ran in the 5K. It was a great event and there was a huge turn-out. One of the local grocery stores even donated food to feed us breakfast!

 Blake at the finish line.

 Kelsey got her face painted at the 5K run.

 My little reader!! This is a picture I snuck of her through our kitchen window.

As part of the preschool curriculum I have been working on, I put together a Pre-K busy bag exchange with women in our stake and local community. There were 20 women that participated so we all received 20 preschool kits to help our preschooler learn. I was so excited about this and I was so pleased with the kits everyone shared. This is something else I will share the details about on my learning blog: learningtoletter.blogspot.com

April 2012

April was a good month. I felt like I was getting more into my groove and pregnancy was treating me well. Kelsey and I started getting up at 6AM in order for she and I to have breakfast, have a 20 minute piano lesson and read scriptures for 30 minutes together in the morning. I have LOVED this routine. Mylee and Lanaea even began to join us near the end of the month when they got used to the time. I have been super impressed at Kelsey's dilligence. She sets her alarm every day and gets up when it goes off and is excited to start her day. She has been such an example to me and has helped motivate me to be better. The 30 minutes we spend together in the morning reading scriptures is our family scripture study, but it also is part of a challenge Blake and I have given Kelsey to read the entire Book of Mormon before she turns 8 and is baptized. With this challenge I got thinking that I wanted her to get more out of the scriptures when we read together so I created a Book of Mormon reading program for kids. I went through the entire Book of Mormon and picked out principles and meaningful stories and found pictures that corresponded with those principles and stories. With those pictures I created glue-ins for Kelsey to color and glue in her own scriptures as we read. It's been really fun for her to find out what glue-in comes next and it's helped us pick out important teachings in the Book of Mormon. As she flips back in her Book of Mormon on what she has already read she better remembers the stories we have read and the principles she has been taught because of the glue-ins in her scriptures. I also created a bookmark with all the chapters in the Book of Mormon. Every chapter that Kelsey reads, she gets a sticker. This has been extremely motivating for her. On the back of the bookmark is a reading schedule to carry us out throughout this year until her 8th birthday. I have been so proud of this project and hope to share it soon with others on my teaching blog: letteringtoletter.blogspot.com. With the baby coming soon though, we'll see when I get that up and running again.  We have helped Mylee to participate by using a tip from Elder Cook from general conference. Every chapter we have special finger signals for her to read certain words. This has been fun for all of us. I still read in the children's Book of Mormon reader with her though on our own time. 

 We celebrated Easter this year by first sending some goldfish "carrot" treats to school for snack. The kids got a kick out of it and I don't know a child that doesn't like goldfish crackers.

 We also made our traditional resurrection rolls (regular dinner rolls with marshmallows inside). The marshmallows represent the Savior and the cooking time represents the time the Savior was in his tomb and was then resurrected. The kids get so thrilled when the marshmallows are gone after they are cooked. This has been a fun way to teach our girls about the resurrection.

We couldn't have Easter without coloring some easter eggs. We changed things up a little bit and let the girls use paint to decorate their eggs instead of dye. It worked out great and I'm glad I didn't have to deal with the bigger mess easter egg dye creates.

 The Easter bunny visited us Saturday with a basket for all our girls. It was a big hit. They then went and found the eggs the Easter bunny hid.

 Kelsey's first recital at Family Home Evening. Every Family Home Evening Kelsey gets to show us the new songs she has learned on the piano from the week. This has been fun for all of us and has helped motivate her to conquer some more challenging songs. I found a great website laytonmusic.com that has simplified primary songs. Kelsey has already learned to play a handful of them.

 This month Blake also built Lanaea a new bed. A friend graciously gave me an extra crib mattress she had so that got Blake motivated to get her new bed made. It has worked out perfectly!! She loves her new bed. It slides perfectly underneath the bunkbeds. The first night she slept in it Blake and I lost her. We found her sleeping some random place in her room. As time has gone by, she has learned to fall asleep on her bed and stay there.

 April also brought with it lots of rain--yea!! we have needed it soooo bad here in Texas!!. This particular night we had golf-ball sized hail. I had never seen such big hail in person before.

 We also got our garden planted, which is now producing abundantly for us. We planed tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumbers.

 I started preschool up with Mylee again--which also brought with it another project that I am still working on. I have been creating a preschool curriculum that I can re-use with each of my kids. It's been a lot of fun and work. I'll have to share more on this project at a later date.

In Texas summer arrives around April, so we enjoyed getting our bikes out again and enjoying the weather.

March 2012

March was a big transition month for us. We had just finished living in Fort Worth for 4 months and had just made our annual winter/ski trip to Utah. The day after we got back from our vacation, Kelsey started up school again. Luckily she was able to get back in her same class. I was a little worried about how things would go after being out of the public school system, but she did awesome!!! It was as though she never left school. I enjoyed the daily schedule that it provided us; however, I missed having Kelsey at home. It was a transition for Mylee especially to not have her home to play with. Throughout the month I worked on creating some normalcy back into our life and enjoyed being back in my own home. It was so nice to see friends we hadn't seen in months and so wonderful to be able to do laundry in my own home!!  

 While we were living in Fort Worth they finished the children's museum in Lubbock. They did a really good job and my girls' loved it.

 They had a cute news station where the kids could speak in a microphone and report the news. Both Mylee and Lanaea got a kick out of this exhibit. Lanaea especially liked hearing her voice echo through the room.

 They also had a place for the kids to play like they were veternarians. Mylee LOVED this one, which actually is really ironic because this has this debilitating fear--seriously!!-- of dogs. She'll see one from our window and have hysteria. Blake and I have talked about getting a dog partly to help her get over this fear.

They also had this really neat water station that all the girls enjoyed.

 Both Lanaea and Mylee had their well checks. Mylee was way late for her check-up (this was March and her birthday was in September--Fort Worth put us behind). They both got shots and did awesome. Poor sweet Mylee got 5 shots!! I loved how they looked in their hospital gowns. Lanaea didn't want to take it off.

Utah Trip February-March 2012

It's been FOREVER since I last posted and it's been on my to-do list to get my blog updated for months and months. Today I'm feeling an pull to get it done because our little boy could be delivered at anytime and who knows how long it will take me to get things updated after he is born. Because I am SOOOO behind, I figured I would give updates by the month and give you a little overview on what we have been up to. So here it goes. This was our winter/ski trip to Utah this past year. 

 The day before we left for Utah it was Kelsey's 7th birthday. Grandma Clifton said she had a cake ready and waiting for her in a couple of days, so we for-goed the cake and went and got ice cream cones instead. Kelsey was completely satisfied with that. She got a new watch and her own alarm clock to help her wake up on her own for school.

 It's a tradition every birthday to take the birthday girl out to breakfast on her birthday. This morning we made it out to Dennys and enjoyed a very yummy breakfast.

 Every trip we take to Utah since we have lived here in Lubbock, Texas we stop at my Grandpa and Grandma McGee's house for the night in Farmington, New Mexico. It's been so wonderful to see them more and let them get to know my girls a little bit. Lanaea had fallen asleep for the night by the time this picture was taken.

 Eventually we made it all the way to Mapleton, Utah where Blake's parents live to be welcomed by a beautifully homemade birthday cake for Kelsey. We had a nice visit with them and had a cute little party in honor of Kelsey.

 We made it up to the ski slopes twice as a family. At Alta they have a bunny hill that you can use free of charge and then a green lift that opens up after 3PM for only $5 a person so we took advantage of these deals to help our girls learn to ski. It warmed my heart to see Blake with his little girls. The picture above is Blake and Mylee, the one below is Blake and Kelsey and then of course Lanaea and Blake under that.

 Kelsey skied like a champ!! I felt so proud as a mother to see my little girl zoom down the mountain. I didn't ski much because I was 22 weeks pregnant, but skied a little bit down the bunny hill with my girls and then once down the green run with Kelsey. Blake was able to get two more days in by himself to go up to the lifts.

 We started a new tradition this ski trip to go to "The Pie" after skiing with the family. It's a delicious gourmet pizza chain. Blake and I would go there when we were dating.

 We had a lot of fun at Grammy Polly's and Grandpa Roland's house. Kelsey and my little sisters played in the snow, played their wii, and made up their own dances. We had such a wonderful time.

 While visiting my mom, we took a short trip to our friends' who we knew and grew to love while we lived in Vermont--the Lord's. It was so nice to see them and visit with them. Their kids had grown so much.

 We of course had another birthday party for Kelsey and Blake while visiting my mom. Kelsey got a cute gymnastic suit and an outfit for school.

 Our last stop was back to Blake's parents' house. It was a nice short visit. Blake's brother Trent and his wife Emily and family arrived the night we arrived. It was nice to see them and visit with them. It was especially fun to see our kids play with their kids.  Nothing is better then playing with cousins! We had a nice dinner and celebrated Blake's birthday. Blake's mom outdid herself and had Prime Rib and make cheesecake for his cake--both his favorites.