Fun at the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo when they had their fall break from school on the 9th. It was a beautiful morning to go. They had fun doing the Animal Talk experience and almost getting poked by the Indian Porcupine. They are really big animals! They had to bring a board out to keep the kids from getting poked. They loved seeing the King Vulture swoop down. We had to go say hi to the bald eagles, of course. Noah has been wanting an eagle stuffed animal ever since he went to the zoo in March with his cousins. His older cousin, Gavin, got a tube of Rain Forest animals. Noah had to be just like Gavin and put the eagle down and got the tube instead. But he has wanted the eagle ever since. Maybe Santa will grant his wish!

I let the kids play at the tree house there at the zoo. The next thing I see is Jodi screaming and blood dripping from her mouth. She fell and tore open her lip. It looked horrible. They had to take us to the ranger station, get ice and get her cleaned up. She just wanted to go play more! She was mad at me trying to keep ice on her lip- she just wanted to get back to the tree house! Needless to say I was pretty done by the time lunch rolled around. We had fun, though, and the kids had fun getting out of the apartment for awhile. It left Dustin plenty of time to study which paid off on his test where he only missed 1! Yeah!! He is doing so good this semester. I am really proud at how well he is dealing with the pressure.

Happy 4th Birthday, Daniel!

We celebrated Daniel's birthday Conference weekend at the beginning of the month. Dustin had taken work off Saturday so he could go to the Priesthood session. It was his only free day until Thanksgiving. Daniel was so excited knowing it was his special day. He kept saying he wanted a Transformer cake and was super- surprised when he got a Scooby Doo cake instead. He is really into Scooby Doo lately so he was more than thrilled. He got a wonderful Dinosaur game and Batman backpack from Grandma and Grandpa. Noah has enjoyed the game more than Daniel, but it won't take Daniel long to get into it. Daniel has taken his backpack with him to bed and everwhere he goes. It is now Black Bear's new home! Noah got him a tiny baby white tiger figurine that Daniel loves. We got him another Transformer and a Spider Man scooter. He parks his scooter in the scooter garage at night= his closet. He had a great birthday.

The folowing week I took Daniel to get ice cream, just the 2 of us. We have started back with an incentive chart and he did really good last week. He earned that ice cream and had so much fun with just me. He is working on earning more stickers for another ice cream date. The stickers seem to help as he is now able to tell me what he did wrong. I can actually talk to my son and he understands me now. We have hard days, but they are definitely getting less frequent.

Daniel seems to have grown up so much in the last 2 weeks. It surely is amazing what a special day/birthday can do for a child's maturity!

Spotlight on Noah

I know it has been forever and I have many posts I need to add so I am doing them all at once, but will post them staggered. Here is our BIG Noah!






Noah is having so much fun in Kindergarten. His teacher adores him. She says he is one of the smartest kids she has come across. We had parent teacher conferences this week. She said he is doing very well. All the kids love Noah. It's fun to drop hom off at school and see all the girls come and give Noah a big "hello" hug. He is making lots of friends. He is now a reader. We love reading books together. Noah and Mommy just finished reading the 1st "Harry Potter" together. Noah would stay up late drawing pictures of what we read. Then he got to watch the movie, but only after we read the book. He is such a big helper with Jodi. They seem to be the best of friends. I had to take a nap yesterday after I picked Noah up from school. Daniel and I laid down together and Noah played with Jodi the entire time. When I woke, Noah had Jodi giggling so hard. It was hard not to ruin the moment by peeking. Noah is amazing and he fills my life and home with such a special, calming spirit. He is really getting excited for Halloween and Christmas. The wish list has already begun- an aircraft carrier, a stuffed Bald Eagle, more Star Wars stuff...