Girly Update

Since my last post was about Benson starting kindergarten, I thought I would do a little update on my girlies.

Grace continues to add spice to our life. Sometimes it is good spice, sometimes it is bad. Lately she is either very obedient and helpful or disobedient to a degree I have not before experienced.

• Watching Grace and Sabrina play together lately is a real treat. On Saturday Grace put their dress-up bunny ears on Sabrina and made her sit in the high chair and be her baby bunny. Mike caught them playing Primary in Benson's room after church yesterday. They were singing songs, saying prayers, and even having a lesson.
• Grace makes friends everywhere she goes. She is especially attached to all of our neighbor friends here in Kansas. Her newest bff's are the girls that live on the next street over who are 11, 9, and 6. They seriously come over and ask if she can play.
• Grace still insists on wearing a skirt most days, but I've managed to produce a few cute hair-dos on her lately (she has INSISTED on either long and straight or 1 ponytail for a while now). She also loves her accessories. The other night when we went out to play she was wearing white socks with her pink croc shoes, one purple dangling clip-on earring, various watches and bracelets, and 2 purses filled with who knows what. All the kids were running races in the cul-de-sac and there was Grace leaving a trail of accessories behind her.
• Her cute smile and dimple and silly throat chuckle help us to want to keep her.

Sabrina seems so grown-up lately it is killing me.

• Sabrina will not even let us step a toe in the bathroom to help her. When we try she gets very angry. She wants to do the whole process herself, even washing her hands which makes me crazy because she makes a huge mess of the sink every time.
• Sabrina is almost always our most helpful and willing child. Benson and Grace are also helpful and willing, but not as often or consistently. Her latest helpful desire is folding clothes or "packing" as she likes to call it. And she is dang good at it too.
  
  

  

• Sabrina LOVES babies. She loves to kiss them and take care of them. Today she was playing with a bunch of cars and laid them all nicely on their "backs" on a pillow and then covered them with a blanket like they were napping. Frequently when she is in her room and we call her she yells back that she's feeding her baby or putting her baby to sleep and we have no choice but to wait for her to finish. We have had a lot of exposure to babies age 8-10 months old lately (cousin Spencer, neighbor Noah, friend from Oklahoma Valor) and Sabrina has LOVED it. We have watched Noah several days while his mom worked and it has been a piece of cake because Sabrina loves to play with and entertain him.





• Sabrina is mostly acting very grown-up and like a big girl, except occasionally at night. Benson and Grace have never really gotten up at night (from about 18 mos. or so on). But Sabrina just doesn't sleep as well. When she gets up she likes to be rocked for a little bit, usually insisting that Mommy be the one to rock her, and then she will willing go back to bed. Cute and sweet now, not so good in 3 months when we have a new baby. Perhaps she will grow out of it before then.

Our new baby girl is really growing as Grace likes to tell me lately when she pats my belly. At least she's not telling me I'm getting fat. A few weeks ago we got a book from the library titled "Waiting for Baby." I highly recommend it, by the way. It's about a little boy waiting for a new baby to be born. He likes to put his head on his mommy's tummy and feel the baby kick his face. So now our kids all like to put their head on my tummy and feel the baby kick. It sends them into fits of giggles everytime. Her arrival is already scheduled for Dec. 2, only 3 months to go! We are all so excited. And no she doesn't have a name yet.

Kindergarten!

We have officially survived the first day of kindergarten!

Last night, Benson and I went over to the school to drop off his supplies and meet his teacher. His teacher's name is Mrs. Cassel. The whole thing was a little overwhelming for me, so I came home and had a little breakdown alone in my room. But Benson seemed excited and ready to go.

We set Benson's alarm to go off at 6:50am. He chose to wake up to the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie soundtrack. We told him he didn't have to get out of bed until we came to get him at 7:00am, we were just trying to help him ease into waking up since he usually isn't very happy when he gets woken up in the morning. It worked! The first thing he said to me when I came in his room was, "I love my alarm" with the most pleasant smile on his face. Silly boy!

I wasn't going to let Benson ride the bus to school this morning since there was confusion over the bus number and schedule so we all got ready so we could drop him off. As we were driving down the street we noticed kids still sitting at the bus stops in the neighborhood and Benson asked if he could please ride the bus. So I gave in, I was more worried about him getting on the right bus at school than getting to school. He sat next to his neighbor friend, Gavin, who is also in kindergarten and away they went.

The girls and I went and picked him up around lunch time since they only had half a day of school today. He was very happy and had lots to tell us about. They took a tour of the centers in their classroom - the only one he mentioned was the sand and water center that has beans instead of sand. They took a tour of the other classrooms at school - music, art, the gym/cafeteria. They got to have recess and he told us the recess rules. And they learned a new song with a dance that he showed us. He was a little disappointed about not riding the bus home or getting to eat lunch at school, but he has many years of that ahead so I'm sure he will be fine.

After school we went to McDonald's for lunch (Mike met us there). Benson kept telling us he was cold and asking me to turn on the heater and he looked REALLY tired. When we got home I realized he and Grace were both running fevers. So now we have exposed the kindergarten to whatever crud we have that we can't seem to get rid of. Benson is currently on antibiotics for an ear infection, but he apparently also picked up the virus that Sabrina had earlier in the week. Yuck! So no school tomorrow, but hopefully we will be better by Friday.

And here's some photographic documentation

I feel a little guilty looking at the picture on the right because he doesn't look like he feels very well. No mother of the year award for me!

Insect Zoo

Yesterday the kids and I went to the Insect Zoo that is on campus at KSU. Benson has been looking forward to this since we found out we were moving to Manhattan. Someone told us about it and in an effort to make the move sound more appealing to him we told him about it and he has talked about it ever since. The kids thought it was great and I seriously had to sit down for a little bit because I was feeling faint. Insects in the wild is one thing, a whole building full of hundreds of insects and large tarantulas in cages is not really my idea of a good time.
When we arrived they offered to let the kids pet a tarantula, but first they had to demonstrate gentle petting techniques on some hissing cockroaches. Guess who was my only child that would touch the tarantula? If you guessed Grace then you would be right. That child fears no animal. My least favorite part was the dark room in the back with 10 cages full of tarantulas. I'm getting the chills just thinking about it.

In summary, the kids had fun and I am glad we can cross the KSU Insect Zoo off our list.

Top row - Each child in front of their favorite type of roach
Middle left - Benson and Sabrina in front of the Lubber Grasshoppers, Middle - The kids in front of a honeybee hive, Middle right - Benson and Grace looking at a moth wing under a microscope, Bottom left - Sabrina playing with a bee puppet, Bottom right - In front of the fountain at the KSU Gardens, demonstrating varying levels of non-cooperation, not sure why I even try sometimes

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I was really hoping to be able to cut out the diaper expense for a few months before the new baby comes, and Sabrina made that dream come true. She is so potty-trained she won't even let us come in the bathroom to help her...which can be a little scary, but I suppose in the long run it's a good thing. It only took her a day or two to figure it all out, but then we had to find the proper motivation and for Sabrina it was peer pressure. All it took was Grace or I going to the bathroom and she would want to go too. Whatever the reason, I am a very happy mommy. And feeling a little richer too. :)

Seven

Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. And since we had known each other for almost exactly 7 years when we got married, that means we have known each other for 14 years. That's almost half of our lives.

It was kind of fun to think back and talk about the last 14 years and how our relationship has evolved over that time. I don't think either of us really gave the other much thought when we first met as freshman in high school, but eventually over time as we became better friends and spent more time together we each stood out to the other.

To celebrate, my mom drove to Manhattan for the 3rd time since we moved here (isn't she awesome?) and took care of the kiddos so we could sneak up to Omaha for a night away. We went to the Winter Quarters Temple, ate at PF Changs, shopped, and most importantly SLEPT IN! It's nice to have a weekend away every once in a while to reconnect and recharge and with a new baby coming we probably won't get the opportunity again for a while.

The kids were well taken care of (they always are) by Grandma. She took them to a gymnastics place for free gym time, swimming, and then played outside with them for several hours all on Friday. Anyways, we really appreciate her help!

Who knows what the next 7 years will bring to our family?? We definitely couldn't have predicted everything that has happened the last 7 years. But come what may, I can be happy and will always be grateful with my eternal companion and best friend by my side.

Note: we aren't really standing that far apart for a picture on our anniversary. These were photoshopped together from 2 different pictures...since there was no one else around to take a picture of us together.