Laboring

We really enjoyed our Labor Day Weekend this year. Mike actually had a real 3-day weekend. His interim job assignment over the summer has morphed into a new job. Instead of Store Manager for the Manhattan stores, he is now the Performance Support Manager for the Kansas market. He will now be working to improve the Sales Process of all associates thereby improving the performance of all the stores in Kansas. Which means he no longer writes a schedule and is no longer working shifts at the stores. Hence the 3-day weekend (he worked both Memorial Day and the 4th of July this summer). We will leave out the downside of the major increase in overnight travel.

Anyways, on Saturday morning we got up and attempted to overseed our lawn, yet again. We have definitely seen improvement in the lawn after several tries at putting down more seed, but our lawn still has a long way to go. I took some pictures of the kids helping us in our labors.

Benson and Grace were too busy watching tv to come outside, so they were assigned folding the laundry. They did a pretty good job.

Sabrina helped us water the lawn prior to putting down the seed.

And helped push the spreader all over the yard.

And Jillian, never one to be left out, took over the hose when Sabrina was done. You probably can't tell in this picture but her face is crusted with glaze from her donut breakfast and her nose was dripping like a faucet. But she was having fun and working hard. She loves to be outside. Thank goodness our weather has turned fall-like because she is so much happier playing outside. And thank goodness our neighbors like us and can overlook us letting our kids run around looking so filthy.

On Monday we had a fun Family Home Morning, went to the zoo and had a picnic lunch, and then went to our Ward BBQ at our favorite park that evening. The weather was perfect and it was a very fun family day!

More Firsts

Sabrina has been waiting FOREVER for preschool to finally start. Her first day was yesterday, Wednesday, and she was READY!

Sabrina has been experiencing some serious middle-childitis lately. She longs to go to school like the big kids and gets tired of having to give in to Jillian all the time. Nothing is ever fair and she wants a friend over every day of the week to help her not feel left out. I'm hoping that having her own time at preschool will help with that, because we are NOT having play dates every day of the week.

Jillian has not been a big talker heretofore, which is why we are currently enduring 3 hours of speech therapy a week. Neither she or Sabrina are very happy with that schedule. But yesterday when I got out the camera to take Sabrina's picture before preschool, she proved that she does have the ability to speak understandably.

Actually in the last couple of weeks, she really has started using several words more consistently. She knows uh-oh, dada, ball, throw, go, and just the other day added cheese and juice. Hopefully this is just the beginning of language explosion!

May 2011 Recap

We started off May at the Lee School Family Fun Fair. I was excited because this year it fell on the weekend AFTER Mike's finals so he was able to come. It was a good family outing.

Next up was the Fathers and Sons Campout. Benson looks forward to this event ALL year. He loves to camp. He was a little upset that there was no fire so therefore no s'mores, but they did get to go canoeing and fishing. The girls and I had a girl party and their first sleepover with Grace and Raegan Horspool. We painted fingernails and toenails and watched girly movies and ate girly food.


And finally, May of course marked the end of the school year. The girls finished up their preschool the first week of May. I think Benson had a field trip every week of May, and in fact one week he had 3 field trips. He also participated in Field Day (pictured below) which fell on the hottest day of the year up to that point.


Here is a small sampling of some of the kid's artwork from this year. The top two are Benson's, middle two are Grace's and bottom two are Sabrina's.


And just so Jilly isn't left out, here's a couple pictures of her from May.

All dressed up and ready for church!


I know I mentioned in a previous post that this kid has the LONGEST tongue you have ever seen. This picture doesn't even really show how long it is. Crazy Baby!

First Day of School

Today was Grace's 1st day of Kindergarten. We went to the school last night to find out her teacher and drop off her supplies. She was very excited to learn that she has Mrs. Cassel, who is the same teacher that Benson had. I let her pick out her own clothes and she of course picked her favorite outfit that I don't think is very nice. See Jenny and Sarah, I do let my kids wear t-shirts occasionally. I almost tried to talk her into wearing something else, but I decided to let her be her own person.

This morning when I dropped her off at the gym she was very excited. She told me that they had cheerios for snack and played outside for recess. Today was just a half day so tomorrow she will get to take her lunch and have her first full day of school.


Benson started 2nd grade today. He is getting so big. He is excited about the new school and his teacher. He woke up at 6:20am because he was so excited. He has Mr. Perez this year who is a new teacher.

Sabrina got to go over to a friend's house this morning while the kids were at school and then they were home this afternoon, so I don't think she even felt the change. Tomorrow might be a little harder on her.

After Sabrina left for her friend's house, Jillian was not a happy camper. I think she felt a little left out and confused at being the only one left at home. Thank goodness we had a swimming birthday party to go to, which she really enjoyed. We don't have as much going on tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

It has been a long, hot, and busy summer...as evidenced by my blogging absence. Maybe now that half of the kids are in school all day I'll be able to catch up. We were ready for a change so we are all glad that school has started. Now if the weather would cool off, we would be in business.

GO!

I haven't done a Jilly post lately and since she is now 17 months old I thought it would be a good time. Since Jillian is our fourth child it is very difficult for me to not compare her to her older brother and sisters. I recognize that this is very unfair because not only is each child unique, but our family dynamic changed with each new baby and as everyone has gotten older. But I still compare her all the time, and I always say that Jillian is our CRAZIEST! I'm still not sure if she really is the craziest OR if the craziness is due to trying to keep up with older children and a toddler at the same time OR maybe I'm just getting old, but this baby wears me out!

Recently we have become concerned because Jilly still isn't really talking very much. She can babble mama and dada, but very seldom does she say them as labels for us or to get our attention. She mostly just grunts, yells, screams to get what she wants. But the week before last, she did finally learn a new word that I would say is her first word......GO! If you say "ready, set...." she will fill in a very emphatic "GO!" I can't remember what anyone elses first words were, but I will never forget Jillian's. It is so fitting because all she wants to do is GO!




Some other interesting tidbits about her at 17 months old:

TRICKS: (I've been trying to get some of these on video but I'm still working on it)

• if you ask her what a dog says she will pant and stick out her tongue


• she knows where her tummy and her "pretty hair" are


• she can sign "eat", "more", "baby", and "please"


• loves to blow kisses, clap, and wave bye-bye


• puckers her lips when she gives you kisses and make a kissy noise

FAVORITES:

• favorite foods (read the ONLY things she really eats) are chicken nuggets, yogurt, baby food (STILL), grilled cheese sandwiches, and french fries


• OUTSIDE - if there is a door open she will go through it and if you stop her she will throw a huge tantrum, she is SOOO much happier outside swinging, sliding, riding bikes (she loves Grace and Sabrina's bikes), or pushing her stroller all over the neighborhood
  she still has her binky and she is an ADDICT, we will probably need a 12 step program to take it away (for her and US)


• BINKY - she is an ADDICT, we will probably need a 12 step program to take it away (for her and US). The rule right now is she can only have it in her bed but she usually has one in her mouth and one in each hand while she is sleeping.


• BABY EINSTEIN - does a happy dance every time she sees that silly caterpillar


• BOOKS - we find her sitting on the bean bag chair reading books a lot lately when she is quiet, so much better than finding a mess
  

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:

• weighed 21 lbs, 10 oz at the doctor last month (16 months old)


• has 9 teeth fully out with 10-12 imminent


• has had several hair trims to get rid of the baby mullet, her hair is thin like Sabrina's with CRAZY cowlicks like Grace's


• has the LONGEST tongue, we laugh every time she sticks it out

OTHER THINGS OF NOTE:

• she is a horrible sharer and toy stealer - I know I'm not helping when I tell the older kids to give her what she wants so she will STOP screaming


• she has started to bite to get what she wants


• loves to snuggle and will pat your back and say "oooh" when you hold her


• LOVES Benson, Grace, and Sabrina. They are so good to play with her and sing songs with her and hold her and she loves (almost) all of it.


• RUNS as fast as she can the other direction when you say "come here" or try to pick her up when that's not what she wants which makes taking her places DIFFICULT


• some recent messes/disasters - dropped a bottle of nail polish on the tile floor which ruined 2 tiles, dumped out a bag of powdered sugar all over the kitchen floor, falls in the bathtub fully clothed on a regular basis, pulls the tablecloth off the kitchen table along with anything else on the table

There is never a dull moment with Jillian around!