Fall Break Fun

We had a lot of fun for our week off of school. We went to the pumpkin patch, rock climbing, the zoo, and lots of parks. We went for bike rides, did halloween crafts, and played a lot of games. It was great fun. No one wanted to go back to school.

The zoo has a bird house. We bought sticks with bird feed on them with hopes that the birds would land on the sticks. It worked a few times.

The zoo has a fun park with things to climb.

The spiderweb. They are good climbers. They've had a lot of practice rock climbing at the gym.

More bird house fun. We also bought a crimper, which the girls love. Mia and Justin keep asking me to "crimple" their hair, but chicken out when I put it close to their heads. I think they're scared of the heat.

The giraffes are the best part of the zoo. We feed them lettuce and get grossed out by their long tongues. We were underdressed. It was chilly.

The pumpkin patch in Black Forest is windy. We went on a tractor ride, down the slides, through the mazes, and picked out our pumpkins. Great fun.

Mia's Birthday Party

On Saturday, which happened to be Mia's actual birthday we had a party. It was a lot of fun. I had a lot of help from Hans and the girls and Justin and everyone was happy. I love parties like this one. We had a Mermaid party.

Mia hit the pinata with a lot of energy. She and Justin had a lot of fun picking this pinata out and then filling it with candy. It sat in our house waiting for a whole week.

Mia was spoiled by her friends. She got all princess related presents.

The girls had fun with pin the flowers on Ariels hair game. Ashley and Katelyn were in charge of this and did fabulously.

Party fun. Hans made a gluten free little mermaid cake.

I was impressed with the cake.

I'm not sure where all these dress-ups came from, but they found them in my basement. Cute princesses.

We started the party coloring in pictures and blowing these party favors.

At breakfast Mia opened her presents from me. An Ariel doll and some lip gloss.

She has been dying to get this lip gloss set from Walmart. I was happy it was only 3$.

She also celebrated her birthday at pre-school with this crown and some cupcakes.

Mia is 4!

Mia at 4! Love the smile.

Mia turns 3.

Mia is 2. (She still wears this leotard).

Mia at 1. She no longer lets me do her hair.

Mia is in the house. My 4 lb 12 oz baby, while still little, is growing up. Sigh.

It really is hard to believe that Mia is 4. She has been such a fun addition to our family and she is still our baby, although she is very much a four year old. She is into princesses, lip gloss, mermaids, purses, dress ups, and fashion. She recently perfected riding her two wheeler bike (with training wheels) and I chuckle every time she rides since it's a Thomas the train bike that we've put a Barbie bike bag on so it can be girly enough for her. She loves keeping up with her sisters and they are so good to play princesses and gymnastics with her. She started her first ballet class this fall and she loves it. She loves twirling around in her leotard. She wears her leotards or swimming suits year round and they are dress ups, regular clothes, and pajamas. They get washed often. She is a very energetic person and we love having her.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Justin had Mother Goose Day on Wednesday. He dressed up as Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater and did a wonderful job reciting the rhyme from memory. This came as quite a relief to me. He doesn't have the same natural ability the girls did at school and has been causing me some worry, but something finally clicked the last week and he is doing better at writing his letters and memorizing his phonograms. Phew. He used to just sloppily write a big J on his papers and assume that was close enough to his name. And any box or coat or anything that had a J anywhere on it he assumed was close enough to being his. His teacher assures me this is the difference between boys and girls and that he is doing just fine and now I agree with her. He is improving and he finally likes school. I can relax.

Garden of the Gods

The kids get out of school on Fridays at 12:15. We took advantage of a beautiful Friday to go hiking right after school. The girls were great sports about humoring me in this since they had both run 4 miles for the school's asthma run that day. I am happy when I am outside. Garden of the Gods is beautiful, the hiking trails are easy, the rocks are fun to climb and hide in, and the trading post has bathrooms and toys to look at. We were lucky enough to get passed by a big group on horses. This was definitely a highlight. It was the perfect afternoon.

Update

It seems like life has flown by since school started at the end of August. I haven't taken many pictures and so I'm having a hard time remembering everything. So this is my attempt at a September and Family update. Our school schedule is in full force and while I like the routine, I miss the flexibility of summer. The kids are up by 7:00 and I drive the girls to school at 7:45. Then we come home and clean up the morning and either go to Life Time for me to teach, which I do 3 days a week or try to get some errands done. Then Justin goes to school at 11:45 and Mia goes to school at 12:30 Tuesday through Thursday. This leaves me with three afternoons a week where I have some time to myself. I had anxiety over getting totally bored during this time, but I've found myself cramming a ridiculous amount of stuff into this time. I volunteer at the school on Thursdays and I'm hoping on Wednesdays to make it down to CorePower so that I can get some yoga in for myself. I find myself not getting enough yoga in now that I'm teaching 4 classes a week. I did get to go to the Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park with Laurie. It was amazing. After 7 hours of yoga I was completely exhausted, but it was so fun to learn from Baron Baptiste, Sean Corne, and Desiree Rumbaugh. I am going to go every year. Estes Park is beautiful in the Fall. I also signed up to run the Boston Marathon in April. I don't have to start training until December, but I'm already finding myself dreading the long long runs. Hans and I are excited to take the family to the East Coast and spend some time there in the Spring.

Hans and I also were able to go to Austin, Texas for the BYU football game. Hans' parents were nice enough to fly out here to watch the kids for us for the weekend. The kids had an amazing time. Grandma showers them with gifts and attention. While in Austin we stayed with the Mabeys and visited with the Pullmans and the Browns. We ate at Rudi's and went waterskiing on Lake Austin. It was amazingly fun. Hans was able to golf and I went shopping at the outlets. We are debating a move to Austin. It's a difficult decision. We love Colorado and we are happy here, but there is more opportunity for Hans in Austin. Austin is also sea level with lots of lakes, which makes more sense for a boat purchase. This is a big decision and I'm notoriously indecisive. The night before we left for Austin Hans bought a truck. He loves it. We are now trying to sell the Honda Civic, which was my college car. I will miss it.

The kids are doing great. They are busy with their activities, but they handle it all so well. I am so grateful to have them and for their reminders to me to be more joyful.

Random Pictures

Katelyn got to dress up for Constitution day at school. This is what she and Ashley came up with since we don't have much Colonial dress around our house. She loved having her hair in really tight curls. She recited the Declaration of Independence, which she has memorized and did some activities that related to the Constitution. I love that they have these fun half-day fridays monthly.

Justin is really really happy to have his hair long enough again to do his mohawk. He was SO mad at me when I buzzed it off and now that his hair needs cutting again he is begging me to take him to Life Time to have it cut so I don't buzz it off again. He is also working hard on mastering the yo-yo.

Ashley at the piano. She works diligently at it. I love hearing her play. She has the World's greatest piano teacher.

Mia is explaining to me what this picture says. It was something to the effect of me having poop on my head. She's a lovely thing.

Katelyn loves crossword puzzles. She also loves making her own crossword puzzles with themes. This one was all words having to do with Church.

All 4 dressed up and ready for Church. I love this bunch.

Mia Starts Pre-School

Mia started Pre-school in September. She goes to Miss Colleen's with two friends from church and she loves it. She loves that she gets to take her pink, sparkly backpack with a snack in it and show and tell on Thursdays. She loves that when she goes to school in Madi's car she gets to watch a movie. But most of all she loves Miss Colleen. She is young to be going to pre-K, but since she only missed the deadline by a week I decided to put her in. She likes the extra time there. She goes Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 12:30-3.

Mia turns 4 next Saturday. She is busily planning her Little Mermaid Birthday party and trying to guess what is in the box I wrapped for her. We went to Party City yesterday and bought everything Little Mermaid for her party. I'm getting sad that my days of little mermaid and pink frilly things are coming to an end and so I may be overcompensating with Mia and her party.

Things about Mia - She is very aware of fashion and how she looks. Out of principle she doesn't wear pants. Leggings are questionable. She has a very clear picture of how she should look and worries that if she doesn't look the way she should that people will make fun of her. She won't take cheetos to school for a snack since Miss Colleen called a boy with cheetos a cheeto-head. She's embarrassed about many things, but also has a lot of confidence. She likes to run the show with her friends and can be quite the leader (is this a nice way of saying she's bossy?). She loves make-up, especially lip gloss and eye shadow. She loves polly pocket barbies and plays for hours with them. She is a home body and prefers to be at home with me then with friends. She makes us all laugh. She still you tubes 'how to apply make-up' videos and can spend a long time watching them if she's being sneaky. She knows all the words to a few of Taylor Swift's songs and I love to hear her sing them.

I love Mia!!!

Family Pictures

I LOVE OUR PICTURES! Check out www.treasuredphotosbyjoyana.com. She is Amazing.