Poetry reading

Last month Isabella's class had a poetry reading night.  All the kids got dressed up and parents came and they read poems they had written to the audience. I love this because I think it is good to have kids speak in front of people, public speaking is a good skill to have.  Also, Isabella brings home notebook upon notebook full of poems and stories each year.  Her teacher gave her more than her allotted share last year and I sent in a few.  The stories she writes are random and funny and good.  I usually only keep school work that are original ideas and her box is big because of all the journals.

Bella loves her teacher this year!  She came to Bella's gymnastics meet and always has such wonderful things to tell us about Bella.  Almost all of the favorite teachers we have had over the years have left after the year we have them, so no repeats.  Mrs. B is going to have a baby in the summer and move away for more schooling for her husband.  We will sure miss her and wish the little girls could have had her as a teacher as well.

So...where are we going to live?

We decided to build a house last fall.  Picked out plans and put down some money.  Then we sold our house, a bit more quickly than we anticipated.  This left us in need of a place to live.  The rental market is a bit tight, especially if you aren't looking for long term.  I found a condo in Saratoga Springs that we cute and clean and convinced the owners to let us rent it for a few months.  I thought we would be here until the first few weeks in May, but it's looking like it will be a bit longer, the house building process is sssssslllloooooooooowwwwww.  Originally the house was supposed to be started the last week in January.  But there were a few things with the permits that needed to be resolved, and some confusion with the builder, so they didn't dig a hole until the end of February.  We decided to take a picture of the kids in front of where the driveway is each week to document the progress.  I will try and update if it seems interesting, these first several are pics of the kids in front of dirt, exciting, I know. 

This was in February-just dirt.  Jack is wearing rec specs because we just finished basketball games.

They dug a hole-end of February.

The footings are poured here-basically concrete under concrete. I love the sky in this one. 

Foundation poured. Sophie is a total ham if you didn't already know that.

This is St. Patrick's Day. They poured the driveway and back patio.

No Jack in this pic. He is home sick with Nate.  The rest of us got that same sickness within days. There are all sorts of piles of lumber in this one.  They sat there for days and days and days.  Then yesterday on the way home we noticed they started doing stuff with the lumber, so this weeks picture should look different.  But after uploading all of these I can see I lied, I will post stuff whether interesting or not.  You know, just for personal documentation. 

Basketball 2012

Jack and Isabella both played Jr. Jazz basketball this year.

 Jack mainly played guard and was on an all sixth grade boys team.

This was the first year that Bella was on an all girls team.  She had some good friends on her team and had a great time. 

They both scored a lot of baskets and improved over the season. 

Sophie and Tessa are troopers and went to all the games.  Tessa learned to clap as a result, pretty cute.

Goodbye Old House

Last fall we decided we were bursting at the seams in our house.  Tessa is in our room, the girls are in bunk beds, which is fine, except for the ceiling fan that keeps the room cool in the summer is right next to the top bunk. And with the kids getting bigger, the house seemed to be getting smaller.  So Nate and I started looking into new housing options.  We visited various model homes and looked at a few things for sale here in Lehi.  In November we decided to build and picked out a floor plan and a lot.  Then right after Thanksgiving we put our house up for sale.  We thought with the holidays, we really wouldn't have any interest in the house until after the new year.  And knowing that house building is a bit of a slow process, we thought we had a lot of time to worry about selling the house.  Well, just before Christmas, about three weeks after we put it up for sale we had a buyer.  We went to Oregon for Christmas and then came back home and put ourselves into moving mode.

  We packed up all non-essentials and stored them.  Then I found a place to rent and we were out of our house by the end of January.  After we had cleaned everything out we took an opportunity to go say goodbye to our home of almost seven years.  It was good to hear everyone's favorite memories and think of all the changes we underwent as a family.  We moved into the house with two little kids and left with four.  We tried to improve things in the house and yard.  We made many great friends and had great neighbors. 

We are excited to move onto the next chapter and see our new house when it is finished!  We have been blessed to be happy and close wherever we are!

Think Pink Meet February 2012

Isabella participated in the Legacy Center Think Pink meet on February 10th.  She is getting more and more competitive and really wants to improve each meet.  She works so hard and is determined.  Her teacher came to the meet which was so fun!  Bella was thrilled to see her there!  This meet was a little different than previous ones as it was in the evening.  It was way past bedtime when we finished up.  The next day, Bella was a score runner for the older girls, she loved it!

We love watching her and seeing her progress. 

Six Month Pictures

My dear friend Nicole took pictures of Tessa for me this past week.  They turned out so good, I can't believe she is six months old already.  I keep trying to soak up every moment with her, but they still pass by quickly.

At her six month check up Tessa weighed in at 15 lbs. 11 oz.  She is 26 and a half inches long.  She can sit on her own and roll all around.  She is a mama's girl and prefers me most of the time.  She has started eating food and loves oatmeal with bananas.  She hates peaches, we'll try again later. And anything she can eat off my plate she loves best.  No teeth yet, but lots of drooling and biting on things.

Tessa loves Isabella and she will hang out with her after school.  Bella always asks to hold her and take care of her, I love having a good little helper.  Jack has to constantly defend his glasses when he plays with her, she tears them off and throws them away.  Sophie likes to hold her for about 10 seconds at a time, then she has other stuff to do.

I think this is my favorite picture.  Isabella and Sophie each have a picture of themselves with angel wings when they are six months old.  I am so glad Nicole found some.  Despite weighing the most at birth, Tessa is the smallest at six months old. All that spitting up in the early months.  Thankfully she seems to outgrown a lot of that and I can go a full day without a burp rag as opposed to using a dozen or so.

We love our little baby, she's such a sweet girl.

Busy October

It seems we have been busy every day this month. I forget how fall flies by with sports and school and the days getting shorter on top of that.  We have been filling our days with gymnastics, football, school, sewing, playing, and spending time with good friends.

Tessa had her four month check up at the beginning of the month-how did that happen?

  She weighs in at 14 pounds and is doing great.  Despite all of Nate and my efforts to keep her a newborn, she has grown out of that stage and is becoming interested in the world around her.  I have soaked up every moment of her babyhood thus far, leaving a much shabbier state of things around the house.

Sophie is the firework she always is, she is a mini-Jack in so many ways.  She wants to have fun all the time, she is always seeing what angle will work for her and going after that.  She has been such a trooper at all her siblings sporting events.  I did pack her a special backpack and get her a special chair to help with that, and it has worked.

She colors and reads and snacks and plays.  She also had a checkup and a few shots this month.  She is almost 40 inches tall and about 35 pounds.  Jack has been QB on his football team this season-follow progress of that at In The Zone.

  They have finished their regular season with a 6-1 record and are ready to head into the playoffs.  Bella is halfway through her first season of competition gymnastics.

She is doing really well and gaining such confidence in the process.  When she doesn't perform how she thinks she should, she comes off the floor and details what she will need to work on next time.  Excuse my commentary, I underestimate my loudness often.

Now we are getting all settled on Halloween Costumes and plans for the holidays.  It seems once you hit October, everything moves at lightening speed.  I am still sticking with the Want, Need, Wear, Read plan for the kids Christmas gifts, it has really simplified shopping over the past few years. I need to get started on that.