October pictures

Mother Teresa

Found a great quote that I wanted to put somewhere :)

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world your best and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway."
-Mother Teresa

Update

I realized I hadn't done a post in awhile, so I thought I'd just do an update on what's going on around here.
We are all healthy and happy now! (The colds that went around 3 times this last month are finally completely gone- Yay)
Billy and I are starting to exercise more consistantly again. He's been waking up between 4:30-6 every morning to exercise(depending on what day it is, with school, etc) Some mornings he works out with his best friend at the gym and other mornings in does P90X from home. He's really getting in good shape. He can't keep a good pair of pants b/c they get too big rather quickly.
Billy's wonderful and the love of my life! I never tire of having him around. Infact I miss him so much when he is gone that I know I'm going to have a hard time when he gets busier in school/ medical school/ his residency/ and life as a doctor. But it is just something I'll have to get used to. He is getting A's in both his classes- a biology class (I can't remember which one) and Trig. I think he's in the top 3 in both of his classes. He studies hard, works hard, and he doesn't go half way. He gives 110%. If he has a homework assignment he'll do that plus more until he really is confident that he knows the material. I'm proud of him.
I had some hard days with the kids a couple weeks ago, and Billy was gone a lot. He actually won tickets to see Creed and was gone all day one day. That was a hard day here at home. All 3 of my kids have days where they are emotional and throw fits. It's like they take turns- one day Will will have 2-4 fits the next day it will be Adalynn and sometimes Tessa. Every once in awhile they'll all cry at once. And it's more than that too- life with 3 young kids is just so busy! So after that week Billy said I could go get a pedicure with one of my friends! It was so nice to get out and have some fun girly time! That really helped my spirits.
Will is doing really good with his at home preschool and I was talking to someone recently about the possibility of him going to preschool at the school near our house for speech. If it was for speech it would be free. I think that would be good for him. He has a list of letters he can't say such as tr=f, g=d, l=y, c=t, etc. He can be a really nice brother- he goes back and forth as I'm sure many siblings do. But sometimes it seems that him and Adalynn are like best friends and he can be really sweet to Tessa.
Adalynn seems to be enjoying her role as the big sister lately. She likes to play with Tessa and give her things. I love it when she makes Tessa laugh, or helps her with something or gets a toy for her. She can be very thoughtful.
She's also starting to make up songs lately. She sang the sesame street song but sang the last part "Can you tell me how to get to garbage man street?" Then when we laughed she knew it was funny and now she sings it all the time and laughs at herself when she sings that part. That girl still loves the garbage man! haha. Another song she made up is (from A Happy Family) We love Tessa, she loves us.. We love Will, WA- WA- WA- WA WILL!
Tessa's transitioning down to 1 nap a day and it's sometimes hard for her to push through until after lunch but she really seems ready for the transition. She is now saying Mama and Dada and trying to imitate animal noises when I do them. But even though she's not saying much you can tell she understands almost everything you say and she's starting to slap (haha) her body parts when you ask Where's your head or Where's your tummy? etc.
We went to a ward Chili cook off last week. That was a lot of fun. Billy made a really good black bean with turkey burger chili. It had a lot of fresh vegetables in it and it was really good. We won a halloween decoration- it's really cute. We didn't have any halloween decorations so I was excited about that. We are going to a costume party in a couple weeks that I am excited about too. But I still haven't decided what I'm going to be... Any ideas?

The Prophet

I was telling the kids today about general conference tommorow and about the prophet, and I decided to look for some pictures of Thomas S. Monson on the computer.
I found a nice little smilebox slideshow if anyone wants to look at it with their kids. My kids loved it. The music is such a great touch, it really invites the spirit. I know Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet! And I'm so glad we have a prophet to lead and guide our church. I am looking forward to conference tomorow.

http://smilebox.com/snap/4f4451304d4445304d413d3d0d0a.jpg or
://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://smilebox.com/snap/4f4451304d4445304d413d3d0d0a.httpjpg&imgrefurl=http://fheabitofheavenathome.blogspot.com/2009/04/our-prophet-thomas-s-monson.html&usg=__Qgz4auMPrgZ6fNXb5Fc0YGdosos=&h=330&w=420&sz=28&hl=en&start=12&tbnid=WiZbIkDdYl0ihM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpictures%2Bof%2Bthomas%2Bs%2Bmonson%2Bprophet%2Band%2B12%2Bapostles%26hl%3Den

Chores

I've been thinking that I need to start a system with chores around here lately. My kids know how to clean up their toys and help around the house (Will even occasionally helps me vaccum- he likes to vacuum with the hose) BUT I'd like to do something consistent that involves making every day chores fun.
I've heard some good ideas from some of my friends, but I just wanted to put this out there b/c I know a lot of you do some really creative things to help the kids get involved.
So, any suggestions?

Counting to 100

We got a new numbers book at Goodwill this week for 50 cents I think. It's in excellent condition and the kids love it. Don't ya love 1/2 off days?
Anyway, it goes all the way to 100 and Will loves it. He's been wanting to read it a lot lately and every time we get with the page that goes to 100 he wants me to count all the way to 100. The first time I figured- Why not? I thought he was probably a little young to catch onto counting all the way to 100 but I thought it'd still be good for him to hear it. I thought maybe the more he hears it the sooner he'll start hearing the pattern and learning it.
Well, the first time I did it he started counting with me and tried to keep up the whole way. He started getting better each time we did it, but I still thought he was just saying it with me and I wondered how much of it he was getting. So today I decided to write all the numbers down so he could see the pattern. But then after I got to 50 I had the idea that there might be a better numbers chart on the computer that would be easier to teach/ learn.
So I found some stuff. First I found a cool chart where you could color each number any color you wanted. So I think that really helped him to see that and color cordinate it as we counted, then we found a great counting song on YouTube.

THEN we found a great math/ numbers game/ chart. :) Here it is http://www.hbschool.com/activity/count/index.html
I think it really clicked with him today. It would count 54, 55, 56 then say what comes next? And he knew the answer 90% of the time. He really got it! I'm so proud of him that he's learning this at such a young age, and I thought those two things that I found were pretty cool things to help learn counting, and I wanted to share them with you. :)

What I love about the people I love...

I was thinking about all the things I love about my kids and I thought I'd make a list. It started out 10 things I love about them, but then it got longer- Billy added some of his favorites at the end for each of them too. I have great kids and I love them so much.
Billy and I mentioned the other day how nice and relaxing it was before we had kids. Even though in some ways I miss those days, I wouldn't trade my life with these 3 kids for anything in the world. They are such a joy. They have their fussy moments but the joy outways the times when I want to go crazy, so maybe during the times when I want to scream I can think of these things that I love about them:


Will:
1. I like his dancing. He got his awesome dancing skills from me. He is so funny when he wiggles around and does his silly dance. The other day he was sticking his bottom out and gettin' his groove on. And I asked him if he was dancing and he said, "No, I'm shaking my Booty!"
2. He has so much energy, and sometimes to get out his energy he just starts spinning in circles. Hey, I don't mind spinning as long as he's not making up some silly screechy song.
3. He is so smart on the computer. He picked up on everything so fast. He can get on here, go right to PBS kids, click on what he wants and follow all the instructions- he can even click on the letters to spell his name. He is a smart boy.
4. I like how I can play games with him now. He loves Candyland and Memory. He's good at them too- most of the time he wins. He just discovered Uno today. We played it 4 times in a row today. He loved it! I made it simple for him, and we had a lot of fun.
5. I love taking him to Primary like he's such a big kid, and hearing from him what he did in his class.
6. I like how (being the oldest) he's the ringleader among the kids. If he has an idea to go in the "forest", or dance or spin in circles or pretend to be animals then the other two will just follow suit. They just do what he does.
7. He is a perfectionist like me. He has always been real good about cleaning up his toys. When he was around a yr old I started having him help me put things away and he thought it was a game. Now when we are cleaning up- every little thing has to be in its place and if Tessa goes to take a toy out during clean up time he'll take it away and say "no, it goes here." Everything just has to be in it's place. There have been times where I've seen him obsessed about making sure his shoes line up or that our VHS movies are stacked just right.
8. I will always have special memories of each of the births of my children, but Will's in particular was so amazing b/c he was our first. And when I think of his birth it still hits me what a miracle it was to see this baby and realize "That's our son. That's our baby." I loved him from the moment I saw him. And I love that as the oldest I had 2 yrs of him to myself. We had so much one on one time and Mommy, Daddy and Will time. We have a lot of good memories of when Will was our only baby.
9. Will can be so sweet. He can be such a good older brother. Sometimes he'll lay on the floor and Tessa will come crawl all over him and he'll just laugh and they'll have a good time together. He also plays peek-a-boo w/ her and he does ring around the roses with Adalynn. He plays really well with them sometimes. And they'll be times when he says really sweet things to them too, like last Sunday he said "Ada-inn, you in your Sunday 'ress." She said yes and then he said "You look pitty."
10. I like that Will can now tell stories. He sometimes just makes up stories out of the blue and they are so funny. I like that he is now talkative and says such funny things. I remember when he was a baby I used to think how fun it would be once he learned how to talk and we could carry on a conversation. I love it.
11. I love his big blue eyes. Where did he get those?
Here's Billy's:
12. I like it when I am working on the recliner and Will has to get his "laptop" and work next to me.
13. I love wrestling with him on the floor and hearing him squeal.
13. I love it when he comes up to me on his own and says "Daddy, I love you."


Adalynn:
1. I love how she is obsessed with the garbage man. Every time she hears a big truck she says with awe and excitement- "Dabage Man!" her eyes get big like it's Christmas morning. And if it really is the garbage man she runs to the window and watches the truck till it's gone.
2. I like to sing primary songs with Adalynn. She is starting to do all the motions to all the songs and sing along with some of them too. Poppcorn Popping and Snowman are two of our favorites. And her favorite non-primary song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; I love to hear her sing that in her monotone voice. Lol. It's great.
3. I love to hear her say her name. Sometimes she'll still call herself Anna but then when we say "What's your name?" She'll emphasize "Ada- yinn"
4. I like how she has to sleep with her bear every night. If we can't find it we say "The bear's on vacation." So last night she was looking for it and came to us and said "Mommy, baya on acation." It was so cute.
5. I like that her favorite toy is still legos.
6. I love her little voice and the cute things she says. One phrase in particular is when I come out of the shower she always says "Mommy, take sour?" "Mommy, all keen?" "Otay."
7. I like it that she still downs 7 oz. of milk laying down on her dog. She started laying down on her big soft dog when she turned one and switched to sippy cups, but I didn't think it'd stick this long. She only does it once or twice a day, but I still think it's cute b/c right after I give her the milk she runs down the hall in her funny dance run and says "I go dink milk on dog, Mommy." It's so cute- I can't break that habit yet.
8. I like how she's into dinasours lately. Everytime I open the closet she says "Dinasour!" Like she just found a surprise present. She doesn't act scared of them; she just walks around sometimes pretending she saw one.
9. I love her show off smile when she thinks she's funny.
10. Her favorite book is Bean's Boo Boo and she always calls it "Baby's boo boo." She loves to read books and I love to read to her.
11. I love her hugs. She will give you a hug until you pull her away. She just wraps her arms around you, lays her head on you and doesn't stop hugging until you stop. She is so cuddly and loving and sweet.
Billy's:
12. I like that her favorite word is "uh huh." You can ask 100 questions and every answer will be "Uh Huh," with the occasional "Otay."
13. Can't forget about "Yook, See?"
14. Every time I'm working on my work computer, she walks up to me and says "Daddy, Puter?" she will says this like 5-10 times in a row.


Tessa:
1. I like her little grin when she tries to hold in a laugh
2. I love her little laugh. It's sounding a little different lately- and it always makes me want to laugh with her.
3. I love her big blue eyes and her soft chubby cheeks.
4. I like it when she follows Will and Adalynn around like she's as big as they are. The other day they were pretending to be dinasours and Tessa learned to say "raahhh!" It was so cute.
5. I love her drunken, bowel-legged walk. I could just watch her walk around the house all day with a smile on my face b/c I think she is so cute.
6. I love how she is starting to plop in my lap with a story or toy.
7. I love her wave. She waves A LOT. Every time she wakes up I hold her as we go around the house and say hi to everyone and she just waves and waves. She waves whenever someone says hi or bye or sometimes at random times like around the dinner table or at the TV.
8. I love it when she does something she thinks is remarkable and she happily looks up at me with a huge smile on her face and claps her hands. She does this whenever she climbs to the top of the bunk bed. So there I am watching nervously as she makes her way up, and then when she claps her hands at the top I just have to laugh.
9. I like how she likes to go upside down, and how ticklish she is.
10. I love her hugs. They are few and far between b/c she is busy and likes to look around and move and explore. But when she gives me a hug it is one of the best feelings in the world.
11. I love how she fills the places in my heart that I didn't even realize needed filling. She fills my heart with joy.
Billy's:
12. I like how when she eats she has a look on her face like she is doing something extremely important, and when she takes a drink she has to tilt her head as far back as possible. Oh, and I can't forget about the cute "little" mess she makes on the floor.