Collage

I know I am way behind the times. I have loved how everyone does collages but I have never taken the time to figure out how. Well, with the new photo editor I downloaded it is a piece of cake. I love this Picasa 3 program, it is free to download and it has so many great features. It is what I have been editing all of those other pictures with. It is so user friendly, I love it. And I am sure that whoever looks at my blog is going to appreciate it too, because we all know I have a problem with posting so many pictures that look alike because I can not decide which ones I like the best. Now I can just pick one or two of my favorites to post big and then make a collage of the rest. Problem solved.

Preschool

Lily has started preschool at the Nae-borhood preschool with Miss Janae. She lives in our old ward. Calvin went to Miss Janae his first year of preschool and he absolutely loved it. He was so excited when he heard that Lily gets to go there. Lily loves school. She is so great at the crafts. She loves to make stuff and paint and color and she is quite good at staying in the lines for a 3 year old. Miss Janae says she loves Lily, and that she is very smart and such a good friend to all of the kids in the class. Lily only goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings so when we drop Calvin off at school she always says, "I miss Calvin already." And what was really cute is Lily had school when day when Calvin didn't and Calvin said the exact same thing when we dropped Lily off. With all this back to school stuff going on we did manage to catch the first cold of the school year. Thank goodness it was a mild one. It is going to be a fun and busy year.

Kindergarten

Wow, my little guy has started kindergarten!! You always know this day will come, but you don't realize how fast it will be here. I wasn't worried one bit about it, Calvin was so excited and ready to go, I just figured it was like glorified preschool, 5 half days a week instead of 3. But when I took him to school the first day, I got all choked up. It was hard dropping him off at that great big school. He is going to Manila by the way. He was ready to go and I just cried as I walked back to the van. I drove him the first day of course, but we are lucky that he has class with a couple of kids in our ward, so we carpool. I only have to drive 3 mornings a week instead of driving and picking up 10 times a week. It is great.

He has loved every second of kindergarten so far. His teacher is Miss Myntti and he asked her is she smells like mints. At his assessment before school started he got to sit down and talk to Miss Myntti and tell her all the stuff he knows. He did such a great job. I asked her what I could work with him on and she said, "Nothing right now, he knew it all." We have been reading with him every night and he is getting really good at reading small books. He says he loves math time. He also loves recess, P.E. and the library. It is so fun to hear him talk about his day at school. He is such a good kid.

His teacher sent me an email that said this:
Calvin is doing fantastic in class! He is an amazing listener, a great friend, and a hard worker.
Miss Myntti

I am very excited about elementary school. I loved elementary and I am excited to get in and get involved. I signed up for the PTA, just a volunteer, nothing big. But it is going to be fun to help in his classroom and go to school activities. This will be a fun new adventure.


And just a side note. We have been working with him all summer on riding his bike with no training wheels and he is kind of getting it. He is not quite there yet, but he can go a few turns without any help from us. I think a little more courage and he'll be off and going in no time.

The wisdom of a child

We listen to primary songs a lot on Sunday mornings before church. One Sunday morning we were singing the 2nd Article of Faith. "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression." and Calvin says, "Mom, that one is wrong. Men and WOMEN will be punished for their own sins, not just men!" I started laughing and said you are right Calvin. The men in the song stands for men and women.

My little Avsy Babsy

I did a little photo shoot of her in the backyard last night. I love this little face.

Ava is now 4 months old. I can't believe how much she has grown. She is smiling and laughing all the time now. And she puts everything into her mouth. I just love her to pieces. She is still not a wonderful sleeper but she gives me good 8 hour night here and there. She still prefers to sleep in the swing, however she is doing better in the crib. She has the happiest little personality. She will laugh and laugh at the kids. She is very ticklish and she will smile at anyone just because they smiled at her. She can also roll both ways, tummy to back and back to tummy. It is fun to watch her do that.

She still has pretty bad reflux. She has been on baby Zantac for 2 months and she still spits up everything. For an hour after we feed her it would just come up and out. At her 4 month appointment yesterday the doctor suggested the formula that has rice cereal in it. He says it works really well for reflux. We used it today and she didn't spit up once. It was a miracle. I think her tummy was a little upset from the heavier formula though. I breastfeed her half the time and she gets formula half the time. She spits up breast milk the worst that is why she gets formula. It is heavier and sits in her tummy better.

She had a big growth spurt when we started her on formula. She now weighs in at 14 lbs 2 oz (50%) and she is 25 inches tall (75%). She is very tall. She must have gotten the gene somewhere, both of our families have some very tall people.

She is a blast and we are so blessed to have her in our family!!

At the Provo temple for Amy's endowment

Travis and Amy

My brother Travis married this beautiful, sweet girl, Amy, on August 27th. They make such a great couple and we are so happy for them. Amy has 11 kids in her family and they are all so nice. Her family is a lot of fun and we are really close with her aunt and uncle and cousins, Brent and Carla Garner, so it is fun that we are related now. Travis and Amy were married in the Manti Temple, their luncheon was in Santaquin and their reception was at Amy's parent's home in Elberta. The weather was a little crazy for the reception. It was a good thing her dad has a big garage filled with cool things to look at. Because a lot of us hung out in there for most of the night. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun day. We wish them an eternity of happiness!!

Aunt Bambie made this beautiful cake.