Halloween

Hey.  Here are a couple of pictures from trick-or-treating.  It's way too easy to shoot a shabby picture with the iphone, and I am pleased to say that I put the big flash on my SLR for these.  Aren't they nice?  Well, they are.  Thanks.  

Mister is great.  He still sleeps in his crib, which we keep in our closet, and he likes to sleep with the light on.  He can climb out, too.  He can hardly say any words but he seems to be able to get what he wants.  He likes playing in the dirt outside.  

Kira likes playing with our neighbor, Ethan.  In fact, all the kids light up when he's out front.  He seems to have all the cool toys and they play in the court for hours.  That's cool.

Scott is swimming with the Aquabears.  He goes out to Walnut Creek with Heidi and usually gets some fast food for the ride home, which he likes.  Heidi's been commuting in the truck, which I like.

I'm glad Blake's in a good mood here.  He seems to be having a hard time with life in general.  He gets upset but isn't able to articulate why, and it seems his fuse is pretty short anyway.  He hits things and tries to break them.  He can be so charming when he's in a good mood.

Tyler was excited about the results of his trick-or-treating.  He loves candy and likes to keep it just for himself.  He was bummed that his amazon costume didn't arrive.  Maybe it did and someone stole it off our porch.  I just think that's lame:  People selling their souls for a silly costume.

I keep my thoughts, philosophies, and goals on my other blog.  I just thought you would appreciate some photos of the kids in their costumes.  Okay, bye.

Heather Farms and Lindsey Wildlife

We had a fun day planned to visit Paisley during a day off.  Had a great time at Heather Farms Park.  Then we went to the Lindsey Wildlife museum but Tyler got really sick.  His chest really hurt and he looked really grey.  Luckily we were able to drop off Paisley at home and head home.  It was one of the few times that I actually thought about going into the hospital.  He didn't look good.  We went home, gave him some fluids, he slept for a couple of hours and felt much better when he woke up.  I think he was really dehydrated.  Glad he is doing better.  The kids love to go down these fake hills on cardboard. they are crazy and fearless.

Blake made this bread with Lisa at preschool.  He was so proud of himself and it was really good bread!  He is having a good time in preschool.  He loves being with friends and it is fun to see him enjoy learning.  A blessing my kids all seem to have is a love for learning and being with friends.  Not to say they are always good friends or love everything about school but for the most part enjoy the process of learning and being with friends.

Kira and 1st grade

Kira is doing really well in first grade.  She had such a hard time when I went to work in kindergarten and seems to have outgrown a lot of her fears and anxieties.  Some of it I am sure was loosing my parents and time seems to heal and make a lot of things better.

She is really smart.  Just gets things.  Reminds me of Scott in a lot of ways.  Has perfectionist tendencies.  Scott used to be hard on himself.  She isn't hard on herself or the outcome but just scared to do new things or in the process if they aren't turning out how she wants, she gets real frustrated.  It has been fun to see her learn to read.  All of a sudden, her reading just took off and somehow she went from learning one word to reading at a pretty high level.  I read an article years ago about how they teach kids in Switzerland (I think) how to read when they are older and actually ready to read and they progress happily and much faster than in America.  It really impacted me and for the most part I have adapted that into letting the kids learn skills when they are ready.  It has worked for reading for us.  She loves it.  In her free time, she goes onto RazKids, an online reading program, to read.  Reading has been such a great thing for Scott so I hope it is for Kira as well.   Scott has been really bored in school the past couple of years and this is really the first year I addressed it with his teacher, but I am going to stay on top of that with Kira because I can see her also getting bored in school before long.

She doesn't seem to have a group of friends like my boys did or at least I am not as much in he know with her.  With every kid, I feel like I am more and more removed.  With Scott, I would go to the park and knew all the moms and kids.  Now I find that Kira plays with her brothers friends more than her own.  Not that it is a bad thing, but just how it works out.  With that said, when we go to school, her friends seem to always say hi and she seems to have a lot of friends.  She is happy to go to school and always seems to have fun.  So we just plug along.  She has Mrs. Shirley, who Scott had.  Danny or I volunteer on Tuesday and I teach art once a month which is fun!

She is doing gymnastics which she really likes.  She seems much more confident and comfortable.  Last year, she didn't want us to leave her and now she doesn't mind so that is a great thing.  She has another showcase coming up.  The last one she was so scared, so hoping she is happier this time around!                                                            

Tyler's Yearly Cardiology Appt

Tyler met with Dr. Saba, his new cardiologist.  Dr. Cooper retired with Kaiser a little over a year ago, so this was our second appt with Dr. Saba.  Great guy, great Dr.  We are so blessed.  It was the first appt that I was able to drop him off for because I had Blake and Parker with me. He did great and the best news of all was that his heart is doing great!  We are so blessed.  There are so many kids that spend most of their lives in and out of hospitals and I Tyler has been blessed with a fairly normal childhood.

He is getting to the age that he needs to start using judgement of how to manage his health. 4th grade is the first year that the class has a P.E. teacher and I suggested to his teacher and Tyler that he probably shouldn't run for warm up but instead save his energy for more fun activities such as tag, frisbee or whatever they are playing.  He came home one day and told me he had to sit out all of P.E. because he didn't run in the beginning so it was a good opportunity to remind him to vocalize his limitations to his teacher.  I talked to the teacher again and he said he forgot which I totally get, but Tyler needs to continue to work on communicating his needs and limits.

He is doing fairly well emotionally. Still can be mean to his siblings at times, but everywhere else he is really a wonderfully nice kid.  He is kind of shy at school, obeys, works hard.  His patience and that love is still being worked on at home even though I do feel it is going in the right direction so I will take it.

He isn't doing many activities outside of school and that is fine. I am someone who is always on the go and can probably overschedule my kids, but I am doing a better job at realizing it is ok for them to have down time or just activities they want.  The kids play with neighbors a lot and always have kids over and I realize that is something I loved about my childhood so grateful they get to experience that as well!

He is doing well in school.  He has his same 1st grade teacher and always says how she is so much stricter in 4th grade than 1st, which I find funny.  He is so smart but also really lazy with doing homework or any extra work.  I should get on that but for now we are just kinda coasting along until I get more disciplined.

Tyler's BD and such

Kira's into having her hair done.  She asked for [French braids] and I didn't know how to do them.  I told her I'd have to watch a youtube video.  Then, in church, Megan was doing French braids on Malie and I learned how to do them.  My first attempt was pretty ugly, but you gotta start somewhere.  This was my second attempt.  I'm still not that good at them and it takes a while, but I had to take a picture before Kira took them out.  Her hair's not quite long enough to do two braids and merge them into one, so I did three separate ones.  

Tyler celebrated his birthday by having a sleepover.  More like a NO-SLEEP over.  I think the kids had a good time, though.

The piñata was popular even though it was too heavy to support its own weight on the hook.  The kids ended up smashing it on the ground.

Our new neighbors are great.  Our kids take turns jumping on each others' tramps.  They just climb over the fence like this.  Here they are enjoying some fudgecicles and popsicles.  Mmmm.

Yesterday we went to the redwood valley railroad at Tilden park.  It's been a while since we've been there.  I always like that place.

This is the little farm at Tilden park.  It was fun until Blake had a meltdown.

Last stop was the Oakland Temple visitors center.  They showed us the new "meet the Mormons" video and then Parker started to melt down.

We finished the day by eating at Mi Pueblo.  The kids were kind of wired but the food was good.  We even had a little left over.  

We got Kira this Trek Mystic bike on craigslist.  She probably could have used her 16" bike for another year but I've been searching for several months for this bike in pink, and when it came up in Stockton for $35, we had to get it.  Kira loves it.  She was telling me about it and then when I started to film, she thought I was taking a picture.  But she was so cute I had to post this.

Dana Hills County Dinner

Hey.  Thursday was the Dana Hills dinner for the county qualifiers.  Only Scott qualified, but Tyler and Kira came, too.  It was at the Oakhurst country club in Clayton.  Heidi wanted me to dress up so I wore my Neal Caffrey pants.  Heidi likes when I "dress up."  Except for church, of course, because I am down to just one suit--my power suit.  Which, incidentally, has been worn 202 times.  I've gotten my money's worth two times over.  

Anyway, it was a pasta feed.  I'm not much into pasta but the salad and dessert were good.  Plus, it was fun talking to my friends.  Heidi and I have the same phone but her lenses always seem to be cloudy, but a bad photo is better than no photo.  I brought my big camera and took a few pictures.  Can you tell the difference?  I am amazed at how much brighter and clearer the SLR's images are.   Hint:  the last ones are from the SLR.

I don't know everyone in these photos but it's easier to me to make this post than have her do it.  

I sat by Neal, who has to commute to SF.  I told him to get a motorcycle.  His wife flatly responded with a hearty "NO."  I said, "They're not gonna take away his temple recommend if he has a motorcycle!"  She came back with something like, "No, but he won't have a temple marriage anymore if he gets a bike."  Wow.

This is actually one of my favorites:  Tyler with a closed mouth crusty.  He usually likes hanging out with his friends and must have been tired.  Scott, on the other hand, wanted to stay as late as he could.

This reminds me of the red carpet photos in People magazine where they comment on what you're wearing.

Heidi called these girls her twinners.  Don't know who's photobombing.

Kind of a weird expression on Scott but whatev.  My, he's getting big.

Heidi with Nicholas and Sofia.

I've been happy with the Dana Hills swim team.  The people are friendly and like to help out with Parker.  It's cool that the kids play outside instead of just sit on their electronics.  Somehow, I've gotten to know more of the Dana Hills parents than the Diamond Hills crowd and we were with the latter for four years.

Scott finished his 50 free in 7th place with a personal best time of 29.38.  Not too shabby.  Well, Parker's crying so I gotta go.  Bye.