"I am learning how to spell"

That's actually the title to a song by Jeanine Brady that I grew up singing, a very catchy tune. Kindergartner Kate is definately learning how to spell. And being a girl, she loves to play school, color, draw, write notes, etc. She's become a good reader in all day Kindergarten (level 1.8 or so), but she's still in the experiemental/phonetic spelling stage. Yesterday she wrote the word "SGOOWOWLE". Tyson said "what does that say?" And she said "school (duh), I sounded it out!"

Kate getting a photography lesson from Sue Thulin at the Pinewood Derby.

My Prince Charming

Tonight Paige saw a couple on TV getting married. She said "I want a prince." Kate said "they're getting married" Paige said "I want to marry a prince." I said "I did". She said "Where is he?" I replied "at the church. It's your daddy" She said "daddy is a prince?" in a dreamy thoughtful tone.

Another funny story about Paige was recently on the way to school so mentioned that there was a hole in her jeans. I quickly looked in the rear view mirror and said "don't put your finger in it, it will get bigger." She said "really? like mommy's or daddy's?" (No, Paige, your finger is not going to get bigger! But as my friend Samantha pointed out, she was just chastising me on my improper English)

Some of the funny things Paige says are:
skin milk, hook instead of hood, Qwinkle, qwinkle, little star, cocky milk, hangermer instead of hambuger, grink instead of drink, Old McDonalds, and my favorite Barbie got Tom instead of Barbie.com!

Paige at the pinewood derby.

One of my favorite things that Paige does is she is always paying me compliments, like "you are so cute and pretty Mom". And she'll want to smell me and tell me how good I smell. She used to be in the habit of licking as a sign of affection, luckily that went by the wayside! (I don't have pets for a reason!) Yesterday she came in the bathroom and said "it smells like curls" I had just been using the hairspray.

Paige surprised us in the fall, just after her third birthday by retelling (reading/memorizing) the book "Go, Dog, Go" It's over 60 pages and she can do it almost verbatim. It wasn't even her favorite book; she hadn't heard it very many times.

Ok, last one! A few monthes ago, out of the blue she said "When I was a monster I lived in a village." What has she been watching/listening to?

Trip to Utah

The week before school started we made a trip to Utah. We were able to visit with Craig and Angie and their kids. They had come to bring them to BYU. Rick's mom, and Barry, were also out from Pennsylvania. We stayed at Darla's house. She was a wonderful host, feeding us out her garden and providing all sorts of fun things to do. And Cheri still lives nearby.
Michelle and KC moved back to Utah from Texas the day we arrived so we were able to see them and help out. One day while Rick was doing some heavy lifting I took the kids (except Kate who though it would be more fun to go with her Dad) to Thanksgiving point, just down the mountain from the Holmes new home. My cousin Lori, and her 3 kids met us there.
Below is a friend, Luke, Drew, Dane, and Paige.
The boys playing at an exhibition about motion.

We locked them up at threw out the keys! JK.

It was $1 day that day (of course I had to find a deal), so we saw the dinosaurs, rode ponies, and saw the farm animals (in the sweltering Utah heat).

How sweet is she? There were even $.50 ice cream cone so the kids really scored that day.

Family Photo

We had professional pictures taken of the whole family and then as individual families at the park near Darla's house. It was another toasty day, but they turned out really well.

Hanging at the Quarry

The kids were like pros this year at the quarry. We spent about 4 hours taking turns climbing with most of Rick's family. Rick and Jake raced to the top.

I pushed myself this year and did some harder climbs. Check out those calves!Wow, that's exhuasting.

Tyson showing that he could make it where mom couldn't.

He used chalk this year for his grip and climbed using the tags so he would only use certain grips to get up certain routes, a more advanced skill.

Kate hung around chatting between turns. She never has a hard time starting up conversations.

She scurried right to the top...way to go!

It's a long ways up there for a 5 year old (and even for a 35 year old!)

Paige swooned Angie's phone from her, something she's become quite good at to unsuspecting family members. She uses her puppy eyes, bright smile, and a sob story about how her daddy won't let her use his phone. Works like a charm everytime. (Aunt Kay and Grandpa Hoyle have been some of her other targets)

But she didn't just sit around, she took her turn thanks to some help from Pappy.

Bradley zipped right up the easy one first and then moved onto the intermediate climbs.

Swimming at the Scera

Darla got us passes to swim at the indoor pool in Provo, which we did twice, but we also got passes for the Scera pool in Orem, it was great. School had started there, so it wasn't very busy.

Half the family got a little tuckered out in the end.

Kate went off the diving board and swam to the side on her own....over and over.

We took turns doing stunts and synchronized tricks.

Pure joy.

Campus Tour

This is what happens in Utah in August! It was warm. We spent a day touring campus which was all a buzz with students arriving. We went to the art museam, Eyring Science Center, library, Gordon B. Hinckley alumni building, and on a tour.

We showed the kids the Marroitt Center where I had performed tap dance, we had seen basketball games, and been to devotionals with the prophet.

Paige loved the alumni building. They had kiosks with mormon messages and vidoes. We also enjoyed learning all the stastics of the students and general information about BYU.

We showed the kids the athletic buildings where Rick had worked out. And the platform I had jumped from. There happened to be an audition going on for one of the dance groups...we could hardly get the girls to leave. They loved the steps up to campus....Bradley counted them.

The Art Museam was great. One of the featured exhibits was a giant pile of books.

It sure felt great to get a little breeze as we rode around on our tour. The kids had a hard time walking because it was so hot.

I hope we get to bring our kids back when they enroll someday...

We walked through the library and had a bite to eat at the cougareat.

Eyring Science Center had all sorts of neat exhibits to try.

The library had an exhibit on the King James version of the Bible and how it came to be. We could have spent two full days just on campus enjoying all the free things to do.

Puppies!

Cheri had puppies to hold and the kids were in love.

We played ping pong and a version of shuffleboard at the senior center where Darla and Dad work.

Darla took this kids on her route to pick up the seniors for lunch. They had a great time...until the end :)

Darla has a dog, autumn, and two cats that the kids had fun with.

3 year olds are so adorable

I love having a 3 year old at our house, Paige says the cutest things as she is trying to figure the world out.

One of the un-cute things she said this week was during a walk with Bradley to the mailbox when she called our neighbor 'fat', Bradley was mortified.

Last week I tried to pass shrimp off as chicken. When I coaxed her to eat it she said "No, that chicken looks like a worm!" I could kind of see her point, so I didn't push it after that.

One night Rick and I were trying to discuss something with the kids around. Years ago we were able to just spell things out, but this time we tried Spanish. That is...what little I can remember from two years of high school Spanish and Rick's Portugesish Spanish. It wasn't much of a conversation, but Paige noticed it was different because she said "what are those weirwd words?"

She often asked me about people she sees that don't fit into sterotypical gender looks for example "why does that man have long hair? or why does that girl have boy hair?, or is that a boy or a girl?

She loves to go to school and primary. If you ask her what day she goes to school she'll tell you Tuewednesday.

Recently she has discovered two new toys that she loves playing with...the leapster that we got when the boys were little and puzzles. She's put the same ones together over and over all by herself (25 pieces).

She is always telling Kate "my (she refers to herself as my) am bigger than you." Kate really is bigger, but not by too much. She is about 3" taller and 4-5# heavier. Paige is the same size Kate was at 5 years old (Paige is 3 1/2).

Missionary dinner funny

Tonight we had the missionaries over to dinner and it's always a time for Rick and I to realize how unruly our children are. We had the girls climbing under the table and Tyson getting a goblet suctioned over his mouth. But the funniest comment of the night was when Rick inquired if Tyson was going to perform clogging at our upcoming Ward Talent Show because apparently he had played a joke of some of his fellow deacons and signed them up to do it. To which Bradley said "clogging? like clogging a toilet?" Now that's a talent Bradley could share!

Susie Homemaker

With all of the free produce I get at the glean (3 years and running) I finally had some time to get industrious and put it to good use. I had many pounds of strawberries, mangos, and apples that were at the end of their lives. So one week I made a batch of strawberry jam, mango jam, mango fruit roll-ups, and apple sauce. All with fresh fruit, no preservatives, virtually no added sugar, and free! They were fun treats.

Kate had no problem helping finish off the mangos.

Bradley should be in this picture with me, he helped peel/slice/core all the apples. It was fun working together.