Kenny’s Korral Field Trip

We have a little place south of town that is called Kenny’s Korral.  The idea is that it is a petting zoo where the kids can go and play and feed animals—all kinds of animals.  They have buffalo, camels, emus, chickens, pigs, and a bunch of other animals I don’t know the name of.  We have gone to Kenny’s Korral one time.  It was for a birthday party and Nicholas had loads of fun.  Tuesday we went for Nicholas’s preschool field trip.  This is the second field trip he has gone on this year.  The first one was to the Maize in October.  That one is pretty cool because it is a corn field that has been carved (cut) into a maze…but it is corn, so they call it the “Maize.”  Get it?  I don’t have pictures of that event, but I do have pictures of today’s activities.  Here they are:

The boys had lots of fun visiting Kenny’s Korral.  The fieldtrip was definitely a hit.  The most amusing thing about watching them was when Christian would get food for the animals.  He would grab exactly one pellet of food each time he went back to the box.  It was so funny because all these other children were trying to fit as much food into their little hands as they could and my child was getting exactly one pellet.  He was so proud of himself.

Big Changes for Nicholas

Hey everyone!! This week has brought about some huge changes for Nicholas. He had his first shower (we are working on getting him able to take charge of shower time all by him self), he asked me (yes, I just said "asked me") to make him a chore chart, and he attended Kindergarten roundup at our local elementary!

Now, to explain more about the chore chart...it is on a website called Handipoints.com

He watches Sid the Science Kid on PBS almost every morning and one day, after viewing an episode where Sid had a chore chart, he asked me for one. We have it setup so that as he completes and marks off his chores as done, I go back and "grade" him on his chores and he accumulates points. Once he gets so many points, he gets $5.00 from us as an allowance to use on whatever he wants to. The nice thing for me is that sometimes when he doesn't do a chore well, his grade reflects it because I grade him on it. For instance, the other night...he took a shower (one of his hygiene chores), but he cried the entire time. So, when I graded him on it, I gave him a D. He only got a portion of his points for that chore. He did great when he put his laundry away, so he received an A an got all the points available for it. In addition on this site, there is a place called Handiland where he gets to play games and walk around using his virtual pet cat that he calls "Overboard." He got to name him and pick his coloring...and if/when we are able to afford it and still want to, we can pay to have the service and his other points he earns can go toward "buying" clothes and accessories for his cat. Kind of like a WebKinz, I guess. I am not sure because I have never checked out Webkinz. For right now we just use it for the chore list.

Kindergarten roundup was fun for him. He went yesterday and got to know a teacher and some of the students that he will go to school with. He made a butterfly and read a book while all of us parents were introduced to Kindergarten. Sitting there while the principal spoke to us kind of made me feel like I was going to school. We were lectured on attendance and what kinds of foods we can bring to school. They are much more strict now days about what you can send to school with your kids for food. You would think it would be common sense stuff like allergy-foods..but they actually stressed candy much more. Even if there is a birthday party, you cannot bring cake to your child's class. I actually kind of liked that aspect. One really cool thing...We DON'T have to buy school supplies. They are all provided from the money they make at their first big fundraiser. They encouraged us to donate to that instead. Works for me!! Now I will only need to buy school clothes and school supplies for Christian. Way cool!!!

Tomorrow we (all 4 of us) are going to the Ranching Heritage Center for Ranch Days. They do this every year. I'll try to get some pictures and post them. We are stoked because Daddy gets to go with us.

You all have a great weekend!!!

What a Week!!! Easter Weekend

Last week flew by! I once again missed Family Friday Update. I believe missing something that you started doing on a scheduled timeline 2 of the 3 times qualifies it for permanent rescheduling. With that in mind, you will just have to have Friday Family Updates whenever I happen to logon and write about them...and they probably will not occur on Fridays! It is pretty amazing that everything is on a schedule in my life...but not every schedule is followed. I think I really like schedules...or, maybe I like making them. :)

We started the holiday weekend off a little early by coloring Easter eggs on Wednesday. Ed was supposed to start his time off on Friday, but somehow we got a lucky break and he was off from Wednesday until today (Wednesday)-- A whole week!!!




Although I do not have pictures of it, Christian did enjoy coloring his Easter eggs. We had to be very careful about dropping them into the coloring "gently" though...he is not a gentle boy.


Such concentration from Nicholas here. He was very proud of his eggs.


Time with Daddy is always fun! Add a little painting or coloring of eggs and you have an instant hit with the boys!


We geared up for Christian's Birthday party which was held on Good Friday (also his birthday this year). Due to planning it on a major holiday weekend for some, we did not have much of a showing of guests. This was not a bad thing. The three kids had a great time. The little girl in this picture is our friend Evey. Evey's parents are Christian's Godparents. We have known them since college and they are about to be done with Medical School here in Lubbock.

We held an Easter egg hunt as part of the party games for the kids. I filled the eggs with LOTS of candy and hid them. Nicholas was great about letting the little kids get enough eggs. All three of them got lots of candy and had a blast hunting for the eggs.


This is a little out of order (I'm still learning on this Blogger thing). These pictures are of Nicholas's Parent's Day Out Preschool Easter Egg hunt. Since this is one of the few things that Ed can attend of Nicholas's many events this month and next, we decided to go and see the hunt. We were the only parents there as it was meant to be just a class thing...not a parental audience type of thing. I did one thing wrong. I FORGOT to mention to Nicholas that we were coming.

Oh My Gosh!!! He threw a tantrum when we showed up!!! At first he thought we were going to take him home when his Easter egg hunt was just about to start. I let Ms. Marcie take care of his hysteria. She calmed him down and after the Easter Egg hunt began, he started to become a nicer boy again. Whew!!! Future notice to all: Don't Spring any surprises on this boy. He doesn't like change at all!!!
That was our week/weekend. We are now halfway through this week and it is busy busy again. Ed's back at work as of today and works through the weekend. The boys and I have been going to workout in the morning and I have been tutoring like a mad woman to catch up from last week.

We will be attending some great events in the next few weeks. We have a field trip to a place called Kenny's Korral (a petting zoo type of place) and Kindergarten registration fast approaching.

Visit with Grandma!!

This past weekend I missed updating everyone on Friday for Friday Family Update. We picked up my mom from the airport on Friday and spent the weekend together. We ended up just spending good quality time together and with the exception of one trip to Walmart and Kohls, we really didn't go anywhere. It was quite nice! Ed and I did get a nice evening out, so that was a wonderful treat!!

Mom took some pictures of the boys playing around the house and of us playing Guitar Hero as a family. Here they are:

There were other pictures, but these were my favorites. Here are some more pictures I took today when we were playing around the house. In this first one, I was tickling Nicholas because he decided to give me crazy looks instead of giving me a good picture. This is what I got for tickling him! I need to do this more often!!

I love this picture! It took several tries, but I finally got a pretty good one of them together! This never happens. They decided to sit and watch TV together in the glider rocker. Too cute!!
Another pretty good one of them...however Christian looks a little uncomfortable. Also, look how much bigger Nicholas's head looks!!!

This next one makes me kind of sad!! Christian is growing up so fast and becoming a little boy instead of my baby boy!!! He turns two this Friday!!! Oh, and he is really tall for his age! He is wearing 2T and 3T shirts & 2T pants already!!! (oh, these sweats are huge on him because they are 3T!!)

Here is Nicholas being his silly self. :)
As is typical, we did not get any pictures of Mom at all. I will need to both remember and make her do this next time if it is possible. We want LOTS of pictures of the Grandkids with the Grandparents around this house!!! I wish I had more pictures with my grandparents now that they are both gone...so, I would like the boys to have as many memories on photo as they can of their loving grandparents.

Snow in March

I don't think anything really has to be said here, except "Brrrrrr!!!!"

Friday Family Update

So, I'm thinking I will start trying to give you an update of how our week has gone on Fridays. As I am typing this, I am realizing that I probably won't remember what we did the weekend before, but I guess we will all have to deal with my lack of memory. I guess the blogger in me will just have to improvise on that, huh? :)

This week has been interesting, from the weather to everything going on in our lives. First, I will say that apparently there are going to be blizzard conditions with snow drifts just 2 hours north of us today. With that said, we will probably get several inches of snow. It will most likely be more snow than any year we have been here...and all of it IN LATE MARCH!!! In my opinion, this just is not right.

Well, let's see what has been going on with us:

Nicholas:

• He danced with a dust devil yesterday at school. That is probably his biggest news this week. You can read about it here.
  
• He had Cowboy day at school this week. They made a vest and rode his stick horse. He participated in a 3-legged race. I really wish I had pictures of all of this stuff, but we weren't told about the fun events. I guess it sounds bigger than it probably was, but ironically the day he dressed as a cowboy is also the day he danced with the dust devil! How cool is that?
• Nicholas discovered how fun he and Christian's sandbox is. They have been playing in it all week. You can read about that here.
• They had a Kid Fit class at our new workout facility. Nicholas participated in that on Monday, but opted out on Wednesday because he didn't want to get out in the cooler weather without a jacket. His loss, I guess. They were not outside for more than a couple of minutes and then they went and played with the punching bags and on the Bosu Balls.

• Today he is excited by the prospect of making snow angels and surprising Daddy with a big snowball fight. We'll see if our Texas weather agrees with him. From the sound of the wind, he might just be playing in the snow this afternoon. The nicest things I can think that will come from that is them playing, me having hot chocolate, and the pictures that I will have to show you on here.

Christian:

• Christian had some new experiences this week. He went to the nursery at the workout facility that we joined Monday-Thursday this week. We would have gone today, but the weather doesn't look that great and I am a little lazy today. He had a rough time in the nursery, but by Thursday he was doing much better. He went from the constantly crying child on Monday to the child who was easily upset, but would still cook you hotdogs in the play stove on Thursday. I am sure it will get better as next week putters along. His behavior kind of reminds me of the stories I have heard about Eddie and Priscilla and how attached Eddie was to her when he was a little guy. When Nicholas was there with him on Monday and Wed, he did better...but as soon as he left on Tuesday it wasn't good. Also, when he left during class for his kidfit class on Monday it was not good. Christian just has to get used to being in the nursery, and it is only for about 1-1.5 hours everyday. I think it is good prep for him being in Parent's Day Out starting in the fall.
• He's wearing some 3T stuff this week. YES, He is THAT big!!! My almost 2 year old fits perfectly into 2T stuff and doesn't look funny in 3T stuff at all! Ha! I WILL NOT be buying shorts for him this year. He will just need a belt. :)

• Christian got his Birthday Sandbox this week! He loves digging and playing in it.

Eddie

• Ed got his fellowship applications in this week!!! Yay!!! One more thing down!
• He worked a lot (as usual)
• Oh, did I tell you he has lost 15 lbs since November??? That's wonderful for him! He's feeling great about it.
• Unfortunately, there isn't much else to write about him this week. He could probably add in his experiences in the hospital this week, but that would be about it. He works all the time, so most of what happens to him is left at work.
  

Jennifer

• As you have heard up above, we joined a new workout facility. I met with a personal trainer yesterday (it was included in our signup) and she gave me a workout schedule. I will be burning calories like never before on this plan...and revving up my cardio. I am siked about it.
  
• I have lost 10 lbs. since late December. (Woo hoo!)
• I was given a "promotion" of sorts with my Avon Admin work by our district manager. She is giving me more money a month for just a little more work each week. This is allowing me to tutor a little less (but have the option to still tutor for more money if needed). This is wonderful because now I am only tutoring 10 hours a week!!! I am excited about this. I am managing to tutor on Tues and Thurs nights and then have Sunday evenings for catch up in case I need to get in a couple more hours to make my 10.
• I signed up to be a contributor to a blog community of doctor's wives. That should be interesting. Most of the girls on there are wives of doctors still in training like Ed. The purpose is to provide support to each other when our husbands are not available to us.

Well, that is us for this week! I would love to see some comments to let us know how you are doing!!! Email me if you don't want to comment!!! Let me know if you want me to auto-email you anytime I add a new post to the blog!! We miss you all!

New Sandbox

Ed and I decided to get Christian (*cough-cough and Nicholas) a sandbox for his birthday. We decided to do this upon seeing the poor boys playing in the dirt of my garden (I still need to plant it).
Poor kids, right? Actually, poor mommy. They got dirt all in the house...there was a trail across the carpet all the way to the bathroom and more in the sink. Nicholas wanted to build a sand castle in his new dirt playbox...so he took a cupful of dirt and poured it on the back porch.

Here the boys are in (*Cough) Christian's new sandbox.


I got Christian to sit down next to Nicholas here, but when he saw the camera he shot up and said "No!" as he left the sandbox. Just one more way he is like his Grandmother Spencer, I guess.

The bonus? They go out and play and I get time to myself with actual "quiet"....it's amazing!!! I am sure the newness will wear off sometime soon and they will be back in the house and in my hair. I told Ed the other day that I was going to start making them go outside to get them out of the house this summer. I even bought 5 cans of sunscreen. I am definitely prepared.