Bath Time is Her Favorite Time...

Jaedyn loves bath time! Whenever we ask her if she wants to take a bath, she gets all excited and heads for the bath room. The other day I gave her a bubble bath for the first time. I'm not sure why it took me so long to do that, but it did...she loved it! While the tub was filling up and the bubbles were getting bigger, she had a big smile on her face and she just kept saying, "Bubbles!", it was cute.


When Jaedyn plays in the tub, she does the funniest things. Here she is using her wash cloth as a cover up. I love that she's trying to be modest in the tub...such a good girl!


She's obsessed with these foam letters and numbers, she plays with them almost the whole time she's in the tub. The boys are always trying to help her spell out words, they just want to help her get a jump start on her education.


Jaedyn loves to chew on everything, and I mean everything...including the tub spout! She's so silly!


She's also figured out that the number 7 foam toy can be used as a gun. If you come near her, watch out, she'll shoot you (she even makes the "bang, bang" noise as she's doing it).


And last, but not least, Jaedyn loves to lay down on her tummy in the water...


She's such a funny little girl. I wish I could get her older brothers to like bath time as much as she does!

My Double B-Day Party with the Girls...

On Friday, my awesome friend Savannah threw an early birthday party for me and Lara with some of our friends since our real birthdays are this week (and only 2 days apart). Savannah had her house decorated all cute in pink and orange and she made some yummy food, it was "Sweet Tomatoes" style...my favorite!


Here's some of the girls that came to celebrate with me and Lara...

...Shaina, Savannah, and me (Savannah had some really smooth legs, I just couldn't resist touching them!)...


...me and Shaina...


..the other birthday girl Lara, Mary, Brittny, Jessica, and Natalie (Tanya left before we got a picture of her)...


We all chatted for a while, then decided to eat dinner. There was a delicious cheesy potato soup, salads, and homemade blueberry muffins...it was sooo good! I had a ton of fun just talking and laughing with my friends while eating dinner. These girls are so much fun to hang out with.

After dinner, and some more chatting, it was time for cake. Savannah made me this awesome homemade cake. It was a double layer angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries on top...my favorite kind of cake!


My friends all sand "Happy Birthday" to me and Lara, then we blew out our candles.



Yes, the cake was as delicious as it looked! We all enjoyed our dessert with some more fun conversations, then we decided to watch a movie. We watched "Waiting for Forever". It was a little strange and not what we thought it would be, but that's okay, we had some fun talking during it.

After the movie was over, Lara and I opened some presents...

Savannah and Lara gave me a beautiful birds nest necklace (one egg for each of my kids), Mary made me some awesome flowers for my hair (I wore the green one to church today...I love them!), and Tanya gave me some body butter. I just love my friends!


I had such a fun time with my friends. I seriously have the best friends in the whole world. Thank you Savannah for throwing me and Lara such a fun birthday party, you're the best!

Silly Kids...

The other day while the kids and I were eating breakfast, Jaedyn decided to do a little entertaining for her brothers. She started being silly with her spoon and that got Jaron and Jantzen laughing. Since the boys were laughing at her, Jaedyn decided to keep it going for quite a while, she thought she was hilarious. She was humming some song while moving the spoon around in her mouth, but I don't know what the song was.




I like how Jaron's in the background of this picture with a spoon in his mouth too, he doesn't like to be left out...


These pictures reminded me of when Jantzen was about the same age as Jaedyn, he did something similar. In his case though, he had just got done eating pancakes and his fork was all sticky from the syrup, so he stuck the fork to his face. I'm seeing a little bit of a similar personality pattern here with these two...



And, again, there's Jaron in the background joining in on the silliness. I guess he'll never grow up either...


...Silly Kids!

Who Needs a Table?...

...When you have a perfectly good floor to eat on. I'm not sure how this all started, but when I walked into the kitchen this is what I found...


Apparently it's more fun to eat your cereal on the floor rather than on the table. Maybe it tastes better that way, I don't know, I've never tried it. My kids sure know how to make me laugh.

BTW, don't you just love Jaedyn's mis-matching pj's? They're courtesy of her dad. I guess he thought it looked okay?!?!

Glowing Nails!

I went to pick Jaron up from a friends birthday party at the bowling alley today and when we were there they had the black lights on. Jaedyn immediately noticed that my nails were glowing and she thought it was so fascinating. Then, Jantzen noticed and he also thought it was pretty cool...


Needless to say, when we left Jaedyn was a little upset. She wanted to keep playing with my glowing nails. She's so easily entertained!

Our Little Princess/Diva...

Jaedyn really has the princess thing down at our house, she definitely rules the roost most of the time. Can you blame us though, I mean, look at her...she's just so cute even with messy hair. I really love the look she has going on here...her "Princess Jaedyn" pj's and her tiara. She must have a pretty awesome stylist!




Jaedyn does try to be a little less girly sometimes when she's playing with her brothers toys, but that doesn't always work...she's still so dainty and cute while she's playing. I love how she brings so many smiles to our lives!

Last Day of School...

Yesterday was the boys' last day of school for the 2010-2011 school year. It was a short day for the both of them and all they did was play.

In Jantzen's class they read stories and got their report cards. While his teacher was reading the stories, Jantzen was having all his friends sign his yearbook. I wasn't going to get him his own yearbook this year, but since I was the one who put it all together I decided to...he was so excited to have it. It was cute watching him all happy and smiling while his friends signed their names. Before we left I got a couple pictures of Jantzen with some of his friends...

Here's Jantzen with Bailey and Jansen, they are some of his best friends...


Here's Jantzen with the rest of his "guy" friends. They're a crazy group!...


After we left Jantzen's class for the last time, we headed over to Jaron's class for their breakfast party. There was so much yummy breakfast food there for the kids to stuff their tummy's with, and they did! Jantzen and Jaedyn were invited to join in on the party too...


When everyone was done eating it was time to clean the desks for the last time. All the kids got some shaving cream on their desks and they had to rub it in to get all the "gunk" off. While Jaron was cleaning his desk he decided to play around in the shaving cream. He wrote his name and played a little game of "tic-tac-toe" with Jantzen, I'm not sure who won.


Poor Jaron, he got some shaving cream in his "owie"! I would've offered to kiss it better, but I didn't want shaving cream on my mouth.


The kids did some playing around before it was time to watch a movie. All the kids in Jaron's class just love Jaedyn. Everyday they'd say how cute she is and they'd try to play with her. She was never up for it until the last day of school. She let Espen push her around on a chair while everyone fawned over her...she loves being the center of attention!


I got one final class picture before it was time to leave. Can you see the excitement on every one's faces now that school's over?!?! And why is it that my little Jaron is always surrounded by the girls???


Here's Jaron with his teacher, Mrs. DeBeer. Even though she gave him a TON of homework this year, he really liked having her as his teacher.


There were a couple more pictures Jaron wanted before we left. One was with his friend Sierra (they've been friends since kindergarten), and the other was with Keagan.



Jaron and Jantzen both had a good year at school. They both got good grades and according to their final report cards, they are both performing above their grade levels. I'm so proud of them for not only excelling in school academically, but for the fact that they have been good friends and examples to all of their peers. Enjoy your summer boys!!

It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Hurt...

When I picked Jaron up from school on Tuesday he told me that he got stabbed by a pencil in science lab. I asked him what happened and he told me that the kids were playing a game where they would stab you with a pencil and then they would say, "pass it on", then you're supposed to do the same thing to someone else. I asked him why the kids were playing a game like that and he said he didn't know. Jaron told me that he didn't do it to anyone (he knows better) and said when he asked who did it to him that no one would fess up...cowards!! He told me the nurse cleaned it out and it wasn't bleeding, so I didn't fuss over it too much. I did tell him what a stupid and dangerous game that is to play because someone is always going to get hurt.

Later that night at dinner, Jaron told Josh about it and Josh wanted to see it. When Jaron took off the band aid I saw that it was a lot worse than how Jaron had described it. What he said was just a "stab" was more like a 1 1/2 inch gash that had been bleeding! Josh was furious!



I talked to Jaron's teacher about it the next morning and told her how mad we were about it. I told her that whoever did this to him is very lucky that Jaron's okay. His teacher lectured the kids about it and, of course, no one would admit to stabbing Jaron. I don't know why kids think games like this are funny, it better not happen again!!

Early Birthday Treats

Every year I take a birthday treat to Jaron's class sometime during the last week of school so he can celebrate with his classmates since his actual birthday is in the summer. This year Jantzen was excited because he wanted me to bring a treat for him too since he also has a summer birthday...it made for a very busy day for me!

I started out my morning making two pans of brownies for Jantzen's class, then running them to his class before it was time for him to leave. His whole class sang "Happy Birthday" to him and then they enjoyed lots of brownies.


Later on, after I fed kids lunch, I ran to Little Ceasars to grab pizza's for Jaron's class and then headed to the school...again! Jaron's classmates were so excited to have two lunches and one of them being pizza. The class all sang "Happy Birthday" to Jaron and a couple other kids who also have summer birthdays, they brought treats too so there was a ton of yummy stuff to eat.

I'm not sure what look Jaron was giving me here, but I know he enjoyed having pizza at school (and having it not be from the cafeteria!).


I had one extra kid with me (Chandler), but it was nice because he helped entertain Jantzen and Jaedyn. The three of them enjoyed some pizza and Capri Suns with the rest of Jaron's class. Jantzen mostly looked at his yearbook over and over...he was so excited to have one all to himself.


Jaedyn was enjoying the Capri Suns a little too much. I think she might have a drinking problem!


It's fun to have little traditions with my kids, even if it has nothing to do with a major holiday...they love it!

School Awards...

Yesterday and today my boys received their awards they earned at school for the 2010-2011 school year.

Jaron's awards assembly was yesterday morning. Before all the kids got their awards, the principle called all the students up on stage that passed both the reading and math on the CRT tests so they could all be recognized. I was so proud to see that Jaron was one of the students up there.


Then the teachers went through all the students and the awards they earned this year.


This year Jaron earned five awards. They were for passing all of the CRT test, a science award for receiving 2ND place in the science fair, for passing his math facts tests with the principle, one for excelling in the AR reading program, and the last one was for having perfect attendance at school. I'm so proud of him for all that he's accomplished this year.


Here's a close up of all of Jaron's awards...






Today was Jantzen's kindergarten promotion. The kids all started off singing a couple songs for all the parents. They sang "The Adams Family" song that was replaced with words about kindergarten and the song "First Grade, First Grade". Jantzen didn't do any actions again, but he did sing.


Then, the kids were all recognized by their teacher and the principle. For some reason I started getting really sad that he was leaving kindergarten and I almost cried. I don't remember being that way with Jaron, but maybe I was.

I just love how Jantzen is always giving me a cheesy smile...


Jantzen's teacher then called up the kids who excelled in AR reading so they could be recognized by all the parents. There were only about 7-8 kids that actually received this award in his class (out of 35 students) and Jantzen was one of them. He's done so well this year with learning how to read. Jantzen also was recognized up there as being the only kid in his class to have perfect attendance this school year. When his teacher mentioned this, she made a big deal about it and all the parents started cheering really loud for him. He had a big smile on his face and that made me happy. I'm so proud of all that he has learned this year.


Here's a close up of Jantzen's kindergarten diploma and his awards for his AR reading and perfect attendance...




After Jantzen's kindergarten promotion was over, we went back to his classroom for a little party. The kids all enjoyed a ton of yummy treats and Jantzen also enjoyed hanging out with his friends. Here he is with John who's one of his best friends...


Seriously, I don't get many pictures of Jantzen with a regular smile. He's such a funny kid with so much personality...


Here's Jantzen with his teacher, Ms. Curth. He absolutely loved having her as his teacher this year. I helped out in his class a lot this year and every time I was there she would tell me something nice about Jantzen, especially his journal drawings and sentences...she always loved them!


As a mom, it makes me so happy to see my kids not only succeed in school, but love it too. Jantzen has been telling me how excited he is to be a 1st grader now, but says he's going to have to work hard because his school work is just going to get harder...I love his enthusiasm about it. I'm so proud of both my boys for all that they've learned and accomplished this year...GOOD JOB JARON AND JANTZEN, I LOVE YOU BOYS!!