Happy Easter

Kids Photo Shoot

Highlights

We tried something new for conference. The kids each had a set of pictures of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 that we had used earlier in the week for a matching game at FHE. They put them on popsicle sticks and decorated a podium (paper cup). As the speakers came up they found the speaker and stuck it into the podium. The really enjoyed it and we'll probably make it a tradition. Their decorated podiums were my favorite part of course. Emily drew a picture of the temple and wrote, "I am going thur sum day". I LOVE sound spelling! Kelsie gave a talk at the Activity Days Recognition Night. She wrote the talk herself, memorized it while she was at school that day, and did a marvelous job of giving the talk that night. She got up in front of all the parents and girls and didn't even seem nervous at all. I am still baffled at how she does that. We are proud of her. She sure is growing up. I can't beleive she'll be 9 in a couple of months. Emily loves to draw, color, write, create...you get the drift. She spend hours coloring and has an impressive portfolio that takes up half of her room. Recently she has started drawing pictures for each of my preschoolers and leaving them in their cubbies for them to find when they come to school. They love it and a couple of kids have written notes back to her which she just loves!

Carter has been struggling with using nice words. He has quite an extensive vocabulary but likes bathroom words best. We had a lesson about this and talked about how we can't put our words back in once they are said, even if we feel bad later (John had a really great tube of toothpaste object lesson). He has taken it to heart and walks around telling us "you can't put that word back in". And gives us a very disapproving look.

His favorite is to reprimand me every time I tell him he's going to go to time out. He gets very upset and tells me that I can't put that word back so I shouldn't say that to him. At least he's thinking about it. We're all about baby steps right now.

Matson waved at me! He has been watching us wave and trying to move his arm up and down. The other night I walked into the room and he greeted me with a wave. Maybe it was just a fluke but it made my whole week!

3rd Grade Fad

The latest fad in Kelsie's class is to wear an apron to school! First of all, you have to understand that Kelsie's teacher wears a toolbelt at school everyday. This might seeem a little strange at first, but once you've been in his classroom you don't question anything. He is amazing and uses the toolbelt to hold all of his teaching tools he uses through the day. Anyway, a girl showed up at school with a trendy apron and used the pockets for pencils, highlighers, etc... All the kids were impressed and wanted one too. She started selling aprons for the girls and toolbelts for the boys. Day by day more kids were showing up with aprons/toolbelts they'd made or buying one from her. I think about half of the kids have them now. And that just proves that you never know what will catch on with kids!

This is Kelsie's apron. She spent an evening at Grandma Peterson's and they made it together. It turned out SO cute and Kelsie was SO excited that she made it herself. She loves that kind of stuff. And when the fad dies down she'll have a cute apron for baking treats for us, which is something she never tires of.

6 months Old

At his 6 month Dr. appointment Matson weighed in at 18 pounds and 27 inches long! The doctor joked around that we wouldn't have to worry about him hitting 20 pounds by 1 year. I really wasn't amused by his jokes because I'm sad he's growing so fast. But I decided it was time to stop squeezing him into his 6 month clothes to make me feel like he was little still , so I broke out the bigger ones and went straight to 12 month.

He has grown up a lot the last couple of weeks. He has his 2 bottom teeth, his hair is coming in and getting longer. He scoots backwards all over the house and is just starting to scoot forward a little bit. He's almost sitting up and his favorite thing in the world to do is to get up on all fours and rock back and forth. I know he's really close to crawling but I'm not ready for that at all!

He giggles at us and makes low gruff noises. He thinks it's hilarious when we mimic him and he laughs and laughs. He is really a funny little boy that loves to smile and giggle at us. He LOVES other babies and squeals when he sees one.

Hopefully he'll be sitting soon as that is one of my favorite stages and hopefully he'll start sleeping at night SOON!

6 month Pictures

Here are Matson's six month pictures. My next door neighbor did them for me, just for fun one day. He wasn't quite sitting up yet...but almost.