Counting!

Amelia has really taken an interest in counting things lately. She re-discovered a "Twelve Days of Christmas" book the other day and loved to count all the things for each day. So, we went to the library on Saturday to find some counting books. One of the books that we got is called "How Many Sharks in the Bath?". Each page is filled with things to count and each number (numeric and written out) to point to after you have counted the item. She is loving this book. And I have learned what areas she needs a little help in. Sometimes her fingers move faster when she is counting than the numbers coming out of her mouth. So we are working on slowing down when we count. I've also noticed that her number recognition isn't as good as her letter recognition. So we are working extra hard on recognizing all the numbers. It is a wonderful thing to be able to help her learn!

How to eat spaghetti

Last night we were eating spagetti for dinner and Ashley decided that she didn't need her fork anymore and she would just bring her plate to her face. It actually worked pretty well for her and I think that she ate more last night than what she usually does. So, here is my first attempt at uploading a video.






And of course, a picture of Amelia at dinner too.

Music and Movement

I signed Amelia up for a class through the Nebo School District community education called Music and Movement. We have been going to the class once a week for a month and she is really enjoying it. I decided to take the camera with us last night so that I could get a few pictures of her singing and dancing. This has also helped her a little bit to learn to listen to her teacher and follow directions. Definitely a fun time. The teacher uses the Musikgarten curriculum which teaches all kinds of new songs and learning rhythms.

Amelia really wanted to wear her mittens during the whole class and it was a battle that I didn't want to fight.

Amelia's New Car Seat (and Ashley too)

Our growing girls are ready to play musical car seats again. When Ashley was about 6 months old, we switched her from an infant seat to a rear facing convertible car seat that Amelia was using at the time. So, Amelia needed a new car seat. She wasn't quite big enough for a big kid booster seat so we got a high back booster with a 5-point harness that could also be used with just the seat belt from the car. Now, Ashley has outgrown the convertible car seat and is ready for the high back booster so Amelia got to pick out a new car seat. Since I figured that she is going to be in this booster for a while, I let her pick out a girly one with cute flowers on it. I brought Amelia's old car seat in the house to vacuum out all the crumbs before we make the switch and everytime Ashley sees it, she says "chair, chair, chair" and then takes a seat in it for a while. I haven't put it in the car yet so Ashley gets really sad when we are leaving to go somewhere and her new car seat is staying in the house. She reaches for it, saying "chair, chair, chair" and cries as we go out the door. At least I don't have kids who hate their car seats and cry when we try to put them in. What a fun milestone for both girls.

Photography

My sister has always had an interest in photography. Due to working full-time and going to school, she has had to put her degree on hold many times. She recently got a new job that allowed her more freedom to go to school and so she has picked up where she left off to get an art degree with an emphasis in photography. I told her to give me a call if she ever needed subjects to photograph (like Amelia and Ashley) so she came over on Sunday to take a few pictures. She is taking pictures on 35mm film so that she can learn to develop it in class and Amelia didn't get it at first that you wouldn't be able to see the pictures right after they were taken. It sure is interesting raising kids in this digital age. After Tamara was done taking pictures, Amelia started goofing around and Ashley followed just about every step that her sister took. Here is a picture of Amelia pretending to talk into a microphone and Ashley doing exactly the same thing.

They also put these two chairs next to each other and then did "blast off" from Little Einsteins. It was so cute to see Ashley do "pat, pat, pat" and then raise her arms for blast off with the biggest smile on her face. When Ashley was a newborn, I thought that we were crazy having our kids so close together. But now that they are a little older, I love watching them play together and learn together.

Tagged

Tagged by Britta

If I tagged you here's what you do. Post the words in all caps below and fill in info about yourself. Then, at the end you tell who you are tagging & go and tag 5 friends on their blogs. It's just a way to get to know fun little things about people.

TEN YEARS AGO......I was completing my Senior year at Granger High School and getting ready to start school at Utah State University.

FIVE PLACES I HAVE LIVED.....West Valley City, UT: I lived in the same house for 23 years; Logan, UT: on campus at USU, Bridgerland Apts on 600 E, and at the bottom of Old Main Hill after I got married; Nibley, UT: where Guy and I built our first house and still miss it; Payson, UT: our transition apartment for a year while we looked for a house; Springville, UT: we have been here for 20 months now and hope to stay for a long time.

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST......laundry, finish mopping the floor upstairs (it's a two day job), vacuum, prepare a baptism orientaion, and figure out what's for dinner.

I ENJOY.....spending time with my kids and hubby, blogging, reading, relaxing, sewing, redecorating, and shopping.

THREE BAD HABITS.....claiming that the clutter in the house is not from me (it must be everyone else's), hanging clothes to drip dry in doorways (Guy really hates it), and not washing the car when it is filthy (my dad would not be happy with me).

FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME.....I love new appliances! We got a new stove this past summer and next we will hopefully be getting a freezer. My dad taught me how to change the oil in my car when I was a teenager and I loved helping him out in the garage and working on my own car. I love reading but it puts me to sleep. I played basketball my Sophomore and Junior years in High School and I was happy to be cut from the team my Senior year so that I could spend more time on my AP classes. I have delivered both of my children without pain medication and I would recommend it to everyone!

FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD.....book colating (and other various duties) at Publishers Press, Data Entry Clerk at the University of Utah Admissions Office, cashier at the Eddie Bauer Warehouse sale, Test Examiner at Fort Douglas, and Homemaker!

I TAG..... Amy, Kamber, Stefanie, Elsje, and whoever else wants to do it!

Martha Monday Tip

Today's tip is to sweep the kitchen floor. It sounds easy enough...Here is what Martha says. "Every evening once you've finished washing up after dinner, sweep the floor. This will keep tough-to-clean dirt and grime from building up, which will make the weekly mopping much quicker." This one is definitely something that I am going to have a tough time doing. My kitchen floor is gigantic! So, I am going to modify this one a little bit to say "sweep up the crumbs around the table and high chair." Everything else can wait until it is time to mop the floor. At least all those little Cheerios will be picked up so that they don't become Cheerio dust from being stepped on!

New Windows

In November of 2006, just after we moved into our house, we replaced all of the upstairs windows in our house. We weren't using the basement very much so we decided to hold off on them for a while. But now that we are starting our little bathroom project, we figured that now would be a great time to do all the windows in the basement. On Monday and Tuesday earlier this week, all the windows in the basement were done including a new frosted glass window for our future bathroom. Yeah!! When we bought the house, we knew that the windows would need to be replaced because the seals had broken between the two panes of glass and moisture had gotten in which made the view very cloudy. Now, we can see really well out the windows and I'm thinking that I need to do something in our very neglected window wells like weed killer and decorative rocks. Yet another project for spring!

This is a picture of the laundry room window that was taken before we bought the house. You can see how the right side of the window is completely cloudy.

This is the new window in our guest room. I'm debating about putting the curtains back up or getting new blinds.

Here is the window for our future bathroom.

Where's Grandma?

For the past week, Guy's Mom (Gloria) has been staying with us while Guy's Dad (Gary) has been in the hospital. Since Guy's parents live in Sterling (Sanpete County, South of Manti) and Gary was at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Gloria needed a place to stay. Luckily, we have a guest room for just these kind of occasions. Amelia has really gotten used to having Grandma with us in the morning for breakfast and at night for family prayer. Last night as we knelt down to say our prayers, Amelia asked, "Where's Grandma?" Yesterday afternoon, Gary was finally released from the hospital and they headed back home. Sometimes it is hard for a three year old to grasp onto change and I really think that she loved having Grandma with us. Even Ashley enjoyed having Grandma read her stories while she was here.

Having fun with the girls

The last little while, I have been feeling like I do the same things with the girls everyday so I thought that we should do things that we don't do very often. And Guy has been taking the car to work for the past week and a half while the truck is disassembled to get new rear springs, so we have been spending all our time at home. On Friday, we made a gigantic batch of cookies and the girls sat and watched them bake in the oven for a little while. But there were a ton of cookies to bake so that didn't last for too long. Then they just wanted to eat all of them.

Monday and Tuesday morning, we got out the Playdoh. Ashley was more interested in eating it than anything else. Amelia would come up with very elaborate things for me to make while she made snakes. Then she figured out that she could put all her snakes together and make a fence with a gate. It has been really fun to see her creative juices flowing as she has asked me to make a snowman, a dog, a cat, and her entire doctor's kit.

Another thing that I did was to bring my CD player into the kitchen so that we could listen to music while we did dishes and got things cleaned up. I was inspired to do this when Amelia started singing "Bare Necessities" from "The Jungle Book". When I was in High School/College I started collecting Disney music on CD and it is really paying off now. We can listen to music from some great shows and we don't have to be tied down to the couch. Amelia loves music from "The Jungle Book" because of all the instruments that she gets to pretend to play along with the songs. Watching her play the trumpet is a blast! Ashley even got into the action by dancing all around the kitchen. I haven't had this much fun being with my girls and doing the dishes in ages.

Martha Monday Tip

Ok--I know that it is Tuesday but I still want to share a Martha tip and pretend that it is Monday. This one kind of goes along with the tip from last week...Wipe up spills while they're fresh. Martha says, "Whether it's tomato sauce on the cooktop or makeup on the bathroom counter, almost anything is faster and easier to remove if you attend to it immediately." When I'm cooking, I try and keep a wet dish cloth next to me to quickly wipe up spills. Then when I am all done, I give the counter a good wipe down. I haven't ever really thought about doing this in the bathroom but I guess that it makes a lot of sense.