Feeding Ducks at the Midland Pond

The weather here has been nice, so we decided to go feed the ducks.  Jen was here as well as Tamina and kids

How do you feed the ducks?  Ben winds up and throws as far as he can.  His ultimate goal is to hit the ducks with the bread.  

 Here is Tamina helping the kids.  Notice Isabel helping Sam.  She LOVES Sam.  I love the Midland duck pond cause you are above the ducks, so the ducks can't chase the kids when they refuse to let go of the bread :)

Sam LOVES the ducks.  Even when the other kids were playing on the playground he would point towards the ducks and beg to go see them again.

 I love that Isabel is such a kind little girl.  She really has a sweet personality and is very willing to help others.  I hope it is a trait that carries on with her through her life.

Nara had fun throwing bread too!

I loved this picture of Isabel.

Adam and Ari checking out the ducks. There were a lot of people fishing.  Soon we'll have to take the kids back to go fish.

This is Isabel helping Maylee (Tamina's niece).   It was a fun way to get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Silly Pictures

Trying to take pictures of these two together, you know, ones that are cute is sometimes a challenge :)

 This one turned out ok, well, for them being in a cardboard box!  I love that they enjoy each others company most of the time!

Ben swim lessons

Ben has been super excited to learn to swim! We got him signed up for the

4yr old class at the aquatic center with his friend Addison and Cole. I figured

that if his friends were there, he would be much braver.... and he was!

All of the shivering little boys. They are so cute! Their teacher, MichaelAnn was great with them.

Ben's favorite part of lessons was jumping in!

I was most concerned for him getting his ears wet. He hasn't had a chance to swim without me and without tubes in, so my main hope was that he would be able to see that it wouldn't hurt to get water in his ears. It took a few lessons, but he was so brave and would dunk his head! He got brave enough to jump in without help! Last day of swim lessons was fun cause they got to wear life vests and float around the pool! Ben held on tight (death grip) to Addison, but he did it and loved it! One more time with lessons and I think he might turn into a fish!

The LONG winter months

Last Halloween the kids and I started decorating Great- Grandma Maxine's door up at the nursing home. We started with a haunted house (with tombstones that had funny sayings), then a turkey, a Christmas Tree with snowglobe ornaments, snowflakes, and snoopy with heart valentines. I finally decided to start taking pictures of them, so the kids would remember what they helped with. They (well Isabel) love helping me with the door each month. Here is the door for March.

Isabel cut out most of the gold pieces and arranged them

in the pile with the leprechaun on top. It was fun. I like crafting with her. She talks non-stop while we work on it together. :)

Nara found out that she had to have surgery for tubes in her ears and to get her tonsils and adenoids out. This picture is a day or two after surgery. Ben, Isabel, Ari, Nara and Sarah all were watching a movie :)

We've done some fun things for joy school lately. I found out that you can buy a dozen worms at the gas station for under $3! I was in charge of the letter W, so this worked out perfect. Ben is enamored with worms. The first thing Ben did was empty the container into his hands, and look at them individually. He stretched them, and got so excited when one of them curled up in his hand. "mom! It's cuddling with me! Aww, isn't that sweet!" Those were his exact words :)

Sarah wasn't going to come to school that day, until she found out that we had worms that they could play with. Then she was excited!

I eventually put a tablecloth down and let Ben play ALL day. He made homes for each of his worms.

He would just sit and stare at his worms. He loved to see which ones were fast, which ones were slow. He played helicopters with them (swung them around above his head like propellers...) The most indoor winter fun a 3yr old could have!

Isabel joined in the fun when she got home from school! They both love worms. Some cousins (Adam, Ari, Sarah and Sam) came over and played with them too! Ben and Ari held a stick between them, put a worm on it and tried to see how long it would take for it to crawl from one side to the other. Ben and Sarah put worms on the swings and pushed them so they wouldn't get bored....

Worms are one of his favorite things! Can't wait til it's time to work in the yard again, so we can go find some worms of our own in the yard!

This last picture is for V is for volcanoes. (If you can't tell, these are rice crispy volcanoes!) We made the paper mache kind for the kids to explode with vinegar and baking soda, and we also did the mentos and diet coke way! Mentos and diet coke are awesome! It shot a good 50 feet into the air! All the kids were fans :) The adults too!

For another activity, I froze some of the kids toys into a tray so they could hammer them out. We were talking about spring and how ducks have to break out of eggs.... (a stretch I know) then I gave the kids their ice with toys in it and a hammer and let them bust out their toys! They loved it! Ben thought it was awesome. Joy school has proven to be tons of fun :)

Happy January

The kids absolutely LOVE waking up to snow! The first snow this year they were so excited they went out in their jammies! At least Isabel put on gloves and a hat before going outside to get her breakfast of snow :)
Ben put boots on before he made it outside! We haven't had a lot of snow this year, which is ok with me. We still haven't been able to go sledding yet.... we didn't make it last year either :( Well, the groundhog said 6 more weeks of winter, so there is still hope!
Brady is the webelos leader and the kids had to make a box sled to race at pack meeting. It got stored at our house. All kids need is a cardboard box! Luckily we had 2 big boxes left from Christmas, so I made 2 more cars. The kids are still playing in them.

Nara got her tonsils and adenoids out and got tubes in her ears this past week. Chris came over to fix my computer and brought Nara and Jen and Jon and Tamina were having their ducts cleaned, so Ari and Sarah came to play too! Here they all are chillin' on the couch watching Tangled. So cute! Glad Nara' surgery went good. Here's to a speedy recovery!We have been getting packages from the Philippines the past couple of weeks. Mom and dad are starting to send stuff home. They could only take 40lbs each to the island, so they decided to just send stuff home instead of taking it with them. We HAVE to air the stuff out. It smells like all of my stuff I brought home from Brazil..... like mold. They sent home 2 nativities this week. Isabel was in charge of putting them on the table so they could air out. She had to make sure all of the figures were looking right at baby Jesus. Isn't she so cute! Notice the Rapunzel dress?? She has worn it everyday for almost 2 weeks now. She told me she wants her hair to grow all the way to the floor, like Rapunzels', and then when she tuns 18 she wants me to color it yellow. HaHa! Her hair is already really long, and she complains about it when we brush it, just imagine if it went to the floor..... At least I don't have to worry about that argument until she is 18 :)And last but not least, I made treats for scouts and they turned out cool! I figured I should put it on this blog cause I have lots of rice crispy ideas here :) I made regular rice crispy treats and spread them as far as they would go on a cookie sheet. Then I melted some dark chocolate chips and some butterscotch chips (1/2 pkg each) and spread it over the top. Then I rolled them up cinnamon roll style and sliced like you would a cinnamon roll. They turned out really yummy! Chewy and chocolatey! They would work good with just frosting too! You can make anything with rice crispy treats :)

FYI

For any that follow my blog (mom and dad) I just posted like 8 new posts today, so keep looking :)

Merry Christmas 2012

The kids wanted to know what was going to happen now that we were on day 25 on the advent calendar. Luckily there was plenty of stuff given so Isabel could have her creative, fun craft for the day! Surprise! Even though Ben was on the naughty list for a few days, Santa did come to our house! Ben was surprised cause the day before, our neighbor Steve was talking to the kids telling them that he had talked to Santa and told him to stay out of our cul-de-sac or else he would haul him away in his cop car. (Someone said that Steve said he would shoot him too...) Well, Christmas morning came and Isabel rolled over and asked if it was 'morning, you know, when you could wake up' and I said yes. She then asked Ben if he wanted to go see what Santa had brought them and Ben looked at me and said, 'Santa didn't bring nothing, Steve shot him." He wasn't distraught or anything, it was just a statement..... crazy kid. I had to explain that Steve was just teasing (for the hundredth time) and we got ready to go see stockings :)
Here they are in their new pj's from Christmas Eve, looking at what Santa brought them!The first thing they saw was their snow globes. Santa put family pictures and and picture of them with him inside of it! They are also plastic! Santa is one smart cookie.
Ben was excited for his chocolate candy cane! That is all that he asked for from Santa, chocolate.
I got a picture of Isabel with all the stuff Santa brought! She loves her art stuff and bandaids and electric toothbrush!
Ben's favorite thing was a tie between the chocolate and the fishing pole. I didn't get a picture with him and his stocking stuff because he had to open and play with everything right then.... and it got scattered everywhere!
Then we opened family presents! (Notice the necklace? It's the one from Grandma Morgan from the Philippines) Brady got the kids new hats. I LOVE them. They look so cute in them. The kids got clothes, Kung Fu Panda 2, which has now taken the place of How to Train Your Dragon in Ben's eyes, a punching bag for Ben, 2 pairs of boots for Isabel, and some other stuff. The kids got Brady an angry birds card game. Brady got me an alternative down comforter. It is excellent! I got Brady and I tickets to go see the Harlem Globetrotters in February, a new pillow and some new basketball jerseys (his old ones stunk) and Santa brought him buffalo jerky and some power bars.
Brady and I decided that it was worth me waiting at Walmart on black Friday to get the kids new bikes for $30. Ben's is a little big, but with the way he is growing, it will be fine in a month or so :) Isabel's knees were almost hitting her handlebars on her old bike, so her new one fits her perfect!The kids love riding in the snow. We only have one rule.... no crying when you fall unless you are really hurt :) They tend to fall a lot in the snow. Luckily no injuries so far. You can see a pair of Isabel's new boots in this picture, and one of her new Hello Kitty shirts. Her other boots are purple sequin ones!After presents, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Yamashita's for breakfast and more presents. We were all spoiled. Ben got clothes, toys, new spiderman shoes and a cool ride on tractor with trailer! Isabel got clothes, shoes, art stuff, a tangled doll and a leap pad explorer. She loves it because it she can take pictures then edit them! Plus it came with a tangled game ;)After presents, we all went to Sacrament meeting at Grandma Tracie's ward. We got home later and Isabel looked at me and said, "It was fun to go to church with grandma, wasn't it?"We had a wonderful Christmas. It's kind of crazy to think that it is over already. We had so much fun this month with our activities each day, that it is sad that it is over. Some of the things we did, that I didn't get pictures of, were; lights at Temple Square, make treats for their primary teachers and deliver them, read Christmas stories, watch Christmas movies, decorate Great-grandma Maxine's door up at the nursing home, cut out snowflakes, make jello santas and snowmen, etc.... The only thing we didn't get to do was snow activities. It's been cold, but no snow yet.
I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and extended family that care about us. I am so grateful for my Savior and for His life and example. It's wonderful to have a time of year set aside, and special Christmas traditions that bring us closer to Him. Merry Christmas!