"Foto Friday"

So I recently accepted a challenge, my sister in law Kristi is doing this and asked if I would join her. Of course, its about photo's, and it sounds really fun. Basically what you do is you take 1 photo everyday and write a small caption about it. They don't have to be fancy pictures or taken with a nice camera, they are basically memories and little details that are going to be so fun to look back on. So here goes, my first "Foto Friday". (My week of photo's will start from Friday til Thursday)

Day One- When I went to check on the girls before I went to bed I found Hailey like this. She threw her pillow to the side, sleeping on her spongebob. She took the babies blanket (that I told her to leave alone) and put it under her other blanket so I wouldn't see it, and has a box of balls on the side. Classic Hailey photo. Day Two- Masie thinks its funny to take the bunny for a walk on her puppy dog. This photo shows how big Marshmallow has gotten and how much he entertains my kiddo's.

Day 3- Football day, yuck!! So I took Masie and Taylor to the white sands, Hailey wasn't there because she was being horrible and I needed a little break from her. She is going through a little phase and I cant wait for it to be over (Oh god please tell me it will be over soon). Anyway, we had a great afternoon playing together.

Day 4- I snapped this shot of Taylor doing her online homework (in fact you don't have to practice but it obviously helps if you do) She loves it and has learnt so much. Its called Lexia Reading, I have a hard time getting her off.

Day 5- Here we have 6 cuties looking at our new turtle Sonic, they are fascinated with him.

Day 6- Here we have my first little photo shoot. (My daycare boy, missed his photo's in Soccer and they asked me to take some of him and the team). Not sure I want to take up photography, that was scary:)

Day 7- This shows how crazy my days are when the kids aren't at school, not a very clear picture but you can see SEVEN kids playing in my front lawn (1 in the tree).

Jacob

Defiantly my personal choice between Edward and Jacob, don't get me wrong Edward is a very close second but Jacob has won my heart,lol. So I am nearly done with the last of the four books so I might be able to start doing some blogging, or school work some time soon. I was coming on here to blog the kids Halloween outfits but I got distracted by his cuteness.

A Poem by Hailey

I smell my feet
I lick my feet
I shake my butt
It makes me pee

This Poem/song is going round my house as we speak, it was invented this weekend. Don't ask me how it relates but it started after I told them a quote from their cousin Kobe "Mama, we don't sniff people's butts do we?" LOL, so far apart but have the same personalities. Taylor asks me again and again, what did Kobe say to his Mama again.

P.S. In case you were confused, Hailey didn't make this up, Taylor did. She is always making up these crazy things and I wanted to start documenting them. BUT, she is such a young lady and presents herself very well she didn't want people knowing she was behind this, so its our little secret. She saw I was blogging and cried and folded her arms and said "NO, don't blog it". She saw her name in the title and freaked out, she wasn't happy until I changed it to Hailey:)

Balloon Festival 2010

Last weekend we got up bright and early and went to the Balloon Festival. We still didn't make it to the White Sands but we went to our usual place in town (Washington Park). We have heard that the ones that launch from the White Sands are really beautiful and of course the view is amazing, one year before we leave we WILL get there.

Sonic

Look what we found!! Isn't he cute??
We were playing outside and our new neighbour came and asked us if we lost a turtle, we said no but the kids were jumping up and down wanting to see it. They went and got him and asked if we would like to keep him. I wasn't to sure but the kids were so excited I said yes, until Daddy got home and made the final decision. Chris said they could keep it and they are over the moon. Masie has adopted him and called him Sonic as he is really fast, he is a box turtle hatchling. (These are very common around here and we usually catch and release at least 3 a year.) Welly, Boots and Sonic had their first bath together today, It made me realise just how much Welly has grown. Welly wasn't much bigger than Sonic when he came home.

Parent/Teacher Conference x3

So this morning was a busy one, I had all three girls parent/teacher conferences. The first one was at 7.30am. I got a babysitter for my 3 but of course Hailey chased me out of the door screaming so I took her, then I had to pick up my daycare kids so they joined me too. Luckily they were reasonably good but Hailey, same old story:) Not sure I like being this busy anymore, cant people just pay me and not make me work??

Anyway....... Masie's was first so lets start there:
First she is doing really well and the teacher said she is so smart. Her strongest subject is still Math and she flies through all the problems. Her beginning of the year test were great
Math: She needed 177 and she got 189
Reading: She needed 167 and she got 182
Her strengths are coins, time by the hour and math facts, comprehension and using strategies.
Area's that need work are time by half hour, writing number to 250 and writing stories with 'first, next and end'.
She is having trouble with her grids, they are empty and she has to start from 300 and get to 500 in 10 minutes. Also she got low on her reading but I think they are rushing the kids and making them panic, maybe it will be beneficial later but it seems too much right now. They get timed to read a story they have never seen before and she got 26 words in a minute and needed 44, but we have done this at home and she is so worried about the time that she stutters on words she wouldn't normally have a problem with. At the end of this year she needs to be reading 90 words per minute.

Mrs Miller says that she is a joy to have in the classroom, she has never moved her clip and she has a kind heart. Great job Masie.

Taylor was next:
Mrs Tade is so impressed with Taylor and loves having her in her class. She has started to open up more and join in with group discussions. She has a few good friends and her confidence is growing. She has never moved her clip and loves to make everyone happy.
She is getting better at writing her name in the lines provided.
We need to work on her numbers and her letters, she is at the right level right now but she is expected to know all the letters in the alphabet upper and lower case and recognise number 0-20 in any order by the next test. We are off to get flash cards tonight I think.
Math test- she needed 150 and got 141- I thought this was really good.
Reading- she needed 148 and got 148.
Over all me and the teacher are VERY pleased with her. Mrs Tade said she loves that Taylor really takes her work seriously and wants everything to be just so. Taylor is so proud that she can spell 'See and No'.
A great conference, Well Done Taylor.

Okay Hailey's turn. (Did you just smile)
Well, Hailey is the total opposite at school than she is here. She is a star student and very well behaved. They are so nice in there but they are very strict, I love this and think it has done Hailey the world of good.
Her picture Vocabulary is at a 5 year old level!!
Her Verbal direction is at a 3 year old level.
She can only recognise circles and squares and blue, greed and red. She know way more colors than that but if she doesn't say the right color first in all 5 tests (done at different times) they don't mark it.
We need to practice coloring in the lines.
Her speech is coming on good, she still cant put 3-4 words together clearly but they are working hard with her.
So doesn't socialize with the other kids very well and much prefers to be with adults, Mrs Carr said she would be just fine sitting and playing by herself all day.

So overall great feedback for my little Devil. Good Job Hailey.

Uncomfortable Lunch Chat

I had six kids sitting round the table eating lunch, I was doing the dishes and not involved but listening and had to step in.

Masie- Taylor you cant marry a girl, you HAVE to marry a boy
Taylor- NO, you can marry girls but you just cant have babies
Faith- Boys can be with boys and girls can be with girls but it doesn't happen a lot
Masie- But that's just gross
Faith- But its their choice Masie
Masie- still gross
Taylor- Boys that marry boys, that means they will have two penis's
Me- OK OK lets stop this conversation now shall we and talk about something else.
Taylor- Mummy can you marry a girl if you are a girl
Me- (wanting to run away so I don't have this conversation with my 5 year old) That's not how god wanted it, it is meant to be a boy and a girl but some people choose to do it that way. You can marry a girl in some states but not many people like it.
Taylor- (Thinking hard) Do you like it
Me- (can someone kill me please)- I have nothing against people that are gay (I explained the word) They are good people too and everyone has their own choices.

Everyone seemed to leave it there when I mentioned Ice-cream, WHAT!!! I needed to escape!!!

Levi and Mason

Levi's is my favourite one of all, I'm very impressed with it. His took me the longest as he is now crawling and I had to chase him everywhere:)

Masie and Taylor's Collage

School Can Be Fun

I have decided to take an online course in photographing children and babies, I thought it might be fun and maybe it will lead somewhere higher in the future. This is the second week and we have to make 3 collages of body parts. It has taken quite a bit of time and some of the shoots were a little challenging but I'm happy with the results. Here is Hailey's, boy did she have fun with this shoot as you can plainly see. They wanted you to be creative if you have older children and not just plain pictures. Stay tuned for the next ones.

Pretty Nails

Me and my girls had the most fabulous day today, Chris had a bunch of school work and bits to do so we decided to go shopping. It was so much fun and we were in our tiny mall for hours just being girls. We had so much fun and they were so well behaved, just enjoying the time I guess. We went to Claire's and they each picked out something and I grabbed a few boxes of these really cute princess nails. On the way home we had the music blasting and we were singing our hearts out, good times!!!

These gorgeous little munchkins have changed so much in the past month, I cant get over it. It is fascinating watching them grow and mature into lovely young ladies. We have had some rough times adjusting to new schedules, new schools, new friends, new surroundings. But, we seem to have started to settle down and adapt to our new chapter in our life. Masie is doing wonderful, she started off not really liking 2nd grade but the last few days I have seen her in a different light. She is looking at school in a different way and realizing that if she works at it and really listens she is really good at it. Her reading is coming along brilliantly, they get a bunch of homework with little chapters to read and we have to time them and see how many words they read in a minute, at first she struggled but now she is learning how to sound words out quickly and continue with the story, I will have to video clip her next time. She is so excited to do her first book report this week, she told me today she wants to finish it tonight so we will see. Over all I'm so impressed with her and she has impressed me this past week and I hope it continues, as I was a little worried she didn't really care about school anymore.

Taylor, I was very worried about Taylor up until about a week ago, she cried in the morning when she realized it was a school day and when she got home she would throw temper tantrums and had to be sent to her room to calm down. Her teacher said she didnt speak in class but does do everything asked of her. Now she really enjoys school and tells me all about her day, her favourite part of the day is music. A few things that have impressed me over the past few days that she has said:

1. Robot has two syllables
2. Masie, Hailey and Taylor all have 'a' as the second letter in their names.
3. There are vowels and consonants.
4. If the answer is 10 and you already have 6 then you just need 4 more.

So I'm very impressed with her, she loves to do her homework and tries to write books and letters.

Hailey, she is doing amazing!! Her speech is coming on great and she has finally started mixing with the other children at her school. Her teachers noticed at the beginning that she would never play with her peers, she would play near them but not with them. She has a best friend at school called Brooke, she is such a sweet little girl. She tells me the songs she has learnt, what pictures they drew and usually the title of the story they read in circle time. She still cries occasionally when I leave but calms within seconds. I'm so pleased with her.

I'm so pleased with all my girls, I have their parent/teacher conferences next week so we will see what they say.

First Soccer Game

Yesterday Masie and Taylor had their first soccer game!! They have both grown to enjoy soccer even after a few blows during practice. Both games were at the same time and their fields were next to each other so it was nice for both me and Chris to watch both of them at the same time.

Taylor plays for Arsenal She played very well for her first game, she was a little shy and didn't like trying to get the ball off others but she still tried hard and followed the ball everywhere.

Hailey was a little bored and did this most of the time. I need to bring her stuff to do next time.

Masie plays for the Lobos

She did extremely well, she ran so fast and really tried hard to get the ball. She was a little nervous she may get hit but it didn't stop her getting in the middle of the action.

I really enjoyed watching them, I didn't think it was going to be my thing but I am surprisingly enjoying it now. It doesn't go on too long and the last game is on the 19th of October, I'm not sure right now if they will sign up for next season but we will see. I think its time to sign Hailey up for something though, she really wants to play soccer and do Ballet. I think I may sign her up for soccer next season they do a 3-4 year old group, but who knows.

I have posted a video in the post below, I need a new camera so please excuse the wobbling through some of it. I dropped my camera (not my new one) while we were camping and I'm not sure how long its gonna last. Its fine one minute then shaking like crazy the next.

Soccer Video

Girlie Night

I guess I have some catching up to do, my blog updates are suffering because I am so into my book. Which I have nearly finished the next book which I started Monday, this is madness. Chris thinks I'm obsessive but the books are just that good. Now I have Edward and Jacob on my mind all day:)
Anyway, here are some pictures of our girlie night a while ago. We haven't had one for a long time now so it was really fun. We painted nails, watched Aliens in the attack, played games and looked through old scrapbooks.

Im Totally in Love

The only problem is, its not with my husband!! Shush don't tell Chris this will be our secret:)

Edward is his name, I have just finished the first of 4 books and cant wait to start the next. I couldn't put the damn thing down and finished it within a week. My goodness I am in love,lol.

Our First Successful Camping Trip

Last night marked a first in our family, our first successful camping trip. We have tried in the past and have never made it through the night. We went up to the Oliver Lee camping grounds and set up our tents, you would think we were going for weeks and not a night for what we packed. Anyway we had the dogs and we were all just messing around but it was extremely hot, I decided to take the dogs back home, the girls wanted to come with me to sit in the air conditioned car. It really was hot. So we were back within the hour and the sun was still going strong, the girls attacked the ice box and tried to cool down. It wasn't long before the sun started going down and it felt so nice, we all relaxed and really enjoyed just being together. I will say though I have never realized how much Masie spoke, OMG she was talking the whole entire time, we had to shush her a few times just to here the nature. They were all having a good time. After our dinner of burgers, hot dogs, beans and fruit we decided to go for a little hike. To our surprise the other trail was open that was destroyed a few years ago and has finally been fixed. We were so excited and headed down there, it quickly became dark so we didn't stay long especially because we freaked ourselves out and thought we were going to be eaten by coyote's,lol.

My New Favourite Photo

When we got back we started the camp fire and got to working on making our Smores the right way. I will admit I was a tad nervous with the girls so close to the fire but they stayed safe and had a great time. We watched the sunset together, it was beautiful. Masie told some stories with the flashlight on her face.

We saw some really cool bugs out there, these are just a fraction of what we saw, I couldn't believe that there was so many cool bugs that I have never seen before. After kids went to bed Chris and I had the best time, we laughed the whole night. I'm sure the neighbours thought we were drunk, we did try and keep it down but we were having so much fun and couldn't control the giggles. The stick insect caused some great laughs after it joined us around the fire, we put the flash lights on it to see it better and it pissed it off, luckily he was only mad at Chris. It went on its back legs and started hitting Chris's foot with his front ones, it was so funny watching Chris freak out with this stick insect attached to his toe.

This morning we went back down to the trail and it was nice to get away from the heat as it was covered in tree's. We played with the water and had a blast climbing over the rocks and jumping over little puddles. We were just about to leave when Taylor grabbed a Cactus fruit and was fascinated by it, little did she know that it was covered in little thistles she was in pain but was so brave.

Here is Chris putting out the fire in his humorous way.

When I grow Up I Want to Be.....

This was a little conversation while in the car today between the girls

Masie- Taylor, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Taylor- A Teacher
Masie- I want to be a Police woman
Hailey- I want to be a Duck!!

Kids say the funnest things.

First Soccer Practice

Last night was Masie and Taylor's first practice, to tell you the truth it wasn't the best time. Masie did fantastic, had loads of energy and just loved being out there and learning. She needs to work on her speed and co-ordination but for the first time I think she did brilliant. Taylor on the other hand started off a little nervous but did really well and joined in somewhat. Then they were asking everyone to do something else and I think it scared her because she didn't understand what the coach wanted her to do, she looked sad and then this boy accidentally kicked her in the knee. This broke her and she started crying and ran off the field, I quickly calmed her and she reluctantly went back on but she didn't want to be there and everyone could tell. She was extremely slow and kept put her hands in her mouth. I'm sure after a few times she will be fine, but I will tell you my little secret.... I think Taylor will only be in one season:) Who knows she could surprise me. We should be getting the uniforms soon so I will take cute pictures and post them soon.