Almost 5!

Today starts Ethan's birthday week!! I can't believe he's almost 5-he does miss the kindergarten deadline by a week, but he loves preschool and I know this year will be a great one preparing him for kindergarten.

This last year Ethan had blue hair...

It was blue gel and he loved it. I may have to get some for him!

Thanks to the Friend, he kept busy during October conference's Sunday morning session.

Mike helped him build the temple, comple with Moroni on top.

And a huge thanks to Grandma Herrington for the bat cave for Ethan's birthday! It helped him be good and allowed me and Mike to watch Sunday afternoon conference.

(He loves it!)

More building with the blocks!

He climbed up in Emma's highchair one night after dinner while we were cleaning it out.

You're not a baby anymore, Ethan!

First day of preschool!!

Ethan started preschool today and has been very excited ever since the open house last week!

He could hardly wait until 1:00 to go. I think he may have had a few butterflies because he didn't eat nearly as much lunch as he usually does. I was excited because I could run errands with just Emma!

The classic first day of school picture in front of the door

He just had to show off his cool Bumblebee backpack
Just another cute picture of my preschooler

I couldn't see the pictures I was taking outside very well because it was so bright so I had to take one picture inside!

WARNING: BIG NOSTRILS!

It was fun to go to Target with just Emma, she behaved a lot better, I think it's because she didn't see Ethan walking and want to climb out of the cart to walk along side him. And I was done much much faster. We had time to run another errand, bring things home, put them away and still go visting teaching!

Ethan's home now and had a fabulous time and can't wait for Monday to come so he can go back. He even has a friend from primary in his class.

Farm Country

Ethan, Emma and I headed to Thanksgiving Point and Farm Country to take advantage of $2 Tuesdays! We had a good time. Emma was very excited to see all the animals.

This cow was one of her favorites

What you are not seeing is that moments before, the cow pushed her head right through the fence and into the stroller. Emma was out of the stroller at the time but thought it was very funny.

This donkey wanted to eat the stroller but I had to tell him NO!
Emma loved the baby goats! She could have stayed there all day if I'd have let her.

I gave up trying to push Emma in the stroller cause I knew she was having too much fun out of the stroller and she yelled everytime I put her back in. I think she thought we were leaving.... However having Emma out of the stroller resulted in her climbing every fence we came to and not letting go.

Ethan wasn't behaving too well so I threw him in jail!

Just kidding he was really good and had a good time!

My mom taught Ethan to give kisses through the railing posts when he was Emma's age and apparently he still remembers

Pucker up!

We took the wagon ride but at that point Emma was done!

After the wagon ride we had some ice cream and headed home.

It was a fun day on the farm!

*With all my heart...

I love this man

He was with me here
And here

When these two became ours

I will always love him no matter what!

*(just in case you were misled by my last post)

Is it Wednesday yet?

Wednesday just can't get here fast enough. Not only is it the middle of the week and we are on our downhill adventure to the end of the week, but at 8 PM this comes on...

Oh, how I love "Psych"!! Mike even asked me last night if it was P-sych night. Darn Tuesday has to get in the way of me and him...
WOWSIERS!!

The Scooby Fort

Ethan and Emma live for Saturday morning when Mike is home. They love being with him and playing and doing all the fun stuff that he does...I swear my kids love their dad more than they love me...but that's another story.

Ethan's favorite game is to play Scooby-Doo with Mike and Emma, I don't know why I'm never invited to play.

Saturday Ethan convinced Mike to make a Scooby-Doo fort with him. It was pretty cool, here's a picture to prove it.

Emma's loaf-a-sofa was used as the front door.

No this picture is not sideways! Ethan's loaf-a-sofa was used as the fridge complete with food that Scooby and Shaggy eat!
Ethan and Emma enjoying the fort!

The builders and the wrecker!

I wanted my picture taken it it too!

The wrecker...

Oops, she leaned too much on the wall and knocked the fort over...oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Flashback Friday

While going through old pictures from my grandparents' I found this one. Yup that's baby me the summer after I was born with my grandpa and brother.

Grandma and me

My grandpa passed away a little over a month ago and for a long time afterwards I missed my grandma who passed away 11 1/2 years ago! Weirly enough, I was at peace and happy that my grandpa was with Grandma again and was excited for him. But I still missed Grandma. I should wait until her birthday to do a post honoring her, but I can't wait that long.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grandma and one day I'll get a copy!

( I have used this picture in YW lessons over the years when the lesson calls for a picture of a 15 year old young woman. I think it's more fun to see old pictures of people that I know than to look at the pictures circa 1980 in the back of the manual.)

Grandma and Grandpa
Grandpa was a dairy farmer so here's a candid picture of Grandma pouring milk into a pitcher

Grandma and Grandpa were really in love and I love love love this picture of them cause it shows how much they loved eachother and how happy they were, and I'm positive are still!

I sure hope that my grandchildren know and remember that Mike and I are very much in love and will see that by the pictures that we have taken.

As I have been thinking about my grandma and my grandparents-all of them-I realized that I have lots of traits that I'm sure were passed on by them. Here are a few that I want to remember:

From the Lott side-

*Grandma's height-or lack thereof, though I am taller than she ever was

*Grandpa's stubborness-though I know there are some in my family who got more than I did

From Grandpa Callister-

*I found out at Grandpa's funeral that he always got emotional when he saw the American flag and I can't sing "The Star Spangled Banner" without crying. The fly over at Stadium of Fire makes me bawl.

From Grandma Callister-

(This is where my title comes into play cause I have felt like I am more like her than any other grandparent)

*Her struggle with her weight-I didn't know this about her until Grandpa's funeral (thanks Uncle Seth)

*I always remember my grandma smiling and laughing and I strive to be just like her in that aspect

*I was due on her birthday!!

*I know I didn't get my wide feet from the Lott side cause my mom has feet like me and I remember Grandma's being the same too

*I can see that my nose looks kind of like hers

*I was lucky enough to get her moss agate ring that she always wore on her pinky. It only fits my pinky and I've thought about sizing it to fit another finger, but don't think I will cause that's the way she wore it!

I know there are more similarities but I just can't think of them or I'm just not old enough to see them yet!

Bean Museum-Summer 2010

Kristen set up a private show to see some cool animals, ones that are still alive, at the Bean Museum at BYU today. We saw a snake, a turtle, a gecko, and a tarantula named Rosie! (Go fugure, Tina!)

Here is Ethan with the snake, Cuddles!

We found out that a while ago this snake go loose and was wandering, or slithering, around for 2 weeks! No one outside the museum staff was told. He was found in the reptile room under some boards. I would NEVER want to run into this guy outside his cage...ehhh!

Here is Emma with Rosie! She loved the animals and couldn't wait to touch them all.

Mom even held the tarantula!

Brave woman!!

After the show, we hung out and enjoyed the animals that were stuffed!

The last time we were here, I put Emma face to face with this guy and she freaked now look at her...

Like I said, she loves animals and really had a lot of fun. Best thing about this place-it's FREE! Bad thing-it's farther away from us now than it has been since we moved to Cali!

We'll be back again!