Summer Nights

Dad spent two weekends building this fire pit for us and we love it. We started off our Summer vacation with a fire, smores, and great family time. Can't get much better than this. Thanks Daddy! **If you click on this picture it will enlarge, and you will see that Tucker's marshmallow is on fire. Look at his expression. He thought it was very cool, and from this point on, it is all about catching them on fire and watching them burn. Probably not a good thing for him to be excited about, but if you could hear his shrieks of excitement and his Oooooooo's you can't help but let him burn them.

Hunter is off to 4th Grade

Hunter's last day of school was May 23rd. It is officially summer vacation - and it is also so hard to believe that he is going into the 4th Grade. He ended the year with Straight A's again, and his SAT scores were all in the Advanced Level for his grade level. Great Job Hunter - We are so proud of you! So now it is time to have fun, relax, and enjoy summer vacation. Now if only someone would tell the weather man that we are on SUMMER vacation, and not LATE WINTER vacation. :o)

Last day of Preschool. 5/15/08

Tucker loves to push "big Sister".




We start Kindergarten in the Fall and Mom can hardly believe we are old enough already to go to kindergarten. Below are a couple of pictures of our End of year Preschool Party. We got to go to a local city park and play all morning. Then we went on a wagon ride around downtown Jerome, ate lunch, and then send Goodbye to our teachers for the Summer.

Tucker and Samantha both received Excellent Progress Reports. And the greatest news ever is that a week prior I had to take Tucker to the Public School Kindergarten Program for an evaluation of where he is right now, and guess what - My awesome, great, wonderful little boy tested out right a grade level. Yes - that is right! He is "Normal". Wow - we are so proud of him. We are spending a lot of time working on his fine motor skills this summer - as writing is a difficult task for him - but he tries and tries. He likes to write is name, which is hardly legible to those who haven't seen him write it before, but you can make out the T - U - C, so we are on our way.

The unfortunate side of this great success for Tucker is that his "Within Normal Limits" rating makes it very difficult to qualify for services (i.e. Physical Therapy, OT, and Speech). So now I am working on a Packet (and yes I mean a Packet) of paperwork to try to get him qualified for services. I have been told to make him look way worse than he is developmentally, thinking about his worst day ever. Hard to do, because all I want to do is brag about how wonderful he is doing. Crazy system we have - We are told to do all possible to help our kids become independent and to help them excel, however, when they do, then we are told we don't need any other help. Why do they think they are doing so well....because of all the therapies. Hmm....!

Samantha has started reading and she is so proud. I am amazed how quickly she picks things up. She is going to be very quick and smart like her older brother. We are reading a series of books for the summer that are for preschool/beginner readers, there are 9 books to tackle, and in the 1st hour of reading them to Sam and Tucker, she read 2 of the books to me all by herself. She has learned her phone number, birthdate, and how to tie her shoes! I love her little mind and her imagination is amazing.

The bird eggs have hatched. 5/20/08

The eggs are hatching. We were so excited to see the little babies. Minutes before I took this picture there were two babies in the nest. Not sure what happened to the other one - but I ran inside to get my camera, came back out, and only one baby was there. One more egg to go.

Unfortunately, this is the morning of the big wind storm (below pics) and so the next day, we discovered that the Mama bird and baby abandoned her nest (and hopefully to take cover for her new babies). She still has not returned, and there is still one egg left to hatch, or not. Samantha will not let us do anything with the egg because she is convinced Mama Bird will return to retrieve her egg. We might have to help the Mama bird get her egg (if you know what I mean) so that we can put an end to this mystery. :o) And we never did see the 2nd baby again. This was a fun experience for the kids to watch and monitor the nest daily. We are now always searching for more nests around our house.

Wind/Sand Storm May 20, 2008

Here are some pictures of the Wind/Sand storm we had last week. Pretty amazing to watch - scary too! In the pictures you see the brown haze all around - this is not haze, clouds, etc., but actually dust and sand flying around. I had gone to get my hair done this night (about 1/2 before this came about). It was 83 degrees out, so I left my car windows cracked to help keep the car cool while I was inside. Bad idea and mistake. The inside of my car was covered with Sand and dirt. Never seen anything like this. And I am just getting the car cleaned out. Still dirt in all the little tiny places, but for the most part, it's cleaned. Now the kids remind me whenever it is windy to roll up my windows. If only I could be as smart as 5 year olds and a 9 year old. :0)

Mother's Day Pictures

Look at these Handsome Boys!

I am so Lucky to be a Mom!

The Twins and I

Me and my Princess.

Me and My Boys.