Taylor's Kindergarten Classroom All Decked Out For The History Fair

Taylor has enjoyed her year of Kindergarten and grown very attached to her teacher Mrs. Swartz. She's even had the gaul to ask me why Mrs. Swartz isn't her mom. Hey! Anyway, these past two weeks they have been learning about two prominent persons in U.S. history. John Glenn and Elizabeth Blackwell (first female doctor). It was so fun to see all the neat things they did. Every wall in the room was dedicated to these two people and all the project the children had been doing. Taylor would come home each day and tell me something new about John Glenn. I started to think maybe my 5 year old new more about the guy than I did.

The Peavine Trail

This May Aaron and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary in Prescott, biking the Peavine Trail. The trail was created from an old miners railroad that has since been torn out and remade into a hiking and biking trail. The first 5.2 miles were great, we enjoyed the lake and the rock formations they call 'The Dells' we rode over bridges and cows in pasture. We even saw what may be the largest jackrabbit in history. I thought it was a small deer. Then we had to bike back, and oh man, those mountain bike seats are pretty uncomfortable. Down right painful for the last 5 miles.

It's a Beauty!

My wonderful husband surprised me to no end by NOT giving me a hard time about getting this new addition to our living room. I seriously think it was his Valentine gift to me. Buying furniture for our home has always been a sore point for him. Seriously, it was the first time in our marriage that he hasn't given me grief about it. And I tell you, it felt wonderful! He arranged for 4 other guys to come help him move it, again no grumbling. Only one guy showed, which wasn't cool. This is some seriously heavy furniture, but they managed. Thankfully they had 3 furniture dollies and my helpful sister Tamara who provided about a dozen pillows and some blankets for cushioning so the two pieces wouldn't bang on each other and get damaged on the trip home. I hadn't expected to be buying an entertainment center as quickly as we did, but the opportunity arose and so I had to quickly paint the monstrous 20ft. wall and ugly red-orange baseboard in the family room where it would sit. Because there was no way I wanted to have to move it later. After the entertainment center was set up it seemed my husband had held his peace long enough and just couldn't help making a comment before retiring to bed. Well, it was nice while it lasted. I'm sure I've got another year or two of him griping about it. Now we just need a new television.

From the Beautiful Brain of Eric Carle

So, after noticing a lack of fun creative reading units in Taylor's Kindergarten class, I decided we would do some at home. I chose the works of Eric Carle as the first one because I like his illustrations, and the stories have a fun sort of repetition that children can catch on to. Our first book was, 10 Little Rubber Ducks. I drew Taylor a big bubble bath for her and her rubber ducky to enjoy while I read them the story. The next night we read The Very Quiet Cricket at bedtime and kept rubbing our legs together trying to make a chirping sound whenever that part came up. I never did manage it. The Grouchy Ladybug was another one for bedtime, like the cricket one it is very repetitive so I simply got her to say the catch line with me. Then came The Very Hungary Caterpillar, I love this book. The craft we did was perfect for a Sunday afternoon at home. Last of all we read about Mr. Seahorse and the girls enjoyed using watercolors, salt, and glitter glue to create a special effect on their own seahorses. I wanted to end with Pancake, pancake, and of course make alphabet letter pancakes but it has been checked out at the library for a while. If it's there next time we'll pick it up. I plan to do some fun things with Dr. Seuss next.

Kitchen Face Lift

It took me several weeks to give our kitchen a face lift. I admit, I took a few days off in between, but thankfully the anticipation of guests is good incentive to finish such things. Here are shots of the before. Mid-project All finished

Little House

Makenzie's 2nd grade class is currently studying pioneers. As part of that they are reading 'Little House in the Big Woods' and then going to a pioneer museum for a class field trip. Of course, Makenzie reads books like some kids eat cookies, so I thought to myself, hey why not have her read the whole series. So when we made our weekly trip to the library I found as many of the Little House- The Laura Years, books as possible, which equated to one book. What's great is that when she finishes reading this series there's the Martha years and the Charlotte years. Plus, we can always read them together for bedtime stories. The Laura Years- *Little House in the Big Woods* *Little House on the Prairie* *Farmer Boy* *On the Banks of Plum Creek* *Old Town in the Garden Groves* *By the Shores of Silver Lake* *The Long Winter* *Little Town on the Prairie* *These Happy Golden Years* *The First Four Years*

Makenzie's Baptism

This was Makenzie's special day and so many people came to share it with her, she loved it. She got to wear the white dress that she got for her birthday,

Her grandpa Goodsell gave a talk on baptism. Aaron baptized her, and her violin teacher played a special musical number while she and Aaron changed into dry clothing.

Then, I was brave and gave a talk on the Holy Ghost(so proud of me),and Aaron preformed the confirmation.

After the baptism everyone followed us home for dinner, dessert, and socializing. It was a fun time, and Makenzie opened a few more birthday presents.