Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Helper. . .

Meal time can be quite an adventure at our house. I get the food ready for all 5 kids before I put the babies in their highchairs - but even then - their patience is not so good. I feed Paige a bite while Piper fusses for some food, then I feed Piper a bite while Paige fusses for food. I have tried everything to stop them from fussing, I even put finger food on their trays that they can feed themselves when I am helping the other twin - but it hasn't stopped the fussing. Well, one morning, Abby decided that she wanted to be "the helper" - and I didn't turn down the offer. Here is Abby - a.k.a. Cinderella - feeding Paige some peach oatmeal.
Here they are again, a few bites later - I think that more oatmeal ended up on Paige's clothes and face then actually in her mouth.
Eventually, Paige wrestled the spoon away from her sister and finished feeding herself the oatmeal. I love these next two pictures - I hope you can see how blue her eyes are.
I should have gotten a picture of Piper that day too - it might be the first time ever that Paige is messier than her sister - however, it was also one of our most peaceful meals, so I didn't even mind that I had to throw the girls in the bath after they were done (oatmeal is tricky to get out of hair without a complete wash).

Easter!

I am posting about Easter in April - this might be a record! The kids had been with their dad that week and I just picked them up on Saturday - they had already celebrated Easter- but since Easter is MY favorite holiday - they agreed to celebrate again. Here is the token "Easter Egg Hunt" - thanks Aunt Courtnie for helping - we went across the street to the school playground. Abby wouldn't put the eggs in her bag until she shook each one to make sure it was full.
The "easter bunny" was quite creative with where she hid the eggs. Abby was fasinated with the "purple snow" - Ethan had to point out that it was an egg making the snow look purple (needless to say - those jelly beans were a bit damp and got thrown out).
I didn't get a great shot of Ethan - but he was great at helping point out the eggs to Abby.
Miles found all the eggs on the rock wall.
The twins even joined in the fun - they figured out how to open the eggs before their mom figured out that they did. Paige had a mouthful of jelly beans before I noticed and you should have heard her scream when I took them away. Piper just liked the noise the eggs made when she threw them.
Here we are decorating the eggs - we did 3 dozen. This is the only picture I got because shortly after this shot - Ethan fell off his chair and took the green dye with him. I dumped him in the bathtub and then scrubbed the floor, soaked his clothes and bleached the grout. The only evidence of the disaster was a greenish tint to Ethan's face for a couple days - I tried to have him soak his face, but he got tired of holding his breath. We still had fun and even finished the eggs - we only had one green egg this year though.
Since Easter was the same weekend as conference, we didn't get dressed up on Easter - but here is Abby in her Easter dress the next weekend. Grandma Gilmore sent us this dress along with two of the most beautiful dresses I have ever seen for the twins. I am saving their dresses for this summer (hopefully they will be walking then and not pull out the seams crawling like they seem to be doing with quite a few dresses right now) - so look for those dresses around their birthday. Abby calls this her "princess dress" and I have to hide it during the week so it doesn't become a dress-up. These pictures don't do it justice - it is a pretty pale pink - Abby loves to twirl in it - those pictures turned out to blurry to post though
Here is our princess in her "princess dress".

Friday, April 16, 2010

Abbyisms!

I am sure the boys used to come up with cute sayings when they were younger and I really wished I had been better at writing them down - but I am going to document some of the recent things that have come out of Abby's mouth.
I have been watching a couple of kids on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings when I don't have school. It has worked out great for Abby - since the babies both have naps in the morning, she now has friends to play with while they sleep. Well, this morning, Abby and Gabe were playing catch with a beach ball in the family room and I was trying to wash a few dishes. I could hear Abby saying "Great catch, Gabe" - everytime he caught the ball. Then as I listened more carefully it sounded like she was telling someone else "great catch" as well as Gabe. So I went in to see what was happening and haven't been able to stop laughing since - Gabe would catch the ball and Abby would say "Great catch, Gabe", then Gabe would throw the ball to Abby. She would NOT catch the ball and say "Great catch, ground". I once thought she might be my athlete - maybe not - but at least she is a "great" sport!
The other day, when I picked her up at my mom's - my mom had offered Abby some chocolate to which Abby responded "I am all over chocolate". The funniest thing about that is that I don't talk like that, the boys don't talk like that and so I am not sure where she picked it up - but evidently the girl likes chocolate.
I will be adding to this post as I remember the latest sayings - she can be quite cute (when she is not hungry or tired:).

Saturday, April 10, 2010

"A Whole New World"

The boys begged to wrestle this year - and I gave in. Well - I didn't know what I was getting myself into. They really liked the wrestling practices and asked if they could wrestle in a tournament - so I gave in to that too. I was just thinking that it would be a couple hours and they would each get to wrestle a couple of times. Nope - they are all-day type things - and just in case anyone is wondering - wrestling is alive and well in southern Utah. Turns out wrestling is HUGE here - they had there state meet today and there were people from Hurricane, Beaver, Minersville, Milford, Enterprise, South Sevier, Juab, etc. We were at the gym at 7:30 for weigh-in and didn't leave until 4:30 (actually, the girls and I did leave for donuts and juice before the matches started). Soccer mom's have nothing over wrestling families - I couldn't believe the parents down on the mats with their kids - screaming in their faces, I wouldn't know what to say - even if I could get close enough to be heard. Actually, I was just praying that my boys wouldn't get hurt (and that they wouldn't hurt anyone) - I didn't care at all if they won or not. They had fun but I am not so sure that wrestling is our sport - they are both excited to start baseball though in a couple of weeks. Here are some pictures from today - probably goes without saying but my kids are not the ones in the singlets and wrestling shoes. This is Miles (sorry about the picture - we try to stay as far from the action as we can with the twins:)
And here is our Ethan!
This is Abby's favorite thing about watching her brothers wrestle (maybe the only thing she enjoyed)
This was my favorite part of the day - they both had two great naps - AT THE SAME TIME. I love that Canyon View has a track above their gym - I walked the girls to sleep and watched the boys wrestle at the same time!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Science Fair

My first post on this blog last year was about the science fair- it is crazy to think of all that has happened in one year. Well - we managed to do two science fair projects again this year (note the we - yes, I know they like the kids to do their own work, but I have to "guide" the boys if anything is going to get done). Miles did come up with his project himself - and it was a fun one to do (not too scientific it turned out - but interesting). He found a penny that is magnetic - so the question was "why are some coins magnetic and others are not?" Turns out that the penny he found was from 1943 - during WWII they needed all the copper for ammuntion and airplanes so the pennies were made from steel. Anyway, we gathered coins from many years and many countries and researched what they were made of - he won honorable mention for the 3rd grade.

Ethan's was a fun project as well - he tested 6 different types of gum to see which one produced the biggest bubbles. Hubba Bubba came out the winner! Ethan won 3rd place for 1st grade and got to go on to the regional science fair.


Disclaimer - This post may contain bragging!

After passing Advanced Calculus last semester - I thought that all other classes would be downhill. Algebra doesn't sound nearly as scary as calculus right? Wrong - Abstract Algebra is tough (and a lot more abstract than I think algebra should be) - but, after much study and work (and neglecting housework/laundry) - I am happy to report that I aced the second test (got a B- on the first one - don't tell my mom, she still frowns when I tell her I got anything less than an A). I thought that I would post my test(s) here, sorry for the bragging - but I have worked hard for this.
Our tests in this class consist of two parts - the in-class portion (above) and then a take-home due two days later (and tons harder). My take-home is below - and as much as I wish that I got 36/10 - it is a mistake and supposed to be 36/40 (which I will still take). Over all I got 94.5% on the test!!!!!
As hard as the class is - it is actually one of my favorites - I am starting to catch on to the abstract way of thinking. We took another test last week - she hasn't graded it yet, but I felt good about that test too. Finals are in two weeks - I am sooooooooo excited! I can't wait for summer - NO MORE SCHOOL for 4 whole months. I am doing the "block" this fall (consists of teaching classes/practicum stuff) and then I will student teach next spring. As anxious as I was (and still am - kindof) to be done with the school stuff - I have actually liked being a student - I might even miss it - well, maybe not homework, but I will miss going to the classes.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Spring Break (part II)

The kids were out of school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - I wasn't, so when Grandma and Grandpa Gilmore invited them to come and visit - we said OK. They had a great time with Grandma, Grandpa, cousins and their dad - some of their highlights include swimming, shopping with Grandma, watching "How to Train Your Dragon" in digital 3-D, coloring easter eggs, having an easter egg hunt and playing the X-box (all Miles can talk about is how he was one of the first "boys" to play the Toy Story 3 game - thanks Uncle Ian- and thanks for fixing my computer as well) . Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
Abby loves to color everything right now (including our wooden blocks and her bed) so it was no surprise that she loved this activity.
On their shopping trip with Grandma, the kids talked her into buying stuff for a seafood jambalaya - Ethan really ate this and yes it is octopus.
Here is Miles eating something slimy as well - I thought I prided myself on liking seafood, but I guess I am more of a plain fish person - I have no desire to try squid (I think they call it calamari) or the octopus. The kids said it was good though - I will take their word for it.

Well - as nice as it was to have a bit of a break - I was sure anxious to have them back. I did start to question that thinking though after they had been in the car for 10 minutes. Abby started crying because she wasn't wearing socks (why is it that she goes all day without socks, but cries for me when I wasn't even the one who got her dressed?). We pulled over, found her socks and put them on and that bought me 10 more minutes of peace until she decided she needed a drink - desperately. So the trip home was a "bit" hard - and poor Paige and Piper - I thought they would like to have their sister there to entertain them a bit, but between Abby's feet on their heads and her sucker stuck in their hair, they weren't so sure they were happy to see her. I hope that a good night's sleep will help the poor girl- her dad always says she is so well behaved, but I don't believe him.