Fire Station

This year, Sadie is participating in a co-op type preschool.  A group of moms from church rotate teaching 7 kids.  It's a lot of work on the weeks I teach, but, I enjoy the days off!  Additionally, I'm enjoying less of a strain on my pocketbook!

Last month, we took a field trip to the fire station.  I'm getting fuzzy on the details, but, aside from the fire equipment, this particular station is one of the FEMA support stations and has 2 semi-trucks fully loaded at all times, ready to head out when needed.  And, they have a hallway near their living space covered with pictures from all the rescue efforts their team has been involved in.  

Of course, the kids didn't care about that.  They just wanted to climb in the fire truck!

The firefighters all got a kick out of Carson's leash!  

Sadie was bummed she couldn't reach the pedals!

Carson loved wearing his fire hat!

Random Stuff

Nothing too exciting going on around here, but that doesn't stop me from taking pictures!  

Here's Sadie gluing her family picture puzzle together.  I just cut up last year's Christmas card and she pieced it together.  

Not too bad for her first attempt!  (I did help a little, though)

Last week, we learned about clouds (Sadie) and the water cycle (Morgan).  Any guess as to what airline we fly???  (It's also the most easily recognized in the air.  And we see a lot of airplanes take off and land by our house!)

Home Depot has FREE kids projects on the first Saturday of every month.  This past month was fireboats and the girls wanted to paint theirs red.

Two-year olds!  Sometimes they can be so charming...Sadie loves to pose for the camera!

I read on a friend's blog a while ago that her boys have "up" muscles and "down" muscles.  I haven't shown the girls, nor have the actually even played with these friends for a while.  But, the other night, they both wanted to show me their "muscles."  (No, Morgan is not constipated, she's just making her tough "aarrrggh" noise to go with her big muscles!)

Can't forget Sadie's muscles!

Berry Patch Farms

When Sadie was a baby and Morgan, two, we took a "field trip" to Berry Patch Farms with a few friends (2008 Trip).   It's a local "pick your own" farm and in the fall, they offer pumpkin field trips.  For preschoolers, they get a hay ride, maze, and pumpkin.  It's perfect!  Morgan's already talking about next year's trip!  I didn't bother to tell her that she'll be in Kindergarten, though.

Anyway, here's the girls next to the scarecrow.  Morgan thought it was pretty cool, and Sadie just said, "Scarecrow!" and then laughed!

Here are the girls "lost" in the hay maze.  15 preschoolers lost in a maze that's about shoulder-high for the parents is lots of fun to watch!  The kids were entertained for at least 20 minutes!

I decided to follow Sadie through the maze and tried to get it on video, but she was moving pretty quickly, so it's a little wobbly.

Here we are, on the hayride.

True to life, here's Morgan leading the way, and Sadie doing her best to keep up!

When she was done in the maze, Sadie decided to recruit her pal, Stewart to throw hay out of the wagon!

These two girls are wimps sometimes!  They wanted to see the goats, but for the first few minutes, they stood about 10 feet from the fence.  Every time a goat would move, Sadie would squeal with delight!  

We love going out to Berry Patch Farms!  

Tiny Tots

As of last week, Morgan is no longer a Tiny Tot. After summer break, she will be a Kinder Kid! I can't believe how big our little girl is getting!

Here she is, with her certificate from Tiny Tots. I tried to get her to stop for a picture, but she was on a mission to get right back to her seat!

Here she is, reciting the pledge. Put your hand over your heart, er, stomach.

Cute little thing in her Graduation Shirt that she and Auntie Logan made!

Of all the songs they learned this year, this one is Morgan's favorite!

Junk

Mackenzie: Morgan, what's that? (see picture below)

Morgan: (as she throws it on the ground) It's just junk.

Last week, they learned about the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) and taking care of the earth. Morgan, obviously, didn't see the point because all she came home with was "junk". Brian had taken her to school that day and said during art time, she had a very difficult time being creative with "junk."

Her Dad Is So Proud!

How ironic that of all 26 letters of the alphabet, Morgan chose to cut out a "Y" at Preschool! Could it be her parents' (mostly her Dad's) influence??? She was so excited to show us when she borught it home!

In Her Own Words...

Thursday, before Preschool, I told Morgan that she needed to bringing something to show and tell that she was thankful for.

Me: "Morgan, what are you thankful for?"

Morgan: (she thought a moment) "Life."

Me (thinking to myself): Okay, you're three. Don't get philosophical on me yet!

Me (talking to Morgan again): "Well, we can't really bring life to preschool. It needs to be something you can bring and show to the kids. Can you think of something else you're thankful for?"

Morgan: "I am thankful for the letter P. It goes "puh, puh, puh."

Me: "Well, let's keep thinking some more."

We brought bunny for show and tell.

All Sorts of Random Stuff

Here's a bunch of stuff from the past couple of weeks. I didn't feel like giving each thing its own post, so it's all lumped together.

Morgan and Baby

Morgan has begun mothering her baby much more these past few months. Over breakfast last week, I asked her how old her baby is. Her response: "18 months." I then asked if Baby could walk. Morgan replied, "Not quite yet. (brief pause) But she can talk. She says oatmeal (what we were eating for breakfast), booster seat, napkin, spoon, stroller, sippy cup..." You get the idea. Now look at the picture. I wonder where Morgan selected her baby's new vocabulary words from...

Mr. Sun (and Morgan, the "toot dirl")

Here's Morgan and her talking sun she made at Preschool last week. It's lots of fun to watch her have "conversations" with it.

Sadie's Toys and Tricks

Sadie recently discovered Morgan's array of "big girl" toys and Morgan loves to get them out to play with. So far, the only stipulation Morgan has imposed on playing with the "big girl" toys is Sadie must be wearing some of the necklaces. Sadie doesn't seem to mind, as long as she can ditch the baby toys!
Brian taught Sadie a new way to play peek-a-boo.



I just couldn't resist that cute grin!

Colorado in June

When we lived in Provo, I got used to one final snow storm sometime in the middle of June. Pretty random, but, to be expected (at least while I lived there). However, in the 3 1/2 years we've been in Colorado, we have yet to experience "normal" weather. Our first winter was those 2 awful blizzards at Christmas. This past winter, we hardly saw snow until the Spring and then had 6 weekends straight of snow! So, we weren't surprised when late the other night, we looked outside and saw this:

Thunder, lightning and hail! After about 5-10 minutes, the ground was white! The next morning, there were little mounds of ice on our front lawn!

The Ward Dutch Oven Cookout

Morgan and her friend, Pen decided to experiment with a possible career choice, pole dancing. While I will not endorse this for Morgan for as a career, it kept her occupied at the ward activity.

And Sadie loved eating, what she does best.

Pumpkin Adventures!

We went to Berry Patch Farms yesterday for a "Pumpkin Adventure." Below are pictures (thanks to Kelley's Mom, Billie for taking them) of our excursion. We all had so much fun! It's really nice to have such wonderful friends that we can call family. (Morgan has even adopted a 3rd grandma after this weekend--we had lots of fun with the Larsens and "GrandB")

To finish of our adventure, we all got together this morning to make pumpkin pie. We had lots of "helpers," so we didn't get any pictures of us making the pie, but the kids sure enjoyed it!

Farmer's Market

Of course I don't find out about it until the end of the summer, but we made it and Morgan loves to go! I don't know which is more fun, watching her "pay" for the fruits and vegetables, or her excitement when I let her pick them out and put them in the bag.

This week, she talked about the plums all the way home. In fact, when I talked to Brian on the phone, she made sure to mention that we bought more because he had taken the last one to work!

We are loving fresh produce at our house, and even Brian likes some of the new recipes I've tried. Oh, by the way, any suggestions for eggplant???


Morgan got $1 to pick out anything she wanted and she chose a pumpkin! She's not excited about it, though!

Candy Factory

Last week, we went to Hammond's Candy Factory for a tour. While not too exciting for a bunch of 2-year olds, it was still a nice trip. If anything, the tour is FREE, and you can sample candy!!! Who wouldn't like that?

Oh, and this is how I found Sadie, asleep in her carseat when we got home. She sure is a trooper!

Did We Mention We're Having Another Baby???

Without beating around the bush, it was kind of hard (and awkward) to announce that we're expecting baby #2. I don't know exactly why, but for some reason, it just seemed odd to call everyone up and announce the news, so we decided to wait until the ultrasound for the big announcement. Some people that we see regularly have asked, and I've told them, but for all of you that we don't get to see often enough, here's your announcement.

We have taught Morgan that "baby" (as we have yet to agree on a name) is in Mommy's tummy. If you ask her where baby is, she says, "Mommy tummy." Then you continue with, "Is baby in Morgan's tummy?" and she replies, "No" with a big head shake. "Is baby in bunny's tummy?" which she again replies, "No" with a big head shake. Then, when you ask, "Is baby in Mommy's tummy?" She says "YES!" and gently pats my stomach. She's going to be a good big sister!

We had our ultrasound yesterday and I'll be 20 weeks on Saturday, so we're almost halfway. Here are some pictures, and as they all look the same, I'll describe what's "featured" in each of them.





This one is of our Acrobatic Baby. You can see a profile shot, and right above the head is baby's foot. The ultrasound tech couldn't get the whole baby in the picture, but basically, the baby is in a V shape with its feet over its head.





This is a blurry picture of the face. If you look carefully, you can see to black spots on the head (L). Those are the eyes, and then try to distinguish the rest of the facial features from there. Oh, and for the record, this baby has a big head, just like Morgan. The head measures at least 3-4 days ahead of the rest of the body, so that must mean it's big! Lucky me!

This one is where you get to guess what it is. The first "gender" shot, I didn't want to believe what I heard, so I basically diregarded the information and requested a better shot later in the ultrasound.

Here's the typical baby profile. You can see the nose poking up, and that's an arm bone just beneath the chin.

So, there you have it. We're expecting another girl on August 2, 2008! Note: What I was hoping I saw in the gender picture above is actually just the umbillical cord deceivingly placed and bunched together.