Spring Is Early

It has been around 50 degrees these last few days and really most of this month. It is kind of crazy how nice it has been this winter. I feel like we have barely had a winter! I am not complaining! It feels like we had a small taste of snow this year and jacket weather for the rest. We enjoyed playing outside today in the sun!

 Action shot!

January Recap

January has been nice out and we have had a little more of a low key few weeks!

Playing with friends outside. Makayla loves her baby dolls and her friend "Sue-see!"

 Loving her frosty after Levi's basketball game!

 We commandeered my parent's old oven when they got a new one. I was tired of cleaning our old one and had an eye for the flat top. Someday we won't have every color of appliance known to man in our kitchen!

 We have spent hours every weekend this month pretty much, cleaning out our basement in preparation for framing. We have a big old pile of wood in the basement waiting to be put up! The boys were super helpers carrying endless amounts of boxes and toys upstairs. Makayla was good at climbing in boxes, coloring on the wood, and running around like a crazy person.

 Pre-church spin on the chair. "Cheese"

 Followed by their "Ahhhhh!" faces!

 We went to the auto show on Martin Luther King day. We met the Boston's, Andrew's family, Krista, and Grandma there. The kids had fun sitting in tons of cars and doing the activities.

 We decided to grab some lunch before heading home.

 This girls hair is getting so long. I wish mine grew that fast!

 Zack had a preschool field trip on a day Levi was out of school. So, he got to join us at the Rush fun center. They did the bounce houses and bowling.

 Zack has been a reading machine lately and daily is found reading to himself. You will send him to his room to grab his shoes and go back 15 minutes later to find he had been sidetracked by a book.

 The boys look forward to Friday's when Levi is out early and they have time to play Xbox together.

 This girl is such a girl. Feeding her baby:)

 Nice afternoons means playing outside, with no shoes or coats in January!

Levi

Levi is growing up so fast! He is doing so well in 1st Grade. It is still hard for me to send him all day, but he is always so good about going. He is learning so much and it is fun to see the things he is learning and bringing home. His school rates their reading levels. He is at a level J. They want them to be at an I before the end of first grade. He can read 111 correct words in a minute. He can solve 22 basic addition facts in 1 minute. His teacher has nothing but good things to say about this sweet kid of mine! He got all 4's on his report card (which is perfect!). His favorite thing about school is lunch and recess. He is such a boy! He loves the girls chasing him at recess. It all begins! He is still in the 1st grade math club. Some weeks he likes it and others he is not so excited! Next year may be an adjustment since we decided to move Levi to the new Syracuse Arts Academy campus. They have had a high demand for the school, being that it is a good school. It received another A grade, top 10% of Elementary schools in Utah. With that high demand they decided to open up a 2nd campus. The principle and at least 75% of the teachers and office staff are following the principle over to the new campus. So....we are going with the experience. But, for Levi several of his friends are not. So, he will have a little bit of a change in 2nd grade. He is so good at getting along with all kids that he will make friends quick!
Levi has been playing Junior Jazz. Last week he made his first basket, followed shortly after by his second. He was so proud of himself! He ran to the sideline during play and made sure to tell me, "Tell dad I scored a basket!" Dan made it for his second basket. It has been a season of learning and it is fun to see him getting it! Love my little baller:)
With our little nephew Mack's development with asthma, and some key indicators being the same as Levi, I kept an eye on Levi to see just what signs were still there. He had always been our cougher at night and one that would get himself so worked up that he would throw up occasionally from coughing so hard! So, he picked up a cold and I monitored him for a bit after. Sure enough he would be running around and get so worked up he could not stop coughing. Followed by some wheezing. So, we decided to take him in. It has never been horrible, but with me having it and the symptoms he has presented, I am certain he has a small case of asthma. The doctor agreed, so we have him taking a breathing treatment morning and night. The thing I really wanted was something to leave at the school. I worry about him being away from home with the inversion, recess, and possible trouble breathing. He now has a backup if he gets a little worked up at school!
Levi is such a caring big brother and so nurturing to his little sister and him and Zack are the best of buds. They love to play Legos together, switch-n-go Dinos, Nintendo anything, and another one of his favorite things is playing anything with Dad! His favorite color is Yellow. He loves to sing along to songs on the radio. He still loves to run around like a crazy man, and he loves to laugh! We love our Levi and it is always so much more fun when he gets home from school everyday!

Zackary

Zackary is my little buddy this year. Since Levi is at school it is fun to have him by himself! When they are together they come in a package deal. We have enjoyed some mommy-Zack time. He is going to be having a birthday in a month so I am sure I will write about him then too. He is growing up so fast! I just finished registering him for Kindergarten this past week. I cannot believe I will have 2 in school! He is so ready and so excited! We have been working hard since school started on his reading lessons. We took a little break since he got annoyed at them and just read books and did computer programs for awhile and dove back into them after awhile. He is on lesson 87/100 in our little book. He reads so well that I am pretty sure we don't even need to do it, but I promised him he could pick out a prize like Levi did when he finishes. So, we have 13 more lessons to go! He LOVES to read. I catch him daily in his room or on the couch reading books. He got a good foundation from our reading lessons, but he has taken it on himself to read and figure the rest out. I am amazed at how much he knows when we sit down to do his lessons.
Zack loves his preschool. He has 2 little buddies he goes with and carpools with that he loves. He gets so excited to go and comes home and tells me all about it. They play football pretty much every recess they have! It has been a good stepping stone for him and I hope that he will get ready in the morning as fast as he does when it is time for preschool! Zack likes to take his time. He likes to look at everything, touch everything, play with everything, try everything, and then stare into space before he gets ready in the morning! So, I am little worried about him getting up and getting ready for school in the morning!
Some of Zack's favorite things right now: he LOVES to play Nintendo games. Particularly the Lego ones like the Lego Movie or Lego Star Wars. He loves anything to do with electronics. It is like a magnet to him. If he hears a show on or sees someone playing a game he races to it. He gets so frustrated at me when I try to play with him because I have no idea what I am doing. He always says, "Oh mom, just give me your remote!" He can definitely play those games better than I can! He loves to play boardgames as well. I think he has a huge competitive spirit trying to keep up with big brother! He loves switch-n-go dinos right now along with all things Lego. We are planning a Lego birthday party for him in a month:)
Some ways to describe Zack according to Dan: He is either really excited or not at all. He is mischievous and tends to have that look on his face often! His little laugh when he is trying to tease usually makes me laugh...usually! He is getting more and more patient with Makayla as she is getting older and more in his face. He does not like his bubble being invaded and he is having to learn to put up with a little more of that with her now! He does love to play with her and he can be so sweet with her when they are home and only have each other to play with. I love to see that playful side in him! Zack is hard to get motivated. If he chooses to be, like with reading or learning to ride his bike, he masters things and does not stop there. If you want him to do something you have to come up with creative ways to get him excited about it or you end up having to do everything for him, like get his shoes on. He is such an easy going kid who has never been one that is hard to entertain. He is happy doing just about anything or at least he finds someway to entertain himself. He has always been my easiest at church or any event because of this! He is happy playing at home and happy playing certain things for long periods of time. He will play Legos for hours or if you let him Nintendo for hours. He focuses and plays one activity for long periods of time which is not that common for his age!
We love our stubborn, sweet, smart, stinker and I am so excited to celebrate his birthday in a month. He has been waiting forever for that day! We love our little Zack attack!

Miss Makayla

I have felt behind on my blog for so long that I feel like I have been just trying to keep up with all of our going ons! My goal this next week ish, is to provide some much needed updates on my munchkins. Today, since the boys were at school and a friends house pretty much most of the day, is going to be my right hand girl, Makayla!

Makayla is changing and growing so fast that she is the hardest to keep up with! She is talking like crazy and tries to say so many things these days. She is just about 21 months old. She is in LOVE with babies. She constantly is wanting to look at them, pet their heads, give them their binkies, and anything else she can get away with! She will be such a loving big sister, we may be in trouble with how loving she might get:)

She has made a major jump in the last few weeks and is mostly POTTY TRAINED! She showed some sign of being interested before we went to Disneyland in October. I amused her and would put her on the potty every now and then and she would go. After we got back I  continued to put her on every now and then, and her interest continued. I tried her out for almost a week with only putting her in a diaper when we would leave the house. She was doing well for a few days and then she got rebellious and really didn't want to. She was so little that I just went with it and put her back in diapers. I started to only take her when it was convenient or when she would tell me. Eventually after a month on that, she started to go right when I put her on the potty and as the days went on she stopped going in her diaper all together for a few days. So on went the undies! She has been in undies at home and pull-ups when we go out for at least a week now. She has never had an accident when we leave the house, but for some reason it makes me feel better to not worry about it. Eventually I will get over that! She just seems so tiny! We do still have an occasional accident, and are not quite night trained, but she is doing GREAT! Perfect since we have 2 months before we have another to put diapers on! Her cue words are, "Poo!" "Pee" and "Cold!"

She is such a girl and I am pretty sure her favorite color is pink. She digs through the crayons and picks out all the pinks. She eventually still likes to try and sneak a bite out of the crayon, but it seems that she has found a favorite! She has a best little friend named Lucy, that she excitedly calls "Sue-see!" Their house seems to be one of the few places I can leave her for a short time these days. She seems to know something is going to change because she is a major mommy's girl right now. She absolutely hates nursery and we still can't get her to go without her either getting brought back to us or us sitting in their with her. She can soak up her babyhood for a few more months and I won't mind too much! It will be quite a transition for her to have a new baby in the house!

She loves to copy and communicate with others. She points out tons of her body parts and loves to sing all sorts of action songs with you. She loves to pretend to count. She says "fawee, four, fawee four..." over and over and over. She pretends to sing in sacrament meeting which is super cute. She is obsessed with cheese. She pulls on the fridge about 10 times a day asking for cheese. The says words like, "Bike" "up" "down" "moke"(milk), "mun" (run), "jump" "pin" (spin), "tomp"(stomp), "yay!", "I did it", "ug" (hug), "Minnie", "Doc", "Ball", "bed", "na-nigh", and so so much more.

She loves to watch and play anything that involves Doc McStuffins and Minnie Mouse these days. She also loves all of her baby dolls. She also plays anything with her brothers especially if they pay attention to her! She loves her daddy and is caught running to the door when he gets home and crying at the door when he leaves or even at random times in the day, "DADA!" When she gives you big hugs she makes sure and pats you on the back. She gives amazing kisses. She sleeps around 12 hours a night and is really easy to put to bed most nights. I can wait a few months before she gets out of her crib!  She is obsessed with shoes and always wants to put any pair she sees on.

We just love this little lady and her squinty face cheesy smiles she gives everyone!

Junior Jazz

Levi has been playing Junior Jazz and loves it! It is a little hard to watch at this age but he is learning so much. He also is so excited everyday he has it. He is the youngest of the youngest on his team and the smallest, but you can tell he is starting to develop a competitive edge. I know that will take him far. With that I have seen improvement every game. Now if only his coach would actually show up to teach them! Regardless, I am excited for him to start basketball and excited to see him loving it! Such a fun kid!

Happy New Years!

For New Years we hung around the house for the most part. We did wonder out and bought Monopoly and some treats for a game night. The kids LOVED Monopoly! We played it pretty much everyday of the break. On Friday, we took the kids to the Rush and went bowling and played arcade games.

Maykayla loved bowling and wanted every turn to be her turn. Mom eventually gave in and let her bowl for me too! She would clap every time it hit a pin and say, "Yay!" 

 Levi was the serious bowler who thought it would be as easy as on the Wii. Which means he was disappointed unless he got a spare or a strike! Competitive little man.

 Zack would still dance when he knocked a bunch down, especially when he got a spare!

 On Saturday, we took the kids down to Grandma and Grandpa's for a bit. We swung by the Lego store on the way down so the kids could use their money to buy a mini figure. As Levi put it the other day after he bought his own matchbox car at the store, "I am just like a dad now!" I laughed out loud. They work so hard and are so proud of themselves when they buy it themselves.

 We hit up lunch with Bumpa and Grandma, followed by IKEA on our way to their house. The kids played for a bit before we met the Johnson's and the Boston's at Classic Skating in Sandy. We brought the kids new scooters. Besides a goose egg or two they had a blast!

Random IPhone Pics

I was tired of feeling yucky this week and finally caved to go in at day 10 of a sore throat and that day a gigantic ear ache. Well, I guess I should have waited a day or two because that all started to fade the next day AND he did not give me anything since I didn't have a fever or a sinus headache, so it was pointless. I thought the fact that it had been 10 days of not sleeping due to a sore sore throat was enough! The kids were good, but it was not exactly well spent time in my books!

My mom sent me this sweet pic of Kellie and I with our Grampy.

We did it. We have a boat load of wood for our basement. Let the finishing begin!