More happenings in May

Recently they opened a Disney Store at the Mall near our home. I took the girls thinking that they could meet Mickey and Minnie but I had the wrong day. Anyhow they go to take their picture in front of the castle instead.
Mother's day with my 3 1/2 kids. I do feel blessed for my good looking healthy kids.

We started swim lessons on Monday the 9th of May. Taylor is getting a lot better. She still likes to psych herself out when it is time to jump off the diving board. She has done it every time though and she continues to gain confidence.

Nathan is doing great. He has a lot of confidence when he swims. I am very impressed with his form when he does his strokes (especially freestyle). He is very controlled and glides through the water.

This is Natalie's first time taking lessons. This picture was taken while she was waiting on the first day for it to be her turn. She was very happy and excited to be there. Well all things changed right after this picture. I was hoping she would do okay without wearing goggles. She did NOT like getting water in her eyes and she swallowed A LOT of water. She cried the whole rest of the lesson. It was a very long 30 minutes and I ended up being very wet by the time it was all said and done. I sat next to the pool trying to comfort her. Natalie kept getting out of the water and climbing on my lap while saying "All done Mommy" I would put her back in the water for her turn for each skill. We survived.

This picture was from the 3rd lesson. She had her goggles so all was good, she also learned to close her mouth which made things much better. She hasn't cried at all since the 3rd lesson. She cried about 5 minutes of the 2nd lesson. She will mostly sit on the stair and watch everyone else take their turn and wait patiently for her turn. Often she will be sucking her thumb as she watches. Natalie has improved significantly in her lessons during a short period of time.

For the 3rd lesson Miss Allison took Natalie through the hoop anchored to the bottom of the deep end. Then Natalie is to get to the side of the pool grab the side and climb out of the water. Then the kids walk to the diving board walk to the end and jump into Miss Allison's awaiting arms. Well that is how the last segment is supposed to go. Natalie climbed onto the diving board walked to about 4 inches before the end of the diving board and then jumped in. It shocked us all. We didn't think she would actually go in on her own. I figured I would have to drop her off the diving board. So this picture is of my attempt to get a picture of Natalie standing on the diving board at her 4th lesson but as you can see she is already in the water because she didn't wait for Miss Allison to count to 3. At lesson 5 I walked her to the edge of the diving board and held her hand until it was time for her to jump to teach her what to do. She has done it correctly every time since.

Basketball ends, Graduation and Dancing Diane

Those are just 3 of the things we have done in the past 5 days. I have so much to catch up on with blogging and it is a bit overwhelming but I need to start somewhere so here it goes.

Nathan played the spring season of Wham basketball. We had slow going in the beginning but he started enjoying it again about half way through the season. The issues were mainly caused with they joined the 3rd grade teams with the 4th grade teams. So suddenly they were using 10 ft rims and mid size balls playing against teams much taller and a whole lot of rule changes like stealing off dribble now allowed, 5 seconds to pass ball in, etc.
After the last game Coach treated us all to an frozen yogurt party instead of the normal Peter Piper. I welcomed the change.

Coach handed out their trophies at the party. In this picture he is praising Nathan for becoming more aggressive and that people needed to start watching out. Nathan really is not an aggressive ball player (he takes after his mom in this regard). During the last game he had 2 fouls mainly because he was trying to steal the ball so he could get the $2 his Dad promised him if he did.

The team and the Dad's that helped with coaching.

Nathan with coach after the party. This Coach does a great job with the boys. He has coached them since 1st grade and it has mostly been the same group of boys.

Taylor had her end of the preschool program on Monday night. They sang some really cute songs.

The preschool graduate. :-)

Taylor with her teacher Mrs. P. Taylor is excited to be in Kindergarten and she really enjoyed preschool.

Every year for the past 10+ years Nathan's school does a segment with Dancing Diane for all the 3rd graders. Their recital was today. Nathan's class danced to the song Shine by Take That. It is a band from England that his teacher from England decided on. This is Nathan before the performance.

Posing after the performance. Nathan did a great job and so did the rest of his class. Nathan was so excited to do the dance. They all worked really hard and I was very proud of him. I have to admit I cried watching the performance.

A little of what we've been up to.

Okay it is way past time to update our blog. I didn't want to post this picture until further down but was having issues moving it. Mid March we took our kids to my ultra sound appointment to let them know that I was pregnant. They originally thought we were going to a doctor's appointment to check on my heart, but when we walked into the ultrasound room Nathan knew what was going on. They were able to see the baby moving and hear the heartbeat. I am due mid October with baby #4 and I am excited and nervous about the whole thing.

Nathan had his final basketball game for the winter season the end of February. This is the team after the game. They would always sit along the wall on their basketballs and listen to coach. Most of these boys have played together with the same coach for the past 3 years. They are a really good group of boys.

After the last game Coach treats the boys to a party at Peter Piper and they receive their medallions from the league. When coach presented Nathan's medallion he said " Nathan was probably the most improved player and that he had the best shooting percentage. He didn't maybe shoot as often as the other boys but almost everytime he did shoot he scored" We decided to sign Nathan up for the spring season and he had his first game yesterday.

Nathan was well overdo for a haircut. It was the day before school pictures a few weeks ago so it was officially time. He couldn't fight me on it anymore. Before

All the hair

After- Nathan thought I cut it too short but I really like his hair this length. His face makes me chuckle everytime I see this picture. I thought my girls were dramatic :-)

Taylor took a gymnastics class with the city and on the last day the teacher let Natalie join in on the fun. She loved it and I think Taylor enjoyed having her in the class with her. She was protective most of the time.

The first Saturday in March was the pinewood derby for Nathan's scout troop. He worked a lot of hours over a couple of weeks with Preston. Nathan designed the car himself with one of his hot wheels cars as a model.

His troop showing their graphite covered fingers.

Nathan tied for first in his troop and so they did a race off and he ended up with 2nd place. We were just hoping he would win at least one race. He was so happy to have done so well. So that night was the Stake finals. ( We had to cancel our date so that he could attend) There were a lot of fast cars at finals and the races were close like this one here. Nathan is the one on the far right lane.

Nathan ended up not winning any races at finals and got a few 2nd place finishes. He was disappointed but proud of himself for making it to finals his first year competing.

We have been busy potty training Natalie. I bought a book at Barnes and Noble titled "Princess of the Potty" It comes with a tiara that she wears while going potty and then when she goes she gets a sticker jewel to put on it. Some times she will use the regular toilet and other times the potty chair on the ground. It is so nice to be done with diapers. It is funny because after a month she still will tell me she has to go potty and then as it starts coming out she will say "See Mommy"As if I thought she was kidding about having to go.

Mid March the kids had a half day so I decided to finally take my kids and some of their friends to Jump Street. Nathan had been asking me to go for months. I got a coupon and so off we went. It was really fun for the boys but I will probably wait until the girls are older to take them again.

Nathan had a school wide running club race. He ran really well and we were all proud of him. He placed #51 out of all the boys at the school.

At the school awards assembly Nathan was recognized for 2 awards. The music class award.

Exemplary Student Award. He worked really hard this semester to bring up his grades and be a better student overall. His teacher noticed his hard work and presented this award to him. Nathan also accomplished the task of answering 40 multiplication problems in under 2 minutes. We spent a lot of time reviewing them so he could do it.

Nathan's Primary teacher left on a mission a few weeks ago to Fiji- French speaking. This is her and the kids at her open house. She is going to do a great job.

We went to a park with my Mom over the break to feed the ducks. It was really hot that day and we weren't very successful in actually feeding the ducks, but we did feed a lot of the pigeons and the fish.

Since Nathan's birthday always falls during spring break I often forget to bring in treats for his school class. This year I remembered and the Friday before break I brought in donuts (Nathan's favorite treat)

Preston and I took Nathan out to eat at his favorite restaurant Texas Roadhouse for his birthday dinner on the Saturday before. It is a nice tradition to have some one on one time with the kids for their birthday and I think it is a highlight for them.

The birthday ice cream sundae. Nathan didn't want to sit on the fake bull this year. He was too embarrassed.

On his actual birthday I took Nathan and his best friend Hayden to Amazing Jakes to play. That is quite the place. I had never been there before and neither had Nathan, he just heard about it from other kids at school. They had a 2 hour wristband with unlimited fun on all the attractions. Here are a few pictures of things they did.

That night we had family over for a March Madness tailgate type dinner of hot wings, taquitos, nachos and vegetables. For dessert we had ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks and brownies since Nathan doesn't care for cake.

One of Nathan's presents was Wii Just Dance for Kids. After everyone left our kids busted a move.

So that is some of the past 6 weeks in review. I will post more another time.