Happy Birthday Hunter!

Yesterday, my baby turned three! We still refer to him as "the baby" although it is quite obvious he is no longer a baby! We are so proud of Hunter and so glad he is part of our family! He is turning out to be quite a character. Hunter loves to laugh and make others laugh as well. He is still my little cuddle bug even though he can keep up with the big boys now! Happy Birthday Hunter, we love you!

How we celebrated his special day:
Hunter wanted a real quad for the garage or a real dirt bike for his birthday, but I think he was pretty happy with what he got: a "My first skateboard" for our extreme sports kid. He had fun riding it around the house yesterday morning.

We had pumpkin pancakes for his birthday breakfast and let him blow out the candles first thing in the morning. He also got a phone call from my mom's second grade class who sang Happy Birthday to him over the phone!



Of course we had to take advantage of Disneyland's Free birthday offer so the boys and I spent the afternoon at the Happiest Place on Earth, where I accidentally left my camera on and the batteries wore out. We spent a lot of time in Fantasyland and going on just the rides Hunter requested. I did get a video of Hunter there. Do not watch it if you are totally disgusted at messy kids eating. Sorry!


We met Ladd for dinner on our way home to end our celebrations. We were all exhausted and happy after Hunter's special day!

Ladies Man

Tanner is usually not one to get embarrassed, but in the last few months I have seen him blush! Awhile ago I was putting a DVD on for the kids and Tanner said, "I like the girl on this movie, I like the way she looks." He turned bright red when he realized he had said it out loud and I had heard. He has also mentioned in the past that a girl on another movie was "pretty." The other night when we were getting out of the car for T-ball, he noticed Natalie, the only girl on his team, getting out of her car. He said to me, "Mom, there is the cutest person on our team. Don't you think she is cute?" My little boy has already started to notice girls!

This story let me know at least I am raising a good Mormon boy: While we were at the grocery store we were passing by the magazines and Tanner called out from across the aisle, "They have the worst magazine here! It has a girl who is wearing almost no clothes!" He was totally appalled that they would put a lady in her very immodest bathing suit on the cover of a magazine. I was glad to hear that!

Camp Out!

We spent Friday and Saturday in Malibu camping at Leo Carillo with a bunch of friends from church. If you ever go camping in your life, go there! You camp in a beautiful mountain atmosphere and then you walk five minutes and you are at the most beautiful beach! The beach was full of tide pools, caves, a rock "island", and plenty of other places to explore. Tanner made friends with star fish and sea anenome and even said to me at one point, "I am going to write about this in my journal!" I was having too much fun, I didn't bother going back for the camera. But now I am regretting that decision...

Here are the few pictures I got of the kids playing on the giant tree on our campsite. I learned this weekend that when adults see a big tree we think, "Oh good-shade!" When kids see a big tree they think, "Hmm, how can I get to the top of that thing?"

This fun rope swing was hanging on our tree. We were happy to inherit it!

We got home from camping just in time to see the BYU game. Too bad the Cougars forgot there was a game and had to have the Cougarettes fill in for them! There goes our top ten ranking!

My Side of the Mountain

We have ventured into "Frontierland" for school. The first book we read was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. I highly recommend this great read aloud for anyone who has boys who love nature!

To introduce the theme, we visited our local nature center in Fontana where we...

made nature journals,

learned about snakes,

turtles,
and other critters local to our area,

and had fun examining nature!

We also visited the San Bernardino County Museum where we located all the birds mentioned in the book in the "bird room" and saw some other neat live animals, but I forgot my camera!

And this week we made it up to Mount Baldy with the purpose of going on a hike, but all hiking trails were closed due to high fire danger. So in place of hiking we made good use of our time by:

visiting the Mount Baldy Nature Center,

learning a little more about turtles,

playing in the tents and tepees at the nature center,

finding out how old trees are by counting their rings,

measuring diameter of trees,

enjoying the fresh mountain air,

and ended our mountain excursion by
reading a chapter from My Side of the Mountains in the mountains!

We love our field trips!

Problem Solved (I Hope!)

I have a problem. I really like food. Especially between the hours of 2pm-5pm. So I am trying to solve this problem with this: a gym membership! I have been wanting one forever and Costco had a deal that Ladd was sure would not last forever, so he surprised me with it (early Christmas present I guess)! I am hoping this will solve my problem by keeping me away from food during those afternoon hours. I got my pass on Saturday and have been three times since! I love it! I love how there is every walk of life there; old, young, extremely fit, and extremely not fit. Everyone with one purpose: to get (or stay) healthy and in shape. Today I went to an Aqua class where the average age was probably about 55 and the average weight about 255(well maybe not that much, but you get the picture!!). And I still worked my tail off! I give a lot of credit to those older and heavier ladies-it is hard work!
Since I've never had a gym membership before, I don't know how to do any of the machines so right now I stick to classes and cardio machines. I meet with a personal trainer for my free introduction (I am sure they will try to talk me into buying more personal training sessions-I don't like how they are always trying to sell you something!) so hopefully she will teach me how to use a few machines so I can tone up and feel like I know what's going on in that half of the gym. Anyways, if you ever need a gym partner give me a call! I want to try it all!
Now, if only I could get a personal nutritionist to come live with me and watch my every bite, I would be in good shape!

International Printing Museum

We finished our "Main Street" unit for school yesterday. This was a really fun unit and I wish we had more time on it. There was just too much to do in a short amount of time!

Since we are learning from good books this year, we spent some time learning about how books are made, how libraries work, and what authors and illustrators do. So we spent Tuesday at the International Printing Museum. The kids had a great time and learned a ton! The kids got to fold and cut a book like it would've been done in Benjamin Franklin's time and make a print for a little notebook they made and do a large print for the bag they put all their goodies in. It was really neat and I only wished I could've gotten a little more out of it, but I spent a good part of the time keeping Hunter quiet and happy.

When Ladd got home on Tuesday night I was impressed with all the facts that Tanner could tell him. It is amazing what kids retain when they can become part of what they are learning.

Quotes of the Week

Tanner's Quote:
Background: For those of you who are not familiar with our church services, on the first Sunday of the month we have a "Testimony Meeting" at church where anyone in the congregation can stand up and bear their testimony to principles of the gospel. Many people begin by saying, "I would like to bear my testimony..."

Today a few of Tanner's friends and one of his cousins bore their testimony during sacrament meeting. When we got home from church, Tanner said he thought it would "be cool" if he bore his testimony at church. After some reflection, he asked, "What are you supposed to say the first time you bear your testimony? How do you know if you like your testimony if you've never said it before?"
"What do you mean?" I replied.
His answer: "People say 'I like to bear my testimony.' I don't know if I like to do it, because I've never done it before!"

Hunter's Quote:
Earlier this week we were doing an activity and we were listing some of the people who love us. When I asked Hunter who loved him, he said "Grandma and Jesus".
"That's right, they do love you very much. Does anyone else love you?"
Hunter looks at me and with a sigh says, "I don't know."
I guess Ladd and I need to show a little more affection to this sweet boy...

Go Cougars!

College Football season started yesterday with a bang! BYU beat number 3 ranked Oklahoma. It was a great game and we are looking forward to an AWESOME season.

GO COUGARS!

I love college football season when the Cougars are doing what they are supposed to... WIN!

Back to the Routine...

I am glad to be back in the routine of school! We had a few days of adjustment last week getting back into our school routine, but this week has been very enjoyable. Our first unit is "Main Street" where we are learning about our Individual Worth and reading autobiographies of authors/illustrators. Tanner is working hard (like writing a three paragraph autobiography!)and we enjoy including Hunter in some of our "school activities". I really feel like this year will be a great growing year for both of my boys, and me!

On another note, Tanner earned the money for his LEGO set, with the help of a very generous Grandma! It is his prize possession and keeps all boys who enter our house very occupied.

Tanner and his cousin Jace, "the LEGO Expert" finished the almost 1,000 piece set over a two day period.

Tanner was so kind to let Hunter have the Police motorcycle which he has not put down!

I'll say it again, I love toys that keep kids entertained, especially when they pay for it themselves!