Mattea can read!!!

Mattea has really been learning alot this year in kindergarten. She is fascinated by words and the sounds they make and is SOOOOOO excited to finally be reading. She has been doing sight words since preschool, but has really come a long way since then. While she has been tracked off, she has been doing flashcards and sounding out whatever words she sees. She also loves to write. She will write long letters and bring them to me to read. Many times, the words are not spelled correctly as she can't yet understand how to incorporate the vowels, but she is doing a fantastic job. When I say she loves to write, I mean it. I just found a tablet out in the living room today. It says "Peeee" and "I nee to poop". A little too much information, but cute nonetheless, right???

On Wednesday, we went to the library to get some books. She picked out five books (cuz she's five!). They are all the beginner level reader books and she blasted through them. I love to hear her sound out each letter and then look up with complete joy on her face when she figures out what word those sounds make. I'm glad I captured this on video. Enjoy!

Picture of the Day -- Week 39

September 25th – Josh plays hard and wore through another pair of shoes. It was time for some new kicks. I hope these hold up for awhile!


September 26th – Since Josh & Mattea are off-track for three weeks, I hit Michael’s for some crafts to keep them busy. They were really excited to paint, color, play with “Pluffy” clay and create with fuse beads.


September 27th – Mattea has gotten into playing card games, so I dug out some games I have had since the boys were little. She LOVES Old Maid and she seems to be lucky just like her Dad… she beat me three times in a row!


September 28th – Josh and Anders had fun playing video games during track-off. It doesn’t get much better than that!


September 29th – Mattea completely blew me away with her painting skills. She loves to draw and she was very creative with paints as well. She made a butterfly, a tiger, a rainbow and lots of wonderful creations.


September 30th – Today was the Grandview High School Homecoming parade. There was definitely excitement in the air as the kids lined the street waiting for the parade to start. They enjoyed watching all of the floats and collecting lots of candy!



October 1st – Fall is my favorite time of year. I don’t go too crazy with decorating, but I did add some seasonal touches to the mantle.

Picture of the Day -- Week 38

September 18th – There was a Cinnabon at the Mall of America, so each morning we got a Cinnabon for breakfast. Oh, it was SO bad, but SO good.


September 19th – Denise and I laughed a lot while we were at ScrapFest. We stayed up late scrapping, took naps, walked a million miles around the mall, did some make & takes, took some classes and generally just had a blast!


September 20th – I brought Mattea these Hello Kitty ear muffs back from my trip to Minnesota. She fell in love with them instantly. So much so that she wore them to bed! With those and her sleep mask, she was quite a sight!


September 21st – It was a rainy day, but that didn’t stop Josh from playing outside. He was kicking the football with one of his buddies… completely oblivious to the rain.


September 22nd – Josh, Mattea and Hanna had a lemonade stand today. They were so cute calling out “Lemonade for Sale – 25 cents” and telling people they could have it for free if they didn’t have any money.


September 23rd – The kids had the day off school, so I took them to “Squishy Park” on my lunch break. We had a picnic lunch and then the kiddos (& our neighbor, Nick) played while I read a book. It was a gorgeous day!


September 24th – Tonight we went to the Rockies game with Donna, Mikkel, Jakob and Erik Haug. I had a blast chatting with Donna while we “watched” the game. The kids had fun cheering on the home team. I think my favorite part was actually after the game. They had the most amazing fireworks show!

Picture of the Day -- Week 37

September 11th – Today was Mattea’s first soccer game. It was one of the cutest things ever. We cheered hard and she played hard. It was lots of fun for all of us!


September 12th – There are lots of kids in our neighborhood and luckily, several of them go to middle school. Abby, Nick, Gunnar, Jacob and Alex walk to and from school together each day.


September 13th – Josh lost a tooth today at school. Mattea couldn’t help herself… she just HAD to get in the picture, too.


September 14th – Mattea likes to wear dresses and play with dolls, but she is most definitely a tomboy. I found her on the porch today with a “roly poly” crawling on her leg. She was laughing and having a ball. When she cupped her hands around the bug, I noticed her blistered hands from doing the monkey bars (all.the.time) and a bloody band-aid on her knee from falling on the playground.


September 15th – Josh read this book for school. Although he is in 4th grade, it’s actually a book he will read when he’s in 5th grade. He loved the book and was delighted with the ending.


September 16th – Today is picture day at Rolling Hills. Mattea’s hair was all curly and she wore a pretty dress. Josh had on a plain t-shirt in this picture, but he did have a nice shirt to put on over it for the school picture!


September 17th – My BFF, Denise Jacobsen, and I met up in Minnesota to attend ScrapFest 2010 at the Mall of America. It had been quite a while since we had seen each other last, so we made the most of it.

Picture of the Day -- Week 36

September 4th – During college, Jeff & I often washed and waxed our vehicles. Since having busy jobs and busy kids, we often take them to a car wash. Jeff got a wild hair and decided to wash & wax the Jeep today. Of course, he volunteered me to help!


September 5th – Mattea helps out with house work (sometimes more willingly than others!) and today, she spotted me vacuuming and totally took over for me. I was happy to let her help!


September 6th – Today is Jeff’s birthday! He got some new Linkin Park t-shirts (with matching ones for the boys!), some bike shorts and a Camel Bak water bottle. We had a really relaxing day.


September 7th – The ice cream truck was making its rounds in our neighborhood and I gave the kids some money. The ice cream man was selling ice cream treats as well as candy.


September 8th – Mattea just got out of the bath tub and I put her hair up in a towel turban. She loves doing stuff the same way Mommy does it!


September 9th – Alex stayed after school today to go to the library, so I picked him up. Since there was no one else around, I snapped a picture of him in front of the school. I wouldn’t have dared do that if his friends were around!


September 10th – Josh and Erik are good friends even though Josh is a couple years older. Erik is such a sweet little boy and just loves playing with Josh.

Picture of the Day -- Week 35

August 28th – Even though Indy is 13 years old (that’s 91 in human years), I still mess with him!!! I thought he looked awfully cute wearing my sunglasses. He was annoyed.


August 29th – Mattea was practicing her handstands in the front yard. Lucky, the gymnastics coach wasn’t watching with those bent legs and flexed toes!


August 30th – Every great once in awhile, I get the family on the couch for an updated (and casual) family picture. Amazingly enough, I don’t even worry anymore about what everyone is wearing… I’ve come a LONG way in that perspective.



August 31st – The butterflies were ready to be released, so when the kids got home from school, they carefully scooped them up and let them go.


September 1st – We had purchased two sets of caterpillars, so we had more to release today.


September 2nd – Mattea has moved into a more advanced gymnastics class and they are practicing the splits. It seems like every time she tries it, she gets a little closer to the ground.


September 3rd – Alex & his friend, Jacob, were quite focused on their video games.

Chicks... hot chicks

Disclaimer: I do realize that there are certain stories that I shouldn't share for the sake of my kids' embarrassment, but since most of you don't get to interact with them on a daily basis, I feel the need to share some funny stories even if my kids get mad at me for it!!!

So, Alex told me today that he has a crush on two girls at school. I asked what their names were and he wouldn't tell me. All he would tell me was that they are both smart and cute. Later, I told Alex to share this with Jeff. Of course, Dad scored more information than Mom did. Alex told him that he was scared to talk to them. So Jeff tried to understand why. He told Alex to talk to the girl like he would talk to his sister. About that time, Mattea wandered into the room and said "Yeah, talk to me. I'm a chick." Alex replied "They are hot chicks." (You know what's coming...) So, Mattea said "I am a hot chick!" Alex rolled his eyes. So, then Jeff asked Mattea what she would say to a boy if she liked him. She told him she would say "Hi" and "Kiss me!". Oh boy... we are in TROUBLE!!!