Fun in Utah

I made it to Utah this year with all four kids!  I did not think we would be able to go but I found a great deal on tickets and my wonderful mom was willing to help me drag a 6-year old, a 4-year old, a 2-year old and a 4-month old through two flights and a layover-TWICE!  In addition to cleaning up A LOT of pee and pooh from Adeline and Rigby, here are some fun things we did for our two weeks out West.

FUN WITH COUSINS

MARISSA'S BIRTHDAY

SALT LAKE CITY - TEMPLE SQUARE 

The church has a little children's museum just across the street from temple square.  They have some Book of Mormon, missionary and cultural arts activities for small children. 

The boys fought over this activity the most until the second station opened up.

AQUARIUM

MUSEUM OF NATURAL CURIOSITY
This museum had just barely opened at Thanksgiving Point.  It was so much fun and so creative, but wow, I forgot how many children there are in Utah; it really chaotic.  The kids did not seem to mind the chaos though and had a lot of fun.

The "Lego room" was one of my boys' favorite.

Sometimes I feel like we need a storage container this large at our house.

LAGOON

Rigby had to ride on the frog! 

(frogs, turtles & pirates are his thing)

This girl needed to sleep so badly, but she refused to give in because she did not want to miss any of the fun!

Reuben's Blessing Tux

Reuben wore the same little tux that Peter and Rigby did on their blessing day.  The only problem was that he was bigger and older than both Peter and Rigby, so we basically had to stuff the poor kid into the outfit and the shoes.  We even had to leave the top button in the back undone.  He was very upset during this photo shoot because I think he was uncomfortable.  These pictures are terrible too because I tried using Scott's new camera.  From now on I am sticking with our old camera which is more for photo taking dummies-that's me!   

Grandma Freeman

We had Family Home Evening one night when Scott's parents were visiting with us for Reuben's blessing.  I think we talked about Easter and then the kids made some pictures/drawings for Grandma Freeman.  She has recently been diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer, so we thought getting something in the mail might lift her spirits.  I promised Peter I would take a picture of it because he was upset that he had to send it away.  Also, I have been wanting to add some pictures and stories of grandparents to our blog so we can see some fun family history stories in our printed blog book.

Kristine told me such a great story about Claudia that I would like my kids to remember.  Leave a comment if I get anything wrong!

Grandma Freeman grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah.  When she was a little girl (how old?), she caught ringworm along with many other children.  The only way to treat ringworm in those days was to shave ALL of the hair off your head.  Her mother took her to the doctor who told her she must shave her hair off immediately so they could get rid of the ringworm.  She begged her mother and the doctor to wait and get her head shaved the next day.  That night at home, she prayed very long and hard to Heavenly Father.  She explained to Him that she was very shy and had very tender feelings.  She told Him that she if she were to have her head shaved, she could not face the teasing from the other children; then, she asked her Heavenly Father if He could take the ringworm away.  The next day her mother took her back to the doctor and surprised them all when the doctor said, "You don't have ringworm anymore!  If you had not come in yesterday and I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that you ever had ringworm yesterday."  

Here are some fun pictures of Claudia with her beautiful hair!

Adeline and Potty Training

Adeline has been dry in the mornings since she was 18 months old and has been taking her diaper of and requesting diaper changes since Christmas.  I knew it was only a matter of time before she would force us into potty training mode.  Three weeks before we were flying to Utah she decided she was going to potty train herself.  I was not on board with this idea because Rigby was still having several accidents a week and we would be traveling soon; so, I tried to trick her and put her panties over top of her diaper-it didn't work.  

As I was putting away groceries one day, I heard some grunting coming from the bathroom.  I figured it was Rigby, so I went in to help him wipe.  To my surprise I found Adeline on the toilet!  She had a few accidents for two days and then for two weeks she had no accidents and went potty without any rewards or prompting from anyone.  In addition to this, she refused to use the little potty chair or use the training ring on the big toilet.  She wanted to be like everyone else and use the regular toilet!  Who knew potty training could be so easy!!! 

Well, that fabulous dream didn't last too long.  Unfortunately, the trip traumatized her and she un-potty trained herself the day we flew to Utah.  We learned that she hates being away from home.  I guess un-potty training herself and throwing tantrums was how she dealt with it.  Within two weeks of being back home, she was potty trained again.  However, Scott has been working from 8:00 a.m. until 10:30/11:00 p.m. most nights and weekends, and so the stress of that has her regressing again.  Some days she can have four or five accidents and other days she will have none.  Most of the time I have to escort her to the bathroom and do everything for her.  I am pretty sure she is using it as an attention getting/stress coping thing.  Hopefully when Scott's work calms down and the Fall school schedule begins, she will be fully and independently potty trained again.  I am going on 7 months of cleaning up daily accidents from either Rigby or Adeline.  I am so DONE with cleaning poo and pee off of carpets, tile, and clothes!!!     

I will leave you with a picture of a little surprise I found in my kitchen the other day.  Yuck!

P.S.  After cleaning up the 3rd or 4th accident the other day, I said, "I am so tired of cleaning up poo and pee!"  Peter looked at me and said, "Well, you do have a carpet cleaner now."  I guess in his eyes it should be an enjoyable experience since we have a carpet cleaner now-I wish!

Peter's Kindergarten Graduation

Peter is officially done with Kindergarten!  It is amazing to see the differences between the beginning and then end of Kindergarten.  Peter knew most of his letters and sounds at the beginning.  The first couple of months he struggled to catch onto some of the rules and expectations and had a few notes sent home.  In contrast, by the end of the school year he has become a very good example and leader in his classroom; he can also read books and write sentences!  I LOVE the process of watching my children progress-especially at this age.  It is just magical!

Here is Peter singing during his Kindergarten Graduation Program.

Peter & Ms. Kotteman

School papers from the 1st half of Kindergarten:

He tells me that art and math are his favorite subjects and that he wants to be an artist when he grows up.

School papers from the 2nd half of Kindergarten:

The next three pictures are of a book that Peter made.  He wrote about how he loved Mom, Dad, Rigby and himself (I guess he forgot he had a sister).  He was also learning about what illustrators, authors, and publishers were so he listed himself for everything and stapled his book together. 

One of my favorite things is when he brings home papers that say he loves his Mommy and when he draws pictures of him and I together.  Here is Peter with some crazy looking teeth towering over me.

His coloring got much more neat and precise.

When he wants to his handwriting can be very neat.

I love seeing the little details he picks up on and puts in his drawings. 
This picture is of himself with blue eyes:).

I typed this story up for him while he made it up. 
It is actually a song about pumpkins that he learned at school and he just substituted pigs.

This is something he made at home.  After I taught him how to draw bats, he decided he needed a bat army and drew about 20 pages worth of bats!

Starfish Sandy - Marigny Elementary Mascot

The school theme for the year was cowboys, so he drew a horse shoe with a starfish inside.