March

Treemonton museum

Calvin's favorite part was coloring and playing with the holes in the desk.  Alden's favorite part was eating things he dipped in the chocolate fountain. (In these pictures Alden is trying to scrape the remaining chocolate off of his plate.)

Aunt Roberta  

We went to Treemonton because they were honoring aunt Roberta there.  They had her sing a few songs.  One about her hat.  She did a great job!

This is us sitting and listening towards the end.

Grandma cooking with Alden.  Alden stills loves to help in the kitchen.  If he isn't helping then he is usually found making one of his own creations somewhere in the house.

The Aquarium 

One of my Mom's and families really good friend, Sheila, took us to the living planet aquarium.  I had seen signs and wanted to go, just hadn't made it.  So it was fun to finally go.  The boys loved it!  Alden's favorite part was the penguins. Calvin liked the fish...which is most of the aquarium.  He knows how to say fish, so he would get excited anytime we passed a fish and would say, "fish".

Alden's preschool class.  They are an energetic bunch, but are all really good kids and fun to teach.  Alden is 1-2 years younger then everyone else, hence the shortest and not by the others boys.  Here they are lined up in order from tallest to shortest.` 

My 28th Birthday!  I am no longer 3^3, which I was kindof sad about.  27 was a great year, but this year will be full of many exciting new adventures.
My birthday was a wonderful day, I had wonderful meals, great presents, and even better company.  Lots of family showed up to celebrate with me so that was nice.  Also you can see the amazing cake my wonderful husband made.

Nursery Rhymes

In school I have been having my preschoolers memorize nursery rhymes and then I have them pass them off in front of the class.  We talk about whether the rhyme tells a story, if it has a main character, etc.  It has been a lot of fun to see how much they all get into it.
One of the ones that we have done is "One Two Buckle my Shoe".  Alden knows this well and was reciting it the other day to his uncle Andrew.  Andrew noticed how he said goor instead of door, and that he had done that another time as well.  We then asked Alden to say "door" he said "goor".
"No, it is ddoor"
"I know goor"
"Alden, what letter does door start with?"
"G"
Andrew, "Well at least he has his letters and sounds right."
Alden has a number of words that still make him sound like my little guy.  I love the little phrases he comes up with.
Another thing that Alden has gotten pretty good at reciting lately is the preamble and the pledge of allegiance. (We recite these at the beginning of each school day.) There are a number of words in both of these that he doesn't really know what they are, such as liberty. It is fun to hear him pronounce them because the words blend together but all of the sounds are there.

Calvin's vocabulary has taken off.  He says new words every day.  One of my favorites is "shease" for please.  (Which he says often, any time we say to Alden, "What do you say?" Calvin always answers "shease", also if he is ever very sad and crying I will ask him, "What do you say?" he will immediately stop his crying and say, "shease" and then wait patiently for what he wants.")  Calvin is still our happy sweet boy. Calvin and Alden play together often now, it is fun to see them play so well together.  Alden likes playing with Calvin so much that he will often shut the door so that Calvin can't leave. (He becomes very sad if Calvin leaves while they are playing and will start crying for Calvin to come back.)

Winter Wonderland

 We have had lots and lots of snow, and then more snow.  We have enjoyed the snow but feel we have had more then enough and are hoping for that early Spring.

 In early January we decided we needed to get out of the house and went bowling.  Alden of course loved it!! He wishes we could go every week.

 Playing the violin with Great Grandma Fuller!  We love playing music at her home she is always so complementary on our music even when it is far from perfect.

 The circus!!! The boys loved the circus!  We are so grateful to Todd and Cath for taking us with them.  We all enjoyed every bit of it.

 Alden with his friends in the nursery at our school.  They found some costumes and have enjoyed dressing up most days since!

Measuring up.  My two younger brothers are about the same height and every year my mom likes taking a picture of them back to back, this year Alden and his cousin joined in.

Christmas and Dad's birthday party

 We celebrated my Dad's 70th birthday the day after Christmas.  We decided to do a healthy theme because my Dad reads and tries to live a healthy lifestyle and because we want him to live for many more years.
We did various exercise contest and relays.  We had an applesauce eating contest, and instead of donuts hanging from a string to eat, you had to try to eat the carrot off the string the fastest.  Calvin is eating the rest of mine in the picture.  To my defense, I had the largest carrot of anyone, hence I did not win that contest.
We ended it with some yummy healthy dishes and couple of the cakes I make.  (They have no sugar, no added fat and no salt.  My mom calls them no good goodies.  But most everyone thought the cakes were at least okay and everyone thought they were great if they added enough frosting. :)
This was a perfect activity after all of the treats from Christmas.

 Alden loved having his cousins over!! He is always asking about them, especially these two in the picture that are his age.  They really have a fun time together.

Thanksgiving Point

 Alden was afraid of the pony rides but after watching Calvin go around he wanted a turn.  He wanted to go around all by himself and kept asking to go again and again.

 They loved all of the sand and dirt to play in!

Calvin was tired and wasn't as excited about the pony rides.

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving point.  The boys saw their first movie in 3D, they loved the museum and then had fun seeing and petting all of the animals! We are grateful to our friend Sheila for taking us there we all loved it!

Patterns

In school we talk about patterns frequently, AB patterns, ABB ext.  Today I was asking Alden if he was going to go to school with me tomorrow.  (Michael has the day off so he has the option.)  Alden said, "no, I stay home with Daddy".  I then said how I would miss him and all of the fun things we would be doing at school, I also reminded him how he has missed a number of preschool days lately. (He was sick on Tuesday, and last Thursday he wanted to play with one of his friends in the nursery.) He turned to me and said, "Mom it's okay it is a pattern, school, no school, school, no school"  I thought it was pretty cute and funny.  At least he still remembers something with all of his missed days.

Calvin talking, Alden reading

Calvin is our sweet little boy, he is the best little snuggler. He loves getting peoples attention, and then waving to them, smiling at them, or giving them five.  He loves going to school each day because all of the big kids love him!  He has just taken off saying a few little words.  He surprises me often with a new word.  For example when we were trick or treating, towards the end we let him go up to some houses, I was surprised to see how excited he was to knock on the door and then pick out a candy.  After I told Alden to say "Thank You", Alden didn't say anything but cute little Calvin looked up at the man and said "shank you".  I had no idea he could say that.  He then did that at the next few homes.

Alden is also loving school and loves when he can come to mommies class.  It has been fun for me to see his and all of the other preschoolers and kindergartners progress.  Alden is now reading some words, which is exciting for me to see.  He has been sounding out some words for some time but couldn't blend the sounds.  For example the other night we were reading a book that has a picture of an animal with the words underneath.  He would sound out the words and then say what they were, like dog, cat, cow,..ext.  But then he came to Hen, he doesn't really know that word, so he sounded it out correctly and then excitedly said, "cock-o-doodle-doo" so excited that he thought had read the word. He used to do that often where he would sound out a word correctly and then would say something completely different.  Now he will often figure out what the word really says or will at least think it is a rhyming word. He still only reads a little bit but still it is fun to see him read a word or two!