Giddy as a school girl

More than two months later, I'm finally getting around to blogging about school. What a slacker! Ada started preschool in September and she absolutely loves it. It took a little getting used to at first, but now she can't wait to go. The first day didn't turn out exactly like I had pictured it. I had a new outfit picked out for her to wear. She refused to wear it. Time was running out (school starts at 9:00 and she usually sleeps past 8:00), and despite having multiple fits, she finally decided on an old dress with shoes that didn't match. I had no choice since we were going to be late! What a struggle. After only a few times of attending, she learned the Pledge of Allegiance. Often she comes home singing songs that I've never heard. She has such a great memory. She LOVES going to Miss Missy's house to learn and play with her friends. One day they went on a field trip to Wheeler Farm. Ada had such a great time. She even has a carpool buddy. I'm so glad she loves school. Ada's teacher told me that she is the "it" girl that everybody loves. People fight to sit by her. I've had several parents tell me that their kids love to talk about Ada. I used to say that it was because her name was easy to say, but I like to think that it's because she's fun and nice.

In front of Miss Missy's house on the first day.

Ready to start!


In front of our house with her giant Hello Kitty backpack. I think this will be a yearly tradition


After pajama day with her circus hat on

After getting her face painted


Preschool is on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Tuesdays we do Joy School with two other kids. We actually don't follow any particular curriculum (even though we still call it Joy School). We take turns teaching at our houses and the kids love it. Each day we start with circle time and talk about the weather, calendar, time, Pledge of Allegiance, and numbers. They practice tracing their names, numbers, and letters and then practice writing them in notebooks. We introduce a 'letter of the day' and practice writing that. Then we teach a theme, play games, make a craft, eat a snack, and have play time. It's been fun for me to branch out and find different things to teach my daughter and her friends.

Ada, Keaton, and Millie enjoying their snack

Play time!


In their costumes at their Halloween party. Super Why is pretty lucky to be between two beautiful fairies!

Painting with watercolors

Tasting different things during our Five Senses lesson

Birthday party for Keaton!

True colors

I promise I didn't put this on her.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

I'm still not certain, but it seems that Kate is finally getting at least one of her two front teeth. Nothing has poked through yet, but it seems to be swollen and she has been cranky the last few days. What a lovely Christmas present. Maybe we'll be able to see it by Friday.

Besides little bouts of crankiness here and there, Kate has been such a joy lately. She is now 17 months old (and yes, still only has two teeth), and the last three or so weeks have been way too much fun.

*Though she's been in a front-facing car seat for over two months (she's still not 20 pounds), she still says, "WHEEEEE!" when we take off anywhere.
*Some switch went off in her head and she can talk. She can speak in sentences, most of which start with "I want". She frequently says things like, "I want some", "I want a bite", " I want candy", "I want juice", "I want Mommy", and "I want cookie". Though she refuses to drink anything but juice, she saw a drinking fountain last week and said, "I want water." I didn't even know she knew that word! When she asks for something, I always ask her what she says. Her reply is, "Please!" She also says, "Here!" every time she hands me something. Other things that have surprised me:
-She climbed onto the toilet seat and said, "Up high." I don't recall ever saying that to her.
-One day she was walking around the house looking for me, saying, "Mommy, ARE you?"
-She is still so clingy to me, but the other day as I was trying to sneak out to go to book club, she said, "Bye, Mommy!" and didn't cry at all.
-I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and after I hung up, Kate said, "Bye, gama!" How did she know who I was talking to?
-Over a month ago I figured out how to get her to say words: just ask her what ____ says, and she'll repeat the word back to you (except if you say an animal. Then she'll tell you what that animal says). She is pretty good at repeating words and continues to get better.
-She can identify (meaning point to and say their names) all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters (I think she likes it better than her sister does), most of the Sesame Street characters, some of the princesses (Ariel, Belle, and 'White'), her grandmas and grandpas, and many of her cousins, aunts, and uncles.
*She got pretty sick a few weeks ago (as did I). All she wanted to do was sit on Mommy's lap all day. It was no fun having her sick, but I enjoyed snuggling with her all day long. Ada was very good during all of this, until she got sick. One night they took turns waking up crying, and Ada threw up in her bed. I took them to the doctor, and luckily it was not the wrath of the swine. I thought it was inevitable.
*She loves to throw things, especially down the stairs, and especially after she has grabbed them away from Ada.
*She has many nicknames. To me and other family members, she's still Baby Kate. To Ada, she's Katie, Katie Stinky, Kay, and Cake. To my mom, she's Katie Scarlett. I'm sure the list will continue to grow.

This picture was taken months ago, but it is a picture of Kate's first modeling job! Her aunt Alysia made the adorable tutu and she sells those and the leg warmers at a boutique in Ogden.

She loves to climb onto and into things

In her Tinkerbell costume on Halloween

She loves to walk around in Ada's princess shoes. She may turn out to be just as girly as her sister is

Happy Christmas

Christmas is two weeks away! Since Christmas music on the radio is hit-and-miss, I thought I'd create a list of music I like to listen to and include it on my sidebar. I couldn't find everything I was looking for, but this will do for a while.

Also, check out this video: http://vimeo.com/8088486 It made me laugh out loud.

Happy Christmas!

Thoughts on college football

1. I'm glad Alabama beat Florida. I don't like Nick Saban (I don't like Meyer either), but it's nice to see a different team in the national championship game.
2. Texas doesn't stand a chance against Alabama. Last year, though, I didn't think Utah did, so hopefully we'll see a good game.
3. I hope Oregon can beat Ohio State. I think they will. Ohio State is always overrated.
4. As my brother stated, it's a "slap in the face" that TCU and Boise State have to play either other. Now neither team can have a chance to show that they can play with "the big boys". Apparently the director of the Fiesta Bowl doesn't agree, but I still don't like it. TCU will win, just like last year. They should have an easier time than last year too. I wish Texas would have lost so TCU could have played 'bama for the title game. They're better than Utah was last year.
5. Utah should beat Cal. Cal is also overrated every year.
6. I don't think BYU can beat Oregon State, unless OSU doesn't have their hearts in it after missing out on the Rose Bowl again. I hope the Cougs can make a good game of it. Despite not quite living up to expectations again, it was a fun season. The Oklahoma victory was awesome, and they beat Utah in another nail-biter.

Happy thoughts

I am SO sick of hearing about a certain quarterback, so I need to bring on some positive thoughts to help me forget about it.

1. These two crazies. They've both had their naughty moments lately, but today they've both been fairly good and they've been playing together so well. They've been chasing each other around the house screaming and laughing. So cute.


2. These funny girls. They mean trouble when we gather at the Squire home, but they have so much fun together.


3. These ladies. This is my book club. There are actually only six of us now. This was taken right before Rachel (back row, far right) moved away, and Melissa (back row, second in), a former member and co-founder, happened to be in town visiting. This gives me something to look forward to every month and it forces me to read outside my comfort level, which is a good thing.


4. Christmas! I love everything about this time of year. December starts tomorrow and we already have most of our Christmas shopping done. We put the tree up on Friday and the girls are loving it. Christmas really is the best when you have kids. I got them adorable Christmas dresses (two, actually) and I hope to do some fun things with them this month. I also hope to focus more on Christ instead of getting presents (though I do like playing the "Santa's elves are watching" card). Ada has already offered to give some of her favorite toys to other people.

5. This guy. He's lots of fun and always makes me laugh. We've been reading a finance book together and we can't seem to get through a reading without laughing hysterically about something.


6. This girl. Tyler's sister Rachelle is one of the funniest people ever. She put on an Oscar-worthy re-enactment of a family joke last night that had us all rolling. I haven't laughed that hard in ages.

Belize and comin' home

Our last stop before docking in Fort Lauderdale was Belize. We docked, found our tour guide (who Tyler had just e-mailed the night before), and got in a van that took us way into the jungle. He was just going to take us cave tubing but we had time to do zip lining too. Zip lining was fun, but I probably wouldn't do it again. We then got into our suits, grabbed the tubes, and hiked a while to start cave tubing. There were several huge groups doing the same thing but for us it was just Tyler, me, and our two guides. We sat in our tubes, grabbed the feet of the person behind us, and floated down the river in a train. We had lights on our heads so we could see inside the enormous cave we floated though. After the cave we floated through the jungle and got to swim around before ending our journey. It was lots of fun. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of our adventures!





Proof that we were actually in Belize:





The only monkey we saw on the whole trip


The fun people we ate dinner with every night and hung out with on the ship (minus one couple)




Farewell, Enchantment of the Seas!

The trip home was an adventure in and of itself. We were supposed to fly from Fort Lauderdale to New York to Long Beach to Salt Lake, but again the Long Beach to Salt Lake flight was completely booked. Rachelle got creative for us and figured out a way to get us home: fly from New York to Vegas, where Tyler's parents happened to be. They picked us up from the airport and we went straight to the UNLV/Utah football game (the reason they were in Vegas). Tyler was thrilled to say the least. After the game we rode to La Verkin where we stayed the night and then they drove us home from there. Crazy! I was so anxious to see the girls by that point. I missed them so much! We got home more than 14 hours later than planned, but everything worked out. A gigantic thanks to everyone who helped with Ada and Kate. They were juggled around about eight different times, but they're good kids and handled things well. Kate was especially clingy for almost two weeks after got back, the poor thing. We were extremely fortunate to be able to go and have everything work out. It was a trip for the ages!

Tyler and his enormous piece of pizza at JFK

Cozumel

On the island of Cozumel we rented a scooter and drove around the city. It was a little freaky at first since Tyler had never driven anything like it, but luckily he got the hang of it pretty fast. I just held on for dear life as he cruised the Mexican streets. I wish we would have gotten a picture! We drove a ways to see some Mayan ruins. It was cool to explore our way around the ruins that were surrounded by jungle. We saw plenty of iguanas and even a hermit crab while we were there. We then hung out downtown and decided to drive to the beach. On our way it started POURING. We drove a while longer, but we were soaked and it was hard to see. Since we were driving along the coast, we pulled over and put our feet in the water before turning around and heading back. Good times!



















I've never seen anyone so excited to have two guns pointed at their head


Another view of our ship