Happy Kids

Another week has flown by.  Last Wednesday Andrew had fun going to cub scouts.  He was so excited when he came home to tell me that his scout leader who is a police officer let the boys see the inside of his patrol car.  Andrew thought it was neat.  I am glad that he is enjoying going to scouts.  Tonight is the Blue and Gold Banquet for the family.  It should be a fun event.

Last Friday I started up the play group again.  We took a break during the busy holiday time and cold winter we have had.  Friday was still cool but it was sunny and nice to get out.  We had a good group come to the park too.  

Friday afternoon missionaries came over and helped Neal get the stump out of the ground.  They also chopped it up and filled in the hole.  They did a great job and got a lot done.  Then we had missionaries eat dinner with us too.  One Elder was with both the work and the food.  We have four Elder’s in our ward.  Saturday I went to a convert baptism for a couple.  I thought it was neat that they both were baptized the same day.  The spirit was strong Sunday when they were confirmed.  It is always good to see people come into the church who are full of peace and humility.  

Saturday afternoon Andrew was able to go to “The Lego Movie” with a friend from school.  I am glad that he had a friend invite him to do something and he loved going to a movie.  We are trying hard to encourage our kids to play with friends and get to know them better.  I thought his parents seemed really nice too.  

Sunday Spencer had fun making cookies with me.  He choose peanut butter cookies and was a bit silly how he was smashing the fork into the balls of dough.  It has been fun to rotate who chooses a treat each week and make it with them.  Spencer also wanted to do an art project with styrofoam stamps.  Neal helped him cut out the top of an egg carton and Spencer etched a design in it.  Then they used acrylic paint to cover the piece and then stamp it on a paper.  His design showed up pretty good.  It is always fun to see their creativeness. 

Sunday evening we had a nice conversation with Ruth about science.  She is learning lots of things at school and in her reading.  She was asking questions how science and the teachings of the Bible can be compatible.  This is something I have done a lot of thinking on too so it was good to talk about it.  I am thankful for my knowledge that God is in control and is the creator.  Truth will make itself known as we work to find it.

Last night I helped with doing visiting teaching interviews with the Relief Society presidency.  It was good for me to talk to the different sisters in the ward.  There are many wonderful sisters in our ward.  I appreciate the visiting teaching program. 

I saw my first tree covered in white blossoms this morning.  It looked so pretty.  Today is gray and only about 40 degrees.  So I hope that we can get some warmer weather soon to enjoy the spring time.  

No pictures this week.  I forgot about the camera. :)

Spring is in the Air

We had a fun Valentine’s Day Friday.  Andrew was excited to go to school because he had worked had at his multiplication table and earned an ice cream sundae.  He said it was great.  The kids all had fun with their classes exchanging Valentine’s too.  Neal came home from work at noon and took me out to lunch.  We enjoyed having a date in the middle of the day.  Caleb had fun playing with his friend.  After school Neal took the kids to the park to fly kites.  That was a fun activity for them.  Then in the evening we played some games and decorated heart sugar cookies together.  The kids were fun to be with.  They even wanted to exchange Valentine’s with each other.  So we had a little mail box out for them to put little cards in and we passed them out as we ate the cookies.  I am glad we could spend the holiday as a family.

We also had fun calling up Grandpa Hancock to wish him happy birthday, we just sang on the answering machine.  Happy 75^th birthday Dad!  We love you, thank you for your good example.

I have been really frustrated with the school district bringing iPad’s into the school room.  I still have concerns about it.  But I decided it didn’t do any good just complaining, so I wrote a letter to the superintendent.  He responded and I appreciated that.  After a lot of discussion I decided to go ahead and agree to let the kids use the iPads.  I signed the form for each child.  Friday Ruth came home from school so excited and happy because she was surprised when her teacher brought her an iPad.  She is enjoying getting to use it and learning about them.  The boys will get theirs next week.  I still think it would be fun to have one and let the kids do things at home with it too.  I guess we will see on that.  

Spencer used some of his Christmas money to buy hula hoops.  The kids have enjoyed playing with them.  Ruth is getting good at really swinging it around her hips.  They also like rolling them or doing giant ring toss games.  

Caleb was excited about going to the library today and was given a tooth brush, they were talking about dentists.  Last week the librarian Gail gave him a story time tee shirt and bag.  He loved using his new library bag today.  I am glad that he likes books so much.  He is wanting to spell things.  He is asking me how to spell words and he repeats it.  And he will spell words he sees written down.  He knows all the letters, big and small.  This week he has been calling out numbers he sees.  Today it was on speed limit signs as we drove around town.  He is doing great with numbers too.  He loves listening to the Sesame Street ABC music CD.  He has most the songs memorized and will quote from them at random times.

I enjoyed having my visiting teachers come for a visit last week.  It was nice to sit down and talk to someone about things going on in my life.  I also have enjoyed going for walks this week since the weather has warmed up.

Saturday I took time to plant seeds in the garden.  The weather was so nice to be outside working.  I also saw a lot of other things that will need to be done.  It is that early spring time when I am ready to get the yard looking nicer.  This winter was a cold one for us and all of my annual flowers died.  Maybe I can plant a few to enjoy this spring.  Neal was working on stump removal in the back yard.  The boys were having fun helping with that.  They dug out the dirt and cut back some roots.  Neal will finish getting it out Friday with the help of some missionaries who volunteered to do some service. 

Mentioning the missionaries reminds me what Ruth told us last night.  She said at school yesterday they were working on an assignment and saw the missionaries walking down the street by the school through the window.  A classmate made a rude comment about them.  Ruth stood up for them, expressed what her religion is and proceeded to even share some of the Articles of Faith with the other student.  I thought it was neat that she would be brave enough to stand up for her beliefs and not just let it pass.  She is a good girl. 

Saturday we also had friends come over to play for the afternoon.  They had fun running around with our kids playing with bow and arrows they had made out of sticks.  They slowed down a little and helped plants some seeds too.  That evening Spencer went to a birthday party for his friend.  It was at a gymnastic gym.  He had fun running, bouncing and playing on the things there. Neal went with him and realized he had worked with is mother until she quit two years ago to have a baby.  They seem like a nice family.

Last night we finished another book out of our Narnia series.  The kids all love me reading from it.  It is fun to share a story with them each night.  They are always asking me to read it and to read more.  I am thankful for my sweet little ones.

Andrew helping with the stump removal

Happy Valentine's Day

The sun came out!  We had another cold spell this week and it is so nice to see the sun shining this afternoon.  We had a 2 hour delay to school start time this morning.  The decision was made last night by the district because of the weather report of an ice storm coming, well we didn’t get it in our area.  The roads were dry this morning and not even overly cold.  But we enjoyed having a little extra time together this morning.  Andrew bought a rubber band bracelet kit and the kids were busy making things this morning. It is nice that Andrew is sharing with everyone.  He even made bracelets for himself and his friend that match.  

Ruth was excited to go pick up her new glasses last week.  They look cute on her and fit her face better than her last pair.  She is growing and needed to order adult frames, not kid ones.  I also finished making a skirt for her and she loves it.  Saturday she went to a party for her friend.  It was at a bowling alley and she had fun with that.  Neal went with her and he enjoyed bowling a game too.  

Andrew worked hard last week on a independent research project for his GT class. For some reason he hadn’t been putting forth the effort to do it in class and hadn’t done much on his research.  His teacher gave him a week to have something done or just not get a score for doing it.  It is hard that GT doesn’t really get graded but I felt it was important for him to do it and learn that he shouldn’t waste time in class.  So he worked hard on it and said that his oral presentation on Monday went well.  I was proud of him to get up in front of the class and talk about what he learned about anglerfish.  Sunday Andrew was sick to his stomach and I stayed home from church with him.  He was feeling fine by that evening and was able to go to school this week.

Andrew's poster for his project.  He drew all the pictures on it.  He does well in art.

Spencer gave a talk in Primary on Sunday.  I had helped him write the talk.  At least he told me what to type and I did.  He then practiced it a few times so he could get up and read it by himself.  He did great I understand and said it didn’t bother him at all to get up in front of people.  

Caleb had fun going to his preschool Valentine party Monday.  He likes his friends and is always happy to go.  He has been listening to the Sesame Street ABC album a lot.  He can even sing most of the songs on it too.  He has been intent on building and rearranging train tracks in the family room.  He gets it worked out and then the older boys come home and see how he has redone their layouts from the day before.  He loves trains.

Friday evening Neal enjoyed building a fire and then trying out his dutch ovens.  He cooked a cobbler and corn bread in the fireplace.  He wants to keep working on this and prefect his cooking techniques.  Saturday for breakfast Neal and Ruth cooked outside using a little rocket stove that Ruth had made one time at an Activity Days.  They enjoyed learning more how the little stove would work.  We enjoyed having the missionaries over for dinner that evening.  They asked how they could serve us and Neal answered that they could continue to be good examples to young boys. 

I enjoyed getting flowers from Neal on Monday.  It is fun that he brings them to me the week of Valentines day.  I appreciate being remembered.  I read in the newspaper that this is a cold winter for our area.  We have had an average temperature of 44 degrees and over 52 nights below freezing.  We have broke all kinds of records for cold this winter.  So it isn’t just me feeling like it is cold.  I can’t wait for spring to start warming things up!

Family Love

I have a new cell phone.  I am still learning how it all works.  I am sure it will be able to do so much more than I really need.  The biggest improvement is that I can now send and receive text messages easier.  So, if you have my cell phone number, it didn’t change, and you can now text me.  I know, this is a big breakthrough for me, I am behind the times.

Neal’s work schedule has lightened up and it has been nice to have him home more.  We enjoyed Friday afternoon.  Neal’s mom was in San Antonio visiting Neal’s sister who had just had a baby and since she was so close to us she came up here for a day.  We enjoyed having Grandma with us.  The kids were so excited to see her after school.  We just hung out at home and enjoyed visiting and showing her all the cool things kids like to show.  The weather was really nice so we were able to play outside too.  Saturday morning we had a little more time with Grandma before she left right before lunch time.  It was a quick visit but we really appreciated her making the effort to come.

Saturday afternoon I took Ruth clothes shopping.  She has grown so much.  It was a bit hard to find things for her that looked nice.  She is at a “in between” size.  Too big for girl clothing sizes, too curvy for junior sizes and too small to find misses that fit.  Although we were able to find some size 4 after visiting a few stores.  It was fun to spend time with her.  We bought some frozen yogurt at the end of it all to enjoy our girl time.

When we got home we found the boys had been doing fun things too.  Neal helped Andrew complete requirements in the Cub Scout book with tools.  They made a wood bird house together.  It was a great thing for them to do together.  Andrew wants to paint the bird house and will do that soon.

Sunday I taught Relief Society.  The lesson went well.  I have found it a growing experience for me to teach each quarter.  We don’t have a manual.  We are just giving instruction to the sisters of what we feel they need to hear.  So that takes time, prayer and lots of thought to get things right.  I has been a good thing for me.  We had a lesson on Scriptures and why we need them and why we should read them every day.  I tried to keep it to mostly discussion and had many wonderful thoughts shared of how precious scriptures are to the sisters.  I think it strengthened us all.

Tuesday I taught preschool.  This took a different kind of preparation.  The kids were active but did well with me.  They are growing emotionally and socially all the time.  Caleb loves his little preschool group.

I think it is fun that the boys have been naming their stuffed animals.  They are so attached to some of them.  All three boys sleep with a pile of animals.  They will check and make sure every one is there before they go to sleep.  Caleb named his yellow snake, “Numbers”,  “because he likes to count forward and backwards.”  Then Caleb will demonstrate the counting with the wagging snake head.  He has liked counting backwards from 10 a lot.  He is also playing with a little gray elephant he named “Elle.”  He said that Elle is his baby.  Spencer named his snake “Thunderbolt.”  I love their creativeness. I love my children.