We are enjoying a mid-winter “spring” time. The weather has been wonderful. Clear skies, that are so blue, and afternoon temperatures between 60-75 degrees. Today is a bit cooler and the weather forecast says our warm weather will be ending. But we have really enjoyed it. Neal has done work on his bike and Spencer’s, and they have all enjoyed riding almost every afternoon. Today Neal took Spencer, Andrew and Parker (a neighbor) on a bike ride. I have even tried riding Ruth’s bike a couple of times this week. It is a work out for me because I am not use to using those muscles but I am getting better with it.
Last Wednesday evening the boys were invited by Parker and Logan to go to “bring a friend to Karate” day. They enjoyed going to see where their friends go every Monday and Wednesday. They had fun doing some of the activities with the boys that night.
With the nice weather the kids have wanted to play in the open space behind the house. The boys seem to be drawn to the creek and end up getting muddy, even with promises they wont get in the water. Neal was out there with them one afternoon and he saw an Eagle perched in a tree. He came and got Ruth to see too. She brought her binoculars and had a neat experience looking at an Eagle up close.
Saturday I took Ruth to the library to get some books and then I took her shopping. She has been growing so quickly this year that it is hard to keep up with it. Her clothes are all getting short and tight in the shoulders for her. I bought her a bunch of long sleeved shirts last fall and now she is wanting more short sleeved things. She also needed more pants. Her other pants she has out grown. So I bought her a cute new outfit, jeans and a striped tee. She was pleased to wear them to school this week. I keep reminding her that eventually she will stop growing and then her wardrobe will start to build up more. But with her changing sizes every six months, well, she doesn’t have much right now. She is especially wishing for more dresses, she has two skirts and one dress that fit right now. The dress is actually getting a little small in the shoulders, but is still wearable. I told her when I finish the quilt project I will make her a fancy dress for the spring/summer time. I also have a skirt that doesn’t fit me right that I am going to remake to fit her, shorten and take in at the waist, that way she has more variety.
Well, Saturday afternoon we had some friends come over to play, Cameron and Justin. The boys had fun with them here. Andrew was excited to have Cameron over again and made sure he had the electric train in working order to show him. Caleb just has fun with Justin. In fact Caleb got to play with Justin again this morning, since his mom is my visiting teacher and they came over today. Yesterday Caleb went to play with Evan and Justin at Evan's house. It was fun for all three of them to get together. These are the same boys that we would get together with last fall at the park every week. When the weather stays warmer we will probably start meeting at a park again. But for now we decided we could do play time at the different family homes. It is good for Caleb to have someone to go play with. I think he gets a little bored just being home with Mom and Dad all day. He also has gotten very clingy to me. For example this morning I wanted to go for a walk and wanted to go by myself so I could go farther and Caleb started to cry that I was leaving him, Neal had to hold him while I left the house. He even told me this week that he didn’t want to go to kindergarten because then he wouldn’t have enough time to snuggle with me. So these play dates are a good thing for him to have time away from mom. Caleb is progressing with his education. This week he has wanted to do math flash cards. He has almost mastered the addition facts and yesterday I found him looking at the multiplication cards. Sunday while he was waiting for me to finish in Nursery he found some chalk and started to write the alphabet on the board. Then I realized he was writing with his left hand. He usually writes with his right. But when I asked him why he was using that hand he just said “because I am holding my popcorn in this hand” (while he held up his right hand.) He amazes me with what he can do.
Mentioning Nursery reminds me of a new assignment I have been asked to do. There is a family in our ward that has a little boy who is nursery age but because of physical limitations his parents don’t want him to go to nursery, but it is getting harder for the parents to fulfill there callings in Primary. Since I am a nursery worker the Primary Presidency has asked me to take care of this little boy. Since he can’t go to nursery I will be going to the adult classes with him. I understand that he is pretty mellow and it will be just holding him during the two hours. He isn’t crawling much yet. It shouldn’t be too hard. I am not sure how long it will last. He just had a surgery about a month ago and his parents want him to be stronger before letting him be around other kids. I guess we will see how it goes this week. Best part is that I will be able to go to adult classes again for awhile.
I did get Spencer’s quilt set up last week. The week has been busy for me and I am only about half done quilting it. So I wont get it done in a week, like I did with Andrew’s. I am glad to see the progress though.
Friday evening Neal and Andrew made cookies. We were looking at Andrew’s cub scout book and he is very close to getting his Bear. One of the requirements he needed to do was make cookies with an adult. They enjoyed working together. One fun thing that Neal had the idea to do was make a giant cookie. They took about half the dough and mixed in Hershey kisses for the chips and then put it on a pizza pan. It cooked up pretty good, a little crisp on the edges, but tasted good. It was fun to have the big “chips” to match the big cookie.
Sunday evening I played Uno with the kids. All four of them played and really got into it. They were being more competitive than they have before. I think they realized it is okay to get a “draw four” card and that it is part of the fun of the game. It got a little loud and crazy.
Last night Ruth enjoyed going to Activity Days with the girls. They made a vinyl lettering on a wood block that says “Daughter of a Heavenly King.” I think it great that her leaders do such fun things with the girls. Ruth is also very excited to have been invited to the Young Women’s New Beginnings that will be in two weeks. She is very ready to move on to the Young Women’s program, just a few more months until her 12th birthday.
Well, this got to be a long letter. I always enjoy hearing from others in the family too. Neal is still working through all the things associated with job hunting. Next week he has an interview in Albuquerque. He is also working with another company to set up an interview.
No comments:
Post a Comment