Family Fall Pictures

Saturday we had Tina take some pictures of us as a family at the lake. Some turned out ok. The kids didn't want to do good smiles at the same time but at least they weren't crying! Tina also took random pics just as we were messing around so I posted a couple of the cute ones.

One of my favorites

Dirk and I don't really like having our pictures taken but we thought we should get one just the two of us. We have the fakest smiles ever! LOL

me and my baby boy (which isn't so much a baby anymore)

Daddy and his lil peanut!

The Swanson Family Fall 2010 (of course everyone is smiling except Lexi)

Bears Pictures

So this year we are going to try and have pictures taken outside instead of in a studio. Tina is going to take pictures of us in the leaves out at the lake. Because it rained last weekend we are pushing our pictures back to this weekend...weather permiting. Tina had pictures she was taking for a family and wanted to take the kids to try and take their pictures after she was done, just to see how they would do. After waiting so long they were very active but she captured a few cute ones. I can't wait for next weekend.

Of course after the way the Bears played yesterday we might want to rethink our jersey's! LOL

Country Corners

We made our annual trip to Country Corners for our pumpkins. The kids had alot of fun. We didn't actually pick our pumpkins out of the patch this year because it wasn't a good year for them. Not any good ones. We instead got the ones sitting around the grounds. The weather was great for our trip this weekend also which made it much nicer than last years cold weather.

Family picture
Lexi and Hunter

Eating lunch

Grandma Becca with Lexi and Hunter in the Bee Barn.

Grandma Becca helping Lexi lug around the little pumpkin, she kept dropping it!

Hunter petting the goat. He had to sit on Grandma's lap because he was scared of it.

Lexi on the other hand is brave and just stuck her arm in and pet them! She also loves to feed them with he hands.

Aunt Jackie's Annual Halloween Cookout

This past weekend we had Aunt Jackie's annual Halloween cookout. The kids had a lot of fun. They loved the hayrack ride. Lexi of course wanted her Daddy half way through the ride and wanted to go back. She finally got better when she saw everyones Halloween decorations.

The kids ready for Aunt jackies Halloween cookout.

John, Hunter, Emma, & Lexi posing for a picture.

Apple Blossom Farm

Lexi, Morgan, Addysen, Hunter, & Caleb ready for the apple farm fun.

Me and the kids

Lexi & Addysen. Lexi was scared to ride in the train by herself so Addysen was a great cousin and let her ride with her.


Grandma and the kids

Aunt Karyn and Grandma with the kids. Tammy had extra sand so the kids were sifting for treasure!

Addysen, Lexi, Hunter, & Morgan. We lost Caleb in the picture due to a splinter he got sliding on the plane.

Lexi my little bee. She couldn't reach the hole. LOL

Hunter my big bee.

The Monster truck that I will not let them ride again until they are much older. The kids had fun but the Mom's not so much watching the truck fishtail!

Lexi and the Potty

We tried a while ago to train Lexi with the potty. We had no such luck! That girl is stuborn and will not do anything if it isn't on her own terms and timeline. This Saturday when she got up I put her in a dress (easier if she didn't have to pull down any pants) and underwear and explained to her that she needed to go potty and be a big girl. She of course gave me a skeptical look and said "ok Mommy".

She did pretty good. She would start to pee and then run to the potty. She had accidents every time but would try and stop and get on the potty, I think she couldn't tell when she had to go until she had already started. We then put a pullup on for naptime. After naptime I put underwear back on and reminded her to go potty. She came up to me later and was tooting and said her belly hurt. I told her you probably have to poo so lets go sit on it. She sat for awhile but couldn't go. I told her she could go play but if she had to go to run to the potty. 15 minutes later she is yelling for me. Hunter and I go running and she had went poop all by herself on the potty. We were so excited and Hunter, being a great big brother, told her what a great job she did.

Today I put her in a dress and underwear for Gretchen's house. I packed extras in case she had an accident but didn't want to put a pullup back on her and backtrack from our progress. Gretchen sent a text this morning saying Lexi went potty for her! She also said she didn't have any accidents so far. She had only went that one time but had been dry and was napping at that time. Well I just got another text and she was dry after nap and went potty again like a big girl!! I am so proud of her. Finally we are getting rid of pullups!!!

Learning Time

Hunter and I went downstairs to the toyroom this weekend and practiced his writing on the chalkboard.

We also practiced letter recognition and his sounding out the words. At one point I would also draw 2 different lines of stuff and tell him to circle the one with more, or to circle the one in the middle and so forth. We actually had fun with it!

Here he practiced writing "Dad" and "Mom". He sometimes forgets that only the first letter is big and that the rest are small so they only take up half of the line. My kid likes to write and draw big, we are working on doing things smaller.



He is a guy so of course his handwriting is not great! We practiced writing his name neater and in a straight line here. He does pretty good but the letter "e" is harder for him. We also practiced doing some shapes to make them look better. I would do a connect the dot thing to help him. Especially with a triangle, his lines were way off!

Big Girl Bed

Lexi has traded in her toddler bed for a new big girl bed! She was a little aprehensive about giving up her Tinkerbell toddler bed stuff but she ended up doing ok. She loves her butterflies!

Very excited for her girly bed

She actually fit good still on the toddler bed, but in the picture above she looks so tiny in this bed.

While we were putting it together she was deciding what toys she wanted to put in the drawers

She was running and jumping on it because she had so much room.

Lexi's 3rd Birthday

Lexi just had her 3rd Birthday. Wow where does the time go? This year we got her a new 4-wheeler. She had a little one but had wanted a big one to keep up with Hunter. Oh and I also decided to make her Birthday cake this year, decorating and all. It didn't turn out to bad, and it tasted great!

Hunter and Daddy putting together her 4-wheeler. Hunter did a great job of keeping it a secret that she was getting it!

Hunter and Lexi were going to the backyard to ride and we had her new one around the corner. She stopped and ran to the new one! Hunter was just as excited for her as we were. Such a great big brother!

Loving her pink 4-wheeler!

Emma came over to ride with the kids. Lexi thought she was hot stuff with the only pink one.

She never stopped smiling or riding it the whole night.

Daddy talking to Lexi because she wanted to know why she didn't have a compartment to put stuff in like Hunters. Grandpa Swanson just talking to Hunter.

This is my first cake ever. It didn't turn out too bad. I did forget to go back and fix a stripe on her shirt and by the time I remembered I had already cleaned up the frosting. Also when I was doing the writing at the end my decorating bag kinda blew up so the last couple words look horrible. Next time I won't clean up until I am finished all the way.

Kindergarten

Well Hunter is now in Kindergarten!! I can't belive time has went by so fast. On Monday they had a open house so the kids could come and see the room and bring their supplies. Hunter loved it and didn't want to leave. Below are some of the pictures from that night.

Hunter in front of the ROWVA grade school. (wow this makes me feel old)
some of his room

putting his shoes on the PE cart

his cubbie with supplies

When we walked in we told him to find his name and seat and he found it!

at his classroom door pointing to his apple.

Sitting in his new seat! He is super excited in this picture.

more classroom

Daddy getting ready to help Hunter put his supplies where they go.

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

He was dressed and ready to go to the bus!

Waiting for the bus at Gretchen's house, Lexi was wanting to ride the bus also. She didn't want her bubba to leave her!

Hunter and Karleigh walking to get on the bus

My baby boy getting on the bus for the first time! I cried all the way to work after this.

When I got home from work I asked how his day went. He said "ok". I asked if he made any friends and he said "yes, but I don't know their names". He then said to me "oh and Mom I didn't talk to strangers". It made me smile because he listened to all of the talks we had about going with strangers and talking to them. I was very proud of my big boy today!