Emmy in the news!

Emmy's gifted class got to participate in a "living history" day at the Bloomsburg Fair.  Emmy got to pretend she was a child living in the Civil War time.  They played era appropriate games, ate corn muffins for lunch and helped teach visitors about the children of the Civil War era.  She had a great time and even got to learn to knit, that is what she is doing in the picture.  Emmy is wearing the red and white dress with white bloomers. 

Last night some friends of mine from school offered to watch the children while Jaron and I went out to celebrate his birthday a few days late.  His birthday was on Monday, but I had a test on Tuesday which meant we didn't even see each other on Monday.  The kids had a blast and got to make and decorate cupcakes, draw pictures and add tons of stickers, and played hide and seek.  They had so much fun that they begged me to take them back to be babysat again!  Thanks Kelsey and Derek for the evening out!  We have still not heard anything about the scholarship, but I do know that they are at least 2 weeks behind in mailing out the notifications, so there is still hope!

Up Date. . .

Sorry, no pictures to post, but I thought I would at least give an update as to what is happening out here in good old' Catawissa, PA! 

Jaron is enjoying working at Panera and he finally got his CPAP (constant positive air pressure) machine for his sleep apnea last night, so we are really excited for him to start getting some better sleep.  He has been learning to be more of a Mr. Mom during this last month since I have started school again.  He is now in charge of checking the kids homework, signing all their papers and he even took Carter to the doctor for his asthma follow up all by himself! ;0)

Emmy is super excited to be in the gifted program this year.  The school psychologist did about 5 different tests on her over the summer and concluded that she is definitely gifted.  Her lowest score on all of the tests was a 90% in math, which she says she is really bad at, her highest score was a 99.9% on one of the tests for spelling and reading, the rest of her scores were between the 95th-and 98th percentile.  It is always so fun to hear that your child is brilliant!  I can't help but smile=0)  The school makes 4th graders take choir and then band is optional and Emmy has chosen to learn to play the flute.  One of the girls in my P.A. class is letting Emmy borrow her flute and Emmy has already had her first lesson and really enjoyed it.

Carter is loving his new teacher and class.  He is still really into Pokemon and loves to draw new ones of everyone he knows (if you are reading this then I can assure you Carter has made a Pokemon version of you).  For school he made a poster about himself and said that when he grows up he wants to be a stay at home dad.  He is a kind and sensitive boy, he is always willing to help out when he is asked. He is getting excited to get baptized in December and start going to Scouts. 

Ashton LOVES kindergarten.  He is always singing me new songs that he learned about how to draw certain numbers and letters.  He gets to play on the "orange" equipment at school, which from the way he talks is pretty cool, and he gets to ride the bus everyday!  I'm glad he is enjoying it so much.  The other day he told me was so happy because he had to do homework --- write his name 3 times.  He is such a funny kid and he is always cracking us up. 

Lillian is really enjoying her day-care and she is learning alot there too.  She is happy to go there every morning and they tell me that she never cries and she is always really good.  I think she just saves up the crying and fit throwing for when she gets home!  She is extremely independent and is talking very well.  She is  a funny little girl and makes us all smile with her antics.

As for me, I am surviving school.  It is an exrtremely intense program and I am finding it a challenge to balance family, school, and church, but I am managing and so far the only thing that really seems to suffer are the dishes.  I love the program I am in and I have already learned so much!  I have to give a shout out to my mom who is willing to help me study so much.  My time is so limited and I hated to waste the hour commmute I have to and from school, so I am making my flashcards online and my mom reads the terms to me and I tell her everything I know about it, she has even been willing to wake up at 4:30 a.m her time to study with me!  I am still waiting for word on the big scholarshp I am praying to get, hopefully that will be soon and hopefully it will be good news. 

Overall we are doing really well and everyone is happy and flourishing!  Heavenly Father has blessed our famly so much I can't even begin to express how grateful I am, so I will just say I am extremely grateful!

Mermaid Girl!

We have had a kiddie pool in the trunk of our car for weeks now and the kids were thrilled to finally be able to use it. Emmy sewed herself a mermaid tale and has brought it to several of her friends pool parties. She wanted me to take some pictures so everyone else could see it as well.

House Tour Part 3

House tour part 2

Our New House in Catawissa

Finally a new post! I made some videos of our new home now that it is just about finished being put together.

Ashton's 5th Birthday

Ashton will be 5 on Monday, but since daddy had the day off yesterday we celebrated a little early. Ashton's dreams came true and he finally got a Nintendo DS! He has been asking for one for almost a year now. I was able to find a really nice used one for him and he was so excited when he opened it he was shaking =0). The only other thing he wanted for his birthday was french-fries, so we broke down and took him to Burger King. He didn't want anything else, not even a kids meal, just french fries! I got a few pictures of him blowing out his candles and then he made a short video for us. Enjoy!

Video

Here is a video I took with my ipod of the kids playing with foam swords.

Lilly's Second Birthday and some snow!

Since I haven't posted for awhile, I will start out with Thanksgiving. I didn't get any pictures, but we spent it with a family in our ward who is also thousands of miles from home. They have 2 kids that are the same age as Ashton and Lilly. We split the cooking and it was a really nice holiday.

The biggest thing to me was that I managed to pull out a 4.0 for the semester! I was so excited and so relieved! I worked very hard all semester and now I just have to get into the program!

I had taken a whole bunch of pictures at Christmas for my blog, and the pictures were lost. I was really upset, so I just didn't post anything about Christmas. Needless to say, the children were spoiled rotten for Christmas and they all said it was the best one ever! I was just really glad when school started again and we could all get out of each others hair a little =0). This was the only picture that survived. . .

I had a wonderful birthday! Jaron helped me and the kids do a massive cleaning/reorganization of the kids rooms. We moved Emmy to what used to be the playroom so that she could have her own room (even though the boys and Lilly have to go through her room to get into theirs). Then Jaron took me out to see Avatar (which we both loved). Then, thanks to Grandma Hamblin and Kristi I was able to buy a new pair of shoes for the first time in two years! THANKS!

New Years was completely uneventful for us. Jaron worked late and I went to bed early with the kids. . . exciting!

Lilly's birthday was next and I did get some pictures of that. She has been such a joy to have in our family. She is spoiled rotten by everyone, even our neighbor Judy and her daughter! Lilly loves to sing and she does it all the time. Every time we get in the car she sings while she takes off her shoes and socks, and pulls out her pigtails. She got a set of keys to play with from mom and dad, some money from Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin, and new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Quinn as well as Grandma Kristi and a new doll from Gramma Kristi as well. She talks alot, but she doesn't really say anything. Her doctor wants her to take speech therapy since she was practically deaf for so many months when she would normally have been starting to repeat the sounds she was hearing.

Shortly after Lilly's birthday it snowed really heavily for the first time this winter, so of course the kids had to get all decked out in their snow clothes to play outside. I got pictures of everyone but Ashton who refused to have his picture taken since he was wearing hot pink snowpants (Emmy's left overs and the ones that happen to fit him this year). He didn't want anyone to see him in them.

And here is Lilly in her new dress from Gramma Kristi, but she wouldn't actually cooperate and smile!



In further news, Lilly is currently potty training and is doing an awesome job! She is nearly finished and when she is, it will the first time that Jaron and I have been diaper free in 9 years! Also Jaron was featured in an article in the local newspaper, so here is the clipping.