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.

Carters B-day and some Random Pics

Life has been crazy busy around the Simonson household, but I finally have a minute so I will try to catch up a little.

Jaron is working at Bennigan's Restaraunt in Bloomsburg now. He is enjoying it but I think he dreams of the day that I finish school and he can teach music. School for me is going really well. So far I have managed to keep straight A's, and I only have 2 weeks left of school, so barring anything crazy happening I think I will pull it off.

Carter turned 7 on the 23rd of November. Our house isn't really big enough to have a birthday party at and Jaron's work schedule made it impossible for us to even have a good family party, so we let Carter open his presents at 6:30 a.m. and then the kids and I had a cake without Jaron that night. Our neighbor Judy did come over to sing to him with us and watch as he blew out the candles.

I met with both Emmy and Carter's teachers this last week for conferences and both of their teachers couldn't say enough good things about them, especially Carter's teachers. We had some testing done on Carter to see if he was going to need some extra help due to his Tourette's syndrome, but it turns out the kid is in the superior intelligence category, only 3 points below the "gifted" bracket. Instead they are recommending that he start in the gifted program next year, and Emmy too (of course). I have to say. . . I am extremely proud of those two. They are both excelling in school and even though Emmy cries over her math homework sometimes, she has managed to get a 97% overall for the semester so far (and 100% in everything else).

Ashton LOVES his preschool and it looks like he will be following in his older siblings footsteps in the intelligence arena. What can I say? Jaron and I make smart little cookies! Lilly has been starting to talk a little more and once she is over the strep she has, she will be golden.

The pictures I am posting are of Carter's Birthday and the video is of Lilly dancing with Jack the Elf to some Christmas music we had playing. (I really need to get a camera that can record sound!)

UpDate Thing-a-ma-jig

Ok, so I have been really bad about blogging. Now that that's over with, on with the update!

Jaron: Jaron is really enjoying his new job and his calling with the scouts. His employees really like him, which is no big surprise =0) He still sleeps alot, but don't tell him I said that. =0)

Heather: Ok, I am crazy busy with school, kids, church and trying to keep a house. School is awesome. I love Penn College and am actually really enjoying all of my classes. I am happy to report that so far I have gotten A's on everything. If that changes, I may not tell you, but I figure while I am only 3 weeks into school and doing well I should enjoy it! I was in charge of the quarterly primary activity and the primary president wanted to do something with stranger danger. I had already started school and had very little time to actually plan the activity since I have only been in my calling for about 4 weeks now, but I came up with the idea to have the kids make their own stranger danger movie and the LOVED it! We spent the first little bit going over all of the stranger danger rules and then each of the kids got to "act" in the movie. I just used my camcorder, so it was very amature, but it turned out well and the kids watched themselves in their movie over and over while they ate homemade pizza for lunch.

Emmy: Emmy is missing Utah and her old friends and school, but she still really likes her new school and she is making new friends very quickly. They have started some art classes at school and Emmy's first sketch was of a pencil. The rest of the drawings are of some monsters that she thought would be fun to draw for a game at school. She wanted me to include them because she is very proud of them. She is certainly a very creative little girl.

Carter: Carter, poor little buddy. He has been having a rough time these last few weeks. He has had severe bowel problems and is now on medication for that, and it seems to be helping. Meanwhile he started school and the first day that he came home from school he was wheezing really bad. It just went downhill from there. He narrowly missed being hospitalized again and we have him on 4 different medications just to get his breathing under control. Top that off with an official diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome and a new medication for that and the kid spends about 30 minutes a day taking or breathing in all of his medication. He was really upset because no one would play with him at recess because he couldn't play running games. He is having a hard time making friends and so school has not been very fun for him. His new medication for the T.S. seems to be working. He has only been on it for almost a week now, so we will have to give it more time to see how well it is going to work. The neurologist says that once we get the ticks under control he can stop the meds and coast for awhile until he has another flare up of ticks, so at least he doesn't have to be on it all the time. Anyway, please pray for the little guy, he really need some friends and some better health!

Ashton: Ashton is LOVING "junior preschool" as he calls it. He gets to make something every day and he feels really big being able to go there. The only thing that he doesn't like is that he says he isn't learning anything yet. When I asked him what he was hoping to learn he said, "How to count really high and how to read." I didn't want to tell him that he probably would have to wait until kindergarten to learn that stuff, he would get too mad.

Lilly: Lilly is finally starting to warm up to her daycare. It is a really nice day care and I plan on taking some pictures and posting them so everyone can see where the two youngest spend their days. Lilly started out with a teacher that she really seemed to like and then her actual teacher came back from vacation. Lilly did not like her at all. She spent about a week and a half screaming almost the entire time I was gone (8:30-4:00). I had made up my mind to talk to the director about switching classes for Lilly when I walked in and they had already done it. Lilly is now back with her original teacher and she is much happier. She is smiling and playing everyday when I pick her up and she gives me the biggest hugs and kisses! She is finally starting to talk a little bit more. She does especially well when she is at our neighbor Judy's house. She will talk up a storm with Judy, all about crackers and pretzels and "dwink" drink. . . I still haven't gotten her into speech therapy and I really don't think she will need it.

The rabbits are doing well, getting fat and pooping everywhere, in case anybody cares =0)

Miss Hemisphere Pageant

When we were living in Utah Emmy and I saw a show that I believe is called "Toddlers and Tiaras". It shows all these pageant moms and their tortured little children being forced onto stage to parade around in the hopes of winning trophies, ribbons and most of all crowns! I was horrified by it, but Emmy was absolutely fascinated. Ever since then she has been begging me to be in a pageant.

We were at a local mall when Emmy saw a flyer for a pageant and was so excited that there was going to be one close by. Grandma Rae got wind of her plight (hmm. . . wonder how that happened) and agreed to pay her entry fee so that she could compete in the pageant. We spent the better part of this morning doing her hair and getting her pageant ready. She wore the pink dress that was made for her when she modeled in the fashion show in Pocatello, thank goodness she got her crazy teeth pulled two days ago, so instead of a pumpkin smile she had a beautiful 8-year old toothless grin!

When we arrived the people running the pageant had the girls and boys walk through the steps they were supposed to take on stage. Emmy did a great job smiling and posing. I took some video, but it didn't turn out too well. Anyway, there were different categories they could enter and Emmy was in the model search and cute pageant portions. After all the kids took their turn on stage and then went back on stage together to say their name and age, they took a short break while the judges chose the winners. Emmy won the model search for her age division and also "best outfit". She got to go on stage by herself to receive her two trophies. After everyone else received their trophies etc. they were all gathered on stage and we thought the pageant was over, then they announced that they were going to name the over all winner of the entire pageant and wouldn't you know it was our little Miss Emmaline! She got her crown and her sash and a pin to go on the sash. She also won a cruise to the Bahamas and $25 dollars plus her entry fee. Because she was the over all winner she received in invitation to compete in the national finals in Ocean City, NJ in November. We haven't decided if we are going to do that yet or not, but Emmy sure had a good time today and she is really enjoying feeling like a "supermodel" (I said Princess, but she read this and she said supermodel).

I have to admit I was hoping that we would do this and she would find out it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and then be ready to move onto the next thing, but it turns out it has only wet her appetite for more! Oh boy!

Thanks Gramma Kristi!

Yesterday the kids came running to get me to tell me that a package had come in the mail and to hurry up so they can open it! It was a back-to-school package from Gramma Kristi. She sent each of the kids a new outfit and Ashton and Lilly got a coloring book and magnet letters, and a doll. There was some candy involved too, which Jaron and I quickly claimed. . . but yes, we did end up sharing with the kids (all but about 2 pieces of it in fact). We got on skype with Gramma so she could see the kids try on their new outfits. I will take pictures of them when school starts and they are allowed to wear them, then I will go back and add them to this post. Thanks again Gramma!

New Callings!

Oh Yeah, I forgot to mention. . . Jaron and I have both received new callings in our ward. Jaron is now the scout master and he is really excited. He loves scouting and he has fond memories of time he spent doing scouts with his dad. He will only have 3-4 boys who are interested in the scouting program, but that will really let them focus on their needs, so it will be a good thing.

I just got called to be the second counselor in the Primary Presidency. The president wants me to be in charge of everything that is not Sunday related-- all the quarterly activities, activity days and cub scouts, and then sharing time once a month. I guess my 5 years in activity days will come in handy yet again!