Various Items and Some Serious Bragging

Parent Teacher conferences bring out the brag, don't they?  I am not going to apologize, though, because I'm proud of my little ones and the hard work they put into being as brilliant as they are.  It doesn't always come naturally (especially the homework and the listening to instructions both at school and at home), so when they get good reports from school, I feel it's really important to note it in this little family history of ours.

So, I think I'll brag first.

Chloe:  She's reading above her grade level, her math is excellent, and she is still writing really well.  Her teacher said that during their readers' theater, she tries not to play favorites, but finds herself giving Chloe turns more frequently because she reads with so much drama and inflection.  She even said that she expects an invitation to Chloe's starring turn in a musical production at Sky View in several years.  :) She showed me some of Chloe's stories and journal entries.  Chloe has a terrific grasp on conflict and resolution and she writes very descriptively.  It's fun to read her work!
Here's a letter she wrote to us while we were on our trip:

This year, one of the things we've challenged the girls to do is listen in Sacrament Meeting rather than color or do other activities.  We allow them to have a piece of paper and a pencil to take notes if they'd like.  After the meeting this week, Stanton and I were cleaning up our bench and were taken aback at the notes Chloe had taken during the meeting.  I have to admit that she listened better than I did (Cannon wasn't helping much....)!!

I have to admit, I got a little teary looking at that one.

Lily:
Her teacher had so many great things to say about her.  She expressed how stunning it was to see her math and reading skills.  She showed us a math test (one of several she had received 100% scores on).  The problems she was doing were higher thinking problems -- story problems where she had to complete several steps, spacial thinking problems, algebraic problems (as a side note, I LOVE that they're introducing Algebra concepts to the children in 1st grade...) --- it was incredible to get a glimpse of her mind and the intelligence she possesses.  Her teacher also expressed what a good friend Lily is.  There is a new girl in her class that is really struggling.  Lily has apparently taken her under her wing and helped her make the transition to this new environment.  She also had a great experience where her teacher put her with a boy who really struggles to pay attention and keep on task -- the first day this happened, Lily came home a wreck.  She was really upset that her teacher had put them together.  Over the period they were partners, though, Lily really grew to enjoy this little boy and has great feelings toward him now.  Her teacher made mention of the experience, too, and said what an influence for good Lily was toward this boy.  I'm really grateful that amidst the intelligence, there is the greater quality, which is kindness and concern.  In fact, that was the thing that really made my heart happy during Parent-Teacher conferences.  All three of the kids are kind and thoughtful of others and respectful to their teachers.
Lily wrote and illustrated a story recently that was so cute.  The drawings were great and she has awesome handwriting (something Chloe struggles with and something that I was terrible with until middle school -- thanks, Missy Sue! -- you know you're the reason my handwriting is nice now!).  Anyway, I can't find the story which makes me sad.  If I find it, I'll put it on here.  Instead, though, here's a picture of her standardized test scores  - the green is the benchmark they'd like the kids to hit at this point.  The middle line in the blue rectangle is the student average.  The black dot is where Lily is:

She's reading 141 words per minute with 99% accuracy, too.  Amazing.  I have to mention, too, that Stanton is SO relieved that our children are excelling in school.  He really struggled in school -- it didn't come naturally to him - especially reading and spelling.  To see our children doing well in those subjects is really exciting to him.  I have to give him credit for our childrens' work ethic.  They may get their natural reading/spelling abilities from me, but they get their study and work ethic from him.  And, as you can see from our levels of completed education (me:  a couple of years of college with very little direction, Stanton:  doctorate degree), the work ethic is going to get our children further in life than their natural abilities.  I'm glad they got a little of both!

Brigham:  Can I just express, once again, how grateful I am that we decided to have him start Kindergarten this year???!!!!  As it drew closer, we wondered if we were making the right choice, as he just barely made the deadline (by 2 days).  He has blossomed and flourished in Kindergarten, though, so we are SO grateful we decided to send him.  He is reading so well.  He has recently made that transition from thinking he can only read his Sam books to realizing that he can read anything.  I love that moment of realization!  He is constantly reading the signs as we drive and is getting several words correct when he reads a verse of scripture, too.  It's so neat to see him doing so well -- we had our concerns with him educationally, but he showed us that for some kids, it doesn't gradually come on -- they stall for a long time and then the window opens and they get it all at once.  He has done just that and it is so neat to see.
His teacher said what a kind and respectful boy he is.  He is nice to the other children, respectful of the girls in his class, and a good friend.  He is doing really well in math (they are learning numbers, patterns, shapes, solid shapes, etc.) and is in the high level reading group.
I have really loved his spelling lately.  His teacher showed me his work in their journals from the beginning of the year to now.  The improvement was astounding!  They have been learning a few vocabulary words that she's encouraged them to use in their journal writing.  One of the words was "pursue."  He drew a picture of a mama dinosaur chasing her baby.  He wrote, "The dinucor chaces its bebe."  But he realized he wrote chase instead of pursue, so he put a parenthesis under the word chase and wrote "pursues."  It was just shocking to me.  He actually understood where and how to use a parenthesis!  Pretty darn cool.
Here is a story he wrote this morning while he and Cannon were playing ninjas:

It says, "fast - kik but - this - is - not - a - ordunere - kik."  He puts the dashes in to indicate spaces or new words.  I love how he spelled ordinary!  Isn't that amazing?

Cannon:  This little man is so smart.  He reminds me of Chloe at this age.  He memorizes songs and sings all the time.  He can recognize most of his letters and knows their sounds.  He has started writing letters lately, too.  Chloe was telling him to "write a ____" this morning and here is his work:

Chloe and I were looking at each other in amazement as he showed us each letter he wrote.  Pretty smart little guy!

Okay, if you're still reading, you're either totally ready to barf at my braggart ways or you're my mom.  Either way, here are a few other things going on around here:

*  I am doing really well with my resolve to no longer use my phone while driving.  I still talk on it here and there, but only incoming calls.  I don't make calls, text, etc.  I have to say, it's been pretty darn awesome and I'm glad I'm setting a better example.

*  We went on a trip to Hawaii with our friends Brian and Linda W. and Kyle and Angie F.  It was so fun and I need to get pictures on here.  It was a nice week away from the cold and a great time with friends.

*  One of the things that Angie, our amazing babysitter, did with the kids while we were gone was a "Fun Chart."  She had a list of one fun activity they would do every day as soon as their chores were done.  The kids loved it and told us about it every time we called.  I decided that was something I could really add in to our lives, since I see all these fun ideas around and never feel like we have time to do them.  It's something I really need to improve on and this was a great way to do it.  So, I've adopted the practice, and we've had some fun times since being home.  One of the activities was making snow globes.  HAAAHHAAAAA!!!  Do you ever see a project on Pinterest or a blog somewhere and think, "Oh, how easy!  That'll be a snap!"  But then it isn't?  Yeah, that was our snow globe experience.  The kids gathered little figurines they had in their toys to use and I was POSITIVE I had white snowy glitter in my craft stuff.  Not so much.  I called Traci, our neighbor and preschool teacher, to see if we could borrow glitter from her.  Thankfully she had some, so I sent the kids over to grab it from her.  Well, Chloe left first , then the other 3 went together.  They got back with glitter in hand in about 3 minutes' time, but Chloe wasn't with them.  I asked them about it and they said they didn't ever see her at Traci's house.  My heart sank.  I sent Lily to see if she was at another neighbor's house (whom we'd also called about glitter), but when she wasn't there, I started to really panic.  I hopped in the van (by this time, Lily had gotten Madie, one of our awesome teenager babysitter friends, to come look with her).  I said a prayer and had the thought that maybe she thought it was a different Traci (we have 4 in our neighborhood).  I drove over to the home of one of her buddies whose mom is named Traci and, thank the heavens, she was there!  When the mom didn't immediately give her glitter when she opened the door, she got distracted by her two friends who were playing together, and just didn't come home.  I was so relieved she was safe and sound.  So, we all piled back in the van, said a prayer of thanks, dropped Madie off, and went home to make snow globes.  By this time, it was 4:45 and I really needed to get dinner ready.  BUT, we proceeded with our project.  The glue we used (I thought this E-sixty something or other glue would be better than hot glue -- wrong!) didn't stick very well, and just as we were screwing on the now glued lids and turning them over to dry, the figurines came undone and started floating in the jar!  Ugh!  So, we quickly unscrewed the lids, dried everything off, and glued again.  The kids were disappointed that they weren't going to be able to see the finished product (I figured we ought to give the glue several hours to dry before putting it in the water/glycerin mix), but we put them aside and got dinner on.
I put everything together later that night and they woke up to finished snow globes.  They are not even close to as cute as the pictures we saw on Pinterest (craftfail, anyone??!) and Lily's figurine has since come unglued again.  This time, though, the lid is lock tight glued, so there's no salvaging it now.  The kids still seem to like them, though, and play with them every day.  I'm glad they're so easy to please.

*  Stanton has been working like crazy lately, trying to make up for days missed on trips.  We miss him!

*  He and I are both participating in an 8 week Fitness Challenge with 37 other people, many of whom are in our neighborhood.  It's been awesome!  My goal is to exercise 5 days per week, make green smoothies 5 days per week, and drink only one diet soda per week.  Stanton's goal is to be 165 lbs. by the end of the challenge.  Going on our Hawaii trip did not help either of us!  I managed to keep my goals, though, and was grateful I hadn't set a calorie-related goal for myself.  We ate so much and so often I was seriously sick of it by the end of the trip.  How is that even possible?!  We are both back on track with our eating now that we're home and feel so much better.  Oh, and Stanton's been getting up in the mornings to exercise this week, too.  It has been so nice to be up together working out.  Even though we don't do the same things and aren't even in the same room, it's just SO nice to know he's not in our warm bed sleeping in while I work out.  Getting up early is not something that comes naturally to Stanton, so I'm really proud of him.  With the crazy hours he's been working, it's pretty dang impressive to see his discipline.

*  I'm trying to be more productive and organized each day and this week has been a good one.  There are two factors that have really helped me:
One is this calendar that some organizing genius put together -- a small task for every day of the week, all year long.  I'm only doing it on the days I'm home and not stressing about it when we aren't, but it's helped me tackle a few problem areas that have bugged me for way too long.
Here is the link:  RIGHT HERE.  I just printed out the entire year and have it hanging on my big kitchen magnet board.  It's been manageable and easy to accomplish.
The second is something I found on my favorite "person I don't know" blog.  Abbey has been working on making her mornings "magical" and put together a little page to help her do it.  I printed it and have been incorporating it into my morning and night routines.  What is it about having a checklist that just makes things so much more manageable?  I'm not good at making my own checklists and tend to ignore them.  BUT, this one has been awesome and so far, has really helped me be more productive during the day.  I appreciate the willingness of other people to share their talents with me and help me be a much better person as a a result.
Here is the link:  RIGHT HERE.
I can't even say how inspired this has been for me.  I have been really tired lately (out of the ordinary tired) and by the end of the day, I just want to lay on my bed and ignore everything that needs to be done to make for a good day the next day.  I have to admit that for several weeks, I've done just that.  Ignored the floor, the clutter, the laundry, the everything.  Doing the simple things each morning and night has made a huge difference and magically, I have more energy to do the things that really need to be done.  I'm still exhausted when I hit the pillow at night, but I can wake up to a tidy house and clean kitchen, which means I don't have to use my precious energy to face it in the morning.  I know this principle and it's one I practice more often than not, but I've been in a bit of a funk lately, and this has been the push I've needed to improve my days and be more productive with my time.  Which was one of my new year goals, so YAY!  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for hearing my sincere desires and providing a way for me to accomplish them.

*  We have had a ton of rain in that last week or so.  The day we got back from our trip was the worst of it.  We had some neighbors who were at risk of flooding, so Stanton went over to help bail water from their window wells and sandbag.  The next day, Chloe was getting something from behind the couch downstairs and mentioned to us that the floor was wet back there.  We investigated, and sure enough, we had water in our basement!  Haha!  It wasn't anything major -- no wall damage, thankfully.  We pulled up the carpet and pad and dried them out with fans.  Everything is good now and we need to check the french drain on that side of the house -- we think it was the culprit, as the window wells didn't have water in them and it seemed to come from the corner of the basement, not the window.  I'm sure grateful it wasn't anything more extensive.

So, what's new with you?