Baby Goats

On Friday, after kindergarten roundup, I went to pick up Jack from my friend Shauna's house. She was taking her boys to go see some baby animals at a nearby farm. She asked if Haken would like to come with them. Of course Haken was excited to go with them, especially with his friend Kason! I took Jack home to take a nap and Haken went with them. They ended up only having the baby goats there (the pigs and cows were at another farm) but that was enough for Haken to get excited. Here are a few pictures of Haken with the goats that Shauna took for me. Thanks Shauna!

I can tell Haken is a little unsure of feeding the goat.

Giving the goat some of attitude. 

Later that day we also went to Mcdonalds with them and then Kason came home with us to play for a while. On the way home from Mcdonalds we stopped at IFA to see the baby chicks, ducks, and bunnies they had for sale there. I wish I would have had my camera to get a picture of Jack peeking into the bunny pen. He was just tall enough to see them on his tip toes and couldn't stop pointing and talking about them. We also stopped at our friend's house to see their baby lambs, but they weren't home. This is such a fun time around here with baby animals popping up everywhere. I love Spring!

Kindergarten Roundup

Last Friday was Kindergarten Roundup for Haken. He actually didn't seem too nervous for the testing like I thought he would be. The hardest part about preparing for Kindergarten has been the shots and since we got through that (with a lot of kicking, screaming, and tears) everything else has seemed super easy for him. We went to the new school in Garland to do the testing. They tested for hearing, sight, speech, proper immunizations, and assessment. He passed all with flying colors. 

This is the paper they gave me with the results of his assessment. He knew everything they asked him and even more. One of the assessors called him a "smarty pants" because she asked him just to point to the first word in the book to see if he knew where to start and instead he actually READ the word. I think he is already ahead of where he needs to be which is great! Having a head start is never a bad thing. His preschool teacher Mrs. Francom has been so great in preparing him for kindergarten. Haken can't wait for school to start in the Fall.

Easter Bunny early

The Easter Bunny came a week early this year because we are going to be in Arizona visiting family over Easter break next weekend. This weekend was also General Conference weekend which made it fun because the boys got to play with their new stuff the whole day.

Jack's first experience with bubbles. He wasn't quite sure what to think about them at first.

We also dyed Easter eggs in between conference sessions on Sunday

I love this picture! Like father...like son.

Perfectionist Haken

Jack during our egg dying. I wasn't brave enough to let him help this year.

Haken was sad that I was going to use the Easter eggs to make potato salad that night so he wanted to take a picture of the eggs. I told him to pick two of his favorites and hold them up. After taking a picture of the first two he insisted on taking another picture with his "other favorite" eggs...and another. I think he had a hard time deciding which ones were his favorite.

This face is so Haken. I can never get a real smile out of him.

 It was a fun early Easter. We can't wait until we get to have an Easter egg hunt with all of the cousins in Arizona next weekend!

Weeds!

Why is it that everything in my yard has yet to bloom and the weeds are the only thing green right now? Last Friday I decided I couldn't stand looking at the weeds anymore and we ventured out into the yard to make it look a bit nicer. I was surprised to see that there are little buds on everything in my yard so in a few weeks it will be really beautiful. There are also bulbs popping up all over. I love this time of the year! There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your yard come back to life and know that everything didn't really die over the winter.

Haken was a huge help and Jack was just happy to be outside. I think he would live outside if I would let him! We also planted our first round of sugar snap peas, one of our favorite treats from our garden every year.

I think we have another golfer in the family...

This face is so Jack...and yet he reminds me of Haken at this age.

Planting peas

Flu Bug

This week the flu bug definitely found our family. About 3 weeks ago Haken had a fight with the flu that went off and on for about a week and I thought we all got lucky and didn't catch it.

 I guess we were wrong because on Sunday during choir practice Jack lost it all and we had to quickly head home (luckily I was able to catch it all in the blanket). I felt so bad for him. At this age he really didn't know what was going on and tried to re-swallow everything instead of just letting it out. He pushed the bowl away whenever I tried to catch anything. All he wanted to do was cuddle with his binki and blanket on mommy or daddy (which is now becoming a difficult habit to break). I have to admit that I did like that part since he is not usually a very cuddly baby and all I wanted to do on Sunday was lay around anyway. Monday he acted pretty normal, ate, and kept everything down, then that night was a rough one full of pajama and sheet changes. This is exactly how Haken's flu was. He was fine one day and then the next day it was like it was back again!

So, yesterday (Tuesday) I got this fun little flu, probably from all of the cuddling I did with Jack on Sunday. I only threw up once, but that was enough for me. I hate throwing up. I will hold it in as long as possible. I don't usually get that sick during my pregnancies so it had been about 4 years since I had really thrown up. After coming out of the bathroom yesterday I looked at my boys and immediately called Shad to come home. Jack had been a grouch and Haken had preschool to get to that day so I knew I couldn't do it. I spent pretty much the entire day in bed, watching movies, reading books, and trying to sleep, unsuccessfully. Shad enjoyed a great day off with the boys being the mom and running the carpool. However, he is starting to feel a bit off tonight so we will see if he gets another day off this week.

It's amazing what 12 hours of sleep can do for you! I feel 100% today which is great since I couldn't possibly take another day off from being mommy. I'm also glad that the weather is starting to get such that I can open up all my windows and get this nasty bug out of our house. I can't wait until my little Jack is back to his old self again, he has been such a little whiner and it is driving me crazy! Especially since this bug has really made him adverse to pretty much ALL food. I hope it doesn't pop again as this flu has done already a few times. I guess I need to sanitize my entire house tomorrow!

Success in Parenting

As a parent I feel like I am sometimes guessing on how to handle things with my kids. Sometimes I feel bad for them because it is a "trial and error" thing most of the time. We really are just learning together.

Well, 2 weeks ago I had planned a trip to the Treehouse children's museum with the boys. I was rushing to get ready and get the boys ready so we could leave. After I gave Haken a 15 minute warning he started to complain and whine to me about how he didn't want to go because he wanted to stay home and watch his favorite show that had a new episode on later that day. At that moment I realized that something needed to be done with what has become an obsession with the T.V.

Haken is at the age where he really loves and looks forward to watching the preschool shows that come on in the mornings. They are mostly educational and teach him good things, but he wasn't really ever "playing." Although I really have to blame the obsession on myself. During the winter we spend a LOT of time inside. That is just the way it has to be when you live in Utah and everything fun is at least 30 minutes away. During the summer he plays outside basically all day so there isn't much time for T.V. For the past 4 months or so on a normal day he pretty much watched T.V. from about 9:30 (when we got home from our workout group) until 12:00 or 1:00 depending on if it was a preschool day. That is roughly 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours of T.V. a day, (which research says is pretty normal for a kid his age)!! Again, it is my fault because I would just get busy with the day, making breakfast, taking a shower, cleaning up the kitchen, starting the laundry, etc...I swear it was 11:30 by the time I could focus on anything else. I felt like such a bad mom!

So, after realizing that Haken would choose a show over going to a children's museum that day I decided to have a Family Home Evening that night on how we spend our time. Kind of a "good, better, best" lesson for a 4 yr old. I am so excited that it went over well with him. I was expecting him to be so mad with the rules that we made, but he wasn't. As a family, we decided that he could watch 3 shows a day and he could decide which ones they were. If he wanted to he could substitute one of those shows for 30 minutes of a video game time since he loves playing the Wii. We don't have DVR so he just has to watch his shows when they come on, but he has learned that in the morning he picks which ones he wants to watch and then we turn on and off the T.V. accordingly. I found that most of the time he was watching shows that he didn't really care much about, just because he wanted to watch the show that came next. He actually turns the T.V. off now all by himself once his show is over and he counts down the shows, knowing how many he has left during the day. There have been so many good things that have come out of this. Not only is he watching less T.V., but he has actually started to play with his toys which have just sat there for months. His imaginative play has come back and he has become so creative lately. He is more cooperative and not angry when I tell him it's time to turn it off, because he was part of the decision making process. He has really been more cooperative with lots of other things unrelated to the T.V. as well.

I also feel like I benefited from my own lesson because I realized that I too could do better on limiting my "screen time." I would be just fine not watching T.V. at all, but I do like to get online and check out all my usual websites. I decided that I too would choose my time wisely and only get on once all of my "chores" were done for the day (which is sometimes after the boys go to bed!) I am also working out and reading my scriptures before the boys get up instead of going to the workout group at the church everyday, helping me to have a better handle on my morning. Although I do still go twice a week just to keep my sanity and have some "women time."

I love making a change in parenting and seeing the benefits of the change in my family. We aren't perfect, but I think seeing things that need to be changed is the first step to becoming a better parent.

Spring?!

It has been one of the mildest winters on record here and yet I still can not wait until Spring! We have only had to shovel a handful of times and Shad has used his new snowblower about 2 times. Most of the time the snow all melts by the afternoon so we don't need to shovel at all. Today it is almost 50 degrees outside and will probably get up to 60 or more in the next few days (go ahead and laugh all you Arizona dwellers, that is WARM here!) Seeing these little tulips pop up in my front yard makes me so happy and excited for the months to come. I planted 100 new bulbs last fall and I can't wait to see the colors that will fill my yard. I don't know if it is the anticipation of our spring break get away to Arizona, or knowing that the baby will be here in a few short months that makes me so antsy right now. This spring will be glorious!