Other fun Activities..

Since my Parents house isn't technically "baby proofed" , if the kids aren't busy doing something then they are getting into something. So we decided to get them into a few other things while we were down in PG.

Every First Saturday of the Month Home Depot does a Do-it-yourself Kids workshop, they supply the kids with all the materials, tools, and a cute orange apron. When they complete the project they get a pin with a picture of the project on it for their apron. We have been doing these since April and the kids have loved it. This months project was a mini fuse ball table.. the kids enjoyed it and even though it was way crazy down in Lindon compared to up in Logan we finished the project and they got their new pins.




We also signed them up for a weekly cooking class since they love to help mommy cook in the kitchen. Ethan's was a Mommy and Me class. The first week we made Pancakes and Strawberry shakes... which all smelled super yummy. The second week Ethan made mini corn dogs and a Strawberry Poke cake. He is quite the chef and was so excited to do it all himself.

Jocelyn's Class was all by herself but she requested Meme's presence most of the time. She actually got to do 3 classes because we were down in PG for the first class. She made Pancakes, Corn dogs, Strawberry biscuits, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Strawberry shake floats, Pizza Pockets and Strawberry Slushes.

Between all this, swim class and playing in the pool on the deck.. the kids were pretty exhausted most days.

Swim Lessons

So I decided to sign the kids up for swim lessons this year down in PG so I could have a little help from the Meme and Popop with Caitlyn. It was a two week class, everyday Monday-Friday in the mid morning. We had originally planned for Jocelyn and Ethan to be in the same class as last summer in Texas they were both little fishes with their life jackets on. I guess I was wrong in that thought. Jocelyn hoped right in and did very well listening to her teachers Scott & Kim, we struggled a bit in the beginning to get her to stop plugging her nose so she could use both arms, but by the end of the class she was dunking and bobbing for 5 secs without plugging.

Ethan on the other hand must have completely forgot about last summer because he took serious coaxing to even sit down on the edge of the pool. On the second day we tried to put him in with his life jacket to no success, so we decided we will wait a year and try again. He is a funny kid and maybe with having daddy gone this summer he just wasn't up to try something new.

On the very last day of swim class the kids got to have a fun day. Each class got to go down the water slides that they have at the pool. Jocelyn was so excited she wanted to go first. So needless to say she went down once had a blast and wanted to keep going down... she got to go one more time before class time was up and it was time to go home. She passed off everything in the class and can now move onto Preschool 3 level 3.

Caitlyn enjoyed watching the kids go down the slides.. she was so excited, yelling baby jibberish at them through the gates!!

My plan for updates

Okay I desperately need to update this thing. But we have had so much happen in the last few weeks that it seems a little daunting. So I will try to get organized and make several posts over the next few days.

What new with us...

Caitlyn

Caitlyn is 14months now and is a baby on the move. She has 4 teeth and some molars starting to poke through. She loves to feed herself and drink out of her sippy. Although she is not walking yet she can crawl very fast and walk around while holding onto something. Her newest trick is crawling up the stairs, so we have had to change up the gates in our place to make sure she isn't doing that without adult supervision. She loves to imitate and hear herself babble as loud as she can. She is a great toddler. Still take 2 naps a day for me and is generally a very happy smiley girl.

Ethan

well as you saw from the last post Ethan turned 4. He is going through his terrible fours right now with some listening issues and attitude issues. However, he does have his sweet days where he wants to sit with mommy and do whatever I am doing. He is looking forward to going to preschool next year at the Sports Academy here in Logan. His newest trick are riding a real big boy bike with training wheels, counting to 5 by himself and drawing monsters (happy monsters). It amazes me how smart he is getting and he is not even in school yet. Some of his favorite things to do right now are play outside, ride his bike to pick up Jo from school and jump into all the pillows off our couch.

Jocelyn

Our little miss mommy Jocelyn is almost done with her first full year of school as a Kindergartner. She has learned so much this year. She can read, write all the letters of the alphabet lower and upper case, count to 100, and do some very simple addition and subtraction. She is very excited to go to first grade because she misses going to school all day and not just 1/2 day. She recently went on her first field trip to the Willow Park zoo in Logan and loved riding the bus more than seeing the animals. She is a very strong willed independent girl. She likes to do things herself and has even started helping mom make lunches, by making her and Ethan sandwiches. Some of her favorite things to do right now are play with her friends at school, draw and dress up like a rock star.

Preston and Me

Well its official I am in the third trimester, wahoo!! Currently Preston is chugging along like a champion. Everything seems to measure great and his heart rate is consistently in the 150's. I on the other hand and preparing for the "how early will he come" phase. My Dr. up here is awesome and is staying on top of things. I received my first set of steroid shot to help Preston's lungs develop at 27 weeks and will do another round at 32 weeks. I am still on the 17-P (progesterone) shots to help keep my uterus quiet and will be on those until the end of June. I have been having the occasional contraction but nothing frequent or majorly worrisome. I start seeing my Dr. weekly in June and we will most likely start the fFN tests at the same time (more info on those here http://www.ffntest.com/info/fetal_test.html ). Each week he stays cooking is a major milestone.. My dr. and I are anticipating delivery in July, my goal is at least 36 weeks (July 13th) but considering my history anything beyond 34 weeks is a great success. I will keep ya posted as time goes on.

Dave

Dave is currently working his rear off in San Antonio Texas for the summer with Pinnacle. He is doing a great job out there and so are his guys. I talk with him every morning and night. We were hoping he would be able to fly home every month but airplane ticket prices are sooo expensive so he will be back in July, hopefully in time to celebrate both Jocelyn's and Preston's Birthdays. Speaking of Birthday's he is turning the big 30 on Saturday... which I think is just crazy because he doesn't seem that old at all. He loves his job and loves his family and other than being able to spend more time at home I think he is one pretty happy guy.

Ethan turned 4!!

My precious Ethan turned 4 this year, its hard to believe that this once so fragile and delicate little preemie is now a very rough and tumble(although very sensitive) little man . He went in for his 4 year check up and is topping the charts in weight at 39.8lbs (90th%) and height at 41 1/2 inches (75th%). It was amazing to me that I actually got the "make sure he is active and eating healthy foods" talk. All in all he is developing great and nothing points to his preemie beginnings other than the possibility of his sensitive hearing, which the Dr. said may or may not have anything to due with his premature birth and only a pediatric ENT Dr. could tell us for sure.

Now onto the fun stuff :) For Ethan's 4th birthday he decided he wanted to have a "happy" monster party. So that's what we did and all I can say is thank you Oriental Trading company because I didn't have a clue where to find Monster themed birthday stuff in the middle of April.

Ethan initially wanted to dress up for his birthday but about 1 hour before he started getting grouchy and didn't want to wear the spider costume or face paint we picked out earlier. Jocelyn however was all about the dress-up.

I decided to try to be cute with Monster themed food... Spider cupcakes, Monster bones (Cheetos), Monster claws (Bugles)

Monster eyes and teeth (grapes and apples), Monster Slime Soda, and Monster fingers in a bun (Hot dogs in a bun).

As you can see Ethan was in a delightful mood for his party.. He was pretty much like that the whole time and preferred to keep to himself while the other kids played. I guess he has yet to develop the Yates social skills.

We let the kids decorate their own Spider cupcake instead of doing a birthday cake. I think they really enjoyed it and probably ate more candy than actually putting it on their cupcake.

Yeah !! Birthday song time, we managed a half a smile out of the grumpy birthday boy. At least this year we didn't see any tears or ear covering.

And of course presents always make the birthday kid happy!

The best part of Ethan's Birthday was that Daddy was home from Texas to celebrate and spend time with us!

On May 4th, which is Ethan's actual birthday we spent the day pretty much spoiling our little man. Jocelyn had school so as soon as we dropped her off we took Ethan and Caitlyn out to lunch to celebrate. Then we took all the kids out for ice cream. To top the night off we went and saw "How to Train a Dragon".. Very cute movie even though I spent most of the time in the hall with a very very tired baby. The older kids loved it and spent the next several days playing dragons.

I know...

I really need to update this thing... Okay my goal is to get it all caught up in the next few days.

Easter 2010

So a few days before all the Easter fun we had a snow storm. The kids loved it, I hated it but we were very fortunate that it all decided to melt in time for Easter.

On Saturday we spent the afternoon coloring our Easter eggs for Sunday's Easter egg hunt. The kids had a great time drawing on their eggs and using the dye pens Grandpa & Grandma Battson sent.

Easter Sunday Dave and I were awakened by a very excited Jocelyn who had found all the Easter baskets the Easter bunny had left. She then went on to inform us that she had given Caitlyn her candy from the Easter bunny....

WAY TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE FOR A 1year old... BUT Caitlyn was HAPPY.

After all that fun, We all got up and enjoyed Bunny Pancakes for Breakfast and watched Conference.

After Dinner Dave and T went out in the backyard and hid plastic eggs for the kids to find. They did much better this year at finding the eggs and I did much better at really limiting the candy intake for the day. They had such a good Easter, and I think Jocelyn is finally starting to really understand the true reason why we celebrate Easter and what Jesus's Resurrection means.