Book Worms

Dalton and Avery were tested in reading at school. We are pleased to say that both excel in reading. Dalton scored 90% and Avery scored a 94%. Both will be moved into advanced reading within their classrooms. Way to go guys!

Last week we were amazed at Avery's quickness in reading. Every night the kids read at least 20 minutes. We sat Avery down with a chapter book, and at the end of the twenty minutes she handed me the book and asked me to "bookmark" it. She was on page 63! After 20 minutes of reading? I was thinking there is no way. So, I read through it and asked her questions about what she had read and sure enough that little booger is one SUPER fast reader. She finished the book the next day in her 20 minutes of reading. She read a 95 page book in less than 40 minutes. I'm amazed and very proud. Good Job Avery!

If You Ever Need Help

If you ever need help finding a specific recipe. Or want to make something with a specific ingredient. This website is great for just that. http://allrecipes.com/

Yummy In My Tummy

I go to the women's Thursday morning bible study at church. Each we we take turns bringing a brunch item to snack on while we are studying. This week it was my turn. I made a breakfast cookie recipe I had never tried before. After bible study I was asked by six different women if I could bring the recipe next week. Then, later in the day a lady called me and asked me if I could bring it next week. The funny thing is the cookie recipe was a taken from the "Better Homes and Garden Junior Cookbook" I got for the girls!

Just in case you want to try the cookies for yourself here is the recipe. They are super yummy and very healthy.

ellemnopee

Congratulations!

Corban Lawrence Reiswig

7lb. 3oz.

20 inches

10:03 pm

September 27th

Congratulations Marty and Jaclyn!

(Matt's brother and his wife)

Movin On Up

Well, tonight my last baby moved out of the crib and into a toddler bed.

As we were moving her crib out of her room she was crying at the top of the stairs. She didn't know where her bed was going. Maybe she thought we were going to make her sleep out in the garage? Once we brought her new bed into the house and got it all set up with sheets and blankets, her attitude changed. She was so excited. The older kids were just as excited as she was, I think. After snuggling for about thirty seconds she got up and immediately started jumping on it...lol!

As you can see from the picture she is already territorial of her new bed, and did not want to share it with anyone. "Mine!"

Oh, Little Mallory

Mallory is our hardest bedtime case. She likes to get up anywhere from two to ten times after being put to bed to "tell you something". We have discovered that giving her a few books to look at in bed with her little lamp on at bedtime helps her out. She reads the books and turns the light off and goes to bed. That is... until the past two nights. She has started back to her old ways. So tonight after the second time out of bed I told her she was going to get a spanking if she got out of bed again. I asked her if she understood what was going to happen if she got out of bed again. She told me, "Yes, I understand, but I can't promise that" Well at least she knows herself and is letting me know what to expect out of her?!?

Yesterday, we took a trip to the post office. Not my favorite place. It is pretty much a nightmare to go to the post office with the kids. They end up running around, climbing on things, and there is always a line! When I went yesterday I thought this should be easier because I only had two little sweet ones instead of three or five. Ha! Mallory was "watching" Rachel for me. They started by playing chase around the post office. Then they spotted some beanie baby bears that had stamps on them. Mallory got them down and started playing with them and gave Rachel two too. I saw this and told her to put them back. Next thing I saw when I looked up was Mallory putting the bears into the "out of town" slot. Before I could say "NO" she closed the door and the bears were mailed! I was half laughing and half upset (because she didn't obey me). She was in disbelief that the bears were gone. She got nervous and said "I didn't know they would get sucked up" So I made her tell the guy at the desk what she did and say she was sorry. Of course no harm done, but it was a good lesson about the post office, and a good laugh!

GOOOOALLLL Goala Goala Goala!

Today we had our first soccer games of the season. Jack, Dalton, Avery and Matt are all playing! I truly am a "soccer mom".

Avery had a game this morning and played awesome. Jack's game was this afternoon. I was lucky enough to catch one of his goals on video! My favorite part of the whole thing is his celebration into a knee slide which didn't turn out exactly how he planned. I turned off the camera right before he face planted into the ground! LOL!!!

Messy Art

Mallory started a class through Tulsa Parks called Messy Art. We went for the first time yesterday, and she had a blast! The picture displays one of her creations. She got to paint, glue, cut, color, and draw. She was in heaven. She also made a Dalmatian dog puppet out of a paper bag and some cut outs. Painted a wooden star. Lastly, we traced her whole body on a big sheet of paper and she colored it. When we got home she laid it out upstairs in the hallway and said it was our new rug. So we have a "chalk drawing" of a child's body laying on our floor...lol.

I know some of you may be thinking, Kristin can do arts and crafts with her at home. Why pay for a class. I gotta tell you it was wonderful for me too. She could get as messy as she wanted. She could mess up the tables, brushes, herself etc... as much as she wanted and I didn't have to worry about it. I had no preparation. I had no clean up. I had no worries. So, for the time being I'm going to be lazy and let someone else come up with the crafts and do the clean-up!

Tired

I am so tired.

(This pretty much looks like

how I feel at the end of the day)

Thankful

No matter when we are praying, whether it is at night, at meal time, or just because, Mallory's prayers always start out the same. Dear God, Thank you for this food.....

Fundraising

Jack came home with his first school fundraiser. Argh! I really don't like these things. Most people would probably be more willing to just donate 10, 20, or 50, dollars to the school than to sift through a magazine filled with stuff they really don't need or want. I really don't like going to neighbors, friends, and family to ask them to look through the book while we are standing right there and ask them to make a decision about buying something. Talk about guilt tripping people into buying stuff.

So I'm going to get you to buy stuff you don't need by taking a different approach...lol. There is a website you can go to, to look at the stuff Jack is selling for his school. This way you can look at it at your own leisure without someone staring over your shoulder pressuring you to buy something. I really don't care if you never look at the website or don't buy anything. I just feel guilty not putting forth any effort when they send these things home.

The website is www.believeholidays.com It will ask you what school you are supporting. Scroll down to Jenks West Elementary. It will send you into the "catalog" section of the site. If you find something you CAN'T live without let me know and we will order it.

Gymnastics

Mallory started gymnastics today. Hopefully that will help her get her wiggles out. She seemed to really enjoy it. She got to go on the balance beam, bar, spring board and did some tumbling.

At the end of the class they each got a tootsie roll. On the way home, she said she loved gymnastics because she got a tootsie roll. Glad that is what I'm paying for her to enjoy...lol . I took the camera but of course the batteries were dead, so I don't have any pictures to post...sorry. We will make sure all cameras are ready to go next Wednesday.

New Life Ranch

Every year our church goes on a Labor Day retreat to New Life Ranch. It is about 2 hours outside of Tulsa, in Colocord, Oklahoma. We have went three times. Every time we love it. This was the first year Dalton and Avery were able to come along and it made it even better.

We got in about 8:30pm on Friday. Just in time for square dancing! The kids danced a little then went and ran around with all the other kids, while Matt and I talked with some friends. On Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast and set out for a full day of activities. We did wacky relay races, canoeing, kayaking, blobbing, swimming, archery, horseback riding, skits, and we got to sleep in a cabinet(cabin) as Mallory called it.

The theme for the weekend was "Going Retro", because our church is celebrating its 30th anniversary in October. Everyone was to come to dinner dressed up in their 70's or 80's outfits for Saturdays dinner. We all dressed up in 70's outfits we wore for the parade this July. After dinner there were skits in the chapel. Our family was asked to help out, so we ended up performing two skits in front of the whole camp....the kids did great and loved it! To close out the night we had a campfire and hayride.

Sunday we had a small church service in the chapel and then went out to the creek for baptisms. After the baptisms we ate lunch and packed up to go home. The kids didn't want to leave and continue informing us they want to live at New Life Ranch.

We can't wait until next year!

(more pictures of our weekend on Flickr)