Gabi Reading

I have tried for the last month to get these uploaded. I kept getting errors each time. Luckily, it worked tonight. Our little girl is growing up so fast. This summer she learned to read. And not simple books. She is a great reader...and is only 4! She is a bright little girl!

This is the Dr. Seuss' book 'I Don't Want to be a Bunny." We came home from the library and she read the entire book to me. That is when I realized she really was reading.

This is Gabi reading a book that Rachel and Jason gave Kai for his birthday. It is one of the kids' favorite books.

Gabi started her second year of preschool. We switched her to the neighborhood school because it was more days a week and for longer hours. Plus, it is at the end of our court, so I can just pack the boys in the stroller and we are there within 2 minutes. Thanks to Rachel, I am able to go in about once a month to help out in her class. She has had fun meeting new friends. Here are a couple videos and pictures from the last month.

This was actually the day before school started. The teacher had a day where they come to make crafts and things and meet the teacher. The theme of the classroom this year is the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Here Gabi made her snack...a palm tree out of graham crackers, apples and grapes.

This is their place mat. They got to use water color paints and paint it and then the teacher laminated them, and that is what they use each day for snack time. Cute idea!

Gabi asked me to take this picture. They have a kid sized bathroom. Everything is on their level. How fun for them!

In front of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree.

Everyday the kids get to pick two centers that they want to play at. You can bet every day Gabi is at the play house. She loves it!

This is Gabi and her good friend Joseph from church. We also do play groups with him once a week. It was nice that she got to start a new school with a friend.

This was from the first day of school.

Gabi sporting her new glasses for this year. This year we went with plastic frames...maybe they won't get bent up as fast. We will see! I think these ones are adorable on her! She has two pairs, brown and purple.

Gabi's first day of school interview. Turn your head to see it properly. :)

This was Gabi's first homework assignment. They have been talking about disguises. They were to take a pumpkin and make it into something (really just cover it with a disguise). From the start Gabi had been telling me she wanted to do a flower. We forgot about it all weekend and this morning two hours before school mommy found the paper saying it was due today. So, we quickly came up with this. I did the cutting, Gabi did all the glueing, and did a lot of the green stem. It was a fun project for us to do together.

Here is a video of Gabi explaining her project. I can't figure out how to rotate it, so for now tilt your head to the side. :)

I had to sneak a picture of Kai in there. He has been pretty mellow during the day when Gabi is at school. Maybe now he will start talking since Gabi isn't home to talk for him. :)

Updated kids and cousins

Just a quick post to show you how big the kids have grown this summer.

We have gone each week with Brayden and Auntie Rachel to a different splash park and park. Here are the three cousins together on the slide. A minute before Kai was pushing Brayden down the slide. This was about as good as we got!

We have been up a few times to see baby Hannah at Grandma and Papa's house. Hannah will be 2 months old next week. Koa will be 6 months. He has her by quite a bit! :) We try to do these cousin shots each time we are up there. Kai had to be bribed with candy to sit there.

Good, Better, Best

Good, Better, Best

Never let it Rest,

Until your Good is Better,

And your Better is Best.

This year's project on the house occurred in the kitchen. These were projects that we knew we would have to tackle when we moved in two years ago, and have finally gotten to them.

The people we bought this home from had two huge dogs, thus the doggy door. We do not have dogs anymore, so we did not need the door. All it did was let in the cold air in the winter.

Good:We got a new door, without the doggy door. Otherwise it is pretty much the same door, except the blinds are inside the door. We still need to paint the door.

Whoever thought white linolium was a good idea did not have kids! I had to mop the floor at least every other day, and still it did not come clean. I eventually tried a magic eraser and that would work, but there is no way I'm getting on my hands and knees to clean the floor several times a week.

Better:

To replace the floors, we went with Pergo laminate floors. So far, they have been much easier to clean, and they are NOT white! Even better!

The last poorly designed aspect of our kitchen was white countertops. It had stains from Hawaiian Punch, scratches, etc.

Best:
We changed the countertops to quartz. They look like granite, but they are easier to take care of. They don't need to be sealed, they don't chip, stain, etc.

Here is an up close view of the countertops. Nathan and I are going to attempt to put in our own backsplash eventually. We are thinking the glass mosaic tiles. These are the same ones that are in our bathroom. That will be another post!

Just a few pics to catch up...

Koa is very rapidly getting big. He turns 4 months old today, and I think he is around 15 pounds. He is wearing 6-9 month clothes. That is a big difference from the little preemie sized baby that came home with us! Koa sleeps every night from about 8:30pm to between 9-9:30 am. He is a fantastic sleeper, and does not get up to eat in the middle of the night. We are very spoiled with him! More pictures will be updated soon!

Gabi still loves holding her brother.

Koa spends a lot of time in his bouncer. As long as he can see you, he is a happy camper.

He is already making cooing noises. He is a lot of fun.

He wasn't sure what to think about the Bumbo seat the first time we put him in it. He is getting better now. He also enjoys his saucer.

Talented Sister

My oldest sister Heather is a very talented crocheter (is that even a word?) When Gabi was born she made her a Winnie the Pooh blanket. When we had Kai she asked us what character we wanted, so he got a Tigger blanket. By then I think she was sick of making these blankets. Then I had Koa. We could either pick between Piglet or Eyeore. We picked Eyeore. I think it is my favorite of them all. I love the blue and brown combination. My kids absolutely love their blankets. Here are a few pictures taken a while ago. Don't you agree these are the coolest blankets?

4 year old and 4 month old pictures

For Nathan's birthday I surprised him with some pictures of the kids. This is what we were able to get. Kai was not a happy camper, so he was only in one shot.

Our little girl is growing up so fast!

You can't tell, but the only way we could get this shot was to have Kai throw a baseball at the back drop, watch it roll off, and then he would laugh. At least we got one picture!

Koa is already 4 months old.

Kai was supposed to be sitting on the other side of Koa, but he would not sit down. So, Gabi and Koa got to get their picture taken together. I really wanted the boys together, and even had matching outfits on them. Oh well! :)

Gabi's traditional number 4 birthday picture.

This is Koa in his blessing outfit. My friend Theresea from teaching made him his outfit. She made all the kids their blessing outfits. They are very special to us.

Sitting up in his blessing outfit. If you can't tell, Koa is a very happy, smiley, content baby!

Summer of Give-Aways!

You will notice on the sidebar I have a new icon. My cousin Danyelle hosts a blog that has weekly give-aways. This week the give away are some great hand puppets that kids will love! Check out her blog!

http://queenoftheclan.blogspot.com/

Easter 2009

We have had a busy couple of days. Here are a few things that we have been able to do this week while Nathan was on spring break.

We went and met the Easter bunny. There always seems to be one kid that isn't happy to see either the Easter Bunny or Santa. This year was Kai!

We still got the pictures just to prove to him when he is older how silly he acted when meeting the Easter Bunny! :) Even Gabi doesn't look too sure! Koa is content. He is being held by a fuzzy creature!

We got the kids pictures taken together. Gabi loves holding her little brother!

Gabi still loves to pose for pictures. She will be turning 4 in less than a month. She is getting so big!

We missed Kai's 2 year old pictures because of Koa being born early. So better late than never, here are Kai's 2 year old pictures.

Having Kai hold these trucks was the only way he would take the picture. It is still very cute.

Recently Kai has thought it was funny anytime someone sneezes. He will make fake sneeze sounds and just crack up. That is what we had to have the photographer do to get him to smile. Hopefully he will outgrow this stage!

Gabi wanted to take a picture with these fairy wings. She was very excited.

Koa is turning 2 months old this week. These are his first pictures.

Awake picture.

The kids and I made a Easter Bunny House.

Kai did really good at the beginning putting the gum drops on the walkway...then he just started eating the candy.

Gabi showing off her project. She did all the candies around the doors, windows, and roof.

Before Kai would pose for this picture he had to check to see if there were any candies left in the blue bowl.

Last week I put french braids in Gabi's hair. When we took them out her hair was cinky and he kept saying that it looked like Auntie Em's hair, and that she wanted curly hair again when she saw Emi. So, for the first time we tried sponge rollers in her hair. Look below to see how it turned out.

All her hair ready to go. Now she just needs to sleep with them in.

Opening up Easter baskets in the morning.

Kai checking out his basket.

Gabi got a new ball to play with out back.

Kai got a new ATV car. Later in the day he was trying to ride on it. It was pretty funny.

Family all together after church.

Gabi after church in her new dress Grandma got her.

Wow, curly!! I don't remember my hair ever being this curly when my mom would put sponge rollers in my hair. Gabi's hair was just tight tight curls.

As we got to church, Gabi told Grandma, "Look! I look like Annie and Auntie Em." Gabi likes the movie Annie.

The family put together an egg hunt for the kids. Kai had an interesting way to play...

He would look to see if he could open the egg, and then would stop and eat the candy. After he got some candy, he wasn't too worried about looking for more eggs.

Gabi was very excited to look for the eggs.

"Look mom, I got a Diego egg."

Eating more candy.

Check out Gabi's cute hair bows. I made them this morning before church to match her dress. They happened to match her outfit also.

Kai spending some time with his favorite uncle, Michael. (No offense other uncles!) They are walking Lolo.

Kai walking Lolo all by himself. Such a big boy!

All wiped out on the way home.

Another wiped out little kid!

A third wiped out kid = A very quiet car ride home!

Our little Easter present this year.

Obviously he was bored with me taking so many pictures. Look at that big yawn!

This was Gabi stalling to go to bed. Still super curly hair!