Playing Jacks

I think Launa is winning!

The kids got some jacks from Grandma June. She was teaching Lance how to play correctly.

Miss Photogenic

We try and try, but this girl is hard to take a picture of.

At Papa's house

With Lukie

Just the girls

Family Pictures

In our backyard.

On the steps at June's in Prescott.

Lukas is 6

It's so hard to believe that my Lukas is already six.

We went to Prescott for the day. Lukas got a guitar from Grandma June (Lance's grandmother)

We went to Chili's with Papa on Monday for his actual birthday.

Samuel

Samuel loves to play on the computer. If he had his choice he would sit there all day.

Launa

Looking outside for Drue.
Sporting a sweater vest.
Waiting for mom to get off the phone.

These are some pictures that I took today and one last night (her sleeping in the highchair).

New Outfit

I have been sewing again. This time for Launa. The outfit turned out better than I thought.
Thought I would add another picture since she rarely gets in any of the pictures with the other kdis. Her mouth is always open in pictures because as soon as she sees the camera is says "Cheeeeeeeese" and doesn't stop until you put the camera away.
View of the back. And of her trying to figure out how to get into that chair. Her newest thing in climbing into chairs. I found her at my computer about a week ago.

Isabel's 13

This is from Nov. 4th. Isabel turned 13 and the girls made a birthday cake.

A Wiggly Chair

Watching some TV, snacking on some goldfish.I bought Samuel a Wiggles chair this weekend. We were at Big Lots in search of a picture for the bathroom (which I found) and he saw the box for this. He said, "My Wiggles." He didn't even know what it was. I showed him the picture and he decided he wanted it. He said, "I buy this. I go home and put in loft and watch the Wiggles." So, I bought him a Wiggles video and he came home and sat in his chair and watched the Wiggles. When I went to put him to bed he said he didn't want to go to bed, he wanted to sit in his chair. I think he would have slept in it if I would have allowed him to. A full week with NO accidents...the boy deserves a Wiggles chair!

Field Day

Samuel Straddle Jumping
Juggling
Drue Dribbling
Lukas Dribbling
Lukas Straddle Jumping

I just figured out how to get more than 4 pictures on here and how to type in between the pictures. What a day!!!!

Anyway, the kids participated in their first field day on Thursday. They had such a good time. In addition to these events, they chipped and putted golf balls, threw baseballs, punted and threw footballs, kicked and juggled soccer balls, shot free throws and ran a 60 meter dash. They were worn out! The coaches said Drue had a good golf swing for such little experience. She accredited that to her Granddaddy. She also thought it was neat that one of the coaches was a golf pro just like Granddaddy. Sorry Dad, I had to explain what a golf pro was! Lukas was a little intimidated at first with all the sports on such an older kid level, but did a wonderful job. His best event was the chipping. He was to closest to getting a ball in the bucket. And he did that twice. The coaches were most impressed with Samuel's athletic ability. They named him "Slammin' Sam" after seeing his impressive basketball skills. He did almost as well and Lukas in many of the events and maybe a little better in a few. I think he could have hit the golf ball if he had a really small club. Launa participated in some events, though her favorite was the 60 meter dash. She plays "ready, set, go" at home and when she heard the coach yell that she took off running. I think they completed two races while she was running. She didn't care. She laughed the whole way.

All in all it was a wonderful time and the kids spent hours today practicing for the next field day. The coaches encouraged the moms to keep up with the practice as the kids can get scholarships!

GrowlingToo cool!
Taking a break.BIG GIRL!

The kids are outside everyday. The weather is just perfect. As you can see, Launa has learned to climb to the top of the play structure. She just needs to figure out how to get down!

Flower Girls

Took a few pictures outside of the girls smelling flowers.

My little builders

The kids went to Lowe's today and made fire trucks out of wood. They have a workshop every second Saturday so we thought we would check it out today. They had so much fun. Launa had to stay in the stroller. She checked out the lawn mowers on display while we built.
Next time they will get Lowe's aprons and each time they complete a project they get a patch. We will take pictures with the aprons when we get them. They ran out today. There were tons of kids there.
Drue built hers 95% by herself, Lukas 50% and Samuel about 10%. He wore his safety goggles for a while. He kept randomly grabbing the hammer and hammering things, so it had to be under constant supervision for the rest of the time.

The Zoo

We visited the Wildlife World Zoo by the house today with our school group. The kids were so excited. When we told Samuel we were going to the zoo he said, "I lub monkeys." As I put him to bed tonight he said, "I go to zoo again."
Lukas enjoyed feeding the giraffes. One licked his hand. Drue chose not to feed them. She is not as adventurous as the boys. Samuel took his picture beside an emu. He is singing so his mouth is open. The Wiggles have a song that says, "Mooove like an emu moves." That is what he was singing while I was trying to take the picture. The boy LOVES the Wiggles!
We took our friend Isabel as she is on Fall Break this week and thinks she should be at our house whenever she is not in school. She has become our 5th child. She goes home during the school week and spends the weekends and school holidays with us. Drue loves having a "big sister" around. They were in the middle of the aligator tank when Lukas slipped in, bumped Drue's leg and scared her.
There is another family from church that are involved with AZVA and they walked with us at the zoo. They have a 5 and 3 year old daughter. Each of our kids, besides Launa who stayed in the stroller, had someone to hang out with. It was a wonderful day.

What's Happening

Well, my original intention was to blog each week. That has not been happening. I have tried to only blog when we have some interesting pictures and stories to tell. However, I just realized that sometimes I just like reading about what is going on in the lives of the other bloggers I read. So, this will just be an update of all of us and then I will post pictures from our trip to the zoo.
Drue and Lukas are moving right along in their schooling. Drue should be complete 4th grade and Lukas complete 1st grade by January. Drue was just involved in a writing class with other AZVA students on Monday. She enjoyed being with other kids her age and a teacher in a regular class like setting. It was only a 3 hour class though. And they were allowed snacks while the teaching was going on. She completed a weeks worth of writing assignments in a 3 hour period. Nice for me. Fun for her. Lukas hasn't participated in one as he doesn't really show an interest. He went with Dad that day to get the car fixed. It was good for both of them. Lukas earned $5 picking up dog poop for Papa at the shop. (Our life sounds so glorious!) He was so excited. I later found out that he only picked up a few pieces and made his cousin Nick do most of the work. Hopefully, Nick made more than $5.
Samuel is doing so well on the potty. He still struggles sometimes with using the potty in other places, but if bribed with enough candy, he will do it. No accidents at home and he has mastered both functions on the potty. (So much poop talk in our life.) Samuel has also mastered the computer. School goes so much easier for the rest of us since he has learned to find his own websites and play every game. He loves the Wiggles and PBS websites. It's amazing how much that boy can do with a computer at 2 years old.
Launa has developed a temper and a love for picking on Samuel. She has discovered that biting and scratching him is a great way to keep him off of her, for a few minutes anyway. While waiting for Drue to complete her writing class, Launa laid on the concrete kicking and screaming for about 15 minutes. I was sooooo proud!!! In this past week she has started trying to talk. We were watching and Old McDonald had a Farm video and she said /k/ for cow and a really wierd noise that ended in /k/ for "oink". I think she said "duck" today at the zoo. She is changing so much everyday.
Lance and I are hanging in there. We don't really do anything too exciting. Cook a little food, discipline a kid, take a nap (in shifts), read, have a quick conversation between the preceding things. That is our life in a nutshell. I am in the process of planning another road trip to Florida. Our hope is to be there the last 2 weeks in December. We will try to hit a few attractions, friends, and family along the way. We are also trying to find an affordable motorhome to purchase to make the trip a little easier. We will have to get some schooling in along the way and a table in the back would make it a lot nicer. I found a Wiggles indoor playland in Texas just outside of Dallas. I think that is a definate stopper! Lance was not as excited as the rest of us.
I think that is all. I will now post pictures and a few words about the zoo. Of course, it will be on top of this one.
I will try to get back to once a week updates although they may not include pictures.

Lego Club

The older two have joined the Lego Club with the virtual academy. We meet once a month and the kids get into teams and build assigned items with Legos. These are some creations they made at home before our first meeting.
Lukas' is the one with the red and white striped building. Drue's house has flowers in front.

2 Babies

Whenever we are holding Launa and Samuel wants to be held, he says "Two Babies". That means to hold both of them. Or if we are coming down the steps and carry them both he says "Two Babies". Here is a moment when they are playing nicely (without physical contact) on the couch. Normally they love to wrestle, sword fight each other or play chase around the house. She will be the toughest girl in town.

Just Like Lukie

Samuel is becoming a "big boy". He has been transplanted into a big boy bed and is using the potty (most of the time). His new favorite saying is "Just like Lukie". On this morning he insisted that I pour milk in his cereal (he usually eats it dry) just like Lukie.
Here is a photo of him and his big brother. Notice how close he feels he has to sit to Lukas. Lukas is learning the responsiblity of being a good example.

Prescott, again!

Well, we visted Prescott again. This may become an ongoing thing. Lance's grandmother moved up there just over a week ago and she has plenty of room for us to stay. The kids love hiking and searching for animals around her house. We only have stray cats in our neighborhood. Lukas went out on an adventure by himself at dusk and found a deer. It was "from this corner to that corner" away. That is how far he told us and Grandma. I think if was probably 20ft or so. He was scared and starting running and screaming. He came in the house and when he calmed down, told us he saw the deer. We all ran to the window and there she was. I was quite an experience. Don't see a deer in the backyard everyday. (Although, once I saw some in my backyard, but no one believed me!!!!!!)

County Fair

We visited the Yavapai County Fair in Prescott Valley on Friday. The kids had so much fun. They rode rides, saw farm animals, watched a sheep get sheared and a show by Ranger Rick from Animal Planet. Even Launa got to join in on the rides (she's on the bus). She laughed everytime the other kids would come around on the motorcycles.
They had an exhibit where the kids could be "farmer for a day". This is all of them collecting eggs from the chickens. (No, the chickens aren't real) The fair seems so much more fun when you're the parent!!!
Thanks Papa. I still remember going to fair with my grandparents.