Passed Up

As usual I got passed up by Emma in our yearly mother-daughter book reading competition.  It’s not really a competition because Emma always wins, but it’s still fun nonetheless!  Here are the stats for 2012:

Adrienne: 68 books read for 20,563 pages  Actually, I didn’t do too bad!

Emma: 160 books read for 51,565 pages  Wow!!

I just looked over my list of books read again to pick a favorite.  It’s really hard for me to pick favorite books, but at the definite top of my list would be Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  Emma and I both loved that book.  I asked Emma which book from her list she liked the best and she said “I read A LOT of GOOD books last year!”.  It’s hard for both of us to choose!   At the top of her list though was the Hunger Games series that she and I read out loud together (I had read them all previously).  I love reading books with Emma!  She also started the epic Wheel of Time series this year.  Those are big books and there are way too many of them for me.  She loved the Hourglass Door series, and of course she re-read the Harry Potter books for the millionth time.  To celebrate her win, Emma requested a Dairy Queen Blizzard.

She’s the humble winner!

The book she chose for me to buy her was Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier.  We both read the first book in that series and she was excited to get the second.  Unfortunately, we weren’t as impressed with that one…bummer.

 

Not only did Emma pass me up in reading last year, but she officially passed me up in height also.  Her 5’ 7” looks down on my 5’ 5”.  I may be used to her passing me up in the number of books she reads, but it is totally new to be shorter than your daughter! 

That’s ok.  I look up to Emma in many ways.  I love you Emma Mae!

Bright Idea-January

I love the Bright Idea posters in The Friend magazine.  I thought it would be a good idea for Isaac and Grace to memorize the quotes or scriptures that are on the poster each month.  They were quick to memorize the January Bright Idea.

Memorizing the quote and discussing what it meant must have sunk in.  Several weeks into February, when we had already moved onto the next Bright Idea, we were in the car and Grace asked me how our faith can grow.  I started explaining it to her and used the analogy of a seed and we talked about the things we could do to increase our faith.  As we were talking she interrupted me and said “I know, I know!  Your faith is like a snowball that gets bigger with every turn, just like our testimony!”.  She was so excited and I must admit I was excited at her connection as well.  I think we will keep up the memorization!

Current Evans Events-January

One of Emma’s dreams came true when she got to see ALL the Harry Potter movies at the end of Christmas break.  Tenley and her friend Shelly were more than happy to indulge Emma in a Harry Potter movie marathon.  That’s right, they watched all eight movies in a 22 hour period.  Glad they were willing to do that with her because there is no way I would have made it! 

This picture of Gracie and her Grandpa Mike just cracks me up! 

Isaac’s Ninjago board is still getting a lot of use.  He loves it when Daddy plays with him.

I got a little crafting in this month by making two Valentine’s Day table runners.  I made them in two slightly different ways and I decided next time I will do a combination of those two methods.  I also decided I am definitely not a quilter!

With the help of MyLiege and her Silhouette, I was also able to make the official t-shirts of the FTB Club.  If you want to know more about the FTB Club, I suggest you talk to the members.

The twins and I started a new Book of Mormon chart for our morning reading.  They love filling in the circles each day.  Last year we read a truncated version of the Book of Mormon, this year we are doing the whole thing.  We still do scripture study with Emma in the evenings.  She doesn’t get a chart… :)

Coloring and crafting is still a favorite activity at our house.  Grace’s drawings get more and more intricate and fun to look at. I love this picture because of the brown bear she drew.  Can you see it?  The ears are so cute!

Isaac colors with his tongue hanging out.  Such concentration!  They can each have one printed coloring page a day, Isaac usually chooses Ninjago. He has papered the wall above his bed with a sampling of Ninjago coloring pages. 

We had some fun times with our playgroup in January.  One week we read some of our favorite Pigeon books by Mo Willems.  Then we made handprint pigeons, and yummy buses (for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!).  I love Isaac’s one legged, one eyed pigeon!

We also played with balloons for one playgroup.  We tried several activities and games with the balloons.  I found huge fly swatters that the kids used to bat the balloons around.  Isaac and Grace loved them!  The kids were impressed with the vinegar and baking soda trick to blow up a balloon. 

Preschool for the letter D was at our house.  First we talked about dental health.  We discussed the things that are bad for our teeth and while we did that the kids made marks on a laminated tooth.  Then they they got to brush the yuckies off their tooth with a toothbrush.  Then we made mouths with marshmallow teeth and practiced brushing and flossing them. 

Then we talked about dots and dice.  We played a game with dice that the kids really liked, I was surprised at how well they did counting the dots and writing the numbers they rolled.  After the game we had a dot-themed snack.  Then we talked about dinosaurs and made dinosaur D’s and dinosaur tracks and fossils.  Fun!  Tenley was at our house that day and was a huge help.  It went much faster with her there and the kids got more beloved “recess” time at the end than usual!

Snow Day

We went to Mt. Hood in January for a morning of sledding and playing in the snow.  Isaac and Grace had never been and they were so excited to go to “Mountain Hood”. 

Right when we got there Grace started climbing a little hill of snow.  (I think we were waiting in line for the bathroom and this point, which ended up being where she and I spent most of our time that day…)  She was so proud of herself when she got to the top! 

Once we got all bundled up and ready to go we started the trudge up the hill.

Once at the top Emma and Kaitlyn got right to work.

Isaac took only a little convincing to go down.

He loved it and was always so happy at the bottom!

He quickly figured out it was easier to crawl up the hill than try to walk up.

Gracie was so excited about going sledding…until she got to the top of the hill.  She decided then that she DID NOT want to go down.   

We finally just plopped her on Emma’s lap and sent her down.  She wasn’t too happy at first, but by the time they got to the bottom she was smiling!  It took a little more convincing to get her to go down again with Lee, but look at the smile on her face!

I only got to go down one time. 

Good thing it was a fun run with my Emma Mae!

Unfortunately poor little Gracie had an upset stomach and we spent most of our time going to and from the bathroom.  It’s no fun going up and down the hill, undressing snow gear, and convincing a four year old that it’s ok to go in the nasty bathroom, all while she’s screaming that it’s gross.  After several times of that I realized we weren’t going to be able to stay much longer.  Add to it a certain 13 year old complaining that her feet were soaking wet because of a hole in her boot…we decided to leave a little earlier than we had planned.  Grace hadn’t gotten a chance to make a snow angel, the one thing she really wanted to do in the snow, so she made one right in the parking lot next to our car.

Emma and Kaitlyn were happy to get warm and dry!

Even though our snow day was cut a little short (I guess we should just call it a snow morning), we still had a good time.  It was a nice day on the mountain and it was a beautiful drive there and back, despite the bathroom breaks we had to take…

Derby Cars

Our ward had an informal family pinewood derby.  On the Sunday it got announced in Primary, Isaac talked about it the entire day and peppered us with questions that entire week.  He was so excited and could not wait to make a “derby car”.  Good thing we were able to go because he would have been crushed if we had to miss it!  All his excitement rubbed off on Grace and she got pretty pumped about it also.  I turned the project completely over to Lee.  Isaac and Grace told him the look they wanted for their cars (they both wanted a Lightning McQueen shape) and he went to a friend’s wood shop to do all the shaping.  He let them choose the color for their cars and how they wanted to decorate them.  Grace wanted pink with sparkly jewels and Isaac wanted a light blue car with stripes.  When Lee took them to the craft store to find Gracie’s jewels, Isaac saw some Star Wars stickers and changed his mind about the stripes right then and there!  Lee was happy to comply and let him change to the much simpler design.  So, meet Tom and Flower Car.  We have no idea how or why Isaac came up with the name Tom for his car, but he was very insistent that was its name! Tom was a little on the light side so needed a lucky coin to help him down the track.  Nothing fancy, but perfect cars for four year olds.

Isaac and Grace helped graphite the wheels before we left for the church.

Oh boy were they excited! 

Grace put the jewels on Flower Car all by herself, look how symmetrical it is!

What a fun time the kids had watching their cars race down the track.  Isaac was very into the whole thing.  This made Lee a little nervous and he hoped that Tom would win at least one heat! 

Tom came through.  He held his own and finished up towards the top.  Flower car held her own as well.  Isaac and Grace were both thrilled and enjoyed the Pinewood Derby.  They are already planning their derby cars for next year…