Parent Teacher Conferences

This afternoon the girls had parent teacher conference. They are both doing really well in their classes. Ashley is getting A+'s in math and spelling/reading. She missed one spelling word on her last test. Emma is doing really well. She is advanced for her class, (yes Emma) I was a little surprised myself. The teacher said she is bored a lot and she is trying to find things to make Emma work harder. Emma needs that, she is allergic to hard work! She is doing good except she hit a little boy yesterday right in the face. I had her write him a note to tell him she was sorry. I told the teacher that I was concerned about her hitting, she told me that it was more like a "love" tap. Emma does talk about him quite often, so maybe she was flirting? Oh I don't even want to be going there already!! I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with my girls progress in school. We are having ice cream tonight to celebrate a good job!

Ashley's Piano Lesson

Ashley started piano lessons yesterday. She did very well on her first lesson. She is very excited, and very shy. She told me 'I didn't hardly say any words' and she didn't. We played 'quietly' (yeah right) while she had her lesson. I was actually really surprised at how well she remembers things. I went over her book with her back in August and taught her a few things but I haven't really done much with it since. She has practiced in it almost daily, but I haven't helped her at all. I just hope she stays excited about it, I think she will do really well.

My little climber

Claire decided to get out of her high chair all by herself, she climbed out of her seat, onto her tray and up to the table, fun huh! Luckily I came in just in time before she fell off of the table. (I had Ashley hold on to her while I grabbed the camera) I have never had a child escape from the high chair, I don't think it even has a seat belt, and I have used the same high chair for all of my kids! One of my "safe places" for her is no longer safe. Earlier today she climbed out of the walker and was sitting on the tray, CRAZY, not even Justin pulled stunts on me like this! I have my bathroom door shut, which is in my bedroom, my bedroom door shut, the kids bathroom door shut, and a gate at the stairs so pretty much the whole house is off-limits to Claire, and quite baby proof, and safe....you would think?

And the Harvest continues

Ryan is still working hard at potato harvest. We have been going for 3 weeks and plan on at least 2 more, and then sugar beets after the potatoes are done. So I would say that we are right in the thick of it. I cant wait for the potatoes to be done so he wont have to drive to Arco anymore. Here are a couple pictures from our Friday night get away to Arco; (and yes that is Claire unrolling the TP again!)It wasn't as fun as last weekend, they have moved over to a different cellar and so the camper is 10 minutes from where Ryan is working right now. So we didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted to with him, but it was still fun. Paige and Mark had us all over for some yummy homemade fries and hamburgers. She was joking us all that she bought the potatoes from the grocery store, her husband about died! She was only teasing!

Grandma's birthday party!

We celebrated Grandma Telford's birthday on Sunday, (this is normal for the Telford family to celebrate birthdays late), I am still trying to train my husband to think that birthdays should be celebrated on the day that they happen, (and we usually do, at 9:30 at night.) OK, OK, this is not a nag on my husband post, We had a fun little party with cousins and cake and ice cream. It was fun to play and visit. Here are some fun and silly pictures from the little get together.

Blowing out the candles.

Grandma opening presents, with a LITTLE help!

Normal cousins

Silly cousins

Claire's 1st Birthday

It happened, my baby turned 1! I am not having a day of rejoicing, I want her to stay a baby forever, why do they have to grow up? Here she is September 24, 2007, 7pounds 3 ounces, the doctor said she looks like a shiny new penny, and she did!

Now today, September 24, 2008 she is a whopping 19 lbs and looks more like strawberry shortcake! She has the BEST hair ever, it never ceases to amaze me!

Here she is 'opening' a story book from Grandma Nielson (and Papa) She didn't actually do any opening, that is what big sisters and brothers are for!

A new pony bike! Yeah, She was so thrilled with herself, her face says it all!

Yum, Yum, she gobbled up her whole cupcake! We partied at 9:30 at night, Ryan came home 'Early' I'm not kidding, that is at least an hour earlier than normal. Everyone was SO tired, Claire was crawling around like a zombie fussing. I think they each had one bite of cake and went to bed. What a fun little girl, we are so blessed to have such a happy, healthy little princess. We love our Claire!

Happy Birthday Grandma Telford

Happy Birthday to Ryan's Mom! What a wonderful woman she is! We are so blessed to have her in our lives, and I couldn't ask for a better mother in law. She has taken care of us and our kids numerous times. She is such a giving and kind person. She has a heart of gold, she truly is an example of Christ like love. We love you so much Shannon, thank you for all that you do for us! We hope you had a happy day!

Claire's Favorite Blankie?

Justin did not want to share his blankie, and Claire knows a good blankie when she sees one. She has yet to select her FAVORITE blankie, the rest of the kids all have had a favorite so I am sure she will be no different. I just hope she doesn't select Justin's as her favorite, that wouldn't be good! WARNING: My filming is Horrible, I cant hold still and it is pretty fuzzy, don't view on an already queasy stomach!

Fall is here

It is cold and windy today. I think Fall is officially here. We enjoyed the warm weather last week though, that was nice. I am worried that Ryan is going to ask me to get out his coveralls and they are going to be too worn out to wear to work. I need to get some new ones before he asks for them. I finally got to that shelf that I bought from the second hand store (it was $5.50, pink and gold, and not put together) it turned out really cute;

My sister Trish sent me some new vinyl for fall, the blocks turned out really cute. I have been enjoying Joys blog, she has some good ideas and I love coping them! I saw this next project at Michaels, they were selling them for 30 bucks, I made mine for $8. It is a sunflower topiary, I think it is fun for Fall. It looks crooked in the picture but it really is straight!

I need to get my creativity going on my house now, it is SO lacking! I really want to re-paint EVERYTHING. I just cant find the motivation. I think it is the cool weather, makes me want to curl up and hibernate, do you think that would work, I would like that, at least through harvest time!

Our over-nighter in Arco

We went on a little camping trip up to Arco. Ryan has been working up there this past week (he will probably be up there at least 3 more) So we decided to go and stay the night Friday night and we spent Saturday helping with potatoes. The camper is right next to the cellar so that was fun to be really close to work, for a day at least. Emma was disappointed when I pointed the camper out to her. She said "that is where we are camping?" I think she was expecting a REAL camp out, not on the farm right next to the cellar. It was still fun anyway we watched some movies and picked clods, and watched some more movies, as big as the camper is, it gets pretty small after a day and a half in it, but we were grateful to be in out of the rain. I don't think it has rained once this summer and it poured rain Friday night and Saturday most of the day. It was a nice sound to wake up to in the middle of the night. It slowed down the digging though, we only dug a load and a half before it got too muddy. We had a good time and were all very tired and DIRTY after we got home Saturday night. Ryan is probably going to spend a few nights this week up there, it is a hard drive late at night, and early in the morning, I hope I can endure these horribly long harvest days, yuck, I just don't like them! I don't think we will get to stay up this weekend we have other things we have to do at home but we will see, maybe if we get to go to Pickles Place again we will consider it! ha ha

What's up with Claire and the toilet paper?

Claire is into the TP. It is cute and fun the first 3 times, but after that I am not thinking it is quite as cute. The worst part is, is that I am not even exaggerating we have lost 5 rolls of TP this week alone!!! You would think that I would have learned quicker, and yes this is my fourth kid, the other three did it too, but Claire has by far been the worse. She heads straight for the bathroom every time I put her down. The doors are all closed but there are other people in this house who forget to keep them closed at all times. I usually just re-roll the roll, I know sounds gross, but I am cheep when it comes to TP, but this time Justin took care of it for me. I ran to get the camera and when I got back Justin was "cleaning up" the mess for me. (remember this is the WHOLE roll)I am so lucky to have so many good helpers!! I was able to get most of it out of the toilet, yes using my hand, GROSS! Before I was a mom I could have NEVER done that, but now I am much more TOUGH, or something, Im not sure?? Anyway, I guess it is time to baby proof the house, AGAIN. I love being a MOMMY!

Sundays = Jello

It is a family tradition at our house to have jello with Sunday dinner we always have it no matter what, my family always had it and Ryan's family always had it and so the tradition continues with us. It is the BEST job to get to put the whipped cream on top (as if jello wasn't sugary enough already, I know, I know...) Justin got to have his turn this time. Can you tell why it is the best job? I am pretty sure there is more on his face than there is on the Jello, Oh well, YUM YUM!!

Emma's Field trip to the Farm

Emma went on her first field trip in Kindergarten. She had a great time and wasn't at all disappointed that it was a trip out to our own potato field. They got to learn about where their food comes from and even got to pick some potatoes to take home to their families. Emma was so excited to bring home potatoes that she picked herself. It was a little bit of a funny sight to see the school bus out in the middle of a potato field;

I am sure glad that our teachers are teaching them that food doesn't just "come from the store" and that 'potatoes don't grow on trees', a girl in Ashley's class asked Ashley that after She took a funny potato in to show and tell. I think my girls were born to be farmers, they love it as much as their dad. It was a super fun field trip for Emma!

Emma is Special Person

Emma got to be the special person for the day in Kindergarten! How lucky is she!! She was so excited to take treats to her class and to be the line leader. Kindergarten is the BEST!!

A birthday party

Claire, (and the rest of us) got invited to a birthday party for Lailauni, she is 1! It was a nice day at the park and the kids had lots of fun running around and eating yummy food and birthday cupcakes! Claire is getting all practiced up for her big day that is coming soon!! What a fun 1 year old party! Happy Day Lailauni!!

Lailauni, Ashley, Emma, Claire, Mathew, Whitney, and Justin

WOW there's a load!

We finished potatoes here and now are moving up to Arco to harvest up there. We had to take a bunch of BIG loads up, it is not just a little trip either it is 60 miles and normally takes an hour to drive, but not when you only go 40 miles per hour, or less, it took more like 2+ hours . It was a little scary, but not to bad. I was glad I wasn't driving!

This is a picture of our shadow, we thought that was funny!

We had a good visit with our dad and did lots of singing all the way there. We forgot to take any DVDs to watch on the way, can you imagine a trip with out a movie, that is SO old fashioned. Our poor kids (and Mom and Dad) had to use our imaginations to keep ourselves entertained instead!

Mark and Paige's big load

Grandpas brand new pickup broke down a mile before the farm (thankfully) Here is Cody pulling Grandpa, who is pulling a load of potato equipment, we were quite the train!

The best part of the whole trip, (maybe even the best part of Arco????) Pickles Place, it is a little home town resteraunt either it was really good or we were really STARVING!!

Bath time

I was putting Claire in the sink for a bath, (which I do in the sink occasionally), it isn't so back breaking. Then I thought I could get Justin in there too and get this done quick. It was fun....but I probably wont ever do it again, He dumped cupS full of water on my floor...duh he does this in the tub sometimes, but it is worse on the kitchen floor. Anyway it was still fun. Emma wanted to get in REALLY bad, she kept saying 'I know I could fit in that sink mom.' It is hard to not be the baby anymore.

Emma took these last two pictures, the one of Claire is DARLING I think, maybe Emma needs to give me a few pointers on picture taking....

Twins?

Ashley and Emma get asked if they are twins all the time, just yesterday in fact! I think it must be because they are the same size because I don't see that they look much alike other than that. Today they wore the same outfit to school, except backwards. They thought they were pretty cool this morning and so I took their picture. Ashley said, 'you can post that one on your blog mom' Thanks for the approval Ash!

Sisters

What do you do when your 11 month old sister borrows your clothes? I was getting Claire and Justin ready for bed in Justin's room and Justin didn't want to quit playing, so when he looked up he was unpleasantly surprised to see his baby sister in his jammies. He is either going to learn quickly to get dressed when I ask or else put a lock on his dresser... I am sure it is just the beginning of a never ending battle....at least it was for my big brother!