Cute Kid Pictures

I uploaded a bunch of photos and I just have to post a few of my favorites. The kids are so cute--see for yourself:



1) 'struction workers. Allison's construction worker name is Moe, Jacob's is Fillmore. For whatever reason, I was named "Fear."








2) We decided to experiment and move Allison to a bed (ie. mattress on the floor). She did so well, we have taken down the crib and she's loving her new 'bed'. I think I am an advocate for making the switch earlier than later, but maybe it's different with each kid.










3) Jacob & Allison are becoming the cutest of friends. I love to see them playing together.











4) We were waiting for Tom to pick us up for church after his meeting. I couldn't help but take a picture of them with Allison's fancy accessories she picked out herself. It was hard for her to part with them before we went into the meeting.













5) I just have to show this. I made french bread for the first time! And it turned out so great! I've always been afraid of baking breads, but now I'm branching out and just trying it. We sure scarfed this down right after this picture!











6) Once again, the kids are so cute when they come up with things to play together. Here they are fishing for animals with their tent poles.

Summer Field Trips

No, Jacob didn't get arrested over the summer. He was having a grand old time learning about police cars with real police officers! We went on a field trip with the First 5 organization to the Moorpark Police Station. There were way too many people in our group and the information about the station was over Jacob's head, but as soon as we got to see the vehicles, it was all worth it!

We had to fight our way through the anxious kids and parents to get near this motorcycle. He was on for roughly 1 second before someone else kicked him off. I would have liked for him to see the controls, but hey, at least we got a picture.














The next week we went to the Moorpark College Zoo with First 5. We saw a long show where they introduced many animals.

The Murrays were there too, so Jacob had a great time hanging out with them. I loved watching Camille hold Allison's hand as they walked around.

And the monkeys were fun to watch. They were very active and this one was loud. It really caught Allison's attention.

I am always really glad to have an excuse to go and do things, but through these big group field trips I remembered how much I hate going to events in a big organized group. I would much rather take the kids to see something with a small group of friends or on my own to avoid all the crowds and waiting and having to follow instructions, etc. This also made me realize that I need to gear up for the kids' school field trips that I'll probably end up helping with--then I'll have to get back into the big crazy group mode I thought I had escaped. But it's all good.

Work, Work, Work

Several months ago, Jacob came to us demanding that he have a scooter. He has a trike and felt he was too old for it. I started to consider it, but Tom decided this would be a great learning opportunity for him. So we set up a job plan for him to work to earn it.

He did odd jobs around the house as I needed them done:

window washing, cleaning out the dishwasher, wiping off the table, cleaning toilets, sweeping the outside stairs, washing mirrors, etc. He was capable of so much more than I ever expected! With every job, he got 10 pennies to put in a little jar. Then, we realized that if he was earning money, he should also be paying tithing. So, after learning about tithing, one of the pennies would go into the tithing jar as well. The goal was that as soon as the scooter jar was full of pennies, he could buy a scooter. The process took a lot longer than expected: there's more room in a baby food jar than I thought!

So here is the fruit of his labor! He was so excited to pick it out and then hit the streets to test it out. We discovered a great place to ride: the basketball court at our apartment complex. He goes around and around without me worrying about cars or running into anything else (except for Allison, who is a crazy moving target). He picked out his helmet and insisted on having pads and all his "protective gear," which seems pretty extreme to us, but would it make us bad parents to deny his requests for safety? The first ride after buying pads consisted of several pretend crashes, where he would fall and then say, "Good thing I have my knee pads/gloves!" He's a great rider; we were actually surprised to see his first attempts.

Lucky for Allison, this means that she just got a "new" bike! Jacob was so cute as he passed it on to her. Her legs aren't quite long enough to really ride around, but she can hold her own on it.

And she just had to pretend to be a big kid, so Jacob had a great time dressing her up like a scooter rider like him. Actually, maybe it would be nice to have her like this all of the time, with as many falls as she has in a day.

It's fun to see the kids learning new things! Jacob paid tithing for the first time last week--he was so proud as he handed it to the bishop. He really stepped up to the challenge to earn money and now he knows what hard work can do!