Our cute kids

Our kids aren't up to much lately. They just are so darn cute. Olivia is showing off her new Sunday outfit she got from Grandma Doolittle and Garrett is in his favorite hide-and-go-seek hiding place in our hall closet.

Happenings

There are several things going on right now.

1. My babysitter is pregnant and told me she couldn't watch Garrett any more do to some complications she was having. The good news is that the lady who was going to help me when she had her baby said she was more than willing to help me out early. We fell so blessed.

2. I can not connect to the internet, or any of the school connections things at my school. So I can't print, download my grades, etc. I told my tech about the problem and she said that on the place where you plug in a wire that there is a peg missing and that that was why it would not work. This made no sense to me since I can connect to the internet at home. She said that in order to fix the problem it could cost anywhere from $200-$800 to fix the problem. She then said that I had to pay for this out of my own money. First of all my computer is four years old and not even worth very much money and second of all we are talking about something that is normal wear and tear. I told her I would give her back my computer and she could come up with a different way for me to my grades because I was not paying that money for a computer that isn't even mine to own. She said we would have to talk about opptions. I was so MAD!!!

3. Garrett is still being a pill about eating. He seems to win every night. We don't give in and give him anything else to eat but it is a battle every night. It makes both Jeremy and I frustrated.

4. Olivia is loving kindergarten. Kids got to sign up for a color and on the day of their color they got to bring treats. I was one of the last ones to sign up so we go the color gray. There is not a lot of things that you can buy that are gray. We decided to make a book called "What's Gray." Olivia came up with the words and helped pick the pictures from clip art and we made each kid in her class a book. She was so excited. She a gave a copy of the book to the librian and the other kindergarten teacher. Her teacher said she used it as a shared reaading. We now read this book at home a lot. It goes like this.

What's Gray
by Olivia Brunner

Are dolphin gray?
Yes, dolphins are gray.

Are paper clips gray.
Yes, a paper clips are gray.

Are mice gray?
Yes, mice are gray.

Are rainclouds gray?
Yes, rainclouds are gray?

Are Rhinos gray?
Yes Rhinos are gray.

Are hippos gray?
Yes, hippos are gray.

Are polar bears gray?
No, Polar bears are white.

4. Jeremy is now a scout leader. When he was called to this calling they said he would be doing activities with the boys once a week. What they didn't mention all the other meetings he has to go to also. He has something at least twice a week and sometimes they even have Saturday activites. He keeps busy with the calling. I am trying to be supportive.

5. I have been doing the ward newsletter for a year a half now. I thougth that I was doing a pretty good job. Just this last month the Bishop asked my supervisor to tell me that I now have to submit it to him a week before I print it so that he can approve what I put in there. This was a little upsetting because it now seems they don't trust me even though I've been doing it a long time.

6. I got a letter from the school nurse saying that Olivia was missing one shot and it needed to be taken care of by Monday, Sept. 25 or she may not be able to go to school until she does. Jeremy and I both have been really sick and haven't even thought about it but today, Friday 22nd we will finally go in and get it done so Olivia can keep going to school.

7. Garrett has become really independent lately. He likes to TRY to dress himself and pick out his own clothes. He often says "I do it" This is one of his first sentences. In the last month or so he has really started talking more and we can understand him. This was a great relief to us because we worried about this for a while.

8. I have 12 freezer meals in the freezer ready to go. : ) Now I won't have to cook for 12 meals and the clean up is throw the disposal pan away. I really like doing freezer recipes. If you have any good ones I would love to have them.

These are a few of the happening of our life.

What a day

Well, Thursday was our school's "Walk to School Day." I"m not quite sure why since the International Walk to School Day is next month. Anyway, I live about 13 miles from my school I wasn't about to walk the whole way. My principal was planning on driving to the school early and having her son drive her back home so she could walk from her house and have a car at the school to drive home in. I decided to drive to a grocery store near the boundary of my school and walk in from there. It turns out my principal's car was broken so she arranged for her son to pick her up and she just walked to the school. Needless to say, neither of us had a car at school on Thursday. It wasn't too bad until we realized we needed to go to a meeting off-site. So, after I walked 30 minutes to school and my principal walked 2 hours, then we had to walk to the police department 5 blocks away for our meeting. Once we got back to the school we found out there were 5 fights while we were gone. Then of course we had faculty meeting after school so I didn't leave my school until around 5pm. By then it was raining, and oh yeah, I still had to walk 30 minutes back to my car. I tried bumming a ride to my car, but I didn't see any teachers around. What a day!

She's Getting So Big!

On Sunday Olivia asked us, "Will you take off my training wheels?" I'm not sure where the idea came from. I guess she's seen some other kids riding their bikes without training wheels and decided she was ready to do it too. Yesterday I took them off and I helped her try it for about half an hour. She did okay, but only went on her own for a few feet. Today, we tried it again and she did awesome! She got to the point where I would just have to give her a good push and off she'd go. She can stop all on her own but still needs a little help starting.

Our Budding Photographer

Olivia loves using our digital camera and taking pictures. She's been begging for a real camera for almost a year now. We've bought her a couple disposable cameras, but every now and then we let her use our digital camera. Here's a picture she took of Garrett.

Creative Kids

I bought our kids some puppets the other day. Olivia was asking for something to do so I told her to go get her puppet. She got hers and Garretts and ran behind our couch. Without prompting they both started improvising some stories. Garrett got bored rather quickly, but Olivia just coming up with more stories. She got a bunch more stuffed animals and did the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, and a couple of songs. It was so much fun to watch. She hid her head and everything. She's quite a character.

High on a mountain top

Two weeks ago, when I was at an school meeting, my venture scout group decided to hike Mount Timpanogos. Mount Timp is 1,800 feet shorter than the highest peak in Utah at 11,750 feet. It was decided that we would leave at 2am. So this morning, 2 adults and I met up with 2 youth and headed on our way. It was completely dark and cold for the first 4 hours. I had brought plenty of equipment to stay warm though so the only problem I had was being completely out of shape. I guess the trail is an 18 mile hike from the bottom to the top and back to the bottom. They group had to stop quite a few times for me to catch my breath, but I didn't give up. We hiked for 6 hours before we got to the peak. I thought it would be easy going coming back down, but that was ten times worse. Going up, my thighs and legs hurt, but resting helped. Going down, my feet seemed like they were on fire -- resting didn't help becuase they hurt worse when I started again. I'm including here a picture of the peak from about 4 hours up the trail, some dangerous switchbacks right near the peak (notice the ground is only covered with loose, sharp rocks), some mountain sheep that were grazing near the top, a picture of me standing on the peak, and me on the couch once I got back home. There were many times I was tempted to say, "I'll just meet you back at the car. Go on without me." but I made the whole trip.

First day of school! First day of school!

Olivia went to Kindergarten today. She was so excited. We picked out her clothes and got her backpack ready the night before. This morning she was ready to go and kept wondering when we were going to be leaving. She didn't want to be late. Then she didn't understand that when we got to school that her teacher wasn't there yet. We got there early and she had to wait in my room until it was time to take her down to line up with the other students. Another teacher watched my class while I made sure she got to hers ok. There were so many parents there with cameras. I got a picture with the teacher only because I work at the school and went in early to get one.
Olivia said she had a great day. She said she met a few new friends but couldn't remember their names. They colored and played outside and read a book about something eating the teacher. I couldn't figure out what book the teacher read to her but Olivia said it was really funny. She can't wait to go back tomorrow. It was fun having her at school today.

We're so glad when Great Grandfather comes

We sure had a nice time with Grandpa and Kurt. Our kids warmed right up to them.

Chinese Gourmet

Grandpa was in town with Kurt. He asked me to call Theresa and Kyle and invite them and their spouses all out to eat. I picked a yummy chinese buffet resaurant in Orem. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Thanks Grandpa!

Dino-mite!

First Day of School

Today was my first day back to school from summer vacation. It is hard to go back. This year I have 30 kids in my class. When walking down the hall, it looks like a lot kids. It seems the line will not end. I have alot of similar names like Ty and Tyler, Two Thomas's one goes by Tommy and one goes by Tony, and two Emily's. And a couple of interesting names like Andromeda, but she goes by JO Jo, and Genevieve. I also have a girl in my class named Robyn. That is a little different. I hear kids talking to her and I turn around.
This should be an intersting and challenging year. After the first day I think that I will make it!

Olivia starts kindergarten on Aug. 30. She will have her kindergarten testing on Friday. She got to meet her teacher yesterday at Open house. She is so excited.

JEREMY: Jeremy has some crazy hair that everyone at the ward camp out got to see.


OLIVIA: She earned money to buy her barbie doll which cost $5.00. She is so proud of herself

GARRETT: Garrett loves to wear as many shirts as possible. In this picture he is wearing three.

And Of course Garrett and Olivia love to play with each other. They worked to together to build a castle.

Come see the monkey

Garrett came running out of Olivia's room yelling, "Monkey!". I decided to play along with him so I jumped up grabbed his hand and said, "Monkey? Where? Show me!" So he led me back down the hall into Olivia's room. He hesitated a little bit then had me stand in front of the tall mirror on the door of Olivia's closet. He pointed at my reflection and said, "Monkey!"

Garrett's Eating Problem

Garrett is a really picky eater. He won't eat anything. Jeremy and I decided that he was old enough to eat what we had for dinner. Dinners aren't usually weird or unual things. So he has to eat what we have for dinner or he doesn't get dessert or anything else to eat that night. Which we have been sticking to this pretty good. The PROBLEM is that after he goes to bed he wakes up around 2 in the moring starving! He is crying and grouchy and won't go back to sleep. At 2 in the morning we don't want to feed him then because we don't want it to become a habit.

So do we feed him a snack before bed and then he will sleep all night or do we not feed him and then have to deal with him at 2am?

Parenting is so hard sometimes.