A Squire

April 13, 12 - Logan has been doing great with the school reading program and he loves taking the tests and earning more points and he gets so excited when he gets to the next level.  He earned 50 points and at the assembly for April, he got recognized for becoming a Squire.   

 Logan going up after his name was called

 Logan on stage

The principal has them say something about reading for 20 minutes a day and then they all say "Boo-Yah!"  That is Logan's favorite part! 

 Logan and his squire certificate!  Way to go Logan! 

Rank of Page!

Mar 2 - Logan's school has a reading program where they earn points for reading books and taking tests on them and then when they earn a certain amount of points, they get recognized in an assembly and get a special certificate.  The first award is the rank of Page.  (They are all related to knighthood and the highest rank is Dragon Master)  First graders don't get to start the program until half way through the year and I didn't know they could start until about the start of February so I wasn't helping him much, but he REALLY wanted to do it, so he started reading more and taking more tests and got to be in the March assembly and earn his first rank!  He was so excited for me to come and see him and to get his certificate!  I was so proud of him! 

Sitting with his class

Up on stage to get his award

After each group goes up, the principal says something about reading every day and all the kids clap twice and say "Boo-Yah!"  Logan loves that part! 

Logan after school showing me his special certificate!  Way to go buddy!!! 

february

This is what we were up to a couple of months ago! I am SOOOO slow, but at least it gets done. February was another kind of boring month, beside the stuff I already posted, so there weren't as many photos as usual.
Avery hanging out with her daddy and watching some soccer at night! Better get used to it baby girl!!! (Feb 1)
Logan has become such a good little reader - I love it! Anytime it is quiet, I can usually find him somewhere reading a book (or getting into trouble...) I think it is so cute. This is the day he finished his 1st set of I See Sam books. He was so proud of himself!!! He is now working on finishing set 5. He has kind of lost interest in reading those books so we have started reading a lot of other stuff as well. (Feb 2)

I love this baby and her cute tongue! (Feb 4)
Avery at 19 weeks - She is growing up way too quickly! (Feb 5)
Our fam at Hardware Ranch - One of our few outings in the February cold! (Feb 6)
Avery riding the bus to an Aggie game. Our kids love cheering for the Aggies!!! (Feb 6)
Logan and Rylee are excited for the game, too. I think their favorite part of going is riding the bus to the stadium.
This was an ESPN game so it was CRAZY loud and late at night. The kids did great though. Avery started to get a little fussy in the 2nd half. I wrapped her up and within 2 minutes, she was out, sucking her cute little fingers! The lady next to me was amazed she could sleep.
My other little thumb sucker.... Logan loved the game, but by the end he was tired, too, so in went the thumb! Ry was trying to sleep under the chairs at this point....
Just a Sunday hanging out at home- Logan took this photo of Avery. (Feb 7)
Little buddies watching TV on Sunday. I think this was actually Super Bowl Sunday and this is how exciting our Super Bowl party was....
A self portrait with Ry and Logan - Go Colts!!!
Daddy and Rylee
We loved our Valentine's Day celebrations! Who wouldn't love these cute Valentine's? (Feb 14)
Daddy and his little buddies
OK...I shouldn't post this picture because of the mess.... His room is not usually this messy, but sometimes it is. I'll be honest.... When we checked on Logan before we went to bed, he was sleeping on the middle of his floor like this. Kids are so funny! (Feb 14)
We went to a gymnastics meet with some friends for Family Home Evening. It was the meet to support breast cancer, so you got in free if you wore pink. (We all did, except for Logan - he didn't have any...) My kids had a great time, although they liked playing with their friends more than watching the Gymnastics. Rylee likes to practice "the beam" at home now though and does some funny gymnastic poses. Logan always loves having his picture taken with Big Blue. Rylee does NOT! (Feb 15)
Avery discovering her toes. (Feb 16)
This just made me laugh. Rylee plays like this all the time and I just have to take pictures od her intense setups sometimes. Here are all her babies - They are either all tucked into bed or "going on a trip". She plays both quite a bit, so I can't remember which. When she puts her baby to sleep, she has to bounce it for a second, like I do with Avery, and then lay it down and we all get in trouble if we wake her sleeping babies up. It is quite a task to take care of all those babies and stuffed animals! (Feb 18)
Avery at 21 weeks - So sweet! (Feb 19)
Avery loves her Bumbo and playing with Logan and Rylee (Feb 22)
This cracked me up! As kind of a funny stocking stuffer, Santa left some soccer cards in Darren's stocking. Logan likes to set them up on the floor and have a soccer game using them as the players. It is hilarious! He knows all the teams and their logos - His daddy is so proud! (Feb 22)
My baby girl is 5 months old!!!! How is that possible??? (Feb 25)
Ry is REALLY into dressing up right now - Here is a funny combination! She is modeling Logan's High School Musical Troy uniform, but she has both legs in one leg hole so it is a skirt. She makes me laugh! (Feb 26)
She is so proud of her "outfit"
Avery and her friend Madi wearing some Princess dressups. I am pretty sure she changed about 6 times that day! Her Snow White dress is a little long - I love how she used the other skirt to hold it up so she wouldn't trip on it!
Watch out Marilyn Monroe! Look at this girl pose.

Logan reading to Ry and her friend, Madi. What a good big brother!!! (Feb 26)
The MLS Cup trophy was in town, so Darren and Logan had to go and see it! The lady was very specific that they not touch it, but they did get to get up close and see it and even stole a picture. Go Real!!! (Feb 26)

When you read, You begin with ABC...

My little Logan has recently been obsessed with letters and the sounds they make. He also has always been interested in all the signs and logos we see and can pretty much identify ANY business sign or logo that we drive by on a regular basis, like Michael's, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, whatever. He also is ALWAYS asking how you spell words. He comes up with some pretty random things that he wants to know how to spell and we have to sound it all out and spell it for him. He has started to put all his letter and sound recognition together and is now starting to recognize words outside of the logos and signs and it is so exciting to me!!! I think it is the cutest thing ever. Maybe all kids can do this at 4, but I think it is so great to see him learning this! He has been able to read his name for awhile, and while we were in Yellowstone last weekend, he found his name on a little sheriff badge and was SO proud that HIS name was on the badge and wanted to get it so bad. How can you say no to that? Also on our trip, he saw the word "OFF" and said, "Look, Mom, O - F - F. That says Off!" and was reading a book in the car and said "F - R - O - G. Does that spell Frog, mom?" Needless to say, both times, I got little tears in my eyes. I don't know if it was because I was so proud of him or because I realized how big he is getting. Then yesterday, he got a Tootsie Pop at the library for the summer reading program and he said, "Look mom. It says POP. P-O-P!" I couldn't believe it! I think it is so cute to hear him sounding out words and asking how to spell everything and being so interested in reading! I hope it stays that way for a long time! Harry Potter, here we come!!! OK...that one may take a few years...

Back to the Stone Age...

The reason I haven't posted for awhile is because for the past 2 weeks, we have had no internet signal at our house-This has been a major test for me! It has been driving me crazy!!! I had already filled my shopping basket at the Children's Place and now all the items are gone! I also had a lot of fun pictures and other things I wanted to post, and now they seem a little outdated...(although I will probably post them anyway...) The first few weeks we were here, I could get on the internet at any time (thanks to someone else's wireless signal), but we haven't been able to pick up a signal for awhile and it has been hard for me! We also still have no TV. Things have been taking a little longer than we hoped to get Darren set up and working here, and while he spends a lot of time at the office, he still is not officially working and seeing patients yet, so we decided since he is still not working, or at least making any mullah, we would hold off on any unnecessary expenses, such as TV and internet. It has been a little rough - I miss being able to bribe Logan with an episode of "SuperWhy" or "Backyardigans" and I HATE that I am missing "So You Think You Can Dance?" since that is one of my FAVORITE shows, but other than that, it has been quite nice. Darren started reading the Da Vinci Code, (he doesn't read too often...studying has been enough for him!) Anyway - He got really into it and then I had no one to hang out with at night, so I started reading "Angels and Demons" and we were both just reading like crazy for the past few nights. We both finished now (They are both EXCELLENT books by the way - Probably 2 of my very favorites!) and so now we are back to being bored, although my sister came up today and left me her computer and for some reason, it will pick up an internet signal, so I have now wasted about 3 hours catching up on the internet... Maybe I would be better off without it....