Trunk or Treat

This past Saturday our ward had there annual Trunk or Treat. I am so grateful to my husband for being such a good sport about sewing Caleb's Clown outfit. He asked me, why is it every time we go to the trunk or treat the afternoon before he is always sewing something. It is true most times he is sewing. I have learn to sew a little more but Jerry is so much better and faster I just ask him to help me. He did a really great job I think. The first couple of times we tried the costume on Caleb he freaked out. Jerry said don't you know kids are scared of clowns and you are trying to dress him up as one. It was kind of funny I have to admit. Kate decided she wanted to be Tinker Bell this year. Her costume was so easy, we just picked it out of her dress up box added some tights. The only thing I had to buy was some ballet slippers for her to wear, for some reason they sell all the princess shoes with the corresponding dress but they don't sell any Tinker Bell shoes. Kate looked so cute in her costume. Kate and Caleb had a great time collecting all the Candy at the church Trunk or Treat. Caleb wasn't sure what to do, he wanted to eat every dum dum sucker he got. He soon got the hang of it by watching his big sister. Kate loved going up to all the cars and saying Trick or Treat. They said you could go around to the cars as many times as you want. So Kate went around twice, Caleb just watched the second time around. He didn't need all that candy, or I should say I didn't need all that candy, you all know who really eats it when they are that age. Jerry stayed by are car and passed out the candy while I took the kids. We ended up running out of candy by the time Kate wanted to go around again so Jerry got to take her around. It was nice to be able to have both of us take the kids around. After that the youth put on a spook alley in the gym. Kate was scared the first time though and Caleb came out hugging daddy around the neck scared. Then Kate and Caleb went a second time and actually enjoyed it. I lost count after that how many time Kate went back in. I was sad they didn't do the normal kiddy games this year, Caleb would have enjoyed that a lot. It was still a great time and the Kids really enjoyed themselves.

Kate's marble Jar

Kate a couple of days ago received her reward for filling up her marble Jar. She has been working hard for about 4 months to get a new bike. The old bike was getting small so with the suggestions of her daddy she decided she wanted a new bike. The reason for the marble Jar was to help motivate Kate to make good choices and to help with some of the area she had been struggling with. The way she earned her marble varied, if she help clean her room or the kids room, helped brother, stayed in her bed. She also earn them by behaving in the store or other situation that required her to be good in. It took a while at first to earn and keep marbles because we also took marbles away for bad behaviors and not following the rules. This has been a really good thing for Kate because she is such a visual learner. Kate enjoyed picking out which marble she wanted to put in the jar each time. Some tasks earn more than one marble depending a what she was asked to do. I found these really neat marble at Wal-mart that were different colors and all had names, like wizard, bubble bee, turtle, cardinal, blue bird etc. She would always tell me which one she wanted by the name not the color. So after Kate filled half of a mason jar, we all headed down to wal mart for the big event. In the pictures above you see that the bike still has the training wheels oh it, all the bikes come with them, Kate was so excited that we haven't had a chance to take them off yet. She know how to ride without them, we just have to wait for a time she isn't riding it and take them off. It was so fun to see her excitement and her joy in her achievement. I am so proud of her working so hard and not giving up on reaching her goal. This marble jar was has been a very good thing for Kate, I had tried many other things to help her learn to obey the rules and to help her in areas she struggles in. This idea came though much pray and inspiration and I believe it truly is an answer to prayer. This concept though simple in nature was exactly what Kate need for her to succeed. It was hard for Kate to see all her marble take out after she got her bike, I think because she had to work so hard to get them. Soon after she started getting excited to earn more for the next prize which she still says she is think about. Kate is not sure what she wants just yet. That's ok she has time to think. We as her parents thought that since she has to work so hard and long to fill the jar that we would make the prizes or rewards something big and significant in size or worth. We are so proud of you Kate way to go, Keep up the good work.

Caleb 17 months old

Before his new Hair cut

After his hair cut

Caleb is now 17 months old. It's been a while since I update everyone on Caleb so here it goes. He is 22 pounds and growing fast. He is now signing all done, more, drink and eat. It's really taken off this week with his sign language. He can now say da da, Sadie, go, ball, uh oh, and Kate which sounds more like date. He is starting to try and copy what you are saying. Caleb loves balls and cars he plays with them all day everyday. He thinks everything that's round is a ball. He loves to point at the balloons in the check out at wal-mart and shout BALL he turns my face to look at them and says ball with lots of excitements. He gives high fives, waves to every car that goes by and gives Kisses. He is a sweet little boy. When he get excited about something, he still does his oooohhh oooohhh sound, it is so cute. He loves to take baths, yesterday I was talking to my sister on the phone and said I had to go and give the kids a bath. Well Caleb heard the word bath and ran to the door knocking and lifting up his shirt trying to take it off. We now keep the bath room doors shut since he love to place things down the toilet, like Kate's tea cup. Then once we got into the bathroom he started pulling on his pants to try and get them off. After I helped him with that he started pulling on his diaper, he could hardly wait to get in the bath. He loves to play with his big sister Kate, he follows her every where. It reminds me of me and how I would follow my big sister everywhere. He loves to chase the dog and ride on her back and throw a ball to her. He is offically a blanky boy. He has a blanket he carries everywhere. He will not go to sleep with out it. I thought he would be more attrached to his Binky but that is not the case. He always picks up the blanket in the morning and gives it to me to carry out to watch TV in the morning. Caleb loves to watch Curious George in the morning, he like to sit with you for about 30 min and snuggle, and then he ventures out to play. Curious George is the one thing that calmed him down one night when he woke up crying from either a bad dream or his teeth bothering him, we don't know. We love having Caleb in our family he has been a joy to watch grown and learn. So there is the most recent update on Caleb.

Shopping Trip Success

Today I had no choice but to take the kids grocery shopping with me today. I usually go when Jerry can watch the kids. I like doing that way so I can get away for a little bit, but for some reason we just ran out of everything all at once, so we had to go today. The farther along I get in my pregnancy the more tired and excused I feel, so the thought of taking the two kids shopping exhausted me before I even got in the car. Taking Kate shopping is alot of work, there is something about a store that makes her wired, and overly excited. While with Caleb it mellows him out, and he likes to look around at everything, they are polar opposite in that respect. So I planned ahead, I got the usual toy and snack for Caleb which always keeps him happy. To help Kate I took a tip off of a show I saw about letting Kate help with the grocery list. I drew pictures of what we needed along with the words and put a box by each item for her to check it off once we put it in the cart. I had an old clip board from my teaching years and put a pen on a piece of ribbon. I had about ten items on the list all of which would be spread out through the store so she would be busy the whole time. It actually really work and went really well she had a great time and it made for a very low stress visit to the store. I often times have to keep her from touching everything and not holding on to the cart and staying out of others way. It's more work to take Kate to the store then it is to actually get what you need, she is just so excited to shop it hard to keep her calm. Kate was able to stay on task and stay focused and out of trouble. I don't know why I didn't think of this myself. We even had a box to check for her to get a treat for being good and getting everything on her list. She was so excited to help and to remind me of things we needed, she said she had a lot of fun and wants to do it all over again. All in all it was a successful shopping trip, I actually enjoyed this trip to the store with my kids, it went really smoothly.