Our little Ballerina Corrine

Corrine changed Dance studios this year to one closer to our house. This studio also has a recital at the end of the year. She is taking a K-2yr Ballet and Tap Class. She has 3 friends from church in the class with her.


Their Halloween costume dance party.

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween Corrine dressed up as Minnie Mouse, Ammon was a Penguin (it's a tradition in our family that when your 3 years old, you're a penguin for Halloween-which Ammon was almost to tall for), and Simeon was a knight.



Ammon and I went to a special Monster Mash Tot Time in the morning at the Rec Center. They had games, a cupcake walk, story time and other fun things to do in addition to the normal tot time toys. Ammon especially had fun doing the limbo, then riding around with his new friend Julius on the big wheels.



In the afternoon we watched the costume parade at the school. Thankfully it was very warm, and the kids didn't need jackets over their costumes. This year the teachers all dressed up as Leopards. After the parade Ammon and went to Hy-Vee to do some trick-or-treating.

In the evening we went to the church for a Halloween Party . The kids had alot of fun in the glow in the dark room.


Then we came home and did a little trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. When we got home, Simeon sorted all his candy and wrote down which kind he had and how many of each.


Ammon loves candy. He is famous for saying in his prayers: "Thank you for candy!", so I know he is going to carry his candy bucket with him everywhere he goes!

Life is OFF Pause

For the past 2 weeks I have been absorbed in 4 wonderful books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) that I could never put down long enough to get anything else done. Thankfully the kids were patient when they opened their otherwise empty drawers and closets looking for clean clothes!
Just now I finished the last one Breaking Dawn, and life can go on again as it was before. My bedtime will be at a normal time, laundry will be kept up better, the house will look so much more organized, and i will start posting more updates. And I can also start my newest endeavor-Daisy Scouts for Corrine.
Now I just have to wait 3 weeks before I can see Twilight on the big screen. As you can tell-I'm addicted as much as all my friends and family are!!! I see why these books were so highly recommended.

THE CHALLENGE

This morning at Stake Conference the Stake President challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before next falls Stake Conference. President Hinkley issued this challenge a year or 2 ago also. We didn't follow through with it then, but we WILL do it this time.
Every morning at 7:00 am we will have family prayer and scripture reading. Each month I am going to update on our progress.
I'm excited to see how our family grows and learns as we take on this challenge.

Halloween Party

Simeon & Corrine have been wanting to have some friends over, so we decided to throw a Halloween Party. They each were able to invite 5 friends from their class. Corrine knew from the start which 5 girls she would invite, Simeon changed his list at least 5 times. (Maybe more like 10 times would be more accurate!)



We started the party with pizza and slime to drink. Then we played some games. We played a relay race where you had to put on boots, a robe, leia, hat and hold 2 pomp-pomp's while you ran to the other side of the room and back cheering. Then we played "ghost, ghost, skeleton", "witches telephone", and "mummy".


Corrine the Mummy.

We decorated cookies, ate spiderweb cupcakes then watched HighSchool Musical 2.


The cookie decorators hard at work.

The kids all had a great time, and I had a very messy kitchen by the end of the night-but it was so worth it!

Simeon, Ammon, Maddie, Corrine, Samantha, Sophia, Julia & Mia

Watch out! All the kids turned into vampires!

Next year the only improvement-invite MORE friends!!!

Simeon the Soccer Man

This year soccer started not how we would have liked it to start. Simeon broke his arm before the season even started, and was not suppose to get his cast off until partway through the season. But after slow healing of the bones, the cast was to come off just days before the season ended.
The 1st weeks of practice he could not participate in the full practice. He could wear his cleats, but not his shinguards. This meant that he could not participate in any contact activities. He was lineman and helped in other ways. He also couldn't play in the games, but he would go and cheer them on.



Then when he got his short arm cast, he was able to wear both his cleats and shinguards, and participate in the full practice.
He played in his 1st game on Oct 4th. He played goalie and defender. We put a sock over his cast to help soften it if it hit someone, and also to keep it dry and clean.
Then on Oct 22nd he got his cast removed. That Sat was his last game of the season. He fell right at the beginning of the game and landed on his right arm. He grabbed it, and a few minutes later we saw him with his shirt pulled up rubbing it. My heart sank-I thought he might have hurt it. After the game when I asked him about it, he told me he kept telling himself "I'll be alright, I'll be alright." It ended up not hurt and he played in alot of the game.



He really likes soccer. This is his 4th season (2 per year) playing, and so far he hasn't had a full season of play. Kindergarten he was sick in the fall and spring, 1st grade we didn't sign him up in the fall, and couldn't get on a team in the spring. This spring we are hoping for an uneventful season and playing in all the games.

Carving Our Pumpkins

Corrine LOVED cleaning her pumpkin out. She told us "I know how to clean a pumpkin out, I learned it in preschool!" (She still tells us about things she did in preschool last year.)


Ammon on the other hand looked at the slimy orange pulp inside the pumpkin and wanted nothing to do with it. I got him some gloves, and he was alright cleaning some of it out.



Simeon liked pulling the seeds out. He asked at least 30 times (NO JOKE) if we could roast the seeds. He really wanted to carve his pumpkin himself. He punched some of the wholes, then cut the moon out. When he is concentrating really hard, he sticks his tongue out-so cute!


We ended up with 3 good looking Pumpkins.



Ammon has a bat in front of a tombstone.


Corrine's is a ghost.


Simeon's is a moon with 3 bats.

We realized as we brought the pumpkins in, that they were going to be REALLY cold, since it was only in the mid 40's outside.

To Trip To Fire Station #1

Today Ammon I went to the Fire Station with the Library. It started raining right before we left the library to walk there. Luckily we had grabbed our umbrella as we were getting out of the van. A 5 block walk in the rain when it's in the mid 40's is pretty chilly.
When we got to the station, the big ladder truck was out on a call, so we started with snack and storytime. Luckily it was just out on a false alarm from dust caused by construction workers at a dorm, and returned pretty soon after we started snack.
We went upstairs and saw the kitchen and tv room, exercise room and where they sleep. We also got to look into the room where the brass pole is.



Then we headed down to the garage. A fireman put on his fire gear, and the kids got to go give him a high five. They talked about crawling to get out of the house, and if they saw and heard the firefighters coming they were to yell out where they were and go to them. We've always taught the kids that they are go give the firefighters a hug when they find them.



The highlight for Ammon was getting to walk through one of the firetrucks. He thought it was really neat inside of it.



Ammon was excited to get a friehat from the firefighters, and then to check out some books at the library.

Simeon broken arm

Aug 22nd -5th day of school Simeon broke his arm. He was running on the grass with some friends, when someone triped. He kicked Jonathon in the head and fell on his right arm. He felt the bones crack, then when he got up and put weight on the arm-the bones re-set them selves. The school called to say that he had fallen and was stil crying 20 minutes later which is not like him. We took him to the clinic to have it looked at. We were thinking he had broken his wrist since this is where the pain was. He wouldn't let any of the doctors touch his arm. At x-ray the a-rayed his wrist and elbow I asked them to do the forearm, which the doctor then ok'd. The x-rays came back that he had broken both of his bones in his forearm. We were sent to ortho to have it casted. They put a high arm neon green cast. He was so proud of his cast. As we walking down the hall to show Becky we met he in the hallway.

Aug 24th-cast split and wrapped in ace bandage because it was too tight after his arm swelled.

Sept 2nd-labor day Today we thought we had his cast wrapped up nice and water tight and let him put his arm down in the bath tub. That was a BIG mistake! When he got out of the bath it was obvious that the cast was too wet to dry out-he needed a new one. At the ER they took off modified cast #1 and x-rayed. The peds doctor said it looked good and had another fiberglass cast put on and sent us home. Just minutes later my cell phone rang, it was the dtr telling us that ortho didn't like the position of the bones and wanted us to come back in. We went right back, where they took off cast #2, gave him morhpine & verset and reset the bones (at midnight) which had shifted. It was extrememly painful for Simeon, he screamed the enitre 20 minutes, but didn't fight against them. They were taking continous x-rays as they pushed and pulled on his arm to get the bones back in place. This time they put on a plaster cast because it could be molded to his arm better. His cast wasn't round, it was flat on the sides and even had indentions from the doctors knuckles. At 2am, we were back home eating chicken nuggets.

Sept 18th-Simeon has a recheck of his arm. The bones looked good, but not set enough, so they put another plaster cast on. This one they put red and blue striped fiberglass over top of it.

Oct 1st-Short arm cast put on. The bones had set enough to let him have a short arm cast on. His restrictions were lifted and he can now ride his bike and play soccer.

Oct 22nd-the 5th and final cast came OFF.

Primary Sacrament Program

Today was the Primary Program at church. The Theme this year was I am a Child of God. The format for the program was as if the kids were in class and the teacher was asking them a question, and the kids responded back to the teacher. They had the kids grouped as much as they could by families. Simeon & Corrine were grouped with Colton and the Cazier kids..

Corrine-
Teacher: Why is it good for us to have a prophet today?
Corrine: The prophet helps us.

Simeon-
Teacher: What does a prophet do?
Simeon: "He tells us what Heavenly Father wants us to do."

Teacher: How can we find out what the prophet wants us to do?
Simeon: "We can read Church magazines, like the friend."

The songs they sang were:
We Thank Thee, O God for a Prophet
Home
I Love to See the Temple
Called to Serve
Tell me the Stories of Jesus
When Jesus Christ was Baptized
If the Savior Stood Beside Me
I am a Child of God



I was going to take a picture of them before Church, but we got there only a few minutes before it started, so we said we'd do it after. After Church we forgot, so I took a picture of Simeon & Corrine out front.

Pumpkins and Combines

Today I decided to take the kids to the pumpkin patch while Johann was at the Barn Dance, which is an annual Stake Youth Activity. On the way the kids and I were looking at the corn and soy bean fields. Some had been plowed, some were partially plowed and others hadn't even been started. We talked about how fun it would be to see a combine out harvesting the field. As we turned onto a road, we saw a HUGE green combine right next to the road harvesting corn. So we stopped, rolled down the window and watched it. It was such an exciting thing for all of us. (Could this indicate we've lived in Iowa too long, when a combine can entertain us?) Corrine said: "MOM, it's a John Deere!" She loves to look for them since Papa and Nani have a John Deere tractor.



We planned on going to a pumpkin patch about 35 minutes out of town, but when we got there they were closed, so we went to plan B. I had seen a sign saying "Kyle's Pumpkins" on the way, so we turned around and headed back towards home and the sign.
We followed the signs down a dirt road not knowing where we were going. We ended at a wooden cart with pumpkins in someones front yard. It didn't have the fun pumpkin patch things, but it didn't matter to the kids. They were excited to climb onto the cart and pick a pumpkin.

Simeon wanted the BIGGEST pumpkin he could find.


Corrine wanted one without any holes or icky spots.


And Ammon just wanted his own pumpkin!




The total for our 3 pumpkins and 3 mini gourds was just $12.75-a great deal!

Banana Soup

Recipe by Ammon Eli Smith

Bananas
Eggs
Sugar
Water

Put in a bowl and mix it.

Put it in the oven.

Cook for 3 minutes.

Get it out.

Bring it to the table.

Say Prayer.

Then I ask :"Can I have some banana soup?"

Then I say "It tastes good!"


Cooking through the eyes of a 3 year old, who had soup for dinner last night and banana bread for breakfast this morning.

Corrine the Study Girl

This past few months Corrine has been participating in a study through the University of Iowa. They are studying children (ages 4-6 this year) who do and do not stutter. Corrine is in the control group since she does not stutter. Every summer for the next 4 years, she will go in and do the same things she did this year.

The first 2 visits she sat in a room and just talked to Wendy, the study director, while they video taped her. I was able to help out and spend some time talking with her and playing play-doh during a visit.

The next visit she got to put sensors all over her face and talk while she was videotaped. They took her picture with a Polaroid and gave us a copy. She got to pick a sticker for each part of the visit, so she came away with a very neat sticker picture.



Then the next visit they had her put a special hat on that had sensors all over it, and then some on her face and behind her ears. Corrine was not going for it. She had to take her headband off, and she didn't want to. She ended up sitting on my lap and getting it on. They have to put gel into each sensor hole, which takes about 20 minutes. Once she got back into the study room, she was comfortable with Wendy and what they were doing. This day she had to watch a colored TV screen that made sounds-not the most entertaining thing to do.



After this visit the study director changed from Wendy to Amanda. Corrine really bonded with Wendy, so she was sad to see her go. It ended up we have meet Amanda before from other language studies the kids have done. It was nice to put a face with the name.

The last visit for the year, she put the hat back on. This time we knew the day before and were able to be prepared for it. We made sure her hair was down with nothing in it. She made sure to bring Baby Alive with her. She sat right down and watched Dora as they put the hat on. They she went back into the room where she watched penguin cartoons. The cartoons had grammatical errors and different languages on them. They were watching her brain patterns to see how she responded to the errors and different languages. They also were monitoring her blinking, so she had sensors right next to her eyes.

During this visit, we got to see Hugo, who Ammon did a 9 visit study with. He gave the kids a kit-kat, which of course they all loved.



After each visit, she got to pick a small prize. She always picked a fancy lip gloss-either Dora or Princess. On the last visit she got to pick a big prize. She picked a white dog that had clothes and a bone. She also gets paid for this study. She gets to go buy something-probably a barbie with her money.

I was very proud of her for getting the sensors and hat put on, and doing everything they asked her to do.

Tickles the Fuzzy Caterpillar

I'll start by stating that the boys desperately want a dog-Corrine does NOT! So what's the next best thing-a fuzzy caterpillar.

In August Johann found a fuzzy caterpillar on the bench next to him up at the school, so we brought it home as our pet. (I got the job of holding a very mobile caterpillar home-not the easiest task.) The kids affectionately named it "Tickles". They would take him out of his cage (a big animal cracker plastic container with holes drilled in the lid) and play with him-if you call watching it crawl around playing. Then all of the sudden Tickles disappeared, and we found this brown hairball looking thing is the cage. It didn't look like the cocoons we had seen before, so we didn't know what was going on.


Simeon with our bug cage back in August.

A few days later we found another fuzzy caterpillar, and the kids named it "Tickles 2", and within a few days it also turned into a brown hairball. So now we figured this must be what their cocoons look like.

While Johann was finishing up our front windows, another fuzzy caterpillar appeared, so into the cage he went and he was named "Tickles 3".

We left on our trip to San Diego wondering if we'd come back to butterflies in the cage-but instead we came back to 3 brown hairballs.

And that is what they are still-brown non moving hairballs or better known as cocoons.



Then last Friday I found another fuzzy caterpillar in the front yard. Ammon named it-you guessed it- "Tickles". He put it in a red bucket and gave it leaves to eat, and carried it everywhere. In the afternoon Johann and Ammon went out to get gas and oil for the chainsaw and when they got back they found Tickles on the driveway. They were concerned that he had climbed out of his bucket, but when they brought him back to the bucket, Tickles was still there. So now we have "Tickles #5".

Where all these fuzzy caterpillars are coming from is beyond me. We've never seen them before in our yard, and this year they are everywhere. Maybe something to do with all the rain we had last spring, or the hard cold winter? All 5 Tickles were identical. Dark brown with a reddish strip in the middle.

Ammon thinks that these are the best pets ever, and he is constantly taking them out and playing with them. He gives them rides on his shirt, gives them books to walk on, and carries them around on his fingers. He just loves them.



On Monday Corrine and Ammon had them in my bedroom, where I will add I was escaping to talk on the phone, when they told me one of the tickles was peeing and they needed toilet paper for it. WHAT-Tickles is peeing? So I went in to investigate, and sure enough there was green liquid coming from Tickles, but it wasn't pee. He's now buried in a flowerpot outside!

This afternoon Corrine decided that the caterpillars name is also "Sticky Feet", and she drew a nice picture of him on the driveway.





Tickles #5 has been given so much love, we are hoping he makes it to the brown hairball stage-aka cocoon. We are guessing, or really hoping, that they do truely become butterflies this spring, and we can watch them.

A Year of Play!

For the last few months, Ammon and I have been doing a play study. We have been trying to decide what we would use the money we were paid for doing the study on. We thought of many different things, but I kept coming back to the idea of getting a Children's Museum Pass. It's something we have always wanted to get, but never wanted to spend the money on.
So today Ammon and I, after he got his picture taken, went to the Children's Museum and got our pass for a whole year of fun, playing and exploring.



Ammon was so excited to go in and play. We only had an hour or so to play today before school got out. Ammon would have kept playing all afternoon if we had the time.
The museum has lots of fun exhibits. The permament exhibits are: grocery store, pizza parlor, art room, media room, hospital/ambulance, notion of motion (balls), reading area, Imagine acres (a playroom for younger kids), a building room, lego room and puppet theather. Right now they also have a School House Rocks, and dinosaur exhibit that are temporary. They also have traveling exhibits, and special exhibits or themed days at the museum.



I know we will get alot of use out of the pass, especially during winter and tax season.

Frontyard Football

This afternoon Simeon wanted a neighbor friend to come play, but no one was home to play with. He was sitting on the front step holding a football, looking sad. Ammon came and sat by him. Simeon told us how he didn't have any friends to play with. Ammon told him: "I'll be your friend. I'll play with you." So they jumped up to play together.
Their rules for football are made up as the game is played. Ammon tried to tackle-which got him a five step penalty. (Mom only allows touch football.) The end zones are our driveway and our neighbor Sam's driveway.

Ready, set, hike!


The boys wanted to wear their new gloves as "football gloves."


Ammon looks so little compared to the football.


Simeon "Fully Charged" and ready to score another touchdown.


The score wasn't kept, and no injuries were reported-a perfect football game in my eyes!