Just a Regular Week

 Claire

I've been completely horrible at taking pictures this week because, to me, nothing too exciting or different happened. I went to work all the days I usually do and brought the girls to play at the gym while I worked, like I usually do. Claire went to school every day and learned new things, and is still resistant to doing homework with me without bribes. She is improving with her reading I've noticed and it was really exciting to have her read a book in only 10 minutes because she gets an M&M after every page. There were a few days that she took 30+ minutes to read and it was driving me crazy, so Chris brought the bribery and it went a lot faster. She knows the words and just needs the right incentive I guess, but I was disheartened to hear her say "I'm just not good at writing" when I was going over her recent tests. Her report card was sent home with how she did on her capital and lowercase letters, and numbers up to 100. She is writing certain letters and numbers backward and when she doesn't have something to reference, she will do it through the whole page. 

Shay

The only thing new this week is that she has buckled herself into her car seat all by herself a few times this week. I started saying if she can do that she will earn a trip to DI since she still asks to go all the time and wants a new toy way too often. I'm sure she will earn it after this week because she has done it and I just have to give her enough time to do it before we need to leave. She has a distraction problem and both of them need to practice putting coats, shoes, and socks away instead of leaving them in our living room all day. The one interesting thing we did this week was going out to dinner with Chris's parents because they were around for the weekend and the girls behaved really well. We have worried about how crazy kids can be and it is stressful when they are messy or loud, but they were really good because they had coloring to do on the menu at the restaurant. The only problem was Shay trying to escape before we had paid the bill and got all the way to the front door before she stopped to wait for us. 

Weather

I was really hoping spring would be here for good, but we got some more snow to 'enjoy' this past week, including this morning! If it had only been the one small storm on Friday and started melting again I would have been content, but apparently, I wasn't grateful enough in my prayers so we were blessed with more. It was coming down hard on our way to church but luckily had stopped by the time we came home and now I will express my gratitude so that we can be done with it all! We have also been blessed with runny noses and coughing still and the girls are just getting over it but some nights were hard for them. I'm hoping Chris and I don't recatch whatever they seem to have and that it doesn't come back at all for the next year!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 Claire

Early this week when Shay and I went to pick Claire up from school she came out with a cup of dirt! We've been watering it and it already sprouted which made her excited and she said it's a sunflower. I don't know if all plants look the same when they first sprout, but I googled what sunflowers look like and it looks the same so I hope she's right. It's a fun activity and with the weather this week, I think we should plant some outside, especially some grass seed because there is a lot of mud the girls have already been playing in. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Claire, but she wore a cute green outfit for St. Patricks Day on Thursday for school since they had Friday off. Her teacher has been sending home a lot of extra work to help the kids practice for tests coming up apparently and I've been having her do extra so she gets time to play her new phone game. She found an ad for a game her cousin has and asked to 'load-down' it and she has been having a lot of fun hatching the eggs and playing the games. She will wake up and ask to check it first thing in the morning...yay...

Shay

I've been trying to get Shay to try new foods, and she is resisting. If you don't remember, more than a year ago she did this awful thing where she would hold food she didn't like in her mouth FOREVER. She did it a little this week but it didn't last as long she did swallow it but it took her half an hour of sitting at the table while I was doing dishes and watching her. She did eventually earn her ice cream but now she is hesitant about putting food in her mouth and will take the tiniest little bits if I ask her to try things. On Friday I didn't have work and Claire didn't have school but the weather was beautiful so we went for some errands that I had waited to do. First I rewarded the with going to DI since Shay always asks to go and I gave them little chores of cleaning up as a responsibility. They each picked a toy and then we went to the bank drive-through to deposit a check when Claire asked if we were ordering food. I sort of laughed and figured it was lunchtime anyway and we were right across the street from a Chipotle so I tested the waters to see if they would eat it. They picked at the food but behaved well enough that going out to eat isn't impossible anymore.

Party

On Saturday, we were invited to one of Chris' coworker's daughter's birthday party with a princess theme. The girls were very excited about a princess party and they dressed up and Chris took them because I was at work when it started. I was able to join after and Elsa was there painting their faces! They had already done some singing and dancing together and the girls were so excited to show me a real Elsa. They were even distraught when she had to leave and asked if she could come to our house so I told them that we might arrange it for their next party. Claire played with her neighbor after coming home and when she came back inside after was telling me that she wasn't jealous that she met Elsa because her neighbor had met princesses at Disneyland. Then Claire said, "I wish I could go to Disneyland." So now it has begun and we have to start thinking about vacations like that!

March Mayhem

 Claire

She had school all week and is in her second week of learning to spell her sight words! They are starting with the little words first and by the end of the week she has been able to spell all 5 in both weeks, even though during the test she will mess up a letter or two. I think they spend time in school practicing because, on Tuesday when we worked on it, she didn't know them, but then on Wednesday, she knew them. Chris was sick this week with a really sore throat so we've been teaching with the Come Follow Me that Jesus can heal us if we ask. When it's been the girl's turn to pray, I remind them beforehand to pray that Daddy can get better and when he was finally feeling better, Claire still prayed for him before our meal. He heard it from the other room and I was so proud I didn't have to remind her. They drive with me a lot since we go to the gym almost every day, and then also drive to take Claire to school and back. The only day we don't drive is Sunday because we can walk to church, even though it seems the weather doesn't like the idea, and rains and snows on Sunday mornings for the past month. One day this week right after picking up Claire from school, we were on our way to the library and Shay made me a butterfly, so Claire did it too and then made me a heart, then Shay did it too! I parked and had to get a picture of them because it was sweet and I love them so much.

Shay

Do other 4-year-olds still take naps? I wonder if Shay is weird because she stays up late fighting sleep but then wakes up at 6:30 asking if it's morning time yet. Then she will fall asleep for a nap every so often...sometimes on the table during dinner! I know I've seen kids fall asleep on the table before but I thought they grew out of that eventually. I've been working on her pronunciation of words and sounds because she is struggling to talk around her missing tooth. I expect she'll probably need speech theory when she gets older because of it, and I found out that it might also be affecting Claire's speech. Since they talk to each other most of the day, Claire might be learning from her subconsciously, so I've worked hard to make her correct her 'th' sound to be less 'v' sound. Shay is relearning that 'k' and 'q' sounds come from back in the throat and a few other sounds that she replaces with a 'd' sound. She still has a lot of fun with other kids even though I worry about her communicating, they don't need to talk to do a fun workout video! There are new St. Patrick's day videos they did this week and I caught her front and center.

Is it Spring Yet?

 Claire

Her class had a fun week celebrating Dr. Suess with a different theme each day to go along with different books. She had crazy socks, a hat day, crazy hair, wearing green, and wearing blue. There was also a 'Pop' party where guests were invited to pop in for some popcorn which made Shay very excited! They mostly colored the whole time and Claire introduced us to some of her friends, but we left all together so it was nice not having to wait for her to come out of the school. We've been keeping up with her homework at home and she knows all but 2 of her sight words and works on the computer a lot. She is gaining confidence in reading and now I pay attention to the way she talks because she still has some sounds that seem like baby talk. Her sentences form well, but her pronunciation is what her teacher says needs more work, but I don't know how to help. I started a new princess puzzle to distract myself for fast Sunday and Claire brought her princess puzzle out to do underneath but got distracted playing and I ended up finishing before her. Even when she asked for daddy's help I was too close to beat!

Shay

I feel like I just talked about this, but Shay had a birthday! She got an extra present in the mail that was a Frozen purse she can color and wash to recolor. Despite getting a bunch of new toys, she still asks to go to the toy store when we are driving home from the gym or after dropping Claire off at school. She can barely fit all her Frozen toys in the bag she has for them and I wish I had a better place for them to store their toys out of sight. The shelves I tried in their closet didn't work like I expected them to because they climbed on them and bent them. Maybe I will wait for our next housing arrangement to figure out the perfect situation for them to keep their toys in place. She is a little shy sometimes apparently because her primary teacher was trying to say hi to her today and she hid! I'm sure I'm just used to Claire's overly crazy reaction to attention and friendly nature though and Shay is the normal one. 

Happy Birthday!

Shay 

We have a 4-year-old! She was really excited to have cousins over when we did her birthday party up in Idaho on Sunday with family for the weekend. We had time to play on Saturday, then had dinner and cupcakes with presents on Sunday before coming home before the predicted storm. The kids were excited to see the gifts and wanted to play with them, but since we had to leave so soon only Claire and Shay enjoyed them when we got home. We were safe but had to get ready for the week which is why I decided to wait until today to post and make it especially focused on Shay. I asked her questions about her favorite things and she likes shows like Pj masks, Frozen, Hilda, Shimmer and Shine, and some with her sister. Her favorite colors are blue, purple, and pink. Her favorite food (at least the second I asked) is cereal. Her favorite animals are all of them which reminds me of how Claire answers these questions. Her favorite mommy is me of course and I didn't ask about daddy, but when Chris asked she said he was her favorite. As for toys, she got some playdough, a Frozen matching game, a stuffed giraffe, a fancy Bluetooth microphone, Shimmer and Shine toys, Frozen shoes, a coloring book, and flashcards! I can't tell you what she likes most, but she's played with all of them and was excited for each.

Claire

She was excited for her sister and wanted to help so much that she ended up blowing out her candles when Shay wasn't successful the first time. Luckily Shay wasn't upset and we were easily transitioned to eating the cupcakes. I do wonder at what age you have them starting wishing on their birthday candles...Claire is just as excited to play with her sister's toys and even likes her microphone more! They've played with everything together and when we tell Claire to ask Shay before playing with her toys or coloring her pages, Shay is so willing to share that it makes the interaction so cute. Claire's school is having a spirit week for Dr. Suess and today was crazy hair which Shay wanted too so I got a fun picture of them with matching crazy hair. Maybe eventually I'll get good at crazier hair but they seemed to like it for now which is great news.

Weeks

Can't say there were too many other exciting things this week besides new toys from the birthday and them helping make the cupcakes for the party. I work like normal and the girls like coming to play at the gym with all their friends which happens so often that it's the new normal. Chris and I are done with the snow, even though it's not done here in Utah and we still have shoveling to deal with on this horrid driveway. Shay still ends up crashing and taking naps most days and then says up way too late, but we are all feeling healthier and hopefully, that will break that habit. Chris still enjoys his job, but we are both looking forward to the day we move up for his own clinic in IF!