Stormtrooper/Cowgirl

This outfit totally goes, right?

Happy Birthday Preston

Can't believe our 3rd born is now 5!  Preston brings so much passion and energy to our family.  Life is not dull when Preston is around.  Preston loves life and has a certain unique sweetness. 

Preston is very reflective and thoughtful.  Preston doesn't say a whole lot, but sometimes he'll be quiet and then all the sudden he'll speak up and say "I have a question".  Then he asks a really insightful question that tells us that he has been thinking about it and mulling it over in his head for awhile. 

Preston is 100% passionate about life.  When he loves a toy or book or animal or character, he learns everything he can about it.  He can tell me more about snakes (or Star Wars, or spiders, etc) than I ever knew! 
Preston loves being around other people.  This past year, with his brothers gone at school all day, he learned to play by himself, but his favorite thing is to play with other people.  He is very accomadating too, preferring playing with someone what they want over playing what he wants by himself. 

Happy 5 years of life Preston, I can't wait to see what exciting things the next year holds for you!

Brothers are the best!

Having older kids while having a toddler is totally awesome.  Sometimes Ashten is begging me to play with her or read to her or entertain her when I'm busy with something else and really can't and then I remember "oh ya, her brothers can!".

I'm not saying I put off childcare onto my other children all the time, but it's great having that option when I need it.  Besides, I think Ashten mostly prefers playing with her brothers over me anyway, they are way more fun!

One of Ashten's favorite things to do is wrestle.  Luckily, since Chris was at work this particular time, Brayden stepped up to the job!

AWANA awards

This year, just like every other year, our church does an awards night for the AWANA program and also uses that time to showcase the preschool choirs.  Preston's choir sang 3 songs.  Preston isn't the most animated singer/choreography guy, but it's so cute to watch kids that age sing.

This was Preston's last year in Cubbies, he'll be in Sparks in the fall.  sniff, sniff

Logan got Clubber of the Year in Sparks!  He was the one boy they chose to be boy Clubber of the Year.  So proud of him!  And it was especially good for him because last year both Brayden and Preston received that award for their respective clubs, so it's neat that this year Logan was recognized.  Clubber of the Year is chosen by the Sparks director based on behavior, attitude and verses learned.  Logan got a devotional book and he was so excited to work on it that the next morning he got up at like 5 am so he could do his devotions with me!



Brayden is now in T&T, which is the club for the oldest kids (3rd-6th grade).  He missed being Clubber of the Year by 2 points, but he still had a great year.  He completed his book, which is a big deal for T&Ters because of the amount of work involved in each section. 

1st/Last Days of School

Wow!  Time flies.....

August 2011 - 1st Day of School
Brayden: 3rd grade, Logan: 1st grade

May 2012 - Last Day of School
Brayden: now in 4th grade, Logan: now in 2nd grade

End of 1st grade wrap-up

On Logan's class awards day, he got to show of the Powerpoint he made.  I'm still a little shocked that they did a powerpoint in 1st grade!  My first powerpoint was in college, by comparison.  Yes, I know that technology has come a long way since 1999 when powerpoint was still new and cool, but wow!  I'm so proud of Logan for learning how to do it, he was very proud of the good job he did!

Logan's powerpoint was on zebras.  He had to make 5 different slides and find pictures (ie. clip art) for each one.  Computer techie in the making!

After the powerpoint showcase, we went back to his classroom and the teacher gave each kid a unique award.  Logan got the "computer wizard" award, which was great for him!  He was very proud of this as well.

How is it possible that Logan is going to be in 2nd grade next year?  It seems like just yesterday that Brayden was starting 2nd grade!

Way to go Logan, you rocked 1st grade!

Notice a pattern?

 

I'm thinking the girl should open her eyes once in a while!!  Although it's pretty cute, when we tell her to open her eyes and smile, she just opens her mouth.  I'm sure I'll miss this phase when she eventually figures out the eyes-open-for-pictures thing.

Summer haircuts

Here the boys are in their new summer hair cuts!  I told them I would pay them $1 each to cut their hair to a "1" (on the clippers).  It was a huge change as their hair was pretty long, so it took some getting used to, but I love it!  The day we cut their hair, they decided to all dress alike and be "triplets".  Oh, and someone actually asked Chris the other day if they were triplets.  Ok, that's a stretch, but whatever.

I have always loved short hair on boys.  I think it looks so much more kept than hair that is long, even if it is styled.  But the boys never styled their hair, it was a good day if they combed it, so it always looked messy and I hated that.

Ashten's hair is getting very long in the back, but the front bangs part is still fairly short.  It's just long enough to hang in her eyes if I don't clip it back, but it's not long enough to really do anything with.  I don't want to deal with bangs, so we are growing it out, but it seems to be taking forever.  And her hair looks a little mullet-y in the process.  Oh well, it's still cute and fun to have a girl whose hair I can do something with, so I'm not complaining!

Little helpers

Ashten vacuuming the kitchen floor?

Preston helping me make bread (and licking the bowl)

Field Day 2012

This is the first year that I attended the boys' field day at school.  I tried one time when Brayden was in kindergarten and it was a disaster.  Preston was just over a year old and didn't want to sit in his stroller or just sit and watch, for that matter.  I feel bad that I missed so much of Brayden's early education years because of babies, but I hope to make up for it from here on out.

So anyway, back to this year!  Of course, Brayden's field day was in the morning and Logan's was in the afternoon, so we were there all day.  In between the two I took the kids for a quick lunch at McDonalds and Brayden had a Celebration of Learning in his classroom.

Probably the most memorable activity for Brayden was the race.  He got 1st place in his heat, which was among some of the biggest kids in his class.  I have always told him, he may be small, but God made him fast!!

1st place ribbon

Brayden with some of his friends (Aiden and Joseph)!

I missed about half of Logan's field day because I was in Brayden's classroom at the little program they were having.  When I came out to Logan's field day, you could definitely tell that the middle school kids and helpers that were running it were just done.  They didn't explain the games as well and they let the kids have a lot more liberty with the rules.  Preston and Ashten even got to join in on some of the games, and they had a great time!!

Logan got 2nd place in his race.  He might have even gotten 1st but one of the girls he was racing with fell down and he slowed up a little to make sure she was okay.

Preston got 4th place in his race.  He was so proud.  He carried that ribbon around for days and told everyone how he had gotten 4th place. 

 

This picture helps me remember that despite all the fighting, they really do love each other and are capable of being happy for each other!