Little Miss Ava Jean

Can I just say isn't she so cute!!  Ava has been so much fun lately.  She will carry a baby anywhere, and obviously loves to have pretties in her hair.  She loves to be with the kids, and is so good about playing outside by herself.  We love you Miss Ava!!

Bengal Cheer Camp

 Ava with her friend Abby. 

I can honestly say that I don't really want my daughter to be a cheerleader, but when she saw the flier for this cheer camp, she begged me to let her do it.  So, we did!!  It was only 1 evening, and the next day they cheered at a ISU girls basketball game.  We wanted to go to the game because the girls are doing so great.  We had a lot of fun watching the game, and watching Claire.  She did a great job on their little dance, and their cheers.  She had a lot of fun, and I am sure will want to do it again next year.

The best part of the whole game was right after half time.  They were giving away free Jimmy John sandwiches, so I grabbed enough for everyone on my way back to my seat after getting Claire.  I love their sandwiches, and these were freebies so it wasn't like you could ask for something on it.  They all came with mayo, lettuce, meat and tomato.  I gave one to everyone, and sat down.  That was a mistake!!  The kids freaked out because of the vegetables.  Even after scraping most of that off, they wouldn't eat them.  Chad had a lot of sandwiches to eat!  After all the drama, I look over at Ava.  She is thoroughly enjoying herself vegetables and all.  I told the other kids they should learn from their sister, but they still didn't want their sandwiches.  Next time I will just get enough for Ava, Chad and I.

Grant's First Day of School

I know it seems strange to be posting about first day's of school in March, but that is when Grant started going to Lincoln.  We decided to have him tested back in December to see if he qualified for their Early Intervention Program.  After MANY appointments and extra tests, the decided that he qualified for early intervention because of his speech.  It was actually a very frustrating process because it wasn't going as fast as I thought it should, and then kept telling me that they wanted to test him to see if he was developmentally delayed.  I knew that he wasn't, but there was no way out of the tests, so we went with it.  I was happy to hear at his IEP meeting that he wasn't in that category, and qualified just for speech.  I think I was more nervous about his first day than he was.  He walked right down the hall to his classroom, and let me leave.  The testing never went so well when I left the room so I didn't think that school would be a different story.  When I picked him up on the first day he was so happy, and couldn't wait to go again.  He goes every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.  The following week he started riding the bus.  They pick him up at our front door and drop him off there as well.  It is so nice especially with my crazy schedule and he LOVES riding the bus.  I am so happy that he is getting the help he needs, and hopefully more confidence in himself.

Suessical the Musical

Claire's 2nd grade class did a program for Dr. Suess's birthday.  They learned a few songs from Suessical the Musical, and sang them.  Claire loved learning the songs and would come home singing them at the top of her lungs.  We invited her Grandpa and Grandma Clayson to the program.  She loves entertaining, and had fun.

 Grant and Ava have discovered Claire's MP3 player.  They love to turn on the music, share the ear buds and dance around the kitchen

This little girls loves "pretties."  She goes to her room reaches as many as she can and has me put them in her hair.

Skiing

One of Claire's all time favorite activities is skiing.  And I have to say that the girl is good at it.  Every year our ward does a ski trip.  We look forward to it, but no one more than Claire.  Chad took the night off from work, but of course Ava got sick.  We had planned on taking Owen as well, but he is not nearly as excited about skiing as Claire, so Chad stayed home with the kids while Claire and I went skiing.  We had a blast!!  We skied quite a bit with her friend Cossette.  At first Cossette would just fly down the hill and fall down to stop.  By the end of the night Claire and I had her turning and stopping.  Claire was so happy for her.  Claire is doing so well, and I think I am more nervous on the ski lift than she is.  I hope this is one thing that she will enjoy for the rest of her life.