Family pictures

Singing time performance & "Calm down everyone!"

I signed the kids up for a little community "singing time" class at the beginning of the year. Luke was going through a little shy spell and I thought it might be good to have him do something with other kids to prepare him to start preschool this fall. He has loved the singing time class and it has been really good for him. It's basically just a little toddler time class. They get to pick songs off the board, the same songs every time, and learn little actions or have little props to go along with the songs. It's been a lot of fun. At first Luke was a little shy and didn't even want to go pick a song off the song board, but now he loves it and gets so excited about the songs and isn't shy at all. His favorite songs to do are the Fire Truck song and the Grand Old Flag song where they get to wave around flags as they sing.

Technically kids are supposed to be two years old to be in the class, but Halle would get right into the songs and actions when I would take her along to watch the class with me so the teacher finally said that I could just sign her up, even though she was only 1 1/2 at the time.  It was really funny because she picked up on the songs and actions so quick! She is such an early talker and can sing along with the songs even better than a lot of the kids that are older than her in it! She gets really into it, it's really cute. Both of them have a great time doing it.

The teacher asked if the kids in the class could come to a little performance at a little fair Riverton City was having last Saturday. They basically did a little sample class up on stage so people could watch and see what the class is all about.

The kids had lots of fun doing it and it was fun seeing them up there performing. Grandma Lori, Grandpa Sheldon and Aunt Jamie came, and Grandpa Dave and Grandma Dixie were also in town so they came along with Aunt Jamie (Booie) and Uncle Kyle. I think our little group of supporters probably took up half the audience!

Halle is by far the smallest/youngest kid in the class, but she definitely knows her stuff, so it was super cute watching her, this little girl, up there singing and doing all the actions right along with the bigger kids.

Luke did great too and has definitely gotten over his shyness. But he kept doing the most hilarious thing. Each time one of the songs would end and the crowd would begin clapping for the kids Luke would turn to the crowd, and with a very serious look on his face, yell out, "Calm down everyone!" At first I had no idea what he was saying, but he kept saying it over and over, and I soon realized what he was doing. It was so darn funny, all of us were cracking up. But Luke was completely serious. He kept saying "Calm down everyone!" each time a song was over, and he would say it over and over until everyone would stop clapping. At first I think everyone else in the audience was a little confused at what he was saying like we were, but by the end everyone was laughing out loud and thought it was hilarious. It was really so cute. I don't think he's ever experienced clapping or an audience before. Afterward we explained to him that that's what people do to show they liked the performance, they clap. Then it seemed to make sense to him. Oh boy. What a funny guy.

Snowman in September

 Today Luke and Halle made a "snowman" out of towels. They even found things to make eyes, nose, mouth and buttons. Afterwards, Halle was a tired girl.

Enjoying the last bit of summer

We've been trying to enjoy the last bit of summer before the fall and colder weather kicks in. So we've been getting a little extra ice cream than usual, having some backyard picnics, and playing outside as much as possible.

Lately we've been on a little bit of an ice cream kick. Maybe it's me wanting to preserve the hint of summer and warm weather we still have left. Can't beat Arctic Circle chocolate dipped cones and mini courtesy cones for the kiddos.


Lately the kids have been into pretending to be airplanes. They love to run around the yard and "fly like airplanes".

The other day we we at my parents house and the kids plopped themselves out in the backyard on their little lawnchairs and Cory and Jamie broke these branches off the big sycamore tree so they would have their own little shade leaves. We thought it was so funny looking, these little kids looking like they are little royalty out there with their shaded leaves covering their sitting spots. The kids thought it was lots of fun, too.

First t-ball season

T-ball with Luke being just three years old has been fun...and entertaining this fall. We got a lot of cute pictures of him hitting the ball, running the bases and playing the outfield, but as I was downloading my pictures tonight I realized the one picture we didn't get that we really should have is a picture of Luke lying on the side of the field, twirling a blade of grass and looking up at the sky. It was a little hard for him to comprehend the point of staying in the outfield with the rest of the team once he had caught the ball and thrown it to 1st base. After that, most of the time he would lose interest until the next inning. Most the kids were like this, the only ones that probably paid attention for the whole games are the four year olds. Once he had his turn hitting and running the bases, he's usually want to come sit with Mommy, Daddy, Halle, and whoever else until it was time for him to catch his one ball in the outfield. I thought it was cute. But he did get a lot better as the season went on, and a lot braver to go out there and stand without Daddy at his side.

Grandma Lori and Grandpa Sheldon came to quite a few of his games. Tonight they came along with Aunt Jamie, Great Grandma Jo Jo (Bagley), and Uncle Jason, And of course Daddy, Halle and I were there too. So Luke pretty much had his own little fan section, but he was more interested in opening and shutting the large sun umbrella Grandma and Grandpa brought then showing off his baseball skills! Haha.

He is a good little player and it was a lot of fun to see him play. He can wack the ball and he's a good runner both around the bases and to chase the ball down.

It was hilarious to sit back and watch Luke and the other kids play. Great entertainment watching those cute little people out there holding the bats backwards and running bases in the wrong direction.

But the best part... watching Luke's smile after he would get his hit and run the bases. Darling, ear-to-ear grin the entire time. And it was so adorable how proud he would get after jumping onto the home plate.

Halle was a good little cheerer for Luke and always loved clapping and yelling, "Yay, Lukey!" from the sidelines. When we first signed Luke up and would talk to him about how he was going to play t-ball Halle would jump into the conversation and say, "I play t-ball, me play too!" Poor thing, we had to gently explain that only three year olds can play and next year when she is three she can play too. She couldn't quite understand that and everytime it would come up she was back into the conversation with, "I play t-ball!" She was good to not throw a big fit though, at the games, and a few times tried to make a run for the field to play, but most of the time was a good sport and sat back and cheered for her big brother. Next year having these two play together should be fun.

Cute Luke loves his sister and family

Today was Luke's second day of preschool. He did really good at it again and didn't even cry at all when I dropped him off, we are so proud of him!

He said some really cute things before dropping him off today. First, when we pulled up to the preschool and I pulled over the car Luke turned to Halle and said, "Halle, I'll miss you too but I'll be back soon."

Then Halle responded, "Okay."

It was sooo cute. He just said it out of the blue. Halle hadn't said anything to him but I loved how he just assumed that she would miss him, and she was quick to agree with him. Enough to melt my heart.

Then, today for school he had to take a picture of his family to show his class for show and tell.
So I asked him what he would tell his class about Halle. He said, "Halle is cute."
Then I asked him what he would tell the class about himself. He said, "Luke is nice to Halle."
Then I asked him what he would tell his class about Daddy. He said, "Daddy is cool."
Then I asked him what he would tell his class about Mommy. He said, "Mommy is nice."

I thought those were all very cute answers and I was glad he had good things to say about all of us! :)

First day of preschool

Today was Luke's first day of preschool. I can't believe he is so grown up!

He was pretty scared to go when we first started talking about going to preschool a few weeks back. He didn't even want to talk about it. But over the past couple weeks he's gotten a couple surprise deliveries of books about going to preschool from Buddy the Elf from the North Pole and that helped him get more excited about going.

When this morning rolled around, he actually asked when he was going to get to go to preschool, I was very suprised and happy! When we got there he was a little shy but was doing fine, until I had to leave. Then he started crying. But I left with the other moms and felt bad I had to leave, but the teacher told me it would be best if I just went and she would handle it. Then, right as I walked in our house after dropping him off, the phone was ringing and the caller ID said the teacher's name - I was so nervous! But right when I answered she said that Luke was fine and had stopped crying after a minute and she just wanted to let me know so I wouldn't worry. Phew that was a relief!

When I went to pick him up he said, "Mommy, I cried for like two minutes but then I was fine." then he told me all about the fun things they did at school. If we can get past this fear of me leaving I think he will love preschool. He did really good to only cry for a couple minutes!

I can't believe he is old enough to go to preschool. He is just growing up so fast. Too fast! Tonight when I was putting him down to bed I told him to pick a book out to read and he picked the book "Love You Forever". I couldn't believe that of all the nights to pick that book he picked tonight. I cried through reading most of the book. It really made me think about how fast he is growing up and how he isn't so little anymore and how fast he will grow from being this age to being a bigger boy. It goes so fast. But, just like it says, "as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." Even when he's a teenager or all grown up he'll still be my baby.

He's in such a cute stage right now. He's old enough to know a lot of things but he's still got a sweet innocence about him. He's very smart. He loves numbers, letters, colors, sorting and organizing things by colors. He loves to color, draw, and paint and loves music. He loves to play outside and has fun playing soccer and t-ball.

He's such a good, sweet boy and we love him soooo much. I tell him this all the time what a special boy he is too me.

Today for preschool they were all suppose to wear red shirts. So he wore red and also wore his new "Cars" backpack. So cute!