Ice Skating/ Huntsville Park

Over the weekend some friends of ours asked us to go ice skating with them at a park in Huntsville.  Our friends Aunt lives in Huntsville and she has a bin full of ice skates in all different sizes that she has accumulated over the years.  They were very generous  to let us borrow them for the night.

I was a little nervous of how well Wyatt & Kennady would do being to where it was their first time, and how long we would even last with it being 7:00 at night and chilly.  Surprisingly, the kids were having a great time and we ended up staying for almost a couple of hours. 

Kennady caught on pretty well but had a few incidents where she did the Chinese splits a few times.  It didn't seem to bother her though! After all she did practice ice skating on the kitchen floor before we ended up going.  She kept sliding her feet side to side saying "is this how you do it?"  She was more than excited to go ice skating.
Wyatt did amazingly well  but after a short time wanted to wear his boots and just run on the ice.  When he found out we were going ice skating, he kept asking if he could slide on his stomach so he really didn't need those ice skates anyway.
Logan wasn't to bad himself and had a great time having races with his friend Max.  Max actually "skated" and Logan looked like he was just running....it looked pretty funny.

 

Logan's friend Max!  They had a great time having their races, and just playing hockey on the ice.

Even though the picture is blurry, Max's dad pulled the kids around behind him and Wyatt said that was the best part of the night.

From learning how to skate, having races, just hitting the pucks around, the girls chatting, and the boys along with Kennady playing hockey, it was a great night and alot of fun.   On the way home we stopped for hot chocolate and glazed donuts.  YUMMY!  The kids loved it so much they asked if we could do it again.

Kennady (first tooth to fall out)

This past week Kennady has had her first loose tooth.  She was a little freaked out that it kept on wiggling in her mouth.  She would keep going into the bathroom and watch herself in the mirror wiggle it.  Finally after about 4 or 5 days of it being loose, she was just playing in her room and it fell out on it's own.  OH she is taking after her Grandma Herrick...LOL!  She came running to me with her tooth in her hand saying "my tooth fell out, it just fell out."  As soon as she went into the bathroom to look, she realized it was bleeding a little bit and got a little nervous, but was pretty happy once I explained that the tooth fairy would come and leave her some money under her pillow.  The tooth fairy came that night and she was ecstatic to see a dollar under her pillow.

The story of Grandma Herrick's tooth:
So I thought this would be a good time to explain the story of Grandma's tooth.  Grandma has had this tooth for I don't know how long, that keeps falling out.  The tooth is completely broken down to her gums and she won't go to the dentist to get it fixed.  She does go in however to get it glued in, but this last time the dentist  finally told her that if it falls out again they are not gluing back on for her.  She needs the rest of her tooth pulled and then have a bridge made.  She keeps using the excuse that she doesn't have time, but we all know she hates the dentist and that's why she won't get it done.  She just keeps gluing this tooth onto practically nothing. She has had a few incidents where her tooth has come out in public, but here is the story that takes the icing on the cake.
So on black Friday my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and I were shopping at JcPenney's and as my mom was trying on shoes her tooth had popped out of her mouth and it was literally bouncing along JcPenney's floor.  We were all laughing hysterically as my mom was chasing her tooth in the shoe department.  I don't know what's worse, chasing your tooth in a department store or actually having to get a bridge done at the dentist.  I would take the dentist.  However she came back with her tooth, wiped it off and glued it back in once again.  GROSS! We teased her and had quite the laughs the rest of the day.  I would say it's time to get the bridge work done. 

Logan (scouts-flag ceremony)

At pack meeting this month the cub scouts were in charge of the flag ceremony.  When Logan found out they were in charge of it he was really excited.  Don't let the picture below fool ya, he takes after his mom and that's just what we look like when we are excited about things. :)  We have a hard time showing it-at least that's what I've been told. 

When I found out they were in charge of flag ceremony I instantly called  my mom to have her sew on his patches and troop number.  Sad that it took something important for me to get his patches on but at least it's done now.  Maybe I should learn how to sew!  Anyway Logan called Grandma Herrick to thank her for doing that for him and he invited her to come see him receive his Bobcat award.  He kept on saying how we was going to get his bobcat and was really proud of it.  Unfortunately because of some miscommunication he didn't receive his award that night.  Aaron and I were both a little bothered being to where this was the second month in a row that this has happened.  Logan was a little confused why he didn't get it again but ended up being a good sport about it.  There is always next month! 

The cub master had talked about having positive attitudes and had them do an activity centered around it.  They split up into two teams and each team had to try and get all their papers on the other teams side.  They all had alot of fun with it and all had "positive attitudes."  They ended the night with cookies and running around and throwing their prizes in the basketball hoops.

Kennady's preschool fieldtrip/ Tree House Museum

A little update:  After 4 months of being in her preschool I felt like Kennady wasn't moving forward at all and she wasn't wanting to go to school, which is a little unusual for her.   After talking with her she had finally said that it was boring.  Last year she loved going and caught on really well with knowing her letters and sounds and even writing her name.  This year I ask her what she learned at school that day and the response is always "nothing".  There has hardly been any homework sheets or even paper work on what letter they are working on, etc.  I don't expect alot of homework but I at least want to know or see something she learned in the 2 1/2 hrs she was there.  So I happened to find out from a friend of mine about this other preschool that the kids are starting to read and are ready for Kindergarten by the time preschool is over.  I went and met with the teacher and after a few minutes of her showing me her curriculum, I was definitely impressed.   

 After only 2 days at her new preschool,  Kennady is back to wanting to learn more, comes home happy,  and enjoys doing her homework with me. She has seen some of the other kids reading and it has made her excited to start learning how to read.  I was a little hesitant taking her away from her friends but had come to find out that another little girl in our neighborhood was in this new preschool, so viola things were going to be just fine and her mom wants to car pool...even better. I am 100% sure that we made the right decision.

Today was their field trip to the tree house museum. When we first got there they had everyone meet in a room and the worker did a cute little story on different animals.  Some of the kids were chosen to come up and participate with the animal puppets.  When she was done they let the kids go explore the museum.

Kennady's first place she wanted to go was upstairs in the music room.  She played the drums and fiddled with every other musical instrument there.  Even baby Ryan (her cousin) joined us and was loving it to.
                    

                           
      We then played chess and she put together a puzzle of a Knight.

Next was off to stacking blocks.  She looked at the directions of what to do and off she went putting them together.

                                                                   
                                                The final result!

Then it was lego time.  Both Kennady and Ryan were very content so we stayed here the rest of the time until the group was ready to meet for one last story time. Kennady didn't want to leave.
                

Sledding/ New Years Day

On New Years day we took the kids to aunt Jocie's for some sledding.  Their backyard is next to the mountain and is a perfect sledding hill for the kids.  Every year when the first snow storm hits the kids are always asking when they get to go to Aunt Jocie's to go sledding. Today was the perfect day and the sun was out.  We figured we would let them sled  for just a couple of hours but instead,  it was non-stop sledding for 5 1/2 hours straight.  The kids didn't care how cold or wet they got, they just kept on going and was loving it.  Grandpa Ed brought a big barrel and had a fire going to keep some of us warm and in Uncle Mike's shop was hot chocolate and lots of snacks and goodies to munch on.  Wyatt knew exactly where the gummy bears were:)

Kennady was loving the snow board and I was really surprised at how well she did.  She had really good balance and made it at least half way down the hill before she fell.  That a girl!

 

 

All the boys of course had to have races and Aaron was always right there with them.  Luckily Uncle Mike had  hay bails set up to actually stop ya from crashing into their house.   

 

 

 

Aaron ended up making a pretty sweet jump for the kids.  They probably did the jump for at least 2 hrs straight.  Aaron tried keeping the ramp packed with snow but on one of the runs Kennady's sled happened to stop and she smacked her face into the ramp.  She got a nice raspberry on her lip and her lip swelled up too.  After warming up in the house for a bit, she was right back out there and jumping again.  Later on her cousin Sammy did the exact same thing.  I wished I would of gotten a picture of both their swollen lips. 

It was a fun day for the kids and later on we hung out and celebrated Uncle Mike's birthday. 

redneck neighbors

It has been a tradition of ours to go and get a real Christmas tree for Christmas.  However I believe this was our last year for a real tree.  Two days after having the tree in our house Kennady's allergies started up again.  In the past we have kept her medicine in her and she has done ok but we have come to decide that it isn't worth her suffering.  Her eyes get all red and itchy and sometimes swell up a little bit.  So this year our tree was my 3 decorative ones that I usually have by our door and well I'm sure every neighbor of ours was a little embarrased that Aaron stuck the real tree on the front porch with the huge light bulbs on it and all.  Or maybe it's just me that's pretty embarrased about it. 

Bowling

Today Aunt Jocie called up and wanted to go do something the kids.  We happened to have a gift certificate that I got from city deals (the greatest ever) I payed half what the certificate was for and thank goodness because I can't believe how expensive it is to go bowling...yikes.  We took the kids to spare time bowling in Roy and played a game of bowling.  Wyatt happened to get his ball stuck half way down the lane so Aaron tried knocking both the balls down the lane and ended up flying one of the balls into another lane and it ended up getting stuck in the gutter.  The worker (an old honery fart) was not to happy with us:)  But the kids had fun and enjoyed munching on the fries.  They were gone in no time. 

 

 

Kennady likes to take pictures so we let her get one of us too!