Hola! Se habla espanol?

    After Christmas break, Xander and I made a commitment to pass off his sight words by the end of January.  He was pretty close to knowing all of them, but had about 10 or 12 to solidy.  Well, he surprised me and went for the gold and was able to pass them off in the first week of January.  I credit his Dad.  I have spent hours helping him memorize them, but all it took was one night of Tom helping him out and he passed them off the next day at school.  Thank you Daddy!   

    The week after that Xander recieved an award from his principal at school, because he was nominated by his teacher for meeting his goal of passing off his sight words.  Good job Xan Man!  I love the little guy so much, I can't believe how far he has come this past school year.  Since September, he has hated doing any reading or homework, but in the last few weeks he has not minded doing his assigned reading and writing homework.  I'm so proud of him. 

     Also, back in January, we entered him into a lottery for the Dual Immersion program through the district.  Well, to our surprise, he got in!  He was accepted to go to a school 5 mintues from our home for the rest of elementary school.  He will learn Spanish.  For those of you who don't know what the Dual Immersion program is, it's a program that starts in 1st grade.  Every year the students will have two teachers.  One will teach them all in Spanish for half the day, and the other teacher will teach them in English for the second half of the day. We are really excited for this opportunity he has to do this.  I've read that students who have done this program, test higher in their standardized testing.  The downfall of him doing this are him and KC will not be in the same school anymore, which I kind of feel bad about, but I also feel that this is too good to pass up for that reason alone.  PLUS, I could always see if KC could test into the SALTA (an accelerated learning program) for next year (which is also at the same school) and if he passes the testing, they could be at the same school again.  We'll have to wait and see what happens there.  So far, Xander seems excited about going to a new school and speaking Spanish!

Xander getting his award from the principal.

The whole group of students with their awards.

Re-cap of December and January

      Well, I haven't felt like blogging so sorry its been a couple months.  We had a lovely December and January.  We really enjoyed Christmas, especially with a new baby in our house again.  The boys were, as always, so excited for Christmas.  We enjoyed having Christmas on Sunday this time, I think I would prefer it like that every year in fact.  Our sacrament meeting is at 9 am, so a few weeks ahead of time we told the boys that we would not open up any presents before church, but would do it after church was over and daddy got home from collecting and counting tithing, so around 11:00 or so.  I know, we are such mean, cruel parents.  We thought it was going to be hard on them to wait that long, but those sweet boys surprised us and waited so patiently after church for their dad to get home.  I suppose talking about it weeks ahead of time prepared them.  We started opening gifts around 10:45.  KC and Xander each got a Nintendo DS and  some games to share.  Along with a bunch more presents that I'm forgetting now.  William got some baby toys and clothes and shoes.  Tom and I got some new coats and iphones.  I made a yummy hashbrown quiche, which I think will now be a Christmas morning tradition.  It was super easy to make, easy to clean up, and everyone in the family ate it and loved it. Christmas afternoon, Thomas' family came over and we exchanged gifts with them. And then later in the evening we went to my parents for dinner.  I love being around family at Christmas, I think that's why its my favorite holiday.  And in recent years, I've found that just being at home with our three boys is just as fun as going to visit extended family.  I love that feeling of having my kids and husband home and creating traditions on our own.  My most favorite part of Christmas this year was that Thomas was home and didn't have to work for 10 straight days!!  Just a nice benefit of his job, lots of paid time off.  We really enjoyed sleeping in, being lazy, watching movies, playing video games, eating yummy food, visiting family, and all the rest that entails of having no school or work for that long.  It was awesome.
       In January, we took a quick weekend trip down to St. George to visit my sister's family, but not before having to replace our water heater the day we were suppose to leave.  Seems like those type of expenses always come when we are going on a trip or something like that.  So, we ended up leaving a day later than planned, but still had a lovely time down south with my parents and Kalyn's family. My sister and her husband are such great hosts when we visit and make it all seem flawless while doing so.  It was great to see my nephew,  Ethan receive the priesthood and become a Deacon.  I can't believe he is twelve already!!!  Seriously.
       The following weekend we were hit with food poisoning, every one of us, except for William.  We were seriously down and out for 2 days.  Thank goodness little Will didn't get it, because it was awful.  Just plain awful.  I'll spare you the details, just believe me when I say I wouldn't wish that on anyone.  Thomas ended up missing a scout camp that weekend.
       The last weekend in January, which was my mother in laws birthday also, we went to Ogden with Thomas' family for a weekend getaway.  We stayed at the Marriott, went Snowboarding at Snowbasin, and swam a lot at the hotel pool... it was fun.  Tom's parents were kind enough and watched the boys for us all day while we, and Tom's siblings went to Snowbasin.  Me and Emily and Tate snowboarded for the first time.  It's not something I would suggest trying to take up for the first time at 30 years old, but I did have fun doing it. Definitely no good at it, but I laughed a lot!  And two and half weeks later, still have the bruises on my behind to show for it!  It was great to get out and do something like that with Tom's sibs, because we really never do anything together.  Tate, for a beginner, did great and was able to keep up with Adam and Tom.  I personally loved seeing Tom and his brothers have something to do together that they all enjoyed.  It was great middle ground for them.  Thanks again, to my in laws for watching our kids!
         It's now February, and tomorrow is Valentine's day.  Where does the time go??  The older I get, the more I say that.  Last night we went to my parents for dinner and made and decorated sugar cookies with the kids, it was fun. My boys always love seeing their cousins, especially Abby.  She is a cutie.
        Xander and William's birthdays are right around the corner.  I better get the ball rolling and plan some parties for them..I can't believe Xanman will be 6, and my baby is going to be a year old?!?!?!  I seriously feel like just yesterday I was counting down the days till I was going to deliver him!  Crazy stuff.  I also, need to get my bum in gear and get my house painted...  I took down all pictures and art off my walls two weeks ago and have yet to start my painting project.  Tom is already teasing me about this and taking bets as to when I will start.  He claims that he doesn't have to help me, because he painted the downstairs last year when I was 8 months pregnant.  Whatever.  Hopefully I'll get the motivation I need and have some before and after pictures to post soon.
        I regret that I didn't take enough Christmas pictures, but here are some that have been taken over the last couple of months.  They are not in order, but I'm too lazy to fix it.

 This is the before picture taken of us before heading up to go snowboarding.

 These two were the after pictures, we all survived.

 KC, Connor, Abby, Xander, and William

 Abby and Xander making cookies.

 KC, Abby and Xander

 Cute one of Abby

 KC decorating his cookie

  Xander eating his huge cookie

 Christmas morning, I love KC's face in this

 Daddy helping William open a present

 Mama and two of her boys

 Happy baby!

 Sweet KC

 His new camera smile.  Cheesing it up!

 Love his blue eyes

         Celebrating Grandma's birthday at the hotel in Ogden