Fun Fall Festivities

Gordon is growing up so fast.  He has been walking for a couple months now.  He is still a little wobbly, like a drunken sailor, but sure cute.  These photos were from a day at the park.  He was so proud of himself that he was able to navigate all the playground equipment. (With helicopter mom close by)  Gordon doesn't use many words yet, but is getting better at baby signs.  He says please, more, all done and drink.  He also loves to nod or shake his head when I ask him questions.  It is fun to see him understanding more and more.  I can tell it frustrates him when he can't communicate of course.  He LOVES the pets, a little too much and is always wanting to give them hugs.  They are very patient with him.  He loves music and will dance and bop to anything fun he hears.  His favorite book is Pete the Cat and His 4 Groovy Buttons because there is a groovy song involved that he likes to bob his head too, what a funny kid.  He sure is a lot of fun.  

 Here we are sending Daddy a love message while he was traveling to Ohio a few months back.  I am really on top of this blogging right?

 Happy Halloween from the Sharps.  Vivian, Gordon and I went with the preschool to a pumpkin patch and I got some cute photos.   We had our wards trunk or treat which was huge as usual.  The kids got a ton of candy.  It was funny how many people said they didn't recognize me with my black hair and makeup and no glasses.  :)

 I forgot to show this video from Emma's Kindergarten program.  She was so excited and knew all the songs until she got to the performance and it was funny just watching her.  She was pretty distracted by all the people I think, and she didn't get enough sleep the night before so she was pretty sleepy.  Cute kid, and program.

 We are having fun with preschool this year.  Vivian is learning so much.  She is really good at memorizing things and can repeat books after hearing them just once so I thought when she was "reading" to me that that was what she was doing, but today I got her some new easy read books and had her read them to me.  She did awesome and only needed my help a couple times!  Wow, I really need to be helping her more.  I guess we're a little afraid she might pass Emma up soon and that would make Emma feel bad.  Emma is doing really well in school right now as well and is finally starting to enjoy reading, but it is harder for her to have the desire to put in the attention and effort it requires.  She has really been trying hard and not complaining about her school work so I am SO proud of her.

  We were talking about the color blue and the letter "F" for fish this day.  You gotta give em sweets sometimes.

Mason Jar pumpkin luminaries

Man I sure love my cute family!

Photo Dump #2

Vivian LOVED being old enough to participate in preschool last year.  We had a great time and she has learned so much.  We have now started her 2nd year of preschool. There are only 4 kids in the class which makes it pretty low key, but also means I have to teach more often.:)  Oh well.  It is a great group and it really has been a blessing for myself as well as my kids to participate in these preschool co-ops.

 O.K. so I may have already posted some of these pictures, but I have forgotten.  I actually got some "in between" shots of this project.  As you can see there was a lot of veneer stripping, patching water damage and sanding.  This was my most involved project so far and I'll be honest I'm a little burnt our on the furniture refinishing right now.  This table didn't turn out quite how I was hoping, but it's A LOT better than it was.  It's a fun piece of furniture, I just need to put in a little more time with it, but like I said, I got burnt out and we needed a t.v. stand so there it sits.

I wanted to document our poor boy and his "chicken pocks".  My doctor said she thinks it was foliculitis, but I'm not sure.  It was pretty wide spread.  Oh, well, either way I'm so glad he overcame it quickly.  Poor thing was so itchy and sore.  

 Emma had a wonderful first year of school.  Yay for Kindergarten.  Her teacher Mrs. Curran was amazing and really went above and beyond for her students.  I have some pretty detailed end of year project folders to prove it.  She was also very caring and patient with our little Emma.  Emma actually does really well in the structured school setting, which is such a blessing.  These photos are from her end of year concert.  She was so excited to sing and would come home singing the songs each day, but once she got up on stage she got a little distracted and shy with the audience there.  Vivian came home knowing all the songs though, it was rather funny.  We sure are proud of Emma and all her hard work last year.  1st grade is going pretty well so far.  She isn't as excited to go to school, which I guess is to be expected since it's not as fun as Kindergarten.  She also has become really shy.  She doesn't have any friends, let alone know the names of the kids in her class.  Thankfully she knows a couple girls from church who she plays with at recess.  She has always been our super social child, but I think going to school and experiencing "rejection" from the students last year really effected her.  :(  It's sad, and we are trying to help her feel more confident in her social interactions.

 Yay, for Memorial Day.  Mike and I were able to celebrate with 2 dates for our Anniversary.  Here we are having dinner at a yummy Mediterranean place.  Yay for hummos, I love it!

A couple weeks later we celebrated by going to see "The Phantom of the Opera".  It was fun being able to introduce Mike to the actual "play" although it was the revival version and I didn't care for some of the changes they made. Oh well.  I have to say it is wonderful having a live in babysitter for occasions like these.  :)  (We really don't take advantage of Melodee TOO much, now that she has a job anyway:))

 O.K. so here our girls and I are actually celebrating Memorial Day.  We just happened to go to this park and they had hundreds of flags all over.  It was beautiful and a perfect experience for myself and the kids.

 We had the chance to meet up with the Leishman family at Long Beach when they came out to California.  We had SO much fun at the beach that day.  Unfortunately, ALL my photos were taken BEFORE the Leishmans arrived so I don't have any photos with those cute boys.  It was perfect weather and we had a great time.  Mike bought a boogie board and took Emma out to give it a try.

 O.K., so here are the rest of my photos from our trip to Utah.  I love this first picture because all my "kiddos" were asleep. :)

 We had the chance to check out the Museum of Natural Curiosity, which my kids loved of course.

 The Hogle Zoo was another must!

 We had such a nice time staying with Mom in her beautiful, new home.  Gordon spent a lot of time in his walker.  :)  I don't know why, but I didn't get a photo of mom.  Silly.  It was nice seeing most of the family, going to the salmon fry, Fredricos, the Pie Dump, and just being home.

 I LOVE these photos of Grandpa Larry and the kids.  CLASSIC!  The swings are their favorite thing to do at Grandpas house.

The girls also got to enjoy the new Tremonton splash pad, and made some new friends in the process.  We also went swimming with the Leishmans at the Nat which was great.  It was like being a kid again.  Nasty Natatorium floor and all.  

 When we got back to Bakersfield I finally convinced Emma to donate her hair to Locks of Love.  It had gotten SO long and I knew it would be special for her to serve in that way.  She was actually REALLY excited and ready to have short hair again.  It sure matches her fun, spunky personality.

 Cute boy, I'm sure lucky to have this little munchkin, he pretty much has me wrapped around his finger.

 Time for the Fresno zoo!  We have a season pass so we have to take advantage.  The girls enjoy being able to feed the giraffes.

 Both Emma and Vivian took gymnastics this summer.  I love seeing Emma up there on the balance beam.  She has come such a long way from being in Physical Therapy.  I love to see her trying her best!  This was Vivian's first year and she really progressed quickly.  She's so small and I guess really strong.  They moved her up into Emma's class and so it was nice to have them meet at the same time.

 For the 4th of July we went over to the cute little town of Solvang.  It has a fun Dutch feel to it and they had a nice parade.  We met up with a couple families from our ward there as well.  It would be nice to spend a weekend there with just Mike.  Fun quaint town.  We also went to the beach, but it was SUPER crowded, windy and cold.  We didn't stay long, and then caught the fireworks that night in Valencia.

 The girls took swimming lessons from a sister in our ward this summer.  It was nice only going for a couple weeks, and the lessons were right down the street.

 These photos were from a friends' birthday party.  The mom put bubble solution on the bounce house and this was the result.  Awesome!  They had a blast.  After this messy play they ran and jumped into the pool to clean off.  :)

 Here are some more photos of our time at the Santa Barbara Zoo.  If you can't tell by now, we are ZOO PEOPLE!  This poor gorilla was sick I guess. :(

 Emma and I decided to take a ride in the wind tunnel.  It got going crazy fast.  Fun memory.

I think that about does it for our summer festivities.  NOW if ONLY I could keep up with it each month.  Hmm, one can only hope.