Christmas Piano Recital

 Cole and Abbie are taking Piano lessons and they had a recital December 3rd.  Abbie played Twinkle little star and God rest Ye merry Gentlemen.  Cole played Angels we have heard on high and the Rockin' song.   

We made snowmen for preschool last week.  I found this cute idea on pinterest.  

 These kiddos love glue, scissors and markers.   Sometimes they glue cut and color things I really don't want them to.  But when they are busy on projects they do really well.   It has been really fun to see them progress.  Even Tave seems to be learning the letters.  when I hold up flash cards He will say the letter before the girls sometimes.

I am Thankful for.........

Parents!  In October my Mom and Dad took time out of their busy lives to come visit me and my family here in LaGrande.  I am amazed at how they manage to visit all of their kids even though we are all so scattered and far away.  From Boston Massachusetts to San Francisco all 7 of us are spread out yet Mom and Dad make special visits to all of us.  

Lately I have been discouraged and overwhelmed with our house.  It is tight quarters compared to our Afton House.  Finding a place for everything has not been easy.   My Mom spent lots of hours helping me organize and clean while she was here.  She bought a bookshelf for Abbie's room.   Now all the hundreds of kids books we had in boxes in our hall way are organized neatly and out of the way.  No more tripping over boxes and books.  Whooo hooo what a wonderful feeling.  Abbie saved some money and bought her own bedspread just before Grandma and Grandpa came.  Mom and I found a tablecloth at wal-mart that matched the bed spread and Mom cut it in half and sewed the edges to make curtains.  We hung pictures and decorative shelves in Abbie's room plus clean and organized all of her things with Abbie's help.  We also got several more pictures hung up and Mom helped me make curtains for my Bedroom as well.  Dad entertained the kids and It was soooooooo sooooo nice to have them here.  I wished it could have been longer.  I can't tell you what a difference that made.  I love my Parents and can't imagine life without them what a blessing.  

These pictures are not great but this gives you an idea of what we accomplished.  Wish I had a before and after picture to show you.

Abbie and Lyndie's Room 

PRESCHOOL

Well I am babysitting again.  I had a year off and then Shauna got a hold of me and asked me if I would be willing to  watch her kids.  She just started working at the High School as a Social Studies/ English Teacher.  Her husband Darin is Jason's cousin and he teaches 4th grade.  Laura is Lyndie's age they are only a few months apart and Tave is 2.  I watch Laura and Tave Mon.-Fri. 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This is turning out to be a great opportunity.  I was wanting to do preschool with Lyndie this year at home so it gives us another 2 students to work with and gives Lyndie some playmates.  This was our 2nd week of preschool. Last week was mostly adjusting getting to know each other better we worked on the letter A a little. This week we had lots of fun with the letter "B.  We glued Beans on the letter "B" and then made "B"utterflies.

 We read  Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly and The little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear.  

Everyone got their own pile of "B"uttons and we used rummikub tiles we drew out numbers and then had to count out the number of buttons on the tile and put them in a "B"ucket.

My good friend Rachel Berry introduced me to a great blog with tons of preschool activities. I am so excited about it and plan to use it often you can check it out here preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com

Toothless

Jared lost  his 2 bottom teeth in one night.  They were not very loose  but he was excited about the money and the tooth fairy.  He let Jason twist and tug on one.  Jason pushed and pulled really hard and got the first one out.  Jared was so excited.  His other one was slightly loose as well so he asked Jason to work his magic on that one and now as you can see he is the Toothless wonder.  We are all amazed at how he can be so tough sitting still while Jason wrenches on his teeth but when one of the kids teases torments or bothers him he is the biggest Boob.  Oh well!  After the teeth came out he asked I heard him say to Cole "it feels so good to have your teeth out doesn't it."

BACK TO SCHOOL

Back to the grind

Wow! Where did the time go.  Summer flew by and we now have 5 Isaacsons in school full time.  I really did enjoy summer and having them all home (for the most part) but now it's back to the grind and busy schedules.  Abbie,  Cole and Corey started Monday August 29th Tyler started on Tuesday. Jared didn't start until Thursday because, the First grade did a staggered start so they could test them in small groups to see what they needed to work on. Tyler has another full schedule this year and is taking early morning seminary again.  He is a SOPHOMORE. I try not to think about that too much but I did realize he only has less than 4 years until a mission. He could get his learning permit to drive any day but for some reason keeps procrastinating it. What teenage boy does that? Corey is playing football this year he is really excited about that. He had a nasty bike accident just before school started. His big right toe looked like hamburger and his left leg had some giant scratches that were quite deep. He hobbled along for the first week of school. I asked him if he wanted me to rent a wheel chair from the hospital so he could get around easier ( That didn't go over well). Abbie is now in middle school with Corey and growing up fast. She is excited about the teacher she got. Mrs. Nickelson is a wrestling mom and a great fit for our family. She donated lots of empty pop cans and bottles to Tyler last year so he could recycle them for money. Tyler became well known last year for diving through the recycling garbages at the High School. I guess he is confident enough he doesn't care what people think.  Everyone really seems to like him at the High School.   Every day I picked him up from school he had at least 1 garbage bag full of cans. Cole is going by his first name Aaron at school for the 2nd year in a row he decided to change when we moved here. It was so confusing when his friends call and ask for Aaron. He is in 4th grade and is enjoying being one of the older ones at Greenwood Elementary.  Jared only had one day of school this week but is super excited for more. We will see how long that lasts. And my little Lyndie is home with me. I started babysitting again. My break didn't last too long but we needed some extra income and babysitting allows me to be home with her. I am babysitting for Jason's cousin Darin Hendrickson. I am watching  his daughter Laura who is 4 Lyndie's age and Tave who is almost 2.  I am doing a home preschool with Lyndie and Laura and it is the perfect size.  I love having only 2 it allows me to focus on each one more. We do painting, writing, letters, numbers,  playdough and all kinds of fun stuff.  So this year is going to be a good one.