This morning Keith woke me up and said if you want to see something cute go look in Elizabeth's room. I crept to her door so I wouldn't disturb her. Elizabeth door was open just a crack and I peeked in to see her talking to Aven. "You're going to be a good mom and a good big sister when you grow up." "Let's get that lipstick off" (it was lipgloss) "Want to watch some Netflix and snuggle with me?"

Elizabeth told me that she got up to use the restroom and went to check on Aven upon finding her awake Elizabeth took her into her room to play. Adorable.

That's right I saved a life.

At lunch today Weston was sitting at the kitchen table and somehow got his foot stuck in the back of the chair. I took off his shoe and picked him up a little and his foot slid right out. When I got back to my chair Weston looks me in the eye and says "Thanks, for saving my life." Anytime buddy, anytime.

Spelling

I have never been a great speller. I am so thankful for spell check that will edit all the words that I continually spell wrong. I can remember being in 3rd grade and working so hard on my spelling lists and still not get a 100% on them. Fast-forward 20 something years and Elizabeth has spelling tests now. It brings out all the old anxiety that I use to feel but if we work on the words every night she almost always gets a 100%.
On Mondays her teacher gives her class a practice spelling test. If you get a 100% on it then your words for the week are the challenge words which are 5-7 letters if not you have the regular list which is 3-5 letters. This past week she comes home on Monday and has missed 4 words on the practice test. I asked her what happened because in the previous 3 weeks she has only missed one word. She tells me "I wanted to miss a few words so I didn't have practice the challenge words."  I was impressed, she is 7 and thought about how can I make my homework easier for this week. Trying not to smile I explained to her that she always needs to try her best so that she can continue to learn and get smarter. I am sure I wouldn't have thought to do this at her age. It stinks having smart kids. =)

Everyone needs a little positive affirmation

I posted this on Facebook but thought Weston deserved for me to put it somewhere that we will see again.

Weston has been full of positive affirmations for me recently. As we were walking in the door yesterday after picking him up from preschool he told me "Good job taking care of Kenzie mom."

This morning just before we were leaving to take Elizabeth to school he was sitting in the hall and had his legs stretched out as I stepped over his legs he tell me "Good job stepping over my legs mom."

 Lastly, all last year I dropped Elizabeth and our carpool kid off at the park behind the school and they have to walk through the gate at the back of the school. This year I have been taking her and our new carpool kid to the front of the school. I was talking to the new kid and drove right past the street I needed to turn on to go to the front of the school. I couldn't help it, I was on autopilot from last year. This morning I made the turn and Weston tells me "Good job turning on the right street mom."

How I love this little boy. I think I really needed to hear someone tell me over the past two days that we can celebrate the little things.

One of my sisters asked me yesterday if my ob has ever asked me if I have felt overwhelmed and not felt like I was a good mom. He said to her that most LDS women feel like they have some standard to live up to, feeding their kids better, having a clean house etc. I told her that my Dr has never asked me that and honestly I don't feel like I have to be like everyone else. My house isn't as clean as it should be, my 1st grader goes to a public school (horror of horrors), she didn't get straight A's (just one B), I almost never update my blog, I am horrible at crafts, not creative, my dinners are not a healthy as they should be. With all that I still think I am a great mom. I play with my kids, we have learning time they are on a great sleeping schedule. Most important they love me and I love them. I love to see their little faces. I love to hear them tell me stories. I love to see them when they learn something new. I love to have Elizabeth read me stories. I don't feel bad for what I don't do and feel great for everything that I do do!

I finally downloaded pictures from my camera here you go....

Elizabeth's 100th day at school. She is an old lady.

Thanks for the stickers gma and gpa Castillo!

Camping over spring break. We were the only ones to camp at this campground it was awesome. 

If you look really close you can see a caterpillar on the stick Elizabeth is holding.

Coming home we stopped in Superior and played at the train park.

Customary Easter picture. Elizabeth didn't want to have her picture taken.

How I love my boys. 

Kenz loves to help clean. If I am cleaning and don't let her help she will throw herself on the ground and cry. 

Happy 33rd Birthday Keith!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kenzie Benz!!

(So sad no 33rd birthday pics of me)

Great Grandpa Emery's 92nd Birthday.

I found the key to have everyone look at the camera and smile. Hold up a box of candy.

Elizabeth's dance concert. 

Mother's day. 550ish photos on my memory card and only 5 with me in it. I need to hand Keith the camera more often.

My beautiful mama.

At the Chandler Air Park for Weston's 4th birthday. 

Sorry for the the photos I thought that was the best way to show the last four months of our lives. 

Family is the Most Important

Elizabeth loves to ask questions especially when we are in the car. I always thought that the questions would end but even at six she is interested in everything and wants to know how it works.

Elizabeth: "Mom, why do people like stuff"
Me: "People like stuff because they think that it will make them happy, but what is really important?"
Elizabeth: "Family. If I had a whole bunch of stuff I would give it all away so that I could get married and have a     family."

This conversation really made me think. I was prompting for the answer family but I didn't think she would say all she did. Family is the most important thing. What would you give up for your family?

Like Elizabeth I would give up and do aeverything for my family. We all have the days when we are peed on at church... cleaning up puke at 3am and wish we could change our life right then but when I hear Weston say to me (at least 5 times a day) "Mom I sooo love you" and if I don't respond immediately he says it again I wouldn't trade my family for anything.

Poor, poor Weston

This week I took Weston and McKenzie with me visiting teaching. This particular lady has three boys so Weston loves going there because there are always lots of cars, trucks and trains to play with. His current obsession is trains. He loves them. If you are driving down the road and drive on the bumpy side he starts shouting train train. Any horns train train! Anyway he found a big train there and played with it the entire time. When it was time to leave I asked him to put it away. Of course he told me no. I asked him again NOOO. I told him that we could not take the trains they are not ours and he needs to leave them. He puts the trains down and has the saddest most depressed look on his face. Then he starts crying. Not a I can't have it cry but I am heartbroken cry. We go out the door and he starts wondering towards the neighbors house just sobbing. We got home and played with his little trains and all was well with the world.

Weston loves taking his trucks, planes, or whatever boy toy he has to the store. I do not mind because it keeps him entertained while I am trying to get a few things. On Friday we were walking into Safeway and he tripped. His trucks went flying out of his hands as he fell. A lady was walking out at the exact instant and picked up the trucks and handed them to me and walked off. Weston saw her pick up the trucks but did not see her hand them to me and thought the lady was walking off with he trucks. He started screaming hand outstreached screaming, until I showed him I had the trucks and he instantly stopped crying.

At church today I was giving a lesson on prayer. I asked my nursery class what they are thankful for. One of the little girls answered Jesus and all the rest of the class copied her until I got to Weston his answer... missiles we continued to talk about it and someone else said my mom when it came round to Weston... helicopters and airplanes.

Weston is 3!!

Today is Weston's 3rd Birthday. I can not believe how fast these past 3 years have gone. Keith and I were making him breakfast and I told him he was 3 today. Then I asked how old are you? His reply 5!

Weston always talks about being a football player he loves going to games and asks almost every single day if we are going to a football game. If he has a shirt with a number on it he calls it his football shirt. So I thought that for his birthday it would be appropriate if I got him a little football uniform with a helmet. I found a really good deal on one and have been saving it for almost a month. Yesterday I realized that I only had that for him so I decided to go to Target and get this little airplane candy for him.  Guess what his favorite thing is oh the airplane. Weston and Elizabeth have been fighting over it all morning. I am sure later today I am going to have to replace the battery in it.
Happy Birthday Weston!! We love you!!!!

Elizabeth loves unicorns she has 6 of them that she sleeps with everynight. 1 big pillow pet 2 smaller pillow pets 1 clip on pillow pet (all of these are the exact same but size, also the clip on one goes everywhere with her) and 2 other random unicorns. This past week while driving in the car Elizabeth asked how horses laid eggs. I tried my best to explain that horses do not lay eggs and that the baby horses were born from their mamas. She then asked about unicorns laying eggs. I replyed "If unicorns were real then they would not lay eggs and have babies just like horses." Elizabeth got this really sad look on her face and was very quite and then started crying. I asked what was wrong and she told me that she didn't know that unicorns were not real. That's me the dream killer... :(

Elizabeth has sight words that she has to work on and memorize so that she can read easier. We often work on them in the car while we are driving to change cars with Keith at Perry. I will spell the word to her and she will write it down and then tell me what the word says. When she will repeatedly tell me the wrong word for what is on her paper I will tell her the word and then have her use it in a sentance trying to help her memorize it better. sample sentance using the word where "Where is the tree? question mark" Whenever she gives me a sample sentance she will tell me quesiton mark... period after she has completed the sentance. I love it!

For Christmas we gave Elizabeth an ipod touch (I was able to trade Keith's PS3 controllers that he never uses for a touch thx craigslist!). When Elizabeth opened up the present she declared "An iphone!! I am not old enough to have a phone!"

We are finally getting some words out of Weston. Mostly it is gibberish but we are getting there!! For Halloween he was a football player and now whenever he sees numbers on a shirt or on pants he points to it and says football player! football player! Until someone acknowledges what he is saying. I also bought him a little camo outfit and the shirt says something about a pilot. The first time he wore it I told him it was his pilot shirt and now he will go around telling people he is either a football player or a pilot.

Last week we went to Wal-Mart for a few things. While we were there a gentleman stopped us and asked if I had any idea where cheese spray would be. He told me about some crackers he had that had spicy sausage and spicy spray cheese on top. I pointed to the aisle and we went on our way. As we were putting our stuff into the car Weston saw the guy 10 cars up and starts yelling good-bye to him. The man loved it and drove his car over to say good-bye to Weston.

But it is morning!

I came home from work last night at 12:15am I open the door and the kitchen light and tv are on. I think weird if Keith is sleeping on the couch he normally has the lights off. I come around the corner and there is Elizabeth laying on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her watching cartoons. I gently explained to her that it was not time to watch cartoons and she should be in bed. She told me that it is morning and she does not want to go back to bed. I finally get her upstairs and into bed I come out of her room and she follows me out. At this point I am tired and I want to go to bed. I tell her in a loud voice to get into bed. She tells me no and I tell her again then I hear Weston's door open and he peeps out. I then say WE ARE NOT PLAYING THIS GAME GET INTO BED. Weston shuts the door and I hear nothing more from him. Elizabeth went to bed also but she cried for the next 10 min. From the three seconds I saw Weston I could tell what he was thinking. He woke up to my yelling opened the door to investigate and decided not to get involved.... good boy. =)

When Elizabeth and Weston were babies they almost never put stuff in their mouths but Kenzie puts everything in her mouth. Elizabeth's new chore is to vacuum the kitchen floor before dinner. As she was vacuuming tonight she commented that "Kenzie is going to be angry with me because I vacuumed all her food up."

We call Kenzie our scavenger, if zombies ever come she would be the one we send out to get our supplies.

You know when..

You know you have a kindergartner when you hear her say to her brother...

"Do you want the line to leave without you?"

You know when you have a boy when....

Walking back to the car takes twice as long or maybe even three times as long because he has to pick up and examine every single rock on the sidewalk.

or...

When he brings you a dead bird clenched in his fist and is SOO excited to show it to you.

His THING...

After lunch one day Elizabeth asked if she could color and she went to get her coloring book which happened to be a notebook this day. She asks me what she should draw a picture of and I told her Weston. She drew a picture of Weston and then showed it to me. I then asked her what the thing was on Weston's tummy.
Her reply "his thing."
Me "what thing?" (all the time I am praying she is not going to say the next thing but know it is coming)
Elizabeth "you know where his peepee comes out."

Last week I was at Target and we walked past the toothpaste aisle. As soon as we were past it Elizabeth asked "Mom, can I tell you about Colgate Total?"

Me "sure"

Elizabeth "Colgate total keeps your teeth clean for 12 hours."

I think maybe I should write a letter to Colgate saying that their commercials can even reach a 4-year-old... Awesome

I have some worksheets that I give Elizabeth with her name on them so she can trace her name and get the feel for what it looks like and how to draw the letters. (it is an awesome website you can make it print anything http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/) She had been doing a great job in tracing the letters the correct way and this morning while I was watching her she was starting at the bottom right and moving her pencil to the left. I told her that she is not doing it right and asked if I could show her the correct way to form the letters. She looks it me rolls her eyes a bit and says "Mom, I am a kid I KNOW what I am doing." What more can I say to her??

She KNOWS what she is doing.

About a month ago our upstairs tv, Keith's gaming tv semibroke. It had a 7 inch blue line down the middle. He told me it was broken and I said that I would take care of it. Two weeks late he asked if I had done anything about it... no I never turn that tv on so I just did not think about it. So I finally called and Geek Squad came out to look at it. He said that they needed to order a new screen for it and then he would be back in a week to fix it. A couple of days later I got a call from Best Buy saying that Toshiba does not make a replacement screen for that tv so we would get a new tv. So we went from a 720p to a 1080p tv for free yeah!!! Thanks Best Buy!!

First off you know that you need to post more blogs when you can not remember how to get to make a new post. It took me 10 min to figure it out... bahh

I have been watching Weston this past week and I think that he is going to be left handed. He eats better with a spoon left handed. So I have a red-headed blue eyed left hand kid. Where did he come from?!

Since Elizabeth has turned four Keith and I decided that she needs to have chores and start to have daily things she does around the house to keep it clean. One of the things is that she needs to clean her room everyday. She does a decent job of it but LOVES to stick items behind her dress-up box in her closest and under her baby doll bassinet. Yesterday, I told her that we are going to deep clean her room. Clean under everything and take out all the 2T clothes that she keeps trying to wear. After spending a hour and a half session in the morning, another hour and a half in the afternoon her room was still messy. (It really was not bad to begin with she just refused to help so there was a lot of sitting there crying and her telling me it was my job to clean her room) At one point when we were almost done there was a pile of dress-ups that needed to be put in the box. She was refusing to open the box and told me not to talk to her. When she turned around I pointed to the dress-ups and pointed to the box. She put her head down put her hand over her eyes and stood there for 10 seconds then looks up at me and says "Mom, your giving me a headache." I could not help but laugh, I think I have said that to her to many times.

Elizabeth has mini conversations with herself usually about clothes. She has a two sided conversation with herself playing both her friends and herself. It usually goes a little like this...
Elizabeth "Mommy, do you think my friends will like my new dress?"
Me "Yes, I am sure they will"
Her playing a friend "Ohh look at Elizabeth's dress. It is so beautiful."
Elizabeth "Thank you my mommy got it for me. Do you wish you had one?"
Her playing a friend "Yes, I wish that I had a dress like that."
It is way funnier in person to hear a 4 year old have a conversation with herself.

Pillow Pets

We are VERY excited to announce that Weston is finally walking!!! He is 14 months old and finally decided hey I can do this. I am going to give cousin Ellie all the credit. We have been trying to get him to walk for about 3 months and he just did not care. We spent some time with cousin Ellie in June and then in July we were around her for a couple of days in Colorado (which was awesome thanks Bonita and Elena!!). He would take a step or two and then give up and start to crawl. Alicia came over on July 21 and Weston saw cousin Ellie again and that was it. He started walking and has not looked back. We are so proud of our walking boy.

This past weekend we were invited to California to camp on the beach with Shane and her kids. I decide that we should go to at least a little bit of church on Sunday. So off we went. They said the closing prayer and we all said our Amens and we here this little voice say Amen. It was Weston, he had said his first word! We have such a holy little boy.

After coming back from California our house was a mess. Five loads of laundry, camping stuff and miscellaneous stuff from the trip was EVERYWHERE. Yesterday I was doing my best to catch up and clean everything. I told Elizabeth that she could watch some cartoons IF she would help me pick up her shoes and a couple of other little things. Since she loves to watch cartoons she did it and I turned the tv on. About a half hour later she comes up to me and tells me she really wants a pillow pet. I have never even heard of what a pillow pet so I turn to the internet. Elizabeth comes over to look at them with me and tells me it is the unicorn pillow pet that she really wants. I tell her that I will talk to her daddy about it and I was not going to buy it right now. (the only place you can currently purchase them is online) I said something about it to Keith tonight and he said that she had been talking to him about it all day. She is almost night time potty trained and I think all she needs is a little incentive and she will be there. So we decide that if she can keep her bed dry for a week then she can have one. Tonight as she was getting ready for bed she told me that she did not want to wear a pull up because she was not going to pee the bed so she can get her pillow pet.
Me: Why do you want a pillow pet?
Elizabeth: So I don't pee the bed.
Me: No, why do you want a pillow pet as a reward?
Elizabeth: Pillow Pet it folds into a full size pillow and then it turns back into a cuddly animal. Playtime sleep time
Watch the following link... I really wonder how many times that commercial played in the half hour she was watching tv.
http://www.pillowpetsontv.com/Default.asp?tcode=pi8&tag=msn&bhcp=1

Funny Sayings

Elizabeth and I were working on her letter flash cards. I would show her the letter and she would tell me the name and sound of the letter. I showed her the letter "A" and she says AHHH, when I asked her again what the letter was called she says "come on.. Come on... COME ON!! I know this..... A!!

Sunday night I pulled up the Internet to MSN and they had the link for the Miss USA contest. So I clicked on the link for the evening gowns. Elizabeth came over and sat on my lap so she could see the pretty dresses. My two favorite lines she said
"Wow, that is one fancy dress" and
"I want to wear that to church"

In April I took Elizabeth and Weston to Safford for Grandpa Emery's birthday party and to see the Gila Valley Temple. Before you can go into the temple you watch a video about the LDS people and the building of the temple. Elizabeth was being a typical three year old and did not want to sit still so she was bouncing from person to person. At the end of the video she ended up sitting on my mom's lap. After the video was over she looked up at my mom and said "I love you Grandma." My mom was talking about it later to me and that was her way of trying to express what she was feeling from the Holy Ghost. It is just a warm feeling of love and happiness that makes you want to let others know how much you love and care for them.

Lastly, about two months ago I had the feeling that Elizabeth was feeling a little left out. So I decided to have a little unbirthday party and invite her friends over and have some cupcakes and just let them run and play. I went to get some birthday hats but they were more then I wanted to spend. I found some Brat crowns on clearance and I decided that I would take it apart and make my own. When we got home Elizabeth was looking at the Brats crowns and says "This girl is pointing at the other girl and telling her that she is wearing to much make-up."

14 hours

Today, while we were eating dinner Keith and I told Elizabeth that it would be time for her to get ready for bed after we finished eating. She then looks at us and asks "Can I stay up for 14 more hours?" All night party here we come!

Get your Geek on and Find a cheap Birthday Present

Keith here. Marcie told me that she had started a blog but hadn't figured out a good name and for that reason had not yet posting anything. She asked me to think of a cute name. After thinking about it for a few days I came up with "in a previous conversation" whose origin you can read about in the previous post.

Anyway...on to the topic at hand. For those that don't know, I am a high school math teacher. I enjoy teaching high schoolers and also enjoy interesting math "stuff." I like reading strange math related articles in the news about crazy Russian recluses who have figured out this or that or whatever. I recently heard a new one and thought I would share it.

So here I go, gonna get my geek on.

One of the student teachers where I work recenlty had a birthday. One of my co-workers is friends with this student teacher and was aware that she, the student teacher, has a strange facisnation with the number pi. Just in case you don't know, 3.14.

Well as it turns out this new teacher, Kim, goes searching on the internet for strange pi related information to see what kind of "weirdness" she can pull out and put on a shirt as a birthday present. Kim came acrosss a website that, I think, is pretty freaking amazing.

What the website does is this. You enter in the digits of your birthday. For example, mine is 4141980, having been born on April 4, 1980. The website then takes that set of digits and scans pi until it finds that set of digits in that order and tells you how many places after the decimal that set of digits appear.

So my birthday 4141980 occurs at position 5,848,072 counting from the first digit after the decimal point.

Isn't that weird? I thought so.

So that's all. Need a quick birthday present? Tell them that you started dividing out pi until you found their birthday. They will be amazed at your brilliance...or geekiness.

Here is the site. Enjoy!

http://www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi