16 All Over Again

September, 2013

Remember when you were a teenager, and you finally got your license? I specifically remember the feeling of independence and freedom the first time I drove to Target by myself because I just needed a couple things. I didn't have to wait until someone else needed to go or coordinate, I was free. 

This week, we bought this little beauty and I've enjoyed those same feelings of independence and freedom all over again. When I needed to go to the grocery store, I didn't have to coordinate and plan and take Aaron to work and pick him up at lunch to take him to his afternoon clinic, and then pack a bunch of cranky kids in the car right as I was trying to get dinner on to pick him up again. I was free. I just went to the store and did my shopping like it was no big deal. 

After 2 years of being a one car family, that freedom feels like bliss! I'm so happy to welcome this little addition to our family! Even if it means we'll actually have to shovel our super long driveway this winter. Absence makes the heart grow go fonder, and it sure prevents you from taking things for granted!

Max's Vocabulary at 18 Months

September, 2013

We all love listening to Max learn new words every day. Elodie has the distinction of Max learning her name first among the kids, and he still says it most often. (Like when he looks out the window and sees Xander and Elodie walking up the driveway after school, he shouts, Ehhhdeeee!!!) She feels pretty special.

Ehhhdee-Elodie

Dando-Xander

Heydo-Hazel

Mom/Mommy/Mama

Daddy

No!

Yessss

Nana-banana

Appol-apple

Tato-cracker

Ahgul-water 

Moa-more

Pees-please

Taintyou-thank you

Yuhyou-love you

Plillo-pillow

Dun-gun ( he also does a sound effect like "tchyou-thchyou" when he picks up a Nerf gun, what a Dahle boy)

Caw-car

Bah-ball

Veevee-movie

Oh no!

Uh-oh!

Whoa!

Weee!

Yay!

Dong (what you say when you're bonking something)

I do!

Me

Poopy

Bum

Shoe

Off (I want to play with the light switch)

Moo-moose

Berrr- bear

Ammo-animal

No-snow

Eye

Eeoh-ear

No-nose

Nothing sweeter than listening to a toddler learning to talk! I love how it's a little window into what matters to him.

Snow way!

September 18, 2013

There's no way I'm letting winter start already. (It's not even technically the first day of autumn yet!!) We've had such a beautiful, relatively long and warm fall so far--a full month of fall-like colors and  temperatures. A lot of the trees still have green leaves mixed in with the gold. It has been gorgeous! I am simply not ready to let it go. Yesterday it tried to snow, mixed with sleet and drizzle. Ultimately, the drizzly rain won out and nothing stuck. I considered it a definite victory for fall. Last night, it tried to snow again. It succeeded in getting a light dusting on the deck and the grass by morning. But that has melted already which I find encouraging. It is still trying, however, with flurries fluttering around but managing to disappear when they hit the ground. I am not willing to admit defeat and consider this the first REAL snow of the season. Thus far, I say it's only an attempt. So ha!

Last night it tried again, and this time succeeded in dusting the trees, too, and it hasn't melted yet, at 11am!! But water is still dripping off of the roof so I am hopeful that this won't stick around all day!

First Day of School

The kids were so excited to get back to school yesterday. My third-grader and second-grader are so grown up now--they're allowed to get on and off the bus without a parent present. They convinced me that they were ready, but it still felt pretty weird letting them walk to the bus stop by themselves. Harder than letting them walk home from the same spot yesterday afternoon. It's a safe little rural road, nothing to worry about, right?

I'm really not the worrying, overprotective type, or so I thought, but it was hard for me to let go!

Alaska Highway Bike Trek

I just got home from biking 106 miles on the Alaska Highway with 5 other tough Alaskan ladies from our ward! We started at Mukluk land in Tok. Then we biked 53 miles to our campsite (AKA a large open space with a short gravel road where our support driver could drop our trailer and we could set up our tent and rough it wilderness style) and tried to sleep under the midnight sun after lots of laughing and chatting like girls at a slumber party. The rains and the wind beat upon our tent, but it did not tumble down nor did we get wet, which I consider great blessings! We woke up and pretended to feel rested enough to tackle the next 53 miles back to Delta. The view was gorgeous, like a little piece of heaven!

I am so glad that these ladies let me join them despite my utter lack of training! While it certainly reinforced lessons in enduring to the end, I loved it! Such a refreshing, physically demanding change of pace from the daily emotional demands of nurturing young children.

And wow am I sore!

Math Monday: Go Fish

There are so many ways to play math fact still games. Using my three different types of flash cards (triangle, dots, and standard) we deal them out and play Go Fish, asking for the sum. "Give me all your 14s." The act of checking your cards to see if you have it is great practice!!

Memory also works well, using 2 kinds of flash cards. The possibilities of games you can turn into math facts are endless!!

Math Monday: Number Sense

I use to do this activity a lot with Elodie when she was preschool age to help her develop number sense. I simply put all the cards face down in a stack and we took turns choosing a card and placing it in order. I've also done "beat the clock" where they see how fast they can order all the number and dot cards.

The kid I'm tutoring was mixing up 4 and 14 and the like, so we played a couple rounds of this to emphasize what the digits mean when you write 14.

More Math Mania

Adding and subtracting using actual objects laid out in these 10 frames helps deepen their conceptual understanding of addition and subtraction while developing a better sense of the meaning of numbers and place value.

For example, a lot of kids say 12 when they mean 20. These type of activities reinforce what numbers actually mean. And if you play it with a fun snack like fruit loops, subtraction really gets fun!

In this picture, I was tutoring a 3rd grade kid who was struggling with understanding the quick trick of adding and subtracting nines. It wasn't clicking when he just looked at the numbers, but it was cool to see it click as we took it from the abstract to the concrete with these 10 frames. He quickly got to where he could just imagine the subtraction problem by looking at the 10 frames and reasoning out loud, without using the manipulative.

Hope!

"It feels like spring is never going to come." --Elodie while waiting for the bus this morning in yet another snowstorm.

Yesterday afternoon the hope was alive, the sun was shining and snow was melting and puddles for splashing abounded. You can see in this picture, underneath the new layer, that right around the house we could actually see some grass again! Officially, I think it was in the high 30s but it felt like the 50s in the sun! I didn't even wear a jacket to get the kids from the bus stop after school! The hope of spring seemed to make everyone just a little peppier.

That was yesterday. Today it takes a bit more effort to have that pep in my step and smile all the while!

General Conference was a snowy weekend for for us, too. Just when the winter wonderland was losing it's wonder, Elder Porter's over-the-top cheerful roommate Bruce reminded me of the wonderful power of optimism. Maybe I need to read that talk again. Or my good old standby from Elder Wirthlin, "Come what may and love it." Or maybe I need to move back to a climate slightly closer to the tropics and further from the arctic!! No, no, no, I love the snow!!

Math Monday

It's my teaching license renewal crunch time so I've had math on the brain. Per request I thought I'd share some of our favorite math games.

I use three different types of flash cards (triangle fact family cards, 10 frame dot cards, and standard flash cards) to encourage flexible thinking, fact mastery, and number sense all at the same time. My kids love this game I call Treasure Trail. I pick around 5 facts to work on and pick them out of each set of flash cards. I lay the cards out in a long trail (using another card to cover up the answer on the triangle cards) and place an upside down bowl at the end of the trail, under which I hide a "treasure," like a piece of popcorn, sweet cereal, or a skittle. No peeking when I bury the treasure under the bowl. The kid chooses a small toy to walk down the path, saying the answer as the toy hops to each card. If they get a fact wrong, they have to go back to the beginning!! My kids usually want to do this over and over, giving them the repetition necessary to approach mastery.

Happy Easter!

Isn't this what you do for Easter? Have a fun little Easter Egg hunt in a ward member's yard and then go sledding behind a pick up truck around their Buffalo farm? (Too bad the buffalo were scared off by the delightful squeals of children. Seeing the buffalo would have added nicely to the Easter fun.)

First Haircut

Max was looking kind of shaggy with the wispy hairs over his ears. So without more ceremony than these before and after pics, and with Hazel taking a nap (I didn't want to giver her any ideas), I gave him his first haircut. I think the new do and his new front teeth give him a somewhat goof look. And with his funny personality bursting forth, he's adorably goofy to me!

That's More Like It!

Last night as we were going to bed and it was 42 below outside, I said to Aaron, "If it's -42, it might as well be -50 so they'll cancel school and I won't have to wait for the bus in this. A girl can dream, can't she?"

Well, lo and behold, dreams do come true. I woke up, checked our thermometer, it says -45, and then checked my phone and was rather excited to hear a voicemail from our dear superintendent informing us that school is canceled for the day! It must be 50 below or colder at the bus barn! Good thing I learned my lesson and checked my phone before dragging kids out of their cozy beds and into dangerous arctic conditions!

Happy Birthday, Dexter!

Wow, I can hardly believe that Dexter would be four years old today.

Max was pretty happy that he got a chance to visit his big brother while we were in Colorado.