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Wow!!!

So I just realized I hadn't posted anything about D week at all. And this is one of Ryan's favorite weeks so far. Because he is a big Dinosaur lover!!! So Monday was Dinosaur day. We made a wall painting/picture of a volcano and palm trees out of pom poms and paint. Ryan then colored a few different kind of dinos and we glued them on the poster. It is hanging on the wall by the dining room table. And Ryan still wants to put more dinos on it. Maybe I should do multiple days of one animal if he likes it that much.
Kara is growing too fast. She now has 4 teeth and is wanting to eat all of the food that we eat. If it is within reach, it will be in her mouth before you can grab it from her. I cannot believe that she is 9 months old already. INSANE how time flies so fast. I will try to get a picture of the dinosaurs today before e week next week. Have to have at least one pic of D week.

C Week

This has nothing to do with preschool, but I thought it important to write about. Since we are potty training, Ryan's reward for going poopie in the potty is to play the Wii. Which he apparantly has gotten addicted to since he turned 3. I didn't think he would really get so into it, but since he did I have been able to get him less addicted to it and make it a reward for him. It seems to be working better than candy. Here is a picture of him playing it after he had gone potty. YIPPEE!!!

This week we are learning about the letter C. Monday was COW day and we made finger puppets and a mask. Tuesday was clown day and we made pictures of clowns with shapes, and then as you can see we painted out faces like clowns also. The picture of me is too dark to see anything so I didn't post it. But my baby looks so cute doesn't he? What a fantastic clown!
Today we spent time at the water park so we didn't have time for school. But that's okay. Ryan had a blast with Asher and Shira. So thanks Amy for coming to playgroup today :).

ultrasound pics

Week of B

This week we are learning about the letter B. Yesterday was Bee day. I forgot to take any pictures, but Ryan made a cute bee cutout and was flying it around all afternoon.
Today we learned about balloons. We also Baked Blueberry muffins. Here is such a cute picture of Ryan in his Pampered Chef apron and hat. My cute little baker.

Mixing the fun muffin mix. He has so much fun helping Mommy cook. Can't wait until he is older and bring me breakfast in bed :). Just kidding. Don't want him to grow up that fast.
Here he is with his fun balloon. It is so amazing how a little balloon can etntertain for hours on end. Absolutely LOVES hitting and kicking around a balloon.
And here is the yummy Blueberry muffins. So good it is already almost all gone before I could take a picture.

Fun time with Kara

Kara loves bathtime. She has started splashing a lot. I was getting nervous that she wasn't going to like the water, but I guess all of Ryan's splashing in her face helped her want to splash him back. Here is the first day I let her sit in the tub without her baby tub. She sat up and didn't fall over at all, which in itself was a surprise to me.

She loves to chew on the toys. She tries to drink the water out of them, and will if I am not watching her for a half second. But doesn't she look so cute? I love her big beautiful blue eyes. Someday she will hopefully grow some hair too. :)

Airplanes

Last week we learned about the letter A in preschool. Monday was Apple day, Tuesday was alligator day, Wednesday was airplane day, Thursday was ant day, and Friday was animal day. Here is a picture of a paper airplane we made on Wednesday. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do much with him on Thursday or Friday with preschool as I had an unfortunate incident with the washer. But I tried to take a few minutes to still teach him a little.
He loves airplanes, so Wednesday was great for him. Lots of paper airplanes crashing about the house, as I am not a great paper airplane maker and they didn't really fly well. But we had fun nonetheless. Will post more pictures of our week this week.

2008 Kid stuff!!!

Big boy Ryan got a first real haircut from Mommy last week. I realized I needed to practice working well on his hair so I can cut Justin's hair too. So this was my first attempt at cutting hair with scissors only. I never realized how hard and difficult it really is to FADE the hair of a boy. It was insane. I am happy to say that Ryan was incredible. He sat in his chair for over an hour watching The Little Mermaid. He was so wonderful I could not believe it. I hope that he is always like this throughout his years of haircuts by mommy.

We also started potty training with real underwear last week. He has been doing pretty well. I wish it were easier for him and I, but I know someday it will be a natural instinct for him. I cannot wait for that day. I just hope and pray that it is before the next baby comes. Any special hints or ideas are very welcomed. :)
This week I started a little preschool program at home for Ryan. We are hoping that it works well and I am able to teach him basic principles. So far he is loving it. He looks forward to that time everyday. I am happy to say that he enjoys most everything we do, except practicing writing his letters and writing his name. I am thinking of changing what we write in or something creative to make him interested in writing.
This week (as you can see on the board in the picture) we are working on the letter A. Yesterday was "apple" day and today was "alligator" day. We were able to go to the library today and picked out a lot of A and B books for this and next week. Ryan loved the library and I pretty much had to drag him out of there. And when we got home we made alligator skin. Basically just rice krispy treats colored green. Since the texture is somewhat rough like an alligator's skin. Ryan is looking forward to tomorrow, our "airplane" day. We will be driving to the airport to look at the airplanes. He LOVES airplanes. And today while we were driving he was pointing out all the planes along with anything else that he could find that started with the letter A, it was so cute!!!
I hope to take more pics through his learning process and give little stories like this through each week. Looking forward to bringing you more stories and pics of the kids.

Oh yes...Kara is breaking her top 2 teeth now. 8 months and 4 teeth already. WOW!!!

Pictures!!!

I am not so good at taking pictures, but hopefully with time I will get better. I will at least post pics that I think are of important times in the kids lives. Or just cute pics.


Kara's first taste of cereal YUMMMM!!!! September 2007
Kara and Ryan together. My cute babies!!! September 2007. Big 3 year old brother and 4 month old baby girl.
Kara dressed up nice for big brother Ryan's 3rd birthday party. September 2007.

Here is a beautiful pic of my Kara when she was born. May 19, 2007

2008

Seems like I always go too long without posting on here. I am hoping to get into it better. I should actually keep my camera on me at all times to post pics of the kids at least weekly. Maybe that will be a goal of mine.
Well...Kara is now 8 months old. I can't believe how fast time flies and how much the kids grow. Ryan is the big 3 years old now. Loving being a "big boy". He is the best big brother we could ask for. Loves giving his sister big hugs and kisses. And he is looking foward to the next sibling due in July. Yep, a big surprise for us, but Heavenly Father knows we can handle it I guess. So here comes #3. :) I am thinking it is a boy, but it will be a surprise. I am now in the 2nd trimester. Haven't been sick at all, thank goodness. This is why I think it is a boy. :) But we will have to wait and see.
This weekend the kids have both been really sick. So sad when kiddo's are sick and there isn't much you can do. Especially with the baby just crying and whining because she doesn't know what is going on. Makes me so sad and want to just cuddle with them all day.
So we have had pajama and movie days the past couple days. Not that Ryan minds :) He is starting to feel better, but still wants the movies and pajamas all day long. So cute!!!
Okay, until next time which will hopefully be sooner rather than later!

Been a while!!

Well I haven't written throughout most of the pregnancy or baby time. But as of now, Kara is 4 months old. Here is her big brother kissing her head. Such a good big brother he is. :)
Kara Lavae Hurst was born on May 19, 2007. A day I will never forget. I thought this delivery would go slow like Ryan. But nope. Not at all. I started having severe contractions while we were watching a movie with Justin's parents. After about 30 minutes I knew we needed to call the midwife. We called Kristine and informed her of the contractions. She said she'd be over within the hour. Well, she got here and checked me, I was at an 8. She thought she still had a while before pushing would start. But at that time I felt the urge. Her materials were all in the living room and we were in the bedroom. Justin had started filling up the birthing tub and hollered to his dad to stop the water because we didn't have time. After about 3 pushes we had a baby girl. A little amazing bundle of joy. It was that mother's intuition that told me it was a girl inside me. And there she was. If she was a boy, her name would be Kyle :) But I like Kara much better.
The delivery went very well. I was very happy and still had all this energy because it went so fast. She was born at 950pm. I didn't have time to call my sister until after the baby was born. I felt so bad because I wanted her here. But I apparently didn't need a lot of people this time because Kara was dead set on coming fast.
The past few months have been great. I went back to work after maternity leave. We went on vacation out to Virginia to Hurst family reunion. That was awesome to see everyone there. We have been out camping and off roading many times since she was born. Fun times we have had and many more to come. I get excited about dressing her up all nice. Even though I don't like doing that to myself too much. More fun doing her all up. But I also love dressing her up in Ryan's clothes too. Cute little tomboy. She is going to grow up so cute.
Times are wonderful and I realize I need to treasure every minute and moment with them. As they grow up way too fast. It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant with Ryan. That was over 3 years ago. And now he is potty training and about to be a sunbeam and we are doing preschool lessons at home. He is a lot of fun and I love him as he grows. Much more fun playing with his toys now. :)
I can't wait to have more kids. That is on the agenda to talk to Justin about. Wish me luck!!!