Catching Up

It's been October since the last post so there's lots to catch up on.  I'll do a quick run down.  Logan has been doing very well in school.  We had our first parent/teacher conference and were told Logan was doing very well and was one of the best students.  Logan's done for the year and will return on January 4.  It should be a busy couple of weeks.  In the meantime though, Dan's parents came for Thanksgiving and we celebrated an early Christmas with them as well.  Logan got lots of bike riding time, took them to his Explora class and had a great time.  

Other events from the past few months:  

 Logan attended his first on stage performance when we went to see Blast!  It was a long night but he had a great time and got to meet the musicians after the show and even got to play on their drums. 

 We took advantage of the wonderful fall colors from some trees at church and took some pictures.  They really do adore each other. 

 Megan has become very vocal and will carry on a conversation with anyone (or anything that will listen).  She had an intense conversation with Logan's Pooh Bear one afternoon, maybe he knew what she was saying.

Logan got 3 awards at school during the Kindergarten 1st Semester Awards Ceremony.  He got an award for Perfect Attendance, Excelling in Language Arts and Excelling in Math.  He was the only one in his class to earn all 3! 

 We attended the church's cookie bake off, dressed in our best Christmas 'ears'.

 Megan stands on her own now, but won't walk.  Though fearless in every other way, walking doesn't seem to be something she wants to do now.  But we're getting close. 

 Logan won first place in the Children's Candy Category at the Cookie bake off.  He made Oreo Truffles and they were a huge hit!  Ruth also won 2nd in the Adult Bar Candy Category for Pecan Chocolate Chip Bars and 2nd in the Adult Candy Category for her Turtles. 

With only 9 days until Christmas, Logan is bursting with excitement.  Logan and Megan will both be sheep this year in the pageant at church.  Until next time, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Birthday's and Halloween

Megan celebrated her first birthday this month.  Other than a trip to the doctor for her check up, we didn't do much.  We had a few gifts and cupcakes.  Here's some pictures from her big day. 

This was taken while we were singing 'Happy Birthday'.  She only laughed at us for a few minutes. 

 Enjoying her cupcake. We got cupcakes with chocolate filling. We thought those would be less messy than lots of icing. And they were slightly less messy. Still lots of sugar and chocolate. Dan and Logan enjoyed them as well.

 Licking every last bit off.  No wasted cupcake here. 

Meanwhile, we've been getting ready for Halloween.  Logan wanted to be a firefighter this year and Megan was a pink bunny.  We had the hat and goodness knows she has plenty of pink clothes so it was an easy choice.  The kids dressed up for the Zoo Boo and for church.  Logan and Dan will go 'Trick or Treating' tomorrow night. 

The weather is getting cool here and Logan is preparing his list to Santa, I guess the holidays aren't far away.  Megan still isn't walking.  She has become a very fast crawler though and figures she can get anywhere she needs to faster crawling than wasting time walking.  She is very adventurous and will get into anything and everything she can.  Logan continues to do well in kindergarten.  He'll take his first field trip tomorrow to a pumpkin patch in Los Lunas. 

Finally a fun video showing Megan with some possible musical talents.  Who knows!

Balloon Fiesta 2011

It's October in NM that means it's Balloon Fiesta time.  We decided to go this year in the morning.  We were up by 4:45AM and out the door by 5:15AM.  It wasn't too cold, in the 50's and it warmed up by 9AM and was really nice.  The kids had a really good time.  There were lots of new special shapes, some of our new favorites are Spider Pig and the Shark.  Of course they still had the old favorites too, the cow, the stagecoach, the bees just to name a few.  I think they had almost 600 balloons take off on Sunday.  Here's some pictures from the field.  

Logan is still really enjoying school.  Megan is more and more mischievous everyday.  Logan wants to be a firefighter for Halloween, so we'll be looking for that costume in the next few weeks.  We're all doing good and looking forward to some cooler weather. 

Birthday Wrap Up

Logan celebrated his 5th birthday last month.  With all that's been going on at home, I haven't had the time to post pictures.  We've stayed very busy.  Last week I was at the church all week, helping them take down and hang the new art gallery show.  Megan helped too, in her own way.  Logan's been busy with school.  Homework started a couple weeks ago and he's been doing great.  He had his 5 year well child check up at the doctor last week as well.  He was promised there would be no shots at 5 years, but as it turned out they had just gotten the kids flu shots in, so instead of making another appointment and coming back he ended up getting a shot after all.  Which didn't make him too happy.  Other than that we've been staying busy with school and other activities.  Here's some highlights from Logan's Dino Birthday Bash!

For Logan's party we went to the church's annex building after Sunday School classes. The kids started with a dinosaur egg hunt, they got to decorate bags to put their eggs in.  There were lots of older siblings there to help the younger kids. 

 Then it was time for the egg hunt.  The kids were all assigned a different color of an egg so they all had to find their own eggs.  They had a great time.

Then it was more fun with 'Pin the Skull on the Fossil'.

 Presents are always a hit.  Logan got Lego's, games and cars.  He was very happy.

 Logan wanted a dinosaur cake for his birthday.  Not sure how to make a dinosaur, we decided to just make and egg cake and the dinosaur could 'hatch out of his egg'. 

Cake and ice cream are always a hit with kids.  After the cake the kids played hide and seek for a while until the party was done. 

As for Megan, she's become a very fast crawler.  She can pull herself up on furniture and can walk with help.  She's very mischievous and is into everything. 

First Day of School

Logan was supposed to start school on Tuesday, but we got a call on Monday that said that kindergarten wouldn't start until Thursday.  So we got a couple more days of summer vacation in.  We did get to go meet the teacher on Tuesday. 

 Here's Logan ready for school. 

Walking to school, making sure Mom is still there.   

 Almost there.  School is in sight.

 Ready to go in. 

 All lined up when the bell rings.  Now we look a little nervous. 

 Picking up Logan from school.  Waiting is hard work.

All done!!  And still smiling! 

Logan's teacher said he did great and was a model student.  We're looking forward to a year of fun!

A Month in Review

We've had a busy summer.  Lot's has happened since our last post.  We've had lots of visitors, lots of trips to the zoo, aquarium, and museums, trips on the rail runner, baseball games and back to school prep.  So we'll do a quick recap. 

In July both my sisters visited and their trips overlapped for a couple days.  What do you do with 8 kids?  You take them to church, well kind of.  It helps that we have access to keys at the church.  One night we took all the kids, and did a pizza and movie night at the church.  Here's all the kiddos.

 Andrew, William, Zeona, Sarah, Megan, Logan, Elizabeth, Syndl

We used the big screen pulled up lots of chairs and settled in for Tangled. 

We also took a trip on the Rail Runner to Santa Fe.  Spent a couple hours there then returned home.  Megan had a great time and loved looking out the window.  She spent a good deal of the trip plastered to the window, until she finally gave in and took a nap. 

There's always a few minutes to relax.  What's a better way to relax than have a 4 year old walk on your back.

We squeezed in a few baseball games, and even stayed way past all of our bedtimes for fireworks one night.  We had to wake Logan up for the fireworks and Megan was so fascinated by them. 

Logan finished up his class at the zoo/aquarium.  And we went on some non-class days just for fun.  Megan likes to watch the fish so we spent some extra time at the fish tanks.   

Finally one last pre-birthday gift for Logan.  He's wanted to do a build a bear for years so this was finally the year.  He picked his bear, named him 'Friendship' and 'stuffed' him. 

 Here's Logan putting the bears heart in....

 ...giving the bear a bath before picking clothes.... 

 ...dressing the bear, he choose a Cars 2 outfit for his bear.  A pajama set with Lighting McQueen slippers.

Logan and Friendship. He really loves that bear. 

Logan begins Kindergarten on Tuesday.  He's very excited.  His birthday is Sunday and we'll be having a Dino Bash Party on Sunday after church, I'll be preparing for that this week while Logan is in school.  Pictures coming soon.