Family Night

For our family night lesson this week we decided to do something completely interactive and (hopefully) educational. We learned about geography . . . and temples.

We taped a road map of the United States on the wall, then went through a chronological list of LDS temples, having Kaylee and Ashlyn place stars on each temple location. There are more than 70 temples in the US, so I wasn't sure they'd make it all the way through before tiring of the activity. It went fairly quickly though, and they got excited about temples close to our various family members (Chicago, Portland, etc.)


I think Russ and I were surprised about how much we learned from the map as well ("There's a temple in North Dakota?! Texas has FOUR temples?!)

The only issue we had with the activity was a little over-crowding in Utah. :)

(P.S. The circle stickers were to distinguish temples that have only been announced.)

It was a fun lesson, and hopefully we'll keep adding to our map as the years go by.

Rapunzel

Kaylee and Ashlyn have seen Tangled a few times, as evidenced by the following video. (You may have to turn up the volume on your computer to hear Ashlyn/Rapunzel's song.)



P.S. The string of blankets tied together is supposed to be her long hair.

One Year Older

Wednesday evening we celebrated Russ' 31st birthday.

The girls gave him the movie "Despicable Me".

It's a cute show with a very touching moral
(perhaps even more touching if you have three little girls of your own).

He also received a new shirt (pictured here),
a few classical CDs (big shocker there),
a new fleece jacket (almost exactly like the now-not-so-fleecy jacket he received for his birthday 8 years ago),

and KINECT for the XBox.

KINECT is a sensor that connects to the XBox console and allows for hands-free gaming.

Once Kaylee and Ashlyn figured out where to stand and how to move
they really enjoyed the games.
We anticipate many hours of family fun with this gift. :)

The night capped off with some yummy Peach Jell-O Pie
(Russ isn't a big fan of cake).

We love celebrating!!!

Counting Cutie

She counted correctly when the camera was NOT on, of course. Here are a few of her not-so-successful attempts though:

Gaming

Russ and I are not serious gamers (though he does insist on pulling out the original Nintendo at his parents house to play R.B.I. Baseball whenever we visit, and I did have some mad Tetris skills in my day).

However, we recently acquired an XBox 360 and we (mostly Russ) have enjoyed playing video games again.

Russ plays Major League Baseball 2K10 on his own, and he plays LEGO Indiana Jones with the girls.


Playing "with" the girls translates to Russ working the controller while Kaylee and Ashlyn tell him which way he should go and what he should do to complete the missions.


Kaylee and Ashlyn's favorite game isn't actually a "game" at all. They just love re-doing their personal avatars.

Kaylee usually makes her avatar look similar to herself.

Ashlyn . . . not so much.

Russ helped out with mine. Hence, the Barça jersey.

Russ enjoyed creating his avatar almost as much as
the girls enjoyed seeing it for the first time.
(It strikes me as a cross between Beethoven and Einstein.)

4-Year-Old School

Ashlyn was been waiting and waiting to go to "four-year-old school" (a.k.a. preschool). She is attending Seton Preschool, which is operated by and attached to a Catholic parish.

The school was recommended by some friends two years ago when we were looking for a preschool for Kaylee. We were very pleased with the experiences Kaylee had, and we requested the same teachers for Ashlyn. She is happy to have two of her friends from church, James and Johanna, in her class.

I took Ashlyn to the school for orientation last Friday.

For Ashlyn, even waiting in line to wash her hands was exciting.

She felt the need to tell her teacher that she has an Ariel umbrella, and a princess backpack, and that she got a new jacket from the store with her Mom.

On the way home she kept saying, "I love it! I love it SO much! Thank you, Mom. THANK YOU!"

Brenna Walkie

It has taken her a little longer than most babies, but here she is . . .



We have been thrilled with the progress she has made recently!