Long Weekend with Great Visitors

Flat Stanley was one of our visitors.  Our cousin Andrew sent him to visit us from Florida. 

Here he is with Bradley's kindergarten class.  

(Daniel had to jump in the picture too.)

Bennet Place

Uncle Jake and Aunt Jenny came over the long weekend as well.  We are officially adopting Jenny.

Bradley prayed one night that "Aunt Jenny could stay forever and be Aunt Jenny Shirley."

Bradley and  Stanley at the Bennet Place, a Civil War historical site.

The Bennet Farm is where Sherman and Johnston met to discuss the surrender of the South in this area.

"The Girls"

Bradley, Stanley and Daniel outside the Bennet house

Inside the kitchen where they made shoes and clothe as well as their food.

Eliza helping Aunt Jenny push the stroller.

Such a big girl!

Jenny, Stanley and Eliza

The Bennet Farm in the background

House on the left, kitchen on the left

The Duke House Stead

This is a replica of the Liberty Bell make out of tobacco leaves.

Yes, that is Andy pretending to take a bite of the bell.

These pipes remind me of "National Treasurer."

Bradley and Stanley in front of one of the tobacco leave factories.

Daniel, Uncle Jake and Bradley walking towards the Duke's house.

Now that Eliza can walk she thinks she can choose where and when she goes places.

Silly girl!

Hanging' with Uncle Jakie

The boys loved wrestling with Uncle Jake while he was here.

Bradley keeps praying that "we can go visit Uncle Jake at his house."

Bradley giving Aunt Jenny a hug before heading to school.

This is the new technique the squirrels are using to eat out of the feeder.

Visiting the Temple

The sprinklers were on so Uncle Jake had to keep a close eye on Eliza so she didn't get too wet.

Stanley at the Raleigh, NC Temple

Eliza loves her Uncle Jake

Daniel playing with the sprinkler.

Eliza eating a chocolate sandwich. 

Gotta train 'em young.

Daniel and Eliza checking out one of the spot lights around the Temple.

We had visiting and hanging out with Uncle Jake and Aunt Jenny.  Thanks for making the trip.  We miss you guys and hope to see you again soon!

Feb. 19-21, 2011

A String of Spring Weather

This last week we have had beautiful spring weather reaching into the high 70's.  Andy got home early one afternoon and had time to play some ball.

Daniel is getting pretty good. 

He still can't hit as many or as far as Bradley, but then he hasn't had as much practice.

Eliza thinks she needs to be outside all the time now that she can walk.

 Eliza loves to play in the cul-de-sac.  Apparently this manhole cover is pretty cool.

Feb. 16, 2011

To The Park:

We walked to the park last week with our neighbor since it was such good weather.

Cowboy Daniel ridin' the range.

 

Eliza thinks she needs one of these.

Daniel and Eliana

Nothing is better than climbing with friends.

 

Daniel's "nest".

Eliza loves slides!

She isn't such a big fan of swings though.

 

Daniel, Eliana and Kim

Feb. 17, 2011

Battling the bowl...

One of our favorite things to do is line our army men up in formation and bowl them down!

Bradley is really good.  Andy was in charge of the filming...I like the angle he picked.

Job Chart Update!

 

 We made it a whole week!

The boys have been great help this week.  Bradley set the table all week and Daniel vacuumed twice!

I felt like such a great mother in Relief Society (a woman's Sunday class at our church) since the lesson was about working.  The teacher asked how many in the room gave their children chores to do.  All I can say is it is good the lesson was this week and not last!  :)

As you can see the boys picked ice cream sandwiches for their treat this week!

Eliza has worked hard all week being the cute little sister so naturally she got a treat too!

Eliza trying the very vanilla version...they are actually pretty good.

Silly girl!

Following the treats we had some wild car rides.

"Watch this Mom!"

"Alright!  Let me see how cute I am."

Eliza zoomed back and forth chasing the boys and squealing until I got the camera out and then she was much more interested in the camera than playing.  I love watching her pump her little legs to get going.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A new addition!

 

Surprise! 

(You all thought it was something different!)

We have finally joined the ranks of the mini-van owners!

The kids are super excited and we have to keep kicking them out of the van because they think it is so fun in there.  Now we are really ready for visitors!!

 (Hint hint!)

 

Feb. 10, 2011

Job Charts: Second attempt

 A couple of weeks ago a found a good deal on some kids shows and got them.  I didn't just want to give them to the boys for no reason, so I decided to make them earn the movies.  They have been looking at them in their packages for about a week and a half now and are very excited to earn them.  I finally made some job charts with things they need to do everyday to earn the movies.

They have to complete each job card, with 2-3 jobs on it, to get a sticker or a check in the square for the day.  If they can get 5 of the 7 squares checked, then they get a special treat at the end of the week.  If they can get a special treat 4 of the 5 weeks, then they can choose a new movie.  (This gives a little wiggle room for me if I forget to encourage the job chart!)

 

These job charts are not as fancy as our last ones, but I hope they will work better.  I think that now that the boys are older they will do better than they did while we were in California.

They both have the "get dressed" and "Homework" cards they always have to do, and they will rotate the "set table" and "vacuum" cards each week.  I still need to make another one with a couple of jobs that only Bradley is responsible for, but I haven't come up with them yet.  The boys are really excited to start this job chart today.  I have had to remind them a couple times that we don't check off our squares until the evening!

 

Eliza likes to climb into Daniel's spot and snuggle like a big kid while the boys are getting ready for bed.  The other night Daniel was snuggled in with her and it was so cute!  Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me that night.  Last night she didn't want Daniel to snuggle, but she did want the camera (reason for only one picture).  She is getting big too fast!  FYI: Eliza now has 2 teeth!  She is no longer toothless.