Genius?

So I had parent teacher conferences today. I went to Blaze's first. I was expecting the worst. At home he's pretty laid back, very talkative, and pays very little attention to anything I have to say. Apparently at school he is the exact opposite. He listens very well, he's a little talkative, and he bosses Braydon around. They do a "pre-test" like a week after school starts to see where they are. He scored an 11 out of a possible 23. Mrs. Batty said that's the low end of where he would need to be for Kindergarten. That's a good thing by the way. :) He's one of only 4 in the district preschool that can point to words that rhyme and one of very few that can turn a book right side up and point to the title. So genius?

Possibly.

I then went over to Jercie's. They take a test at the end of September to see where they are. She is above average in her reading and math (which is all they test them on). Her teacher says she is very well behaved and the only time she really has trouble with her is when it's time to transition to a new activity and Jercie isn't finished with what she is working on. She likes to do her best work all the time, so it takes her longer than the other kids to complete it. She doesn't like to leave anything unfinished. Her teacher also said that she is ready for some of the things that the second graders are doing so she would like to start giving her some second grade math to work on so that she will be challenged and not get bored. I think this is a wonderful idea and can't wait to see how well she does with it. So another genius?

Maybe...

Are you a winner?

You are all winners for entering my giveaway! Thank you for your comments. Especially the ones that complimented me. There were some questions about where and who did the pictures. We had them done in our yard. My friend Brittanua Clark took the pictures. She lives in Enoch, down by Cedar City. If you want her to do your pictures her photography blog is on my sidebar. Now on to the winners. I decided to do 2 winners. I used random.org to get a winner so it was done fairly...

#1 Kimi who said:

I love the Family pic's, did you do them yourself?? I want a neckless, with Love, please =)

#8 Amy who said:

I do love the family pictures. You have an amazing family. And I haven't posted earlier because I was gone all last week with limited access to a computer (as in my hubby had it most of the time). So even if I don't win the necklace, I appreciate that you commented on my blog and I enjoyed seeing pictures of your family.

But in case I do win, I like Hope!

If you girls could e-mail me your address and if there are any specific colors you will want,  I will get these to you.  tonia_n_mike@yahoo.com

On a different note, Jercie sadly didn't win Red Day at school. She only lost by 2 red things. They only counted one of her 4 hair bows, and didn't count her nails. I still think she should have won, but what's a mother to do? She was pretty sad that she didn't win, but we had cookies and milk when she got home and that made things better. It's amazing what a little cookies and milk will do for a broken heart.

Red

So this week was red ribbon week at the elementary school. Today they were told to wear as much red as they could. The kid who had on the most red would win a prize. Jercie really wants to win, so I went and bought her a red shirt, some red ribbon for her hair and made her a necklace. I also spray painted her hair red, and painted her fingernails red. I wanted to paint her face, but didn't have any red make up.  Here she is all decked out in RED. I think she looks cute with red hair.

There is still time to enter my giveaway. You have until Saturday at midnight. The winner will be announced Sunday afternoon.

Family Pictures and a Giveaway!

I told Mike I wanted a picture that looked like he really liked me. This is what I got.

I got my picture disc in the mail today. I look a little frumpy in some of them, and Kaia isn't smiling in any of them. We did get some of Mike actually smiling. YAY!!

This is my favorite of the family

Love this one too

Daddy and his best buddy

How cute is that?

Me and Mike

Me and Blaze goofing off

Mike and his little buddy

Daddy and his girls

Me and the kids

Mommy and the girls

Mike and the kids

Now for the giveaway. Due to the fact that nobody comments on my blog anymore, (except Ang) I'm giving away a handmade necklace that is similar to these.

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me how cute my family is, and whether you want faith, hope, love or nothing stamped on the necklace. I will leave the giveaway open until Saturday the 24 of October! Good luck!!

Look what I made...

I have been doing my own backgrounds and for some reason or another they aren't fitting on screen. I don't know why, but I'm too lazy to go figure it out.

I decided last year that I didn't want to buy Halloween costumes any more. I am making Jercie and Kaia's. Blaze wants to be Robin from Teen Titans and I refuse to use my sewing machine for longer than 10 minutes. Jercie is being a vampire fairy. I don't know why she can't choose one or the other, but oh well at least she is original. I don't want to tell what Kaia is being because I'm kind of weird like that. I will post pics after Halloween and she is all dressed up. It will make more sense that way I think. So anyway, I made a couple tutus for the girl's costumes. All I have to get for Jercie is a black leotard and some wings. We already have fangs from last year's uber original vampire witch. She's a strange girl.

Kaia's tutu

Jercie's tutu. I might redo it with black elastic

I took Jercie to the doctor today because the cough that she started getting Sunday morning turned "barky" . She has a mild flu, but because she is at risk for asthma or worse he gave her an antibiotic. He said she can go back to school tomorrow, she just has to wash her hands a lot and cover her mouth when she coughs. She doesn't really cough that much during the day, it's at its worst at night. I think I have a harder time sleeping through it than she does.

We got our family pictures done last week. They are cute. I will post some when I get the disc in the next day or two. I'm retarded because I completely forgot to get individuals done of the kids so I am going to Cedar City in a couple weeks to get them. I am hoping Kaia will be in a better mood. She wouldn't smile in any of the pictures without Mike. Hopefully she will be more cooperative without Mike there.

Sticky Traps and Puppy Tails Do NOT Mix

She wasn't very happy about having her picture taken
(doesn't she look like Falcor from Neverending Story?)

We have a small mouse problem this year. We had them for the first couple years we lived here. I blame that on the disgusting state the house was in when we bought it and moved in. We haven't had a problem for a year or two. Last night I was sitting on the couch and heard some noises behind the other couch. That's usually where Kola hangs out. I looked behind me and there was Kola, so it wasn't her back there. The kids were sitting quietly watching T.V. so it wasn't them either. Crap, it's a mouse. So I went over to the Joseph Kmart (mom and dad's) and got a couple mouse traps. I have never set an old school mouse trap before so my dad had to teach me. He did a good job because I didn't snap my finger once. I got the peanut butter on it and set it up and put it under the couch. I put a second one under the stove. I woke up this morning and my peanut butter was gone off both traps but the traps hadn't been sprung. Crap, smart mice. I think I will have Mike pick up some sticky traps.

Which brings me to why sticky traps and puppy tails don't mix. When I was pregnant with Kaia we had some sticky traps set up in our room. One was under Mike's night stand and the other under my glider rocker. Well Kola came in one morning and sat by the glider and started thumping her tail. Her tail went thump right into the trap. Well, Jercie found it before we did and cut her tail off. Right up to the fleshy part of it. If she would have been about a quarter of an inch down we would have had major blood loss.

Since we're talking about Kola, she is dumb. Seriously. Today I pulled 4 cockle burrs from her face. Her face isn't that big. How the heck did she get 4 of those suckers in there? The other day I pulled 6 or 7 from her tail. I don't know where she is getting them, but I wish she would stop going there. Hopefully next summer we will finish the block wall and get something along the bottom of the gate so she has to stay in the yard.

Some More...

random stuff. Since my last post of random pictures I have been trying to get more of Jercie and Blaze. I know I don't take as many pictures of them. They don't change as much as Kaia. That's my excuse anyway. Jercie is growing like crazy though. I bought her 4 new pairs of pants at the beginning of the school year and only one pair fits her. She has these ridiculously long legs. We were playing my new Wii game and it said that she is underweight. What's sad is the kid eats her weight in food daily. I don't know where she puts it. She must have her dad's metabolism.

I think Blaze would hang out in his pajamas all day every day if I would allow it. I would if Mike wouldn't give us crap about it. I love to wear my pajamas so I can't get after Blaze too much about it. He would also sit on the couch and watch cartoons and play his DS all day if I let him. I have to force the kid to play outside. I did get his birth certificate in the mail so he is good to go at preschool.

Kaia is Kaia. She cracks me up everyday. She sat next to me on the couch today and colored while I watched General Conference. She did that for a good 15-20 minutes. Then she laid on the floor and colored for another 10. She loves to talk and yell at us. She also loves to dance. If she hears music her little hips start swaying. Even if she is sitting on the couch or my lap. She definitely knows what she wants and how to get it. She is just a little spoiled. I don't know how that could have happened.

Mike and I went to the town meeting on Thursday because there was some vandalism over at the park and Mike was going to volunteer to help them repair the block wall that was torn down. They decided to just clean it up and get rid of the wall altogether. BUT apparently there is a rampant tire problem here in town. The citizens of Joseph are being tormented by tires. Here is some photographic evidence...

Look at it just standing there... I'm totally kidding, but you would think, by the way the townspeople were talking, that we have a major tire problem here. LOL

Mike also finished laying all the sod. You might notice some of it in the background of some of my pictures. It looks so good. I am pretty sure I have the best husband ever. :)

Well here are some pictures that I took over the last few days...

She was going to work

Playing on the swing set

Running up the slide

Chasing Blaze

Kaia thinks she's a big kid!

Helping Daddy fix the truck