January Week 4

Monday, January 22nd

I cherish spending time with my little guy, especially when it comes to cuddling and reading. Being a mom of 5 children with a 14 year age range can be pretty busy, add in a house to keep and caring for my adult brother, and I sometimes feel like my time is spread thin between people and tasks. David and I did a good job this week, taking advantage of those special moments. We enjoyed reading this week. We had not been very good about it lately, but we did great this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of all the books we read this week, David’s favorite was Go Dog Go! We read this book so much this week, that he can read (has memorized) the first few pages on his own. I love watching how happy and proud of himself he becomes while doing so. He thinks he is reading. 🙂 In fact, Emily fell in love Go Dog Go this week as well. She realized that she can read it completely on her own and I think that is why she loves it so much. Another interesting fact is that the copy we have of Go Dog Go, was my copy from when I was a little girl.

Wednesday, January 24th

Jose had a home basketball game this evening. This video clip says it all!

In my husband’s words, “Jose was on fire that night!” I would have to agree. He scored 18 points that evening and you could tell he was enjoying playing the game and that he was working hard.

Thursday, January 25th

My mom came over today and took Ian to the store with her and out for lunch. That gave David and I some special one on one time. I rotated David’s toys, and we got out a new box. I let him play BIG……as in really play! He had the little people zoo set up, the hot wheels out and other various toys.

Here is Doctor David! I was the patient and he was taking my blood pressure. My dad bought this doctor kit for David for his birthday last year. You can see that he thoroughly enjoys playing doctor.

Emily and I had a little mommy-daughter time outside of the house this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was fitness night at Emily’s school. They had some fun things set up. Above you can see Emily doing some stretching moves in one pic and hula hooping on her arm in the other. You can barely see the hoop! Emily did yoga with her teacher, Mrs. Jones, and she learned about different food groups in another classroom. She did a healthy snack walk, where she won a delicious snack of strawberry yogurt. Emily’s favorite was getting the yogurt and doing yoga. My favorite was the jump rope station. Emily was able to jump 23 times while jumping rope on her own. Mrs. Strode (Em’s teacher from last school year, and a friend of mine) and I turned the big jump rope for Emily so she could jump in the center. I loved jumping rope as a kid. It seems like it is something kids don’t do much of anymore. It looks like the girls might be getting a long jump rope for one of their birthdays! 🙂

While Emily and I were at fitness night, the boys headed over to a wrestling match. Carlos stayed home with David, Ashley and Ian. This is Carlitos with one of his newer friends, Asai. They are both seniors this year. Asai’s and his family moved here over the summer and they attend the same church as us.

Today, David is 3 1/2. That means 6 months until his 4th birthday….this is hard for me to believe! It doesn’t feel like he should be this old already. Anyway, I took this picture of him at bedtime. For some reason he only wanted to sleep in his pajama pants and not his pajama shirt. He is my silly boy.

Saturday, January 27th

Today was the Cranston Clan Gathering. Cranston is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name. My grandma and her brothers and sisters and other family members get together at a restaurant a couple of times a year. We live an hour and a half from the restaurant. Carlos and the boys went to play basketball at the church before the clan gathering, and Ian, the younger kids and I had a rough morning, trying to get everyone out of the house ready and on time. Nonetheless, I am glad we still ventured out and went to the clan gathering. It felt good to be there.

There was plenty of visiting and eating going on. This was the only picture that I took, my two sweet girls who were sitting across from me. The man sitting to left in the back of the picture is my grandma’s oldest brother, Jim Cranston. He is the oldest of the clan at the age of 87, going on 88 in March. It was a nice gathering. My Grandma shared some information about our ancestors from her mother’s side of the family, the Schooley’s. Then my great-uncle Dwight shared tidbits of memories that he had of his mom and her siblings, who would have been my great-grandmother (Wilma Schooley) and my great-great aunts and uncles. I learned some new things from those tidbits of information. We also celebrated my great-aunt Jean’s 84th birthday at the clan gathering. I wish I would have taken a picture with her. She is a sweet lady. I’m glad to be a part of this family, and I am grateful for my grandma. She is the middle child out of 7 siblings and she is the glue that holds them all together. 🙂