Want some water?

Travis had to show the boys a new trick with our new sprinkler.....

 

What a big kid! 

New Sun Dresses

The day before our cousins left to move to Vegas, they got to spend the whole day at our house. We even got to squeeze in another sleepover the night before! We had celebrated Brittnay's birthday the day before - 4 years old now! And I wanted to make her a cute dress.

I had already made one of these for me to take to California with me, so I decided to whip 2 up for the girls - many questions if I was done yet and 3 hours later here is my end project:

 So pretty!!

 They turned out a little tighter and smaller than I wanted, but I just made up the pattern as I went.

 I had to do their hair one last time! Then I gave them each a hair pretty I had made. I think they went beautifully with their new dresses!

 Here they are twirling! They can use these dresses for church, every day or even as a swim suit cover up as they walk down to the pool.

So pretty and I am glad they liked them!

Sleep Over

After school was out, we went over to Grandma Walker's house to have a sleepover with our cousins. They were moving back to Vegas, so we wanted to spend some extra time with them.

We had fun playing, swimming in the hot tub and watching movies. We then went to the new Kung-fu Panda movie and Ikea the next day. We had lots of fun.

 I was so thrilled that Kimball went to sit on Aunt April's lap! My boys have always kept to themselves and hardly EVER go to anyone else besides Trav and me. It's been hard for Aunt, Uncles and Grandparents to get to know them more, but I think we are slowly getting where the boys are more social.

We then of course had to play in Grandma and Grandpa's hot tub! Always a special treat for them.

 Nathan isn't throwing a fit, he is being a dinosaur! I really need to video tape him when he does it, very cute.

 I love this picture, it looks like Sierra might be drowning, but she is floating!! She was showing the boys how she can hold her breath under water and float!

We had a fun time! We are hoping this summer for the boys to each have a special night at Grandma Walkers house. Have some nice one on one time. They will LOVE it!

Special Quilt for a Special Person

During the last week of school I was busy quilting - okay so no surprise, I do that all the time!

I was working on a quilt that I first started way back in September of 2009, here is my post on it.

I was planning on using it for other people but never got it done, so a week before school was out, I decided to grab the quilt top and finish it for Brandon's teacher. "Boxxy" or Miss Box. She has been a life saver for Brandon this year and has helped him so much with transitioning to a new school to helping him handle new social situations. She is also the first person that he has given a nick name for! He told me that he combined "mommy" and box" because she reminded him of me (I think just a motherly feel) and came up with "Boxxy"! I didn't know he spelled it with 2 x's until I already did the label. Oh well.

It's not my best work, but my sewing machine broke and I was forced to use a much smaller and well...crappier sewing machine. (I really need to get mine fixed!!) But I think she likes it.

 Brandon snuggling in her blanket! I ended up using lots of scrap batting for it, and had to double in areas, so it is a rather thick quilt.

 The wonderful Boxxy!! She might be back next year, but not sure. We will miss her terribly though.

 Here are the boys on the last day of school. We bought t-shirts that everyone wore for the last day to have people sign.

Another school year ended - I will now have a 3rd grader, 2nd grader and a preschooler next year! My babies are getting so big!!

MIA

Summer  is always a busy time! I am beginning to think that my life will never slow down and I won't ever have any "slow" time!

Last week me and the boys went to San Diego with my Mom, Dad and Sister and her family. Boy did we take a lot of pictures!! My wonderful sister is doing editing on them and making them really pretty for me, so next week I will start showing tons of pictures of us and our fun trip.

Here is a little taste..

 

Now that I am home, I am working on some quilts - trying to get caught up on different WIP, cleaning, and trying to keep my WILD boys entertained. It is a never ending job! 

Cub Scout Olympics

At the last Pack Meeting, Brandon's troop had their Cub Olympics! Believe it or not, but Brandon was nervous about this ALL day! At first thought he was being silly, but then when it kept happening I felt bad for him. Poor Brandon isn't into sports.

 Brandon likes to watch more than participate, so I had to keep telling him to participate. The balance beam....

 Then the younger siblings could participate. Nathan had a hard time....this is the long jump. He wanted us to count here he ended up instead of where he first came down. (We were using our dinosaurs to mark where people had landed)

 Kimball was a good sport and participated with everyone else. He was very cute to watch!

 They had running races.....Brandon of course finished last. I think mostly because he didn't put all of himself into it.

 Kimball on the balance beam, he had a hard time staying on the beam, but made it to the end.

 They also had a bean bag toss. Brandon didn't complain about this one too much.

 Nathan and Kimball got to do a race too....Nathan had a VERY hard time with this because he came in 2nd and he wanted to be 1st. He threw a HUGE tantrum! I ended up putting him in the van to calm down (with the windows down), but then he was throwing everything in there, so I made him get out and sit on my lap for the very end. By the end I was willing to give him up (which is what I did when Daddy came home from work).

Kimball finished last...oh he was such a good sport!! Out of Brandon and Nathan, he was the best! Which I am VERY grateful! I don't think I could have handled all three of them acting like they were.  They are all pretty good at that, usually only 2 are being bad, while one is good. It trades off between them all.

Brandon ended up receive the Spectator Award! After we left I explained to him that not everything is Cub Scouts will be fun but he needed to participate anyway, because there will be more fun than not. If he didn't participate in everything then I would take him out of the Cub Scouts. So now hopefully he will participate a little better. Trying to teach him that you have to take the bad with the good.

Quail Run Art Festival

Do you ever feel like schools try to cram everything in at the last minute?? I do! The last week in May I believe we had 2 performances! One was the 1,000 Crane play and then the School Art Festival. We HAD to go to the Festival because it was a finishing grade for the boys.

The school had performances of the different music groups, then the whole school sang some songs and then there was dancing by each of the grades.

 Being an hour after school the boy's medication had since worn off! So in the very beginning they had a hard time holding still....

 I felt so sorry for the kids around Brandon, they were showing patience but in the end I had him move by me.

 He was still able to sit with his class and by me. All the staffing was glad to see me so they didn't have to deal with him! I don't blame him, when he doesn't have medicine in his system it's like he is a two year old that can't sit still!

 Nathan sat by me too, he calmed down a lot with me too. I filmed each of them dancing with their classes, but the videos aren't working properly! They were so cute and did a GREAT job! Usually when they get in front of a huge crowd of people, they freak out by wiggling and jumping and being loud. This time they got in their places and performed! They did AWESOME!

 Then up in the Library they had art work by everyone that they had worked on sometime during the year. Brandon had some dinosaurs...his is the white skull. It took us forever to finally figure out what he was pointing at!

Nathan made this paper sculpture of a dinosaur, but during the moving of art work it was lost! We searched the room SEVERAL times but couldn't find it! We were able to divert the tantrum by having him make one when he got home (he thence forgot!).

This is the whole of the 2nd grade's work! Nathan loved it so much that he asked the Science teacher if he could have it when they were done with it. She was kind and said yes...now I have 8 ten feet rolls of paper filled with dinosaurs! Lets see how long that will last eh?

I don't know if you could tell or not...but my boys like dinosaurs!

1,000 Cranes

Last month was the boy's last weeks of school. I must say that I am really liking this Charter school, mostly that they can handle Brandon and he isn't expelled for hitting someone (those of you with kids with autism or know kids with autism...you understand!).

The boys were able to participate in their very first play! I believe it was called 1,000 Cranes. It's about a girl who has cancer from the U-bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. It was a little dark...(they talk about death in a round about way) and I thought that it was a little too heavy for 1st - 8th graders. None the less my boys did great!

 They were both different types of Spirit ninjas. It was perfect because they had little to do with the play but was able to participate.

 Nathan was really nerous so we ended up putting his vest on and he wore it during the whole show.

 Brandon wasn't I think all there, he was in his own little world half the time and then the other half just watching everyone else.

 Kimball spent most of the hour playing with his trains. I came VERY prepared with toys, treats and an Ipod.

 He was very content and happy to play with his trans!

 Here is Brandon, and this is pretty much what he did. He didn't sing, he didn't do much but stand and watch (notice how the other kids are all sitting down? )

Nathan's ninjas did this wind/water thing where they ran in circles around some people. It was cute, but after awhile he was getting bored with it and so had more fun putting it over his head!

I am very proud of my little kiddos! I am glad that they were able to participate and have the experience. Whether this is something that they would enjoy to do when they get older, who knows.