The tooth fairy visits again

On Friday Arianna lost her 2nd tooth. It was the other bottom front. She was very excited. It had been loose for a while and she lost it at school. She wanted to lose it at school because you get to go to the nurse and she gives you a small treasure box to put the tooth into and then your name gets written down on a big tooth to be kept there.

Both Arianna and Ethan have moved up into new swimming classes. Arianna is now in teh 75 foot distance class which means they swim 25 yards or all the way across the pool. In order to get into the class you must be able to do that with the crawl, backstoke, and elementary backstoke. And also swim half way across the pool with breaststroke and butterfly. she does very well. She can dive down in the deep end to the bottom and pick up rings, her dives are getting better. We might look at her starting a summer swim team this coming summer. Ethan moved up to the Puddle jumpers class. In this class the parent is with the child for half the class and then for the last half they stay with the instructor. It is a transitional class to get them ready for classes without the parents - which he can start when he turns 3. He loves to jump into the water. He hates floating on his back and he doesn't like to blow bubbles, but in general he loves to be in the water. He likes to go on his tummy and kick and is doing fairly well with doggy paddling.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. We will be heading to Michael's parents and then to Portland for a few days. We are planning on bringing down the crib we have to give it to a friend's sister who is expecting and then I found out Michele is going to be in Portland at that time as well. I am so excited. We haven't seen each other for about 1 1/2 years. They have a little boy that they are adopting and I haven't met him yet. It sounds like we are going to be very busy in Portland, we have lots of people to visit. Luckily we won't have the kids so we can be more flexible and meet people later than we would normally.

On friday it was also parent's night out at Ethan's school, so both kids went and Michael and I had a nice dinner. we went to Tutta Bella - our favorite pizza place and we had a nice time. We even had time to relax at home before picking the kids up.

We have family pictures this weekend. I need to find something to wear that matches the kids outfits or otherwise I will end up wearing what I had last year. Michael's holiday party if Dec 12. I want to get a new outfit for that, but we will see. Then on the 13th is arianna's party at the swimming pool. We have to work on getting invitations ready to send out soon. I like to do them a little early where this is a busy time of year for people. If anyone wants to come up - let me know :).

I need to run. We had our air ducts cleaned today and they are getting ready to leave, so I need to pay them :(. It needed to be done. It had never been done since the house was built and many times with new construction things get left in the ducts, lots of dust, etc.

Pumpkins

These are Arianna's pumpkins. She drew the designs and carved most of them.

Catching Up

Some Decorations at our house

Arianna, Ethan, Zane, and Zuleikha


Arianna and Ethan

Arianna and Ethan wearing shirts that Grandpa Clark and Grandma Sandee bought for them from Yellowstone.

It has been a while since I have updated this blog. All is going well. Let's see - where to start.

The week of Halloween was good. Michael had left for LA on Sunday and came back on late Thursday night. The kids were very good for me while he was gone. Much easier than I had thought.

Halloween. Arianna was Minnie Mouse and Ethan was a Tiger. She had a great time at her school Halloween party. Then she came home and we had a little time to relax before we went out to trick or treat. We got them all dressed up and then went to our neighbor's house to pick up Zuleikha to go with us. Then we headed out into the neighborhood. All week I had been working with Ethan to say Trick or Treat and he would not say it, but as soon as he heard the girls saying it a few times he picked it up quickly and said it so cute! For a while he would say thank you when i told him, but then he heard the homeowners say your welcome so when I would tell him to say "Thank you" he would say "Your Welcome" it was so funny. It was also really cute because he had a pumpkin to hold his candy and he would not let anyone else hold it. He would start dragging it and if you tried to help him he would tell you no. He did really good. He walked up and down our street and another street - both of which are on hills and he didn't get tired. We eventually met up with another neighbor whose boy is in Kindergarten with Arianna and we finished trick or treating with them. It was so nice to have Halloween on a Friday!! Michael's parents came in late that night because Michael's mom had appointments on Saturday and then that evening Michael and I were able to go out for a while on our own.

Ethan is talking more and more which is great. He is combining more words for sentences, says I love you, etc. He loves airplanes, cars, balls, bubbles, cats, slides, riding toys, and dogs. He acts like a stereotypical boy. He is still on the aggressive side, but that is just his personality. He loves to bang on things, etc.

This last Thursday Ethan had a success. He had gone a little poopy in his diaper and I asked him if he wanted to go lay down for a diaper change. He said no and ran to his potty and said he wanted to sit on there. So we did so - not really thinking anything would happen, but it did. He then proceeded to go poop and pee in the potty. He was very excited. It hasn't happened again, but it was funny because the next day after he had gone potty in his diaper I asked him if he waned to sit on his potty he said no, but then proceeded to put his big teddy bear on the potty. It was too cute.

Arianna is doing very well. She is almost 6, but more like going on 16. She is doing great on reading, and math. Hopefully that will continue through the rest of school for her. She just finished up soccer, but still has swimming. We have tried to get her into Girl Scouts, but it appears that might not happen. I have called several times to find out about a troop for her, but so far nothing. They said that it looks like there is not a troop in our area for her age. If they don't come up with something soon then we are looking at Campfire USA.

We have her birthday party set up. We are having it at the pool where she has her lessons. It will be on the 13th. She loves to go swimming so we figured it would work well and it will also let Ethan participate because he likes the water as well. He is in swimming lessons too.

This last weekend we went down to Portland to see Ken and Kar-yee's new baby. He was born on Oct 16th. He is very cute. Michael was able to go over in the evening for a while just to visit without the kids. I kept the kids at the hotel and went swimming, etc.

For Thanksgiving we are going to Michael's parents house and then Michael and I are going over to Portland on Friday and Saturday to try and so some shopping for the kids. We have family pictures this weekend and Arianna has a friends birthday party on the 16th.

Arianna has today and tomorrow off from school and Ethan is at daycare these 2 days so it has been nice. We went to the library today and she is having her friend Shalini over right now to play for a few hours. Tomorrow we are going to see High School Musical 3 at the Theatre and then doing some shopping at the mall.

Things soon are going to start getting crazy for us this time of year. Since we won't be home for Thanksgiving, I am going to be behind on getting Christmas stuff up. So I might work on that before we leave so it is done when we get back home. Ethan's birthday is on a saturday this year, but we will just be doing a small home party with the neighbors and us - unless we go to Michael's parents or something like that. I am not sure what we will do for New Years. Since we have lived up here Ken has always come up, but with the new baby I assume that will not be happening so we will have to see what we will do.

My goal for next year is to save up so we can take Arianna to Disneyland for a long weekend. And then work on getting our Hawaii trip planned.

Well, I need to get going. enjoy the pictures.