Ok so I didn't quite get to Jason and I the other day. So here it is. Jason is back in town full time now. His company is in a new office building so they moved from one side of town to the other which makes his commute a little longer but nothing terrible. Besides being one of the coaches for the boys wrestling club he has been training (along with his sister, Mollie and Aunt Wendy)for the Myrtle Beach Marathon on February 13. That date just happens to be my due date, which brings me to me.
I have been busy with the normal stuff... kids, house, young women's calling ect. We got the bassinet, carseat, and baby clothes out of the attic yesterday. Although I am not due for 2 1/2 weeks I tend to go through a phase known as "prodromal labor". You can look it up and it's actually kind of interesting, but basically what most women go through in the first 2-24 hours of latent or pre-labor I take 1-2 weeks or longer to do. At my last appointment on Monday I was dilated 3cm and 60% effaced. That may seem like the baby in imminent however, the week before I was dilated 2cm and 40% effaced. So despited mostly steady and somewhat constant contractions over the course of a week I had only progresed 1cm and 20%.
On weirder news the "nesting" instinct has finally kicked in. I did laundry and organized, and ran errands and couldn't keep still from about 3:30am yesterday until after 9pm. Considering my usual house cleaning and energy levels that was a total shock. I went to bed about 10pm woke up 5 or 6 times during the night then woke up for good at 5am and have felt like I'm on a really good caffine buzz ever since. I even feel a little jittery inside and just can't hold still. I guess this is a good thing, although the desire to clean is waning and slowly being replaced with a desire to sew or scrapbook or do something crafty like paint to babies' room (I won't do that, I'd have to clean it first). I keep feeling like a crash is due anytime but for now I guess I should make the most of it.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Update
Ok I know that's a really generic title, but that's all this is. Everyone is doing well and we're healthy and happy at the moment. We got report cards on Friday and the lowest grade on any of them was a 95. The kids got ice cream sundaes for that.
Emily is nine now and is suddenly becoming quite the fashonista. She'll tell me what she wants to wear and I'll be a little skeptical, but when she puts the outfit on it turns out to be very cute and trendy. I think she got Cami or Jesse's fashion sense because we all know I don't have any. I can't believe how fast she's growing up.
Jonas is the big news of the week. His lowest score on his report card was a 98 and because he has such high test scores on the standardized tests (98th percentile nationally) he's been asked to be in the "gifted and talented" programs at school next year. He got in a minor bike wreck on Friday and managed to bust his mouth and chip a front tooth (we're headed to the dentist this afternoon) luckily no permanant damage so far. He also participated in his first wrestling tournament on Saturday. He didn't win any of his matches, but did very well and is learning quickly. I think it was a bit of a shock because up until now all he's done is practice moves and techniques and has never actually wrestled a match so this was very different. He only got pinned once and the other two matches he lost on points although one was pretty close. We are so proud of him, but it was so hard for me to watch. I think I'd rather have my kids do running sports or competetive table tennis or badmitton. Anything has got to be easier than watching your kid in a sport where you know he's gonna get hurt and unlike football or something you are close and can see every emotion on their face when they are in pain. Although the better he gets the less that will happen I hope. He really enjoyed it though, so I guess that's what it's all about.
Adrianna is doing so well in school she has made such rapid progress her teacher is very proud she's already started reading chapter books. Last week they did mid year tests and she has come up four reading levels since the last benchmark tests in fall. She is as hilarious as always and always has a smile for everyone.
Preston continues to be a great help at home. He's been going to wrestling practices also, but can't compete until after he turns five, so for him it's all just fun for now. I like that. He is also learning to write his letters very well. Now we get to start really working on his name.
Lydia is the princess as always. She still refuses to wear pants unless forced and only if it's freezing outside and even then she'll wear a dress over them. She is so excited about having a little sister and talks about her little sister "Mawy Awice" all the time.
Adam is suddenly growing up. He still likes to be held and snuggled, but he so enjoys playing cars and nerf gun wars with the boys. I'm anxious to see how he reacts to not being the baby any more.
Well that's all for now.
Emily is nine now and is suddenly becoming quite the fashonista. She'll tell me what she wants to wear and I'll be a little skeptical, but when she puts the outfit on it turns out to be very cute and trendy. I think she got Cami or Jesse's fashion sense because we all know I don't have any. I can't believe how fast she's growing up.
Jonas is the big news of the week. His lowest score on his report card was a 98 and because he has such high test scores on the standardized tests (98th percentile nationally) he's been asked to be in the "gifted and talented" programs at school next year. He got in a minor bike wreck on Friday and managed to bust his mouth and chip a front tooth (we're headed to the dentist this afternoon) luckily no permanant damage so far. He also participated in his first wrestling tournament on Saturday. He didn't win any of his matches, but did very well and is learning quickly. I think it was a bit of a shock because up until now all he's done is practice moves and techniques and has never actually wrestled a match so this was very different. He only got pinned once and the other two matches he lost on points although one was pretty close. We are so proud of him, but it was so hard for me to watch. I think I'd rather have my kids do running sports or competetive table tennis or badmitton. Anything has got to be easier than watching your kid in a sport where you know he's gonna get hurt and unlike football or something you are close and can see every emotion on their face when they are in pain. Although the better he gets the less that will happen I hope. He really enjoyed it though, so I guess that's what it's all about.
Adrianna is doing so well in school she has made such rapid progress her teacher is very proud she's already started reading chapter books. Last week they did mid year tests and she has come up four reading levels since the last benchmark tests in fall. She is as hilarious as always and always has a smile for everyone.
Preston continues to be a great help at home. He's been going to wrestling practices also, but can't compete until after he turns five, so for him it's all just fun for now. I like that. He is also learning to write his letters very well. Now we get to start really working on his name.
Lydia is the princess as always. She still refuses to wear pants unless forced and only if it's freezing outside and even then she'll wear a dress over them. She is so excited about having a little sister and talks about her little sister "Mawy Awice" all the time.
Adam is suddenly growing up. He still likes to be held and snuggled, but he so enjoys playing cars and nerf gun wars with the boys. I'm anxious to see how he reacts to not being the baby any more.
Well that's all for now.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween
I know you guys have been waiting for this so here it is. Our family halloween zoo!
There will be several pictures of all of them together in their costumes because there is not a single picture where they are all looking at the camera and smiling and you can see all their faces at once. Some of the expressions are priceless though if you click on the pictures and enlarge them.
Just in case there are any questions I'll tell you what each one is. Emily is the bunny, Jonas a coyote, Adrianna a tiger, Preston a lion, Lydia a zebra and Adam a giraffe. 
One of my favorite shots is Adam's face in the next picture.
Then check out Lyds with the tongue out and Odie and Pres grinning till their little cheeks hurt! I love it!!!
Ok many of you have heard the story, but through sales and and coupons I ended up with an insane amount of candy and spent the same or less than I usually do (which isn't much let me tell you). So after taking candy to a party last weekend and to the ward trunk-or-treat Friday this is how much candy I had left to give out on Halloween. Yes that is a wicker laundry basket, not a huge one, but still big enough for 8 big bags of candy. If the basket doesn't look very big compared to Adam look again at the above pictures to see how much he's grown. The boy is getting big!
We ended up with only 2 handfuls leftover. Our neighborhood is a good one for trick-or-treating, people really get into it. Jason and the kids walked less then half of the neighborhood and when they got home we combined all the candy. (This makes it easier for mom to control the sugar intake.) We just dumped it back into the basket. I think we ended up with more than we started with.
There will be several pictures of all of them together in their costumes because there is not a single picture where they are all looking at the camera and smiling and you can see all their faces at once. Some of the expressions are priceless though if you click on the pictures and enlarge them.
Just in case there are any questions I'll tell you what each one is. Emily is the bunny, Jonas a coyote, Adrianna a tiger, Preston a lion, Lydia a zebra and Adam a giraffe. 
One of my favorite shots is Adam's face in the next picture.
Then check out Lyds with the tongue out and Odie and Pres grinning till their little cheeks hurt! I love it!!!
Ok many of you have heard the story, but through sales and and coupons I ended up with an insane amount of candy and spent the same or less than I usually do (which isn't much let me tell you). So after taking candy to a party last weekend and to the ward trunk-or-treat Friday this is how much candy I had left to give out on Halloween. Yes that is a wicker laundry basket, not a huge one, but still big enough for 8 big bags of candy. If the basket doesn't look very big compared to Adam look again at the above pictures to see how much he's grown. The boy is getting big!
We ended up with only 2 handfuls leftover. Our neighborhood is a good one for trick-or-treating, people really get into it. Jason and the kids walked less then half of the neighborhood and when they got home we combined all the candy. (This makes it easier for mom to control the sugar intake.) We just dumped it back into the basket. I think we ended up with more than we started with.
Report Cards
Well it has been an eventful weekend at the Guffey house. The kids brought home their first report cards of the year on Friday. They all are doing very well.
As a third grader, Emily got A's in language arts 100%, science 95% and social studies 98%, that's everything except math, she got a B. All her other subjects she's doing great! Her teachers' comments were, "Excellent class participation. Attentive in class. Conscientious worker." We also got back the official scores for the Measure of Academic Progress tests. She scored well above the average in Reading and also above average in Math.
In the second grade they only do numerical scores for Math and Language Arts. Jonas got 100% in language arts and 99% in math. He's getting high marks in all his other subjects also, they just score them on a different scale. He also scored well above average in both Math and Reading on his MAP tests. His teachers' said, "Joy to have in classroom" (he got that comment a couple of times) and "Excellent class participation."
In first grade they use a completely different grading scale. There is actually a whole code to understand it because they get graded not by subject but by standards in each subject. For example in Language Arts she was graded on 11 different things from writing legibly to reading independently to identify and producing rhyming words, ect., ect. It is similar with each subject being broken down into smaller incremental things like that. Suffice it to say she is doing very well and got high scores in all subjects and is progressing nicely. Her teacher's comments were the funniest! "Adrianna is an absolute riot! She keeps me smiling all the time! She is doing fantastic in all areas of 1st grade and I can always count on her to lend to class discussion!" Translation: Adrianna is hilariously random and off the wall but comes up with things that actually go with the class discussions, you just wouldn't normally think of a six year old saying them. (That is pretty much what her teacher told me at our parent/teacher conference a month ago.)
Jason and I are very proud of how well they're doing and how hard they work. The family even got to have pizza to celebrate on Saturday. Ok and that way we didn't have to cook before getting ready for Halloween either. So it was good for everyone. I know it will amaze you all, but up next the Halloween post!
As a third grader, Emily got A's in language arts 100%, science 95% and social studies 98%, that's everything except math, she got a B. All her other subjects she's doing great! Her teachers' comments were, "Excellent class participation. Attentive in class. Conscientious worker." We also got back the official scores for the Measure of Academic Progress tests. She scored well above the average in Reading and also above average in Math.
In the second grade they only do numerical scores for Math and Language Arts. Jonas got 100% in language arts and 99% in math. He's getting high marks in all his other subjects also, they just score them on a different scale. He also scored well above average in both Math and Reading on his MAP tests. His teachers' said, "Joy to have in classroom" (he got that comment a couple of times) and "Excellent class participation."
In first grade they use a completely different grading scale. There is actually a whole code to understand it because they get graded not by subject but by standards in each subject. For example in Language Arts she was graded on 11 different things from writing legibly to reading independently to identify and producing rhyming words, ect., ect. It is similar with each subject being broken down into smaller incremental things like that. Suffice it to say she is doing very well and got high scores in all subjects and is progressing nicely. Her teacher's comments were the funniest! "Adrianna is an absolute riot! She keeps me smiling all the time! She is doing fantastic in all areas of 1st grade and I can always count on her to lend to class discussion!" Translation: Adrianna is hilariously random and off the wall but comes up with things that actually go with the class discussions, you just wouldn't normally think of a six year old saying them. (That is pretty much what her teacher told me at our parent/teacher conference a month ago.)
Jason and I are very proud of how well they're doing and how hard they work. The family even got to have pizza to celebrate on Saturday. Ok and that way we didn't have to cook before getting ready for Halloween either. So it was good for everyone. I know it will amaze you all, but up next the Halloween post!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
School, Potato Flakes, Babies & Mud
Ok so things have been a little busy here, but we are finally done with traveling for a little while, settled in school and life is good. The 3 older kids are doing well in school. The first parent teacher conferences are this Friday. We got their first interim reports this week and they all scored above the benchmark indicators for the "Vital Indicators of Progress" in Language Arts. That made me very happy! I have been a little worried about my Odie Podie, but it appears she is doing very well. One of Emily's tests was how many words they can read correctly in 1 minute. The benchmark for beginning 3rd grade is 77 she scored 138. I was not surprised, she is my daughter after all. I will give you all a more in depth update after conferences this weekend.
Meanwhile back at home it has been a little different. The first 2 weeks the younger kids didn't seem to know what to do with themselves, they got over that pretty quickly though. Preston has realized the role of oldest at home now belongs to him and he's loving it! Lyddie pretty much does what she's always done and will only wear dresses and and changes princess dress ups about 4 times a day. Adam has realized there aren't as many people to stop him when he tries to do things like climb into the kitchen sink and play in the water or climb the pantry shelves like a ladder. He's also figured out that the #10 cans that I usually keep on the lower pantry shelves, because of their size, are easy to open and not all are heavy. Like the newly opened oatmeal and potato flakes that he carried into the front room dumped onto the ottoman and then mixed with his hand. I walked in while he was directing a symphony (yes those kinds of arm movements) two handed through the pile he had made and had flakes and oats flying around the room. They covered the couch, piano, side table, chair... and the carpet you may ask. Oh boy... they keep resurfacing from the depths, just oozing towards the surface a little at a time. The first few days every day I would go in and find more where I could have sworn I had already cleaned. Oh well, at least he hadn't added water, yet.
In other news I had an ultrasound last week and we found out we're having a ..... wait for it..... girl!!! Yes, through absolutely no power of our own we are sticking with the alternating girl,boy pattern that, so far, has run in our family. We are very excited! We already have a couple of names in mind but for a multitude of reasons I am not sharing them until we're closer to actually having the baby.
Jason is still working out of town, but we try to make weekends as fun and memorable as possible. Like this past weekend. Jason's sister Mollie was on a team to run in the USMC Ft Jackson Mud Run. It is over 4 miles of military obstacle course with over 30 obstacles many of which involve water, and, you guessed it, MUD. Unfortunately two weeks ago she fell on the stairs and sprained her ankle and partially tore some tendons and is now in a brace and orthopedic walking boot. So a week before the race she called and begged Jason to take her place so her team would not have to forfeit. Jason has been running but not exactly training for this kind of race, however for the sake of family, and of course the chance to do something we crazy people call fun and adventure, he agreed. His teammates, all women, showed up in matching pink tank tops. Although he didn't wear the fourth matching tank top he did concede to write the name of the team on the back of his gray t-shirt which was once again "Dirty Blondes". It was a lot of fun! Nana and Poppa came down to watch and Mollie and her kids were there to cheer on her team. Of course our clan went. Jason did really well and afterwards said it wasn't as bad as he was afraid of and that with a little more prep time wants to do it again next year. The kids got to participate in the "Polllywog Mud Run". Ethan, Emily, Caitlin, Jonas and Adrianna each did it about half a dozen times or more and Preston and Lydia even joined in for a few runs. It was a blast! My laundry room screamed in terror when we got home (knowing the messes my kids can make and get into that's saying something!) but other than that it was a fun weekend!
If I can figure out how to get pictures off Mollie's facebook I'll try and put some mudrun pics up, but no guarantees.
Meanwhile back at home it has been a little different. The first 2 weeks the younger kids didn't seem to know what to do with themselves, they got over that pretty quickly though. Preston has realized the role of oldest at home now belongs to him and he's loving it! Lyddie pretty much does what she's always done and will only wear dresses and and changes princess dress ups about 4 times a day. Adam has realized there aren't as many people to stop him when he tries to do things like climb into the kitchen sink and play in the water or climb the pantry shelves like a ladder. He's also figured out that the #10 cans that I usually keep on the lower pantry shelves, because of their size, are easy to open and not all are heavy. Like the newly opened oatmeal and potato flakes that he carried into the front room dumped onto the ottoman and then mixed with his hand. I walked in while he was directing a symphony (yes those kinds of arm movements) two handed through the pile he had made and had flakes and oats flying around the room. They covered the couch, piano, side table, chair... and the carpet you may ask. Oh boy... they keep resurfacing from the depths, just oozing towards the surface a little at a time. The first few days every day I would go in and find more where I could have sworn I had already cleaned. Oh well, at least he hadn't added water, yet.
In other news I had an ultrasound last week and we found out we're having a ..... wait for it..... girl!!! Yes, through absolutely no power of our own we are sticking with the alternating girl,boy pattern that, so far, has run in our family. We are very excited! We already have a couple of names in mind but for a multitude of reasons I am not sharing them until we're closer to actually having the baby.
Jason is still working out of town, but we try to make weekends as fun and memorable as possible. Like this past weekend. Jason's sister Mollie was on a team to run in the USMC Ft Jackson Mud Run. It is over 4 miles of military obstacle course with over 30 obstacles many of which involve water, and, you guessed it, MUD. Unfortunately two weeks ago she fell on the stairs and sprained her ankle and partially tore some tendons and is now in a brace and orthopedic walking boot. So a week before the race she called and begged Jason to take her place so her team would not have to forfeit. Jason has been running but not exactly training for this kind of race, however for the sake of family, and of course the chance to do something we crazy people call fun and adventure, he agreed. His teammates, all women, showed up in matching pink tank tops. Although he didn't wear the fourth matching tank top he did concede to write the name of the team on the back of his gray t-shirt which was once again "Dirty Blondes". It was a lot of fun! Nana and Poppa came down to watch and Mollie and her kids were there to cheer on her team. Of course our clan went. Jason did really well and afterwards said it wasn't as bad as he was afraid of and that with a little more prep time wants to do it again next year. The kids got to participate in the "Polllywog Mud Run". Ethan, Emily, Caitlin, Jonas and Adrianna each did it about half a dozen times or more and Preston and Lydia even joined in for a few runs. It was a blast! My laundry room screamed in terror when we got home (knowing the messes my kids can make and get into that's saying something!) but other than that it was a fun weekend!
If I can figure out how to get pictures off Mollie's facebook I'll try and put some mudrun pics up, but no guarantees.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Markers, Haircuts and a Lucky Shirt
Ok so I had a few surprises this morning. The first was that while I was upstairs Lydia got hold of an orange permanent marker and gave herself freckles like Mommy and Jonas. She also colored her hands just for fun. Any ideas how to get this off?
Next we have Adrianna who last night pulled a Pedro. In case you haven't seen "Napoleon Dynomite" I'll explain. She was very hot and her ponytail had gotten knocked sideways so some of her hair had come out of the elastic holding it back. Instead of just asking me to fix it she got a pair of scissors and cut off the locks that were sticking to her face and neck. She then took out her ponytail completely before I could notice and fell asleep. When I went to brush her hair this morning I noticed. 
She had even cut of pieces of her hair that were still in the ponytail so I really had to cut it and do some creative layering this morning to try and even it all out. 
I fixed it for now but luckily Cami is coming up next week and can make it look a little smoother I hope. Some pieces will just have to grow out some more. She wasn't thrilled with the haircut but we had a long talk on the consequences of cutting our own hair.
After all that Jonas came in wearing a very familiar looking camoflouged Transformers shirt. I asked him if hadn't he worn that yesterday, and the day before? (Luckily he had not been playing outside much). He answered in the affirmative and said this was the fourth time he had worn it without it getting washed because it was his lucky shirt. We had a little dicussion about how unlucky it would be if nobody would play with him because he was stinky or if he got sick because he didn't wash his clothes. He'll probably wear it again tomorrow but it is getting washed today.
Next we have Adrianna who last night pulled a Pedro. In case you haven't seen "Napoleon Dynomite" I'll explain. She was very hot and her ponytail had gotten knocked sideways so some of her hair had come out of the elastic holding it back. Instead of just asking me to fix it she got a pair of scissors and cut off the locks that were sticking to her face and neck. She then took out her ponytail completely before I could notice and fell asleep. When I went to brush her hair this morning I noticed. 
She had even cut of pieces of her hair that were still in the ponytail so I really had to cut it and do some creative layering this morning to try and even it all out. 
I fixed it for now but luckily Cami is coming up next week and can make it look a little smoother I hope. Some pieces will just have to grow out some more. She wasn't thrilled with the haircut but we had a long talk on the consequences of cutting our own hair.
After all that Jonas came in wearing a very familiar looking camoflouged Transformers shirt. I asked him if hadn't he worn that yesterday, and the day before? (Luckily he had not been playing outside much). He answered in the affirmative and said this was the fourth time he had worn it without it getting washed because it was his lucky shirt. We had a little dicussion about how unlucky it would be if nobody would play with him because he was stinky or if he got sick because he didn't wash his clothes. He'll probably wear it again tomorrow but it is getting washed today.
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