Ty-Time!!

I have to take a minute to dedicate this blog post to T-Y! What a great kid! Every family needs a boy like TY!! He's the best! He is smart, clever, funny, sensitive, courteous, kind, respectful...and much more!

Speaking of respect...each month Ty's school focuses on a characteristic and each teacher chooses 3-4 students who have demonstrated that characteristic. Ty was chosen for respect. Ty is a very respectful kid. He may have a funny face in this picture, but the truth is Ty shows respect to his teacher and other classmates and especially his parents!

For Valentine's Day Ty made this Valentine box shaped like a Tootsie Roll! We brainstormed a bunch of ideas but Ty came up with this one on his own! He and I made it together, (Ty mostly!) The cute thing about his box was it says "Tootsie Roll" and on the other side "Tootsie Ty!" He won "Most Creative" for the entire 2nd Grade!

Way to go buddy!

Last week we had parent teacher conferences with Ty and his teacher. Ty got such a great report! Ty is doing fantastic in school. He is a great student. Ty's teacher Mr. Lasslo spoke so highly of Ty and said "It's been a very long time since I've taught someone as gentle, kind, and considerate as Ty. He has never lost his temper or shown anger. He is patient with his classmates. He is a good friend to everyone." Both Nate and I were pretty proud parents as we left the classroom!
We love you Ty! Thanks for being so awesome!!

Little Dancing Diva!!

If there is one thing our sweet little Mara loves it's dancing!! She dances all day long! I love to watch Mara dance! Many times during the day she will turn on the radio and make up a dance to a song. Then she will have 'a recital' and invite whoever is home to watch her dance! She even choreographs her own production! She is so stinkin cute!!

A few weeks ago she had her first dance recital. Looking at this cute face you wouldn't know that she had to stay home from preschool because she was sick! We pumped her full of Tylenol fancied her up and off she went!

Here is her cute dance class!

I must admit I was very sceptical on whether Mara would perform or not! I didn't think she would actually do it! I thought at the last minute she would get shy and chicken out!!

But Mama thought wrong! She did it! Mara Lew performed her dance perfectly!! It was so fun watching her dance! She danced at the Senior Citizen center and performed a teddy bear dance!

Mara actually had two performances in one week! Her second performance was the half time show for the CEU basketball game! Before the game started she met with the other dancers to warm up and play games. The older dancers helped the younger dancers! She loved being with all the girls! It was really cute to watch her from the side. I can't believe how grown up she seems!

I again was hesitant on whether or not she would perform this time but again she was outstanding!

Mara always sticks out her tongue when she dances! I tried telling her to keep her tongue in her mouth and put her smile on her face but when she concentrates on something (like dancing, coloring, writing...) she sticks out her tongue! [It's actually a quirky genetic thing! I do it...my kids do it...my brothers do it...my uncles do it!! Seems to run in the family!]

That's better! No tongue all smiles!

Mara is the cute dancer on the half court line! She sure did a great job learning and performing her dance!

Birthday Boy!!!

My baby turned 3 last month!! I keep asking Caleb if he will always be my baby as I rock and hold him and he tells me "No. Get a new baby!" This little boy is not so little anymore! He is a big kid! And oh how I love him!!

To celebrate his birthday we had all the Lewis family come down and party in Price. Nate and cousin Garrett's birthday are all the same week so we have a combined birthday party for the three boys.

Nate's request for his birthday cake this year was "a better than football cake!" It was sure delicious and did taste better than football!

Caleb enjoyed opening presents and being with his extended family!

A few days later on Caleb's real birthday we celebrated again! I made yummy cupcakes for his birthday breakfast!

Then we went to the Dinosaur Museum for a preschool field trip with Mara!

Here's Caleb and his cute friend Addie!!

This is the cute preschool group! I sure love teaching these kids! We have a great group this year! I will miss them when they go to kindergarten next year!

For dinner Caleb wanted pizza! You can see it was delicious by the way his face looks!

I decided to make cake balls for his birthday. I have never made these before but thought they looked easy and I would go for it! I also thought I would make them into star wars characters since he wanted a star wars birthday! This was the idea I found online. I totally thought I could do this! Ya right!

This is how they turned out!!! Nothing like the above picture! I would say it was a complete disaster and disappointment but Caleb didn't seem to mind! He was thrilled with the cake balls! (Ty was disappointed however! He too had big dreams like I did of amazing Star Wars cake balls and he even made the Star Wars spaceship for them to go in!!) Oh well they still tasted good!!

Facts about Caleb:
He loves star wars!
His favorite color is blue!
His favorite cereal is captain crunch!
He can dribble a basketball better than his older brother & sister!
He prefers to sleep with his sister or brother!
His favorite food is pizza, chips & french fries!
He loves to do 25+ piece puzzles! He is amazing!
He loves to tease everyone in his family (especially his sister!)
Example:
The other night we went out for ice-cream. Everyone had an ice-cream cone and Mara just happened to put hers down on the table for a minute. Caleb looks out of the corner of his eye to see if anyone was watching him reaches over grabs Mara's ice-cream cone and starts licking hers!! Mara freaks out and says "Caleb give me back my icecream!" What does Caleb do?! He laughs his head off that he was able to pull off such a great prank! Oh what a kid!

I can't even tell you the joy that this kid brings to me! He is so much fun! I am so grateful he is in our family! I just love him and glad to be his mom! (yes, this is Caleb--not Mara! Mara loves dressing Caleb up, usually he is wearing princess dresses!)