Last day of Swimming

The swimming lessons here in Manhattan are scheduled in 2 week sessions. We just finished the first one and today the last 10 minutes of class was play time. But first Jeffrey had to try and do a front float. I have to admit this is the part of swimming and water that I like the least. Claustrophobia leads me to reject sticking my entire face in the water, so I've been useless at helping him.

 

 He also had to work on his front glides. I love Jeffrey's ability to listen to what his coach says and then repeat it almost verbatim to me when he tells me how to do it later. "Put your arms up like a needle and then shoot like an airplane away from the wall." We have a week break and then start another session and hopefully he will continue to improve from there.

Jeffrey went right up to the slide when the time came for playing. He went with his coach twice and then went on his own at least a dozen times. He had a really good time and has gotten really comfortable with the pool. It's been fun to watch his improvement in just the two weeks we have been in class.

Bobs and a Bed

 Jeffrey has been getting really close to doing 10 underwater bobs in a row during swim class (we go every week day) but hasn't quite gotten there. Yesterday he worked pretty hard and got close but got a little water in his nose and couldn't go on. Today there was a girl who joined his group from the preschool group and did all 10 bobs as soon as class started. Jeffrey (either inspired by her performance or not to be outdone in front of Coach Joann) decided he was going to do it too. So he did. I was so happy for him. He was pretty proud of himself when they called his name during the huddle after class was over. He got a sticker for his chart and will start working on floating on his back and tummy tomorrow.

His reward for passing level 1 was to find a red angry bird like the one we somehow lost during our move. We went to three different stores and finally found the huge one you see in the picture at the book store. He has named him Jupiter and has carried him around all day long. Jeffrey is VERY attached to his angry birds. They are his BFFs and more than once I've had to pour them a bowl of dry cereal too.

We also got another twin mattress delivered today for the bottom bunk of Jeffrey's bunk beds. We got the beds from our awesome landlords in Colorado but with only one mattress and with only one kiddo to fill it we didn't see much need to get a second. But with my mom moving here for a while to help with the birth and baby we decided it was time to get one so everyone could be in their own beds.

Swimming Lessons

 So now that we're back in Kansas it's back to life as usual. We started swimming lessons at the city pool this week. Surprisingly one of Jeffrey's primary friends is in the same class with his siblings so he had a friend right away.

Other Utah Adventures

While in Utah Jeffrey went bowling, which he loved! He was always happy for however many pins he knocked down. He also wanted to go mini golfing which wasn't so much of a game as hitting the ball wherever we felt like.

To entertain the kiddos one day we made roads from blue painter's tape on the front room floor and they drove their cars all around the town. One of the girls owned the car wash and had very strict hours, the other owned the parking garage where you could only park a couple of cars at a time and Jeffrey drove where as Lightning McQueen asking "Doc" (Played by Sugar) what he should do next. It entertained them for quite a while and Jeffrey has talked about it a lot since.

One of the best parts about staying with Uncle Scott is playing with Uncle Scott. Here he was playing basketball for the first time ever! He had a little beginner's luck and was happy to tell daddy about his baskets later.

 Jeffrey also decided on this trip that he liked the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. He liked it so much he wanted to go twice, I offered the aquarium or the zoo, but he wanted to go see the dinosaurs again.

 Here he is trying to blend in with the dinosaurs on the wall, it's something he learned from his Penguins of Madagascar game and he has reenacted in lots of different places. Today he did it at Hobby Lobby so the fabric cutting lady wouldn't see him. She thought he was very funny!

Here's the smiling shark, he likes this more than the giant turtle one room back, that one really freaks him out for some reason. But when he went with Grandma she helped him sneak past it and they got to this room with the funny shark.

Here's the last video, he was building an island for the dinosaurs and telling daddy all about it. He's enjoyed making videos to send to daddy on the iPod. He enjoyed it so much that after he and the girls would have the iPod, there would be 10 or so videos that they had decided to make for him. It always made me laugh.

Jeffrey's 5th Birthday Presents

Copper Mine

 So while in Utah, I tried to have something for Jeffrey to look forward to each day. He does better when he knows what to expect of his schedule and what's coming. He likes to say "Monday is swimming, Tuesday we're going to the park, Wednesday we're going to see Uncle Steve, etc." We are all much happier and we avoid lots of Jeffrey breakdowns when he knows what to expect of his schedule. 

 

So while looking through a coupon book I found a coupon for free admission to the Copper mine. I went with my sister and her little boy for a little while. It was during field trip time and there were so many junior high aged kids just sitting around. We had to wait patiently to get a look at things and overall our whole stay wasn't too long, but it was fun to get out.

 Jeffrey's new obsession with maps and directions made him entertained by this compass rose for quite a while looking at all the directions, "Here L, let's go southwest, come northeast..."

 The giant tire is always entertaining for kiddos. Jeffrey wanted to climb up it and had to be shown the sign that said "No climbing" before he believed me that it wasn't a toy!

We watched a couple of trucks driving down the mine and one that was spraying water on the road to keep the dust down. That may have been one of the more interesting parts of the trip according to Jeffrey.

The Bean turns 5!

 Jeffrey turned five years old last month. It's hard to believe that he's already a 5 year old kiddo and will be starting Kindergarten this fall. The time has gone way too quickly! I can remember the day he was born and being so happy just to hold him and know that he was finally here!

He wanted some legos, a few books, and a lightning simulator that he had seen at the discovery center here. He had a great day and got just about everything he wanted (is there ever anything that they don't want though?) and one of his favorite things was watching the video daddy had made for him that said "It's Great to Be FIVE!" He ran around all day telling that to everyone he saw.

He has decided that five year-olds can do lots of things that four year-olds couldn't and there are even more that he will have to wait until he's six for.

Baby Girl Peanut

So yesterday was my 21 week ultrasound. We were hoping that the baby would cooperate so that we could find out if it was a little boy or a little girl. First though I had to drink a large amount of water so they could see the birth canal and everything. I was a good girl and drank it quickly and waited...and waited...and waited. I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I could barely walk. I didn't have to do that in Germany with Jeffrey, it was a whole new experience. Baby didn't like it either and was very uncomfortable and wiggly but after a quick potty trip we were all much happier!

We are going to be having a baby girl in September. Everything looked good to me during the ultrasound, I saw two arms, legs, feet, hands. The technician couldn't comment on anything, I should get the results from the radiologist at my next appointment, but she was a cute little girl to me.

The first picture is her profile...anyone want to guess if it's my nose or Cory's? And I posted a picture of her feet, any little girl of mine needs to have good little dancing feet!

We're all very excited and I think it seems more real to Cory now that he can start thinking about names and the fact that it will be a little girl. We're going to keep our name choices a surprise again, it was so fun to be able to introduce people to Jeffrey that way. Though if you ask Jeffrey, we will be naming her Hermione and we're going to change his name to Harry Potter. (I think he's been watching The Mysterious Ticking Sound a little too much!)

So now I get to shop for pink and ruffles and enjoy playing dress up with a sweet little girl.

Mother's Day

 "I have a surprise for you mom, but I can't tell you what it iiiiiiiis," I've heard that every day since Monday this week. Jeffrey was making a project for mother's day in school and had obviously been told not to tell me what it was. So every time I picked him up or every time we sat down to dinner he would tell me about his surprise.

He gave it to me today when I picked him up from school he couldn't wait until Sunday. I thought it was sweet and of course got all emotional because I'm pregnant and playing the single parent role for a while. My mom has a hand print from my sister and it still hangs on the wall. I am totally going to find a shadow box for this bad boy and find somewhere to hang it up. I am totally one of those moms.

I am very blessed to be mommy to this adorable boy who tests my patience on an almost daily basis and then reminds me that he loves me and wants to be my friend. There are so many times when I feel like such an inadequate mom and not at all worthy to be Jeffrey's mommy. But I know he was sent to me to help me grow and to remind me how much my Father in Heaven loves me and to bring me so much joy.

Last Day of School

Today was Jeffrey's last day of preschool. He has learned a LOT in the short while he was there. He knows all the letter sounds and can sound out some easy words, though I don't think he's quite got the sounding translated into reading quite yet. We have his kindergarten appointment tomorrow and I'm not as worried as I once was that he would count to 10 and be done.

I post his school projects mostly for daddy to see and partially because I am that mom who is so proud of her kid's sneezes that she would praise them for the world to hear. So enjoy.

The letter of the week was M. Like mouse, like the mouse that Jeffrey insisted on being when I took his picture. He makes me laugh so much!

 All the kids wrote their name in glue and then put beans on the letters. In true Jeffrey style he refused to write his whole name and went for just a J.

 His shape caterpillar.

A rainbow.

His triangle made from sand. He likes to tell me that the sand is colored purple and is very sparkly.

 Oh the many silly moods of Jeffrey! He loves having his picture taken and when the flash goes off (and probably makes daddy cringe 12,000 miles away) he makes the silliest faces on purpose.

We always have to sit "criss-cross applesauce" now. Sometimes before we eat, we have to play "open shut them" too.

Making the Best of Time

Since arriving to FOB Lightning I have made a good daily schedule. I have time for scripture reading, school work, photography, interacting with people, making videos for Jeffrey, working a full day, gym time, and enough sleep to do it the next day.

I am working with two great Soldiers. One is a Sergeant that will walk away from here with some great skill for organizing, and seeing the big picture of how the army operates. The Specialist will leave here as a Sergeant. My officer is a great leader that is taking our efforts in the TAC in the right direction. No time wasted here.

Kansas City Temple Cultural Celebration

Today the Kansas City, MO temple was dedicated. I've never lived in an area where the temple being dedicated was going to be my new temple. The whole thing has been an incredible experience. Thankfully we were able to go as a family to the open house before Cory deployed. 

For the last several months I was asked to help be a dance instructor for the youth cultural celebration. I have heard about the events when other temples were dedicated but I was really excited to be able to help with one. They had originally planned for 1,500 youth to participate but they were completely overwhelmed when over 3,100 volunteered from the temple district. We were responsible for teaching them a dance that they would participate in with three other stakes and then three shorter ones that they would perform with all the youth at the end. 

 

The performance was held last night in the Kansas City Municipal auditorium. It seats 10,000 and was full almost to the rafters! (You can see the missionaries from the mission in the center section up at the top in the middle.) The excitement in the auditorium was amazing! They youth had been there from 6 am preparing for the performance and a lot of the audience had traveled a long distance to be there to see it. 

I was lucky to get tickets this week. The bishop asked if I was interested in going with Jeffrey since I had been helping the youth. I was so excited. We decided to stay last night in a hotel close so I wouldn't have to drive home late at night. 

 

 Our dancers were part of the "Willing Hearts" section of the performance, they were pioneers who represented the early saints. The song they performed to was written by some of the LDS families in Branson, MO who (I think) came to perform live last night at the show (someone was singing live there last night). I was very proud of our little dance. Jeffrey danced along in my lap happy that he knew the song already.

Kenneth Cope was there as well and performed during the section from the Joplin, MO stake which just suffered a horrible tornado earlier in the year. I don't know that there were many dry eyes in the audience at the end. It was a very powerful and compelling. I LOVE dance and love to see it as a way of communicating emotion and causing the viewer to experience something during the performance. The group of amateur youth from Joplin were incredible portraying a disaster and the recovery from it and I was very moved. There were also touching tributes to the military and the missionaries even got in on the action. In true islander fashion the dancers (who were mostly Polynesian) brought down the house during their Samoan dance. (Though they had the loudest supporters!)

The funnest part for Jeffrey was when 3,100 you danced to Popcorn Popping and he could do the dance along with them. He came with me to the last three weeks' practices and enjoyed dancing along with the kids when they were rehearsing.

 My friend also arrived super early and saved us a couple of seats in the section directly below and next to where the VIPs would sit. Jeffrey was very excited to see President Monson and he gave our performance two thumbs up and wiggled his ears for the kids. I guess he approved. It was an amazing weekend and an incredible experience for us!

More School Projects

 

The letter of the week was O and the color was orange. (and the shape was ellipse, which is hilarious to hear J say) and here are the projects he did this week. He was very excited about this octopus, I heard about it all week and he was very excited to bring it home.

He made this one by rolling a ball in paint and then rolling it over the paper in the box. It also doubled as a sail on the way home from school.

The letter of last week was S. So he painted a sun. Jeffrey doesn't have much patience for coloring and he never has, but he doesn't seem to mind painting or doing projects of different kinds.

Pinterest Project

I love pinterest! Like LOVE pinterest! I love that they have a hand app and when I can't sleep I can look at pins all night and pretend to make projects. I found one that I actually did want to try.

This one. I had a couple of these gowns for Jeffrey and LOVED them when he was a tiny baby. My friend is also having a baby in a couple of weeks so she asked me to make her some out of her husband's old shirts. So before I cut into her shirts I tried out the pattern on one of Cory's old shirts (he won't miss it right?). It turned out really cute I think.

I wouldn't have attempted this project before I got my serger. I don't like knit enough for that, but I think it turned out pretty cute. Just needs a baby to go inside in about 4.5 more months. (On Saturday I will be 20 weeks! Halfway there!)

Photography Assistant

So Cory wants Jeffrey to be his assistant when he gets back from Afghanistan. So he has been giving Jeffrey assignments of things to take pictures of when he sends videos to Jeffrey. Last week's assignment was to take a picture of me on the grass. So we finally remembered to do it, we were going to do it the day he asked but it was rainy. Ignore the squinted eyes, the sun was really bright and though you can't see it too well, that's my 19 week bump there in the pic also. And one of my skirts from my summer of skirts! :)

He has a little camera that he takes pictures with too, but like his dad, he's gotten into the habit of deleting them almost as soon as he takes the pictures. So I didn't have any to send today when I plugged in the camera.

Goodbye Preschool!

Our co-op preschool had it's closing social this week. Out of this group I think only one or two will be moving on to kindergarten next year. Jeffrey tells me that he's very excited to start school in the fall but I'm sure he will miss his friends. Especially little C who he will do anything for. Crazy to think my baby is even old enough to be going to preschool let alone kindergarten.

Preschool

 So in addition to our little homeschool preschool Jeffrey has been going to Ms. Macie's preschool too this last month. He LOVES it! I have tried to help him learn letters or how to write and color and he just doesn't have the patience to want to sit with mommy but he loves learning from someone else!

 I love this! I'm sure he will learn how to write all in a row one day, but this is seriously adorable!

This was his Easter bunny project. He told me he cut the shapes out all by himself and his favorite part is the "googly eyes".

He has learned some of the hilarious preschool songs too. If you can ever get him to sing "Tooty Ta" you're in for a treat!

Arrival to Afghanistan

My whirlwind trip got me to Afghanistan quickly and safely. It is common to be stuck at one of the holding stations along the way from several days to a week. It is also common to run into situations where there are more people passing through than there are bunks to sleep in. I dealt with neither, traveling in a small group among the last of 1ID to enter the country.

On FOB Lightning, I stay in a nice room. I have a large desk, shelves, makeshift closet, bed with mattress, and a double window with glass, though it is boarded from the outside. I plan on using the window to hang up photographs.

I work with the Afghan army in a building referred to as the TAC. In the TAC, the Afghans are tracking what is taking place in there are of responsibility, similar to how the US runs its own operations. I am there with several other coalition soldiers to help share information about the Afghan battle space. I am not specifically training the Afghans, but I am building relationships with them and watching them take ownership of the fight.

Flint Hills Discovery Center

For our homeschool preschool today we took a field trip to the Flint Hills Discovery Center here in Manhattan. It has been under construction since we got here and we were excited to see what was inside. It showed life in the prairies from the time when it was underwater to the time of the settlers to the present. The kids loved watching this train go around and around.

 J wanted to catch some cows on this saddle. He's got the swing down pretty good it always makes me laugh. I had to pretend I was the cow.

 Jeffrey is GREAT at puzzles and had this magnetic one done in just a few seconds.

 This is Jeffrey and his little friend C. She is in our ward and for whatever reason they are best little buddies. It's kind of adorable to watch him follow her around and want to play next to her and ask where she is all the time. It's adorable.

 They had a video there that was pretty cool, had a 180 degree screen and when they talked about the winds in the prairie there was wind in the room. Jeffrey was a little nervous when they talked about fire and smoke started to come in from under the screen. He was also a little nervous when snow fell from the sky. It was a cool video though.

After we walked through the exhibits and saw the movie it was time for the preschool activities in the classroom upstairs. In the picture above they dug through the sand and found fossils which Jeffrey tells me are old animal bones. They used magnifying glasses to look at them closer.

They also got to have prairie recess time. Jeffrey learned how to jump rope. He could do it in slow motion but seemed to enjoy it.

We had a great time and got a membership so that we could visit more during the summer time.

Happy Sunday Daddy!

Here's our video for Daddy...you all get to see it too.

Keeping in Touch

So I have Cory's address now if you want to get in touch with me for it. I don't want to post it here because this is the internet after all. Send me a text or email and I will send it along. I've got a package getting ready to send with things that he's discovered he needs already.

Let's visit the train

 

When we go to the hospital on post we pass a park and a train out front. Every time we do Jeffrey asks if we can stop and play, sometimes we have places to go right after so we can't stop, but this day we had some time so he showed me around the train. We had to watch down the tracks and make sure that the rails were clear and more than once we had to slam on the brakes and stop the train. He has got such a great imagination!