Les's spelling test

Wow, Les had his first spelling test yesterday! He got 100%! We worked hard on his words and I was so proud of him. he is getting to be a great reader. He is starting to recognize some of the hight frequency words when he sees them, instead of having to sound them out. He even started on his first chapter book. We are reading it together. All the words that he can sound out or that he knows the rules to figure them out, I let him do. Then I read the ones that are harder so that he doesn't get too frustrated and give up.

Amber is also doing amazing with her reading. She has to read AR books, and has to do the comprehension test on the computer when she is done. She gets a certain amount of points depending on the difficulty of the book. She is required to get 10 points a quarter. She currently has 25 points, and it is only mid-term. She amazes me. I don't even like to think about picking up a book. She is probably a much better reader than I am.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow, I can't believe how busy I seem to be since school started. I though that I would have some quiet time to stay home and get a few things done without the kids distracting me. I was very wrong. I have put more miles on my van in the last month, and gone through more gas than I did during the summer. I hope we all get into a schedule soon, so we can slow down a little. Soccer only goes for a few more weeks, and that will free up about 6 hours a week. I'm sure that it will be filled with something else. I seem to only update my blog with the weeks events on the weekends, instead of each day when something happens. Oh well, so is life when you have kids!

Father and Son Campout

Friday night was our Stake Father and Son Campout at our stake's property. Most "camped" in the lodge. We were one of the few that toughed it out and were in our little tent. The rain came down, the wind blew and the lightning and thunder went wild. We survived and only got a little wet. The boy's actually slept through most of the storm.

As with most campouts, The fire was the best part. They really liked the s'mores that our Bishop shared with us and thankfully someone told me(before we used them) that the sticks that I cut to cook the marshmellows on were dogwood and it could have made us sick.

Zak thought that we were really roughing it out there and thanked Heavenly Father for letting us be in the "Wilderness." You can see in the picture that we were really "back country" with the CRV parked next to our tent that was set up on grass. Not to mention the fact that we were only 300 yards from the highway and 15 minutes from Maverick. But hey, that is the wilderness to him!

We had a great time and we made it back from the wilderness in time for the busy day of soccer games, team pictures and canning fruit!

Pictures I've Taken

I entered this picture into the Roy City art show, and won an Honorable Mention this week. I thought that it was a great picture, and was excited to have it recognized at all.

Also, this was a picture that I took just Saturday as the storms rolled through. It isn't very often that you see a full double rainbow. I sent it to 2 News, and they also put it on their weather segment! That was pretty cool!

Primary Program

Well last week was the annual primary Sacrament Meeting Program at our ward. I'll admit that it isn't always the most spiritual Sunday for me. But last week, was different. The program started out with Amber singing a solo of I Am A Child of God. She did an amazing job. She obvioulsy gets her singing talent from the Simmons family....NOT me. Les said his part so clearly that he could be understood very well. Zak was a different story. He practiced and memorized his part, and amazed the Primary presidency when he said his part without any help in practice the previous week. But then during the program, he reverently waited for the Primary president to wisper the words in his ear, because that is what they did for everyone else. He is such a goofball.

All I Want For Christmas is my 2 Front Teeth

At last, Les has 1 of 2 front teeth. It is on the side where that deformed extra tooth was. It is such a relief to see that it is generally in the right place and pointing the right direction. It is hard to tell exactly where it will end up, but I don't think that the dentist expected it to be that close to the right position. I also don't think that the dentist was 100% sure that there was a real permanenet tooth there. It was hard to tell in the x-rays that they took. Now he should get that other one soon, and have a full set of teeth again. It has been almost exactly a year since he had them pulled.

Soccer Begins

Well, the soccer season has started at our house, and Saturdays are hectic. But Amber and Les are having a great time playing. The first game of the season was a little slow, but their second games were great.

I think that Amber is really enjoying playing this year, but she is not an aggressive personality, so we have had to work a little on that. She is going to be a good player with some practice.

I am not sure that she likes playing against her close friends though! She would much rather be on their same team.

Les is still loving the game of soccer, and is improving each game. He is quick, and more than anything he loves having 11 other boys all his age to "play" with each week.
Brian is coaching Les's team this year, and I think he enjoys it as much as Les does. He was very excited when the boys applied what he taught them at their last practice and improved dramatically in their second game.

I am glad that they are learning to love sports and having fun too. They all love to go to soccer practices and games, and love to practice in the back yard. It gets crazy trying to get to 2 games on 2 fields, sometimes at the same time, and coach one, but it has been fun to watch them play. And the season is just beginning. We play until May!