School Year is Done

This past school year has been fantastic.  Jaxton finished 4th grade.  He has really enjoyed Upper Elementary and mingling with older kids that are great role models for him.  The upper elementary classrooms went on a 3 day camping trip.  They had a great time & learned a ton!

Cooper finished 3rd grade and will be going to Upper Elementary in the fall.  He was blessed to have the same 2 teachers for his whole time in Lower Elementary.  That is rare, and we are grateful.  Meghan and Lori have been so wonderful.  Cooper was getting tired of the rules that are in place in Lower, and I reminded him that Lower has 6 and 7 year olds who need rules like those.  However, he is 9 and ready for Upper and he is beyond simple necessary rules and ready to have more freedom of choice and room to grow.  He is very excited for Upper.

Kaylee finished Kindergarten and will go to Lower Elementary in the fall.  That means she is a big kid now, not a little girl or a little kindergartener.  That chapter for my little girl is over!!  But she is so excited to move on and move up.  She is so mature and so ready and so eager to learn.  She is reading like a pro and I'm so grateful for her! I look forward to all her experiences in Lower Elementary.

Dawson did a co-op preschool again this year and that was so much fun as always.  Next fall he will join his siblings at Oak Farm in the Primary program as a Pre-K student.  And he is so ready for that.  He is beyond the simple co-op stuff and is learning cursive already and learning basic reading.  Next school year will be a big one for him in reading.

My school kids are just growing up and getting bigger.  Its exciting for them and I love to follow them through the journey!

That yummy stuff called food...

Owen has started to eat real food!! He started with some green veggies, squash & avocado, then applesauce, bread, and bananas.  He is such a funny boy when he eats.  He would much rather prefer picking up bites with his hands and feeding himself than being spoon fed.  He can't seem to focus when being fed with a spoon, sometimes he won't open his mouth, or just grabs the spoon with his hands and makes a mess.  I think his personality is that he wants to be independent and do it himself. He gets satisfaction when he can do it himself.  If there are bites of avocado or bananas or bread pieces on his tray, then he will stay busy and focused for a very long time.  At first he would make silly sour faces when he had a new taste.

He definitely does not prefer green veggies.  However, he loves avocado and will eat it up so fast.  Of course he loves the sweetness of bananas and loves having bread bits for a snack.  

But now, when he's sitting on the floor or the carpet, anything he sees he thinks must be a snack to pick up and eat.  So we are in that phase where he wants to pick up crumbs or pieces of anything that he can find on the floor and stick it in his mouth.  His little pincer grasp is getting very strong.  Love you little eater!!  

Baby Owen's Baby Blessing

Baby Owen was blessed on March 26th.  It worked out really nice that Grandpa from Utah was here visiting that weekend on a business trip.  So Owen was able to have all of the Routsong uncles and both of his grandfathers bless him.  It was a beautiful spring day.  Owen was given a very handsome blessing outfit by his Grandma in Utah who could not be there.  He is 4 and a half months old, so he is a lot older and did not sleep through his blessing, but he was awake and happy the whole time.  Grandpa told us that he was smiling at Nate during the blessing because he may have thought that Nate was talking to him.  Sweet boy!  Here are some of the things our Owen was blessed with:

Owen was told he is such a blessing and a joy and has a special place in our family.  and that we are thankful for his many smiles.   He was blessed to know how important he is to Heavenly Father and to his family.   Owen was blessed to be faithful and loyal to those around him and to look to his older brothers and sisters who are examples to him.  He was blessed to be strong and healthy to accomplish his goals.  He was blessed that he would make choices that would be pleasing to Heavenly Father and his earthly family.  Owen was blessed that he would be able to be sensitive to the spirit and recognize inspiration from Heavenly Father and be able to make choices that will bring joy.  He was blessed to know how special his name is, feel a connection to the uncles for whom he carries their names, and look to them for direction.

We are truly so grateful for this sweet little boy of ours.  He is pure innocence and joy.

Kaylee's Birthday Party

Kaylee wanted an Owl themed birthday party at Jungle George's.  So she invited her closest friends and the kids all jumped in the bounce houses and played in the arcade and ate pizza and cake and ice cream.  It was great fun!!!

Here's to another year for our Kaylee Joy!

Happy Birthday Kaylee!!!

Kaylee Joy has turned 6!  Where has the time gone!!  Here are some fun things about Kaylee at 6 years old:

1. Kaylee's favorite food is Grandpa's chicken &
noodles.  She's sometimes picky, but she gobbles this up every time he makes it.  And she also loves Dad's chocolate cereal!

2. Kaylee's favorite thing to do is gymnastics.  She is getting really strong at gymnastics and skilled.  She feels 100% at home when she is on the gymnastics arena, confident and happy.  She loves to be the one to model the gymnastic skill for the rest of the class.  I hope she keeps it up because I think she will continue to be really good at gymnastics!!

3.  Kaylee's best friends these days are:  Oliver, Lennon, Junie, & Elaina from school.  She spends most of her time not in school with Keagan Stump.

4. Kaylee loves to "organize" and "sort" things.  She will do this with everything.  Upon first sight, her room may look like a disaster, but by looking closer one would see that everything has been sorted, aligned, and organized in a unique way that makes sense in Kaylee's head.  She may be a master organizer one day, not of paper and toys, but of bigger and better things!!

5. Kaylee has a darling singing voice.  She loves to sing.  She loves to go in the basement, turn on the electric piano songs and dance and belt her singing.  We can all hear her from upstairs, and it just makes me smile.

6.  I have given Kaylee a few piano lessons using a "non-readers" piano lesson book.  So she has a little bit of an idea about finger placement and such.  But she hears her big brothers playing suzuki songs constantly and one day, she just started playing the melody of one of the suzuki songs!!  She had just figured it out by ear, by listening over and over to the song being played, she was able to figure out the notes of the melody.  She can't wait to start real lessons and learn to play lots of songs.

7. Kaylee has loved her new baby brother Owen.  She has become his second little mom.  She adores him.  When Owen came home that first day, Kaylee held him for several hours without wanting to give him up.  I'd feed him and give him right back to her to hold.  She just couldn't get enough of him.  That motherly nurturing instinct.  I love that she is a big sister to 3 little brothers.  She is also amazing at helping her 2 year old brother, Nathan.  He is exactly that: two years old, and very challenging.  She has an ability to help him, communicate with him, and he responds to her, differently than he does to his other brothers.

8.  Kaylee is in Kindergarten.  Her teacher, Ashley, resembles Kaylee.  They both have blue eyes, blond hair that is long and straight.  It almost looks like they could be related.  She is excelling in Kindergarten.  Her reading has been an amazing transformation.  And she is learning basic math concepts.  She is very smart.  Yet she prefers art over any kind of academic work.  But thats ok in Kindergarten.  She is moving away from being a little girl and becoming a big kid!  Its amazing!

9. Kaylee loves her long hair.  It is the longest hair in her whole class at school she says.  She has no intention of cutting her hair.  She wants to keep it growing.  The problem is she hates to brush it.....  Her hair is so long that some of her friends at school have dared her to cut it.  And she says she may sometime when she feels like it.  But not anytime soon.  We love our Rapunzel!

10. Kaylee is so talented and skilled.  But she dislikes anything new or any new change.  A substitute teacher, unscheduled event, new class, or new experience will throw her into a worrying state.  She will worry and worry and worry.  But she will go and do.  And then once its all over, she is smiling and happy because it all ended up being just fine, and often really fun.  I love that she is cautious and aware of everything around her.

Happy Birthday to our 6 year old!  We love you Kaylee!!

Jaxton's 10th Birthday

Jaxton is 10!  He is so big!  He is definitely a "big kid" these days, doing big kid things and having big kid conversations.  Its really so much fun to have a big kid in the house.  Jaxton wanted a big outdoor party this year, so we threw him just that.  He invited his school class plus some others over and they spent their time playing outside.  We barbecued, they roasted smore's, and entertained themselves outside.  As it got dark they played flashlight games with glowsticks and then we put on a giant outdoor movie projected on the house.  It was a fun time for sure!! Here are some fun things about Jaxton at age 10:

1. Jaxton's favorite food these days is CEREAL.  He loves to eat cereal and will eat it 3 meals a day if we let him. 

2. Jaxton's favorite books and stories these days are the Harry Potter Series.  He is so interested in all the cool facts and mysteries of the books and all the spells.  Maybe he will be getting some interesting Harry Potter books for Christmas....

3. Jaxton is in 4th Grade at Oak Farm Montessori.  He loves school and is excelling academically.  He currently loves Math the best and will choose math work over any other work offered to him.  He is now in a math group with 6th graders because his brain is just too smart.  

4. Jaxton loves Baby Owen.  He has always loved babies.  Babies bring out the best in him.  If he is upset, a baby will cheer him up.  And he is so loving and fun with babies.  It will be so fun to watch him with Baby Owen as Owen grows.

5.  Jaxton's piano skills are strengthening.  He has a natural talent for the piano.  His songs are beautiful.  He memorizes everything.  He is always reaching for harder and more complex music that is different or unique from the norm.  And then he never fails to master what he's chosen.  He has a confidence about him with piano.  He has no fear with it.  He will sit down and play from memory with such ease and beauty, its an amazing thing to watch. 

6. Jaxton's latest niche has been running.  He is turning up to be a really talented runner.  He can run long distances without a sweat.  He has joined a running club at the YMCA where he gets to work on his running skills.  Recently we went to the Tin Caps baseball field to run some laps as a family.  He ended up running 15 laps which equalled 5 miles.  He hardly stopped and towards the end of that he was sprinting to the finish.  And he says he could have kept going and going, it felt that great.  Again, his confidence was boosted as he realized his ability as a runner!

7. Jaxton is a Webelo cub scout who is determined to finish his Arrow of Light in the next couple months so he can join the St. Vincent Boy Scout Troop.  He's visited the troop as part of his Webelos requirements and while he was there he learned to build a fire firsthand.  He loved it and is determined to join that troop sooner rather than later.  Im glad to see his motivation here!

8.  Jaxton's favorite quote was by Albert Einstein.  It says, "You only fail when you quit trying."  We've discussed this a lot lately because school work and responsibilities are getting larger as he is getting older.  Math is a breeze, but language and reading are getting more complicated and more difficult and more time consuming.  It's easiest to just give up and say you can't do it.  He's been tempted to say this sometimes.  But we remember Einstein's quote and he has learned to NOT quit trying, not to give up, but to persevere, and keep on trying, push through that disappointment and discouragement.  This big kid is getting some real life lessons these days!

9. Jaxton is very good with his money.  He works for Simplx cleaning the office building, taking out trash, cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, the warehouse, filing folders, etc.  He takes the money he makes and pays 10% tithing.  Then he divides the remainder between 4 jars: savings, spendings, college, and mission.  He never likes to spend his money.  He is saving it up for something big (probably electronic).  He's just fine with wearing high water pants so he can save up his money for something else.

10. Jaxton is a sweet sweet boy.  He is genuine, honest, kind, and brave.  He never has a fear of change or of anything new.  He goes to new events and experiences without a fear or doubt in his mind.  His confidence is contagious.  I never need to worry about him being afraid of something new or worried.  He just goes and does it.  He is a brave kid.

Happy Birthday Jaxton!!! We love you!!

Halloween 2016

 Halloween is always sooo much fun!  From my childhood, we would always make our costumes, not buy them.  And I love to make the costumes now for the kiddos!!  

For Nathan, he loves Minions.  So we put together the cutest Minion outfit.  He looks real!!  And he was so proud to be a minion!

Kaylee wanted to be Ariel.  So again, we designed and sewed her beautiful mermaid outfit.  It was sooo difficult to get the fin to look and work correctly.  I think it was tricky for her to actually move around very easily.  So I don't think she liked wearing it a ton. But she enjoyed being Ariel. Complete with the wig!

Cooper wanted to dress up like Donald Trump!  A little risky, but that's how Cooper rolls!!  He looked the part, acted the part, and said all the right statements lol.  

Jaxton wanted to be Abraham Lincoln!  And Dawson wanted to be an Incredible!

Pumpkins

 

Pumpkin carving!  Always so much fun at Halloween!

Fall Leaves

 My favorite time of year is fall.  The leaves are the best.  Here we are waiting for big kids at school, rolling around in the piles of leaves!!  Happy Fall!

Cub Scout Fun

 Bear Scouts are a lot of fun - 3rd Graders! We cleaned the church building as a service project and carved pumpkins with our pocket knives, using our newly acquired pocket knife skills!  Melinda Ambrose is my partner in teaching the bears.  She is committed, thoughtful and dedicated to our calling, just as much as me.  We work so well together.  She brings a great amount to our partnership and we both have a passion to make this the best experience ever for these boys.  I am grateful for Melinda. 

Mary Todd - Piano

 

Jaxton and Cooper began piano lessons at Oak Farm with Mary Todd.  She is absolutely wonderful and is teaching them the Suzuki Method of piano.  Both boys are thriving.  Mary is very talented.  They are scheduled during the school day, so they leave the classroom for 30 minutes to work with Mary.  Its been the best!

School Photos Oak Farm

 

Jaxton - 3rd Grade

Cooper - 2nd Grade

Kaylee - Kindergarten

Pictures of Mom & Kay

 

Reader's Choice 2016

We won the Reader's Choice Award for the first time ever!  Simplx is a winner in our community!  This is such a big deal and we are so excited.  Here is the article we put out there! 

Preschool Fun

With our new preschool group, it has been a lot of fun getting back into fun preschool activities.  My first teaching week we did "All About Me" books which was a lot of fun!  We made pancakes with faces and traced our bodies with chalk outside.  Recently we had a field trip to Matea County Park and got an official tour through the woods.  The guide let Dawson let a monarch butterfly go that had recently come out of its chrysalis in the nature center.  That was exciting! 

We did another preschool day on "spontaneous delight" from the joy school curriculum and fingerprinted and built a fort to eat our stovetop popcorn and lunch inside.  

We took another field trip to Hilgars Pumpkin patch.  We had a hayride and Pumpkin story time and played at the farm.  Preschool has been loads of fun so far!

Preschool Fun

 Preschool for Dawson is a joy!  Crew, Keagan, Dawson, and Caleb love to get their hands messy and play outside.  Lots of fun this preschool season!

P is for: painting, popcorn, pancakes!

Tara's Baby Shower

Every pregnancy deserves a baby shower, even if it's your 6th!!  Simplx showered me with all things baby boy blue today, and it was a thoughtful, fun time.  Thank you team!!