Reading

We've been working really hard on reading at our house since the Christmas Break. Mark is pretty fluent in his reading, but has not been motivated to read individually-- He just wants us to read to him. Dax has the small and capital letters down, and knows their sounds, but cannot read a stitch. We decided this is the perfect time to help both of them take the next step (these are the things we discuss as we lay in bed and stare at the ceiling each night).

We decided that Mark would read simple chapter books and we'd make a dinosaur footprint for each book he completes. We'd place the tracks from his room down the hall to the kitchen. He'd get a reward for reaching the kitchen, and then we can turn him around and head him back to his room. We chose to introduce this activity right after he'd completed a book, so he got to fill out a dino track right away. He was very excited!

Our hallway wall

Mark working on a chapter book--this one is nonfiction.

For Dax, we started by writing a book together. Mom sat Dax down and wrote a simple repetitive book that Dax could then read. It followed the pattern: Dax can see a __________. Dax illustrated the books by gluing on and coloring pictures. So where Dax glued on a volleyball he'd colored blue, the page reads, "Dax can see a blue volleyball." Then we worked on the words: Dax, can, see, and a (he looks at the picture for "blue volleyball," but that is not the focus here, the repetition is). For each word that Dax learns, we put up a train with that word written on it. He, too, is trying to get down the hall to the kitchen. We make sure that we reinforce the words by taking Dax to the trains (they're at his eye level) a few times a day and having him read each word for us. He can also read mom, dad, mark, and I. It is amazing how fast he has learned these words on sight.

Dax with his book, "Dax Can See."

One of the pages of the book--I cut pictures from a coloring book and Dax picked the color. We used a different color for each page--there are eight pages in this book.

We made this book today to learn the word "like." We made a list of things that he liked and printed picture from the Internet. Dax helped me glue them in and told me what words to write. This book has 5 pages.

This has been a lot of fun for our family. We let both the boys choose their reward for reaching the end of the hallway--Mark chose play video games and Dax chose bowling. If you're looking for an idea from a couple of elementary school teachers on how to jump start your kids' reading, give it a try!

Christmas

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Christmas. We celebrated with the Ockeys on the 18th, the Daniels on the 23rd, and just us on Christmas. We love spending time with family and the boys got more than enough toys.

Santa always comes to the Ockey party. Someone told Mark to make a silly face--nice one!

I know this picture is blurry, but my boys were both so excited about this gift from Grandma and Grandpa Daniels.

Mark on Christmas Eve all wrapped in his new blanket.

Dax was definitely most excited for candy in his stocking. 

Mark LOVES his bat cave.

Dax needed a drink after all that candy, but who wants to walk upstairs and use a cup when there is a perfectly good sink right there.

All dressed up and ready for church on Christmas

Randy's Birthday

We are going to post out of order and share some pictures of Randy on his birthday before I write about Christmas. For those of you who don't know, Randy's birthday is the day after Christmas (Dec. 26), and there couldn't be a tougher day to have a birthday. Randy hates it, I have a hard time every year pulling things together, and the boys are in care less mode. So it is really hard. But, we work with it.

Randy wants the same thing for his birthday every year-- to take down Christmas. He wants the trees out of the house, the decorations put away, and the lights off the roof. Well this year it was a nice sunny day, so he was able to take the lights down and the decorations got put away for next year. While he was vacuuming up pine needles, I heard him cursing at the vacuum. Randy hates our vacuum. He cried when our last one died, and he has never found peace with the new one. Apparently it wasn't picking up pine needles like he wanted it to, so I gave him one of his birthday presents-- a shop vac. He was very excited and there were no more expletives flying around our house as he happily vacuumed the pine needles that had covered our floor.

One of our Christmas trees this year.

This year, Mark and Dax helped me design the cakes. Both he and Dax were upset that I was just baking a sheet cake. They thought dad should have fancy cakes like them. Dax said dad should have four basketball cakes (he had two basketball cakes on his 2nd birthday this year). Mark thought we should do an entire baseball field of the Boston Red Sox. So we compromised. I made round cakes like I did for Dax's birthday, but we turned one into a baseball and the other into a Red Sox cake. Check them out!

Dad likes to put on a good show for his kids!

I even invited Randy's sister and family over to have cake and play games. It turned out to be a very fun evening. I hope that Randy had a happy birthday. I won't tell you how old he is because that is another birthday present I'm giving him!

Love this guy!

Gingerbread Houses

I am going to be completely honest and say that I often dread making gingerbread houses. It is often a messy tradition and I usually end up building three houses (mine and my two boys). But this year I was actually excited. Our good friends, the Haws family, were coming to make gingerbread houses with us. And the evening did not disappoint. Mark was big enough to design his own while I just helped a little with the construction and Randy helped Dax. I was very impressed with how well all the children built their houses and there was hardly any mess. It was nice to have someone to share it with this year and we had a ton of fun! Each house turned out so unique and the kids enjoyed jumping off the couch for the last 30 minutes while the grown-ups chatted. It was a great night and we hope to do it again next year! I have included the icing cement recipe I use (I got it from Randy's sister) in case anyone wants to use it. It sets up very quickly which is important in building gingerbread houses and it is really easy to make.

Icing Cement
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat egg whites until stiff (about 2-3 minutes). Add cream of tartar and powdered sugar a little bit at a time (I usually add the cream of tartar and about a cup of powdered sugar and beat that all up, then add another cup and so on). Beat until stiff. Use immediately or store covered with a damp cloth.

Dax with his rambler style gingerbread house (the roof only caved in 3 times).

Mark's A-frame gingerbread house.

Lucy with her trendy apartment including balcony.

Norah and Mandy's fully landscaped cottage.

Millie and Zach's bell tower.

Benny's southwestern motif! I wish you could see his car, but it's parked in the back.

Snow!

On Tuesday morning, it snowed for a few hours. The boys were SO excited. We had to go and enjoy the few hours it was out there. By lunchtime it had all melted, so I am glad we went out when we did. I am not a huge fan of the snow, but I hope it snows again soon so my boys can be as happy as they were Tuesday morning. Here are some of our pictures of our snowy morning.

Mark's 6 inch snowman. He used leaves for arms, eyes, nose, everything!

Yes, Dax is shoveling the street.

Mark is the king of snowballs. He is trying to catch me off guard here!

I think Dax forgot how to sled. 

Mark wishing dad was home to pull him around the yard.

Temple Square

Tonight we headed up to temple square in Salt Lake to see the Christmas Lights. We went early so we could take pictures of the boys by the temple for their temple books (if you want to know more about this click here). Then we headed off to eat dinner at a place Randy'd had his eye on for awhile-- Iggy's Sports Bar (it was so-so). When we returned to temple square, it was jam packed with people. I think it was more crowded than at General Conference time. Despite all the people, the boys loved seeing the lights and for some reason, they really liked listening to a high-school choir in The Assembly Hall. There are lights everywhere on temple square, by the Conference Center, and reflecting pool. We had a really fun time. The only disappointing part was that Mark and Dax really wanted to take a ride on the carriage, but the line was way too long and it was almost bedtime. So we'll have to head back up another night, but next time we'll go when it's not Christmas time.

Mark's temple picture

Dax's temple picture

Someone handed them these free temple pictures (pass along cards).
They thought they were amazing!

Enjoying the lights by The Conference Center

I love Dax's face in this picture! 

I love 2 year olds

Tonight we had found a neat Christmas experience called The Living Nativity in Alpine, UT. We had no idea what to expect, so we were unprepared for being outside for two hours and almost froze to death. But it was totally worth it. Read more on my other blog about it.

On the way home, I asked everyone what their favorite part of the night was and here were the responses:
Dad--When baby Jesus looked right at me.
Mom--Seeing baby Jesus with his mom and dad.
Mark--Petting the animals and seeing baby Jesus.
Dax--Finding a penny in my pocket in the gas station bathroom.