Just a comparison: Karianna and Sara

She's Done!

 We received word a few weeks ago that Sara has officially mastered all of her speech IEP goals at EMECEC and is going to "graduate" from preschool!  Her last day of preschool is tomorrow, and I will officially attend her final IEP meeting on Monday. She has been making such strides in her speech, and we are so proud of her hard work!  She still has some sounds that are difficult of course, but at this point, they are all developmental, and thus do not require an IEP.  All in all-she has ben doing great and is ready for bigger and better things!  
 We are very undecided at this point whether or not to send Sara on to kindergarten next year.  We are going to have her tested for early admittance, and I will probably even register her/request a teacher....but we may very well pull her before August rolls around.  To be frank, I think that's what we will end up doing.  She has all her pre-k skills down and it wouldn't surprise me if she starts decoding words over the summer.  She has been in a classroom environment for 2 years now and is very mature in that sense.  She is well-behaved and physically meets the mark.  Even still, we are not fully convinced this would be the best move for her in terms of always being the youngest in her class by a lot.  For Karianna, it was an easy decision-it felt right.  I don't have the same feeling about Sara....yet.  And maybe not at all.

 So, end of the day, we are just super proud of Sara for coming so far with her speech.  If we move her to kinder next year, great!  If we opt to wait another year, I'll have to find a pre-k program that will keep her interested/active.  She seems fine either way, still very much wanting to go to preschool, but has had enough conversations with me by now to know she may stay home for another year.  I'll be happy to have her honestly-being done with kids has made me start to realize childhood is going by way too fast.  As difficult/frustrating as some days are, I know I am going to miss them all too soon.

Arizona, How Do You Do?

Karianna was able to perform in her 4th grade play tonight, entitled, "Arizona, How Do You Do?"  In all honesty, it was probably my favorite play that Bush does!  It had a lot of info in it, but also some comic relief and chances for the kids to really try out some acting skills.  Super enjoyable performance and Karianna played her part as a Hohokam indian quite well!  Her lines were perfectly practiced and fluent, and she sang beautifully on all the songs (of course).  Congratulations to Karianna and a job well done!  Here's some pics that I was able to snag:

Helping Me Work

Given that I work from home upwards of 40-50 hours a week, the kids are very good at knowing there are certain times that I need to work.  Thankfully, Jared and I generally keep those time periods to when the kids are asleep or when he is home to take care of them....I really try to limit any work hours while I am monitoring kids.  We have been very blessed in this area, and are very grateful.

Jacks is the only one to throw a curveball in this plan!  He gets on more of a schedule every day, but is still somewhat unreliable, esp in terms of his bedtimes.  So, he occasionally (frequently?) gets to help me work, and this, my dear readers, is how to multitask parenting and work.  Of course, I can only have a baby in my arms for so long before I have to take a break for goofy faces and snuggles!

Final Orchestra Concert

Karianna has had a fabulous year in orchestra, all the more exciting because it is her first official year playing the violin.  We have been so proud of her hard work and dedication-she has a great ear for music and can pick up a tune, memorize words, and mimic a song very easily.  She has always done that on her recorder, singing, and with the piano when she has the chance--I love her musical inclinations, as a singer myself!  

Karianna's final concert of the year was tonight, and she did beautifully playing with the 4th grade orchestra.  As my mom said, she has a very smooth stroke on the strings, and she holds her violin very professionally, for lack of a better word, while playing.  She looks so grown up playing and has gained a lot of confidence, as well as practice reading music.  She has also made lots of friends in orchestra, and we have appreciated her teacher's guidance.  We are working on getting a tutor for summer, as we plan to continue renting her violin throughout the summer months.  Great job Karianna!

Flashback: Then and Now

Love the Weather!

We had such beautiful weather today with the breeze and the lower temps!  Thus we headed out to Fountain Hills to walk the lake and play on the playground.  The park was pretty empty, so we had a great time "owning" it!  We snapped some pics of course that turned out just lovely, and enjoyed walking the lake.  Jordan was climbing a tree and fell off, landing on the back of his head--he doesn't get sad easily, but he was definitely sad, hence hurt.  Thankfully, he calmed down pretty quickly and didn't seem to have anything close to a concussion.  We found a green frisbee along the path that was stuck in some bushes--obviously abandoned.  We rescued it and had a great time tossing it back and forth--until it went into the water.  Jared didn't realize that he had a crazy wife was was willing to wade into the reclaimed water to rescue it again...thankfully that's the kind of wife I am and we got it back-woohoo!  I think the nearby Pakistanian visitors thought I was nuts (okay, maybe not from Pakistan, but that't he first descriptive word I could come up with that fit). The kids seemed to relish being outdoors, and once we got about halfway around the lake, JD took off and pretty much ran the rest of the way back to the park--we could see him most of the way, sometimes needing to squint, but he was off like a bullet, and we decided to let him handle himself.  Eventually Jordan and Sara did the same thing while Karianna and I sang Frozen songs with James riding on my shoulders.  Jared closed in on the kids who took off and got them engaged in frisbee again while Jacks talked away in the stroller.

See, these are the kind of afternoons I could get used to.  No stress-just good times.

I just posted this image above, but I'll do it again because its cute and a different angle....

 LOVE this pile of cuteness!

 And oh my heck, LOVE this pile of cuteness too!  He looks like an angel.

 Shall I say it again?  Fine, I will.  LOVE this pile of cuteness!  ;)  I look weird, but at least Jared looks awesome!

 The second mommy in our home.

 Visiting the Veteran's Memorial

 Tossing the frisbee back and forth.

 The fountain!

 The fountain in Karianna's hand!

 My crazy boys with a Sara on the side.

Goldilocks!

 

It's Jordan's turn!  He has seen JD perform in Goldilocks with the kindergarteners, and he has been talking about this play for WEEKS!  Today marked the performance, and he was so adorable, we loved watching!  Jordan smiled the ENTIRE time at us--not at the teachers, but at us, way on the far side of the auditorium.  He sang every song, and busted up laughing when I held Jackson up and started dancing him in the air.  My bad, but it was too cute to resist!  We are super proud of Jordan for learning all the songs, actions, and standing so very still throughout the performance.  Yea for Jordan!

Easter 2014

Easter was lovely this year, and we kind of had a weeklong celebration with eggs, pagaents, and the Savior of course.  So a few highlights before flooding in the pics...

• 12th:  The annual Erickson family Easter Egg hunt, which was topped off with water balloons this year.  Hence the pics.....
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 16th:  Easter Pagaent and some good family fun at Riverview Park for the first time.
• 18th:  More fun at Riverview Park and a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa Lautenschlagers' house. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 20th:  Easter Sunday!  I got to sing with the choir impromptu (yea for sight reading music!) and the kids did great sitting with Jared.  I gave one of my favorite primary singing time lessons, teaching "Did Jesus Really Live Again" with hand actions (jr) and a powerpoint presentation (sr). The spirit was strong, and I LOVED the focus on the Savior.  We did our own little Easter baskets after church, plus a few very relaxed pics that didn't even have all the kids in them...oh well!  Later that night we went back to the Lautenschlagers' house to do their Easter Egg hunt and eat a delicious ham dinner.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

So overall, we had a great Easter season and are exceptionally grateful for the Savior and his sacrifice for us.  I feel like we have talked a lot about this in our family for the past week, and I love that.  We spent some scripture study time reading the events that led up to the resurrection, and really talking about what that means to us. We know the Savior lives and feel hope in this testimony.  Happy Easter!