::smarty pants::

These are some of Chloe's "no homework" passes. Her teacher sends one home, along with a little "congratulations" letter any time she gets a perfect score on a test. She's gotten 8 so far (she's used a couple of 'em). She's doing well with her reading too, and we're really proud of her! But...she's SO bored in school! It's SO hard to get her up for in the morning. She tells me "we always do the same things" and I don't really blame her for not being excited to go. She likes her friends and her teacher, but she just gets bored with the work. We got her a workbook for her to do at home so she can be challenged a little more, and she loves it! I have her do her school homework first, and then she's on to the workbook! She and Matt were working on counting money yesterday.

I tell her all the time that she's just too smart for kindergarten :) I guess we'll just see what happens as the year goes on. I don't know what to do! I just keep telling her that doing the same things over and over again is how you learn. Hopefully she can tough it out a few more months, and hopefully she'll like 1st grade better. Hopefully.

In other news...

Chloe lost her other front tooth. She feels like she looks funny. She only has a single gap though (because she lost the other one a while ago, and the permanent tooth has already filled that gap). She got some money from the tooth fairy and she thinks she has enough to buy a light up Princess Tiana doll (almost). Cooper said "cookie" tonight. I was so excited! But then I kinda thought..."is that a fat joke" haha Because we've been eating lots of cookies lately! They're so good! We particularly love the Oreo Fudgees, and I'm sure they're good for you ;) And Port-Port got Buzz "undeweh" and he's so excited about 'em. I gave him an airplane ride and he had to wear his Buzz wings. Undeweh and Buzz wings, how much more Buzzish can he get??

::the cat in the hat::

Today was Dr. Suess Day at Chloe's school. When I took her in, there were all kinds of crazy get-ups and crazy hair! Chloe was the Cat in the Hat...sort of. We (I) realized afterwards that the real Cat in the Hat actually wears a red and white striped hat, and is a black cat. Whoops!

She looked cute anyway, I thought.

They made a little book about Cat in the Hat (with a song that goes like the Addams Family one).

She "discovered" Dr. Suess in the Fall last year (thanks to Uncle Billy), and she just loves all the books! Every library day, she comes home with a new Dr. Suess book-most of the ones she brings home I remember from when I was little. When we were down at Billy's new apartment last year, he read Fox in Sox to all the kids, and a few memories came back to me. The next day, I wrote this email to my Gramma Ruckman:

Hi, Gramma!

I just wanted to drop ya a quick little line to say hi and tell ya about yesterday. We went down to lunch for mom's birthday (we couldn't get together on her birthday cause of the hospital thing). It was fun. Matt and Kevin went to the football game, and the rest of us all went over to see Billy and Suzie's new apartment. It's pretty nice. It'll be nice when they get settled and all unpacked. The kids played a lot together-like cousins do. It was getting time to go, and Chloe brought a book out to us (it was Hop on Pop-Dr Seuss). So she read a few pages. Then Billy read the kids Fox In Sox. And Oh the memories that flooded my brain! I could hear him reading, but my mind wandered back to when Billy and I were little and sitting on your lap in your old brown chair in your living room. We were under your light one on each of your legs looking at that book, the table to our right, your glasses on, us in our jammies. You were reading. I could hear your voice. Each word so clear. Us sitting so comfy, so cozy, so safe, so sweet. With our Gramma. These kids were listening to Billy giggling at the silly words, and then we all heard "Fox in Sox our game is done sir," and I came back to the present day.

I just wanted to take you down memory lane with me for a minute :)

Hope you know I love you!

~Amy

So I guess you could say that Dr. Seuss hold a special place in my heart :)

::cookie face::

Because what childhood can ever be complete without at

least one oreo-all-over-your-face picture??

(Coopie sitting with his Auntie Sarah)

He dipped in Chloe's milk...mmmmm!

And this is from today. I thought it was especially good because

he got the cookie in his eyebrow and eyelashes.

::jessica's wedding::

Matt's cousin, Jessica, got married on Saturday. We all went down to see it...

(We almost didn't make it because Matt didn't have matching pants. He brought navy blue instead of black. Then at the last minute, he decided it didn't matter, so we went. On the way out of Mom & Kevin's apt., we locked their key in a storage closet for them, and Matt says "did you get Coop's binky and blanket?" I was in charge of the other 2 kids and the 3 bags, so i said "NO!?!!!" Now what?? We called mom, Kevin called the apt. office, told them the whole story, the mgr. gave us a spare key, we got in, and just barely made it to the wedding on time. I gave him a hard time about it pretty much the rest of the day. Oh, and he lost Coop's other binky at the hair salon that morning, but we won't mention that-haha)

She looked just beautiful!

The little boys played on the stairs for a bit after it was over...

Chloe got in a quick cuddle

with her Aunt Alaine (Grandma Snowman's sister)...

Then we (us and J & Sae) had some lunch at Chilis and then

eaded over to IKEA, since we were in that neck of the woods already...

We got a couple of bookshleves. Matt put them together that night, with a little help from the kids (see Portie's tools?? He went and got 'em so he could help Dadduh)...

...and that was our Saturday.

:)

::our own celebrity::

Matt's famous!!

They held the last test firing (unless Obama learns how to really create jobs and reduce unemployment-which, incidentally, I think I WILL write my congressman!), out at ATK Promontory, and he was on the news-just clapping, no interview or anything (at about 1:51)...

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Ain't he cute??

;)

So, way to go, Mr. President!! We can all tell you're really concerned about unemployment and "losing our competitive edge in science and technology."

Like the music? (Tracy Chapman & BB King- The Thrill is Gone) I thought it fit.

::Dear Mr. President...::

Please watch this video (click on the picture).

Thanks,

Amy

::buzzes::

Buzzes of the same feather flock together...

2 little Buzzes all ready for bed playing with little Buzzes.

In other news...

Portie said the prayer at dinner yesterday, and it went like this:

"Dear Heavenly Fazeh, we'yeh sankful for dis day. We ask dee to bless it. We'yeh sankful for Mamma and Da-Da and Coopeh, and me, and Chloe-stinky liddow butt...."

Needless to say, it caused Matt and I to open our eyes and look up, and try to hold in our laughter, and also say "Porter!!" all during his little prayer.

::oh snow::

We're SO sick of the snow!! And Chloe told me (on groundhog day) that she's mad at him. "If he wouldn't have been so scared of his shadow, it'd be Spring right now!!"

Look at all that!!

Yeah, it's fun: snowball fights, snow angels, snowboarding, snowmen, etc, but we've had enough!
It's cold.

We miss the trampoline, flip flops, skirts (with no tights), bright colors...We're just ready for some Spring!!

::happy "valentimes"::

What a great weekend!!

The kids had valentines parties at school. Portie, of course, had Buzz valentines, and we made Chloe's this year. We thought they turned out pretty cute...

We decorated a cereal box for him to take to school to hold all his valentnes.

It was Buzz-ish.

He got lots of valentines from all his little friends.

In Chloe's class they decorated bags. She got lots of valentines too.

Then we made some Valentine-sy cupcakes for the grandparents. The kids love to decorate, so they thought this was way fun...

They turned out pretty cute, we thought.

We put 'em in some little cupcake boxes.

Then, friday night, the Mr. and I had a really fun date...

We went to eat at Market Street Broiler, and it was delilsh!

a really dark picture at dinner

We spent the night here...

our room...

our breakfast the next morning...

It was so fun. We've never stayed over just the two of us before. It was fun to be on a date for so long. That hotel was so cool! All the rooms are theme rooms, and ours was the Carriage Suite. It was cozy and nice. When we woke up Saturday morning, I asked Matt if he was going to go get Cooper (out of his bed like at home), we both just laughed. Our date was romantic, relaxing, and just perfect :)

The kids all stayed at Grandma & Papa Kitty's house. They had so much fun. They made treats, watched movies, played with toys, and stayed up late (and got up early!). We went and saw their new house, and helped them load some more stuff onto their storage thing.

On Valentines morning...

...we all got some valentines. Coloring books, cookies, a sippy cup, and some sweets.

We had a valentine-sy dinner too...

Chloe cut out some hearts...

We made some heart shaped rolls...

...and had some homemade corn chowder (and it was goooood!)

We had such a great weekend. All day today, Portie told us "happy valentimes." The kids are so sweet, and it's fun to have a day completely devoted to the ones you love :)

::mow the snow::

We got some snow this morning, and when we got home from taking Chloe to school, Port-Port thought he'd better mow it...

"wiss his moweh."

And he did...