"Mommy School"

I wanted to take a minute to brag on our big boy Jake. Since Labor Day, Jake has been attending "Mommy School", as he likes to call it. Since we moved out here, we decided not to put Jake in preschool and let him explore with us. Brad and I opted to have preschool with him from home. He will be heading off to kindergarten next year so we wanted to spend this year with him.

I called upon "Mimi" for her teaching expertise. She consulted some of the preschool teachers she knew and gave me some guidelines to go by as well as sent Jake this awesome school supply package filled with everything from highlighters and colored paper to lesson plans that we use. Since we started, Jake has learned almost 30 words from the Dolce Site List. He is not only reading them, but writing them as well. We couldn't be more proud! We have been making it quite exciting too...we play Quiz Bowl (which we got from Wizards on Waverly Place) and Word Bingo (we use fruity Cheerios as our spacers)! He loves it. While we are in Kentucky, we plan to have a couple of educational days and go on some nature walks to compare the scenery with what we have here. He loves all the different leaves and trees and plants we have collected.

We have been reading a lot of books and Jake is picking out the words he knows. Grandmother and PopPop just sent he and Gray 2 new books and we have read them several times already. Mimi bought them several books while they were out here visiting and we have plowed thru those as well. We plan to hit one of the bookstores in Jackson tomorrow where I am certain we will find more books for our collection.

The snow has arrived!

It seems that summer is behind us! But what happened to Fall?!? One day it was a beautiful 75 degree day and the next there was snow on the ground. We woke up to a covering last week and these pictures were taken on the second day of the snow. It has been cold ever since. Gone are the days of hiking and picnics!

We haven't seen too much snow since last week, but we have pretty much had a dusting every day. Targhee has been covered up. People are skiing every day. Brad got his skis in the mail last week but still has to have the bindings mounted (which is on our Jackson agenda tomorrow) before he can head up there. I am still trying to get the best deal possible so I still don't have my boots or skis!

We had a great time with our first snow. While Gray was napping, Jake, Brad and I went out and had the biggest snowball fight ever. We had a blast! Jake has never seen snow like this before. He even gathered up a bucket full and we made snowcones!

As many of you know, we will be traveling to Kentucky in the next couple of weeks. We plan to stay for at least 2 weeks so we will get to see many of you while we are there. Please say a prayer that we have safe travels...and that we don't go nuts during our 25 hour drive!!!!

Lots of love,

Brad, Angel, Jake and Gray