Random

Caleb told me to come to him. I came over and he said, "Look I spelled elementary school." I took the picture then he looked at it and replaced the "T" with a "CH". I told him he did a good job. He still thinks he spelled it right, and I'll just let him keep thinking that.

Our community was replacing some grass and they dug up the old dirt first leaving big mounds of dirt. Every kid in the neighborhood played there at one time or another. Everyone was commenting they should just keep the dirt, forget the grass :)

First time Talia was on a swing...yeah, she loved it.

Stories:

• Caleb told us a dream he had. He said him and Boden climbed a tree. At the top there were popsicles.Some of the popsicles had bugs on them but they found ones without bugs to eat. I thought that was such an adorable dream.
• Brynn got hurt on her finger. I kissed her finger and she said, "No. On the elbow." Apparently the joint on your finger is the elbow of your finger :)
• On Labor Day we went to Paul and Lynne's house for a BBQ dinner. We were sitting outside on the grass. At one point Caleb asked if a cup of water was Brynn's. I told him yes and that I thought she was done so he could have it. From here it happened fast and I didn't catch it all: He walked over near Kent. Grandma gave him a look. Caleb dumped the water on the grass. Next thing I heard Grandma was asking Caleb if he was going to dump that on Kent. When I heard him say yes I asked him why he was planning on doing that. His response, "For the ice bucket challenge." Oh man, I laughed out loud, yes, LOL. For future generations, here's a wiki page on what the ice bucket challenge is. It's a little ironic that the first time he saw someone do the ice bucket challenge he said, "I would never do that."
• Caleb saw me cutting with scissors and told me, "You're really good at cutting."

School

Caleb is loving The Ranches Academy, a charter school in Eagle Mountain. he seems to have fun during every part of class. He tells me how he likes the computer lab, library, recess and anything else he does. The pictures above are from the first day of school. I think boys look so cute in these school uniforms.
With school we've found out more about Caleb's personality. Caleb is like Derrick and I, almost to an extreme: fear of getting into trouble (especially while in our youth). Here are a few things Caleb has told me that really show that:

• "I wanted to get a drink at recess so I raised my hand but they never called on me." That one made me a little sad. I explained that you can get a drink without asking.
• "Some kids got a yellow card but mine stayed green."
• "The teacher asked us to do something and I did it but the other kids didn't."
• Almost in tears, "The PE teacher said we had to have running shoes." I don't know exactly what happened but I think the teacher said that generally, not to Caleb specifically. Caleb thought his shoes weren't good enough.

Park City

We had a family reunion at a house in Park City. It had a pool and hot tub, which both were our favorite activities. Caleb grew leaps and bounds when it came to swimming. He was making up all kinds of tricks and fun things to do in the water. I think having goggles helped a ton.

Talia was adorable in her swim suit:

We had some fun with our waterproof camera

 Brynn did great with floaties

We used our panoramic setting to make this cool pic:

Lynne, Paul, Lisa and Kent were so nice to help the rest of us with our kids.

We also went to the Olympic Park. The kids went on the alpine slide and Derrick and I went on the zip line.

 We went on a few walks. On one of them we saw this so we took a picture of the boy cousins:

And what would be a family reunion without some family pictures. Lynne made the shirts with order we came into the Isaacson family.

Stories:

• We were explaining to Caleb that he was Kent's nephew. He asked, "What's an ephew?" Say it out loud if you don't get it :)
• On Sunday we told Caleb we couldn't swim in the pool to keep the Sabbath day holy. He told Grandpa, "It's going to be really hard to not swim on Sunday because swimming is really fun."
• Caleb wanted to sleep in the room with Grandma, Grandpa, Kent and Lisa. He didn't sleep well that night. The next day he wanted to sleep in the room with Brynn again. I asked if he was glad to be back in his little bed. He said, "Yeah, I did not sleep at all last night because they were snoring." (Funny side note is that Jenna stayed with us for a 2 nights and slept in the room with Caleb. He asked her if she snored. I guess he never wants to have a night like that again).

San Diego Trip

 It was difficult getting to San Diego but worth it. Our flight on the way to San Diego was delayed 4 hours and we didn't know that until we got to the gate. The kids were troopers though and we made it! We started off our week by going to an indoor play place, which the kids loved.

We went to Huntington Beach to see family, including Talia Joan meeting Great Grandma Joan. We stayed at a hotel that night with a pool and the kids loved playing in it.

 

 

 

On our way back to El Cajon we went to Lego Land. The kids had fun but it was a lot of line waiting. Next time we'll start our day around 2pm and go until close. The first half of the day is super busy. Also, Caleb went on his first 2 roller coasters while we were there. He can't wait to go on more he loved them so much.

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday the family went to Coronado beach.

 

 

 Brynn the mermaid

 They did this but did not enjoy all the sand on their bodies afterward. If you want to go to the beach kids, you've got to get used to the sand!

 

 We took a stop at my Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's house. It was nice to talk to my Grandma whose health hasn't been the best as of late. Ironically, she's the most pleasant I've ever seen her. We also got a picture with Grandpa Jim:

Overall it was a great trip and we can't wait to see them again. Caleb and Brynn keep saying things like, "I wish Gram and Pop could be here."
Stories

•  One day there was a ton of rain. It started off with some thunder. Brynn heard it and said, "A lion." She looked out the back window and said, "It must be out front." She ran to the kitchen and looked out the front window and then concluded, "It must be in the neighbor's yard."
• Brynn told Jenna that the cat scratched her. Jenna asked if she was mean to the kitty. Brynn responded, "No." Pause. "Just a little bit."

A few stories

Stories (from about a month ago):

• Derrick was telling the kids the Tower of Babel/Brother of Jared story and had the kids used stuffed animals to act out the story. Derrick explained how the Brother of Jared and his family had to leave so they went into the wilderness, camped in tents, kept traveling until... Brynn yelled, "Wait!" at that point. She said, "They need to eat marshmallows first." If you sleep in a tent you have to have marshmallows :)
• I was holding Talia face forward. Brynn was in front of us going up the stairs like a frog saying, "Ribbit." Talia just started laughing. It was cute.
• When Derrick had just had his knee surgery he got the chills and said he needed a blanket. Brynn who was holding her blankie at the time started walking toward Derrick and said, "You can use my blankie." She stopped herself, pulled the blankie back to her and quickly said, "You can't have my blankie."
• Brynn was playing with Flynn Ryder and Cinderella dolls. I said, "Flynn, who's your girl friend?" Brynn said in her deep voice, "Cinderella. I couldn't find Tangled."

Swim, baseball, archery, kids

The kids had some private swim lessons. In this video you can see Brynn and Caleb for a bit.

Sisters

 Went to a Bees game. The kids had fun running around the grass and we ate some yummy food.

 One day I did Brynn's hair in a high pony tail. I thought it was cute so I lifted her up to the mirror. She said in a blunt voice, "I look like Mulan."

Brynn's preschool backpack came in the mail. She talks about putting books in it, learning her letters, things she'll show Miss Nicole and has even picked out what she wants to bring to show and tell: 3 toy ponies. Though she will pick up other things and say she wants to bring them too.

  Here I just wanted to take a picture of Talia with her pacifier. She is off and on with liking it.

 Can't you just eat that face? So cute!

Tummy time happens a lot now because she has been rolling about a week. She usually wants to go to her tummy as soon as I lay her on her back. She actually does it a lot faster than in this video
 The boys have pulled out the baseball stuff recently.

 Brynn and Derrick had a date to the pet store where Brynn got a beta fish. She named him Ben after her swim teacher.

 Caleb loves to mow with Derrick, he follows him around on Derrick's exact path. It's heart warming. So, when the toy lawn mower broke Derrick found a real one for $10, took off the blade and motor, spray painted styrofoam black to look like a motor and put the plastic piece on top. Unfortunately, Caleb couldn't push it on the grass. He did push it around the cul-de-sac once. So we bought him another toy lawn mower. I just had to put this down to show how much love Derrick has for the kids in trying to make them happy. I have such a good husband!

 We pulled out the archery stuff again. Brynn is even having fun with it, though Derrick does all the work :)

 

Oh and I have strep throat now. Went to the doctor after reading online that I had every symptom listed for strep throat. Sure enough, I tested positive. On some antibiotics and hopefully will be all better soon.