Schools Out For Summer

or until summer school starts....

I wasa so lucky the past year to have had Tate up at Pingree. He had a really rough year in kindergarten, so I was really afraid that he had gotten too far behind and couldn't catch up both academically and behaviorally. But the staff at this school is amazing and have done wonders for Tate. He has progressed so much more this past year than any other school year (and he's been in school since he was 2!) I am so grateful that this school is even here and luckily we get to come back next year!

Tate's teacher sent home a disc of the pictures of him they've taken. They did some very fun activities and he had such a fun time this year. I can't believe he's done with 1st grade already!Tate and Jax at recess

Tate and Tage - such a love/hate relationship with these two. They would play so cute together and then turn around and tease each other mercilessly as only little boys can.Cowboy Tate - riding the pony at Fred's birthday party

"Um, Mr.Fireman! Mr. Fireman!" I wish I knew what he wanted to tell them.

Wheeler Farm

The big bounce!

Playing with the air blowing out of the big bounce. He does this with my dad's bounce house, too.

Cute little Leprechauns - Henry (Hengry as Tate says it), Jax, Tate, Cody and Tage

Cheeser!

My Latest Projects

I decided to post pics of the sewing projects I've done the past few months. I am so in love with some of these, I had to show them off....

R's quilt - I started this as a gift, but it's been the first quilt I've kept for myself and has become my favorite one to cuddle up with.

I made baby carrier covers for my sis in laws. This one was for a coworker and was my favorite that I've made.

Tate's Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

Sue's quilt - I made this for my mom's birthday and has to be by far my favorite I've ever made. I love this fabric!

This one isn't new, in fact it's one of the first quilts I ever made, it's Tate's baby blanket. He found it in his closet a couple months ago and pulled in out. I spent most of my pregnancy working on this and did it entirely by hand. I so do not have the patience to do that anymore!

The Douger Chronicles

May Days

It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm going to smash all on May into this one. This will be mostly pictures, sensory overload, I know.....

Early in the month we welcomed our newest little cousin, Boston Noel Isaac, to the family. Congrats Bry and Nat and big sis and bro Maycee and Braxton. He is adorable and we are so excited to have him here!






Then, on a very chilly and damp morning, we went to the zoo with Tate's school class. It's one of Tate's favorite places and we had fun despite the weather. Tate has always had a little bit of a love affair or a connection of sorts with the giraffes. We spend over half of our time with them and he even tried to talk me into taking a giraffe home, if only it wasn't as tall as the house!

Tate also translated what the gorilla was signing to his keepers for me. That's a skill I want him to keep, it helps with both man and ape (although I think most of the apes we meet are outside the zoo). I might need to take a refresher course to help him stay up on it if it's not used in his class next year.

Finally, Last weekend we had a surprise 80th birthday party for Douger (my gramps), the most hilarious man I know. So much fun!

Um, this is Makaylee doing the "Bok Bok Salute" to Gramps. So chick-a-dee-licious!














So handsome! Buy War Bonds!

Shirt - An Evolution

Those of you close to me may have had the opportunity of seeing Tate's shirts (or one of them at least). It's his form of a blankie or wooby or whatever you want to call it. When he was about 15 months old (it was not long after he started walking) he pulled a shirt out of my closet and it became his. He took it everywhere with him. It eventually got lost at his baby sitters....
(Tate and Uncle Bry wearing "shirt")

So he did it again, pillaged my closet and found a new shirt. This one lasted until last year and was in really bad shape until he took a pair of scissors to it and shredded it. I was able to recover a few small pieces of it.

(Tate wearing shirt #2)

Thought we had finally outgrown the shirt phase until last summer when he discovered a shirt I had bought at Old Navy that I was going to return. No such luck, he had it out of the bag and said, "Hmm, I like this shirt." I knew there was no getting it back from him after that. It is now torn and in bad shape as well, so he has started rummaging my closet in search of a new one.

(Shirt #3, pretty much torn in two.)

So not wanting to surrender my wardrobe again (he had already tried to find a replacement) I decided to take him to the fabric store and let him pick out his own fabric for a new shirt. He picked a minky dinosaur print and I sewed him new "shirt" last night. It's in the shape of a shirt, but it's just 2 pieces of fabric sewn together. I am so hoping the ends his confiscation of my clothes. He kept telling me today how much he loves his new shirt and how soft it is and that he doesn't need the old ones anymore. I hope so, for my closet's sake. :)

(Shirt #4, and hopefully the last one)

So I finished reading the Book of Mormom last week for the first time in my adult life. I think the last time I read it all the way through was in junior high. Don't worry, I've never been comfortable talking about my feelings of such things as this, so no long testimony bearing here. I just wanted to document this somewhere.

I'm now reading D&C and at the same time watching my dad's copy of The Joseph Smith Papers. It was coincidental that I'm reading and watching these at the same time, but it's put the revelations in D&C in context and given little more of the history behind why they were given. It's an interesting documentary and worth watching if you have hours and hours free. (I've been watching it at work while I've been doing graves the past few weeks, tons of free time to fill.)

World Autism Awareness Day!

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. Autism Speaks started the Light it up Blue campaign and has 1000s of buildings light up blue on April 1 and 2 every year. We did our part this year and light our house blue as well. Seeing all of the pictures online of all the buildings and people's houses lit up blue helps me to remember I'm not alone in all of this. Thought I would share a few of my favorites...

Tate with our blue lanterns and my mom put a blue light bulb in the lamp in the front window.

This is San Francisco City Hall.