Summer break....

So I had my last final tonight for this semester. I still have 3 years left... but completing this semester feels good. Of course I didn't do as much studying earlier this week, so I spent a lot of today studying for my hardest and last final. Now that I am done, I think I did pretty well... feels good too.
Also more good news, David was just offered a new position, told actually that he needed to post for it tomorrow. This is a very good step up and he is quite excited. He went to a dinner with the bosses and a big boss too, so he had a great night. We are excited for the new possibilities.
Here is a funny story about the kids today... Since I have been taking some early childhood classes, I have been trying to do more with the kids. I actually let them paint sometimes, we go to the library more, and I let them use my make-shift water table, aka my sink. So Emmalee and John were at the sink while I studied and Pete did his homework. John took his shirt off because it was wet already, or he was trying to prevent it, I don't know, and of course Emmalee had to take her shirt off too. A little later, John did something mean to Emmalee so she ran over crying. I told her to go check and see if Marky was awake yet. Another minute later they both come running downstairs and Marky's shirt is off too. They went upstairs to play for a while and I was making dinner. John comes into the kitchen to tell me something, and he is completely naked now, I don't know why. Marky runs in after John and he is butt-naked too. I think to myself, "Oh, no!" I run upstairs, and sure enough, Emmalee is stuck on Pete's bed, absolutely naked too. When one of them does something, they all do something. I thought it was pretty funny. so that is our latest updates...

North Las Vegas Police Department.....

So we had some very interesting visitors this evening... North Las Vegas Marshall Sergeant Bunch came ringing my door bell at 9:30 this evening with a warrant for my arrest for failing to show up at court. Now here is the back story (I know it is long but everyone knows I am incapable of telling a short story)… A couple months ago I got stopped on Azure for speeding, he said I was going 45 in a 25 but I don’t think so with all those start and stops down that road. So my brother-in-law Paul is a police officer for Metro and I called him to see if there was anything to be done. He has a buddy in the North Las Vegas Department and called him to see if he could take care of the ticket. I checked in with Paul a couple times to make sure everything was taken care of and that there was nothing else I needed to do. He said his buddy called the officer that wrote the ticket and they were going to void it so I didn’t have to worry about anything, plus if figured if it still went through I would get one of those post cards in the mail. No post card came so I figured everything was fine, that is until this evening…
The doorbell rang and they said they were here for Jessica Zygmont. I already had my pajamas on (of course one of the few nights I actually got into my PJs early) but I came to the door to see what was going on. The Police Officer said he had a warrant for my arrest for failing to show up at court. We explained that my brother-in-law works for Metro and he said he took care of it. So we called Paul to see what happened and the Officer called to see if it was taken care of. Paul came over and they made some more calls and it turns out that the first Officer didn’t end up voiding the ticket after all when Paul’s buddy asked him to. Needless to say I did not have to take a late night trip down to the jail and sit down there for however long it would have taken to get me out. The Sergeant said he was going to go to the Judge’s secretary tomorrow and see if they can put it down to a parking ticket and I would have to pay only $67 instead of the $480 that he was talking about at first. He said I still needed to be careful because if I cot pulled over for any reason they would take me straight to JAIL.... I don't think I will be doing much driving for a while until I know that it is all taken care of.
Moral of the story: DON’T SPEED DOWN AZURE!
And make sure everything is really taken care of because I wouldn’t wish that almost heart attack on anyone.

Maybe some day I will be able to laugh at it, but for right now it is still a little scary...

Disneyland...

So I am a horrible blogger! We went to Disneyland last month with most of David's family. Everyone but David's dad and brother were there, so it was a pretty neat trip. Our family goes with Grandma Zygmont every other year, so we are almost pros when it comes to Disneyland, but this time was pretty fun because we had quite a few first timers. Well I will get on to the good part now...


For the last few years I have wanted a picture of our family in front of the castle and everyone with Mickey ears, and I finally got it this year!

This was the first time I actually got to do the princess thing, and I probably enjoyed it more than Emmalee...

Isn't she so adorable! She loved the parades and shows because she loves to dance... and boy can this little girl dance!

All the grandkids.

John wanted to go on most of the rides with Uncle Alan.

And Pete and Ashlee had to go on all the rides with each other.

Pete was chosen to be in the Jedi Training Academy. I don't know who was more excited about it, Pete or his Dad...

This was in front of our room the first day. The kids were so excited to get to the park.

David's Favorite ride is Pirate's of the Carribean, so he snuck away to ride on it every chance he got. A couple of the times he went on it with just John. At first John didn't like the ride so much, but then David had him name some of the Skeleton Pirates in the begining. Well David would just talk John through the ride to help him feel comfortable, he joked about the pirate lying with the pigs. So the next time John is on the ride, he yells out (to the pirate with the pig) "Take a bath you dirty Pirate!" He said it every time after that and it was hilarious.

So that was our wonderful trip. Hopefully we will be able to make it to Disney World next time...

Also, while I'm on here...

My scrapbook class this past Saturday was so much fun. The studio I taught is completely awesome. They sell great products hand made by special people here in town. They sell hand made papers and cards, lotions and soap, some really neat stuff. They are a non-profit organization that helps some really special people make all these products to sell. I am so happy Angela asked me to do these classes, and I expect everyone to come to the class next month. It will be March 14 and the title of the layout is, "Thank you luck stars" or something like that. I will post a picture as soon as I finish it... Anyway, go visit the shop sometime! It is Studio 8 ten located on 810 South Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89101 (702) 644-9418

One down... four to go...

So I completed my short 5 week class yesterday. I turned in my big project and hopefuly aced my exam. I am sad to see the end of that class because it was so fun. It was literacy in the young child, and I definately recommend it to anyone with small children, or that teaches. She said it was the hardest anyone would work for a 1 credit class, and she was right. Well the ideas I had to come up with for the project are too good to just keep to myself, so I thought I would puth them on here to share...

I. Activities to extend and support literature for children
1. A. Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? By Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle
B. This is a colorful book full of repetition. The children will be introduced to different colors and animals. They will become familiar with the pattern and eventually predict what comes next.
C. Activities:
1. Make puppets for the children to hold and play with. Some can be found on this website: http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/index.htm
2. Do some animal role playing. The children can pretend to be each animal in the book; growl like a bear or flap like a bird.
3. Show some pictures of real animals in the book so the children can make a real life connection.
2. A. Chika Chika Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
B. This book has a fun way of introducing both the lowercase and uppercase alphabet with rhyming and a cute storyline the children will love.
C. Activities
1. Have the children make their own coconut trees full of letters. A pattern can be found at: http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/chicka/chickapapercraft.htm
2. Bring a real coconut to class. Let the children handle it, roll it around, shake it. Then poke holes in it to drain the milk out. Now, break it open and let each child have a piece to taste real coconut. Most of them probably won’t like it, but the experience will be great.
3. Get alphabet cookie cutters and make ABC cookies. The children can help measure out the ingredients, or you can have premade dough. Give each child a small piece of dough and a few cookie cutters. They can roll out the dough then cut out their ABC cookies. Bake and let the children enjoy.
3. A. Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss
B. This book features Dr. Seuss’ classic rhyming and repetition. It also teaches that everyone can have fun together if everyone can participate.
C. Activities
1. Make 10 cardstock apples with the numbers 1-10 printed on them (in number and word form). Cut them out and laminate them. Let the children stack them like in the book. They can take one in each hand and pretend to stack them on their head. They can take all ten and stack them on top of each other on the floor.
2. Hide the ten apples throughout the classroom and have the children find them. After they have found them all, let the children take turns hiding and finding the apples.
3. Bring apples to class for snack time. Bring as much of a variety of colors as you can to show how many different types of apples there are. Bring a few different things made from apples to show all the different ways to use apples; such as apple pie, apple chips, dried apples, apple sauce, or apple cider.
4. A. No, David! By David Shannon
B. This book illustrates many things that children get in trouble for doing. It also shows at the end that moms still love their children after all the naughty things they can do.
C. Activities
1. Read this book during the first week of school (maybe along with David Goes to School). Have the children talk about things that are and are not allowed in the classroom. Have the children help set up the rules for your classroom.
2. Make 2 big signs on cardstock, one that says NO and another that says YES. Hold up the sign that says NO and have the children tell you some things they do and always get told NO for. Talk about how they feel when it happens and why they are not allowed to do them. Then hold up the sign that says yes and have them tell you some things they ARE allowed to do. Ask them how they feel then they do good things instead of bad.
3. Have the children draw a picture of something they have done at their house when mom or dad told them NO.
5. A. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? By Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
B. The Dinosaurs in this book give a great example for children to see the things they should, or should not, do at bedtime.
C. Activities
1. Give each child a chance to tell you what they do at bedtime. Tell them something special your mom and dad did for you before you went to bed when you were a kid. Ask them what special things their mom or dad does for them before they go to bed.
2. Have the children bring in their favorite stuffed animal, blanket and bedtime story to show the whole class.
3. Have a Pajama Day, and read a bunch of “good night” stories.

II. Activities to facilitate and support prewriting skills
1. Make some work sheets with different types of lines on them; straight, zigzag, curvy, swirly. Then give the children safety scissor and have them practice cutting on the lines.
2. Make some cards with pictures of easy words (such as cat, dog, tree, cup) and have the word in large print at the bottom. Let the children pick a few cards. Give them paper and coloring supplies. Have them draw the picture them try to copy the word also.
3. Using different stencils, let the children pick out one and give them each some play dough. Have them roll the dough into small “snakes” and trace the stencils.
4. Give the children pieces of paper with different shapes on them. Have the children tear the shapes out and glue them on a piece of construction paper.

III. Activities to facilitate and encourage perceptual development
1. Find a play tea set with place settings that are different colors, or a few tea sets with different designs. Take 2-4 place settings containing a plate, cup and spoon and place them on the floor or table, all separated. Then have the child match up the settings that go together.
2. Find pictures of seeds, small plants, plants with flower or fruit buds, and flowers or fruits. Have the children cut them out, if you did not pre-cut, and glue them on a piece of paper in the right order, illustrating beginning to end.
3. Have the bring in a picture of themselves, their family or friends. Attach the picture to a larger piece of poster board. Cover with contact paper. Now cut the pictures apart to make a fun puzzle for the children to play with.



IV. Activities to enhance the child’s literacy awareness
1. When I purchase sets of alphabet stickers, I usually have quite a few leftovers. Give the children each a sheet of the alphabet stickers to decorate a piece of paper.
2. Gather a few decks of regular playing cards (1-10,J,Q,K,A). Let the children make up their own games to play with the cards. If they are having a hard time thinking of ones on their own, have them find a set number of the same color, number or shape, or have them sort them in a pattern of their choosing.
3. Bring in some old grocery store ads and have the children cut out some of their favorite foods, reminding them to cut out the words and price along with the picture.
4. Give the children stencils of different styles of letter. Give them paint, pencils, crayons, and markers. Let them trace or paint the letters all over a piece of paper. Maybe have some cards out so they can copy words if they would like.

V. Individual learning materials
1. Find or make some different geometric shapes. Make some cards with the different shapes on them. Start easy with one or two shapes, then start to make patterns or larger pictures out of the shapes. Give the child the cards and shapes and have them go through the cards doing each puzzle.
2. Print different shapes (square, triangle, circle, rectangle) on cardstock, to make large cards. Laminate the cards. Punch holes on the lines of the shapes. Attach a shoe lace to each card so the children can trace the shapes with the shoe laces.
3. Make two sets of 10 cardstock apples with the numbers 1-10 printed on them (in number and word form). Cut them out and laminate them. A younger child can find the 2 cards that have the same number on it and an older child can flip them over and play a memory game.
4. Make a file folder matching game by making two copies of 2 pages of clipart. You can do an ABC theme, or any other. Be sure to label all the pictures. Laminate one set of pictures and attach one page to each side of the inside of the folder. Cut out all the pictures of the other set and laminate. Put the cut out pictures on top of the ones in the file folder. Now the child can take them off them put them back on the matching picture.
5. Make a card with a straight, dotted line with arrows showing which direction to trace on it. Do the same on the other side going the opposite direction. Make more, similar cards with slanted, zigzag, and curved lines. Laminate them, punch a hole in the top, and hook together with a binder ring. Give the child the set of cards, a washable crayon and a Kleenex so they can trace all the lines.

Life... enough said.

So it has been a while since I blogged, and I probably shouldn't be doing this right now because I have so much to do today. It is still early so I'm doing it! Well the holidays were great. The kids got way to much stuff again and my husband spoiled me again too. The whole family got a WII from Santa, and of course Pete was so excited and we play it constantly if we let him. Here's some pics.

Emmalee, cousin Ashlee, Cousin Marky, John, and Peter

All the kids got Bikes from Santa.

David built this table from scratch, he had so much fun.

I kept Christmas up till mid-Januray because my brother came home from his mission in Taiwan. It has been so great having him home now, even though he will be leaving us again in April for school in Idaho.

I started school in January. I love all my classes. Next week I have 3 exams and 1 big project due, so I will going out of my mind. I have 5 classes, but one ends this next Tuesday, leaving me with 4, every evening Monday-Thursday. I think I decided what I want to do now to. I think I will get an Associate degree in Early Childhood education then a Bachelors in Business Management. Then maybe I will open a preschool down the road a few years.

I have taken on a few extra kids during the week too. It hasn't been too bad at all, and having a little extra money is nice too.

I have been asked to teach scrapbook classes at a studio downtown. My first one is tomorrow, we will see how it goes. We are going to keep it a monthly thing and hopefully it will get big. It is called Sudio 8 ten and they are a pretty neat organization. I will have to get flyers and tell ya more about it later.

Well that is a quick catch up, so here are a few more cute pics of the kids.

Christmas...

So I go straight from Halloween to Christmas, forget about Thanksgiving. Well I have been in the Christmas mood lately, almost tempted to break out the boxes, but I won't do it yet. One of my friends said they are decorating this weekend, but I can't bring myself to do it yet. My brother, David, will be coming home from his mission January 8th, so I want to leave all my decorations up for him. Last night David got me a new Bing Crosby 3 disc set. I love Bing Crosby, his voice makes Christmas for me. Surprisingly, I have not gotten much shopping done yet, but I plan to do a lot the day after Thanksgiving, anyone want to join me?? David took the day off this year so I am leaving the kids and starting early! Well now off to Scrapbook, I am going to finish the pages for this months workshop then I will post some, since I haven't for a while.

Trick or Treat...

This last weekend was Halloween, and it was nice. David took the day off so we went to the mall to take family pictures then visited some family on that side. We went home for naps and got the chili ready then we both took the kids out, which I don't know if we have ever done that. David usually stays home to pass out candy but it was so nice going around with him. The neighborhood was kind of a bummer though. There were so many dark houses and there didn’t seem to be a lot of kids out. They got enough candy, its not like they will run out of candy any time soon. Peter was Indiana Jones, John was Optimus Prime (Transformer) and Emmalee was Pebbles. They were adorable. We had some pretty good luck finding costumes this year. Pete wanted to be a Storm Trooper at first, but then we were able to find his whole Indiana Jones costume at DI (we already had the hat from the last Disneyland trip) and convinced him it would be more fun. The new movie came out before Halloween too, so that helped to seal the deal. We were able to find a little dress at DI that I was able to make into a Pebbles costume, so Emmalee's was all of $3.00. We saved so much with the other two, so it didn't hurt so much when I spent $30 on John's costume. Everything turned out just fine.

We had our Trunk or Treat a couple weeks ago, and we had a lot of fun. Pete's friend Cody came so I had a handful, especially when David left at 8.

I was able to convince David that family pictures were actually needed again, it seems to be a huge battle every year, but we got it done early this year. I love Sears! They did such a good job once again, and I was very pleased. I love how they take the time to do a good amount of pictures with plenty of poses. I used to only go to JCPenneys (mostly because I used to work there) but I was never very happy with the way they treated us or how the pictures turned out. I started with Sears 2 years ago and LOVE them. And they let you buy the CD, which I also love, so now I can share them all with YOU. We were able to get 9 sheets and the CD and it only cost $120. Personally, I think that is a pretty good deal, what do you think? Well enough words, here's what you really want...

A couple of thoughts...

The other day Emmalee was hanging out with me in my computer room while I was goofin on the comp when I started thinking how fun it is to have a little girl. I absolutely LOVE my boys, and we have so much fun together, but there is just a special place in my heart for my little girl, I had to stop right then and take a couple of pictures of her...

I love to do her hair. There is really only a couple things that I switch off on, but it is fun.

This was last night when she was mad at me for not letting her pull the stool out to climb up to the counter and get into stuff, again. She is still too cute though.

So I love my baby girl, girls are so much fun.