Preston's First Day of Preschool

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

Preston has been begging for over a year to go to school. The day has finally come! Preston started preschool at the Easklake High School. He loves it. Tom and I went with him to the Open House on Thursday and the following Tuesday with just a quick hug and kiss good-bye I left my little guy to explore his independance - and he loves it!

Before school picture (with new Diego backpack - why does he always have to make weird faces..... ):

I just had to take this picture of him in the car on the way. Capturing a true Preston moment deep in thought:

After 2 hours of school + one hour of telling me all about it (snack, show and tell, stories, holding onto the donuts when going to the bathroom, the 10 toys they have, Mrs Jones his teacher, big buddies (high school kids), he didn't get to paint that day, his cubby, etc. - he zonked out on the couch for a nap.

He put his first week of school artwork on the fridge (when I picked him up the first day he showed me the picture with the red string hair and said: "They didn't have orange to match my hair so I had to use red." If anyone talks to Preston about his red hair, he will kindly remind them that it is orange - not red).

So begins another life of school days .... it was a nice 6 year break :)

Issaquah Salmon Hatchery

Quote: "When you feel neglected, think of the female salmon, who lays 3,000,000 eggs but no one remembers her on Mother's Day"

It was Spawning Day at Issaquah Hatchery - a day that just can't be missed. We went last year and it was so facinating so I wanted to go again - this time with my camera.

There are hundreds of Salmon below waiting to jump up the ladder. Because there was so many fish already in the tanks they had to close the ladder so the poor Salmon were jumping and it wasn't getting them anywhere.

Here they are after going up the ladder into the holding tanks. The Salmon were HUGE this year.

So on Spawning Day (happens a couple of days out of year) - there are men in the tanks that take the fish out. They have this guy with a metal stick that beats them a couple of times on the head (very dramatic. The hatchery lady told us that Salmon have different pain receptors and that they feel more of sensation than pain - how do they know? I think they are bluffing just to make us all feel better).

Then they sort - male and female. This picture shows the hatchery worker cutting open a female salmon and all her eggs coming out:

The males they squirt out milt (Preston says water) - they put it in tiny cups and then transfer it all to a bucket:

They they put them through these metal sensors and they are trying to find the metal tag that records a bunch of stuff about the salmon. Here is the bin with all the females:

And the bin with males.

Bucket of eggs:


On our drive home Preston recaped for me exactly what happens:

"They get the eggs from mommy fishes and water from the daddy fishes and they mix it together and it grows little fishes. They get bigger and swim to the ocean and then they come back and find their mommy when they get huge."

As much as the quote above reflects how mother Salmon feel - how sad that these little fishes never get to meet their parents. Even though they aren't taught anything from their parents they know exactly how to be a Salmon and come back to where they were born. Animals are just so amazing to me!

Consequences

Quote: "While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions."

Gates, Chairs and Baskets are all over the Matthews house. Wesley loves to stand up all day long. By the end of the day his little legs are so tired.

Quotes

I love quotes. As I was putting together the posts this week I just thought it would be so cool to put a quote that goes with each post. We will see how creative I can get :) or better yet - what I can find online!

Blogger News: Nie Nie Blog

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jenni posted on her blog a headliner story about a mother in Arizona who was well know for her blog. Both her and her husband were in a small airplane crash in Arizona and it's made big news because of those who read her blog.

Here is the story from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/fashion/07burn.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=By%20ALEX%20WILLIAMS&st=nyt&scp=1

What I want to share in my blog (and what I have been thinking about a lot lately) is some of the comments in the New York Times Article:

"Ms. Nielson always displayed a knack for portraying motherhood as a celebration, not a grind, readers said. "

"Among mommy blogs, the NieNie Dialogues stood out, said Gabrielle Blair, a blogger and graphic designer in Tuckahoe, N.Y. On many sites “there’s a lot of complaining,” she said, adding: “ ‘I hate potty training,’ ‘Motherhood is the worst,’ ‘How did I get here? I didn’t want to have kids!’ Ms. Nielson’s blog made motherhood “sound like the highest calling on earth: a job full of color and vibrancy and of the utmost importance."

"Other bloggers expressed admiration, and envy, that Ms. Nielson found the energy to make marriage sexy while raising four small children. "

“People don’t understand that of course Stephanie had days where she was crazy and wanted to pull her hair out,” Ms. Kendrick said. “Her relationship with her husband wasn’t perfect. But she chose to focus on the beauty."

I know there will complaning blogs for me in the future, but I'm going to try every day to see the beauty in my life! :)

You can read NieNie's blog by visiting: nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

And her Sister Jane (who is taking care of her children and giving updates): blog.cjanerun.com

Wesley Man News

Wesley was taken to the Urgent Care Tuesday Night - diagonisis: Strep :( So we have been doing the yummy pink amoxicillan all week.

However, the little guy is crawling all over the place. But he usually crawls to the closest place possible where he can pull himself up and stand. My prediction is he is going to be my little adventurer, dare devil, grandpa john's hiking buddy, etc. The little guy already shows very little fear for his 7 1/2 month life.

After almost a week without my happy Wes baby, it was nice to hear his cute laughs and smiles again today (and his 2 1/2 hour naps!!) Welcome back Wesley!

Here is the first time I walked into the room to see him standing up in his crib. It's always a little surpise to a mother when she sees this the first time.

Welcome to the World Tanner James Werry!

September 4th at 2:50am I became Aunt Heather to Tanner James Werry!

He is an adorable 6lb little guy and so cute (I love his little nose). I got to see (and help a little with the coaching) the birth. It was amazing and I was so proud of the new little mom in my life: Heidi (and I was proud of Branden too - he was very brave).

Here is the new little family (Branden wore a shirt that said, "I got outta bed for this" - haa haa - he didn't even go to bed that night and hasn't even really been to bed since).


Here are all 3 of the Hansen grandkids (all boys!) My mom is in heaven being a grandma.


Tom says, "This picture proves he is Branden's son" - haa haa. He is such a good little sucker. Just after he came out he was sucking his thumb. He is doing an amazing job at eating.


Poor Preston has been taking the birth of Tanner harder than when Wesley was born. His Aunt Heidi is usually always paying attention to him and giving Preston her undivided attention. Ever since Thursday he has been acting up and when we got visit Heidi he will not leave her alone. The picture of them crossing their fingers is a little thing the 2 of them do - they both try to do things with their fingers that the other one can't do. But in the end, he loves baby Tanner (however, he has not sung about him in the Patty Cake song yet).



When they were deciding on a name, Preston was calling him Pirate Austin from Backyardigans.

So how are the new parents doing - this picture explains it all - they are exhausted! Welcome to parenthood Branden and Heidi. Advice is always given, free of charge by Aunt Heather :)

Labor Day 2008 - Hansen's Cabin

Labor Day this year was a nice weekend with the Hansen family up at the Dreamweaver Cabin (my parents cabin).

Little Wesley was teething (even though no teeth have come in yet!):



We went Miniature Golfing in Leavenworth on Saturday Night. Tom (softly) kicked a little kitten that kept chasing the balls (which I wasn't very happy about). Heidi won the whole thing! - beating dad by 2 poitns. Mom and Wesley watched everyone. Even Preston golfed until the 15th hole - then he lost interest and started throwing a fit.

Heidi was brave and came up (she is 37 weeks pregnant). First day Preston found a "big bug" outside and came in crying. Hannah went to investigate and found a big lizard on the front porch. Couple hours later, Heidi and Preston found a garter snake in the yard. Heidi had a meltdown, could hardly sleep Saturday night, so Branden and Heidi left Sunday. She had high blood pressure so the stress was too much. YUCK! (I don't blame her)

When I uploaded these pictures, Preston had taken a ton of random pictures - most of them which I don't even know what they were. But these were 2 pictures I just had to keep. Captures the true moments at the cabin:

Dad on the computer and mom putting the baby to sleep. I do have to point out that my mom is quite flexible for an almost 50 year old!

Because Heidi was pregnant Tom and I were demoted to sleeping on the floor. Usually since I am a mom, Tom and I get the nice comfy bed, but this time we graciously gave it up to Heidi and Branden. We had a nice cozy area in the front of the cabin that contained our plethora of "stuff."

Monday we went to Leavenworth to a Petting Zoo:

Monday afternoon we did our favorite thing to do at the cabin: mom, wesley and i sat on the swing talking about life while Preston played in the yard. Dad was working in the shop. It was windy so Tom and I pulled the kite out only to realize we had to run with it (we quit after about 5 minutes).

We left late Monday evening and drove to Cle Elum to see Marc and Grandpa Tim. Marc was in China for the summer and they were driving to Utah to take Marc back to BYU. It was a fun dinner.

I realized this Labor Day how much I enjoy being with just my family. We have so much fun together and it was a weekend full of laughs, tears (Heidi's) and lots of fun memories!

My Excuse for Not Blogging:

All the horrible pictures I get from my stubborn 2 boys:



A good reason to blog: The little one in my life who won't fight me with pictures. Thanks Wesley man!

6 months:


7 months (crawling around, but still those darn teeth haven't come in) - still the best little baby around. If I was guarenteed another Wesley for my next one, I would get pregnant soon :) (but there are no guarentees, right?) He reaches out to him mom and Grandma Hollie and love to pull hair and give open mouth kisses! With his beautiful long hair he gets the funniest bed head, but because it's so fine, it will be back to normal laying perfectly in about an hour.