HALLOWEEN!

Since one of my personal favorite holidays is upon us... probably because it's my BIRTHDAY! Halloween is a great time... I think I went trick-or-treating until I was at least 18! And now it's even better cause I have a little one to "TAKE" trick-or-treating! lol

In honor of All Hollows Eve... I have updated my blog!

May the GHOUL be with you!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Painting the Clubhouse

*singing in the Alice in Wonderland tune of Painting the Roses Red* 

  We’re painting the clubhouse white, We’re painting the clubhouse white…

 

Ok so we are painting the clubhouse but I don’t think it will be white in the end! Ethen had a GREAT time painting with me! Just primer for now!

 

Morning Time Fun

A couple days ago I felt impressed upon that my wonderful little boy is watching WAY too much TV. As I was browsing a new blog I found called ActivityMom I found some great ideas. I highly recommend her blog, it's FULL of fantastic learning activities for toddlers! So I took some of her ideas.

We started with a TV DETOX! So I decided {and got the rest of the family on board} that E was going to be given tickets good for 30 minutes of TV time. I made six of them and put them by the tv and explained to E that whenever he wanted to watch TV he had to give me a ticket. It actually went REALLY well this morning. In the 5 hours before school he only used ONE ticket! You can download my tv tickets if you'd like HERE.

Knowing that I was going to start limiting his TV time I KNEW that I had to have a game plan... GAMES... THAT'S IT! I searched the web and many other places for some creative activities for Ethen and I to do together. I am REALLY into flannel board stories right now so I found some great stories and songs for my flannel board. We did The Woman Who Swallowed A Fly, 5 Little Monkeys, 5 Little Pumpkins and Porky Pig Learns Manners. Ethen REALLY loved the 5 Little Monkeys, he learned it at school the a week ago and was super excited to see it come to life! Here is a video of him singing...

Password: monkeys

5 Little Monkeys from Brandy Speece on Vimeo.

I saw this one on the forementioned blog. I found a few empty containers and taped them to the wall... Ethen loved pouring the beans. {this one can be a bit messy so be prepared and somewhat noisy too! Just a heads up!}

I thought the video of him pouring the beans would be a nice treat! Enjoy!
Password: beans

Beans Beans and More Beans from Brandy Speece on Vimeo.

This activity was fun. I cut a long piece of felt and sewed a button at one end. I then cut felt squares with a slit through the center. A great way to teach little man those pesky buttons! I call it the button snake! I also found this one on the Activity Mom {isn't she fantastic!}

We also sang some songs and I have felt stories for those if you would like them. Here they are for download if you want them!

5LittleMonkeys

5LittlePumpkins

OldLadySwallowedSpider

The Clubhouse… No Girls Allowed!!!

A few months ago my dad built Ethen a clubhouse... It was awesome complete with a lookout tower for those pesky girls! Well Jonathon decided to add onto it! Here it is... still kind of a work in progress {needs paint and we are wanting to add a slide}

Here's some great pics!

Before

           

And After….

 

 

This is the symbol we have adopted as our family symbol… it means I Love You

 I can’t wait to get it done… Ethen has such a great time playing on this… Love it!

Some Oldies But Goodies... and Then Some

Just some older pics that I found on my phone... hate it when I forget to take them off the phone and put them on the computer! I can't believe how small he was! Anyways... here they are... hope you enjoy!

I always knew Ethen had a hard head!!!

A walk to the park

Ethen's 1st attempt at chopsticks

I think he likes his kitchen! My little chef in the making!!!

"I Love Nana THIIIIIIS much!"

This is why I'm not surprised that he would eventually put BB's in his ear!

A quick video of Ethen's last karate class. The kids got to do some sparring and they paired Ethen with his best friend, Lily. These kids are so cute together!

Password: Sparring

Sparring from Brandy Speece on Vimeo.

Speece'isms

My wonderful husband has had a lot of fun of fun with his name. Here are a few that I've heard... and I'm sooooo sure that there are many many more! Enjoy

May the Speece be with you...

You wanna Speece of me...

You Speece of poo...

Speece Speece Baby (think Vanilla Ice and it'll come to you!)

aaaand...

Stop collaborate and listen Speece is back with a.... (yadda yadda yadda!)

Man all mighty I love this man... he makes me laugh!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

When Ethen came home from school today he had a note from his Speech Therapist. I was completely impressed with this kid. The note explained that today they read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Marting Jr. and Eric Carle. (Find it HERE}

She included the line drawings of the animals so we could make flannel storyboard . Well the part that astounded me is Ethen pulls out the pages and starts naming the animals and thier matching colors! Just goes to show you that it pays to go to school... STAY IN SCHOOL... SCHOOL IS COOL!

Ok so because I'm TOTALLY into Flannel Story Boards I am including a copy of the line drawings so you can do them with your little ones too! Ethen's teacher said that you can play games like "I Spy"... describe the animal and have the kids pick it out and put it on the board! GREAT IDEA! {just copy and paste into a word doc... color and go to town with the felt board!}

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Ethen' ABC's

I am so impressed by my sweet boy's progress with his speech! As many of you know, Ethen was accepted to a speech therapy program provided by the school district. Last year he only went for about 2 months before summer break, now only 2 weeks into the school year... He's doing sooooo great.

Today on our way to Karate he started singing his ABC's... SOOOO cute! Here's how it went (wish I had it on video but you'll have to use your imagination a little)

A B C D... H I J... O P Q R S T U V W X Y and Z... now I know my ABC's... next time... sing with me!

How stinking adorable!

He's also getting his numbers down too. Every once in a while I catch him and he's counted to 13 all on his own! BUT when you ask him to do it again and this is what you get...

1... 2... 3... 4... 9... 10!

Lol! He's such a great kid and I'm so impressed with this program. He's doing so well!

Ethen Goes Orange

Ethen tested for his orange belt in Karate on Saturday (Sep 11, 2010). It was pretty amazing and he did a fantastic job. Here are a few pics of the event!

Lining up

The Judges

Ethen getting his belt from Mr. Martin

He's so proud!

With Ms. Martin Chief Instructor at Karate for Kids

Ethen with Mr. Wong his instructor

Here's a great video of Ethen getting his belt! Enjoy!
Password: Orange

Getting Orange from Brandy Speece on Vimeo.

Hairs of Your Head

Last night I made an unexpected trip to the emergency room. I was experiencing some intense pain in my upper abdomen/chest area. After a quick EKG and Chest X-Ray I was cleared from any heart condition. Grateful that it wasn’t my heart but now concerned as to what could be causing such intense pain.

Finally in a bed and after meeting with the physician (and on some Morphine) I heard the staff starting to get real active. A woman was brought into the ER with an intentional drug overdose. She had no identification, a “Doe”.

During the frenzy to keep her alive I found myself praying for her. I wondered who she was? Did she have any family looking for her, and friends that might be concerned for her well being.

Then the thought came that there IS someone who knows exactly who she is… There is someone who knows each and every one of us. I took great comfort in knowing that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. He knows us personally. He says that not one hair on our heads should fall without him knowing it. (Matthew 10:29-31)

Although this woman  in the bed next to me had led a tough life, she is still loved by the Master of all. We are all loved! How grateful I am to know that I am loved so greatly, that we all are loved so greatly that Christ gave his very life that ours may be saved! Greater love hath no man!

Dear CCSD Transportation Department

A letter that I should write to the supervisor of the Transportation Department for the Clark County School District....

To Whom It May Concern:

First I would like to say that I am fully aware of the fiasco that is the first week of school. With all the students returning to class, new faces, new bus routes things tend to get a little... shall we say discombobulated! This however does NOT excuse you FORGETTING TO PICK UP MY SON! Yes... you read right, you failed in your duties to transport my son to and from school.

Yesterday, the third day of school, no bus again. So when I call your office I am informed that Ethen is not scheduled to start bus transportation until the following day. WHAT... I'm sorry but I thought that this should have started oh I don't know... THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! So, no big deal I think, I'll just take him one more day and pick him up.

Then comes today. The day that I was told transportation would start for my sweet 3 year old child. As a good parent, I know that buses sometimes run a little off schedule, and this being the first week of school the drivers are still getting used to their routes so, I have my son out in front of our house at 1215 pm for a scheduled pick up of 1221. Reasonable right? Well not for bus number A8137 who sees us, waves and keeps driving! UM... Hello... what about my son!

So back on the phone I go to the transportation department to ask why in the world the bus drove by us! They had no clue! So as I'm waiting on hold (cringing to your elevator music mind you) I'm hoping that the driver would realize his mistake and come get my child. Oh no, on comes the operator. "I'm so sorry Mrs. Speece no one told the bus driver to pick up your son."

WHAT... NO ONE TOLD THE BUS DRIVER... Isn't that the one person who SHOULD know!

I then think to myself... "self if this happened with the first bus driver... what are the odds that it happened with the second driver, because heaven forbid my child have the same bus driver to and from school!" So I back on the phone I go to your department. I explained the situation to the operator and said I wanted to ensure that the afternoon bus driver knew that they were to bring my son home. I was then placed on hold to listen to your ungodly and inhumane elevator music for about 7 minutes until the phone started ringing again. When the sweet voice answered I said that I was hold... the woman sounded as if she forgot I was there! Thankfully she eased my mind by telling me a message had been left for the driver of bus A9187 and he would be bringing my precious child home, a scheduled drop off time of 336 pm.

EXCELLENT... or so I thought. At about 320 I park myself outside my home to await the arrival of my boy! Alas... no bus, no bubbly 3 year old... only the sound of my phone ringing. The school office calling... gee I wonder what that could be about. Hmmmm it's almost 350 I bet Ethen wasn't picked up, AGAIN! Boy I called that one right.

Your department is either completely incompetent and needs to find another line of work or REALLY needs to work on their communication skills. I'm hoping for the latter but the first is starting to sound more and more compelling.

So my simple request to the Transportation Department for the Clark County School District... PLEASE PICK UP AND BRING HOME MY SON! He's very precious to me and I would hate to have to go all Marine Corps on you and make you cry for mommy because you failed to deliver my him to me!

Thanks,
Brandy
A Concerned Parent

Change

The only thing that stays the same is that everything changes~ How true this is in our lives. I think this is why we should enjoy the season we are in. Not the seasongs; spring, summer, fall and winter... but more the time of our life; Old, young, single, married.

Life has taken a drastic change for our family. We are embarking on several differnt CHANGES...
Jonathon has started school and has all ready made an impression with the director of his degree program. He's so awesome. He's taking courses in Applied Science for Air Conditioning Technologies. Something that he is amazing at! I'm so excited that he's taking classes... using the GI Bill that he earned from being in the Navy.

I am busy trying to move. You never realize how much STUFF you have untill you have to move and then you think "Where the HECK did I keep all this stuff!" I'm finding joy in the little moments though. Ethen is back in school (YEAH) and back to my weekly scripture study class. I sure have missed that class and really don't know how I made it through 3 months of Summer vacation!

Ethen of course seems to be adjusting well to the idea that we are moving. He gets upset a little when I say we have to go to our new home rather than our old home! I'm certain that he will adjust once we are completely moved in.

My mother is dealing with the situation as best as she knows how to. I pray that she will turn to the Lord. This is a tough "season" of her life and I pray that she will (throught God's grace) weather the storm! We do love her and hope for the best