Kay talk

Kay: MJ's soooo cute in that outfit!

Garden update - 5/27/11

Yesterday we finally started planting some things in the garden. We planted some spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cucumber, cantaloupe, carrots, watermelon, pumpkins, and radishes. The hardest thing for me this year will be trying to keep Kay from walking in the areas where things are planted. She thinks she can just run around anywhere in the garden and she keeps stepping on the lettuce, onions, carrots, and strawberries that are already planted... I was also able to put flowers in our flower pots earlier this week.

Blondie's first goal!

Last Saturday Blondie scored her first goal in a soccer game! It happened at the very end of the game and she was very excited that she actually got it in the goal! She kind of had a breakaway at about midfield with just her and the ball and she got all the way down to the goalie and then kicked it in past her. She actually had a couple of other opportunities to score during the game, but didn't quite make it in.

Trip to the Park

One of the things that we were able to do while DH was out of town last weekend was walk to our neighborhood park. While we were eating dinner we were trying to decide what to do for the evening. We had talked about getting a movie at RedBox, but there really wasn't anything there that we all wanted to see. Finally I thought for a minute and suggested a quick trip to the park. The kids all jumped on that idea so we got dinner cleaned up and got shoes on everyone and headed off down the street.

I could tell from the comments & questions of the kids that we probably don't take them there enough. It's a really nice park and it even has a huge open field area so it is great for playing sports or flying a kite as well as having a great playground for kids. The only thing that it doesn't have are swings. The park is just 4-5 blocks down the street from us - easily within walking distance. As we were walking there after dinner on Saturday the kids kept asking, "How do we get to the park?", "Where is it?", "What do they have at the park?", "I don't think Kay has ever been there." - Which is so not true! I don't think she has been there since she learned how to walk, but she has definitely been there!

Now I hope none of you think that I never take the kids to the park! During soccer season they play at a park at least 1-2 times a week. There are playgrounds nearby at all of the soccer fields and at most of the fields where the kids have soccer practices.

The kids had a great time and it helped them to burn off some of their energy! Plus Saturday was the only nice weather day that we had all week long last week!

I had a hard time getting a good picture of Kay because she had a hard time standing still and when she would she look at me for a brief second and then look away as she said, "Cheese!"

This picture cracks me up! I love seeing Blondie trying to get into the picture! It's also funny because every time I was near Kitty, she would stop and pose for a picture. Right after I took this picture I told her to watch out because I could see that Kay was not waiting for her to get off the bottom of the slide. Unfortunately Kitty wasn't quick enough as you can tell from the next picture!


Our neighborhood park even has a little kid area with little play areas and crawling tunnels. Kay had lot of fun over there and MJ enjoyed herself too once I put her shoes on and took her over there to play with Kay.
MJ loved going down the slide!
MJ fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep for a couple of hours! Long enough for me to bathe the three middle girls and finish mowing the back lawn.

Reach the Beach 2011

The annual Reach the Beach bike ride took place this past Saturday up in Oregon. DH took his annual migration up there on Thursday and then returned home again on Sunday night. This was the fifth year that DH and his dad and brother have participated in it. This year DH's dad picked up all of their registration packets ahead of time so they didn't have to wait in a long line to register the morning of the ride and they were able to get their numbers put on their shirts beforehand as well. I think they were also able to start much sooner than they have in previous years.

The weather was much cooler this year and it rained a little bit on them as well. They were all wearing long pants, long-sleeve shirts and even jackets this year. DH said that he took his jacket off partway through but then put it back on again as they got closer to the coast and the winds picked up.

Let's try not to look too happy Dad N!
DH said it all went really well except for his knee that started hurting him at about mile 33 (out of 104 miles)... Oh... and also with the exception of the speeding ticket that DH received in Oregon on his drive home. That definitely turned it into one expensive trip... Next year it might be cheaper to just buy a carry case for his bike and fly him up there...

Technology

Wow technology is amazing! My husband tried to surprise me with an ipad 2 for my birthday this year. I say he tried to surprise me because he wasn't able to get one to actually give to me on my birthday because every store he tried was already sold out (my birthday was just a couple of days after the initial release of them). So in place of the actual ipad he gave me a printout with a picture of one and said that we would get one as soon as one was available. To make a long story short, we tried several places over the next week or two and no one had any in stock. We even tried Best Buy that supposedly had a waiting list you could put your name on, but the Best Buy near our house had too many names on their list and decided that they wouldn't add any more to it until the current list was shorter... So we ended up just ordering one straight from Apple's online store and I was given a shipping estimate date that was about 6 weeks out.

Then we started planning our spring break trip and kept thinking how nice it would be if we were actually able to get the ipad before our trip so we could take it with us. The estimated delivery date I had was for the week after our trip. A little over a week before our trip I got an email from Apple informing me that my ipad had shipped! Amazingly we got it on Monday afternoon and we were leaving on Wednesday afternoon.

It definitely wasn't a necessity for our trip, but it was nice to have and fun to try figuring things out on it. We really used the Maps app a lot. It was fun to type in a search for a store or restaurant and have it show how to get there from our current location. It also came in handy when my parents' GPS system took us to the wrong place when we were trying to find their friends' house for our Friday evening dinner.

One of the features of the ipad that we have really taken advantage of has been the cameras for using Facetime and Skype. It has been neat for our kids to be able to see and talk to DH's parents and we have even been able to talk to my sister-in-law who is currently living overseas with their family. It is definitely amazing some of the things that can be done with technology in today's world!! (And no kids, the ipad is not just for playing games on!!)

Shower

Well, today MJ tried joining me in the shower. Yesterday she fell in the tub once while I was in the bathroom. She was trying to reach in and touch the bottom and she got herself high-centered and her heavy head tipped her over into the tub. At first she was upset because she hit her head on the bottom of the tub, but then after a few seconds she started crawling around in there and thought that was new and interesting.

Then today while I was showering, she was in there playing with the shower curtain again and then she was reaching in trying to touch the water that was going down the drain and the next thing I knew she was falling into the tub again! I quickly grabbed her and righted her up outside of the tub. Needless to say she got pretty wet from the ordeal, but luckily she wasn't too upset over it. We'll have to see if she tries again tomorrow...

As a side note: MJ used to absolutely hate taking a bath. It wasn't until she learned how to sit up on her own and was starting to learn how to crawl that she started LOVING bath time. Now she loves playing in the water and splashing and crawling around in the tub and it is a much more enjoyable time for both of us.

10 month update

Trying to play like the big kids!
MJ turned 10 months old last week! She's definitely growing by leaps and bounds! Her top two teeth just cut through last week and I think they made her even more whiney than usual. For a couple of nights last week she was up every couple of hours again but the last couple of nights she has cut that back down to just once a night and Sunday night she slept through the night and then took a good morning nap! She's getting tall and has started to climb on whatever she can. On Saturday we got both of the girls' bedrooms upstairs super clean and she had tons of fun crawling around all of the new open space and exploring areas she hadn't been allowed to crawl in the past.

MJ is starting to stand without holding on to something and she is starting to figure out how to walk when someone is holding her hands. She loves to come in the bathroom while I am showering and play with the shower curtain. This usually results in her head, arms and shirt getting completely soaked! The other thing she has started to do is imitate people. The other day Luke was making some growling noises at her and she started growling back. She also tries to imitate the sounds when someone says uh-oh.

We are trying to teach her how to go down the stairs the right way. Sometimes now she will crawl up a couple of stairs and then put her feet down a step and crawl back down to the bottom. I'll still be nervous until she learns what to do when she approaches the stairs from the top.

School project

M&M came home from school one day last week and told me that she had a project that she needed to do for her Language Arts class. It needed to be some type of visual arts display that had showed something about them - personality, likes, hobbies, etc. When she first described it to me it sounded like she had to do a poster, but then she elaborated and said it could be anything visual: diorama, collage, painting, etc. We talked about it for a minute and discussed what she could do for a poster and then I mentioned an idea that I had just thought of to her: It would be really cute to make a diorama of a miniature band. Then our discussion ended and we both thought about it some more and the next day M&M sounded excited about trying to create a diorama like I had mentioned. We discussed some ideas on what materials she could use to make the people and instruments.

On Monday I didn't have cub scouts so I was able to use that time to help her find a box to use and then to pull out some of my craft materials. Then on Tuesday she had more time to work on it because her soccer practice was cancelled due to the rain. The project was due this morning and here are some pictures of the finished project:
DH and I think M&M did an awesome job!! And the work was 99% her own. I helped a little here and there, but mostly just with suggestions on how to do something or to add something here and there. She made all of the people and instruments herself out of pipe cleaners and pom pom balls and a couple pieces of wire and toothpick here and there. She used pom pom balls as the chairs and covered some cardboard with black paper to make a podium for the conductor. At first she wanted to do multiple instruments of each kind but I recommended to her that she just do one of each at first and then if she had time and the space for more to do it then. M&M ended up making a flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, bass drum, and of course a bassoon! She was very particular with some of the details and spent some time during band class noticing how some of the instruments were put together and how they were played.

It was neat seeing M&M's creativity and dedication to completing this project. She definitely could have taken the easy way out and just done a poster or collage like most of her other classmates that she had talked to about the project. She was so excited and pleased with the finished project and she was even in bed by 10:00 last night!

Close-up of the bassoon player

Rain, rain & more rain!

That has been our weather for the last week and we're supposed to get even more! Last week we finally had some nice sunny weather so we could go out and work in the garden. Then on Saturday we had some storms go through, Sunday and Monday were nice and then it has rained everyday since! The kids and I were able to work in some compost and fertilizer into the garden soil on Monday and we planted some strawberry and tomato plants. I love the rain, but right now it is really putting a crimp in my gardening! It would be nice to be able to have another sunny day so I can plant some seeds in our nice soil now and not let the weeds enjoy it all!

And it's been a little too chilly! I had to turn the furnace back on - it's the middle of May! The temperature got down in the 30s on Tuesday and we even had a few snowflakes fall!

Beehive Class Presidency

M&M was set apart today during church as the second counselor in the Beehive class presidency. This is her first church calling. We are excited for her and hope she enjoys serving the other girls in the Beehive class and in our ward. It will be a good opportunity for her to get to know the other girls and leaders better and to see the work that goes into the weekly youth activities!

Fathers & Sons campout + Girls night in

DH was finally able to take Luke on the Fathers & Sons campout this year! Usually it conflicts with the Reach the Beach bike ride, but this year amazingly it didn't. So DH and Luke were able to go and have some fun at that while the girls and I stayed home and did some girl things. We ate pizza and breadsticks for dinner and then watched Barbie and the Three Musketeers. After that we painted toenails and fingernails. The younger girls especially enjoyed that part! I'm usually not the type of mom (or girl) who gets into stuff like this, but it's fun every once in a while to do something different for the girls. It was funny putting the nail polish on MJ's toenails. They are so tiny! At one point DH sent me a text message telling me that Luke was disappointed that our ward didn't even have a campfire so they couldn't make s'mores (which was one thing he was really looking forward to). We had just finished painting our nails so I took a picture of Kay's fingernails and toenails and then sent it to DH over his phone and included a message that said something like this, "Tell Luke that he could have stayed home and done this instead!"

I love this picture! I'm glad we were able to get one that turned out with everyone's foot/feet in it!Luke playing football with some friends at the campgrounds.

Little things

* The kids had the Monday after Easter off of school this year so we used the time to recover a little from our trip. Luke helped mow the lawn while M&M did an awesome job vacuuming out the van! The younger girls helped to entertain MJ while I helped with the mowing.

* M&M scored two goals in one of her soccer games a couple of weeks ago! One of her goals for this season was to score a goal and she accomplished it! (Unfortunately DH and I both missed both of them! The game was a makeup game on a Wednesday evening and I had dropped M&M off at the game, but then had to go back home to pick up something that we had forgotten. DH arrived late because he was stopping off on his way home from work. She scored both of the goals at the beginning of the game.) M&M said that they were both passes made to the center of the field and she was in the right place at the right time and beat the goalie to the ball both times.

* Luke scored 4 goals in his game a couple of weeks ago! He scored the only 3 goals made in the first half of the game and then he scored one more in the second half. Fortunately I did get to see all of his goals.

* MJ has only woken up once a night for the past three nights in a row! Thursday evening she slept for over 6 hours straight. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that we finally have the worst behind us. Now if I could just get her to nap better during the day...

* Lately I have been trying to have DH take MJ during Sacrament Meeting so she doesn't think she needs to go out and nurse the whole time. Somedays, like today, it works great and she ends up falling asleep in DH's lap (after a little bit of a struggle).

* We have finally had some nice weather so I have been able to get out to the garden and get a lot of work done in it. I will hopefully be able to start planting some things tomorrow. We have quite a few of our strawberry plants come back this year and I have bought a few more to plant in what will hopefully become a nice little strawberry patch along the side of our house out in the garden area.

MJ pics

Checking out the underside of the exersaucer.MJ has found that she can use the kitchen stools as a walking aid. She'll pull herself up to one and then start pushing it around the kitchen.

Kay talk

strawler = straw
hairdude = hairdo

Whenever she hears a noise that she is not expecting she says, "What on earth was that?"

Mother's Day 2011

After church I had the girls go outside and pick some tulips from our front yard. I also had them pick a few to put in a small vase for my mother. My parents came over for dinner later in the day.
DH getting MJ to sleep while M&M helped me make dinner.
Kitty's Mother's Day plate that she made at school - I love this project that the kindergarten kids do each year!
Luke won this box of Mike & Ikes the Friday before Mother's Day at a class auction where they use points that they have earned in class. He told me that he was going to eat the candy at first but then realized that it was Mother's Day coming up and so he decided to give the candy to me instead.
Letter that Blondie wrote at school

Kay - interior designer

The day after I set out the Easter/spring decorations I came downstairs and found this:

Kay had added a few of her toys to the decorations on the wall in the family room!

Luke - Principal's Pride Award

Luke received the Principal's Pride Award today for his "Terrific Chalk Art".

Easter 2011

I worked on the Easter dresses/skirts in the car a little on the drive home from St. George. M&M's skirt I ended up sewing all before church on Sunday. (Her skirt has little polka dots on it - it's hard to see that in the picture.) I also made some last minute alterations to MJ's dress and finished the elastic and hem on Kay's dress and Kitty's skirt. I did things a little differently this year and decided to try working with a basic dress and skirt pattern and then altered it to how I wanted it to look.

It was quite a crazy Saturday night/Sunday morning! Especially with all the unpacking and cleaning up we had to do after we got home Saturday night!

No that's not a sunburn on MJ! She was just flushed from having just woken up and finished nursing.
We did Easter baskets after church (since we meet at 9 a.m.) and then went over to my parents' house for Easter dinner and an Easter egg hunt in their backyard.Luke got a gun in his basket that "shoots" bubbles.
The one thing that we didn't get to do this year for Easter was to dye hard-boiled eggs. The kids were kind of bummed about not doing it and they were even bugging me about it after Easter, but we ended up not getting to them. For some reason, taking a trip with 6 young kids and then having Easter immediately following it has taken a lot out of me. Imagine that! ;)

Spring break - Bryce Canyon

Saturday, April 23, 2011
On Saturday we checked out of our hotel and headed to Bryce Canyon National Park for a quick visit on our way back home. First we stopped off at Kolob Canyon which is an extension of Zion Canyon. We just drove through it and got out for a few pictures and then headed back to the highway. Then we drove over some mountain passes to get to Bryce Canyon. Wow what a difference the change in elevation makes!! We were sitting in the car watching the outdoor temperature drop and drop until it got just below freezing and then started back up again. We had several feet of snow along the sides of the road and it was really foggy because the clouds were so low! A few of the kids were dressed in shorts so we went digging through the bags to find pants and jackets for everyone to wear.

These pictures were all taken out of the car window as we were driving.The kids had fun playing with our walkie-talkies in the car and trying to carry on conversations between the two cars that we were traveling in. The best part was when we saw all the snow and I asked Blondie if she wanted to go play in the snow. She responded, "No! I forgot my snow boots!
Bryce Canyon was probably in the 50s but there was a super cold breeze that made it feel even colder! It was also really muddy in spots and the stroller wheels got covered in mud along with everyone's shoes. We ate lunch once we got to Bryce Canyon (and we got in for free again) and then went on a couple of short hikes just along the upper rim of the canyon. It is a beautiful canyon and some of the pictures that we took look completely fake to me!
MJ was not too crazy about wearing the hood on her jacket. I'm glad I was able to find some shoes for her before we left for the trip. I think they helped to keep her warm. Blondie is wearing my fleece pull-over because Kitty had forgotten her jacket and Blondie had brought two with her, but Kitty was wearing the warmer one so Blondie claimed she was too cold in the lighter jacket.
This picture looks fake to me. I think it looks like Blondie was photoshopped into the picture!
After we made it to one of the lookouts with the family, we were hiking back to the car when Kitty all of a sudden needed to use the restroom. So I was walking ahead with her and Luke and pushing MJ in the stroller. We were getting closer to the parking lot and restrooms when I could tell that I really needed to hurry with Kitty. So I left MJ with Luke and took off running with Kitty. Luckily we made it just in time! At this point DH wanted to hike on to the next lookout with some of the older kids so he had my parents take MJ and Kay and meet up with me at the restrooms while he continued on with the older three kids. My parents and I drove on to the next lookout to meet up with them. Then I had my parents take Kay and Kitty up to the lookout while I stayed in the car and took care of MJ.


Kitty and Kay running back to the car hand in hand.
We got back home until a little after 9 p.m.

Spring break - Snow Canyon

Friday, April 22, 2011
When I had talked to some people in my ward about our upcoming visit to St. George everyone mentioned Snow Canyon State Park as a fun place to visit. Snow Canyon S.P. was just a short drive away from our hotel so we decided to try it out on Friday and stick closer to our home base. It felt HOT there even though it was probably only in the upper 60s-low 70s. We started out at the sand dunes and let the kids play for a little while there. Then before it got super hot there we hiked back to the cars and got as much sand off our feet as we could and then ate some lunch at some picnic tables back at the parking lot. Then we went on to see some pioneer names written on a canyon wall with wheel axel grease dated from the 1890s and then we hiked around some petrified sand dunes.

Sand Dunes:

Wow! It was hard to walk in the sand! It was so fine! You would take a step and sink in so far it was quite a workout!
The kids had a blast playing in the sand and it got EVERYWHERE! Especially since we had just lathered everyone up in sunscreen! Kay and MJ even had it stuck to their heads because I had put sunscreen where their hair parts (and most of MJ's head) and then Kay proceeded to roll around in the sand and MJ was crawling in it! Needless to say everyone had to take a shower or bath when we got back to the hotel (and before we went swimming).
Possible family calendar photo. We're always trying to get a good one for the next calendar!
Some of the kids posing with Flat Stanley that a cousin sent to Grandma for a visit.


Pioneer Names:
Ready for some more hiking!
Pioneer names
Rock climbing!!DH, Luke, and Kitty
This is a picture of DH. The sun was just coming up behind the canyon wall here. I was having a hard time taking any pictures and trying to see if they were turning out!
DH and Luke

Petrified Dunes:
Top to bottom: Kitty, Blondie, Luke, DH with MJ, and Kay. These dunes were originally sand that has formed into sandstone now and it was relatively easy hiking/climbing.
DH with the kids (MJ is trying to pull Kay's hair)
Pretty views once you got up to the top.
Coming back down again. There really was no trail so we all staggered out finding our own way up and down. Left to right: M&M (gray shirt), Kitty, Blondie, me carrying Kay

After our fun at Snow Canyon (which was named for Erastus & Lorenzo Snow - not for snow that falls from the sky) we found a McDonald's to stop at and get some ice cream. Next we drove by the St. George Temple and then stopped at Brigham Young's home for a tour. Then we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and take the kids swimming again. For dinner we went to the house of some old family friends of my parents from when they lived back in Virginia.
M&M and Luke in front of the St. George temple. I love how white the temple is and how much it stands out compared to the surrounding red rocks in the city.

I felt bad because MJ ended up getting a slight sunburn on her arms from this trip. I was so diligent at Zions making sure that she was always lathered up, but for one reason or other I wasn't as diligent this time around. I don't think the sunburn hurt her at all but there aren't too many things that make you feel like a bad parent like your baby getting a sunburn!!