Childhood

He turned one!!!!  We had a fun birthday party.  The kids loved "eating like Alek."  If you ask me they got a little too into that idea.  Kat and Jace were more messy than Alek was. 

But, he had fun and that is the best part.

Kat and Jace played soccer this year. 

We coached Jace's team.  (Which reminds me I should be getting the team pictures put together.) 

I really like having them play sports.  I love going to support them.
And, Alek decided walking was not scary anymore!  It is so cute watching him stumble around.  Then, a week later he decides he is up, he may as well be kicking a ball.  :)

For Memorial Day Weekend we went to the Hill Air Force Base Air Show.  And, THE THUNDERBIRDS were there.  I am not sure I can convey the feeling of this in words.  But, I will try.
Kelly sits down with me last Monday night.  It is my birthday and at 10 pm this is the first time we are sitting down together.  (We both had a busy day, including him watching Alekzander so I could spend time at a school field trip and a friend's birthday party painting nails.  It was a fun day with two great kids.)  So, Kelly mentions that he heard the air show was that weekend.  I hear air show but my mind thinks THUNDERBIRDS????  You see growing up in the Air Force I went to a lot of air shows and I have found memories but The Thunderbirds were incredible to me.  Some of my earliest memories of childhood contain these airplanes.  And, I haven't seen them in um years.  (Well, unless you count accidentally spotting them as we drove by on the freeway once.)  I know it has been more than 10 years, I would guess at least 15.

So, they were here this weekend and we really made it down to see them. 

The day turned out great, all I wanted it to be.  I walked away having shared my childhood with my kids.  They even begged me to buy the same souvenirs that I begged my parents to buy me.  So many memories and now more to add to them.  PERFECT!

The last time I downloaded pictures from our camera, they disappeared. I looked for them but they weren't where I thought they should be in my files and they weren't on the camera anymore. So, when I downloaded pictures again yesterday, I let the computer do its thing and followed where it put them. Of course there are last months pictures, right where they should be. The really good news is that now I can blog about them.
But, let's start with the most recent events first. This keeps everything in order, and gives me a chance to get the best on top.
KATHRYN'S BAPTISM
Yes, she is eight years old and baptized. I know time flies, but sometimes it is so amazing to actually see it speed right before my eyes. She seems to get older, wiser, and gain more attitude every day. :) And, her baptism was wonderful. I could not have asked for anything better.
She was so excited. They asked her to be there by 8:30 a.m. So she set her alarm for 7:11 a.m. ( I don't know where she gets that time from but 7:11 has always been one of those fun times I like to see on the clock.) She wakes up, eats, dresses, lets me do her hair, and still has half an hour to spare. I on the other hand walked into the church just minutes before the meeting started and pulled her and Kelly over for pictures.
The actual ordinance was perfect. She was so happy and really just beaming. Then we sang a church song as a family. The kids did so good. I hope it sounded pretty, I felt a bit nervous and excited so I'm not sure my voice was in control at all.
Then she was confirmed a member and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost. On the way home I asked how she felt and she said happy. I asked what happy meant and she said good. And, that just continued the whole day. She kept smiling and seemed to enjoy all the attention she got. It was just fabulous.

Here is a laughing baby because that is the best!  I love when he is so happy.  I also love when all the kids play well together, of course this makes every mom happy.

The frog launch in the video was in the living room because Kat and Jace used it for their science fair project.  A great way to teach about forces.  Well Kat got it really well.  After all the talk we did, Jace understands you have to hit it to make the frog fly and that is a force, right!?!

I have struggled with Jace for a while waiting for him to get older.  Know I have a constant reminder that things could be worse and Jace does listen pretty good.  Try getting a one year old to listen when he doesn't have a clue of what the consequences of his actions could be.  Yes he loves to climb, and pull things off tables (like all the mail, or all the homework papers, or even that glass of water).

February Update

We had a lot of fun with Valentine's. I saw some great ideas in the Family Fun Magazine. Kat and Jace picked out the an idea each. Jace wanted to make Cupid Arrows. They turned out really cute though I had to do all the hard work. :) To make them you stick a pretzel into gummy hearts. I broke a lot of pretzels. Then Jace and Kat decorated cards to stick with them. They were cute. Luckily, Jace was happy using Scooby doo cards for his class so we only had to make enough for friends and family.
Kat chose rockets. We made them out of smartees with a hershey's kiss glued on top. Then we stuck paper around the smartee that said "you're a blast" and put a paper flame on the bottom. It was a lot of fun decorating a box of her cards to go in. This is the first year we got to make her a unique box. We took a tissue box and an oatmeal can and made what looked like a cannon. Well, we being Kelly and Kat. They are the creative ones.
Alek is doing great. He has learned how to open cupboard doors. Yeah, the kitchen can be a dangerous place for him now. He also really likes to eat and is getting lots of teeth to help with that. It is nice that he can eat some of what we eat now. I like scooping him up some of our dinner. Anything that makes life simpler. And, he has for sure said "ma" twice now. Kat and Kelly have both heard him say it as I walked by. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Finally, a kid that recognizes me before "da". He also say "hi" or "heh". Cute kid!
I have been running with friends for a while and we are starting a real training schedule. Some of them are training for a half marathon in May and I'm running the Ragnar Wasatch Back in June. I'll run three times in 24 hours. One of which will be at least 7 miles. I'm excited but today I could not keep up with the other girls. Ah, who needs speed anyway.
Kelly went to the kids school to be a "watchdog". Dogs stands for dads of great students. It is a chance for dads and grandpas to go spend the day at school. Part of it they follow their kid around and part they help teachers with whatever they need. The overall hope is to have good influences and prevent bullying. The kids love, love it. Being a mom, I almost got sick of hearing how great it was and all the stuff they did. :) Not really, but I did hear a lot of, "then remember dad we did this..."
That is all for today.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!

I love Christmas morning, especially when kids are around. We had a fun one this year. Kat and Jace were so excited, but couldn't get past the baby gate we had set up. Here is Kat begging to go upstairs trying to wait for Jace to finish his breakfast.

Even Alek enjoyed the festivities and helped open his presents. Surprisingly he did play with each one before we could get him to open another one. :)


I loved watching Jace open his presents and his stocking. Everything was a big exciting thrill. He did ask me a week or so after Christmas why Santa didn't bring him the clock he asked for. "Well Jace you didn't put that in your letter." Ummm, yeah.


Kathryn told us that the perfect present is a book. It is fun that she is moving beyond toys.
She did wear the rollerblades Santa brought as much as possible for several days.
I'm glad she still likes toys. We all need playtime.



I knew Christmas was a big success with the kids playing with their presents nonstop for the Christmas break. And that was a great present for me.

Happy 85th Birthday Grandma!!!

My Grandma is celebrating a birthday today and since we can't be there to sing in person this is the next best thing. She is an amazing person and has always shown me love and support. I'm very blessed to have her in my life. I'm still learning great valuable lessons from her. Thank you for everything and I love you Grandma!!!

She doesn't get it from me. :)

Knowing that the arts can help kids in so many ways, I love when they draw or make up their own art. I have been encouraged in the past to have Kat enter the Reflections program the school has and this year she has been drawing so much, it seemed doable. So we talked about it and she decided she was game. Reflections has a national theme that the children make their art around. There are many categories you can enter into, such as drawing, photography, poems, etc. Drawing seemed the simpliest to me. I thought I'd have Kat draw a small rough draft and improve it a bit. Then she could make it big on a final paper. Yeah, 2nd graders have no idea what a rough starting sketch is.
This year's theme is "Diversity means..." We got out a dictionary and talked about it being a "variety of things." Such as lots of flavors of ice cream. She had a great idea for drawing circles with different groups of things in each one. She made a great first drawing. Didn't want to change anything. Lost the first copy, and a couple days later I bought bigger paper to do the final copy on.
Now, I turned things over to Kelly. Really, he is the one that knows something, anything about drawing. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to tell him the theme. So Kat starts a big picture drawing things that are important to her in each picture. Her family. (Glad we made the list!)
Well, we got things all straightened out and two days before it is due, she draws in pencil. Then she wants to go play. The next night she colors, minimally, so she can go play. Kelly tells her she needs to color more. She does. She goes to bed. The next morning Kelly tells her she needs to color more. She gets really into it at this point and Kelly has to tell her to stop so she can get it done and go to school.
A week later we go to see the projects displayed at school. And, there with her picture is a second place ribbon. She now gets to be judged at the district level.
WAY TO GO!!!

Halloween

Halloween wouldn't be halloween without going to the Pumpkin Walk. It is a fun tradition of going to a local park where many people set up scenes using pumpkins. This years best scenes, in our book, included Tangled, Angry Birds, Calvin and Hobbes, and Phineas and Ferb. At the end this cute witch greets everyone. I think this is a great picture. And yes it was warm enough to just be in t-shirts. Amazing that was less than a month ago.


This is us at the church carnival. Kelly was in charge of it this year. He and those that helped did a great job. The kids had lots of fun. Jace was Pickachu. Kathryn was a ugly doll or a monster doll. Her grandma and aunt made them for birthday party favors. They are very cute and made a great and easy costume. I'm thrilled their costumes turned out good. In my imaginary world they both loved the costumes from our assortment that we keep stored in the basement. I was not planning on doing any work for this Halloween. But, they had other plans. Luckily I found cute easy designs on the computer and Wa-La!