A bit of Christmas 2011

I know, I know, it's been awhile. The last month has been a doozy for me and I am just glad to be back.... So, let's get down to business with the Christmas joys...

To kick off the week of Christmas, we attended Kaeleb's first piano recital. He played "Up on the Housetop". He practiced very hard and I think he rather enjoyed himself.

His teacher, Kathryn is his best friend Landon's mom. These are the boys who performed that night: L-R, Kaeleb, Landon, and Benson. They get pretty silly and have a lot of fun.
We spent the week doing last minute Christmas details, and celebrating Kwint's 34th birthday. I love the 3 months that we are the same age. ;) He went snowboarding with Kris and they had a good time nearly getting frostbite on their noses. Kwint got a new snowboard and helmet for his birthday and loves it! Yay!

On the evening of his birthday we went to see the lights at temple Square with Kris, Barbi, and their kids. It was super packed-- thousands of people had the same idea. It was awesome to see so many people there to feel the Spirit of Christmas. I know it looks like it is snowing in this picture, but it isn't. It was some sort of reflection or dust, I guess, but it looks cool anyway. I love looking up at the Salt Lake Temple, it is so majestic.
Here we are bundled up enjoying the view.And now for Christmas Eve! Kris and Barbi host the annual Christmas Eve dinner which is always very yummy. We watched Elf and laughed and laughed while eating lots of cheeseball and crackers before dinner. After dinner we let the kids open their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa since we were all together. They had so much fun. I love that the cousins are such great friends. Here is Kaeleb examining his bag o' fun from Grandma.

They took turns being "Santa" which meant they grabbed the presents and distributed them according to whose name was on each...
Brenny and I posed for this self portrait-- he was pretending to be grumpy to tease me. I took at least 5 pics and he did this in all of them then laughed at himself.
Here is the #1 way to get him to smile instead: Baby Gracie. Oh, his loves his little Gracer as he calls her. He says she is the cutest baby on the planet and the whole Kemp family agrees.

I know this isn't a great shot, but I had to capture this moment with Great-Aunt Marie. My kids love her. She is the most generous and thoughtful lady and they can feel it too.The comic relief, I am sorry you have to see this, but it was so funny!! Tom and DeAnn gave Kris and Barbi matching long underwear as a joke, so he modeled it. Then, the joke was on them.

More to come about Christmas day soon!

Halloween Festivities & Routine Surgery...

I got a bit behind on the blogging... We had a lot of fun in October celebrating Halloween all month. We went to St. George for one weekend and played with Grandma and Grandpa, Tam and Dave and Kris and Barbi's family. We played laser tag, watched Jaiden play volleyball and Sadie dance, played laser tag and went to a trampoline arena- wow, was that ever fun! These are the only pictures we took, unfortunately.
This is Brennan conquering the big bounce house...
Nothing like wall to wall trampolines to make a kid happy!
The Friday night before Halloween we went to Saige's yearly birthday/Halloween party. We all dressed up and had a costume parade and indoor trick or treating. I have pictures on Kwint's phone, which I am too lazy to download now, so I will edit this later. Kwint was a werewolf, I was Little Red Riding Hood and you'll see the spooky boys soon in the Halloween Day pics.

The next day we went to see my grandma in Altamont and took her with us to the Bluebell Corn Maze. We were proud to say that my 86 year old Grandma got lost and found with us in the maze. She is a neat lady, it was good to be with her.

Halloween night we took our little ghost and our mummy over to trick or treat and visit neighborhood haunted houses with their cousins.
Here you can see that Talan (left) and Kaeleb (right) fit right in with the decor at this haunted house.

This is our little sweet ghosty... He was none too happy about the haunted houses and informed me that he is "never doing Halloween again", even when he is a grown up. I am pretty sure he will change his mind, but it did make me wonder about all we do in the name of fun for this silly holiday. :)
Sweet Brenny guy got his tonsils out the Friday after Halloween. He was very brave and has been recovering better than we hoped for.

Kwint and I were unprepared for how hard it would be emotionally for all of us. They talk about a tonsillectomy as if it's plucking a sliver, but it IS surgery after all. Bren was scared, and he had to fast until 1pm- that was awful- and when they gave him the laughing gas his eyes rolled back in his head and they scooted me out the door with his little hand still squeezing my finger... then they wouldn't let us in until after he woke up, so he woke up in a strange place with an IV in his foot and he was very unhappy about it. He cried for a good long time after that.

For the doc and nurses, it was very simple. Maybe not as easy as tweezers and slivers, but the procedure only took 15 minutes. They used a new procedure called coblation, which involves using a saline solution and radio frequency energy waves to dissolve the tonsils a layer at a time, without even a drop of blood. Dr. Tagge came out of the OR with a smug expression, sat down with a happy sigh and said "Well, I'm done. Those are the kind of tonsils I LOVE removing! They were huge and nasty and it was sooo satisfying!" I thought "Well, here's a man who loves his job..." I still find it amusing.

The brighter side for Brenny is, that he drank, ate and took his medicine very well and was ready to run within 3 hours... until the medicine wore off... He was tired and laid around a lot all week, but we had to remind him many times a day not to run or jump. It was a much easier recovery than we expected, based on the stories we've heard from others, but he is a tough kid, and the procedure is much better than the old scalpel way.

We took the opportunity to stock up on movies and ice cream, so it hasn't been all bad for us. We have been hanging out at home watching movie after movie after movie.... We have learned that all we need is each other to be happy... but we are looking forward to getting out and enjoying the upcoming holiday season with a healthy boy in tow!

Kaeleb is doing fabulously in school. He got his first term report card and is loving school. He really loves being with his friends. Recess is his favorite part of the day and as soon as he gets home he is ready to go out and play with them more. I love how social he is and how accepting and loyal he is to his friends. He called me from school on Friday in tears because he felt so sick, so I picked him up and he had every symptom of none other than strep throat... what!!?? No!!! Strep was supposed to be banished from our home with Brennan's tonsillectomy! Gotta love antibiotics though, 36 hours later and he is feeling much better and will be ready for school tomorrow!

I am grateful for this happy little family. I love my guys with all my heart, they are my whole world and the gospel plan that unites us forever is my greatest blessing!

Sensei Kwinten

Yesterday was a big day. After 8 years of hard work Kwinten received a black belt in Aikido. There is no Aikido dojo here in Heber, so he has had to remember all he learned in St. George and practice on his own. He has introduced and taught Aikido at the karate studio where he trains now. They invited his Sensei from SG to come up and test Kwinten.

The test was grueling. After 3 hours of deflecting attack after attack and throwing two 6 foot tall guys over his shoulder about 100 times (I felt bad for the guys) he was completely exhausted. It was fun to watch-- It is an impressive art and I was bursting with pride at his skill in all the maneuvers and the fact that he could remember them all. Then Sensei ordered 4 guys (all about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds) to attack him at once. It was the hardest thing he says he has ever done. It was NOT fun to watch and I was bursting with anger. He was literally at his breaking point and had to repeat it 3 times. I thought he was going to throw up or pass out- I have never, in 11 years, seen my husband at such a low point. But he got back up every time. I have never been so proud of him!

That night the dojo celebrated with him by performing at his belt ceremony. Each belt rank performed their signature move. Brennan and the little Lion Cubs did Star Set and Kaeleb and the green belts did Creative Set One. Kwint performed a solo sword tato, Sensei Josh did a Kenpo nunchuk routine and a friend of his performed a Bushi Ban black belt Crane Set.

These are his comrades and some of the kids they teach. A couple of the girls made this sign to cheer him on.


Adam Jenkins, Kwinten, Josh Spray, and Patrick Crosby (Josh is our Kenpo Sensei, Adam and Patrick were Kwint's Uke's-- the guys he tossed) during a water break in the middle of the test.
Sensei Kwinten with his black belt. Way to go Babe!!!

More Fall Happenings

We went to the cabin a week ago and this is what we found.... A little cold spell made for a pretty scene...
Brennan's preschool took a tour of Dairy Keen. Brenny is down in the corner snarfing an ice cream cone, I was trying to get his teacher in the picture because she is super cool. Miss Camie is the blond on the right. I was actually impressed by the quality of ingredients and cleanliness I saw behind the scenes at Heber's favorite fast food restaurant. I decided if I ever do fast food it will be this fast food.
Brennan also recently participated in his first karate belt test. He always looks away right as I take pics so I have one million shots of the back of his head.... but the horse stance is cute.

Just a little fall scene of the Heber Valley... LOVE IT HERE!!!
Kaeleb and Brennan made their very own spook alley. It was the cutest thing ever- we left it up for a week. They made ghosts, mummies and skeletons,
Then they took a little rest and Kaeleb read a story to his little bro. This is one of my favorite things to see when I walk into the room....
Kaeleb's school had a walk-a-thon fundraiser. He and Daddy ran 12 laps together. He was dripping with sweat!!!

Dinosaurs and missionaries

My mom and her hubby are off on a mission to Washington D.C. We spent the day with them on Sept 17th to say "See Ya Later" and wish them well. We spent the day at Thanksgiving Point, which is a beautiful place!

Here we are enjoying the Dinosaur Museum. I love this picture of Kwint. I call it "Perspective." Actually, I haven't called it anything. I just made that up now.
The boys went crazy over the exhibits. They loved the hands on features and ran around yelling "Check this one out!"

Ever since Kaeleb was 2 years old his favorite dino has been the good ol' Stegosaurus with a spiky tail. he used to say "seggasawus wif a siky tail!"
The boys loved the water feature by the big water tower.
This is the best picture we could get of Brenny, who was thirsty and tired, but here we have Mom, Gary, Me and Kaeleb looking happy to be there...

Happy Birthday Brennan!

September 14, 2011 Our Brennan turned 4!

He got to be special leader at preschool!
He had a picnic party at the park with 16 of his closest friends. :)
And got the new big bike he has been wanting so he can go "even faster!"

Preschool Mania!

Well, the big day came. Brennan started preschool on September 7th. He is big in to karate these days, so naturally he would throw a vertical punch while posing with his new Transformer back pack...

Welcome to Sunshine Circle... Brennan's new favorite place. He is older and 5 inches taller than everyone in his class, by virtue of being born 2 weeks past the deadline, but I think he likes it that way. ;) I am sure he is learning a lot, but the only thing I can ever get him to talk about is snack time. So, I know he has had apples & almonds, banana bread, and cheese & crackers so far... (snack of the day starts with the letter of the day, by the way...) I am proud of him for being so good in school!


And, of course, since we are big into karate, here is a little HiYa! for ya.

Labor Day

We had an adventurous Labor Day at Mt. Timpanogos. We wanted to take the boys to Timp cave to see the stalagmites and stalactites... but apparently you have to get there at 6am to stand in line on a holiday because the tickets were sold out for four hours ahead. We made a mental note to do that on a weekday of no importance. So, we found a trail to hike which was infested with gigantic bumblebees and lasted about 10 minutes there. Finally, we went back to the Timpanooke trail for a breathtaking hike in perfect weather.






Happy Labor Day!

Happy Birthdays!

In late August we had a birthday party for four of the five cousins in the Kemp Family who have August or September birthdays... It was super fun! We acquired a new fish and two frogs as well as toys and clothes... Annalyn turned 8, Kaeleb turned 7, and both Brennan and Ceralyn turned 4. We think we'll do it every year!!

End of Summer Happenings

At the end of August we went to Cascade Springs, a pretty little hike around a natural spring seeping out the Northeast side of Mt. Timpanogos. It took all our willpower not to stick our faces in and have a big drink!
We brought Talan (we call him our brother-cousin) along just for fun...

Also at the end of August... Kaeleb went back to school! He is in Mrs. Smith's 2nd grade class. Mrs. Smith is young, tall, and very nice. He is loving it so far! But don't tell him that, he says it is long and grueling but we can see that he loves it. He and his friends spend their recesses playing dodgeball and having Beyblade battles. His best friend Landon is in his class, and they play together after school with a group of the neighbor kids. He is really happy and we are loving watching him grow. He is starting piano lessons next week, and as you can see here... he is progressing in karate. This is a picture of the night he advanced to green belt. Kwinten advanced that night as well, to a red belt. They are on the far right, next to Sensai Josh (in black)
We are proud of Kaeleb!!