Happy Father's Day

To our hiking, biking, jumping, spinning, kicking, flipping, flopping, swinging, blading, skating, loving, funny, smart Dad..... We love you.



Brennan took the liberty of "rearranging" the pantry for me. It is his favorite place to play.

Here is Kaeleb in his fancy new spaceship extraordinaire. He named it "Rocket".

Next, we have Kaeleb at Lagoon. We spent the weekend up North. While Kwint went to LARP we went with Grandma and Grandpa, Jaiden, Maddy and Roma to Lagoon. My batteries went dead after this and I forgot extras, so I have only two pictures. It is ok, because there were only two rides he would go on. All the other kiddie rides were "too fast". He says he will go on them when he is bigger.

We had a great day at Lagoon. Normally it is not my favorite place (Kaeleb gets his love of fast and scary rides from me), but we had a good time. The weather was so nice (only 80) and I didn't have to ride any rides!! The girls all had a blast and Kaeleb enjoyed a 4 dollar snow cone. Who the heck sells a cup of shaved ice for 4 dollars? Who buys one? (It was Grandpa, not me. Tee Hee. :))

That night we went to hang out with "Aunt" Dee Dee, Tracen, Tyler, and Tate. It was so very nice to be with our friends. There were relatively few mishaps, including Tyler road-rashing his nose and the kids had a blast. Tracen told me all about Harry Potter and quizzed me on the proper way to expell the dementors and other such facts. Very smart kid.

Saturday morning Kaeleb helped Grandma in the yard. He hauled weeds and branches off to the dumpster for 2 hours and earned himself some new shoes. It was Grandpa's birthday so we celebrated with marble cake.

We hope all the Dad's out there had a fabulous Father's Day. I can't speak for Kwint, but I think he enjoyed it. 6 weeks ago or so Kaeleb decided he wanted to get Kwint a purple light saber and Grandpa a green light saber. He earns quarters here and there doing extra chores and yard work, so he used a couple jars full of money to pay for half of the light sabers. Grandpa was thrilled. He thought it was so sweet that Kaeleb put so much thought into getting him something he thought he would love. Now they can play Star Wars together. Grandpa is Yoda, of course. Kwint will put his to good use, I can promise that.

Brennan is standing on his own for a few seconds at a time. It's fun. He is really fast at crawling, so we'll see how soon he decides to abandon it for slow and shaky walking. He goes all over the house. If hears Kwint in the farthest recess of the house (our closet) he will cruise back to find him. He chases Kaeleb around giggling as he goes.

Brennan's ever expanding vocabulary now includes the words "Wow" and "Oh" and the sentence, "Ohhhhh, Wooow!" He has been saying it constantly for 3 days. Anything that is remotely fascinating to him gets the honor of "Ohhh, woooow!!"

Well, that's the latest here. We hope all is well for all of you. We love you!!

Ailments and Treasured Moments

So much for normal. This week I only left the house twice, once to teach yoga and once to take Bren to the doctor.

Kaeleb ended up having his fever last through Monday, we are assuming it was a funky fever-only virus, because he didn't have any other symptoms. Of course, he milked it for all it was worth and we spent the day snuggling on the couch. He watched lots of Little Einsteins, Sesame Street and Charlie and Lola.

Tuesday we had a picnic. It was our anniversary, but things have been so busy around here that we hadn't had time to plan anything. That is an obvious signal that we need to slow down. We woke up frustrated because here it was, the celebration of 8 years of our love.... and we didn't have anything to do. Kwint worked all day and I did bills and laundry. I planned a picnic in the park, so that at least dinner would be different. However, it was blistering hot and that doesn't make for a fun picnic and Brennan was asleep in his crib at dinner time. Everyone knows you never wake a sleeping baby!

So, Kaeleb and I laid out blankets on the living room floor and packed our cooler full of PBJ and fruit. He was so excited about it. He helped me set out paper plates and filled the paper cups with water. He was dancing around gleefully waiting to surprise Dad. Dad loved it. We ate our picnic and watched National Treasure 2. We both agreed that it was a fabulous way to celebrate our marriage- by doing something out of the ordinary and having fun with each other and our little boys. We ended up being glad we hadn't planned something else. But next year we're thinking bigger....

During the movie Brennan came down with a fever. We assumed it was the same thing Kaeleb had and didn't worry too much. But then he stopped eating eating and drinking and we got a bit worried. By Wednesday night we were ready to take him in, he was dehydrated and his skin was ashen. We said a prayer and he drank a bottle, and then his fever broke and he played his heart out for 4 hours, crawling all over the house. We thought, "Phew!! Glad that's over!"

Until midnight when he woke up screaming, with the fever back and refused to eat again. Thursday morning we took him to the Instacare and found that he has good old fashioned Herpes Simplex. Yes, the cold sore virus, a gift from his brother, which he got from me, which I got from my dear old Dad. Apparently, the first time it hits it can cause what sweet little Bren got- a mouth FULL of canker sores. The doc let me look at his tonsils and they looked like honeycombs. I felt so sad for him and don't blame him for not eating. The doctor gave us Tylenol with Codeine so he could eat and sleep. He lost weight- down to a meager 19 pds 15 oz.

Usually herpes lasts a week or two, but thanks to a Priesthood blessing he was better two days later. We are so glad to have our wild and crazy kid back, as exhausting as he can be. One of our favorite things Brennan does is carry toys around in his mouth. It's pretty smart, that way he has his hands free to crawl. It looks hilarious, especially when he carries his toy keys around. He reminds us of the dog on the 1st Pirates movie.

Kaeleb felt a bit lost while Bren was sick. I had to hold the baby 24/7 because he couldn't even sleep on his own. So, every time he asked for something he heard "Not right now, I have to take care of the baby." In defense, Kaeleb developed a few phantom pains and ailments. Every time Brennan cried, Kaeleb would cry. He couldn't bend his knee because it hurt (except when he forgot that it hurt), and had a "hard spot" in his side. On Thursday Kaeleb mysteriously contracted 2 canker sores which I couldn't see, but they were most certainly there. I was so thankful for the Codeine because once Bren was sleeping so much Kaeleb had me back and all his ailments disappeared. Phew! He is so funny and full of life.

Kaeleb is learning a lot these days. He loves Sesame Street and remembers things he sees on it. He told Kwint that 2 plus 2 is four, and I didn't tell him that. He is also asking a lot of questions about words and what things start with. Yesterday he said "Mom, extra starts with X!" I hated to tell him it starts with E because I was so happy he'd put that together. He memorizes his books and pretends to read them, running his fingers across the words saying them slowly as if he were reading them. He can read "the" and we are working on "it, in, is" etc. This is a fun age because we have great conversations about real things and he's still small enough to be sweet. If I leave him and Bren playing together to fold laundry or something he will yell across the house "MOM! YOU FORGOT YOUR GUYS!" and I come running back "Oh no! My guys!" He also still loves our morning snuggle. If he wakes up while I am still working out he will come sit by me, give me pointers like "No, Mom, your hand is supposed to be like this." or tell me that the girls on my yoga show are not modest, then when I'm done he will say "Mom! You forgot your morning snuggle!" So I sit down and hold him and he doesn't even care that I'm all sweaty. He says "Let's stay like this forever!" Love that kid.

Friday night Kwint and I went on a real date! We decided to celebrate our anniversary again by doing something we never do- dinner and a movie. We ate at a yummy asian food place and then went to Great Harvest Bread and got a big pink sugar cookie. We saw Indiana Jones and laughed until we fell off our chairs. We loved it, it was a perfect night. It is always nice to go on dates. We always look at each other after dropping the kids off and say "Wow! Hi! How are you? Long time no see!" I think we do a pretty good job at staying close even with our hectic schedule and rambunctious children, but it is different when we are alone and not distracted. Very nice.

So, even though it wasn't normal, there were enough bright spots in the week to treasure it.

Fun in the Sun

What a week!!

We blogged about Monday already.... we went from an exciting, action-packed weekend to an exciting, fun-filled week followed by another exciting, jam-packed weekend. Then we crashed.

Tuesday night Kris, Barbi, and kids came to town. We also got our river rock delivered and finished the dry washes with the help of our neighbor Steve and Kris and Barbi. (All we have left is sod!!)

Wednesday we had a spaghetti bonanza. Thursday we went to the new city water park where they have a splash pad and a St. George style lazy river. Kwint and Tam met us for lunch, since they were working while the rest of us played all week. I will definitely be taking the boys there at least once a week this summer.

Friday we went swimming in the day and "camping" in the evening. Most of you know how much I despise camping. However, I have fond memories of it as a child and do not want to deprive Kwint (loves camping) or the kids of it, so I made the foolish mistake of telling Kwint "I'd like to try to ease my way back into camping once in awhile." He thought he would blab to our friends "Gina wants to go camping!!" We decided on a slow, easy, work-back-in plan. The first installment was Friday night. Kris, Talan, and Saige accompanied us on a "trip" to Cedar Pocket with our friends, the Schencks and the Jenkins.

We made foil dinners on a fire pit, played in a nearby river, and roasted marshmallows for S'mores. We had so much fun. We love our friends and it was great to laugh and play together. The kids all had a blast. They chased ants and got soaking wet in the river. We planned on "wading" which quickly became swimming. Then, the best part... we came home, took baths, and went to sleep in our beds. My kind of camping!!



Saturday we spent the day at the lake. We took turns going out on the boat and playing on the beach. (Below is not a picture of Dave's boat, it is the guy's next to us on the beach. Dave's boat is way cooler, it is orange and black.) Kwint wakeboarded and took a turn on the wake skate. The kids knee boarded- Kaeleb went out for the first time, with Aunt Tammy behind him. We were so proud of him. I think his favorite part was the "speeder boat" Saige pushed him around in.
We got very sandy, sun-burned and tired, but all in the name of a good time.

Saturday night we attended Sadie's dance performance with Premier Dance Company. We were so proud of her, both Kwint and I welled up with tears watching her dance. Someday we'll have our own daughter and keep Kleenex in business.

Sunday morning we got up early to go to McKay's baby blessing, which was very sweet and tender, and by then we could see that our little Kaeleb was maxed out in the action department. By the early evening he had a fever. He was dehydrated from being in the heat so much all weekend and he was so busy playing that he didn't stop to drink much. After much coaxing from Tam and I (and bribes of fruit snacks) he drank a cup of Kool-Aid and began to perk up. At home we sat him down to watch Little Einsteins with 4 sippy cups full of juice, milk, and two kinds of water (as per his request-one with ice and one without). He was much better by bedtime. We love our Kaeleb.

Bren is adding new words to his baby-vocab. He says "Na-Nah." Which means "Night-night.", when he is tired. It took me two weeks to figure out what he was saying. I thought he wanted a banana. He also says "done." when eating, which is nice. It cuts back on the crying when they start talking, although he isn't any less loud. He loves to hear himself scream just to scream. Happy, high-pitched screams, but screams nonetheless.

Brennan's favorite game is to "get" Mama, Dada, or Bub-bub. If we are sitting or laying on the floor he crawls up behind us, climbs up to standing (using us for support he loses the element of surprise, but he doesn't know that we know he is there.) then he screams and launches himself onto us and puts whatever body part of ours he can find into his mouth.

We are looking forward to a nice, slow paced normal week. Whatever normal is.

Our Newest Friend

These are pictures of McKay Miller. He is a precious little miracle sent to our good friends Nathan and Mary Lynne, who waited a long time to get him here. We love them so much! Kaeleb prayed every night last year that they would get to have a baby (as did many friends and a whole lot of family) and after Mary Lynne got pregnant he prayed for the baby in her tummy every time he said a prayer. McKay is proof that Heavenly Father hears our prayers.

Toxic Perfectionism

As you can see from the pictures up top, we are nearly done with the yard. We got the rocks delivered on Friday and had a gravel spreading party on Saturday with family, friends and the good ol' Elder's Quorum. Tam and Kwint's Ma helped me picked out plants and trees and we let our green thumbs loose after the gravel was laid out. We had so much fun!! We really appreciate all the help and love how it looks so far. We got river rock delivered this morning for the dry washes and will be ordering the sod later this week. Yay!!
Recognizing that I am opening myself up for ridicule from certain nameless individuals who know who they are.... Last weekend (the 15-17th) Kwint played Mr. Mom while I went to a TurningLeaf Seminar. (Kwint's work puts them on.) It was a fabulous experience. They are emotional Growth Seminars. Yes, I know many of you are thinking, "If Gina grows any more emotional the world may collapse from the sheer intensity of it all." It's true. I went to learn to manage those crazy emotions and become more successful at my life, and I feel like I learned a lot.

One of the things I am trying to tackle as a result of what I learned about myself is "toxic perfectionism" as they call it. I learned that I am good enough even if my house is a mess and I don't get everything on my list done. I have tried to have more fun with the kids and am trying to relax a bit. The result of this is that my laundry has been piled sky high for a week and I haven't cleaned my house. I did scrub the toilets, cuz that's just gross, but nothing else. But now I am sitting in this filthy house trying to decide if I was more uncomfortable stressing myself out to get everything done or relaxing and feeling stressed later because there is no order around me. So, how do I find the happy medium and does anyone have any ideas on balance? Some of you are like me, some of you love to play and don't care if the house is a mess. Some of you are inbetween, relaxed yet productive and I want to know your secret.

Yesterday (Memorial Day) we went for a hike with the family in Snow Canyon. We had so much fun!! We also had a BBQ with our neighbors and enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. I know that those of you up North have had a long winter, but the weather here has been like the perfect long spring.... it has been so wonderful. Kwint and I feel like Heavenly Father gave us a present, just for us.

Brennan has two teeth now. He didn't teethe as horribly as I expected him to, I am quite pleased. He thinks that he is very big and is saying several words. I think he may be preparing a speech for his 1st birthday. He has been saying "Hunna, hunna" when he is hungry and if the food isn't in his hands within 10 seconds it becomes very loud "Hunna! Hunna! Hunna! Hun-na-na-na-na!!!!" He also says book, ball, light, and more. (They sound like boot, bah, la, and mowa) He even has a sentence or two- "Mama Baba!" "Mama, hunna!" and "Hi Dad." When he crawls into a room he says "Hila." (Hello) It is very cute. Who's got time to be 8 months old? He wants to be 3 like his bro.

Kaeleb calls Brennan "Bray". It is a nickname he made up and it stuck. He takes good care of him. Kaeleb is playing with his friend Josh today and I just heard him say, "Guess what Josh? When I grow up I am going to be a knight." Josh said, "Hey, you just made a mess." to which Kaeleb responded, "You are a food waster." and then "We're bigger than each other but you are still my friend." I love their conversations.

Now, since "Bray" is asleep I am going to make an attempt at a little house cleaning.

Family and friends

Some random funny pictures from our week... getting ready for bed is a serious affair in our home.


Brennan is a physical wonder, wasting no time being a baby. As you can see, he is climbing...
and standing....
and thinks that he is very big indeed.


We had all sorts of fun this weekend. It was a Superweekend. On Friday our little Kemp Family went for a nice evening hike. I know that everyone up North has had a long, cold winter, but we are loving it- it means down here we are having a long, warm spring. (The heat will come, and when it does we'll wish we were up North...) Anyway, it was so pleasant and the desert bushes are all in bloom. We hiked around admiring all the scenery and feeling grateful we are here.

We had a spontaneous visit from the Woodard Family from Saturday to Monday morning and it was so much fun. We had a wonderful time talking and working. (Dustin worked on the computer and Shalyce helped with the sprinkler pipes. It takes a good friend to not mind working on vacation.)

Brennan quickly became enraptured by Dustin and spent the weekend begging for his attention. We were somewhat shocked. This, our separation anxiety laden little guy who cries if anyone even makes a movement that could be construed as wanting to hold him, was trying to jump out of my arms and fly into Dustin's. It was really sweet.

Kaeleb and Kaitlyn were quite the pair. They played all weekend and have quite a lot in common. She is a woman after his own heart. She loves to get bad guys, too. They teamed up against little Kiera, the "monster" and protected us all. I asked her what her favorite movie is and without hesitation she said "Spiderman."

On Saturday night Kwint and I went to a fancy (black tie) dinner at the Entrada Clubhouse. It was a "Gala" that benefited the doctor's free clinic of St. George. We made a donation to them to pay for a gourmet dinner. We learned that gourmet means small portions of weird food. But dessert was... WOW-good. We enjoyed getting all dressed up, it was a bit like going to prom.

On Sunday morning the kids were playing Duck, Duck, Goose with Dustin. Kaitlyn and Kaeleb were sitting on the floor when she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Kaeleb blushed and covered his cheeks with his hands. I asked "What did she say?" He said softly, "She said... I love you!" and giggled. I said "What will you say back to her?" He said "Thank you." So cute.

Mother's Day was fabulous for us. Dustin and Kwint made chicken burritos and changed the poopy diapers. We are thankful for their friendship and think the world of them.

Monday morning Alan and Angie came to see us. (My big brother and his oh-so-sweet girlfriend who we hope to see become more-"Aunt Angie" would be nice, but we won't be pressuring him except in places like this where he can't stop me until it is too late...)

We had the very best day ever. Both boys love their Uncle Alan and were smitten by Angie, as were we all. Brennan went right to him-- twice in one weekend, it was amazing!! He even let Alan rock him to sleep. This is Brennan smiling at his uncle. Wow! That's love!

Kwint had the morning off so we all went to the temple visitor's center and toured the exhibit there with amazing bronze sculptures of Jesus. They were so beautiful and full of emotion. The flowers on the temple grounds were bright and vivid and it felt really peaceful to be there.

After lunch we did puzzles and played a good game of living room baseball. Kwint had to go back to work, so the rest of us went up to climb around Dixie Rock. It was really windy, but the view was nice and while I was feeding Bren in the car, Alan, Angie and Kaeleb found a very fascinating grasshopper which he told me was camouflaged. On their way back to car I watched Kaeleb hug Alan's leg and I felt so happy and blessed to see my son bonding with my brother that I love so much.

After that we went to the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson's Farm. We learned about fossils and footprints. Kaeleb loves dinosaurs, so I was glad he got to see it. Then we went home where Kaeleb monopolized Angie and Alan bounced the baby.

After dinner we had FHE and went for ice cream. It was strangely cold outside (May usually brings high 90's but it felt like high 50's-big dark rain cloud in the sky) and the ice cream didn't help, but I was willing the day to never end and I still feel happy in spite of a huge pile of dishes, 4 loads of laundry yet unfinished, and a teething baby who refuses to be put down. (I am typing one handed and he keeps trying to pull out my earrings and eat all the cords.)

Now I need to go clip his nails cuz he's scratching the heck out of my neck and then I will tackle that laundry.

The Skywalker Family

I'm short on time, but here's a brief look at our past 2 weeks.

We went on a mini vacation, which we very much needed and enjoyed. We went to Grandma's and had a great time with her and Gpa.

We spent a fun evening with our friends- we love you guys, thanks for being with us.

We went to the Children's Treehouse Museum in Ogden where Kaeleb played hard and pretended many fun things, and Brennan drooled on everything within a 1/4 mile radius of himself.

We spent a day at Gateway and visited the Discovery Gateway museum where again, Kaeleb pretended and experimented and this time Brennan slept through it all.

Last week was fairly routine, except for when the doctor diagnosed Brennan with allergies and instructed us to give him Benadryl before bed. For the first time in his entire life of nearly 8 months, he slept through the night for 2 nights IN A ROW! (Making his sleep through the night grand total: 3 times.) We felt so good that we hardly knew what to do!

Brennan is now climbing up to standing against the furniture and trying to scoot along it. He just can't wait to be walking and doesn't think he has time to savor all the baby stuff. We, on other the hand, wish he would stay small just a little longer.

One story to finish it all off.... many of you heard this while we were up North, so feel free to skip to the end. For posterity's sake, we can't leave it out of the blog....

We took Kaeleb to play at his friend Carter's house. Carter has 5 older siblings and they are amazing kids. They all went outside to ride bikes. Kaeleb didn't have his bike there, so he was running back and forth chasing the bikes.

In the ensuing chaos he became disoriented and got lost in Carter's neighborhood. He had a moment of intelligence in which he decided to knock on the neighbor's door. However, when the lady of the house answered the door the moment was gone. He said, "This is the wrong house." Said the lady, "Whose house are you looking for?" Said Kaeleb, "I don't know." Lady: "What is your name?" Kaeleb: "Luke Skywalker." She chuckled. "What is your real name?" Insistently, "Luke Skywalker." The chuckling stopped.

The lady asked, "OK, what is your mom's name?" He answered "Princess Leia." She thought "Oh, great." and asked "What is your dad's name?" Naturally his answer was, "Han Solo." She said, "Does your Dad have a real name?" Of course he does, "Han Solo!"

She was quite worried about how she was ever going to find out who this child was or how to find his parents when the other boys found him and said "Oh, this is Kaeleb, he's with us."

Nice. We had a long talk about what to do when you are lost and the difference between pretending and reality. Just when I thought it was safe to let down my overprotective walls....