Pumpkin Days

Can you believe how festive we have been this month? The pictures above are of Bren being cute in a hardhat with a pear while Kwint was building a racing pumpkin for the 1st annual Green Valley 5th ward "Pumpkin Derby" (pictured next with Kaeleb at the derby), Kaeleb's preschool Halloween party, the boys "helping" me make pumpkin cookies (my personal favorite), and Kaeleb decorating a scary cat cookie. Ah, the simple joys of life.

We'll post more on Halloween tomorrow, after which we will get serious about celebrating Thanksgiving for the next month.... yikes, can you imagine? Ok, so we'll focus on gratitude and pilgrims, not so much on pumpkin pie and candied yams.

Pre-Halloween Fun

We are soooo loving this beautiful month of October. As you can see, we LARPed at a masquerade ball, spent the day at a corn maze, made gingerbread haunted houses and had a really great time at Dan and Dee's annual Halloween party. We didn't get pictures at the party, so if Dan and Dee don't mind, you can see us all by clicking on the Jacobs Family link. Everyone looks pretty good if you ask me!!

I truly wish I could elaborate, but my boys are playing with the plunger, software CD's, and otherwise destroying our home. If you wonder why I never keep in touch and rarely get a good blog in these days.... wonder no more. They take everything I've got.

Now it actually feels like fall...

It finally cooled down!! For real, not just to 85! We have been giddy with excitement. We even wore jackets twice! To celebrate, we added a little corner of Boo-ness to our front porch. It will be 85 again this weekend, of course, but after that we may actually have a little time in the 70's. Woo Hoo!

I have missed so much blogging and a lot has happened in our crazy busy lives, and it would take way too long to blog it all, so I will just pick it up from now.... (besides, I can't remember what happened 5 minutes ago.)

Kaeleb LOVES preschool. His teacher, Miss Mary, is fabulous. He says "She is a very tall guy." She's got to be 6 feet tall, and is very pretty. They are working on alphabet books and learning about pumpkins this month. He comes home singing songs and teaches me new things every day.

Kaeleb is becoming a good little bike rider. He is very cautious, so we are excited to see him riding his bike to his friends houses and such. As you can see form the pictures above he is getting ready to be Luke Skywalker for Halloween. More pics will follow.

Brennan is hilarious. He is saying lots of words now. He loves our light up Jack-o-lanterns. He calls them "Dack" and says "yat" (light) and "off" when he wants me to plug them in. He is loudly proclaiming things "Mine!" and says "Don't!". He also says "more" and "done", which has really helped me out at meal time.

Bren is still not a great sleeper. He did sleep through the night for a month or so but no more. We have been experimenting to try and figure out what the problem is, but mostly, I think he just wants some extra lovin'. We are sooo tired but have come to accept our lot and love him all the more for it. (That's not what we say at 11pm 2,3, and 4 am though, believe me.)

Kwint and I are busy as ever in our respective roles. We had some trouble with both cars this week which resulted in a new battery and 5 new tires. Sheesh!! But we had a couple little miracles happen to offset it.... First, our fried computer (remember a few weeks ago?) started working again. Kaeleb said a prayer and the Lord listened. Then our dryer went on the fritz, and I prayed- "PLEASE! We can't have everything at once! Please make my dryer work again!" What do you know, He did.

The kids are self-destructing. I think they need food.

Autumn...bring it on.

We are soooo ready for Fall. No matter that it is still 95 degrees outside.... It is autumn INSIDE the Kemp home.

The Halloween decor is up and the fall leaf wreath is on the door.

Whenever I get the Halloween bin out Kaeleb tries on the Harry Potter wig. Here he is as Harry Potter.


And here is Brennan as Harry Potter.

Count your blessings instead of sheep

We had one of "those" weeks. Kaeleb accidentally spilled 20 oz of water on my laptop. (Fried. Completely.) Brennan ran head first into the duck pond at the park.(stinky.) Three skinned knees. Two days of hives. (not sure why.) Brennan wants to be as cool as Kaeleb, my expert jumper, and climbs on everything from the kitchen table to the hearth and desks and I am in a constant state of fight or flight trying to keep him in tact. I had a bad dream in the middle of the night and am having a hard time going back to sleep. So, in order to turn the negative energy around I am going to take Bing's (and whoever wrote the hymn)advice and Count the Blessings of the week.

Kaeleb had the mystery bag at Preschool on Monday and the snack basket on Wednesday, which really made him feel special. Brennnan added several new words to his vocabulary, including but not limited to: cool, want dis, want wawa, and cat. Kwint had one of the teens he counsels give him a nice compliment about how much he has helped him and feels accepted by him no matter what. I had a woman in one of my yoga classes say that of all the classes she has tried mine is the most relaxing. Grandma and Grandpa Kemp came for the weekend. We went on a fun bike ride, made some Halloween crafts with them and Tam's fam, watched movies, and Bren got some more great b-day presents, including the cutest ever little toddler Vans. And, even though my laptop is nuked, we got it to boot up long enough to back up Quickbooks and a few of the 1600 pictures I have taken. Note to self... When the pop up says "do you want to back up now?" don't click on "ask me again later"....

Ah, that's feeling better now, isn't it? We actually did have a really great week. They reorganized the EQ Presidency and Kwint is now the 1st counselor and is excited to work with the new 2nd. They have a seriously cool group of guys there.

Another nice part of our week is that the weather is FINALLY cooling off. Highs have been in the low 90's, which isn't all that cool, unless you consider that 2 months ago we were excited when it was under 110. So, the mornings and evenings have been so pleasant and we get to spend more time outside. Brennan has enjoyed the variety spending time outdoors has added to his diet. Now instead of eating mostly crayons and books he indulges in such fine delicacies as dirt, rocks, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and grass.

We are so excited for fall. We love the weather, the holidays, the pumpkins...

We are also very excited by the new release of Brisingr, the 3rd installment in one of our favorite book series. (the clerk at Barnes and Nobles went to work 6 hours early and read the whole thing before her shift. Wow!) Yes, even I have grown to love dragons after 8 years of marriage to a fantasy buff. Not to mention Sci-Fi. Oh, Stargate SG-1, we miss you!

This is working well, I think I can sleep now. If I can get Bing's voice out of my head. Ah, "Holiday Inn", Christmas in on the way, too!

Brennan's Birthday Bash

He's one!! We love our not-so-little-anymore baby boy. He has added so much pizazz to the family in the last year. We love his enthusiasm for life, his crazy sense of humor, his wacky little mannerisms, and all the love that radiates from him. We celebrated the big day with a party!!! Here are a few shots of the birthday boy enjoying the limelight.... (Stay tuned for the video at the end.)

His favorite dinner... can you guess what it was?

Presents! He approached his presents in a very non-Brennan like manner. He didn't want to rip the paper. He just kept poking at them like this.


We think the character change is a result of the number of times he has been scolded for ripping paper. Usually that doesn't stop him from ripping books and important documents, but it's no fun when it's allowed.

Ahhh.... sugar shock.... we all know the feeling....
Last, but not least, the entertainment!
Robinson Family Therapy Session. (Pro Bono by Kwint. No wonder his clients enjoy such a high success rate.)

As soon as Brennan was old enough to roll he has been stealing Kaeleb's toys. As you will soon see, Brennan finally has toys that Kaeleb is jealous of. Ah, the joys of sharing.




Happy Birthday Brenny Baby!!

Happy Labor Day!!
As you will soon read, we spent the weekend at Daniel's Summit Lodge.... this is our back deck where we enjoyed the nice, cool breeze rustling through the green trees....
Here are Gma and Gpa with the kids and a ginormous bear out front the lodge. When Brennan saw it he stood and stared at it, growling ferociously with all the terror a two foot 6 inch toddler can muster. Very cute. We also saw a puppy in the parking lot and Bren said "Wuff! Wuff! Wuff!" We didn't even know he could bark.

We hope everyone had a good day off. We finally took a break and are doing what Labor Day was intended for! Rest.

We had a really fun weekend. Kwint headed to the cabin with Kris and the boys and I went to Daniel's Summit with his parents. We stayed in the Daniel's Summit Lodge, which is a log cabin style hotel with a cowboys and indians theme. It was so nice to have a break from the heat. We went to Swiss Days in Midway and played in the grass at the lodge on Saturday, and after Kris and Kwint got back we went to dinner in Park City. The weather was perfect and it was so beautiful up there! We so love the mountains... so why, you ask, do we live in the desert? Good question. There will come a day when we move back up North, but we gotta finish what we started down there first.

Yesterday we took our time leaving the lodge, went to church in Heber and when we got back to Layton we played games as a family and relaxed. Today we have done absolutley nothing. We haven't done nothing in a really long time and we really needed the rejuvenation.

Now, for the usual funny kid stories.... Brennan, or "Bruno" as I call him lately, has been destroying everything in his wake. He has been getting spatulas and serving spoons out of the drawers, walking over to Kaeleb and swinging them wildly as if he wants to swordfight. Poor Kaeleb raises his arms yelling "No, no hit! No, no hit!" and Bren just laughs because he thinks he's playing a game.

Before I tell this story, let me say something in Bren's defense. He is the sweetest, most loving baby and never does any harm on purpose. He is so much fun and we all (including Kaeleb) think he is hilarious and laugh all the time at his antics. He just loves to have fun and thinks life is a game. He gets so excited about things that sometimes he's a bit over-exuberant.

On Thursday while I was packing Kaeleb brought me a toy that Bren had broken. He was visibly upset and said, "Look Mom! I found it just like this and Brennan did it!" I said, "Oh, I'm sorry Kaeleb, he doesn't mean to, he just doesn't know any better yet." He said "Well, don't ever have another baby like that one!"

I forced back a smile and said, "Kaeleb, I don't have any control over that, it's up to Heavenly Father." He resolutely stated, "Then I'm saying a prayer!"

He went to my bed and kneeled down. He began to pray, very sweetly at first, "Dear Heavenly Father, please don't send us another baby like this one. When you send another one please make it a calm one, "-at this point his voice became louder and more firm- "because this one is crazy and does things that are not good. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I had to leave the room so he wouldn't see me laughing. He felt better though and I have been laughing ever since about it.

I sure do love my guys.