Halloween

This blogging once a month thing doesn't work so well for me... I can't remember what happened this morning, much less last month, so here are a few pics to jog my memory & get something in.Kwint & Kris wore these while trick or treating. In the dark all you could see was the floating skull.


Here are the rest of us trick or treating from the back of Grandpa's car.
On Halloween day the boys made a fort and Kaeleb read books to Brennan.
Here is McKay, our favorite little friend, the weekend we saw Thriller.
Brennan came downstairs wearing this get up-- the knight-pirate-ninja-superman-Jones (He also had the Indiana Jones whip two steps up).


We went to the Cornbelly's corn Maze and got lost.


But we found ourselves.
Brennan and I went on a filed trip with some neighbor friends to the Jordanelle Fire Dept. I thought he would be super excited but he was really shy. This is me trying to talk him into spraying the firefighters hose.
This is a picture of a beautiful hike we went on.
Our Halloween Family: Harry Potter, Sneaky Ninja, Vampiress & Vampire.

Fall Happenings

Oh... I don't love it when I fall behind! We have been so busy and it is always so hard to catch up on the blogging!! So, let's skip the small talk and review (as briefly as possible) a few of the things we have been doing for the last 3 weeks.
Kaeleb and our cute neighbor Paizlee have played a lot of Harry Potter. These are their broomsticks:We took a day-trip to the cabin with some family and friends... On the way we had to stop and take pics of the beautiful changing leaves. Of all the things we missed while living in St. George, Autumn makes the top of the list.
I didn't take many pictures at the cabin because I was so preoccupied with Baby Trev! This is our dear friends, Dan and DeAnne's new little guy. Brennan is watching me blog and just said "I miss Baby Trev, Mom!" Which is funny, because we went to his blessing today and it has only been 3 hours since he saw Baby Trev.
One of my best high school friends & her family spent a weekend with us. (You can see her daughter throwing a fit in the background! That is pretty funny.) This is my Laurie, and she is just as funny as she was 15 years ago. Her husband and 3 kids were such fun to have around. Kwint said it felt like a party the whole time, just to have them here.
Kaeleb is now an official martial artist. He is taking karate at Kobayoshi Studios here in Heber. He loves it!! It looks a lot like cardio kickboxing to me, which I think is loads of fun, but next year they say it gets more technical. I am so glad he loves it and hope will stick with it until he old enough for Aikido, which is Kwint's martial art of choice.
Over conference weekend we spent some good time with Gpa and Gma. They came up to Heber so that Kwint and his Dad could attend the Priesthood session together. While they were being spiritually enlightened, we were making Halloween crafties. Wooden bats and mummies now adorn their bedroom.

Last Friday Barbi watched Brennan for me in the morning and Kwint took Brennan to the cabin in the afternoon so that I could go with Kaeleb on the 1st grade field trip to Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. We had a whole lot of fun. We watched a real pig race, went on a hayride, played on slides, and got to pick out our own pumpkins. I was so glad to be able to go and Kaeleb was super excited and bubbly. We sat down on the bus and he said "mom, I would like to just sit here and chit chat with you." In that moment I knew I was right where I belonged.
Yesterday we went to Saige's birthday party/Halloween costume party. Here we have the necromancers, grandpa and grandma, a cowgirl Aunt Marie, Harry Potter Kaeleb and Brennan the Ninja, or as he calls himself "A Inja". He said "Don't watch me when I go sneaking."
Kwint had the camera all night and we didn't get a picture of him , which I am very sad about because he looked super good. But, here is a close up of Harry (he won the contest for "Smartest Costume")
And, I am sorry I was too lazy to rotate it and I can't figure out how to do it once it has loaded here, but but this is the Inja up close and personal. He got the prize for "Most likely to sneak off with your stuff".
Last and least, this is one half of the vampire couple. We got these creepy looking teeth that look so real-- they mold right onto the canines and click on and off. By the way, that is a sombrero in the background, not my hat. I wish I had time to load pictures of everyone- there were some great costumes, but alas it is bedtime.

Happy Birthday Brennan!

Happy Birthday Brenny Guy! Today, our baby, who is sooo not a baby, turns 3. We celebrated on Saturday with a Buzz Lightyear party. Brennan loved Toy Story 3 and we have been talking about a Buzz party ever since.

Brenny loved his Space Ranger Station cake.


Here are a few of the party attendees: Krystal, Grandma, Bailee, Brennan, and in the background, Talan, Daddy, and Grandpa. I thought this was a sweet moment.


He got some really nice presents this year... A Leapfrog Leapster (so they can stop fighting over Kaeleb's)from money pooled by Mommy & Daddy, Nana & Great Aunt Marie...


Toy Story's big Buzz Lightyear that shoots lasers and speaks English and Spanish, a little green Toy Story Alien and a fuzzy Toy Story blanket from Mommy & Daddy...


Grandpa and Grandma gave him clothes and a Playmobil pirate ship. We love Playmobil around here, and this ship is amazing!


I still need to get a picture of his all time favorite present from Kris & Barbi-- a sword and shield. Yes, he has 15 or 20 swords already, but this one takes the cake and he has slept with it every night, and scarcely lets it leave his sight.

He was super cute when opening presents. He is an enthusiastic little chap and every present warranted a very loud and emphatic "Oh, Thank You Berry Much!! It is what I wanted for so long!" I love his gusto for life!

Speaking of gusto, before we finished singing to him, he had already blown out the candle, so this is the best picture I could get of the "make-a-wish moment".


Grandma brought make-it-yourselves candy necklaces for a fun little activity.


Last, while I was decorating the cake, Brenny begged me to let him help. Now, I know that my cakes are not professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I could only imagine the cake he would have if he did it himself, so I gave him graham crackers and let him at it with the leftover frosting. Ta Da!


Brennan is the spice of our lives. He is not quiet by any means, and never gets bored. His happiness is contagious and Daddy always refers to him as "exuberant". Indeed, he is. He gets excited about everything. Tonight while I was cooking dinner he was playing on the front porch. He yelled "Mom! Mom! Get out here!" I went out to see him pointing up to the sky. "Look Mom!" He yelled. "Up there! It's a berry DEEP storm cloud!"

Brennan loves deeply and snuggles us as much as he can. Every day at one o' clock we watch Sesame Street so I can take a nap. Until this week we were having a problem that as soon as I fell asleep he got lonely and woke me up. Now, I hold him while I sleep and he snuggles in without a peep for the whole show & I get a whole hour nap! Last night during FHE I complimented him on his reverence (it is rare, believe me) and how we could all feel the Holy Ghost in our home when he and Kaeleb are reverent. He put both his little hands on my cheeks and said quietly. "Mom. That makes me want to snuggle you." I love him so much.

Since he missed the preschool deadline by 2 weeks, I have him all to myself this whole year, and I am loving it more every day. I loved my one on one time with Kaeleb before Brennan was born, and now it is Bren's turn. He is so much fun and so energetic. We have a place to go or an activity of sorts every morning and each afternoon, after I take my nap during Sesame Street, we do "school". I am teaching him a new letter every week. So far, he has got Aa and Bb down pat. By March he will know them all.

How grateful I am for the day, three years ago, that Brennan came into this world and stole our hearts. None of us will ever be the same!

School Days!

I really haven't blogged for 3 weeks? Yikes!

I can't remember anything from that long ago, so I will just pick up with what's current, and that is... FIRST GRADE!!

Kaeleb started 1st grade last Thursday. I love my little Guy. He was very nervous the night before. Going to bed he was a motormouth of "What-ifs". "Mom, what if I get lost? What if I cry? Do you think I will cry? Do you think I will be embarrassed if I cry? Do you think anyone else will cry? Do you think I won't be embarrassed if someone else cries too? What if I can't find the bathroom? What if I can't find the lunchroom?"

Thursday morning I dropped him off and I could tell he was scared, but he didn't cry! He gulped and said a shaky, "Bye Mom!" I left wondering what the heck is wrong with America that we leave our tiny little, terrified, innocent six-year-old children with a school full of strangers for 7 and 1/2 hours a day, and I was ready to start home schooling right then and there.

It didn't help at all when I picked him up after school and he said "My teacher is really stern and I am so tired. School is too long." Or, when the next day he said, "My teacher isn't just stern, she is MEAN. And nobody wants to play with me at recess." I was so sad! I prayed about it a lot over the weekend and had such a good feeling that it would be ok, and that it was just his first day jitters.

I was right. He has bounced out of school every day this week, happy and excited. He has said for two days in a row, "Everything was good today! Not even was tiny thing was bad about school today!" I went and volunteered on Tuesday, so I got to see his teacher in action and she is not mean, but she is very strict and structured and doesn't like it when they don't listen well. That is fine with me and now that he is used to her style, he likes her. Kaeleb is making friends and loving the kids in his class. They are all really cute.

Kwint is also doing really great with his work. He has literally pounded the pavement marketing this month and is getting busier every day. His partner in Park City, Max, said that summer is always slow in PC and we would see things pick up in September. We were still nervous, but we reminded ourselves that the Lord sent us here and would back us up and He really has. I guess PC people go on vacation all summer and then come back needing therapy for spending 3 months with their families. (Just kidding) We are very grateful that God opened this door for us. Kwint is very happy with his work, happier than I have ever seen him.

So, when I left SG after serving in the nursery and as the ward choir director, I was looking forward to a little R&R, and spiritual enlightenment in Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society. While we were in Layton, however, I spent most Sundays in Nursery trying to help Bren with his separation anxiety. Once we got here we thought we'd really get him trained up to go on his own, which he is finally doing, albeit reluctantly. It's a miracle! Well.... after church on Sunday I was extended a calling.... in the Nursery. I can't believe it! I had this moment of thinking "Are you kidding me? No rest for the weary? Really? Nursery?" But I am actually really excited about it. There are going to be 67 kids nursery age soon, so they split it into 3 nurseries and they will have them rotate between 3 classes. I am going to be in charge of music time. I learned a few tricks from the music lady in Layton and from a music class I took Brennan to this week, and I am already so excited about it that I want to invite my neighbors to bring their toddlers to my house once a week for a little Toddler music class. I am going to bring a variety of instruments and little pictures on popsicle sticks (kids love those) and also get them dancing.

Kwint is still calling-less, but hoping soon to have a job. He has been Mr. Service Man around the neighborhood to make up for it. He sees people out working in the yard or moving furniture and rushes out to help as often as he can.

We are hoping to have pictures of our red fireplace wall next week. It is not red yet. I am still building the courage, but I plan to paint on Saturday. Then I have a couple hallways to paint tan, the master bedroom brown and the boys' room blue. Guest room and office are still undecided.

Kaeleb Turns Six

We had a wonderful week. The pictures loaded randomly and I am too lazy to move them around, so here is our week in a random fashion...

Actually, this is a few weeks old, but this is Kwint's new Dodge Nitro. We love it! It drives like a car but will be sturdy in the snow, which is why we bought it. Now we are a double Dodge family.

Friday night Kwint took me to see Jack Johnson. He has been our favorite artist for years. He chills us out and helps us relax. Brenny spent all his colicky nights listening to us sing along to Jack as he cried. It is the only thing that sorta calmed him down.

This is us, sitting on our blanket waiting for the show to start. He really puts on a good show. Jack is so laid back and makes it look so easy to be ultra mega talented. We both agreed that in ten years, it was the best date we have ever been on. The kids were even great with the babysitter!

NOW, for the BIG story of the week.... KAELEB'S BIRTHDAY!!
Like I said, these are in a random order, but we had such a fun party. We opted to keep it small, since we had not had a party at our house and weren't sure we could house many people, but boy, did we have fun!! Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Marie came to support his big day, as did Kris and Barbi and Dan and Dee with all the kids. We had 9 kids in total, which is perfect for a party.
Our first pic was one of the last I took, and I just couldn't not include it in this post. Tate, my buddy in the affinity for chocolate... Look at that face!

Kaeleb's party theme was the movie, "How To Train Your Dragon". We all loved it, it is a super cute show. So, I made the cake and put Kwint in charge of the games. So, of course, he went to the cabin and brought back LARP props. They played dragon freeze tag, a Vikings vs. Dragons bean bag toss, and Viking, viking, dragon (variation on duck, duck, goose). They had the best time and Kaeleb was so excited that Kwint did so much for him.




Here is our little viking in one of his new presents. He has wanted this little get up since the movie came out. He has been wearing it every day. :)

ANd, now for the cake. I love how it turned out. I am a simple girl, so it had to be easy, but all the kids loved it. I used my round Pyrex containers. I usually have leftovers in them, but they are oven safe and perfectly tiered, so I turned the little cakes upside down and hollowed the top one out to make it a crater.

Lastly, we have a shot of Kaeleb opening his gifts. I always love how all the kids gather around and get so excited.

Kaeleb was very happy and grateful for how his day turned out. We love him more and more. He is so imaginative and fun to have as a son. He is smart, sensitive and silly. He has always been our little intellectual, asking questions, taking things literally and understanding life in a way beyond his years.

Kaeleb and I have started reading Harry Potter together. It takes a half hour or more to get through a chapter because he asks so many questions! He loves it though, and it is fun for me to have this new way to connect with him. I have realized that he is growing up and doesn't "need" Mommy in all the ways that he used to, but we do still need each other and this feels like a good way to show it. Oh, how we love our boy!

Kwint took the boys for a hike one evening while I studied, and came back with these cuties:




I love life lessons. We have really felt uplifted by the Lord this week and are learning to relax and trust Him. Well, ok, Kwint relaxed and I relaxed as much as I am capable of. Ha ha! Kwint has been a busy bee managing his current caseload and marketing. He is working hard and I am really proud of him. The week turned out to be pretty good. We are thankful that the Lord hears our prayers!

We really do love Heber. The valley is beautiful and the summer weather has been fun. Almost every day this week it has either started out sunny and ended with a thunderstorm, or started with a storm and ended with sunshine. Kris said this happens a lot in August. I love summer rain!

Reality Checks

There are some weeks that I re-read my blog and think life couldn't get much better. And then there are weeks that feel like a slap in the face. This week was one of those.

BUT, we are learning!! We lost a major referral source and spent the week marketing and brainstorming how we can drum up enough business to make up for what we lost. There is so much potential in Kwint's career and we have a lot that we can do, it will just take some extra work and time. We are willing to work, and in the meantime we will keep learning.

I also suddenly got very homesick for my friends in St. George. I read all of your blogs and got so sad!! I was ready to hop in the car and drive down. I couldn't come on moving day like I wanted to, and I think it will be September before we can make it down and it is really pulling on my heartstrings.

We didn't take any pictures this week, but even during our challenging week we were able to spend the weekend with cousins and wonderful friends. It feels good to love and be loved, and no matter what, we know that we are richly blessed in everything that matters.

The big news from our house this week is that Brennan has officially decided (by way of persuasion) that he is a big boy and will never wear another diaper. WOO HOO!! Brennan has been very anti-potty. We have tried for 6 months to talk him into it and he just kept saying "No!" No matter how I tried to bribe him, nothing would convince him. On Friday I was making the grocery list and said "I am so sick of buying diapers. Don't think we could talk him into potty training?" So, Kwint said, "Hey Brennan, we ran out of diapers so you'll have to wear underwear now." For some crazy reason, that is what finally worked.

Friday we went through 5 pairs of undies, yesterday 3, and today only one so far. He woke up dry both mornings. I am truly pleased. I can no longer stand the smell of the garbage can.