Well, there went September...

This month has flown by in a flurry. We have not much to report since Brennan's birthday, besides a few snotty noses and a couple sore throats... and a root canal for poor Kwint.

So, I guess it is story time. The boys are growing more every time we look at them. Kaeleb is reading like a champ-- we are so proud of him. He likes school now and doesn't cry when I drop him off anymore-- what a relief!! He is a master colorer and never even goes outside the lines. If he does, he throws the picture away. Maybe a bit extreme.... Kaeleb loves doing his homework. Someday that will change. :)

Kaeleb spends most of his time outside of school playing with Batman and Robin. He talks to them as if they were here. He also loves to play his Leapster, especially a game called "Digging for Dinosaurs" which taught him all about the olde beasties. He now tells me interesting facts like this: "Tyrannosaurus Rex was a carnivore. Batman and me are omnivores, so are Dad and Brenny. You are an herbivore, but don't worry, you are not the only herbivore in our family because Robin is one too."

Brennan has had a rough week. His bottles went bye-bye and they are not coming back. We had a talk one night about bottles being for babies, and now that he is a big boy, they need to go bye-bye. He said "NO! They are not for babies! They not go bye-bye!" But he drank the last one and then he actually went and threw it in the garbage. Of course, the next day, he went looking for it and it was gone. Three or four times that day he cried "I need a bottle!" and we would say, "Bottles went bye-bye!" He would say "Why?" We answered "Because you are a big boy." Then he would say "Oh." and walk away. We have the same conversation about once a day now, but he has not pressed the issue. It was soooo much easier than we anticipated. He refused to drink milk now, but he will come around.

He is able to carry on full conversations with all of us these days. He has some really cute phrases and ways of saying things. He asks, "What's your doing?" or "What's your looking for?" He also loves to say "I love dat. It's my fwavwot." and "Look at dat! It's booful."

Brenny is still the rascally roo around here. He has broken so many of our things that he owes us all of his birthday money until he is 10. He is the bully in Nursery, it is so embarrassing. He routinely hits us all. But he is gaining a conscience now because he very lovingly says "I'm sorry" when he does these things. He is so snuggly and still has a quota to be filled with hugs and kisses. He tells us many times a day that he loves us. He sometimes says "I love you and I love your teeth." Or "I love your bracelet!" (or shoes or shirt, etc) He is extremely funny and fun to have around, so for all the sweetness and the joy, we'll take the naughtiness in the package and love him entirely.

Just at this moment, Kaeleb is going potty and I heard him yell, "Mom! Brenny stole my underwear!" He is such a tease.

I am working hard on my Personal trainer program. I have memorized the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous and skeletal systems, and now I am working on all 600+ muscles. Once you know Latin it is pretty easy. Too bad I don't know Latin. It has been really fun. We will see how buff I can get in the process of this program. (Not counting on it too highly.)

Kwint is ever working, learning and serving. He is pretty much the best person I have ever known and I appreciate his good example every day.

So, that is life at the Kemp house. We are enjoying cooler mornings and evenings, though it has still been up to 100 in the daytime. It makes me so mad. Seriously! It is the END of SEPTEMBER!!! In two days I put my shorts away. I refuse to wear shorts in October. I do this every year in some lame attempt to make a point to Mother Nature that it is supposed to be fall. So far it is not working. It just makes me sweat all month. I will not give up.

Happy Birthday Brenny! (Almost)

Our wild and wacky guy is two!! (Almost- his birthday is Monday but we celebrated today.) We had such a fun day!!

We started off with birthday pancakes. We sang to him and let him open his presents from us after breakfast.

He loved his Leapfrog toy and Rocket





We had lunch at the Brick Oven where they sang to him again. (He did not like it. He glared at them.)

Tonight we had his two friends, Jack and McKay, and their parents come for dinner and cake. The party was a Sesame Street theme so I had fun making a Cookie Monster cake, pictured below.

We had so much fun watching the boys play and being with our friends. Thanks for helping make his birthday special!

lots of learning

Kaeleb had a much better week at school. Less screaming but more whimpering when I dropped him off and he was happy when I picked him up. Phew. There is hope... except that this week there is no school for kindergarten because of Parent Teacher Conferences, so I will have to start all over after Labor Day. But now I know it will only take two weeks to get past the worst.

When I asked Kaeleb what he likes about school he said "All of it except PE." That is because his teacher leaves and he is afraid the PE teacher. His favorite thing is playing with the blocks in the teacher sidekick. (I don't know what that is.) His teacher, Mrs. Gower is super nice. He thinks Kayson and Breccan are funny but he doesn't want to play with anyone at recess because he says he has to walk around with his teacher to make sure she is ok.

Brennan has been quite the funny little guy. He calls me "dude". We converse back and forth like adults these days. He says, "I want a bottle." I say, "No, I don't think you need one right now." He says, "Yes, I need that blue one right there." I say, "When will you finally stop needing bottles?" He says, "No Mom. I need bottles."

I amazed by how much he can say and how much he understands. The best story from the week was when we were driving to the playgroup and I couldn't find the particular park it was at. I said "I can't find it Bren, we may be going home." He said "Say a prayer, Mom." Wise words from a not quite two year old!! I did. Then I called my friend and asked for directions!!

I finally decided what I want to be when I grow up! Next week I will embark on a 20 week training program to become a Certified Personal Trainer. I know I am no Jillian Michaels, nor am I the aggressive kick-your-butt type, but I love fitness and I know the impact losing weight has had on me and so I want to help others. Mostly though, it is a stepping stone because once I have my CPT I can get a certified as a Weight Management Consultant which is what I really want to do, and it will fit perfectly in the Wellness Program Kwint runs.

I will still want my college degree, but that will have to wait until the kids are bigger and this is something I can do now, with a little extra planning and less sleep.

Kwint has had a few interesting offers come his way. An old colleague of his has a private practice in Park City and has offered an office to Kwint. Living up there would be our dream come true, and it is a great bunch of clinicians. We are going up this weekend to tour the place and see how it feels. The only obstacle is selling our house, which, as we all know is a massive obstacle and may be the reason we stick around here in the desert. We are happy here, so we are really fine with either option.

He was also approached by a colleague to write some training manuals for a non-profit organization who said they would love to have him do more with them. That one would be awesome, too.

Also, Fitness Ridge, one of the weight loss spas where Kwint does lectures twice a week is teaming up with the Biggest Loser. Yes, the NBC Biggest Loser, my favorite show and actually the only one I ever watch... It is a super big deal. So, watch for it on TV next season. We love being a part of their program and would love to keep working with them. I hope they film Kwint giving a lecture. :)

So, big decisions and opportunities. The natives are getting restless without the constant attention they continually expect, so I guess it is time for me to read some kid books.

A long week

Well.... we had a long week full of great and not so great things.

First, the weekend of the 14th we had fun with Kwint's parents, Tam and Dave going to see Footloose at Tuacahn. They did an amazing job with it, as they always do. Tuacahn really is Broadway in the desert, as they say. The guy who played Ren could dance like nobody's business, and don't tell Kevin Bacon, but this guy was way better.

When we got home at midnight, the little nagging cough Kaeleb had been fighting all week turned into croup. He was wheezing so hard that he could barely breathe, so Kwint took him in to the Emergency Room where he had a breathing treatment and got a steroid. It was very sad and stressful to for our little guy. Not to mention the hundreds of dollars this will set us back, thanks to our dumb new high deductible, low premium insurance plan that was supposed to save us tons o' money. Ugh.

Sunday, lucky Kaeleb, still coughing but able to breathe, had another birthday party with Sadie, who turned 15 on Wednesday. That was fun. We love our family. It has been a tradition since Kaeleb was born to get a cake for both, decorated for her on one side and him on the other.

Speaking of Kaeleb and stress... Kindergarten has been a rough transition for him. He is the most stubborn person on the planet and has decided that he is only safe if he is attached to my hip. Therefore going anywhere away from me is absolutely out of the question. So, every day he hides under his bed and cries that he is scared and hates school. I have to pull him out by the leg and force his clothes on. Then he zips his lips when I try to brush his teeth and cries all the way to school, where his teacher has to rip him from my leg thrashing and screaming "Mama! Mama!" Then I walk away, hearing his cries from all the way outside and I feel HORRIBLE. I do my best to shake it off, but usually cry. Then I go pick him up and he is all smiles and tells me how fun it was, so I get this false hope that tomorrow will better. Oh no. Actually, today was a little easier. In the car he didn't cry, he just kept softly saying "Mommy, I am a little scared." But then he freaked at the classroom door. As if it isn't hard enough to let your kids go....

So, we let him relax all weekend. We went to the park where the boys rode bikes and we roller bladed, we had a BBQ with friends and hung out with my mom and her fiance.

Yes, I did say fiance. That is one great part of the week. My mom got engaged. She met a very nice man on an LDS singles site, named Gary who is from Blanding. His son lives in Cedar City, so they both came here and dated from our houses. It was fun to watch and they are very happy. They are not wasting any time and will be married on September 11 in Washington. Gary is very easy going and makes her laugh, and although I miss my dad immensely and feel sad that they can't grow old together, I am glad she won't grow old alone and I couldn't have picked a better guy than Gary if it were up to me.

Brenny has decided to stop napping. Unfortunately, he gets so tired he can't make it past 5pm. So he has been falling asleep until 7ish and staying up until 11. Not fun. Last night he fell asleep at 6:30 and slept until 6:30 this morning. We were amazed. We liked it. We are hoping the trend continues. Tonight we are aiming for 7:30 to 7:30. We shall see. Isn't he cute?

Kaeleb

This was Kaeleb's big week. On Tuesday our little "Oh" as we call him (long story for a little nickname) turned FIVE! We had so much fun! We let him open his presents after breakfast and it was all he could do to wait that long. He got an Indiana Jones costume and a Playmobil Castle set.

We had a little birthday party consisting of 10 boys and 2 girls... what was I thinking? 12 kids? Sheesh! It was really fun though. We had a Holy Grail relay race, a treasure dig in a bowl of snakes and a search for the Ark of the Covenant. All the kids were super good and so nice to Kaeleb. He loved all his presents and all the friends who came.

On Thursday he started Kindergarten. I got to go with him, as it was a 45 minute "get to know the classroom" type of day, and his first "real" day was today. Yesterday was peachy... but today, when I had to say goodbye was a bit harder. He wrapped himself around my leg and whimpered. It was the old "silently stubborn" approach. He didn't yell or cry out loud but he looked at me with pleading red-rimmed eyes and locked onto my leg like a clamp. The teacher's assistant came and rubbed his back saying soothing things but he was not going to let go. I finally pried him off and said "I know you are scared but you have to trust me that you will be safe. I love you, goodbye." and walked away. I looked at him through the window and he was still looking at me with those deer in the headlight eyes, and that is when I lost it.

I cried all the way to Target where I distracted myself by shopping for my niece's birthday.

I am really excited for some one on one time with the Brenster. I have been feeling so guilty because by the time Kaeleb was two he could sing the whole alphabet, knew all his shapes (including trapezoid and octagon), could count to 20 and knew all his colors. Meanwhile, the only colors Brenny knows are brown and blue, I had only heard him count to 2, the only shapes he knows are triangle and rectangle but he calls them both "tangle" so I am not sure if it counts, and he can only sing "ABC and XYZ".

So, I decided while Kaeleb is at school I would work on bringing him up to "speed" and after only one day we are cruising! He surprised me in Target, when I asked him to count how many Goldfish were in his bag and he counted to eleven. Who knew he could do that? On the way home we sang the ABC's and he got all the way to G and added W to the XYZ. He also started counting backwards today from 5 to 1. This is going to be fun! In his defense, he is physically advanced. He can balance and hop on one foot, put on his own shoes, tumble like crazy, and make shots in a 4 foot basketball hoop.

We love these guys!!

Brenny has been conversing fluently the last couple months. He frequently says things like "Look Mom, I hurt my foot, right here." or "Budder punched my face!" or "Daddy pulled my plug out!" (bathtub) His latest phrase is "It's my life!" I expected it at 17, but never expected it at not-quite-two. *Sigh*

Another faith promoting experience brought to you by a little child...

This weekend we escaped the heat again by going up to the cabin... where the high was 73 and we played outside all day!!! Ah, fresh air! Here are a few shots of the fun...
First, just cuz she's pretty, here's Dee

Next, Chris and Amy at the campfire

Here's Brenny with his foam padded weapon, which all of the little boys played with the entire time.

Me and the Brenster sitting around..

The guys putting up our tent, which we slept in half the night (or should I say, didn't sleep?) before we gave up and went to a comfy bed inside the cabin.

Here are the boys with said foam padded weapons

Here is Kaeleb sporting the sword...

I love this one of Krystal after she and Tate took turns dropping dirt on each others heads. :-)

Next, my main man Tate, who shares my affinity for chocolate chip cookies.


We had a great time there, and also really LOVED the shower when we got back to grandma's. We enjoyed our visit with Kwint's parents. Grandpa couldn't resist buying the boys Transformer Super Soaker squirt guns which are now their pride and joy, though they are so huge that they can't lift them when they are full of water.

Upon arriving home, Kwint came down with a really bad sinus infection and was on his way to pick up some antibiotics when we realized we had lost his debit card. The last place we remembered seeing it was at a gas station in Fillmore, so we were a bit nervous. We searched the wallets, the luggage, the cars... and finally said a prayer that God would help us find the card. I sat down to call the bank and report it lost when Brennan walked into the office and said "Here Dad." with the card in his cute little hand. He was unprepared for our reaction of utter joy and amazement and became very proud of himself.

I love answered prayers and knowing that He is listening, even to the small stuff.

24th of July fun

Pine Valley Hiking.... We wanted to escape the heat and look what we found!!
It was 65 and pouring rain!! We hiked the whipple trail and fell in love with the world all over again!!