Ice Skating

Today Jadon, Kierra, Jaxon and I went ice skating with some friends of ours. Jadon has been with the youth in our ward a few times but this was Kierra and Jaxon's first time. I use to go a lot when I was a kid but I have no idea how long it's been since I've been on ice skates.

Jadon, Kierra and I had a great time but it wasn't Jaxon's favorite thing he's ever done. He was really nervous to get on the ice and stayed along the wall the two times that he went around the rink. After he fell and pulled me on top of him, he was done. I was amazed at how much of what I learned in lessons as a kid, came back to me. Jadon and Kierra did really well and it was fun to skate around with them. I had a race with Jadon and beat him and that was really fun! I think it would be fun to sign Kierra up for skating lessons. I'm excited to go again sometime. I just wish Jaxon would have had a better time.

Taking Christmas Down

I have to admit that I am never sad to take the Christmas decorations down. By the time Christmas is over and there are new toys and presents that need to be put away, I just want my house organized again. I usually start taking Christmas down the day after Christmas but since it was Sunday this year, I waited one more day. The one thing I don't like taking down is the Christmas cards! As the Christmas cards start coming, I put them all on the back of our front door. I LOVE to get Christmas cards. It's the one time of year that I love to check the mail. I love to hear from my friends and see pictures of their families. It's sad for me to take down the pictures and have a bare door again. It's the last thing I take down and usually leave them up a day or so longer than everything else.

Christmas 2010

We had a fun Christmas season. Like always, December went by really fast. We had some fun family activities before Christmas. We went to Thanksgiving Point to see the lights. In the past, we have decorated gingerbread houses before Christmas. This year the kids came up with a different idea. We made plates. The kids designed and colored their own design that we will send in and have made into a plate. That was really fun. We did our annual Christmas Eve traditions. We went out to dinner and to a movie. We went to see Tangled which everyone loved! We came home and opened the annual Christmas Eve jammies and put the kids to bed at 9:00. Jake and Kyson were asleep by 9:05 but the other kids took a bit longer to fall asleep. The kids started waking up at 5:30 and they were all awake by 6:30. What ever happened to sleeping on Christmas?

Christmas morning was the usual loud, chaotic morning of excitement. Everyone was excited to see what Santa brought and open the presents they have been looking at that were under the tree. Jake and Kyson got remote control trucks that play laser tag with each other.

Jadon, Kierra and Jaxon all got guitars from Santa. Dale recently got his guitar out and they were fascinated with it and decided that they wanted to play. Santa brought the guitars with some "Teach yourself to play" DVD's. They are all excited to start learning together.

After we opened presents, we all had brunch. Gladys brought us tons of her yummy pepper jelly, which we enjoyed. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting toys out of their packages, putting batteries in toys and playing with all the new Christmas things. My favorite thing was watching home videos of my kids. For my Christmas gift, Dale transferred the last 15 years of video to a hard drive. He hooked them up to my new laptop and while he was doing that, he kept playing footage of my kids when they were little. I would be busy doing something and would walk by the computer and couldn't help but stop and watch. I can't believe how much they have all grown up! I really miss them being little. Dale made a compilation of several Christmas mornings with the kids and we watched that. What a wonderful gift!

Sweet little Katie had fun on Christmas. Santa brought her a double stroller with twin babies that she immediately named Katie and Macey. She loved pushing them around all morning. Since she got up so early, she was back to bed by 11:00 for a much needed nap! We went to my mom's that night for dinner and the family gift exchange. It was a long, fun day and I'm sad, like always, that Christmas is over. I am very thankful for everything I am blessed with. I love my family very much. I am happy that we live in such a great neighborhood with good friends and neighbors. I hope this next year will be a good one for our family!

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Last night we went to see Kyson's kindergarten Christmas program. He was very excited to get all dressed up and he thought it was cool that he looked like the commisioner (what he wants to be when he grows up).

There were 6 classes of Kindergarten children and tons and tons of parents. It was so funny to see all the parents taking pictures and videos. The kids were adorable too. They kept standing up and waving at their families. I lost track of how many songs they sang but it was a lot and they knew them very well. It was a very cute program.

Kyson and Taeya are not in the same class but they really wish they were. They play together every day at recess. Maybe next year they will get to be in the same class together.

Christmas Concert

Last night we went out with a group of our friends. We went to Tepanyaki for dinner and then to see the group "Voice Male" perform. We had such a great time. We have never eaten at Tepanyaki before. It was good and very entertaining. The concert was awesome! The group was very entertaining and made us all laugh. The music was great and put us all in the Christmas spirit. I'm glad that we have such a great group of friends to hang out with!

Christmas Club Night

Last night I went out with my friends who I get together with once a month. We call it "Club". It use to be called Rook club because we would get together and eat dinner and play Rook. Somehow we stopped playing Rook so it is now just called Club. We usually take turns hosting and make dinner in our home. For December we go out to a nice restaurant and then go Christmas shopping. Last night we went to Ruby River. It was yummy!

Here we are in the car on the way to Target. Don't worry, we were stopped when we took the picture. We had so much fun and laughed all night long! Mostly at the expense of Michelle. Sorry Michelle! You know we love you! We went to Target, ToysRUs and Kohls. It is so much fun to go shopping with a bunch of crazy ladies. We have a great time together!

I really look forward to going out with "Club" ladies each month. Sometimes we don't talk between the months that we see each other at club but it doesn't matter. We just pick up where we left off the month before. We have so much fun together and I am glad to call them my friends!

Kyson's Birthday

Kyson is now 6 years old. For weeks before his birthday he was very excited. He looked at the calendar every day and told me how many days until his birthday. We let him open his presents right after he got home from school and then we went to Burger King for dinner and came home and had cake and ice cream. He said he wants to have a party with his best friends who are Jared, Kamryn and Taeya (all cousins) so we are going to go to Jump and Bounce when Katie's stent is removed.

Kyson is a great kid! He is doing very well in school. He has really changed this year and has come out of his shell. His best friend is really his brother Jake. They do everything together and never ever fight. Kyson watches out for Jake. He is always reminding him what he needs to do, especially in the morning when he's getting ready for school. Kyson is almost always the first one ready in the morning. He is very good about knowing what needs to be done and doing all of it without being asked.

Kyson is a pretty happy kid who observes everything. I will frequently notice him just watching whatever is going on in our house. He has a great smile and a cute little giggle. He's my little buddy and I will miss him when he goes to 1st grade and is gone all day. Happy Birthday Kyson. We love you!

Two Years Old

Katie turned two on Friday! I can't believe how fast she is growing up! We have really enjoyed her sweet spirit in our home. She is at such a cute stage of life. She talks like crazy and is very expressive when she talks. I wish I could video tape her every day so I could catch those expressions on tape. Unfortunately, every time I try to tape her she just smiles and says "Cheese!"

She still loves babies. She can't get enough of them! Anytime we go somewhere and we see a baby, she says "I want to hold him!" She almost always has one of her baby dolls in her arms. It is so cute to watch her talk to them. When we left the hospital, we told her to say goodbye to the babies she was playing with. As she set them down, she hugged them, patted them on the back and said "It's Ok". The nurses got a real kick out of that.

Katie always loves to go places. I can't ever leave the house without her saying "Katie coming". She refers to herself in 3rd person all the time and she knows how to get what she wants. If she wants something, like gum, she will tilt her head and smile as she says "Katie wants just one gum, please, please....pretty please". Who can resist that?

We are so thankful that she is recovering from her surgery and that the doctors were able to fix her. She got an infection after her surgery and has to be on an antibiotic and she REALLY doesn't like it. Every time I try to give her the medicine, she covers her mouth and tries to run away. The other day I told her it was time to give her the medicine and she started crying and said "I'm sick of it!" I was laughing too hard to be able to give her the medicine. We celebrated her birthday at McDonalds because she said she wanted to eat chicken and fries and go down slide. She is very good at playing by herself. She will sit and play with toys for a long time. I love to listen to her being the mommy to whatever she is playing with. Sometimes I just watch her and think how lucky we are to have her. We all love her so much!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I was able to go into Kyson's Kindergarten class to help with their Thanksgiving Feast. Each child is suppose to bring in a finger food like pretzels, marshmellows, cookies, olives, popcorn etc... to share with their friends and then they all eat together while listening to music. They all had a great time and it was so fun to watch Kyson with his friends. I love Kindergarteners! They are so sweet and everything is so fun to them! One of the little kids said "This is the best Thanksgiving dinner I have ever had!"

Football in the snow

We were all so excited for the first real snowstorm of the season. We sat around and watched it snow and listened to Christmas music.

Then Jadon and Jaxon decided to take Jenny outside and play football. They had such a great time. They came in once their gloves were all wet, got new gloves, then went back outside.

They stayed outside for quite a long time. When they came in, they had red cheeks, wet hair and clothes and big grins on their faces. It's so much fun for me to watch my kids have fun together!

Katie's home!!!

This is Katie after we first checked in to the hospital and got her hospital jammies on. She was so excited because she was being allowed to have her binky. At home, she only has it to sleep. She was very pleasant and calm all morning as we waited to go into surgery. We gave her a drug called versaid, which makes her very out of it but not asleep, right before they took her off to surgery so that she wouldn't freak out as they took her away from us. she was in surgery for 4.5 hours. It actually went by pretty fast. There were a lot of people in the waiting room that were very interesting.

Here is her incision. The little tube coming out of it is called a stent and is too drain urine out of her body. It will be left in for two weeks.

This was taken when I was allowed to be with her in recovery. It was so good to see her and be able to kiss her sweet face!

It took her a while to wake up and when she did, she wasn't very happy. She cried about everything. When her binky dropped on the floor, she cried like someone died. Tears streaming down her face and loud sobs. She had a horrible night! She cried a lot and would only sleep if I was holding her. So, I sat in a rocking chair and held her most of the night. In the morning, they switched her from morphine to lortab and she did much better. She slept for 3 hours.

When she woke up, she got out of her bed and was walking around. She was talking and playing. It was great! She wanted some chicken and fries so we got that for her and took her for a ride to the cafeteria so we could eat lunch together.

She was thrilled when we took her to the playroom! She immediately found the babies and started playing with them. She had a great time. Since she kept her lunch down and was up and playing, they decided she could go home. We were really surprised that she only had to stay in the hospital for one night!

When we got home, she saw some salad in the fridge and she wanted it. She was shoveling it into her mouth as fast as she could. She showed it to grandma and said "Look at this salad Grandma, it's cute!" Everyone laughed and we were all happy to have our cute little Katie home!

Katie's surgery

I am feeling a little anxious and nervous as Katie is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. She has urinary reflux that is going to be repaired tomorrow. She is having surgery at Primary Children's and will be in surgery for 4.5 hours. It makes me nervous to think of her being cut open and I won't be there with her. The thought of leaving her with total strangers and trusting them to make her feel safe makes me sad. I'm sure we will get through all of this and she will be fine but I will feel so much better when it is all over and I will be able to hold her.

Kierra playing Volleyball

We have finally found something that Kierra loves. We have always felt bad that the boys are so involved in sports and haven't been able to find something that she has an interest in. Well, she loves volleyball. She signed up with Kamry, Kayla and 3 of her friends. They have had a great time together. They have an AWESOME coach and have really improved throughout the season. I just wish they could keep the same coach. The problem is that his son, who was on the team, is a year younger than them and next year they will move up to the next age division. I just hope they will continue to play together because they really have a great time together!

The 3 K's. Kayla, Kierra and Kamry. The coach had a horrible time dealing with their names. He wanted them to use their middle names but that didn't work either since 2 of them have the same middle name. He finally got use to their names and we have one game left.

Jake in Harmony

This was Jake's first year in Harmony and he was our only child who decided to do it this year. Sometimes it was a bit of a challenge getting him to school an hour early for practice but it was worth it! the theme this year was "Let's sing America". I love patriotic songs! Jake did a great job. He did especially well signing The Star Spangled Banner. They had a special performance on Veterans Day. It was touching to see the kids sing in honor or all of our veterans. I was happy to hear that he wants to keep doing Harmony because I love to watch my kids perform.

Yardwork at Grandma & Granddad's

Recently I decided that I was going to go to my mom's house once a week to help her with whatever she needed done around the house or yard. This week she needed her raspberry bushes trimmed down. Dale thought it might be a good service oppurtunity for our kids, so we took them along to help out. It only took 10 or 15 minutes to cut back the raspberry bushes so we decided to rake their leaves.

The kids needed a little bit of encouragement to get working. Just like when I was a kid, my mom tried to do what she could to make it fun for them. She kept bringing different yard gadgets out that the kids thought were cool so they were more excited about working.

Jake and Kyson loved picking up leaves with the big claw like grabbers and Jadon loved playing with the blower they have.

They ended up being pretty good about working and we filled up 7 big black garbage bags with leaves. The sad thing about it is that next week the grass will be covered with leaves again!

First Piano recital

Tonight was Jadon, Kierra and Jaxon's first piano recital. It was also their teacher's first recital. She has been teaching Jadon for 4 years and has never had a recital. This year I decided to ask her why she doesn't do recitals. She says she has several students who refust to play in front of people. I told her that's exactly why they need to do it. I guess I guilted her into because she decided to have a recital. Jadon, Kierra and Jaxon all did a great job and it was fun to watch them play on the beautiful grand piano. After it was over, I asked their teacher if she was glad she had the recital and she said she was. Maybe that means we'll get to do this again next year.

Happy Halloween

So another Halloween has come and gone. We got to do something this year that we have never done before. Go to the school Halloween parade. Since we changed tracks this year, the kids got to go to school for Halloween. It was fun to see all the kids dressed up and the parade was fun too. On Friday Dale and I went to our annual neighborhood Halloween party. If you can't tell by the picture above, we went as "The Wilsons". Dale came up with the idea. I thought it was pretty clever!

Katie as a little ladybug. She had a blast trick or treating. Too bad the weather was so bad. I made her go home when her hands were freezing. She was mad and didn't want to go home. She wanted to get more candy.

Kierra as a UTE cheerleader. Several houses gave her extra candy because of the Utah costume. What's funny about her costume is that she is actually a BYU fan.

Kyson as Batman

Jake as Captain America

There isn't a picture of Jaxon on this post because I blogged about him in the last post. Jadon was at his friends and then went to a haunted house so no picture of him either. So, after everyone was done trick or treating, they did the usual. Trading candy. They spent over an hour going over everything they got and then trading it. It was fun watching them because it brought back memories of doing that as a kid.

One of my favorite costumes!

Here is Jaxon yesterday, dressed like he always is, in a sports jersey. Doing what he loves to do, playing basketball (or any sport). The kid is 100% into sports and that's how we know Jaxon.

Here is Jaxon today. Once we couldn't find football pads for a Halloween costume, he decided he would be a nerd. What a great costume! All we had to buy was the glasses, bowtie and pocket protector. Dale helped him get ready for school today and when he came out of the bathroom, I busted up. I couldn't believe what a great nerd he made. When I went to help in his classroom for the Halloween party, I lauged every time I looked at him. One of my favorite costumes so far!