Alayna's Project 365

2012 Week 6

2012-02-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

Hard at work on cards for Valentines Day. It took 2-3 sessions to get all of them done as we have a lot of people on the list to send things to. Sometimes it's hard work being well-loved :)

Kaitlyn had a great report card (did I mention that? I think I forgot to last week) and added some more awards to her collection at the awards assembly this week. She didn't get the medal she was shooting for (some sort of Character award that only goes to one child per class) but she did get certificates for Bookworm, Music, and perfect attendance (yeah perfect attendance - has she really not been sick enough to skip school all year? yay).

2012 Week 5

2012-02-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

Urgh. Looks like the only photos I took this week are product photos of costum orders. Oh boy. Not surprising as the past week really was just kind of a blur of normalcy with no giant ups or downs to note. Some weeks are like that. I'm making a promise to myself right now though, to make a point of taking out the camera as much as possible this week.

2012 Week 4

2012-01-30T09:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a fun week. Tyler's first full week in PreK was a big success. I already feel so much better about the experience he is getting with the new teachers. And they make a point of telling me how well he does each day. He's happier and much more well behaved and helpful.

I managed a small craft session with friends one morning this week. I really look forward to things like that and this one was no exception.

The kids discovered that I had pulled the scrapbooks out of hiding and were having fun one day looking at their baby books. I am struck quite often lately by how much and how fast they have grown. Look at the difference in size of those two little hands.

Tyler's latest pose. I can't remember what he calls it, but it's obvious when he does it that he thinks he's got to be the cutest thing ever :)

Saturday, I think, was the best day of the week. The weather was fantastic and all the kids in the neighborhood all played happily together outside. Sam was working on a closet for a buddy and they both spend the morning working with power tools in the garage. I did my thing, keeping busy. In the afternoon we took the Flat Stanley a cousin had sent down to the base for some photos by the planes on display. Then we went out to dinner, which happened to be the most successful dinner out we've had in a long time. Kaitlyn has been a super star with trying new foods lately and not only did she try Sam's salad (complete with bleu cheese!) and his steak (rare), but she ate her entire order of ribs and a handful of brown bread rolls (another new discovery for her - that different types of bread are really good). We were amazed and so happy. Tyler was on board too, though on his level. He gamely tried the chicken strips and discovered that though they look different than nuggets, they are still good. I feel like we are totally winning this battle and it feels good.

2012 Week 3

2012-01-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

Sam turned 32 this week! We celebrated with a nice dinner at home and pie with candles for dessert on his birthday, then celebrated again on the weekend with dinner out at Texas Roadhouse. And we let him buy himself a router. That's like the ideal birthday for guys, right? Steak and tools ;)

And there are my cuties. I love them.

*the only other thing I want to note from this week is that there was a bit of an upset at Tyler's preschool. More than a little actually, as the program that runs Tyler's preschool pulled all the students from the daycare center where he was going to class. It was weeks in the making, and the story is more involved than I care to repeat, but it came to a head and the move happened rather quickly this week. The program arranged for the kids to be in a new class at the Elementary school in town and Tyler started his first day there on Friday. We couldn't be happier. Tyler has been asking more and more often when he would get to go to Kaitlyn's school anyway. And already I'm so much happier with the teachers and the set up. (except for the drop off line - that thing is a nightmare and I will avoid it, park and walk him in from now on)

2012 Week 2

2012-01-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

In attempt to get ahead of what seems to be an endless round of celebrations starting in October and carrying on through Father's Day (really - I'm exhausted by then!), the kids and I spent some time making heart shaped crayons to give to their classmates for Valentines Day. It turned out to be a rather time consuming project, what with waiting for each batch to melt then cool again but the kids enjoyed it. Tyler liked putting the colors in the tray, while Kaitlyn seemed to prefer chopping up the old crayons into little pieces. (My guess is because it made her feel very big to be allowed to use the steak knife to do so)

It was a long weekend due to Martin Luther King Day. It also happened to be the weekend of my friend Audrey's birthday and since her husband is out of town she and her kids came for a visit and we made the most of our extra time off.

The kids have been doing really well with trying new foods and had each earned a fun activity. So Saturday morning we took them bowling, which is always a lot of fun. They are both getting good enough to bowl on their own and give us (or at least me - Sam bowls once a week) a little competition too. Audrey and the kids arrived in the afternoon and as soon as everyone was settled Sam was good enough to watch all the kids (except the baby - we figured we would get more time out and about if she was with us) while Audrey and I went out to dinner and did a little shopping. It was really great.
On Sunday we split our time between photos sessions of Lillian for her first birthday and crafting while the kids played. Photos have to work on baby time if you want to be truly happy with the results, so it kind of stretched out into most of the day as we worked on getting things set up then catching her in a good mood or creating one. We left the cake smash session until after her naptime and I have to say, it was a blast. Everyone gathered in the sun room to watch and she provided us with a good 15 minutes of entertainment.
Monday was our day to take the kids to the Children's Museum. Too bad we hadn't known about the MLK march in the area and ended up getting frustrated by traffic and unable to find parking. We ended up parking in a empty lot a few blocks away and having a picnic lunch in the back of the Yukon. By the time we were finished we were able to find closer parking and went on to enjoy the afternoon at the museum - even if it was more crowded than we would have liked.

2012 Week 1

2012-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2012! Sam's promotion was official on the first so he is now a Tech Sargeant - yay! (Need to take a photo of him in his uniform with the new patch)

We have spent the first week of the year working on getting back to normal. The kids went back to school on Monday, Sam went back to work on Tuesday, and Grandma flew home on Wednesday.

The other big news for the week is that we have started really pushing the kids to try new things. They were getting way too picky and our lives don't need to be that hard. So we came up with a reward system and it seems to be work even better than we could have hoped! We thought that Kaitlyn would be willing to make some deals and that we'd have to rely more on hiding veggies for Tyler and making sure any snacks he has are high in nutrients. As it turns out, Tyler is even more enthusiastic to try new things than his sister and comes home from preschool every day ready to try something new for lunch. Lots and lots of happy dancing going on here! He thinks it's fun and not only does he try the new foods but he likes almost all of them and is enthusiastic to have them again. (it doesn't hurt that we try to get him to eat things we are pretty sure he will like, like grilled cheese and mac and cheese and pizza) One day he said in his happy little voice "5 year olds are big and very brave to try new things!"

I think Kaitlyn was getting a little frustrated that her brother was doing so well with it, especially when he started earning rewards that she couldn't get yet. I think the competition is a good little push added in there for her. And Tyler is a sweetie. When he earned his first fun activity for trying 5 new foods and picked bowling, he also said that instead of picking myself or Sam to take him while the other stayed home with Kaitlyn, he wanted to wait and go bowling when Kaitlyn had tried her 5 things and could come with us.

These are the sticker charts for the kids. The rewards we have set up so far are for every 3 in a row that they try something new, they get to pick dessert. For every 5 items tried they get a fun activity (doesn't have to be in a row). We write down everything they try in either the Tried It, or Liked it columns and for every 5 in the Liked It Column, they get $5. And when both kids hit 30 new things we all get to go to Great Wolf Lodge (an indoor water park) for a weekend. We're hoping they keep this up so we can go the end of Feb/first part of March.

2011 Week 52

2012-01-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

Final week of 2011! And with both Christmas and New Years, what a fun-packed week it was!(I'm going to extend the photos a couple days past my usual week limit to include all of 2011) Christmas Eve was spent at home. The kids were very happy with their new pjs and even loved taking photos in front of the Christmas tree. They were SO excited for Santa to come that Kaitlyn put Tyler to bed herself (had him brush his teeth, sent him downstairs to us for hugs and kisses, then read him a story in his bedroom) earlier than their usual bedtime. We thought this would lead to at least one of the kids coming down later with an "I can't sleep" excuse but we didn't hear a peep out of them after that.

They slept until shortly after 6:00 the next morning, which meant Sam and I were waking up already at that point - very nice! I love Christmas morning, and this one was pretty much perfect. The kids got exactly what they wished for from Santa and loved the gifts from everyone else. Sam did our traditional Gingerbread waffles for breakfast and we all spent some time hanging out in pjs and playing with all the new stuff. Later we went out for a walk/bike ride so Kaitlyn could try out her new bike. And later we watched one of the kids' new movies and made the round of phone calls to family members back in Utah.
The kids were absolute angels the next couple of days. Amazing how having new toys to keep you busy can do that, right?

The only fly in the ointment was that Tyler started developing a cough the afternoon of Christmas Day and it was sounding pretty bad by bedtime. He woke up with a fever at 3AM (and neither of us went back to sleep at that point) and had a miserable day or two with the cold. Luckily, while it hit hard, it also hit him fast and he was soon through it.

We had a couple of custom drying rack orders which had to be worked into the holiday festivities - sometimes that's harder than it sounds.

My mom flew in on the 26th and with the kids out of school they have all been spending a lot of time playing together. New Years Eve was her birthday. We had a very nice steak dinner, watched a movie all together, and had the cheesecake Kaitlyn had insisted we make for dessert.

2011 Week 51

2011-12-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas here we come! Last day of school was on Friday. Kaitlyn got a half-day and Tyler's preschool had their party - pretty much just cupcakes and other yummy food and a gift exchange. Can you tell how Tyler eats his cupcakes? Yup - icing first!

12 Days of Christmas continues. The kids are having tons of fun with it.Tyler really really wanted to sleep by the Christmas tree. He brought the toy table downstairs all by himself and covered it with blankets to make his own tent. We still weren't convinced he should sleep in the living room, but he was one step ahead of us and fell asleep on the floor a whole 30 minutes before bedtime! So yeah, we let him stay there all night.

Kaitlyn's Christmas Dance Recital was on Sunday. She did great! And doesn't she look so grown up?

At least until you see her next to the other girls in her class, most of whom tower over her. Granted, most of the girls in her class are a year older, but Kaitlyn would still be tiny in a class all her age.

And of course we HAD to find a place to take the kids to see the lights. Meadow Lights is about an hour's drive from our house and a pretty good set up. They take you around the field in a train to tour the lights. Very popular place though - tons and tons of traffic and long long lines. The day we went it was 70 degree weather. At 9:00 PM - such a novelty! Despite the lack of cold, the night wouldn't have been complete without stopping for hot cocoa (Kaitlyn insists on calling it cocoa instead of hot chocolate) on the way home - so we did!

2011 Week 50

2011-12-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

This is our final week before the start of Christmas break and there has been a lot packed into it!
Saturday was the town's Christmas celebration. The kids got to see Santa (silly me didn't even take the camera since last year they had a professional there. This year is was just someone with a point and shoot and though they did print out photos for us for free, they aren't very good), which they have been really looking forward to. Kaitlyn had rehearsed Tyler so that he would say exactly what he (or she lol) wanted. It was pretty funny to watch him rattle it off. Ty requested a DSi with a Monster Truck game. Kaitlyn wants a bike.
That night was also the town parade. It was kind of chilly but not too bad. Kind of a fun idea to have a parade at night, though I think a lot of the floats could have piled on a LOT more lights :) We ended up next to one of the girls from Kaitlyn's class so the two of them had a great time together. Tyler was really excited at first but the long day and the cold got to him and halfway through the parade he retreated to the chairs and the blanket.
In between the two events we squeezed in a party with the neighbors - fun!

The kids were excited to start opening the 12 Days of Christmas gifts that Grandma Jackson sends every year. Tyler has taken to waking up incredibly early, then waking up his sister - no matter how often I tell him not to! So we have a really big chunk of time in the mornings before school.

I played photographer a lot this week. My friend asked me to take maternity photos for her so one day I did a session with her and her husband and another day we did a solo session for her.

Also of note this week, though not in the happy category - On Monday night shortly before we were due to leave for dance class, Tyler decided to throw a pencil at his sister. Not something he should be doing and I don't know the story around it. What I do know is that all of a sudden Kaitlyn is wailing and when she gets downstairs she has blood pouring out of her forehead. It turned out to be a LOT of blood for what was actually a very small cut. But we're talking scary amount of blood here. Enough to make me get dizzy and almost pass out in the middle of dealing with it. But deal with it we did and she is fine. Of course she couldn't face making heading out to dance class after that - not that we would have made it out the door on time. We (Tyler and I mostly) spent the next hour or so cleaning up the blood trail that led from the playroom, down the stairs (hitting each and every stair more than once), into the living room, then of course into the powder room where we dealt with most of the problem. Kaitlyn was worried she would get a lot of questions about her cut at school the next day, but it was so small no one even noticed it.

It's funny how things ripple though. Because we missed dance class we didn't get the final details on the dress rehearsal for the recital, nor did we get her costume. So it took me some extra time to track down the info and she had to do the rehearsal in not quite her full costume (we got the shirt while we were there and tossed it on over her clothes so at least she kind of looked in costume). I also didn't get to do my set of errands that I had planned to do while she was in class which meant I had to spend the next morning getting the yarn for some hat orders and running around getting other things while I was out instead of finishing up the orders and working on other Christmas prep as planned. I also forgot to pick up the candy for Kaitlyn's class party so we had to leave extra early for school on Thurs to grab that on the way. On the plus side, the grocery store was giving away flowers that day. But despite the setbacks, we are now almost completely ready for Christmas - yay!

2011 Week 49

2011-12-09T03:58:00.000-08:00

It's birthday time for Tyler! Hard to believe our little guy is 5! A lot of my time leading up to this week has been spent on prep for Tyler's Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday party. The party itself was on Saturday. And thankfully, a lot of his friends showed up (am I going to be continually haunted and nervous before every party now, due to the low response from Kaitlyns??)

The kids had a blast and the party went great. (details of the party iself are on the craft blog)

There is the birthday boy himself, looking oh so big in his new sweater (which thankfully I didn't have to talk him into wearing. When he put it on himself on Wednesday I just had to grab some photos)

Our sweet guy, who likes to tease and is always ready to give lots of hugs and kisses.

In between the birthday madness was the Christmas parade Fuquay (the town where Kaitlyn takes dance class) and Kaitlyn walked in it with her dance class. Sam had to work the whole weekend so it was just Tyler and I hanging out to watch the first part of the parade. We cut it short to pick Kaitlyn up when she was finished.

The birthday boy on the day of his birthday (Monday, the 5th). He woke up to a balloon-filled room and cake batter waffles for breakfast. We also took cupcakes in to his preschool class.

When Sam got home from work and Kaitlyn was home from school Tyler got to open his presents. And boy did he make a killing this birthday! It looked a lot like Christmas morning when he was finished :)

And let's not forget all the elf hi-jinx. One morning they were found on an elf-created zip line running from the top of the stairs to the Christmas tree. Made out of yarn and candy canes. The morning of the party one was in the sail "boat" and the other was taking a whack at the pinata. They played with the balloons in Tyler's room on his birthday. And were also found listening to my Ipod, and messing around in the kids' bathroom with one in Kaitlyn's jewelry and the other writing notes on the mirror.

2011 Week 48

2011-12-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

Our most favorite time of the year has officially begun! The Friday after Thanksgiving means we get to decorate the Christmas tree! Bring on the Christmas music and the eggnog and the lights and the gift lists...
We have a pretty good system with the tree. Sam set up the tree. I'm in charge of lights. Then the kids get to go wild with the ornaments while I do the glitzier stuff (and a few adjustments at the end). The kids were most excited to see their personal ornaments that Oma and Dave gave them last year (or was it two years ago?) and spent the longest time decided exactly where they should be. The rest of the ornaments Tyler put on tended to be all on the same branch. Kaitlyn, however, is getting a pretty good eye for it and spread out most of the rest of the ornaments (or "jewels" as she still likes to call them) pretty well. (This is important to me because I'm a bit OCD about making the tree look all beautiful and just so)

Decorating the rest of the house and putting up a few lights and garland outside was spread over the rest of the long weekend. We also took an afternoon to take the kids to a movie (the latest Muppets - Ty was totally bored) and tried to get them to do a little shopping for each other, which worked with Kaitlyn (who insisted on getting Tyler a DS game even though we don't know for sure that Santa will be bringing him a DS) but not so much with Ty (who wanted to look only at toys for himself).

Also during the weekend, I had a bit of a unique experience. The husband of a friend came home from deployment and she asked me to go along and take photos (and I hope the moral support was helpful too). It was unique because it's the first time I've gone to a military homecoming without being emotionally attached to the outcome. Being an observer is slightly different and does lead to some introspection. It was a good experience (despite it being a military run and thus long and drawn out and annoying process).

This week was also brought the first day of December and with it - our elves! The kids always look forward to the elves coming and have so much fun when they get here. Tyler was awake earlier than usual that morning and was the first to discover the pair. I tried to get him to play with them quietly but he couldn't contain himself and when running and shouting up the stairs to tell his sister. The elves then "helped" the kids with their morning routine. And that night the kids' made the elves a nice little bed out of a cardboard box, complete with their own little stuffed animal. It was cute.

2011 Week 47

2011-11-25T04:03:00.001-08:00

Lots and lots going on this week (most of which I didn't take photos during). On Saturday I left the kids at home and managed to get some shopping done for Tyler's birthday and a small start on Christmas (finally! phew!). On Sunday we decided it was time to do something fun with the family so we took the kids to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. It's kind of a combination between a normal science museum, a children's museum (lots of learning activities/things for the kids to touch, do and climb on) and a zoo. A big part of the museum was outside and we completely wore ourselves out exploring. Tyler was the most excited to see the dinosaur statues. Kaitlyn's favorite thing was the butterfly garden. She and I spent a lot of time trying to get one to land on her hand (and a little success on that front, much to her delight). Another big favorite for both kids was the wind section, especially the remote control sailboats.
By the time we went inside to explore we were all getting tired and hungry and after spending some time building things we rushed through the rest of it. It will be good to go back through that one another time.

The rest of the week was just chuck full of stuff - school, dance lessons, errands, working on crafts, getting ready for Tyler's birthday and Thanksgiving, celebrating a friend's birthday (that was almost an all-day thing - fun!)...

...all jammed into a short week for everyone due to the holiday. Wednesday was half-day at school for both kids and Kaitlyn participated in the Turkey Trot (mile long race, winner in each age got a turkey). She had been looking forward to the race and even got her dad to help her "practice" a couple times. And she did great! Especially since all 100+ kids started the race in a big group and she ended up starting near the back. But Kate had better stamina than most of the kids and finished somewhere in the top 15, with only 2-3 girls faster than her. We're so proud! Sam had an early day too and stopped on his way home to pick up a giant candy bar for her for a "prize." (Ty got one too)

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. We decided to spend it at home, just the four of us, keeping it really low key. Sam smoked a turkey, Kaitlyn helped me make pies (Wed afternoon), etc. Kaitlyn loves to make cards and do surprises for any event and first thing in the morning she gave Sam and I a card she had made on her own and been saving for a week. Such a sweetie. While the turkey was cooking we took the time to play a game with the kids and taught Kaitlyn how to play Phase 10 (the little monkey caught on quick and almost won!). Kaitlyn loved the turkey dinner (except for the turkey - I think she talked herself out of liking it this year) and our picky Ty had chicken nuggets and rolls (sigh). TV, hanging out, pie and egg nog... yeah it was a good Thanksgiving.

2011 Week 46

2011-11-18T11:30:00.000-08:00

Veteran's Day was Friday. Kaitlyn was really into the "holiday" - not just because she got a day off but because she thinks her dad being a veteran is pretty cool. The night before she and Tyler got together and made Sam a card (it said "special veteran dad" on the front and "we love our veteran" inside) and put together a gift for him (paper flower bouquet - Kaitlyn had made one at school the week before so they just added more flowers and a heart to it), including finding a bag to wrap it in. Very independant, these kids of mine.

It was all very sweet.

Again - Tyler and his "friends." He does a lot with them, including having them sleep in his bed with him (there's practically no room for Ty) and bringing them downstairs with him first thing.

My neighbor was nice enough to let me take photos of her brand new (totally adorable!) baby girl wearing some of the hats and hairbows I've been making to sell online. It was also a great chance to practice my photo skills and I have to say, I think I'm definitely improving.

Report cards came home at the end of last week. Kaitlyn is doing very very well. They changed the grading system so now all they get is letters of the alphabet that make absolutely no sense, so I won't share her exact grades. Her teacher's comments read: "Kaitlyn is a leader and a positive role model for other students. She is working well at this level." That's our Kate!
The awards assembly was on Thursday. Kaitlyn received the Terrific Kid award (wish I had a better understanding of how they pick them. I do know that only 2 children per class are chosen), bookworm award (for reading more than ___ books), and perfect attendance. All the Terrific Kids get a Tshirt and bumper sticker, which Kaitlyn is not enthused about. There is one other award that is a medal (some sort of Character award) and THAT is the one she had her heart set on. Maybe next time!

2011 Week 45

2011-11-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

Finally getting back to a somewhat-normal routine this week. Just the regular round of school, homework, dance class, grocery shopping, etc. I volunteered at the school a few days, to help with the book fair.

During a lot of his time playing at home, Tyler has been hanging out with his "buddies", horsey (the rocking horse), Bigfoot (the monkey), Mater, and elephant-y. Whatever he is doing, the whole gang of them is doing - laying on the couch, reading a book, going to bed, playing with cars... He even set up an elaborate blanket tent in the playroom with special places for all of them and more.

Kaitlyn was really excited about the book fair. Planner that she is, she knew exactly which books she wanted and came home with her list then raided her bank for the money. She had picked out one for Tyler and promptly told him to bring her $5 so she could buy it for him. She also insisted that she just couldn't wait to buy the books on a day when I would be there and handled the transaction all by herself, just as promised. I can't believe how big and independant my little girl is!

We've been having some beautiful fall weather around here. Cold enough to turn the heater on, but pleasant to be out in the sun on most days. And the colored leaves on all the trees (the many many trees that are in NC) as just beautiful. We took advantage of all this and went up to Raven Rock state park to grab some self-timer family shots (I'm thinking of using them for the Christmas card, so I'm not sharing them here) then on a quick hike to the river on a trail we hadn't used before. For once, the kids were pretty cooperative with the photos, thanks to many bribes and threats (ha!) then they had a blast on the hike. Both of the kids really enjoy nature and exploring.

Kaitlyn picked up a handful of acorns and kept looking around for squirrels to feed them to. She also enjoyed reading all the information posted on the signs along the way. Tyler found a stick that he happily carried with him as we walked. Until he lost it when he put it down to throw more sticks in the river and couldn't find it again. It was a very sad event.

Also on the agenda this week was the fall festival at Kaitlyn's school last night. Each teacher had set up a game of some sort in each of their rooms and the kids went from one to another with their tickets. I think the biggest hit of the night was the face painting. Kaitlyn had not trouble deciding on a rainbow for her face. Tyler was dead set on having Optimus painted on his but the poor girl doing the face painting didn't have a clue how to do that. Or a robot. Or a semi truck. Her suggestions of football logos and other such nonsense earned her a blank look from Tyler. Finally I just told her to go ahead and do anything with wheels and he'd be

happy. Thank goodness I was right. We had to skips baths last night so the kids could enjoy their painted faces just a while longer.

2011 Week 44

2011-11-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

The big even of the week was Halloween, obviously. On the weekend we ran errands (including picking out candy for the trick or treaters!) and carved pumpkins. Sam really doesn't like the whole carving thing (I think it's the pumpkin guts??) but the kids love it. And I decided last year that if we're gonna do it, we may as well go big. So part of our process now is finding templates online and trying to make something really fun. Tyler wanted Optimus Prime (Transformers) but is too young to carve so I printed out a coloring page for him to paint, along with his pumpkin. Somewhere along the line he decided he had "messed up" the pumpkin and the picture, threw the picture away and has been trying to hide his pumpkin ever since. I've rescued it from behind the truck and under the rain gutter.
Kaitlyn picked a Hello Kitty template (are we surprised?) and decided that this year she was going to try the carving herself. She really did a good job through the whole process, scooping out most of the gross stuff, transfering the template to the pumpkin and cutting out some of the larger pieces. Sam finally did join in the process and helped Kaitlyn with some of her carving and finished up the smaller pieces.
We had picked up 2 large pumpkins before Ty got the little one on a school field trip, so I spent my time carving that one - a Minnie (kinda looks like Mickey though) Mouse witch with a cauldron.

Halloween fell on a Monday this year (which Kaitlyn thought was unfair that they didn't take school off for the holiday) so as soon as Kaitlyn got home we did dinner and got dressed up in costumes. The kids were so excited and looked so cute! Tyler was a Monster Truck Driver and Kaitlyn had requested that she and I be "twin witches." We hadn't put any thought into Sam's costume so we decided that since we had the accessories handy, he could go as a construction worker.

I was a rainy, nasty night but that doesn't stop the fun on Halloween. We went out as early as we could (5:30), as did most of the neighborhood. That made it fun to see people we knew, not only as we rang the doorbells, but all the kids' costumes as they walked around too. We only hit the few occupied houses in the neighborhood, which turned out to be plenty for all of us. By the time we hit the 2nd street Tyler was cold and wet (because he didn't use the umbrella after the first few minutes and we mistakenly hadn't put on another layer under his costume) and ready to go home and that was just fine with us. Kaitlyn and Sam hit the final handful of houses on the 3rd street without us.

Despite only being out for less than 45 minutes, and hitting less than 20 houses the kids had tons and tons of candy!

They changed into pjs and we made hot chocolate and warm cider and the kids happily spent the rest of the evening watching a Halloween show on TV and answering the door.

As soon as Halloween is over, what ends up on our minds? Christmas! We have started getting those big toy ad catalogs in the mail this week and Tyler claims them for his own and spends hours and hours pouring over them, circling everything that strikes his fancy. I think if we put them all on a list it just might be a mile long!

2011 Week 43

2011-10-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a fun-filled week with Grandma. The kids got Friday off (teacher prep), which meant even more one on one time. Art projects, making cookies, reading books, getting spoiled when we went shopping... that's what happens when Grandma visits :)

When the kids were in school, Grandma was either sleeping in or working on small projects with me. We had a couple of craft sessions with my neighbors (finally got everyone to finish the wreaths from the craft day!) and devised a project for ourself by "upcycyling" an old Tshirt and pair of jeans for Kaitlyn. We've had some great fall weather here this week. All the leaves are changing colors and it's beatiful. I need to take the camera out for some photos. It must also be time to harvest the cotton around here, which is something we've never experienced. The day they were harvesting the field right next to us we took Tyler for a walk to check them out. I hate walking across the weeds and stuff in the empty lots but Mom and Tyler went right up to the fence to watch for a minute. Four combines and a couple trailors working on one little field - impressive.

2011 Week 42

2011-10-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

We waited until Saturday to have Kaitlyn's bithday party with her friends. Possible mistake as we ended up with a really sad turn out (2 showed up. we invited 15!). But the party went really well and everyone had fun. Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn!

After the party we had a couple days' break, in which I came down with a nasty cold. Of course I was in the middle of it and feeling icky when Mom flew in for a visit. That didn't stop her or the kids from having fun. She brought an entire bag full of gifts and surprises with her, starting with some Halloween decorations for the kids to use in their rooms.

2011 Week 41

2011-10-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Birthday week! This is the busiest, most fun week of October every year.

Sam had Friday off, so we took advantage of having the kids in school and worked had a few household projects. We cleaned up the garage and organized it completely (finally!), adding new storage for the balls, pools noodles, and remaking the bike rack. Then we got to work refinishing 3 pieces of furniture - 2 tables Sam brought home from work (they were replacing them and these have a really nice wooden top, after we got all the gun cleaning stuff sanded off of them) and Kaitlyn's old dresser. All three pieces are now looking beautiful in my (now fully functional) craft room.

Saturday was my birthday (33) and I wanted to do something fun as a family. We decided to go to a corn maze, since we didn't do anything like that last year.

We tried to pick a good one, with lots of included activities for the kids like the hay bale play area, bouncy houses, petting zoo

fair-type games, etc.The maze itself was fun. It was set up so that you weren't looking for the way through it, but trying to find 10 different checkpoints inside the maze itself. Not easy, not easy at all. We gave it our best shot but when Tyler was starting to refuse to walk by himself we knew we were done. We walked out of there having found 9 of the 10 checkpoints - not bad.

A quick drink of water and a hay ride turned Tyler into a happy kid again. He chose to sit right up front, directly behind the tractor, of course. After leaving the farm, we all went to dinner at Olive Garden, then came home for cake!

Kaitlyn wanted to do the "icing" by herself. She found it was a little too tricky to do the writing herself, so she had Sam do that, then added a border and some polka dots.

Tyler wanted to be in charge of the sprinkles. It was pretty funny to watch him try to place them one by one.

And here is their combined handiwork. At this point Tyler thought it was funny to try to grab tastes of the frosting and we didn't get a single photo of the cake without tiny fingers in the background reaching for it :)

Happy Birthday to me! It was a great birthday and I felt very well loved by all - not just my little family for spending time with me, but from a weath of phone calls and emails all day as well.

After resting up for most of Sunday I devoted a lot of the rest of the week to getting ready for Kaitlyn's birthday.

And once again there was Ty putting his fingers in where he shouldn't. I made Kate's cakes a few days ahead of time so I could freeze them for easier cutting and decorating. I went on to other things while they cooled and came back to find that Tyler had taken tastes out of 3 of the 4 rounds! Little monkey. I would have been more upset, but I knew I would be cutting pieces out of them in order to shape her cake and figured I could work around the missing pieces. But boy, I'll know to watch him closer from now on!

2011 Week 40

2011-10-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Monday was our busiest day of the week. It was half-day at school for parent/teacher conferences. Without thinking, I had scheduled our parent/teacher earlier than Kaitlyn would actually be making it off the bus so I went to pick her up early. We purposely didn't pack her a lunch because I was going to pick her up before lunchtime, but it being a short day they bumped lunches an hour earlier which not only meant that Kaitlyn had to eat (or rather, get it then not eat most of it) hot lunch, but because they were finished with lunch but not in their classroom yet, it took a while for the school secretary to find Kaitlyn so I could take her home. We picked up Ty, had lunch, then went back up to the school.
I love parent/teacher conferences! :) I'm sure if my kids were struggling it wouldn't be as fun, but whenever I go, it's basically an excuse to listen to someone tell me how smart and wonderful my child is - what parent doesn't love that? Kaitlyn's teacher said she is doing great. Testing above and beyond where she needs to be in fact, especially on reading. She tested at the highest level they test for in second grade - the place where they are trying to get all the kids by the end of the year. (who knows if she is reading above that level, though I suspect she probably is. That girl LOVES reading) She got a 100% on all the sight words for the year. Math is great, writing is great. Go Kate!
Next on the list for the day was an appointment with the dr for Kaitlyn. She has been in the middle of another one of her coughing spells - the ones where she coughs so much at night it wakes me up and I have to stumble in there with her inhaler and where we have a hard time letting her do anything active because we know it leads to a coughing fit. She was also low on allergy medication. Our doctor is at the clinic on base (new doc this time that I like MUCH better, yay! happy that I don't have to go through the red tape of switching to a civilian doc at this point) and Sam was almost done with work so Tyler got to hang out at his office while Kaitlyn and I went to the appointment. We now have a second daily allergy medication for Miss Kate and are going to try to be more pro-active with the inhaler, treating symptoms before they happen (right before bed and a few minutes before activity), at least until she is no longer coughing at the drop of a hat. I hate the thought of all these meds so often but we'll do it for now while we try to target what is causing the spells.
The day wasn't over there. It was home for dinner, homework, then off to dance class for myself and Kate. A very, very long (but productive!) Monday.

Tyler is now getting homework at preschool! So far it's a novelty and he likes working on it. It was so cute to have both my kids sitting at the kitchen counter working on their homework togther.

Kaitlyn has started participating with a school activity called Kids on the Run once a week. Every Thursday they gather after school and run around the track. Kaitlyn loves running and thinks it's great fun. Her competitive nature kicks in too. The first week she did 6 laps on the track. This week she pushed herself to 10 laps and is hoping for more.
During one of their conversations, Sam and Kaitlyn decided she would be his running buddy. She hounded him for 2 days straight until he got out there with her. They did the mile around the neighborhood without slowing down - in fact, I'm pretty sure she was ahead of him the whole time. Haha! if Sam was looking for motivation, he now has it. That child will push him to get out there every day if we let her)

2011 Week 39

2011-09-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

Typical morning at the bus stop. All the kids hang out on the porch/driveway of the model home while we wait (and wait and wait - the bus never comes at the same time every day so we just plan on getting there early and waiting as long as it takes). Sometimes it's complete and absolute chaos.

It was a fun weekend. Kaitlyn went to a really long birthday party extravaganza on Saturday for her friend Ally. They got their nails done, went out to dinner, and went to a movie. I had plans to have a girls night of my own with some of the neighbors (so fun!) so Tyler and Sam went out and had some fun of their own. They went to the Lion King in 3D and out to dinner.

Sunday morning I went with a couple of friends to check out the flea market. Turns out it's not a good place to sell crafts, which is why we were checking it out, but as an outing it was a lot of fun. And none of us came home empty-handed (I found a Hello Kitty necklace/watch for Kaitlyn's bday) :)

Once I got home and put the house and the kids back in shape (so not fun to walk into the house and find Ty crying in his room with a frustrated husband on the couch), we decided to go bowling. This is something the kids LOVE to do and they get better and better every time. Neither one of them used the ball ramp thing and both got really good scores. In fact, Kaitlyn beat my score! (I purposelly threw a gutter ball after I got a spare on the last frame just to make sure of that, but mostly she did the winning on her own)

I've been making a lot of hats this week, and Tyler is my designated model. He loves this long-tailed one and wants me to make one for him in red. I had to laugh though because when I was trying to take a photo of another hat (it's a fall striped one that he has on UNDER this one) he told me "is this really mess-is-ary?" (necessary)

School photos were also this week, which usually I don't mind purchasing. But it seems like the prices have doubled since last year (and they were overpriced already) and I just couldn't justify paying that price for a photo that was never all that great. So I took a few minutes and snapped some of my own.

2011 Week 38

2011-09-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

Random bits and pieces this week: Little boys and their pockets! :) Obviously, I'm going to have to start checking pockets when I do the laundry.

Practically every day when I pick him up at preschool, Tyler proudly shows me a "treasure" (or two or ten) he has found at recess. A couple of times it was a leaf, which he carefully stuck in his binder for later. Lately it has been rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. He would hop in the car and stick them in the cup holder of his car seat. Or bring them in and "wash" them. We now have a bucket by the door of the garage for his "collection."

I should have snapped a photo of the weather at some point because it's been the same every day - overcast and dark. I'm starting to miss the sun! The rain is always threatening but hasn't amounted to much most of the time. And once again I realize just how much the weather affects moods. One or two days of it and it's fun to enjoy being inside all warm and cozy. The cooler temperatures were a welcome break. Too many days of it and you start to feel tired for no reason and motivation and productivity go down the drain. Seriously. For the first time in a long time we had a weekend with all of us home and no plans and no intention to make plans. The only thing we had the energy or ambition to do was run to the grocery store, just for an excuse to get out of the house.

2011 Week 37

2011-09-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Just realized that the only photos I took this week are of crafts for the Etsy store and blog posts - nothing else! Note to self: pull out that camera more often! Though I am not going to beat myself up for just going ahead and living life and enjoying whatever we are doing. Not everything needs to be documented.

Oh wait, I take that back. Just remembered that Friday we took the kids to the fair. I really didn't go an entire week without pics of the kiddos!
It was a fun little outing for us. We chose to go Friday night because it was one of the few nights the Monster Trucks were going to be there and of course we just had to let Tyler see them. (He is completely obsessed with Monster Trucks. Says when he gets his driver's license he's gonna buy a monster truck :) ) The first thing we did when we got there was track down the monster trucks for Ty to see some in person. They were giving rides in the back of one so we shelled out the cash for Tyler to take his turn. He loved it!

Kaitlyn was trying to be patient but truly she was only excited about the rides. She's getting more daring than she used to be and wanted to go on pretty much every single one of them.

Our chatty little girl made a friend in about 2 seconds flat while waiting to get on this ride. I thought she must have known the girl from school with as quickly as they climbed on the ride together but according to Kate they were just friends right away.
We rode the rides with the kids for about an hour then it was time for the Monster Truck show. Tyler was so excited and so into it. It was so much fun to watch him cheering them on. Kaitlyn wasn't quite impressed and was only entertained for the first 20 min (of the hour it lasted). Eventually I gave her my phone to play with so she would quit pestering us to get back to the rides.

The finale was this guy attempting to do a back flip. Obviously he didn't succeed this time.
Kaitlyn was happy to drag us all back to the rides and we stayed as late as we dared (with Sam having an early morning at work the next day) and had a lot of fun. Sam even managed to find deep fried candy bar! (something he saw on the Food Network and has been scouring fairs for for at least a year)

Quick recap of the rest of the week:
-Sam had drill weekend - that always makes for a very long two weeks for all of us when he doesn't get a day off.
-the kids and I attended a neighborhood child's birthday party at the pool. The first of what I'm sure will be many functions like that. The kids had an absolute blast and because I had threatened Ty that we would leave if he took off his life jacket, I could enjoy visiting with the other parents while keeping an eye on him.

-personally it's been a really low key week. With the kids in school and Sam at work I feel like I have more time on my hands to do with what I will. That means a few fun outings with friends for errands and lunch and lots of extra craft time on my own. If I forget the parts of the week where I was trying desperately to stay out of the neighborhood drama then I'd have to say it was a pretty good, very normal week!

2011 Week 36

2011-09-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

Guess what?! Our neighborhood pool is open and fully functional WOOHOOO! We went down to check out as as soon as we heard the news and when Kaitlyn got home from school she joined us too. We spent pretty much the entire evening there with a lot of the neighbors - so fun. We've been enjoying it quite often since, trying to get the most use out of it before the hot weather is gone.

We did a lot of random things over the holiday (Labor Day) weekend. Some time in the pool. Launching rockets (that Sam surprised the kids with one day). And Sam and I even got a date on our "anniversary" (13 years since the day we got engaged!) thanks to a nice friend that offered to take care of the kids for us all afternoon on Sunday.

School, work, and regular life - all pretty normal at the moment. First big craft day with the ladies in the neighborhood went very well. Life is good.

2011 Week 35

2011-09-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

More stories than photos this week. Some weeks are like that.
First day of preschool - woohoo! I really thought we'd end up skipping this milestone and I'd be doing "home preschool" (as Kaitlyn calls it) myself. I still probably will a little bit since I've already got the stuff and the facility I'm taking him to isn't something I'm completely psyched about. But it does him good to get out and socialize with kids his own age, learn some of the things he will need to know for school next year like how to take direction from someone other than his parents, how to sit still and follow instructions, etc. And it doesn't hurt that I now have a few hours to myself every morning.
Tyler was SO excited for the first day of school. He wore his backback down to the bus stop with Kaitlyn. And when she was off on the bus he pretty much drug me all the way back home so we could go to school. It was pretty cute. Once we were there he showed no fear, especially when he saw that a little girl from our neighborhood (the one he says he's going to marry someday :) ) was also there. So I left him there without any problems, then came home and got hit pretty hard with the emotions that go along with having your baby hit a milestone like going to school. A nice friend checked in on me in the middle of my little pity party and I gratefully accepted her offer to go for a walk and get my mind off of it. We ended up spending most of the day together and having a great time. I love that I'm making more and more friends here and every week I feel more excited about how the neighborhood is shaping up.

They feed them breakfast and lunch at the preschool but I pick him up at lunchtime in order to avoid naps and because I think jumping from all day at home to all day at school is just too much. It's not like he'd eat whatever they feed him for lunch most of the time anyway.
When I picked him up the first day, one of the teachers asked if he knew the one little girl from our neighborhood already. Of course I said yes and was told that they two of them were pretty inseparable all day and had even held hands and given each other a hug. I've since noticed that every time I go to pick him up, the two of them are almost always together. Not sure if that is only because they only kids they know there are each other or what, but it's cute. Can't believe my little guy already has his first "girlfriend."

First and second days of drop off went smoothly but Tuesday of this week was another matter entirely. For the first time in his life Tyler did the Cling and Cry thing when I dropped him off. Completely threw me for a loop. The day after that wasn't much better. *sigh*

That doesn't keep him from having fun at school, or from the teachers having funny stories to tell. The other day, he was playing in the sand and got some down his pants. And in the process of demonstrating exactly where the sand was that was bothering him, he pretty much mooned the whole class! :)

Kaitlyn is settling in to school rather well. So far the only homework she has had is reading every day and she loves reading so much I never have to ask if she's done it.

The other bright spot in the week was the fact that I pushed the school hard enough to get our bus stop moved into the subdivision and off the busy road. Woohoo!

Let's see what else...Sam took a long weekend with his buddies and went to a race in Bristol. (I'll need to add one or two of his photos) They camped out for the duration and as far as I can tell, it was a good trip.

Almost forgot about the hurricane scare! Of course it would happen while Sam was gone. We had constant wind and scattered rain for 48 hours straight and I have to admit it made me a little nervous. I figured we were far enough inland it wouldn't be a big deal here and I was right. But I did have a little "adventure" helping a neighbor repair a section of her fence that got knocked down in the middle of the storm. No husbands around but we still got it done! :) Once again we were lucky - there was plenty of damage all up the coast.

2011 Week 34

2011-08-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Enjoying the last little bit of summer at home and looking forward to school

which started for Kaitlyn on Thursday. She was so excited and had a great first day.

After the kids got off on the bus I had a little party with the other women in the neighborhood. It was a small group of women that showed up, but oh what a great group it turned out to bed. I'm looking forward to a lot more parties like that one and getting to know everyone a whole lot better.

2011 Week 33

2011-08-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

No large events, no real outings, no plans of any sort. It was all about the little things this week.

Getting supplies organized and ready for school. I also organized the art/craft supplies in the playroom and am working on our recipe binder.

- Kaitlyn's first day of dance class - she love it! urgh - really can't believe I didn't take photos but it was kinda chaotic in there with class changes and it being the first day and all. I got her new shoes, got her settled in class then the rest of us did the grocery shopping very quickly while she danced. I hope to stay and watch some of the class next week.
-Kaitlyn learned to tie her shoes! She had learned before then forgotten since kids shoes now are almost all velcro or slip-on. But with only a couple times practicing, she has it down and can now tie her athletic shoes all on her own.
-Hairbow modeling for me

-Tyler is on an "organizing" kick (it's so fun to hear him say that word in his little boy voice). He takes the time to make sure all the trucks and backhoes are perfectly placed and facing the same way when he "parks" them. Each of his favorite toys has it's own special place on his bed and he places them there carefully when he makes his bed.
-I have been turning on the music in the house more often than usual lately and Tyler loves it. He will dance and spin (and spin and spin) to the same few songs over and over.
-I have gone a full week now of nightly walks with the neighbor - 3 miles after the sun goes down and the kids are settled for the night. An actual start to a regular exercise routine!

-for all intents and purposes the neighborhood pool looks finished - right down to the lounge chairs and sun umbrellas on the tables. Hoping to hear about the grand opening soon!
-Sam has had a nasty busy week at work. I think we're all glad it's coming to an end.

2011 Week 32

2011-08-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

Museum of Natural Sciences - our fun family outting for the weekend. It had a little bit about a lot of stuff from birds (Kaitlyn's current obsession - we got a whole stack of books about them at the library and she and Tyler have been "bird watching" from the back porch) to dinosaurs. Tyler's favorite part was the T-Rex

Kaitlyn loved the butterfly garden. I think I liked it the best too - it was great to be so close to butterflies that would just go about their business. Really pretty ones too.

Tyler fixates on a few toys at a time and plays with them over and over. Right now he loves his little Optimus Prime Transformer and carries it everywhere, including with him to bed. He has been on a board game kick lately and we play 2-3 every day (Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Zingo, etc). He also loves the army guys and dressing up - cat tail, white gloves, and his "cowboy rope" (which he is also holding in this photo, attached to Optimus).

*need to get photo of Kaitlyn and the girls that Eileen took. They all went out to dinner with her family and to a movie. Kaitlyn has had a lot of friend time and outings lately - sleepovers a couple times per week, playing at friends' houses daily (and them over here), etc. Poor Tyler though feels a little left out. We need to find him some friends his age. I'll work on that this fall.

And we can't forget - Kaitlyn lost another tooth! That one has been barely hanging on since our weekend at Audrey's and Kate finally got brave and yanked it out.

Sam has mid-way through a really long and busy month at work. He's not exactly enjoying it. The kids and I have been doing our best to stay entertained. I do some playing with the kids, worked on some crafting (made my own argyle hat pattern!), walks outside when it isn't too hot. Basically just killing time until school starts and life changes again - which will be soon! We did final registration for Kaitlyn's dance class and ordered shoes. First class is next week!

2011 Week 31

2011-08-05T03:53:00.000-07:00

This week in photos
Ty was a BIG help this week with my Friday morning bathroom scrubbing.
Weekend trip to Audrey! Always so fun and something we all look forward to.

The drive isn't bad. Just 2 hours and the whole thing is tree lined and pretty. I love that sections of the medians are all landscaped - crepe myrtle (I think) are in bloom right now. I need some of these for my yard.

At least 5 hours in the pool at Audrey's both Saturday and Sunday - pretty much the only way anyone wants to be outside in this heat. My kids LOVE the water. Kaitlyn is fearless and Ty makes progress with his swimming every time we're out.

Sam took advantage of us being gone and went on a motorcycle ride with his buddy to Charlotte (to see a NASCAR shop of course). Got caught in the rain on the way home and spent time shining up the bike Sunday morning. I gave him a hard time about it and took a photo :)

ha! That hummingbird is fast but I caught it on film (after at least 3 missed attempts). I think this is the last of our gladiolas to bloom

I opened a shop on etsy to sell some crafts - spent a good part of the week getting things done to sell and then getting the online stuff done. Kaitlyn was a very willing model for the headbands and hairbows.

2011 Week 30

2011-07-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

Back to regular life, mostly. The fun family outing for the weekend was taking a day trip to the beach on Sunday. It's been hot hot hot, so the water was really warm (around 80) and thus really great to be in pretty much the whole time. Kaitlyn in particular couldn't get enough. She's quite the little fish.

As I said, the rest of the week was just slices of reglar life.

2011 Week 29

2011-07-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

Final week of vacation in Utah and it looks like we squeezed a lot into it.
Camille was able to do haircuts (and color for me) - yay! Not only are we now looking our best, but it was a lot of fun to catch up with her. I also worked in a couple more visit with friends as well.

The Summit County Art Show was going on and we had some down time so we took the kids. They had some fun activities there for them to do - make their own boats, turn sticks into colorful snakes, and bottlecap pins.
The kids and I spent more than one morning over at Karen's arena with Wyatt and the horses.

Dixie is a very patient, wonderful horse isn't she?

Kaitlyn LOVES to go fast - look at that big grin when she got Dixie to trot.

And I got some pretty nice shots of Wyatt jumping on Bear.

We made sure to have a quick, early birthday party for Dad. As you can see, the kids were so excited to get to the cake that they rushed their grandpa through his dinner. Tyler also can't keep a secret and in the 2 minutes it took Kaitlyn to bring out the gift, he tried to tell Grandpa what it was at least 5 times.

It's a new camera - Dad's first one of his own I think. He's pretty excited about it and I made sure to show him how to use it and upload photos before I left.

Quick Granparent photo session with the kids out in the field.

And a final day absolutely PACKED with fun stuff. Grandpa wanted to see Kaitlyn jump off the high diving board (and also used his new camera for the first time) and we already had plans with Dari and the kids so we talked them into going to the pool with us.

(Dad got her going up the ladder and the final splash but nothing in between. Oh well, he's new to this photo thing)

Grandma Jackson made sure to stop by too. She took photos of the kids with her phone and Tyler thought that was a great idea so he took my phone and snapped a ton of photos, most of which are exactly the same :)

On Wednesday we were up at 4AM to make it to the airport. The flights went pretty smoothly and the kids were fantastic on the plane. We were all so so happy to see Sam and go home to sleep in our own beds. But we're still working on the transition to the NC timezone and our regular schedule at home.

2011 Week 28

2011-07-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

I had the camera out a lot this week and it was really hard to choose just a few photos. I'll have to post some in depth ones on the personal blog later.

With Sam going home for work and extended family back at their own homes too, the kids and I have been more on our own. I was happy to spend some time with Dari last week, learning how to crochet and I finished my first hat! Kaitlyn was happy to let me take some photos, which turned out cute. Tyler was fascinated by the process and kept wanting to try on the hat as is progressed. He insisted on a blue hat (the favored color for both the kids right now), and Kaitlyn also loving the color blue, I have since made another 2 hats, plus a baby hat just for fun.

Wyatt has been around quite a bit this week. I think he makes a point of stopping by to see the kids every day and usually takes them to do something fun - to the barn to feed and see the baby kittens (there are 6 grey and black striped), riding horses, out for ice cream, and even some crazy spinning on the lawn.

Oh how she loves those kitties! Kaitlyn gets in a session with them almost every day - sometimes up at the barn when Wyatt goes to feed, sometimes bringing them back to grandmas to play for an hour or so. She gave them all names. And Kaitlyn, being Kaitlyn, insisted on getting a couple of books from the library on "raising the perfect kitten" and has been learning from them. She even taught herself how to tell if the cat was a boy or a girl - which led to renaming one or two of them (Victoria - her fluffy favorite - is now Victor).
She is learning quite a bit about taking care of the horses and how to ride. And she gets so excited when Wyatt shows up and is ready to take her on the horse. She scrambles to get ready as fast as she can - in this case she threw on jeans and didn't bother to change her pajama top or let me comb her hair.

Tyler enjoys riding too. Kaitlyn tries to share some time with him, though some days she's more into it than other. Ty and I walked over to Karen's (the neighbor across from my parents) where Wyatt and Kaitlyn were riding one day. When Kaitlyn spotted us she rode out of the arena and over to us, got me to put Ty on the Dixie (the horse) and led him all by herself over to the barn so that she could climb the mounting block on her own and give him a ride.

2011 Week 27

2011-07-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

Lots of 4th of July festivites this week - and how happy we are to be enjoying them in Oakley. First up was the rodeo on Saturday night with my family. I love the energy you feel at the rodeo. And the 10 second clips of high energy music all night are so much fun. The kids had a blast. Tyler laughed and laughed at the clown and cited the bucking bulls as his favorite part. Kaitlyn liked the "girls" the best - that would be the barrel racing. Both kids got completely spoiled with cotton candy and popcorn from their Uncle Wyatt and Aunt Bonnie.

Monday was the 4th of July and the Oakley Parade, of course. We watched it from our usual spot at the Haakensons'. We always feel right at home with them and love visiting. I think we're all a bit nervous after the horse incident of a few years ago, but the parade is still enjoyable and the kids have fun. It rained a little bit (neither Sam or I can remember it really ever being bad weather on the 4th before) but it didn't really bother anyone.

We spent the afternoon and evening of the 4th with Sam's family. The kids (and Orvil) had a water fight, played on the swings, lit sparklers, and basically had a lot of fun spending time with their cousins. Tyler was so worn out that by the time the fireworks finally started, he lay down on my lap and was sound asleep by the third explosion. It rained again during the fireworks but we were all able to stay mostly dry under the porch.

We wound things up on Tuesday. Bonnie and Larry went home. Sam flew back to NC that night (after catching a cold that day. He was pretty miserable). I was then able to spend the day Wednesday crafting with Dari while the kids spent some time with my mom. Thursday was pool time with Colette, Jacklyn and the boys and lunch at Summit Inn (oh it's fun to hit all the typical Kamas Valley highlights). And Thursday night my friend Jacalyn and I attended Wyatt's kickboxing class and went out to dinner.

2011 Week 26

2011-07-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

Our big trip to Utah!

First trip on an airplane - they were so excited.

We flew in Sunday night and got in late late. Both kids did terrific on the short hop to Atlanta, then fell asleep on the longer flight to Utah and woke up happy and excited to see their grandparents.

We are loving being home in Utah, especially seeing the mountains. Love the views.

There are three bucks that hang out by the back yard. We see them most afternoons.

So far we have spent some time with both families (Lenore and the boys were here for most of the week), had a BBQ with Dari and KC, and Sam visited his buddies on the base.

2011 Week 25

2011-06-24T04:52:00.000-07:00

Father's Day

Sleeping in (as much as we ever get to around here). Coffee cake and orange julius for breakfast. Lunch at Texas Roadhouse. Watching the NASCAR race. I'm hoping it was exactly what Sam wanted after his extra-long week at work.

With temperatures consistantly in the 90s and lows not making it below 70 it's hard to be outside much. Every morning this week I've tried to drag the kids out for a walk so they can get expel some energy first thing. They aren't always happy about it but they do find things to enjoy while we are out.

Also one of the things we enjoy seeing - a sale pending sign means new neighbors and the whole neighborhood looks forward to seeing these. This one is right across the street from our house.

First sleep-over with Kaitlyn's friends in the neighborhood. It must have been a very exciting event because all 4 kids were bouncing off the walls the ENTIRE time. The girls didn't fall asleep until close to 1AM.

2011 Week 24

2011-06-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

Summer, summer, summer. Lazy days without much planned punctuated by (mostly) fun things here and there. It's pretty hot in NC (90s seems average) so we try to work around that, meaning more time spent inside that we would have in Utah. Still I think we're enjoying it.

(he's faking it. Not a bad actor huh?)

To celebrate school ending (and to get together before both families headed for long vacations back in UT) we had a very fun, 2 day long pool party at Audrey's house. The kids loved the water. Can't wait for them to get the pool here in our neighborhood functional.

Hair bows - our one craft for the weekend. Can't get together with Audrey without doing something crafty!

Came back home and got straight to work on finishing up my last big project in the house - painting the living room! I had the electrician in Friday (and the guys delivering a new dryer because ours conked out ick) wiring the TV (and the outlets for the freezer in the garage) into the wall above the fireplace and after patching the holes I could dive right into it on Monday. Ahhh, it feels so nice to have that off the To Do List.

And our gladiolas are blooming! Well, the first 2 are at least. Pretty.

2011 Week 23

2011-06-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite photo for this week (and probably within the last few weeks as well). The woman sitting next to me said "awww" when she saw what I was snapping the photo of.
Friday was Kaitlyn's final awards ceremony and the school had turned it over to each individual classroom to do their own. The kids were sitting on the floor of the classroom when we got there and Kaitlyn immediately spotted Ty and me and came over with big smiles and hugs. She took Tyler with her back to the carpet and spent the whole time with her arm around him. He even held her hand and went with her to the front when the teacher called her name. It only took a few minutes to hand out all the certificates, then everyone had ice cream.

Kaitlyn got the Star Reader, Star Math (her usual) and the Terrific Kid Award (those are only given to 2 children in each class each grading period). She was very happy about the Terrific Kid and put on her Tshirt to "surprise" her Dad when he got home.

I took Kaitlyn home with us directly after the awards and not long after that Sam got home and took me to the airport for a quick trip home. Gram had died on Memorial Day and I was headed to Utah for the weekend for her funeral. I'm so glad I went. The funeral itself wasn't a happy occasion, but it was very nice and I was glad to be there for Dad.

The family time during the weekend was unexpected, but a very nice bonus to the weekend. And it was a LOT of family time. I was on NC time still so I was up around 4AM every morning (and incredibly tired the whole time) and with Dad being an early bird too we had a lot of time to talk and do things before anyone else was awake. One morning I just went with him to feed the animals, the second I played cowgirl and helped him herd the bull back to the cattle (and the cattle to the bull when we couldn't get him exactly where Dad wanted him), and the third he took me to see the river (with some of the repairs done from the flooding last year and the high water threatening to do even more flooding soon this year).

Lenore and her family had come up for the weekend (and had picked me up from the airport actually) and Bonnie and Larry were in town too. Sunday morning turned into one giant work party with everyone helping my Dad get the sprinkler lines set up in the fields. They even saddled up a couple of horses and we took turns riding them while we out in the field. It was the first time on a horse for the boys and they couldn't get enough. (side note - what a shock to find out that Eddie is 15 and drove part of the way to Mom's house!) Larry also got his first real time on a horse and Bon said he was talking about buying one by the end of his 3rd ride :) Nick (he's 13) also got to learn how to drive the tractor.

I had purposely not packed my cameras, thinking that funerals weren't a time for me to be thinking of taking photos. But pretty much the entire time there I was wishing for a camera. Spring is such a beautiful time in the mountains and the farm has all kinds of rustic details that I can't wait to capture. I had to be satisfied with a couple quick shots on the camera.

Once back home, I've had a hard time recovering from the trip. I just can't seem to get the sleeping and thus the energy/motivation back on track. So we've been taking it easy and not doing much. Tyler and I went shopping one day with a friend. To entertain himself, Tyler was taking photos from the cart. Lovely huh?

And finally, the last day of school has arrived! Kaitlyn was very happy to be off to the final half-day and had a lot of fun. She can't wait for all the fun summer stuff we've been planning but did tell me just now that she already misses her teacher. Such a cute girl.

2011 Week 22

2011-06-03T08:38:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend was a long and busy one for us. Sam got Friday off and we started right in on the last of our yard work. Lots and lots of yard work. On the last trip to Home Depot for supplies the truck decided to go on strike (otherwise known as blowing out a tire). Luckily Sam had gone on that run by himself and the blow out happened at the entrance to our subdivision on his way home. We jacked up the tire, emptied the back and finished our projects then Sam put on the spare and took the truck in for a whole new set of tires.

Here's the finished product - yay! Gravel and weed barrier under the deck, under faucets and any other place we needed weed/erosion control. Fully filled sandbox. New patio for the swing and fire pit. Overseeded with grass, fertilized, bug control, weed control. Finished off the last of what needed to be done on the rain gutters. We are now declaring an end to the yard projects for this year because it's HOT and we've spent enough time and money on them for a while.
We've been dealing with North Carolina rain storms here, some of which hit us in the middle of our yard projects. The storms are strange - you know they're coming because the clouds are out all day but there's no real indication of when it will start raining. But when it does hit, it usually hits pretty hard and just pounds down for a good 15-30 min. The yard instantly turns into a giant puddle and the rain gutters overflow. Plenty of thunder and lightning. It's actually pretty fun to watch. Then it tapers off and once the sun comes out the puddles dry up in no time.

(this one is just because he's cute)

Though it was really too hot to build a fire, Kaitlyn had been asking and asking to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. And when the weather forecast showed no signs of a cool day, we picked the best one we could and built the fire anyway. It was hot and we had plenty of flies for visitors. But Kaitlyn sure was happy and ate like a champ (totally worth it because the days either of our picky eaters gobble up the food are days that make us very happy). Tyler was into it until he had to sit down and eat a hot dog - and totally refused. We had a bit of a fight, sending him into his room at one point. But eventually he met our quota for bites of a hot dog, had a banana to fill out the meal, and we let him roast a marshmallow for smores.

Kaitlyn didn't have to wait for hers. She had so much fun roasting her own marshmallows or making us do it that she didn't ever want to stop.

On the final day of our holiday weekend, Memorial Day, we took the kids bowling. What a blast that was, for Tyler in particular. He was in the best mood and happy and chatty and dancing or jumping around the whole time. (Sam took a video of it with his camera, I'll have to see if I can somehow upload that to the blog) He was also a lucky little guy and got at least 2 strikes, bowling entirely by himself. Kaitlyn was having fun but after the first few frames and Tyler's score edging well ahead of her own she got a little down - or a lot down. She wasn't happy. Eventually inspiration struck and I announced that the winner had to buy the losers ice cream (the winner was guaranteed to be Sam, since he bowls weekly). That struck just the right note and Kaitlyn was able to be happy that she wasn't in the winner's seat.

School is winding down. Homework has come to an end (yay!) and you can tell things are being finished up and everyone is kind of marking time. Yesterday was the awards ceremony for the Academic All Stars - Kaitlyn being one of them. They gave the students that were receiving the award matching shirts and had this little parade around the track. They had written their dreams on some cards and attached them to balloons. They had a few of the kids read their dreams (some were funny like the kid who wanted to be a millionaire and own a monkey, some touching like the girl who wanted a cure for cancer because her mother had died from it in January (so sad!), and some were pretty typical like going to college and even a couple that were simply world peace). When I asked Kaitlyn what hers was she said she couldn't remember. At the end of the ceremony the kids released the balloons. Then we all went into the activity room for ice cream.

Have I mentioned how noisy it is around here lately? It's bad. Construction is in full swing. We're told 15 new houses are going into the subdivision as fast as they can get them done. Two of which happen to be directly behind us. The saws and hammering start up before 7AM. (I'd be annoyed and complain if I weren't already awake by then) Then there are the guys that are working on getting the phone lines, cable and internet (yup, we've been without landlines all this time. Now that we've managed without them though I doubt we'll bother to sign up for now). Add in the cement trucks and the delivery vans and the tractors and the landscapers out mowing the lawns on all the empty lots... It's a lot of noise.

2011 Week 21

2011-05-27T17:20:00.001-07:00

I love that the kids have lots of friends in the neighborhood, most of which feel free to stop by any time they want (the stopping by all the time part is a blessing and a curse). They spend lots of time riding bikes and scooters, playing basketball or baseball, or drawing with sidewalk chalk. But sometimes even though I insist the gang stays outside they find a way around me and end up doing something like this. (sitting on the sidewalk all playing their own DS/handheld video games) I had to laugh a little at their ingenuity. Then I had to grab the camera and snap a pic through the window so I didn't disturb them.

Most noteworthy event this week - our 12th Anniversary!

(the photo is bleck - I wanted a cute one but the timing was wrong as we were in a rush to get out the door and Ty wasn't doing what he was told and Kaitlyn, our photographer kept snapping the photo before we were ready. Maybe next time)

And it was a good one, though I have to say that it was painfully obvious that neither Sam or I cared to put much into it this year. We told each other no gifts (who needs them when we've got all this new stuff for the house and Sam with his motorcycle and...) and didn't get around to buying cards either. We didn't even get a babysitter and go out on a date (partially because we're still not quite familiar enough with anyone to impose our kids on them on a Sunday). But Kaitlyn, our sweet Kaitlyn who loves to celebrate things, woke up that morning and quietly made this picture for us before we even knew she was awake and brought it in to us (as we were still in bed) with a happy smile and a big hug. Great way to start the morning. Sam ran to the store for donuts for breakfast.

Kaitlyn really wanted to go to a park this weekend so we took the kids down to the base and found one we hadn't tried yet. It had this really pretty little lake and multiple little playgrounds, plus the big playground with some really unique things like a music section with all sizes of drums and xylophone-type stuff. The kids thought it was great that the geese left the lake and almost walked right up to us.

But the day was hot hot hot so we were happy to hop back in the car after a shorter than usual time at the park and go to an early lunch at Olive Garden. We had warned/threatened/cajoled the kids beforehand that no matter where we ate for lunch they had to not complain and if they didn't want anything it served then we would feed them something else later. We also told them that they were sitting together so Sam and I could sit next to each other for a change. And surprise, surprise - it worked! Not only were the kids well behaved, but they split an order of spaghetti (with the sauce on the side for Kate) and gobbled it up. Kaitlyn said we could now add it to her list of places she likes to eat because she hadn't realized the bread sticks there were so good :) So we were pretty happy about that whole experience.

We did some quick shopping then finished up our outing with ice cream from Cold Stone.

Ok so if our house wasn't the "fun" house of the neighborhood before (though I kinda think it might be as we get plenty of visitors), it is now. The kids were outside yesterday and caught a frog under our deck. They excitedly showed it to me, then after I convinced them that the poor thing needed to just sit down somewhere and not have them holding and bouncing it around, they set to work to build a "frog obstacle course" in the sandbox. Kaitlyn drew up plans and everything. They had a blast and really worked well together. I even overheard one of them say she was going to have her mom build her a sandbox at her house because it was so much fun. It entertained them for pretty much the entire evening.
When it was time to clean up and send everyone home, they did dump the frog into the trenches they had dug to see what he would do. And I was happy to see he obliged the kids and actually did hop down most of the track and back again without hopping out of the sandbox. I thought I had them convinced that we were letting him go after that but before I knew it the neighbor boy took off with him so I shook my head and figured it was his mom's problem now :)

Kaitlyn is supposed to make sure she gets her bug box back though - that thing comes in handy more often than you'd think. Like if she actually convinces to find a hermit crab at the beach, as she's been convinced she will do next time we go. She's talked about it nearly every day this week. They've been studying the ocean, fish, etc at school and she loves everything about it. She even sent me to the library with a list so I would be sure to find her enough books about crabs and the ocean so she could learn more.

Funny, it seems there's a lot about Kate this time around. In reality Tyler is more visible and spends much more time with me (how could he not with Kate in school and Sam at work?). Maybe the photos will show it next week.

Have I mentioned that's it's been HOT? That deserves to be noted, as having a full week of temps in the mid 90s (97 at 4 PM on Wed - eek!) as early as this in the year is really something we're not used to. I think they had a snowstorm in Utah last week. So it seems pretty strange to us, though not unusual for the area. I'm wondering how we're going to manage it when it gets REALLY nasty with the heat and humidity in July and August. Run screaming back to Utah maybe...? (actually we will, though not screaming as we go. We bought our airplane tickets this week for a nice long visit home this summer. They also broke ground for the neighborhood pool this week - wooohooo!)

2011 Week 20

2011-05-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Events this week:
-Friday was Field Day for Kaitlyn. One of our nice neighbors watched Tyler for me in the morning so I could help out with the events. Kaitlyn's class didn't manage to get to my stations while I was there, but I did get to wave at her (so she at least knew I was there. I tell ya - this school makes volunteering not much fun). After the neighbor dropped Tyler off (she was volunteering in the afternoon) he and I ate lunch with Kate in her classroom.
-We finally managed to schedule our "house warming" party with the guys from Sam's office. You know I was cleaning my behind off all week in order to get ready for it (because you also know that Sam was sure to show off the closets to everyone). But I'm happy to have now met most of the people he works with and a couple of their wives. Seems like a good bunch.

-Kindergarten/1st Grade Concert took place on Tuesday. Kaitlyn was very excited and did a fantastic job. She even got put in as a "prop" at the last minute because one of the other kids didn't show up and she did the job perfectly.

Tyler went to the concert with his first ever fat lip. The little guy was tryig to help me out by bringing the big garbage can in from the road while I unloaded groceries. The next thing I know, he's under the garbage can crying. Poor kid. It looked much worse in person :( but after a couple days of him babying it by drinking through a straw and eating pretty much only cut up bananas and yogurt it seems to be well on the mend.

-Oh yeah and I FINISHED THE FENCE! As of yesterday I no longer have to look forward to putting in my 2 hours staining every day. Woohoo!

2011 Week 19

2011-05-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

This week was our final Saturday of soccer - woohoo! I think we were all getting sick of it. Kaitlyn really wasn't into it all and though she tried her hardest during their final "tournament" you could tell her heart wasn't in it. I think their team got 3rd (out of 4) but I don't think she paid attention to the scores at all. The kids Tyler's age didn't even show up but again that was ok. We were happy to leave early and go out to lunch.

But before we put away the soccer ball we made sure to take a photo with Flat Stanley. He spent Mother's Day with us, then we put him in an envelope and sent him back to Utah.

Ahhh Mother's Day. It was a very good one this year. Kaitlyn was all about the planning and made sure they were well prepared. She brought home some cute projects from school and a plant so I got to "open" all of them early.

Kaitlyn made sure to tell her Dad to turn off his alarm and asked if he needed to set hers so they could wake up before me on Mother's Day and fix breakfast. She's such a sweetie. It wasn't breakfast in bed this year, but they did all make waffles, hash brown's, bacon, and orange juice. After I opened my bigger gift (Photoshop software) we spent most of the rest of the day just relaxing and spending time together. Took it really slow in the morning, then went for a nice little hike at Raven Rock in the afternoon.
We were going to dinner out, but even getting their early didn't help us avoid the crowds so we changed the plan and stopped at the grocery store for supplies and ended up with pasta, garlic bread, and cheesecake. All in all I felt well-loved and appreciated by those cute kiddos (and husband) of mine.

Kaitlyn had the small camera with her to take a few photos of Flat Stanley and whatever else she wanted. I like this shot she got of Tyler in the car.After the relaxing weekend it was back to the hard work on the yard and house. We scheduled a house-warming party with Sam's co-workers (mostly so I could meet them and their wives) and I was scrambling to get the house super clean and the yard presentable. Sam took the time one day to finally track down some sand for the sandbox. As you can see, Tyler was in heaven.

(this is my view from inside the screen porch)

2011 Week 18

2011-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'll just do quick photo comments this time around... Final sandcastle at the beach Friday morning before heading back home.

Teacher appreciation week this week. The school asked us to send a card one day (kaitlyn wrote cute little notes that told her teachers they are "the best ever in the school"), chocolate another day, and a flower a third day. I also put together these fun personalized supply boxes for her to take on one the days that didn't have an assignment.

Also working on getting Mother's Day stuff out in the mail. I put Tyler to work coloring pictures and for the first time ever he is actually into it. Usually he will spend all of 5 seconds scribbling then tell me I should do it for him. But surprisingly he has been spending hours on end in front of the TV with his Tonka coloring book and crayons. It makes me happy to see him finally liking it.

A friend from Kaitlyn's class back in UT sent her a "Flat Stanley" so we have been trying to take plenty of photos to document his vacation here with us before sending him back to them. Kaitlyn took Stanley and a camera to her class one day.

Kaitlyn got early out on Tues so the kids could go to the county fair, so a neighbor and I did just that. We spent most of the time in the carnival rides area where the kids had a lot of fun. I would have liked to see the rest of it first and not really do the rides, but when we did get around to exploring the rest of it, it was sadly disappointing.

There were a couple of tents with displays and people selling things. A very small area for the kids where Ty loved riding this little tractor and Kaitlyn got to hold a baby chick.

There was a tent with a very small show ring and like one of each of some VERY common animals. A baby calf, a bunny, a chicken, some goats...
Kaitlyn took the camera and had fun taking photos of the animals though. I love this one she got of the miniature horse.

And she insisted on keeping the camera and taking a picture of herself on the tractor ride back to the parking lot.

And the Never-Ending-Fence-Staining Project. I've been working on this one all week (a couple hours per day) and still not even half done.

2011 Week 17

2011-04-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Party Week! Friday was a half-day at school for Kaitlyn and most of that was taken up by the mini-relay at the school. It was a fund-raiser for cancer, with them doing a short walk around the track then participating in a few other activities that were set up outside. Tyler and I went to the school to watch, then took Kaitlyn home with us. And that was the beginning of Spring Break.

Saturday we decorated Easter Eggs. Then did some shopping/errands since it was rainy weather and soccer was cancelled.

Sunday was Easter. The kids had a blast. That Easter Bunny is almost as generous as Santa and the kids got tons of fun stuff. Kaitlyn and Tyler spent the rest of the day playing with all their new stuff. Sam and I were on a mission to get the fence done before we left for the beach though, so we spent most of the day working on the vinyl part of the fence (the front section).

Aren't those giant eggs cool?! The bigggest ones held new beach towels, the others had water bottles, swim goggles and sunglasses.

The kids were absolutely adorable that day and in the best moods that day. It was amazing to see how loving and happy they were to spend time playing with just each other. No fighting, no arguments, no bugging Mom and Dad for much of anything. At one point Tyler told me "
Mommy, me and Kaitlyn are best friends together."
The last thing they did that night was Kaitlyn reading their bedtime story to him cuddled up together in one of the chairs in the play room.
Grandma Alene and Oma Rhonda sent the kids Easter outfits (along with other fun Easter stuff) so I took the time to drag the kids to the park for a photo session later in the week.

We finished up the fence (stupid gate! that'll still need to be redone) Tuesday night and Wednesday morning we were off to the beach!

Thursday was icky weather - didn't rain too much but it was chilly and the wind was bad. So we took the kids to the Battleship Museum (USS North Carolina).

More details about the 2nd half of our beach trip next week...

2011 Week 16

2011-04-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I took almost no photos but it looks like this week is very picture-heavy.

Saturday was very eventful. Not only did we have the usual soccer practice (which barely finished up before the rain started), but we had some "excitement" as well. After lunch we headed out to the movie, choosing a place about 40 min from our house. It was raining and windy, but not too badly. About half-way there we encountered a downed power pole in the middle of the road. No big deal, we drove around it. A few minutes later Sam decided we needed to turn on some music and were we in for a surprise. Emergency weather announcements kept coming at us every few minutes announcing one tornado or extreme weather watch after another. We had no clue if we were in a county that was affected at the time, but our home county was listed so we drove on to the movie, where the clouds were breaking up and the sun was shining above the theater. We had a good time watching the show (Hop) and only realized how bad the weather may have been when we were on the way home and saw some signs of destruction only a few miles into the drive. Downed trees, bent signs, complete power outages with cops directing traffic at lights, pieces of roofs missing. We also had to detour way around the place where they were fixing the downed power pole, which was a pretty little drive. And we were happy to find that our house showed no signs of storm damage at all (though we later saw that some of the neighbors fences and tress had sustained some damage). We now realize how lucky we were. One reports states that "62 tornadoes repeatedly touched down in more than 20 counties" in NC. Many of them hit fairly close to us. The Lowes in Sanford (approx 25 min to the east) is completely on the ground. Dunn, a town 20 or so min to the north-east (ish) got hit. Miles of destruction on roads near the base (30 min south) had it and the freeway closed down entirely for a couple of days. Power outages lasted well into Sunday in Spring Lake (20 min in the same direction as the base)...
So so lucky. Kaitlyn was getting pretty disturbed by the radio announcements so we've been keeping her exposure (and thus our own) to reports on it to a minimum.

Also this week:
Tyler decided to draw on my dining table. Yup the new one. He thought it was great and was happily showing it off when I realized what he had done and scared him by yelling. Then I cried. Sam quickly promised he'd sand it down and refinish the whole top as soon as he could though so I'm trying not to be upset every time I see it.

I went to get a haircut with a friend one day this week (leaving Ty with Mom - nice). I'm not exactly happy with my hair and the humidy (and curls and the FRIZZ) and was hoping a good cut would help. Too bad the woman didn't listen to my instructions and cut my layers WAY too short. So still not exactly happy with my hair. *sigh* (or my silly attemt at taking a photo of it for you all using the bathroom mirror)

It has however, been mostly beautiful spring weather and we're gearing up for Easter. I boiled up 5 dozen eggs for my neighbor one morning - she was sick and looked miserable but insisted that she was going to dye them with her (FIVE) kids after school as she had promised them. So I took them off her hands and told her to go back to bed.

We've also been working on the fence - yay! We started sinking post holes on Sunday and I thought I'd be spending a lot of my time helping Sam with the installation. But the neighbor that shares part of our back fence quickly came out and offered to help and has been right with Sam working away on it every time he goes out there. Tyler was excited to help too. The first day he ran the hose. Then when they started putting on the boards he was happy to go get his tools and help them out too. But he quickly quit when he realized his plastic hammer wouldn't drive the nails in.

With the guys working away I was able to stain the sandbox and re-do the deck. That deck looks so pretty now! Then during the second fencing session yesterday, the three of us girls spent the time on the porch enjoying the weather. I read a book and Kaitlyn and Grandma did their nails.

I let the kids open the Easter package from Wyatt and Bonnie a bit early. The yellow thing she is holding is one of the paint-your-own bunnies from one of the kits in it. The kids loved everything in the baskets, and the baskets themselves were a hit too. Kaitlyn got Hello Kitty. And Tyler has been carrying around his fire truck basket every day since.

And this is how the back yard looks now (with the kids playing with some of the neighbors, as usual). Still a lot of work to go but it's getting there.

We ended the week (well, my 365 week since I post on Fridays) with putting Grandma on a plane back to Utah.

2011 Week 15

2011-04-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Surprise package from Grandma Alene (left behind for this purpose on her last visit) contained some fun toys, including this strange foam play-doh stuff.

Ty, getting a little too independant - he got down the chocolate milk mix by himself when he wanted a refill and filled the cup up to the brim with powder.

Grandma Alene is in town! She flew in Monday and has been having a lot of fun playing with the kids. Ty brought some of his toys downstairs so he could play closer to us (and temp Gma to get down on the floor and play trucks more often too).

Sam getting an unexpected day off Tues meant Mom and I could have a Girls Only shopping day - yay!

Mom in town also means...date night!

Wed night, date night at Cheesecake Factory. The kids, of course made caramel popcorn at home while we were gone.

Thursday morning happened to be another awards assembly for Kaitlyn (that's two in a row that have fallen during Gma's visits). She got a Star Reader and Star Math award but what she really wanted was a "medal" which is only given to one child in the class. We're not sure how they earn it.This time Grandma came prepared with all kinds of projects and things to do with the kids.

2011 Week 14

2011-04-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

Started our Friday morning off with a trip to the dr's office to discuss Kaitlyn's allergies. Looks like she's going to be on a daily dose of meds for at least the next two months while the pollen count is high so that hopefully we can avoid any more big coughing attacks. We also have the rescue inhaler if she needs it.

Friday was also April Fool's. For once, I planned a few very easy tricks and was glad I did because Kaitlyn was really into it. Thursday night I enlisted her help pinning all of Sam's underwear and Tshirts together in his drawers. Kaitlyn was SO excited to see his response and Sam didn't disappoint. After he got dressed he went into her room and woke her up by saying "hey look it's snowing." Then told her (in a joking voice) she better not mess with his clothes anymore. She thought it was so funny. I sent the gummy worm in the apple with Kaitlyn for snack. And did the jello instead of juice/punch for the kids for dinner. Again, Kaitlyn thought it was great, even though the prank was on her. I caughter her in our room later that night pinning the sheets to the bed on Sam's side. She told me she was tricking just him but sure enough when I went to bed the little monkey had pinned my side of the bed too. I think it's great that she is starting to show some of her creative/playful side more.

Once again, the kids had soccer on Saturday. It took a little convincing to get Kaitlyn to go, since she was still afraid of having a coughing attack but I think she was glad she did. She always has fun at soccer.

Tyler is usually very enthusiastic about his soccer practice. In fact, one of the coach/volunteer dads told us he calls Ty "giggler" (partially I'm sure because until today he didn't know his name). But he must have worn himself out playing on the park while Kaitlyn was practicing because he kept coming off the field to join us on the bleachers and after half an hour we gave up and left.

See that? The yellow stuff is all the nasty pollen that has been blown onto everything around here. I swiped that stuff off the front door but it's also coating pretty much everything outside. Even I, myself, am showing signs of allergies and have taken Claritin to combat it some of the days this week. Doesn't seem to be bothering Sam too much though when he's usually the one combating them. Strange. The rest of the week wasn't all that interesting. I spent a whole day cleaning the carpets, couches, car upholstery, etc. Another day running errands. No wonder the photos this week are so scarce.

2011 Week 13

2011-04-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon the neighborhood work party started in on my yard. We moved a few bushes and put in the edging. Sam and I finished it up Saturday morning with the weed paper and the mulch and oooh does it look good! That black mulch really makes the colors of everything else pop. In the process, we discovered that our yard has a few critters and some really strange mushrooms/ fungus (at least we're guessing that's what it was - ew). A salamander was hiding by the bushes in the front and scared me when I almost grabbed him. My neighbors wouldn't quit teasing me for screaming and running :) And Sam found the frog among the other bushes. We put him in a tote to show the kids, then dumped him out again in the middle of the yard. He sat there for a while being still as he could be like "if I don't move you can't see me!" Kaitlyn came back outside to check him out again and even got daring enough to touch him while he sat there. Eventually he hopped back into the bushes. I'm assuming both our little friends are still out in the yard somewhere and don't intend to move then in the hope that they will help keep the nasty bug population down.

Saturday was a very busy day. After the yard work (which we only finished because Kaitlyn's allergies were bugging her really bad and she didn't want to go to her soccer practice - we took Tyler to soccer. We went home for lunch and to pack then the kids and I were on our way to spend the rest of the weekend at Audrey's.

As always, we had a great time with Audrey and her family. Scott was nice enough to offer to watch ALL the kids (including the baby) so Audrey and I could do something fun. So nice! (thanks again Scott!) We ended up going out to dinner then wandering around TJ Maxx/Home Goods. The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out, dealing with kids (I'm sad to say Tyler was being quite a handful and Kaitlyn with her allergies and being tired from late nights had her own whiney moments too), and slightly less than our usual bit of crafting. We finished up our fun weekend by letting the kids "swim" in the hot tub while we tried to capture some decent 2 month old photos of Lilly. She's a cutie but she REALLY didn't want to pose for photos and there are very few with any "real" smiles.

The rest of the week is kind of a blur. Sam was nice enough to clean most of the house while we were gone, so catching up from the previous busy week and weekend wasn't as bad as it could have been. We also had a few days of heavy rain and cold temps so plenty of time was spent inside hiding from the weather. In fact, I now remember we even had some snow at Audrey's Monday morning. Spring weather is so random.

2011 Week 12

2011-03-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Spring is definitely here. At one point temperatures hit the 80s! That had us scrambling to pull out the shorts and flip flops. And also had me wondering how I'm going to handle the summer if it's this hot and it's only March. Of course the spring weather was a tease and cooled off again toward the end of the week.

We spent the week just trying to get things done around here. I bought a paper shredder and Kaitlyn helped me shred the stack of paperwork that has been sitting there since I changed out the files in January.

And the whole neighborhood started to focus on their yards. A couple of my friends/neighbors went in together on a load of mulch and seeing how much work they had ahead of them I pitched in to help. What I intended to be just a couple hours assisting them turned into a three day long neighborhood work party. It was tons of work, but now both their yards look fantastic and so does mine, since they had way too much mulch and the final afternoon we started in on my yard so we could use up the rest of it. And I have to say, big projects like that are so much more fun when you have friends working right along side you.

Tyler thought the yard party was great. Digging in the dirt is his favorite thing, of course. And the neighbor has some great Star Wars toys in her garage that he and our neighbor, Hanna (the only two in our little group of friends that aren't old enough for school and have to hang out with the moms all day) loved playing with. (in the photo, Ty is the one in the middle with the red shorts and the "storm trooper" helmet)

We also tested out our sprinklers in order to find all the heads so we wouldn't hit them when we install the fence. And sadly, we found some leaks and other issues that had to be dealt with. The contractor's landscape guy had to come back three separate mornings and add two more sprinklers, but I'm fairly certain we now have fully functioning sprinklers that cover all parts of the yard. Bring on summer! (ok, don't really bring on summer. I actually like Spring quite a lot)

2011 Week 11

2011-03-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

What a fun-filled week! Sam bought a motorcycle and couldn't stop grinning the night he brought it home (need to snap a photo and post it soon).

We took the kids to the North Carolina Zoo on Sunday. Great weather, fun family outing. But boy is that place HUGE. All the exhibits are pretty big and they have all kinds of space between each one so our feet were really really tired by the end of the day.

The emu stood there for there for the longest time just staring at people. It was pretty cool. Tyler favorite animal was the alligator. The polar bears and the seals were the most active and the most entertaining to watch. And Kaitlyn liked the...ugh I forget what she liked. Note to self: ask her and update this! :P

Tyler's view from the back seat. I handed him my phone so he could play a game on the way home from one of our marathon errand/shopping trips and the little monkey must have figured out which ap ran the camera.

This is another one I'm pretty sure Ty took. Can you tell what he loves to play with most?

And there's our poor guy the right after he fell off his bike. He's very good on that thing, but sometimes things like that happen. He wasn't hurt badly, but did have quite a few patches of road rash. The worst of it was a big scrape on his wrist that he completely babied and refused to use the hand at all for a couple of days. Kaitlyn gave him the Donald Duck sticker to cheer him up.

Looks like it's the week for photos of/concerning Ty. I thought it was so cute when I walked in the kitchen and saw he had pulled everything for his breakfast out and lined it all up on the counter - milk, Sprite, cup, bowl, spoon, Fruity Pebbles... The bar stools were still in place by the counters where he had drug them over so he could reach what he needed. Mr Independant.

Tyler got some early St Pat's Day fun at story time at the library Wednesday. Story time here is so well done and so much fun for the kids - this time even more than usual.
We finished up the fun week with St Patrick's Day on Thursday. The kids opened up the package from grandma (that she left behind when she was here) the night before because I knew she had green shirts for them, along with some other fun stuff. And of course the leprechaun visited and played a few fun tricks like turning the milk green and leaving the kids some fun stuff.

The neighbors were in a goofing-off mood too, as we found ourselves still standing in the middle of the road talking a full 2 hours after the bus pulled away with the kids. So the four of us and the little kids basically spent the rest of the day together - out to lunch and running errands in tandem. It's a slow way to do things, but sure makes life a lot more fun.

2011 Week 10

2011-03-11T07:08:00.000-08:00

Spring Soccer! We had our first dose of it on Saturday. The kids were SO excited to get started, and it was a nice day for it. It was Tyler's very first time in anything other than dance class (with Gma) and he did a fantastic job. He was right on task the whole time and really enjoyed himself. He was pretty funny to watch too. Then spent a lot of time taking turns kicking the ball into the goal and every time he was up he would kick the ball then throw his hands in the air and do a little dance. Then he'd turn around and dance his way back to the end of the line to patiently wait for his next turn. (he's the one in the red shirt, in case he's hard to spot) (Ty is sitting on my lap right now and his comment on the photo is "I so awesome-est!")

Kaitlyn was even more excited for soccer than Tyler. She had to wait all the way through Tyler's 1 1/2 hour practice and it was almost more than she could handle. She played on the playground for about 30 minutes then every few minutes after that she was back by my side asking how much longer until her turn. But finally she did make it to her turn and she had a blast. I have to say, I am super-impressed with the guy that is in charge of her age group. He had some really fun and creative looking drills and games for them to play.

Do you see Kaitlyn there in the middle? It was hard to get a good shot of her but she's the one in the center with the navy blue pants and the yellow jersey thing over her turquoise shirt.

While Kaitlyn was taking her turn with soccer, Tyler was playing on the playground - part of that time spent with our 9 year old neighbor (3rd grade - that's 9 right?), Sam, who does a good job of playing with Ty and keeping an eye on him. It was much appreciated since it was hard to keep my eye on the soccer field and the playground at the same time. My neighbor Eileen (Sam's mom) said she and her husband were laughing their heads off watching Ty make his way around the playground - first trying to get himself on the swings and once he was on them he couldn't get it to swing, then making himself dizzy going round and round the digger thing and flopping headfirst onto the sand and just laying there flat out to catch his breath/balance.

Let's see, what else was noteworthy this week? Well, I decided I really wasn't happy about Kaitlyn's dance class only learning 1 count of 8 in the entire last THREE weeks of class. No warming up, no across the floor, no nothing. Really not happy. Called the owner of the studio and didn't get a good response from her so I pulled Kaitlyn out of dance all together. Good thing I had already been looking at other options for next year.

Tyler is my little buddy every day. One day I sent him upstairs to grab some socks so we could go to the grocery store and he didn't come back downstairs. I found him on the floor of the hallway at the top of the stairs like this

Poor guy must have been VERY tired. So I left him there and let him sleep it off and we did errands later.

Ty and I also got some fun play/errand time with some of the neighbors - an impromptu "hey does anyone want to go to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast?" invitation from my neighbor, Shanna, at the bus stop that I was glad we accepted. 3 moms, 3 kids - a much more laid-back, fun approach to small errand running. We dropped off one vehicle to get it's oil changed and all piled in the Yukon to go to breakfast. Then we hit Walmart, picked up the vehicle, and helped Shanna pick out paint samples at Lowes. Even the kids were easy to manage because someone was always free to help one or buckle a seatbelt while someone else parked the cart. Plus the 2 preschoolers had a buddy to keep them company and that made them happy too.
I'm having fun getting to know the people in the neighborhood and happy that we picked the subdivision we did. With everyone being new to the neighborhood, we all go out of our way more than the usual to make friends and get to know each other. There are plenty of kids and most of the moms I have met stay at home too, so that works in my favor. Days like yesterday make me think we just might be settling in and making a place for ourselves here pretty well - and more quickly than I had dared to hope for.

2011 Week 9

2011-03-04T03:17:00.000-08:00

You know how life likes to just knock you around sometimes? And all you can do is just hold on and ride out the storm? Well, the past week was a bit like that for us. Tyler spiked a fever Thursday night and had the poor guy was pretty miserable all day Friday. Just as his was backing off, the cold hit Kaitlyn but with her it always goes straight to her lungs and she coughs and coughs and coughs. Luckily we now have the inhaler and meds to deal with it when this happens to her, so while it was a rough day for her while we tried to get the coughing under control it really did only take about a day for things to start calming down for her. Which of course was when I started to feel under the weather - mostly sinuses and a pounding headache that lasted 4 days.
Moms don't get days off though, do we? So while feeling icky I still had to take the car in to be inspected and serviced (end of the month and it had to be registered aaaaah!) and run errands on Monday. And Tuesday morning we had a check-up for Tyler at the base (so we could get the paperwork for his application to a preschool program). Ugh. Stupid base medical system. It was easy enough to get an appointment at our clinic and the wait time wasn't bad. But the doc could only to so much then sent us to another clinic to get his shots and then we had to hit the big hospital complex for the hearing/vision screening at their peds clinic. What a mess - even by 9:00 AM all their big parking lots were full at the hospital and I had to hike from the back of the last parking lot to the FRONT of the hospital, carrying Tyler who was refusing to walk because his legs hurt from the shots. We got right in to see someone, but still - what a pain in the rear the whole thing was.
I also dealt with making sure some mostly minor repairs were done on the house during that week. And I think that weekend we also managed to do some projects on the house. Sam installed the rain gutters on the front and I painted the front door.
Then just when I was starting to get my energy back and feel better, I ended up helping a neighbor with a project (final report of some sort for her college class). Ah how something as simple as saying "oh yeah I know how to scrapbook I can help you for a couple hours" turns into not only a run to Walmart for supplies and an evening scrap session, but another ENTIRE day with her at my house working pretty much non-stop on the thing. So much for productivity for the week, although I must admit that I didn't actually mind the scrapbooking or having her there for the most part. She's new to the neighborhood and it was a good chance to get to know her a bit (even though her kids are a bit of a mess with her 5 year old daughter being spoiled and whiney and her son accidentally hitting Tyler's finger with a shovel. My poor little boy now has a black fingernail).
We made it through but that's one week I don't care to repeat any time soon.

The kids still managed to have fun though :)

2011 Week 8

2011-02-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

We have had the best weather this week! Combine that with the fact that my parents were still visiting, thus giving us the excuse to play a lot and take a break from most of our usual routine and home improvement projects and that makes for one pretty good week.

Friday Mom and I got in some Girl Time out shopping while Kaitlyn was at school and Tyler got to play with Grandpa. Sam got off work early and took Dad and Ty to the base to show them around a bit and get some lunch. When Kaitlyn got home from school she was excited to have Gma and Gpa watch her at dance class.

Saturday we headed to the beach! Oh it's so much fun to be able to take a day trip out there (took us 2 hours to get to Wrightsville Beach) and the fact that we were sitting on the sand without jackets in February - so nice!

Being outside in the sun is draining. So Sunday we just kind of hung out in the morning, then went to a movie with the kids in the afternoon.

Monday was President's Day. Sam had the day off and Kaitlyn only had half day so we kept her out of school and goofed off in the morning, then went for a hike at Raven Rock State Park. Dad was really interested in the Cape Fear River, so we had wanted to take him to the overlook. It's a great view up there. Will love to go back when the leaves are on the trees and the water is higher and see how much of a difference it makes.There is also a place where you can go down a bunch of steps and be near the river itself. It had all kinds of really cool rocks and trees and things. The kids didn't want to quit exploring.

We got some one on one photos of the kids with their grandparents while we were there.

And Tuesday they flew out. We spent the rest of the week playing catch up on all the stuff we put off during their visit and working back into our normal routine.

2011 Week 7

2011-02-18T03:21:00.000-08:00

Oh what a full, busy week! We decided to get out of the house on Saturday and tracked down our closest Outlet mall - only an hour away. Not bad and a decent mall at that. We stocked up on pjs for the kids and a few other things.

Here are my little models in their new pajamas. Kaitlyn set up her photo and pose herself - such a cutie.

Monday was Valentines Day! Hearts in the waffles, new clothes, treasure hunt for their gifts, party at school...the kids had a great day. Sam and I had a good one too, though date night was postponed for a couple days.

On Tuesday my parents flew in for a week's vacation. Sam was nice enough to pick them up at the airport by himself since the plane didn't get in until after 10PM. We were all pretty tired the next morning, but I still let Kaitlyn wake them up before she headed out to school so she could at least say hello. They ended up walking to the bus stop with us and being so excited to see the kids that they didn't even go back to bed (well Mom did, but not for as long as I thought she would). Dad and Tyler spent a lot of time playing on the floor with trucks and cranes and stuff. I'm amazed Dad has the interest and patience for it that long. With everyone being tired, we took it easy that day. Didn't really do much more than visit and hang out until the afternoon when we did a quick run into town to grab a few things Mom hadn't packed. When Kaitlyn got home Mom oversaw her homework, Tyler played the Wii with Dad, and I enjoyed the change from the usual after school chaos. We finished up the night playing a new board game. It was nice. A really really nice day.

Thursday morning was an awards assembly at the elementary school. Kaitlyn made put on a dress and asked me to do her hair curly (or as curly as hers gets) so it would be extra cute for it. We were all happy that Grandma and Grandpa were there for one of Kaitlyn's Big Events (even though those things are all unbelieveably tedious and closer to torture than fun, sitting there waiting for the 2 seconds when your kid's name is called). Kaitlyn got a Star Student Math Award, a Star Student Reading Award, and the Roaring Writer award (which as far as I can tell was only given to one child in each class). But because they didn't actually present the awards to the kids at the ceremony (just called the name of each and every child and they all paraded across the stage and shook some hands), Kaitlyn didn't realize she had received anything until she got home and I asked to see her certificates (which the teacher had slipped in her binder).

Thursday night was date night - woohoo! Sam and I got to go to dinner (Joe's Crab Shack) and a movie (Green Hornet) alone together for the first time in maybe 6 months, which was thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed. The kids and the grandparents did their own version of dinner and a movie with KFC and the DVD of Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 that Grandma had given them for Valentines Day.

2011 Week 6

2011-02-13T04:06:00.001-08:00

Is is possible the only note-worthy thing that happened was a quick bath time photo shoot? Well, other than the fact that I painted the play room and guest room. (2 rooms to go!!!)
But back to the bubbles - aren't jetted tubs great places for bubble baths? Not such great places for photos - lots of dangerous water, bad lighting. And at one point the water shot straight out of the tub and hit the wall and mirror because Kaitlyn had knocked one of the jets upward and not realized it before she turned it on. Still shaking my head at that one.

Really, truly that's about it for the week. Sam had drill over the weekend and the kids and didn't do all that much. One day during the week Tyler and I ventured out on shopping trip so that I could finally get prepared for Valentines Day. Gearing up to paint the sun room...

2011 Week 5

2011-02-04T05:33:00.000-08:00

We started out the weekend with some fun - or at least the kids and I did. Sam got called in to work at the last minute so the kids and I went along with our plans without him. We met up with a friend of mine and her family at Chuck E Cheese. The kids have been begging to go there for weeks and we thought it would be a good place for us to get together while the kids played. Well, it was a complete madhouse (not unexpected on a Saturday afternoon right?) so the kids needed way more supervision than I had planned on. But it was still fun, especially for the kiddos. Then we all went out to dinner and us girls took the time to wander through the craft store together.
(had some prints of photos done in games there but didn't take any photos myself - note to self to add them in later when I scrapbook)

Sunday was the work day Sam and I have been dreading since we moved in. It was time to paint our two-story entry and staircase. Not fun. Lots and lots of time on tall ladders and other dangerous places, tense and nervous. And even then we still couldn't reach all of it and ended up taping a paint brush to the end of the roller extender pole and free-handing it. Let's just say it's less than perfect and be happy you can't see the details from down on the ground. But we're very happy to have it done and all in all it looks so much better than what was there.

The day did, however take it's toll and I ended up hobbling for a few days and having to take it easy most of the week.
We also got our first real taste of what I expected North Carolina weather to be like. It decided to warm up for one whole day this week. We stepped out the door for the bus, bundled up as usual, and were hit with with a blast of warm humid air. I'm sure that will be annoying in the summer when the temps are really up there, but for the one day it lasted it was a very welcome break from winter. I hope we get more days like that soon (especially after seeing my monstrous electric bill for the month - eek!).

2011 Week 4

2011-01-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

Currently my life runs on one long, never-ending To Do List.
-pick paint color for kitchen, living room, etc...check! We hit it with test color #3 - phew!

-schedule and take Kaitlyn on playdate with a new friend from her class...check! We met them at McDonald's and had a great couple of hours at the indoor play place.
-paint the kitchen...check!
-paint the kids' bathroom...check!
-schedule time for Kaitlyn to play with neighbor girls...check! this one was spur of the moment, though we had been talking about it for a while now. The kids played really well together, but I found that they interrupted me (wanting things) quite a bit. Hopefully that isn't what happens every time they play together.
-paint and install drying rack in laundry room...check!
-paint and install shelf/towel hooks in kids' bathroom...check!
-family fun time...check! See, the list isn't all work! We took the kids bowling on Saturday and had a lot of fun. Both of them are better bowlers than I would have thought - I only barely beat their scores. Sam, of course, did better than all of us but then again he bowls weekly now so that's not exactly a fair match.
The first part of the time we were bowling the kids had to do it without the help of those little ramps you roll the ball down. Tyler liked it so much that he didn't want to use the ramp even when we did get one - though one of his inaccurate throws did end up in the no man's land between lanes and had to be fished out. Kaitlyn on the other hand liked the ramp and her score took an significant up-turn when she was able to more accurately aim the ball with it.

-cut Sam's hair and Tyler's hair...check! Ok this one wasn't actualy on the list. But Sam was getting shaggy so he asked me to trim it up. And when Tyler saw Sam was getting a haircut he asked if I would cut his too. I hadn't actually intended to cut his hair, just run the clippers through the bottom a bit but once I got going I got brave. I can't believe I did it either - I have NO experience cutting hair with anything other than Sam's easy military, do it all with the clippers cut. But thankfully I did ok. What do you think?

-make the time to take some photos for some home dec projects I have in the works...check!

This is us trying to get photos of just the feet. It's a lot harder than you'd think! (especially with the self-timer)

-try story time at the library...check! I'm very impressed with it they do everything from reading the book, to games, songs, and crafts. This will probably become of the weekly activities for Tyler and myself
-clean the house, do the laundry, figure out dinner, blah blah blah...check check check! Life is rolling right along here.

2011 Week 3

2011-01-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

Only a few noteworthy things this week. The kids have been having fun playing in the sawdust and Kaitlyn's been "building" things with scrap wood. What's causing the sawdust this week? The laundry room! We put in a bench and coat hooks, painted the whole room, and installed a cupboard above the washing machine.

Sam turned 31 on Wednesday. We kept the celebrating low key with dinner out (Texas Roadhouse mmmmm) and dessert and gifts at home.

Look how much they love their dad :)

2011 Week 2

2011-01-15T04:11:00.001-08:00

It's been quite the week. Sam had to work over the weekend so the kids and I were on our own. Saturday I drug them out shopping with me so I could get ready for all of our January birthdays. And Sunday we recovered, with only a trip out to the grocery store. Then Monday we got another dose of NC winter weather - in which I mean they cancelled school and work over the chance of a snowstorm (that didn't really amount to much). No problem. Sam went to the Home Depot and then we worked on this. (that's the garage)

Tuesday we woke up to this. Yeah nasty. You could practically ice skate on the lawn. Of course no school, no work. We were happy to spend the day in the garage putting up more shelves, getting rid of stuff (we filled the entire back of the truck for Good Will), and putting things away. By the end of the day we could easily park both vehicles inside - for the first time since the movers showed up with all our stuff.

Wednesday everything started to melt. The base got a couple hour delay and school was still cancelled but it did start warming up. We were all ready for life to get back to some semblance of a normal schedule, but I have to say, the kids did a pretty good job of keeping themselves entertained and not fighting during the extra long weekend.

Thursday it was finally back to business as usual. Sam went to work, Kaitlyn went to school, Tyler played with his cars, and I painted our bedroom.

I bet you're starting to think all we ever do around here is work on the house. You'd be right. Sometimes I'm completely worn out by it and don't want to face another big project. But the urge to get the house looking good as soon as possible is stronger than the urge to sit around and relax - at least until all the really big projects and painting are done (which I'm hoping will be by the end of January).

2011 Week 1

2011-01-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

Love that photo!
The first week of the new year finds us valiantly trying to get back to normal life. The problem is, we haven't quite figured out what "normal" is for us in our new life here. But the holidays are over and Sam is back to work, Kaitlyn is back to school, and Tyler and I are trying to get things in order at home.
Sometimes that involves organizing. (*sigh* and boy do we still need more of that in certain areas)

Sometimes that involves home improvement projects - I painted both the dining room and powder bathroom this week. Both are red. Love the red. It's my "happy color."

And sometimes that involves errands and phone calls and overall just figuring things out. We had to go in search of a dentist this week because Kaitlyn spotted her top 2 teeth coming in and the the baby teeth in their place showed no signs of coming out any time soon. Of course, not only have we not bothered to find a dentist yet, but we weren't even sure how it all works with the insurance now. So Sam had to do some research first thing Monday morning and then I was lucky enough to get a same-day appointment for that afternoon. The dentist pulled the top 2 teeth (I was happy to know we hadn't rushed to the dentist for no reason) and Kate is now happily sporting a big toothless grin. The tooth fairy brought her $2 that night and she promply shared a dollar with her brother first thing the next morning (I love my little sweet heart!).

Week 51

2010-12-31T17:16:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve
-made cookies for Santa, spent the day shopping for furniture (and did purchase a dining table) and household stuff. Decorated cookies for Santa and the kids got new pjs before bed.Christmas Day
-low key day spent at home, just us. In pjs half the day. Gingerbread waffles for breakfast (of course). Playing with toys and watching movies all day long. Ahhhh. Nice.

Day after Christmas - guess that counts as a white Christmas since it started the evening of Christmas Day
We finished both the kids closets. (with the exception of the drawer fronts. We need to find wider boards for that)

Kaitlyn was coughing non-stop the day after Christmas. So bad that she was gagging and seriously couldn't quit for part of the day. So we spent Monday morning dealing with remnants of the bad weather with the 2 hour delay at the clinic, then fighting our way through the system. All things considered it probably went as smoothly as it could - we weren't in the system so they added us on the spot. Kaitlyn got right into the doc once the paperwork was figured out. The doc quickly diagnosed her with reactive airway/asthma/allergy problems (she said the area is known for lot of allergy issues) and we came home with an inhaler (oh boy was that pharmacy something! they have waiting chairs for at least 100 people), daily allergy meds and some nasal wash stuff. And I'm glad to say it's working and Kaitlyn is back to normal.

And a fun visit from Audrey and the kids for Tues-Thurs. We worked on projects in between having fun. The kids created their own art gallery (and made us buy the pictures), had fun at the Children's Museum in Fayetteville (it was tiny - good thing we had only planned on spending a couple hours there), really enjoyed the chocolate fountain, and played and played.

Week 50

2010-12-24T13:41:00.001-08:00

Little bit of Christmas prep (the dipped pretzels were for neighbor gifts - the kids had fun helping me make them. I also sent chocolate chip cookie dough brownies to the base on Friday. And finished up the Christmas shopping - all by myself - on Saturday) some happy mail (we got boxes from both Grandmas with goodies inside one we could enjoy right away - mmm) and a LOT of home improvement projects this week.

-Sam had the week off work so he got busy on the closets. It took the better part of the week, but by the end of the week the master closet was completely finished and the drawers and shelves for the kids' closets were well on their way. I painted Kaitlyn's room Monday. She insisted on the pink wall and when she got home from school on Monday (make-up day for the snow day last week, otherwise she would have had a full 2 weeks off school) she helped paint the pink part. And on Wednesday I tackled painting Tyler's room as well-
*need to add photo of finished closet

With a little time out for fun with friends.
-The kids and I left Sam to work on the wood shop on base Tues and met Audrey and her kids at the Children's Museum in Raleigh. The kids just played and played and didn't want to leave. The big favorite for the older kids was the building section. Kaitlyn designed, built and decorated a chair for Hello Kitty. Ty and Michael loved the balls, the place where you build your own car then race it down the track, and the marble wall. But really everything there was a lot of fun.

It was a great week. A really tiring and busy, but great week. Now bring on SANTA!

Week 48

2010-12-17T06:32:00.001-08:00

This week has been a combination of settling into the house and Christmas prep/activities. The elves have been up to their usual mischief. We've found them doing things like sledding down the stairs on a blanket, and having a "snowball fight" with the cotton balls. They must really miss the snow - they had even built a cotton ball snowman.The kids were very excited to start opening their 12 Days of Christmas gifts from Grandma Jackson.We saw Santa at the town hall (photos to be added when I pick them up). But the Christmas parade that was supposed to be that night was postponed due to rain.

The rain/weather hasn't been easy to deal with this week. It's been cold (hovers in the 30s) and overcast or rainy quite a bit lately. In fact, we dealt with our first "snow day" in NC on Thurs. They cancelled school for this. (need to add photo from phone)

I really just have to shake my head at them and wonder what they would think of a real snowstorm. Sam said the roads were icy on his way to work though so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say I guess we're better off inside than letting people that can't drive in bad conditions out on the road driving our kids around.

I was determined to get the Christmas card photos done though so I made everyone shiver on our front porch for a minute to snap a couple. This one isn't going in the card but I thought it was cute enough to share. As you can see, Kaitlyn was the only one who couldn't quite pretend we were all happily not freezing.

And I snapped a few photos of our newly-turned 4 year old - before he got any older!

One more week 'til Christmas people! (just thought I'd add that because we're getting pretty excited)

Week 47

2010-12-10T06:20:00.001-08:00

The elves found us at our new house (Friday morning). Kaitlyn has been anticipating seeing them for at least a week now and both kids were very excited to see they had arrived. They spent the whole morning showing them the house and carrying them around everywhere.

We took Friday morning to register Kaitlyn for school, set up our account with the city, etc then we were off to Audrey's for the weekend. Sam had to work all weekend, we had no furniture - so we were very happy that Audrey was excited to have us :) And we had a fantastic time. Even though it snowed and inch or so on Saturday and we couldn't find any warm clothing for the kids. I have to admit I was a little annoyed - I was thinking we wouldn't be dealing with snow in NC! haha. But it didn't stick to the roads and I'm told at our house it was barely even snowing.

Sunday was Tyler's birthday. We had Birthday Breakfast Cake (coffee cake - worked out perfectly that Audrey had already been planning to have that on Sunday) and candles. And look - their elves showed up that morning!
After lunch we all headed home for Tyler's birthday party with Daddy (the first one Sam has been able to celebrate with us this year). Sam picked up a cake from the grocery store and we stuck one of Ty's toys on it because Ty insisted that this one was his "backhoe birthday." And of course he got presents - a new scooter, Hot Wheels tracks (his first set of what will probably be many many more), and new pants (growth spurt right before the birthday really works out nicely).

Isn't he cute?! This is what a big 4 year old looks like. :) He does that head tilt anytime he poses for a photo.

Monday brought Kaitlyn's first day of school. She likes it and is settling in well. Her teacher told the class that Kaitlyn moved from Utah and brought the snow with her, and I guess since snow is a rare thing they were all pretty happy about it :) We met the 2 households in our neighborhood that have kids in elementary and share the same bus stop and they're very nice. Both kids will have some good friends closeby.

Tuesday the moving truck arrived with our furniture - woohoo! We are still surrounded by many boxes but the house is starting to feel functional and we're very happy with how things are going now. It's a bit hard to concentrate on moving in, and getting ready for Christmas but I think we are balancing it. We put the tree up Wednesday and finished decorating it last night. We also found our Christmas books, as you can see.

What else?
I'm really liking Sam's work schedule so far. He gets an early start on the day and most of the time he's off work in time to work out with his buddies and still make it home around the same time Kaitlyn gets off the bus. It's a long day for Kate because she's one of the first on the bus and one of the last, but so far she's not really complaining. There is just so much going on and so much of it is new and exciting that the kids haven't had a chance to be anything but hyper and happy all the time.

Week 46

2010-12-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving with my family. Low key, easy, and very enjoyable. The kids spent lots of time with everyone and had plenty of attention. We all had tons of fun playing the XBox Kinnect (with the video camera that puts your whole body in the game - cool stuff and VERY interactive). I loved letting Bonnie host - I didn't have to plan meals, or worry about cleaning up or anything. (Thanks Bon!) And I even let Bonnie talk me into working out with her Turbo Kick (kickboxing - she took a class to become an instructor) both days we were there. (I'm so out of shape! I thought I would be dead the next day but my poor old body held up surprisingly well)

And of course, I loved having Sam around after 2 months with him gone. It felt so good to have everyone together and happy.

Then came the long drive to North Carolina. Three full days in the car, which is really really long but it went very smoothly. The kids were real troopers and we had no meltdowns and almost no whining or "are we there yet?"s.

Lots of time spent in a series of Holiday Inn Express hotel rooms. That's just how it worked out, but after the first one we were happy to spot one every time we wanted to stop. By the 2nd day we had it down to a science - who would carry what when we packed stuff into the room, where everyone slept and how to find the pool, how the elevators and continental breakfast bars worked...
And isn't it adorable how I found the kids sleeping yesterday morning?

And there it is - our new house! The closing got delayed a day (which forced the furniture deliver and now we're camping out until TUESDAY), and the day of the closing was hectic and stressful, but we are now the proud owners of a new house! I love it and am so happy that we're not living out of a car and hotel rooms.

Week 45

2010-11-26T06:33:00.000-08:00

Finished Mom and Dad's laundry room (mostly. they need to seal the grout and put everything back). Officially sold the house. Big snowstorm warnings - the storm didn't quite live up to the hype (they actually cancelled school for Wed!) but it still made life very difficult. Spent 12 hours driving to Bonnie's house for Thanksgiving. Postponed Thanksgiving dinner until Friday because Wyatt and Dad were delayed a day dealing with issues at home. But Sam did make it in to town (after delays of his own and luggage that didn't show up until the next day) right after we did so we were happy. Spent Thursday hanging out with Bon, Larry, and Mom.
So basically it was an eventful week but way too busy to stop and grab the camera.

Week 44

2010-11-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

Took Ty to see the herd of elk that Dad spotted down by the river.

Saturday: Kaitlyn got to go swimming with a friend. Tyler and I spent most of the day at Wyatt's house doing laundry. Also got to have a quick visit with Louise which was really nice - I like her a lot and am so glad she seems to be winning her fight with bone cancer.
Sunday: Worked on the laundry room with Dad. Finally got the cementboard all laid.
Rhonda and Dave stopped by to play Santa (early). Their sequinned dancing Santa hats were hilarious. And the kids got totally spoiled.

Monday, Tues, Wed...all a bit of a blur but I know I was working on stuff with the house, running errrands, getting things done. Oh - and we finally got notice of our closing date on the house here- WOOOHOOO. We'll be out of here by Thanksgiving

Week 43

2010-11-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy week!
We snuck in Tyler's birthday celebrations on Saturday before going into full Moving/Packing mode. He has a little party with his friends in the morning and they had SO much fun. And of course the grandparents came over in the evening to celebrate.

Monday brought the movers out. I spent the whole day sitting at the dining table with my computer for entertainment while they boxed up EVERYTHING. Oh how nice it was just to watch it all happen. This is what it all looked like Monday night.
Tuesday brought another set of movers and a giant moving truck. I can't believe how quickly and smoothly it all went - despite waking up to new snow (and a thick coating of ice from the rain the day before) and frantically running around trying to get the ice melted off the driveway and anything that had been left outside before the crew got there.

Wednesday was spent cleaning the empty house and having the inspector walk through. Tyler packed up some of his trucks and tractors and had a lot of fun playing on all that open carpet.

Phew! I can't believe all that was jammed into one little week.

Week 42

2010-11-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

This week has been all about fall and Halloween of course.

Festivities at school for Kaitlyn. Trick or Treating on Saturday

And of course some raking leaves and jumping in piles later in the week. All this while I try to keep things going on the move and sale of the house, planning Tyler's eary birthday party, doing a little more on Mom and Dad's laundry room...

Week 41

2010-10-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

Bonnie came into town for the weekend and we tackled remodelling Mom and Dad's laundry. Whew - what a lot of work! We spent all day pulling down wallpaper and ripping up the floor that had been damaged by multiple washing machine accidents. It was a huge task and very slow progress.
The kids loved helping and were suprsingly good helpers - and not just at picking up nails we removed from the floor. Kaitlyn taught herself how to use the hammer and crowbar. And by Saturday morning Tyler was using the power drill ALL BY HIMSELF to pull screws out of the floor. Sadly, the demo was the end of our progress on the laundry room thus far. The wallpaper is off, we re-textured the walls, and all the icky subfloor is up. Now I just need to find some energy and pin Dad down so we can get the new floor in. Maybe after Halloween...
The other big activity of the weekend was playing the Zombie vs Flowers game on Bon's Ipad. On Sunday, the kids went with me to Alisha's house and we got to me baby Sophia. She's such a cutie! Kaitlyn couldn't get enough of her. And Tyler eventually decided he wanted a turn holding her too.

We also got the first snowstorm of the season. Ick Ick Ick. As you can see, it bothered me more than it bothered the kids. They were happy to suit up and go shovel.

Wednesday we took the time to carve pumpkins. The night before we all sat around the computer and looked at pumkin templates. Kaitlyn of course was excited to find Hello Kitty.

And Tyler chose Lightning McQueen. I have to say, my first REAL attempt at carving anything other than the quick and easy silly face pumpkin, while overly ambitious (did you see Lightning?!? Yeah, I had to get tricky with that one and actually peel some of the skin off! geesh! and do you all remember that it's me and the kids here? 2 kids, both hyper as anything, both wanting my help...it was intense), did turn out really well. Especially after I got the pumkins hollowed out and the kids could quit having to say "gross!" every 10 seconds. Tyler thought the slimy guts were so nasty he only pulled out 2 single seeds with a spoon before refusing to help with that part. Kaitlyn gamely dug at hers until I finished with Ty's and could tackle it myself.
In fact, Ty was a great little cheerleader while I did pretty much everything on his. Kaitlyn was happy to help as much as she could and did most of the pinholes for the pattern transfer herself during the half hour? hour maybe? it took me to get old Lightning finished. But gosh, aren't they cute?!

Next year I'm totally making Sam scoop out pumpkin guts no matter how much he hates it... :)

Also of note: 2 steps forward, one step back on the whole house selling/moving stuff. We extended the contract on the sale of our house because the paperwork is of course taking longer than they predicted. But Ty and I did make the trek down to the base for our pre-move briefing (one more thing I can cross off the list!). They were gearing up for an inspection at the base and the jets were out and flying all over the place - as Ty would say, "it was awe-some!"

Week 40

2010-10-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

Busy week. Can't tell you what I did, but I know I got plenty done for the move and everything else that is going on.
The photo is Kaitlyn and Tyler taking pictures of themselves with the Hello Kitty camera Kaitlyn got for her birthday. (I should add a photo of what they ended up with when I figure out how to upload the photos from that camer)

Week 39

2010-10-15T04:54:00.001-07:00

Birthday week! This one is (almost) all about Miss Kaitlyn.

Friday was my birthday and thanks to great family and friends I felt very special all day long. I got all kinds of notes, emails, phone calls and cards. Dari came over to work on projects and brought pie for a special treat. Rhonda took me out to lunch and surprised me with cheesecake for dessert. And our house went under contract - happy birthday to me!

Wyatt turned 30 on Saturday and the weekend was devoted to throwing together a party for him - not something that worked out all that well since the guest were invited last minute and most didn't make it. Saturday was party prep, broken up a bit by Mom and Dad taking me to dinner to celebrate my birthday. Sunday was Wyatt's party - very small, very casual. Kaitlyn got in plenty of time cuddling and teasing him.

Then it was time for the main event. Monday was once again party prep, this time for Kaitlyn. We had her friends' party on Tuesday because they had a crazy schedule at school this week. They also celebrated Kaitlyn's birthday at school that day too. She and her friend Bailey have birthdays one day apart and were excited to share the celebration at school, and Kaitlyn made very sure that Bailey was also recognized at Kate's party here at home. We even sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candle twice. The kids were VERY hyper and excited during the whole party, so there was very little doubt that they all had a fantastic time. Kaitlyn and Hello Kitty got matching outfits for the party - a must since it was Hello Kitty themed, right?

Tuesday was also parent teacher conference. The kids had early out at school so we had the the party in the afternoon, then parent/teacher in the evening. I think I must be in the minority among parents, but I like parent/teacher. Kaitlyn always gets such glowing reports. Her teacher says she is a great listener and is of course, above grade level on most things. She was placed in the upper level Power Hour group (Power Hour is new at the school this year - they divide them up by ability and get more specialized time on the core subjects) and will be more challenged than she's used to, especially with spelling. (I did notice that last week's list was a lot harder and that it took more work for Kaitlyn to grasp it but she wasn't complaining and she still got 98% on the test). And her teacher went on and on about how much she'll miss Kaitlyn when we move and promised to write if Kaitlyn wrote to her.

Wednesday was my only breather from Party Stuff. I finally managed to take the time to winterize/prepare the outside stuff for the move. I did everything from winterizing the lawn mower to scrubbing down the grill and the fire pit, draining hoses and sweeping out the garage. Kaitlyn continued her fun at school with another early out day (teacher prep I think) and the few hours they did spend at school they were having fun at the rec center playing games and swimming. Then after lunch she got to go shopping with Grandma Jackson to pick out her own birthday present.

Thursday was Kaitlyn's official 7th birthday! She's growing up so fast.

I decorated her door while she was asleep and she could hardly wait for Tyler to wake up so she could open her presents. Kaitlyn wanted to spend her birthday playing with her friend Aaliyah (since Thurs and Friday are fall break from school), so that's what she did. All 4 kids got to play together all day. And of course we finished up Kaitlyn's birthday with our traditional cake and ice cream party with the grown-ups.

Whew what a week! I need a nap.

Week 38

2010-10-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to enjoy the beautiful fall weather while it lasts. As you can see, the kids still won't give up the flip flops :)
Some of the neighbor kids helped Kate and Ty completely cover the driveway with hopskotch boards. I think this one had spaces up to the number 30.

Kaitlyn loves horses and almost never passes up the chance to go for a ride with Wyatt. This time it turned into a family outing - yes even I got on a horse! I can't remember the last time I did that and now I'm not sure why I don't do it more often. The whole experience was great.
And look how pretty it was! Gorgeous. (That's Wyatt, and Tyler with Dad)

One final one taken by Wyatt. I'm the one on the right, Kaitlyn and Mom on the left. I had the honor of riding Kasey, one of his younger and less docile horses that he usually reserves for himself - go me!

Week 37

2010-10-01T16:48:00.001-07:00

Most of this week has been consumed with getting everything ready for Sam to get on the road - a couple of trips to the base for briefings, Power of Attorney, etc. Taking the truck in for way more fixin' that we would like (thankfully mostly under warranty). Packing. Errands. Errands. More errands and details.

A final get together (and photos) with Sam's family.

And now Sam's on his way (need to add one of his photos from the drive - he's taking one of each new Welcome to ____ sign he passes). Wow. This move is real and starting now...oh boy. Hopefully the house sells quickly and the kids and I can solidify our own plans for moving soon...

Week 36

2010-09-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

I've been admiring all the fall leaves this week. The drive through the canyons is so pretty right now and since I've been out and about a lot this week I've hit all of them - Provo, Parley's, and Ogden Canyon. I need to get out with the camera before it's too late.

We had an open house Tuesday - the house has never been cleaner and no one showed up to see it! So frustrating. But it's only the first real week "on the market" so I really shouldn't expect much progress yet right?

The only photos I snapped this week were of Tyler - he's my little buddy now with Kate in school. I found him out behind the house one day Off Roading on his bike and having so much fun. He's All Boy I tell you - rough and tumble, dare devil, doesn't let being smaller than all the other kids slow him down. Sam and I are constantly amazed by him and how athletic he seems to be.

We had to go down to the base yesterday to get new ID cards, power of attorney, etc. Having Ty tag along was amazingly easy. He had a blast looking for trains on the drive (we saw 3!) and didn't complain one bit. We took a little time out to show him the planes on the base (need to get the photo of him by a couple of the planes off Sam's phone and post them) and he thought that was cool. And Sam and I are happy to be this much closer to getting things taken care of. One more trip down to the base Monday for a briefing on the move and he'll be off...yikes! Some days it hits hard that it's all Real and actually happening - yesterday was one of those days.

Week 35

2010-09-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Dance class has started! Tyler now goes on Friday mornings (of course I forgot the camera in the rush to help Mom set up for the first day) and Kaitlyn's class in on Monday afternoons.

Of course, most of our time this week has been devoted to getting ready for the move and the sale of the house. Sam has the paperwork in and will be leaving in a little over a week (ack!) so he will be all set to start his first day on Oct 4. And I've been doing a declutter on everything, especially the closets, so that we're all set to start showing people through it. Fingers crossed it sells fast!
(These are the photos I took to put on the flyers.)

Week 34

2010-09-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

It was a week of ups and downs. Friday my computer screen died (and you know I'm lost without it!) and since I was already stressed to the max about Sam finding out about a new job...well it wasn't the best Friday ever. Also, no photos for this week because I haven't loaded the software onto Sam's computer. And I'm pretty sure I didn't pull the camera out much this week anyway - ugh.

We decided to have some fun on Saturday so we took the kids to the pool. Then they went to Gma and Gpa's for a sleepover and Sam and I had a date - which he planned. He packed a picnic for us and we went up to Smith and Morehouse and hiked a bit. It just so happenend to be our 12th (12!) anniversary of the day we got engaged so we spent a lot of time reminiscing.

It was Labor Day Weekend (kicking ourselves that we didn't think ahead and go camping or something) and somehow we muddled through the rest of the weekend. Tuesday morning Sam had word about the job - he got it! It's an AGR (Active Guard and Reserve) spot at Pope AFB in North Carolina, combat arms. So, huge change for us but we're very excited. And what a relief to finally have a direction for our lives. The rest of the week has been spent gearing up for the move - Sam doing paperwork and me starting the final declutter to get the house ready to sell.
*update: found a few photos from the week. Looks like Sam and Kaitlyn made pretzels too.

Week 33

2010-09-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

Just a few highlights from the week

We took the kids to the aquarium - fun.

Granpa Brent's 60th Birthday Party

Took the training wheels off and Tyler is now a two-wheeler riding pro! Honestly, it's amazing how quickly and how well he took to it.

Week 32

2010-08-27T09:59:00.001-07:00

Summer ends, school begins.
Saturday was our annual BBQ with the Girls (Alisha, Cheri, Beau Dee) and their families, here ar our house. Fun fun! The kids were so cute and played so well together while the adults sat around visiting.

Sunday Tyler got hit by a sky high fever. Poor guy was miserable. Luckily it was only a 24hour thing and the only symptoms were the fever and some watery eyes. Which meant we could focus on Kaitlyn's going back to school.

Monday we went to the open house at the school to meet her teacher and see her classroom.

Ty also insisted on testing out the playground.

Tuesday was Kate's first day in First Grade! She was SO SO SO excited. And the first thing she said when she walked in the door was "I had a good day."

Grandpa stopped by for something that morning and Ty ended up getting to spend the rest of the day with him. They had lots of fun, and finished off the day with a horseback ride.

Luckily Kaitlyn was home by then and got to go for a ride too.

And on Wednesday, I pulled a few friends together for brunch for our own little Back to School Moms' celebration.

Week 31

2010-08-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sam was home for the weekend after what was a very frustrating week for him at the base. So Saturday was family fun time at the pool so the kids could show off all they've been learning. Kaitlyn was excited to get another crack at that diving board - she is now so confident she will run and jump off it. And both kids went on the big slide over and over by themselves. Sam and I were happy to not have to walk up all the stairs and happily waited for them at the bottom. Then the kids were off to a movie with Gma and Sam and I got a date - yay!

Sunday was a lazy day. Grocery shopping. Nascar race. And washing the truck (Sam and the kids washed it, I took photos. Thus the reason they got bored and didn't bother to wash the Yukon for me :( )

Final week of swimming lessons for the kids. They LOVE it. They were so excited that both were packed up and in their suits a good hour or two before we had to leave each morning. It was a pleasure to see how well they both paid attention and how much they learned in just 2 weeks. Both kids passed with flying colors. Kaitly is excited to move on to Level 3. We'll have to see how we feel about Ty next year - his teacher thought he would still be pretty small for the next level but suspected that if we signed up for the same one again he'd be well ahead of the others and would probably be moved up after the first day.

Sam had classes at the base this week and had to dress up a bit on Monday. He hardly ever has to wear this uniform so we grabbed a couple photos. Then the kids had to play photographer - this is one Tyler got. Are you impressed? I cropped it down of course, but not bad for a 3 year old! (I was so nervous letting him have the big camera without me keeping a hand on it)

We got a bit of the farm life (yikes! flashbacks for me) on Wednesday. I ended up helping Wyatt and Dad "haul hay" off and on most of the day (trying to get it in before the rain hit) and the kids tagged along with me. They thought it was great and I (surprisingly) didn't mind it until about 4:00. That's when we ended up waiting around for Dad to finish raking a section and the kids ran out of patience. We had some fun taking photos while we waited. But when 5:00 was closing in we gave up and went home for dinner.

Week 30

2010-08-13T11:18:00.000-07:00

We are enjoying the last little bit of summer and gearing up for school. We took Kaitlyn to finish up her school shopping on Saturday. Mom came with us too (and let herself get talked into buying a few things for Kate that I wasn't going to spring for haha). It was a fun and relatively easy outing - no problem finding things we liked and needed, just hard to resist buying everything in sight! :) Tyler was a great little shopper too. He didn't get too upset when he had to leave most stores empty handed. And he had a great time trying on shoes at the last stop, and walked away with his very own pair of "Transformer" (green and black - not sure why he thinks they're Transformers) Sketchers.

We stopped for lunch at Panda Express and this was one of the fortunes.

Perfect for the day huh?

The kids had their first week of swimming lessons for the year. They LOVE them and are always dressed and ready to go a full 2 hours before we have to leave every morning.
Ty has a fantastic teacher - I was suprised to find out this is the first class he has taught. (Kate's is no slouch either, but Ty's is seriously impressive) And I've been happy to see that Tyler fully pays attention and participates the entire time. It's so fun to watch. Aren't they cute all lined up to practice diving?

Kaitlyn is turning into a very good swimmer. She says her favorite part is diving for the rings, which also happens to be the part she has the hardest time with. Her skinny little body just doesn't quite have the power (yet) to get her all the way to the bottom of the pool to grab them most of the time. But she tries and tries until she manages it, or until the teacher helps her out a little by holding them slightly off the ground for her. She is making great progress with the front crawl. And I'm most impressed by what she calls the "air glide" (they push off the wall on their backs and glide as far as they can with their hands above their heads before doing the back stroke to the other side). It just looks so smooth and effortless when she does it (especially considering that less than a year ago she couldn't quite relax enough to float on her back on her own). As you can see, she loves it.

Week 29

2010-08-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday happened to be the busiest day of the week. We had Sam's buddy, Paul and his family over for the day. We all went to the pool (where Kaitlyn tried jumping off the diving board! and loved it.) and did a quick BBQ for lunch. Then it was time for our DJ Hero Party (I won the party pack - so funny! so we had to follow through and use it for a party).
That's Kaitlyn playing against Paul. Turns out Sam had the top score (by far), no surprise since he likes Guitar Hero and this one isn't too different.

And we ended the night at Xzavier's first birthday party.

The rest of the week was low key (can you blame us after that crazy Saturday?).

(that's a bubble pipe. we were making bubble pictures with colored bubbles)

Week 28

2010-08-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

I'm a few days last posting this one because it was a busy weekend - details on that when I post Friday :)

Continuing with the Kamas 24th of July celebrations, we went to the parade on Friday night. Kaitlyn could have ridden the float with the princesses but this time she decided she'd rather collect some candy.

I think this parade was better than the one on the 4th (strange - maybe because fewer celebrations to compete with?) with some unique floats we hadn't seen before. We also sat by this really chatty guy (military guy so there was a connection right off with that) that Ty kept sharing his candy with. It was cute.

On Saturday the Princesses had their final appearance - they did a couple of their dances right before the Memory Auction. So Sam got to see at least one of her performances this year - finally. We took a look at the Classic Car Show afterward, then took the kids to a movie in the afternoon.

Ty also came down with a cold over the weekend - he had a fever a few days in a row and a cough. Then on Monday we started to notice a few "spots" but Benadryl cleared them up and we didn't worry too much. Then Wednesday Ty had fallen asleep on my bed and I went in to find him broken out in hives all over the places - face, chest, arms, legs... So I took him in to the doctor, who is pretty sure they were viral and nothing to worry about. Phew. Not strep (guess that can be bad if left untreated?). Not an allergy (which I had been wracking my brain to pinpoint something new that would have set it off and coming up blank - and would probably still be puzzled over it). Just thost nasty looking hives that kept coming and going and moving all over him for the next few days. They've cleared up now though and life is back to normal.

Week 27

2010-07-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

Friday: Fashion Show at the rest home. A lot of work and stress for mommy, tons of fun for the kids, and the residents loved watching it all.

Ty was the biggest ham of the group. He loved the attention.

Saturday: Krystal's birthday party at the pool

Sunday: the kids spent a good chunk of the day with grandma and grandpa and Sam and I got to hang out at home by ourselves. Peaceful. But we brought the kids home in time to enjoy potstickers and yakisoba

Monday: Laundry. (are we surprised? didn't think so!) And a pirate treasure hunt. Oh and I can't forget I got some Girl Time with my good friend Audrey - dinner and shopping!

Wednesday: Attempted to get some exercise by taking the kids for a walk. Sounds easier than it actually was - no wonder I never lose weight! Then I spent pretty much the entire rest of the day working on Christmas gifts (yes I am thinking that far ahead. It's me. Is anyone really surprised? :) )

Thursday: Kaitlyn insisted we try out the skateboard park with her scooter (I guess the neighbor boy had mentioned it to her) so we got there as early as we could while it was still cool and the place was empty. Kate is pretty handy on that scooter - I hadn't realized how much so. Tyler is learning - he can now push with one foot. His protective older sister leant him her elbow pads (his helmet only came with knee pads) and followed him around the whole time just to make sure he didn't get hurt.
That night was the first the Pioneer Day weekend's festivities - the rodeo. Kaitlyn and the other princesses were part of the grand entry. The rodeo itself was definitely small-time (almost no one managed to stay on long enough to get a score!) but fun.

Kate is on the top row, far left. I know her hand is covering her face but I liked that it showed off her pretty princess wave :)

Week 26

2010-07-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

Week 26

2010-07-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Fabulous (and LONG - the long part wasn't that fabulous, I'm exhausted) 4th of July weekend!
We started out with the rodeo on Friday night. Tickets curtesy Rhonda and Dave - which means Dave and Emma were there and Kaitlyn and Emma were so happy to sit together. The kids love the rodeo. Ty was pretty tired and asked to go home more than once. But then another event would start and he'd be all excited and clapping and yelling "woohoo" again. When we asked him his favorite part he said the tractor (which was smoothing the arena when we got there) and the buckin' bulls. Kaitlyn likes to watch everything, but she's really in it for the cotton candy. And maybe the fireworks.

Saturday was the big BBQ with Sam's family. We spent the entire afternoon, evening, and well past bedtime there so we could watch the fireworks (and do some of our own) - I'm amazed Ty was happy and awake until well past 11. Sadly, I didn't even get the camera out of the car the whole time so no photos.

Sunday was actually the 4th of July and we had no real plans until Kaitlyn (sometimes I really love how much of a Planner she is!) suggested miniature golf. We went to Park City but of course hit it during the parade and couldn't find parking ANYWHERE so we retreated to the park at the Outlets to buy some time then grabbed some lunch before trying it again.

The mini golf was a lot of fun. There weren't very many people on the course (despite plenty of crowds everywhere else) so the kids played a hole ahead of Sam and myself. They got to do the holes more than once most of the time while waiting for us - we stunk. Really bad. :) Sam less so than me, but I did score the only hole in one of the day and only ended up down by 2 when all was said and done.

We ended the day by roasting hot dogs and marshmallows - chocolate twist marshmallows! sadly we decided the regular marshmallows are actually better. I think it was a bit of campfire overload though after the BBQ the night before. The kids were much more interested in just playing on the playground than they were in the marshmallows.

Monday was the big parade in Oakley. We were a bit leery of the whole thing after the disaster last year and I have to say we were extra careful all day (even when horses weren't around!) so that we didn't risk a trip to the ER AT ALL. That being said, it was a good parade. Our tradition is to go to Royce and Shauna's house - their house is right on the parade route so they set up the chairs and usually put up some shade and we just show up for the fun. It's the one time a year that we know we'll get to visit with them and I love that. Plus Shauna makes fabulous caramel rolls. And having a potty nearby (or as we found out last year - a house with ice packs and a first aid kit) is welcome too.

Kaitlyn rode the Princess float (and had a good time) and Tyler thought picking up the candy with his cousins was great. The boys were pretty good about setting some aside for Kaitlyn too, since that was her one concern about being in the parade.

To break up the afternoon we made ice cream. Then the kids finished the day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Kaitlyn stayed for a sleepover and surprisingly Tyler was fine with that (I think he's worn out from too many late nights) and went to bed no problem. So Sam and I got to watch the final night of fireworks on our own.

Sam didn't have any work this week - it's been kind of rough keeping everyone entertained. The kids had a "pool" party with the neighbors, Ty got a haircut, Kaitlyn got a sleepover with Gma by herself. And we got a good scare when Ty wandered off one day.

On Thursday we decided to go to the reservior. The water is still really high so we couldn't find a spot with good sand for the kids to play in. Floating on the "island" Gma picked up for us was fun - not too relaxing because the kids couldn't hold still. Some nasty looking clouds made us cut the afternoon short, but it was fun while it lasted. We'll have to do it again soon.

Week 25

2010-07-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Ordinary week, punctuated by lots and lots of fun at Lagoon
Oh and I went to an early viewing of Eclipse with a bunch of the women from our neighborhood - so fun! I never get into the hype of stuff like that (and this one was hyped and crazy to the max) and don't intend to often, but this time it was worth it. Even the part where my friend Britany got sat on by a crazy woman who thought she could save all the good seats in the theater :)

Week 24

2010-06-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

Lots and lots of fun this week

-We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday. They were enthralled. I love how easy it is to take them places (most of the time) now. And we had dinner at Panda Express - gotta love kids and chopsticks!

-Father's Day! Kaitlyn helped me plan breakfast in bed for Sam, and even woke up early to help make it. She insisted on the green waffles :) We had a low key morning, during which the kids and I ran over to give Grandpa his gift. And we spent the afternoon/evening with Sam's family. I'm pretty sure Sam enjoyed himself - he's a great dad and deserved a good day!

-Our first hot dog/marshmallow roast of the year! Tyler tried a hot dog IN a bun for the first time - what a surprise. We didn't even ask him to do it. After a few bites the hot dog ended up on the plate to be cut up and eaten with tooth picks. But we are so happy he's starting to try things along with Katy once in a while.

The marshmallows, of course, were fabulous - both with/without the graham crackers.

-Warmer temperatures yesterday sparked an impromptu sprinkler party with the neighbor boys. Kaitlyn turned the sandbox into a "beach" and had a great time laying out in the sun.

Week 23

2010-06-18T11:52:00.001-07:00

This week:

Kaitlyn was in the Kamas Valley Fiesta Days Princess Program. She loved it.

Sam spent the last month in Canada with the Air Force and was supposed to make it home just in time to see the Princess thing. But (par for the course with the military) a plane was broken and he got delayed for 3 very frustrating days. We finally picked him up Tuesday afternoon and are SO happy to have him home. It's amazing how much a little time apart makes you appreciate each other and you enjoy the time more when you see them again.

Finished up the week with card night triple baby shower - so fun! I love time with the girls.

Week 22

2010-06-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

Dance Recital! It took up a good deal of our time on Friday and Saturday but it was worth it. The kids did a fantastic job and seemed to enjoy it. Aren't the cute?!

They also finished our neighborhood playground (RIGHT next door to our house). The kids have been watching it come together for weeks now. And even though we had a busy Saturday, the kids really wanted to help so we took some time that afternoon and helped them finish spreading the bark. The kids have been out playing on it as often as possible ever since.
(*need to post photo of playground)

The kids have also been playing "Magic Show" a lot this week. I have been amazed by their creativity and ingenuity. They shut themselves in Kaitlyn's room for hours "practicing" then call me back for the show. They set up her room with all the chairs they could find along one wall facing the bed, and using stuffed animals for most of the "audience." They also made tickets for everyone and made me "wait in line" at the door. Then both kids put on their "capes" (blankets tied around their shoulders) and the show begins.
Their best trick (and frankly, it's hilarious) is making Tyler "disappear." He takes off his cape and knees down in front of Kaitlyn's bed. Then Kaitlyn holds her cape up in front of him and says the magic words. We pause while there is a lot of wiggling coming from behind the cape - because Ty is crawling under the bed. When the cape is removed, Ty is gone! (except for the foot or the hand that didn't quite make it under the bed! lol) See? Hilarious. I love it. And I think it's really something that a 6 year old and a 3 year old would come up with that concept and excecute it all on their own (even more so since Ty doesn't always want to cooperate with Katy's plans).

The sudden warm temps on top of recent snow and nightly thunder storms has the river flooding pretty bad. It has been quite the site. We have taken a couple of drives out to see everything. They even had to sandbag a bunch of houses along the main road in Oakley. Of course we didn't get any flooding by our house. But the water system got contaminated and we haven't been able to drink our water. You don't realize how much you rely on something until you can't use it - it's been hard.

Kaitlyn has also had practices for the Kamas Valley Fiesta Days Princess Program every day this week. The big event is on Saturday, then they have a bunch of "appearances" throughout the summer - parades, rodeos and such.

Week 21

2010-06-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

Lots of photos from this week!
Rediscovered the stick horses - they had been needed at dance class until now. That head tilt is so funny - it's what Ty does when he's trying to pose for the camera

Park time with Grandpa and Grandma

They were having a "giggle contest" in which they took turns trying to make each other laugh.

Memorial Day - I was just going to take the kids to see the flags at the cemetary but it turned into a bit of a learning experience for our inquisitive Kate.

Summer is here! We've had our first full week of really warm weather and we've been loving it. We turned on the sprinklers for the first time this year and everything.
Kaitlyn was in a bit of a "mood" one afternoon - the poor girl had had to give up playing with 2 different sets of friends in one day due to the friend misbehaving and not being allowed to play anymore - so to try to bring her out of it I had her start a list of all the fun things she wants to do this summer.