Photobooks

I signed up for an account with a photo company called ArtsCow a while back. They actually have quite decent prices on several of their items. Anyway I was able to get some free photobooks all I had to pay was the shipping. I just got the first one today. It turned out really neat. Tim and I were both excited about them and are thinking about making more. They have a special right now where you can get a 30 page 8x8 hardcover photobook for $11.99 with free shipping and 50% off on additional books if you use one of these codes at checkout. I believe you can use more than one code so if you wanted to do more than one book you could do them at different times. The discount is valid through Dec. 9th.
The codes are : ZN8KKQP / Z6SF6J5 / ZF6PNH5 / Z2YE1HS / Z3HZB9E / ZG6L5HE / ZTZ87EB / ZLJR6NQ / ZV6CQ4R / ZB3VXNY
There are several fun layouts and different things you can do with the books. I did a few pages with 16 pictures on the page and was a little nervous they might be too small but I was quite surprised at how they turned out. I made baby books for both the kids for Christmas and I think they are going to love them. If you are interested it does take about two weeks for processing and shipping. Just to allow yourself time if it is something you want to have for Christmas. Also if you aren't already a member you can follow the link below to sign up and you will receive credits for free stuff too!
http://www.artscow.com/?Ref=364439

Peddaling

Kaylise has recently decided that she can use the pedals on her bike. She is so proud of herself. She makes sure that Aiden watches and anyone else that's around just so they know what a good job she is doing! She is actually getting pretty fast now. They grow up so fast.

Baby Brother

Aiden was really cute yesterday afternoon/evening. I was sitting in the rocking chair holding Kaylise and he decided to come join us. After a few minutes he asked when my belly was going to move. I told him I didn't know for sure and that baby brother seemed fairly calm at the moment. We started poking around to see if we could get him to move a little. Kaylise asked what I was doing and I told her I was trying to get him to come say hello. She got all excited and said, "yeah so I can hold him (as she craddles her arms!)" I told her he wasn't coming out but he might kick or something to say hello. After a few minutes I finally got him to move where you could feel a really stiff spot where he was. I had Aiden feel my tummy where the baby wasn't so he could tell the difference and then had him push where it was stiff. He got all excited and started kissing my tummy and saying, "I love you baby brother." It was really cute. I told Aiden that baby brother could hear him and that when he came out he would know Aiden was his brother. Aiden got the happiest little grin and chuckled with excitement.

Something's moving!

Yesterday the kids were moving their stuffed animals from the corner where they reside to under Tim's desk on the opposite end of the room. After several trips Aiden got over to the animals and said, "wait, hold on, don't move, there's something moving." Then he ran out of the room to get a shoe. He came back and climbed up on the kid bench that is in the corner and proceeded to try to smash the cockroach he had found. I came over and helped him and then asked him to get a tissue to clean it up and throw it in the garbage. He picked it up with the tissue and as he walked by on his way to the garbage said, "eeeww, I touched it."

Prayer

Kaylise has been really cute with her prayers lately. When she's at the table she will thank Heavenly Father for the food and ask Him to bless it to nourish and strengthen our bodies. When we are in the front room and have family prayer after scriptures she will thank Him for the scriptures and ask Him to bless it to nourish and strengthen our bodies. It still works, the scriptures can nourish our bodies spiritually! I just think it's cute how she recognizes where we are and thinks about what she is praying for, whether it be food or scriptures. Last night at bedtime was pretty good too though. I have been having to sit at the table for quite a while with her to get her to finish her food. Well last night she prayed for mommy to say eat your food!

Hiccups

We were walking down the sidewalk to meet Tim on his way home from school the other day. Kaylise had the hiccups and didn't know what they were. She told me, "Mom I have these in my mouth...did you hear it?" It was cute how she tried to tell me what she had.

Baptizing

Yesterday the kids were playing with the stuffed animals and had put all of them on the couch. Kaylise sat down while Aiden was getting something else and she told him "I'm baptizing the kids." Aiden quickly said, "No not yet. Not until we get to the river Jordan."

Where Grandpa's work!

The other night at dinner somehow the topic of work came up and did Dad always have to go to work and where he worked at. I don't remember the whole conversation but Aiden said that when Dad got older and was a Grandpa then he would work at a nursery. Tim asked him why because Grandpa Greg didn't work at a nursery and neither did Grandpa Buckner. Aiden just said, "Yeah but Grandpa Ballard does so when you are a Grandpa you can work at a nursery."

Reading

We went to the library the other day for story time and afterwards the kids grabbed a couple books before we left. Later that afternoon Aiden came up to me with one of the books and said, "Mom can you please read this to me because it's in English not Spanish or Latin." I'm not sure where he got the latin from but I thought it was cute. I did read to him too!

Playing Darts

Aiden and Kaylise like to play darts and asked if they could have it down on their nail the other day so they could play. It was really fun to watch their throwing stance. I think Kaylise was just mimicking Aiden but by the time I got the camera she wouldn't throw anymore. She reverted back to her normal- walk up to the dart board and carefully place them where she wants them, then take them out and tell Aiden it's his turn again! Here's a couple pictures and a short video of Aiden. He was doing really well until I got the camera out. I think it broke his concentration!

Aiden

Aiden is always coming up with funny things that are related to baby brother. He has asked before if he had a baby in his tummy and we told him no that boys don't have babies in their tummies just mommies but that he could be a dad when he grows up. Somehow in the conversation it was said that when he is a dad then Tim would be an old grandpa. Well today Aiden was talking about having babies and asked if Grandma had a baby in her tummy. I exlpained that all of Grandma's babies came out and are grown up now. I said that I was Grandma's baby and I grew up and now I have babies. Well then he says, "When baby brother grows up and has babies I'll be an old grandpa!" It's interesting to see how his mind works and generates what seems like logical reasoning to him.

Another funny story about today. We were talking to Tim's mom who is planning on coming for Christmas and she commented or asked Aiden if they could come for Christmas. He said something along the lines of "I'll have to think about that because Grandma and Grandpa are coming for Christmas." I told him that Grandma and Grandpa weren't coming until February when the baby is born so he says, "Oh they're not coming till February you can come for Christmas." Then he asked if they were going to fly or drive because he didn't know! After we hung up the phone with them he instantly wanted to call Grandma and Grandpa. So we did and he asked them if they were going to fly or drive when the baby comes. They said they didn't know yet and he told them to think about it again! He's a lot like me in the sense that he likes to know what's going to happen when only he doesn't entirely understand that you can't know everything! I am constantly amazed at his memory and knowledge and Kaylise's also at such a young age they seem to know so much. Kids are amazing. I'm so thankful for mine.

From Curlers to Curls

Kaylise let me put curlers in her hair last night so it could be curly for church today. She asked why I was putting them in and I told her so it would be pretty and curly. After they were all in she reached up and felt them and said, "pretty pretty hair." She was quite proud of them. We took pictures of the side and back so she could see what it looked like. She thought that was pretty neat too and just kept posing! Enjoy the slideshow.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

detectable

As we were reading scriptures tonight Kaylise wanted to do it by herself. We listened and she quietly says, "it was detectable." Tim repeated what she said in a questioning voice and she replies, "yeah, I'm teaching you school." I'm not sure where she got such a big word from but it was kind of funny. We had to be serious though and remind her it was scripture time not school time and she needed to tell us about the scriptures. It is so fun to hear what they come up with.

Door knob conversation

We cleaned up to come inside this evening to start cooking dinner. As I got to the door Kaylise was standing there looking up into the door knob at her reflection saying, "See. I have M&M's and a head band. See it?" She was wearing a headband and holding her package of M&M's up to the door knob to make sure that it could see them!! It made me laugh that she was having a conversation with the door knob!

Slide show of Corn Maize

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baby Brother

There isn't a day that goes by that we don't discuss baby brother. Either just talking about him or asking when he is going to be born. A couple of days ago we set up the changing table in the baby's room so I could use it to change Kaylise's diapers too. We were discussing what it was used for and why it needed shelves. I told him I might put blankets, towels, clothes, diapers, lotion, etc. for the baby on it. Well immediately we had to put Kaylise's diapers and wipes on it and then they kept asking where baby brother's clothes were. I told them we didn't have them and it would still be a long time before we needed them so we didn't need to worry about it. Aiden keeps trying to figure out when the baby will be born. I try to explain that we have to have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Dad's birthday before the baby will be born. I tell him the names of the months that come first as well. Well the other night he comes in after we had put them to bed and says "Mom I don't know when baby brother is coming." So we looked at the calendar and I showed him what day we were on and all of the months we needed to go through. When I got done he says, "I still don't know when he is coming." So I tried to explain the months and events again and he stopped me saying, "no no no I don't know when he is coming...in the morning, the afternoon, or when?" He is a very scheduled child and likes to know details if you haven't already noticed! I tried to then explain that babies are a little unpredictable and I couldn't tell him just exactly when the baby would be born. Today we were eating lunch and Aiden told me that we needed to go to the corn maize again after the baby was born because he didn't get to see us at the maize. I told him that the maize wouldn't be there in February when the baby was born but maybe next fall we could take him. Then Kaylise said something along the lines of the baby would be born in February not January or June or May in February, yeah February. She doesn't really know when these months are but knows that they are the birthday months! It has been quite fun listening to all of their ideas about baby brother. I picked up one of Aiden's friends for preschool today and when we were taking her back home they started naming things. Aiden named Kaylise something and she didn't like it. I asked them not to call names but they could give themselves a different name. (I think they were being animals or something like that.) Anyway his friend says, "My mom lets me call my baby brother names, cause that's silly." Aiden came back with "you can't call my baby brother names." To which she responds, "you don't have a little brother." Aiden says, "yes I do in my mommy's tummy and he's going to come out on a snowy day." It was really funny to listen to them.
Tim was working late today trying to get stuff ready for midterms that are next week. We decided to go help bubble in the scantron keys so we could spend more time with Dad and hopefully help him come home sooner. Kaylise was really funny on the way to the school. We had parked and as we were crossing Aiden started a little sooner than he was suppose to and scared me. I caught him quick but I have a really hard time with running right now. Anyway as we went across Kaylise was asking why I couldn't run. I tried to explain that it was because I had little brother to carry too. So as she's walking along the sidewalk she lifts up her shirt looking at her tummy saying, "I can run I don't have a baby brother inside." It was really cute. At the school the kids were really good about drawing pictures while we all worked. They visited with us too but they were very well behaved to which I was very grateful. I'm sure there will be many more baby brother stories in the future as we still have almost four months until he should arrive!

Our Pumpkin

We grew a couple of pumpkins in our back yard but they weren't as big as we thought. One was ready to pick the other day so we cut it off the vine. We were a little surprised at how squatty it was. It looked like it was going to be a good size pumpkin but it was just really round and not so tall!

More pics of maize

Corn Maize

We went to the corn maize for playgroup yesterday. The kids thought the maize was interesting but it got a little long and tiring by the time they made it out. Tim and I took turns carrying Kaylise. She was mostly concerned about eating her peanut butter sandwich that we had left in the car in her lunch box. At one point Tim ended up carrying both kids on his shoulders. It was a cute picture even with their cheesy grins. There were a couple of bridges in the maize and Kaylise thought those were neat. She would get down and walk up and over them and for a little ways before wanting to be held again. Aiden thought it was a lot of fun trying to follow his map and make it through the maize. After we made it through the maize we rode on the cow train. Then the kids ate their lunch while waiting for a turn on the hay ride. For the hay ride they took us to the pumpkin patch and we let the kids pick a pumpkin. Aiden was really funny. He just wanted the first pumpkin he saw. We told him to look around for a little bit because it would be a few minutes before the hay ride came back for us. We looked at several and after a while they eached picked one. As we were walking back to the hay ride Aiden said, "we hunted for two hours and finally found one." We were looking for a little while but not quite that long! It was a fun morning for all of us.

Kaylise

Kaylise really wanted bedtime snack and to go to bed early last night. I put them down between 7 and 7:30. Then I read my scriptures for a little while and it was really quiet the whole time. I had just finished reading and sat down at the computer to check a couple things and then turn it off and Kaylise walked in. I was a little surprised she was even still awake. I asked why she was still awake and this is how she responded: "Because Aiden just took his hand from mine. I tried to tell him this little finger went to the store (as she demonstrates on her hands) but he just kept sleeping and sleeping.... Mommy I need a drink and make sure I get enough k." I couldn't help but smile. She turned and went to the kitchen to get a drink and I grabbed some paper to write down what she just said. She came back in and pulled a chair over close and stood and watched me and we just laughed at each other for a few minutes. It was really cute. Then I put her back to bed and I kept hearing her bang on the walls. I finally went in to tell her to stop and she was climbing off her bed. I told her she needed to go to bed and she sat down on the edge of the bed and told me she just needed to rest right there for a minute first. :)

Brotherly love

Aiden has been so cute with his baby brother. He doesn't understand having to wait so long and keeps wanting him out now. The other night I was kneeling by the kids' bed for prayers and after we were done I move up on the bed a little and then Aiden climbed on my back and then Tim got on his back to hug us all. I told them that baby brother was getting squished and asked if they could get off. Ever since Aiden has been really careful with my tummy. He will climb onto my lap and then ask if it's ok or if he's squishing his brother. We were tickling each other the other day and I had a hold of his hands and he was pulling away but his arms were across my stomach. He suddenly stopped and told me to stop because we were squishing his brother. He also comes up to me lots and hugs and kisses my tummy and says, "I love you little brother." It's been fun.

Patient brother!

I sat down to write a quick post and Kaylise climbed up on my lap and wanted to color a picture. Tim came over and asked how baby brother was doing. Kaylise responded, "He's good, he's being patient til I'm done Dad."

Cheerios

I was scrolling down the page and Aiden wanted to look at the pictures of his baby brother. He asked why there were words next to his legs. Then he asked if they were cheerios. I tried to explain that it was the umbilical cord and what it was for but he said it still looked like cheerios!

Singing in "Spanish"

We were playing outside this morning riding bikes, playing in the sand box, and then singing. I was sitting on a blanket reading the Joseph Smith manual and the kids decided to take turns singing songs and then they would say a prayer. It was really cute. Well they started trying to sing "Soy un hijo Dios" (I'm not sure on the spelling but Child of God in Spanish.) They had the tune down perfect but the words were rather interesting. I asked if I could video them while they sang and they agreed. So here it is Kaylise and Aiden singing in "Spanish." Enjoy!

Names

I asked Aiden beforehand what he thought we should name him if we had a boy and he told me “Noah.” I think mostly because one of his best friends has a little brother named Noah. One of Tim’s colleagues asked what we were going to name him and Aiden responded with Noah. We said we didn’t really know (and we probably won’t for a long time. I have such a hard time with boy names.) She suggested Luke to Aiden and he responded, “that’s not a name.” The first couple of people we called he told them that his little brother Noah was coming. We have since convinced him that he could have another name but we don’t know what it is yet.

A tidbit of info...

Aiden and Kaylise just wanted to let everyone know that they are really excited to be having a little brother join our family around February 1, 2009. Aiden has been very excited since Sunday night when we let them know we were going to have a baby and they could come see the ultrasound on Wednesday. Ever since Aiden has been telling us that he is going to go see his brother. I kept explaining that we didn't know what we were having and that the baby wouldn't actually come out until after Christmas time. We went to pick Tim up from school and Aiden told him that we were going to go get our brother on Wednesday. Tim told him no Aiden we don't know what it's going to be and it's still going to be a long time. To which Aiden responds, "no Dad. I know it's going to take a long time so it can come out a brother." Then yesterday we were in the baby room which used to be our office. Kaylise was asking where I was and I told her the school room, old office whatever. It's been hard to reclassify the room! Anyway I said we should call it the baby room since that would be where the baby was going to sleep. Aiden said, "yeah that's where my brother is going to sleep." I said, "what if it's a girl is that okay too?" To which he responds, "there's going to be two?" For his sake I'm very glad that it's a boy!! He really wasn't understanding the concept of not being able to choose. One day he even asked Kaylise if she wanted a brother too. To which she just agreed so he thought that was enough.