video

uh oh spaghetti-o

Tim has been saying "uh oh spaghetti-o" with the kids lately. Bransen has already been saying uh oh for a while but just in the last couple of days has started trying to add the spaghetti-o at the end. It is so cute. He has about the right number of syllables and very similar sounds! I tried to get it on video last night but by the time I got it out he wasn't saying it as clearly as he had been. I'll keep trying and hopefully I'll get a good one to post! He is so much fun to listen to as he is really picking up on so many words right now.

hiking

We went on a couple hikes today with my brother and his family. They are very avid geocachers! The second hike was later this afternoon. By the end the kids were all getting tired and Tim was trying to help motivate and keep them happy. So he started racing with them. He would tell them to rev their engines and then he would make the sound effects to go with it. Kaylise would fold her arms crossed over in the sign language for love style, take a deep breath, let it out and throw her arms behind her back and run. After a minute she would slow down and rest a little. Then I looked back and she was rubbing her sides from her waist down to her hips. When she noticed me watching her she said, "I'm rubbing my engine." Rubbing, revving it's close!!! I had Bransen in the back pack carrier on the way back to the car and he kept tickling my neck halfway back! It was pretty funny.

Friends

We have been able to visit a few good friends already this trip. Some we haven't seen for a couple of years so it was a lot of fun to get to see them again and visit with them. It's amazing how much kids change and everything else around town too. We had a fun visit with my friend Shelly and her triplets that I used to watch a lot. I can't believe they will be in 3rd grade next year. Their older brother just graduate high school and that's a little crazy to me too. It was fun to get to see them again. I'm grateful for such good friends. This morning I was also able to meet at the park with a couple good friends from high school. That was fun too.

We have already done some painting and made a bunch of cheesecakes for the wedding too. So we are just keeping busy here and having as much fun as we can while we're at it! It's been fun to visit and laugh while we work. Many more events are to come through out this next week. I may write some but the pictures will have to wait.

Graduate

Well Aiden has officially graduated from kindergarten and been given his diploma. They were each asked to tell what they wanted to be when they grew up. They each said "I want to be..." but when it came to Aiden he said, "I am going to be a Cowboy when I grow up." It was really cute. We are so proud of him and can't believe we have made it to this point already. He is such a great kid and I know he will do great at what ever he chooses. He is constantly changing his mind about what he wants to be and where he wants to live when he grows up but I know that what ever he chooses he will be awesome! Thanks Aiden for being a part of our family. Good job buddy. We love you.
(pictures will come later!)
By some miracle we were able to get ready for our trip and not be too late getting to school so that we could just leave straight from school. After the graduation we went to the class picnic party at the park for the rest of the morning. I did realize we missed a couple things so Tim ran home for a short time while we were at the park and then came back in time to eat! Then we went to the grocery store just a couple blocks away to use the restroom and head out. Bransen was so tired he didn't even make it out of the parking lot before he fell asleep! He slept for a couple hours too. They were all fairly good travellers. We had a mattress in the back that Tim and I took turns napping on and ended up driving all they way. We made it at about 1:45 Utah time. Approximately 14 and 1/2 hours on the road!

Utah

We are heading off to Utah tomorrow for about 10 days. My brother is getting married next week and we are going to help with preparations and be there. Tim is actually having to miss the first three days of classes but luckily they were nice about letting him get substitutes and leave. Tomorrow morning is Aiden's kindergarten graduation and class picnic. Kaylise's class picnic was this morning. We had a good time. Now we are just trying to get ready so we can leave right after the picnic tomorrow. It's a little crazy but I think we will make it. We did some major cleaning last night so the majority of the house looks pretty good right now. I may be absent from the blog world for a couple of weeks though. We have a pretty busy schedule lined up for the next two weeks.

there's something stuck up in the chimney..

and it's a bird or at least it was stuck up in the chimney. I'm not sure how it got stuck in there but I heard flapping and looked and sure enough there was a bird in the chimney. I went to tell Tim about it but he had already heard it this morning. I was watching my friends daughter this morning so when he came to get her we asked if he was a bird catcher. We tried to use a sheet as a net and slowly open the fireplace door. It was pretty scared though. We tried to gently scare it into the sheet but that wasn't working. So our good friend gently reached in with the sheet and grabbed the bird, carried it outside, and let it free. It flew off pretty quickly!

Fathers and Sons

This weekend was father and sons for our ward. Tim was brave and took Aiden and Bransen. Kaylise and I had a girls night. We have never painted our nails so we bought some cheap nail polish and some little stickers and had a fun time with that. Then we watched Tinkerbell. I also had some time to work on a dress for Kaylise. Overall I think we all had a fun weekend.

lawn mowing

I decided to be nice and mow the front lawn for Tim this morning so he could have more time to study before getting ready to go on the Father and Sons camp out. Kaylise decided that she wanted to help me. Bransen still has a love/hate relationship with the lawnmower. He seems terrified of it but at the same time wants to mow the lawn. I put him in the back pack carrier and Kaylise helped pick up the trash and then pushed on the lower bar. I was impressed that she stuck with me the whole time. She stopped and rested for one pass around and then helped me again until the job was done. It was much easier to do it that way then to have one in the front carrier and one in the back carrier like I used to do with Aiden and Kaylise a couple years ago. I'm just thankful that Tim does it for me most of the time so I don't have to worry about it! He was actually planning on doing it today but I was trying to be nice. He called me a punk, such appreciation!

Kaylise's email

Kaylise loves to send emails and asks to do so on a regular basis. She types up a bunch of random letters while telling a story. A while back she wrote one and asked me to send it to all of her "grandmas and grandpas, to all her love dears." Today she actually stopped and concentrated on spelling a few words at the end of her email. It was fun to see her do it. She is growing so fast and getting so stinking smart it's unreal.

dggdh ciudhecdofkglkdkfhyedkjeucocuuyeui3idudpoiiuytrewqasdfghjklmnbvc vcx z popoo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiuiuiuiiuiuiuiuuiuucvzxfxsfxsxsgxgsfxgfsuiuiuuiuuuu uu dfdfdsgdsfbdffg chfdghdfdghvxfceytr gdsdetd bhdgfhdfc dfjdgh nfghfhghf bfjgfgfjgf ghjfhgjgjhfgghgdjgdjfg bvdmnbvdnvngfhgdjhgfdfgvdjhgfdghf jdhkfjhdfhkdjfgjfegfjfkherlrrjf vgfdhfwh kaylisekaylisekaylisekaylisekays kaylse grandpo grandmo (Kaylise typed this email all by herself. After typing her name several times she asked how to spell grandpa and grandma. So we sounded it out really slowly and she would find the letter that made the sound and type it. say the last letter like you would find it at the beginning of octopus. I did tell her afterwords that this letter is suppose to be a not o so she could get it next time but I thought she did pretty good sounding it out.)

I love you so much,
Love Kaylise

Kaylise

Since Aiden has been biking with us so much lately and more than just on walks Kaylise has had an increased desire to ride her bike. She even asked for the training wheels off the other day. We haven't tried that yet but we will let her try sometime soon. It has been fun to watch both of them learn and grow. A couple days ago we were on a walk and towards the end Kaylise told me she "ran out of pump" and needed a little rest. Then as she would go along she would use her hand to push on her knee and say, "pump."

Yesterday we went on a bike ride to the school library again to return some books and pick up some more for Tim and he let the kids choose a couple. (It is approximately 1.8 miles to the library from our house.) Kaylise really wanted to ride her bike this time so we let her. She made it about three blocks and said she was done. So we strapped her bike to the bike trailer and put her inside with Bransen. On the way home we only made it about three blocks before Kaylise wanted to try riding again. She rode the whole rest of the way home from there! We were both very impressed.

New Words

Bransen is learning lots of new words the past few days. It has been a lot of fun. While making dinner last night Tim and I were alternately holding Bransen. He pointed to the cookie jar and said, "cook." He is one smart cookie himself! Today he started saying, "cooker" so he's getting a little closer. He says: bye, bye; hi; more; Dad; I bed (when he's on top of the bunk beds and needs help down!); are you; and out. I was trying to get Bransen to go get Tim the other day so I said, "Daddy where are you" a few times. Bransen started repeating the "are you?" He's said it a few times on his own when he hides his face! He has his own sort of word for drink, dog, and bird. He is really fascinated by dogs and birds but doesn't want them to come near him! It is fun to see and hear him pick up on new words and try to use them. I like to see the excitement in his eyes when he knows he's figured it out. I'm sure there are other words he says too but those are what I can think of right now.

I thought of a few more: yogurt, button, ball, bite,oh, uh-oh,

blocks

These pictures are from a month ago but I just kept forgetting to post them. We have some stacking blocks that Bransen likes to dump off the stick. I took one and put it over his nose and he thought that was pretty funny. Then Dad and Aiden wanted to join in the fun!!

biking

This morning shortly after Aiden got up he asked if we could bike to the rec center today. He wanted to bike in the rain again! I forgot to mention that we had approximately half an inch of rain and it all came while we were riding in it! Almost anyways. It did still rain for a while after we got home but the heaviest was while we were out in it. I was very impressed with Aiden and his abilities though. He did an awesome job riding in such conditions and he never complained. He did mention that his socks were getting soaked and heavy and that his legs were tired and needed a rest. Luckily we were able to find a little cover to let him rest for a minute. Mostly he was just chugging along as fast as he could go without a negative word. The roads here flood quickly too and him being small and lower to the ground was often having to pedal through the puddles when crossing intersections. He was amazing and I'm glad it was a fun experience for us all! (other than the hail but luckily that was only two blocks and it went back to rain.) Tim and the other two actually didn't even know it hailed because they had made it home before that.

It's raining it's pouring..

and we're out biking!!We decided to ride our bikes to the school with Tim this afternoon. He needed to go to the library and grab a few things from his office. It had been lightly misting off and on all morning but just as we got all ready to go, it really started to rain. After a few minutes it let up and we decided to try it anyways. After all it seemed very adventurous and fun! Aiden rode his bike the whole way there and back. He was a big trooper. Especially since on the way home we only made it a few blocks before it really started to rain. And it just kept getting worse. We made it to an old gas station with a little bit of covering that we stopped at to take a short break. Aiden was trying so hard to go fast but his poor legs were getting tired. He said it was because his socks were soaked and getting heavier! "that's the problem." We were fairly wet at that point but it still poured more. Bransen and Kaylise were ready to be out of the bike trailer so Tim went on ahead of us. Aiden and I rested a few minutes longer and then headed out again. It really came down on us. It was hard to see some of the time because water was just pouring off our faces. We got within four blocks of home and had someone offer us a ride. We said we could make it but thanked them. Then it started to hail for about two blocks. We were pelted pretty good a couple times. Then we had to just stand in the rain for several minutes waiting for an opening big enough to cross University just two blocks from home. We had someone else offer us a ride and when we got across the street someone offered us another coat. We finally made it home. Drenched to the bone but it was an adventure!!!

Aiden's pinky got hit by some hail.

We rewarded ourselves with some hot chocolate after we were all back into dry clothing!:)

one more thing

I forgot to mention that the kids get to be in charge of snack at school on or near their birthday. Well they didn't have school this monday and tuesday because of parent teacher conferences so we are doing snack on Thursday. Since Aiden's birthday is in the summer we are actually just doing his snack on Thursday as well. I bet you won't guess what Kaylise asked for for her snack. We haven't had it in so long I was impressed she even thought of it. She did forget the name but was describing it in such a way that I knew exactly what she was thinking of. PUMPKIN FUDGE!! Yes we made some yesterday and she has had several pieces already. :) I had to laugh at myself though because the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of melted butter. Well I melted it and then left it in the microwave for a couple of hours until I needed the microwave at dinner time! So we made "light" fudge I guess!! It still tastes fine and meets her approval so all is well. :)

Ensign

We received our monthly edition of the Friend and Ensign magazines in the mail today. The Ensign is the conference edition and on the front cover is a picture of President Monson and his wife. President Monson has a big smile on his face. As soon as Bransen saw the picture he chuckled and grinned. I showed him the Friend magazine and there wasn't much interest but when I put the Ensign on top again he laughed and smiled again. A few minutes later Tim came home from school and I showed the picture to Bransen again to see if he would do it for Tim but this time he just grinned really big. :) It was really cute.

Kaylise

Kaylise is growing and becoming so smart. I can hardly believe it has been four years already. We had parent teacher conference last week with Kaylise's teacher. She is doing everything and more than expected in all areas. The teacher commented that it was pretty common for the older kids to be more advanced and asked when she had turned four. We told her that she would be four on Monday. Then the teacher was really impressed and oh yeah she is doing really well for her age, she'll give her kindergarten teacher a run for their money! Kaylise really does pick up on things fast and is such a joy and blessing in our family.

Yesterday for her birthday she really wanted to go to a fast food with a play place and vanilla ice cream. We had to run an errand and afterwords went to a Dairy Queen since it was close. We got two small cones for the kids and sat down to eat them. When they were finished we all realized the play area was closed for maintenance. So then we went to another place for lunch (because we had coupons). Near where we ate there was another place with an indoor play area. After we ate our sandwiches we headed over there were Tim and I shared a shake as the kids played! Then we came home so we could do gifts and get the desserts made. She originally asked for a pink flower cake. By the time I found a cake I thought I could make and had her come choose the flavor of cake she wanted and ask her if the flower shaped cake I found was okay she had changed her mind. She looked at the flower and said, "um, no. I just want a square rectangle cake with pink frosting." Later we decided on blue letters and sprinkles too! She was very excited to have been able to help decorate her own cake. This year we gave her a keyboard with a microphone because she really wanted a microphone and that was the best we could find in the kids section. They all had a good time with it. I also found some gumballs to go in her gumball machine and she was pretty excited about that too. Her and Aiden have also really come to like sticky notes so I gave her a small pad with several colors. She has been carrying it around lots making notes and offering them to others. It's been fun to watch her excitement. Aiden has been getting really excited about the possibilities for his birthday next month! :)

Happy Birthday Kaylise

Mother's Day

My family was great to me yesterday. I had to laugh at Tim though. Saturday he took the kids to run an errand and go to the store Mother's Day shopping. They were really cute when they came home. Kaylise kept telling me she had a secret and wasn't going to tell. Then later that evening we were going somewhere and Tim kept prying Aiden about his day. Asking things like what made you happy, what was the best part of the day, etc. Aiden just kept telling him nothing. Until Tim asked him what made you go, "oh wow, that was exciting." Aiden says, "the balloons." Tim got pretty upset that Aiden had said it. I just had to laugh because he totally asked for it!! I loved the flowers they picked too. Tim picked the roses from our yard and the kids picked clovers on our walk.

scooter fun

This afternoon we went to the park because Aiden really wanted to ride his bike there. Well we ended up needing to pick Dad up from work and the bikes were already in the car from the other day when we took them to the park. So I just threw in the scooter for Tim so he wouldn't have to run the whole way. It was a bit windy today and I wasn't sure if they would make it all the way or not. After playing for a while we decided it was time to head home. Aiden got on his bike and Kaylise got on the scooter with Dad. Bransen was feeling a bit left out having to ride in the car. We drove slowly by them as much as possible but in some places just went a couple of blocks ahead and waited for them before going again! They made it all the way! Then Bransen really wanted a ride on the scooter so Tim gave all of them a few short rides down the block and back. It was really funny to watch him take Bransen because he would squat down to hold Bransen between his legs. (Probably not the safest thing but how can you tell such a cute boy no when everyone else is getting a turn.) Bransen is getting really good at please in sign language. A few days ago at the park he was trying to say please to someone who was having a picnic! They had yummy looking food. :)

This is a boy watching as someone else climbs on to his spot.

This is a concerned boy watching the scooter pull away.

And this is a very upset (but extremely cute!) boy getting left behind.

They all had a lot of fun this afternoon. Thanks Dad for playing with us.

cool dude

Kaylise's program

Last thursday Kaylise had a program. She was really fun to watch. She seemed to be a bit shy on the stage. The bouncing or jumping song at the end she just stood there the entire song! It was really funny.

being polite

The following conversation occurred at dinner this evening.
Kaylise~ May I please have some more milk.
Mom~ Sure. Thanks for asking so nicely.
Kaylise~ I'm being so polite, I'm going to be polite every day. I finally figured out that you taught me how to be polite and I learned it!!

Aiden

We went on a walk this afternoon to the arboretum. While walking around we stopped at our usual place and gave the kids a few M&M's for a treat. After a minute I was by Aiden and I asked him how his heart and back and head were doing today. He told me most of them were better but, "my heart is pumping way out here(as he reaches out past his chest) farther than it's suppose to." So I asked, "Is that good or bad?" He responds kind of in a whisper to the side, "It's because I ate too much sugar." He is such a hoot sometimes!