Umm…sure

Kye asked me if he could make his own cake.  I said sure not quite knowing what he was doing.  He decided to take a jello cup and dump it out on a plate.  Then for the frosting he took a yogurt and “frosted” his cake.  Sam thought it was such a great idea she did it too.  Whatever makes them happy!

fun run

Today was the annual Memorial Day Fun Run at the church.  This year they had a 10K, a 5K, a 1-mile run and they added a bike race.  I knew the bike race was 25 miles and a different course then the runners, but I guess Trevor didn’t.  Elise, Max and I had gone ahead of Trevor and the rest of the kids to get checked in.  We were waiting at the start line for them to meet us when the biker race started.   I then saw Trevor walking toward me with only Hunter in the stroller. 

“Where are Kye and Sam?” I asked.

“I sent them with the rest of the bikers.”  Trevor replied.

Oops!  Of course right then the race started for the runners.  Trevor took off running so fast trying to find them.  We weren’t even sure where the bikers went, but we thought they started out on the same path as the runners. 

The race this year was out and back, so as I was running I saw Trevor coming back toward me saying he couldn’t find them.  I continued running the 5K race and when I got back to the church they were all there waiting for me.

It turns out Sam and Kye were following the other bikers but when they were left in the dust and no one was with them Sam said, “Kye this can’t be right.  Let’s go back to the church.”  Good job, Sam!  So they turned around and found their way back to the church and helped themselves to some snow cones.  When Trevor found them they were happy as could be.  The plus side to the story is I think Trevor and I both ran our best 5K’s ever.  I was sad they didn’t have an official clock running to find out my time. 

preschool program

Tonight was Sam’s preschool graduation!  She loves to perform.   She was having so much fun.  This was such a fun group to have in preschool this year.  She is sad that she isn’t going to kindergarten next year, but she will survive.  She wants to go up too fast!

hiking

Elise came to town for Memorial Day weekend!  It is always fun when she comes to visit.  Today we decided to go hiking up at Mt. Charleston on the Cathedral Rock trail.  It was beautiful and the weather was perfect.    My boys love being outside, especially Kye. 

Part of the trail was covered with snow; everyone was slipping and sliding during this part. 

We have done this hike before and the kids kept talking about the hand tree.  I didn’t know what they were talking about until we came to this in the middle of the trail. 

We made it to the top and ate a small snack before heading back down.

  The kids loved feeding theirs to the chipmunks! 

pink salad

Growing up my mom always made a jello salad we came to call pink salad.  I loved it!  I have made it a few times in our marriage but I ended up being the only one who would eat it.  So I don’t ever make it.  The only time I eat it is when we visit my family. 

When we were in Utah over spring break we had it and Hunter loved it!  Finally someone else likes it!   Now I have an excuse to make it more often.

pinewood derby

Tonight was our first pinewood derby for scouts.  Max has been so excited!  So has his Grandpa M. who helped him pick out the design and sent us some new wheels and weight.  I borrowed a scale and got his car to weigh almost the max allowed.  The car couldn’t be over 142 grams (5lbs). 

There were a lot of good looking cars. 

Max didn’t win but he had a lot of fun!

Ouch!

I got a call from the school nurse today!  Max had fallen at recess and hit his head.  I asked if he wanted to come home and they said he wanted to stay.  What a tough guy!  I went to the school anyway because he was pretty upset.  This is him in the office at the school.  He still wanted to stay for the rest of the day.  I felt so bad for him; it looked like it really hurt.

Can you guess what it is?

Kye loves to do crafts and makes all sorts of interesting things.  He brought this craft to me and told me I couldn’t throw it away.  It was his ice-cream maker.

scooter flashback

As I was going through pictures I came across this one of Hunter and it reminded me of when we first got the scooter.  We are obviously more relaxed parents because Kye was covered head to toe in protective gear and Hunter has nothing.  Kye was almost 3 in that picture and Hunter is almost 2.  The scooter has been through a lot.

sewing

For Mother’s Day Trevor gave me a sewing machine (I asked for it!).  When we made Max’s woobie I didn’t buy enough fabric, so we weren’t able to tie it all away around, just on the ends.  I thought it would be ok, but Max was complaining that it was coming apart.  So I suggested we put our new machine to use and sew the pieces together on the sides.  Max wanted to do it all by himself.  So I set up the machine and he did it.  He sewed down both sides and did a great job.  He was having fun using all the different stitches the machine could do.  It looks great!

homemade ice cream

For our wedding, almost 11 years ago, we received an ice cream maker as a gift.  We thought it was a really cool gift.  The funny thing is that we used if for the first time today!  Many years ago we thought about using it.  I can’t remember if I bought all the ingredients but I know for sure I bought rock salt.  We then moved our bag of unopened salt to Texas, Georgia, back to Arizona, Germany and here to Nevada.  We opened that well travelled bag of salt today.  We made mint chocolate chip ice cream, it was delicious.  We will have to use it again before another decade passes us by.

magic trick

Max learned a new magic trick.  He can slide the end of his thumb up and down his finger.  He was pretty proud of himself. 

annoying shoe laces

At the beginning of the school year I bought Kye a pair of shoes with a velcro straps.  I started noticing that Kye’s shoes were always falling off.  When I took a closer look at them I realized he had smashed down the back of his shoes and had been walking on them for who knows how long.  They were completely ruined.  Not wanting to buy a new pair with summer just around the corner I found an old pair of Max’s and gave them to Kye.  The laces on that pair had been totally thrashed and with 5 minutes before they needed to leave for school I found a pair of shoe laces in one of my drawers.  The shoe laces were red and very very very very long, but they were going to have to work.  So we tried them in quadruple knots and sent him to school.  It never failed though, he would come home with untied shoes and his laces trailing behind him.  It was getting ridiculous.  I kept asking him why he wouldn’t tie his shoes and he said he didn’t know how.  He does know how he just needs more practice getting them tight.  He really doesn’t seem to care that his shoes are untied.  I went and bought him a different pair, but the laces were still long and after one week of wearing them the laces were thrashed from never being tied and always being stepped on.  I am torn on what to do…  Do I just give in and go back and buy a pair of velcro non-tying shoes?  Or do I make him stick it out and just keep replacing the laces?  I haven’t decided because I really want him to practice tying his shoes but I am afraid he is going to trip and hurt himself because his laces are never tied.

biking to school

Max has wanted to ride his bike to school for a while now, which has been great except Kye doesn’t want to ride his bike to school.  So every morning I either drive them to school or if I don’t have something going on in the morning I will walk with Kye and Max will ride.  But then I discovered Max has pegs on his bike for a passenger.  They were both reluctant of my idea when I first brought it up, but they tried it.  Now I send them to school by themselves and it has been great.  They are growing up way too fast.

drenched

Tonight at Sam’s soccer practice Kye was being silly and playing by the water splash pad, when he didn’t realize the big bucket above his head was filling up with water.  It dumped over and landed right on his head, I was laughing because he had no idea it was coming.  It was actually quite chilly so he was freezing and I didn’t have any towels.  So he sat in the car for the rest of the practice playing with his goo he got from Mad Science class.  He had a ball sitting in the car all by himself.

stubborn

As a last minute idea today I decided to take Sam and Hunter to the Springs Preserve.  We ran into a couple school field trips and Sam just jumped right in with the groups.  She is soooo ready to start school.  Unfortunately she has another year before kindergarten.  In this picture they were sitting on this spinning rock and Sam kept turning her back to me so I couldn’t get a picture.  But I am more stubborn than her and when she thought I had given up she turned around and SNAP, I got a picture of her face.  Silly Sam!

smashed face

Hunter is definitely my most independent child.  If he wants something he figures out how to get it.  As a result of this I find him quite often carrying stools and chairs around the house so he can reach stuff.  Today he was carrying this chair and it was smashed up against his face but he was determined to carry move it.  I can’t remember what he was trying to reach, but it must have been important to him because he walked from the living room to the kitchen like that.  I couldn’t help but laugh.

playing

Today we had an hour between soccer games so we went up to the playground and let the kids play. Hunter followed the big kids around and did whatever they did.  He loved a section of the park where you crawl in a tube then it dips down like a slide and you climb back up the other side.  The only problem was he couldn’t climb out.  He would get stuck at the bottom.  Max and Kye would have to crawl in and rescue him.  He obviously didn’t mind because he did it over and over and over again.

princess stickers

This morning I walked in Sam’s room and found princess stickers everywhere.  She had been very busy.  They were all over the blinds, walls, Hunter’s crib and her bunk bed.  Sam’s loves stickers, but we had to have a little chat about where we can and cannot put stickers.

owies

Tonight at soccer Hunter kept trying to climb the big hill and falling.  His knees were scraped up, but he never cried.  I would ask him to show me his owies and he would lift his shorts and point to his knees.  He is a tough baby!

playing with bugs

Max and Hunter were outside finding rollie pollies today.  It was so cute.  Max would find one and let it crawl around on his hand and Hunter would wait for his turn.  Max would then put it on Hunter and they would both just laugh.  Max is a good big brother.

broken glasses

Last Saturday at the soccer games a kid came up to Kye, took his glasses and totally snapped them in half.  This picture does not do it justice.  The frame was broken and the lens was missing.  The kid was a 4 year old so he was old enough to know better.  Kye was pretty upset, but that is why we buy glasses insurance.  They were replaced with no charge.  We are not sure exactly how it all went down, but it all worked out in the end.

stuck

I am not quite sure what Hunter was trying to do, but he ended up wedging himself in this shopping cart.  He was stuck and started to call for help.  When I found him instead of being the good mom and rescuing him, I went to grab the camera.  He was not happy about that.

Mother’s Day

I have the best kids ever.  I woke up this morning to Trevor and the kids bringing me breakfast in bed.  Sam kept eating all my fruit as soon as Trevor set the tray down.  We had a nice day. Kye made paper flowers and a coupon book at school.  Sam made a plaster hand print and answered some questions about me.  Max also made coupons. 

early mother’s day gift

I received an early Mother’s Day gift today.  I went and got a manicure and a pedicure with some friends.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  Sam has been asking when she can go with me.

field day

I can’t believe it is field day already!  The school did tie dye shirts again for the kids.  I like the bright colors they used this year.  Max and Kye were so excited. 

Kye’s favorite day

Tonight at dinner Kye said “Friday is my favorite day.  Do you want to know why?”  Of course we all said yes.  He continued, “I love Fridays because I don’t have any homework, I get to go to art and I get pizza for lunch.”

my little monkey

Hunter loves to climb and explore.  He has now figured out how to climb on my bathroom counter.  He was in the bathtub and I left him to go grab his towel.  When I came back he was sitting in my sink.  I pulled him out and put him back in the tub, but he immediately climbed back into the sink.  He was so proud of himself!

dead battery

I usually have to wake up Hunter to go and pick up the boys from school.  So I wait until the last possible minute to get him.  Today wasn’t any different.  I grab Hunter and am running out to the car.  I go in the garage and notice the sliding door is wide open and all the lights are on, but very dim.  I knew the battery was dead.  Someone (I don’t want to mention any names) had been playing in the car.  Max has piano right after school so I am trying to hurry to get to the school, catch his teacher who is picking up her kids and figure out how to get my car jumped so we can get to soccer tonight.  Sam is awesome on her bike so I send her ahead to tell the boys what is going on.  I get the stroller and take off after her.  When I get to the park I flag down his piano teacher who is about to leave the parking lot (excellent timing if I do say so myself), and send Max with her (luckily I had thrown his piano books in the stroller).  As I am walking home I call Lauren to see if she can help me, and again luck was on my side, Nick was home.  So just as I am walking up to my house he shows up and jumps my car (thank you soooo much).  I load everyone up and we go pick up Max from piano.  It couldn’t of worked out any better!

lost

I have never lost a child in a store…until today!  I took all the kids to Wal-Mart and as we were walking to the cash registers Sam ran ahead to the water fountain.  As I was checking out I look over at the water fountain and don’t see Sam.  So I tell Max and Kye to go look for her.   When they said they couldn’t find her I assumed she went into the bathroom, which is next to the water fountains.  So I finish paying and getting our stuff and walk into the bathroom to find Sam, but she wasn’t there.  Now I am beginning to panic.  Where would she have gone?  So I find an employee and tell them I can’t find my 4 year old.  They get on the radio and announce a Code Adam.  The only problem is I couldn’t remember what she was wearing.  I thought she had blue shorts and pink shirt, but Max thought it was pink shorts.  Finally an employee came on the radio saying they had a little girl in the dressing rooms.  We go back to the fitting rooms and there was Sam.  She was crying and scared.  She said she didn’t know where we were.  We have never talked about it before, but she did the right thing.  She told the employees at the dressing rooms that she couldn’t find her mom.  It all happened in about a 5 minute time period, but it was the longest 5 minutes ever!  It turned out Max was right…she was wearing pink shorts with a blue shirt.

new woobies

Max received his first woobie as a gift at a baby shower.  It was cute for a baby, but not for an 8 year old boy.  So we (him and I) decided it was time for a new one.  So we went to the “woobie store” (aka Joanne’s fabric) and he picked out BYU fabric.  While we were making Max’s new woobie, Kye and Sam wanted new ones also.  I didn't have enough fabric to make them one, but I had some extra fabric from Kye’s so we made Petty Pup and Cowie new woobies (their favorite stuffed animals).  They were happy with that.