Kyle Turns 3!

Today is Kyle's third birthday, and he's been waiting for this day for quite a while.  It was also a sad day in that we woke up to a phone call early in the morning informing us our neighbor and good friend in the ward was killed by a drunk driver last night while riding his bike.  It was tragic news, and we have been thinking about this sweet family all day, and still trying to make Kyle's day special.  When tragedy strikes, it sure makes you want to hold your kids a little tighter, kiss your spouse a little longer, and thank Heavenly Father for the many blessings we have in our lives.  I just pray his wife will receive the comfort she needs during this time of great sorrow.  I'm thankful she has such a great supportive family close by to help her through this time.

So, Kyle woke up early this morning and came into our room and of course we were up after just hearing the tragic news, and when he came in, his nose was all runny and he had a fever.  The poor guy was sick on his birthday.  He really wanted to go to nursery, but we had to tell him he couldn't go.  Luckily, with a little Motrin, he was able to go through the day not too miserable.  

He has been looking forward to opening his presents for a while.  He has the last birthday of the year, and after seeing his brother and sisters celebrate their birthdays all year, he was glad it was his turn.
I just made a simple sheet cake, and Ashley insisted we decorate it with some boats.  She wanted to make blue frosting and put water on it for the boats, but Mom didn't want to do the extra work, so Ashley said "Oh, that's ok because we can just have it be brown like it is muddy water."  I thought that was a great idea......  
We were supposed to have Dave's family over for cake and ice cream, but we didn't want anyone to get sick, so we cancelled and just did cake and ice cream with our little family.  Jessica broke out her flute and played Happy Birthday while we sang, it was nice to have her playing while we sang.  It kept us on key, which is a hard thing in our family. :)  

Overall, I think Kyle enjoyed his birthday.  Lots of playing with his brother and sisters, and playing with his new Thomas the Train set.  Since it was Sunday, and we didn't get to go anywhere for his birthday, we told him we'd take him to the train park tomorrow with the family and have a picnic dinner, and ride the train.  He is so excited to ride the train!  He is obsessed with them lately.  When I put him to bed tonight, he couldn't stop talking about it.  So, I'll have to post pictures from that later.  Happy Birthday Kyle!  We love you!

Good night.  Go hug your kids, your nieces and nephews, your brothers and sisters, your mom and dad.  Make sure they all know how much you love them.  I know I am going to.

Tagged

So, I was tagged by my SIL to do 6 interesting things about me.  Back in December I did a post similar to this, so I thought I'd better think of six DIFFERENT things.  So here goes.

1.  I am a middle child.  I never felt the middle child syndrome since I was the first girl after three boys.  My parents were so excited to have a girl!

2.  I'm really good at tuning noises out, especially my kids.  Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it's bad.  Dave gives me a bad time when the kids are trying to talk to me when I am in the middle of something and I'm tuning them out.  He often says "Lori, your child is trying to talk to you."  I just get so wrapped up in what I'm doing at the time.

3.  I love to go to the theatre.  I don't get the opportunity as much as I wish, but I try to go to the big ones that come into town.  (Wicked, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera)

4.  I'm pretty frugal when buying clothes.  I don't like to spend more than $10 on an article of clothing.  (Unless it's a dress, or a good pair of jeans)  Dave has gotten me to be better about this, and say it's ok to spend a little more if I really like it.  But it's the other way around with eating out.  I have no problem spending money on a good meal at a restaurant, and Dave would rather save the money and eat at home. 

5.  I love being with family, both my immediate family and my extended family!  I have great parents and great in-laws and feel very blessed in that department!  I love getting together with them!  

6.  I love going on airplanes.  I really haven't been on them a ton, but I love to go on them because it means I'm going somewhere, and I love to go places!!  

I know I'm supposed to tag 6 people to do this, but I'm just going to tag whoever wants to do it.  It's fun read other people's lists, so start making yours!!!!

Oh yea, and I'm supposed to post the rules, but I don't know how to copy and paste on my Mac computer yet.  You all know the rules, just make your list........... 

Grandma Comes to Visit!

Well, we just took grandma to the airport after a fun visit!  We were sad to see her go, but thankful we were able to have her for the five days she was here.  We did lots of fun things and got lots of stuff done.  She is quite the worker, and we were able to get lots of projects done. The first day was spent painting a wall in the garage where our water heater had leaked, while my mom spent the day doing a weeks worth of laundry!!  It was nice to get that done, and Dave was especially grateful it got done so he didn't have to.

The next day we headed over to the new mall and let the kids play at the play place, and walked around a bit.  My mom thought it was funny to put an outdoor mall in a HOT place like here, but she did think it was a great idea they had the misters!  We went to lunch at the Mexican restaurant there, which has the best guacamole EVER!  (If you haven't tried it, you have to!  It is a little pricey, but soooo worth it!)  

The next day we decided to work on another project and headed over to Linens N Things, which is going out of business, and got a great deal on curtains for my bedroom sliding door.  We ended up spending the WHOLE afternoon hanging those things.  Do you ever start a home improvement idea thinking it will be so quick to do, and then everything goes wrong and it ends up taking forever??  Well, that happened to us, and after having the curtains fall completely down on us when we thought they were good, we finally managed to get them up nice and tight.  It was a pain, but they look great and it's nice to have them done.  
The kids loved spending time with Grandma.  Ashley loved the nights she got to read in bed with Grandma, laughing and talking.  And here is Grandma reading a bedtime story to Kelsey.  Grandma sure loves her grand kids!!
Well, after all the hard work during the week, my mom and I spent the day together at the Spa.  We got massages, sat in the steam room, soaked up some sun floating around in the lazy river and the wave pool, and shopped for a while.  I had told my mom I was going to get her a day of pampering for her birthday, so she got it!  We had a great time being together, and I was grateful for the fun memories we were able to make.  
We went to church this morning, then spent the day hanging out together.  The kids loved having Grandma, and so did I.  (Dave also enjoyed it as he didn't have to do any dishes pretty much the whole time.  My mom would do them before we even had a chance to!)  

I'm so grateful for the fun visit from my mom.  Thanks dad for managing at home without her, and we look forward to seeing you in a few months.  

Washington State Trip

Dave and I had a great weekend in BEAUTIFUL Seattle, WA.  The weather was amazing, and it was so green and lush!  We got in town around noon on Friday, just in time for Dave to meet with his client.  While Dave was at his lunch meeting, I went over to check out the space needle and walk around a bit.  I picked Dave up around 1:30 and we headed over to downtown.  We took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, and the views were incredible.  I love looking at the skyline of a big city!  

We loved seeing all the cute houses up against the water, tucked in the trees.  What an amazing place to live.  Some of the houses had their own docks.  We both agreed that if you liked sailing, this would be the place to live.  
I was so amazed by all the trees!!  Nothing like we have here, and I just couldn't get enough of all the green.  I was talking to one of the locals about how pretty it was there, and they said "Yes it is, but we pay for it with all the rain!!"  So, even though it was a beautiful place, I really don't think I'd like the 150 days of rain each year!
But man, that rain sure does make that place beautiful!  Look at all these cute houses!
We walked around Pikes Market Place, boy is that place something else.  It was huge!  We saw the famous Flying Fish Market and watched a few fish get flung around.

The next day, on Saturday, we got up and went for a 9 mile run (I'm training for a 1/2 marathon) and it was such a beautiful run.  We ran in the neighborhood where Bill Gates lives, Medina, Washington.  It was a nice, quiet town along the water.  I was dreading the long run, but it was so pretty there it went by fast.  I wish I could do runs like that every week!!  It was also fun to run with Dave.  We saw a really nice elementary school that we thought Bill Gates probably donated some money for. :)
Then it was onto the big game.  We watched BYU play against the Washington Huskies.  Luckily they came away with the win.  You can see the close score in the background!  Our friend from California is Dennis Pitta, and he had a great game.  Way to go Denny!  It was also fun to see our old friends from BYU there for the game.  I hadn't been to a BYU game in probably 5 or 6 years, so it was fun to see.  It made me want to go to more.  Hopefully they'll win all their games and we can watch them here in the Fiesta bowl!!  That would be cool!  

After the game, we headed back to downtown Seattle for some food and souvenir shopping for the kids.  We ate at the Steelhead Diner in Pikes Marketplace and it was YUMMY!  I highly recommend it if you're in the area!!  We were pretty wiped out after that and just went back to the hotel.  I think I was in bed by 9 pm that night!  I guess we aren't as young as we used to be.  Oh well.  

It was a great trip, and always fun to get away with Dave, ALONE!  Thanks to Dave's sister Deanna and her husband Ryan for watching the kids.  It was nice knowing they were in good hands!!!

Training Them Young

Well, as most of you know, college football started yesterday, and Dave couldn't be more happy.  Dave, his brothers, and some friends have season tickets to the ASU games, and so they went to their first game last night.  Tyler was able to go with his dad, and had a great time.  They put all their bikes in a truck and drive down to Tempe, park away from the crowds, and then bike into the stadium.  Tyler loves this time to spend with his dad and uncles, and especially liked the snow cone he got!  Jessica and Ashley are looking forward to their turn to go to the game with their dad.  (Me too!)  I told Dave, next year we should get a few more tickets so more of us can go......

Dave said Tyler was screaming so loud the whole game.  He was a good fan.  Tyler said next time he goes, he wants to paint his face yellow.  Anyone know where to buy yellow face paint??

Uncle Mikey bought Tyler this ASU foam finger, and a new shirt.  We decided to get Kelsey trained while she was young, and teach her how to wave the foam finger.  She thought it was pretty fun!  A few more years, and she gets to go with her dad, too!

We're also excited for the BYU games.  Go Cougars!!!!!!!

Kyle Starts School!

That's right, you read the title right.  My Kyle started school today.  He got accepted into the preschool program for speech.  He was tested and they found that he does indeed have a speech delay.  Everything else tested out great, but his speech is hard to understand.  So, today he started preschool.  

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.  On one hand, I think about how young he is.  (He doesn't turn 3 till next month.)  I've never sent a  kid to school so young.  And it's EVERY day.  I've never done a preschool EVERY day.  I've been nervous about the whole thing, but the more I talk to people who have had their kids in this program, the more I am comforted.  I hear it is great for the kids, and that it really helps them.  So, I am excited for him to improve his speech and be able to communicate with us better.  He was so excited to go today.  He sees his older sisters and brother go to school every day, and now it is his turn.  

I dropped him off, and my friend happened to be there.  I asked her what she was doing there, and she said she was subbing for preschool.  She just happened to be subbing for Kyle's class!  So, that was kind of fun.  I grabbed a camera when I was heading out the door to take a picture, but the kids had just used it and changed something on it, and it was acting all funky, and the color was all weird.  So, when I go pick him up, I'll have to bring my good camera and get a picture for the blog......  I'll be back!!!

So, I just got back, and he did great.  He thought it was fun, and wants to go back tomorrow, so that's a good sign.  The teachers all said he did great, and adjusted well.  That was nice to know.  He fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I guess this preschool thing is hard work!  :)  So, I think this will be a good thing.  I can't wait to see how much he learns!!  (And it was also really nice to have a couple of hours of quiet time with Kelsey napping and Kyle at school.  Now I am thinking of all the things I've been wanting to do around the house, but haven't had the time for.  Oh the possibilities!!!!!!)

Proof My Kids Are Getting Bigger......

I was going through our pictures on the computer, and I hadn't looked at some of the old ones for a while.  It was fun to see some of the shots of when the kids were younger.  I thought I'd post a few that really showed how much the kids are changing.....

This was Tyler's 2nd birthday.  It was only a few months after Ashley had chopped off all her hair.  Her and her cousin Lexi were playing at our house and took the scissors into the bedroom closet and gave each other haircuts.  I walked in after wondering what they were up to, and hair was everywhere!  I about died!  I called Kari (my SIL) and she came over to see the damage.  At the time it was awful, but we were able to laugh about it later.  The girl at the hair place didn't really have any choice but to cut it really short.  There were lots of parts that were just an inch from the scalp.  It is because of this incident that Ashley doesn't ever want short hair again.We have a tradition in our family of waking the kids up on their birthday with breakfast in bed.  This was Jessica's 6th birthday, and I love the bed head on all the kids.  My family did this growing up, and it's been fun to carry on the tradition.

I love this picture of Ashley and Kyle.  They still to this day have a special bond with each other. Whenever Kyle talks about his brother or sisters, he always talks about Ashley.  She is so sweet with him, and he recognizes the extra love she gives him!!!  
And this is my baby, who isn't so much a baby anymore.  Kelsey is growing more and more independent each day, and let's me know it.  I'm glad I look at this picture and still see so much of her in this face.  As they get older, they lose that baby look and Kelsey hasn't lost it to me yet.  

I just look at all these pictures and wonder, "How did they all get so big, so fast?!"