Saturday, January 26, 2013
Back
Okay, blogger picture upload is back in business, and so am I. There are quite a few new posts below, going all the way back to Christmas. :)
Look alikes
I keep going back and forth on who Arie looks like. I will have a random Kelton baby picture come up on my computer and I will see Arie in it. Sometimes it will happen with Damon's pictures too. But the winner is probably Natalie. My sister took a picture of this picture of Natalie and emailed it to me. (I have the picture too, just not a digital copy) It's not my best picture of Natalie, but all my digital files of her are not stored on this computer.
And here's Arie. Arie is older in this picture than Natalie is in hers. They have their own individual features, but I do think they look a lot alike!
Have I mentioned that I love this adorable girl? And my adorable Natalie too.
Natalie
And here's Arie. Arie is older in this picture than Natalie is in hers. They have their own individual features, but I do think they look a lot alike!
Have I mentioned that I love this adorable girl? And my adorable Natalie too.
I really should get on this
I really need to figure out how to find some time to work with my boys. I took these pictures yesterday and the day before.
Two days ago, Damon can running downstairs, very excited. He told me, "I made a 'D'! I made a 'D'!" He was just so excited so I went to look. Damon likes to color and I was sure he had drawn something that looked like the letter D, hopefully on a piece of paper and not the wall. I was not expecting to find this.
He used Connect 4 checkers to make a D. I was so impressed. And look at that face. He was so proud of himself. He did such a great job! Then he told me, "I made a 'D' for Damon!" I made him promise not to touch it while I ran to grab the camera. He knows most of the letters. I should probably work some more with him and teach him more of the sounds.
Then yesterday, Kelton brought me a picture he made for his friend. He is not one much for coloring or drawing so I wasn't expecting to find that he had drawn his friend. But what really surprised me was the word he wrote. First of all, he doesn't really like writing. We've done a little bit of tracing and he can write his own name. He knows almost all of the letter sounds. A few times we have worked on sounding out simple words.
But this picture was done entirely on his own. He figured out how to write "PRKR" on the picture. His friend's name is Parker.
So yeah. I feel like a slacker. A mom on top of things would probably have both these boys reading by now. So, we will work on it!
Two days ago, Damon can running downstairs, very excited. He told me, "I made a 'D'! I made a 'D'!" He was just so excited so I went to look. Damon likes to color and I was sure he had drawn something that looked like the letter D, hopefully on a piece of paper and not the wall. I was not expecting to find this.
Then yesterday, Kelton brought me a picture he made for his friend. He is not one much for coloring or drawing so I wasn't expecting to find that he had drawn his friend. But what really surprised me was the word he wrote. First of all, he doesn't really like writing. We've done a little bit of tracing and he can write his own name. He knows almost all of the letter sounds. A few times we have worked on sounding out simple words.
So yeah. I feel like a slacker. A mom on top of things would probably have both these boys reading by now. So, we will work on it!
Kelton is 5!
Another one of my children has reached the "school age." It's cute how that is one of their favorite things about being five--they are old enough to go to school. Thankfully, Kelton understands that he has to wait until August.
We started Kelton's birthday out by singing him "Happy Birthday." Then he opened his presents before Natalie had to leave for school.
We gave him a Spiderman blanket and an Imaginext castle. Grandma and Grandpa Webb gave him a set of good knights and bad knights and a knight with an eagle. Grandma and Grandpa Burgess gave him a catapult and battering ram. All the toys go together and are really fun. Some of the toys even interact with the castle, which we didn't know beforehand. Like when you use the catapult or battering ram, a voice in the castle responds and says things like, "it's raining rock!" or "stop the ramming!"
Kelton got to have his first friend party this year. He was very excited. We cleared everything out of the loft and turned it into our own Mario Land. The kids started in the castle and then crawled out through the "pipe" tunnel.
Then they picked up a turtle shell to throw at a Goomba.
Once they smashed a Goomba, they got to go over and smash a coin block. Which resulted in them getting a chocolate coin to put in their goody bag.
The girls at the party got to be Princess.
And the boys got to choose between Mario and Luigi. Kelton was excited to be Luigi.
Because of time constraints, we opted for cupcakes instead of a cake. It just seemed easier... and it was. I made a frosting transfer for each cupcake. But the consistency was off and the transfers didn't work real well because they were really thin and thawed too quickly to get off the waxed paper. (I left the remaining transfers that I didn't need in the freezer. A few days later I took them out and they worked much better with the extra freezing time.) These are the original ones. You can see that some of them didn't quite work, especially the flowers.
But Kelton absolutely loved them, and that is all that mattered. Well, that and they tasted great. He was so excited to get a star cupcake, since the star is one of his favorite things to get in the Mario games. (Which I find funny because I find it to be one of the most useless things...)
Poor kid had to blow like five times to get the candles out. We just couldn't convince him to get close enough to accomplish anything.
After his party, I had planned on making stir fry for dinner per Kelton's request. It is his favorite dinner. But, the party was from 3:00-5:00 and we had 9 extra kids here during that time and I had spent every minute of the day on his party. So, by 5:30 when all of the party stuff was done, I was tired! And my kitchen was still overrun with frosting mess. So we convinced Kelton to eat out and we all went to Denny's. Kelton seemed to have a great day.
Random Kelton stuff:
Kelton is a sweetheart. He is also a firecracker and can keep life interresting. He is and always has been very independent and likes things done his way. His pediatrician once told me that these traits will make him and awesome adult. He really likes playing Mario Brothers on the Wii and is really good at it. He is really athletic and good at sports. He loves playing with Natalie, even if what she is playing is girly. He absolutely loves going to preschool and can't wait to go to school along with Natalie. He makes the best faces when he reacts to things. I don't think anyone can make faces like Kelton. He loves riding his bike and is much more daring on it than his big sister. When something is bothering him, all he really wants to fix it is for mom or dad to hold him--which is funny because he was not a cuddly baby. He doesn't really like frosting, which I find so hard to wrap my mind around, but he loves chocolate cake. He is very smart. I haven't worked with him a lot, but I can tell that he already has a good concept of math as far as adding and subtracting. And we love him! Happy birthday!
We started Kelton's birthday out by singing him "Happy Birthday." Then he opened his presents before Natalie had to leave for school.
We gave him a Spiderman blanket and an Imaginext castle. Grandma and Grandpa Webb gave him a set of good knights and bad knights and a knight with an eagle. Grandma and Grandpa Burgess gave him a catapult and battering ram. All the toys go together and are really fun. Some of the toys even interact with the castle, which we didn't know beforehand. Like when you use the catapult or battering ram, a voice in the castle responds and says things like, "it's raining rock!" or "stop the ramming!"
Kelton got to have his first friend party this year. He was very excited. We cleared everything out of the loft and turned it into our own Mario Land. The kids started in the castle and then crawled out through the "pipe" tunnel.
Then they picked up a turtle shell to throw at a Goomba.
Once they smashed a Goomba, they got to go over and smash a coin block. Which resulted in them getting a chocolate coin to put in their goody bag.
The girls at the party got to be Princess.
And the boys got to choose between Mario and Luigi. Kelton was excited to be Luigi.
Because of time constraints, we opted for cupcakes instead of a cake. It just seemed easier... and it was. I made a frosting transfer for each cupcake. But the consistency was off and the transfers didn't work real well because they were really thin and thawed too quickly to get off the waxed paper. (I left the remaining transfers that I didn't need in the freezer. A few days later I took them out and they worked much better with the extra freezing time.) These are the original ones. You can see that some of them didn't quite work, especially the flowers.
But Kelton absolutely loved them, and that is all that mattered. Well, that and they tasted great. He was so excited to get a star cupcake, since the star is one of his favorite things to get in the Mario games. (Which I find funny because I find it to be one of the most useless things...)
Poor kid had to blow like five times to get the candles out. We just couldn't convince him to get close enough to accomplish anything.
After his party, I had planned on making stir fry for dinner per Kelton's request. It is his favorite dinner. But, the party was from 3:00-5:00 and we had 9 extra kids here during that time and I had spent every minute of the day on his party. So, by 5:30 when all of the party stuff was done, I was tired! And my kitchen was still overrun with frosting mess. So we convinced Kelton to eat out and we all went to Denny's. Kelton seemed to have a great day.
Random Kelton stuff:
Kelton is a sweetheart. He is also a firecracker and can keep life interresting. He is and always has been very independent and likes things done his way. His pediatrician once told me that these traits will make him and awesome adult. He really likes playing Mario Brothers on the Wii and is really good at it. He is really athletic and good at sports. He loves playing with Natalie, even if what she is playing is girly. He absolutely loves going to preschool and can't wait to go to school along with Natalie. He makes the best faces when he reacts to things. I don't think anyone can make faces like Kelton. He loves riding his bike and is much more daring on it than his big sister. When something is bothering him, all he really wants to fix it is for mom or dad to hold him--which is funny because he was not a cuddly baby. He doesn't really like frosting, which I find so hard to wrap my mind around, but he loves chocolate cake. He is very smart. I haven't worked with him a lot, but I can tell that he already has a good concept of math as far as adding and subtracting. And we love him! Happy birthday!
Fun with family and snow
The day after Christmas (Wednesday) I packed up for myself and the kids and we headed to Snowflake to stay through Sunday. Nate had a lot of work he needed to get done so he wasn't able to come with us. Ironically, he didn't end up working at all because he got sick with the same respritory flu I had just gotten over a few days before. This was the first time I had ever gone on a trip by myself with all the kids, and they traveled great. I hardly heard from them the whole way there. And Arie slept until we got just outside of Taylor. Christy was in Snowflake with her family and Melanie and Jade were there too. It was fun to see everyone and also to meet Easton, who is only a month older than Arie.
While we were there, we got a fun treat. We got to watch it snow. I think my kids must think that it snows all the time in the winter in Snowflake. Because there always seems to be snow there when we go. It's funny because growing up, I didn't feel like it snowed all that much. We must time our trips just right because we usually get to see snow. The kids were really excited. Natalie especially because she knew it snowed on Christmas Eve in Snowflake and they got a white Christmas (which had since melted) and she was jealous and upset we weren't there to see it.
Hudson was really enjoying throwing snow and Kelton spent the first several minutes trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue.
Natalie was super excited and for once, her coat didn't look out of place with all that fur. She had a lot of fun throwing snow too, but got in trouble twice for hitting both Kelton and Hudson in the face with snowballs.
Snowball fight! I love how in probably every picture I have of my kids in the snow, someone has a pair of socks on their hands. Natalie is wearing my non-waterproof gloves. We aren't equipped for snow.
Damon was napping when the kids were out playing in the snow. But, the snow started up again after he woke up, so we took him out to play too. He was so excited to pick up the snow and throw it that he didn't care that he had nothing at all on his hands. For about five minutes. Then all of a sudden it hit him that his hands were painfully frozen and he started screaming and came up to me crying for me to fix his hands. Poor kid. Later, after his hands thawed out, he wanted to go right back out. He didn't even care that his hands were bare. But this time, I decided to not be a failure as a mother and I found some gloves for him. As it started getting dark and cold, I had a hard time getting him to come inside.
Here's Natalie with Grandpa and Jade. I don't know why none of them have coats on. It was cold. And I dared Natalie to run across the snowy lawn with her bare feet. And she did.
Arie and Easton--the two new additions to the family this year. Easton was actually born on Nate's birthday!
Then on the weekend, we got to see more family! Erica, also traveling alone with her kids, stopped by overnight while on the way to St. David to be with her family. This meant that Natalie and Callie got to be together again. I've never seen two girls have so much fun together. Grandma made all of her granddaughters skirts for Christmas. Mine and Erica's girls' skirts were made out of the same fabric, so they all matched each other at church.
My boys got a new set of church clothes from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. They both looked so handsome--even if they were both in desperate need of a haircut.
These last two pictures make me laugh. I wanted to get a picture of just the boys in their new clothes. Notice in the picture above that Damon and Kelton are not standing next to each other. That's because Kelton wanted nothing to do with standing by Damon. So, trying to get a picture of the two of them together was, well... impossible. Here are the only two attempts I took:
Picture 1. Kelton is mad and standing his ground. Damon-- who is trying to do what he is being told, but also trying to annoy Kelton who doesn't want to stand by him--is trying to sneakily inch backward to get next to Kelton.
Picture 2. Kelton is now really mad, yelling "I don't want to stand by him!" Damon is no longer being sneaky and is all out chasing Kelton around the room, trying to get next to him for the two reasons mentioned previously. And probably mostly for the last reason as you can see a bit of a smile on Damon's face.
And this, people, is my life with these two boys quite a lot of the time. :)
*Random endnote: In doing this post I realized that I way overuse the word "just." I edited out about ten of them. And there are still some in there.
While we were there, we got a fun treat. We got to watch it snow. I think my kids must think that it snows all the time in the winter in Snowflake. Because there always seems to be snow there when we go. It's funny because growing up, I didn't feel like it snowed all that much. We must time our trips just right because we usually get to see snow. The kids were really excited. Natalie especially because she knew it snowed on Christmas Eve in Snowflake and they got a white Christmas (which had since melted) and she was jealous and upset we weren't there to see it.
Hudson was really enjoying throwing snow and Kelton spent the first several minutes trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue.
Natalie was super excited and for once, her coat didn't look out of place with all that fur. She had a lot of fun throwing snow too, but got in trouble twice for hitting both Kelton and Hudson in the face with snowballs.
Snowball fight! I love how in probably every picture I have of my kids in the snow, someone has a pair of socks on their hands. Natalie is wearing my non-waterproof gloves. We aren't equipped for snow.
Damon was napping when the kids were out playing in the snow. But, the snow started up again after he woke up, so we took him out to play too. He was so excited to pick up the snow and throw it that he didn't care that he had nothing at all on his hands. For about five minutes. Then all of a sudden it hit him that his hands were painfully frozen and he started screaming and came up to me crying for me to fix his hands. Poor kid. Later, after his hands thawed out, he wanted to go right back out. He didn't even care that his hands were bare. But this time, I decided to not be a failure as a mother and I found some gloves for him. As it started getting dark and cold, I had a hard time getting him to come inside.
Here's Natalie with Grandpa and Jade. I don't know why none of them have coats on. It was cold. And I dared Natalie to run across the snowy lawn with her bare feet. And she did.
Arie and Easton--the two new additions to the family this year. Easton was actually born on Nate's birthday!
Then on the weekend, we got to see more family! Erica, also traveling alone with her kids, stopped by overnight while on the way to St. David to be with her family. This meant that Natalie and Callie got to be together again. I've never seen two girls have so much fun together. Grandma made all of her granddaughters skirts for Christmas. Mine and Erica's girls' skirts were made out of the same fabric, so they all matched each other at church.
My boys got a new set of church clothes from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. They both looked so handsome--even if they were both in desperate need of a haircut.
These last two pictures make me laugh. I wanted to get a picture of just the boys in their new clothes. Notice in the picture above that Damon and Kelton are not standing next to each other. That's because Kelton wanted nothing to do with standing by Damon. So, trying to get a picture of the two of them together was, well... impossible. Here are the only two attempts I took:
Picture 1. Kelton is mad and standing his ground. Damon-- who is trying to do what he is being told, but also trying to annoy Kelton who doesn't want to stand by him--is trying to sneakily inch backward to get next to Kelton.
Picture 2. Kelton is now really mad, yelling "I don't want to stand by him!" Damon is no longer being sneaky and is all out chasing Kelton around the room, trying to get next to him for the two reasons mentioned previously. And probably mostly for the last reason as you can see a bit of a smile on Damon's face.
*Random endnote: In doing this post I realized that I way overuse the word "just." I edited out about ten of them. And there are still some in there.
Christmas
For the first time, we spent Christmas by ourselves this year. We did have one Christmas a few weeks before Kelton was born that we spent at our own house, but my parents came and were with us. While we missed being with family, it was really fun to have Christmas in our own house, with our own decorations. It was also great not having to figure out how to get everything to fit in the car without being seen.
On Christmas morning, our kids actually slept in until 7:00. Since Natalie will usually wake up at 6:00, the extra hour was greatly appreciated. The kids had to wait upstairs until we were all ready to come down. They were so excited.
Kelton's main presents were a bike, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates Bucky ship and Hook's Adventure Rock.
Natalie got a bunch, like around ten, My Little Ponies and this doll. She wanted an American Girl doll and we could tell she was a little disappointed to get a substitute. But she is old enough to know a bit about tact and kept telling us that "it was okay."
I made the boys a handful of different superhero masks. I like how both boys have the same expression on their faces.
A picture of the Christmas mess.
As per the tradition in my family, we let the kids get in their stockings after we had our big Christmas breakfast. Oh, and if you are wondering by this point where Arie was... she slept throught the whole thing. And I am just now realizing that we took absolutely no pictures of her on her first Christmas. Oops.
Damon's main presents were a Little People Wheelies ramp thing and three cool Imaginext planes. But according to this picture, maybe we should have just given him a bunch of salt water taffy.
We had a great Christmas!
On Christmas morning, our kids actually slept in until 7:00. Since Natalie will usually wake up at 6:00, the extra hour was greatly appreciated. The kids had to wait upstairs until we were all ready to come down. They were so excited.
Kelton's main presents were a bike, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates Bucky ship and Hook's Adventure Rock.
Natalie got a bunch, like around ten, My Little Ponies and this doll. She wanted an American Girl doll and we could tell she was a little disappointed to get a substitute. But she is old enough to know a bit about tact and kept telling us that "it was okay."
I made the boys a handful of different superhero masks. I like how both boys have the same expression on their faces.
A picture of the Christmas mess.
As per the tradition in my family, we let the kids get in their stockings after we had our big Christmas breakfast. Oh, and if you are wondering by this point where Arie was... she slept throught the whole thing. And I am just now realizing that we took absolutely no pictures of her on her first Christmas. Oops.
Damon's main presents were a Little People Wheelies ramp thing and three cool Imaginext planes. But according to this picture, maybe we should have just given him a bunch of salt water taffy.
We had a great Christmas!
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