Little stinker

Tonight Katelyn was playing with one of her three magna-doodle toys. I was watching her and admiring her artistic creativity (she really gets into it when she draws) and decided that I would play too. I started writing the ABC's down and singing the ABC song when Katelyn told me to "stop it, mom" and then shushed me (finger to her lips and everything). I have to admit, this made me laugh...at first. Then she kept telling me to "stop it" and I didn't think that was too nice, so it was off to bed for her. Yeah right, it was more like a quick time out. She was pretty upset, so after a few minutes I got her out, fed her some oatmeal and let her lay in my bed with me. I tried to cuddle her, but she wasn't interested. I had my head resting next to hers and she pushed my face away. I was starting to feel a little rejected at this point. I am really stressed out right now and with Kate acting like she didn't want me, it just pushed me over the edge. Little stinker. Oh well, I haven't had a good cry in a couple of months, so I guess it was time. I know she was just being ornery (I hate how that word looks) and she will want me again tomorrow.

I guess I should add that once Kate knew I was crying she did give me a hug, sat up and said "it's ok mommy" and then wiped my cheeks a couple of times with her blankie (that's what she does when she cries, wipes her tears with her blankie). She really is a sweetie.

Sleep Over

Ethan came to spend the night last night while Jared & Michelle went to celebrate their Anniversary. Here are Kate and Ethan educating themselves. They have to be doing the same thing, you know. Kate wouldn't take a nap yesterday, but both kids slept ALL NIGHT LONG without any problems. Ethan even slept in until 9 o'clock!

What is making me cranky???

PAINTING!

I sure hope we are moving, cuz this is A LOT of work! I usually don't mind painting, but these windows are making me crazy and there are a ton of them. It's much easier and more fun to paint a flat wall, and it goes a lot faster too.

Toddler Independance

So Katelyn has been sleeping in her toddler bed lately, which I just think is fantastic. What's funny is that I think she doesn't realize that she can get out of bed on her own when she wakes up, because she still calls for me every morning. Anyway, yesterday afternoon Kate was being kind of cranky and wouldn't eat her lunch (big surprise), so I told her that she needed to go get in bed and take a nap. Of course, she said "no"...a couple of times, but I suggested it again. She did get down from the table and toddled off towards her room. A couple minutes later when I was done with lunch I went passed her room to find her actually sitting on her bed. I couldn't believe it. So, I went in and asked her to lie down and covered her with her blankets. Next thing you know, my little girl is fast asleep. YES! So, we have officially taken a nap in the "big girl" bed. I didn't know if that would happen for a while, so I was just very excited. Now if I could just figure out how to make her eat better...

A couple of other Katelyn words:

"jocka" (gotcha)
"Aiken" (Katelyn)
"comin' too" (says this every time we go somewhere and she wants to come too)

Stop and Smell the Roses

These are some pictures from our trip home last week. Went through Boise, ID on the way and stopped at the Boise Temple to have lunch. I was trying to play around with the close-up function on our camera and took some pictures of the beautiful flowers on the Temple grounds. They aren't anything special, it's only a point and shoot, but I like how close up it can get.

It's still August!

What is up with the weather??? I would be seriously depressed right now had we not just returned from a fabulous sunny vacation. Since the day we got home, it has been nothing but storms and rain. It didn't even seem like summer got started until at least July and now it's not even September and it appears that summer has come and gone already. How sad...

Every year I dread winter more and more. I get really affected by the changing seasons, specifically when it starts to get dark, cold and gray. Every winter is harder for me it seems, which is one of the H-U-G-E reasons I would love to relocate to the Tri-Cities.

We are still in the process of interviewing for the Kennewick Police Department. So far things have gone well and Justin is passing each step of the way. Today he did his polygraph test and we are hopeful that in the next couple of weeks he will have his final "yay or nay" interview. It is pretty nerve wracking, but every time we are down there I just feel so good about it. We really feel like it would be a good move for our family.

On another note, I decided to give my notice of resignation to the school district. I really felt strongly that I should give my notice and not return this year. I was hoping to know whether or not we would be moving before the school year started again, but since that didn't happen I had to make a choice and follow my heart. However, I was recently approached by two people who are in need of child care. I have thought about it, and have decided that if for some reason we are not to move to Kennewick, I will go ahead and start watching their children. It would only be a total of 2 kids and one of them is an adorable little girl who is just a few months older than Katelyn. It's nice to have a back up plan, so to speak.

sisters retreat continued

Who is this blue eyed little man? Well, this is Benjamen. He is still nursing and is the best behaved little baby our family has ever seen, so we let him crash the party. Plus he stripped for us later in the evening. KIDDING! Such a cutie! For breakfast (well, it was nearly lunch time by the time I got finished) I decided to be ambitious and make cinnamon rolls...for the first time ever. It took so long because the dough wasn't rising. Good thing I had some cinnamon roll making experts around to help me out. I over cooked the first batch a little, but I thought they turned out well anyway. We also had a veggie omelet. fresh fruit and orange juice...mmmm! We had a lot of fun and have decided that we need to do this AT LEAST annually. I can't wait for the next one.

sisters retreat continued

Everyone was asked to bring a talent or hobby to talk about or show. Michelle made these amazing books for everyone by having us each pick a word we thought best described each individual. After she got all the words we all picked for each other, she made these awesome books (which I forgot to get a close up of) and left space for each of us to write something to one another. They are awesome and I will have to post a close up later.
















Julia is a serious cross-stitcher and has done some amazing art work out of cross stitch. She had us all make a small project which consisted of us covering a pen in cross-stitch floss that would read our name. It was all thumbs for most of us, but I am proud that I finished my pen all by myself.





















I chose to show some of the quilting projects I am working on and I gave a brief demonstration on how to make a rag quilt.
















Tammy came up with a very cool, unique idea for us all. She made a CD for each of us with the songs that were #1 on the billboard charts at the time of each of our births and graduations from high school. There were some pretty sweet songs on there. The one from my birth especially is awesome. I wish could play it for you on here. It was some funky disco mix of the Star Wars theme (I was born in '77). Totally far out dude!
















Jenny loves music and singing and playing the piano so she played piano in her original style for us by asking some of our favorite hymns.
















Crystyne brought her scrap book to share with us all which was really cool to see. She is even really current, unlike myself who hasn't scrap booked in AGES! I am pretty sure my kids will not all have one. Crystyne is a really good scrap-booker too!

Below, Britany had us all do some personality tests that she has used for her office. We all filled out the information prior to the party and then she went over everything with us last night. Lets just say we have a very colorful family :)

1st Annual Sisters' Retreat

Last night I hosted our first ever sisters night. I invited all of my sisters up for an over-nighter and we had so much fun! First of all a big thank-you to Michelle, my sister in law for creating such a beautiful ambiance. She was the decorator extraordinaire. Everything was SO pretty. I wish my table looked like that all the time. Michelle even hand made napkin "rings" with our initial on it. (see picture)

Who came: Tammy, Jenny, Julia, Britany, Crystyne, Michelle. The only one who did not make it was Rachel.

The idea to do this just popped into my head one day and I love to have people over, so I thought this would be a fun way to spend time together as sisters.

Day 8

Monday was our last day and I wanted to spend it at the beach. It was a beautiful day and this time I went swimming. The water was actually really nice once you got in and swam around for a while. I could have stayed there forEVER! Kate had more fun once she was naked and didn't want to leave either.

Day 7

We went on another little bike ride Sunday evening and Katelyn actually fell asleep. Pretty funny. At least she had a nice fluffy pillow to rest her head on :)

Kate, the actress

I mentioned before in a previous post how Kate likes to pretend she is Ariel from the little mermaid. Particularly the part when she is sad and curled up like this: It cracks me up.

Day 6

Saturday we drove up to Lava, in Idaho to float the Portneuf River. Justin called up some of his buddies/old roommates from his days at Idaho State. So we all met up for snacks and floating the river. We had a really good time. All of Justin's friends are really nice people. And their wives too :) There were a couple of minor injuries, but Jared got the worst of it with all his scrapes and blood. Kate even rode down with Justin and I a couple of times. She did great and really liked. When we got out after the first run, she said: "Again!"

Day 5

Friday we rented a boat and went out the lake for a few hours. It was awesome. I even got to drive the boat, which I haven't done before. There are all these fish by the dock at the Marina and you can feed them food. They were huge! Yuck, not a fish fan

Kate had a good time on the boat. She got a little unsure at times when we would go over big waves and land sort of hard, and she definitely wanted to be held onto. We had lunch on the boat, Kate fell asleep in my arms, and Justin and I jumped in the water...real quick. It was in and out because it was pretty cold. I just wanted to get in that beautiful water! We had a great day.

After the tour of the Tabernacle, Kate tripped on the sidewalk on the way to the car. She landed right on her face, got a fat lip, a bruised upper lip and a small bloody nose.

After our trip to the cave we went a little farther north, to the town of Paris, Idaho. We went on a tour of the Paris Tabernacle which was built by early pioneers to the area. Our tour guide was this cute little 87 year old man. It was just beautiful inside and out. And even more than that, there was such a special feeling inside the tabernacle. A very strong feeling of the spirit present. The kind of spirit that tells you that the church is true. I really enjoyed it.

It took the pioneers four years to build this tabernacle. It was really neat to see all the hand work that they did inside and out. They did all the wood graining by hand using special tools to make the wood look like it had an expensive grain. Every day they have someone play organ music for an hour, but we were too late to hear that. They also still use this building frequently for different meetings as well as their Stake Conferences.

If you look at the picture of Kate sitting on the round stone, you will notice it is a mill stone that was brought over from somewhere. There are two of them in the ground. Our tour guide reminded us of the scripture in Matthew 18:6 which says: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." When you look at Kate next to the size of the stone it really puts that picture into perspective.

The last picture here is an arrangement of flowers made out of human hair. They are really pretty in a different sort of way. I thought it was kind of interesting.