1st Day of Nursery!!!

I can't believe it!  Abby is now in nursery.  Weighing in at a whopping 18lbs.!  With all my other kids, I was excited for the day, but this time was different.  I don't know if it's because she's so baby-looking, or if it's because it's the last time we'll be doing this, or if it's because I haven't had to be the one to wrestle her through 2 hours of church, but this time was a little bittersweet.  However, she loved it.  No tears for this girl!  Dad, on the other hand, sure missed his buddy.  

Rebar

I feel like our family is pretty lucky because our casualties have been pretty minor with 4 kids. Aside from Ogden and Kaelyn both breaking their legs when they were 2, we really haven't had too many accidents.  Until the other day.  I also feel pretty lucky, because when we have had accidents, Julian has been around.  Until the other day.  Ogden came home from the bus stop looking like this.  No tears or anything but a pretty good gash.  It really wasn't bad, but I knew that it would probably require stitches.         Apparently, Ogden had found a piece of rebar (like the huge ones used to set foundation on a house) near the bus stop and gave it a throw and it boomeranged him back in the face.  He was pretty worried about the fact that he had to get his skin sewn together, but he was very tough.  The worst part was definitely the cleaning of the wound, which I so thoughtfully saved for the nurse.  I am so, so, so, so glad he didn't get hit in the eye.  It really could have been much worse!  And I'm also glad Ogden is a tough kid. And I'm also glad I actually thought somewhat clearly through the situation and handled it by myself.  

The Holidays!

Time to catch up on the holidays!

 Hay ride

Corn box

 

Told Kaelyn to take a bath and then we'd work on her costume.  She came down for breakfast all princessified by herself... hair and all.  She's pretty amazing! 

Pumpkin pancakes for breakfast

Whoopie cushion at the bus stop

Abby takes to Grandpa

 Enthusiastic participants for the Thanksgiving Trivia

 The Spread

 Paige and cousin Corbijn

Yum times 10!

"What's Going On"

And I say hey.... hey....

I said hey, what's goin' on

And I say hey.... hey....

I said hey, what's goin' on

I feel like the kids are changing so much lately, and there's so much I want to remember about each one of them, so I thought it would be nice to document "what's going on."

Ogden

Ogden just turned the big 9!  Last year somebody told him we would have a real birthday party this year since we would be in a house and would have more room to do it.  And guess who remembered that for 365 days? Yep!  I love my kids and think birthday parties are fun, but I hate planning them!  Invites, decorations, party favors, food, games, damage control....  It's just not my thing, I guess.  I really do admire people who enjoy it and have a talent for it, but for me, it almost takes away from the whole occasion, because I get overwhelmed by it all.  Blah, blah, blah.   Nonetheless, we kept our promise and I think Ogden had a pretty fun party.  I'll post pics later.
The night before his birthday, Ogden got a call from his Nana.  She called to tell him Happy Birthday, but by the end of the phone call, she was crying.  Then his Auntie Em called, and by the end SHE was crying.  They were crying because he's such a special boy.  And 9 years ago, they got the call that we were headed to the hospital to have our little Oggy Froggy, but I was only 7 months pregnant.  This wasn't suppose to happen yet.  And none of us really had experience with premies, so we didn't really know what to expect.  But at 4lb 4oz, he was just fine and definitely special.

I dug up these old photos:

 Here's Auntie Em reading "I Love You Forever" to Ogden in the hospital.  And I'm pretty sure she was crying as she was reading it:)  

Ogden has been doing well in school and really enjoys math.  He just seems to get it.  He also just earned his Bobcat and has advanced to Wolf (maybe bear--I get confused with all the scouting hooplah).  He's still very friendly, outgoing, and confident.  At the beginning of the school year, Kaelyn was getting called names and was very hurt by it.  I asked Ogden if that ever happened to him, and he said "Ya" in a duh-everybody-gets-called-names kind of tone.  Me: What do you do when that happens?  Ogden: I just ignore it.  Wow!  Maybe that's a guy thing, but I didn't realize he was such a stud that he could shake stuff like that off so easily.  And I've noticed more and more I'm known as "Ogden's Mom."  What a great thing to be know as!

Kaelyn
KK has been doing wonderful as well.  She LOVES going to school and learning.  Last week she got "the bug" that attacked our family and was throwing up all night.  I wasn't surprised when she worriedly cried, "Does this mean I can't go to school tomorrow?"
She's taking piano lessons right now and seems to be enjoying that.  She's also pretty amazing at doing her hair.  Not kidding!  Most days, she doesn't even want me to do her hair for school.  One day, kaelyn was trying to curl her hair with a comb and got it severely tangled in her hair.  Like 10 times worse than chewing gum!  It was pretty bad.  We tried water, conditioner, breaking the comb in half.  It was hopeless.  I had almost resigned to taking her to get her haircut but decided to work a little bit longer.  And then Julian brought in the pliers to clip off some of the comb, and here a little, there a little, I clipped each bristle off the booger after I slipped strands of hair over the edge of the shrinking comb until there was no comb left.  It was a v.e.r.y. tedious process but it saved her from getting a really bad back-to-school haircut.  And the comb has never been used as a curling instrument since.

Paige
Paigey-Paige is becoming funner and funner as we are nearing the end of the terrible 2's.  And while she still saves all her cries and whines for me, there are less of them and many more laughs and giggles and "I love you so much"-es.  (Sidenote--I have found with all of my children that all is fine and wonderful while I'm out of the picture, but the second they see me, it's like a cry switch is turned on.  If I leave the house again, not a peep with dad or anyone else.  Just me.  Is this normal?  Or am I doing something wrong that encourages them to feel so comfortable being unhappy around me.  Please tell me I am not the only one this happens to.)
We are also part-time potty training.  I just didn't have it in me to do a hardcore, 1 week of potty training type thing.  I've never potty trained with a wee, little sidekick before.  It's been interesting.  Or with 2 older siblings who need help with homework after school and such.  Soooo, we just started by practicing in the mornings.  After a month, she's fairly good about going potty all day at home, but we wear diapers when we leave the house.
I am loving that Paige has entered a highly imaginative phase of playing.  She LOVES playing with the dollhouse and babies and teddy bears.  It's so cute hearing her take care of them and have mostly sweet conversations with them.  Sometimes the teddy bears do get put in time out by mommy Paige though.  Apparently they get in trouble for hitting.

Abby
Abby has developed quite the personality these last few months.  She's definitely making herself known in the family.  She still spits up a couple of times every other day and it doesn't seem to bother her.  I am thrilled that we are past the 75 spits/day.  Our poor house was getting initiated and I felt like all I did was change sheets, clean carpets, and stain stick clothes.
Abby loves to sit in my lap and read a book.  It's so stinkin' cute when I'm sitting on the floor and she runs up with a book and backs up into my lap.  I love it!  She's also a dare devil and loves to climb.  It didn't take her long to figure out how to climb up the ladder to the bunk bed.  And thus the ladder is removed.  Abby also loves to wear shoes now.  I just started putting shoes on her about 2 months ago, and now she loves them.  She likes to try and wear everybody's shoes and often brings me her shoes to put on her even if she doesn't have pants on.  Oh! And she's already cutting her first molar.  Poor girl!

And...Us
Well, we've been keeping busy too.  Our major (and I mean major) project for the summer was putting in our yard.  Bringing in 12 (or was it 16) loads of dirt, trenching, trenching again, installing sprinklers, grading, bringing in 3 loads of topsoil, grading, bringing in 1 last load of topsoil, grading, placing sod, fixing sprinklers, and fine-tuning sprinklers.  We have learned a lesson.  There is a reason why it costs so much to hire landscapers to do all the work--they earn every penny of it.  As much as we want to be DIYers, we just aren't.  It took us the entire summer, and some spring and a little fall too, but it's done.   And it's beautiful!  Ah!  Green grass is just so pretty against a house as opposed to dirt.  And it's amazing how much it cuts down on dirt in the house, dirt in the windowsills, dirt in the garage, dirt in the eyes.  We're just so happy!  We have wonderful neighbors that have put in many hours and late nights helping us along the way.  Between the yard and a loaded work schedule for Julian, that pretty much sucked up our whole summer...and funds.

Well, I have lots of pictures I want to add to this update, but they're on the hard drive, and that kind of stuff is beyond me.

First Day of School

School is going GREAT!  Ogden and Kaelyn were so ready for school to start.  I am so happy with Ogden's teachers.  That's right.  Plural.  Both of his teachers having a toddler at home and want to teach, but not full-time.  So Ogden gets a refreshed teacher in the morning and in the afternoon.  The two have 5-6 years of experience and one even lived a block away from us in Idaho.  Crazy!  Something about these teachers seems to be bringing out the best in Ogden.  He is a very good kid, but often quite "friendly," as his teachers would say.  I asked him if he was having a chatter problem this year  & he said he doesn't talk at the wrong time.

Kaelyn is also loving first grade.  All. Day.  The first week was a little rough for her.  She liked it, but it was definitely long.  And her best friend was in Hawaii, so she didn't have her to lean on.  Also, all her friends were in other classes.  BUT we found out that her best friend was going to be in her class and the teacher even moved their desks next to each other.  Yesterday Kaelyn started 1st grade homework and she though it was "so fun!"

I just love these pictures of them.  They are getting so big!

Paige and Abby can't wait to be in school too!

I Heart KSL

I have been loving KSL, especially this last year.  It seems to be much bigger than craigslist in this area.  Right after we moved in, we had a Kirby salesman knock on our door and thoroughly convince us that life would not be complete without a Kirby vacuum cleaner.  He was smart to stop by our place knowing that Mr. Clean would be disgusted to see such grossness be sucked up from such new carpet.  It worked!  We were both amazed.  However, I was not interested in spending $1500 on such an item, even if the salesman was giving us such an awesome deal and practically knocking $20,000 off the price.  I felt bad saying "no" after the guy spent 2 hours showing us how super awesome the Kirby was, but not $1500 bad.  It just wasn't going to happen and I wasn't about to do a payment plan.  Julian said he still wanted to save up for one, so I checked out KSL and we found one!  It was a couple years old & still cost $400, but I felt like we won.  And it still sucks great!

Since then, we bought a red pottery barn couch, a piano keyboard, a fridge for the garage, some kids toys, barely worn toddler shoes, and have even sold some of our stuff.  I love it!  And while buying new is always more fun, we've been able to find some great stuff that have barely been used.  

Chores

Giving chores to my kids has been quite the chore for myself over the years.  I want my kids to be responsible and have tried chore charts and just telling the kids what their job is when the time comes, but, overall, it's been a frustration.  I would get frustrated when I would constantly have to remind them to do their jobs, even though it was posted.  And I would cringe when I'd hear "but I did it last time" or "I don't want to"or "I hate doing silverware" and on and on.  And even then, passing chores on to the kids usually means that I might need to redo the job to meet my standard (which isn't very high).  So this summer we tried something new.  In the mornings before we went and did something fun and/or in the evenings before we had our treat, I would make a list of about 5 jobs for Ogden to do and 5 jobs for Kaelyn to do.  They usually included things like washing a dirty window, putting 3 pairs of shoes away, wiping down appliances, unloading the dishwasher, etc.  It seems to be working pretty well, especially for Ogden.  I think Ogden likes to see that there is an end to his list and that once he's done, he's done.  Kaelyn is not as big of a fan.  She still does it, but she can take FOREVER.  So it's not a perfect plan, but it's been a much better fit for our family.  Plus, I like that it's so flexible.  I can just look around the house and see what needs to be done, and then add it to their jobs.  Some days the appliances need wiped down and sometimes I need help folding towels.  Ideally, it might be nice to do something like this with a little bit of tweeking, but for now, I'm liking our system.  Have you had any success with chores?  Always looking for better ways.

Abby turns 1!!!!!!!

Our little Abbers turned 1 about two months ago!  Of course, as summer busy-ness and evening laziness goes, I am just now getting around to posting some pics.  

Abby is so much fun and is getting some personality.  She keeps herself occupied pretty well.  It seems our pantry door ALWAYS gets left open, and this is what happens:

 "What?"

 Birthday presents!

 Cake!  She had no trouble eating this whole piece of crumbly, messy chocolate cake by herself.   I don't know why I didn't take the high chair outside.  She sure loved it though!

We took Abby swimming that morning for her birthday and met up with one of my friends whose little 1 yr-old shares the same birthday. 

It was a fun day, and we sure love Abby!  It's crazy to think that one year ago Abby looked like this.   And now she is a full-time walker and busy-body.  She has long since been weened from the binky (yay!) and has a bottomless tummy.  She might only weigh 16 lbs., but this girl can handle herself.  Happy Birthday Abby!  We sure love you!

Grandma Great and Grandpa Great come to visit!

Grandma Great and Grandpa Guy came out Easter weekend for Grandma's mission reunion.  They live in Nebraska, so we don't get to see them too often.  We had a wonderful time and the kids absolutely loved playing with Grandpa Guy.  Loved spending time with you two!

Kaelyn!

Exciting times for our growing Kaelyn.  She graduated form Kindergarten and had the cutest ceremony.  And we finally took Kaelyn's training wheels off!   We had been avoiding it for so long, because the task had band-aids and crying dramatics written all over it.  Our friend suggested we try learning on a grassy hill & it worked wonderfully!  It's the only way to go.  She did it all by herself.  We didn't even hold on our give a push or anything.  The video is of her first attempt.

And later that night, she lost her very first tooth!