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!

The Kids

Here's a bunch of random photos in no particular order.

 Paigey, Paige!  Below, she's opening her birthday present, which she chucked on the floor seconds later. She didn't want to open any presents, so we decided to finish her birthday the next day when it was much less hectic.  After all, she did just have Christmas 3 days earlier, plus she bought a house and was moving on her birthday.

 Paige is becoming funner and funner and we always get a kick out of the things she says (which is just about everything).  She is quite the helper.  She is always on spit-up patrol and is so sweet to Abby, although she can be a little too helpful.  Short story:  the other day Paige went in Abby's room (while Abby was sleeping) and climbed in her crib with the snot sucker to clean Abby's nose.  We have since put child-proof covers on the doors.

 Julian put together this little collage of our home.

 Ogden and Kaelyn on Valentine's Day.

 Ogden earns his Bobcat.  I sure do love the scouting program!  Ogden does too and is growing up way too fast.  He is very friendly and personable.  Apparently, Ogden is a little too friendly during class at school and reported that he got a special seat--right next to the teacher AND he's all by himself.  He thought that was pretty cool, since he loves his teacher!

 Kaelyn's 6th birthday.  We have a tradition of putting a candle in all the meals of the birthday child, so Kaelyn is about to blow out a candle in her plate of grits--her favorite!  Kaelyn is a big help to me and is a great student.  We had a great day celebrating her birthday as a family.  She chose Chuck E. Cheese for her family activity and then we went to Krispie Kreme for a birthday treat.

 Abby is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on everything.  At her 9 month check-up she weighed in at 13 lbs 12 oz.  She is such a little bug!  All of our kids have tended to reach their milestones at the lower end of the "normal" scale, so it seems like Abby is doing rolling over, sitting, crawling, and standing so early, even though she's still normal.   And she is so pleasant!  I'm loving our smiley Riley!

Dad gets Ogden a BB gun.  Pretty cool stuff, shooting at soda cans, leftover toast, and whatever else.

Home

Here's us standing in front of our house, forcing a picture out of the kids when it's soooo bitter outside.

The Young and the Restless

Wow!  The month of January was exhausting!  We moved into our new place three days after Christmas. Oh happy day!  Then, in January, Julian had 4 work trips which were each 4-6 days long.  Also, after we moved, the binky fairy came (I know, I know.  We should have done that a year ago.)  We put all the pacifiers on the front porch, shut the door, and then an awesome bike showed up at the front door.  Paige wasn't very excited about the trade, but did okay until bedtime.  It took a couple nights of crying, but after that, she's been fine ever since.

Also, when we moved, we did some bed shifting.  It was time for Abby to move from the bassinet to the crib...in her own room.  Yea!  Which meant that Paige had to move from the crib to Kaelyn's toddler bed and Kaelyn had to move from the toddler bed to...eventually a new bed.  Sidenote:  since about the time Abby was born, Kaelyn started waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping on the floor next to my mom while she was helping out.  After that, it just became a nightly ritual.  We'd find her in the living room, in Ogden's room, in our room.  I thought it was kind of cute.

Soooo...while Julian was away, I attempted to get Abby used to sleeping in a crib.  That wasn't so bad.  At the same time, I was training Paige to sleep in a toddler bed.  I don't think she was ready for this.  She did so well in the crib.  All I had to do was lay her down with her pacifier and she was good.  And we had already done this with Ogden and Kaelyn and had zippo transitioning problems.  But I had seen Super Nanny, so I knew how this could go down.  The first day I spent 2 hours at naptime repeatedly placing her in her bed and leaving the room.  She thought it was hilarious.  Since naptime was over, we tried again at bedtime and she didn't get out of bed ONCE!  Hallelujah!  The next day at naptime, same thing--she stayed in bed.  Nighttime--it was all a trick.  She was in and out, in and out.  For the next 2 weeks I would spend anywhere from 30 min. to 2 hours putting her back in bed.  AND sometimes when I would leave the room, she would go through her closet that has a tunnel into Abby's closet and go wake Abby up.  This girl is good!  She knows what buttons to push!

Fortunately, Paige just does this for me and, for the most part, will stay in bed when Julian puts her to bed.  Unfortunately, Julian wasn't here much.  Needless to say, January was a very difficult month for me.  Not accomplishing much during the day, because I had no naptime, and by the time every child was in bed it was 10:00 at night.  That's when I would collapse on the couch and turn off.  Of course Abby was still getting up 3-5 times during the night also.

It's March now, and things have gotten much better.  I sure do love having Julian home.  It helps so much and I like the time we get to spend together in the evenings, even if we just watch a stupid show together.  The fights with Paige have gotten shorter.  Abby is sleeping for longer periods of time.  Kaelyn now has a new-to-us bed that she thinks is so cool--and sleeps in all. night. long.

I figure in about 5 years, I'll look back at the cute little things 2 year olds say and all the fun baby milestones and miss it.  But it's easier to think that way when your fully rested.  I'll still miss it.

I sure love my cute kiddos.

Lesson Learned

At the beginning of the school year, Ogden and I were having some not-so-fun homework battles.  His homework usually consists of 2 pages of math or grammar or something, a spelling activity, and 20 minutes of reading.  First we decided that he could have 20 minutes of fun and a snack before doing his homework. Sounded fair to me and him.  Unfortunately, when the 20 minutes expired and he was playing outside with friends, it was not easy to get him to come inside.  Meaning, it would require me to whistle out the window, receive the accidental acknowledgment, followed by the "I didn't hear you" avoidance, followed by a couple more attempts, followed by me getting my shoes on, grabbing my babies, and trotting down three flights of stairs and bringing Ogden inside.  Soooo, we did away with the 20 minutes. Ogden was pretty good at doing his spelling and worksheets, but the reading was another story.  We tried reading outside on a blanket, taking turns reading, having him read to his sisters, but day after day we still would have struggles over the reading.  I kept thinking Ogden should come in the door, take care of his responsibilities without procrastinating, and me not even have to be a part of it.  Then it donned on me.  Do I do that?  Do I wake up and clean the bathrooms first thing in the morning?  Heck no!  Do I get my visiting teaching done the first week of the month?  Quite the opposite.  After a while, we finally figured out a routine that works.  Ogden does his worksheets and spelling right when he gets home and then at bedtime, when all the kids are in bed, he and I lay down on his bed and read books together.  It's turned out to be quite a special one-on-one for us.  He usually tells me stories about his day and we get to have little conversations together where no one interrupts us.  We don't get to do this every night, but I sure do enjoy our time together and the tension is no longer there.