Progress

For anyone who knows Grant, knows that he does not know how to deal with a crying  baby. He absolutely cannot stand it when a baby is crying and is not afraid to let everyone know in the vicinity that he does not like it. He is very vocal that way, and shows no filter. When a baby cries, he does not know how to deal, despite loving examples from his mom, dad, sister, and anyone else who has ever had to deal with our crying Adam. I should also note, that Adam really is a great baby. He is super happy and loveable, and loves to cuddle and give hugs. He is great. But he does cry on occasion. I was particularly proud of Grant on this day, because he actually let the baby crawl onto his lap, and drink his sippy, and Grant was perfectly okay with that! Hooray! I have been silently praying for this to happen and it finally did. Progress has been made. I hope it will continue. This is worth documenting since moments like these are few and far between. Hopefully, the trend will continue.

Progress was also noted on this day:

Conference, baby! That is right. Grant is not in this picture, but my 2 oldest, and even mom and dad joined the fun with some good old fashioned Conference Bingo. The kids loved this game, and I think it will be a tradition from now on. These cute kids of mine stayed in front of the TV during the whole morning session, and listened for words like family, prophet, sacrament, and many more. They had the opportunity to earn prizes from the bag on the shelf. Easily a hit. I had printed off a conference packet for the  kids to do during the afternoon session, but it was not as enjoyed as the Bingo game. Lesson learned. Bingo, it is. This is an improvement over fighting with them to stay in the room while conference is on, and not being able to listen myself.

Life Lately

Well, it has been a year since I last posted, and to be perfectly honest, I do not remember posting that last one a year ago. Life has gotten a hold, and then held on, and kind of gotten away. But it feels good to be back and hopefully to continue blogging about our journey.

Right now, life is grand. James loves his job, and he is good at it, being the breadwinner in our family. His success allows me to stay home with our littlest who is now 2 and a 1/2. Can hardly believe that one. I love being home with him, and for our oldest 2 who are now 9 and 7. Seriously where did the time go?

Grant loves 4th grade and he has an aide  just for the morning part of his day. He plays and gets along with the kids at school, but he does not have a close/best friend yet, or even a gaggle of buddies that come around and ask him to play. He plays mostly with his younger sister whom he adores and won't admit it yet, but she is actually his best friend, and vice versa. Growing up, I always wanted an older brother. Now I have an older brother for my middle, and I love it for her. Someday, hopefully, she will be grateful. Grant has had a great year of 4th grade so far. Turning in assignments has proven to be a bit of a task, but hopefully, he will get the hang of it? Truly, how hard can it be to just turn in the assignment? I don't know, but this skill just has to get mastered.

Audrey is doing great in 2nd grade. She has a friend that she has had since preschool in her class, and she loves that, but sometimes tells me that her friend isn't as nice as she could be. Already, drama in the 2nd grade. But I did tell her if someone is hurting her feelings, she doesn't need to be friends with them anymore. We shall see where this leads.

Adam, my baby, is a the sweetest little cuddler. He loves to just snuggle in and I will not complain. My oldest 2 were cuddly, but not like he is. He is a great baby/toddler and I am dreading potty training next week on the first. I have dreaded this since I first found out I was pregnant, but hopefully he will catch on. Adam is not a big talker, but neither were Grant and Audrey. He will probably go to preschool when he is 3, and this will be a good thing for him.

School started about a month ago, and I was surprised to see it come so quickly. Some of the days were long, but  I was not ready to let my littles go back so soon. We did have a great summer, though, especially Grant and Audrey who got to see their cousins for a full week. They were so excited.
We also went camping, took trips to St. George, needless to say, it all ended to soon.

Back into the routine with a vengeance, but with a few changes.
The kids now make their own breakfast and lunch before they leave. I will make pancakes once a week, and then keep the ones that don't get eaten for the kids to heat up themselves in the morning. Huge life saver. It is nice to wake up slowly before being thrown into the routine. For the most part, they do pretty good. Grant needs many reminders some  mornings, and others, he does not seem to need much. He is a work in progress, but doing so much better than he was doing even just last year. Audrey has no problem most mornings getting ready.

Miss them when they are at school. Audrey does such a good job playing with Adam. I think Adam misses her too when she is at school. I miss Grant's pictures and things that he makes and places them around the house. Our house was full of items this past summer. It's hard to take them down. He is seriously so fun and creative.


Audrey will be getting her tonsils out tomorrow, and she is pretty nervous. Never having had them out myself, I do not know what to tell her. The promises of the yummy things she gets to eat, seem to have little appeal to her.
Can't wait to have this behind us. Hopefully no more school will be missed because of sickness.

Fall Arrival

Fall has arrived in our little Cedar City town. We packed up the kids first thing and headed out to the open mountain air, with Conference blaring in the background. I should note, things were not as easy getting ready as I just made them sound. The morning consisted of slow breakfast eaters, dish doing, lunch making, kids dressing, bottle making, and the occasional threat that one may get left, if one continues their decision making. Just keeping it real, since, years from now, when I (and my kids) look back on this experience, I want to remind them that it is still a good thing to go through all the rug-a-moro of leaving to get to see the beautiful amazement that is Cedar City in the fall.

Case in point:

These were just a few of the lovely leaves we saw this afternoon. I love these ones with a hint of the green still on them, and the rest a vibrant gold. Reminds me of lemon lime, for some reason?

Anyway, James and I had planned on taking them up the canyon to see the leaves for quite some time. It can be a time sensitive activity, since it can snow, or we get a major storm, and all the lovely colorful leaves can be gone. Glad to have waited till the first weekend in October to go. The leaves did not disappoint, and my littles got to appreciate the beauty with us. We packed a picnic and ate at a little picnic area along the way. We took pictures, and headed down to Panguitch lake to fish. 

Grant has decided that he likes to fish, ever since he took a fishing trip with his Uncle David, Grandpa Killpack, his dad, and his cousin Brett. He did not catch anything then or today, and although he got close today to giving up for good, he never fully did, and kept on trying. Another fishing trip will followlow. We also got Audrey to try it out:

Of course, Adam and I were there, so I had to get a few of him. He is a new walker, and the beach at the lake was extremely rocky. So I sufficed with a selfie:

He was a trooper, and we forgive him for crying almost the entire way up. Seriously. Wailing. The whole way. Then we fed him an early lunch and he slept peacefully until we arrived at Panguitch Lake. The weather was a bit chilly and windy, but the kids had a great time fishing. Love that Grant took his dump truck and will be sad when he is too old to bother with it. For now, though, he thinks it  is the greatest thing. 

Audrey wore flip flops. In the cold mountainous region, she hiked around all day in the flip flops she wore all summer. Made a point to tell her, that we are in fall. Time to retire the flip flops. 

On our way back down the mountain we saw a road we have never been on. Vista Ridge? Vista Road? Can't remember, but we took it, and were blown away with the view. 

Angel Moroni

On Thursday, September 22, 2016 we got to see the most amazing sight, and we will probably never see it again.

Yes, that is the Angel Moroni going up into the air! My cute friend Joella Cox texted me that she had heard that the Angel was going to go up today, in between, 9:00 and 10:30. Of course, I got the baby ready as quick as I could, and threw my hair in a wet bun, and went makeup less (is that a word?) just to get to see him go up in the air. Well, we waited...

 and waited....

and waited. James, who took the morning off work, waited with me and Blaine and Joella. We were even interviewed by the paper about the event (which James was misquoted. They used Blaine's words with James saying them. :( ) Anyway, we were there an entire four hours before they decided to put it. Our secret little meeting, ended up being most of the town to witness this event. We had great seats!

Unfortunately, We left at about 1:00, not knowing when they would ever put it up, and it went up like 10 minutes later. On a high note, the traffic getting out, I heard, was terrible. James and I got out without a fuss.

 

The final product. James went back a little later and got this shot! It was a neat event. Glad we got to see it!

Kirk

Of course, having Kirk back from his mission means that we get to see him a lot! I am not complaining! I love this kid! He is such a great example for my littles, and he is super fun to be around! My parents can't quite swing coming up to seed him so I get to take a lot of pics like this:

And when the sun is in the way, Kirk will oblige again when I ask for another one:

It has been fun!
We told him he has a standing invitation to dinner on Sunday, and really whenever.
One of the things we love to do as a family is going to SUU football games. We went to their first game, when it was still really warm, and got to see Kirk play his trumpet. My parents couldn't be there, so I took as many pictures and movies and pictures as I could.
The kids seem to do well at games for the most part. Had to laugh at all the stuff Grant brought to keep him entertained:

:

Yes, that is actual scissors, and paper, and cardboard being made into a scoreboard. When Grant grows up he wants to be a scoreboard operator. :) As long as he is entertained!

Audrey loves to dance and sing, and is not afraid to belt it out no matter who is around her. 

Of course, little Adam came too. He loves to walk around our knees, eat whatever we are eating, and giggling whenever the crowd goes wild. We sure love him!

Audrey does too!

My Blog Revisted

So for the sake of keeping family records, and being a more mindful parent, I am jumping back on to the blogging bandwagon. I miss when I did this regularly, thinking about my kids in the moment, remembering to take pictures, and imagining what I would write about for what picture. These little people are not getting any younger, and I feel like I have sort failed in some way. Not in the normal taking care of them every day, but remembering how they are right now. I think for now I am going to go month by month. I am not even going in to fill in what I have missed, although I may have some remember when posts for big moments like Christmas and birthdays. We will just have to see how this goes. I really miss how present I was a few years back when my first littles were small.

And now I have a new little!

Meet Adam:

My 11 month old little gem!

He is sure a sweet, good baby!
He sleeps through the night. He plays with anything that is around him. Very easy to please!I just love this new addition! Seriously! He did throw us for a loop when he was a new born. I think some of that was our fault, since we just simply forgot what it truly is like to bring home a new baby, when you already have kids.

It was quite the ride, but now we are in a good place. We are trying to get him to crawl. My laid back baby is also quite content on being in the same place, although lately he has figured out how to move and groove around the living room. He is so  almost crawling. We will have to wait and see.

My other littles have also grown up quite a bit.

Last night was the Pinewood Derby. Grant is only seven at the moment, but I am a cub Scout leader. I took them to the event by myself, since James was out of town. I was amazed at how well they did! We had a dinner of sandwiches. There were no tables set up, and each of them were able to get their own plate, and eat at their chair without incident. Major accomplishment in our family, since my kids spill every two seconds. I also had my hands full with the baby, so I was extremely grateful that both Grant and Audrey were able to eat in this way without it being a major big deal. It's the little things, I guess!

Anyway, Audrey turned 6!

Traditional pancake in the shape of her age. Can't believe she is already 6. Audrey loves Kindergarten! She adores her teacher Mrs. Ross. She is very creative and loves drawing pictures and doing crafts with her mom. Which I absolutely love. She is my shadow. She follows me everywhere. She is very easily entertained, and can go by herself for hours and just play, play, play. She is loving her new Legos she got for Christmas. She LOVES Frozen! She has watched that movie so many times, and she can belt out Let It Go, and some of the other songs word for word. She is learning how to read, and is doing amazing! She loves her little brother, and loves to entertain him, and make him laugh! We just adore her!

We had a birthday party with only family on Saturday the 9th. We had so much fun.  We served homemade pizza, and broccoli salad. The kids had fun with Grandma and Grandpa Killpack, and David and Becky. Audrey desperately needed a new bike, so that was her big present from Mom and Dad. She also got a singing Elsa doll which she absolutely loves. Grandpa and Grandma gave her a new Elsa outfit, which was also much needed. Grandma and Grandpa Bevan weren't able to come, because Grandma was sick, but we will see them soon!

She loved her Frozen cake and I love how Grandpa is smiling in  the background as she is blowing them out!

Spaghetti Mess

This little girl loves her some spaghetti, but look at this! She is such a mess when she does get to have some! Notice her fork. Untouched. I believe with the starter bite I left on there when I gave her her plate. Someday she will use a fork. But for today, I will just take her picture and remember this time when she was small.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad