Don't eat Princess!

We had a great time for FHE on Monday.  Carson volunteered to teach the lesson for us about Tithing.  That was his lesson at Church on Sunday.  He had tithing slip, ten pennies, and a story to tell about how you should pay your tithing and THEN buy a new toy.  It was SO cute!  He did a great job and I could tell he learned a lot about tithing with both lessons.  Aftewards, since I had a new bag of fall M&M's, we played don't eat princess.  Alivia loved it, but realized it was much easier to just eat the m&m's out of the bowl rather than off the game board.  

 I had to share this cute pictures of Kaylee's new hair cut.  We cut it a little shorter since her hair gets so thin as it grows out.  She told me she looks like me when I got done styling her hair that morning....it made made me chuckle.

I love that our kids are getting old enough to really understand and appreciate FHE.  Even Livy is understanding so much and is so smart.  The other night after all the kids got their pj's on, she went and found our scriptures and brought them into us to read, just like we try to do every night.  It was cute!

Socializing in September!

I don't have a lot of pictures of everything we did this past week, but we stayed busy!  Carson enjoyed his FULL week of school.  Mrs. Sadler sent home the first homework packet, which is a bit more work than what first grade was, but I think we can manage it once we get used to the routine.  He also had spelling he worked on, and had a test on  Friday.  He will get it back tomorrow I am sure, but I know he did great.  He was solid on all the words as we worked on them throughout the week.  Wednesday was piano, and Carson is still doing great.  And I am loving having two students now.  I really am enjoying it a lot.  Thursday, the PTA put on the annual bike safety fair at the school.  So after dinner we headed down to the school with the bikes and let the kids spend a little bit of time going through the obstacle course.  Unfortunately it was short lived since once we got to the school we realized Carson's front tire was going flat.  By the time he made it through the course, it was completely flat.  I am glad it was flat there and not on his way home from school that day.  We ran errands at costco and walmart that night afterwards, so we were able to pick up a new tube and Dad got it fixed good as new so he could ride his bike again on Friday.  

Friday, after Carson got out of school, I gave him a hair cut.  I love how sharp he looks after he gets his hair cut.  He was so cute and afterwards, gave me a big hug and told me that I was a really good mom.  Awww....that just melted my heart.  He is just so sweet to me that way!  Kaylee also got her hair cut Friday before her dance class.  I took her up to Heather's to have it cut a bit shorter.  Just above her shoulders.  It looks so much better now!  Her hair, unfortunately, is like mine and is thin when it grows out.  I think she will eventually have long hair, but it might be a bit before her baby hair turns into better thicker hair.  Friday night, Carson went to Luke's 7th birthday party while the rest of us stayed home and just enjoyed a quiet movie night.  Saturday, Nick had to work, so I took the kids to a park to play for a bit to help pass the day away.  When he got home, I took an hour to myself and did a little shopping before we all headed to the Stake Hot Dog social.  We try and go every year.  I love it, since I don't have to make dinner or clean up, and my kids will eat it!   We always have a ton of fun.  Like last year, they had clowns there making balloons for the kids.  My kids loved it so much they stood in line twice for two balloons!

It is always fun visiting with people of our ward and all the people we are starting to get to know in our stake as well.  After the social we did some more socializing and went to Deb & Daves for some birthday cake since it was Dave's birthday.  We loved visiting with friends and we always have a great time with them.  Today, our ward had the primary program during Sacrament Meeting.  The kids did great!  Kaylee's line in the program was "I can follow the prophet by obeying my parents!"....and Carson gave a little paragraph about how he chose the right one time and was blessed.  It was when he chose to practice his piano before playing with his friends and he was blessed because he was able to play his songs well.  He read his part and did great!  Also, Carson along with some other kids played a few primary songs on the piano as prelude music.  It was great!  All of the kids in our ward were super cute and they did a great job.  Since I am one of two primary pianists, I also got to participate in the program by playing the piano for half of the songs.  I actually liked sitting on the stand, because I could see my kids really well and watch them sing.  It was fun!  Now we are just enjoying the rest of our Sunday and are excited for another week of school and work.  We are just under two weeks before the baby comes and Nick and the kids are having fun counting down the days!  I won't lie...I am really excited too!!!

Chef Kaylee

With Carson gone all day long it has given me some more one on one time with Kaylee.  Especially when Livy naps in the afternoon.  Last week, we enjoyed making zucchini bread together.  I was given a zucchini by Natalie and Deb and we enjoyed using them for our new favorite treat.  I found a chocolate chocolate chip recipe that is moist and delicious!  I also loved getting to use my food processor to shred the zucchini and so did Kaylee!!!  

We had a super fun summer, but I was really excited for school to start since Kaylee and Carson were clearly getting sick of each other.  And just like I was hoping, Kaylee has mellowed out quite a bit and isn't nearly as emotional, whiny, and argumentative as she was towards the end of summer.  I think she likes having her own time with me, her own days of school, and she is just overall a happier girl.  We sure love our Kaylee Bug!!!

No more hiding on the phone.....

So technology has come a LONG ways in the past few years.  I remember when we had phones that only made phone calls.  Now, I hardly use my cell for for 'calls'.  I use it for texting, FB, games, internet, email, and also as a camera.  However, I have never really posted a lot of the pictures I take using my phone, unless it is on FB, since it is easy to upload to FB.  So I took my SD card out of the camera and loaded over 1,000 pictures I have taken in the past 10 months since I have had this phone and picked just a few of the pictures I have taken in the past month to post on the BLOG.  I really need to do it more often, there are quite a few fun pictures on my phone that I have taken!  I think I am pretty good to take pictures anyway, but I sometimes don't have my camera with me, but I always have my phone, so I will take a picture with my phone, but then do nothing with it.  Until now.  I don't remember exactly when this first picture was taken, but the kids were being super cute in the backyard.  They had created their own band, complete with instruments and costumes (the hats!).  This must have been a Sunday afternoon....since Carson loves to change into his PJ clothes after church and wear them until bedtime.  

 This picture I took while we were at Pizza Plus in Brigham when we stopped to eat lunch before going to the Temple Open House that day.  I told the kids if they would eat their lunch they could play one game of Air Hockey.  It was comical to watch them try to hit the puck.

 This is after the temple tour and before the Fair Parade.  We stopped at my moms to rest and she did a great job of entertaining the kids with marble works while Nick, Livy, and I took a nap.

 Carson got a gift card from Gma Joy for his birthday.  So we finally went to walmart and he was able to pick out the perfect toy.  HE LOVES IT!!!  It is a fun remote control four wheeler.  He has played with it non stop since getting it.  I think he did a good job picking it out!

 Livy and I playing around with the camera on my phone.  She loves smiling for the camera now and then looking at the picture afterwards.  She is silly that way!

 We bought this sheer canopy thing like 4 years ago to go into Kaylee's nursery, but we never put it up.  It just didn't look right.  While I was gone the other day, Nick put this up in Livy's room with her new crib.  I think it looks great!  I was pleasantly surprised to see he did that!

 Kaylee had her first day of school last week, and after school she spent the day playing with her babies.  She has been doing that a lot lately, and I think it may have to do with the upcoming arrival of the new baby in our family.  She was cute to put it down for a nap, give it a bottle, and here she is feeding it lunch, which was a bowl of water. :)  So cute.

 I ordered a blog book for the first half of this year and it came in the mail the other day.  So excited!  I love our blog books and it makes it totally worth all the work of blogging.  Last night, both kids sat on the couch for at least 30 minutes looking at the new book and an older one.  Love it!

 The other day after school, the kids were out playing on the jeep and Livy just had to join them.  I went to check on them (they were out with Nick as well) and just see how they were doing and here is Livy, SO dirty with a big smile on her face holding a wrench.  I think she is going to be somewhat of a tomboy that way.  She doesn't mind getting dirty, loves to be outside and work with her dad.

 Kaylee started dance again last Friday.  I took this quick picture of her class just introducing each other.  She loves it and is excited to be back to classes this year.  After dance we had to go to the dance store and buy her new ballet shoes.  The ones from last year are WAY too small.  I guess that is what happens as kids grow!

Speaking of growing kids, Carson has grown over an inch since June.  We measured him against the mark I made in the closet in June on Saturday.  He was at least an inch taller.  That would explain why his black church pants are looking very short on him, even though I just got them in the Spring.  They just grow too fast!!  I want them to stay little for ever!!!!  Well, there is just the past few weeks in pictures.  Maybe I will one day post random ones that I took last year too since some of them show how little Livy was.  Maybe next time!

I didn't think it could get worse....

So a few nights ago, I posted on FB at 4 AM how miserable I was feeling and how I couldn't sleep due to some pregnancy symptoms.  For example, heartburn, being hungry in the middle of the night, needing to pee about 4 times a night, being thirsty (which leads to more peeing!), not getting comfortable and trying out a million positions with pillows between legs and anything else to get comfortable, and being too hot.  I just couldn't sleep.  Well, I didn't think it could get any worse....and then it did last night.  With school starting we pushed the kids' bedtime back to 8 PM again like last year, and the past few nights have been a breeze and they have all done great to go to bed and sleep.  Last night, for some reason, Kaylee came up about 30 minutes after going to bed and said she wasn't tired and wanted to 'relax' with us (yes that was her wording).  Nick was pretty much already asleep and I was just watching TV in bed.  (this is about 8:45).  So I said fine and let her sit by me.  One minute later, Alivia starting fussing and I could tell by her cry she wasn't going to go back to sleep.  So I figured I would let her chill with us for a few minutes and then put both girls back to bed.  Well, after several attempts we finally got the girls back into bed about 9:30.  They were just both on one and just didn't want to sleep.  I finally went to bed a little after 10.  At 11:30, I hear a noise and realize it is a child at our bedroom door.  So I wake up and get out of bed to go find Kaylee standing in the hallway half asleep and mumbling and whining about something.  I  went to go hug her and immediately realized what had happened.  She had peed her pants.  Ugh!!! I'm thinking, great, now I have to change her AND her sheets.  So I take her into my bathroom and get her a bath started and get her undressed and then proceeds downstairs to asses the mess.  Luckily and mysteriously there is no wet spot on her bed, so I figured she must have done it standing up on the way to the bathroom or something...who knows.  But it saved me from having to totally remake her bed (and doing a huge batch of laundry to wash her sheet and mattress cover the next day!).  I go back upstairs to check on Kaylee in the tub.  Nick had finally gotten out of bed and was in the bathroom with her, but after talking with him today, he doesn't remember any of it and was probably still half asleep during all of this commotion.  He went back to bed and I finished getting Kaylee washed and back into new PJ's.  Okay....so I put her back to bed and headed back to bed myself but of course, I couldn't get comfortable and had a hard time going back to sleep.  But I finally did and then was woken up around 2 to Alivia crying.  I could tell her door was open, which isn't normally the case during the night, so I reached over to see if Nick was still in bed and he wasn't.  Was I really so tired and finally was in a deep sleep where I didn't hear Alivia crying but Nick did?  Okay.  I figured I would go back to sleep, but after a few minutes of realizing Alivia wasn't calming down, I went out to see if I could help and get her to calm down.  (Of course, realize with every time I got out of bed I had to pee first!).  I went out and was in the middle of changing her diaper when Carson came up the stairs, after probably being woken up by Alivia crying.  Nick got him back to bed and then went back to bed himself.  Alivia was just wanting snuggles, so I rocked her for a bit and then decided I was hungry and figured that maybe she was hungry too.  So I poured us a bowl of Capn' Crunch and we shared that and drank some water before I was able to put her back to bed.  I also gave her tylenol, since she is getting her k9 teeth in and I was sure that is what was bothering her the most last night.  She went back to sleep just fine and I also headed back to sleep.  I was somewhat asleep when about 3, Carson came up and was complaining that his legs hurt.  (He gets growing pains now and then and they are the worst at night).  So we got the hot pad out and I went downstairs and got him back into bed with the hot pad on his legs.  I went back up to sleep and within 20 min he was back in our room asking if it was time for Nick to go to work so he could sleep with me.  He climbed into bed since Nick was only a few minutes from getting up to go to work.  After laying there for 15 minutes, I just couldn't go to sleep.  My nose was dried out from the fan running, so I turned it off, but I was still hot so I got up and turned down the temperature even lower to make up from turning off the fan and took some tylenol to see if that would help me feel better.  I just have aches and pains and stiffness during the night, which makes it super hard to sleep.  Finally....I think I fell asleep.  I heard Alivia fussing through out the night, but she would quiet down and then fuss again like an hour later.  I finally woke up to my alarm at 7:15, but I was NOT wanting to get up.  This is when I was thinking I was wishing it was still summer so I could just snooze through the alarm.  But I couldn't.  Carson needed to be up so he could eat, get ready, practice his piano and get off to school....AND I needed to pack him a lunch since he didn't want the school lunch today.  Then I heard Alivia fuss and realized it was pointless to stay in bed any longer.  Ugh!   So that is where my day started and I am really hoping that sometime today I can sneak in a nap while Alivia is napping.  I found where Kaylee had her accident, there was a little wet spot just next to her bed, so she probably got out of bed to go potty and just didn't make it.  So I had to clean that up this morning, but at least I found it so it won't smell in her room.   It's one thing to deal with pregnancy issues while trying to sleep, but to add all the extra children issues on top of that just doesn't seem fair.  But I guess that is what being a parent is all about and I have to realize that every night is not like this.  Seriously, 95% of the time, all of our kids go to bed SO easily and sleep ALL night.  So this was just an off night for all of them.  And I guess it was good they all had the off night together....right?  At any rate, I am hoping that the next three weeks goes smoother, because I know after the baby is here it isn't going to be any easier.  So I better enjoy my nights now...regardless of what happens and how much toilet paper I go through.  I am going to go make something chocolate now and eat the whole thing.

Window Tint

On Tuesday, we had a company come and install some window tint on our west facing windows.  Our goal is to help reduce how much heat comes in the house in the afternoon, and hopefully help lower our AC bill and keep the furniture from fading.  Carson was a little sad that he was going to be at school when they came, so I promised to take pictures.  I even took some video of them putting the tint on so that Carson could watch it when he got home, which he did and was very excited about it, silly kid!  They got it done pretty fast and I was pleased with how it turned out.  You can't tell from the outside that they are tinted unless you are looking for it, and the inside is still pretty bright.  I was a bit worried it would feel like a dungeon on the inside and a blinged out house on the outside, but I think the tint color we went with is perfect!  We are super happy with it!  Here are a few pictures of the process.  It was a good excuse to vacuum out the window seals and dust the ledges and spiderwebs.  So really we got more than just tint out of this, but a good cleaning too!

First Day of School!

Tuesday marked the FIRST day of school for Carson.  This year the district decided to not start school until AFTER Labor Day.  Carson got up early to make sure he was all ready to go and so that he would have time to eat waffles, which was his breakfast request for that morning.  He told me this year, he wants to eat a big breakfast and not just a granola bar and chocolate milk.  We will see how long that lasts! I drove him to school but he insisted I didn't need to walk him to his class and that I could just drop him off in front.  I did insist on taking his picture in front of the school before I left.  I guess he is big enough and knows his way around the school well enough for that now that he is in 2nd grade!  He has Mrs. Sadler this year and his class is in a portable, which he thinks is awesome.  He also only has 19 kids in his class, which is quite smaller than last year, so I am pleased with that!  Right before we left for school the school had called with a mass message to let us know it was early out, which was good since we didn't know that.  So at 1:25 I went and picked him up and he was excited to tell me all about his first day.  They learned about watermelons and did a few experiments with them.  He also said that his lunch was good (School lunch) and that he had a good day and tried to learn a few of the kids' names in his class he didn't know.  I can't wait to go to back to school night on Thursday to meet his teacher.  I have yet to meet her, but so far Carson seems to like her, so that is always a plus!

Kaylee started her first day of this preschool year today.  She goes on Mondays and Wednesdays for 3 hours.  She had a great first day as well and was excited to tell me about the new friends she met today.  I think about half of the class is the same as it was last year, but there are a few new kids this year as well.  She is going to Learning Lodge Preschool again with Miss Trish.  This will be her third year of preschool, but she doesn't mind one bit!  She loves it!  This year they got really cute bags to take to school every day.  I am so glad that my kids like going to school so much and that they aren't shy and love to make new friends.  It sure makes it easy on me!  

 Of course, I took quite a few pictures of them before school.  I was glad they were happy to cooperate!  Here is to a good school year!!!

Pictures

To say that I love pictures is an understatement.  I love to capture life in pictures and video.  I think that pictures are priceless and I have probably go overboard when it comes to pictures.  I always have a camera with me and try to take pictures of all the fun things we do as a family.  I know I drive people crazy when I try and take pictures of them (especially during a meal, but I have found that is the best time to take pictures because people are holding still and are all sitting together!).  But, I do not apologize for my picture craziness because to me it is all worth it.  I recently bought a new camera and I have been so excited to try it out and see how it was going to perform.  I spent a bit of time yesterday and took pictures of the three kids.  Alivia was ready for a nap and was not cooperative at all, but I think the pictures I ended up with are hilarious of her!  I will have to try her another time when she isn't ready for a nap or lunch!  I also took a quick picture of the two older kids before going to church today.  Just wanted to share the results of what my new camera can do....I still have a bit of adjusting to do to a Sony than a Canon, but so far I LOVE IT!!!!

Having fun at the pool!

Nick had a wingman day yesterday at work so he was home pretty early.  So after running a few errands with the older kids and after Livy woke up from her nap we went to the Rec Center to do a little swimming before dinner.  The kids had a blast....especially Alivia.  I couldn't believe how much fun she had.  She was in heaven just wading around in the shallow water and climbing up on the toy to go down the slide over and over again.  She was SO happy.  I took just a few pictures at the beginning and then just sat and enjoyed watching the kids swim and hung out in the shallow end with Alivia.  She was so funny with the water fountain and would just sit in the middle of it.  Carson is now tall enough to go clear around the lazy river by himself.  And Kaylee was just great at playing on the toys and loving going down the big blue slide.  All in all it was just a fun time at the pool.  Can't wait to do it again!

Grandpa's Birthday!

Last year we missed celebrating Grandpa Brower's 60th Birthday since he was out of town, but this year we were able to try and make up for it by having a get together at our house on Monday.  He turned 61 on Tuesday.  Mom, Dad, Chris, and Matt & Nat's family came for a yummy bbq dinner and some cake.  It was fun to just hang out and enjoy the evening.  

 Livy was so funny and loved playing in Gpa's shoes.  I think I have pictures of Kaylee doing the exact same thing at that age!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Brower!  We love you!