Kindergarten! A New Adventure!

Today was Kaleb's official first day of kindergarten!  I am so excited for him!  Now, I know all of you are thinking what will you do with yourself for the two hours and forty minutes he is in school all day (Except for early out on Friday.  Then it's only two hours :P)?  Well, I will do whatever the heck I want on Wednesday and Friday.  But on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I am babysitting three beautiful children out of my home.  Tyler is Kaleb's friend and goes to kindergarten with Kaleb.  After we get those two off to school, it's just me and the girls.  They are 2 and 3 months, and super super sweet.  After we get home, it's nap time, so I get a break for a bit, too.  So nice.  Kaleb is really liking having his friend over all the time.  People have told me how nice I am to watch my friends' kids, but she's paying me, so I don't really see how it's so nice.  It's a job.  I needed a job.  I am really actually quite grateful that she would ask me.  She's the nice one.  She's a saint, really.  She's a first grade teacher.  Yep.  She rocks.
 Kaleb told me his first day was "good.  Better than ever."  His words.  He loves kindergarten.  His favorite part is story time.  That's not surprising.  He loves stories - especially silly stories.  Right now, I am reading him Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  He is loving it.  He likes the movies, too.  He told me he got to school right on time, so he missed recess.  Oh, well.  Today, it was raining, so Tyler's mom drove over during her lunch break from the school and picked them up.  I mentioned she teaches first grade, but I forgot to mention she teaches it at our school!  Awesome.  Any way, they missed recess.  Kaleb said Tyler really wanted to go to recess, but he wanted to go to recess more than Tyler.  Oh well.  Tomorrow we will leave in enough time for them to get to play on the playground before school.  It's not supposed to rain.  Of course, by the time she got to our house, it wasn't raining anymore.  I am so happy that Kaleb is going to kindergarten now.  There were no tears of sorrow.  Nope.  No tears at all.  Just a feeling of peace and freedom.  :)

 Kaleb says Tyler is his best friend.

 Silly faces to show how excited they are to go to school! :)

 

Mom! Look at Me!

Kurtis and I took the boys to our church parking lot today, and forced the boys to finally learn how to ride their bikes without their training wheels.  Well, except for Kaleb.  We just forced him to practice pedaling.  He still thinks he needs someone to give him a push before he can start pedaling.  I would move to a line, and say, "Okay, when you get here, you can have a drink of water."  Then I would move a little further away each time.  It worked unless he wanted me to walk back over to him and push him first.  Sometimes he would say, "No, I can do it."
Zachary learned first.  Once he got it down, he zoomed all over the parking lot.  He loved it!  So, I said, "Was I right?"  And he said, "Yes."  Yep.  When am I ever wrong?  Never.  That's right.  Unless I say I am wrong.  I have done that before.  Zach just said to me,  "I discovered the loving of bikes!"
Riley, on the other hand, can ride his bike.  He did it!  He just needs a little more practice because he has trouble pushing himself off.  Kurtis says part of the problem is he needs his seat lowered.  My kids are rock stars!

 I am surprised he decided to pick it up so quickly.  I am so pleased.

 Now, it's Riley's turn for Dad to help him.

 I love the look on Kurtis's face in this picture.  He's so excited for Riley.

 Riding on his own!

 Falling.  But we told them they would just have to get right back on their bikes until they got it down.

 This picture is a little blurry, but I love the look of determination on his face!

 Kaleb didn't want to ride any more, so I said his bike was lonely.

 He got back on.  No more lonely bikes!

 My little bikers.  We could start a gang.  Well, once Mom and Dad get their own bikes. :D

Back to School!

It'S the MOST WonDerFuL tImE of the yEAr!  

Yesterday was the first day of school for my boys.  Mostly for Zach, and Riley, though.  Kaleb only went to kindergarten for an hour, and then he won't go back to school until Friday for half an hour to take his kindergarten assessment test at eight o'clock in the morning.  So school officially will begin for him on Monday.  Any way, Riley did not want to go back to school, and was quite upset about Kaleb getting the rest of the week off.  He claims it was not like that for him when he went to kindergarten.  Well, he's wrong, so we decided to prod him further to find out what was going on.  Riley likes school.  Turns out, he was afraid to go back because he wouldn't have Mrs. Gally any more.  He did not want a new teacher.  Mrs. Gally is the best.  We assured him Mrs. VanDyke would probably be way awesome, too.  But he would not listen. 
When he came home yesterday, I asked him if he liked his new teacher.  He said, "Yes!  She is the best teacher I have ever had next to Mrs. Gally!"  Ha ha!  I love it!  Zach also loves his new teacher.  He said, "Mrs. Crittenden is the best teacher he has ever had next to Mrs. Jones!" (his first grade teacher).  I'm glad they are excited for the new year.  Riley was put out with me this morning because at 8:20, I told them it was time to go to school.  Riley said, "I wanted to leave at 8:15!"  Ha ha!  Funny kid.  They don't need to leave that early.

Zach is in fourth grade now, and Riley is in second.  

What a great year they are going to have!

The wanted a picture of their backpacks, I guess. :)

The first day is always exciting!

Sometimes My Kids Surprise Me

Friday night at the dinner table, I was telling Kurtis we still need to get backpacks for the boys before school starts.  Riley said, "I don't need one.  My backpack from last year is still good."  Amazing!  So I said, "Okay, we will need to get two new backpacks then."  And Riley says, "No.  We decided Kaleb can use the Speed Racer one."  That was Riley's when he was in kindergarten.  It probably won't last the whole year, but it will do for now.  But I was pretty surprised because I expected them to all want new backpacks.  Zach had to duct tape his by the end of the school year in May, so his wasn't usable this time around.  Way to save me some money! Yesterday, we went on a hike in Adam's Canyon.  I didn't really want to go.  I wasn't feeling all that awesome after I ate my breakfast/lunch.  I don't want to talk about it.  Any way, I got ready for the day, and about one o'clock, I turned to Kurtis and said, "When do you want to go on a hike?"  He said, "When do you want to go?"  I said, Eleven - no, eight this morning."  It was supposed to be 95 degrees yesterday, and I get hot and I don't like being hot and sweaty.  I need to move to Hawaii.  So about two o'clock, I said, "I need to take Zach to get a new backpack for school.  It starts Monday, you know."  So Zach and I went backpack shopping, and he wanted the one with wheels but I was on the phone with Kurtis when he was picking it out, and dad said no wheels.  Whatever.
When I got  back, I said if we didn't go now, we weren't going on a hike that day.  We left at around 2:50.  Adam's Canyon is like seven minutes away.  Apparently, the hike is 1.5 miles in and 1.5 miles out, and there is a waterfall at the end which is really pretty.  We made it to a big rock, and stopped for a drink.  Kurtis decided we'd gone far enough because it was 4:30 and we should go back home to make dinner.  We got home at 5:30, but we didn't get to see the waterfall.  I like waterfalls.
I have to say, Kaleb has gotten much more adventurous about hiking.  He fell on his bottom, cried for a bit, and walked it off on the way down.  He's so much better than when we went on our first hike to the waterfall near my parents' home.  Kurtis also commented that he may not be completely recovered from his 12 mile hike last week.  We're gonna go back.  In the morning.  And have a picnic at the big rock.  Or maybe by the waterfall.
Here are some pictures I took.  Some were blurry because it was windy (that helped me not be too hot), but it pushed me around a little and made it hard to hold the camera steady.  Sorry! :)

Heading up the mountain.

Cliffs

Riley kept asking me to take his picture so I could remember him.  He's funny.  This one could be his head shot.

We walked past a stream most of the hike.

Big tree in the middle of the trail!  Watch out!

If Kaleb felt the trail got a little steep, rather than freak out and refuse to move on, he did this. :)

Kurtis's new head shot.

This is the large rock we stopped at.  We've never been on this hike, so we don't know how far away from the waterfall we were, but we estimate our total hike was around 2 miles.

The stream on the way back down.

The kids thought this grass looked like a lion's mane.  I said a lion could hide in it pretty well if he were hunting.  They thought that was awesome.

Here is an idea for your next painting, Michele! ;)

Oh, and Michele, we've decided the next time you guys come out here, we should go on this hike.  It's really pretty, and even though I didn't want to go at the time, I'm glad I did.  I think we will go in the fall when the leaves are changing.  That would be even prettier.  And we will actually go to the waterfall. :)

Okay. Now You Guys Are Just Showing Off!

I have this image in my head of the Dave Matthew's Band getting together to come up with songs for their new albums.  They get together, and jam.  They come up with something marvelous, and then they have to say to each other.  Okay, now how do we cut that down so it will be a song for the album?  Because last night, at their concert, that must be exactly what their jam sessions are like.  They take a three minute song and turn it into a fifteen or twenty minute song.  It was amazing.  Seriously.  By the time the encore came along, I was just thinking to myself, "Okay. Now you guys are just showing off.  Oh, but I love it though!" :D
Kurtis wouldn't let me try to sneak our camera in, so the pictures I took were ones on my phone, and in my opinion, my phone camera is not awesome.

 Brett Dennen was the opening act.  He was pretty mellow, but I liked him.

 Just the two of us!

You can kind of see Dave Matthews on the big screen - the middle one.  This is as far as my phone camera zooms in.  Not nearly as awesome as my 18x zoom on my regular camera. :P

Last year, Kurtis and I were going to go to this concert for our ten year anniversary.  It didn't happen.  They canceled the show the day of.  I was pretty bummed because they are one of Kurtis' favorite bands, and he's never seen them play live.  I know, that's crazy, right?  So I thought it would be a nice gift to give him.  The year before that, Dave Matthew's saxophone player died, so understandably, they canceled that show.  Then they rescheduled it, and canceled the rescheduled date.  So I was worried this concert would be canceled as well.  I was very excited when I got there, and they actually came  out onstage.  Dave Matthew's said he was more embarrassed about it than anything.  "Won't happen again!"  He claimed.  Kurtis had a really good time.  He's not one to get up and dance like me, but he thought it was awesome.  I danced alone, and said to myself, "Oh, yes.  This is why I usually drag Nicole to concerts with me."  She'll dance with me.  But I didn't care.  Kurtis and I had a great time, and that's all that matters.  We're just different.  Kurtis also discovered that he does like concerts.  It just helps if he actually likes the band he's going to see.

I'm an Artist!

Okay, so now that I have calmed down, and don't want to bind and gag my middle child for taking his anger at his father out on his brother by yelling angrily at him, I can tell you how wonderful I am. :D 
I got put on the activities committee (so did Kurtis), and I volunteered to design the flier and poster for the event.  Here's my awesomeness in a giant poster that took two days to make!  Well, I probably could have finished it in one day if I didn't have to drive to the big city and back home three times Friday.  That's right three!  Kurtis' boss decided that he, Kurtis, and his boss should take a day off and go hiking.  They scheduled this hike for July 30th.  July 30th, there was too much lightning possible, so it didn't happen that day.  August 6th, Steve (Kurtis's boss) decided too many other people had taken that day off, and they couldn't leave the office unattended and in such incapable hands as the people who would actually be there, so finally, they went on Friday.  Meanwhile, Tuesday, Zach had an orthodontic appointment with our dentist (he's also an orthodontist).  They put some little rubber bands between two of his back teeth to make them separate a little.  Then, we had to come back on Friday to get the molds made.
So Friday, I got up at 4:30 in the morning, and drove Kurtis to where he was going to meet his boss's boss, and then back home.  The kids were still in bed, when I got back, so I snuck upstairs and crawled back in bed.  Then, at 11:45, I drove Zach to his appointment, we ate lunch after (at McDonald's - not even my last choice, but the kids wanted to go there), and back home.  Then, at 5:30, I left to go pick Kurtis up, and bring him back home.  He was beat up and ready to die, and still can't move, but oh well.  I tried to get him to train on the treadmill, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it.  He said he was going to train on his exercise bike, but he really only did that once.  He hiked 12 miles that day.  That's a whole freaking lot of miles.
So, yeah.  I could have finished my poster Friday, but I didn't finish it until Saturday.  Here it is:

The flier pretty much looks just like this (I made it first) only in black and white.

Close up on my shooting star.  I glitterized it! :D

I have no idea if the people at church liked it or not.  Kurtis was/is still a mess, so I didn't go to church today.  Kaleb was pretty excited about that. :)  Hee hee.

I Seem to Have a Child With No Will to Live

I mean, seriously.  Does he not understand that if he hurts my baby, I will kill him?

They Aren't Supposed to Be Outside in Their Pajamas in the First Place!

Kaleb doesn't really deal with pain very well.  This morning, I got in the shower and immediately Zach comes in the bathroom.  My thoughts are:  "Seriously?  Why can't they just give me ten minutes!"  But then he says to me, "Mom, Kaleb fell on the driveway."  "Is he hurt?"  "Yes."  "Is there blood?"  "A little bit."  "Where is he?"  "On your bed."  I had him get some tissues to put on the poor guy's knee so he didn't get blood on my sheets (he did anyway), and finished my shower.  I'm almost done, and suddenly, I hear Kaleb's bloody screams of pain.  I told Zach to try and calm him down while I hurried to finish.  After I got all dried off, I went over to my screaming child and asked where it hurt.  "My a-a-arm, and my kn-n-nee!"  He can barely get it out he's panicking so much.  I said, "Are you broken?"  "N-n-n-no-o-o!"  I didn't know if I should believe him, and almost called Kurtis to come home, so we could take him to the hospital.  I drug him to the bathroom sink and washed his feet, knees, and elbow.  All the while he's screaming like I am killing him.  "It stings!  It stings!"  I dried and dressed his wounds, and laid him back on the bed.  Zach poked his head in to make sure he was okay.  I said, "He's okay.  He just sounds like he broke something, but I'm pretty sure he didn't."  I told Kaleb he needed to calm down because he's scaring his brothers.  That did it.  He stopped screaming, and started calming down.  I finished getting dressed, and sat down with him while I read my book, holding his hand.  When he felt better, he got off my bed.  Now, he's playing like nothing happened.  It's a good thing he's a boy, and can't have babies.

I Think I am Losing

Okay.  I am trying to get my kids back to their school schedule, so the transition isn't very difficult for them.  Kaleb will be going to afternoon kindergarten, Riley second grade, and Zach will be in fourth grade.  School starts August 23rd for us, and believe me, it can't come soon enough.  Riley and Zach (who are bosom buddies) are even starting to go at each other.  So anyway, I told Kaleb and Riley that they could not sleep in each other's rooms any more.  The other night, I came upstairs, and I couldn't find Kaleb.  He wasn't in his bed.  He wasn't in Riley's bed.  I shrugged my shoulders, and walked into my bedroom.  That's when I found him.  As I was turning away, out of the corner of my eye, I see this:

Not sure what you are seeing?

He was under Riley's bed!

I rolled my eyes and went to bed.  When Kurtis came up, he had the same problem.  He couldn't figure out where Kaleb was.  I showed him.  But last night, he tried this stunt again.  Kurtis pulled him out from under the bed.  He said it was difficult due to the fact that Kaleb would wake up, and then fall right back asleep.  But he ended up in his own bed.  I was only worried that when he woke up, he would hit his head, but he was fine.  I just don't want him to sleep there. This is one bedtime battle that I think I am losing. :P

It's Pretty Much a Big Deal

Yesterday day was a really, really good day.  I got myself and everyone else up early.  We got ready for the day, and then headed up to Brigham City to see the groundbreaking ceremony for the new LDS temple.  It was a wonderful ceremony.  My heart is full of joy for the people who live in the town where I grew up.  I never, ever once thought there would be a temple there.  There are so many temples in northern Utah already.  Who knew the presidency of our church would feel it necessary to build a temple there.  Elder Boyd K. Packer gave the dedicatory prayer.  He grew up there, too.  I didn't know that.  There used to be a school on the vacant lot they are using for the temple (across the street from the tabernacle on main street).  It was Central School.  My parents tell me I knew there was a school there once, but the memory of it is vague.  It wasn't my school.  But it was Elder Packers.  He remembered going to school there, and spoke of it in his talk.  His wife also spoke.  She's delightful.  Elder Russell M. Nelson also spoke briefly.  I am grateful that my children, and my husband, and I got to be a part of this day.  It was a big deal to me.  After the ceremonial turning of the dirt by the apostles, they asked the stake presidents to turn some dirt, too.  Then the bishops of the wards.  After that, the children were given the opportunity to also turn the dirt, and dig the hole for the temple.  All the kids said they wanted to, but only Zach did.  By the time it was their turn, Riley and Kaleb were too cranky.  I took a picture.  I hope they feel stupid when they are older for it.  Hee hee hee. 
After the temple groundbreaking, my dad took me and the boys fishing.  Kurtis doesn't like fishing, so he told Zach he would have to ask his grandpa to take him.  It was a lot of fun.  Well, not at first.  We went up into the canyon to fish in the Box Elder Creek, but they were unsuccessful.  So he drove us out to North Ogden, and we went fishing at the fish hatchery.  The boys had a lot of fun trying to catch a fish.  You can buy fish food that puts the fish into a feeding frenzy, and usually that equals one of them getting hooked when you have your hook in the middle of the frenzy.  Riley caught the first one.  Then Kaleb.  Then, I turned around to get a picture of Zach catching his, and Kaleb cries, "I caught another one all by myself!"  Indeed he had!  Without the help of any chum at all!  That was pretty exciting.  Then, Riley, also caught another.  But alas, we ran out of chum, bought some more, and Zachary still did not catch a fish that day.  He was a little bummed, but he got over it quickly.  He wanted to go fishing, and he got to do that, so I think that's what made him happiest.  He wants to go again soon.  :)  Me?  I am not a fish person.  I just went to take pictures. :)

This is the tabernacle.  We were outside with my parents, but Kaleb complained of the heat, so we went to watch the groundbreaking on a video screen inside.  Where there was air conditioning.

Uncle Ben came by to say hi, and play with the boys for a minute (Then he went back to his girlfriend).

My parents and Riley.  Kurtis and Zach are in the background.

The canal.  What boy would stay on their blanket when they have that to check out!

The lady in the blue suit is Sis. Packer.  The man's head that you can see right behind hers is Elder Packer.  It was pretty cool.

Zach digging the hole where the temple will go.

This is the awesomest picture ever.

Box Elder Creek

Scoping out the place.  Getting things ready.

Grandpa teaching Zach to fish.

They all got to take turns.

My monkey.

Riley, after his first catch.

This is the feeding frenzy.  If you can't see it very well, just click on the picture for a larger view.

After Kaleb caught his second, Riley did too!

I caught it all by myself!

While waiting for Zach to catch one, Riley and Kaleb tried to catch them with their hands.

Zach with one of Kaleb's fish.

The boys were really fascinated by the fish.  They wanted to hold and touch them.  Riley said, "I touched its eye!"

Kaleb caught a big one!

There were baby duckies!  They were so cute!

On our way home, it got all windy and stormy.  We saw the most beautiful rainbow!  It was the perfect end to a really perfect day. :)