Violet. The Chihuahua

This is our super cute cutie, Violet. We got her in August and these pics were taken then so she is quite a bit bigger now but she still looks about the same. She loves the kids and always wants to be where ever they are. She crawls in bed with Kaiden at night and if any of the kids get out of bed she tattles on them. She is super fun we love her having a little dog is totally different than having a large one, we are still struggling with the house training part of things but she is getting better I feel like most of the problem is lack of diligence on my part. She ran out into the snow the other day and all you could see of her was her tail and head she loves the snow and when she can't handle the cold any longer she will come in and lay on the heat vent. The girls love dressing her up of course and even though she doesn't seem to like the outfits she tolerates it well.

It's a whole NEW YEAR!

So it's a new year and that means resolutions made and broken, I have made the same resolution every year since I was at least 7 years old! I always say this will be the year I stop biting my nails and every year I fail, well last year I succeeded! I have not bitten my nails since Oct. 2010, I am pretty happy about this and I feel like when I make my resolutions this year I will be able to keep them.

The winter is in full swing and the kids are out of school more than they are in it. We are already five days into our summer vacation for snow days, yesterday they canceled school and it didn't even start snowing until 2pm. The kids both love and hate snow days, they like the snow and being able to play but they are sad that they are missing school.

Koen has started going to nursery in the younger kids room, this helps us since we have so many in the older room. He loves it and hasn't had a problem but we will see if that keeps up. He still doesn't talk and I am starting to get frustrated, whenever he wants something he grunts and growls for it and even though that is super cute I wish he would at least say a single word now and then. Koen is everywhere all the time and into everything just the same as Keith was, he loves our little dog violet and he carries her around everywhere. I used to worry that when he was rough housing with her that he would hurt her, but I have been watching closely and it is very clear that she could avoid or get away from him if she wanted to. She loves him just as much as he does her.

Keith is getting bigger and more advanced in his mess making skills, a few weeks ago Kevin helped Julianna with a volcano project for school and showed the kids how to make a fake eruption. the next morning I walked into the kitchen and Keith was at the counter making his very own volcano, eruption and all! He even used the food coloring to make it red like lava!!!! It was a huge mess, I made him clean it up by himself. He is super sweet so he is still alive but I feel like I need a straight jacket for him some days. He is eager to start kindergarten and I feel bad that he has so long to wait.

Evelyn loves school and her teacher, she doesn't like her assigned seat because the boy she sits next to is "not hot" I asked her if he was ugly and she said "no, he just isn't very hot" I laugh now but I know in a few years I am going to be pulling out my hair! She is the sweetest girl, the other day I noticed that my hair is now naturally curly so I tried out letting it air dry with a little product in it to see if the waves would stay, I was looking in the mirror to check it out about mid day and Evelyn came into the bathroom looked and me as said "you are beautiful mom". It was a great moment.

Kaiden can not wait for the weather to improve so that he can go running again! He loves school and is making friends here so he is very socially busy. He loves playing the wii down at the store, and is starting to get the hang of Mario Bros. He got a small tin with mementos that will remind him of his baptism and he goes through it every night and reads the paper that tells watch each thing represents it is pretty neat to see how into the gospel he is. He is determined to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of this year.

Julianna is adjusting to life without Rachel she texts her almost every weekend so they are able to stay in touch that way. She can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to come home from their mission and asks about it a lot. She brought her grades up in school by a whole letter in each subject so we are proud of her for her determination there. She loves to read but she says she hates reading at school because you have to do grammar there! Julianna informed me the other day that she will be ten in May and then she will only have two more years until she can be in young women's I think she sees the YW who come and go at our house and all the things I have chaperoned over the years and it make her look forward to it for herself. Julianna is my biggest helper though all of the kids like to do certain jobs around the house Julianna will do anything I ask of her and she is quick with it too!

I have been pretty busy with the scrapbook store, we are moving locations so we have been packing and painting and repairing the last two weeks, we will be reopen in our new location on Tues. so things should get more relaxed next week. I love being in nursery the kids are so sweet and it is so relaxing. There is never any drama!!! We have had fun with the lessons so far and we are looking forward to coming up with creative handouts for the kids.

Kevin pinched a nerve in his right shoulder about three weeks ago and had been in a pretty good amount of pain ever since. The pain makes it hard for him to do anything and it is also hard for him to get good rest so he has been a little cranky! I have tried to help but there is only so much you can do for that type of thing. He is doing really well with his running when the weather allows it, and he also really loves being in nursery. He spends most of his time trying to keep up with all of the things that need to be done around the house and since there seems to be a never ending list of things he is extremely busy.

We are looking forward to the summer we have a trip out to Utah planned for April and possibly another one sometime in late June early July. We are looking forward to spending some time with my family and possibly seeing some of Kevin's on the way.

101st Annual Thanksgiving Day 10k!

So for those of you non runners out there a 10k is 6.2 miles, and this one started at 9a.m. and since we live an hour and ten minutes away we woke up at 5a.m., in order to eat a good breakfast before we left. The night before, as we were looking up the weather, things didn't look good I wasn't sure that it would be a good idea to take the kids out to stand in the freezing cold rain while Kevin strove to give himself a cold. We decided as we went to bed that we would wait and see what it was like in the morning and if things were icky Kevin would go on his own.

Well morning came and it was beautiful, warm, a little overcast but nothing to bad so we woke up the kids and had some pancakes. We loaded the car taking with us every extra heavy blanket we owned just in case the weather turned, but it was looking like it was going to be a great day for a race.

We arrived early and parked the kids all needed to go to the bathroom so we started dressing them in jackets and shoes. It had started to drizzle so everyone grabbed their umbrellas, Kevin headed off to get registered and scout out a place for us to wait while I took the kids to the port-a-potty. There was no toilet paper so we used baby wipes some of the kids did not think that was fun, also Koen hated wearing his rain coat and kept trying to take it off he finally realized that it was keeping him dry and settled down.

Once everyone had gone to the bathroom, the wagon was packed with blankets and snacks, the kids were decked out in rain gear and Kevin had returned we headed off to the starting line! On the way we hauled the wagon up three flights of very steep stairs, on the way back we hauled it down, as we were pulling out to go home we saw the wheelchair ramp.

We had a little time before the race was due to start so as is usually the case with a runner there were last minute trips to the restroom. We decided on a spot for us to wait and I started walking there while Kevin ran back to the car for one more blanket, the rain had started to really come down and we were getting drenched, I was using the blankets to try to keep the kids in the wagon dry. I laid out one blanket on a bench and then everyone sat down and we wrapped the other blankets over us and then held our umbrellas over our heads to keep us mostly dry! Once we were in our waiting position and Kevin was in between the 6 & 7 minute pace sign we were ready, we only had to wait a couple of minutes before the race started! The rain decided to take a break so that was nice.

There were so many people running, even though I knew where Kevin was and he would pass no more than five feet from me I still missed him as he passed! Some runners in an effort to get out of the crowd were running up on the side walk and jumping over obstacles, one guy almost took out a tripod with a video camera on it. It took 20 minutes for all the runners to go by and the last of the walkers, so we only had to wait about 10 minutes before the first place runner came in. He looked about 25 and he was not looking to tired, the second place finisher was a little older but it was harder to tell his age he seemed around 30-35. The second place female was in her late 50s I think, and the first and third place females between 25-30. These ages are guesses if you want to know exact you can look it up on the website.

Kaiden was very excited and almost joined the race for fun but he was nervous to run by himself. Instead he decided that he would jog in a large circle until the first place guy crossed the finish, he almost made it (I distracted him with fruit snacks).

Once finishers started coming they were pretty steady so the kids lined up to cheer, once Keith saw Kevin he started to really cheer encouraging his dad to "kick their butts dad!" it was funny. Kevin finished close to his aggressive goal of 37.09, he got a 39.03 time. As soon as Kevin passed by the rain started again so we packed up quickly and headed to the car! I could say that the freezing rain put him off or the wet shoes, perhaps I put a laxative in his pancakes so he had to stop for a "break", any number of things could be the cause of his 2 minute delay. One thing is for certain it was definitely not a lack of skill, or stamina on his part, I personally think they put needles on the timing chip and that caused him to run slower.

This is the website you can look up the race results if you are interested, Kevin said it was not very user friendly but here it is anyway, Result site.

Little Itchy Creatures Everywhere!

So today was the primary program at church and the kids have been practicing and singing around the house for the last couple of months and I have been looking forward to watching them in the program! This morning we woke up just like on every other Sunday morning and rushed to get ready, I told the kids that there would be a prize for the first one ready! Evelyn won the prize Kaiden was ready Keith was getting ready, Kevin was getting Koen ready, and I was doing Julianna's hair when I see this tiny little bug crawling in her hair!! YEP we have LICE AGAIN!!!!

It is so gross! OK so I check Julianna thoroughly and it doesn't look like it's too bad this time but hey any lice is bad right, Kaiden was grossly infested and Keith and Evelyn and Kevin and I were clean! Kevin took Evelyn and Keith to church while I stayed home to work on hair!
Kaiden's we buzzed pretty short and washed with vinegar and then combed out the eggs, there were so many I could see them crawling around on his head, GROSS, I ended up shaving all his hair off because the lice shampoo is expensive and if there is no hair then there is no lice!
Julianna only had THREE lice on her head and once we washed her hair with vinegar I couldn't find any she had about 15 eggs in her hair so I think we caught it right at the beginning, I did wash her hair with the lice shampoo and we will retreat in 7 days just to be sure but I don't think it will be as bad as the last time. It did help that her hair is not currently blond so I could easily see the eggs!!
So once everyone was home from church Keith decided he wanted his hair like Kaiden's so I decided to go ahead and give him a buzz, and what do you suppose I find LICE!!! Yes Keith had lice as well so I am glad that I decided to shave his head!!
I rechecked everyone and I am fairly certain the rest of us are good, but today was the lice day at our house. I am not looking forward to the rest of the school year, we have already received 5 letters home about lice in the classrooms, I can only imagine that there is an epidemic!
We are implementing the coats in backpacks law and absolutely no sharing anything that touches hair!! Man my head is itching just writing about this!!
The worst part of all of this was that I missed the program!

The Zoo!

The penguin habitat was really fun they were swimming and you could touch the water so when they would jump or dive in we would get splashed! The downside was that it was super cold in there!

This photo was taken on the grounds at the Saint Louis Temple.
The Hippos were awesome there were about 6 of them swimming around in the water and every once in a while they would come up onto the land. Each of the kids stood for about 3 minutes to be able to get the perfect picture with them!

Some fun pictures of the kids at the Saint Louis Zoo!

You can't really see him but there was a huge Gorilla back in the shady area.

Happy 1st Birthday Koen!

So Koen turned one today, I can hardly believe it's been a whole year! He is walking and definitely communicates in his own way (mostly he growls)! We love him very much and are glad that he could be a part of our family.

This is a photo of him eating his spaghetti birthday dinner! It really shows off his teeth!

Birthday's and such...

Here is a little update about each of the kids!

Koen will be turning ONE! on the 7th, we are not planning on doing anything grand just a small cake, and fun with the family. He is walking and climbing on everything, it is fun to see him working things out in his mind. He loves Juilianna and will always choose her over almost anyone. He growls a lot and it's super cute to here him make noise with his lips and hands.

Keith is not doing preschool right now, I am just working with him each day out of a work book, he loves it and calls it his "mom school". I like the sound of that way better than home school! He is as busy as ever always into things, and obsessed with super heros! He wishes he could go to school so he can be on the cross country team, he does get to practice with the team so that is holding him over until next year. He is turning four on Sept. 15th and he has requested "meat, just meat mom" for his birthday dinner! I am not sure that I can do the just meat thing, but I think we will probably have grilled chicken and some of his favorite veggies.Evelyn loves kindergarten and is very proud that her behavior folder comes home every day with no marks on it! she is learning things she already knows, but I think its good for her to have them solidly planted in her brain. When we took her for her eye exam she was bitterly disappointed not to be getting glasses, but I think she will grow to appreciate the lack of eye wear! She is still campaigning for a dog so we will see what happens in the next couple of months.

Kaiden turns EIGHT on the 12th he will be baptized by Kevin on that day, and we have a nice little program planned for him. He has chosen steak and potatoes for his birthday dinner! He ran in his first cross country meet on Sat. even though he had been sick the two days before, he is definitely his father's son! He did well, it helped that the kids took the wrong turn and ended up running the middle school course instead of the elementary. The longer distance is what really makes him stand out. He is enjoying 2nd grade and loves his teacher, he is doing much better with reading and his headaches are going away now that he has reading glasses.

Julianna is starting to not like school which is sad for me. I think all the moving from school to school has been rough, although some of the kids here remember her from before which has made the transition a bit easier. She is also running cross country this year, although at first she didn't want to run the races. I told her she just had to put on the uniform and go support her team, once we were there she allowed them to give her a number and she did the warm up with the team and when they called them to the start line she lined up and ran! it was nice that I didn't have to push her to participate, she did well coming in 15th over all and 2nd on our girls team. I think both Julianna and Kaiden do better with the longer distances, it boosted her self esteem to be able to beat some of the kids that are faster than her at practice. She told me that she set certain goals and just tried to run to make those goals, and every time someone passed her she tried to remember to tell them good job! When she came around the corner for the finish line she had a smile on her face!