Happy 4th Birthday Kellin

The kids included Josh, Briar & Aiden, Toby & Tray, Anniston & Camden, Kaden & Kaley, and Kellin's cousin Carson.

Kellin turned 4 on Saturday but we celebrated his birthday on Friday with a Wall-e themed party, a pinata, cake, presents and then took Kellin and his friends to see the new Disney Wall-e movie. It was a chaotic party with 11 kids running wild all over the house. Kellin was especially excited and energetic (a nice way of saying he was bouncing off the walls) and I am surprised we only had one cup of root beer spill and no broken bones. Whenever the kids come over to the house their favorite thing to do is throw all the cushions from our upstairs couch down on the landing on the stairs and then jump from the top of the stairs down into the big pile of cushions! I swear one of these days a head is going to go right through the wall. Anyways, after all the kids arrived we took them outside to do a pinata and since we don't have a big tree in our yard Kade had to hold the pinata from the ladder (kinda ghetto but it worked). Kellin knocked most of the candy out of the pinata on the first round so the rest of the kids just took turns whacking the pinata with the bat. Then we came inside for cake & presents and I grabbed the camera in time to snap a couple shots. We then took all the kids to the movie theatre where we had to stand in a crowded line for 45 minutes for the movie to start. It was a little crazy but I think it was more the adults that were annoyed rather than the kids. The movie was really cute and all the kids sat really well throughout the whole movie. I was impressed. Overall, I think it went pretty well and I think the kids had fun.
On a related note, I have this idea about birthdays with my kids. As I was planning this one I was spending the money for the party including buying the tickets, decorations, cake, etc. and then remembered that I still needed to get Kellin a birthday present from us. But then I thought that it might be a good idea to just give my kids the option of either getting a present from mom & dad or getting a party from mom & dad, but not both. So this year we decided that Kellin's present would be the party and that in the future we will just let our kids choose between having the party be their present or getting a present. What do you think?

Motherly Instinct

This past weekend we went to Lake Powell with some friends - we had lots of fun camping and boating. On Saturday we were out on the boat pulling the kids around on the tubes. We had two tubes being pulled behind the boat and Kellin was out on one of the tubes with two other kids. At the last second I decided to jump on the other tube, called the "death biscuit" with another girl. The tube Kellin was on could seat three people and they are sitting up against a little back rest. Just as the boat was starting to pull us to get going I looked over to check on Kellin and saw that the rope was pulling the front of the tube down into the water. The tube did a nose dive under water and three kids fell off. My motherly instincts kicked in and told me to jump off my tube and swim over to Kellin to make sure he was okay being in the big lake. As I was swimming over to them I could only see the other two boys that were on the tube and couldn't see Kellin anywhere. My heart started racing and I swam as fast as I could around the tube looking for him. I found him trapped under the tube struggling to get his head above water. I grabbed him and pulled him up with shaking hands. He was a little shaken up but fine and just had this shocked look on his face. Once we got back onto the boat Kellin said he wanted to go tubing again but then I think his nerves kicked in and he decided he was too scared to go back out there again. He sat on my lap the rest of the time and eventually fell asleep. He didn't really go in the water much the rest of the trip, poor kid. I was so glad though that I had jumped in after him because I got to him much faster than if I had waited. I'm so grateful for that little voice inside me that tells me when something is wrong. I will never doubt that motherly instinct - somehow a mother always knows, and it really is such a beautiful and amazing thing.
On another note, we left Ethan with a friend for the weekend because we didn't think he would fare too well in the 100+ degree weather especially with nothing but rocks and dirt to crawl around on. We really missed our little chunk-a-monk while we were gone and were greeted with a huge smile and happy giggles when we picked him up. He is such a sweet little baby.

"Just tell Your Wife to Mind her own Business"

So yesterday evening I had a crazy experience. I was playing on our front lawn with Kellin when I heard shouting coming from the house across the street. I walked over to the side of the house to get a look at what was going on and saw a man and a woman yelling at a younger man. The older man had apparently been doing some yard work and was holding a rake. As the two men were yelling at each other the older man ran at the younger man and literally bashed him in the face with the end of the rake!!! I did the first thing that came to my mind which was to start screaming at the top of my lungs "STOP!! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW OR I'M CALLING THE COPS!!!" I then ordered Kellin into the house to get Kade and get a phone and continued to scream that they'd better stop or I was calling 911. The woman yelled back at me to mind my own business as the younger man walked around to get in his car. There was something on the top of his car that he grabbed and threw at the older man. I screamed again at the younger man "GET IN YOUR CAR AND DRIVE AWAY RIGHT NOW OR I'M CALLING THE COPS!!" And luckily he got in his car and after a few explicit profanities drove off. The woman kept yelling at me to mind my own business and I yelled back at her "IF IT HAPPENS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AROUND MY KIDS, IT'S MY BUSINESS!!!" Finally, Kade came out and asked if everything was okay, to which the woman again yelled, "Tell your wife to mind her own business" to which I of course yelled back "IT IS MY BUSINESS WHEN IT HAPPENS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AROUND MY KIDS!" My hands were shaking for the next 15 minutes as I walked back into the house and locked all the doors. My heart was pounding as I tried to calm down not only because I was scared but also because I was ticked! How dare that woman tell me it's not my business! I have been thinking about it since and wanted to throw this question out - when is it our business and when should we stay out of it? Should I have just grabbed Kellin and came into the house? Or did I do the right thing by getting involved? I have to believe that I did the right thing by getting involved because who knows what else would have happened? But then I was worried all night that they might come over and do something to our house or yell at me the next time I see them out. But who cares right? If we tolerate that kind of stuff in our neighborhoods or just look away when we see something bad happening we are contributing to the problem. My reaction was immediate and almost instinctual, and I guess that is probably just the way I was raised, to speak up when I see something wrong. I'm curious though, what would you have done??

Follow-Up on our "Pets"

Since I last wrote about our "pets" we had two caterpillars, several tadpoles, and a fish. Well, I'm happy to report that the caterpillar did transform but sadly not into a butterfly, instead into an ugly little moth and then died since we didn't know what to feed it. I'm also happy to report that a few of the tadpoles did turn into frogs, but met the same fate as the moth, probably also because I didn't really know what to feed them. On the other hand, Kellin loved feeding our fish, and would feed him tons of fish food every day. So would all of his friends that came over and sadly, our fish also died, not of starvation but of "stuff-vation". So, now we just have a bunch of empty fish bowls and frog containers - death traps for any little critter that comes to live with us!
Things have been pretty quiet around our house the last few weeks, just settling into summer and trying to keep myself and the kids from going crazy around the house all day long. I try to get a few activities planned each week so I don't wake up Monday morning with 5 long days stretched out in front of me with nothing to do besides house chores and errands. But with gas prices so high, anything outside a 5 mile radius is pretty much out of the question. I keep trying to think of alternate forms of transportation to cut on our gas usage. The only options I can think of are riding my bike with the kids in the bike stroller - which I guess might work for little errands but just seems torturous when the temperature is starting to reach into the mid-nineties. I have also considered using the public bus system - it just seems like it would take so much longer and I'm also a little worried about the type of crowd bus travel attracts. I know that sounds judgemental and snobby, but my bus experiences up to this point have included a singing Mexican and a ranting Hawaiian. So that pretty much leaves me stuck at home or paying $4.15/gal for gas. What to do???

California Trip Slide Show

We had a fantastic trip to California last week with our good friends Barry & Britney Fell and their two beautiful girls Addy & Lauren. We stayed at my parents condo is San Clemente and although the weather was unseasonably cold we had a great time. We did one day at Disneyland (that was all we could handle of theme parks) and also spent one day at the Long Beach Aquarium and in Hollywood. We tried a few times to do a beach day and probably looked like the craziest tourist down at the beach in 60 degree, cloudy, cold weather but we didn't care and neither did the kids. Kellin & Addy had tons of fun playing together and are just the cutest little pair ever. Whenever they were walking side by side they would take each others' hand - so, so, so cute!!! Ethan & Lauren have some bonding to do still - so far their relationship consists of hair pulling & bonks to the head but I'm sure they'll work things out! We owe a huge THANK YOU to my parents for letting us use the condo and also a huge thanks to my sister Vivian for letting us use her car so we could all ride together. And just a little shout out to our great friends Barry & Britney - we love you guys and had a great time, can't wait to do it again!!

Funny, Funny, Funny

Kade has to go to a work conference this week in Minnesota and so he was telling Kellin about it. He showed Kellin where it is on a map and told him he had to fly all the way there. A few minutes later Kellin asked me where Dad was going to again. Here's how the conversation went:
"Mom, where's Dad going to?"
"He's going to Minne-sota."
"Oh, is that where we get all the soda's from?"
I cracked up laughing for at least 5 minutes. He loved how funny I thought he was so he kept saying the joke all night long. So funny!!!

Spring has Sprung

In our home spring means collecting bugs & all kinds of creatures. Last week we went on a hike to Red Cliffs Falls (?) and found two caterpillars. We were so excited to bring them home and watch them turn into butterflies. We put them in our old lizard habitat and gave them leaves to eat. Overnight (!) one of them spun himself into a chrysalis and the other has climbed onto the chrysalis and we think he is about to do the same. We also went on a walk over to a nearby pond to do a little tadpole hunting. We caught several small tadpoles and two big ones. We are anxiously watching them to see if they will turn into frogs! Two of them already have the begginings of little frog legs. Last but not least on our list of pets is our little goldfish named George (after Curious George, of course. He is, after all, the inspiration for all our little adventures). So I've included some pictures of out creature collection and will post updates as they grow and change. I need to do some internet research though on what tadpoles eat - maybe I can feed them some of George's fish food???



Also, about a year ago Kellin was playing at McDonalds with some friends and fell off the table and smacked his tooth on the edge of the table. It bled a ton and when we were finally able to look at the tooth he had knocked it loose. So for the past year he has had a loose tooth that turned gray just hanging out in his mouth waiting to fall out. We took him to the dentist and he said that it would eventually fall out and then he would be without a tooth for a few years (!) until his adult tooth grows in. Well, it happened. Kade and Kellin were wrestling and it got knocked looser and Kade pulled it out. So here is a picture of our little Kellin and his first missing tooth at age 3 & 1/2. He is having fun with it, he says he can stick his tongue through it and suck his lips through it when he drinks his chocolate milk! Cute, cute, cute.



Meanwhile, Ethan is mobile - it took a while, with all that weight to pull around, but he figured it out. He is doing a little army crawl using his arms to pull himself forward across the floor. Needless to say I have some baby proofing to do around the house now. I love how kids come with their own little personalities. For example, Kellin had no interest in cabinets and drawers, we never had to worry about him getting into the cleaning supplies or drawing on the walls, he just never even tried it. Ethan, on the other hand, is much more curious about those things and I think I will need to be much more dilligent with him. It makes me excited to see what he will grow to be interested in. Anyways, enjoy the pictures!