Kendall the Preschooler

Kendall has been looking forward to the day when preschool would finally begin. And so it has.
Playing on the toys before school starts.

Please go away, mom.

The Nursery

Pictures of the nursery were requested so here we go....We moved Kendall into the room that was formerly my office sometime in July. I liked the walls in the nursery even though they were Pepto Bismol pink, but it just won't work for a baby boy.

So we painted a neutral color and used vinyl stickers for the border. I am still figuring out what kind of art work to put up on the walls so they are a little plain.

A couple of years ago we were at Babies R Us and sat in this super comfy rocker/glider chair. We decided at that point that if we ever had another baby that we would purchase this chair. We found it and here it is.

Finally, there was another request for a picture of me. With hesitation here it is.

So Wicked!

For my birthday my mom took me to see Wicked at the Paramount. It was awesome! I was a little worried that the baby would come early and I wouldn't get to see the show or worse, my water would break during the show. But no early baby arrival and I survived the walking and sitting for a couple hours.

The day I saved Ollie's life

As you can see from the many posts today that I am a little behind. But I just have to post about a traumatic Ollie incident.

Knowing that Ollie chews on EVERYTHING I left a collapsible camping chair in the backyard that was broken. I just considered it a free chew toy. On a Wednesday morning during the summer I let him outside to play and noticed that he had drug the chair to the upper terrace of our yard. I thought to myself that I should get the chair out to the garbage, but I didn't. A little while later I heard this high pitch squealing coming from the backyard. I thought it was a cat and when I went to investigate I saw Ollie struggling to get away from the chair. My initial thought was that he had impaled himself with the leg just under his collar. When I got closer I could see that the leg had actually gotten twisted up in his collar. It was so tight I couldn't even find the clasp to undo the collar. The only thing I could think of was to cut the collar off of his neck. I frantically yelled to the kids to bring me scissors. Kendall very carefully brought me her pair of kids scissors. That did not work! I yelled for my kitchen scissors which Hayden brought to me and didn't work either. Hayden then brought me my best Cutco knife. That didn't work. I then remembered that I had put a utility knife on top of our second refrigerator the day before. I ran to get it, meanwhile Ollie is struggling to breathe and terrified. I straddled the dog and began sawing his collar with the utility knife. About half way through I was exhausted (remember that I am pregnant) and thought to myself, "I don't know if I can do this." But I continued and when it came apart I could see that I had another layer to saw through. For some reason the second layer seemed easier. Maybe because I stopped caring if I knicked his skin with the knife, I just wanted to get the collar off. Finally, it broke free and our happy dog was back. But Ollie smelled awful and the only thing I can relate it to is the smell of death. I wondered if maybe he was emitting a hormone that caused the smell. It lasted a couple days.

After the incident, I called Tadj and cried through the details. I wasn't sure if I should take him to the vet. Tadj didn't think so since he seemed to be fine. But his comment to me was, "See, you do like the dog after all." My reply, "No, I was just thinking of how much money we have invested in him and that I don't want to start over." Actually, Ollie is starting to grow on me even though this past week he has chewed the swings off of the kids playset and ate the steering wheel off of a plastic toy car we had in the backyard.

One more Ollie thing:

Ollie was also neutered this summer and we tried to explain to the kids what was going to happen. But ended up just saying that his boys were going to get cut off. After we picked up Ollie from the vet, Hayden lifted up Ollie's tail and exclaimed to everyone in the office, "Yep, his boys are gone!" I was so embarrassed but I can laugh about it now.

First Grade

Hayden started school last Thursday and he loves it. Every school day since he wakes up and is nearly jumping off the walls in anticipation of going to school. The transition to first grade was much harder for me. I don't remember crying when Hayden started half-day Kindergarten. But I cried after I dropped him off for first grade. Kendall and I still miss him during the day but I am glad to know he is enjoying school.

The fruits of my labor, literally

With my grandma's latest move, I was lucky to inherit a pressure canner. I haven't ever canned before and really wanted to learn so when my friend asked if I wanted to can apricots I was really excited and eager to learn something new. So this summer I canned 15 quarts of apricots (26 lbs), 19 quarts of peaches (40 lbs), 35 quarts of pears, 8 quarts of pear sauce, and 6 half pints of pear baby food (80 lbs), 17 quarts of green beans, 7 pints of blueberry pie filling (15 cups of blueberries), and 18 half pints of triple berry jam (strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry). I also learned how to can pickles and have 1 quart from an enrichment activity. If my family likes home canned pickles I'll do that next year. I also plan to can tomatoes next year. I also learned that canning with friends is a lot more fun than doing it by yourself.

Tadj asked me, "How come every time you get a hobby it causes me work?" It's true and he is still working on building me shelves in the garage for all of the canned food. But I should add that I don't really like canned pears. Those are all for him.

Summer Highlights

School starting means that summer has come to an end and also reminds me of all the fun things we did that I haven't blogged about. Here is a quick summer summary.

We started our summer with a trip to Bozeman, Montana for Tadj's annual family get-together. We enjoyed hiking to Paradise Falls on a foggy day

Hot springs

The Museum of the Rockies

Lewis and Clark Caverns

Panning for gold (not successfully)



And my personal first and favorite: a day trip to Yellowstone

Another highlight for me was attending the New Kids on the Block Concert with a friend. We couldn't attend the last time they were here because of a previous commitment (the all important Twilight movie) but decided we would not let this opportunity pass us by. I just hope the baby has good hearing. We were just a few rows back from the stage and it was so loud. I know the baby could hear the opening act (Jesse McCartney) and he didn't like it. Neither did I. But the New Kids were fantastic.

For the first time ever, I took the kids to the local amusement park. Hayden was invited by a friend and tickets were a good price. The kids loved it and wanted to go back the next day. Maybe next year.


The last summer vacation was our annual trip to Alta Lake for golfing and water fun. Ever since Hayden found out that I started water skiing when I was 6 years old, Hayden has wanted to do the same thing. My dad packed the kid skis but we didn't bring a rope to tie the tips together (something that helped me get up at such a young age). Hayden tried and tried and tried. After every fall he was all smiles, loving every minute of it. I have no doubt that he will be successful next summer.

This was the first summer I was home with the kids without any work responsibilities and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Star Wars Party

Hayden really wanted to have his birthday party at our house this year so we decided on a Star Wars theme, which happens to be Hayden's latest obsession. I saw some invitations online that were really fun but I ended up making my own so I could customize it for each kid.

Hayden had 9 school and church friends attend, including one cousin who wasn't able to attend the separate family party. When everyone first arrived, the kids put on padawan costumes. Then they made their own light sabers using pool noodles cut in half and duct tape for the handles. Here they are!

Next, we separated into 2 groups to rotate through the stations. After successfully completing each station they earned a sticker for their light saber. I am writing out all of the stations just in case someone else wants to use these ideas for a future party.

1. The levitation station. Using the lightsabers you had to keep a balloon in the air. The kids loved this one.

2. Target practice. We bought a "pin the tail" like game at Wal-Mart where you stick a target on an enemy fighter plane.

3. Blaster Training. I printed and cut out a bunch of droids, glued them to cardboard and set them up in the family room. The kids used Nerf guns to hit the droids.

4. Bubble Attack. In the backyard we had a bubble machine and the kids got to try and hit as many bubbles as they could with their lightsabers.

5. Cave of Fear. This was by far the best. Tadj made a cave in our toy room out of large cardboard boxes that the kids got to crawl through to find Darth Vader's Mask. If they returned with the mask their mission was accomplished. It was actually quite scary because it was dark in the toy room with only a strobe light and the sound of Darth Vader breathing in the background. Some of the kids needed to go through with a friend.

6. Break-Time. Hayden (and Tadj) wanted the yummy chocolate cake from Costco so I decorated it with a bunch of new star wars toys. I think we got the best of both worlds...a cake everyone loved and Hayden got some new toys to play with. We didn't have time to make and serve Yoda Punch (Sherbet lime ice cream and Sprite).


7. Death Star Attack. After opening presents, we sent the kids out to the Cul-De-Sac where a lot of water balloons awaited them along with a chalk drawing of the Death Star. The kids could then attack the death star with the water balloons. This was great fun on an unusually hot summer day. I wish I had taken a picture before it was attacked with water but here it is...


A few random shots...


This party was a great success. The only thing I would change is the time. I thought 1.5 hours was plenty of time but should have scheduled 2 hours. Everyone wanted to go through the cave of fear multiple times and we were really rushed to open presents. Some of the kids commented that this was the best birthday party ever. I was just glad when it was finally over!