Kiddie Kandids - My Idea of a Fun Afternoon

Yesterday we took the kids to Kiddie Kandids to get pictures taken for Nathan and Alexandra. I was so disappointed because they just wouldn't smile as cute as I know they do. I think the pictures turned out OK anyway.


Picture days are always just so stressful because it takes SO LONG! You have to wait to take the pictures, then take your turn at trying to get them to smile and act cute, then wait around again, then view and pick all your pictures, then buy the pictures. The kids are running laps around the store while you try to be cordial to the attendant who is trying to sell you the pictures. I'm glad it's done, until next time.

We should have taken Alexandra's picture as a newborn, but the way we work - we didn't. So she is 6 months old this week and I didn't know she had stranger anxiety yet. I would have her giggling, then as soon as I would switch places with the photographer, she would burst into tears. Then the photographer would leave so I could calm her down for a minute, then we would start all over again - me making her laugh, moving for the photographer, tears. So, the finished product is really, the best that we could get.


Then, with Nathan - he was so excited to get his picture taken and was showing us how big he was going to smile while we were in the car. Once we got him in the studio and ready to snap the picture, he just did these weird smiles. So, again, the finished product is really, the best that we could get.


Here is Alexandra in her blessing dress. She is a perfect little angel! :)

Nathan was happy that he got to have a picture with the trucks and train. As you can see, that isn't his true smile! Oh well - memories.

Here is his close-up. He is soooo cute! I love my little 3-year-old.

Alexandra again. This is Jeremy's favorite little outfit for her, so he really wanted a picture of her in this. Now that she can move around and roll, we had a pretty hard time keeping her in one place for the pictures. She did like this little chair, though.

Uh, I guess you could say this is her serious pose? Same as the first one.

Last one. I was the one trying to get her to smile, because she didn't like the workers, so she is looking at me. Let's pretend she sees something wonderful, off in the distance. :)


Regardless of the difficult experience - I AM glad that we went and had their pictures done. I treasure my family.

Basement is DONE!!!!

OK, for the most part it is done, but I'm quite excited! :) The carpet guy just finished laying the carpet this morning, so I HAD to come and take some pictures and share. All we have left to do is put up the cabinet doors, add some door handles, put borders in the kid's rooms, and finish the bathroom.


Here is the view you get when you first come down the stairs. This is our kitchenette area. The plumber is coming tomorrow to finish this and the bathroom.


If you turn around, in that same room, you see my favorite part - the bookshelves. :) I have enough to fit all my books, plus some. You can see what I moved down yesterday because I was too excited to wait. There are a lot more books waiting to meet their new home.

To the left of the kitchenette room is the family/theater room. This is Jeremy's pride and joy!

He already has his stereo sound system all hooked up and ready to go . . .

But where is the TV? That will be a later addition.

Now I went through the kitchenette again and to the right and down the hall towards the bedrooms.

This is the hall linen closet. There wasn't enough room in the small bathroom, so it is here in the hall. I think this is a good spot for it anyway.

This is Nathan's room. We have a cute dinosaur border to put up in here that matches the paint.

This is Nathan's closet. All the kid's closets are built the same, with the shelves like that.

Here is Athena's room. She has a bright border with hearts and flowers that matches the paint.

Now, coming out of Athena's room, we will turn right and go into Samantha's room.

TA DA! Once again - Samantha will have a border up that matches. Hers is pink with horses, castles, and princesses. A very "Samantha" choice.

A view into Samantha's closet . . .

This is the bathroom. It is at the end of the hallway and in between all the kid's rooms. It will be finished tomorrow.

Then back down the hallway to go towards the kitchenette again.

I am very happy with the way the basement has turned out. It doesn't feel scary at all and hopefully that will help with getting the kids to move into their new rooms. We let all 3 of them pick out their paint colors and their borders and they all seem very happy with their choices. I just can't believe we finally have more house! I look forward to showing it off to those of you who wish to come and see it!

Ups and Downs

It's funny how kids can be. One minute they are driving you up a wall, and the next you are so proud you can hardly contain yourself.

Last night while I was making dinner, Nathan was sitting behind me on the floor. I turned around to see what he was doing, and he was sitting there coloring all over the floor with blue crayon! I put him in his room and let him cry a minute. Then I went and got him out and forced him to clean it up. I gave him a kleenex and had him scrub and scrub and scrub. Every time he would look up at me or say he was done, I would tell him that he is the one who wrote on the floor, so he is the one who was going to clean it up. Then I would follow it up with "KEEP SCRUBBING!" It kind of made me laugh because he would then look up and say "I AM!!" Here he is, trying to clean the floor.

Then, this morning when I got up I could hear Athena and Samantha playing around. They are supposed to get up and get dressed for school. I took my shower and when I came out, they hadn't been playing around at all. They were in the kitchen. They had set out the bowls, spoons, cereal, and milk. They had their CD player in the kitchen with music playing. They were also dressed and ready for school. I thought it was so cute that they thought to do all that! I had to tell them over and over again how happy I was with them.

That shows me that kids really are good inside, and possibly they don't do all the frustrating things on purpose just to bug you, but maybe they are just kids who are learning and trying their best. :)

DA DA DA DA - DA DA - - - SUPERNATHAN!!!

Yes, we ARE raising a superhero, and yes, he IS faster than a speeding bullet.

Yesterday for the first time I gave Nathan a cape. He was really "living it up". I didn't know it would turn out to be so great.

Here is MR. GQ Cape boy himself.

And off to save the world!

Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we went to cut down our Christmas tree. This really is not my favorite thing to do, but still we do it every year. I guess the kids had fun. I just hope our tree isn't dead by Christmas because it's so early. This is a tradition that Jeremy's family does every year - get tree permits and go out in the cold to find that perfect tree.

I guess the good thing about going when we did was that it wasn't super cold yet and there wasn't snow all over the ground. As you can see, Nathan sure did enjoy the dirt. He was rolling around in it and playing in it for quite awhile.

Samantha enjoyed herself too. The only part she didn't like was hiking through all the brush looking for a tree.

Athena found a rock up there that she really thought was neat. She has been studying rocks in school and has been quite interested in looking at all the rocks and trying to decide if they are sedimentary, igneous, or conglomerates.

After hiking around and finding our tree, I spent most of my time holding Alexandra and trying to keep her happy in the cold.

Once everyone found their tree we enjoyed a bowl of hot soup, some hot chocolate, and cookies. The soup was sooo good. I had Cream of Broccoli. Nathan learned that he really liked hot chocolate. He drank a couple of cups full and some of mine. :)

Jeremy looks satisfied from his bowls of soup. He worked hard by cutting down and hauling trees. Thanks, Jeremy!

Athena and Amber love to spend time together. They didn't want to leave.

This is it! THE one. We will cut a few feet off the top and some off the bottom. So we really are harvesting the middle 7 1/2 feet of the tree.

Finally all the trees are loaded up and ready to go. All in all it took us about 4 hours to get everyone a tree and to eat lunch, load up, and go. I suppose it all turned out ok and the kids had a good time. :)

How to Host a Murder

We played our How to Host a Murder game with friends from our ward on Friday. Jeremy and I hosted the game and served dinner, crackers & cheese, and dessert. It was a lot of fun, and yet again, I turned out to be the murderer! We have played with this group 3 times now and twice I've done it. What the heck? It's like I have this karma that follows me around.

I didn't take pictures of our costumes because the day was so rushed and I just wasn't thinking much about it. I did, however, remember to snap a picture of the dessert I made. :)

YUMMMMM! Turtle cheesecake with an Oreo crust. This tasted so good and it was my first time ever making cheesecake. I think I'll have to do it again. I used this springform set that I got for our wedding and couldn't return because we couldn't find what store it belonged to. It sure did come in handy now, 10 years down the road! Who knew?

Samantha Said a Funny

We were sitting at the table today eating lunch when Samantha asked me what drinks again were bad for us to drink? I told her coffee, tea, and alcohol. Then she added with a very serious look, "and violets". I said "Violets? You don't drink violets. Violets are a flower or a color, not a drink." She insisted that we do NOT drink violets because they are bad.

She recently had a Steve James assembly at school for red ribbon week where they talk about drugs and stuff like that. She said that in her assembly Steve James told a story of when he was little some kids came up to him and asked him for money and he said he didn't have any money. They said they were going to take all his money to get some stuff at the store and he told them again that he didn't have any money to take. He said that those kids then went and stole some stuff from the store. I then made the connection.

"VIOLENCE?" I asked. She said, "What's that?" So I explained to her what violence is and that it's bad. So she confirmed, "Oh yeah, violence."

It made me laugh. :)