More of May and Memorial Day

Kasen had 8 scheduled Tball games during his season.

FIVE of his games have been rained out!

The rain seriously never stops.

I thought it looked sunny one Saturday so we went to the park twice. Twice we got rained on.

But we've still been able to have some fun during this fabulous month of May.

 

Celebrated Lindsay's birthday with a nifty Kneaders breakfast,

 Took Kasen to see Ben's Land Cruiser in the UVU car show with Grandpa. In between the rain that day.

They only honked the horn about 5 times before they weren't' allowed to pretend drive in the car anymore.

 Monthly temple dates with Kyle. Make my world go round. Always love all the reminders of just how true the Church really is. As in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation.

 Then celebrated Katey's birthday with a puppy lunch date at our house!

 Tai had so much fun being upside down that she fell asleep a little bit upside down too.

 We had another puppy play date the next day and the kids were so cute each holding their own puppy. They played vet for a little while with Tai's doctor tools too. But mostly they just snuggled with them.

On Memorial Day my mom invited us up to decorate graves in Ogden. That is where her dad is buried as well as my Great Grandma and Grandpa Henderson. 

Grandma Sandy took us all out to lunch at Chuck-a-Rama afterwards.

 

 Then we had plans to go to the Pony Express Days Rodeo for the first time here in Eagle Mountain.

Right after we got to our seats for the pre-show the rain came. And then the hail. It was a freaking monsoon! Surprisingly my kids seemed content just sitting there in it too. But then it soaked through my blanket and my shirt and I was cold.

So we hurried home, changed all of our clothes, grabbed our winter coats and made it back by the time the monsoon stopped.

There is so much mud in our car, on our shoes and in our garage. Kasen was begging to go play in the mud, saying he wanted to squishy squash in it!

Kyle wanted to get the kids some cotton candy. I told him he had to clean it up.
and now he knows why I wasn't excited about buying the kids cotton candy.

The bareback horses fell down in the mud a few times, which made for a fun rodeo though.

Thanks for coming with us Jon and Sydney!

We ran into them at the park on Saturday too. The day we tried going to the park twice and got rained on twice. Jon helped Kasen fly their kite and of course Tai wouldn't leave the swing.

 We've had fun inside though playing hide-n-seek together and pretending to be robots.

We tried potty training Tai a little bit, but even though she loves wearing panties she's still not quite ready! She did good for one day, but then just pees in them and wants another pair. When we do put her diapers on she cries that she wants "mickey standing" ones and not the one with just mickey's head.

-She's terrified of ants and flies. If she thinks they will touch her she screams and cries. She's also started thinking there are monsters in her room.

-Kasen loves orange chicken, but the other day Tai was crying that she wants pink chicken, not orange chicken.

-When she knows she's about to get in trouble she covers her ears with her hands.

-I love when she gets really into what she's telling you and her eyes get super wide. So passionate!

Kasen, man he is so funny!

-Whenever he's done brushing his teeth he comes to tell me the stinky monster breath is all gone.

-When we're at the park he always lets me know when his brain is sweaty he needs to have a Popsicle when we get home.

-The other day we were eating pizza and he asked for a pizza bar. I didn't know what he wanted, but he told me it's "a rectangle shape that bounces into our mouth and we chew it and it's a stick!" Oh a bread stick!!

-We've also been talking about what is appropriate or polite to talk about so now he'll ask me if things he says are "good talk" or "bad talk" and sometimes he does "silly talk" too.

Yesterday we took Tai to the movie theater for the very first time!

A year earlier than we took Kasen, but we survived. I don't think she's ready to go again soon, but at least we didn't have to ever haul her out of the theater. She complained the whole way home that her tummy was full though. Yay popcorn.

On our way to the theater we heard Tai from the back seat say, "It's party time guys!"

Kasen did great! He was so excited that our we went on a family date. The only other time he's been to a theater is when I took him on a date to see the Grinch so now he thinks that the movie theater is a date.

Muffin Sundays

Sundays are for muffins.

It's tradition now.

For awhile I would buy Cinnamon Streusel or Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin mixes to have on hand just for Sunday mornings, but then I finally bought a mini muffin pan and started using all my Grandma Judy's homemade applesauce to make us applesauce muffins every Sunday morning to eat while we watch Music and the Spoken Word.

They are so good! Except when you only have 1 egg left, but need 2. We could never be vegan. They were not good without that egg.

 And of course whenever I take pictures my kids want me to take a picture of them too.

Even when they are never wearing any clothes.

#underwearmodelforlife

 After church we snack on grilled cheese sandwiches.

It's the little things.

Like I said, I live to eat food.

Kasen wanted to make a hymn book during sacrament, so when we got home we did! He drew music like that on every page. And even has me sing hymns out of it.

Kasen also shared his testimony for the first time this month! He has asked for at least a year. I let him try once, but he got too scared to speak.

This time I asked him at our bench what he wanted to say. "All the church things!" But then he started talking about the zoo. I told him our testimony should be about Jesus so he assured me he'd say that after. So... I let him go up.

I told him to say, "I want to share my testimony. I love reading scripture stories."

But then he got confident and went for it all on his own.

"I love my friend Hank. I love Tai. I love everyone. I love ducks. I love primary. I love Jesus."

I tried to get him to end a few times, but he kept saying, "I'll say that after!"

I was so proud of him for getting up and sharing what he loves. Probably makes it easier when you can't see over the pulpit yet! 

Last week one of the Come Follow Me topics was how we are to be like children. Kasen is who I want to be like. It doesn't matter if he KNOWS everything before he gets up, but he still goes and shares what is perfectly enough. It's enough to hold onto a little bit of faith and a little bit of hope without being able to say that we KNOW. What we hope to know is enough. We know enough to continue learning and continue faithful.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world and that He lives.

For me that is enough to do my best to follow Him.

Happy Sunday.

2 Weeks Old

The puppies turned 2 weeks old yesterday and so far they have been so much fun to have!

 This was Peeka just 2 days before she had her puppies. She looked giant. Still can't believe there were only 6 in there.

The week the puppies were born I had taken the kids to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point and we walked through the Light of the World exhibit. Which is AMAZING btw. Anyways, when Kasen saw the sculptures of the story of Lazarus, I showed him which one was Jesus and that Lazarus was wrapped up cause he had been dead, but Jesus brought him back to life. In the car on the way home Kasen heard me on the phone telling someone that 2 of the puppies had died. Kasen then told me that Jesus can make our puppies alive again.

It was a touching teaching moment for sure. I got to teach Kasen that although we could pray to Heavenly Father and ask him for that miracle to happen and that Jesus does have the power to bring life back, that all things still are going to eventually die and it's part of God's plan. Sometimes our prayers aren't answered the way we want, but there is still hope because we know that they are still heard and God will comfort us and we will all live again after this life because Christ was resurrected and overcame death for all of us!

Happy ending.

In these pictures the puppies are 2 days old and had just lost their umbilical cords.

 At 4 days old I took them to have their dew claws removed at the vet and then when they were a week old a couple from Oregon came by to see them and ended up putting a deposit down on Boo!

I guess Peeka started getting bored downstairs about that time and started tearing our insulation out of the walls. So we set up her crate downstairs she stays in there with the puppies now instead of her whelping box.

 I took more pictures on day 9, once their noses all started turning black.

I've had fun doing a few time lapse videos of them scooting around and nursing too.

 Spark (green collar) is by far getting the biggest and fattest of all of them!
Their eyes are starting to open just a little bit too, almost half way open.

 I love sneaking down and seeing all the cute ways they snuggle together in a dog pile. And then Peeka hears me and stands up so fast that her nursing puppies are still hanging off of her, holding on for dear life.

 I also have a new routine every night. In addition to eating my homemade chocolate ice cream cone, I pick a new puppy each night to come snuggle me while Kyle and I watch Netflix and chill. I would say that we snuggle, but usually I sit right in front of the fireplace (since it's still freezing rain every other day) and Kyle just isn't a fan of that kind of heat. Right now it's Vampire Diaries.

Kasen and Tai are the cutest with them too! Tai rubs her face on the puppies and ever since I told her to just pet them with 2 fingers she's started announcing to me that she's petting Peeka with 5 fingers!

In the video of Kasen and Tai first seeing the puppies the morning after they were born you can hear Tai running out yelling, "SOOOOOO LITTLE!" 

They are so stinkin fun

Mother's Day Week

So. Many. Thoughts.

But first, I had a wonderful Mother's Day! Kyle took us to get free french toast for Mom's at Kneaders on Saturday and then made me breakfast on Sunday too.

AND he had the kids make me Mother's Day pictures!

I have tried SO MANY times to sit down with Kasen and practice writing his name with him, but every time he wants to draw other things instead. Even though he's traced letters before I'd still never seen him write anything by himself.

Then Kyle gives me this and told me that all he did was tell Kasen the letters and Kasen just wrote it. All by himself! Didn't copy it or anything. What in the world?!

 Then he told me all about the picture he drew of little me with food all around and then the big me that popped open because I ate too many foods! And I had purple hair and a heart in the center.

It was the best thing I heard all day!

He was too scared to go sing with the Primary kids in sacrament, but then did his Article of Faith in primary just fine.

The handprint Tai made me she kept because she said it is hers. Haha They are just the best.

Mostly though my hobbies as a mother include waiting until my kids are in bed to eat my homemade chocolate ice cream, in a sugar cone, every. single. night.

And then reading motherhood memes that I cry laughing at because they are so true! Kyle thinks I'm nuts cause I usually can't even finish reading them to him cause I'm laughing so hard.
They remind me of things like the bag of rice my kids spilled on the kitchen floor this week and the popcorn kernel that I had to get Tai to shoot back out of her nose.
And this....

I really do love them so much! Even though I am not at all sad when they go to sleep.
There are just so many things that fill my mommy bucket and make all the irritation worth it.

-Like their conversations between each other when Kasen tells Tai that butterflies are caterpillars with wings and arguing because Kasen knows carrots are orange, but Tai wants to have pink carrots and asking each other if they like fireworks, but Kasen tells her they are too loud and the big boom pops make him jump out of his toes!
-How they play shadow tag together
-When they drop their towels after a bath and there are naked kid bums running around for a few minutes.
-When Kasen prays and tells Heavenly Father that he loves everyone and that he wants to eat his food right now.
-Any time I watch them sleep or when Kasen wakes up from a nap in the car and jumps right into a conversation, telling me about how measuring cups and measuring tape is different because you put things in measuring cups and he wants his own measuring tape.
-How they ask me to wipe their tears away or kiss their owies and if Kasen is crying really hard he asks me to help him take deep breaths
-Every time I do anything for Tai she says, "Theenks mom"
-Kasen's funny fish face with his hands going back and forth like fins
-Tai singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with me every night now.
-How stinkin SMART Kasen is! He knows how to add and subtract on his fingers and let me know that a Stop sign is an octagon and has 8 sides, a pentagon has 5 sides, a triangle has 3 sides and a hexagon has 6 sides. Also, jumping is vertical.

 In Relief Society yesterday we watched a video showing things that the 10 Relief Society Board Members of the church are facing in their own lives. I love when it said that they struggle with us.

Our leaders get it.

But more than that it reminded me that our kids need to know that we get it too. We get them.

We have been there.

We do them a disservice when we fight so hard to appear perfect for them. I appreciated so much more the times that I was able to see the honest and humble example of my parents flaws and then HOW to overcome our weaknesses and the testimony of how much we each NEED our Savior.

So when I heard so many comments yesterday about how "Mom is always right" it rubbed me the wrong way. Because I KNOW I am not always right. Yes, I may know what is best for my kids for the most part and should always be treated with respect, but that does not mean that I am always right.

Like when I told Kasen that only red ants bite, but that he can play with the black ones if he wants and then he started getting bit by all the black ants on his fingers! Maybe he'll never trust me again, I don't know, but I sure apologized for being wrong.

I feel like our kids will connect with us more as parents when we let our humanity show and they'll have more hope when they do mess up, cause we all will, when they know that those who love them have been there and will help. 

I don't believe that anybody ever just earns the right to be right.

 We went to our ward carnival on Saturday and they kids got their faces painted and played in the bounce houses. And I got to spend time with all 3 of my mom's over the weekend too!

Mom Annette played Frozen songs on the piano while the kids sang in her microphone. We kept telling Kasen to not put it right on his mouth, then he said, "Well, I guess the party is over now!" Haha

Part of my Mother's Day gift was making this sign for myself! Ashley came over to make one too and it was so fun doing a little DIY project together. Lots cheaper than buying one on Etsy too, which is the real point of DIY right? Kyle said he'll sign us up for a race to run together this year too! So excited for him to come run a race with me. And the massage I won at our ward carnival auction.

 I am considering this right here the best mother's day present ever! Kyle took this picture, WITH ME IN IT, and I didn't even ask him to do it! Happy mom right here.

 I loved our little hike to Battle Creek Falls!

We tried to go last year, but it rained and then it was going to rain again, but we chanced it and got lucky!

 We told the kids to look for animals along the trial and Tai was set on seeing a giraffe.

All we saw was a spider.

 Kasen loved this cave and said it was his home. Until I told him if he stayed there a bear might come sleep next to him.

I forgot how short this hike is though. It was only 20 minutes from our car to the falls! At Kasen speed. Perfect. Sometimes he wanted to hold my hand and sometimes he wanted to be "the lead". He was loving it!

 It was a busy day that day cause right before our hike I took the puppies to get their dew claws removed and right after the hike I had a photo session. Then we hurried over to dinner with Josh, Marissa, Emma and Mike. Emma planned us a triple date before Josh moves to AZ next month!