Sunday, March 18, 2012

Kamryn Turns ONE!!

Saturday, March 10th, Kamryn had her 1st Birthday.  We decided to throw her a party.


I was SO proud of my tissue paper poms!  I made these for the first time, and they topped it off!
 
Our party plans changed a bit as we had originally planned an outdoor BBQ, but it POURED... and I mean POURED ALL DAY long!!  We quickly changed plans to an inside pizza party.  Kamryn loved the pizza!

She liked when we sang to her, but was a little unsure of the cake with the candle!


Once we took off the candle... she dug right in!



Just in case I didn't get enough pictures, GrAuntie Debbie was right there!

Her favorite part of the presents was the tissue paper.

Our attempt at a picture of the 4 kids all together wasn't very successful!

Because we just love her THAT much!!

GrAuntie Debbie and the kiddos:



Kamryn LOVES shoes!  I know, seems silly, but she really does.  If she doesn't have shoes on and she finds a pair of hers, she will bring them to you and grunt at you until you help her put them on.  She had just gotten her new shoes on and then posed for a picture:

At this point, it was past bedtime, but she decided she wanted to open a few more presents!

Oh boy... I think we're in trouble!!

Kamryn LOVES:
Dancing - to ANY kind of music... if she hears music... she is dancing
Playing in the sand
Wearing shoes
Splashing in the toilet
Emptying the cupboards
Being tickled by her brothers
Her binky 
Her blankie
Kicking a ball
AND

We sure DO love her!
 

Lunch With GrAuntie Debbie

Last Thursday night, Jason's Aunt Debbie came to visit us for a long weekend.  On Friday, we took lunch to the boys' school to eat with them!  We call her GrAuntie Debbie... a combination of Great-Aunt or Grandma/Aunt... whichever you prefer!


 
It was cute because GrAuntie Debbie found a curled up chip and Braeden said, "Look, I can do that with my tongue!" 

Dress-Up

 Gaven was all dressed up after church, so we went out back to get a couple pictures.  I didn't really get any good ones (in my opinion), but I DID capture those eyes!

 
Kamryn played dress-up with one of her brother's hats:


Gaven got to dress up for school... it was cowboy day:

Running in a Million Directions


Literally...
Two Saturdays ago I ran in my second 5k.  Just before I left the house, this is what I saw on the couch:

The adventures of our day literally had us running in a million different directions.  At first when I signed up for my 5k, I had forgotten that Jason was on call that weekend, so I had to have a back-up plan in case he got called in.  Luckily I have WONDERFUL friends!  I left for the race and Jason was going to meet me there with the kids.  He got a few pages while trying to get out the door with the kids... all of which could be taken care of later.  They pulled in to the parking lot as I was heading down to the start... we waved and I figured I would see them at the finish.  Not even a mile into the race (at a part where we were running along a main road) I hear a few honks and turn to see Jason and kids waving as they drive by to my friends house.  He must have gotten called in.  I was happy to see them while running, but sad that they wouldn't be at the finish.  I also thought... oops, I didn't give him my friend's number so he could call her and tell her they were on the way.  Oh well... continue running.

When I reached the finish line, I was surprised to hear my AMAZING friend there cheering my name!  When I told her how surprised I was to see her since Jason had to take the kids to her house and I didn't expect to hear anyone cheering for me... she got a shocked look on her face and said, "He took the kids to my house!  Did he call me?"  Long story short, she hugged me then ran off to head back to the house.  I figured she had promised she wouldn't leave her husband with 7 kids all by himself!  

When the race was over, I had to head out in order to get back home, get the boys ready for their basketball game and head to that.  When I got in the car, I had a few messages from Jason.

SO HERE'S THE CRAZY PART:  When Jason took the kids over to my friend's house, she was not there (she had come to the race finish line).  Her husband wasn't there either!  Jason HAD to go into work, so he had no choice but to leave our kids, too.  He drove back to the race to switch cars with me, ran into my friend on her way out and said, "Hurry back, they are all there alone!" 

We all laughed about the whole thing... the kids were all fine... only a slight scare that Kamryn had possibly swallowed a small Lego, but that was it.  Turns out she probably didn't.  I can just see Jason as he's having to leave our 4 kids with 3 other kids, telling Braeden and my friend's oldest son that they are in charge!

After picking up the kids, we raced home, got their uniforms and raced back to the game.  They made it there about 10 minutes before the start time... played great... I'm so proud of them this season.  They both improved a ton!  I love it that they are two of the hardest workers on their team!

After the game, we headed to their pizza party (still without Dad, who was at work).  The boys' coached came up with an individual award for each of the kids.  I thought they did a great job coming up with something that fit each of them.

Braeden got "Best Offense" which is written on the front of his bobble-head trophy, that the coaches bought for them (such sweet guys!).  Braeden improved a lot this year.  He started grabbing rebounds and putting them back in, playing great defense and finding his teammates on offense!

Carsen's award was "Best Dribble."  Very fitting!  The kid can dribble!  And he's fast.  He's an amazing little athlete that is so fun to watch.  Now we just have to work on after a steal and heading up the court at 90 mph, slowing down to take his shot or lay-in.  One of the highlights this year for Carsen was definitely his outside shots.  Some of them made me hide my head, and at other times I just smiled because you wouldn't think he could even get it to the rim from that far our, let alone swish it!

After our pizza party, we came home, took a few deep breathes and then headed to Carsen's first baseball practice of the season.  Dad finally got off work and met us there.

We're gearing up for a new season (or 2).  They older two are excited for baseball, and Gaven is stoked for his first soccer game.  More pictures to come!!

First Time in Sand

I finally let go of some control and let Kamryn explore the sand box.  I was asking myself why I hadn't done it sooner!!



 
I'm loving me some chubby baby legs!!


 
I guess it was inevitable!!


 
...and to top it off... where has my baby boy gone... and who IS this kid??!!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Amtrak

A few weeks ago (I'm really behind on blogging), I was able to go on a field trip with Carsen's 1st Grade Class.  We rode Amtrak from Temple to McGregor.  When I arrived at the school, the class was killing time because the train was running a few minutes late.


We had to kill more time once we got to the station... 

Then Carsen thought he finally saw our train coming...

He was wrong... so we went and played for a bit.

Our train was here and it was time to get on.  They had to grab their buddy... I posted these next two pictures because I think it is SO cute that these two little 1st Graders (Carsen and his best buddy Julian) are still innocent enough that they are okay taking each others hand AND letting me take a picture of them! I thought it was the cutest, sweetest thing ever!


Getting on:



Once we got to McGregor, we took the buses back to the school.  When I asked Carsen what kinds of things he saw out the window of the train his response was, "Lots and LOTS of farms!"