I Just Love These Kids

After sessions on general conference weekend, we pulled out our Halloween decorations.  Didn't actually get to decorate too much because the kids were so helpful and I got distracted with Christmas music on the piano (yes, that starts in October), but we still had fun.  Katie loved climbing into the box.

 

 

She even climbed out, crawled (still not walking yet) to the kitchen, grabbed Tom's uneaten pizza crust and came back to slobber it in the box.

 

Tom wanted his picture taken too.

 

Shad has Tom repeat words of books when they read together now, so here's a video of them reading one of Tom's favorite books, Three Cheers for Tacky.

http://youtu.be/OQ1rcsv4aNY

 

I forgot to flip the vertical pictures, so I apologize for neck kinks.  Tom likes to play Bubbles on my phone and decided that the best place to do so would be sitting on the arm of the couch.

 

Spaghetti night!  I don't know why we don't do this more often.  It's a favorite that Shad and I share, Tom actually ate some veggies (he didn't pick out the green pepper!), and Katie's picture should be pretty self explanatory as to how she feels about spaghetti.

 

This two-year-old is big stuff and has a chore now!  He is very good at unloading the silverware basket from the dishwasher, as well as putting the basket back.  He came to me somewhat distressed one night, saying, "Mom! Nee hewp.  Bakis back!"  Shad had closed the dishwasher so that Katie wouldn't climb into it.

 

And Katie has discovered that she's tall enough to try and look in the trash can.  We've fixed that problem before it became a problem.  She loves tipping over the shorter recycling can next to the trash can, so the problem had to be stopped before it started.

 

Tom and Katie were great helpers one morning as we cut up our first honeydew from the garden.  Tom moved the chunks from the cutting board to the tupperware, and Katie begged for samples.

 

We've been enjoying hot chocolate lately on cold mornings and evenings.  One night Katie found a mug left on the coffee table and tried to suck out any leftovers from it.  It was mostly empty, except for a couple drips.

 

We decided to take a ride down the stairs in the laundry basket one day.

 

Tom was in a fix-it mood one day when Shad was putting our laundry room back together.  He started by trying to fix his walkie-talkie that Shad had stollen the battery out of.  He got the screw driver and told me, "Mom, Tom fix it phone."  Then he went to work on the door to the office.  Realizing that he was too short to reach the screws, he got my step stool from the kitchen.

 

And here Tom is learning how to do push-ups so he can earn a cookie.

 

 Miss Katie stands well on her own, and has taken one step on two occasions.  She is expert at climbing and going upstairs, though for months she's been terrified of going downstairs.  Wouldn't even let me teach her, though I forced it a couple times.  Those couple of times proved to have been successful earlier this week when she just started going down full flights of stairs on her own accord.  I'm thrilled!  She loves throwing her hands up on her face to cover her eyes (or not...it doesn't matter) and we say, "Oh no! Where'd Katie go?"  She's getting good at saying, "Boo!" when she reveals herself.  Ever the wiggler, she likes being involved in our bedtime reading of Goodnight Moon, though she doesn't sit still for it.

 

Tom's language is a fun thing.  He still says "Fuh keen bibi van" and we're still working on that pronunciation.  He picks up our patterns of language really well.  I usually call him "love," and it's been so endearing hearing that in return.  "Mom, Tom ha-hum boy?"  "Yes, Tom, you're a handsome boy." "Ohhhh!  Anks, yove!"  Or yesterday when I was having a bit of a rough day and sat down, took my glasses off and rested my head in my hand.  He came and found me, crawled his head into my lap and, looking up, asked, "Wha happened, yove?"  I can't remember right now what other funny things he says.  I think I need to adopt my friend, Robyn's, practice of writing kid quotes on a paper on the fridge.  Today, Tom felt that our favorite librarian, Mary, needed kisses.  So he chased her into her office and blew kisses to her.

End of October

Here's a post I just found from 2 years ago.  Apparently I never published it and it's been in my draft folder.  Oops.


It's been over a month and I don't even know what all I need to update...

My birthday was September 25. Shad made a scavenger hunt for me to find my present. It was a 12 piece Chinese tea cup set with a teapot at the end. There was a tea cup hidden with each clue along the way.

Shad's family came out here from Kansas the first weekend in October for Dan's open house at Buckley Air Force Base. We enjoyed hanging out with them. Shad changed Tommy's diaper and brought him out with his shorts on his head. Tommy's expression was a riot!

We ended up going to visit the family in Kansas the following weekend. We haven't been since February, so we decided to go for a road trip. Tommy did great with the drive, but after 2 back-to-back 4 hour drives, he didn't want to go back in his car seat for anything. We tried to give him a good long break.

In other eventful news, Tommy rolled from front to back 3 times on Sunday! He hasn't done it again since, though. Wednesday I baked around 6 dozen banana chocolate chip muffins with my 2 bananas and Mom's 4 bananas that were very ripe. I've split the muffins to share with others and still have two bags to deliver today. Then just last night, Tommy rolled over 3 times again, this time from back to front.

On Saturday we helped my friend, Sharley, with a Halloween carnival she was running at work for all the coworker's kids. She works in the provisioning department at Southwest Airlines, so the carnival was outside on airport property. It was really cool to be so close to the runways with all the airplanes taking off every few minutes. It was also a lot of fun to hang out and play with all the kids. We were there from 11-4. Tommy was dressed as Superman and won the costume contest! He got a Southwest lunch box, night light, paddle ball, freezer cup, glowsticks, etc. After the carnival we went to our ward chili cook-off, then rented Robin Hood. That is a very good movie. We really liked it.

Beyond that, I think all I have left is to update pics...

Tommy really likes to dance. I'm not sure whether he's dancing here, or just flapping his arms:)

I took Tommy out to experience grass at my parents' house, and he fell asleep. Amie (the dog) wouldn't come in the house and just leave him all alone out in the yard. She was a very good babysitter.

While Tommy was asleep out in the grass, I got a head start on decorating cupcakes for my sister Lori's school newspaper fundraiser. Being almost October, I made some mummies...


and bears.


After Tommy's nap out in the yard, he took a nap in Lori's room. Lori really wants a niece, so she gave him the blue bracelet and let him sleep with her pink and purple fuzzy unicorn.

More September

Remember those mysterious mounds I took a picture of?  Well Pris told me they were ammunition storage during WWII.

In September I got to go up to Kearney for our stake Relief Society conference.  Shad had a fun day with the kids.  They got to see loads of motorcycles in town for a fundraiser ride for our movie theater.  (Side note: our theater is in danger of death.  By January 2013, all movies will have switched from film to digital.  So they need a digital projector.  Which costs $120,000.  And they've been denied several loans and grants.)

 

They also had fun at the park.  Tom loves having Katie on his lap for swings and slides, even though it's really unneccessary.

This is a picture of Harlan Lake that I took on my way home from Kearney.  This is just outside of Alma, NE, and shows how bad our summer drought has been.  The lake bed was completely dried up and filled with all these beautiful green weeds.  Hence, the lake you see is green, not blue.

The third weekend in September is the Highway 36 Treasure Hunt, which is not a trail of clues to get to a treasure at the end, like we thought last year.  Rather, it's statewide garage sale day.  We had fun visiting one of our neighbors with her moving sale.  Katie got adventurous with the yard toys.

She and Tom shared the police car.

 

Goodnight Moon has become part of our bedtime routine.  It helped make going to bed easier since we got home from Utah and had a rough time readjusting.

 

Katie is so big and energetic playing at the park.

And she's a climber, too.  Shad and I were playing a game in the living room and heard funny sounds coming from the kitchen.  This is what he found.  Don't know how she got herself in there, but she was sure proud!  And one night while I was cooking dinner, Katie climbed up on the yellow chair and had fun playing with cabinet doors.

 

The last Saturday in September was the General Relief Society broadcast and our ward decided to have an activity beforehand, which we think was a complete fail and they think it was an outstanding success.  So next year when it gets repeated, we'll be sure to stay home and enjoy ourselves instead.  Anyway, on the way home, Katie was cranky and needed to breastfeed, so we pulled over so I could take care of her.  Shad took the opportunity for some star gazing with Tom.  They saw the moon, stars, satellites and airplanes.  They even went for a run down the road to "find birds."  Shad says he actually had to work to keep up with Tom!  Tommy had fun standing on top of the van to see the stars.

Here's a picture from our weekend at Shad's parents' house. 

 

And here's Tom sleeping in my bed one morning after he woke up at an earlier-than-acceptable hour and fell back asleep with me.

 

Miss Katie asleep after a walk.

 

Helping Mom in the garden. 

Our garden is now finished, mostly.  I haven't checked to see if the pumpkin vines survived the frost.  Shad and I picked everything else Friday night.  We harvested a bag of honeydew, a bag of cantelope, a bag of squash, a bag of green peppers, and two bags of green tomatoes.  We're hoping that things will ripen nicely for us, and if not, better luck next year.

Really, why wouldn't anyone want this?

I had a sick day today.  Head, stomach, intestines.  From the moment Tom woke up, he was on his game.  He climbed into bed with Momma and cuddled.  We fell back asleep until I got a text from Shad that he forgot to take out the recycling.  So I got up and dressed and took it out.  Tried to eat half a mug of oatmeal and didn't make it through.  Decided to try and sleep some more on the couch until kids woke up.  Tom came down at 9.  He was a bit upset, but when he saw me, he knew I wasn't feeling well.  He just gave me a kiss and rolled himself onto the couch and into my arms.  That's when I knew I had to throw up.  I ran to the kitchen and when I finished, Tom came in to ask me if I was okay.  Yeah, Tom, I'm okay.  But he saw through that.  "Momma sad.  Noisy."  Yes, my throwing up was a bit noisy.  He gave me a hug and took my hand, saying, "Come on, Momma."  He walked me back to the couch and had me lie down.

Some time after 10, Katie woke up.  Tom helped me upstairs to get her.  We got her and turned off the music and night light.  Tom told me, "Mom, Kaie (no typo, he doesn't pronounce the T) need oapmeal." (Again, no typo).  He took my hand and lead me to the stairs, then teased me on the way down that he was gonna get my butt.  He told me he needed a diaper change, so we went to do that.  When his turn was done, he told me Katie needed one, too.  So we changed her diaper.  Then he took my hand and lead me to the kitchen so he could help me make "oapmeal" for him and Katie.  While the oatmeal was cooking, I went to the bathroom.  Tom came in when I finished to tell me that Katie was messy.  Sure enough, she'd found my uneaten oatmeal.  I got her cleaned up, and set the kids up with their breakfasts.  I went back to the couch.  Tom kept checking on me to make sure I was okay.  He handed me my water bottle from the coffee table, and picked up my phone that I had set on the floor by the couch.  "Ooops, Momma!  Phone fall down."  I decided to call someone and see if she could take the kids.  It was such a hard phone call to make because I knew I couldn't really handle Katie and that Tom would have more fun, but what was I going to do without my Tom to take care of me?

I drove them over there after they finished breakfast and Tom invited me to come in and play with them.  I told him I was going to go home and lie down.  He said, "No Momma go home yie down."  I told him that he'd get to play with Peyton and Brexton and have so much fun and that I was going to go lie down.  He thought about it for a few seconds then said, "Momma, go home."  Then he bravely went up the steps to go have a play date without me.  He has such a hard time leaving me, that it really was a brave thing to see him go like that.  I cried several times while he was gone because I missed him so much.  I just love the sweet little boy that I have.

Finding Trains

Over the summer, I took Tommy out to the train tracks 2 blocks down the street when we heard the train whistle.  Since then, it's become habitual and mandatory.  Even Katie gets excited over the whistle when she hears it.  So no matter what we're doing, we have to drop every thing, scramble to get our shoes on and run out the door to the mini van.

 A couple weeks ago, the we went through the usual routine, but instead of seeing a train passing through, we saw a train stopped for maintenance and a crew of 3 men in a mini van.  One of them came over and asked if we'd like to climb up on the train and see the engine room.  Boy, would we ever!  We got to say hi to the engineer and he blew the whistle for us.  Tom was a bit to timid and unsure of his surroundings to accept the invitation to blow it himself.

 

See, Mom, train!

 

I should give a little vocabulary lesson here for those who don't know Tom's language.  When Tom hears a train, he gets excited and says, "Ahhh!  Mom!  Her keen!" (Hear train.)  And when he wants to find a train, he says, "Mom!  Fuhkeen bibi van!" (Find train mini van).  There was actually a funny story from Utah where it was late at night and we had just made it across some train tracks when we heard the whistle sound behind us.  Tom was overly tired and wanted to find the train, but we told him no.  That produced a tired, crying, hysterical two year old in the back seat, yelling, "AHHHHHH! FUHKEEN!"  ...for about 10 minutes until we got back to Suzanne's house for his castle.

 

Anyway, Katie got to drive the parked van.

 

I really do think she's proud of her messes she makes.  She sure just loves food.  I think those were black grapes.

 

I got to make a wedding cake.

 

And the kids napped for all but the last 15 minutes of it.  Then Tom was climbing all over me to see the cake and I had to send them across the street for 15 minutes.  Tom sat on that horse and cried the whole time until I came back.  Then he got off and Katie wanted a turn, so Tom climbed back on.  Darla and I thought he was being a punk, but he told us that Katie needed to sit on his lap.  He's such a sweet, caring big brother.

We went to the park when Dadda got home from work.  I hope you can tell in the picture that this tube is angled.  Katie practiced and practiced and now she can go up pretty speedy...when she doesn't take time to make faces at us through the holes.



Utah's Aftermath

It's been so long since I've written that I won't even bother trying to say what we've done, I'll just let the pictures tell stories.

For two weeks after we came home, none of us wanted to be here.  Tom kept asking for Suzanne's house, and would cry, "No Tom's house!" every time we came home from somewhere.  We had a hard time with sleeping arrangements.  Tom missed his castle so much.  But then all that excitement died down.

We had a family frisbee golf night with a cute little caddy.  In the picture on the left, he's trying to block his face from the paparazzi.

 

Katie got to sit in the basket.

 

 

We felt it was neccessary to go up to Geneva for Labor Day weekend, because Vern was getting pretty depressed, having not seen his grandkids since May and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel.  So we brought the kids to him.  We went up Friday morning so that we could stop in Kearney for some shopping.  We returned wood that we bought in May, but couldn't get money back.  Just in store credit.  Why yes, I would like to paint my laundry room.  We also had an early anniversary lunch while we had options to choose from.  We discovered this delightful Thai restaurant that had fantastic food, portions, prices and customer service.  I can still taste my Drunken Noodles.  You get to select your meal and the meat that goes in it, and they also have a number scale for you to select the spice level of your dish.  The hostess asked if we wanted anything for Tom, and we said that he'd just share with us.  She still brought out a complimentary plate of watermelon and orange slices for him, free of charge.  Then when she saw that Katie was not sitting in her high chair, but trying to climb into our plates, she asked if we wanted her to take care of Katie.  She entertained Katie for 15-20 minutes while we finished our meal.  She showed her all around the restaurant, talked to her, played with her, played music for her, and made a napkin rose for her.  We are looking forward to going back this month when we'll be up there for stake conference.

 

And so, with full bellies, we continued driving to Geneva to surprise Bumpa. We had a fun weekend with them.  We played at the park and laughed at the grandparents trying to take pictures.

Tom got to swing so high with Momma.



 

We went to York on Saturday for the other Kendells' church barbeque.  Tom saw a soccer game at the park there, and since then he runs in circles yelling, "Soccerball! Soccerball!"  No ball.  Just Tom.  He's also learned about football since then.  And that looks similar to soccerball, only he falls down after he runs.

 

We saw this cool house on our way home.

 

 

And these interesting mounds just east of Hastings, NE.  They were about 5 rows deep and we must have passed over a hundred of them.  I'd love to know what they are. And why.

 

 

We thought it'd be fun to stop at the Pioneer Village Museum in Minden, NE, but we found out that it's $13 per person.  Sorry Dad, we no longer feel the need to go there the next time you come visit.  But I did get to use the restroom, which provided me with this lovely Ladies' Urinal.

With history and directions posted on the wall above it!

 

Gotta get the kids off to bed, so I'll write more later.  Tom skipped his nap today and it's 8, so I think that merits an early bedtime:)