Andrew's First Talk in Primary

From Shared

Andrew gave his first talk in church today. After sacrament meeting (the general meeting where everyone is together), all the kids go to primary. Andrew is in Junior Primary with kids ages 3-8? (I think?) Different kids get a chance to give a short talk each week. Andrew's talk was about how Jesus teaches him to choose the right.

He was actually pretty disappointed after Sacrament mtg because I guess he thought he was going to talk there. :)

We dropped Catie in the nursery so that we both could go watch Andrew give his first talk. He came up with the list of things he wanted to say a few weeks ago and helped pick pictures to go with his words. He has a pretty good memory, so if I tried to change anything, he remembered and told me that I wrote it down wrong. 

We practiced last night and this morning and we were so proud of how brave Andrew was. He was really proud of himself too!

You can click on the video above to watch the whole thing. Not sure if you're allowed to videotape primary talks, but we did anyway :)

Family Photos

We had a little photo shoot with Meghan a few weeks ago for Catie and Andrew and got a few family photos too. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites that represent the kiddos well.

The kids kept us entertained during the whole session and I was exhausted by the time I got home!

Goofy kid!

Can you tell it was a bit windy during our shoot?

This was Catie for like half the shoot... running towards the water. Can't wait for Hawaii in June. :)

The crazies... Andrew always overly enthusiastic... Catie the opposite. Never quite got them in sync.

I absolutely love this photo below of Andrew & Kevin. It is getting printed, framed, and hung asap.

This picture is sooo Catie that it makes me laugh :)

And lastly, one of just me and Kevin... while the crazies ran around.

Didn't Meghan do an excellent job? Especially considering the energetic bunch she was working with? I have a gazillion more pictures to share, but those are a few favorites for tonight. Thanks Meghan!

Fun Stuff

This weekend was pretty chill. We played with a ice a lot (see here and here), ran circles around the living room again and again (this picture was when Catie stopped running to just watch Andrew), and had two date nights out (went to a preschool auction and won a few cool things... and trekked down to the South Bay for a friend's birthday party). 

This week we have been having way too much fun with friends. We hosted Mommy and Me Book Club yesterday morning and then Andrew had a playdate in the afternoon. The boys shot Andrew's marshmallow shooter and ran around in dress up clothes. Then we played in the cul-de-sac with the neighbors until Catie was begging for dinner and bed.

She did have a blast with her favorite neighborhood friend though. I love/hate this cat.

Today my little cutie pie had her first Mommy & Me gymnastic class. I never did anything like that with Andrew because he was crazy at organized things. She wasn't too different, but we still had a really fun time and I got a great workout. One of the moms from Andrew's preschool was in the class too, so it was nice to have a friend to chat with while we chased after the kids. Catie loved rocking out to music during class and jumping on the trampoline. The coaches were all so excited to see her since Andrew has been taking gymnastics at the same place since before she was born. They were so stoked to be her coaches for her first ever gymnastics class!

Catie and I spent the rest of the day shuttling Andrew from preschool to a park playdate to gymnastics and then to baseball.

She and I took a trip to Sees chocolates and the Pet store during Andrew's afternoon activities since I felt bad that she'd been in the car for 75% of the day.

We also grabbed Andrew food and a giant Jamba Juice so that he was fully energized and hydrated for baseball this week... which would hopefully equal less crying/whining during his practice. It worked. My favorite part of baseball was when he was playing in the outfield and sat down on the grass and took off his shoes to relax. The kids were struggling to hit the ball out to him... so he figured, why waste the energy standing?

By the end of the evening this little one wasn't too happy... she's been having an allergic reaction to something lately and is teething... so life is kinda hard for her... especially when I won't let her drink her Jamba in the car because she keeps dumping it in her lap :)

We put her to bed asap after dinner and then Andrew and I made oobleck and goofed around. The kitchen was a disaster but boy did we have a blast!

Now that I'm caught up a bit (though still need to blog spring break), I've desperately got to get to bed early so I am not completely exhausted for my 6:30am run!

Spilling the beans

Photo credit: Meghan MacAskill

Andrew started spilling the beans to all of his teachers at preschool this past week since he is super excited. Catie is completely oblivious... though Andrew likes to remind her about the special news a lot and loves to talk about how my stomach is getting bigger.

So, if you've seen me recently and wondered if I ate too many Cadbury mini eggs after Easter and packed on some pounds... now you know that isn't the only reason :)

Baby Buskirk #3 is due sometime around Halloween/first part of November.

We are excited!

Little YouTubers

Andrew and Catie were excited about their new Google schwag that Kevin brought home with him today. Andrew had to put his shirt on immediately (I wasn't home... otherwise it would've been documented).

Little man is so stoked that his dad starts working for his favorite place EVER next week- you know, the place were he watches videos of baking soda volcanoes again and again or where we go to find video footage of fuel trucks exploding into flames? We are huge YouTube fans at our house... and now we have another excuse to love it- Kevin is moving from working at Google in Adsense for TV to working for YouTube on Monday.

Andrew's been talking about Kevin's new position for weeks, so we'll definitely have to go visit him soon and check out his cool new office and have lunch. In the meantime, Andrew and Catie will be sporting their YouTube schwag! I will have to grab a picture of them actually wearing it at some point.

We're going to the zoo

I've been singing the song, "we're going to the zoo tomorrow" for like two weeks. Last week we tried going several times... and each time it started raining on the way or before we left the house.

We finally made it today... despite it taking us ONE WHOLE HOUR to get out of the house. I lost my hair brush. I looked through my trash pile of a car for it three different times, Andrew said several prayers that we'd find it, and I FINALLY found it under a pile of clothes in my closet after at least 45 minutes of looking. Ugh! 

We were so happy to finally arrive at the zoo with brushed hair at 11am. 

The weather was gorgeous- bright and sunny and perfect. Catie could barely handle all the animals. She screams when she sees dogs. Imagine the sounds that came out of her mouth when she saw large tigers, bears, and lions.

We loved playing and exploring at the children's zoo for the first half of our visit and then we visited the African Safari area.

Catie was NOT a fan of the glass. She was SO MAD that she couldn't actually touch the animals when they were so close.

The play areas at Oakland Zoo are so awesome. I love how they make the play areas themed and related to the animals that are in the enclosures close by. If you can believe it, we've only been to the Oakland Zoo three times (including today) and have never been during the day. It was so fun to actually see the animals and see how huge the zoo actually is (though it is nothing like the San Diego Zoo... which Andrew made sure I knew).

This lily pad area is a fun idea... unless you have a crazy water loving toddler. Trying to keep Catie from jumping into the water was quite a feat. So glad I didn't actually invite any friends to join us today... I needed all eyes on Catie the entire time and no distractions. I got such an amazing workout chasing after her that I just skipped my run this afternoon. I am soooo tired!

I desperately want a slide like this in my backyard. So cute!

If you ever create a zoo... I'd highly recommend not putting metal animal statues in direct sunlight. This play area looks super fun... but the animals were so hot that neither of the kids wanted to play on them. I had been so excited to sit on the grass and take a rest and watch the kids play... no such luck!

So on to the absolute best part of the day- the African safari area. Catie and Andrew could've watched the giraffes forever. They are gorgeous and they were so close by.

I was soooo glad that I brought Catie's little stroller and not a big one. We did so much hill walking and this little contraption was fabulous.

Another favorite exhibit. I could've sat and watched the elephants all day.

Catie loved them too.

My little goofballs

My favorite exhibits- the crazy Catie exhibit... covered in slushee

and the Halloween shirted hooligan... someday I may just hide all the Halloween shirts

We ended the day with a few rides. We took Catie on the carousel for the first time in awhile. All was fine and dandy until about halfway through the ride when she was DONE. Picture wrestled a mud covered pig. That's how I felt trying to keep her somewhat contained (while standing holding onto a pole) while we waited for the ride to finish. My best feat of the day was holding Catie while still managing to lift Andrew onto an elephant carousel seat that was probably a head taller than me. I got a great arm workout!

Andrew was pleased as punch to ride the fire truck as his last ride of the day. He told me again and again what an awesome day today was as we walked to the car... so I felt pretty happy about how our morning turned out.

We all had quiet time or naps for almost three hours when we got home and I will definitely be heading to bed early tonight! So glad we finally made it to the zoo! We will have to go back again soon!

Lil Baseball

Andrew had his first baseball practice of the year today. It was adorable. They started off practice by standing while the Star Spangled Banner was played. They all took off their hats and put them over their hearts. 

All the moms had their phones or cameras out snapping photos... too cute!

Once the song was over, the kids all yelled "play ball!" (which the coaches taught them ahead of time). Andrew is on the far end yelling his heart out!

Next they got put into teams. Andrew is with the 4-5 year olds and I loved watching how comfortable he was right away. He was so funny telling the random new kids that he met all sorts of things. For example, during a base running drill he told everyone how at home his dad does a cooler drill with him where he runs after him (when they run the bases) and tags him with a ball. He told the coaches too... and asked if they were going to do that? :) They said maybe another day. I think they were ready for him to pipe down by the end of practice.

When it was time for batting, little dude made sure to tell all of his pals that they need to wait until the coach counts until three before they can hit the ball. Now, he didn't follow that rule half the time, but they needed to. Love my little bossy man. ;)

While some kids hit the ball, the others fielded... and then they switched. Loved watching all the guys chase after the balls like a little herd.

Then it was throwing time. When Andrew got home later he told me that everyone else had a glove at practice and he was the only one who didn't... and that I need to remember to bring him one next time. Hmm... I never noticed anyone with a glove, but it made me laugh that he was so aware of what everyone else had. Didn't realize that was starting already.

Catie was a bit of a pill during practice... but was a huge fan of wearing my pearls with Andrew's baseball cap. The little lady's got style, right? ;)

Around this time Andrew had a bathroom emergency... so we trekked up to the far away bathrooms for a pit stop... and then we came back and while hanging out waiting for his turn to bat he managed to... bite?... the blister on his hand. Sweet! Drama man arrived and there was lots of crying about his blister. I managed to help him move past it with a handful of Sun Chips and a kiss on his hand. He was obviously exhausted by this point... so everything became a little more emotional. It was so funny!

At the end of practice they played an actual game- 3/4yr olds versus the 4/5yr olds. Andrew hit the ball and then got to run all the bases and was super speedy.

Ah, I forgot to mention that he wouldn't wear his new baseball cap because he had to wear his Yankee's hat the entire practice. It is my Yankees hat... not his... so it was in his eyes the whole time. What a cutie!

Waiting for their turn to bat. Loved listening to what they talked about while they waited. Andrew is not shy.

Meanwhile Catiebug ate lots of snacks, threw a few tantrums, and finally found a friend to play with on the bleachers... so all was well!

Practice ended with a team cheer and then Andrew raced over to beg for more chips and give Catie a big hug!

The first practice of the year was a success! Looking forward to more Tuesday evenings on the baseball field with this little guy.

We ended the night with a trip through the McDonalds drive-thru because I was too exhausted to make dinner. What a fabulous evening!