The K&K Report

New header

2012-01-28T01:56:00.001-08:00

I put a new header on the blog. The other one had been there since Dec 2010. If you like that sorta thing, check it out. It has our family motto on it. :)

Also, I played around with the blog design settings a bit. Would love you to let me know if the width of the text is perfect, too wide, or too narrow for your computer screen.

I really should be asleep, but Catie was so nice to me last night and let me sleep in... so I'm not tired yet. Love her! (Could've also been the DC I drank at 10pm too?)

Memories- Palo Alto Palooza

2012-01-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

I saw the word palooza the other day... which took me back a few years and allowed me to reminisce a bit about some crazy times with friends as we put on Palo Alto Palooza (Fall 2003) and Palo Alto Palooza II (Fall 2004).

Back in 2003, after teaching little guys with autism for awhile, I had the grand idea to put on a benefit concert to raise money for Parents Helping Parents and SF Chapter of The Autism Society of America. I have no real musical talent, but I have friends who do... and we used to organize concerts in Utah... so I decided I'd be able to do it here in Cali. So... Palo Alto Palooza: A Benefit Concert for Autism was born.

The first Palo Alto Palooza was held at Escondido Elementary School on a freezing cold night at the end of October.

The highlights of the night included making hot cocoa in a HUGE McDonalds Gatorade container and stirring it with a semi-clean lacrosse stick (not my idea- and I didn't drink it :)) and then a mishap with the school sprinklers halfway through the performance which then caused all performers and guests to have to make a run for it so they wouldn't get soaked. The evening was beautiful nonetheless. Some super moms from PHP even came to talk about autism. Two of my favorite performers (Josh & Laura) got married (not any of my doing... but a fun fact)... and my friend Scott later worked at KPMG with Kevin and was Kevin's biggest cheerleader (besides my mom and Elise) when we were starting to date :)

The next year we moved onto a bigger and better (and less chilly) location at the Palo Alto Art Center. We had a real green room for musicians to wait in and actual sound. We also had an official emcee and my darling little class of special little people performed the opening number along with their 1st grade regular ed friends from my friend/performer Laura's class. They sang and signed to "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. The musicians who performed were great and tons of my friends donated treats for us to serve. It was an incredible evening! Both classes of elementary students also displayed artwork that portrayed what a wonderful world would look like. Looking back, the most comical part of the event was that Kevin auditioned to perform at the concert and I turned him down. :)

I need to reminisce more often... and I really need to find some of the pictures from this night and scan them.

I did discover that part of the 2003 performance was recorded and is online here. So seriously awesome.

I need a bumper sticker that says, "If it wasn't blogged, did it happen?" That's how I feel about unblogged parts of my life. I have no memory of them if I didn't write them down. Everything before 2008 is a blur.

I definitely need to work on jotting them down from time to time.

If you were at any of the Palo Alto Palooza concerts, what do you remember?

(PS- Elise designed my flier above. I had forgotten about that too)

Ancestors, Book Club, and a Dragon

2012-01-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

We had a mellow but awesome day today. Caitlin somehow slept in until 9:15, so I was lazy and slept in until 8:45. Andrew kept himself entertained until we got up and then we made cinnamon rolls again. Andrew is quite persuasive.

Later in the morning we headed over to our monthly Mommy and Me Book Club. My friend Chrissie hosted this month and did an adorable job. We talked about weather, sang songs, read a book, and did a few craft projects.

Catie thought she was pretty cool to get to be included. Usually she is asleep... but since she slept in so late her nap was off and she got to participate. She liked rolling around on the big pillows ("clouds"), eating lots of snacks, and playing with baby Miles. She was a little miffed when there wasn't a chair at the big kid table for her... but made herself comfortable on the floor.

We spent the rest of the day being lazy. We crafted a bit and mostly just played, put away laundry, and attempted to clean up. Andrew is really good at cleaning up toys now (more OCD than me with it), so it is really nice. He puts things in the right place. I love it.

Tonight we had FHE and talked about ancestors. My friend Heather shared this awesome FHE website link, so we put it to use right away and did the first lesson for January.

Andrew thought these pictures of Grandpa Kim were pretty darn cool.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of Grandma Ewart.

She looks like a knock-out and still looks so composed with her passel of 5 boys.

Andrew also liked learning a bit about his Great Grandpa Henry and Great Grandpa Fred.

We also talked about where our ancestors are from and talked about how Heavenly Father loves children from all around the world. Since I wasn't prepared to do a craft project or something from a place where our ancestors were from, we worked as a family to finish up our Chinese New Year dragon project (since today is Chinese New Year). I thought it turned out pretty cool. Andrew is mostly excited that the dragon breathes fire.

We are looking forward to hopefully another great day tomorrow!

Crazy Andrew

2012-01-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

This kid cracks me up.

I need to be better about documenting the things that he says/does.

Tonight we did a painting project that turned into a mom/Andrew hand painting activity with both of our hands/forearms totally covered in lots of paint. It was a lot of fun... mostly because it was just the two of us and we were both being silly and creative and not worrying about staying too clean. Love him.

This morning I decided to wake up early (before my snooze alarm went off for the 2nd/3rd time) and sneak downstairs to make cinnamon rolls for Andrew. A few second later I heard him bounding down the stairs excitedly. He could barely contain himself. He absolutely loves cinnamon rolls. These aren't real homemade ones, they are the ones that you pop from a can, but he doesn't know any different.

I loved (as he sat down and started devouring the rolls) that he paused for a second and asked,
"How did you make these so wonderful mom?" And then he proceeded to thank me all morning for making them. Such a sweetheart!

I cannot believe he is going to be 4 in almost a month. Crazy?!!

Scotcheroos

2012-01-22T14:32:00.001-08:00

These are the best things ever. We are making them right now!

1 cup sugar

1 cup Karo syrup

1 cup peanut butter

5 cups rice krispies

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

Bring Karo and sugar to a boil on med heat. Remove from heat and add peanut butter. Add rice krispies. Spread evenly into a greased 9x13 pan. Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together and spread on the rice krispies. Let set. So easy and So yummy!!! Enjoy! :)

These boots were made for...

2012-01-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

Walking, chasing, and tickling!

How cute are these boots that Scott and Tito got for Catie for Christmas?

She practiced walking in them today while we were putting laundry away... and unfortunately ended up like this on the floor once or twice

She thought pounding them on the wood floor was pretty seriously awesome though.

So adorable! Can't wait to actually put together a cute outfit to wear them with... today we just put them on with what she was already wearing.

The boots definitely helped her escape from crazy Andrew a time or two as well

I love that my rocking chair gets so much use from their games of chase and hide and seek

I also loved that for a few minutes when she first put the boots on she didn't know how to walk in them and just stood perfectly still so I could snap a picture of her. I think I'll be bringing them out for more photo shoots. Maybe then I'll actually have a few photos that don't have her running away from me (her new favorite thing).

Lazy Sundays

2012-01-16T00:21:00.000-08:00

This is what lazy Sundays look like around here after church

(the first five hours of the day from 7am-12pm are NOT lazy)

Tea parties

Andrew was way more into it than Catie was

Treats

Lots of toy time

Lots of smiles because dad is home

Parading around in cute outfits

Attempting to play together

(swing... and a miss... Catie's more interested in cars and balls than a tea party)

posing... contemplating how to get more treats

M&M face- hoping to score lots of M&Ms from mom!

A little too much iPad time

A tantrum or two... or more

(someone got woken up by her brother an hour too early)

Weekly Sunday family walk... this week in the bitter cold

Climbing trees with dad!

(talking strategy)

Lots of hugs!

And of course, we did plenty of relaxing!

It was a great Sunday! So glad tomorrow is a holiday so we get to do it all again.

Socializing

2012-01-13T00:14:00.000-08:00

When I was reflecting on my week yesterday, I thought, "I have barely seen any of my friends this week. I need to get planning some parties or something."

Then today I took a sec to actually go moment by moment through my week and I realized that I think I have a problem with my social gauge. Here's how our week has gone.

Monday
- Andrew had two friends over and I hung out and chatted with my friend Cara while the kids played.
- Met up with three other friends at the park for a lunch playdate AND ran into my newest neighbor there too. Played for over an hour and a half.
- Went running to the Snake Park in the late afternoon and bumped into my new neighbor again. We chatted while the kids played.

Um... I think I had probably 4 hours of friend social time just on Monday.

Tuesday
- Went walking with my friend Sandy for an hour in the morning while Andrew was at preschool
- Had a lunch playdate with my neighbor and kids after preschool
- Played in the court with the neighbor kids in the afternoon and chatted with their babysitter
- Went to our neighborhood HOA meeting with my other neighbor in the evening and got some more girl chat time in

(Catie totally thinks she is one of the big kids)

At least 3+ more friend social hours

Wednesday
This is my chill day of the week... so we hung out and I think I chatted with Flab to Fab competition friends on Facebook or Kid Blogger friends for like half the day. Catie was trying to take a nap for like 3 hours! We also ate a lot chocolate.

(coming for my chocolate)

(eating my chocolate)

- Went to our speed dating youth activity and chatted with the other leaders and the YW for an hour and a half.

Probably only 1.5 hours of actual face time with friends... maybe that's why I was feeling like I needed to plan a party?

Thursday
- Chatted with friends at preschool drop off/pick up
- Got my hair cut by one of my favorite people and chatted with her for a fun full hour while Cate went and got babysat by a friend
- played on the computer

- met up with two friends and kids at Blackhawk for lunch and more socializing
- Went running in the afternoon and met up with my friend's family at the park for an hour or so
- Came home and hung out in the cul-de-sac with my fabulous neighbors for like another half an hour

(Catie loves having bikes to steal and friends to push her around)

Um... at least 4+ hours of more social time.

None of this is counting time on the phone with Etta or Elise. Yeah... I think I have a problem if I somehow think that I have been not social enough this week. I am tired reading this!

We also managed to get a lot of errands and random projects done... and one of these days I will catch up on laundry/dishes. But instead we did art projects, played dress up, and actually got a workout in every day (at least once).

(checking out her new outfit)

This little cutie loves necklaces, wings, hats, clippies... I love it!

I am so excited for a relaxing Friday tomorrow! Here's to hoping my kids (I mean Andrew) don't continue the trend of waking me up 2 times every night because of problems with sheets or lost flashlights or monsters. Mommy is tired... probably from all the socializing I didn't even realize I was doing!

Photography Madness and Kindness

2012-01-11T09:10:00.000-08:00

I'm guest posting on my friend Wendy's photography blog today displaying some of the ways we've been putting photos on the walls at our house... since we were inspired by her Art Display Project. Click on this link to check out all of the pictures I shared.

Source: wenderful.com via Kristina @ Toddler Approved on Pinterest

Also, we're starting the 100 Acts of Kindness Project next week on my Toddler Approved blog. I would love some of you to join us. You can read about the details here. I can use all the help I can get to be kind.

Weekend Fun

2012-01-08T22:53:00.000-08:00

Little chica is a walker on the verge of running... and is ALL over the place. Picture her at IKEA (in Emeryville) on a Saturday- refusing to ride in a stroller/cart or be held. She is crazy!

If I don't watch her, she just will start booking it down the block.

She is also always a mess it seems these days! Those squeeze baby food things are the most amazing thing ever... until she gets ahold of one with her church dress on and squeezes food all over herself and then mostly on Kevin's suit and my shirt. She trie to eat rocks, dirt, and anything else she can find outside... so no wonder she looks like a raggamuffin!

This is a girl after my own heart though. I swear she says M&Ms and chocolate (in her own baby way) almost all day long. She knows you've gotten a treat and can smell it a mile away. She'll stand next to the counter trying to grab up at 13x9 pans filled with carmelitas that she can't reach. She looks so adorable doing it that Kevin and I can't help but give her a sample of whatever we are having.

When she falls she starts saying M&M since undoubtedly I'll offer one to her to get her to stop crying. Who can say no to this little cutie?

Other than a trip to IKEA to buy a bookcase for Andrew's room (and to meet up with Scott & Tito for lunch there), we had a pretty chill weekend. Kevin hung frames for me. I selected pictures and got them printed. I am on a mission to get photos and other decorations on our walls finally. I have been staring at blank walls for 2 years!

Kevin is one amazing frame hanger. There is no doubt in my mind that everything is straight and that knowledge makes me happier than if it were Christmas. I love symmetry and things that are straight. Growing up I had to draw pencil lines with rulers on every thank you card that I wrote before I could write a message.

My favorite photo display so far is this one that we put over Cate's dresser. Our friend Meghan took the photos earlier this year (Cate was 9 months) and we love them.

More pictures to come later this week. Kevin is calling me possessed. I am on a decorating kick. The dishes and laundry are suffering a bit... so hopefully I can go remedy that now!

Andrew spent the weekend "helping" Kevin and being my baking buddy. He is the cutest. Unfortunately he can't keep his body still enough for me to take a picture of him... though I wish I had a picture of him screaming bloody murder in the hallway at church today. He DID NOT want to go to Sunbeams and everyone at church knew it. Fortunately bribery works on him.

I'm exhausted! Good night!

Nicole's Wedding

2012-01-06T00:39:00.000-08:00

I've been on a mission this week to get my house orderly and all, so I am just finally getting around to uploading pics from the rest of our Utah trip.

One of the highlights of our vacation was going to my cousin Nicole's wedding. She got married the Thursday after Christmas. I took a gazillion and one pictures... so I'll just post a few favorites here (ok... maybe 20+?). She looked beautiful and we had so much fun!

Nicole and Richard got married in the Draper Temple. While we waited for them to come out of the temple, I snapped some photos.

Introducing the new couple- Mr. and Mrs. Clover!

More pics of people hanging out in the windy/freezing cold.

Cute Macy!

Three Sisters! A great picture to show how windy it was.

The Christensen family + the new couple!

The Tolberts (my cousin Allison and fam)

Me and Kev

Heymans!

Cute sisters again!

The beautiful bride (can you tell I'm still learning how to use my camera? I have lots to learn about light/ISO, etc.)... good thing the subjects I was taking pictures of are so beautiful! No matter how overexposed the photos were, Nicole and her sisters still look great.

My cool shot of the temple when I was messing around with the photo settings and trying to get them to work normally.

The reception!

Nicole and Richard had quite a party. Good food, dancing, and delicious cake. I judge weddings by the cake... so these guys earned 10 gold stars. It was so good.

Cake cutting helpers

Twins! (my mom and her sister)

Richard is also a twin so we did a giant twin picture, but my version of "twin picture" kind of has his twin cropped out, so I'll post a copy when I get an actual one with all the twins intact.

Grandma and Grandpa Brown- love them!

Mom and Jess

Nicole with Ryan (her bro who is on his mission right now).

More snapshots of the party people...

Smith Fam!

Father/daughter, Mother/Son dance

Kim and Jules tearing up the dance floor

Aunt Laurel with Cole

Jenny made sure that missionary "Ryan" had a rocking good time too

Lots of cousins!! It was so fun to see so many of my cousins!

Cute favor we went home with- hot cocoa in adorable little bags

The big send-off with bubbles!

Such a fun day filled with celebration! Congrats Nicole and Richard!

Where did the time go?

2012-01-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

Man, it's like she went to sleep for a few hours last week and woke up a toddler.

I don't have a baby anymore. So sad! Cate totally thinks she is the same age as Andrew and should be allowed to do everything that he does.

They are starting to squabble more and goof around more. Today's activity included Andrew bopping Cate's knees with a broom, her falling down in a fit of giggles, and then standing up to get bopped again. Repeat.

As we shopped for picture frames at Target today Andrew made up some game for them to play together and would get so annoyed if Cate got distracted saying hi to any random people passing by. I love how much he loves his sister!

Today he made me get out brooms for both of them so that they could do "chores."

I am finally getting more organized about the idea of doing chores... so Andrew has to...

- clear the table after meals
- help make his bed
- get himself dressed (already does this well... but we're working on matching clothes/colors and weather appropriate choices)
- put his clothes away (in hamper or in drawers)
- put away toys in the playroom/bedroom

I also let him sweep and help me with unloading the dishes sometimes too.

Any other chore suggestions for almost 4 yr olds? I cannot believe he is almost 4 either.

Today at the park he announced to a new group of kids, "Hi, I'm Andrew. I'm three!" He was really proud of himself. The other kids were ages 4-6 and I guess didn't react the way he was expecting to his age (they didn't think 3 was such a cool age). By the end of our park trip he was announcing to new kids he met, "I'm almost 4 (completely leaving out the part that he was 3)." I love how friendly and social he is.

I was just in awe of both kids today. I love them. They are remarkable. I am so blessed.

A friend and I chatted a long time today about kids and getting pregnant and how my plan for kids didn't work out the way that I wanted... yet it is perfect. I am so grateful for the increased faith I have now in how my life is supposed to go. I don't get to plan anything really (though sometimes I may think I do) and whatever plans I do have for my life are pitiful compared to what my Heavenly Father has planned for me.

Each day in this new year I have spent 5-10 minutes writing down the good things I have seen during the day. It has been amazing how moments I had forgotten will pop into my mind and I can record them. I don't write much detail, but it nice to have a quick reminder of some of the good moments I see during my day.

I am also reading this beautiful book by Emily Freeman.

Source: deseretbook.com via Kristina on Pinterest

Tonight I organized a bad habits bonfire with the girls I lead at church. We wrote down our bad habits from 2011 on pieces of paper and then got to burn them (there are lots of little pyros in my group)! We also made s'mores. Yum! Then we talked about starting new good habits for 2012 and wrote them down. I have so many on my list that I can't even wrap my head around all of them. I love the idea of "seeing good days." There are so many and they are flying by.

Crazy! Better head to bed so I can see more good things tomorrow. I have a feeling it is going to be an early morning!

Photo wall experimenting

2012-01-02T23:37:00.000-08:00

My friend Wendy has photography friends posting on her blog all month long sharing how they display their own photographs in their homes. I was inspired and now I have a goal in 2012 to get more of the gazillion photos that I take up on the wall! Remember this post? It is time to get rid of ALL of my blank canvases!

So I got started today by buying some frames and planning out some ideas.

I bought two Norman Rockwell prints (shown above- though very small- and my frames don't look like that) when I was in Vermont this Fall... so today I finally found some large frames (they are 20x24) and should be a great way to fill a huge blank wall in Andrew's room. Now I need to get the prints matted. Hopefully that doesn't take me another whole year.

I also plotted out a way to possibly create a photo wall in my living room. This is my plan. It uses 2 (16x20), 2 (11x14), and 4 (8x10) photos. Currently the largest photo we have in our house is a 5x7... so these photos will be a step up... assuming I can decide on photos to showcase.

My little tiny Target table is looking rather pitiful with the wall display... so maybe we'll have to upgrade it to something nicer/bigger later this year. Btw, I know the tape shapes aren't totally straight. I didn't feel like getting out the level for this little exercise. It will definitely be used when we actually put the frames up. There is nothing that annoys me more than a crooked frame (other than maybe glitter).

I think I may also add some photos of the kids in the living room/playroom. Kevin and I are still deciding if two photos on each side of the window is overkill. We may do one long photo/print on each side instead. Thoughts?

K, so... pass along feedback.

Also, how do you decide what to frame or group together? Do all the photos on my photo wall need to be from the same photo shoot? Should they all have similar colors? Where should I print large photos? I am doing color photos (no black and whites... I think)... and I am doing black frames with a simple matte.

I spent an hour at Aaron Brothers tonight and only came home with two frames. Since they are having a buy one frame, get the second one for 1 cent, I was hoping I'd be more successful. No dice.

Where do you like to buy frames? Pass along advice please. It would be so fun to see photos all around the house of my kids... at the rate I am currently going that won't happen until they are in college!

The ornament you won't see

2012-01-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

Andrew made this cute ornament at preschool as a "gift" to mom and dad for Christmas.

We forgot about it until yesterday and so Andrew was super excited to have us unwrap it once it was discovered.

It was like New Years Eve all over again with how much glitter came spilling out onto our carpet, wood floor, and clothes.

Merry Christmas to us! ;) I think Andrew's gift will get the opportunity to hang out in the special glitter spot in the garage. That is where everything from preschool that has glitter on it gets to go.

New Years Eve in Pictures

2012-01-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

How did you spend New Years Eve? I'm sure your evening wasn't as exciting or as fun as ours was... ;)

We...

Flew home from Utah

Did mountains of laundry from our weeklong vacation and unpacked all five of our suitcases. We still have lots to do... but we're making progress.

Played Kinect

Re-discovered toys we've missed over the past week

Contemplated our resolutions

Attempted to clean up Christmas (or at least take lots of ornaments off the tree thanks to my little helper)

Made chocolate chip cookies

Celebrated at "midnight" (9pm = midnight at our house thanks to YouTube videos of previous Times Square countdowns)

Looked for other treats to eat... since the cookies the boys made were a bit inedible

Cleaned up streamers and attempted to go to bed before 1am (since our goal is to get more sleep in 2012)

It was a fun night, but I always love New Years Day better than New Years Eve. I am so glad I spent years and years doing crazy fun things on NYE like going to Times Square or London or SF... so now I can happily sit on my couch and watch Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark and be happy in my pjs next to Kevin with a diet Coke and chocolate!

Hooray for New Years Eve!

Buskirk 2012 Resolutions

2012-01-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

Looks like we'll all be busy this year!

A Second Christmas

2011-12-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday we whipped out Kevin's favorite Christmas present (besides the new car he'll be getting sometime in 2012)...and made breakfast!

They looked prettier than they tasted (at least that's what Kevin tells me... I don't waste calories on treats that don't have real chocolate). Didn't I do a nice job frosting them? :)

After breakfast we got ready and spent the day at Shari's celebrating Christmas once again with the Johnsons! This photo shows how I found the guys in the late afternoon- all upstairs sitting around 2 phones/iPod touches playing games :)

We played games, opened presents, and ate lots of good food- especially lots of treats.

Catie's favorite treat was found in this little box. It especially came in handy when she fell and hit her heard and got a big bump! Peppermint Bark heals all wounds.

This little one also got loads of attentions and tickles. I just love her!

I don't think it is possible for her to get any cuter right now. I especially love how she now says "Mama" and how it is one of the only things she likes to say sometimes. She just roams around calling for "mama." LOVE it!

She also got loads of cuddles and tickles from Aunt Shauna.

What a lovely relaxing family-filled day!

Hogle Zoo Lights!

2011-12-28T10:37:00.000-08:00

On Monday night we all met up with the Caffees at the Hogle Zoo Lights! (Mom, dad, Jess, our family + Caffees)

We are totally California cold wimps now. I seriously thought I was going to die it was so cold. You never would've known that I grew up in the freezing Northeast. I also somehow thought that wearing flats with no socks was a bright idea.

Elise brought cake bites from Sweet Tooth Fairy that cheered me up a bit. We drank hot cocoa, ate pretzels, and even rode the carousel.

Andrew finally was happy for a few minutes when a group of 8-10 yr old girls mauled him as he tried to board the carousel. Kevin was playing around with my camera and managed to snap a picture of me as I totally reamed them. I got really mad and made them get off the ride. Their rude mother didn't even make them say sorry.

Andrew was so upset that Kevin just ended up taking him back to the car while the rest of us explored the zoo for another 30 minutes. The only smiling picture we got of him was in his parka once he was back in the car.

We really wanted to go to Hatch Family Chocolates for hot cocoa, but it was closed :( so we headed to Leatherbys instead and got ginormous sundaes while the kids ran around in the empty restaurant. It was fabulous and yummy.

A great end to a cold evening!! :)

Smithkirk Christmas

2011-12-28T01:04:00.000-08:00

I have some sort of weird insomnia lately at night and I can't fall asleep... so I figured I might as well try finishing up my Christmas blog posts!

Christmas Day started with Andrew and Cate waking up around 8:30am- not too bad! We got the Caffees up and then the party got started!

I was up sick most of the night before, so I was pretty weak and just lounged on the couch while Jessie was nice and brought me presents to open. I snapped a few pictures too. Caitlin was way too tired, so we put her back to sleep and she missed most of the present opening. I should've felt bad about that, but it was actually nice to be able to relax and not worry about her for an hour or so.

Andrew and Maddie had no problem opening up some of Cate and Olivia's presents for them!

Stylin Jessie in her new robe.

I made my dad a fun personalized car back rub t-shirt. Andrew can drive cars around on his back. The map shows all their favorite places- Will's Pitt Stop, McDonalds, BYU, the river, etc. We'll need to try it out later this week.

Unfortunately Jessie did not get a real dog for Christmas. She was a little bummed.

Santa Baby Olivia just had fun playing with wrapping paper and rolling around.

Catie was super happy about her pillow dog/blanket thing. I think it was her favorite present (besides Jessie's "dog.").

Andrew's favorite present was his Leap Pad. He played it all day long.

I got so many fun things that I can't even begin to pick a favorite... though the stylin camera bag purse that Jessie/mom picked out for me and the new fancy black wallet Elise got me are among the top two!

For breakfast Elise and Dan made an amazing crockpot egg/potato/cheese concoction that I am still SO sad I didn't get to eat because I felt so terrible. After breakfast, Santa made a brief visit!

Although Catiebug looks annoyed in this picture, she absolutely LOVED Santa. She just doesn't like to have to stay still! Santa brought the kids lollipops and they were so excited! Hopefully he had a safe journey back to the North Pole. I'm sure he was so tired!

While the rest of the family went to church, our family crashed on the couch and vegged with movies since Andrew finally succumbed to being sick too. :( I slept for 2-3 hours and we just spent the day lounging and chatting. My mom made a delicious Christmas dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, salad, etc.

After the Caffee family loaded up and went home, we watched Home Alone 2. Andrew loved the movie so much that we had to stop and rewind different parts 3-4 times because he wanted to see them again and again and again!

We ended the night with some tantrums because it was just too hard to go to bed after such a fun day!

We were so grateful to my mom and dad for making Christmas so much fun! The only thing that could've made it better (besides being healthy) would've been if Scott and Cat had been there too! We can't wait to see them tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

A Smithkirk Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

I have like 1,000 pictures from Christmas Eve... but don't worry, I am only going to post maybe 30 of them on here :) I just wanted to capture every moment... and I am so glad that I got so many pictures since I was sick again on Christmas and didn't get nearly enough that day!

We spent the evening playing and watching the babies interact. Maddie and Andrew made some foam sticker gingerbread houses.

Elise made us all yummy toffee and I helped sample a lot of it!

Andrew and Maddie played dress up for hours as Mary and Joseph.

Maddie took her role very seriously and looked adorable.

Caitlin was feeling under the weather all day (come to find out today that in addition to being sick she was cutting 4 new teeth too- including some molars- NO WONDER she was such a grump!). She watched a lot of Baby Einstein on daddy's lap.

We briefly re-enacted the first Christmas and talked about the birth of Jesus.

The Sub for Santa Crew got decked out in their disguises and headed off to do some delivering... along with checking out some neighborhood holiday lights.

Had to swing by this tasteful display too ;)

When we got home we whipped out the goodies!

The kids watched Frosty and the adults chowed down.

We celebrated and toasted to our health and happiness (at least the health we had for a few more hours...)

Then I attempted to snap some cute pj photos (if you saw this last post then you know how that turned out)... so instead I got these weird poses of Andrew.

??? Stick em up?

Kevin and I ended the night by finishing up a few last minute "Santa" duties before heading to bed before midnight.

I loved every minute of the night... especially how cute Maddie and Andrew were. I am so grateful we were able to have all the little kiddos together for Christmas this year.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Hard Things

2011-12-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

My parent's dear friend Melanie returned to heaven last Wednesday after a vigilant eighteen month battle with lung cancer.

Tonight I came back from a fun day with Shari and the Johnson's to my parent's house and discovered a choir of young women rehearsing for Melanie's funeral in our living room.

I sat on the basement stairs listening because I didn't want to interrupt the beautiful spirit in the room by going in. They sang this song and sounded like a choir of angels. I know their friend Melanie was listening and her spirit will be there on Thursday when they perform at her funeral as well.

A family friend shared this quote when talking about this remarkable woman.

“When we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Indeed, heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.” - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

I feel blessed to have known Melanie and to have been inspired by her through her blog as well as through brief interactions that I've had with her over the past three + years as my dad has served with her husband in their ward's Bishopric.

My last chat with her was a few months ago when we were visiting Utah on a Sunday with baby Caitlin. Instead of talking about her struggling health issues she just wanted to meet my little Caitlin and tell me what a beautiful little girl she was and how loved she was by her grandparents. I think everyone that she interacted with felt special and better about themselves after they talked with her.

As I contemplate starting again in 2012 with new resolutions and goals for myself and my family, the lessons I have learned from Melanie are fresh in my mind.

My favorite reminder comes from her post on June 29, 2010 that I refer back to often,

“Therefore dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed. ” D&C 123:17

"I can do hard things!"

I don't have many hard things in my life... just the regular old ups and downs of motherhood and every day living. Yet I am committed this year to being more stalwart in how I live my life- as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, neighbor, and friend.

I can be more cheerful, loving, patient, faithful, grateful, and thoughtful... among other things.

I am grateful for the example of Melanie and the many ways that she has touched my family's life.

A snapshot

2011-12-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning I got to take a quick photo of my dad and his counselors for their Bishopric Christmas Card. It was fun to spend a few minutes with them. They are great friends and spend all their time serving others.

I love my dad's smile in this photo.

If you don't know what a Bishopric is, you can read more about what a Bishop and his Counselors do here.

Christmas Eve with the Buskirks

2011-12-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Utah on Friday evening. The flight was uneventful, other than a 40 minute delay. Lugging enormous quantities of bags, carseats, etc. across the airport was entertaining with 2 kids in tow that also wanted to be held... but we survived and had a good laugh.

Saturday morning (Christmas Eve), I woke up feeling 100% better (a Christmas miracle, I thought) and Caitlin unfortunately woke up feeling 100% worse (lame-o). But we had people to see and things to do, so she cheered up and came along for the ride.

Saturday afternoon was spent having lunch with Shari and the Buskirk family (Allen, Liesl and girls)!

Dinner looked beautiful and was delish. It was the first meal I'd had in 3 days, so I was famished.

The treats were amazing too. I love Shari's mint brownies and other goodies!!

Catie was a big fan of the ice cream... and chocolate brownies.

The kiddos were darling. I totally forgot to snap a photo, but Andrew and Leah had the best time at their own kiddie table. They are such sweet little buddies.

After food, it was time for presents.

Andrew was especially excited about his "Buskirk Fire and Rescue" t-shirt made using one of the pics we took in Buskirk, NY earlier this year! Great present Shari!

The kids played with new toys, the adults got to hang out and chat, and Sarah and Ella performed for us a bit on the piano. We had a great afternoon.

When the kids started melting down (mainly Cate), we knew the day had been a success!

Hooray for a great Christmas Eve afternoon!

Don't touch those carrots!

2011-12-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite series of photos from Christmas Eve... so I had to post them all. I love Maddie's expressions. What a little sweetheart.

Andrew told Maddie she couldn't eat the reindeer's carrots.

He explained why in a very simple and informative way.

But Maddie still wanted the carrots. (Look at that little sad face... could she be any more adorable?)

And she could only hold it together for so long... though she tried really hard.

I want the carrots!!

Good thing Grandma Julie had a whole load of carrots that the reindeer didn't need to eat.

Christmas in San Francisco 2011

2011-12-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is heading into San Francisco to check out the Christmas lights and have fun as a family.

This year we skipped the hoopla of Union Square and went down to the wharf.

We had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato basil soup at Boudin and had fun walking around the piers and seeing the street performers.

We grabbed some cookies since no event is complete without a trip to Mrs. Fields :)

Catie has no desire to be held any more or be in the stroller for long, so we had fun walking around with her. She can actually walk for quite a long time now before she falls. She does even better when we hold her hand. She made lots of friends. What a cutie!

We managed to snag one family photo where everyone was at least looking at the camera.

Then we headed to the must-visit place on our SF checklist- Ghirardelli!

These two made me laugh.

Catie developed a new love for her brother who fed her some of his ice cream. This little girl was in heaven the entire time we were at Ghirardelli. I think she ate more of my sundae than I did.

It wouldn't be a successful family trip without a tantrum or two... after all, who would ever want to leave Ghirardelli to go home and go to bed?

Andrew fell asleep in the car on the way home and our little energizer bunny (Cate) just happily watched Baby Einstein. We ended up turning her seat around forward facing because she was so miserable with her long legs banging the back seat. She was much happier!

Great night! I love our SF Christmas tradition and it was fun to change it up a bit from past years!

You can see our previous trips here...
2010 (with new baby Cate and Shari)
2008 (with 9 month old Andrew)

Nursery Christmas Caroling

2011-12-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

Several of the families with nursery-aged kids in our ward got together last night to go caroling.

We started at 4:45pm and went until 7:30pm with a trip for pizza at Mountain Mikes somewhere in the middle. The dads joined us as they got home from work.

Most of the kids are graduating from nursery (class for kids ages 18 months -3 yrs) at the end of the month and so we thought it would be fun to carol at the nursery leader's houses and say "Thank You!" We brought See's chocolates and homemade cards and the kids had a lot of fun!

They sang Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas and rang their bells loudly. I loved that Andrew actually sang loudly with intense concentration!

They were treated like celebrities and got candy and photos taken at each house... and even got videotaped by some of their teachers.

I was so happy that all five teachers were home! Their wives or daughters were helpful in "hinting" that they needed to get home early yesterday.

What a fun way to spend an evening at Christmastime!!

Christmas Camera Fun

2011-12-19T00:37:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of fun playing around with my camera this morning. This picture of my angel is a favorite. I don't know anything about photography, but I think it looks cool.

I also made Kevin and the kiddos pose for me a bit before church. Let's just say the experience wasn't me at my finest... and my kids (and mostly Kevin) are probably going to start screaming when I take out the camera in the future.

Despite me being a terrible photographer, we managed to snap some fun pictures. I love Cate in this one... just hate my brush lying on the floor in the background. Grr.

I love love love the pics of Kevin with Catie... even though she wouldn't look at me :)

This sneaky little devil kept sneaking over to the Christmas tree and trying to take down some of the ornaments. I snapped a picture of her in the act. I love the sneaky face.

I love this pic too because it is of Catie looking up at Kevin as he went upstairs to get something. She kept grunting and saying, "dada." I think it is fabulous that she loves him so much!

Then I managed to snap some pics of Mr. Funny man who jumps when I say "stand still" and falls on the floor when I say "freeze." What a character!

Such an adorable photo idea... that will work much better when they are older... in this case, him hugging her led to a chokehold followed by a tackle where we had some screaming.

That was when we called it quits on the photo shoot. :)

I also snapped some pics of our weekend creations- Snow Villages! We are part of a blogger Creative Christmas Countdown with 23 other bloggers and this was our Day 19 activity that we are sharing today. We made a block snow village and a crispy treat snow village. We will definitely be doing both again... especially the crispy treat village. Yum!

Now it is past midnight and I still have lots to do tonight, but I figured some of my blog readers that don't check Facebook (Shari :)) might like to see these cute pics... especially the ones of Cate and Kevin.

Goodnight!

Holiday Fun- Zoo Lights

2011-12-15T00:10:00.000-08:00

Last year I think I felt like I had something to prove to myself... so we were going going going ALL month long! Cate was a super easy baby and I had tons of energy and really felt stir-crazy and wanted to be out doing things... so we did!

This December I have felt like much more of a homebody and really haven't cared to venture out much for festive activities. Maybe it's the enormous piles of laundry that are always piling up that are tiring me out? Or the fact that I look at the piles more often than I do something about them? :)

Either way, our trip to Oakland Zoo Lights last year was one of our favorites... so we had to go again. It was freezing cold, so I loved whipping out the kid's new heavy duty winter coats for the evening.

We played on the little children's zoo playgrounds, checked out some of the exhibits, watched the lights show, and then headed over to ride rides.

The little guys rode around and around while some of the adults waited in the ginormous line for the train. Two other families joined us for the evening and my favorite moment of the night was when all five little kids were running up a hill hand in hand giggling.

We managed to get a family picture where all four of us were looking at the camera... which is a pretty amazing feat. It is fun to look back at the pictures from our trip last year to see how things have changed since then. This year I definitely dressed warmer! :)

Unfortunately we had a very overtired one year old, so we had to scrap our trip to Fentons (we'll have to go back another day soon!)... and instead we headed home to put the kiddos to bed and then drink our own peppermint hot cocoa and bask in the warmth of our house.

What a chilly, but fun night!

2nd Annual Cookie Exchange

2011-12-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Last year I had a small cookie exchange a few days after Caitlin was born and it was a blast. My friend Kaari down in Santa Clara throws one every year and I love it, so I decided to host another one this year up in our neck of the woods. I think it is becoming one of my favorite holiday events!

We had 20+ guests this year, compared to last year's four or five and I LOVED the diversity in the creations! Of course I realized at the end of the night that I never took pictures of any of my friends... just their food :)

Our friend Jeremy drove up to be a cookie judge... along with these two crazy kids. Andrew thought it was so fun to have his own cookie party in his room. The train table has many uses :)

To minimize the sugar overload, we had a lovely appetizer spread too. Some of the guests brought delicious things (spinach artichoke dip, spinach balls, bruschetta, cheese plate, taquitos) to share and I made a bean dip, baked brie, and cranberry meatballs. Yum, yum, yum!

My neighbor Sahar made her first batch of cookies- EVER! So exciting... so I had to snap a picture!

I found cute snowmen platters for everyone to load up their cookies on to take them home.

Midway through the night Kevin and Jeremy came down with their little Andrew helper and awarded prizes- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. They picked some great cookies, though they were all amazing.

At the end of the night we cleaned up and Jeremy gave me a mini photo tutorial on my camera... since I don't really know how to use it yet.

Kevin was my practice subject with my portrait lens. :) (not sure what the lens is actually called?)

I already started the morning off with a few cookies :)

What a fun night! Can't wait till next year!

Remembering a great lady!

2011-12-13T00:07:00.000-08:00

Kevin's sweet Great Aunt June passed away about two weeks ago. Today we had the opportunity to celebrate her life at a memorial service down in Cupertino with friends and family. When we lived in Santa Clara she lived a few blocks away from us in an assisted living home and we really enjoyed getting to know her... and especially introducing her to Andrew.

One of my favorite Aunt June memories was when I took her to vote in the November 2008 Presidential Election. She greeted me all decked out in her patriotic clothes and earrings... and we drove over to Cupertino where her home was and voted. Her enthusiasm and accessories paired with Andrew's cute smiles made them the most popular pair at the voting polls.

We also had several fun visits in June's apartment with Andrew- who loved getting into all of her stuff when he was a baby. He was always a big hit with all of the residents when we went to dinner in the dining room too.

After today's memorial we ate some treats and spent time with some of her family and friends. Kevin's mom and his Aunt Inez flew into town briefly for the event, so it was fun to see them too!

Aunt June will be missed!

Kevin with his 2nd cousins (Judy and Janet's kids)

Inez, Janet, Shari with Catie, and Judy (Janet & Judy are Shari's cousins and June's daughters)

This little cutie was such a good sport despite going to the memorial service instead of taking a nap. She made loads of friends and waved at everyone. It was so adorable!

Google PSO Holiday Party 2011

2011-12-10T09:19:00.000-08:00

Last year I didn't get to go to the Google PSO Holiday Party because I had just had Caitlin... so this year I was super excited to go.

Last night we trekked into SF to party. The event was held at the San Francisco Design Center and was beautiful. They had these acrobats hanging from huge white drapery things doing all sorts of twists and turns. It reminded me of Cirque du Soleil. Everything was decorated in white and sparkles and they even had a screen that was showing digital snow... so I felt like I was part of a winter wonderland.

My favorite part about Google parties is the food. Last night did not disappoint... though I realized I didn't snap any pictures.

They had several food stations (1-2 on each floor) and then people walking around with food on trays too. I don't think I managed to try everything, but what I did try was really good.

My favorite station was the Asian station- chow main cooked in a big wok right in front of us, chicken on little skewers, lettuce wraps, and several other little appetizers similar to spring rolls. The chow mein was served in mini Chinese take-out containers... and I went back several times to get more. Yum!

They also had a tapas station, a Latin station, and of course, a dessert station... in addition to a bar on each of the four floors. Kevin loved the mini sliders. The dessert station had Cheescake cake pops and different flavored little cookie dough balls... among other things. Mmm!

They also had photo booths with different crazy hats all over the building... so we got a few pictures.

I went home full and had a great time talking with Kevin's work friends and their wives.

Caitlin's 1yr appointment

2011-12-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

I had a rough morning today. The best way to cheer me up is to look at pictures of this little cutie.

Despite her little tantrums, she makes me so happy! She LOVES me and a loves her "da!' I love how she crawls all over the house looking for Kevin saying, "da" or "dada."

She is also making great progress with walking. I think she's taken 15 steps in a row once or twice...

My favorite time of the day is when she is drinking her bottle. She'll just grab it and lie down wherever she is.... and then she grabs her hair and holds it. She gets in this same position to go to sleep at night... except she sticks her thumb in her mouth.

She sucks her thumb so hard that she now has a blister on it :(

This week she's been fabulous and has gone to bed at 6pm and has slept in till 8 or 8:30am. I am getting spoiled! I'm sure she won't do it this weekend, but I have definitely enjoyed a few relaxing mornings this week.

We had her 1 yr appointment on Monday and it was fun to see how much she has grown!

Her newest stats are below(compared to 9 months):

Weight- 22.87lbs (80%)

Height- 30.5 in (90%)

I can't believe how much she has grown!

Here's to another awesome year with this little cutie!

Decorating

2011-12-09T01:04:00.000-08:00

Kevin and Andrew got our tree all set up tonight while I arranged our nativity set on my pretty new sideboard. It is so nice not to have it all squished together on our piano!

Aren't they such cuties?

We also had a bit of fun goofing around and then got the little man to bed way too late! He is an expert at slyly not getting to bed.

I am excited to get some ornaments on the tree tomorrow... hopefully? If there is time? I don't know where my time goes these days... but I seem to have none.

My favorite part of Christmas at my house is adding the lighted garlands (is that grammatically correct? lit garlands?)... I love my white stairs with garlands. Now I just need to add the bows.

I am hoping we are finally decorated by Christmas. It has been slow going this year...

Can't wait to see Cate's reaction to the tree tomorrow. I hope she doesn't knock it over. Today she discovered my apothecary jar full of Hershey's kisses that was a little too low on the shelf and now it is broken. :( I had to eat all of the Hershey kisses too. It was a rough night :)

Catie's Mommy and Me Birthday Luncheon

2011-12-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

(I deleted any address info, so the invite looks a little off)

Alright... well maybe the party was more for me than her, but I think she had a pretty good time too :)

It was fun to put up a photo banner with pics from each month all year long and see how much she has changed!

Since Catie's birthday is in December, I thought it would be fun to have a little Christmas luncheon with a few of my friends who also have kids that are close in age. We sent Andrew and Kev off to a preschool event and Super Franks, and had fun spending the afternoon with friends!

The babies had some extra special things set up for them to explore and play with...

And I got to use all of my Christmas dishes! (I am still hand-washing them all... but it was worth it)

The babies played and ate and the moms chatted, ate, and kept the kids from attacking one another. It was a lot of fun.

Kaari stepped in as master bubble woman and I was so grateful. I can't blow bubbles (even easy ones) to save my life.

We sang "Happy Birthday" and had yummy ice cream cake. My goal is to make Catie like all of my favorite treats so that we can have a giant birth month from Nov 23-onward till Christmas celebrating :)

Friends came from close by and a few trekked across the bay. I managed to only snap photos of Liz and Henry though. Catie LOVES Baby Henry!

I had fun decorating for the party and think that we're going to keep the red and green polka dot garlands and birthday banner up all month long. Every time I see the birthday banner it reminds me that December is also a time to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

We did salads from CPK for the moms and the babies got to eat Catie's favorite baby snacks.

In addition to ice cream cake we also had a few other December favs- peppermint brownie bites and Mrs. Fields nibblers (which I like ALL year long).

The best part of the weekend was that Elise and Baby Olivia were able to come for the Mommy and Me fun! Catie and Olivia are going to be such adorable buddies when they are older. They already just get so excited when they see each other!

We sent guests home with our favorite bubbles and spent the afternoon after they left openings adorable gifts. Catie has so many generous friends!

It was so nice to celebrate this little one who has filled our year with joy!

Stay tuned for more birthday fun when I have time to post later today... the little cutie partied from Thursday to Sunday! I am still recovering... and so is my house. Instead of doing dishes, I am blogging. :)

I wasn't super mom today

2011-12-01T23:36:00.000-08:00

But we did celebrate this little cutie's b-day and we really tried to have fun.

At the end of the day when I was in tears from the tantrums, fighting, lack of naps, and all around grumpiness (plus getting hit really hard in the face from my sweet Andrew)... I decided we needed a do-over.

I was at a meeting till 10:30pm Wed. night, then tried to finish up birthday fun for Catie, but felt terrible from the cold I am still trying to kick... so just went to bed (after drowning my exhausted sorrows in chocolate pie). Hopefully we'll all wake up happier and healthier tomorrow!

Tomorrow is going to be like Groundhog's Day, but instead it will be Catie's birthday groundhog's day... We'll call it her Birth-Weekend instead of her birthday. Wish me luck. I think starting off with a dark shower and no electricity definitely put me on the wrong side of the bed from the getgo this morning!

PS- G&G Smith and Kathren, Catie LOVED the presents. I have lots of photos I'll post later this weekend.

Drama, Drama

2011-11-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

If you already saw these pictures on Facebook, I apologize for the repeat... but they symbolize how this week is going... downhill fast :)

Hi, I'm Caitlin and I am positively adorable.

I'm going to give you my "I know I'm adorable" face.

I want that! (camera lens cover)

What do you mean you aren't going to give it to me?
Tantrum!

I'm so mad I think I might pull off my face (creepy looking when she does this in person)

Maybe you'll let me hold it? (glimmer of hope)

You tease. I don't like you!

Are you kidding? You might give in?

Wow, that tantrum thing might really work?

Ah... I'm a genius. Got what I wanted. :)

SCORE!

Hmm... anyone wonder why she threw even more tantrums today? This stage is hysterical. Several times today Andrew and I just looked at each other and started laughing when this little cutie was throwing her head down against the hard wood floor and wailing... wanting something that we wouldn't let her have.

Drama, drama, drama... the teenage years are going to be awesome.

Santa Baby is turning ONE next week

2011-11-26T22:51:00.000-08:00

My little December sweetheart is turning ONE this Thursday (Dec 1st).

I can't BELIEVE it.

I also cannot believe she was ever this small.

I am hosting a little Mommy and Me Luncheon for her birthday with some of her little "friends" (meaning some of my friends who also had kids within in a few months of her birth that I hang out with a good amount).

My mom and I spent some quality time at Toys-R-Us today trying to decide what to get her for her birthday. One year olds are hard to buy for. They can't really do much... and we already have a lot of toys.

What's your favorite present to buy for one year olds? Or more specifically... one year old little girls? So far Catie's favorite toys are Andrew's police cars and firetruck, so it might be fun to get her something more girly?

Thoughts?

Btw, isn't Cate just darling in these photos? Our favorite photographer Meghan snapped them and I love to just look at them over and over again. Someday I will also get some framed and put up in my house.

It took me almost 6 years to get my wedding album completed. Hopefully it doesn't take me that long to get family pictures framed and on the wall.

Tree Lighting Tradition and Black Friday Shopping

2011-11-26T01:16:00.000-08:00

Tonight we went downtown for the lighting of the Old Oak Tree. I think it is a cute town tradition.

It wasn't as fun as I was hoping it would be... because I was a little cranky and so were my kiddos.

But we still had fun. The weather was much warmer than last year. There were free cookies and hot cider and hot cocoa to try... and my favorite treat- Peppermint Joe Joes distributed by the local Trader Joes store.

We all managed to find each other just in time for the tree to get lit...

Catie loved watching Andrew ride the train around with Grandma.

We grabbed some treats at our favorite chocolate shop.

Checked out the fire engines

Attempted to take a family picture... and then decided that the grumpy kids would go home with Kevin and Grandpa, while the girls stayed and bopped around some more.

We listened to music, ate treats, wandered around, and ran into a few friends.

We also watched some dance teams. I decided that I really hope Caitlin doesn't want to do dance when she gets older. The music and moves we were watching little girls do were so provocative that it made me a little sad (tear up sort of sad).

We watched a pretty sweet high school (or maybe middle school?) band rock out and then I loved the Nutcracker dancers. My only wish all night was that I was a little bit taller so I could've seen over the crowds a bit better.

After a day of Black Friday shopping... and then walking all over town we were exhausted!! Today was probably my most successful day of shopping ever. I got a new cute coat (picture above), new shoes, and some new outfits... in addition to several Mrs. Fields cookies.

It was a great day!

Side note- if you're looking for some cute holiday ideas even after all your Black Friday shopping, I'm giving away a fun little ZipBin storage playmat on my Toddler Approved blog this week. We love them and already have several at our house (in addition to a few that the company gave me to try out for free). There aren't too many people signed up yet, so your chances of winning are pretty high. :)

My Birthday

2011-11-25T00:22:00.000-08:00

Considering I have thought I was 32 for the past 6 months... my birthday wasn't that exciting. :) Elise finally convinced me that we were in fact turning 32... so the birthday was kind of not a big deal... though it was nice to be younger than I thought I was. Happy Birthday to me :)

Jessie made me a cute vase filled with all of her favorite memories of the two of us (plus real flowers that are now making my bathroom look beautiful).

Andrew was super cute and managed to convince G&G Smith to buy him this fireman get-up at the Blackhawk toy store. He dressed up and put out fires all afternoon during quiet time and gave us a little break. Happy Birthday to me.

We had dinner at The Red Tractor Cafe in Dublin. They have yummy grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries- my favorite. Catie stole my food and downed a lot of my milkshake (and conned Scotter into sharing a lot of his too). It was fun to celebrate with my fam (Scott, Cat, Dad, Mom, my kids, Kevin, and Jessie)... though Elise (and fam) were missed! I kept thinking she was there and then I'd look around to tell her something and she wasn't. :(

I got a huge Mrs. Fields cookie cake from Kevin and then a delicious fudge crunch ice cream cake too (all ice cream and crunchies- no cake). We ate cake (pyro Andrew helped me blow out the candles) and then I opened presents.

My favorite gift was from Andrew & Caitlin. Kevin wrapped my present in a big shoe box and then hid it inside a big Williams Sonoma bag. I thought I was getting more hot cocoa and waffle mix and wasn't that excited about it. Once I opened the bag I thought I was getting shoes... and I wasn't too excited about that either. Then I opened the shoebox and discovered a brand spanking new Canon Rebel T2i camera. I was shocked since Kevin told me that my recent computer hardware upgrades (more memory/bigger hard drive) was all I was getting for my birthday. Cate & Andrew are great present givers though. I wonder what they'll get me for Christmas? :) (Thanks Jeremy for all of your hard work to help Kevin figure out what camera to get me... It is awesome!)

We ended the night with some Thanksgiving prep... and a painting party. Jessie won the prize for painting the best brown paper plate. :) Scott, Cat, and Jess (Especially Jess) were all good sports and helped me do some last minute crafting for the kids Thanksgiving table... and they didn't complain. What a nice birthday present.

Tomorrow we are having my birthday shopping spree with my mom and Jess while Kevin and my dad hang out with kiddos. I am excited!

Thanks for all of the Facebook birthday wishes, texts, phone calls, and cards. I am so lucky to have so many thoughtful friends!

Brace yourselves for Thanksgiving overload

2011-11-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

I got a new camera for my birthday yesterday. I have no idea how to use it yet... (it is super fancy). I do know how to press the button to take photos though... and everyone humored me today and let me practice a lot! I think I snapped a photo during every moment of our Thanksgiving day (except for me looking super ugly in my running clothes on our morning jog). Enjoy the pictures and Happy Thanksgiving!

Making rolls with grandma (their tradition)

Kids table- tutorials for the placemat and turkey chair backers are on my Toddler Approved blog

Little pilgrims

The fancy table- we fit 11... it was nice and cozy... and we took the easy route and used paper products.

We were all grateful... especially Jenny.

Some of the chefs!

The turkey carver

My #1 favorite part of the meal

Rainbow jello by the Heymans- yum!

The adults (minus Chris- taking the picture)

The kiddos kept themselves occupied while we talked and ate (since they finished way too quickly)

Goofing around

The couples

One of my favorite pics of the day- Grandma & Catie

The kiddos

Catie looking adoringly at Uncle Scott (she has a little crush)

My favorite little guest (and his mom)

Naptime & movie time

Chris is henceforth the designated Thanksgiving Activities director... 1,2,3... kick the tower down!

The desserts (I should've gotten pics before we dug in)

My #2 favorite part of the meal- chocolate pudding pie

(we made 3 of these... just so we'd have lots of leftovers)

The pilgrims

At the end of the day I am grateful for...

- Mom who slaved in the kitchen while still managing to play with the grandkids and keep them happy all day long (I think they like her better than me now)

- Jenny who did ALL of the dishes and cleaned up lots of the toys... and made rainbow jello. Heymans definitely scored an invite back to Thanksgiving dinner

- Little adorable Spencer. What a cutie!

- My sweet kiddos... and especially Kevin. I tend to get stressed out before we host an event at our house. He did a great job at not acting like he wanted to kill me. He also sets a mean paper plate Thanksgiving table.

- Wonderful family and friends who spent the day hanging out with us! Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Props to you if you made it through all my pictures.

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

2011-11-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Kevin took the week off last week to work on projects around the house. It coincided perfectly with Andrew's Preschool Thanksgiving Feast. We left Catie at home napping with a babysitter and he was SO excited for so much 1:1 attention from the both of us. He was such a ham and kept smiling at us while we waited for him to perform.

I was shocked he said something so nice. Usually when we ask him what he is thankful for he says "I am thankful for volcanoes."

We are so grateful for having such a cute little guy in our lives! I can't believe it has almost been four years since he was born!

A week of gratitude

2011-11-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Jessie, Cat, and I drove down to Santa Barbara to meet up with my mom and Elise for the Santa Barbara International Marathon and Half Marathon. Jessie and my mom ran the full marathon and Elise, Cat, and I ran the half.

From November 2011

The first thing I am grateful for this week is that the half marathon is OVER! It was a beautiful and hard experience. I think I am going to post about it in more detail in a separate post. It was just one of the fun things we did for our Girls weekend. We also stuffed our faces with pizza at Rusty's Pizza and ate lots of Mexican food at Chipotle... in addition to eating huge ice cream sundaes at Ben and Jerrys. We ran a lot after all... so we totally deserved it, right? We also did some shopping in downtown Santa Barbara and just lounged in our hotel rooms. Of course the one morning we could sleep in, Cat and I woke up at 7:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. I had such a great time sharing a room with her though and enjoyed lots of chatting time.

We also played the role of tourists and stopped by for a visit at the Mission Santa Barbara before we headed home on Sunday.

On Monday my friend Chrissie planned the most adorable Thanksgiving themed Mommy and Me Book Club class for the kiddos. I think Andrew's favorite parts were eating marshmallows and pounding on the drum!

From November 2011

I have felt like a grump all week (and Kevin agrees that I have been)... but last night we took a family trip with Shari to Don Jose's in Alamo and after downing almost two baskets of tortilla chips I think I got my good mood back. Man that food (in addition to the two baskets of chips) was good! Watching Kevin and Andrew eat churros also made me happy.

From November 2011

This morning Andrew and I finally made our Thankful Tree. I have had this idea on our schedule for awhile but it just never happened. I loved listening to what he came up with as we brainstormed. "I am thankful for volcanoes..." was first on his list.

We are also thankful for this little cutie. She loves to let go of furniture and just clap for herself and attempt to move forward. Today she took an actual step or two. I was upstairs the first real time... and missed it (she took 3 steps), so she tried again for me later and took a step or two and I managed to film a bit of it.

From November 2011

Andrew is also keeping us entertained this week. He is so proud of his newest accomplishment- moving across the monkey bars!

From November 2011

Tomorrow my sister Elise is going to be on CMT's Top Secret Recipe talking about Mrs. Fields... so I am also thankful for an excuse to visit Mrs. Fields :) It is going to be part of my celebration. (Mrs. Fields is giving me several gift certificates to giveaway on my Toddler Approved blog too... so if you want some free cookies, drop by and enter the giveaway tomorrow). I'm hosting a cookie party on Friday night as well (to watch the show), so that will be another fun event to be grateful for.

Last but not least, I am grateful that Kevin has been home this week! Despite being a grump for the first part of the week, we've had a lot of fun. On Tuesday night Shari was so nice to babysit for the kids while we went out to dinner to CPK (Thanks Shari!). After lots of bread, pasta, and a stop at Cheesecake Factory for dessert, we came home for the night. Today we just had fun running errands together, helping Catie try to walk, catching up on TV shows, and eating lunch as a family.

Tomorrow Andrew has his Thanksgiving Feast at preschoool... so the fun will continue!

Tired

2011-11-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

I'm tired. Seriously, completely worn out.

I'm not quite sure why, since I've been going to bed earlier than normal and having all this girl trippy fun... but I really would love to curl up in a ball and start hibernating right now.

This afternoon we hibernated in our house. I had a two hour phone chat with one of my best buds (who also helps me write our Toddler Approved blog)... and the kiddos cooperated really well and slept/had quiet time.

After that, I tackled these eyesores. My "crap" cupboards, as my friend Alissa likes to call them.

They were in need of some serious help. I organized them about 6 months ago... and they have been begging for help ever since!

Now they look so much better and are much more organized

Ah! I thought I was crazy when I was snapping pictures of the before, but now it makes me so happy to see how much progress I made.

Hopefully I'm not the only one with such terrible looking cupboards. Next week we are going to tackle our garage and a gazillion other projects. Shari is coming out to visit and help Kevin with loads of projects. He is taking his last week of paternity leave off to work on anything and everything he wants to do (he has definitely earned it after so much time playing Mr. Mom!).

Before the hibernating happened, Andrew and I went on a date. We left Catie with her weekly babysitter and we went to the mall. On our way Andrew said, "first I want to get a cookie, then I want to ride the rides and get pretzels, and then I want to buy some clothes for Catie." That kid is totally mine! He said that we needed to get Catie some new pjs and new shirts. He loves to help pick out clothes for her. He is going to be a great husband for a lucky girl someday.

In addition to hibernating, we had a Screen Free day today. It was beautiful. I only peeked and looked at Gmail once (hmm... maybe twice). I was pretty proud of myself for going over 12 hours without using the computer, iPad, or internet on my phone. I may have made up for it by chatting on the phone though... so I'm not sure which one is better? :)

I was actually very productive though... which is why I am probably tired. I also felt so much more present during the day because I wasn't checking my phone to see Facebook messages or read blogs. I am committing to doing that at least once a month from now on.

Catie had a great day and took 2 steps. She can stay standing all alone, balanced, for a few seconds and then steps forward once or twice and then falls into me. Andrew and I are competing for the roll of her biggest cheerleaders. I love seeing her big smile and how proud she is of herself.

I am also proud to say that I am raising a dramatic girl- ha! She is already throwing tantrums. Is she a teenager already? Today she threw her whole body on the floor, head pounding on the floor, flailing, and crying because I walked away from her for a second and I guess she wanted me to pick her up? I can already tell we are in for a treat when she starts the terrible 2s and 3s ;)

I am so sad I only got pictures of my cupboards today and not crazy Cate's antics. Her newest nickname is "crazy." I usually omit the Cate part and just say, "hey Crazy, what's up?"... You never quite know what to expect from this cute little one.

Yesterday we created a cornflake sensory tub in the kitchen to keep the kids occupied while I got stuff ready for a YWs activity. It was messy and amazingly fun. Andrew played while Catie stuffed her face with cornflakes and I made fondue. It was fabulous. I really like these two... even when I feel like I am going insane.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for SB to run the 1/2 marathon. I have really low expectations for myself. We're going to have a lot of shopping and eating time after the race. That is what I am most looking forward to! Wish me luck!

PS- If you are still reading this super long post... I was totally excited to discover that two little projects that Andrew and I made were featured on some blogs I read this week.

Babble's The New Home Ec by Ashley Hackshaw who writes at Little Blue Boo (I love her blog!)

Source: blogs.babble.com via Kristina on Pinterest

The Happy Home Fairy and Make and Takes who both featured a cute gratitude turkey treat jar we made with leftover Halloween candy. I need to make a lot more so we can get rid of all the candy still hanging around!

Source: toddlerapproved.blogspot.com via Kristina on Pinterest

Anyways, time to go finish off my Mrs. Fields cookie sandwich and hit the sack!

PPS- My twin sister will be on CMT's Top Secret Recipe episode next Thursday night as they take on trying to replicate the Mrs. Fields cookie recipe. You know you want to watch it... she is the Mrs. Fields super fan.

K, now I am really tired. Goodnight!

Sweet Shower of a Weekend

2011-11-10T22:36:00.000-08:00

My cousin Nicole is getting married a few days after Christmas. We had to make sure that she got showered with lots of love and treats... so my mom threw her a big bridal shower last weekend and we got to go and help out!

Once again I left the kiddos with Kevin (he is quite the super mom dad now)... and I boarded the plane with Jessie and my cousin Jenny and we just chatted and enjoyed the ride. My cousin Allison and Aunt Laurel met us at the airport in Salt Lake and then we all piled in a car and drove to Provo. Allison flew all the way from Florida!

Friday night we gorged ourselves on Macaroni Grill and Sweet Tooth Fairy cake bites while we prepped for the party.

Saturday was spent decorating, chatting, eating, celebrating, eating, and chatting again!

As usual, my mom did an amazing job with the spread of desserts and appetizers. I am still sad that I didn't eat nearly enough. I just couldn't fit any more in!

She also did the most adorable candy bar. Check out the darling personalized labels for the candy jars.

Yum Yum!

All our girl chat time made the weekend so much fun. I don't think we'd all been together (all of us at the same time) since Jenny's wedding over 6 years before.

We also managed to fit in our traditional twins photo (my mom with her twin sister, and Elise and I together) AND we also made sure to hit up Cafe Rio and The Sweet Tooth Fairy while we were in Provo. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.

I am looking forward to another girls weekend starting tomorrow. I'm running a big race in Santa Barbara with these ladies (and Cat). I don't feel ready at all, and it is says it might rain, but at least we'll have a good time.

Cate is 11 months old

2011-11-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it?

I sure can't!

I love this little cutie to pieces. There is only one person who loves her more (besides Kevin)... and that is herself! If there is a mirror close by she loves to smooch herself.

Cracks me up! It is making me a little sad that we got rid of the majority of our mirrored closet doors.

This girl loves to rock in her rocker... mostly because it gets her closer to the windows so that she can pull on the blinds. She will rarely sit still.

For her 11 month birthday I dressed her up in this darling outfit she inherited from a friend. Kevin laughed and said that this was the cutest she'd looked in a week (other than Halloween)... since he never brushed her hair while I was gone and she yanked out every bow he stuck in it. I still need to post the pics from last week. The jeggings were mis-used and Kev's coordinated outfits for Cate were pretty awesome.

We spent today doing Cate's favorite things- Crawling and climbing the stairs... and trying to escape or sneak and do things she's not supposed to do!

Can you tell she's proud of herself?

We also played at the park this afternoon and I let Cate do what she wanted to do instead of just carrying her around following Andrew.

The two crazies love to try and race each other up the slides. Cate goes nowhere, but tries really hard. I don't follow the whole "don't climb the slide" rule most of the time. I think of the slide as a baby treadmill. I love it.

I love this pic of Cate freaking out on the swings because she is so excited.

My baby is definitely not a baby any more. I never really felt like she was much of a baby anyway since she's always been such a big girl.

Conversations about Cate lately:

Friend: "She is so adorable. When does she start nursery (class for kids age 18 months)?"

Me: "In 9 months. Yes, she's a big girl."

Random person: "How old is your daughter?"

Me: "Almost 11 months."

Random person: "Wow, she's a big one!"

Some info about our Catie Cate:

- She wears sizes 12-18 months clothes.

- She freaks out kicking and smiling when she sees her dad now

- She wears size 4 diapers and should probably wear size 5 at night.

- She eats 3-4 bottles each day (8 ounces) and loves food- especially apple cinnamon oatmeal and pasta with red sauce

- She can turn herself around and go down our small set of stairs ALL BY HERSELF. This skill that Kevin taught her last week has saved my sanity.

- She has a sixth sense and knows when we've left the gate on the stairs open... and she crawls towards it like her life depends on it.

- She cries if anyone says hello to her and thinks that they are going to take her away (maybe?). Today one of the cleaning ladies said, "Hi baby, you are so cute!" and she screamed and cried for 10 minutes.

- She finally likes her babysitter Taylor and will smile and play with her maybe 3 out of the 4 hours each week.

- She blows kisses constantly

- She and Andrew love giggling together and she'll laugh anytime he laughs

- She is an adorable cuddler and loves to be close by to both me and Kevin.

- She is Andrew's biggest fan... and she is his biggest enemy sometimes. Who knew her baby toys were so cool?

- Her current favorite toys are Andrew's firetruck, Sophie the giraffe, Talking Elmo and Talking Brobee (she is IN LOVE), and all of the Little People vehicles (mostly because she likes to pull them off the shelf and make them smash onto the floor)

- This month she stuck her hand in the toilet for the first time (ick!), emptied several trash cans onto the floor, and stuck her head through our banister (scary!). She keeps us on our toes and Andrew is always a step ahead of me watching out for her.

We are so excited to spend this month planning her first birthday party!

I'm still trying to decide what I want to do- big party with lots of friends/adults and older kids and some kids her age or small party with family and a few kids her age.... ??? Andrew didn't get a party when he turned one, so at least I have nothing to compete with.

Happy 11 months Caitlin!

A slight hiccup

2011-11-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

Bang Bang!

Last Thursday night on the way home from Googleween, some cars were too busy paying attention to an accident on the side of 680 and they stopped too quickly. Kevin avoided hitting anyone... but the guy behind him was too focused on watching the side of the road and slammed right into Kevin!

His car got the worst of it (smashed hood, air bags deployed, banged bumper), but Kevin managed to get a few bruises on my car. Fortunately everyone was ok, though Kevin had a sore neck for awhile and Cate screamed for a little bit (which was definitely unnerving to the guy who hit Kevin- it was his first accident ever and he felt SO bad for plowing into a car with two kids).

Kevin called me in Vermont and said, "well, the good news is that everyone is ok..." and then he proceeded to tell me about the accident. I was freaking out a bit and shed a few tears, but mostly was grateful that everyone was safe and no one got hurt.

Andrew is still talking about the crash.

This morning we dropped off my roomy 7 seater and traded it in for this roomy 5 seater for a few days. I am a little grumpy that they didn't give me a car with a back bench, but this rental is the cleanest car we've been in in awhile, so that is nice.

I also don't have my awesome music selections or ceiling TV monitor, so driving home from the car shop this morning with screaming Cate wasn't my favorite.

I introduced Andrew to the radio. After trying all the presets he told Caitlin, "Catie, don't be sad. This car just doesn't have any good music." After a few songs and him trying to tell me to start the songs over from the beginning (when we'd start a new station halfway through the song), he finally began to understand the radio a bit.

I loved it when one song came on that I finally liked and he said, "wow mom, this is a good song." Great minds think alike :) He asked me who sang the song... and I had no clue. I don't have the App for that. It reminded me of the olden days when I would listen to the radio all day long to try and catch the one specific song that I loved and wanted to know who sang it. I used to spend so much time trying to tape songs off the radio. Ah! So glad technology has changed!!

Anyways, Happy November!!

Today I am grateful for clean rental cars, the randomness of the radio, and a family who was protected during an accident! My prayers definitely were answered!

Halloween 2001

2011-10-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

We had a great day today. I managed to have a photo shoot with the kiddos this evening before we headed out trick-or-treating. Trying to snap photos of Caitlin before she escapes and climbs or crawls away is quite a feat. My camera's shutter speed isn't fast enough and most of the super cute smiles were missed by my slow camera. But oh well!

These two still looked adorable and I was just happy to snap these before they both were begging to take their costumes off. Andrew made it about 10 houses in his costume and then stripped down to just a t-shirt, pants, and his boots.

After waiting for awhile for Kevin to get home, we decided to just join up with our neighbors and start canvasing the neighborhood for treats. The traffic home was brutal today!

This was Andrew's first year ever of trick-or-treating and he was a fan. His speed picked up significantly once he realized that every house had treats at it.

Catie just chilled and watched the kids file past her.

The little dude was especially excited about some of the king sized candy bars he got. I was too. He may never see them again.

After about 7-10 houses, Andrew was dying of thirst and even the idea of more candy did not sound appealing. He started saying that he was all done with trick or treating. I was floored... and a little disappointed. We will need to work on trick or treating endurance next year.

Fortunately a quick drink got him re-energized for some more candy hunting.

For our first round of trick-or-treating we crashed my neighbor Kara's little party and for our second round we crashed my neighbor Sahar's party (and Kevin joined us for the second round). The kiddos were so excited to hang out together and run from house to house.

The sweaty fireman looked more like a paintball target than a fireman... but he made sure to tell everyone, "see I'm a fireman, I have fireman boots on..." just in case they were worried that he was grabbing candy and not in a costume!

Cate lasted about an hour and then Kevin took her home.

To be honest, I was kind of done with trick or treating after about 15/16 houses. By that point Andrew wanted to visit every house in our development... so I bribed him to go home by telling him he could eat some candy once we got there (he didn't eat any while we were collecting candy because he was so focused on his "get candy" mission).

Fortunately that worked and we went home and spent the rest of the night passing out candy, eating jack-o-lantern pizzas, and he ate one bag of skittles. He is seriously not my child. He didn't ask for any more candy after he ate the one small pack. He was more interested in the tiny play-doh containers I was passing out to the trick-or-treaters.

This year without planning to... I completely forgot to buy candy. I had tons of leftover prizes from our Halloween carnival, so we gave that out (and some candy that a neighbor randomly dropped by). The teenagers that stopped by were raving about the play-doh. They were so excited. I thought it was hysterical. I am kind of happy that we won't have tons of B-list candy hanging around for the next month (since I already ate the A-list candy at the beginning of October).

If you want to check out how we spent the rest of our Halloween day, you can see my post about it here. We had a little Witches and Warlocks Party. It was simple and fun.

Now I am tired and completely done with Halloween.

Bring on a month full of gratitude and giving thanks... and full of my birthday celebrations... since I love my "Birth-month!" We are creating our Thankful tree tomorrow!

Happy Halloween!

Vermont Girls Trip!!

2011-10-31T00:31:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night I said goodbye to the little kiddos and Kevin and headed east to Vermont with Kevin's mom (Shari) and my two sisters-in-law (Shauna and Liesl) for a GIRLS TRIP!

My first stop was SLC where I stayed overnight at the Caffee hotel. Elise and I grabbed cupshakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy (I am still dreaming about it) and chatted till late. Then we woke up early Saturday morning for a quick run before I had to go catch my flight to Vermont.

Isn't my sister the cutest? Loved the sign and the treats!

I have a gazillion pictures (and so do Shauna and Liesl), but here are a few of my favorite pictures from my camera of our trip.

We spent all day Saturday traveling. We stopped at JFK for a brief layover and I managed to eat some delicious NY style pizza and a black and white cookie. Mmm!

Sunday we headed to Sharon, Vermont for church and a visit to Joseph Smith's birthplace. We watched a beautiful movie about his life and went on a tour. Then we relaxed and read in our cute cosy cabin at the Eagles Resort at Sugarbush.

Monday we drove down to the Norman Rockwell museum in Rutland. I love his artwork and managed to find a few of my favorite sporty prints to bring home to frame for Andrew's room.

We also took a quick stop at the Chocolatorium for some treats and then decided to head across the border into New York because Liesl told us we weren't too far away from Buskirk Bridge!

I've gotta say, we were a sight to see as we jumped out of the car at every opportunity we had to snap a picture of the various "Buskirk" named spots throughout the town. I did a little research and discovered that Buskirk isn't even a town... it is a hamlet. Isn't that so cute? The bridge was built by Kevin's relative Martin Van Buskirk and the hamlet was named after him too.

Andrew was pretty excited when he saw the picture of the emergency truck with his last name on it.

We walked across the bridge, drove across it, and took pictures of it too. It is absolutely beautiful!

After that little detour we headed back to Vermont for some outlet shopping in Manchester!

Tuesday we slept in and I enjoyed a delightful run around the darling (and tiny) town of Waitsfield. After we got ready for the day, we headed up close to Stowe for some zipline fun through the pretty trees.

It was a nice small group (just the four of us and one other couple) and we managed to get to see some of the pretty Fall foliage even though it was pretty late in the season. It was freezing!!

We also got to go repelling.

After our exhausting and exciting zipline tour, we drove over to the Trapp Family lodge (home of the von Trapp family after they escaped from Austria during the Nazi regime). We inhaled lots of delicious food at the cute cafe there AND ate a bunch of rich desserts too.

I was so full and tired I practically slept the whole drive home! We ended the night with some reading, hot cocoa, and puzzles. Shauna made sure to build us a cozy fire every night too.

On Wednesday we woke up bright and early (6:30am- ugh!) to start our adventure to Montreal!

We visited the gorgeous St Joseph's Oratory, devoured soups and sandwiches in a cute French bakery, shopped in Old Montreal, and went on a tour of the amazing Notre-Dame Basilica.

Notre Dame

Liesl and I were also on a hunt for Cadbury chocolate in Canada. We loaded up at a Wal-mart before we crossed the border back into Vermont. I will be enjoying the chocolate for a long time- especially the Cadbury mini eggs that they sell all year long!

Thursday we just relaxed, slept in, and I went on a nice run before we got ready for the day. We stuck much closer to home and ventured to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury. They have yummy apple cider donuts, cider, and lots of fun stuff to buy!

How adorable are these kid Adirondack chairs?

Tasting the jellies

Trying the cider

We also went to a Maple syrup shop in Stowe (I'm forgetting the name right now) where the owner told us all about how his syrup is made. It was fascinating! I got Andrew a little man made out of maple sugar. He devoured it this morning with his pancakes!

We ended the day with dinner at Ben and Jerry's. My last visit was almost ten years ago with Etta and Bruce. We did the 8am tour so I think we didn't down as much ice cream as we did on this trip. I loved going on the tour again and especially loved the samples, gift shop, and scoop shop!

The sample flavor of the day was Milk and Cookies. Yum! I will definitely be buying that one again.

We trekked up to the flavor graveyard in the freezing weather. I love that place. It brought back a lot of good memories of Etta and I goofing around last time we went.

We also got enormous sundaes. They were small... but their version of small consists of two large scoops of ice cream. Yum!

I had a sugar headache for the rest of the night!

After all the food and excitement, we went back to our cabin and played games and hit the sack early. All that eating and exploring was exhausting!!

Friday was our last full day and we decided to just relax! I slept in and went running around 9:30am. What a treat! The little town was just adorable and I loved running through crunchy Fall leaves.

(just ignore my big forehead... and you can see all the crunchy Fall leaves)

In the afternoon we explored cute Waitsfield and drove through the beautiful countryside. It was like we stepped back in time. We downloaded a bunch of chick flicks from iTunes rentals, built a fire, and grabbed some treats and spent all evening watching movies.

It was a great way to end our fun girls trip!

On Saturday morning we closed up our barn door garage and braced ourselves for a long day of traveling!

We lucked out and managed to fly through Detroit instead of JFK... good thing too since the North East got a big snowstorm right after we flew out of Burlington!

After 12 hours of flying (on 3 different planes) and a long layover in Detroit, I finally made it to Oakland. Jessie picked me up and brought me home! (Hooray for awesome sisters!) I was so happy to be home, although I had so much fun on our trip!

This morning I jumped out of bed when I heard the little kiddos stirring and Cate was SO EXCITED to see me. I was worried that she would forget me or be mad at me, but she just snuggled with me, laughed with me, and cuddled with me all morning long! That little girl gives the best kisses and hugs ever! Andrew was also stoked to see me... especially when he discovered that I had brought him lots of fun souvenirs. Mr. Mom (Kevin) was also happy to see me and enjoyed sleeping in a bit to recover from his long week.

I think I should go on vacation alone more often though. Kevin is amazing and a super "Mr. Mom." He cleaned out my fridge and freezer, organized some cupboards, and got lots of much needed to be completed projects done around the house. The house was pretty much spotless when I got home too. He also successfully got Andrew and Cate to all of their various Halloween activities (which I will post about later). Gotta love that guy!! I am one lucky girl!

Thanks so much to those of you who invited Andrew over to play last week. I know Kevin really appreciated the help! We are blessed with so many wonderful friends!

I am also blessed to have such a great mother-in-law who planned this fun girls trip. It was so nice to get to spend time with her and my sisters-in-law without our crazy kiddos! I can't wait till next year!

Busy Busy Week!

2011-10-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we hosted our 2nd annual Neighborhood Halloween Carnival. It was awesome. I have seriously the best neighbors ever. We just threw our hats in the ring to be our HOA Social Directors... so there might be more partying coming up in the future!

We managed to get the kiddos to sit still long enough to get a family photo. That was my only request of the day... hooray, it was a semi success!

Jessie trekked up to help out with the carnival. She was Andrew's buddy since about an hour into the party he decided he was all partied out and wanted to go inside and play with his play-doh. Yay for awesome Aunt Jess!

I created monster golf and a bottle pumpkin knock down game for this year's carnival. The rest of the awesome ideas that I had were quickly forgotten when I found lots of cheap carnival games at Target. I love being creative... but sometimes it is not worth it to make something cute when you can buy it for under $10. The key for me to not be stressed out is learning to let things go!

The best part of the party was having lots of volunteers. Last year I helped run three booths all at the same time... this year we had enough youth volunteers (10-15) to run every booth... and then some! I loved just roaming, socializing, filling candy, and attempting to keep Caitlin happy.

We had our favorite "gone fishing" game again. This one is an automatic win... no real skills are involved and the kids get cool prizes. There was always a long line.

Showing off her prize

The candy walk was another favorite. I doubled the number of cards this year (from 12-24)... and all 24 spots were usually filled.

Did I mention it was hot? Yeah, around 80 degrees. Notice how sweaty Andrew looks. He could barely wear his costume because it was too hot.

Little Peter was among my favorite dressed up little kiddo. So adorable!

Cate got lots of bonding time with Kevin while I did some hostess duties. She loves to try and claw her way out of your arms and try and get to the ground... makes for fun times.

We had two bounce houses, probably 10 games, snacks/treats, and tons of candy prizes... and yet this little guy just wanted to hang out with Aunt Jessie inside. She is obviously super cool.

One of the prizes was (were?) fangs... they were a big hit.

Since it didn't rain this year, we were able to utilize our entire court... and spread things out a bit. Last year everything was crammed together because of the rain. Kevin and Greg counted about 150-200 unique people throughout the day, so according to them, we had an awesome turn out. I was just please that almost everyone I invited was able to come. It was fun to chit chat a bit and see everyone in costume.

Andrew got his second wind towards the end of the party and did some crazy dances

Jessie was the leader of the pack and some of the kids just followed her around... there is never a dull moment where she is.

Clean up was totally quick with lots of helpers and we spend the rest of the day recuperating. I was exhausted!

Sunday I checked another thing off my pinterest list. Bunt cake pumpkin cakes.

Monday we cleaned and organized. I think I now have a photograph of every outfit Caitlin owns. I'm making myself an outfit cheat sheet to stick in her closet... so she'll actually wear more than three outfits.

Tuesday I got to go a fun baby shower for one of my favorite friends at a yummy Italian restaurant. "Happy Baby to you, Happy Baby to you" :)

Wednesday we played and played with friends. We babysat a friend's kid in the morning, had the Balenas over in the afternoon, went to Virtues class after that, and then I ended the night with YWs and a Girls Night out for ice cream with friends. I also managed to snap a few pictures of Catie in her adorable Halloween outfit from Grandma Shari!

She is in love with Sophie right now too...

Thursday (today)- Catie actually was nice to her babysitter while I went and worked in Andrew's preschool. Andrew and I had so much fun together. We painted paper bag pumpkins and we participated in The Great California's Shake Out with an Earthquake drill (which is ironic to me now since I just felt an EARTHQUAKE while I'm typing this blog post. I think it was a 4.2... so not huge, but still scared me).

A fireman came to preschool this week too... so one of the pretend play areas is decked out like a fire truck. Guess who spends most of his outdoor time in fireman clothing?

They even have real fire hoses to play with (with no water)... so awesome!

We also played at the pumpkin patch... because another pretend play area is set up like the pumpkin patch. Andrew is an awesome pumpkin shopper and some of his little friends had fun being the cashiers.

They even had a scale to weigh their pumpkins. I don't know who was more excited about the "pumpkin patch"... but I think maybe I was?:)

It's been an all around great week. Tomorrow should hopefully be awesome too as I am gearing up for my girls trip to the East Coast while Kevin is gearing up for a week as Mr. Mom. I'm sure I'll have a gazillion pictures to share when I get home.

Happy Thursday!!

The life ahead of us

2011-10-14T00:30:00.000-07:00

Source: 30.media.tumblr.com via Kristina on Pinterest

I love looking back on events that have happened in my life (good and bad) and realizing that the way my life has worked out so far is perfect for me and perfect for my family.

When I was younger there were a lot of things that I wished... that never happened... and a lot of things that I planned, that didn't end up working out the way that I expected.

It is fascinating to me that no matter what stage of life I am in, there is always something I am wishing for or wishing away. I spend Saturday at the temple with friends and then listening to a remarkable woman speak.

It is incredible how my whole outlook on life has changed this week after that experience. Nothing has changed on the surface, we are still doing our regular old mundane things... but I am seeing them in a different way and enjoying each tiny moment.

I got some sad news this morning from a friend and spent the day hugging these little people more often. Andrew didn't quite get it when mommy was sobbing during her morning prayer... but he was super reverent and thoughtful.

Ironically, my friend was the one who gave me comfort with how she responded to her sad news... not the other way around. I am amazed by people who have such strong faith in the Lord's timing and plan for things.

I love my life. I love my family. I feel very blessed by all of the experiences that our family has been given that have helped us grow together. I feel especially fortunate to have many amazing friends who are also like family to me.

Source: d30opm7hsgivgh.cloudfront.net via Kristina on Pinterest

Have a Happy Friday!

Pinterest Checkboxes and Halloween Decor

2011-10-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

If you've talked to me much about Pinterest, then you know that the main thing I think it is lacking is a checkbox for when you've tried out one of the ideas you've pinned.

This week I finally feel like I am crossing off lots of "to-do" items with some inspiration from my Pinterest boards.

I've been wanted to try these ghosts for awhile. I almost chickened out... but then I did it.

Mine are pretty cute considering they probably only cost $7 total... I already had everything in the house except the dowels. I filled their heads with plastic Safeway bags and old artwork that Andrew won't miss and covered them with trash compactor bags. The trash bags make the heads a little pointy... but oh well, you win some, you lose some... I wasn't about to actually pay $$ for fabric to decorate my lawn ghosts.

They don't all hook together... but that's probably ok because the second one from the back likes to fall over sometimes. If they were all attached, then they'd all be falling all the time.

Next up, I tried this door decor idea. I made the mistake of showing it to Andrew and he decided he wanted both... not just one. So, we have a monster AND a spider door. Also, our sweet yard people filled all of our pumpkin trash bags with lawn clippings and leaves today. Our festive pumpkins are planning to adorn the cul-de-sac for our Neighborhood Halloween Carnival this weekend!

Didn't Kevin do a sweet job creating Frankenstein's hair?
Andrew and I painted the eye balls. :)

Little dude and I also made the purple spider. He is a little bummed I made it have a mouth since he says spiders don't have mouths.

Lastly, I love all the cool no carve pumpkin ideas I've been seeing around...(I have several pinned to the top of this board)... so tonight we decorated pumpkins with the girls at church.

It was genius- no mess, no guts, no icky smells... totally my sort of Halloween craft!

I sat back and watched as the girls created their masterpieces... and I passed out the chocolatey encouragement.

I totally feel like I deserve several little check boxes now so I can tick off these ideas.

Moving In

2011-10-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

After our nightmare-ish afternoon, we headed up to Jessie's new townhouse in Menlo Park. Once we arrived, the little people woke up from their naps and Andrew discovered his eye was pretty swollen. After some crying for a little while, we headed into Jessie's new place to check things out and play with her cool iPhone.

Scott and Tito arrived an hour or so later with some yummy Chinese food from Su Hong... and the party got even more fun. We ate and ate and ate.

Little dude hung out and just relaxed. We barely heard a peep from him for over an hour.

I just shoveled the chow mein and fried rice in as fast as I could... and Cate loved it too. :)

Cate also loved crawling all over Jessie's large, spacious, and empty apartment.

The Ronald McDonald drive-thru room in the basement was the favorite part of the evening.

We goofed off until I thought I was going to pass out from being so tired.

We finally headed home around 9pm.

Andrew was so much happier (despite his big swollen eye). We were so lucky to have Scott, Jessie, and Cat so close by help cheer up the little buddy!

The Nightmare at Lemos Farm

2011-10-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

These pictures don't tell the true story of our adventure on Friday. I was so proud of Andrew for being such a tough guy. We made our annual trek to HMB to go to Lemos Farm on Friday afternoon. We met up with some friends from when I taught in Palo Alto. These little guys have known each other since they were babies (check out these pictures of them back in the day- Andrew with K, Andrew with A). They were so sweet together.

The nightmare part of the trip happened about 5 minutes after we arrived (after our nice long drive down). Andrew got stung by a bee on his eyelid. He was watching something over at a ride and I was chatting with friends. All of a sudden I just heard him screaming. He was standing alone screaming, no one was helping, no one rushed to see what was wrong... I was so confused and ran to him as fast as I could. I didn't know why he was screaming. Someone flippantly told me he got stung by a bee on his eye and then walked off like that happens every day. The poor kid just screamed and screamed. Andrew is a tough kid and he just didn't stop screaming. It was terrible... and then Cate started screaming too. I stood off in a shady spot alone while I comforted Andrew and tried to calm the screaming Cate who I couldn't pick up and I just didn't know what to do.

Finally, I got Andrew a little bit calmed down. We bought tickets for some rides and then tried to have some fun. There were bees every where and anytime he saw one he would start crying and running and screaming again. Good times.

Finally after about 20-30 minutes, all was well.

We rode the train.

Re-enacted the same silly picture we took last year. (though he'd screamed so much by this point I wasn't totally encouraging it)

Then we fed the goats.

Then the nightmare continued because Andrew did something silly while I was off changing Cate's diaper. He was hanging out with my friends and he whacked his head really hard on a wooden fence. Ugh!

Then we tried to snap him out of that crying and head to the bounce house area... and then some seven year old launched himself out of the bounce house onto Andrew's head (while Andrew was outside the bounce house putting on his shoes)... so at that point I had the kid's grandma trying to bribe me by offering to buy me tickets and treats because Andrew was screaming so loud. She kept trying to offer to hold Cate, which the thought of just set Cate off and she was crying out of control too.... sweet :) So I held both crying kids and tried to calm them down (while the lady kept trying to bribe me- she was really worried her grandson had hurt Andrew really bad)... and then finally I got them both to calm down... enough to snap this photo :) (poor kid- can you tell by his red eyes that he'd been crying for far too long?).

We decided enough was enough and it was time to go home before anything else bad happened. We took some final photos with our buds and then drove to Menlo Park to check out Jessie's new apartment.

What a nightmare-ish day! It didn't stop there though... because when Andrew woke up from his nap in the car his eye was almost swollen shut... which equaled about another 20-30 minutes of crying.

I have a headache just thinking about Friday.

Fortunately it ended on such a better note... see next post.

The only positives of Friday were hanging out with our Escondido buds and briefly running into our other favorite friends. Thank goodness that day is over!

In Between Naps

2011-10-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

We saw storm clouds approaching this afternoon... so we raced outside to try and beat them and get some of our energy out!

Wagon rides with help from the Bumbo are way more fun than trying to have Andrew hold Cate.

Catie also got to ride her "bike". She was really excited. The only direction she knows to go so far is backwards... so she'd go backwards until she hit the grass and then we'd pull her forwards and have her do it again.

I seriously loved watching Cate and Andrew interact. She just laughs and laughs at random things he does... I don't even know what he did in this picture... but her huge grin was precious!

I couldn't ask for a better big brother for Cate. This morning when our friends were over, I went upstairs to pick Cate up from her nap. Andrew ran over to our friends and excitedly said something like, "My baby sister Catiebug is awake! Did you hear her? My mom went to go get her. You'll see her in a minute. She is so cute. We love her."

Love this boy. I also love how hard he is trying to share with Cate these days. We created a big "Share Points" board at our house that is a big pumpkin. Andrew gets "share points" intermittently throughout the day... not every time he shares... but often... so he never knows when he might earn something. We're working on sharing things we don't want to share. It is tough. He's really good at sharing all the random lame toys that Cate doesn't like.

The points remind me to look for his positive behavior... since it is easier to be nitpicky and look for the negative stuff. He has to earn 27 more stickers by Friday afternoon or we can't go to HMB... so let's hope we both do a good job tomorrow. :) I need to buy some more patience.

Handout Swap

2011-10-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

I teach the young women at church pretty much every Sunday. I love making cute handouts and planning fun things for them. Sometimes I spend too much time on them... but I have fun doing it. As my dad likes to say, "Anything worth doing, is worth doing to excess"... right? ;)

My friend Sandy had a brilliant idea for us to get together once a month to create hand outs for the entire month. Three of us got together this morning to put them all together. We each took one lesson (one Sunday) and came up with a handout idea and got all of the materials.

Today we hung out for an hour or so and put the handouts together while we chatted. It was way more fun than putting them together on Saturday night alone while watching TV (usually at 11pm).

When the morning was over, we each had a bag of handouts for three Sundays for three different lessons. Does that make sense? I love it. Now I can spend my Saturday nights focusing on the meat of my lessons and not a cutesy handout (which I love and the girls love and don't want to NOT make... so this was a win/win).

Hurray for a productive morning!