Easter Clothes

Even though today isn't Easter, I let the kids wear their Easter Outfits to church because they won't get the chance to wear them next week because we will be driving back from Southern Utah. We are excited for the chance to go down and spend the Easter weekend with our families. The kids were excited with their new Sunday clothes and I thought they looked adorable in their new duds.

Happy Easter!!

Spring Soccer

This year we decided that we would sign Kaleb up for Spring Soccer instead of Baseball. We thought it would be good to give Kaleb the opportunity to try both sports and decide which one was his favorite to play. On Friday he had his first practice. He did very good and we are proud of him. He is really lucky because he also is on the same team with two of his friends, Caleb Bradford and Cadence Hattaway.

Yesterday was his first game of the season, and he had a lot of fun. Kaleb isn't the most aggressive player,(He gets his non-aggressiveness from his parents) but had a lot of fun! We are looking forward to working with him on his knowledge of the game and helping him improve over the next few weeks. After the game, his coach handed out patches to put on their jersey's. All the kids get a blue soccer patch if they participate and if they score a goal they get a green soccer patch. Kaleb was thrilled with his blue patch and his after the game treats.

We are looking forward to spending the next month watching Kaleb play soccer on Friday and Saturdays!

The picture above is Kaleb with his friend Cadence.

Purses, Shoes, Princesses & Friends

This past month, Karmindy has taken a huge interest in purses, shoes, princesses and playing with neighborhood friends. She is a total girly girl in the making! I LOVE IT!

Purses and Shoes

Karmindy recently found one of my old purses that I have kept from middle school. She carries it around everywhere. She also begs to bring it every time we are our running errands. She looks like quite the little lady carrying it around everywhere. Karmindy can also be found raiding my closet and wearing my shoes through the house. Her Favorites are my tennis shoes and a Black pair of 4 inch heels that I love! I guess a girl has got to have options!

Princesses

A year ago, Karmindy was given a very elaborate Snow White Costume from her Grandma Laurie for her Birthday. Karmindy has refused to wear it despite Mark and I trying our best to coax her to wear it. We both think it was because of the scratchy material and Karmindy just being stubborn. Karmindy had a play date with a friend recently and her friend showed up wearing a darling Cinderella Princess Dress up Dress. Karmindy immediately ran to her room and asked to put her Snow white dress on. I was in shock because she has had nothing to do with wearing it. I put her dress on and she wore it the entire time her friend was over for the play date. She has always had a love for princess stuff but now that love has become an obsession.

Friends

 We have been blessed to live in a neighborhood that is swarming with kids. It is really nice because they play very well together and look out for each other. Kaleb and Karmindy both have kids their ages and that makes it so fun to have built in playmates in the neighborhood. Karmindy has the most kids her age. She has 10 kids that are around her age! She loves playing with her friends Claire, Avery, and Emilia. The past few weeks, we have had her friend Avery over to play while her mom was preparing to have a baby and while she was in labor. Avery and Karmindy have fun playing together and their favorite thing to do is have their fingernails and toe nails painted. Total girly girls in the making! They also enjoy dressing up and can be found giving each other hugs. It is very cute! I am really glad that Karmindy has some cute and fun little girl friends to play with.

A Brother's Best Friend...

In the past week or so since Kaleb's Surgery, Kaleb has told me how much he loves and appreciates his little sister. He even told me after a not so fun play date with a friend, that he is glad that his little sister is his best friend and that he has her to play with when his friend didn't want to play with him. 

I really enjoy watching Kaleb and Karmindy interact because they truly are each other's best friends. They play very well together. All siblings fight and bicker and these two do their fair share but for the most part they are best friends. One evening this past week the kids were sitting by each other on the coach and Kaleb got into Karmindy's face. He was teasing her and it was bugging her. She finally was fed up with it and shoved him and said, "Stop buggin' me!" Mark and I died laughing because we had no idea that Karmindy knew that phrase.

It is also very common to see these two wrestle on the living room floor together. Karmindy can hold her own and is only 10 lbs. lighter than Kaleb right now. Before Kaleb's adenoid/tonsil surgery he had a tough time gaining weight because he would burn all it all during the night while sleeping to wake himself up (sleep apnea). Kaleb is tall for his age but is very very skinny. Bone protruding skinny. So glad that we got his tonsils and adenoids out. Karmindy keeps her big brother in line but they both know how to hold their own.

 During Kaleb's recovery time from the surgery, Kaleb spent most of the time on the coach recuperating by watching TV, movies, and playing his leapster. Karmindy was a great sister and never left her brothers side. She was camped out with him through the whole experience. She would occaisonally say, "Brother feel better." and "Brother is sick!"

One afternoon, I found Karmindy fast asleep while watching TV with Kaleb. It was like she was his little watch dog.  She would scoot her pink princess chair into the Living Room to watch TV with her Brother and would set her chair as close to him as possible. All that watching TV and staying by her brother's side wore her out!

She certainly is Kaleb's best friend and Kaleb is her best friend. I hope that they will have a great relationship for the rest of their lives!

PTA Secretary & Kaleb's Art Walk Night

On March 31st, we headed as a family over to the Elementary School where Kaleb attends. I was asked to serve on PTA committee this next year and will be taking on the office of Secretary. On this particular night, I was being voted in by other members. I am a little nervous for this assignment but I am looking forward to serving at the school and in the community. It will be a great learning experience. Wish me luck! :)

On this night it was also the Schools Art Walk. All the classes in the school participate and it is a night for the classes to showcase the students artwork that they have been doing in their classes. Kaleb's class participated so after being voted in, our little family walked the halls and enjoyed looking at all the artwork. We really enjoyed finding Kaleb's artwork and seeing what he has been working on in his class this term. Kaleb is very artistic, so it was fun to see his talent first hand. He was able to have two of his pieces showcased: a painting of a vase of flowers and a craft project! He was very excited to show us his artwork. 

Karmindy also had fun and didn't want to be left out, so she pointed to a picture that she adopted and said was hers. She keeps us laughing all the time!

 Here are Kaleb's projects up close:

Project: Spilled Milk

What did it look like?

Kaleb wrote: A Whale!

Kale'b's Beautiful blue vase and flowers!

Kaleb's Tonsil & Adenoid Surgery

On April 4th, Kaleb went in to have his adenoids and tonsils taken out at Primary Children's Hospital. For the past few months, Mark and I noticed that Kaleb was struggling to breathe during the day (he sounded like he had a constant stuffy nose) and at night he would snore loudly and stop breathing. It scared Mark and I to death to go check on him at night before going to bed because he would stop breathing and then gasp for breath. We knew that something was wrong and so we got him took him to an ENT for a check up where he saw Dr. Fredrick Grimmer. He confirmed that he had enlarged tonsils and adenoids and that they needed to come out. Kaleb's tonsils were so large that they were almost touching each other.

The day of the surgery we arrived at PCH and they took good care of us! We have been to PCH many times for Karmindy's heart appointments, so we feel like we know the building like the back of our hands! I still get severe anxiety going anywhere near this building. Don't get me wrong, the surgeons, nurses and others that work there are the best in the world and that helps to comfort me but it never is easy when you know your child is going under the knife. 

Kaleb was treated so well and Child life Services that they provide did a wonderful job prepping him before the surgery. They spent almost two hours going over what they would do and let him do some fun activities to makes sure that it was a positive experience for him. Kaleb got to play Dr. to a doll that he got to decorate with Markers. He also got to color a wooden dinosaur, and also decorate a wooden car. Kaleb was very calm and was so brave! He also enjoyed drinking as many slushies as he wanted.

The surgery took about 45 minutes. I felt at peace, more so than with Karmindy's surgery. We even had to wait in the room where we waited for Karmindy while she had her 8 hour open heart surgery. It was a little nerve wracking being back in the place that was at one point that meant life or death for our little girl.

Dr. Fredrick Grimmer was Kaleb's Doctor and Surgeon. He did a great job and came out as soon as the surgery was complete. He said that Kaleb was a great patient and did great. He also said that he was glad that he had done the procedure because Kaleb's adenoids were bigger than his tonsils. He said Kaleb wasn't even being able to breath through his nose and it was mostly plugged.

Kaleb was an excellent patient and we as his parents are so proud of him. We continually got compliments on how polite and how sweet of a boy he was during everything. 

We are so proud to have Kaleb as our son. He is truly a sweet, patient person. He is such a great example to us!

We are almost two weeks out and the recovery has gone well! There were a couple of evenings that Kaleb scared us with acting a little funny and act a little out of it but we attribute to the anesthesia. He is thriving and gets a great night sleep every night! We are so glad to see that he is doing better and feeling better!

This is the doll that Kaleb got to decorate. He colored the eyes, hair, mouth and ears. He eve drew socks on his legs, a name band on his arm and drew a belly button and heart. It turned out very cute!

He also colored the wooden dinosaur and decorated the wooden toy care with "Cars" stickers.

* I forgot to take my camera to the hospital, so I didn't get any pictures of Kaleb other than snapping a few with the camera on my cell phone. I am a little bugged with myself that I didn't do a better job with documenting this for him.

Spring is Here!!

 Spring has finally made its way to Northern Utah! Hurray! I am so very glad. It has snowed several times over the past month but it quickly melts, which I really like especially after having snow for feels like 6 long months! Mark and I are really enjoying living in Northern Utah for many reasons but the weather has been hard on us; especially, having grown up in Southern Utah where it is warm all the time.

On the good days when it warms up to around 70 degrees, I let my kids head for the back yard and play until their hearts are content!

The kids have loved the swing set we got them for Easter Last year and spend every waking moment they can swinging or sliding. They also love to ride their bikes! I have taught Kaleb how to swing high and then blast out of his seat and land on the grass. He thinks he is pretty awesome! Karmindy has been swinging herself since last fall and she is so cute to watch. She doesn't like to go very high but is getting more brave because she won't have her older brother outdoing her!! I love to watch her swing herself because she will take a few steps back and then launch herself forward. It is very cute!

A New Job and Home Improvements

Since our move up North, Mark has been working for a company called IBAHN. They have treated him very well and he has enjoyed his time working at this company. A few months ago, the company moved their office (located in S. Jordan) to another office complex up in Cotton wood heights. It takes him over an hour to commute to and from our home each day. I know this isn't bad; especially, since most people living in the SLC area have a long commute to their jobs. During the office move, Mark changed departments and is now trying his hand at programming in Linux. Since changing departments, his boss is a little more relaxed and only requires his team to come in once a week. The rest of the week Mark works from home. It has been nice but also a huge adjustment for our family. We love having Mark home but it makes it hard when the kids want to play with him since he is their best bud. It has also been hard on Mark with not having a place to go each day. This past month, Mark had a job interview with the IT department at the LDS church. They really liked Mark and he has been offered a job!! We are excited, especially since where he will be working is only a block away from our home!! Mark starts his job on May 1st! He is very excited!

Along with a New Job offer, we have slowly been working on framing our basement. We are so excited to see the progress and are looking forward to having a little more room to spread out. I am really really looking forward to the extra space! It will be nice to send the kids to the play room downstairs and have the caos in one localized area instead of in their bedrooms and in my living room! We have a few more things that need to be framed in but are almost there. We also just got the ac/heating duct work done. Next on the list is plumbing and electrical. It is a work in progress downstairs but it has been something fun to work on!