Catching some Zzzz's

 Since Karmindy has been in Pre-School for the past month on Tuesday and Thursdays in the afternoon, I have noticed that she comes home exhausted. After she shows me her cute project she has worked on for that day she will ask to watch a movie and will cuddle up with her blanket on the couch. Some of her favorite movies these days (in no particular order) are: Toy Story (All movies), Dora the Explorer, Snow White, Tinkerbelle (All movies) and Over the Hedge. She loves her movies! She would watch movies all day if I let her. Most days she will fall asleep and take a short cat nap while she watches her movies. One day this past week she came to me and told me she was tired and wanted to watch a movie. By the time I got in the family room to turn on the movie for her, I found Karmindy all cuddled up in my rocking chair. She had fallen asleep. All the studying and having fun at Pre-School sure wears a little girl out! I Love these pictures I captured of my Sleeping Beauty.

Loving Pre-School!

 Karmindy proudly displaying her "Nake" (Snake) that she made in class.

It is hard to believe that Karmindy has been enrolled in Pre-School for over a month now. She is loving it! She truly enjoys going to school to see her friends in our neighborhood. (Avery Hawkins, Emilia Pidcock and Grace VanLeeuwen. There are also two little boys in her class. For me as her mom, it is so fun to see her growing and learning. Over the past month she has just taken off in her learning and social skills. She can pick out and say her colors and has become so much more social. with others. I enrolled Karmindy in preschool this year in hopes that she would become a little less shy- it is working!! Karmindy is also loving her teacher Mrs. Heather and talks about her constantly. She also gets really excited to wear her backpack to school, participate in Show and Tell and loves bringing home her Art projects for me to Look at and OOOO and Ahhh over!! I am really proud of my little girl!

I love how excited she gets to show me what she made when she gets home from Pre-School. Priceless.

Our Little Slugger

On August 11th, Kaleb started playing Fall Baseball through Riverton City. Jeff Trimble, who is the Dad of one of Kaleb friends (Jaxon) volunteered to coach this year so Kaleb has been fortunate to have several of the boys in our neighborhood and ward be on his team. In fact, there are 4 friends on his team this year: Caleb Bradford, Jaxon Trimble, Matthew Payne and Winston Hyer. Mark has also been able to fill in and help Jeff several times when he couldn't make it. Kaleb has really enjoyed having his Dad help out and be there to coach him.

As Kaleb's Parents it is so fun to see how Kaleb has grown as a player this year! He has really shown a lot of improvement from playing his first year of Baseball over a year ago. Before the season started, Kaleb was bugging Mark and I to get out and practice throwing and hitting. He very self motivated! As we have watched Kaleb this year we have noticed that he has really improved in his hitting and swings and stands at the plate with more enthusiasm and aggression. We are still working with him on trying to hit the ball really hard. This year was also the first year that Kaleb has shown an interest in playing "Catcher." He has done really well at this position and it has been fun to see him all dressed up in the Catchers uniform. The uniform is almost too big for him!

Kaleb also enjoys playing first base and tends to "fight" Caleb Bradford for the opportunity. When it is time to play outfield, both boys have a friendly competition and will race to see who can get to first base first. Silly Boys.

 While Kaleb plays, I enjoy sitting on the sidelines with Karmindy. Karmindy gets bored easily but enjoys playing with the other little friends that are there supporting their siblings. Her new favorite friend is Carson Bradford and the two of them enjoy running up and down the grass hills. It is cute to watch her interact with the other kids. 

Karmindy playing with Carson Bradford.

Bear Lake Family Reunion

Sawyer, Kaleb, Chandler, Karmindy and Savannah on the tube!

This past weekend, we got together with Mark's Uncle Gordon, Aunt Wanda and Cousins Dave & Roxanne and their kids and Christine and Casey and their kids. We have been planning on this get together  at Bear Lake for over a year now.  We have been so excited to go and it has been Years Since Mark has been able to go and spend time with his Dads side of the family for this particular reunion. It was so fun!!!
 Each family rents out condos by Bear Lake and gets together to enjoy a few days of family fun and water activities at the Lake. Mark's Uncle Gordon was so gracious and invited us to share a condo with his family this year and we excitedly excepted! We had such a great time spending time with everyone. 

We left Riverton on Friday night and Joined up with Dave and Roxanne for dinner in Ogden before heading up to the Condo that night. On Saturday we enjoyed going out on the boat and tubing and skiing with the kids. Kaleb and Karmindy really enjoyed themselves and were so brave and went tubing. Karmindy earned the nickname the "Blonde Bomber" from Uncle Gordon because of her feisty-ness and willingness to try anything. With Kaleb, it took a little more coaxing to get him in the water. Both the kids did great though and enjoyed the Lake. Mark took the kids on the Hydro Slide and they both did awesome.

Mark and I both enjoyed Skiing and Mark even got to barefoot. I have never seen Mark barefoot ski before and he did awesome!! I was truly impressed.

After playing at the Lake we joined up with Family for a fun Bar-B-que that night. It was fun to see Mark's Uncles and Aunts and Cousins. 

On Sunday, we took it easy and played on the Resorts playground, went swimming and played at the beach. That afternoon for dinner we got together with all of the Vanderlindens and had a BarBque. Later that night, Mark took Kaleb mini golfing while I stayed back a the condo with Karmindy. Karmindy was so tired and fell asleep and slept for hours. On Monday, we got up bright and early and cleaned up the Condo and headed out to do a little bit more skiing and tubing before eating lunch and then heading home. On the way home we stopped for Raspberry shakes. They were delish. We had such a great time and it was so nice for the kids and us to get together with extended family and cousins and spend time with them. We had such a blast and are looking forward to next year!

 Savannah and Karmindy. Karmindy loved hanging out with Cousin Savannah and was her shadow all weekend.

 The kids had a blast spending time at the resorts park. It was a beautiful set up that was located right by the lake. Kaleb and Karmindy loved spinning on this old school merry go round.

 Kaleb enjoying the Jacuzzi.

 My kids playing at the beach

Thumbs Up!

Pre-School Adventures

Today, my baby started Preschool. I can't believe that she is 3 and in school. Where is the time going? What a blessing it is to see Karmindy start school because there was a time that I didn't know that we as her parents would be blessed to witness it or come to this milestone in her life. Even though Karmindy is only three, we decided to put her in preschool this year. Kaleb didn't go to two years of preschool but I thought by signing Karmindy up for school that it might help her over come her shyness. I think it was a great decision to put Karmindy in school because she has been so excited to start school and had a really tough time when Big Brother started a couple weeks before her. Karmindy truly has missed Kaleb while he has been away and has been a little lonely. 

Karmindy with her teacher, Mrs. Heather.

This year I bought new back packs for the kids and Karmindy has loved hers. She loves to wear her "pack-pack" to the bus stop when we drop Kaleb off in the mornings. When we woke up this morning, I told her that she got to start school today! She was so excited and when we walked up to the bus stop to drop Kaleb off, she got in line with all the big kids to get on the bus. Karmindy wasn't happy when I had to pick her up and remove her from the bus line. I had to explain to her that she was going to a different school. She sulked the whole way home. 

Karmindy's Little Class: Avery Hawkins, Karmindy, Grace VanLeeuwen, and Emilia Pidcock.

Karmindy's preschool is on Tuesdays and Thursdays this year from 12-2 and I we signed her up to attend Mrs. Heather's Preschool. My friend Heather teaches preschool out of her home and just lives around the corner from our home. Heather has taught Kindergarten and is just one of the sweetest people I know, so it was nice to know that Karmindy's first preschool experience would be a great one. I know she is in good hands.

 Today, for Karmindy's very first day we arrived at the school and we met with Mrs. Heather. Karmindy has a few friends in the neighborhood that have girls her age and so I have really been looking forward to having her be in a class with her friends. Upon arriving we went for a scavenger hunt looking for items around the classroom and then did several fun little activities. Karmindy stamped her name using rubber stamps, practiced holding a push pin so it will help develop the muscles in her hand for writing, and colored a self portrait of her self. Mrs. Heather read a story to the kids while the parents filled out paper work and sang a song. The kids all got suckers and were dismissed. Karmindy had so much fun and expressed to me that she couldn't wait to go back to school. It is going to be a great year and I can't wait to see how Karmindy grows and excels.

Hope

Back in the day, like when I was younger and even up until I had Kaleb, I didn't mind going to see the Doctor. Over the past three years, that "like" has turned into an absolute hate. I hate 99.9% Doctors with a passion, I hate hospitals, and the sterile hospital buildings and offices. Although, I am grateful and can appreciate what Doctors are capable of doing for those in need, as well as, for the sterile and clean environments that they work in, I still HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM!!! It is amazing how life's trials and twists and turns can change our opinions, our mindset, our sensitivity to things and make us tough and callused. I feel this way. Even though I feel that I am still an incredibly sensitive person and strive to recognize and tend to the feelings of others and be there for others, I also feel so hard and callused at the same time. I don't like feeling like this and I don't know how to change it. In some ways, I feel like I have lost "hope" even though I still continue to have it.

Today, I took Karmindy to her 3-year well check up. Before Karmindy was born, I celebrated every well check up with Kaleb. I loved seeing from month to month and year to year the progress my little boy was making. When Karmindy came along, it wasn't that I didn't celebrate but things took on a whole new meaning. I was happy and celebrated but felt hollow and empty inside too. Each visit I try to find the good. Today's visit I found out Karmindy has perfect 20/20 vision. Our Doctors nurse was happy to report that she has never in all her years of working been able to record that a 3 year old has perfect vision. Yay, for Karmindy!! However, even though I celebrate that wonderful and miraculous thing like vision, I dread to talk about my daughters heart condition. The heart is also a wonderful and miraculous thing. After Karmindy's Angioplasty in June, my heart has been so, so heavy because the condition that Karmindy now has. It is rare. The Doctors haven't seen it before. No one has really seen an aorta fold the way that Karmindy's has been doing above a coarc surgery site.  Before the surgery, I could do research and scour the internet to find outcomes of coarc patients but now I cannot scour the internet to find "Hope" for what Karmindy has. How can I have "Hope" if I cannot find percentages or facts that will tell me that my daughter will be ok or help give my mind a little rest? I know that I need to have  more Faith but how can I have more, when after watching my daughter go through this for three years,? My bucket of faith is wavering on empty. I don't' feel like I have any more faith or strength to give. It is hard to explain to friends and family and even though they offer support and love, and I appreciate all they do, it is hard because they don't quite feel the anguish I feel. There is nothing more painful then watching your child suffer or go through something that could potentially be life threatening and feeling like you have absolutely NO POWER to help them. I want to make this go away for Karmindy. I want to have my little girl with me always... 

Why do we have to continue to go through this hard stuff. It seems like it never ends. What am I supposed to be learning from this? Maybe the faster I learn the faster it would go away?

Today,I had a long talk with my wonderful pediatrition and we cried together over Karmindy's latest surgery and prognosis. I have the most remarkable Doctor for my kids. She is a mother as well, and knows where I am coming from. It helps to have a Dr. who has knowledge and empathy. These are qualities that are almost never found these days among health care providers.

I feel blessed to Have Dr. Val.

After talking about "Heart Patches" and stints among other fun Heart Stuff  with my dear and patient Doctor and me asking for "hope" on how Karmindy might weather over the next few years of life, I left feeling so helpless. I sobbed all the way home. 

I have tried to be strong over the past 3 years and have celebrated those wonderful milestones and have continually been given some hope from doctors. Now our last options with Karmindy are waiting and seeing how her body will fair. If  it does not fair well, then we will Have open heart surgery in store for our Daughters Future. Open Heart is not something I feel like I can mentally and emotionally handle...again. We have already gone through this. This condition that Karmindy has, will  it ever be fixed? I feel as if its not an if anymore but a when. It feels like time is ticking...and I am not for sure what to expect. I found out today that a patched aorta isn't an end all fix but one that may need to be patched again and again. 

If they can't fix my daughters heart, who is going to fix or patch mine if she doesn't make it. Why do trials have to be so hard and almost suffocating?

All I want is to Have Hope that all will be ok for my special little princess, my little girl. 

Off to First Grade...

On Tuesday, July 26th, Kaleb started his First Grade year. I can hardly believe that Kaleb is old enough to be in First grade! Time is quickly passing by!  We had only a three week summer vacation before jumping right back into the thick of things! On the first day of first grade  the kids were only required to attend a orientation with their parents and meet the teacher. Kaleb has Mrs. Forman for  his teacher this year and after meeting with her I think she is a perfect fit for Kaleb. 

Kaleb sitting at his desk in his 1st Grade Classroom

Kaleb with his Teacher, Mrs. Forman

I was a little apprehensive about switching tracks but I had heard from other parents that the D track teachers weren't as good as some of the teachers that were teaching on other tracks. My mind has been put at ease in making the switch from D to A track. I know Kaleb will excel with having Mrs. Forman as his teacher this year. 

On Tuesday Morning, both the kids were up really early and after spending some time helping me set up for Youth Conference in the morning hours, me and the kids headed over to Kaleb's meet and greet with his teacher.

When we first arrived in Kaleb's classroom we were given a list of things and went on a scavenger hunt. Kaleb really enjoyed this. Afterwards, the kids were asked by the teacher to draw a picture of what they enjoyed doing during their summer break. Kaleb drew a picture of himself riding a bike. While the kids were busy with their artwork, Mrs. Forman went over paperwork and instructions about the upcoming year for us parents. Mrs. Foreman then took the kids on a "field trip" of the classroom and of the 1st grade wing in the Elementary school. After this, the kids were sent home with a balloon tied to a Kool-Aid drink.  After the orientation,  we decided to celebrate his first day with going out to lunch at McDonalds. After lunch we headed out on the front porch to take the traditional 1st day of School Pictures. Karmindy is also starting preschool this year and so she was just as excited as Kaleb to get her picture taken and wear her new back pack. I have such cute kids!!

 Kaleb has been so enthusiastic about starting school. Some of Kaleb's favorite things right now about first grade are: riding the bus to and from school, eating HOT lunch and having an extra recess during class time. It is truly going to be a great school year and I know Kaleb will learn a lot!

The Children's Garden

In an effort to have one last hurrah before school begins next week, we decided to spend the morning at The Children's Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. We love Thanksgiving Point and all the fun things that are offered there. My kids have been begging me to go again and it has been a whole year since our last excursion to the beautiful gardens. On this trip we invited some friends to join us- we had so much fun. When we arrived we decided to walk through the gardens before it got to hot. The kids really enjoyed playing in the stream and floating their plastic boats in it. Another favorite was visiting the Bear Cave and going through the tall hedge maze (think Alice in Wonderland maze).  Kaleb and his friend said they actually heard a bear growl during there little adventure of running through the maze. I love this stage of life with my kids and I love that they have active imaginations! It is all very cute. Needless to say, the boys had lots of questions about bears and what they should do if they encountered one. :)

After walking through the gardens we had a picnic lunch. I had taken the kids grocery shopping several days before and let them pick out what they wanted to eat. They selected Lunchables and were excited to eat this special treat. After lunch, the kids enjoyed playing in the Noah's Arc water feature. It is my personal favorite at the Gardens and is so whimsical. The kids had a blast and I am so grateful to have good friends to go and make fun memories with.

Potty Training in Fashion

That is one happy girl! The above picture in this post is a real life depiction of how the last two weeks of my life has been! Super fun!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Frankly, it has been the worst of times. There is one thing in my few short years of being a parent that I despise...and that is potty training. I think it is one of the hardest things you have to do as a parent. I think it is hard because you have no control over the matter and it has too be your child's idea and readiness to take the next step toward being a big girl or boy. It is also hard because when I potty train my kids, I feel like I have to stay close to home for them to have any success. So needless to say, it has been a long two weeks spent inside and close to home-limited errand running. During my attempts to potty train Karmindy, I stripped her down to just a shirt and her panties. It's summer so I have been pretty relaxed about it all. In fact, I have been so relaxed with it all, that I have let Karmindy out of the house in her shirt and panties. I know what you're all thinking...I know, I am ONE OF THOSE KIND OF MOM'S who let their children run naked in the streets. Frankly, when you are on your second go around with potty training you just don't care. :) I know, I am horrible. Gasp. It gets better, Karmindy in the last two weeks could be seen riding her tricycle up and down our road in her bike helmet, shirt,undies and tennis shoes. Talk about a fashion statement. Also, I didn't forget to let her blow bubbles in this remarkable outfit, but hey who is judging? Everyone? :)

GLAMOROUS!!

The road to having Karmindy potty trained has been a long, and hard one. At first.we tried everything with trying to get Karmindy interested in potty training- bribes, new toys, trips to McDonalds and candy. Nothing was working and anyone that knows Karmindy knows how feisty she can be if she doesn't want to do something. Fast forward Two weeks later, and we are finally have success.

This is where this journal entry cuts out and the angels in the heavens start to sing beautiful potty trained praises!! 

Oh it is just Beautiful.

I am really hoping Karmindy will stick to being potty trained because if she doesn't I am going to need a lot of cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy and Large Amounts of Cherry Coke to get me through this hard phase! :) Wink.

All joking aside, I am really proud of  Karmindy and hope she knows how much her family loves her!

Little Art'ists'!

I am so loving all the "Back to school" specials they have at Wal-Mart right now. This week when I went grocery shopping I scored some killer deals on crayons and other school supplies. While I was there I picked up some water color paints. My kids love to paint and I love to indulge their creativity. I have always been an advocate for the art subjects in schools. I am such a dork sometimes when it comes to this topic. For I am really passionate about it. When I was in school, art was my favorite subject because I was allowed to be creative. I really do think art is important and helps so many kids grasp other subjects. It helped me.

This afternoon, we pulled out our great buy and the kids went to town creating. I loved watching their little minds go to work.

Look at the concentration...

 Look at their beautiful creations-

I am so proud of my budding Artists.

Swimming Lessons

My kids love to go swimming. They both have a natural talent like their dad. I wish I was blessed with such a talent, unfortunately I have no swimming skills, unless you count my mean doggy paddle, my fierce water treading and floating on my back. So maybe I do have those 3 things going for me. :)

Before school was even out, I had Kaleb begging me to put him in swimming lessons. I am so glad we live minutes from the new JL Sorenson Rec center that was built in Herriman this past year. It is a beautiful facility and we have enjoyed taking the kids there to swim on a regular basis. It is so nice to be able to live so close to so many fun things.

I was able to get Kaleb signed up for swimming lessons for the next couple of weeks. So far he has completed 3 out of the 7 classes. He is truly enjoying himself and I can see a huge improvement from when he took last year at this time Since starting lessons, Kaleb has begging me again to keep going. Luckily the Rec Center has swim lessons offered all year long! We are hoping to take advantage of living so close to a pool. 

Karmindy has loved watching "brother" swim and I am hoping to enroll her this fall.

Celebrating America's Birthday!

The 4th of July is fast becoming one of my favorite Holidays. The meaning behind the holiday means more and I am grateful to live in a free country and be privileged to live the way we do.

On this particular fourth of July we spent it hanging out with our neighbors and friends. We were invited to two celebrations and we had so much fun attending each. 

The first celebration that we attended, our friends had rented a bounce house and had an amazing Barbecue dinner. We had a spectacular time visiting with friends and making new ones. I made some yummy fourth of July cupcakes to share for dessert.

After dinner we headed to our neighborhood's circle for Fireworks and dessert. Our neighbor hood has the tradition of getting together at the end of our circles on the neighbors lawns and watching fireworks. We live in such a unique and special neighborhood. I really truly love where we live. For our festivities the neighbors each bring treats to share and then pool all of our fireworks together. We always enjoy a long and fun display of fireworks. Our good friends (The Pidcocks) had gone to Wyoming to buy some aerial fireworks. Several other neighbors did as well. It was fun to watch fireworks that you would typically go and watch at a huge park with millions of people. We were lucky and only had to walk 5 houses down! Kaleb and Karmindy had a blast this year and really got into all of the fireworks. Karmindy especially enjoyed the sparklers. It is so fun watching our kids grow up and be able to enjoy these holidays with them.

Our Fourth of July was a memorable one. We are counting down the days till next summer!

 Kaleb, Karmindy and Kozy in their 4th of July Attire. I put a cute bow on Kozy's Collar! :)

 Mark and Karmindy lighting Sparklers.

 Kaleb and Adi playing with their sparklers.

Me and my friend Misty getting ready to watch the fireworks. Misty and her Hubby, Matt host the festivities each year!