Playground Pests

I really dislike how cruel little kids can be...

Kaden is naturally a very kind-hearted kid. He really cares about others and wants to please them.

Last year we had an issue with one of his "friends" beginning to bully him. This "friend" tried to shove wood chips in Kaden's mouth, kicked him as he was hanging from the monkey bars, and continually hit him with his backpack. We had a long talk with Kaden about sticking up for himself, and throughout the next few weeks we basically took care of that situation.

Last night we asked Kaden how his day was. I could tell something was wrong and tried to pry it out of him. He then started to cry and explained how he had gotten into a fight that day. We asked him what happened. He said that he was playing kickball with a group of kids, he called out how many outs there were, and one of the kids said, "We know, Kaden!" in a really rude voice. Kaden, being too timid to say anything, walked away. And that was the extent of his fight.

We told him we were very proud of him for simply walking away. We explained that it's the right thing to do instead of yelling back or hitting. By this point he was just so frustrated that he was crying because (in his words) he is 9 years old and he should not cry like that at 9 years old.

I just want to say how much I love this kid! He is emotional and even overly sensitive sometimes. But I am the same way. :) I tend to read in to others actions too much as well. I guess he comes by it honestly. :)

In reality, though, I just want him to realize that these things happen and we just have to move on. At the moment, it seems like the end of the world. But give it a week and you will barely remember what happened.

These are the things we are dealing with on a daily basis as a parent. We try to teach them things that we as parents haven't even mastered. And in the end, we hope it's enough.

Christmas Break

We had a very enjoyable Christmas break. We started it off by going to the Birds of Prey exhibit/museum. Kaden had gone for a school field trip and loved it so much. He brought home a family pass and begged us to take him. Kaden's favorite was either the HUGE condor or Luigi the big Harpy Eagle. Preston's favorite was either the bald eagles or Luigi. Ellie's favorite was Luigi. And my favorite was Luigi as well. We actually got to see Luigi fly, so maybe that's why we all liked him so much.

Next, we had a movie day. We took the kids to see Puss in Boots, went to Outback Steakhouse (yum) for dinner, then Danny took me and Ellie home. We watched a girlie movie at home while the boys all went back to the theater to watch a "boylish" (Ellie's pronunciation) movie. It was an enjoyable day. The only downer was me feeling sick throughout the weekend (which is why I had to come home with Ellie).

Christmas Eve was a cookie-making day. We took our time making yummy sugar cookies for Santa Claus. (This is probably a good time to mention that Kaden found out the truth about Santa this year. So all day long he would ask questions like, "So, do you and dad actually eat the cookies we set out for Santa?" or, "What happens to the oats we lay out for Rudolph?" It was humorous to see his mind work out the facts.) We talked about the Christmas story that night and sent the kids to bed.

We really enjoyed Christmas this year. It was really low-key, but very nice. No extended family the whole day (which we missed) but we really enjoyed being together. I was really surprised that the kids didn't wake up early this year. They insisted that they wanted to wake up at 4 in the morning, but in reality I finally woke them up at 7. We opened Christmas presents, ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, went to sacrament meeting, came home and ate a nice steak and shrimp dinner, and played with each other.

We spent the next few days playing with new toys. Kaden got a ripstick that he continually practiced riding. He's getting really good at it. While Kaden rode his ripstick, Preston and Ellie rode their new scooters. They loved it! We also played a lot of xbox with our new kinect. It is pretty fun. Also, each year santa gives each of us a Jamba Juice gift card, so we made our annual trip to Jamba. Oh, and we got ready for New Years Eve.

We invited a couple of family's over to bring in the New Year. We had LOTS of snack foods/appetizers, played lots of games including the kinect, and enjoyed friends & family. It was really fun!

Yesterday we went skeet shooting with some friends - So Much Fun! Then we went out to lunch with them. The only thing that would have been better is if Brandi (the mother) could have come. She woke up with a migraine yesterday so she had to stay home. :(

Then the kids had their friends come over and play. They love all of their neighbors. I love them too. My kids always have someone to play with and can never really say they are bored. I love it here.

That brings us to today. It is the last day the kids have out of school. I am taking today to do laundry and get groceries. They are taking today to get as much fun in as possible. Danny surprised me last night by getting us tickets to the Michael Jackson Cirque Du Soleil here in Boise tonight. I was really SHOCKED! So I rushed to find a babysitter and we will be going to that tonight.

And that was our Christmas break. It was very fun for all of us. And this wouldn't be a proper 1st post of 2012 if I didn't say, "Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!"

Commissions

We've started a new type of chore chart at our house. We got the idea from my sister over Thanksgiving. It goes like this...

My kids don't have to do any chores if they don't want to (unless I ask them to do something).

There is a list of different "chores" and the price tag on each. If they do a chore, they put their name by it, and they get the money associated with that task. If they work together at a task, they split the money for that task. They can also get money for doing extra tasks that aren't listed. Essentially, they get paid a commission for helping me.

Their bedroom and their toys/toy closet is considered their space. They are in charge of their space. If I have to intervene and clean their room, they have to pay me a commission for helping them.

They have to pay for half of what they need. If they need a new pair of shoes, they pay for half. If Kaden needs another recorder for school, he pays for half. And they pay 100% for any wants. (Of course, that is besides presents that we get them.)

The reason I am taking the time to document this is because it is working! My kids are not only keeping their room clean (they don't want to have to pay me), they are looking for ways to make money.

Last night my kids unloaded and loaded the dishes - 2 different tasks on our chart. But then they hand washed all of the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher, swept, and wiped off the table. Kaden has helped me with the laundry (very unusual in our house), and Ellie has even gotten excited about helping. My kids don't grumble about cleaning. They are starting to realize that they want/need money to buy the things they want/need. Kaden says that tonight he is planning on helping me with laundry, vacuuming, and possibly mopping. All things he never would have volunteered for before.

Another aspect that I like about this is that they think it's worth it. Some, if not all, of the tasks have a pretty high price on them. I thought about decreasing the price from what my sister had set. In fact, I did a little bit. But they still get paid a whole $1 to take out all the garbages in the house. And because the price is set so high, they think it's great. They totally want to do the chores because they get paid pretty well in their eyes. And for me, if I am expecting them to pay half of all their needs, I figure they need the opportunity to make enough money to save for those things. And lets face it... I would be paying for 100% of all of their needs if not for this system. So if they're willing to work for the money that I would be putting towards their needs anyway, I'm all for it!

It's a win, win situation! Thanks Jodi!

Liar, Liar...

Apparently Danny and I tend to tease our kids a lot. We can be a little sarcastic with them and I guess Kaden has learned.

We were sitting down to eat dinner and we told Kaden that he couldn't heat up his roll cause the microwave is broken. He didn't believe us and said, "no matter what you say, I'll never believe you!"

So I said, "Kay, go ahead and warm it up."

He staunchly got up out of his chair and proceeded to reheat his roll in the microwave. After 20 seconds, he pulled the roll out and it was still cold. "Okay," he said. "I guess you were being honest."

As a side note, it really is annoying that our microwave broke. :( Gonna be shopping for a new one this weekend.

Tight Schedule

Kaden wanted to try baseball this year. So we signed him up. It has kept us extremely busy the last couple of weeks and proves to keep us busy for at least another month and a half. Between 1 to 3 practices each week, plus at least 2 games per week... well, you get the idea. Our schedule has definitely been tightened. But he really loves it and they have won all three of their games so far. The first game was FREEZING with rain and they had to call the game after 2 innings - but they were ahead at that time. The second game they won with a score of 12 to 6 (and even with that score, it was an intense game). And the third game was won by 1 point.

He has learned a lot about the sport and says that he likes it even more that basketball, which says a lot for him. So we invested in a bat and a whole bunch of balls and Danny will be working with him tonight on batting. He's doing much better than when the season began (simply because it's his first time playing the sport). I'm just glad that he likes it so much. And it makes the hectic schedule a little more worth it. :)

PineWood Derby Results

Kaden participated in the pinewood derby in scouts yesterday. He and Danny had worked on his car for about 2 weeks - with a little help from my dad over the weekend.

Danny was unable to attend the derby as he is out of town until tomorrow night. So he had me record every single race that Kaden's car was in (8 total). Again, this is for Danny's benefit...

Race #1 (1st place):

Race #2 (1st place):

Race #3 (2nd place):

Race #4 (3rd place):

He accidentally dropped his car at the beginning of this race. Oops!

Race #5 (2nd place):

Race #6 (1st place):

Race #7 (1st place):

The racing ramp was all electronic. The computer had a glitch on this race and they had to race again.

Race #8 (1st place):

He ended up getting 6th place overall. He also received an award naming him the Dark Knight.

He had so much fun and I wish Danny could have been here to enjoy it with us. There's always next year, I guess.

Jump Rope For Heart

Anyone who knows me will know why I actually decided to participate in this fundraiser for Kaden's school. My sister has had 2 heart transplants and therefore I feel a connection to the cause. I understand if you are not able to participate by donating to his fund raising goal. Again, the only reason I am advertising this is because I feel somewhat strongly about this subject.

The fund raiser is going through the week of March 7-11. That is when Kaden will be participating in the Jump Rope for Heart activity. Click HERE to donate through his fund raising website. And thanks for everyone who does participate.

True Love

The other day I went up to my room and the kids were watching a movie. This is what I saw:

Then, of course, Preston had to get in the picture...

Ellie loves her brothers so much. She adores Kaden and she continually copies Preston. It really is true love.

2010 Year in Review

I'm copying our cousin Katie. :) I saw her do a year in review post on her blog, and since I didn't do the best with posting last year I figured it was a great idea for me to do as well. So here it goes...

In January we started the year out with some sledding with the cousins. It was a lot of fun. Of course, we won't mention the fact that I ran into a port-a-potty and we think I cracked a floating rib from it... Happy New Year to us. :)

In February, I began to really enjoy doing Ellie's hair. She was starting to get more of it and therefore I loved to put it in a pony tail.

March was Kaden's birthday. He got some cool lego stuff, so the kids put it together (with a little help from dad) and then they took turns playing with his lego car. Aren't they adorable?

April 10, Kaden got baptized. It was a beautiful day! Totally a day for him to remember.

In May we were getting packed up for the first move... Yep, we moved twice in two months! While I was busy packing, the kids liked to go on walks. Kaden was such a big helper with his brother and sister. He's such a good kid!!!

We celebrated my birthday in June and I wanted to have a video game party. :) We invited some friends over and played Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. It was tons of fun! Even Danny got into it.

July: Before moving (2nd move) to Boise, we got together with my family. We went skeet shooting and the cousins LOVED it. They even shot a rabbit. (poor rabbit)

August was the beginning of the new school year. We live right by the school so Kaden gets to walk with some friends every morning.

September 9th was Preston's birthday. He wanted to take one of his new friends to the movie. We went and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" in 3d. They loved it. They even got to eat happy meals before-hand.

October was full of monsters (and one sweet little frog).

In the beginning of November, we enjoyed a nice fall day at the zoo with Katie and her kids. It was super fun.

And finally, December brought Christmas into our home. I made the kids pajamas and they turned out pretty good (in my estimation).

Hope your 2010 was as fun-filled as ours. We miss the friends and family back in Utah, but so far we really love the Boise area. Here's to happy times ahead for 2011.

Christmas 2010

We had a lot of fun over the Christmas holiday. We got to spend time with my parents and my brother who all came to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. We loved having them here. It was tons of fun! My parents even taught Danny and me how to play Pinochle. I can't wait til we can play with them again. My mom and I will TOTALLY beat the boys next time. Can't wait for the rematch. :)

We didn't get a lot of pictures, which I'm pretty sad about. We did get some of the kids opening their PJs on Xmas Eve, and then a few of Xmas morning. Ellie was so excited about the pajamas that she jumped up and down. She was also very funny about her presents Christmas morning. She would open one, hold on to it, open another, hold on to both of them, open another one, try to hold on to all three of them, etc. So funny.

Preston got some sea monkeys. He didn't quite know what they were at first, but now he loves them (so does Kaden). And Kaden got a pretty nice yoyo that Danny and I did some research for. We got one of the nicer ones that's for kids. He has been practicing it a lot. He loves to walk the dog and try other tricks with it.

For New Years Eve we stayed around the house and played lots of games. The kids loved it. We got Blokus, Farkel, and 2 other really fun games for Xmas. It was enjoyable to just stay around the house and play games with the kids. Then we watched some movies and wished each other a happy new year.

Again, we didn't get a ton of pictures... but HERE is what we did get.

Fun In The Snow

After the big snowstorm earlier this month, the kids wanted to go play in it. Preston had the grand idea of making a snow "gum-ball machine", so he and his friend went to work on that. Kaden, on the other hand, wanted a really great snow fort. He invited a neighbor friend over to help him with it. They got about 1 foot of the walls up. Then it got dark. It was a good idea though. :) As for Ellie, she just wanted to be a part of the big kids' fun. And she just played with the fluffy white stuff.

Pictures!

Video Time

I have had a request to post more videos on my blog. So here we go... (mainly for grandparents; if you are not a grandparent and still watch them all - Good on ya) :)

(Preston had been pretending earlier about how when the blocks fell, they would go through a long process of falling down the stairs. This is Ellie copying him. "Cool trick! It fell off the wall, and on the step, and off the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall, and hit the wall, then down the stairs.")

(This was when Preston was doing the pretending. Ellie still wanted to be the one pretending)

(Ellie playing dead. So funny!)

(Ellie pouting.)

(We have started a tradition of playing a game on Sunday as a family. We have done Monopoly, Hide & Seek, and this last Sunday we played Yahtzee. It's been lots of fun and here is Preston rolling. He was on a team with Kaden. I loved how he would say, "I whoosh for a 6, I whoosh for a 6!")

(Kaden playing Yahtzee. He was so serious about rolling.)

(Ellie was being crazy! She got all wound up right before bed. And whenever she says that she loves someone, she'll say, "I like-a Mommy," etc. Funny.)

And as a side note... These videos took forever to upload so I hope there is somebody out there who is glad I posted them. :)

Reflections

Ok, so we all know that it's fairly unlikely that I will get caught up on the blog. I mean, I am 4 months behind on this thing. So I decided to just start anew.

Kaden has the opportunity to participate in Reflections. For those who don't know what this is... it challenges students to create art inspired by a specific theme. Each student can submit something in one of six arts areas - dance choreography, film production, literature, musical composition, photography, and visual arts. They are judged, receive prizes, and (if they continue winning) move up the levels, eventually to the national level.

Anyway, Kaden decided he wanted to participate in the photography category for this contest. He was very excited about it and wanted to use my "nice" camera. So yesterday (Saturday) Danny showed him the basics of taking pictures and we walked around the yard with him as he took some really nice nature photos. The theme this year is "Together We Can". And the title of his finished project is "Together We Can Discover Nature". I am super proud of him! He did an amazing job with his pictures.

And HERE they are.

For those who don't go through the slideshow of pictures, this is the final product...

May

Ok... so, obviously I am way behind in my posting. It has been a CRAZY summer to say the least. With 2 moves in 2 months - well, that right there is worth the label of "crazy".

I decided that instead of giving each "event" a different post, I would give each month it's own post. So we will start with May since that's about where I left off.

I'll be honest, when we were still in Springville, we had a lot of packing to do. We organized everything into boxes that would stay packed after the move to Mapleton and boxes that we needed unpacked. We managed to keep a lot of stuff packed that some people would have thought of as necessities - like dishes. Instead of unpacking all of our dishes, we ate on plastic (which Danny absolutely hated - especially when a fork broke while trying to eat dinner and splattered him in the face with food.)

With all of the packing and sorting and cleaning and chucking (we threw away a lot of unneeded stuff!), our kids watched more cartoons and movies than I care to divulge. I felt pretty bad for them and I've been working on making it up to them lately; but that's for a different post.

So we have pictures of them watching tv, pictures of them eating licorice while watching tv, and even the pictures where you can't tell they're watching tv - they are. :(

Also included in our pictures this month is Ellie's first hair cut. She was beginning to have a mullet. One day I just couldn't stand it anymore and while she was in the bathtub I took the scissors to the back of her hair. It wasn't much, but it sure made her look more like a toddler than my little baby girl. Since then, she has definitely grown into the toddler stage; but I still call her my little baby girl.

And finally, Kaden is always such a big helper. He is always willing to be my little babysitter whenever I need him to. One of those days when I was busy packing, the kids were very bored. I finally suggested that Kaden take the other two on a walk around the neighborhood and he gladly accepted the task. They were so cute - all holding hands - and I had to take some pictures. They are so adorable!!!

Well, that was May. And HERE are pictures.

Amen! :)

We had a super special day Saturday as we celebrated Kaden's baptism. He's such a special little boy. I continue to learn a lot from his sweet personality and the good choices he makes.

He actually was baptized twice. :) Danny forgot to say amen the first time until Kaden was already in the water and by that time it came out as AMEN!!! It almost sounded as enthusiastic as a baptist prayer. We all had a pretty good chuckle. :)

But, again, we are very proud of Kaden and the choice he made to get baptized. He didn't take the decision lightly. He was very serious in his prayers as to whether or not it was the right choice for him to make. I'm not convinced that I, at 8 years old, thought so diligently about the commitment to get baptized as much as he did.

We love you so much Kaden!

Pictures

Easter '10

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We got to enjoy the weekend with Danny's siblings. We had an Easter egg hunt at Justin and Megan's house on Saturday. Megan provided some egg hunting glasses to help the kids in their search. And we each supplied enough eggs for an entire army to have an easter egg hunt. The kids had such a fun time.

Then we all stayed the night for ping pong, games, and a super yummy dinner. Easter morning we woke up and read some Easter books that the kids got for Easter (Kaden and Kinley actually listened to the books - the other kids played). Then we enjoyed a delicious Easter lunch.

It was a lot of fun and we were very happy to be able to celebrate this sacred holiday with loved ones. Thanks to Justin and Megan for the use of their home. It was another successful party at the party house. :)

Pictures

Kaden's 8th Birthday

I'm finally able to catch up on some posts and one of the more recent events would be Kaden's 8th birthday. We celebrated for a complete 2 days. Thursday (his actual b-day) he wanted alfredo pasta for dinner and a Patrick (from spongebob) cake. He opened his presents - Legos, Legos, and more Legos - and then enjoyed putting together his new Lego race car.

On Friday, we did his favorite family activity - calzone and movie night. We have been doing this every Friday for quite a while and Kaden requested a special calzone and movie night where he would choose the movie. We got the new Ice Age movie and Aliens In The Attic.

All in all, it was a wonderful family celebration. (And I can't believe I have an eight year-old!!!)

Pictures

My Cute Kids

One evening (it happened to be Kaden's birthday) I sat down and took some pictures of my adorable children. I don't do this enough.

Click Here

Basketball Pics

I'm finally able to get Kaden's basketball pictures uploaded to our computer. (Yes, that was also clear back in January.) These were taken the day that Danny sub-coached. The pictures aren't the best quality and I haven't edited them yet. At least I'm finally getting them on the blog though. :)

Click Here

Team Player

Kaden has started basketball again. He had 2 practices and now he has a game each week. It is really fun to watch these kids play. Some of them are the "star players" and others run around chasing butterflies, as Danny would say. Kaden is somewhere in the middle - as a mother I like to think he's more on the side of star than butterfly chaser.

Danny got the chance to "coach" one of the practices as the real coach was out of town that week. I have pictures of that week but am unable to post them because we are going to be doing a system upgrade to our computer. I don't want to put any more pics on my computer that would just have to be backed up and then moved back over to our computer when the update is done. So I will post them later. But it was a lot of fun to watch Danny with the butterfly chasers - I could tell when he was getting a little frustrated. He tried to teach them some real defense and there were many who just kept saying, "when do we get to shoot?"

Danny has also been working with Kaden at home. Our seven year-old now understands the term "box out" and he has really been working on shooting one-handed. Last night at his game, Kaden was the one player that was always under the basket whether it was waiting for one of his teammates to pass him the ball so he could shoot, or waiting for the rebound. That doesn't necessarily mean he always got the ball, but he was really trying hard to be a team player.

He has said that basketball is a hard sport cause you have to keep your eye on the ball, know when you're on defense or offense, know where the guy is on the other team that you need to guard, and still try to steal the ball or make a basket. He is a very technically minded boy and therefore has to spell out exactly what he needs to do in order to play correctly. And he tries very hard to not be a ball hog. Sometimes that means he passes the ball as soon as he gets it. :)

He's doing really well and I'm excited for him to have the chance to learn more of this sport that his dad loves so much. Way to go Kaden!

(Oh, and they lost their first game but won the game last night. But, really, who's counting. :)