Preschool Shapes & Colors

Kaylee's preschool group has been a lot of fun this spring.  I enjoyed holding it at our house and Kay really enjoyed having all her friends over each week.  She would ask every day two questions: are my friends coming today?  And what are we going to talk about at preschool this time?  Each Wednesday we focused on a new color, and when we ran out of colors, we learned our shapes.  I think all the kids learned a lot, but I know for a fact that Kaylee did.  She would find things all around the house after preschool and say, "mom, did we forget to bring this rectangle to show at preschool?"  She definitely knows all her colors and shapes and I had a whole lot of fun teaching her and her friends.  Even Dawson would participate as he was able and loved having lots of kids around.  

So preschool was over just as school was ending and we got the group together at the mall to eat lunch, ride the carousel and play together one last time.  They all are such good trends by now.  I'm looking forward to the fall preschool group we will do rotating teaching wth 5 other moms.  It will be fun!!

Congrats Kaylee for all you've learned this spring!!

Dawson Update 18 Months

Dawson is too cute for his own good.  First, he loves to eat.  This particular day he got a frozen tortilla out of the freezer and was munching away.  He hid in the cupboard and we found him eating his tortilla in there😄.

Dawson still loves his warm milk.  Kaylee calls it "a cup and a cap."  So Dawson says "a buppity bup."  It's too cute!

Dawson loves Nursery at church.  Whenever I peek in he is happy and participating.  I was told one Sunday that he's been pushing other kids.  Then I was told the next week that he had buy another child!!  So I have the "mean bully kid" in nursery this time lol. He has such a sweet heart. Hopefully that heart of his will shine brighter than his bullying.

"Just had to check to see if I fit in here, and , yep!  I do fit!!"

Miniature golfing

At the mall.  Who needs quarters anyway?  

Dawson's new toddler bed.  He's passed out!  Love him!

Daddy and Dawson match in their cozy Jammie's! 

Grandma's Surprise Visit

I woke up early to go to work at 5am and started going through all our expenses.  I found a flight charge on our statement and flagged it because I couldn't recall any recent flights we've purchased.  As I looked into the charge, I noticed the departure date was today, May 20.  Then I looked further and the passenger listed was Doreen Hutchinson.  My mom was planning to come visit with my dad in July for the baby.  So I was extra confused, but excited at the same time.  I decided to ask Nate, and discovered his surprise.  He had flown her out for fun for a surprise visit for me and the kids!  What a surprise!!

So Mom was here for just over a week and we all had such a good time.  Dawson got to know Grandma really well and Grandma got to see his cute little personality.  The big boys were super surprised when she arrived and really enjoyed having her here. And Kaylee got to be really good friends with Grandma and started to understand that she has 2 sets of grandparents and she was beginning to figure out how to distinguish between the two.  It's always fun when the kids grasp that concept.  

So Grandma got to join us for church on Sunday.  On Monday she spent time with the kids while Nate and I took a getaway trip to Ikea.  Tuesday she got to go see Jaxton earn a medal for First in Math at Cedarville Elementary School.  Then we all went to a cookout at the school and spent their lunch and recess hour with them.  Wednesday she joined us for Kaylee's last preschool event at the mall.  We rode the carousel, ate lunch, and did a little shopping and playing.  That was the last day of school for the boys, so we celebrated at Chuckee Cheese after school.  That was so much fun!  Even Nate stopped by in between appointments to join in on the fun.  Thursday we went to the park and met some friends for visiting teaching.  We didn't bring swimsuits, but the big boys went splashing at the splash park there and got drenched!  Grandma had them running to dry off and get warm.  We went to the dollar store and Grandma gave each kid $5 to buy 5 things. Then we enjoyed pancakes for dinner at IHOP.  Friday we went to the zoo and visited Australia and the splash area.  And Saturday we took her back to the airport.  What a fun filled week!

All our kids are cuddle bugs.  They love to cuddle.  They each wanted a turn to sleep in grandmas bed with her at night.  They had sweet conversTions together and bonded during those times.  She and Kaylee worked on lots of puzzles together and Kaylee became the Puzzle Princess.  She had a suitcase filled with special thoughtful gifts for each kid each day. It was a highlight to discover whT Grandma wS going to pull out of her suitcase next.  

I am so grateful that Grandma could come for he kids and that my mom could come and spend time with me.  We had some really fun conversations and enjoyed the kids together.  I appreciate her love and support and all her hands on help while she was with us.  You are wonderful Mom!!!

Cooper's Kindergarten Field Trip

I was able to go with Cooper on his last kindergarten field trip to the zoo.  Since lots of parents wanted to come, I only has Cooper and Camdyn in my chaperone group.  They were good friends so we had a really good time.  We got to just wander the zoo on our own the whole time and had free passes to ride the carousel.  We spent some of our zoo time with Drew and Cameron and Drew's mom.  One highlight was when the giant male lion walked right over to the window and climbed up onto the ledge at the window and got cozy right there in front of the kids' amazed faces.  That was really neat.  Cooper especially liked the giraffes.  We ate a picnic lunch with his class and fed the ducks.  We rode the bus home and Cooper just came home with me early from school.  It was a super fun filled day spending one on one time with my Cooper!

Jaxton's First Grade Field Trip

I was able to go with Jaxton on his last first grade field trip to Fox Island County Park.  We rode on the bus together and I chaperoned 4 kids in a group.  We had Jaxton, Madison, Cohen, and Lydia.  The group was great.  The boys tended to run ahead with our nature hike guide while the two girls wanted to stay together and hold my hands along the nature trail. After lunch we got to wander through nature with our small groups and we stumbled upon hundreds of tadpoles, which the kids thought was so neat.  The kids were great and it was so fun spending an entire day with Jaxton.  

Cooper & Dawson

These two kiddos are look-a-likes.  And they love one another too.  Dawson is Cooper's little Mini-Me.  And he adores his big brother "Popper."  (That is how he pronounces Cooper's name.)  He is so lucky to have Cooper as a big brother.  

This particular day, we had forgotten to bring Dawson's shoes with us to the church for Scouts.  All we could round up were some of Kaylee's jelly sandals that were under the seats in the car.  Lucky boy got to wear jelly sandals.  At least they weren't pink, right!  

Our New Paved Driveway

After 3 years of laying tiny rocks across our driveway, dealing with potholes, mud, rocks tracked into the house, muddy cars, and people's cars getting stuck in the piles of snow, we have finally paved our driveway!  It is an amazing transformation!!  It took the workers 1 day to prep it, and 1 full day of work to lay it.  There were 5 or 6 cement trucks and 15 or so laborers--a huge job. But it was all done in a day.  There were huge piles of dirt that the kids had a blast digging in and climbing up before the project was done.  Now, There are actually spaces to park and plenty of room to turn around rather than chancing driving backwards to get out. There's even tons of space to ride bikes and play basketball.  We absolutely love having a paved driveway with parking.  Now we can have fun planning what trees we want to plant along it and our landscaping.  It's a lot of work to develop some land into your own, but so fun and satisfying as it slowly comes together. 

Easter 2014

Happy Easter!! This was a wonderful Easter.  We spent time talking about the Savior with the kiddos periodically throughout the week so they understood what Easter is really about. I am so grateful for my amazing husband, who truly is amazing at everything he does.  I am also so blessed for our four little angels who make our lives worth every minute. I love them to pieces and have been excited all week to share Easter memories with them.  

We spent time decorating eggs at preschool and also painting eggs with Q-tips.  Saturday we spent all day in Kendallville with cousins and family.  They prepared a massive egg hunt outside in the beautiful weather for the kids.  Each kid searched for 10 eggs of a particular color.  After all 10 were found, they could search for the special big black egg that held a prized $5 bill.  Cooper searched for orange eggs, jaxton searched for yellow, kaylee for hot pink, and Dawson looked for the metallic eggs with Dad's help.  Jaxton was the lucky finder of the prized money egg!!

Easter morning we gathered for breakfast in the kitchen.  We watched the sun rise as we ate breakfast and taught about the symbolism of the sun rising, and the Savior rising, and what that means for us.  Then the kids discovered Easter baskets on the front porch filled with new Easter dress clothes and journals.  All their clothes matched with a baby blue theme.  They really enjoyed the journals.  The boys were going through the writing prompts and were writing the sweetest sentences.  Kaylee spent much of church drawing in her picture journal.  It was a wonderful day spent together as a family:) 

Cooper's First Lost Tooth

Cooper lost his first tooth!! Hooray!! He was worried that the tooth fairy would take his tooth and he'd never see it again.  He was afraid to part with his tooth at first, so he told Dad to keep it in the ziploc bag and NOT to put it under his pillow.  He kept it safe in a ziploc until he was ready to part with it.  Then under his pillow it went.  Indeed, the tooth fairy took the tooth, but left a dollar!

Las Vegas ISC West

Nate I got to take a little vacation over spring break to Las Vegas!  We doubled it as a Simplx work trip and an anniversary vacation :-).  Every year in Las Vegas is a conference called ISC West for the entire security industry.  It really was an amazing show with an expo 10 times larger than the Fort Wayne Home Show was this year.  Every security company was there and we got the opportunity to meet with and converse with those we usually speak with over the phone, from all the major companies and affiliates that we have.  It was a lot of fun being alongside Nate as a member of the Simplx team and his partner in business.  It was also very fun spending time together without the kids.  It was strange only having to take care of ourselves and carry nothing but what we needed for the day, rather than a whole diaper bag full of spare clothes, diapers, and snacks.  It felt very odd.  But it was very refreshing. 

Nate ran into his old boss from BYU, Wayne Beck, that had made a difference in his life.  He had met Wayne in Spain on his mission, and he told him to contact him when he got out to BYU.  Nate did, and got a job with him working Library Security.  He became a lifelong mentor and friend of Nate's and it was super fun  to run into him randomly amidst millions of people at this show! 

We were able to see some exciting Las Vegas shows while we were there.  We saw Circe de Soleil Mystere, which was full of amazing acrobats and athletes.  They were so very talented.  Pure talent all around, it was amazing!  We also went to see David Copperfield, a magician, who did all sorts of crazy magic tricks that really were impossible!  He had a live duck, but he constantly was making the live duck disappear.  It was an impossible trick that I simply could not even guess how it was done.  He also made a bunch of people from the audience disappear.  Keith, our employee, got to participate in this one and somehow he was on stage, and then a moment later, he was in the back of the theater! Incredible stuff!  We enjoyed walking the Las Vegas strip and watching the Bellagio water & lights show.  That also was more incredible than I ever remember.  Everything in Vegas is just overdone!  The architecture of the buildings and every where you look is over done.  Such intricate detail everywhere in paint, filigree on the buildings, and design on every wall and ceiling.  There is so much to see; we were in awe.  

David Copperfield Magic Show

As part of the trip we got to participate in events sponsored by the ISC West conference.  There was an event at one restaurant with a country flair.  They had a mechanical bull riding contest that Nate and his 2 employees Keith and Tim participated in.  It was really fun to watch, but they were sore for days afterward!  We also were able to participate in a 5K Race.  Being 6 months pregnant, this was a challenge, but we all finished the race in good time!  Other events that we were invited to allowed us to see other parts of Las Vegas and buildings and rooms and beautiful patios that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see.  So that was awesome!  We also made it to the Las Vegas Temple which was a great and overdue experience!  Overall, it was a great trip!!