Rough Week for Dylan

I recently ran across this quote from President Monson: "So frequently we mistakenly believe that our children need more things, when in reality their silent pleadings are simply for more of our time." President Thomas S. Monson
I love this quote and it is a good reminder to me to spend more time with my kids doing fun things, and less time yelling at them. I'm sure Kaitlyn wouldn't agree with Pres. Monson since every time we go to any store she begs for a number of things including Starbursts, ring pops, anything with Dora or princesses on, etc. I guess I could tell her that what she really wants is more time with me. I'm sure that would go over well. :) But really, I do love that quote and I know I need to try to do better on spending more fun time with my kids and enjoy them while they are young. With that said, Dylan had quite a rough week this week. First, he was vacuuming as one of his chores and the vacuum quit on him and wouldn't start again (not his fault). The next day, he put a water bottle in the microwave (lid on) to warm it up because he doesn't like to drink anything too cold. As you can imagine, the bottle exploded with the pressure and the it tripped the breaker and the microwave would no longer power up. The next night, he was mowing the lawn and went across the driveway (mower still on) and ran over Joel's favorite flip flops chewing one of them up beyond repair. At this point, Dylan was pretty upset with himself and had a small meltdown thinking he had made so many mistakes this week. That is not the end of it... then Saturday night I went out with my girlfriends to a movie and while I was gone, Dylan and his cousin were kicking the soccer ball around in the LIVING ROOM (Joel was bathing kids at the time) and kicked the ball right into one of my pictures, breaking the glass everywhere. This after mom telling him several times not to kick the ball around in the house. Well, when he told me what happened the next morning he was pretty upset. We talked about it and how following rules is a very important thing and why rules are there for our protection and others' as well. Luckily, my dad came over and was able to fix the vacuum and microwave. (Thanks again Dad). The picture is okay, it just has no glass in the front of it... and I guess we will be buying Joel some new flip flops. I think he has really learned some good lessons this week and luckily nobody was hurt and we were able to save most of the things he broke. The vacuum wasn't his fault, but it just kicked off a bad week for him. He is such a good kid; hopefully this string of accidents is over for him now and he learned something from it. I learned how to live without a microwave for 4 days (it was difficult) and to be a little more understanding when accidents happen. We all make mistakes right? :)

Happy birthday MOM!

Yesterday my mom had a birthday, I won't say how old because she always says she is still 39 and holding. So we will leave it at that. :) Here is a picture of my mom and me when I was just a baby...

My mom is a wonderful person and has always set a good example for me and my siblings. She is always positive and listens to me when I have a problem or just want to complain. I'm so lucky she is still around for me and hope she will be for many more years to come! She and my dad have an awesome marriage and have always been best friends. I appreciate their example and the love they show toward each other and to me. Some things you may not know about my mom:

-She is a wonderful cook (too bad I didn't get this gene).

-She is a great seamstress and is currently crocheting shawls for the new Oquirrh Hills temple.

-She loves to have all her family around her and makes the best barbecued turkey when we all get together.

-She is very loyal to her family and good friends and would do anything for them.

-She loves to do genealogy and indexing of names to prepare them for temple work.

-She likes to go to DUP (Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) once a month and meet up with some old friends.

-She works in the temple every Tuesday and really enjoys it.

I love you mom and I'm glad you and dad are my parents!

Thanks Aunt Angie!

We love the new blankets Aunt Angie sent down from Canada for us! They are warm and comfy. Here are the kids with their new blankets... This first one is Christian's blanket (the kids have to get in on any pictures taken with him for some reason).

Kaitlynisms

Kaitlyn has been saying some of the funniest things lately and I don't want to forget them so I will record them on the blog, here are some of her recent sayings:

"I'm boring!" - translation: I'm bored

"I'm juicy!" - translation: I'm thirsty

"I smell like stinky" - translation: something smells stinky

"I smell like chicken and fries" - something smells like chicken and fries

She also likes to ask a million questions, an answer to one question leads to another question:

"Why do we need pajamas?" "Why do we need beds to sleep in?" "Why do we need a baby?" "Why do we need legs?" "Why do we need food to eat?" - you get the idea. It's why, why, why everything. She is really growing up and is a lot of fun, but very high maintenance too. :) We're still very glad she is in our family!

Crazy hair

Christian's bottle of milk must have spilled in his hair a little in his sleep the other night because this is how he woke up the next morning...

Of course Dylan and Kinlee have to get in on the picture taking...

We love this little guy!

Kinlee Gets Her Ears Pierced

Well, Kinlee decided she really wanted to get her ears pierced this last week, which was fine with me because I feel like she is old enough to take care of them and be somewhat responsible. So, we headed to the mall to get it done. She didn't act nervous at all until the girl got out the "ear-piercing gun" then she suddenly got too scared. She kept moving her ear away from the gun and saying "WAIT!" But finally after a little coaxing she let her do it. There were tears forming just for a second, but that passed quickly and now she is happy to have them. I think she looks pretty cute. We just love this little girl...

Time for braces

Well, I didn't think he would be this young when it happened, but our biggest kid Dylan got his braces on today. He has been dreading it since last August when the dentist told me he would need to be looked at by an orthodontist in the near future. When we went to meet this orthodontist a couple months ago, he was very nervous. But, after his first visit his fears were pretty much put to rest. The orthodontist is very nice and so are all the assistants. They promised him there were NEVER any shots and they gave him some cool stuff too. He decided it was okay to go there and get his braces on. He didn't seem nervous at all this morning when we left to go get them. He did really well and didn't complain. I was very proud of him. We'll see how he feels when he gets home from school today. I'm sure he'll be pretty sore. :) Here are some before and after pics...

Yes, the poor kid has chapped lips right now too.

Blackmail picture

Friday night Joel and I went out to dinner and came home to find this...

Bailey and Kinlee had dressed poor Christian up in Kait's dora dress-ups. It was so stinkin' cute, he was just walking around like nothing was any different. Joel told me to take a picture of him for future blackmail. So sweet. :)

Pinewood Derby

So last Thursday was the annual Pinewood Derby. Joel made both Dylan and Kinlee a car to race because after the "official" race, anyone else who made a car could race just for fun. Dylan's car did okay during the race, taking 12th out of 23 cars. But then, when it was time for the "unofficial" racing, Kinlee's car smoked everyone's! Hers even beat the kid's car who won the whole race! It even weighed right on at 5 ounces so it would have qualified if she could have really raced it. You should have seen her face each time her car won, she was thrilled. A little 6 year old girl beat all the scouts with her car! Joel thinks he knows what he did to make her car go so well so he can do it to Dylan's car next year. Who knows, I think it's too hard to know what makes one of those cars win. I'm just glad I have my kitchen back! Yes, they sanded, painted, soldered metal to put in the cars all in my kitchen. What a mess. Anyway, it was a fun time... here are the pics of the kids and their cars. :)

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Here's another shot of me and one of the kids... Kinlee took this one. :) Wow I think I look old.