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. :)

2/52

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

Eyeball cake

Last night was the Blue and Gold Banquet and Dylan and Joel were supposed to decorate a cake for a contest. Dylan decided he wanted to make an eyeball cake so I baked the cake and left it to Dylan and Joel to decorate... I think it turned out alright. :) They didn't win the grand prize but he did win the "biggest eye opener" award. He was happy with that.

Crazy little man

Christian is in to EVERYTHING these days... if I can't hear him for a while and he's being too quiet I know I better go find him because it cannot be good. Today he was playing with a marker (luckily it was a washable one) and decided to try and eat it. He also got it all over his hands. Ever since he turned one and started walking (the day after his birthday) he has turned into a menace! He is a crazy baby and loves to squeal, scream, and babble just for fun. What a sweetheart though... we are lucky to have him! He is a lot of fun. :)

Project 52

My friend Skye is a photographer and is doing this thing called "Project 52" where each week during a year's time you take a photo of yourself with one of your kids. This is because she said she is behind the camera 99% of the time and hardly has any pictures of her and her kids together. She challenged others to do it as well, and I think it is a great idea. I went through my kids' photo albums the other day and I am hardly in any of their pictures because I am usually the one taking them. Also, I really hate pictures of myself. The photo below was my attempt at holding the camera and taking the picture at the same time... Kait looks like she has a lamp on her head, but that's okay. Next time I will try to have somebody else the picture. Anyway, I think it's a fun idea so we'll see what kind of shots we can get. :) I probably won't be posting all of them, just a few here and there... we don't need to see THAT many pics of me.

Visit to St. George

The kids and I went down to St. George for the weekend to visit Grandpa and Grandma Anderson since they are staying down there during the cold winter months. They had a great time swimming, watching movies, playing games, and more swimming. Grandma had all their favorite foods and treats too... Thanks for having us down! I'm sure grandma and grandpa are all tuckered out after spending 48 hours with these 4 wild kids. :)

Little girls and emotions!

So yesterday we were invited by Joel's bro Chris and wife Melissa to go to the open house of the Draper temple. It was kind of a last minute thing because she had tickets for a certain time and had forgotten about them until the day before so she asked us if we wanted to go. Of course I told her yes and then I remembered that Kinlee had a birthday party she had been looking forward to going to at the same time. She really wanted to go to the birthday party especially because they were going to "Jump On It"... a cool place with all kinds of trampolines and slides etc. that kids love. Anyway, I decided I would give her the option of choosing between the birthday party and going to the new temple because I didn't want to MAKE her go with us to the temple... I wanted her to think about the choice and be able to choose which one she really wanted to go to. Of course I wanted her to go with us to the temple and see the inside which she probably won't have another chance to do any time soon, but I told her it was okay if she decided to choose the birthday party. HOLY COW. She had a meltdown. She started sobbing uncontrollably because she wanted to go to both and really didn't know how to make such a difficult decision. I almost wish I had just made the decision for her at that point, but I still was going to give her the chance because honestly I didn't mind if she chose one or the other. Dylan wasn't helping either because he kept telling her that she might never get to see the inside of a temple until she is old and that her favorite cousin Karlie was going to be there too. (I think he was secretly jealous that she was going to "Jump On It" and he wasn't). Anyway, she told me she would make the decision by the next morning and she wanted to think about it some more. Every time I would bring it up or say anything about it, she would start crying again... she would say "But I'll be sad if I miss the temple, and I'll be sad if I miss the birthday party!" so I decided to wait till morning to say anything about it. Ultimately, she chose to go to the birthday party (which was fine, because I think I will take her to the Oquirrh Mountain temple when it opens), but I could tell she felt really guilty about her decision and when we got home from the temple, she was already home from her party and didn't want to talk about the party or the temple. I told her it really was okay that she wanted to go to the party and I wasn't sad or mad at her. I had no idea it was going to effect her this way though! If this is any indication of what it's going to be like in the teenage years, I'm scared! She is such a sweet girl, but has such a tender heart and gets her feelings hurt so easily. It's usually a daily occurrence that she gets upset about something and runs to her room crying. I'm sure I NEVER did anything like that when I was little. :) yeah right.