Making some changes

I've decided that instead of making this blog private, because in all honesty, I find that annoying. I'm going to be changing the names on here. I think about 100% of you that read this blog will know exactly who is who. So do not worry. I'm altering past posts as well. I feel this will be a more safe way to share my experiences with my family without the fear of someone using them against us. At least I can safeguard against predators and not give them my kids' names. That's also why if I ever mention you in this blog, I almost never say your name, just 'a friend of ours' or something to that effect. Ok- now that I have that out there. Here's some fun things that have been going on in the house of K!!

I am starting my CNA classes this month. I am absolutely thrilled and scared out of my mind. It feels like the right step in my life and for my family. So hopefully that feeling is correct. I think once I finish my CNA, I'll try to work full time in the evenings, so that M can go to class more and graduate! I don't care where I get my nursing degree... well, I do care a little, I want to get it in a credible university. Somewhere that will help me get a job, not hurt my chances. My mom tells me that I'll do more work than the nurses, but get paid less. I say, bring on the SCUT work!! *I may be singing a new tune a year from now, haha*

Doggy A is adjusting well to our backyard. She doesn't like being out there much, but she'll learn to love it since she's no longer allowed to be an inside dog 24/7. M and Doggy A are getting along well. As you can see they make a nice cuddly pair on the hammock. She did that all by herself too, he was just lying there when all of the sudden Doggy A is all over him. :)  We got her from some friends of ours, who adopted her from the shelter. They told us they thought she was abused. At first we weren't sure, but now that we've had a lot of strangers come over, we're pretty sure she was abused. I'm sad that someone hurt her and made her so fearful of humans, but I'm glad that we get to have her in our home now hopefully for the rest of her life.

Oh- and can you see the fence in our backyard there. That is new and we LOVE that our yard is completely fenced in now!

The boys are still trucking along. I tried to find photos of them being their silly, busy crazy selves, but this was all I could scrape up. E totally passed out from long days of fun! A is becoming more resistant to sleeping, so no photos of him passed out on our couch pillows. :)

A is getting more clever and more coherent of what I'm saying. So I have to be careful now. I used to be able to get away with not listening to what he was saying because he was usually just jabbering about nothing and just wanted me to say, "Mmmhmm." or "oooh wow!" now if I don't listen to what he's saying and I respond wrong he gets frustrated with me and he'll stomp off. Not good parent right there! So I am practicing my listening skills. Although, there are some times when I'll sneak him rolling his eyes at me because he's told me a buh-gillion times to listen to him and I haven't. Future A, I apologize for my negligence.

Little Man Lovin

You want one of these. You know you do. Admit it.

*ps. That's A's little nip in that corner. :)*

Moving through Summer

This is what summer is all about. Loving your brother. Squeezing his neck out of love. Wearing no clothes. Smiling for picture when you'd rather be out playing! Which is what we have been doing all this summer! That and just relaxing.

 Could not be more jealous of him right now.

yeah... being a kid is SOOOO tough. . .Whatever. :)

Sidenote: We were going to go camping this weekend. We were so excited and then the night before, E puked all over his bed. And then at 4am, A puked all over HIS bed. And then of course, not wanting to be left out... M puked all over--something. Naturally we postponed our camping trip. :( BUT I think we'll set the tent up in our backyard and have a camp out there. I'm excited! Maybe that's because I don't know what it's going to be like with two little kids. But it sounds like fun and it can replace the actual camping trip we missed out on. :( 

We had our land lady come over today. She is very nice and very talkative. She bought us a new dishwasher and a new lawnmower. Score! We are so relieved to have a dishwasher finally installed. Now all we need is an A/C unit in this sauna of a loft we have. I'm sweating bullets up here and the only things moving are my fingers. *whew* I'll be posting pictures of our backyard camping if they boys sit still long enough!

Brother lovin

Ayden hasn't really gotten the idea that he can be nice to his little brother yet. So when he is good to him, McKay and I LOVE it! And we usually have to get proof that he was nice to him sometimes. In this case, I caught Ayden helping Ethan eat his dinner. It was really cute.

I can't add videos directly to my blog. Darn 3 columns! So, I posted a link to the video above. I'm not sure if you'll be able to hear Ayden or not, but when he's feeding Ethan you can hear him say, "Here you go Brother. Open up." along with a couple other things I couldn't quite decipher. Something like "Nuther bite."

Eye doctors... bah! ........and other nonsense.

Ok I don't know how well you can see this in this photo, but I went to get an exam and they dilated my eyes. So my pupils are HUGE. I looked like a cat! PLUS I couldn't go outside all day for fear of the sun. And the bummer is... the guys didn't even give me right strength. He gave me a -2.75... I don't know what that means, but I think my eyes need something stronger than that because I still see just as bad as before I came for his help. So annoying!

On the other hand, both boys are great! Happy as can be. Ayden had an appointment for his foot doctor this last Friday. Everything looks in order. woot woot! He got new shoes for his brace. He will wear it every night until he's about 4 I believe. Poor guy. But at least he doesn't have a deformed foot anymore. Truly a great blessing right there.

 

Ethan is going to be 8 months old this month! Holy cow where has the time gone! I can't believe it. He's already 16+ pounds. Crawling, scooching along the couch and... brace yourself... climbing the stairs! AH! He has to keep up with Ayden though- totally understandable, but now the baby gate goes at the bottom the stairs as WELL as the top depending on where he is.

McKay is also feeling better! Hallelujah! We are seeing improvements, which I always LOVE! As I'm sure he's pretty thrilled about as well. If you're wondering what I'm talking about- McKay has liver disease and he's had it since about the beginning of the year. It got extremely bad this summer and he had to leave work. Now he's slowly improving. Woo Hoo!

Oh and Ayden took that picture of us. He was so proud!

An honor

Today I did my grocery shopping. I got to go by myself *beautiful loong sigh* While I was at the store I saw the most precious thing I have seen in a long time. I'm not joking either, totally serious here.

I saw an old man and woman in their late 80s or 90s. It was beautiful. She was gorgeous. And no I do not mean she looked like she was in her 20s. I mean, under her snow white curly hair, her small and frail frame I could see what a wonderful, hard, exciting life she must have lived.

Her little eyes, circled with wrinkles, just sparkled.  I was entranced.

Her mouth was framed with lines from a life lived full of smiles. Full of giggles with daughters, bugs with little boys; curly pigtails, stray fireworks and ecstatic screeched! 2nd, 3rd and 4th honeymoons.

Surprise Mother's Day breakfast- burnt, but delivered with proud, excited eye. Kisses on scraped knees, dirty hands, dirty mouths and dirty furniture. Pet salamanders, leisure picnics, and footprints in her kitchen. Star gazing, hiking, campfire ghost stories and sticky smores. Proud report cards on her fridge, proud young athletes! 

Her soft fingers were traced with lines from thousands of scrubbed dishes, thousands of wiped away tears and carefully placed band aids. Those fingers held little hands, colored with her babies, waved goodbye for preschool and college. Wiped up fingerprints on her windows and walls. And have been interlaced with her husbands' for decades, and an eternity to come.

Loving, tender husband. At first awkward and scared. Young and seeking her affection, her attention and her love. Tenderly bent on one knee, grasping her hand. A quiet yes and trickling tears. Soft kisses. Gently putting his arm on her back to let everyone know she's his. Roses just because. Dancing. Feeling him hold her close against his skin. And gloriously growing old together.

She was so clearly at that moment the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Walking with the love of her life, who I must add was also the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Sweet, sweet spirit. His back slightly bent, from I can only imagine a hard worked life. But still walking with his beautiful wife through the grocery store. They had been standing by each others' side for almost a lifetime. Gone through the triumphs and the tears together. They radiated a magnificent life. I was so overwhelmed, so taken aback when I saw them. I truly regret not stopping and telling her how beautiful she was, how beautiful they both were. 

What an honor it is to grow old. Truly something to be envious of. And even more so with the love of your life. I pray that my Father in Heaven has granted me the blessing of growing old with the love of my life.

Slight lapse of insanity

Never again bud.... that is the last time you get oatmeal or malt-o-meal for breakfast!! I must have been CrAzY to let you eat that and walk out of the room while you were munching!

Mr. Clean

So first off....I am pretty skeptical of anything that says 'magic' in it. Espeically when involving cleaning things. Those two words just don't mesh well in my head. Magically cleaned. Yeah right, I don't think so.

My mother-in-law gave us some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers for Christmas last year and I have never touched them until today. If you remember, my two year old, Ayden, ravaged his bedroom wall with several crayons. I was ready for an awful day of scrubbing until my hands went raw. McKay suggested I try the magic erasers and I have to say that I have never fallen in love with something so fast! I am totally converted!! Those little things saved me hours of pain and frustration. So if you ever need to get anything off your walls... I HIGHLY suggest magic erasers!!!

Bumps, bruises and scars aside

We HaD aN aWeSoMe VaCaTiOn!!!!

I posted a handful of pictures and a couple videos on here while I was on vacation, but I never really talked about what we did, plane flight post excluded of course! And naturally I have MORE photos to share.


One of the greatest things my kids enjoyed while in Oregon was the trampoline. Ethan just liked the new attention he received by being outside with brother as well as simply being outside. He was the bounc-ee for Ayden, the bouncer. :) Ayden jumps just enough for him to not go flying all over the place. The Kunz's also have a trampoline and even though I don't have any photos of us on their trampoline I want to share this story anyway. Naturally when this happened in real life it only took about 10 or less seconds, but I wouldn't do the event justice if I didn't fully describe it. 

I was out on trampoline laying down while Grandpa Kunz was on the ground making sure Ethan didn't crawl off. Ayden and I were bouncing together, or more like he was hanging onto me for dear life while we bounced. Laughing and loving it by the way, BUT after doing that for about 10 minutes I was wiped out and layed down. Much to the protest of the munchkin I was just playing with. After Ayden finally accepted that I was done-- mind it took him a couple swings at me to do this, he continued to bounce on his own. Ethan then noticed that I was on the trampoline floor and squirmed out of Grandpa Kunz's hands, making a B-line for my face. He gave it a few good slaps before I moved him onto my belly, so that he could ConTiNuE the face pulling, slapping and sucking. You think I'd learn! It was about two minutes of Ethan laying on my belly and Ayden jumping around AND me distracted and talking to Grandpa Kunz when I noticed out of the corner of my eye something massive flying through the air at me. A split second before I realized what it was I put my hand up to guard Ethan and caught Ayden on the lower half of my stomach. HE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE! If I could have slowed it down it would have looked like he was swimming through the air. All I could see was this big smiling face with flailing arms and legs rocketing toward my body and I MEAN rocketing!.... right to Ethan and I.

You need to remember that this collision was not in the least graceful. If it were a flock of birds colliding there would have been feathers sprayed all over the place. If you've ever done a race in track then you'll understand that when you're so focused on something that all other sound is drowned out beside the sound of the wind in your ears or the very faint sound of the screaming crowd. In my case, I heard the faint noise of Grandpa Kunz in the background. Something probably like "whoa!" or "stop!!" or simply "AHhhhHH!!!" One of those. After things had settled down, Ayden just simply got up, looked at the both of us with a 'what the big deal?' face and continued to bouce. It was pretty hilarious!

We also had the opportunity to go to the beach while on our vacation. I'm going to make this portion of the entry short only because I've already posted pictures with us there. First thing. IF you've ever gone to the beach in Oregon you should understand that- no you really don't ever get in the water. It's like that pretty decoration on the Christmas tree that you want to touch oh so badly, but you'll be severely punished if you. In this case getting in the water means you'll most likely and most instantaneously freeze your tooshie off! Jackets are a norm and unpleasant wind to make it even more chilly *cough* miserable! is common as well. BUT about once every decade you get lucky! We won the Coast lottery! Finally made it to the end of the rainbow to the pot of gold! It was a beautiful day! Ayden was able to stay in the water up to his chest without me worrying that he would turn into a blueberry. So... naturally that is where he basically lived the entire time we were there. There was barely enough wind to fly a kite. TOo bad for the kite flyers out there, but the rest of us were loving it! I haven't actually gotten into the water in years, so I didn't bother to bring my bathing suit. But this time I got into just below my chest. It was a beautiful thing. When we were ready to go I had to pry Ayden off the sand as well as Ethan. Ethan took to eating the sand instead of playing in the water. Both were equally satisfied as far as I'm concerned. Ok- so that is a bit long, but considering HOW long it could be, this was a short entry. And onto other things now!

 The Zoo! Boy do I ever love the zoo.... BUT it would also be awesome if when we went to the zoo that the animals actually came out to say hi! We got to see a lot of cool creatures, but we also missed out on a lot too. No lions, tigers or bears. Oh my. :) Polar bears that is. My kids didn't care though. They still had a lot of fun.

Ayden got to come into a bird sanctuary full of these little colorful guys and they would fly onto your arms and let you get really close to them. Ayden was entranced. You could pay a $1 for this sweet liquid and then you were guaranteed a birdie friend. We opted to just stand embarrassingly and awkwardly close to those individuals willing to fork out the dollar.

Ayden was observing the monkeys here and I'm sure he was thinking that he could possibly be related to some of those guys down there. Uncanny likeness and all.

They also had a couple of petting zoos open for the children to pet the animals. I remember those being so much more exciting when I was younger. Ayden didn't seem all that thrilled with petting the animals. he was more interested in the terrain they dwelled in and crawled all over the place.

But yes I did get one photo of him petting the lively goat.

Ethan was a very good boy the entire time. He sat pretty much in that spot for the entire trip. After a bit my dad noticed that he was tossing his head back and forth and asked if he could be bored. We picked him up and he was so ecstatic to get out that he tried to climb up my body to my shoulders. His little legs and arms were kicking fast enough to power a small boat.

I'll admit though- I didn't mind holding him and neither did my Dad when my arms started to go dead from his weight. He's only about 15 lbs, but he's a very wiggly and busy 15 lbs!

 My Dad loves being a grandpa and Ayden loves his grandpa. I think they'll be good buddies even when they both get older. :)

Happy to be alive!

These last few photos are post vacation, before I post them. I want to mention that the plane flight home was about as busy as the flight in. I even gave them Benadryl, it did NOT work! Higher dosage next time. :P A woman told me how brave I was to do that... I was thinking more along the lines of crazy and stupid. Those two seem to fit better.

The house was clean when we got home.

It did not stay like that for long.

 

Ethan is much more mobile now and found this little cubby hole. I was trying to get a picture of him all the way in there....because YES his entire body was stuffed into that hole. What he was doing in there? I have no idea, but he was happy.

If you look close enough at this photo you can see a little bruise by his left eye or right side of the photo. This is what happens when babies get out of sorts and try to follow you around the house. In Ethan's case he tried to climb up my chair and the chair ate his face. Poor guy. As you can see he was truly upset for a very long time. :P

 

All in all-we were very glad to be home in our own element and also very sad to go home. Ayden still asks me, "Where's damma? Where's gammpa?" As well as all of my siblings. I am sure if we had spend more time with the Kunz family he would have been asking where they were too. :)

Fiddler on the roof

So my mother showed me yesterday a news clipping from Fiddler on the Roof. I guess they are doing a farewell tour for Tevye and I really wanted to see it!

I went online to see when they would be on tour in Salt Lake City and they didn't even get close to SLC. I was totally bummed. Especially seeing that the last show they are doing is in Portland and I'm going to miss it by one stinking week!

Ugh. But now that she's gotten me on a musical show fix. I'm going to frequent the Broadway website and see what is in town to watch. So if any of you are bored and want to enjoy a night in SLC watching a play, you're more than welcome to come with me. Once I actually find a decent play worth watching that is.

Oregon vacation photos

I don't really have time to comment on all of these, but enjoy looking at them!! If I could show you the personality that my little family has- then it would be through these photos here. McKay is not in these because we don't like him- we're just on vacation and he's at home still. We miss him very MUCH!

(All smiles)

(Gramma, Grampa and Ethan laying out)

(Sandy baby toes, in case for some reason you really didn't know)
(yes- he IS playing in the ocean water)


(wipeout... almost)

(Ayden's juice)
(Read the sigh behind him.)



(yes I am 2- how did you know?)