Karie and Trevor

Sleepy heads!

2012-01-01T20:39:00.001-08:00

Random sleepy pictures!!

Went to school with mom on Halloween...

Christmas eve 2011...

Do bad things really come in 3's?

2011-11-28T20:59:00.001-08:00

I had a series of unfortunate events around Thanksgiving this year. It was a lot of fun...

It all started a bit before Thanksgiving.

My foot had been bothering me for a few weeks when I dance. It kind of just felt like it needed to pop, and then my ankle kept rolling; it was just unstable. Then Friday after classes it really started to hurt. I iced it and didn't think much of it. Saturday I had Trev look at it and he noticed it was pretty bruised and swollen. It bothered me all weekend, but at ballet on Monday it was killing me. I barely made it through pliés at the barre and had to leave to get it taped. Trevor was working at the Cleveland foot and ankle clinic and made me an appt. that afternoon. Everyone was speculating a stress fracture; the athletic trainer at school, Trevor, me, an instructor and the podiatrist I saw. X-rays were clear (in the spot that was painful anyway) but stress fractures don't show up on x-ray for 2 weeks. So they said ice, motrin, and rest, which is all they do for stress fractures anyway. Good timing with finals coming up and all...

So two days later on Wednesday I get a phone call from the dermatologist's office where I had a mole removed by my eye close to the bridge of my nose. She said, "do you have a few minutes?" and I thought "oh $#it. I don't get a 'lab results were normal, thanks bye.'?". (Yes mom, the $#it word came to my mind). It wasn't a mole, but a cancerous basal cell carcinoma and I have to have surgery to have it all removed. While I'm on the phone with her, I get a text from Trevor saying that New Mexico (where he is doing his externship in December) won't let him have an extra 1/2 day off; which means he can't spend Christmas with us. Then the lady on the phone proceeds to tell me that since it is so close to my eye that it's a possibility that occuloplastics will have to get involved. Awesome. That's all I need is another doggone surgery. Where the crap am I supposed to fit that in my life right now? And by the way, this type of skin cancer is from sun exposure. Anybody that has been with me at the pool in the summer knows that I wear a hat, glasses AND use sunscreen. Seriously, I always use sunscreen on my face. And when I used to fake bake (forever ago) I would cover my face. I just can't win. Ugh.

Friday after Thanksgiving we put all our Christmas decorations up. Trevor hangs a mistletoe on the holder with the stockings and tells the kids "Look what happens when you stand under the mistletoe!" So I go over to him and the thing comes down and smacks me on the forehead. It couldn't be on top of my head so I can cover the wound with my hair, it has to be right on the forehead. I don't even understand how it could have hit me that hard. It's not all that big and it wasn't all that high above my head. I swear I could hear the goose egg forming. You could definitely witness it in the mirror. HURT. SO. STINKING. BAD. I didn't feel quite right and was nauseous for a couple hours afterword. It wasn't until the next day when I was playing the piano that I realized that my brain was not making the right connections and I probably got a mild concussion.

So that was my Thanksgiving break. Holy s-word, I know! But despite it all, I'm determined to enjoy my last week of classes and rock my finals next week so that Trevor can continue to be jealous of my 4.0 GPA. :o)

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Kid's Cooking Class

2011-11-18T09:12:00.001-08:00

Oct 17

Back in July I took advantage of a Groupon for a cooking class. I purchased 2 classes for each kiddo. I took them to their first class and they loved it!

KynnLee had to bring her own Strawberry Shortcake apron. :)

On their menu was Jack O' Lantern Quesadillas and Halloween Candy Pie. So cute!

They loved it, and I loved it because now I can put them in charge of dinner. ;) Ha ha, if only....

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Family Home Evening

2011-10-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

We had a super fun FHE on Monday. We've kind of had a problem with speaking kindly to each other. So I'm hoping this little lesson will help solve the problem. We each had a jar and the blue bowl has candy kisses in it, and the red box has rocks in it. I told the kids that when they say something nice to each other then it's like putting a candy in their jar. But if we say something mean, then it's like putting a rock in their jar. We talked about the golden rule and how we should try to fill each other's jar with candy.

(I don't know why my pic turned out upside down...) Then as a treat we had cream cheese bagels with a tongue sticking out to remind us to use kind words.

Kids loved it! We've been using it all week to remind them of when they are putting rocks or candy in each other's (and mom and dad's!) jar. :)

Ballet class!

2011-09-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

KynnLee started a ballet/tap combo class this year! I'm not sure who is more excited, KynnLee or me!

Here is her first position plié.

The girl wouldn't let me take pictures, this was the best I could do. :)

I had to sew ribbons on my pointe shoes and was trying them on, so KynnLee had to go get the old ones that were hanging in her room and put them on. I gotta say, I was pretty darn impressed she got up on pointe! That's my girl!! Love her!!

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"You're seriously going to sit there and allow this?"

2011-09-12T12:45:00.001-07:00

Poor Phoebe. She's such a good sport though. :)

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Surprise mommy!

2011-09-02T14:45:00.001-07:00

This morning before I left for school I put a small pair of scissors in my bag to cut these gel tubes for my toes. I get to class and sit down to put my shoes on and can't find the scissors anywhere in my bag. So I ask the other girls in the class if they have scissors.

Then I told them, "I KNOW I put scissors in my bag this morning and they are gone. I'm going to go ahead and blame the 3 year old on that one. She may get wrongfully accused sometimes, but the girl has earned that title!".

They kind if thought it was funny. I got my things cut and went to put my shoes on and...

Gasp!!! My ribbons are cut!!!

I'll go ahead and let you fill in the blanks!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hanging out in Idaho

2011-08-12T22:44:00.001-07:00

The kids have had a rough couple of days. I think it's a combination of not having their own beds for so long and having daddy gone for 4 out of the last 5 months. We miss daddy!!

I've been doing usual fun things with them. Yesterday I took them to Storybook Park, got them a snow cone, etc. Then I made the mistake of taking KynnLee to the store at about 5:30. BIG MISTAKE. The girl had a meltdown because I wouldn't let her rip open (and therefore purchase) a box with fancy ballerina shoes inside. I swear people thought I was abusing my child. The whole friggin' store was silent listening to her screams (she has a healthy set of lungs and vocal cords). You should have seen the looks I got from people. I didn't even finish my list, I grabbed the milk and got the heck out of dodge!
The little stinker-pot did the same thing last week at Target with all her cousins. And that time I WAS going to buy her a toy. She was being impossible to please (like literally eanted me to work magic) and eventually had a major melt down.

I'm officially NEVER taking her to a store again.

So I decided today had to be all about the kids; basically just do whatever they wanted to. They woke up and wanted to pick apples off the tree next door.

and they loved it!!

Jaden is so into gardening right now. He loves to go to grandpa Bob's and pick things out of the garden (won't eat them though!). He's so interested in how to plant them and water them. The first thing he noticed when he ate one of these apples is that they have white seeds and most apples have brown seeds. He ate an apple at Micalla's and planted the seeds in her yard (heads up Micalla!). Silly little boy.

Holy apples!! I think that one tree has enough apples to feed the city of Heyburn! :)

After we got ready we went and visited Beeda at work so she could show off her cute grandkids :). They always get free balloons and love it.

We got a footlong sub at subway, grabbed a couple toys out of the boathouse and headed to the pool. We were welcomed by signs saying "free swim day!". Score!! I didn't get any pics because I was in the pool with them. But I wish I could have gotten one of Jaden on the RonJohn Surf Shop board, splashing and kicking his feet behind him, with a big one-toothed grin on his face! It was priceless!! It took Kynn about 20min to loosen her death grip on me, but she loosened up and had fun too.

I'm afraid I have a fishing guru on my hands. Pa got Jaden some minnow bait to go fishing out to Rock Island tomorrow and it came with a DVD on how to use them. Of course Jaden popped it in and watched it right away. he sat and watched that better than Saturday morning cartoons!

Then they got to help Beeda and Pa build a fence at their duplex... and they loved it.

Then they got to spend some time at G&G Haynes. They picked cucumbers and peppers out of the garden. Then grandpa was brave (or maybe insane) and took them both to the store to grab a couple things for dinner. Of course she only acts like a naughty girl for her mom.

After we got back Jaden asks Pa, "do you think we should watch that DVD again in case we missed something?" and he almost fell asleep watching it! Grandpa has a pretty good lil fishing partner.

Today was much more successful than yesterday. Let's hope tomorrow is as well!!

- Posted using my iPhone

Breakfast

2011-08-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

Mom: KynnLee, what do you want for breakfast??KynnLee: Salad!!Mom: You got it girl!!

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All wrong

2011-07-31T09:29:00.001-07:00

There's just something wrong when someone can drink one of these...

and less than an hour later...

I'm going to go ahead and blame that on test weeks. Man, we are ALL glad those are over with.

Just sayin'...

- Posted from my iPhone

Random KynnLee-ness

2011-07-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of blog-worthy pics of Kynn from our summer Idaho/Utah trip. So here ya go!At Cherry Hill

Playing in Beeda's dryer...

Planking, ha ha ha!

You may think, "awe, what a little sweetheart kissing her mom"...

but she was thieving the chapstick from my lips!!!

Playing dress-up with Avery!!

Down by the river.

Helping grandpa clean his pickup!

Riding motorcycles at grandpa's shop.

Playing with Phoebe.

and playing dress-up with Phoebe!

Little stinker dog never sits still when *I* try to put ponies and bows in her hair. :) :) :)

Hangin' out at Beeda and Pa's

2011-07-18T14:37:00.001-07:00

The kids and I are at Beeda and Pa's and everyone else is at work. Feels like it's pushing 100 degrees so we came down to the river to cool off.

Jaden caught a guppy with his bare hands! True fisherman!!

Of course the first thing KynnLee wants is the swing.

I had to take this pic for all my feet friends. :)

- Posted from my iPhone

Jaden skiing!

2011-07-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

My little man was brave and wanted to try water skiing this summer!

and...... hit it!!!!

Water skiing is hard to learn and takes MANY crashes before you get the hang of it. Well, he not only crashed...

...but couldn't loosen his death grip on the rope!!

And then he didn't want to try it again! Poor little man, we'll get him out there again next summer!

The dreaded drive

2011-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

We survived the dreaded drive from Cleveland, OH to Burley, ID. We were insane and drove straight through! We left at about 5pm on Wednesday June 29th and rolled into Micalla's in Fruit Hts, UT at about 10pm on Thursday. The kids were pretty darn good considering. Of course it helped that we had a comfortable car with some space and 2 DVD players.

Here's some random pics from the drive...

And possibly one of the happiest moments of my life...

We picked up some kids at Micalla's and drove 2 more hours the next day to see everyone in Idaho. We were glad the little girls "took the shortcut". :)

Even Phoebe was exhausted!

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Book of Mormon Stories

2011-06-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

One difference between Jaden and KynnLee is that Kynn LOVES to sing.

It totally made my day when I caught KynnLee flipping through the scriptures singing, "are about the Lamanites in ancient history..."

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Losing more teeth!

2011-06-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Every time Jaden gets a loose tooth I tell him to not wiggle it. Keep those babies in as long as possible!! Not that it matters, they are going to hit that "Jack-o-Lantern teeth" phase no matter what. I would say we are WELL into that phase!

Dad thinks that since he pulled a bunch of teeth in Peru that he's qualified to do the job... (insert eye roll here)

I love KynnLee's expressions in the background, what an animated little girl!

Good job, Jaden!

...and it's out!!

I honestly thought the thing had a week more of wiggling. A loose tooth drives the kid nuts, he even asks us to do the floss and doorknob trick! Good thing he's tough!

- Posted from my iPhone

Easter 2011

2011-04-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

We had to spend Easter without Trevor this year, he was stuck in Massachusetts. But we did get to spend it with Beeda and Grandpa! That's right, we had our first visitors since we've been in Ohio! We took the kids to an Easter egg hunt at the park, they had fun!

We had a good Easter, but we sure did miss dad.

Externships

2011-04-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Externships started for Trevor this month. He will go out on 5 one-month long externships this last year in school. His schedule is April-Massachusetts, May- Kentucky, July- Utah, August- Washington, and December- New Mexico. These first two are going to be the killers since it's two months in a row, it's too far away to visit on the weekends, and Jaden and I are both in school. Luckily my finals are the first week in May, so that will be a little bit of a relief.

Jaden understood pretty well what was going on. For about a week before he left, he would come in my room in the morning and ask if dad was gone for a month. :) KynnLee on the other hand came in my room the morning after he left and said, "Where's daddy?", despite all the hugs and kisses and goodbyes we had the day before. She wakes up much earlier than Jaden lately (thanks to Trevor being on the VA rotation in March), so when she comes in my room she expects to see both of us. I think she is beginning to understand a little better now.

Here's the kiddos sitting on the kitchen table waiting to watch daddy pull out of the driveway so they could blow him kisses. :)

Thanks to Facetime on our iPods, the kids are holding up pretty well. :)

While you were out

2011-04-10T15:16:00.001-07:00

Well, the kids and I have survived the first week of Trevor's externships. He is in Worcester (aka Wooster), Massachusetts this month and in Louisville (that's Lou-uh-vul), Kentucky next month.

We've kept ourselves busy! With Jaden and I both in school it's not too hard to stay busy. I have school all day Mondays and Wednesdays and half a day Fridays and I love it! The only thing I hate is leaving my kiddos. Next year will be better because I will get to bring KynnLee with me to school and she will go to the preschool on campus. :)

Yesterday I was determined to wear the kids out. We had some errands to do and I had 2 coupons to Build-a-Bear for a free accessory, plus I had some Gym Bucks to redeem so we headed to the mall. They were exhausted when we got home!

Last night I kept myself busy making these bins for KynnLee's dresser.

Today it was 78 degrees out! That was a sign that it's safe to put up the trampoline, even though there is still a chance it could get snowed on. Now we will have another thing to keep the kids busy and wear them out!

One week down and seven more to go!
- Posted using my iPod

Service project

2011-04-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Jaden's school is requiring the students to participate in 6 hours of service in order to attend the field day at the end of the year. They sent home a paper with a couple of suggestions, one of them is a request for personal items for homeless people. A lot of the items on the list I have a small stash of in the basement that I've picked up at CVS or other stores when they were on sale and I paired them with a coupon to get the item for free, or almost free. So I thought I would involve my little man on one of my weekly runs to CVS. He helped me get the list together, look through the ad, and clip coupons.

Then the next day we did the shopping trip. He was such a good sport about it, most of you know how Jaden feels about shopping. :) He helped me find the items (we can't get the wrong size or type of item or we end up paying too much), pushed the cart, and helped me juggle the ad and coupons. While he was pretty quiet about it all, I really think he understood the importance of his service to the homeless. The poor little guy was tired at the end of the trip and was sitting on the front of the cart while waiting to check out. :)

Since there were only a couple of items on the list on sale this week at CVS, we delved into our stash in the basement. Here's what we ended up giving to the homeless.

4 tubes toothpaste

4 Deodorant

1 Dish soap

What a great little project to involve the kids in! We will need other ideas to make it to our six hours, so any suggestions are appreciated!

Limo

2011-03-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we made an addition to our family. Let me introduce you to "Limo"...

(I didn't want anyone to be jealous of my photography skills, so I copied pictures off the internet. ;) )

I won't name any names (KYNNLEE), but we have this little person that lives in our household that has a problem with being confined, especially in the car! It started at birth. I remember her first doctor visit, she cried in the car the whole way, couldn't figure out what was wrong with my tiny baby! It has not gotten any better! The girl has hated being buckeld in anything. I swear she is the only baby on earth that didn't like those little Bumboo seats.

Anyhow, we have had 3 long, miserable years in the car. Our drive home for Christmas was just the icing on the cake when we decided to drive through the night and she didn't sleep but maybe 30min!! Not only that, but she kept Jaden awake too! It was horrible, to say the least.

So when we found out we were getting an awesome tax return (like enough to pay off my car and some leftover for a downpayment), we decided it was time for a new car! Trevor still has a year left in school, plus 3 years in residency (where he will only have an average income) so we still can't afford to feed an SUV. Besides, all of them we looked at were way over-priced and didn't have any fun options.

We ended up test driving a black 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Signature series. This thing had the goods! Dual DVD players, leather, heated seats, navigation, back-up camera, remote doors, remote start, and the list goes on! The kids came with us on the test drive, they were dead SILENT! We asked them if they liked it, they LOVED it! So then we gave the assignment to Kent...

The first one we found was in Detroit, and it ended up going for $5,000 more than the auction said the average price is because it had all the options! So then we found some in Pittsburgh. We were really debating on which ones to go for, all the goods, none of the goods and just install a DVD player... decisions, decisions! We needed (no, it really IS a NEED) the DVD player to be installed (as opposed to the ones that hook onto the headrest) so that a certain little girl wouldn't grab it, take the DVD out, scratch it, break it, etc... gosh that sounds familiar! So it all came down to this... go for the goods one more time, and if it's still too expensive then we still have the auction in Columbus to find one. It was such a pain to search through 300 Town & Country's and narrow it down. Yes, we were being GREEDY! But it paid off to be greedy this time! We got our top choice at the auction in Pittsburgh! It was even $1,000 less than the max we wanted to pay! I guess that because this one wasn't a Limited, car buyers didn't pay very close attention to it. Kent said that there were some Limited's that didn't have all the options that ours does that went for way MORE!

We basically got the exact same one that we test drove. It was even my top choice of color, and we couldn't be too picky about color. We definitely were banking on NOT getting navigation, leather, heated seats, double DVD players, and a few others. We got spoiled! We even got the Swivel & GO with the table in the back! That actually cracks me up to have a table in a car! We haven't used it yet, but I'm sure it will come in handy.

One of my favorite things is that KynnLee can watch Strawberry Shortcake and Jaden can watch Mario Bros. Having a girl and a boy 4 years apart makes it hard for them to agree on a movie. :)

You might think you know why we nick-named it Limo, yes it does feel as long as a limo after driving a car for 5 years. But it's actually because it has the "limo lights" along the sides of the roof console! So funny! We love it!

So I am now a mini-van mom, but only part time since I still take my car to school in Akron. But I drive my mini-van loud and proud, and in luxury! Limo and I are going to start a new mini-van trend! :)

Savin' up!

2011-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

Jaden keeps his money in two separate little banks. One looks like a little safe with a combo lock on it and it's for "toy money". The other is his "crocky bank" (thanks to aunt Micalla!) that he puts money in to save up to go on a mission. We told him when he filled his crocky bank we would open him a bank account to put it in. Wow, the little guy was determined to get the crocky bank filled, even though it meant less money for toys. Little Mr. Crocky Bank can be deceiving, it doesn't look like it holds a whole lot. We were guessing around $30... heh. So we emptied the crocky bank and headed over to the Coinstar at the grocery store. We put in what seemed like a handful of change and quickly passed the $30 guess. Looks like he had way more quarters in there than we thought! Here was the final calculations... Holy smokes! That's a lot of change! He was so excited to see his bank account with a grand total of $135. Good job Jaden, you will be blessed in your efforts and in serving the Lord!

Snow day!

2011-02-02T09:36:00.001-08:00

I finally found an app so I can blog from my iPod, so you will have to excuse any errors. :)

We ALL (mom, dad, & Jaden) had school cancelled today. We got about 5" of snow yesterday and freezing rain through the night. So glad we aren't one of the people without power!

We had one happy boy on our hands this morning when he found out it was a snow day again. We spent our snow day yesterday with our friends Haley & Kylee. Today dad got to spend the day with us. So far we have played Mario Galaxy, Michael Jackson, and Bonocoly (aka Monopoly).

Happy Snow Day to all!!

- Posted using my iPod

Dancing!

2011-01-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

I've always been a HUGE Michael Jackson fan, go ahead say he's a freak or whatever, but it's always been about the dancing for me! Ever since I saw the Michael Jackson The Experience game on the Wii I've been DYING to get it or play it! We decided to get it to play for New Years... SO FUN!!

What I didn't expect was for BOTH of my kids to absolutely love it! It tickles me to death when they beg to play it and to see them dancing and just absolutely loving it! I haven't gotten a good video of both of them yet because every time Jaden sees that I'm recording he starts acting like a dork and ruins it for both of them. But here's a little bit of what goes on when we turn on Michael Jackson...

If you can see the TV she is actually following it pretty closely. It is so much better to see it in person though. There will be more videos to come!!

Early Christmas

2010-12-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

Since we were making the "dreaded drive" home for Christmas in our gigantic car, we let the kids open some Christmas presents at home before we left. They opened their goods from Grandma & Grandpa Haynes. Let me back up a bit to about mid-November. KynnLee starts saying she wants a LaLaLoopsy doll for Christmas. Seriously, never heard of or seen them. I loved the fact that she found something all on her own with no outside influence. To be honest, when I saw the commercial for them I thought they were a bit weird. They have buttons for eyes, kind of like the girl on the movie Coraline, but not that creepy. But after I checked into them a bit they are actually really cool. Each doll is made of something recycled. KynnLee got the Bea Spells-a-lot doll and the Dot Starlight doll. Bea Spells-a-lot is made from a school girl's uniform, she is a smartypants who always follows the rules and loves to talk... a LOT! Dot Starlight is made from a real astronaut's space suit, she's a dreamer who loves science and she always has her head in the clouds. KynnLee about jumped out of her pants and said, "It's Lalaloopsy!!" when she opened it! It was to die for! She was so cute!

Jaden-boy got "golfing clubs". He's very excited for this summer. We will have to bring them with us when we make "the dreaded drive" again in July.

I'm glad my cute little stinker-pots got spoiled by G&G Haynes. And yes, KynnLee did actually fall asleep like that, I didn't pose her!

Breakfast with Rudolph

2010-12-07T10:47:00.000-08:00

Jaden got to have breakfast with Rudolph at his school and KynnLee and I joined him.

KynnLee sat by my friend Kim to eat breakfast, I have never seen that girl behave so perfectly!!! She's pretty good buddies with Kim and Mia. :)

They had this cute little picture corner for the kiddos as well as a little activity table with beads and pipe cleaners to make a bracelet. Rudolph was just a teacher with some antlers on his head, we didn't track him down for a picture.

Mr. Daniel the principle (who is fabulous, by the way) was helping serve breakfast. Jaden snuck around by him for a quick pic.

Breakfast with Rudolph was a definite success, the kids loved it!

Post-Thanksgiving festivities!

2010-12-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie, my favorite holiday is Black Friday. Not just for all the crazy shopping, but mostly because, to me, it is the green light to officially start the Christmas Season. All this craziness with the stores putting out Christmas decor before Halloween is even over... it should be illegal!

We saved the wish bone from our Thanksgiving turkey and Jaden thought it was so cool! He had a really hard time waiting the few days for it to dry out. KynnLee didn't really understand, she thought it was cool and was a good sport about it, but was over it before we got to actually break it. Ha ha, so mom ended up breaking it with Jaden.

I started the tradition of watching The Nutcracker or listening to the music while we put up all the Christmas decor. These kids are HUGE fans of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker music! They listen to it year-round, mostly when going to bed, but I do get requests for it in the car. Jaden's favorite piece is the march at the beginning in the party scene, and KynnLee's favorite is the Waltz of the Sugar Plum Fairy. I LOVE that they love this music, and I LOVE that they picked out their own little favorite song.

It didn't take this little girly long to find her stocking....

Jaden loves the Christmas Village and did a great job setting it up. KynnLee's favorite was the little clay nativity scene that Grandma Sara made. She wouldn't leave it alone!

My girly did a fantastic job decorating her section of the tree...

We got a super fun package in the mail from the Vallace's. It was a Christmas Village to count down to Christmas. Every day we had an ornament to put on the little mini Christmas tree, a theme, a scripture, and either a present to open or an activity to do. It was perfect, the kids absolutely loved it! Thank you Vallace's!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

(Ok, I'm really not one for New Year's Resolutions. Why should I be better just because it's a new year? President Hinckley always said, "Be a little better", so that's what I try to do... all the time. HOWEVER, after going through my lame, no-good group of pictures from Thanksgiving, I vow to be better at taking pictures this year...)

Just the usual Thanksgiving with friends this year. The only new thing was that I was in charge of the turkey! I've never done a turkey before, so it was a learning experience.

Jaden thought it was the coolest thing ever that we had to gut the turkey! It was dad's idea to use gloves, otherwise I'm sure he would have just dug in! I don't like touching raw meat, so it was gloves for me no matter what.

We got the turkey gutted, cleaned, the neck on the back of the neighbor's car, (Ha ha, just kidding!) and ready to marinate! Lucky for me I have older sisters and a mom who have done lots of turkeys, and I made lots of phone calls to them. They got their hot little hands on the Emeril Lagasse recipe for a turkey marinade, so that's what I did. I had a 23lb turkey, so it required a 5-gallon bucket from Home Depot, and removing a shelf in the fridge. I had 2 sleepless nights over this thing. The first night I was worried it wasn't going to be defrosted in time to put it in the marinade. Then the next night I was afraid it was going to break the shelves in the fridge! It was heavy!

But, everything went well. I'm glad I had a good little helper with the turkey. If a 6yr old can handle a raw turkey, then so can I! I'm not going to lie, the turkey turned out fabulous! Very moist, very flavorful. :)

Random blog-worthy stuff

2010-11-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

So, I mentioned that KynnLee got a big bed. Well, she no longer sleeps in the closet or foot of the bed. No, she moved on to BIGGER things... like BIG messes! Yes, my cute little innocent girl (who's halo sometimes grows horns) destroys her bedroom before she falls asleep. I'm talkin' completely empties any bin, drawer, or shelf. She even climbs on top of her dresser and gets the stuff on the top of the hutch! I was tired of her wasting wipes, so I stashed the wipes box way on top... oh no, that didn't stop her! Sometimes she even pulls down all the clothes off the bottom rack in her closet. Oh my word, what am I going to do with her????

My friend Lacey had a birthday a while ago, so we thought it was the perfect excuse for a girl's spa night and movie! Lacey, Cindy, Lindsey and I had a nice relaxing night while pampering our feet and watching Eclipse. Trevor had a softball game, so he took Jaden with him and I put KynnLee to bed... but of course she found out what we were doing and just HAD to get in on the action!

KynnLee knew she could talk Lindsey into painting her piggies. :)

You all know how I am with pictures, I got lots of good feet pics, but that's about it! :)
Can you tell who is who's? We all have pretty cute feet!

I let Jaden and KynnLee have a "slumber party" in the living room. I couldn't resist taking pics of them while they looked so innocent...

KynnLee has always slept like that! I LOVE it! She sticks her little bum in the air and crosses her feet. This is when her halo returns to it's original shape, but it just starts all over again in the morning. :) I love that I can cuddle and smooch on Jaden when he's asleep and he doesn't wake up. I usually resist any kind of disturbance with KynnLee.

Jaden-boy got invited to a super fun birthday party for his friend Gunnar! It was Halloween themed and he got to wear his Jango Fett costume. It was funny when we got there and saw a few other boys in Star Wars costumes too! They immediately started a battle and played their characters well!!

I like the little men sitting around the table drinking their root beer! It was too cute!

Of course Jaden was first in line to dip a pretzel in chocolate, I've never met a boy who likes chocolate more than this one!

Halloween

2010-10-31T09:55:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween! Our family is a big fan of Halloween and everything that comes with it!

We carved our pumpkin, and oh my word I promise to start being a better photographer... I didn't get a pic of the finished masterpiece!! Ah well, the kids were much cuter and more fun to take pics of.

It is just downright funny to me to watch these two little munchkins and their different personalities. As you can tell, KynnLee thought the pumpkin guts were totally gross...

... and Jaden thought it was the coolest thing ever! Trevor suggested gloves, otherwise Jaden would have just dug in. He IS a little weird about the cleanliness of his hands though. :)

And of course Jaden just wouldn't be a real brother if he didn't tease his sister!

We have some plywood and other stuff sitting in our garage and I had the wild idea to make a haunted house out of it. I bought a bunch of little wooden Halloween nick-nacks a couple years ago and haven't done anything with them, so a Haunted House it is!

We started with the big piece of plywood and painted it all black. Yes KynnLee's jammies are too small, but they were the first ones I came across that I didn't care if they got paint on them.

And here is the finished (scary voice) Haunted House! We had a lot of fun doing it! The best part was that we already had all the supplies lying around the house!

We all had fun Trick-or-Treating. We let the kids go in the Viper, although I'm thinking a wagon would be ideal for Trick-or-Treating. You just can't trust a 6yr old to park a car in a good spot and be quick about it (it was cold doggonnit!). Ha ha, no Jaden did ok driving and parking. :)

Oh my word, this was hysterical! There's a house down the street that always goes all-out for Halloween with all kinds of monsters and such in their yard. Well, as I send the kids up to the door, I'm on the sidewalk by the guy you see below and he starts moving toward me!!! Scared the bajeebers out of me! He didn't move fast, or even say anything. So I motion for him to go after Jaden as he comes back... didn't even phase him! I'm such a sucker!

This random pic was on with my Halloween pics.... yes he was actually stuck.

Summer past-times

2010-10-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

Summer quickly came to a close and I haven't posted much about how we spent our summer. Mr. Stubborn (aka Jaden) didn't want anything to do with removing training wheels from his bike. After some convincing he actually gave it a try. Here's how the first "no training wheels" session went.

He's good to go.... then crashes into the bench.

So we move and try another spot.

He's good to go.... then crashes into the bleachers.

I swear, I didn't purposely send the kid into obstacles!! We had a wide open space and EVERY time he would veer off and go for a crash into something dangerous! Luckily he never actually crashed into things, just came dangerously close!

Yeah, KynnLee enjoyed the show by drinking all Jaden's Gatorade. It was blasted hot!

Great job Jaden-boy! He did master the skill of riding a bike by the end of summer. :)

More Swimming

2010-10-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

We got the chance to go swimming with Dad this summer too. We all had fun! Jaden even got brave and went down the big slide all by himself! We had to coax him into it the first time but after that he was a sliding FOOL!

Jaden thought he was funny playing with my foot, and well, since my toes looked so good (would you expect anything less?? :)) I thought it was totally picture-worthy!

These pics are for my feet-lovin friends out there!!

Lego Mania!

2010-09-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

I love legos. Jaden loves legos. KynnLee loves to wreck lego creations. I want a big lego set for Christmas, the ones that have hundreds and hundreds of pieces and take hours to put together. But since it is impossible to keep something like that from being scattered through the house (yes, I said impossible!), it will have to wait a few years. In the meantime, we have fun with the lego duplo blocks.

Jaden is really good at building big castles, Kupa's castle usually. So we got out KynnLee's Cinderella blocks along with all of Jaden's blocks and just went to town one day while she was sleeping. Here's what we ended up with...

(notice the Mario on top, and Cinderella was the princess, and the prince was Luigi)

Among other exciting things this summer, KynnLee got a BIG big-girl bed! When I say big, I mean BIG. I'm not talkin' about no toddler bed. We have a queen bed in the basement that doesn't get used (hint, hint, people!), so we put it in KynnLee's room. Here's how she started out spending her naps...

Yeah, pretty much anywhere but the bed! And since the bed takes up most of her bedroom, she doesn't have many other options! The first time she napped, I peeked in to check on her and couldn't find her. She was curled up on the floor at the foot of the bed next to her bookshelf. Nowa days, the little stinker completely destroys her bedroom, empties her toys, pulls out clothes and shoes before she falls asleep, usually on the bed now.

Is it too late to get the crib back out???

Guess what KynnLee got???

2010-09-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day for KynnLee. Not just because we got some absolutely SCREAMIN deals at the outlets. I didn't think this would happen until she was more like 5 or 6, but this little girlie-girl has been bothering me for months to get her EARS PIERCED! She knew it was going to hurt, she knew she couldn't touch them, this girl was ready! In fact, she has been asking and bugging me so much that I've already taken her once before and she backed out. She was good to go today though. I think it had a little to do with the fact that Dad was there, the lady was really good with her, and she wanted them so darn bad!

I held her on my lap and she looked at Trevor and Jaden while they pierced both her ears at the same time. I think I was more scared than she was! She paused for about 5 seconds before she started crying, almost like "Oh, that hurt, I should cry...". She cried for less than a minute, she's one tough chica (gets that from her mom!).

She has been SO good! She wasn't grumpy like we anticipated. A couple times she has reached up to touch them and we reminded her not to and she didn't. She even posed for me to take pictures of them to send to her aunts and grandmas and grandpas. She absolutely loves them!

Way to be brave KynnLee-girl! We love you!!

Swimming

2010-08-08T11:04:00.001-07:00

We got to go swimming with some friends a few times this summer. Here's how a little bit of it went down...

(I took this pic especially for all my feet friends!)

I'm so glad Jaden has finally turned into a little fish. At 2 this kid would freak if his face got wet. Way to go Jaden-boy, you've come a long way! KynnLee has always been a little too fearless of the water for my liking.

We're grateful to have friends to hook us up so we can get into the good pool!

Summer sports and Shog the frog

2010-08-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Jaden played his last year in T-ball this summer. He's so excited to play coach-pitch next summer. The kid hated hitting the ball off the tee. In fact, he wouldn't practice with the tee at home, we had to pitch it to him. And I tell ya, when that kid connected I was scared for my life! He's a pretty darn good baseball player!

He played really well all summer, but he was in fire in their last game! Way to go Jaden!

Jaden also played Fall soccer. He did much better in the Fall than in the Spring, I think it can be attributed to the orthotics we got for his shoes. He can walk for a longer period of time (like when we go shopping) and he is also running faster and keeping up with the other kids.

Here's Jaden's #1 Cheerleader, she did a good job of keeping track of his water bottle, she was also good at consuming his water bottle....

Soccer was interesting for me. I've never played an actual game of soccer. I have no idea what the rules are, you know it's bad when you don't always know what's going on in a kid's game! It was nice when Trevor was there with me, sometimes he would make the calls before the ref, then I could ask (like an idiot) what it meant. I better get with it because it looks like I'm going to be a soccer mom! I'm so glad Jaden had fun in soccer!

Shog the frog was found in our backyard one night while the kids were out playing. Jaden loved this little guy! They went to the pet store and got him a cute cage and put dirt, sticks, rocks, etc in it. It was pretty cute! We later found out that Shog was actuallly a toad, but Jaden didn't want to change his name to Shoad. :) I gotta admit it was pretty cute.

Well, it turns out that frogs are kind of high-maintenance. We would buy him crickets from the pet store and catch random bugs and flies to feed him, but he eventually died after a few months. Jaden is a very tender-hearted little boy, it absolutely broke his heart to lose a pet! He chose a special spot in the backyard to bury Shog. Then he put sticks around it and wrote his name on a popsicle stick and stuck it in the ground.

It was really sad to see Jaden so upset about Shog. I hope there's some way to prepare him for when it's Phoebe's time to go. She is 8 years old and already blind in one eye. He absolutely LOVES Phoebe! And Phoebe is starting to come around to him more, now that he's older. I guess all we can do is enjoy the time that we have! :)

A girl's best friend

2010-07-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago when I was picking out my wedding ring, I made sure to pick one that would look good with some additions. :)

I also made sure to pick a man that understood the importance of DIAMONDS. :)

Well, all that hard work paid off ;) and here's my first addition...

You all should know by now that I'm the world's worst photographer. I have no idea how to use the settings on my camera. I often end up with drabby pics, but the good news is that diamonds ALWAYS look good no matter how bad the photographer is!!! Here is how my little addition was presented to me...

15 princess-cut diamonds!!!

Man, I taught my boys well! Jaden had to give his mom an anniversary present. It was all his idea, and he totally picked it out himself. He knows that girls LOVE flowers, so he got me some calla-lillies that I can plant outside OR inside! He was so excited to give them to me!

I think I have some keepers!!

Put-in-Bay!!

2010-07-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

Trevor and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on July 28, 2010!

10 years. That makes me feel old... just remember that I got married very, very young! :)

It was my turn to plan something for our anniversary, so I surprised Trevor to a night at South Bass Island/Put-in-Bay!

He had no clue, I didn't tell him until the night before. His response was, "But you have to work tomorrow..." and then "what are we doing with the kids?" and then "where is Phoebe going?". Come on Trev, you think I didn't get those things taken care of??

Jaden and KynnLee got to spend the night with their cute little friends Evan and Ellie. A big huge thanks to Bridgette and Dustin for watching our kiddos! I was afraid my kids wouldn't want to come back home... they set up a tent in the backyard for the boys to camp, took them to the library, took them to the Science Center, swimming... yeah, I think they were pretty much spoiled!

Phoebe got to stay with the Nebeker's and make friends with Paisley (their dog). I wasn't sure how that would go over, Phoebe is weird about other dogs, but she liked Paisley. A big thank you Julie and Keith too!!

I believe this was the first time I succeeded in keeping our anniversary plans a secret. Trevor accuses me of not being very secretive, but he is just SNOOPY! I can't help it if he saw the charge on our bank account, or if he saw something in MY email. See, he's snoopy. I just got lucky this time around. :)

We had about a 1hr 20min drive to catch the ferry to Put-in-Bay. It was strangely quiet on the drive. It was nice to carry on a conversation without being interrupted! Nice, but strange.

There was this cool little race track where you could race each other in these remote control cars with steering wheels, pedals and all! It was hilarious! We didn't race, but we had to stop by and check it out.

This cannon reminded me of the one that was at my grandma and grandpa's when I was growing up. I had to take a pic because I knew Jaden would think it was cool.

I think this store was my favorite! We had a blast trying on all the different hats! Plus I got a new toe ring here... (pic of that to come soon!)

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial was established to honor those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie, during the war of 1812, and to celebrate the long lasting peace between Britain, Canada, and the U.S. We didn't make it to the visitor's center, but we walked around the memorial.

Here's some pics we got inside Perry's Cave. Here is a little bit about Perry's Cave...

Perry's Cave is a Natural limestone cave steeped in historical tradition. The cave lies 52 feet below the surface of South Bass Island in Lake Erie. The discovery of the cave, in 1813, is credited to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the battle of Lake Erie. The cave is 208 feet long by 165 feet wide. View stalactites, stalagmites and cave pearls on the cave's walls, ceiling and floor created by heavily encrusted calcium carbonate deposits from centuries of water dripping from the ceiling.

A rare Underground Lake is also located in the cave. The water level rises and falls with that of Lake Erie, indicating subterranean connections. Recent findings reveal that after Perry's men became ill, they used the fresh cold water from Perry's Cave Lake to drink. The luxurious Victory Hotel, once the largest hotel in the world, also used the water from the cave's lake. The hotel burned in 1919 and its ruins are visible at the South Bass Island State Park.

Our last stop before leaving the island was The Chocolate Museum.

Trevor would make a fantastic Willy Wonka!!!

Of course we got some tasty chocolate treats for the trip home.

Farm Park

2010-07-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Trevor took his first set of boards on July 7. What a relief!! It was hard on the whole family, but I can't imagine what it would be like to study for that kind of test. There's just SO MUCH information. We won't hear the results until the first or second week in August. Keep your fingers crossed!!

You might notice there is no 4th of July post, sadly that's because we didn't do anything. That blasted test had to be scheduled AFTER the 4th to help ruin our holiday. I was supposed to work on the 4th, but I got called off, which was good so Trev could get in a few more hours of studying. I did take the kids swimming with some friends on Saturday the 3rd, and they had a blast!

We took the kids to the Farm Park in Kirtland for a Hooray-boards-are-over-let's-do-something-fun day!!

One of the first things the kids got to do was milk a cow! Jaden was disgusted (hence the nose holding), and KynnLee was all for it! They liked the calves too...

So Jaden waited in line for his turn to milk the cow. When he got up there he actually did let go of his nose and grabbed the udder! He thought it was pretty cool, but he was pretty eager to wash his hands and get out of the stinky barn.

Then KynnLee decided she wanted to do it. She was all eager and ready to go, but then she got up there and didn't want to touch the udder, so she pet the belly instead!

Ha ha, KynnLee is such a poser! I LOVE it!

They had some displays of toy horses, barns, doll houses, etc. and of course KynnLee LOVED it!

After the cow excursion, we jumped on the tractor-drawn-wagon and took a ride to the sheep and ponies, etc.

They got to pet the sheep....

See some turkeys...

See some GIANT horses...

a galloping pony...

and try their hand at riding a horse... or in Jaden's case a bucking bull. :)

Then we went over to visit Skippy the pony!

Sadly, mom didn't make sure the camera was fully charged and it died before I got a pic of KynnLee riding Skippy. She LOVED it! She kept talking about Skippy for the rest of the day, it was definitely the highlight!

An onion a day...

2010-06-13T19:32:00.001-07:00

keeps the doctor away??? Might be true for this little girl, we did manage to go all winter without a doctor visit. :)

So I was making a mexican dish (of course) a while ago and KynnLee climbed on the counter (as she always does) and grabbed the HUGE onion and took off to the living room.

So I followed her and caught her doing this...

SHE LIKED IT! Hmmm, does this remind you of anyone? Grandma and Grandpa Hellewell maybe? They used to eat raw onions like apples!

KynnLee also shares another trait with Grandma Myrtle... her gorgeous brown eyes. There are 12 grandkids in my family and KynnLee is the only one with brown eyes, crazy! Maybe we should have named her KynnLee Myrtle... :)

Funny how my skinny little boy won't touch veggies but loves anything chocolate, and my chubby little girl loves all kinds of veggies. She will beg for peppers too!

Play Dough FHE

2010-06-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Once in a great while I have a creative itch and come up with something fun. I've had this recipe for Play Dough cookies for quite a while and never tried them.

So a few weeks ago we were in need of a fun Family Home evening. We played Play Dough Pictionary and had Play Dough cookies for a treat.

We had gospel related word strips and picked them out of a hat and had to create them with Play Dough. Here's one of my fan-fabulous play dough creations for Word of Wisdom...

Ha ha, I didn't get any other pics from Pictionary, but we had fun!

Here's what our Play Dough cookies started out as. I'm not gunna lie, I had to sneak a few bites of the colorful stuff, it was the tastiest Play Dough ever!

Yeah, I wasn't the only one sneaking bites...

I pretty much let them go to town and make their own cookies. We ALL had fun making colorful tasty treats!!

The funny thing was that they looked almost the same before the oven...

... as they did after... YUM-O!

I always manage to snap a pic at a "weird face moment". But I promise, they really did like the cookies!

Memorial Day and Kindergarten Celebration!

2010-06-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Jaden-boy was in his first parade this year. His t-ball team was in the Memorial Day Parade for Brooklyn Heights. The parade just started down the street from our house and ended at the town hall where they had a flag raising ceremony and breakfast.

I gotta admit, the parade was pretty hysterical! It's a small town, so we expected a small parade (one thing we love about Brooklyn Hts). So they had the high school band and all that (sorry, but it wasn't impressive), but the rest of the parade was just people walking down the street! I expected them to at least throw the little T-ball team in a pickup truck or something. But the really hysterical part was that everyone that wasn't "in" the parade (parents, etc.) kinda had their own little parade going along the sidewalk! It was funny, and cute.

Here's a couple pics of Jaden at Field Day at school. I couldn't help but to stop by and sneak a few pics. They even let KynnLee join in on the fun.

Corn Hole is pretty popular out here, Trevor has even come to like it.

Jaden has been a busy little boy. We were able to attend his Kindergarten celebration, SO CUTE! They had a little presentation for us... (yes, KynnLee had to join in)

Then they got to play outside on the playground for a bit while they got the refreshments ready. I love how Jaden always holds KynnLee's hand, he's SUCH a good brother!

So now we have a 1st grader on our hands! How crazy is that?

Here's the teacher present Jaden helped me make for his teacher. Mrs. Motrunecs was a wonderful kindergarten teacher, we will miss her over the summer!

Jaden didn't waste any time getting summer under-way, he already had his first ever sleepover!! They were TOO cute! He had his friend Evan over and we rented movies (Goosebumps), had snacks, and let them sleep on the air-mattress. Evan brought over his sleeping bag which just happened to be the same one Jaden has, too funny!

We need to have Evan over more often! Those two little boys are two peas in a pod, they were SOOO good! I didn't even hear from them until they got hungry.

It's gunna be a good summer!

Out of the mouth of Jaden-boy

2010-06-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Favorite quote of the day, "Mom, you are tooooo patient because you always take forever".

I guess we need to re-explain the meaning of being patient.

Idaho trip 2010, by Karie Haynes

2010-05-28T19:08:00.001-07:00

I'd like to share my Walgreens Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Spring Break in Kentucky!

2010-04-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

We spent a couple days of Trevor's Spring Break in Kentucky. What a great place to spend it! :) Trevor got to visit one of the Podiatry residencies in Louisville and see some procedures and shadow some Podiatrists.

On our way back to Cleveland we stopped at the Cincinnati Children's Museum. WOW, what a place! We were there for over 2 hours and we only saw one part of the museum. I think there were 4 different museums inside the museum. It was amazing.

Instead of purchasing the photos in the train photo booth, we just took our own. How cute!

Little did we know that we would learn some facts about a little place about 30min north of our house in Kentucky. There's a place called Big Bone Lick, and we would crack up at the name every time we drove by it!!

Here's a little bit about Big Bone Lick...

The name of the park comes from the fossils found there. The mammoths and other creatures are believed to have been drawn to this location by a salt lick. It bills itself as "the birthplace of American paleontology" a term which dates from William Clark's expedition in 1807.
In 2002, the National Park Service designated Big Bone Lick State Park as an official Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Site. The Park was also listed in 1972 on the National Register of Historic Places, and was further listed as a National Natural Landmarkin February 2009.

I think maybe we will have to stop by this National Park next time we make it down to Kentucky!

Here's just some random pics of things around the museum...

We even learned about this rock from Utah... and other random things.

Possibly my favorite part of the museum was The Cave.

It was so cool, and so realistic!

They even had a little waterfall with a pond and stream... seriously, I felt like it was in a real cave!

Y'all know I'm a Harry Potter fan, so I had to take pics of the stalactites and stalagmites. :)

I know KynnKynn looks outrageously tired, but I must have snapped the pic at the wrong moment. I assure you she was full of life (as always) and loving every minute of the museum. :)

Ok, going inside the glacier was just as cool as the cave...

Do you see the elephant behind them in the 2nd pic? Jaden is trying to make the same face... crazy little man.

Other random pics. At this point KynnLee was done with pictures, so you just get Jaden-boy.

We wanted to stop at the museum in Columbus too, but we spent too much time in Cincinnati. But it was well worth it!

Jaden's 6th Birthday!

2010-03-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

Our handsome little man turned 6 this year!

Jaden-boy started off his happy day with a couple presents from mom and dad. Some sugar cereal for breakfast (don't tell Beeda!) and a new shirt to wear to school.

It was a busy day for dad, but he was able to come home for a quick minute so we could sing and have cake... chocolate of course.

You could definitely give me an "F" in the subject of taking pictures. I only got pics of the present we got him! Well, actually, Beeda and Pa went in on it too. But I didn't get pics of the Active Life Extreme Challenge Wii game G&G Haynes got him.

Since Jaden's lego set has lots of little pieces, it's not for little girls named KynnLee. So we took advantage of the opportunity to let her play with her Cinderella legos (and strapped her in her chair) while we put together Jaden's City lego set.

I couldn't resist snapping a pic of this! She's holding a tiny princess mirror and checking herself out!! Ha ha ha, it was to die for!! :) She's my little princess!

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Jaden!! We love you!!

Mimunk

2010-03-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

The other day I came into the living room to see KynnLee with her head under the blinds at this window talking and pointing excitedly about something.

I opened the blinds to see this looking back at her...

Look closely.

It's there.

Or here's a close up.

She was so stinkin cute!! She'd say "Wook!! Wook!!"

Seriously, what are the chances of her looking out a window we rarely use when a chipmunk is there??

I told her it was a chipmunk. I think he lives under all those sticks.

He would go under the sticks and she'd say, "Where de go?? Where mimpmunk?"

I watched with her for a few minutes and told her that the sticks were his house and she would jabber about it and I'd hear the words "mimpmunk" and "house". We opened the window and threw some bread crumbs to him and he ran away. After I walked away, a few minutes later I heard her say, "Dere he is!!!! Wook! Wook!! It's mimpmunk!"

Sure enough, I came to look and he was back! She even got to see him eating her bread. It was so fun!

A short while later we had to go get Jaden from school. On our way home I told her to tell Jaden what she saw.

"Janen!! ... jibber jabber... a Mimpmunk!!"

Those two would have thrown a whole loaf of bread to that chipmunk if I would have let them. He came to visit through the window for a few days. We haven't seen him in a bit, but we should check more often, or maybe throw him more bread.

Jaden told me, "Mom, I think he wants to be our pet".

Me: "Ok, he can be our OUTSIDE pet".

~Tooth Fairy! ~

2010-03-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

On Friday, March 5th at approximately 8:30am, Jaden Dan Haynes lost his first tooth!

I happen to have a bit of experience with pulling teeth. My good friend Elizabeth has a sweet little girl, Meredith, and she let me pull 2 of her teeth. I got pretty good at tying floss around teeth. That floss wasn't comin out without the tooth!!

He was such a tough little man! (gets that from his mom) I told him about tying floss to his tooth the other end to a doorknob, he thought that was so cool! So, here's the professional tie job...

and the other end...

... getting ready...

... as you can tell, he wasn't scared at all. Just excited to get his tooth out!

AND he even shut the door himself!! Unfortunately, he didn't shut it hard enough. Here's his disappointed little face....

(excuse the jammies he's had for 3 years... they're his fav)

Like I said, the floss wasn't coming out without a tooth! So we just wiggled it back and forth and it popped right out!

He may look traumatized, but I assure you, he wasn't. :) And now he has a cute little toothless grin. I LOVE it! I forgot how cute it is when kids lose a tooth!

They get their dancing skills from their dad...

2010-03-06T22:20:00.001-08:00

Jaden was asking if he could listen to "Applebottome Jeans" in the car, then begged me to bring it in the house. This is how it all went down...

Valentine's and KynnLee's 2nd Birthday!

2010-02-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day I decorated the kitchen and left little baskets for the kiddos. I wanted to make red heart-shaped pancakes and a cute breakfast, but it just didn't happen because I worked 3-11:30pm the night before and we have 9am church. Ah well, they still loved it!

Would you believe it if I told you my little princess just turned 2??? Oh my goodness! Yes, I know she looks much OLDER than 2, but she SHOULD be much younger than 2! I just can't believe it. I need her to stay little.

Of course she got spoiled for her birthday. Mom and dad got her a My Little Pony house, G&G Haynes got her the playhouse/ Foam Sweet Home (I'll have to take better pics) that's in the background, Beeda and Pa got her a CUTE doll that crawls, stands, walks, plays peek-a-boo, laughs, basically everything. She also got lots of super cute presents from her friends.

We just had some of her friends over and ate pizza and sandwiches, had cake and ice cream, and let the kids go nuts!

(the doll from Beeda and Pa)

(the house in the background, and cute friend gifts)

I love how all the kids gathered around real close for the cake. It was too cute! She couldn't help but try to get the Strawberry Shortcake off the cake. And she kept poking her finger in the icing. She didn't quite get that she needed to blow out the candles, so a friend helped her. :)

What a pretty little birthday girl!!

Happy Birthday KynnLee!! We love you!

Tobogganing

2010-02-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

We got the opportunity to go tobogganing with some friends. What a blast!!

The drive there was pretty cool, all the trees were covered with snow.

We carried the toboggan to the top of the hill. Well, Trevor did anyway...

and made our way down...

Jaden was a tobogganing FOOL!! He went up every time someone was going. There were two little ones that couldn't go so we switched off, but J-man made sure to make his way up with whoever was going. He absolutely loved it.

Even the little kiddies had fun. We brought a baby sled and pulled them around. They both loved it! Little Brady would cry when we stopped! It was hysterical! They were so cute!

We hung out in the lodge to warm up between toboggans. KynnLee got Dina to entertain her for a bit. :)

We all had so much fun! A big thanks to Josh and Dina for inviting us all!

Student of the Week!

2010-01-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

We are very proud of our little man for getting Student of the Week at school!

And only two weeks later he came home with it AGAIN!!

Jaden-boy likes to chat with his friends instead of paying attention at school. We started a behavior chart, and every day he is good and pays attention at school, his teacher sends home a smiley face. We told him that when he gets 10 smiley faces, we will have a family game night. Jaden gets to pick the games, Jaden gets to pick the junk-food, etc. He has come home with a smiley face every day since! So we are planning the first game night for this Friday!

Way to go Jaden! We are so proud of you!

One week later...

2010-01-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

One thing I've learned... Just because a surgery is "outpatient", doesn't mean it's not a big deal.

I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Even after I stayed overnight in the hospital.

I thought it would be a few crappy days and then just gradually get better from there. Because I'm a healthy person. And dog-gonnit I worked my butt off (although it's very much still there) in the gym wholeheartedly believing it would slash my recovery time.

The last couple days my pain has been worse on the spot where they removed the endometriosis. Worse as in, I took a percocet and an hour later I was in tears because it felt like my abdomen was on FIRE.

I don't know why I've always been dumb with pain killers. Someone always has to tell me to take them. I'll complain to Trev about a headache or something and his response is... did you take something for it???

Like, duh.

My thinking has always been more like.... what's causing my headache? Figure that out and it will go away.

So of course he asks how many percocet I took.

Just one. The Rx is 1-2 pills every 4 hours.

He made me take another one and call the dr. today.

"It's common to have pain after surgery" (this was the on-call doc, not my doc). But increased pain? After a week? Oh well, everything else seems to be fine. So I guess I'll listen to her and take more percocet.

So, this is still what's crutial to my survival. 2 bottles of pills (I also have 600mg motrin), pen and paper to write down what time I took them (cuz I can't remember a darn thing), something to eat with them so they don't end up in the toilet, and the cute bag they gave me at the hospital. Ok, it's not really cute. It's ugly, in fact. But I was surprised at how thorough it is. Tissue, the notepad and pen, chapstick, trash bag, comb and mirror, toothbrush and toothpaste, cards (because it gets boring), and a few other things.

Oh, and the remotes and cell phone are pretty important too! The piano makes a good holding spot for them. :)

My poor little Jaden-boy got sick the other day. You know it's bad when this kid takes a nap!! Luckily it only lasted like 12 hrs. Poor little man.

Of course it got passed to KynnLee too. Again, very lucky it only lasted like 12 hours.

It wasn't long before Jaden was playing boxing on the Wii and KynnLee following him. SO CUTE!

Poor Jaden has been cooped up for days, but he's been REALLY good for me. Since I had to up the dose of percocet, I've just been really tired. And since KynnLee has been sick, I can't send her to someone's house so I can rest. Plus the fact that I don't sleep well at night. All that and cleaning up vomit made for a horrible day on Friday!! It might even make the top 10 list.

So Saturday my dear friend Dina came to my rescue. She came and hung out with the kiddos for a few hours, and I took a 2 hour nap! I didn't realize how badly I needed it until I woke up. I think it was the best 2 hours of sleep I've had in over a week!

For those of you that are easily embarrassed, or call out TMI (too much info.) on people, go ahead and skip this last part. But I thought it was totally blog-worthy. :)

With Trevor getting ready for tests he hasn't had a split second to go to the store. And if he did, I wanted him to spend that split second here helping me. I really contemplated a trip to the store yesterday, but decided I probably wouldn't survive. So Dina happened to ask if I needed anything from the store or anything.

So, we really need diapers.

Anything else?

Ok, I need UNDERWEAR!! You can imagine with 4 incisions that run from the belly button to the c-section, it's impossible to find underwear that don't cut across any of them. Well, I happened to have only 3 pair that don't really put any pressure on them. I've been rounding up laundry to wash just so I can wash my underwear. With the increased burning pain I've had (I'm blaming it on forming scar tissue), even my loose fitting lounge pants really hurt and I've even been holding my waist band away from them.

These saving-grace underwear that I have come from Victoria's Secret. And look a lot like this...

Yes, I know. You imagine someone having surgery and needing to wear these nasty grandma-looking underwear. But grandma underwear hurt!

I'm sure you can tell by looking at them why they don't hurt. I tell you though, if I didn't have other underwear obligations, I would have 2 DRAWERS full of these babies!! They are SO comfy!

So my awesome friend went underwear shopping for me!! She did a fantastic job. It would have been fun to go with her. :) And now I don't have to worry about throwing in a load of laundry every other day.

Gosh, when did my blog become rated R? First it's strip dancing, now it's sleezy underwear... you know I'm gunna blame that one on the drugs!!

Surgery

2010-01-17T19:40:00.001-08:00

I suppose surgery is blog-worthy material?? Besides, I'm really bored and need something to do while I have a few minutes of non-drowsiness. :)

I guess I will start at the beginning, since what I had was pretty rare.

Jaden was born in Utah via c-section. Sometimes when a c-section is performed, the endometrial cells can migrate and start growing other places. I remember my c-section incision never really felt better.

When Jaden was 2, I could feel painful bumps on my abdomen, about 2 inches above my incision. I went back to the same dr. and he said I had endometriosis of the abdominal wall caused from the c-section. This happens in like 0.04-0.3% of c-sections. LUCKY ME!!! He said he could remove it, or it could be removed at the next c-section, so in the meantime he treated it with continuous birth control pills.

It came time for KynnLee girl in Kentucky and I had a hard time finding a good doctor. Due to many reasons, I had switched doctors halfway through my pregnancy. I kept telling the new doc about my condition and she would either write me off, or would say "if I see anything while I'm in there, I will take it out". I trusted that she heard me and would take care of it.

Well, she didn't. I know it's really rare and hard to diagnose, but it had already been diagnosed FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!! There were 3 Dr.s in that office, and one of them said that he'd never seen it, but had only heard about it in Med school. I'm gathering that they just didn't know how to diagnose it. All she had to do was listen to me and do a little research. I had no problem finding out all kinds of info. on the internet.

Trevor had been bugging me forever to find a Dr. here in Cleveland to get it taken care of. It's extremely painful and hadn't been treated since I had KynnLee. Besides, he got tired of me complaining about it and making him feel the bumps. :) After the idiot that delivered KynnLee, I was very skeptical on trusting anybody.

I finally found one at Cleveland Clinic. There's lots and lots of OB/GYN's, but I did my homework dog-gonnit! I found Dr. Falcone who is also the OB/GYN Department Chair, and something-or-other with the Chief of Staff. I needed someone who was a good surgeon too, and he sounded good to me!! :)

He knew exactly what I had. He had seen it and treated it in his office. He immediately ordered a CT and an ultrasound. There it was, bright as day! Don't need any medical background to see that!!!

Do you see it? I will give you a clue, it's on my ab muscles.

My oblique muscle to be exact.

Hard to believe that tiny thing was causing me all that pain and misery.

Ok, now that I'm totally embarrassed that you all have seen my insides... fat layers, butt muscles, etc. Those look like tough abs and toned glutes, right??? Riiight.... Actually I've been busting my butt in the gym hoping it will help with recovery.

I was very impressed with not just the doctor, but his office personnel, nurses, etc. He even gave me a card with his email, phone, his nurse practitioner's phone, etc. And they were so good to answer phone calls and email!!

The first available date for surgery was during Trevor's finals, and another date that was kinda sketchy. They encouraged me to schedule it when it was convenient for us.

I had like 5 pre-op appointments a week before surgery. I met with an internal medicine dr., anesthesia, his nurse practitioner (who was WONDERFUL!), admitting, etc. and the actual Doctor. They were pretty thorough. They went over the whole procedure, which I admit I was a little more freaked out after that. I wish they would have left out the part with the breathing tube. She (the NP) said that I would be sedated so deeply that I would need a breathing tube that would breathe for me. FREAKY!!

Trevor made fun of me because I made sure to give myself a manicure and pedicure, color my hair, and tint my eyelashes before surgery. And I did it all at my in-home salon ;). Hey, when you look good, you feel good!! I was just trying to help myself feel good! :) The funny thing is that I was telling Micalla that Trev made fun of me for painting my toes and she said, "Oh yeah, before I have surgery I make sure to paint my toes and nails, get my hair done, and tint my eyelashes". HA HA HA HA!!! Great minds think alike!!! I thought that was awesome!

And I would like to rub in Trevor's face that all the nurses and doctors liked my cute toes! Funny story... pre-op nurses said something about my cute toes. I told them that I used to dance and I had to take good care of my feet and I kinda had a fetish ever since.

One of them looks at me and says "You made good money then, huh?"

"What?"

"I bet you made good money being a dancer"

"Uh, no just danced like in high school. I was a teacher too but that doesn't pay well."

.... she thought I was a STRIP dancer!!!! LOL!!!

The other nurse gave her crap for having her mind in the gutter then she told me "Hey, look at it this way, you've had 2 kids and she still thought you were hot enough to be a strip dancer!"

I told them maybe I should take up strip dancing to put Trevor through school!! HA HA HA!!!

I was glad they were making me laugh because I was pretty freaked out. And they took Trevor away from me.

So they get the IV started, send Trevor away, and take me to this strange, dark, creepy triage waiting or something.

Then all these cute ladies bring me to the OR and make sure I'm ok. I can't believe how many doctors were in there, I thought a few of them were nurses, but they were residents. The anesthesiologist was a lady, there was a nurse anesthetist, a nurse anesthetist student, 2 resident doctors, 1 chief resident, the actual attending doctor, and who knows who else was in there. But they all liked my toes (TREVOR!!!) and I had to tell them that my cute husband is going to be a foot doctor so I have to have cute feet. :) They thought that was funny. Then the super cute nurse anesthetist student put a gas mask on me and told me to breathe deeply....

I ended up staying overnight. I wasn't thrilled about it, but to be honest I would have been miserable at home. I had the compression sequentials on my legs all night, kind of felt like a mini massage. And I was on this really cool bed that had air pockets all over, and about every minute an air pocket would go up, then move to a different one. It was so comfy. It helped prevent bed sores. It also made it so I wouldn't be stiff staying in the same position. I need one of those at home.

One of the residents came and saw me late that night. 2 more that were in the surgery came in the morning, and Dr. Falcone even came in the morning... a Saturday morning!! Impressive! Random people would tell me that Dr. Falcone is a VERY good doctor. The NP, the lady that checked me in at the surgery ctr, the pre-op nurses, etc. (let me just tell you that the dr. that delivered KynnLee left the OR before I was sewn up, and I didn't see her again until my 2 WEEK appt! That's right! She didn't even see me in the hospital!) They all seemed a bit impressed that I had been up and walking a bit. Hey, I survived 2 c-sections, I can handle it!

Can't wait for the swelling to go down. I kinda dig incisions, I want to look at them but they are all steri-stripped. I have 4 incisions, my c-section incision, 2 small ones on the sides, and a bit bigger (super sore) one in my bellybutton. I better not have an ugly bellybutton after this. That's all I've got going for me. I managed to have a stretch-mark-free belly after 2 pregnancies, but I can't say the same for my hips and thighs. :(

Mr. Kringle's Inventionasium!

2009-12-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

The day before Christmas Eve we were able to take the kids to see Mr. Kringle at Kringle's Inventionasium. It was so cool, the kids loved it! I loved it! They did such a good job making it all so animated. Their acting, costumes, decor, everything!

We started out with our own little tour guide elf. They gave Jaden a lab coat (KynnLee didn't want anything to do with it), then they brought us to this cute little room, the Brainstorming Department. The kids got to play with that play foam stuff on the plates. The Elf helped them think of new toys to invent. Jaden wanted a walking pillow, and KynnLee wanted a flying blanket. Funny little people! So Jaden made his pillow and put legs and feet on it, and KynnLee made her blanket with wings. Then they smashed their inventions onto the plate to send them on down to the factory. :)

Next was the Sound Effects Department (which mom failed to get a picture of). They had the cute elf, Audio, help out with it. KynnLee was terrified of Audio. But he gave us a basket of different noise makers and the kids got their own noise maker and then got to pick toys for their noise.

Then our elf brought us to the Color Mixing Laboratory where the kids got to play with color paddles to mix colors, and create new ones.

Then we went to the Toy Engineering department and the kids got to play with these little Jawbones pieces that snap together to create new toys.

And this is us having fun while waiting our turn to see Mr. Kringle.

KynnLee LOVED this piano! I couldn't keep her away from it! I can't say I blame her, look how cute it is! Doesn't she look like a natural? :) We'll have to get started on piano lessons.

Random fun times!

2009-12-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

I just have some random pictures I wanted to post...

Jaden and mom enjoying some chocolate, and being a little goofy ....

Dad caught KynnLee laying on the couch and playing with her feet. What a cute little girl!!

I just couldn't resist some pics of my little princess all dressed up for church.

Jaden had spirit week at school. One of the days was hat day, this is the hat he chose... :)

One night during finals, I was seriously out of the room for like 3 minutes. I come back and KynnLee had got out the sugar and was dipping her fingers in it!! I don't even know how she knew what it was!

How bad is it that I let her keep doing it while I got the camera!?!?!?! It wasn't long before Jaden joined in too.

Crazy kids!

Thanksgiving 2009!

2009-11-26T20:40:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Our friend Julie was able to reserve the activities room/commons room at the apartment complex where she works. It was perfect for Thanksgiving.

We ate lots of delicious food, played games, the kids played, and of course we all looked at the ads for Black Friday!! (my favorite Thanksgiving activity!! :)) It was a lot of fun!

Here's some random photos of the kids playing, and our attempt to get a group photo...

Veteran's Day, and a little mischief baby

2009-11-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

Jaden's school sent home a star for us to decorate and write the name of a Veteran in our family.

It was a good opportunity to teach Jaden what Veterans are and how important they are to our country. My grandpa was in the Air Force, and although he died before Jaden was born, he knows who Grandpa Bill is.

This is the star after we printed his name on it and a couple little things....

and turn your head sidways for a close up... (forgot to edit the pic before posting...oops)

and here we have the handsome little bugger working on it. He had fun, I put the dots of glue on and he put the rhinestones on...

and here's the finished product.

They got to hang up their stars in the hall at school. They also had a big assembly honoring all the Veterans. How cool!! It was fun teaching Jaden about Veterans and he thought it was SOOO cool that Grandpa Bill flew airplanes!!

I'm constantly taking a little munchkin down off the counters. It's so frustrating that NOTHING is safe in my house. She can open doors, climb on counters, mess up the cupboards... you name it!! This girl can do any kind of mischief imaginable. I thought I had seen it all with Jaden, but he was never a climber...

I usually just groan at her on the counter and put her down. But this time I had to get out the camera! I can't believe I let her do this while I took pics, but it was worth it!! There was already a spoon in the Ovaltine, so I guess I made it too easy for her.

Time to invest in some door locks. We have handle-type door knobs... it would just be too convenient to be able to use the dozens of regular knob covers that we already have. Now if I could just figure out how to bolt the stools to the floor.... hmmmmm.

WICKED

2009-11-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to see the musical "Wicked" with a bunch of girlfriends.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

A few of us met up before and ate at IHOP. FAN-freakin-TASTIC. Gotta love IHOP. :)

I couldn't believe the talent. They all had such awesome voices. I liked Glinda and Elphaba's voices at the theatre better than the ones on the soundtrack. No kidding. It kinda made up for their lack of dance skill... :)

No, there was just a song, "Dancing Through Life" and I was disappointed that there wasn't much dancing during the song. And some of the dancing just wasn't quite polished. But I guess if I wanted more dancing, then I should have gone to a Ballet, right?? :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

The kids had a fantastic Halloween. I kind of feel like they got gypped a little because mom was so sick and miserable we all kind of had to stick close to home. We wanted to take them out where a bunch of our friends were trick-or-treating so they would have some little friends to go with. Oh well, they had fun, and actually our neighborhood was awesome! A few houses were giving out whole candy bars... just what we need, but Jaden thought it was so cool.

Here's the Halloween decor we made this year. Jaden absolutely LOVED the monster on the door! After we got it all done (late at night), we had to go outside and see it from the sidewalk. Then he says, "Let's stay out here all night and watch it scare people!!! That will be funny!!", he cracks me up! Then he wanted to make one for every door in the house, on each side! What a crazy little man...

We were able to make this spooky sign with stuff we had laying around the garage.

The kids were in their costumes all day. Jaden was The Human Torch from the Fantastic 4. He actually had a really good idea for his costume, and thought of it all by himself. He has a little basketball with a rubberband attached to it (for his Build-a-Bear). He put it around his wrist and would throw it, he said "it looks like I'm throwing a FIRE BALL!!!". Don't know where he gets his craziness...

KynnLee was.... (drum roll) ..... STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE, of course!! And the *cutest* one I've ever seen, by far!!. I sprayed her hair red with some glitter. She also had some freckles on her nose and cheeks. Beeda made the hat, so the rest was pretty darn easy.

I wanted to take them out and about to places giving away free stuff for kids in their costumes. A couple restaurants were giving away kid's meals, it would have been fun to go to lunch. But again, mom was too sick to leave, so they ended up at home all day in their costumes.

We weren't sure if KynnLee was going to leave her hat on, but she did really good!!

It was so funny watching her, it didn't take long for her to catch on to the whole trick-or-treating thing. Jaden is such a good brother, he would help her and wait for her.

LOVE all those Fall leaves!

A house down the street always puts out an amazing Halloween display. Every time we would drive by through the month Jaden would ask why we can't have a "scary car and scary people" in our yard. So we made sure to take them down there and get some pics.

(The camera lens fogged up when we came in the warm house) She was so funny!! Just amazed at all the "nummies" she got.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't get any really good pics of them in their costumes. Grrr, wish I could just hire a photographer so I could chill with the kids and then go home to enjoy a bunch of amazing pics. :)

That was Halloween at the Haynes household!

Fall Festivities!

2009-11-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

Last week we took the kids to The Patterson Farm about 25min away for some Fall fun! It was so cool!

Spooky Science Nights!!

2009-11-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

Trevor and Jaden got to go to the Science Center for Spooky Science Nights where they got to...

listen to eerie stories on a tour of the William G. Mather ship... (the Science Ctr is right by Lake Erie)

... enjoy some spooky snacks...

... and mess around and learn about the body.

A few other activities that they didn't get pics of were making spooky concoctions in the chemistry lab, making fake wounds, and watching pumpkins explode. It was all RIGHT up Jaden's alley! They had a fantastic Boy's night out. :)

Busy, busy, busy...

2009-10-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff going on around here (besides mom and KynnLee being sick).

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law (self-proclaimed non-crafty) called me and said that her little boy is totally set on being an Orange Triceratops for Halloween. She found the perfect costume online but they didn't have his size. So she's thinking of making one and wanted me to give her ideas. After finding out that she doesn't have a sewing machine, and she doesn't even know WHERE to purchase fabric (Michaels??), I told her I would take care of it. I've never done a project this big. I have never even used a pattern before. YIKES!! But I'm so glad that I did it because I learned SO much. Including how to sew on a zipper! That was fun trying to figure out. I also couldn't find a pattern for a dinosaur or even a dragon, so I bought a pattern for a bear for the body. I had to make up the tail and the hood. The hood was not easy, I honestly just had to free-hand it and pray that it worked out. I can't believe that I forgot to take pics of it before I mailed it off, so you get cruddy cell-phone pics.

Here's Jaden-boy trying it on for me.

And here's little Wesley in his new costume!! (you think he likes it?)

I wish I would have taken close-up pics because I put a little button in the hand that ROARS when you push it. HE he he...

And while I was in the sewing mode, I made a new basket liner for KynnLee's laundry basket. That was actually a lot trickier than I expected. Good thing you can't look at it closely :).

Another project that Jaden and I started is the gate. We want to gate-off the driveway so the kiddos and the puppy can't escape the back yard.

Well, can I just say that my dad taught me well??? (and was a lot of help over the phone). Jaden and I dug the holes AND cemented in the posts. They're perfectly level and everything! And we did this during test week, so you know Trevor wasn't even around. We did it all by ourselves!

(yes, he dressed himself that day)

Jaden sweeping leaves, it was hysterical!

Things that I'm lovin' right now

2009-10-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Things kept popping into my head. So I thought I would share...

1. My cute husband. Trev had to go home after Sacrament meeting today with a very grumpy little girl. When I got home he had dinner done, the table set, the whole schabang. Thanks Trev!!!
2. Books on CD. Jaden is one of the hardest kids to put to bed. He's been like this from day 1. He got a Halloween book on CD in a kid's meal. It's probably a good 45min long. He's listening to it for the 2nd time since I tucked him in bed.
3. My clean house. Sunday night is a crucial part of my week. We do dinner group on Monday and between that, grocery shopping, and kindergarten, I don't have time on Mondays to do any cleaning. Starting out the week with a clean house helps the week go so much smoother.
4. Sweet Cinnamon Pumpin candle. Picked this up at the Bath and Body Works semi-annual sale last spring. Busted it out tonight... SO YUMMY!
5. My Swiffer Wet Jet. If you need a new mop, this is the one to get.
6. My sweet baby girl and my handsome little man all dressed up for church today. KynnLee was in desperate need of new church clothes. I got some GymBucks when I bought Jaden's school clothes, and redeemed them for some church clothes for KynnKynn. Today was the first day she wore them. I just couldn't get over how cute she is!! And of course Jaden always melts my heart when he wears his suit with the STIHL pin on his lapel.
7. Grey's Anatomy. I've been wanting to watch this series for a long time now. Couldn't find anybody who had them on DVD. I recently found out that the library has them!!! I've seen a whole 3 episodes, but it's fun to have something to watch when Trev is gone studying.

More strawberries!

2009-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

Like I said, KynnLee's room is coming along slowly but surely. Here's what we've got so far...

The wipes box on her dresser was becoming an eye-sore for me, so I had to cover it...

The bookshelf looks kinda cluttery right now. But I'm hoping she will get some really cute strawberry stuff for Christmas that would look fantastic on the shelf. Like maybe a cute Strawberry doll, a Strawberry Castle, anything cute like that. :)

I moved her bows to this ribbon on the inside of her closet door. The collection was just getting too big to keep on the wall. And you all know I can't resist but to just keep adding to the collection :). I have 2 more strands of ribbon ready to add more bows, so there's plenty of room!! There's also her adorable Strawberry Shortcake hat that Beeda made her... yes, my little princess is going to be Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween! Darn, I so wish I still had the Strawberry Shortcake dolls I played with when I was little. I've seen a lot of them go for a good chunk of change on eBay ($75!!). Not that I would sell them, but KynnKynn would enjoy them.

And of course we still have her ballerinas on the shelf in her room along with actual pointe shoes worn by none-other than Karie Lee Hellewell :). They've all been there since she was 6months old and she absolutely LOVED them the second I put them up. She still reaches for them, and when I give her one she will gasp and then just hold it and look at it. She won't settle for the sturdy stuffed ones either, she has to have the fragile, breakable ones... several of which she has broken. I actually found some Strawberry Shortcake Ballerina fabric!! I'm so excited to use it to tie everything together... I just need to figure out what to use it for.

And on a non-strawberry note, we had "family movie night" last night. Jaden has been looking forward to it all week. So he could "watch movies downstairs and eat junk food!". We put together our pirate pumpkin, ate our goodies on the halloween platter, trays, and cups. Then we watched Monsters vs. Aliens. Good times!

A Christmas Carol Train Tour

2009-10-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

The Christmas Carol train came to Cleveland and we had the chance to visit!! The kids LOVED it! Looks like it will be a fantastic movie, we will definitely have to go see it.

After the tour of the train we got to see a sneak peek of the movie in 3D. The people told me I might want to sit close to the door in case the kids need to leave because some of it is loud and scary. They both just sat there, perfectly content and loved all of it! I'd expect that from Jaden, but it really surprised me with KynnLee. :)

Butterfly update

2009-09-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

The other day we transferred the cocoons to the butterfly house.

Here we have the cocoons in their little cup, ready to be moved to their home.

I want you to take a good look at the above pics...

Did you notice a mouth?.............

Or an eye looking back at you??..................

Jaden is such a goofball! It wasn't until after I took the pic that I realized he was peeking through. And yes, he's wearing his Halloween costume. He's going to be The Human Torch from the Fantastic 4.

Tonight I put Jaden to bed at like 8:30. At about 9:30 he comes in...

"mom, is it in the middle of the night yet?"

"No, why?"

"Because I'm going to climb in bed with you in the middle of the night."

So I put him back in bed and a few minutes later....

"Mom, LOOK!!!"

He held up his butterfly house with 5 little butterflies fluttering around. He was so excited! I was so surprised!! I haven't even paid any attention to them since I moved them over.

So we fed them some flowers dipped in sugar water.

Straw-bababa-ba-berry bedroom!

2009-09-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

KynnLee's bedroom is coming along, slowly but surely!

I had my friend look out for a chandelier at yard sales a few months ago. To be honest, if I would have been there to see it, I probably wouldn't have gotten it. So when she brought it over, I was really glad it was only $6!! It was pretty drab. I was looking more for one that had the sconces pointing up so I could put tiny shades with beaded fringe on them. That's why in the picture some of them are pointed up. It didn't look so good with them pointed up.

So it sat in my basement for a long time because I wasn't so sure what to do with it.

Blah, eh? Plus the picture is horrible because it was taken with my cell phone in the dark basement.

Well, a couple weeks ago I decided to throw some spray paint on it.

WOW, what a difference!! Spray paint is AMAZING! So then I thought I could probably do something with it. I got some bright pink beaded fringe, and some longer crystal beaded fringe, and covered the ugly chain with some fabric.

Not too shabby?? I wanted to replace the sconces, but as of yet, I haven't found any that I like better. They're actually not bad, I just wish they were clear instead of white. I've checked Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, and Walmart. Anyone know where else I should check??

I'm having a horrible time finding anything strawberry. I find plenty of cherry, watermelon, apple, yadda yadda yadda. Which makes me want to do strawberries even MORE!! :) So it looks like I'm going to have to MAKE everything.

I came across some wooden letters at Target on the dollar aisle (LOVE that place! that's where the "haircutting fairy" shops! :)). I painted the little thingy green...

and threw some felt and rhinestones on there...

VOILA!

So now I have 6 of these strawberries but I haven't decided how to hang them yet. Maybe somehow with 2 groups of 3.

We have some shelves up in her room that Beeda made years ago... back when Trevor and I first moved into our new house, and we each had our own "spare room" (boy, I can kiss THOSE days goodbye!), and they were made special for my spare room. But then MY spare room became Jaden's room, so they were Jaden's, and now they are KynnKynn's. Anyway, back to the subject... I painted those shelves pink and I might hang the strawberries from the bottom of the shelves.

Wow, I guess I really need pics of the room now so you get the idea...

We just got the chandelier hung last night... what an adventure THAT was!!! The breaker was off to the bedrooms, but apparently the LIGHTS are on a separate breaker (who does that???). Let's just say I'm VERY lucky I didn't get singed hair or a gigantic electric shock!!! I had the bracket unscrewed and not until it was coming down did the big FLASHING SHOCK scare the living bejeebers out of me!!! I mean, my face was right there!! My hand was even black, and I didn't get anything! I was scared to touch anything for the rest of the night.

More to come on the strawberry bedroom!!!!

Welcome back...

2009-09-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

to the blogging world! Yes, I know, it's been a whole month. You all know the excuses I'm gunna use- going back to Idaho (again), work, busy with kids, yadda yadda yadda...

So we got back from our Idaho trip in July, and went back again in August for a funeral. Here was Jaden's highlight of the second trip...

FISHING WITH GRANDPA! Only this time they caught one!!! My dad came home from work one night and Jaden was all over him to take out the boat and go fishing. Do you think Grandpa could turn that down? No way!!!

Just look at both of their proud faces! (ok, they might not both be wearing them in the same picture) Jaden was so excited when they caught one! He said, "Let's go home and cook it!!". So sneaky Beeda and Pa went to the grocery store and bought some fish. When they got home, I distracted him and they let the fish go, and put the grocery store one on the grill. Jaden was a little disappointed he didn't get to "see his bones and pull them out".

What else have we missed out on??? Jaden's first day of Kindergarden!!! He has always loved school (bet u can't tell), and I hope that never changes. I remember his first day of preschool when he was 3 years old, he was SO disappointed he didn't get to go to school on the bus. :)

I had to get the shirt, that's totally Jaden!!! "I'm kind of a BIG DEAL". The other school shirt we got him has a mirror image that says "You Are Handsome". Funny!

I've been in the process of doing both kids' rooms. KynnLee's is going to be in Strawberries and Ballerinas. I actually found some fabric with Strawberry Shortcake Ballerina!! It's super cute! It says "Tutu cute"... and it IS!!

I gave Jaden the choice between Trains, Lightening McQueen, or fish. I should have known it would be a no-brainer...

FISH-all-the-way!

I actually tried to get him to choose one of the others because I thought the color of his bed would be hard to match to fish, but it's all good.

Boy did we SCORE the cutest fish decor!!! I brought it all back from Idaho, it was in Beeda's basement, used to be in Kade's room. It was just sitting there waiting for Jaden to take it :).

I'll have to take some up close pics of everything. But we had it all put up in his room when he got home from Kindergarden. He LOVES it!! He'll go in there and play (very carefully!) with some of the stuff. And he's so stinkin observant... "why do I have 2 of those?". I think we just need to throw some paint on the walls in there and we're pretty much done!! How easy was that??

Another thing we've been waiting for... Jaden's caterpillars!!

When they arrived I felt like Sid on Toy Story.... "They CAME!!! THEY FINALLY CAME!!!"

Micalla gave him a butterfly garden for his birthday (she just held onto it so we could bring it back!). The caterpillars took forever to arrive. I guess when you place the order, they harvest the eggs (or whatever) and then send them when they're grown a little. I think it's almost time to move them from the cup into the butterfly garden.

We'll keep you posted!

Utah/Idaho trip! (part 3)

2009-08-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, now this is RARE. Very rare. Not only did I get a picture of Teagan smiling, he's showing TEETH!!! Awesome, go aunt Karie!!

A highlight of our trip was our ANNIVERSARY!!! Trevor surprised me with a room at the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake along with a couple's massage. It was oh so good. We stayed in the Italian Gondola, it was cool.

Possibly my favorite thing about the rooms at the Anniversary Inn is the tubs with the waterfall. It's so cool. I will have one of those in my bathroom when we build "the house". The breakfasts are also super yummy, not to mention the fantastic presentation of them.

When we left, they were cleaning several rooms and the doors were open, so we snapped some pictures.

This was Romeo's Suite. This is what I want my master bedroom to look like...

Ok, I might be mistaken on these, but I think they are Jackson Hole, Romeo and Juliet (love the loft!) and Sun Valley (??).

We so needed that little get-away. Besides, I would say that 9 years DESERVES it!! But this means it's my turn to plan the big 10yr next year. Suggestions please!!

Just some more fishing pics. It is soo "Grandpa Dan" to drive the boat through a bunch of birds just for the heck of it...

I didn't know KynnLee pulled her scary face until I uploaded them on my computer. She's so funny!!!

Family Reunion time!! Jaden, Maycee, and KynnLee loved the tire swing. All three of them were laughing. It was so cute! KynnLee and Avery sat on the porch and played with each other for quite a while. They liked to "prune" the flowers. Then we have Kynnlee in her little dirt hole. I pulled her out of the dirt like 3 times and finally gave up and decided it was cute...

Jaden got into a couple water fights with Darin, this is the only picture I got. It was funny!! It took him like 5min to go fill up a cup of water, then he would come back and throw the whole thing... and usually miss.

Had to get a pic with uncle Sonny. He's the funniest!! And here we have a professional photo taken by KynnLee. I was holding her and had the camera over my shoulder, she reached back and pushed the button, several times. Joyce and Tami tapped me on the shoulder and said she was taking pictures of them. Funny!!

I couldn't resist a hair day with my little neices!! I did Myleigh and Brenna's hair several times. I can't wait for KynnLee's hair to get longer!!

Jaden got to spend a day working at The Pit Stop with Grandpa. He loved every second of it!!! I have a sneakin suspicion that Grandpa did too! I tell you what, we definitely named our boy right... Jaden DAN Haynes shares MANY of the same interests as Grandpa Dan. I have pics of him when he was two years old, he would get out his little motorcycle and his tools and "fix" it. (Grandpa Dan owns a motorcycle shop, for those that may not know)

We went to a mother-daughter thing at Laurie's ward. Man, did I have the opportunity to take advantage of BreAna!! It was so nice having her there! "BreAna, go get KynnLee. Don't let her get wet (BreAna got fired for that, my baby sat in the pool). BreAna, BreAna, BreAna....". And the best part about it was telling her that she had no choice. Because when BreAna was that age, guess who was chasing HER around??????? (AUNT KARIE!!)

We spent our last night doing nails and waxing eyebrows! I was brave enough to let Jaden and Myleigh paint my toes! (you know how serious I am about the appearance of my feet!) And there was no nail polish remover there!! That was, until Jaden dropped a bottle of open polish on the floor... Trevor and I had to make a run to the store. I'm sparing Mikka and BreAna the pics I took of waxing. They were all up real close, so it made the closest object (their nose!) to the camera look very large. They all look like cartoon pictures. Hmmm, should I save them for blackmail, or just post them now???

That sums up the trip! We were glad to come back home, but then not, all at the same time. Did that even make sense??

Utah/Idaho trip! (part 2)

2009-08-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

(slow night at work = catching up on the blog!)

More Jaden and Myleigh chaos. My sisters and I used to climb the walls like this when we were little!! I want to know if she figured this out on her own, or if someone showed her.

Anyone that knows Micalla knows that she always has the hot items. Well, one of the hot items she had this trip was a yellow convertible Beetle. It was fun!! We took my great-Uncle George and aunt Charlotte on a ride. He's 91 1/2 (and counting!), and probably one of the smartest people I know. This retired English professor is sharp as a tack. He will still catch me saying yeah... "what?" he says... "Yes, uncle George". I even had a friend in high school who said she wouldn't say 'yeah' to him, he caught her. The only person I know of that hasn't said 'yeah' to him is Jaden. He was blessed with proper English genes.

We had a birthday party for my dad while we were there. Happy 61st birthday dad!!!

We're trying to fatten-up my dad before he goes in for treatments at the Huntsman Center. We made him eat all his whip cream frosting on his piece of cake. I have to admit it was kind of fun. One night he was craving white cake with chocolate frosting, so Trevor and I chased it down. It's just fun to think outside the box a little bit ;).

More fun out on the river. Oh yeah, for those that might not know, my parents live on the Snake River. That's where all the fun went down. :) I just couldn't help taking a bunch of pictures of my little princess.

I never noticed this picture of KynnLee attempting to jump and NiKyla shaking her finger at her! How funny!!

Would you look at this crazy boy?? He even looks back for a picture. What a wake-boarding-GEEK!! I love Kade, if I have another boy I want him to be just like Kade.

I'd like to say that my skiing skills matched up to those of Kade's, but I'd be sadly lying. Like I said before, it's been years since I've been home during the boating months, and the last time I was there I was on crutches.

I did get up on the second try (although I think I can blame the driver for the first try... slack in the rope). I vaguely remember Mikka saying something about my sunglasses and I assured her I would not wreck and to not worry about it. My confidence took over as I was coming into the dock and I let go of the rope with one hand and ended with just a small flubb, but big enough to make my sunglasses fall off!!! DARN! It was only waste deep where I wrecked and I probably could have found the darn things, but I HATE the feeling of the bottom of the river on my feet. Oh well.

Jaden had his first tube ride with his dad. They were going really slow, I think he might have enjoyed it more if they were at least going fast enough to be on top of the water. He was cool with it until the front of the tube started going under.

In between boating, Kade and Teagan busted out the... well actually, I'm not positive what it was, X-box?? Kade brought his and Teagan brought his, they set it up on two TV's and hooked them together and there were like 6 people playing Halo together. Geeks.

Possibly one of the funnest days for all the kids was the jump slide, that's what they called it anyway. They were out there ALL DAY. We sprayed all of them with sunscreen several times, but they still ended up red. Luckily I think all of them were tan the next day, so the sunscreen must have done some good.

The nice thing about it was I could send KynnLee out there a little bit too. The older kids were so good to watch her and Maycee and take them down the slide. They all slept very well that night!

Utah/Idaho trip!

2009-08-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to catch up on everything that went down on our trip to Utah and Idaho.

Myleigh and Jaden didn't waste any time wreaking havoc... it's what they do best. This was one of the first things they did when we got there...

They could have done that for hours. Jumping off the ping-pong table and onto the Love Sacs. It was actually really good for them to burn off some of their endless energy. Jaden and Myleigh are two peas-in-a-pod. They love playing together.

Then it was Lagoon time! I didn't get a hole lot of pics because it was blasted hot, or as some might say, "hotter than a festered eyeball". So we did a divide-and-conquer thing. Trevor took the older kids on the big rides, and Tanya, Micalla and myself took Nikyla and the little ones on the kiddie rides.

Notice Jaden has to check out how everything works.

It's been years since I've been home during the summer. So I couldn't help but take pictures when I went outside...

Then it was BOATING for like 4 days in a row!! Trevor kind of got bored of it after a couple days, but this is how I grew up, it runs in my blood, I don't get tired of boating.

These two, Kade and Mikka, are water-skiing/wakeboarding FOOLS! They just couldn't get enough.

I can't believe how many pictures I have of Kade with his TONGUE hanging out!! Wonder where he gets that from...

I didn't get any good pics of Mikka in action, I was either not in the boat when she was wakeboarding, or I just didn't have my camera. Darn!

Here's KynnKynn on her first boat ride. THIS BABY LOVES THE BOAT! I don't think she has EVER sat on my lap so content and still as she did when she was on the boat. I thought she was sleeping, and she looks half asleep in the pic, but I assure you she was wide awake.

She would stand on the dock and wave at all the boats that came by and say "Bye boat!" over and over. In fact, I think this was her favorite spot at Beeda and Pa's house...

She would wave at the boats here too. What a little princess!

That night, Grandpa Dan took Jaden out to catch some night crawlers...

And took him fishing the next day...

Unfortunately, the only fish that was caught was "Karl"...

There was a big ole fish hanging out under the dock, so Kade threw a line in and caught it!! You have to look close to see it, I was out on the boat when I took the pic and had to zoom way in, it's pretty big! They all played with it forever, and named it Karl. They even used it to get a tube that was out of reach... flung Karl on the other side of it and pulled it in... SICK! Leave it to Kade.

to be continued...

Puppies!!

2009-08-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, July 12, 2009, Phoebe had 4 little babies.

Yes, I'm finally getting some pics posted.

This picture brings a whole new meaning to the term "dog pile" for me. They can't sleep unless they are all over each other.

Proud momma and her babies...

This little girl, is the spoiled rotten one!! I brought her upstairs to take pictures of her, lay her on the towel and she immediately starts whining and moving around. Pick her up and she's fine. I could not get her to hold still long enough to take a pic. So I had to hold her... (acts just like her mom!!)

So, you think babies grow fast? We were gone for 2 weeks and these little puppies OVER doubled in size!! Crazy! Their eyes are open, their fur is starting to get fluffy. So cute!!

Jaden absolutely loves them, and I've kept them away from KynnLee. In fact, I don't think she's even seen them since we've been home. She just loves dogs and animals too much, I'm afraid she would squeeze them to death.

The next few weeks will be high maintenance, but shortly after that will be $$. It's bitter-sweet when they go.

4th of July, Swimming, Tee-ball, Puppies, and more.

2009-07-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, we've been very busy, to say the least. And the blog suffers for it...

Well, better late than never. Here's what went down on 4th of July~

We took the kids to the parade in the morning with Mark and Lindsey. Jaden loves to hang out with Haley. They're so cute together too!!

The fireman gave Jaden a 4th of July star neclace. He still loves that thing.

The firetrucks were a bit loud for the little ears...

Not sure how I feel about my baby trying to keep up with the big kids. She's supposed to stay little. But oh no, she had to sit by Jaden, eat candy, and everything else. Gosh, who sprinkled Miracle Grow on her???

To be honest, the parade was pretty lame. But the kids loved it (and that's what counts) and I got a good idea of which Dance Studios KynnLee will NOT go to when she turns 3. :-) It's always fun when the kids have fun. We don't need a fancy parade anyway.

Moving on to swimming. I had to get the little man in swim lessons. He's not exactly a fish... he hates to get his face wet. I have to give him credit for being smart though, the teacher was trying to get them to put their face in the water and she would say to put their chin in, then their nose, then their ears. So he dips his fingers in the water and splashes it on his ears. Sometimes he's too smart for his own good.

He still won't jump in on his own, but he's much better. It was great timing for swim lessons because we left for home after the 2 weeks of lessons. He's been having tons of fun at Beeda and Pa's playing in the river, and even got in a water fight with Darin yesterday and didn't mind his face getting wet.

We also completed Jaden's tee-ball season before we left town. Here's how the last game went down...

The wind up................... the hit...................

the run..... rounding 3rd.........

And some in-field action....

He got to play pitcher for an inning and got lots of action....

They got their trophies with their names engraved and everything. He thought it was pretty darn cool. He wanted to bring his trophy to Idaho to show everybody, so we took pictures instead.

Ok, this post will have to be finished later. I have adorable puppy pics and more.

Excited little people

2009-07-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

(so my computer quit responding right before I posted this and I thought it was lost. Just found it...)

I woke up this morning to a little boy whispering in my ear, "I'm so excited, you know why? Because I get to go to Idaho today!!". Actually we won't make it to Idaho until probably Tuesday, but we fly into SLC late tonight and he will get to see all his Utah cousins.

Jaden is so excited to see his cousins he can hardly stand it.

Later this morning he said, "But don't call my cousins nerds, because they will call you a nerd back!!". Trevor always calls Kade and Myleigh a nerd.

Lots has been going on since I posted last. We are crazy busy which means my blog gets left lonely. Besides the usual craziness with two kids, I've been working a lot, Phoebe had puppies, tee-ball games, swim lessons,... you get the idea.

Last Sunday, Phoebe had 4 beautiful babies!!! Two boys and two girls. Pictures to come soon. Jaden named both of the boys Walen, and one of the girls Pupcake. The other girl is un-named, but let me tell you a secret... I think we might keep her. Shhhh!!! But we love all of her babies and are glad that they are all healthy, and spoiled rotten. I don't think I've met a Shih Tzu that wasn't though. They have a unique ability to get themselves spoiled beyond any normal dog.

Jaden had his last tee-ball game today, and they presented them with trophies last night. It was so cute! Pictures to come soon for that too. It's just so funny to watch those games!

All in less than 10min with Mr. Random...

2009-07-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Jaden gets into these "random question asking episodes". Yesterday when he got into it I happened to be on the computer, so I typed some of it up. He seriously goes from one question to the next in seconds. He's so observant and remembers everything, and asks a million questions about it all later. I need to do this more often, it's funny...

How do you load boats in the water? Do you put the trailer in the water, and get in the boat?

How does water get in the rivers?

Do you know what collects the rain water? A NOW. It’s sand at the bottom of the river, but the NOW collects all the rain water. I saw that on the way to Julie’s house. It’s yellow and it collects all the rain water that has tentacles (chemicals). (he meant a canal)

How come there’s a word called “Kick”?

Do you know what happened on Toy Story? Buzz was saying this “I think about the word called Space Ranger”. And Woody says, “I was thinking about a word that I can’t say, because there’s preschool toys around”.

What happens if it rains and it washes the bricks away?

Mom, how come you wanted tulips mom? How come you wanted them in your house? (I have some silk tulips).

Mom, how come there’s a sharp side right here on the counter, but not right here? (there’s a sharp corner on the edge of the counter against the fridge, but the outer side is rounded)

Mom, how come we only have playstation 2 mom? How come we wanted only playstation 2?

Mom, how come your new key has a ‘Mishubishi’ *shiny* thing? (the logo is silver)