Merry Christmas!

I haven't mailed out a single Christmas card, but they're all sitting on the table in my craft room ready to go. :) So don't feel left out if you haven't received one yet! I figured "better late than never" certainly applies in this case. One of these years I'm going to learn how to be prepared for the winter holidays by July!

Kendyl (my baby sister) took us out one day to attempt a family picture. The weather was crazy weird and it was freezing! If you can guess where our photos were taken, I'll give you a prize! Kleven had fallen asleep in the car on the way and he was as grumpy as expected upon waking him up. Ezra, on the other hand, ran the show. If we all walked one direction, he went the other, and boldly too! It made for some cute shots, however frustrated we were at the time.

Why is it that when Christmas rolls around I always feel as though it has snuck up on me?
We finished our shopping last night, except for any ingredients I might need last minute for my Christmas dinner contributions- I know we need milk... We had to go to Home Depot, Target and WalMart. Home Depot was so empty I seriously thought they were closed, Target was crowded with very few items left on the shelves, and WalMart was busy, but there was a TON of stuff left. I can't wait for the boys to see what we picked out!
Enough rambling... here are our photos:

Update: I actually got our Christmas cards in the mail! It was already the year 2009, but what a relief! And FYI- I did not put a return address on them, so I won't know if you got it or not! I do NOT want them coming back to me!

Need Christmas Earrings?

I let Kleven help me design some Christmas jewelry this week. These are our favorites! Wanna pair for yourself? They're only $4 each! We're working on a couple more pairs today, so check back soon!

can't think of a creative title right now

So I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon.... but don't worry, I have plenty of valid excuses as to why I have neglected to post lately, but we won't go there. I thought I'd make use of some free publicity and let you all know I am updating my jewelry blog as well- tomorrow morning after I drop Kleven off at Preschool- and there will be some amazing deals! I'm cleaning house- not literally- but hoping to clear out some inventory to make room for a whole slew of new designs. We're talking most pieces priced AT COST!

Love you all! See you tomorrow!

~Kayci

Holiday Boutique Updates!

Thursday the 13th, here at my house- Rancho Bella Vista on Desert Rose Trail from 6-9
Saturday the 15th in my old neighborhood The Gardens in Gilbert North side of Ray between Recker and Power Rd

Possibly the 20th? location TBD

For a list of items available, refer to the list a couple posts down!
Hope to see you there!

October Rush

October's almost over... where does the time go? I am busy today finishing the last minor details on the boys' costumes. I am trying to figure out how to make Superman's red boots and undies that fit my tiny 18 month old son. He already doesn't like the cape, but Chris insisted he have the underwear...

The first boutique of the season went off without a hitch. It was So Fun! and busy, and successful. I love having friends that appreciate fun crafty things! I ended up with more custom orders than I thought I would, which means more work on my part, but its all worth it, right!?

I'm still waiting on photos from a few of you...

I REALLY need to get to work on loading the content for my website... I've owned it for YEARS... and just had it officially built... but its missing the best part- THE STUFF! I am having a terrible time trying to come up with stuff to write about- mainly for the About Me page. The rest of the work is loading and arranging the photos and descriptions. It will be a huge relief to see it finished one of these days.

Kleven had his Preschool pictures taken a few weeks ago and we just got them back yesterday- I can't get over how big he is already... and Ezra got to jump in for a few as well. We only had one turn out of the two of them and you can see my hand shoving Ezra back into the frame and his ear is popped out!

Chris is insanely busy at the office these days. The boys miss him and Kleven asks every other day or so why daddy doesn't want to be at home anymore. We have been trying REALLY hard to do things as a family, even if it means Chris gets dropped off or we meet up somewhere or we're going out to see him. We managed to cram in a trip to Schnepf Farm last week. Its tradition and the boys had a blast. I was a nervous wreck when Chris put the boys on the plane ride all by themselves. They had seat belts on, but that doesn't mean ANYTHING when your baby is Houdini. I was fighting the urge to vomit the whole time.

Concert

Hey everyone (this is from Chris), just wanted to let you know about a concert i'm putting on. It's on November 7th in Phoenix. We're bringing out this amazing singer/songwriter from Boston. His name is Chris Trapper (http://www.christrapper.com/). He used to play with a band called The Push Stars (http://www.pushstars.com/). Over the years i've seen him play on the West coast and decided to start doing shows in Phoenix. Check out his website you may recognize some of his music. I will be opening for him with my friend Joe for about 45 minutes. You can get a flier for the event on his tour page. Tickets are $20.00 presale and $25.00 day of the show. This will be an acoustic show where you get to meet him and hang out afterwards. If you want tickets paypal the money and the names of each ticket holder to [email protected] and i'll send you your tickets. Hope to see you there!

2nd Annual Holiday Boutique!

Click here to view in a browser.

I know I'm slacking in getting this posted- so sorry for the late notice! Here's a list of what's going to be available this year:
Door signs
cards
teacup candles
notebooks
All Seasons decor- super cute!
hair clips
aprons
Scentsy
Jewelry
Super-hero capes
Purses
Custom Vinyl Lettering
Baby necessities
tin tiles
frames
chalkboards
Photo session booking
Home Decor- tons of it!

Titus Update- nearly 5 months old

Here's a quick photo of Titus aka Tight-a-ronus at Cosmo dog park. Also in the photo are his friends, Conrad (almost 2) and an adorable Golden Retriever that's also almost five month old.

Our dog is the one with his rear-end toward the camera. He's looking at another friend who's about 1 1/2 and there's a fourth black Dane just past them. Conrad is the one on the right, and the Golden is the one in the middle (in case you didn't catch that). The woman holding the Golden's face is standing right in the middle of the three, just so you know that your point of view is accurate for size reference. What's even cooler, is that Conrad is on the petite side for a two-year old. Titus is going to be HUGE!!! Kleven and Ezra have a blast running around the park with these guys. It's good to know they aren't afraid of these giant beasts, and the giant beasts are extremely gentle around the kids. The only incident we've had is when Kleven went running in one direction looking back, and a Dane came from the other way doing the same thing and they somewhat-collided (Klev got tossed) but there were no injuries.

If you're looking for a fun night out with the kids, you should come down and watch the horses gallop in the dog-park. There's an informal "Dane- Night" every Tuesday and Thursday evening and you can watch from outside the fence if you're scared. It's a ton of Fun!

A Whole Lot of Randomness

In a lazy attempt to get caught up I am just going to upload a ton of photos and then tell you what you're looking at... ready? Here we go:

These handsome fellas are getting ready to go to church. They were posing for me before I grabbed the camera. As macho as he thinks he is, Austin isn't too cool to wax his eyebrows. Eighty percent of the time, this is what Kleven looks like when we go to Sweet Tomatoes. I'm not kidding! Most of the employees remember us because of this! Oh- and Ezra digs the mac & cheese and chocolate milk.This is my "you'd better kiss me for the next one" look, as well as the " I didn't care too much about my appearance, I was hungry" look. I got all domesticated last week and canned Utah peaches and pears! That's HARD WORK!!! I even attempted to make my mom's famous dinner rolls... they weren't as pretty as she makes them.

The boys wanted to have a picnic... so I gave them granola bars and set up a picnic on the kitchen floor. Those granola bars must have been REALLY good.The boys also assisted Dad in "rocking out" on his new keyboard.Ezra learned how to drink the leftover milk in his cereal bowl! I LOVE how his whole face disappears behind it!I took both boys in for their regular checkups this week. Ezra got a toe-prick for his Iron test and Kleven got a finger prick for his, as well as a TB test on his forearm. Here's how he tells the story:

"The nurse just cleaned it real quick wifa cold thing (rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball) and then dried it off. Then she has a tool fingy that's pokey and just GETS ya wif it. And then there's a tiny gray square that SLURPS up the yittle blood drops and she put it in the big box and dat's all."

I had asked her to explain exactly what she was doing as she did it and it seemed to work. He didn't make a peep. I think he was holding his breath the whole time and I had to ask him to breathe when she finished. The TB test was a little scarier. It's the one where they inject a tiny bubble under the skin on your forearm and then you watch it for a few days. He yelped a little when she stuck him with the needle, but otherwise he needed very little consoling.

I could be off slightly with these, but to the best of my knowledge these are their numbers:

Ezra weighed 21 or 22 pounds (5th percentile) and is 31 inches tall(20th percentile). He's still our little Squish.

Kleven was 32 pounds (25th percentile?) and 38 inches tall (50th percentile). Good news- he graduated from Whole Milk! We'd kept him on it to try to fatten him up. Now that he's three, he eats enough crappy food to do that. :)

Happy October!

Can you believe we've made it this far into the year so fast!?! This is about the time where I start to sweat and hyperventilate... I am so far behind in my preparations for the Holiday Boutique Season! I don't know where the days go! I'm waiting on a shipment of dress forms... are you as excited as I am to see them?!!?
I had this great idea a few weeks ago: I decided to switch up the room-usage situation here and it has resulted in a bit of disarray. I thought the boys would like to have a larger bedroom, ( okay, I REALLY wanted my studio/craft room back) so I swapped the toy/playroom/craft closet for the boys bedroom/toy room. The first step in this process was to pick a new paint color of course! The room now boasts a blue called "Acapulco Sky", and its absolutely refreshing! Two coats and then a quick trim touch-up and it's beautiful! This endeavor also required emptying two closets (one walk-in), 12 bins of toys, two cabinets worth of books, an entire 5x5' cubby unit, and lugging around about ten FULL large Rubbermaid storage containers. Then it came to a screeching halt as I stood ready to dismantle the crib with a screwdriver... Why not get bunk beds?!?!? I am still coming up with reasons why not to... can't trust 'the three year old' to not jump off the top, can't trust 'the squish' not to try to climb it...etc. But the Pros outweighed the Con's: stacked twin beds take up less room than a crib and a full size bed, Kleven's favorite color is black (like the bunk we like), more room for playing, tons of closet space, and a chance to re-do a room (like I would pass that up) and Kleven is totally stoked to have a bed like his friend Gunner.
It's no surprise that I'm a Potterybarn junkie, and I fell hard for a sweet little number in the catalog, but I REFUSE!!!!! to pay retail after being spoiled with a 40% discount as an employee. The quality is hard to beat, so I held my standards high as I shopped around town. If you live around here, perhaps you've heard of Potato Barn? I LOVE their stuff, but was a little miffed when they wouldn't even ask their manufacturer about the possibility of getting a bunk bed in. Actually, the crazy lady just looked at me like I was asking her to give me her arm. There's also a place out here in No Man's Land called San Tan Furnishings. The owner seems to REALLY like southwestern and cowboy type decor, but they have TONS of catalogs to order from and I ended up finding the perfect bed there. It was less expensive than PB, not across the state on Craigslist, and better quality than the "assemble yourself" places, so I was satisfied. BUT THEN- I was talking to a friend and telling her about my experience and suddenly found myself in a very exciting situation!! Her dad offered to help us build our own bunk bed! He has built a few in his time and they are simple but extremely sturdy. So now I'm DOUBLY excited because we'll be able to make it for considerably less and I can DESIGN IT! We might even be able to afford the mattresses when its done! :)
On another note: did anyone else notice that there's an extra paycheck in October?!? Maybe it's because we're new to the whole 'regular pay-period' thing, but seriously!! What do YOU do with it? Put it away for Christmas? Catch up on bills? Treat yourself to some retail therapy? AND~
When do you start decorating for Fall? Do you decorate for Halloween? Real pumpkins or fake? It's confusing when you're trying to make it feel like Fall, but its 100 degrees out!
HAPPY OCTOBER!

5 DAYS!

I will be sending out invites to our blog at the end of the month! Be sure to add yourself to the list!

Home for Sale!

No~ not ours! I am helping a client prep her home for sale and thought I'd spread the word. It's a six bedroom, three bathroom home in GILBERT for under $250. No, its not a short sale. I would seriously move in myself if we could get out from under the house we're in now. It's got a ton of storage and its a three level, almost split-level and it's basically a FUN project house. It doesn't need any major renovation and its in a great neighborhood. If you know of anyone who might be looking, have them leave their email address!

Going Private!

Yes, it's true... I have been meaning to set our family blog to private for quite some time now, so please leave us your email address so we can invite you back once we're settled into our new and private locale. Even if you're a friend of a friend of a friend... we like having friends! You have until the end of September and then you'll be locked out FOREVER! Or until you ask nicely.

First Day of School!

Kleven had his first official day of Preschool on Tuesday this week. We had the opportunity to visit his classroom last week and were the last to leave after staying an extra 45 minutes. He did not want to go home! We've been doing our best to keep him excited since then, and I think it worked. His preschool teacher is a really good friend of ours and he knows her from church as well. She used to be our nursery leader and she really loves kids. She recently re-did her entire downstairs to accommodate her new hobby and its AWESOME! I will post photos when I get a chance!
Tuesday morning came and Kleven had a terrible case of fit throwing. He spent a good part of the morning on the floor kicking and screaming. I figured he was nervous, but excited and confused. He was fine after a long warm bath. He didn't want to wear the clothes I had set out for him and he was mad that his 'eagle' shirt wasn't clean. The kids' a Hurley junkie. He opted to wear his other favorite Hurley shirt, the burgundy one with the jackal-ope... He tried telling me that his school clothes are the ones with "animals and stuff on them". Not the preppy cute Polo's I had picked out.
He then got mad because we were out of Eggo Waffles and he had to eat cereal for breakfast. But that fit didn't escalate too much... he was hungry. We got his bag ready, found his shoes, made him brush his teeth and wash his face and then had to chase him through the house and pin him down to put gel in his hair. He hates having his hair done... but he looked SO handsome! We were ready a little early so he got a bit antsy and we ended up having to have another 'talk' about how the caterpillars in the jar could not go with him and that he didn't need to pack the entire toy room in his bag and that he wasn't going to starve because he'd get a snack at school. As we were getting the boys in the car to leave, we realized the video camera had given up the ghost and refused to work and had a small scare with the regular camera, but it ended up working. I had all kinds of hopes for getting some cute pictures with him in his classroom but when we got there the teacher met us on the sidewalk and escorted the kids in one by one. Kleven was SO cute! When his turn came, he walked all by himself to the front door, let himself in and never looked back. I couldn't believe it! It was a strange feeling, driving home without him.
Two and a half hours goes by pretty quickly. At first, I didn't quite know what to do: jump for joy, or go to my room and cry. Ezra and I attempted to clean up the toy room, but I noticed quickly that even Ezra was a bit weirded out by brother not being there too.
Before we knew it, the time had come to pick him up. We loaded up the car once again, only this time, included Titus for the ride.
Kleven came skipping out to the car with Chris wearing a hand print on a necklace and holding his bag full of projects and he was beaming! I could tell right away he looked older and wiser. He was excited to tell us about his morning. We learned that they had read a book about a raccoon who obeyed his parents and that he had been allowed to paint his hands, that a girl tried taking the animal toys away from him, that he told the kids to stop running, for snack they had orange, brown, and white crackers, they're not allowed outside, colored pictures, played with play-dough, they have a play-dough knife, he saw a HUGE lizard in his teachers backyard ("it was like this mongus, mom"), he played, found raccoons everywhere (pictures of one), he did NOT make new friends, he"knowed" all of them(which he doesn't), "one of the little girls wanted the giraffe and I telled her there was other toys over there. I told her that."
It was a pretty intense day!

Titus and the Bee

Titus now weighs 30.15lbs, about the same as Kleven. We found this out by taking a trip to the vet this morning. Titus tried to befriend a honey bee this morning, but it turns out the bee wasn't interested in making friends, it was on a suicide mission. Titus came walking into my room with Angelina Jolie lips and a puffy red eye, so off we went to the vet. In reality it wasn't that easy. We normally would have taken him to the Banfield clinic at Petsmart because it is close, but they're closed on Monday, as well as their Emergency clinic in Gilbert. So I called four other places from Queen Creek to north Mesa to no avail. I finally called my mom because she knows what to do in just about any situation and we were on our way to the Queen Creek Veterinary Clinic. But wait! It wasn't quite that simple. I had to get myself and two kids ready to go and both kids and the dog in the car, pack the diaper bag and then turn the car around thirty seconds into the drive because I had forgotten Titus' shot record. And that's after threatening Kleven to get his clothes on, use the bathroom and talk him out of packing a backpack to take with him. About halfway there I realized I didn't grab Ezra's binky and he was SCREAMING. It was nap time for him, lunchtime for myself and the other child, and we were already running late. We get to the vet and Titus does NOT want to get out of the car. Nor does Kleven. I had to convince Kleven that we were there to see the DOG DR, and that NO he (Klev) was not going to get any shots. We make it across the parking lot and Titus does NOT want to go inside, and once inside he does NOT want to get on the scale without a treat. Then we're waiting in the exam room and Ezra decides to head dive off the chair and onto the tile floor. So a bucket of toys and an ice pack later the clinic is finally quiet of crying babies and howling dogs. Titus survived the exam with an acute allergic reaction, a benadryl shot, and a steroid shot only to find out he is missing a testicle (so far) and that 'yes' the bumps on his head are probably just mosquito bites and 'yes' it was most likely a bee sting that temporarily disfigured his face and nothing more serious like a snake bite. We finally get out of there and Kleven has to poop. Which is obvious because he is holding his buns with both hands. I am trying to pay for the exam and convince Kleven to go into the bathroom by himself while Ezra is taking off his shoes on my hip and Titus won't budge on the leash. I dragged Titus across the room and pushed him into the bathroom with Kleven and then handed the patient receptionist my card and put Ezra's shoes back on. Then I hurried back into the bathroom to help Kleven wipe and wash hands. $77.45 later... it took me pulling, Kleven pleading, and a vet tech pushing from behind to get Titus out the door of the clinic. I left Kleven on the sidewalk out front with Titus on his leash so I could cross the parking lot to turn on the AC in the car and get Ezra strapped in. Then I went back and had to pick Titus up and carry him to the car. Thank heavens Kleven can buckle himself! We decided to stop at PetSmart to get Titus' nails trimmed before we headed home and Kleven said he needed a new toy for being good at the Dr's office. We parked and I loaded everyone into a cart, went in and had to push Titus into the grooming salon and then console Kleven because he thought they were taking our dog away forever. We looked at EVERY animal in the store at least twice, picked out a toy, some training treats (for the walk back to the car) and then he was done. We met the grooming lady at the salon door and proceeded to walk to the front of the store to pay for everything when Titus stopped and began to relieve himself and flood the aisle. Another groomer came by just as this happened and took over the clean-up. Thank heaven he decided to go right next to the clean-up station! The boys thought this was quite funny. We did eventually make it home. We paid for our things, gave both the nail tech and the helpful lady a nice tip and then put everyone back in a cart to get to the car. Both boys fell asleep on the way home and took nice long naps. I had a diet coke for lunch and now I have to go get some non-children's Benadryl so Titus can take it every 12 hours for the next three days.
Happy Monday Everyone!

An Ode to My Bratty Sisters

I have been TOO BUSY to post lately. Please forgive me! Now LAY OFF!
Here's what's keeping me away:

• potty-training a large puppy
• re-painting the family room
• rearranging furniture
• painting the hall bathroom
• laundry
• cooking
• cleaning
• reading Breaking Dawn
• swimming at the Y
• running errands 'in town'
• Katie's WEDDING
• shots for the dog
• Dr. appointments
• watching other people's kids
• making jewelry for a cancer benefit auction
• assembling my giant magnet board
• cleaning car seats after chocolate milkshake explosions
• a trip to San Diego
• scratching Chris' sunburned and now peeling back
• watching the Olympics
• sorting toys in the playroom
• hanging shelves and pictures in the family room
• cleaning off my desk in the living room
• clearing the dining room table
• prepping the dining chairs for an upholstery job
• bathing the dog and my boys
• burning tumble weeds in the backyard
• taking down curtain rods
• witnessing a wasp build a nest in the frame of the sliding glass door
• finding a swarm of bees building a home in the hot tub
• changing diapers
• doing dishes
• showering every once in a while

Is that a good enough excuse?

Swimming and Waffles with Jam

One day there was this mom who finally had a smart idea and bought floating devices for both of her kids so she could enjoy the pool too!



Can you tell he likes Eggo Waffles with jam?


I think so!

Elder Barnes Update

This is my handsome brother, Bryan. He's serving a two-year mission for our church in Sydney, Australia and has learned to speak Mandarin Chinese. He had been out just over a year and it has gone by SO fast! He emails us once a week and tells us all about the neat experiences he's having. He is such a good example to us all. He absolutely loves what he's doing and frequently writes that he would stay longer, if not indefinitely. He is one of the hardest workers I know, (he gets that from our dad) and he is genuine in every aspect. He has talked about going to China for school once he's home, and has even mentioned that he would serve for another two years if China opens their borders to missionaries. He loves Australia too, and can't wait to go back there on holiday, as they say. We love you Elder Barnes! May year two come and go as quickly as the first!

Umm, Happy 4th!?

So, we're a little behind schedule, but I had to post our photos from the 4th of July sometime! We had fun this year with some cousins from Canada at Nana and Papa's house. We had a barbeque and swam all evening. This was Kleven's first experience with arm floaties in the pool and he now thinks he's invincible! Ezra loves the water too! A few months ago, while out shopping I had picked up some patriotic shirts for the boys, red for Ezra, blue for Kleven and White for Slade, but we never ended up at the same place to wear them together! The only photos I got of the boys was that afternoon when I made them sit on the LuvSac and told Kleven not to let Ezra get off. Here's the result of that:

Ezra! Mom said over here!Look, they're wearing shoulder pads, but at least they're both smiling!Ezra! Where are you going!? Stay HERE!!!He eventually broke out and thought he was SO funny!

Our Family is Expanding!

And I'm putting the blame on Chris!!! It was as much of a surprise to me as it is to you! He's adorable though! And he is going to grow SO fast... but don't they all? He's eight weeks old and we've named him Titus, like the Roman Emperor. He should be about 180 pounds in 2 years. His daddy is a Blue Merle and his mommy has some awesome champions in her line. Kleven and Ezra adore him and he doesn't seem to mind at all when they pull his ears and poke him in the eyes either! Call us crazy, but we're in doggie heaven!

Edit: I was informed that not everyone will catch onto his breed, so in case you didn't put it together... he's a Great Dane! :)

Kleven's Farm Party!

It's now Tuesday morning and we're still stying to recover from Saturday's fun! The front of the house is covered in what we unloaded from the car Saturday night. Kleven has too many good friends! They were all so generous and spoiled him for his birthday! He has been very well occupied for the last few days, opening all his new things. An added bonus is that he is so interested in his new stuff, he doesn't make such a fuss now when Ezra wants to play with his other toys.

We had been planning Kleven's party for quite some time. He came up with the theme all by himself too! We just went with it and I think it turned out really fun.

We had a table set up to decorate lunch sacks for treat bags using Farm themed stamps and washable paint. It was something to keep everyone busy while we finished prepping food and waited for everyone to get there. We would use them later when the kids had to dig through a kiddie pool filled with shavings to find candy wearing work gloves- our take on the pinata. We served hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, chips, green salad, and veggies. While everyone was eating, the petting zoo was setting up in the backyard. We found them online. It was a homemade website and their animals were SO CUTE! I will admit, I was more excited than anyone else! The price was totally worth it too. If you want to check them out for yourself, its: http://www.cartersfarmaz.com/ We paid for an hour, which was plenty long enough. It was hot, but we had the misters going and the canopies up which made a huge difference. I was amazed at all the kids' reactions. I had never thought about it before, but there were quite a few of them who had never had the opportunity to be that close to live farm animals before. We had an alpaca, a calf, goats, pig, rabbits, chickens, geese, ducks... am I forgetting something? My two favorites were the tiny little bunny and the baby pig. The piglet would squeal until you held it like a baby over your shoulder or cuddled it tightly in your lap. So cute!

I promise I will add more photos later! AND- if you took pictures I would REALLY like to see them! If you can, email them to me or put them on a CD! Thanks!

Happy Birthday Kleven!

I cannot believe my baby is THREE! Where does the time go! We (Kleven) have been anticipating this birthday for at least six months. I sure hope it's worth the wait and all he dreamed of because I'm exhausted! This is how our morning went... we waited and waited for him to wake up!

I finally gave in and let Ezra attack him and we sang him "Happy Birthday" in bed.Then we got to open presents! We made him wait outside of our room just long enough so I could get his reaction on camera.

He was so excited for his breakfast! Krispy Kreme's with chocolate frosting and sprinkles! He blew out the candle and opened his gifts. I didn't get a picture of his "Hungry Hippos" game but I got one of his new "extreme sports" helmet. Now he's allowed to ride his skateboard the 'real' way on the driveway!

Kleven, you are such a special boy! You made us parents for the first time in our lives! We cannot remember what life was like before you came along. You came into this world after a very long nine months. You made your mom work harder than ever before, but you were totally worth it. You are so smart! You have never ceased to amaze us with the things you are capable of doing and you have a great memory. Even when you were a tiny little thing! We can't hide anything from you or even lie to get out of an awkward situation. You're too smart! You correct us and quiz us constantly. You are a wonderful big brother. You are always trying really hard to share your things with Ezra, and you watch over him and protect him from harm. I love how you absorb everything around you with such intensity. You can recall with amazing detail, the events of months prior and even things we didn't think you were paying attention to. You love to learn. You also love to have fun. You are infatuated with animals. You can recognize and name just about anything in the animal encyclopedia and even know their noises and specific traits. You are so silly! You make us laugh all day, every day, whether it's just you being goofy for a laugh or because you are so clever! You take great pride in being my "helper guy". I can get you to do just about anything as long as I ask nicely and you take great pride in doing it. You have many friends. You tend to befriend just about anyone who comes along no matter what their age. I have been a little nervous for you to turn three. One reason is that you will start preschool in a few short months, and the other reason is that you think you are now old enough to go on a mission like Uncle Bryan! I'm not sure how I'm going to explain that one to you...

Kleven we love you SO much! Thank you for being our first-born! But please don't grow up too fast- be our 'little-big-guy' forever!

Happy Father's Day!

Thanks for letting us "help" you work.

And for showing us some fun.

And for our handsome-ness.

For teaching us important things like how to keep our hands flat when feeding a horse!

Once again, for our cute faces!




For being SO excited when we come into the world!

Thanks for being our protector.

For sharing your talents.

For shoulders to ride on.





And for being a great example to us!
Happy Father's Day to the men that touch our lives on a daily basis. Not only are they the reason we exist, but the reason we are where we are in life today!