Background info- Mario Kart is a video game on the Wii that races little cartoon characters in go carts on a race tracks.  I was playing Mario Kart with the boys (I’m terrible at it by the way) and James likes to drive the little Donkey Kong character.  He has a hard time and kept handing me his controller while chanting “drive a monkey, drive a monkey mommy.”  It was so cute! 

Wednesday the nurse called halfway through the day because Kenny has a fever.  Nathan Was so concerned for Kenny.  He kept saying, “If you need a food or a water I will get it for you Kenny.  I can take care of you.”  So sweet…and he did take care of Kenny till he got sick.  We ended up with both Kenny and Nathan running fevers up to Friday afternoon.  Missing work without expecting to for a couple days wrecks havoc in my lesson plans.  I’m not looking forward to tomorrow. Good news, all the boys are healthy and I got to watch the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series with the boys on nextflix.  Quality bonding time…I loved it!

We celebrated James 3^rd birthday on Saturday.  His actual birthday is Tuesday.  We had a Brown Bear, Brown Bear party.  It’s his favorite book.  He had a little friend from daycare come and Hailey and Emmett.  We played a few games and had a fun munch.  I made a rainbow fruit kabobs and a rainbow cake.  James had a great time.  He spent the whole morning before the party dancing around singing “I have a party!”   

Uncle Jonny came over with a business proposition for Kenny.  They wanted a child handwriting and drawing for a marketing campaign.    He was SO excited.  Jonny paid him $5 bucks (though in classic Kenny form he tried to negotiate more).  

One of the things I really want to improve on is journaling.  I have tried this in the past but without much long term success.  I decided to try and write once a week, on Sundays, and print and send what I write to my family.   I’m hoping that helps the consistency. 

To start off, an intro into my family as it is now.  I am a kindergarten teacher at Genoa Elementary.  I have 20 little kiddos this year who are very sweet.  I love my class this year.  No major discipline problems and great supportive parents.  I moved into a new classroom this year.  It is MUCH bigger than my old room.  It has a sky light and a bay of windows.  I love seeing the sunshine out the windows during the day.  My days are spent teaching and my evenings are spent being mom.  I stay very busy, but I don’t really know anything else.

Ken is also very busy.  He has his own computer company, A Higher Standard Computers.  He also has another job working for his friend’s computer company.  He works hard to build his own company while putting in hours with the other company to earn a bit more money. You know how it is, bills, bills, bills…

Kenny is 9.  He is our intellectual.  He especially excels at reading and science.  He loves to study space.  He has an incredible imagination.  He uses his imagination to create games and write books.  I love to read his stories.  They are insightful, funny, and have great pictures.  He is talented in drawing, much better than I am.  He is always full of energy and living life to the fullest.

Nathan is 6.  He is our gentle soul.  He has a great love for any living thing.  I just know he is going to be a vet someday.  He is quiet and thoughtful.  He has a charm that makes others fall for him quickly.  He is enjoying first grade and learning how to read.  He is a good math student.

James is 2.  He has a curiosity and zest for living.  This little guy keeps us all on our toes.  He is a quick learner.  He has a gift for mechanical and special reasoning.  An example…he watched daddy change the drill bit once and now he can do it.  He also knows how to use a drill.  He can be a handful, but his charming, toothy grin makes it all worth it.  He loves his family and is the most happy when we are all at home together.

So, that’s my family now…in 2012.       

   

At church, the special musical number was an organ rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”   It was beautiful.  I felt a flood of memories from Grandma’s funeral.  I’m so grateful I was able to go.  I loved seeing my cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandpa.  I loved hearing all the wonderful stories of Grandma and the amazing woman she as.  I felt honored to be a part of such an amazing and strong family.  It strengthened my testimony in the eternal family and the plan of the Father in Heaven.          

Happy Easter!!!!

OK... So here's the deal... We had a computer crash... quite a while ago, and we lost everything on our harddrives. Luckily, when it comes to computers I actually practice what I preach and I made backups of my data (both locally AND remotely). The good news is that we haven't lost anything precious. The bad news is that all of the pictures and videos and music that I restored from backups is a giant-messed-up-disorganized-nightmare. So, as I am able, I am reorganizing approximatley 500 - 700 Gigabytes of data....

That's why we haven't blogged in a while...

Any how, for a nice break from the nothing, I have uploaded the following videos for you to enjoy of our families Easter festivities this year! Happy Easter everyone!!!

Enjoy!

Easter Egg Hunt:

Post-hunt Chowdown:

I am Way Behind

Not sure what happened. Not only have I not updated my blog in forever, I haven't read anyone else's blog in the same amount of time. Lots of reasons as to why that probably is, but I won't bore the world with the nuisances of all my insecurities. A lot has happened and I will try to catch up the highlights over the next few days.

For right now I can't put any pictures up because I have no idea where they have been moved on the computer. I don't know where anything is on our computer anymore. Ken has started his own computers, A Higher Standard Computer Repair. We have been doing construction and moving computers around.

I'll go nag him right now to get things going for me.

Oh Baby!

He did this LITERALLY right behind my back while I was washing dishes. The other day he brought me a jar of paint from the art table and I told him "no no" . I then put all the paint up high and either I missed one or he hid one. And yes, he is entirely capable of hiding something naughty to save for later. He knew I was upset and the whole time I was undressing him for a bath he held his head down. However, as soon as he was in his birthday suit he ran over to the potty and peed in it.

This kid plays dirty- he knows you can't be mad for long at a potty training cutie pie like him!

Going Live!

We decided to go with a live tree since we are not leaving this year. Due to our past experience with a live tree we did NOT get do the LED lights so the tree does not look like a spectral nightmare. The boys were successful in being so excited we began to wonder why we had kids in the first place. But never fear, they are all still here. Our Elf on the Shelf, Clarence, has come and began keeping a close eye on the kids for Santa. And Nathan calls decorate "duck-erate".

Thanksgiving

We had a great weekend! Spent time with the family and ate wonderfully yummy food- turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cornbread studding, rolls, orange rolls, pumpkin bars, blueberry ie, chocolate pecan pie, and homemade ice cream. We played games, watched movies, and watched kiddos.

Making cranberry sauce with my little chef
Gavin and Mommy making blueberry pie

The bigger kid table
Carving the bird
Ken and Kylie