Herriman Beach

A couple weeks ago a few of our friends from West Valley came out and we all went to the new beach front in Herriman. It's little, but big enough. It was a quite day at the beach and not very many other people there, but perfect for our little group. The kids had a blast! They loved the water and learning how to build sand castles. The water was quite cold but the kids didn't mind much as the weather was quite hot and it cooled them down.
Michael would go into the water and get the wet sand to build the sand castles. Then bring it back and dump it out. It was so cute to watch him. The sand on the beach was never good enough for him, he had to go get it out in the water. They loved that the water was shallow and that they could walk around in it by themselves. This was the first time for them at any beach.
We had a blast with all of our friends. I wish we had gotten more pictures. This next one is Michael "posing" for the camera. He thought this was a cool pose.Here's Karen's pose for the camera.Thanks to our friends for coming out and having a great day with us at the beach!

Getting Better

So after 2 days of Michael not eating anything and then not even wanting to drink anything, Neils decided that enough was enough. He decided he would be the bad guy (cause I just couldn't) and force fed our son. He took a medicine dropper and some juice and teaspoon by teaspoon squirted juice into Michael's mouth and, after a couple times, Michael decided that he could do that and he was hungry/thirsty enough to tolerate it. After a day of that, we tried to give him some soft foods like broth or pudding. He didn't want to do that, he was so afraid that it would hurt his mouth. So after a while of him playing with the pudding (his favorite chocolate) and not getting any in his mouth, I sat down with him and persuaded him to open his mouth a bit and try some. After the first bite Michael decided it didn't hurt and that it tasted really good, he asked for more and more and more. After this hurdle things changed drastically and a day later he was eating just like before and trying to make up for lost time. Now he is doing just fine and you can't even tell that anything is wrong. The sores in his mouth are healing, though they are not gone yet. Hopefully by next week he will be completely over this. Thanks for everyone's concern and prayers, I know that it helped.

Life

Karen has been in school for a week now and she is loving it. She is able to sit by a couple of girls from her primary class and has started getting to know the other children sitting near her too. She loves her teacher and we were surprised to have her tell us that Karen is ready to start reading. She gave us some would parts to have her start sounding out. It's amazing to me that she is able to do it on her own. We checked out a website that her teacher recommended and it has simple stories with a focus on certain sounds. She did a really good job and loved it! She didn't want to stop. We are really proud of her and her desire to learn.

Michael got sick this last weekend. He's got a virus that causes sores in his mouth. I've never experienced anything like this before and he's having a really hard time. He doesn't want to eat or drink or speak or anything. He just lays around all day, which is very much unlike our energetic little boy. It will last for about 2 weeks and until he's better we need to keep him hydrated. Poor guy. We'll be keeping him quarantined for a little while til he's feeling better.

July

Well, July has been eventful and has kept us quite busy. The first weekend and week of July we had a lot of plans. We had something to do nearly every day, going to a couple carnivals, a parade and fireworks. We had a lot of fun (for details see Neils blog). But I lost my camera at one carnival and I've been bummed about it cause I lost some really cute pictures. Oh well, now I get to buy a new one. But I haven't had pictures to post so I haven't blogged.

Then we all got sick. The kids had diarrhea and gave it to me too. Neils luckily didn't get it. Lucky guy. That took the better part of nearly 2 weeks for us to all get better. Then we packed the kids off to grandma and grandpa's house last week and had ourselves a "stay-cation". We didn't do much, just a much needed break from the kids. It's amazing how fun shopping is without the kids. We also went to a movie, The Proposal. Can you believe Neils took me to a chick flick?!? It was a cute movie but had 2 very drawn out, very inappropriate parts in it. Definitely not for kids. We also got to go see Herriman's performance of "The Music Man". That was fun. We even saw Cindy and Zac there, that was a treat. My favorite part was going to the Salt Lake Temple. We haven't been for a long time since it takes longer to get there and it's not in our district. But since we had the time we went down there and made an afternoon of it with lunch and a session. I'd forgotten how beautiful the temple is and how fun it can be to move from room to room. It sure does put things in a different light. I also cleaned out my car! I think it's been over a year since I did a good job of it and I did a really good job of it, I even pulled out the vacuum and got all under the seats and everything. It's amazing everything I found. It was so nice to get the inside clean we decided to clean the outside too. Amazing difference and how clear the view was (though I think the wind swept out the smog that week so...).

Now it's back to being a parent again. I love my kids, but I think this is going to be a tough year for Michael. He's 3 and wants to be so grown up like his sister age 5. He wants to go to school like Karen (she starts next week), he repeats what she says and does what she does. It can be really cute, but there are something he's just too little to do yet. Then there is the other side where he doesn't want to do anything for himself and wants me or daddy to do it all for him and still be the baby. He also doesn't want to potty train. His temper tantrums are worse too. Though I hope as Karen goes to school and I have more time with him one on one that things will start to get better. I hope this is just a stage he's going through. Pray for me.

Caught in the Rain

The kids were begging to go for a walk today. With the inclement weather we've had I was a little hesitant, but after dinner it was looking like it would be okay to go out. It was beautiful for a couple minutes and then suddenly the wind kicked up with a cold nip in it. I looked up and saw some very menacing clouds and said that we better not stay out too long cause it looked like it would rain. By the time we got to the corner we started feeling a few drops and turned around to go home quickly. Before we got home it had started raining and a minute later there was a cloud burst and a full deluge. We were lucky to get home before the downpour. The storm moved so quickly that 15 minutes later it was over. What luck to chose the few minutes of rain to take our walk.

Karen Turns 5

My little girl is growing up so fast. Yesterday was Karen's 5th birthday! We had a lot of fun. We went to a couple yard sales and bought a few things for the kids and the family. Jessica came over and helped us with Karen's birthday cake, face painting, and the park. We really appreciated Jessica coming over while Neils was up in Wyoming for the morning to help his brother with his basement. Karen really missed her daddy. After naps we had presents and then went to Karen's favorite restaurant Chick-Fil-A, although she calls it the cow place. It's not that she likes the food, she just likes the play area there. Then we all went miniature golfing (Karen's choice rather than a friend party). Cake was the last thing before bed. We had a really fun day and Karen is really excited to be 5 and be more grown up now. Happy Birthday Karen.

Star Trek XI

The new Star Trek movie came out this week and Neils scored tickets from work so that we could see it today. I've been very skeptical of this movie ever since I found out that Sylar (the bad guy on Heroes) was going to play Spock. I just didn't think he fit the role and was very disappointed with their casting him. Then I saw the previews and it looked so violent and not like the Star Trek TOS (The Original Series) at all. So I wasn't very excited to see it, though I did "have to" see it since I've seen every Star Trek movie and nearly every episode of every Star Trek series they have had. Well today was the day and I wasn't expecting to like it at all especially after some review that I read that said that Trekkies that like the original series didn't like it much and since I'm in that category I didn't have much hope. But by the end of the movie I was all smiles and I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it so much. I especially liked Leonard Nimoy's appearance in the film. In fact I like it enough that I actually want to see it in the theater again (which is saying a lot since I don't see a movie in the theater more than once). Anyone who is wondering whether or not they want to see yet another Star Trek movie and a prequel at that I suggest you see it, I think you'll be suprised.

Testimonies

Last month during fast and testimony meeting, Karen decided that she wanted to get up and bear her testimony. Neils asked her what she wanted to say and she said she didn't know. So we decided to discuss it for family home evenings for the month and practice so that she could know what she wanted to say and then bear her testimony this month. We did that. We discussed what a testimony is and how to bear testimony in church and what to say in our testimonies. Last Monday in preparation for today we had Karen stand up in front of us and bear her testimony. She was so cute and did a very good job. After she was done Michael immediately got up and said "MY TURN!" So he stood up and bore his testimony too (with help from daddy of course). After Michael finished Karen and Michael said, "Mommy, it's your turn!" So, I stood up and bore my testimony to my children. And you can guess what happened when I was finished. My kids proclaimed that it was now "Daddy's turn!" Neils saw this for the great opportunity that it was and stood and bore his testimony as well. There was a wonderful spirit there and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.

Today Karen was ready to give her testimony and though she asked for help, she knew what she wanted to say and did a very good job. It fills me with great joy to find our daughter growing and learning and wanting to share her testimony of the things she is learning. Her favorite stories to read at bedtime or nap time or whenever is from the children's scripture stories. It's always her first choice and it's amazing what she retains. I'm so glad I had these when I was little and can now share them with my children too.

Miscellaneous

We had a lovely vacation last weekend to Denver and the Starfest Sci-fi convention. It was a lot of fun, especially since we left the kids with their grandparents. It was a nice weekend getaway, but definitely needed to be a couple days longer. Here's a few fun pics. Plus some other miscellaneous pics of the kids having fun.

Life size Doctor Who Tardis! Awesome!The only place you can find a Pirates vs Ninja's competition.Even babies get dressed up for these thingsShe looks so much like Luna Lovegood! and pretty good Lucius MalfoyDaddy is the horsey! yay!

Daddy asked them to say chocolate instead of cheese and they screamed it!

Michael helping mommy dry her hair

Always riding double

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! This picture reminds me of the cards and pictures my mom used to clip out and save for decorating or tracing or just clip art. It brings back fond memories of my parents.

Easter has come quickly and we've been trying to prepare for it by cleaning, decorating and preparing to host our family gathering this year. We're excited to be able to have all our family here and enjoy a fun time together. It will be the first planned event at our house since we moved in and we're excited to have everyone here and see how everyone fits in our new home. Unfortunately the weather is not going to cooperate and let us spend time outdoors, but I'm sure we'll be able to have more get togethers when it's nicer weather. Wish us luck.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is how Karen looked when I went to pick her up from preschool today. Isn't she a cute little leprachaun? She does have a drop or two of Irish blood in her from my side of the family. We'll claim the Irish, even if it is that little.

Hope you all wore your green so that you didn't get pinched. We all did and were pinch free today. Yea!

Is It Spring Yet?

I am so ready to have it be spring. I want to let the kids go play outside in our fenced backyard, go discover the parks in the neighborhood and go for walks again. But the weather just doesn't want to cooperate. I guess it will come soon enough. Instead I just changed my background to a spring theme to try and usher in the season. In the mean time I've been going through pictures and files (saving them to another computer because this one is having issues) and I found some miscellaneous cute pictures that I haven't posted but thought would be good to post now.

Here's a picture of me and Karen taken around the same age. What do you think? Does she look like me at all?

This next one is of Karen one morning after we'd take out some french braids and just left it down and kinky, she went and found a headband and tried to put in on by herself and this is how it ended up. I think she looks just like a hippie especially with the antique type coloring of the picture, funny that it turned out that way without me even trying.

One day I got some tulips and Michael wanted to smell them. It's so funny how a 2 year old tries to smell flowers. Here's the face and you can imagine the sound as he tried to sniff the flowers. Afterwards he said mmmmmmm. So cute.

One more of Michael. One day he asked to have his hair like daddy's, so we got the mousse and combed his hair back and he was so excited. He kept saying "Handsome like daddy." He can be so sweet.

Heart Cake

I made a heart cake for Valentine's day and the kids really wanted to help. They were amazed that a square cake and a round cake could be used to make a heart shaped caked. It was fun. They also wanted to help me decorate it and could hardly wait to eat it. Neils got some cute picture of the kids watching me and helping me decorate the heart cake, so of course I want to share. Can you see Michael's tongue in the side of his mouth literally hanging out anxious to taste it? So cute.

He really wanted to help me put the candy hearts on the cake, so I let him with careful supervision that it didn't end up in his mouth instead.

I love this one of Karen peeking over the counter looking longingly at the cake.Here's the finished product.And Michael enjoying the spoils. I had one of Karen too that accidentally got deleted (oops), but it was just as cute and messy.

Bubble Wrap Dancing

Recently we watched the movie Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Karen just loved it. In the show they have Mr. Magorium dance on bubble wrap in the park. So when I got a package in the mail the other day that had bubble wrap in it, I thought the kids would really enjoy experiencing this fun thing they saw on the movie. They were extatic when I put it down on the floor and told them to dance on it. They loved it so much they did this several times a day for a few days until all the bubbles were popped. It was too good not to take a couple pictures of them having fun.

Karen will probably hate me for this when she's older, but it was too great a shot not to post. It shows how much fun they were having.

They gave up dancing for a couple minutes to use their hands.

Settling

Over the weekend we were able to unpack all the boxes upstairs which had the things we "need" to have a pretty normal day to day life. It feels so nice and we are finally starting to really settle into our home. The kids are enjoying their new rooms and we're getting ready to personalize them with removable wall stickers like princesses, cars and glow-in-the-dark stars for the ceilings. They are really excited to help me with this.

Michael is now in his big boy toddler bed. We waited for this until we were in our home and he's been really excited to be a big boy. It's taken a little while, but he is getting used to going to bed and staying there even though he has the freedom to get out of bed now whenever he want. We're also trying to wean him from his sippy cup which has proved to be a daunting task. He still gets one to go to bed with, but letting that go will come later. He's also getting ready to potty train and loves to be a big boy in this way too. I have a feeling he's going to be easier to potty train then Karen was. She took 2 years to potty train.

Karen is also adjusting pretty well. She's really excited that we've found a preschool for her to go to. We found out about an opening in this preschool by a neighbor in our ward and we were able to get in. I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to get Karen into a preschool because it's in the middle of the year, but we were very lucky to find a school with an opening. She'll be starting next week and she's really excited, although both kids are really excited just to have toys in their rooms.

We've had a couple of our family stop by to see our home and we've even had the elder's quorum stop by to greet us. It's fun to have people stop by and we'd love to see all of our friends and family come by when they have time. You are all wecome whenever you'd like. We will have a house warming party that will be like an open house in a couple of weeks, but feel free to come by sooner if you'd like.

New Year, New Ward

Since it's a new year and we'll be moving in just a couple weeks, we decided to check out what our new ward will be like. So we checked on www.mormon.org to find out where our new ward would be and what time. We called on Sunday just to make sure and then went out to Riverton/Herriman to attend our new ward. We got there a bit late since the website said our ward would be at 1:00 pm and then when we called it turned out to be at 9:00 am, but everything went well. Karen is a CTR5 now and Michael is still in nursery. They both did surprisingly well. Michael loved that he had a ton of new toys to enjoy and he went without a complaint and when we came to get him he didn't want to leave. Karen enjoyed her class too and thought it was great that she didn't have to sit on the very front row of primary anymore. Neils and I both agreed that it was very different from what we are used to and it will take a bit to get comfortable there, but the people were friendly and welcoming.

We're getting more excited to close on our home and get moved in. Just one week til we close. Then a week of painting and carpet and then we'll get to move in on the 17th. As long as everything goes like we hope it will. Wish us luck.

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year 2009 having dinner and playing games with Neils family. We had fun and the kids enjoyed playing with some of their cousins. Technically we were alseep by the time the new year actually came in, but we had enjoyed a fun filled evening.

This year is bringing a lot of new changes for us, a new house, a new ward, Karen will start Kindergarten in the fall, and I'm sure there will be things that we don't expect that will happen too. We have had a lot of fun things happen in the last year like moving and Karen in kindergarten, and sad things too like my father passing away. But we are ready to look forward and hope for the best. In looking to the new year I've also made a couple new year resolutions. I believe in making resolutions that I can actually keep so here is what we are working toward as a family. We will try to go to the temple 8 times this year. We will have a planned family outing at least 8 times this year, and one of them will be a family vacation.

We hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve and hope the year to come brings lots of blessing to you and your families.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We've got lots of pictures and wanted to share them with everyone. Karen made a gingerbread house at preschool.

On Christmas morning we had a lot of fun. Karen woke up first and Daddy told her she could go look in her stocking. She was so excited that she looked in Michael's too, though thankfully she didn't open his. She got a slinky which is what she asked Santa for. She was very excited. Michael finally woke up and we had to do a lot of persuading to get daddy out of bed. The kids had a lot of fun opening each gift and we had a lot of fun seeing their expressions as they opened them. Michael got stickers and used them all right there and then, though he shared them with everyone too.Michael also got a slinky and this is what he did with his.

We all had a lot of fun and the kids especially had fun playing with each toy they opened so it took a while to get through everything. They especially loved playing together with each other's toys. Hopefully they will keep sharing and enjoying their new toys together.

Playing in the Snow

A couple days ago when it had snowed all day, in the late afternoon after naps and a whole day of kids begging to go play in the snow and build a snowman, I finally gave in and bundled us all up and we went and played in the freshly fallen snow. It was light and fluffy and we could not make snowballs let alone a snowman, but it was perfect for snow angels and running around in. Karen and Michael would pick it up and throw it in the air and laugh as it fell on them. They had a blast. Karen ran all over and Michael stayed in one place and wouldn't move. It was fun. We stayed out long enough for Neils to come home finding us all covered in snow and he decided to join in. Such a fun memory to have family snow day. Here's some cute pictures. Here's Michael trying to make a snowball.








Karen's beautiful snow angel,
and Daddy getting hit with snow by both kids.

Christmas Party Fun & House Hunting

See Neils blog www.neilsstarkrants.blogspot.com for the latest happenings in our family. Jen doesn't have access to the internet very often and hasn't had much time to update our blog.