My very own Shawn Johnson

Kallie decided to do gymnastics this year, actually I decided and had to make it sound super cool so I could convince her to do that instead of dance. She loved dance last year but I wasn't impressed with it and I felt she learned absolutely nothing. Let's just face the facts, she needed something to help with her coordination or lack thereof!! In all reality she does just fine but when you have super circus freaks for cousins on both sides of the family it can well, shatter a little confidence!!

I was so proud of Kallie in gym, she did great had fun and learned a lot. By the end of the year she had made leaps and bounds of progress and I felt it was money well spent.

One tough kid!

Kallie got her tonsils out on May 27th. She was super excited about this, I was super nervous about this. I have heard horror stories of how kids are so scared and they scream and won't eat for days. I was expecting the worst. Kallie however was very excited to go to the hospital, she thought the idea of visitors and popsicles was awesome. She was counting down the days and had a special outfit all picked out to wear, I figured once they jammed an IV into her hand and wheeled her into surgery she would freak out. I was wrong, she was all grins the whole time. Seriously not one wimper or cry, we were all pleasantly surprised.
This was right before they wheeled her out of the room, she just waved and kept that big grin on her face the whole time.


So before surgery was great, but I knew that as soon as she came back to the room she would be hurting and mad at me for decieving her. Once again I was wrong, she was happy but sleepy. We let her sleep for a bit and then we got to work on the popsicles. We were out of the hospital and home by 1 pm. Kallie slept most of the day, and I had to wake her up in the night to give her pain meds. The next morning at 7 am, she was up and wanted breakfast, and that was that. She has been her normal self ever since. I am so proud of how tough she is!

A Family Day! I Have Proof!!

Yep you read the title of this post correctly, and yes Weston is in it. Sometimes I feel like I am a single parent, Weston is so busy trying to balance his town job and the farm and cattle. When he started his town job I was so excited thinking he would be home at 5:30 for the night. I am not real sure why I thought this, I was so naive. Weston's town job just made it so his farming day starts at 5:30 p.m. Why you might ask does he do both? Well the answer is quite simple really, we wanted the stability of a town job yet we both agree that the farm is necessary to raise our kids the way we want them raised. (Not to mention that farming is more like a hobby than a job to Wes).

We don't spend a lot of time together camping, fishing, hiking, gardening and some of the things that many of you enjoy doing as a family. We just don't have time, therefore I have found that we don't have very many pictures of our family activities. They just aren't that exciting to photograph. Wes usually gets home around 5:30 (except during the tax season) I try to have dinner ready and the kids in their farm clothes when he gets home. We eat, and then the whole family heads out to check cows and pivots and change water. The kids are learning a lot about the farm and they get so upset if we don't get to go. We are very grateful for the time we have together and I am so grateful to Wes for teaching the kids the importance of work!

Last Sunday we took the kids on a picnic to Warm River and fed the fish. This is the first time we had done this with them and they loved it. We took the scenic road home and were able to see and osprey dive into the river and come out with a fish. It was awesome!


Every time we try to take a picture of the kids Kallie busts out some kind of a pose. Should I be concerned? After our picnic we did this..... Pony Rides!!
After much begging and pleading and a little push from the neighbors, we partnered up in buying a pony. I am positive Weston has had more fun with this than the kids. He loves it, but so does Cole. Diamey is a good little pony that is broke to ride and pull a cart. She is really gentle and lets the kids maul her to death.
Kallie and Jalyssa are besties. We are so grateful for cute little Jalyssa letting Kallie tag along all the time and for being such a good example to our little girl.
Now that is a good pony for letting Wes hitch a ride. (she was not thrilled) Wes is such a nerd, I really try to not let him get too far from the house when he tucks his pants into his boots like that!

Kallie Turns 5

Kallie turned 5 on May 12. She could not have been more excited about this day. We started the morning off bright and early, she had gymnastics pix at 8:30. We let her open her presents before we left. All she wanted was a Baby Alive doll, which she got. She was thrilled. We had a little birthday lunch with her cousins, Hanna, Haylie and Brooklyn. Kallie was insistant she have a birthday party (which I am not a huge fan of) so I let her plan her party. It was a cousins only party and we played freeze dance (Kallie planned the games) and duck, duck, goose. Since Kallie is now five she is all grown up. She didn't need me to decorate her a cake, she did it herself. When we were in town she refused to hold my hand to cross the parking lot into gymnastics. I am sad about this, but I think it is funny that she decided on her fifth birthday she didn't need me anymore. Silly girl.
This is Kallie and Brookie. What cute little friends. After her "party" we play babies all afternoon. Then we met Weston for dinner, the Jensen's came with us since Libbie wasn't able to make it to the "party." We had a great day!

Excuses

Just so you know we are still alive, we are not sick, or out of the country, as a matter of fact we are not even all that busy. So what is my excuse for not blogging???

1. My camera got dropped on Christmas, it is not really working all that well. I may as well not have even taken Easter pix for how well they turned out. What fun is a blog post without any pictures right?

2. I am not creative enough to write a post that will keep your attention without pictures.

If you know of a good camera that will fit in my purse that doesn't cost more than I make in a month of teaching preschool (which is not a lot), and will take decent pix I am open for suggestions. My camera shopping starts now. I will then re-join the blogging world.

Here is just a brief update of us: (Mostly for my journaling purposes, like you really care)

Kallie

• Is very excited for summer
• still doing well in preschool
• has mastered a cartwheel
• wants to be the octo-mom when she grows up

Cole

• plans to be a wwf fighter when he grows up
• Has developed the "boy" smell (you know when boys go outside to play and instantly smell like wet dog even if they have bathed and been smeared with baby lotion not 20 min prior)
• Loves to go to the farm with his dad and his new dog Spice
• Had developed a love for milk (seriously drinking a half gallon a day)

Weston

• Successfully completed another tax season
• Finally talked me into a dog and then a different dog after he didn't like the first one so much.
• Is slightly obsessed with small farm animals ex: goats, ponies, chickens
• Enjoying a little time spent outside working on the farm

Me

• Have developed a slight obsession with couponing
• Trying to come up with ideas for the last few weeks of preschool (any ideas are appreciated)
• cleaning up lots of messes
  
• referring lots of fights
• loving my un-busy life and enjoying my kids so much
  

Can you say Cheese Ball!!

I decided since it has been over a year since I had the kids pictures taken that I would attempt this most dreaded job today. Kallie was totally stoked about this and practiced her poses all morning. Cole was excited as well until it was time for the actual event. Last time I had his pictures taken he was awesome and smiled a ton and we were done in like 10 minutes. Today was a little different, when I told him to give us his best smile this is what we got for the first 20 shots seriously. I then had to get after him a little for being silly which only made him mad. Then he said, '"I am not going to mile for that ole lady mom." It was pretty much over after that, but I got a couple of okay ones. I also didn't realize how badly he needed a haircut until I saw the pictures later. Ooops!!

Seriously what is that face, he looks like he someone just squirted lemon juice in his eyes!
On the up side this is the first time EVER that Kallie has not screamed and cried when getting her pictures taken. She did great!!
My Little girl is growing up so fast!
My Cole Man, good thing he is so cute otherwise I would have let Jenny adopt him by now!!

New Year, New Memories, New Messes

My kids had been in bed for about 15 minutes one evening when the doorbell rang. It was my dad and my brother who needed some technical assistance from Weston. My dad asked if the kids were in bed and I said yes and he just grinned and told me they needed another bedtime story. He went upstairs and climbed in bed right in between them and told them a story. It was so cute and my kids were so excited that they didn't go to sleep for over an hour. So much fun though.

I realize I skipped the Christmas post, those of you who know me and may be thinking it is because I just "love" Christmas nonsense so much you are party right, however this is all my kids wanted for Christmas. Two-ply horses!! This is not really what they got for Christmas, that would be slightly abusive on my part, but my kids spent a whole day riding their toilet paper ponies. The toilet paper was barely useable when they were done, but seriously a whole day of entertainment. Why is it again that we spend so much money on toys and junk for our kids for Christmas when all they really want is a little T.P. ( There is my Christmas vent for ya)
Will my son every grow out of this phase? I secretly hope not because it is pretty cute and funny. About a week before Christmas a package came from the UPS man. I took it in my room and locked the door to open it. The kids were banging on the door and when I came out of the room Cole was pretty upset at me. He apparently really wanted to see what was in the big box because about 20 min later I found him in the closet, he had dumped all the dirty laundry out of the hamper and climbed on top of it and up the shelves and was pulling the box down. I feared for his life so I got him down before I took the picture.
And what would a post from me be without Cole's mischievous grin and his most "handsome" shirt? And yes the picture does not do the mess justice, but if you can imagine what 5 gallons of laundry detergent looks like all dumped out that is what really happened here.