Christmas 2013

For about a month leading up to Christmas Kendal would tell almost everyone she met we were going to spend Christmas in Logan with Grandma and Grandpa Loosle. We decided to open our personal gifts on Monday so we didn't have to haul extra gifts back and forth. After a family home evening on the symbols of Christmas and how they relate to Christ we opened gifts from Mom and Dad. I stay pretty conservative with gift giving so the kids got four gifts from us (wear, read, need, want).

We headed down on Logan on Christmas eve. The kids were all smiles when they finally got out of the car and got to see Grandma and Grandpa. We had a relaxed night at home and made reindeer cookies for Santa. The kids got to wear their Christmas eve Pajamas and we read some stories before bed.

The next morning Andy, Carly (soon to be sister-in-law) Rexton, Lyla, and Campbell joined us early and we all opened presents. The floor was a sea of wrapping paper and the kids were beyond excited with all of their loot.

I cooked a brunch for everyone. My Nana, Aunt Linda, and Uncle Bob joined us to eat. We spent the rest of the day surrounded by gifts and happy children playing and enjoying their new toys. We had a yummy Christmas dinner and had more family time.

Thursday they boys went and shot BB guns in the morning at the shop. After lunch Andy and Casey took the kids (minus Peter) to the Jump Zone in Logan. The kids had a lot of fun there. Kendal had a blast swinging into a pit of foam. We watched a movie that afternoon and spent more quality time together. Thursday night we volunteered my parents to have a movie night with the kids while the siblings went to David and Anica's to play games. We ganged up on Andy and had fun being together.

Friday night was the big Loosle family party. We headed out to my Uncle Kelly's house and got to spend time with family and eat some very delicious food.

On Satruday Casey finally got to go see Ender's Game. (He liked it; didn't love it). We hung out with family some more, and said goodbye to Andy and his crew. My parents headed to SLC to see my Mom's side of the family for her brothers anniversary party. Casey went to the USU basketball game with Cody. Katherine, David, Anica, and I watched a movie with the kids; got them to bed; and played games.
Casey and I had church duties on Sunday and Casey has basketball practice every night this week so we headed home after eating breakfast with my parents and sister on Sunday morning.

Thank you Mom and Dad for a great week; and for putting up with my loud kids and a messy house. We felt spoiled and loved the time we had with our family!

 Kendal HAD to have her table put up as soon as we got home. They love it!

Peter is 18 months!

Peter is growing into a cute little toddler with a funny personality.

He is still our champion eater, but now he doesn't want to eat in his high chair he has to be at the table with us. It's fine until he wants out of his seat and has to stand on a chair to eat with us (I don't let this fly at dinner time, too much food to grab/spill.). Pete still likes to push chairs around my kitchen and get into my drawers, take the stove apart, or play in the sink. Let's just say my chairs are laid down for about 80% of the day. Now Pete uses the legs to get a little higher so he can still reach my counter tops. He surely loves to climb. If a chair happens to be up next to his high chair he gets in and yells mama until I notice and either get him down or get him food.
Peter's vocabulary is expanding daily. Some of his words are: dis = this, ees = please, uish = squish, apo = apple, chss = cheese, ruf = rough, ush = push, ickle ickle = tickle tickle, Gampaw = Grandpa, Mamaw = Grandma, he also has down words like bye bye, pants, socks, nana, up, Mama, Dada, and a few more that are escaping my thoughts right now. Pete likes story time, but he doesn't want to sit to listen. He likes to wander around me or crawl on my while I have the book. He likes to bring me Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and How I became a Pirate to read . Brown bear repeats and rhymes, and he loves the pictures in the Pirates book. 
Here's a bit more about Pete at 18 months:
Peter likes to sit on the edge of chairs and benches and dangle his feet.
He loves to find shoes and make us put them on him.
Like I mentioned in the side bar, Peter likes to stomp his feet in front of you and run away giggling expecting us to chase and tickle him. (He got this from Grandpa Darrington : )
Peter is very naughty with the computer. If the office door gets left open I will find him on top of the desk, pulling cords out, emptying drawers, banging on the keyboard, pressing buttons, etc. It's the one area he won't leave alone.
He still hides in my pots and pans cupboard. He shuts himself in, pulls all of my pans out, or sits on the edge dangling his feet.
I've given him three haircuts so far (he's needed more, but I procrastinate and he's cute with long hair).
Peter is friendly like his sister, he finds others in church or the store and wants to sit on their lap, feed them, or jibber jabber at them.
Pete loves to find the night light in his room and take it apart. He also taunts us by turning the TV on and off by pushing the button. He also pulls the electronic cords out from around the TV and tries to plug them back into different holes. He has an engineers mind and loves to figure things out and put things together. Ok with toys not with my household electronics / appliances.
He will help clean up a lot better than Kendal, but then he'll also dump the basket of toys all over the floor that we picked up two minutes earlier. 
Unlike Kendal Peter loves the vacuum. He wants to stand in front of it, climb on it, push it with me, unplug the cords, and take the attachments off to play with.
Peter likes to make faces in his mirror in the car. He sticks his tongue out and talks to himself. 
We've warned Kendal about treating her brother nice, and now is the age that her actions are coming back to bite her. Peter likes to pull hair, sit on and grab at Kendal when they are arguing over a chair or toy. I warned Kendal, and now she can see what I was talking about.
Peter's hair is still blond and pretty thick. I can see my side of the family in Pete a lot; then he smiles then I totally see Casey. He's a bit of a shorty, but I'm not expecting a 6' something kid, he'll probably be similar to his Grandpa's or Daddy.
Pete gives three kinds of kisses. A sweet peck, an open mouth slobber, or a lick your face loving. He also gives sweet little hugs that I take when I can get.
He's turning into a little Linus and likes to haul a blanket around the house. He's also down to one binky (we've lost the other 3). We were ready to just finish with Binky's then cold and flu season hit, and his molars are coming in fast and mean. So we're holding off for just a bit, (unless he looses his last binky then we'll see).

This little guy gets cuter, funner, and more mischievous every day. We love you Pete!

I came out of the shower one morning to find these two sitting in a box together watching their morning cartoon. : D

Darrington Party

It was hard this year trying to schedule a party for Casey's family. Between everyone's schedules (work, school, basketball), and different holiday plans we decided to have a Sunday dinner at Casey's parents home.
After Casey's game Saturday (first loss of the season : /) we headed out to Raft River. We've had some good family time the past three weekends there between Thanksgiving the Webb party that no one came to because of snow and our party this past weekend.
Sunday we went to church with Casey's parents. Peter went to his second successful nursery time (I think he does well because he doesn't have to sit still, there are toys, and above all they have snacks!). Kendal went to primary with Grandma. Apparently she wouldn't hold still during singing time and had to keep checking the nativity out with another little girl. Then she turned around and started leading the music.  Instead of lessons they got to hear some Christmas stories, decorate a cupcake, and make a baby Jesus craft.
After church the family started rolling in. Before long we were all assembled and the wonderful chaos began.  There are 8 going on 9 grand kids right now. (Kendal 4, David 3, Bryker 2, Jaxson 2, Hunter 2, Becca 2, Pete 1, Keegan 1, Baby Anderson {still cooking}) Needless to say with a house full of toddlers it was crazy.

 I attempted ornament hand prints with the kids. They looked fine, but I baked them and the kids pushed a bit to hard painting them so many broke (O well). We ate a delicious dinner of french dip and yummy side dishes. Cody and Grandma each read a story. Some of the kids were surrounding Grandma and by the end of the story she was almost toppled over.

 We did the annual cereal game where we pass wrapped cereal left and right to a story that Mom reads. The kids were anxious to unwrap gifts so by the time we were done a good majority of the boxes had torn paper. Pete opened his before the story began and spent the entire story walking around trying to get help tearing into the box to get the cereal.

Next we did our gift exchange. Peter got a cute Sunday outfit from Grandma and a big toy dump truck from David. Kendal got two princess dresses from Grandma and a hair clip holder with a bunch of hair clips from Becca. This morning Kendal kept switching between her princess dresses and twirling around the room. Casey and I were spoiled by his parents with a crock pot a blue ray dvd player, and some cash. Sarah gave Casey a gift card to Amazon for him to get Kindle books or other fun stuff. I got a nifty tool kit from Jordan. After some yummy desert and more play time we headed back to our humble abode filled happy thoughts of the day. 

I love the holidays that bring family together and Christmas time is definitely my favorite family gatherings.

30 blows

Casey turned thirty this week! Casey hasn't been looking forward to being thirty. I keep telling him thirty is still so young, but he begs to differ.
We got to see Casey for a couple of hours on his birthday. We had pizza and I made a pineapple coconut cake for him. The kids have missed daddy time lately so they were happy to have him for a bit.
Casey has been super busy teaching, grading, making lesson plans, and coaching. His freshman (c team) is undefeated so far this season. We are grateful for the hard work he puts in at school and here at home.
I'm very thankful I have this wonderful man in my life.
Casey - I hope this year brings many wonderful things your way and you realize that being thirty is not so bad. I love you!

Thanksgiving

We headed to Raft River for thanksgiving on Wednesday night. We got some cousin time and family time in. Thanksgiving day we went up to Grandpa Webb's house for a final family holiday there. There were a good number of the extended family there to eat and catch up with each other. I thought Pete would love thanksgiving because he loves to eat but I didn't factor in that he hates waiting for food and we ate at his nap time. He did not appreciate stating at a counter full of food for over half an hour before he could dive in. After he ate he was pretty good. Kendal loved running around with her extended cousins and the fish pond great uncle Kurt and aunt Kris put on. We had our fill of very yummy food. Casey went out and shot with bows with a group.
We returned to Grandma and Grandpa's. We played some more and uncle Cody joined us later.
Earlier in the month we made thankful leaves for FHE. It was nice to look at them all month as a good reminder to see some of the many things I thank God I have in my life.
Black Friday (or Thursday as it should be called now) wasn't a big deal this year. We went to a couple stores Friday and did a bit of shopping. After we ate lunch with Travis, Chelsea, and their sweet kids. Always nice to catch up with each other : ) Friday afternoon we went for a drive with Kenny and Cheryl to Malta and they picked out a pretty Christmas tree. Pretty much all of Casey's family does a real tree. I grew up with fake trees, I can't smell to enjoy a real tree and I don't like the fuss, sap, and needles so we go with an artificial tree.
We had a good time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. Casey had practice Saturday so we came home and we put our own tree up.
It was a good weekend full of yummy food and great family.
Sorry no pictures. Our camera is pretty much dead. Luckily we found a good deal on a new one for Christmas.

Let the games begin

The girls basketball team has had four games in the past week. All home games so far. Casey's C - team (aka freshman) played three out of the four games and won all three games. JV won the three games they played and Varsity has won one and lost three. (two were close games though). I think Casey is still a bit surprised to have a winning team, and it's hard to always see the positive when you break down the stats and know what they could've done better; but I guess that's how a coaches mind works. Casey is still a pretty laid back coach, he puts trust in his players and gives help and encouragement when needed.  The kids and I are starting to feel the loss of Daddy time at night, and it's not going to end for a few months, but we'll go to games, support Daddy, and enjoy the time we do get with him.

Few pictures from a couple of the games.
- Brett has clocked a couple of the games so David and Becca have joined us. Kendal and David cover every inch of the stands, Becca and Pete usually stay by me (as long as the snacks hold out). Pete likes to yell "Da!" over and over when he spots Casey.

On another note I've taken on a part time babysitting job. Casey's cousin lives here in Kimberly and his wife works every other day at the middle school where Casey works. They asked if I would be willing to watch their two year old son Kasyn and 6 yr old daughter Elexia. Both are pretty well behaved kids. Kasyn has a bit more warming up to do with us, but had fun playing peek a boo with Peter. Elexia comes after Kindergarten gets over. Kendal had a blast following her around and playing pretend. I'm glad to help out, and it's started out well. It adds a bit more Crazy to my days but it's all good.

Birthday cont.

Bit of the birthday girls weekend:
Friday Kendal woke up and found her new bike. She's been wanting one for a long time and was happy to get one. We also gave her a pink tutu which she wanted to wear all day (I restricted it's outside use because I didn't want it ruined on day one). After a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and a birthday song Kendal went to her well check appointment - She is healthy, happy, and growing well! Minus the shots she enjoyed it. Kendal got in some bike riding time and video games while Pete napped.
 We let Kendal pick lunch and she wanted pizza so we went to Gerties. We ate yummy pizza and she got to ride on one of their kid rides for a few minutes. After lunch we finally made good on our promise and went and got balloons for Kendal's birthday. Leading up to her birthday she believed that when she got balloons she could fly with them. We had to explain this was not so when we purchased her balloons, but she was still happy and has enjoyed them all weekend. On our way home we stopped by the temple and went for a short walk (too cold for a long stay). After a nap (yes I'm lucky my 4 yr old still takes occasional naps : ) we went to Daddy's first basketball game against Canyon Ridge High. David and Becca joined us. Kendal and David covered every inch of the bleachers, Becca followed for awhile then decided eating treats with Aunt Marianne was better. Pete yelled "Da!" at Casey for five minutes then flirted with people and ate snacks. Casey's team won their game 38 to 5! Casey stayed on to help with the JV and Varsity games (both wins too). I took all of the kids home and we ate dinner and played.
My whole family was able to come up Saturday. I was so happy they all could come and again grateful we live close enough we see family more often. Kendal got spoiled with presents and family time. We had no major plans so we went out to a few stores after eating hamburgers at home. Later for dinner we met up with Casey's parents, Brett, Vanessa, David, and Becca for dinner at Sizzler. We came home and Kendal finally got her cake! I sketched a few designs and Kendal picked one with sparkly pink sprinkles and a number four.  After cake and some more presents we hung out some more with family and played.
Kendal had a great weekend, and was so happy with all of her presents and all of the time we had with family!

Kendal is 4!

Four years we were blessed with a sweet baby girl. Today we have a boisterous, inquisitive, bubbly, and imaginative little lady.
Kendal is a nonstop chatterbox. She'll either share her whole life with you, ask you a hundred questions, or just talk your ear off. She is still our little social butterfly and gets along well with others (unless it's her brother who disrupts her play or doesn't want to share toys). Kendal can be a bit bossy, it comes with the "big sis" attitude and the "I think i know all" attitude.
Kendal loves to learn and is enjoying preschool. She is pretty tech savvy and loves it when she earns computer and tablet time. Her favorite web sites are PBS kids and Mickey Mouse. She likes the learning games and being read to on daddy's tablet. Her favorite tablet game is one where she bakes, decorate, and then eats things.
Kendal is working on reading. We have a few books she can read most of, and we've been trying to hit the library to find some more. She still enjoys being read to, and always asks for more stories.
Kendal likes to be active. She enjoys outside time, twirling/ dancing around, running around, bouncing, and riding her scooter.
Kendal gives sweet hugs and kisses. She tells us how much she lives us all the time.
Ducky is still Kendal's favorite stuffed friend.
Minus picking on her brother Kendal is generally a well behaved kid.
At four Kendal is 31 pounds and about 3 ft 3 in. Tall. She isn't the best easter in the house, but generally eats what we give her.
Kendal got her first bike and a pink tutu for her birthday from Casey and I. Casey has the day off of school so we get to spend time together today, and later we'll go to his first basketball game. I'll write more about her birthday and her party later this weekend.
Kendal's 4 year old interview:
Favorite color: Pink (most people don't even have to ask because she wears it so much.)
Favorite toy: Camera (she plays with play doh and her dress up Minni a lot)
Favorite food: Macaroni
Favorite animal: My duck!
Favorite song: Twinkle twinkle, and Somewhere over the rainbow (She also enjoys primary songs.)
Favorite holiday: My birthday
Favorite snack: Popcorn
What do you want to be when you grow up? A student/ learner

Happy birthday little lady, we love you so much!

Preschool and such

With a quick change of plans because Becca is sick I had the preschool kids today. I went over the plan last night, simplified, took out, and added things; then I went into today with no major expectations. While I don't feel the kids picked up much on the topic of the day (friendship/communication). They were engaged in most of what I did and loved the card table house I had up. We made thumbuddy prints with paint. David and Kendal got messy with the paint and decided to decorate my walls with pink and red handprints. Time outs were given (without argument, they knew that were being nauty). Gotta love these little kids. ; )

Casey started basketball this week. He has a decent but small freshman team. It will take time to get names down and to get used to the different coaching approaches. Casey's first quarter is over. As with every school he has good kids, talk way to much kids, and what the what kids. His grading pile is never ending and some days are longer than others but overall he is enjoying this year.

Kendal turns four in about a week. She is super exited and can't wait for surprizes (presents), balloons, cake, and seeing family. Casey's first game is on her birthday so we get to go cheer him on and celebrate with family the next day.

Peter has had a rough week. His molars are coming in, he had a wicked bad cold, a bad rash, and his sleep schedule is off. On a positive note he is starting to say a few words (not all are completely discernable yet, but we hear them).

I have started reading Enders Game. (Scify nerdy book for boys - in my eyes) Since my to read list is low right now and the movie just came out I thought I could connect a bit with my husband and hopefully get in a movie date night with his when I'm done.

This is Halloween

We had a day full of fun Halloween activities with Kendal loving every minute of it and Pete was sick but did ok through most of the day. Kendal loved being Tinker Bell, and Pete wanted his costume off most of the time. Kendal went to preschool this morning. Peter and I joined her a bit later so the kids could put on a costume parade, sing some songs for us, and had treats together. It was cute. David and Kendal did all of the actions with the songs and knew them pretty well. After the party we had lunch and both kids thankfully went down for a nap. After naps we got to meet up with Sarah, Bryker, Keegan, Vanessa, David, Becca, and Garrett. We did a trick or treat in a parking lot with a bunch of local businesses. (Freebies!) We were told Jamba Juice was giving out free kids smoothies so we went there afterwards. We went home and Casey joined our crew. Casey dressed up as Smee and I became Tigger Lilly. Our ward doesn't do Halloween stuff so we went and joined Brett and Vanessa's for a chili dinner and trunk or treating. Busy day, but a good one. Kendal hasn't gone overboard on the candy (yet).

Pumpkins 2013

My parents delivered some pumpkins to us during their last visit. We decided to carve / decorate our pumpkins for FHE tonight. Casey and I went simple and carved faces on our pumpkins. The kids had a lot of fun painting their pumpkins. Kendal got to help design and clean out the pumpkins. Pete enjoyed painting everything he could. We topped off the evening with homemade caramel dip and apples. Yum!!

 Darrington Family 2013 pumpkins (and no deer around to eat them ; D