Spring Break

Spring break began with saying goodbye to some of my wisdom teeth on Monday. A couple of years ago I found out I had a couple of extra wisdom teeth that they missed when I was a teenager. These two pesky teeth have been a real bother for quite a while now and I'm grateful I was able to get them out. The procedure went well, and I've had a decent recovery (Minus the medication making my stomach go nuts). When I woke up from the procedure I seemed lucid to Casey, but I don't remember much of getting home. Casey keeps laughing about how I acted when I was supposedly "all there".  Two hot/cold pack snowmen my Mom made have been my best buddies all week, and eating has been a challenge.
With me having my teeth out we didn't make any major plans for our break, but had a list of things we wanted to get done (spring cleaning / projects). We got some lumber and Casey built a TV stand this week. It just needs some sanding and paint and it will be complete! Kendal liked going and "helping" Casey build. She mostly tinkered with random tools and and played around in the garage. Kendal's been wanting to plant and grow a garden. So we bought a couple of simple planters that can go on the deck, and we'll grow some herbs, tomatoes, carrots and flowers this year. We got the seeds started this week. Kendal loved helping pour in the dirt and plant the seeds on her own.

TV stand in progress. I'll post pictures once it's sanded / painted.

Casey went fishing with Brett on Tuesday and on Friday we all went with the kids to some ponds near Filer. I detest fish / fishing, but time with my family is what matters so I went along. We had quite the crew there with six adults and nine kids running around. When Pete wasn't in explorer mode he did really well holding onto the pole and sitting in the chair. Once we finally got all of the poles ready and cast, we waited and waited with no results. We watched some people on a little dock catch fish after fish wondering what their secret was. When they had caught their limit and left we ran over and took the prime spot within no time at all we were catching fish. We caught about 8 fish. Each kid got to "help" catch a fish. I even had to start reel in some fish a couple of times (luckily they got away, again I hate fish and won't touch / eat them). The kids had a blast exploring, fishing, and getting rocks (Kendal's pockets were full).

Work hard, play harder

We spent Saturday in Raft River at Casey's parents house. Everyone (minus Cody) came to help move furniture, de-clutter, and mostly see each other and spend time together as family. A few months ago Casey's Grandpa Webb passed away. Since then his house has had to be cleaned out, items divided, etc. We spent Saturday moving out a lot of furniture from Casey's parents so we could move in some new things from Grandpa Webbs home. Cheryl took the opportunity to organize their storage room also. We worked hard all day; watched the family reminisce about things, threw a lot of stuff away, and reorganized the basement. The kids had a blast playing together all day long. They were in and out of our messes, playing in the sandbox, finding snacks throughout the day, being loud and crazy, and loving cousin time.

I love all of these little ones so much! Each has a unique / wonderful personality. They're all in their toddler years which makes for some fun times. We also get to add a ninth this week when Nicole's baby girl joins the family : D

LUCKY

I feel lucky to have the family I do. I am blessed with so many wonderful people in my life. I feel the most lucky and proud that I get to be a Mommy to Kendal and Peter.

 I am completely in love with these two. They can try my patience like any child can, they can make me laugh like no other, and they melt my heart every day. 

Little miss Kendal is learning and growing every day. Kendal has an endless amount of questions and comments inside her. She absorbs everything and is such a smarty pants. Kendal is still in love with preschool. She often gets mad at me when I come to take her home because she wants more time to learn and play with her friends. Kendal is enjoying her CTR 4 class and gives us reports every week on what she learns and expects to hear everything we learned about at church also. Kendal loves to help, I am more than willing to help her clean and I'm starting to ease up and let her help me cook (create messes) more. Kendal can read a couple of books, and many site words but she'd prefer to look at the picture in a book and make up the story. Now that we've had a taste of warm weather Kendal wants to be outside everyday. Walks, bikes, swings, running around, etc. Kendal is still loves to smother with love. She likes to tell us how much she loves us, gives us kisses, hugs, and lots of love. Kendal's favorite things to do lately are play doh, dance parties in her dresses, polly pockets, bike / scooter rides, tablet time, hide and go seek and going to preschool.

Peter is keeping us on our toes. This little guy has figured out safety latches on cupboards, and how to open doors. He uses anything he can to climb onto the table, counters, his dresser, the office desk, and the TV console. He gets into our garbage's and his diaper pail to fish around for treasure. Peter is all about figuring things out and exploring. If it opens he'll open it and take out everything he sees. If it comes apart, he'll take it apart, then try and once in a while succeed at getting it back together. Peter is still a champ eater, but now he's getting pickier / messier. He doesn't like the peal of apple so he'll spit it out and toss it, if his cereal reaches a certain soggy point, it gets dumped on his tray if Mom isn't watching. He can wolf down a meal before Kendal's eaten a fraction of her plate though. Peter's vocab is expanding daily. He can repeat almost any word and modifies words he can't quite say. Ex. - Kendal is "Tendal", grapes are "bapes", open is "ope", etc. Words are so nice because he can tell us his needs and wants. Most of his wants are food, blanket, or his Binky, but he also tells us when he's poppy, needs help blowing on hot food, or wants to go for a walk. Peter's favorite thing to play with is his train. When he's left alone (aka Kendal doesn't come in and steal half the Lego's) he will play forever, putting the blocks together in different ways and driving the train around. He also loves play doh (it comes out every other day in our house), the cars, dump trucks, and the play kitchen where he loves to pretend to make us food. He'll hold up the play food so we'll pretend to eat it, and when we join in the play he's loves it. Pete is all sorts of funny. The things he says, how he'll bobble, scoot around the room, and his silly faces make us laugh all the time. Peter can be as social as Kendal but he has to warm up before he'll start giving you smiles and talking with you. He's finally mastered the knuckle punch and says boom at the end with a big smile.

While not everyday is bubbles and rainbows at our house. It doesn't take much reflection to know I am very lucky to have these two little joys in my life.

What I do

Kendal believes when she naps / goes to bed is when Mom and Dad get to snack and watch TV doing nothing else. If only Kendal, if only.
Today I put the kids down for a nap, cleaned two bathrooms, swept and moped all linoleum floors, and cleaned up around the kitchen.  And all Kendal hears is the crinkling sound of the plastic inside the wheat thins box when I'm done. (I swear kids have super sensitive ears when it comes to anything food.)
Gotta love the innocent minds of children.

Together

 My parents and sister Katherine came to visit over the weekend. It's nice living closer to family; it makes it so we get to see each other more often. My parents came up Friday. They showed us their new car and we hung out for the afternoon. We got caught up on family happenings and played with the kids. Saturday was a wet and overcast day so we chose to go to the museum at CSI. It was a small museum with a few things Kendal could do. Peter was fascinated with the iguana. Kendal liked the dinosaur bones, the florescent room, and the butterflies. There was a touch n feel station where kids could put their hand in a box and guess the object (i.e. antler, grass, fur). Kendal refused; she was terrified something might get her. The museum has a neat planetarium but we didn't go in because the previous show was cut off, and Peter was cranky climbing everything and wanting to touch everything. We went to the book store after. Kendal could spent an infinite amount of time being read to but we couldn't stay forever. We made homemade fiddle faddle and watched a show together Saturday evening. On Sunday we went to church together and a Pizza dinner that afternoon, then my Parents and Sister headed home.  Peter was sad to see them go and asked for Bampa (Grandpa) the rest of day after they left.

Last night for family home evening we talked about being an eternal family and all the things we can do here on earth that will help us be a forever family. Kendal loves the temple and we learned more about the covenants we can make with Heavenly Father in our lifetime beginning with baptism and continuing in the temple and at home. I feel blessed knowing I come from an eternal family and I have gotten to help create an eternal family with Casey and our children. I love this gospel and the fact that through my Saviors atonement I get to return to my Father in Heaven and dwell with my loved ones forever.

This week preschool is at our house. The topics are trust and confidence. I got to sit back and watch the kids make their own peanut butter sandwiches. As much as I wanted to jump in and help with sandwiches it was good to see them learn and try new things. The kids listened to The little engine that could and made trains to go along with the story. David and Kendal were saying "I think I can, I think I can" the rest of preschool. We went outside and the kids worked on challenges. They balanced, kicked a ball, and jumped. We did each thing a few times and each time the kids got to see how much better they could do.