Through Kendal's eyes

Just by reading the side bar full of Kendal's doings you know she is at such a fun age. The side bar is just a sampling of what Kendal says and does. She is at such a funny age where she questions everything, wants to know about everything, and is gaining independence everyday.
Kendal is enjoying sunbeams. She is one out of two sunbeams (the other boy comes irregularly), so her class is combined with the next older age. I felt like it might be hard for her to be with kids who know more, and can do more than her; but she doesn't mind a bit. Back when Casey and i taught primary we would look at the antsy sunbeams and wonder how Kendal would be as one. Since I'm the primary chorister i get to see first hand how she is. Just as i expected Kendal doesn't sit still very well for lessons (today i think i saw her in her seat for 2 minutes). At one point in the lesson she was hopping along to what the leader was saying. I try my best to keep her in her seat, but she's an active kid, and it's hard transitioning from nursery to classes. Kendal is good though at giving answers and likes to sing along to the simpler songs that i sing with the children.
At home Kendal likes to be doing things. She likes to play games throughout the day, be crafty (paint, color, play dough, etc.), get read to, pull out too many toys, and get in her brothers face. She's starting to get better at self directed play and has a sweet imagination. On the days she doesn't nap (which is about every other day lately) i hear her in her room talking with her animals / dolls, she also reads to them, and plays with random toys in her room until she gets bored on her own.
Kendal is very involved with Peter. She wants to love him, talk to him, and make him laugh all day long. Sometimes she can be a little much, and Pete doesn't appreciate the in the face attention, but i know she means well. We keep having to remind her of Peters limitations; such as he can't eat everything we can, or get hugged to tight, and he hurts easier than we do. She doesn't always listen either; sometimes i turn around from doing dishes and she's trying to put a spoonful of her food into Peter's mouth.
Kendal is not shy. Casey and i don't consider ourselves to be extroverts in anyway; so i find it interesting how social Kendal is with people. Kendal will talk to anyone and everyone when we are out and about. She'll talk to complete strangers without hesitation (this scares me, and I'm trying to teach her stranger danger without taking away her social ease with people). Whether it be the store, a basketball game, or church Kendal can find people to chat with, bug, and befriend. She'll especially go up to anyone with their phone out, or tablet wanting to see what their doing, and possibly play a game with them.
Kendal has loved her camera from Christmas. She takes pictures and videos almost every day. I've deleted countless pictures, but sometimes a few show up that make me smile.

I apologize for the quality. The camera she got has no flash; and again these were taken by a 3 yr old : )

 Kendal's beloved duckie

 She had a ton of her feet, this one is the clearest

Peter is doing awesome. Aside from his in-your-face sister bugging him sometimes, he's a pretty good baby. Pete is in love with food. Anything he can eat he will eat. No teeth yet, but judging by his excess drool and chomping down on everything we think teeth will pop out in the next month or so.  Pete is not quite scooting yet. He's starting to get frustrated when things are out of reach, so he rocks and rolls until he gets to where he wants. He babbles a lot. He mostly says bababa, and when he's crying he'll say mamama. We're working with him on Dada though. Pete loves to observe. I don't have to take much to entertain Peter at a basketball game because he spends the whole time watching the game or making faces with people nearby. He constantly watches Kendal and what she's doing. When we go somewhere new or different he spends a long time turning his head every which way so that he can take in what's around him. He's a decent sleeper, but has the occasional night where i feel like we get up a few too many times. (I really want to sleep train Peter, but it's been hard where he shares a room with Kendal, and nap / bed times just don't mesh with their different schedules) He does occasionally go down on his own, but for the most part we're still having to get him to sleep.

I love these two little ones. It's not always easy with these two, but it only takes a few minutes of reflection to remind me of how much i love them and how blessed we are.

V is for Viking Victory

Casey's JV Basketball team pulled out their first win of the season today! The game was against Glenns Ferry and the final score was 54 to 43. It was a hard fought game. The boys had to pull out their A game, and their hard work played off. It's been a tough season so far. The JV team is full of some very novice players, and at times Casey feels like he just repeats himself over and over about running their players, boxing out, etc. Tonight was his third JV game this week (then you add in 3 varsity games he assisted in). January is full of games. Thankfully a lot of the games this month are home games so the kids and I can go cheer on Casey and his team.
Casey says coaching is stressful with long hours, but it's been fun.
It's been a bit hard not having Casey around a lot lately. His practice times vary every week, and he's had mostly away games so far; taking him away on weekends till 2 in the morning sometimes. The kids and I are missing Casey. Kendal has meltdowns every so often because her daddy isn't home at night, she hasn't seen him for a day or so, or she can't go with him to practice or away games. We are proud of Casey and all of the hard work he is putting in with coaching, teaching, church, and with us.
Congrats Casey on your win; I hope your team keeps up the good work they showed today!

Holiday recap

It was fun this year to see how much Kendal enjoyed Christmas. She learned all about Santa and how we celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas. We put up the tree the first weekend in December. Kendal loved putting on her ornaments and has loved playing with them since. We have also had our advent calendar and  narrated nativity ornament that Kendal has loved. Our ward Christmas party was the first week of December. As primary Chorister i was supposed to teach a couple of songs to the kids for the program. At the ward party i ended up being put in charge of the program. It wasn't much, but the primary kids did well. Kendal takes after Casey with her love for Christmas music. We played Christmas music a lot (It reminded me of my Papa). Kendal learned the whole Rodolph song this year, and still remembers Jingle Bells from last year. We went to see the tree lighting at City Hall and attended a Christmas program at the High School. Kendal spent the whole Children's portion of the program dancing. (Casey's students told him the following day that they enjoyed Kendal's dancing) We were all excited for the holidays because that meant a break from school for Casey and an escape from Challis.

Friday the 21st we made Our way to Raft River to spend Christmas with Casey's family. We haven't been all together for a few months. Friday night we had almost everyone there; on Saturday the rest joined us and we were all together for the next couple of days. It was a busy / active house for a couple of days, but so so much fun. We made cookies, went shooting, played games, exchanged gifts, ate good food, and just enjoyed some good family time together. Since Keegan's birth last month we now have eight grand babies in the family. (Kendal is the oldest at 3 years). Kendal loves her cousins. David, and Bryker are her play buddies. I think David got a little weary of kendal, but all in all they enjoyed each other. Becca, Jaxson, and Hunter did their own thing, and  Pete and Keegan got loves from everyone. It was crazy trying to get  the kids to nap and Saturday night was interesting with all of us there. I love the fact that the cousins are so close in age. It makes visits so much fun. The only downer to the whole vacation was that Casey was sick, and shared his cold with the family. There were a few days where Casey was just miserable and unfortunately others were too.

 Christmas day it was just us and Casey's parents (Cody came later after he had worked a Christmas shift at Sunshine Terrace). Kendal was up around seven excited tho see the goodies Santa brought. We started opening presents and Peter threw up on his gifts (So much for good memories from his first Christmas : /). The poor guy spent the rest of the day feverish, sad, and sleeping. Kendal got a camera from Santa, a dress up Minnie Mouse from us, and a few other things. We spent the rest of Christmas taking it easy, playing, and eating sweets.

The day after Christmas we ate lunch with Rhett, Aria, and their two sweet girls. Because we didn't feel all that well we didn't get see much of them, but it was nice to catch up with each other.

Peter had a doctors appointment Friday so we headed to Logan to spend New Years weekend with my family.

( Peter is now just over 15 pounds, he is 26 inches tall)

Friday we got to see my whole family. Kendal had fun with Campbell and her aunts uncles and grandparent's. Friday night was the Loosle extended family party. We were fewer in numbers but it was nice to see my family that could come. New year's Eve took us to my brothers house. We played games (including our annual bingo : ) and stuffed our faces with goodies. Kendal stayed up way to late but had fun.

Besides being sick it was a great holiday break. We had so much fun with family and were spoiled with gifts, food, and family time. We're back in Challis finishing up the break. Casey has practice and a game this weekend, we'll put away Christmas, and have some more down time for a few days.

6 months!

Peter is 6 months old! Pete is generally a good baby. He has a sweet smile, and a cute laugh.
Pete now rolls from his tummy to his back, and his back to tummy. He also swivels around on his tummy to get to things. He doesn't scoot much yet, but I'm guessing scooting and even crawling will happen soon.
Pete is really into food. Pete is so much better at eating than Kendal ever has been. So far he has liked every food we've given him. He makes faces with prunes (but who wouldn't) and he doesn't love cereal by itself. Pete lets us know he wants more by grunting, banging his tray, and looking at us then the food with a what are you waiting for kind of look.
Kendal has a knack for getting Pete giggling. He is fascinated with what Kendal does and when she gets silly (which she does a lot) he laughs at / with her. Pete likes to watch what's going on, just looking at his face you know he's taking in everything around him.
Pete has quite a bite on him. (No teeth yet thankfully) He loves to chew on toys, his hands (and ours), hair, etc. Along with a good bite, this little man is a big drooler. Kendal never really drooled, but Pete can soak a shirt in no time at all; especially when he is chewing on something.
When his sister doesn't interrupt him Pete is a pretty good napper. He sleeps for most of the night, has an early morning feeding, then goes down for a few more hours of sleep (that is until Kendal decides to get up).
Pete's six month appointment is over our holiday break so I'll post his stats when we return.

We are very blessed to have this little guy around!

Happy Birthday Casey dear!

"Lucky to be in love with my best friend" - those are some lyrics to one of our favorite songs.
I am truly lucky to be married to my best friend. Casey turns 29 today. He claims that he feels like 29 is old, but I still consider him young. I count my blessings everyday that I have Casey in my life. He is a wonderful man, husband, father, teacher, coach, etc. etc.
Since Casey is at school all day then off to an away game tonight we had his birthday dinner and cake last night. Kendal was confused this morning when i said it was Daddy's birthday since we already celebrated (but she doesn't mind knowing there is still cake).

(I love that he is such a hands on Dad. Kendal and Peter adore their Dad, and we all miss him when he's gone. Casey's favorite time of year is Christmas. He loves the music and holiday spirit that surrounds the season. I love this picture of Casey reading a Christmas book to the kids. I hope our kids will grow up to be smart like their Daddy : D)

Happy Happy Birthday Casey dear, may all of your wishes come true this year!

Basketballin

Basketballin is Kendal's term for when Casey is at Basketball practice / games. Casey is now fully into his basketball season. He three games under his belt and many more to go. Casey is the JV basketball coach and assistant Varsity coach for Challis High School. Casey has always wanted to coach and the opportunity came along this year. Coaching at Challis has come with many challenges. Instead of holding tryouts and getting to pick his team, Challis gets whatever players that show up. This year there are 18 boys on the Varsity / JV team. Since Varsity obviously gets top pick, JV gets what's left. Any good players Casey has also play Varsity games so they're limited on how long they can play during his games. He is a good coach that plays every kid.  He has a few good players, and some new and not so good (all pretty novice). Casey has a lot on his plate trying to coach these boys; he's doing his best and I know he'll have success.
Away games are another strain on his workload. Because we live so far from anywhere traveling to games takes time away from teaching. Casey has to come up with lesson plans for half of the day; so he's always in a dilemma about what to have a sub do, and what does he do with two classes where he can lecture in one during the morning, but is gone during the afternoon for the same class. He also has a couple of classes where athletes make up the majority of the kids. For example when the girls b-ball team is gone he is missing 3/4 of one of his classes.
It's been a sacrifice for Casey to give up his time to Coach. I'm proud of the work that he's doing and feel blessed by what an amazing man he is. The kids and I miss Casey when he is at practice late, or at games, but we know he is doing a good thing and love him so much!

The kids and I got to see Casey last week at his first game. Kendal yelled out "Go Vikings!" for most of the game, and Pete was watching the players go back and forth for most of the time. Kendal loved to see Daddy and yelled at him throughout the game (we may have to sit further away next time) She hopped around and was happy to see Daddy and his "Basketballin" boys. Casey's next game takes him away on his birthday (boo) (Hopefully the boys win for his birthday!)

Good Luck Casey!

So much to say

So much to say; i think i better start from the day after my last post. Casey's parents were able to come and visit us for the weekend. We took Kendal bowling for the first time. She loved the shoes and enjoyed bowling. We also went around Challis a bit and showed Casey's parents the Salmon river. It was great to see them and spend time with them.

Sunday night: My Grandpa's funeral was set for Tuesday so the kids and i hitched a ride with Casey's parents to Pocatello, then my Brother and Sister-in-law met us and drove us the rest of the way (BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL!). The kids did well to Pocatello, but a 5 min. pit stop apparently wasn't enough cause both kids had some melt downs on the way to Logan.

Monday morning started my crazy week of errands / activities. I've had my shopping list for /Christmas and other misc. items set for weeks now; and i knew this trip was my only chance to get non-Internet shopping done. I also squeezed in a much needed hair cut (it's a joke trying to get your hair done in Challis). Monday night was my Grandfathers viewing. Kendal was everywhere and Pete was sweet and nice being passed around all night.

Tuesday morning Casey drove in (He couldn't take Monday off of school and basketball - he didn't even get a sub for Tuesday; the secretary said she would look in on his classes). We attended my Grandfather's funeral. My Grandpa was a wonderful man. We shed many tears, hugged, and caught up with family. It was neat to hear of my Grandpa's life and stories about him. We were lucky to have him as a part of our lives.

Link to my Grandpa's obituary.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hjnews/obituary-search.aspx?daterange=30&firstname=Donald&lastname=Loosle&countryid=1&stateid=58&affiliateid=1842

Tuesday night we needed some fun. Along with my siblings and nephew we met up with my Uncle Tony and his family to have some fun at the Fun Park. The kids had a blast playing games and earning tickets. Afterwards just my family went bowling. While Kendal enjoyed it, she had a bit of a rough time (no nap = meltdowns). Little did i know Pete was giving my parents a heap of grief back at home. (Thanks for putting up with him, and giving me some time off Mom and Dad)

Wednesday morning brought on more errands for us. Kendal had her 3 yr. doctors appointment that afternoon. She is 36 and 1/3 in. tall and 27.4 lbs. Other than her issues with her skin (Keratosis Pilaris and Eczema) she is right on track and doing well. We spent part of the afternoon at my Grandma's home.

Thursday took us to my Brother's home for Thanksgiving. At one point before dinner we realized it was all boys in the kitchen doing the last min. prep. : ) (the girls did do a lot of the cooking before hand)  It was a good day with family, and great food.

Friday morning we headed out for some black Friday deals. (not too early though, I'm not that dedicated) We ate lunch at Pizza Pie cafe and then Kendal got to open presents from my family. She was over the moon having her birthday spread out, and enjoyed getting presents every few days. Friday night we went out to my Grandma's house and got to see my cousins baby boy blessed.

Saturday i again went out to get more of my monster list done. Casey went shooting, and then got to go to the football game. The Aggies crushed Idaho : ) ; and won the WAC title for the first time in 76 years. (Big thanks to Aunti Katherine, Mom, and Dad for watching the kids so much this week) After dinner we all headed up to Preston for their annual lights parade. Kendal loved it, and Pete was memorized by the fireworks and lights. We also got to see some light up homes. (One that was crazy decked out with a plethora of Disney scenes (It was like some park ride going around this place seeing the lights, scenes, and the music). 

Sunday we packed out overstuffed car, gave loves and headed home. On our way we stoped to meet our new nephew (he is so precious) and chat with Casey's family. 

Now we are home. Casey has his first two games coaching JV this week (he doesn't feel ready, but i know he'll do great!). I am back with the kids. It's long days where we only see Casey for a couple hours of the day, but I'm managing. I start my new calling as the primary chorister next week. I'm excited to put up Christmas (It was my Grandpa's favorite holiday - he would play Christmas music year round).