The things she say...

Usually, the silly things Kyra says I just put on my little side bar, but the last two days she has just been on a roll. :)

Converstation #1:
This morning, I had Kyra REALLY wash her hands well a couple times. When she asked why we were washing our hands so much, I decided to try and explain the swine flu. (Okay, I had a moment of insanity).

Mommy: Kyra there is a flu bug that is going around and making people super sick. And the best thing we can do to not get sick is wash our hands really well.

Kyra: A flu bug?

Mommy: Yep.

Kyra: (She starts looking around in the air.) Where is it?

Mommy: Oh well, its super tiny, almost invisible.

I kid you not, she started ducking and covering from the invisible flu bug. For the rest of the morning, every couple of minutes she would look up and around in the air, and then dive on the floor. Although it was so stinkin' funny, I did feel a little bad about what she must be visulizing.



Converstation #2:
I recently made Kyra a chore chart. I was having a really hard time getting her to get ready in the morning. She would fight me on everything, in that passive aggressive way that 3 year olds are so good at...you know...laying on the floor...refusing to open their mouth..etc. Well it got to the point that I would just have to do it for her. So I made this little chore chart for her, for about $5.Every night I put pictures in the little pockets, so she knows what chores she needs to get done for the day. Most of them are the same every day...set the table, clear your dishes, take a bath, make your bed, do you hair, brush your teeth, say your prayers, read scriptures, and clean her room. Then every day there is usually one extra job, like folding her clothes, sweeping, wiping down the bathroom counter, helping mommy cook, or dusting.


Then once she completes the job, she has to find the tag with the same picture on it out of the envelope and hang it on the pictures.


If she completes her morning chores quick enough before preschool, she gets to watch a cartoon. Then in the afternoon before she gets to do something special, like an art project, or play on the computer, or play outside the rest of her jobs have to be done. Well, we have been doing this for about 2 or 3 weeks now and this has been the best thing I have ever done. SHE LOVES IT! She does all of her morning jobs without being asked, she doesn't fight me at all. It is fantastic!!!

Well today she really wanted to watch a Dora video that we checked out from the library (I know..another laspe in judgement.) I told her to go check her chart and make sure she finished all of her chores, and then she could. After she finished her chores she came to me and said "Mommy thank you for making me a chore chart, so that I know exactly what your expectations are." I swear she is 3 going on 17!!!

Conversation #3:
Yeserday she did something naughty, and was put in time out. When her 3 mintures were up and I asked for an apology she said "I'm sorry I acted like Laman and Lemuel. I will try and be like Nephi next time."

Conversation #4
This afternoon, with a huge smile on her face, she said "Mommy, the Holy Ghost just told me I'm a rock star! As a Mom, that just made my day.

Old Tucson

Last Friday, we headed out to Old Tucson Studios.For those of you who are unfamilar with Old Tucson, it is basically an old west town/set that they call "Hollywood in the desert". They filmed a lot of John Waynes westerns there, the Three Amigos, some episodes of Little House on the Prairie, and about a million other movies. We luckily squeezed this outing in before it got to incredibly hot! Our first stop was the saloon, for a quick show performed by the bar maids (it sounds a lot more risque then it is. Here are the kiddos with the performers afterwards.

As we were watching, the ladies did a couple dances moves that I was hoping Kyra wouldn't pick up on....but OF COURSE she did! Oh well.

Then was an "Old West Gun Fight" Show, featuring Billy the Kid and his gang. The actors fall from the roofs of the building, shoot at each other (their are blanks in their guns),collapse on the ground, and do a pretty decent old time fight. We were worried about taking the kiddos to this one, hoping they wouldn't get scared, or we wouldn't have to answer a lot of questions about why they are fighting etc. The kids couldn't of cared less. They each had a baggy of trail mix to eat while we watched. The only thing they noticed was that Kyra had an extra red M&M in her baggies. Whew...I think WE dodge that bullet on that one. Here are the kiddos with the actors after the show. The one holding Kyle is "Billy". I just love Kyra little face in this picture! So silly.


Then the kiddos got to pan for gold! They were given a metal plate, to scoop dirt into their pan with, then as they swirl it around in the water, the gold separates from the dirt, and the gold stays in the pan. They gave each little kid a container to take their fools gold home in. Kyra is convinced that if she sprinkles it over there flower garden it will help they bloom!



The highlight of the day for Kyle was the train ride that took you around the entire studio. I wish I had gotten a picture of his face on the ride...you know, usually he is crazy wanting to run around, he just sat there, letting the wind hit his face, like it was his little patch of heaven, and he was trying to soak it in. So cute!


After the train we head to the stable, where Kyra got to go on a pony ride, her very first one. She loved it!!! We kept asking Kyle if he wanted to go, and he would very quickly say "NO THANKS, NO THANKS, NO THANKS!". I kept asking to make sure, and he got to the point that when ever I looked at him, before asking he would say "NO THANKS!" Here is Kyra on Buck.


Then we rode the carousel quite a few times, and then Kyra started getting fussy so we head to the Sheriffs office. :)



We were only there for just over three hours, but it was a fun family day!

My sweet girl

I just had to post some pictures of my sweet, happy, beautiful, little girl. I finally embraced her curls, and thanks to Jo-Anne, found a new way to do her hair. I thought she was just too cute today!

SO PROUD!!!

I'm so stinkin' proud of Karl, I'm about to explode. Karl got his white paper today and found out that he made E3 (Engineering 3rd Level), and was made lead IE over his area!!! He has really been going beyond the call of duty at work this year, and hasn't really been getting recongnized for this hard work. But it finally paid off! I'm so grateful for a husband that not only does everything he can at work to ensure we are finacially okay, but then comes home and instantly jumps into dad mode for the rest of the night! Great job babe! WE LOVE YOU!

Kyles the winner!

After 3 and a half years, and 2 children, Kyle is the FIRST to put something up his nose! This time it was a peanut! He was FREAKING out. I couldn't see it, but he was crying and crying, and everytime I touched his nose he would just flip. I thought it was a crusty booger (oh come on now..you know how those can sometimes hurt), so I put some saline solution up his nose, to liquify it (still thinking it was a booger). He continued to flip out, so I got the booger sucker thing, and it popped right out! I think Karl's response sums it up..."I'm honestly surprised it took him this long to stick something up there".

Kyle and the garden

I just realizd when I downloaded all the pictures off my camera, that I haven't blogged/journaled about very many things...so the next couple posts are going to be a little hodge podge.

First, lets talk about Kyle. I'm SO grateful that my kids are on opposite schedules in terms of "growing pains". I'm not sure I could handle them both going through it at the same time. Kyle has officially jumped on the "Terrible Two" roller coaster, and is loving every minute on the ride. No parent would let a 2 year old go on a roller coaster by themselves. Of course not. Where am I? I'm just hanging on for dear life!

Kyles room when he was 1 year and 364 days old.


His room when he was 2 year and 1 day old.


We have entered the "wants to be naked all the time" stage. Yes...I am hanging on for dear life.


In other news the garden is still alive! This is a pic of the kiddos picking another strawberry.



I'm loving the garden, as are the kiddos. Karl is lets say cautiously optimistic. Starting a garden in Tucson, with the type of soil we have, hasn't been the cheapest. After we picked the strawberry, and cut it into fourths, I asked him how his quarter tasted. He replied "Best $200 strawberry I've ever had!". But he can rest assured, because I now have little tomatoes and bell peppers!!!





The flowers in the kiddos garden are looking so pretty! I love waking up and looking out our bedroom window and seeing them!



Last but not least, I just want to warn everyone about a dangerous dangerous snake that has recently been spotted in Tucson. We actually found one in the kids garden the other day! I know...scary! It is called the Easter snake, and it is only seen for a few days around easter. Luckily, if spotted after Easter, the snake has lost the majority of its "venom". But if you are unlucky enough to come across this particular breed of snake, before, or on Easter it will appear much smaller, almost egg shaped. The "venom", often referred to in the reptile world as "candy" can make a adult's body swell, specificaly in the thigh, stomach and rumpus region for years after the attack. You don't even want to know what happens if a CHILD is attacked by the "Easter snake". It is almost too horrific for words, but the results can be seen in the second picture of the post. Beware of the "Easter snake!!!"

Too cute!

A friend recently showed them too me, and I just loved it. Enjoy!

Scripture Study

We have been trying to do better on consistent family scripture study. We were just showing the kids the pictures out of the picture scriptures, and it wasn't really working. So I came across this schedule, that focused on 1 chapter a week, and then each night, you focused on a different aspect of the chapter, or there was a different activity to help solidify the story in the chapter. Well I really feel like its working, but our creative, story telling Kyra took some liberties with the story. Here is Kyra's version of Nephi 1 Chapter 1.

"One time when I was a baby, and landed on Earth, I saw Nephi. And I saw a pillar of fire, and it landed on all of the naughty people. And they yelled "Help". So I being the good girl that I am (I'm quoting), I called the fire fighters. But then I remembered that it was along time ago and fire fighters weren't invented yet. So an alligator came and ate all of them, because they were naughty and wouldn't listen.I'll bet they listen next time."

I'm really grateful that we are doing 1 chapter/week lesson schedule, so we can go over each story a couple times. :)

The fruits of our labor...LITERALLY!

Are you sitting down....things actually grow in Arizona!! Who know?? Although I am quite proud of myself that I have kept our garden alive, I may be getting ahead of myself, since it is only early April. Nonetheless, my goal was to produce at least one edible item from the garden...drum roll please...A STRAWBERRY!


We actually set up two parts of the garden. One side is the kids garden, which they are VERY involved in, and then my side, which they have learned is more for just looking. It really has worked out great. They got to pick out what they put in their garden and where it was planted.

Also, I took the advice of a local gardner, and started watering my lettuce a little differently, and it seems to be quite happy. This is the lettuce in the kiddos garden, which ironically looks better than the one in my garden. Maybe the bottom of Kyles shoe has magic growing powder on it!



Here is our little pepper plant, with a cute little yellow flower on it!


I also had some potatoes in the pantry, that shall we say, had been in there for a while. So we just popped them into the ground to see what would happen. And these little guys showed up. Kyra loved this!


And finally, our little tomato plant, starting to bloom!


Oh and here are my beautiful, lucious, delicious zuchinni plants. Oh what's that? You can't see the picture? Oh yeah that's right...the plants are in my dogs belly!!!! Grrrr....

Kyles New Room!

For Kyra's 2nd birthday we re-decorated her room, since she kind of got kicked out of her old room when Kyle was born. So we wanted to make her new room special. We decided to do the same thing for Kyle, when he turned 2, since he was still sleeping in the "baby" room, with Winnie the Pooh. One of the fun things is that its a complete surprise. Neither kid saw their room for about a week, until it was completely done. The theme was pretty easy to decide on since his world revolves around Cars. (Sorry, I was in a hurry, so the pics aren't the greatest). Here is a picture of the room from the doorway. The bookcase is to my right. THe train table, window and closet are to the left.



The train table I was able to get, simply by being at the right place at the right time. I was looking for these are Toy R' Us, but the are super expensive. I happened to have some stuff to drop off at DI, and thought I would go see if they by chance had a little kid dresser. They didn't but they had the ugly, beat up train table. The wheels on the drawers were broken, and the previous owner had drawn all over it, but it was only $35! So I simply repainted it, and bought $10 worth of wheels. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the roll out drawers. They are HUGE. They hold all of his blocks, all of his train things, and all of his little people stuff.



His bed was also a case of being at the right place at the right time. I really wanted a car bed for him, but again super expensive. I just happen to check craigs list, and found one for $100, and my mother in law split the cost for me. It was originally blue, but I just painted it red, and some day will add some stickers. The bedding was also a gift for Kyle from my in-laws. I LOVED this quilt, because it wasn't as much "in your face" cars.



The biggest problem with Kyles room before, was that there was no storage. So I figured that if I could find a dresser for Kyles room, then I could open up alot more storage space in his super tiny closet. But the cheapest knock together piece of junk was $60. I looked everywhere. So I asked my dad if he would build a bookcase for me, as Kyles present. I simply gave him the diminsions, and he made this fantastic bookcase. It ended up being about 4 x 4, and gives me so much storage space. LOVE IT!


To finish up the room, I simply bought a matching rug, and some red curtains. As added decoration I painted frames on the wall in matching colors, and then bought 2 posters and hung them up. It took up alot of space on the wall, with little cost.


Then one of my wonderfully sweet friend came over and helped me paint this fantastic mural on the wall! It turned out so great!!!


I tend to have an idea in my head of how it should end up, then halfway through, I start to panic, because its not exactly working out how I want it too. But in the end, I am really happy how it turned out...although I think I lost 5 years off my life due to stress...but its worth it, since he loves it!!

Kyle is 2!

Our little Kyle turned 2 yesterday! Our little guy has brought so much laughter and energy to our family. He loves cars, trains, and planes. He loves his sister, and copies everything she does. He is the pure definition of a boy! He is really starting to be able to put words together, and regardless of whether he talks or not, he gets his point across. He is so sweet, and we can't imagaine our life without him! Happy Birthday Bubba!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com