It's SUPER Kaitlyn

I have this really creative friend named Julie. Her son Braden had a birthday party recently and it was a super hero themed party. We were delighted when we arrived and she'd made all the kids their very own capes to keep. I was even more tickled when appropriately, Kaitlyns cape was this sparkly pink material! She LOVES this cape and wears it all over the house and on walks. It's especially humorous when all of a sudden she turns on her running feet and bursts out "Super Girl to the Rescue!!!" Gee, I feel so much safer now! =)

What we did Friday

Friday turned out to be a wonderful day! Kaitlyn had school (it's all about routine and keeping things normal), we made welcome home cards for Dad, and my mom came over to watch the kids while I ran an errand.

When I got home, Sam and KP wanted to go on a walk, with Grandma, so we got them ready to go. It was really bright and sunny that day and Grandma got out her sunglasses, well that started it! Sam wanted to wear HIS sunglasses (see the picture, they've known better days) and Kaitlyn's have long since been busted so she wore a pair of Dad's. It was cute! They had a great walk and came home with......Bubbles! A special treat from our fabulous neighbor friend Carol! We then blew bubbles and got all soapy!

Then after Lindsey's nap the kids went over to our friends the Hamblins while I ran another errand (this kid free errand thing is totally the way to go!!) and took a quick power nap.

Thanks to all this help I was a refreshed, relaxed, happy mom and wife to a husband who has been gone oh so much lately! Thanks for all the help, every mom with young kids deserves a break and deserves friends like mine!!

Just Surviving

Stephen is traveling....a lot. He was gone Monday the 6th through Wednesday the 8th. Was home Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then he left this past Sunday the 12th and is gone until Friday night. He'll be home Saturday and Sunday then leaves again Monday (the 20th) and is gone until Wednesday (the 22nd) night again. Whew! I figure that in this 17 day period, he'll be home 5 days. What do you do when you're playing the single mom? I've done my best to keep me and my kiddos busy. Here's what we've done:

Monday: Went up to my parents for dinner and FHE. We had a traditional FHE like the one I grew up with where my mom taught the lesson while dad drew pictures. It was great!

Tuesday: Dentist visits for the kids--they love these! Then to the park with a "new" friend--to them, old to me.

Sunday: Church, went on a walk

Monday: Preschool, baked chocolate chip cookies, and played soccer in the backyard for FHE

Tuesday: Went to the "rock" park, went to McDonalds for lunch and played on their playgroud too!! In the afternoon we watched a movie and popped popcorn.

Wednesday: Grandparents Lewis showed up for dinner and played with us. Sam got some much needed male wrestling time in--I just don't cut it.

Thursday: I was rescued by some good friends and had a 2 hour break to run errands. Then I took a powernap while Super Why occupied my kids--I NEVER do that so I figured I'd earned it.

Friday: Hmmmmmm, any ideas?

We've played outside a lot, went on nightly walks and pestered neighbors. Dinners have been ultra simple. Sam's in a dumping stage so we've cleaned his room and his dumpings more times than I'd like to count. He also drew on the wall tonight so that was fun to talk about with him. I am tired and appreciate my husband 100 times more for all he does for me and our family. I'm so glad I have him as my partner. I really miss him a lot! I also have a new respect for single moms which deepens every time I tackle this by myself!

Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!

Okay people, I am probably going to get busted for this and this post will be removed later, but hubby is out of town and so he may not see this for a few days.

Something that I give Stephen a hard time about is how long he insists on wearing his clothing. He takes "wear it out" to a whole new level in my opinion. When we got married he still had lots of soccer shorts that he used to wear in high school and the elastic in them cracked when I tried to stretch them, he had about 18 t-shirts that were the free give away type shirts. I've slowly insisted that even in a month of Saturdays he wouldn't need so many so now were down for about 8 I think. You get the picture.

He has had THESE SHORTS since his freshman year....in HIGH SCHOOL! They've been his Saturday grubbies for a while since they've long ago been banished from being worn in public. But just this last weekend he mentioned that they probably are about done. He was proud of the fact that they've lasted him so long (17 years!). Sure we'll run on out and get you a replacement pair sweetie, I'm sure PCH brand cotton shorts are still available.

Now as much as I poke fun at this, I do truly appreciate this about my husband because I know that we are financially secure largely due to his frugal nature and his inattention to the latest fashion trend. His attachment to his clothing is just one of those quirky things to love and adore about him. Don't you think?

How long do you think is too long to keep an item of clothing?

Have you ever seen this?

Kaitlyn has had a shoe fettish since she was very young but not this young!! She loved wearing shoes......ON HER FEET. A funny memory is going shoe shopping with her Grandma Lewis and upon entering a store, she became overwhelmed and gasped and couldn't take her shoes off fast enough. She spent the next 30 minutes finding every brightly colored shoe regardless of size and trying it on. That I understand....

But what if your daughter prefers to wear the shoes on her hands?!?!

Lindsey's shoe fettish has begun much earlier in life, she LOVES them, she chews on them (I know ewww right?), but she loves to wear them on her hands and then crawl all over the house. It's hilarious! What's really funny are Kaitlyn's flip flops because she fits the toe part between her pointer finger and her thumb and off she goes! Someday we'll show her where shoes really go, but for now she'll just have stinky hands!!

General Conference: Family Traditions

Something really important to me is having family traditions. My family had quirky ones like going to the SAME CHRISTMAS TREE FARM every year dispite it's exorbitant cost and dealing with the mean "watch geese" and eating the "free" popcorn.

So one of the family traditions that we've begun is how we watch general conference. When I was little, I remember each of the children in my family laying out our sleeping bags on the floor of the family room. That was our space to sit and watch and listen. Mom always created a wonderful spread of snacking foods for us to eat the whole time. It was great!!

The new generation of conference traditions varies a little. We take our guidance from the Book of Mormon where the prophet who was also King, Benjamin is about to die but has a final sermon to preach. He asks his people to gather to listen: Mosiah 2:6,"And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his a tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;" So we thought it would be fun to make tents out of sheets and blankets for us to be like the people of Zarahelma. I am amateur at best at making blanket tents, but I married an engineer and he is a master at them. He pulled out his clamps from the garage and made a tent that encompassed our whole living room. It was big enough for our whole family to enjoy!!

How many of your family traditions are centered on food? We make Grandma McKneely's famous Cinnamon Rolls during Conference weekend too! These are always enjoyed with slices of cheddar cheese, bananas and orange juice. YUMMY! And because they are such a favorite I always have lots of willing helpers. I LOVE cooking with my children, yes it takes 3 times as long but I love all the interaction and learning that takes place. And I've learned that as they're involved in food preparation, they're more likely to eat it!!

What General Conference family traditions does your family enjoy?

Day at the Dallas Zoo

I have been wanting to take our kids to the Zoo for MONTHS!!! This summer it was just too hot, and I knew it would be fun to wait for a day when Dad could come with us.....well the day happened this last Thursday and it was wonderful!!

Here we are waiting to pay our admission to go in. We brought the double-wide (Texas talk) stroller to allow Sam and Kaitlyn to take breaks from all the walking. Sam took the first turn to ride.

We saw so many animals. We did see some large Crocodiles, nothing too exciting because they were asleep on the beach but man were they huge! Sam as you can see was a little intimidated by this statue, but a cute photo-op nonetheless.

And some African Penguins who didn't need the cold temperatures to survive. They were quite active and you could watch them from the glass swim under water too. Isn't this a cute shot of Kaitlyn making friends with the penguin?

We made our kids walk a lot. It was part of the plan to wear them out so we were insured a quiet and peaceful ride home. I love watching Stephen be a dad, he so excellent at it. He adores his children and they think he's their hero!

This is a photo of Kaitlyn taken at the zoo, just a few months after Sam was born. And here we are just 2 years later...my how things change

So we saw the Elephant (ele-fanant), some Rhinos, the Tiger (Ti-grrrrrr), Gorilla, monkeys (the "oooh-ooh-ee-ee's"), Flamingos (Flaming-goes), Llamas (like Llama Llama Red Pajama), lots and lots of birds.

The weather was almost perfect. We got there early before the heat of the day, there were lots of shady places to walk too.

Then we had a picnic lunch

And Kaitlyn climed on this spider web rope contraption.

And then we went home. It was a wonderful day and a marvelous memory for our family.