Sunday, June 24, 2012

Good Friends are Golden

One of the interesting things about living far from family, is that you start finding friends that you feel like are family to some extent.  My friend Julie has two girls around Christian’s age and her two younger ones, a girl and a boy are around Vivian’s age.  They play together pretty well which is great since Julie watches my kids while I teach piano in exchange for me teaching her two girls piano.  It works really well for me and it benefits us both.  I love that my kids have someone of similar values to play with on a regular basis while I can teach and not worry about my children’s care.  I’m so blessed to have them as friends.

Here’s a blurry photo of the kids playing ring-around-the-rosy together.  I love that even though each one of them is a different age, 7, 6, 6, 4, 2, and 1 they all play really well together.  IMG_3495

Here’s where “they all fall down”.IMG_3498Here’s my sweet friend Julie and her husband Mack.  She was out of town for her birthday so I was delighted to have a reason to make her a cake.  I’m so blessed to have her for a friend and for all the help she gives me.IMG_3508

Monday, June 18, 2012

Father’s Day 2012

This year, Jared just kept sleeping and sleeping on father’s day.  It was kind of amazing because he’s usually the one who wakes up before me.  Christian and I made him breakfast and brought it up to him and had to wake him up to eat (we have 8:30 am church so I didn’t feel too bad about not letting him sleep in more).  Here is a photo of how my cute man looks when he first wakes up….pretty much like he does all the time with a little more fluff in his hair and tired eyes.  Lucky me. :)IMG_3453

We had a nice sacrament meeting that day.  I am so, so, so blessed to have this wonderful man as not only as my best friend in the world who does so much for his me, but who’s a wonderful father who is so sweet with his kids.  I love this picture of Vivian giving him his gift from her.  She is such a daddy’s girl.  She comes into bed to cuddle him most mornings when she wakes up and cries when he leaves for work.  No one yells louder than Vivian when daddy comes home.  He is really her favorite guy.IMG_3462IMG_3463

I added the photo above because I love his blue eyes and great smile in this.  Her coy look is pretty cute too.IMG_3464

These photos illustrate how cute Jared is with our two darling children.  I love how he leans in to listen to Vivian.IMG_3467IMG_3468

Love to see my children with their daddy.  Good fathers are so important to their children.  I’m so thankful that I was smart enough to fall in love with him.  Life may be challenging, but it’s so much better with Jared as my man.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Oh the joy of…

Potty Training!  Yikes!

Warning:  This post contains bathroom references/potty talk so if you are sensitive to these issues, you may want to skip this post.

This summer, Vivian has gotten quite interested in the potty… though not consistently, which is fine except that randomly, she will decide that she needs to go and so then she will walk her independent little self into the bathroom without telling her mother and try to go no. 2 by herself though it is the worse when she has stopped in the middle and decided that she should try sitting on the potty (the weirdest thing is that she doesn’t have much interest in No. 1).  This has led to lots of disaster clean-up moments for me.  Luckily I caught on to this and I have diverted many a disaster.  It’s hard because Christian wants his privacy and so he will run into the bathroom to go and slam the door…Now I have to ask who’s in the bathroom whenever that door closes and it is frustrating to Christian that I won’t give him his privacy but I really would rather this independent soul be attended in the bathroom—at least until she’s three. IMG_3447

I’m thinking that she heard me say one too many times “You know, you wouldn’t get rashes if you went in the toilet” and so that’s probably why she wants to go No.2 and not No. 1.  I bought her some pretty underwear and have bribed her with it to get her to be more consistent (she has to be dry for a couple of days) but when I let her look at it, all she wants to do with it is think of new and exciting fashion statements like the one pictured above.  I’m not pushing the potty training because honestly, diapers are easier in public places than having to rush them to the nearest restroom and then let them hover over a gigantic bowl while waiting for them to relax enough to go.  I would like to get rid of the expense of buying diapers but I’m pretty sure that she will be okay in a couple more months.  If I decide I want her to get potty trained sooner, I may try the potty party book with her (it NEVER worked with her brother who took his dear sweet time to even try going).  Love this girl.  She sure keeps things interesting.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Christian’s Kindergarten Graduation 2012

My boy is now a kindergarten graduate!  How did time go so fast?  The whole Kindergarten consisted of five classes ranging from 23-25 kids so there were about a hundred kids that graduated from kindergarten at Christian’s school.  I worked with another woman with a daughter from one of the other classes to make a kindergarten slide-show.  It was so exhausting that I was very glad that the day had finally come.  Looking through yearbook pictures and trying to make sure every child was included was hard work.

I love that they bought real caps and gowns for the kindergarteners this year.  Last year they just had paper hats that the children made.  My boy is so lucky that his school went all out.

Early that morning, Jared and I presented Christian with a candy Lei made from Werther’s Originals and the gold looked great with his blue gown (it also made it really easy to pick him out of the crowd).  Personally, I think it was cute that he was front and center and had his lei on, otherwise he would have thrown off the balance of the room.  I was pretty shocked that he was the only child there with any time of a lei.  I guess it’s because of the high population of Polynesians in Utah, because every graduation I’ve been to has always had quite a few graduates with this special symbol.  

IMG_3387IMG_3393The graduates sang a few songs and recited a poem and then the ones who were waiting to get in line were invited to sit down.

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Here are some fuzzy photos (sorry, bad lighting) of Christian waiting on the floor, and then in line to receive his certificate.

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This is Christian receiving his certificate from his teacher.  He looked so handsome!

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This photo of Christian holding his teacher’s hand just cracks me up. He was so proud.

After the ceremony we went to his class and took some photos and picked up his report card.

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Christian with his buddy, Maddox.  Christian had removed his cap and gown the minute he got back to the classroom so like a picture-happy parent, I made him put them back on!

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Here’s a photo of him with his amazing teacher!

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One last hug for his teacher! Smile

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Christian with his sister Vivian and his friend Maya.  IMG_3436

Love My Kindergarten Graduate!