Turkey Trot and Goal!

The kids had a Turkey Trot fund raiser at school. Kaylie ran nearly 2 miles and Sam and Dallin ran nearly 3. Dallin fell and twisted his ankle during one of the first laps, but pushed on through. Sam ran and ran till he couldn't move his legs. By the end of the day, Sam's legs were really sore and Dallin's ankle was hurting enough that he couldn't walk home and Jana had to pick him up.

Sam had his last soccer game this week. He did great! He got a goal and was really getting into the game. Something clicked in him this week.

LEGO Universe and Halloween

Nathan now says, "I don't want to."

One night this week, I tickled him on the neck and he started cracking up. After he settled down, he came over and said, "Again!" he kept wanting me to tickle him and he had us all laughing.

Kaylie is really thinking about things deeply. She tells Jana a lot about how we have lots of brothers and sisters, that everyone in the world is a brother or sister.

Sam wrote a book this week. It was a circle story, like "If you give a Mouse a Muffin." His was about looking at a alien.

Jana took the kids to Target the day LEGO Universe came out. They got the last box. They were so excited.

As I pulled up to the church for Cub Scouts this week, Dallin noticed a group of the young women standing on the sidewalk, in front of the car. He said, "Aw Dad! Why did you have to park in front of the hot girls?" His baby-sitters said "Hi Dallin" as we walked into the church, and he was shy, but was also pleased.

One of the sisters Jana visit-teaches talked to her for quite a while about our kids at school. She's a kindergarten teacher and Dallin is their student council representative. She said he came in the other day and was telling the kids about all of the things they were deciding on student council. She said he was really cute. She also talked to Mrs. Croghan about Sam, whom she really enjoys having in class.

Jana was getting Nathan dressed for the Google Halloween Party. She showed him the frog costume and he said, "I scared!" and covered his eyes. She convinced him that it wasn't scary and got him dressed. Kaylie was a butterfly. Sam was a mummy at school but his costume fell apart during class so he changed into his superman costume. Dallin was a ghost pirate. Jana cut the bottoms off his old jeans.

On Saturday, we carved pumpkins. After Jana carved the face on Nathan's pumpkin, he kept saying "A pumpkin, scary eyes!" and pointed at the face. Kaylie drew her own face this year and both Dallin and Sam carved their own faces. They're getting pretty good.

When Jana and I watched our movie this week, Dallin and Sam were trying to be sneaky. They kept creeping up to our door and then would run through our room into the bathroom, as if we couldn't see them because they were moving so fast. Funny.

Mommy Moon

We made carmel apples for our family home evening treat. I had a brilliant idea of cutting up the apples and then putting them into the carmel and pulling them out with toothpicks. Turns out, you have to keep the carmel hot, or it doesn't coat the pieces, but keeping the carmel hot cooks the apples and makes all of the juice come out, which makes the carmel runny. At least they tasted good.

Nathan says, "I don't want to." Tonight I kissed him on the neck and he started cracking up. After he settled down, he came over and said, "Again!" he kept wanting me to tickle him and he had us all laughing.

Dallin's drawing bridges and made one with LEGOs tonight. The kids are really excited about LEGO Universe coming out this week.

Kaylie is really thinking about things deeply. She tells Jana a lot about how we have lots of brothers and sisters, that everyone in the world is a brother or sister. She also observed, "Mom, did you know the moon is the mommy or daddy of all of the stars. The moon is bigger so it's the mommy or the daddy."

Sam wrote a book tonight. It was a circle story, like "If you give a Mouse a Muffin." His was about looking at a alien from outer space.

The Terrific Twos

12 October 2010, Tuesday

Dallin's been elected to the student council. What a man! He had his first meeting this morning. They discussed what kind of silly day they should do next. They decided on a "Twin Day."

Today Kaylie said something bad. Sam chastised her, "You can't say that if you want to go to the sun." Jana asked, "What?" And he said, "You know, the kingdom." I guess he was paying attention in Family Home Evening.

13 October 2010, Wednesday

Kaylie was up late coughing late last night. I got up to give her fever reducer and cough medicine at about 11:30 and then sat with her for an hour in the bathroom with the shower making steam. She got tired of it and so I told her long versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. Either that did the trick, or I passed out, because I didn't wake up again until I was late for work.

17 October 2010, Sunday

When we got to Church, Sam was really pokey getting out of the car. I left him behind to reserve us a seat on a padded pew. Kaylie occupied the seat for me and set about drawing. I went back to the car, looking for Sam. I couldn't find him anywhere. He wasn't in the parking lot, he wasn't in the bathroom. I finally walked passed the primary room and glanced in the window only to see him setting up chairs by himself. He went in, without being prompted, to help set up for primary. What a kid!

When we got home, Nathan was asleep. Dallin had played with him until after lunch, even changing his clothes after the snack I made him got all over everything. He's got the makings of a awesome babysitter. Just three more years.

Nathan loves his puppy from Grandma and Grandpa Jackson. He kisses it and carries it around with him before bed time, and sleeps with it. Tonight he was pretending to be a horse, giving one of Kaylie's dolls a ride on his back. He's very good a pretending. He's starting to sing songs with me before I put him to bed. I love this age!

We Found the Glasses!

13 May 2010, Thursday

The fields were wet this afternoon, so Sam's practice was canceled. It was nice to have another day free from activities. In the evening, while Jana was reading with Dallin, I played catch with Sam outside. He loved the attention. Jana came out for a few minutes to demonstrate throwing. We got the neighbors watching us from their kitchen table. Sam couldn't concentrate so I turned him around to have his back to the neighbors.

After the kids were in bed, Jana and I bought tickets for our trip to Disneyland in June and our trip to England to visit Miles and Kris in August. We were pretty lucky to get non-stop flights both ways.

14 May 2010, Friday

Tonight we took the whole family over to the church to clean the chapel and the kitchen. It was good to take the kids, because all but Nathan were able to help out a little bit. It also only took us about an hour an a half, instead of the typical three to four hours.

15 May 2010, Saturday

Dallin came in and showed me his tooth this morning. He's been working on it for quite a while and it finally came out. He's still nervous whenever I asked to feel it. He thinks I'm going to yank on it. I've really damaged his psyche.

We got a babysitter for Nathan and then went to Kaylie's dance recital. It was adorable. Kaylie performed two pieces, a ballet called "Tiger in a Tutu" and a tap called "Bunny Rabbit Blues." She obviously really enjoy dancing and she did very well following her teacher. She got distracted by her classmates only a couple of times.

Jana bought some flowers with Sam for Kaylie and Sam got to give them to her. She still thinks the flowers were from Sam and she had been loving him all day for it.

Tonight, I put together a couple of desks for the boys room. They are so excited to have some space of their own. I let the kids help with the first desk, but I did the second on my own since I was tired and my patience was running out. I got them put together before bed time and then cleaned up the mess.

16 May 2010, Sunday

Sacrament meeting was a little hard. Jana was up on the stand, while I tried to take care of four kids in the pew. I know that's probably nothing to many moms at church, but it was challenging for me. Nathan did finally need to go out and I took Kaylie with me. They boys were being really good, so I left them in the chapel alone. I was able to hear Jana's talk, which was really good from the foyer. She had a few notes written down but the whole thing sounded smooth and well thought out. She even held it together emotionally all the way through.

17 May 2010, Monday

After the babies were in bed, I played baseball outside with Sam and did his homework with him while Jana helped Dallin with his homework. Sam enjoys playing catch.

The whole family took some time tonight to look for Sam's glasses. They are no where to be found.

18 May 2010, Tuesday

Nathan is jabbering a lot lately. He is very cute. Only rarely do I actually understand anything he is saying, but he is so serious about it, I'm almost positive that he really thinks he is talking.

We still haven't found Sam's glasses.

21 May 2010, Friday

Jana took Sam to the optometrist for a checkup and to buy new glasses. We still haven't found his glasses and it has been a long time. Fortunately, we have good eye insurance and most of the glasses were covered.

22 May 2010, Saturday

Jana took all of the kids to Kaylie's dance class. Jana said that they did a lot of work at the bar and that Ms. Julie was correcting the girls and came to Kaylie, looked at Jana through the window and smiled because Kaylie was in good form, and then moved on to the next girl.

23 May 2010, Saturday

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. Jana and I made it together while the kids played. They are playing so nicely together lately, especially Sam and Kaylie. I'll find them in Kaylie's room playing make believe and being so nice to each other.

Nathan really loves books right now. He loves picture books and does well pointing at the pictures when you say the name. He jabbers a lot and is constantly making some conversation-like noise.

Jana found Sam's glasses today at church. Glad we bought a new pair on Friday. Jana put her Primary binder on the Lost and Found table to get a paper for someone and saw his glass just sitting there innocently. I wonder how long they have been there.

A Poke in the Eye and a Bloody Nose

Saturday, May 1st

I took all of the kids with me to Kaylie's dance class. While I was helping Kaylie get a drink, she reached up to brush the hair out of her eyes and poked me in the eye. It was amazingly painful. It just got worse and worse. When I got home, I thought it would get better but the pain was unbearable. I called the some friends and dropped the kids off a their house. The husband drove me to urgent care where they gave me a drop that stopped the pain right away. Then they checked the eye and found an abrasion on the cornea. The doctor said, "Oooh, nasty, nasty." when he saw the abrasion with the ultraviolet light. He gave me a patch and a prescription for vicoden. And sent me home with an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow.

Sunday, May 2nd

My eye is feeling a lot better today. It feels like there is sand in my eye, instead of a rock.

Tuesday, May 4th

Eye is completely healed today. Tonight, I played with Kaylie and Nathan in the basement while Jana finished dinner. We played pirates and also threw bean-bags to each other. I noticed Nathan using a toy gun and making shooting noises. He picks up on stuff pretty quickly. His favorite thing to do right now when you pick him up is to touch all of the parts of your face and name them. He does ear ("eeoh"), nose, eye, teeth ("teet"), and hair ("heyoh"). Very cute.

Wednesday May 5th

Sam and Dallin had a concert tonight. Sam's class came out first and they sang some traditional American songs. They were heartwarming. I haven't heard some of them for a long time. Sam got a bloody nose in the middle of the concert. Jana went to meet him in the hall and they took care of it in time for him to be ready for the next song. Dallin's class came out next. They sang some traditional Native American songs. Quite a contrast. I have to admit I enjoyed the melodies and structured forms of the American songs. The Native American songs had some interesting rhythms. Dallin had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the concert. Funny that our both of our kids had to leave in the middle of their performances.

Friday, May 7th

I met Jana and the kids over at a music store in Boulder for Dallin's end-of-the-year recital. He did a great job and nearly had his pieces memorized. He made me proud. Nathan was not enjoying sitting still and quietly. We walked around the store and he played with some tubes from Mommy's purse. That worked out well until I found that both of us had lotion all over our hands. We finally had to take a walk outside.

Saturday, May 8th

Jana had decided that what she wanted for mothers' day was a clean house. I cleaned up the yard a bit and then while Jana took Sam and Kaylie to the soccer game, Dallin and I worked on cleaning the house. We started by cleaning the bathrooms, and then while Dallin cleaned up his room (found out later that all the clutter ended up behind his bed) I cleaned the kitchen and then vacuumed and swept the main floor. Jana got home and I finished up the second story. She's convinced that I love her, and I do!

Sunday, May 10th

Dallin didn't have time to use his new club penguin activation code that he bought today. He really started freaking out and sobbing and crying and accusing Jana of all sorts of untrue things. I tried to stay out of it and focused on getting Nathan and Kaylie bathed and ready for bed. I finally ventured down stairs and tried to coax Dallin up to bed to get some rest. That's when he began accusing me of being completely insensitive to his tragic plight of not getting computer time. After a little break, and a change of clothes, Dallin felt well enough to read to me and do his spelling pretest. He was happy before going to sleep, but still a little on edge.

Dog Bite and "Kissing a Lot"

25 January 2010, Monday

Jana worked on laundry today. Nathan came over to help and she let him put a sock in the dryer. Then he went and found a clean sock from a different basket and came over to to the dryer and tried to open it to put the clean sock in.

When I got home, Nathan was running around with a transparent plastic box on his head and laughing. He's quite a character. Today he was playing peek-a-boo and made a sound almost like "There-he-is" all mushed together.

Dallin learned a new "special power" at school today. He presses his fingers into your shoulder. Eventually, I pretended to pass out and Jana acted worried. Sam wanted Dallin to do it to him, but he just sat there waiting for something to happen.

Kaylie said the prayer for dinner tonight. She asked that I would make it home from work safely today, but caught herself and modified it to ask for me to get home from work safely tomorrow.

26 January 2010, Tuesday

Jana did some shopping today and when I got home, she kept glancing at the things she put on the wall until I noticed them. I must have tunnel vision. I rarely notice the new things she puts up. They look nice.

30 January 2010, Saturday

I went to an Eagle Scout project this morning. We divided up and walked all over Lyons delivering flyers inviting people to come to a blood drive in a week. At one house, I was leaning on a fence and started talking to the owner of the house. His dog ran over and bit my arm. I had my coat on, but even so, I can see marks from each tooth and the bruising was pretty bad. The owner was apologetic but I was a little ticked off.

I got home in time to go over to Target with the kids to spend their allowance. It has been burning holes in their pockets. I ran in the house and Jana came in too, to get something for Dallin. When Jana got back in the car, Sam said, "What took you so long. Were you kissing a lot?" I guess they're on to us.