Letters to Santa

For Family Home Evening we wrote our letters to Santa. As you might expect, this was a pretty exciting night for everyone. After painstakingly narrowing our Christmas wishlists down to only two items we got to put them on our Christmas tree.

Normally, Santa's elves will sneak into our house during the night and whisk our letters off to Santa, but this year they must have had a very busy night because our letters were still there when we woke up! But you will never guess what happened... while we were getting ready for school those sneaky elves crept into our house and took our letters! They did it while we were awake and nobody saw them! We have no idea how they did it, but we are pretty sure magic was involved.

That caused no small stir in our house and, as a result of all the excitement and speculating as to how this feat was accomplished, we were late for school. Oops. Those elves even left a trail of cookies leaving our house. Now how can you not be late for school after something like that I ask you? The answer is, you cannot.

New Teeth!

Cruz has had a pretty rough week healing from his crash and waiting for his teeth to be fixed. Mara was such a sweetie and made him this...

I will interpret since it might be hard to figure out what some of the words are. :) 

It reads, "I hope you feel better soon. I hope you get back in shape. I love you so much.

I am so sorry that happened. I really hope that you get better by tomorrow.

I hope that you don't get hurt again. You are so so so so so nice to me. 

I love you so so so so so so so so so so so much. I am so so so so so sorry Cruz."

How adorable is that I ask you? Pretty stinkin' adorable! She loves her brother!

so, Cruz finally got to go in to get his teeth fixed today. He was such a trooper! It took quite a while and he held my hand the entire time. I have to admit, I rather enjoyed that part. :) 

So, without further ado, here they are...

Don't they look great?! The dentist did a wonderful job! 

When Koen saw them he said "Cruzy's teeth are fixed! You need to get me some 

teeth like Cruzy's!" Ha ha! After that he seemed pretty put out that Cruz's teeth 

are fixed and his aren't. I'm sure he can't understand why his are still gone 

if the dentist can fix teeth. Poor kid!

Ouch!!!

Today was a bad day. 

A really bad day. 

It started of like any other day. Get the kids up, get ready for school, out the door, and off they go on their bikes and scooters with their friends. Koen and I cuddle up on the couch to read a few books. Maybe 10 minutes pass and then there is a knock. I go to the door and what do I see?

Yep! (Only imagine more blood.) 

Check out those teeth (only imagine them covered in blood).

Face plant off his scooter onto a driveway. I'll let you in on something... teeth and concrete don't mix.

So we had an emergency trip to the dentist. It will be 5 days before he can fix them to give his gums time to heal. He is not a happy camper. Poor, Cruz!

Oh, Christmas Tree...

Today we did something we have never done before, we went to a Christmas tree farm to get our tree this year. We got to walk through hundreds of trees, pick the one we all wanted (no easy task!), and they chopped it down for us. It was so fun! 

TIIIMMMMBBBBEEERRRR!!!!!

Loaded up and ready to go!

Reflections

This year Kenyon and Mara entered the Reflections contest. Kenyon entered for music and Mara entered for dance.

Kenyon had to compose his own song. He has been playing just under a year, so that was quite a challenge for him, but he did it.

He did a great job and received an Honorable Mention!  I am so proud of him!

Mara had to choreograph a dance. She had some practice from last year when she entered in dance (and won). This year she won again!

At the awards ceremony there was a technical problem and they couldn't get the video of her performance to play. She was pretty disappointed, but I think the trophy helped lift her spirits.

They both did such a great job!

Violinist

Kenyon had his first violin recital tonight. He has only been playing for about 8 months. 

He worked so hard to get ready. 

He played 2 songs, Irish Washer Woman and Allegro. 

Great job, Kenyon! I'm so proud of you!

Beach Party!!!

For Kenyon's 7th birthday he wanted a beach party. I was very excited about that! He had a great party.

We had a seafood buffet with shrimp, fish n' chips, and "chicken of the sea."

There were Shark Attack cupcakes, octopus cakeballs, life preserver donuts, life savers, swedish fish, goldfish, and tropical fruit salad.

They played in the pool and sandbox. We had a volleyball net set up and we played volleyball with beachballs.

He had a great day, and his favorite gift was a giant "Wild Animals" book.

What a great day! Happy Birthday, Kenyon! I love you a ton!

Soccer

Cruz played soccer for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it. I think this season was just the first of many soccer seasons to come.

Mara's Dance Recital

Mara took a dance class and loved every minute of it. The day of her recital she was so excited and she looked so pretty. She is pretty shy, so I wasn't sure how the recital would go, but the shyness won out over the excitement. She did a few moves here and there, but mostly she just followed the other girls around with her head down. Poor thing, she was just so scared. But she still enjoyed her dance class and can't wait until she gets to start again next year.

She also loved the cupcakes she helped me make for the recital.

Red and White

We had a blast at the red and white game this year.

The family with Eric Weddle.

On the 50 yard line.

Mara was in heaven getting her picture with the cheerleaders.

Go Utes!!!

Jungle Diorama

Cruz made this awesome jungle diorama for school. He got a perfect grade on it. Of course, how could he not. The teacher especially loved the waterfall. I think he did a fantastic job painting the trees and plants in for the background. And thanks to Kenyon for loaning him all the animals!

Great job , Cruz!

Koen's Birthday Party

On April 2nd (yes I realize it's May) we had a party for Koen. A lot of family came, and it was really fun to all get together. I decided to do a kite flying party because that's something everyone can enjoy and because it was April. The perfect time of year.

It was a little chilly outside, but the wind was perfect. Everyone got in on the kite flying. Then we came inside for barbeque sandwiches.

Koen nibbled a bit of his cake while I was trying to get a picture.

We had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came!

Koen's Turns 1!

Koen turned 1 on March 31st. My little baby is now a big baby - even though he is little.


I tried to keep the day very low key so he didn't get too overstimulated and just planned a very little celebration for him in the evening. Thank goodness the boys were in school. The day was going quite nicely until they got home. They were so excited about it being his birthday that they were a bit (and by "a bit" I mean "a lot") overwhelming for him. They had him so keyed up in just a couple of hours that he was a complete wreck.

We had to take a break after opening his presents. I sent the kids downstairs and spent some very quiet time holding Koen and helping him relax. He was finally ready for the last half of the party.

He didn't know what to think of the cake at first. I don't think he like the feel of the frosting, but once he got through the frosting to the cake it was all over. He had a blast with it and I couldn't believe how much he actually ate.

Birthday cake from Shari Schempp on Vimeo.

This is how he looked by the time he was finished:

Koen was very aware that this day was all about him and he definately enjoyed it. I sure do love you, Fuzzy!

Basketball Season

Cruz's basketball season came to a close in March. He had a great season. Here are a couple of highlights:

Cruz - basketball rebound shot from Shari Schempp on Vimeo.

Cruz - basketball block from Shari Schempp on Vimeo.

Breaking My Silence and a Baby in the Snow

I know it has been very quiet on here for quite some time. I kept telling myself I wasn't blogging because I was just too busy, but that wasn't really the reason. Here's the real reason - I needed a break. I really needed to take a little break from blogging for a while. I guess 2 months qualifies as "a while" because I found myself waking up this morning thinking, "I want to blog today." It has been a very long time since I've thought that. So here I am, back, rejuvenated, and ready to blog.

Here's the first item I'm catching up on...

Koen went out to play in the snow for the first time in March.

He didn't like it.

Not one bit.

It took a half hour to get him dressed to go outside and he stayed out for about 2 minutes.

But I was determined to get my picture, no matter how much he hated it. That's the kind of mom I am. My children are going to need counseling one day.

Our Little Author

Mara worked hard writing a very long "story" to give to her Uncle Jake. Although she can write actual letters, it was line after line after line of little scribbles. He looked at it and said how great it was. Then he asked her what her favorite part of the story was. Her reply, "I didn't read it!"

Pinewood Derby

Cruz competed in his 1st Pinewood Derby on Thursday. He was so excited.

One of the highlights happened at school earlier that day. A few older kids in his pack saw him and asked if he was going to be racing in the derby. He thought that was very cool!

He picked out the car shape. Then Karl cut it out and they sanded it together. Cruz did all the painting. Karl was very adamant that this car was Cruz's car, not Karl's car. Cruz was in charge of everything. Here's the finished product:

Just so you know, the red paint is flames and the yellowish paint is lightning. Why he chose to have the numbers "909" is anyone's guess. I suppose he just thought they looked cool.

He did such a good job on it, but we couldn't convince him that it needed weights added. I think he just really liked how it turned out and didn't want to do anything to change it.

Karl Giving Cruz a pep talk while they are waiting for their turn to weigh-in. FYI, his weight was slightly less than half the allowed weight. So you are probably wondering how that went with such a light car.

I bet you can't guess which one is Cruz's car. I'll give you a hint... it's in the position you would expect the lightest car to be in.

This is pretty much how the night went. He actually came in 5th on 2 of his 6 runs, so he wasn't dead last. And on an unofficial run he came in 4th. I think he was pretty excited about that one.

So even though he didn't win, he had a ton of fun and was so excited to be a part of it all.

On the way home he decided that next year he wanted to add some weights to his car. What a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?

Growing Up

I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that my kids are growing up.

On the one hand I love that they are getting more independent. I see the joy when they master something new and I get so excited for them. I love that I don't have to do quite so much for them. I love seeing them make good decisions.

On the other hand I hate that they don't need me quite as much as they used to. I hate that they can do things for themselves and don't have to ask for help. I hate seeing them make bad decisions. (The latter is not usually the case. I have very good kids.)

Practically from the day my kids are born I sing to them at bedtime. Every night. That is the one thing that is never missed. They get to pick the song and it is usually a silly song that makes us laugh.

The other night when I asked Cruz what song he wanted he said he didn't want one. This has NEVER happened. Not once. A little shocked by his answer I asked if he was sure. He said he was. I asked why he didn't want a song and he just shrugged his shoulders. I was a little confused for a moment and then understanding dawned. He was too old. I asked if he was too old for a bedtime song. He gave a proud little smile and nodded his head. Two things happened at once; I felt such joy seeing him feel a little more grown-up and a little more indepenent, and my heart broke just a little. How many other things that we do all the time, that I take for granted, will he soon be too old to do?

My kids are growing up and I hate love am dealing with it.

Keyon's Idea of Fun

In case you are wondering what this is, it is actually a little peak into my six year old son's brain. This is what he does for fun. While other boys are out playing ball, watching TV, or playing video games my son is drawing venn diagrams on his magnadoodle showing the relationship between himself and his brother. One circle is Kenyon, the other is Koen, and the overlapping section represents how they looked alike as babies.

Get ready for a bragging moment. I have to point out that not only is he using a venn diagram properly, but he is able to apply it directly to himself. What six year old does this? Is this normal six year old behavior? And how many magnadoodles in this world have a venn diagram drawn on them?

Cruz's Baptism

This past week has been all about Cruz. His birthday on Tuesday, his first day at cub scouts on Wednesday, and he was baptized after his basketball game on Saturday. Whew! My boy is growing up way too fast.

Cruz was baptized and confirmed by his dad. He had lots of support from family. So many members of our family were able to come and that just made it so special. The Spirit was so strong and it was such a wonderful experience to know that he was understanding just how important this day was. He is such a good boy, and I am so very proud of him.