Josh

~Josh's Senior Prom~

This is his date Kylie. Their Prom was all the way down in Long Beach.

He said they had a great time!

Doesn't he look handsome and all growed up?

Josh has 4 more weeks until he graduates!!!! He is hanging in there still trying to maintain his grades. If you click on the link below you can see all the videos he's been creating!

http://www.vimeo.com/1989993

My ABSOLUTE favorite video of his is "Loved Defined."

18th Birthday

Josh is the BIG 1 8! I honestly don't remember much about turning 18. I think my parents took me and some friends to Hard Rock Cafe, but really i don't remember. hmmm...

So we took Josh to Universal City Walk for dinner at Bucca de Beppo and we had a blast! We were in a room upstairs with a very large and loud party sitting next to us. When it came time to sing josh happy birthday the ENTIRE ROOM sang at the top of their lungs!!!! You can tell by the look on his face that he was a bit overwhelemed. :)

Kyle figured the coolest legal thing he could do at 18 was play the lottery. So he bought him some lottery scratchers and yes he won a little cash and another lottery ticket!

Family News

Here is our newest edition, Tommy hanging with his brother, Toby. Toby was hanging with us until the kittens were 8 weeks old. He is off to his new home, my brothers' house :) Kienan came up with the name Tommy. Since we have a mice problem in our backyard he figured we already have the "Jerrys" so now we have "Tom" like Tom and Jerry :)

Can you tell that Kyle insisted "No CATS!" for the first week before we convinced him to let us keep Tommy?

tough guy cuddled on the couch with the kittens~

We mustn't forget the first born children of the family. They are very curious about the kitties, still love their treats, and attempt to escape every now and then.

Josh earned Student of the Month in his school!!!! The program through is Character Counts. His Video teacher nominated him and he was chosen amongst 10 other students. We celebrated with a family dinner at Islands. He also had a 4.0 on his last report card. He had all A's and 1 B, but the B was in an Honors class so it counts extra. Check out his video website as he is adding new ones all the time.

Kiera is busy as ever keeping up with her older brother and sister. It is amazing how much she understands what we say. Her words are still "mama" and "dada". She's a dancer, an entertainer, and still a snuggle bug :) She mimics all of us in everything we do. No room for error i tell ya.

Kienan brought home 3 papers this week with 100%. He is doing so well in school academically! We are signing him up for flag football starting in January. He has more energy than the energizer bunny times 10. He is an avid skateboarder, reader, and loves to antagonize his sister :)

This series of picture really warms my heart. He recently told kyle and i that he has a hard time making friends during recess. Broke my heart and of course brought me to tears. I just can't understand how the whole world wouldn't want to be his friend. He has so mush to offer and i'm praying that everyone can see it too so he doesn't feel so sad at school, but rather shares this smile.

Mackenzie seems to have grown up so quickly all of the sudden. I hate that. She went from toddler to big girl way too fast. My parents gave her ballet lessons for her birthday so we will be starting those soon. She is very fond of being fancy these days. I believe she has worn more make-up in the past month than i have in the past 5 years.

Good to have a girl in the house :)The picture below was such a proud mommy moment. it just seemed that the girls room was getting out of control with their clothes and i was trying to weed out the summer clothes and their room look like a tornado, hurricane, and earthquake hit all in 2 seconds.

Poor daughter of mine just wanted to rest her tired self. So she found the only cleared spot in probably the house that day and curled up as tight as she could. i found her fast asleep not even covered up with one of the million blankets we have. Nope. A pillow times three. She stacked them to make her half naked body warm. This is proof of how crazy our world gets sometimes. i feel bad that she didn't have a nice cozy bed to lay her head down, but at the same time i feel like this picture captures the unspoken truth of parenting at times.and here i am. UGH! done with the whole knee-in-brace look. Yep. Just Done.

Surrounded by AMAZING People

So the ear tube surgery went GREAT! It was quick and pretty much painless. The nurses and doctors were amazed how she NEVER cried once, not even when daddy left the room before surgery. They were also surprised how she woke up immediately after the procedure. They kept saying that it didn't even seem like she had surgery. I am very happy that she will be able to endure winter EAR PAIN FREE! I also feel relieved that her body will not have to ingest all of those antibiotics for such a long period of time. And, the BEST part is her world won't sound so muffled anymore! So my Mackenzie is amazing for her COURAGE and BRAVERY!!! She's already dressing up like a princess after her special chocolate shake :)

Kiera's had her 1 year well check last week. I was encouraged by her pediatrician to really get her to cry herself back to sleep during the night as she STILL WAKES UP EVERY 3 HOURS!!!!!!! She really only nurses once a night, but other than that she just wakes up to wake up. It doesn't bother me so much as i have been doing for 13 months and my body is just used to the schedule. But i decided to follow her advice. Last night at bedtime i stood by her crib as she screamed and cried and cried and screamed because i was not rocking her to sleep. i thought i was giving some awesome moral support as i hadn't left the bedroom yet. BUT, after 30 minutes of her screaming and crying and crying and screaming i decided to walk out of her bedroom for 5 minutes and return to encourage her to lay down in the crib again. She wasn't having it.... continued to scream and cry and cry and scream. So i walked out again giving her a chance to lay down on her own.... oh no.... she wanted her mommy. as i waited in the other room i suddenly heard a loud THUD!!! Simultaneously, kyle was installing a new shower head so i thought he had dropped his tool bag or something.... WRONG!!!! Little miss kiera, 13 month old little miss kiera, CLIMBED OUT OF HER CRIB AND LANDED ON THE WOOD FLOOR!!!! She walked out of her bedroom still crying insisting that i rock her to sleep. SHE WON! I felt sooo bad that i had rushed the process weaning her at bedtime and maybe my little baby still needs her mommy to rock her to sleep :) so i will! My Kiera June is amazing for her PASSION AND DETERMINATION!!!!

Kienan is doing SUPER in school. He was the first one in his class to start the reading program with BOB books. He is already on his 3rd book and keeps saying, "These are so easy i can read it with my eyes closed." As a teacher THIS IS AWESOME! As a mother I AM VERY PROUD! But as a lover of books I AM EXCITED as what the love of reading will bring to his world and hopefully enhance his life. So the other night i caught him under his sheet with a flashlight and a book. CLASSIC! My son is amazing for his INTELLIGENCE and CURIOSITY about the world!!!!!!

Josh has done it AGAIN! His video assignment was to create a music video. He produced and filmed it. There is some trick stuff in there plus he drew that picture of the singer BY HAND! That is his best friend, Kyle, singing who has a real band. But they lip-synced this song. I am amazed by josh's CREATIVITY and MATURITY that i have seen in the past couple of months!! Check it out!!!! : www.vimeo.com/1989993

I don't post much about my dear husband and i guess that is because he is not growing and developing quite like the littler people of the house... but he has been AMAZING lately. First, i want to acknowledge that we have now BEEN IN BUSINESS FOR 2 YEARS AS OF OCTOBER 1ST! What an experience to work as partners for these past couple of years! Our marriage has benefited by using this opportunity to get to know each other on a completely different level. The biggest struggle and challenge has been separating work from home life; being "Business Partners" one minute, "Parents" another minute and "Husband/Wife" even another minute. But here we are still moving forward. his PERSISTENCE is amazing! Second, he treated me to a saturday of sleeping in, a 1 hour facial and a 1 hour massage!!!!! WOW!!! That's a first and i loved it! So he is amazing for his THOUGHTFULNESS! And thirdly, he has been helping with the cooking, cleaning the house (bathrooms!) and taking on more of the parenting duties. For this i really appreciate his efforts. I am amazed at his role as a DEDICATED FATHER and THOUGHTFUL HUSBAND!!!!! Oh ya and i'm glad he's tapping into his INNER CHILD a bit more! :) i love you.

Potpourri

WOW! i just can't seem to find any extra moments these days! We've been painting some rooms in the house, playing softball, watching football with friends, and just getting through each day as best we can! I am very happy to began the season of autumn and embrace all that is has to offer! I already started by making some homemade strawberry jam and muffins and banana bread. I just started menu planning which has helped our grocery bill, my blank mind when it comes to deciding dinner at 4:30 and the opportunity to try new dishes. I've typed out a list of "dinner options" and everyone gets to pick one meal for the week and then i fill in the blanks. I printed out a menu to write in all down including a space for my weekly grocery list. Last week was my trial week. Next on my list is sewing Halloween costumes and making a quilt for our bed. :)

i have an assortment of things i would like to journal about, hence the title!

First, I just want to remember these clever sayings i've seen on various church signs:

1. BIBLE stands for: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

2. Ch ch: What's missing? (ur)
3. Ever see a U-Haul behind a hearst?

Second, my aunt Claudia and uncle rick came for a visit a couple of weeks ago from Oregon. They rode their Harley all the way down here. We were able to spend a couple of days with them one of them at our house for dinner. Here is great auntie reading a bedtime story.

Here is great uncle rick being his silly self! (and yes i will still mail your stuff!)

Third, Kienan started skateboard lessons and ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! He gets ready super fast each morning so that he can practice skateboarding on the front porch before school. I did a Skateboard Dinner Party for him and his friend Saturday with hot dogs while watching Fuel TV after skateboarding all day. We also had his first parent/teacher conference for kindergarten and in so many words she said he was at the top of his class!!!! VERY PROUD :)

Fourth, Mackenzie is LOVING preschool! She looks for the paints every morning as that is her favorite. She is just now remembering her friends names so she speaks about them all the time. She can spell her name verbally and written. Her 4th birthday is around the corner if you can believe that! I'm looking into ballet classes for her :)

Fifth, Kiera has become a spit fire. She is very opinionated, knows exactly what she wants and has no qualms about expressing herself. Her smiles and kisses puts each and every one of us under her Spell of Absolute Cuteness!! She is starting to babble more and will climb anything and everything.... ladders in the garage, monkey bars, chairs.... no fear :)

Sixth, Josh has the highest grade in is Economics class and I believe an "A" in his Statistics class. YAY! He is working at our local pharmacy store and still making great videos. He and a friend "Jammed" in our backyard Sunday night. When i say "Jammed" i mean full on drum set and guitar with amps at 8:00 at night :) To him it was the "greatest jam session EVER!" :)

~Here are just some random photos~

Labor Day Weekend at my parent's house

I love footie pajamas!!!

Tara's Annual BBQ (been going off and on since i was 19 years old)

As you can see I still have some serious dance moves!

It's hard to party when you're so young :)

~Sisterly Love~

(I'll be using this picture when they are 17 and 14

and fighting over the bathroom mirror.)

First Day of School

It doesn't seem right to start school in august. September signifies new school supplies and new school clothes and the anticipation of new classes and seeing friends again and then as a teacher all the new stuff.. new bulletin boards and activities and a new grade book and new sharpies OF COURSE!!!! ugh, no wonder why i live for September 1st EVERY year... there is no other like autumn... i would have named my daughter autumn if there was a "k" in the name... i love the weather and the way the sun shines during these next 3 months and the colors.... the earth tones are my favorite and of course football... every sunday is a holiday when there is football :) and thanksgiving... favorite to host thanksgiving in my home... so many reasons why i love this time of year and starting school in august was a bit funky, but here we are anyway!

KIENAN STARTED HIS FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!

...and you just gotta let the tears slide down your cheek cuz that's what moms do on the first day that you really let them go and began a new chapter of their lives.... he was so excited and wanted to make sure that he looked cool! His teacher seems great and so far he is lovin it! He looked so handsome that morning.

i was a bit concerned when i saw him walking with the disorganized dangling papers on his very first day of school. i am certain i will find important school papers smashed at the bottom of this kid's backpack amongst a week old decomposed lunch and deteriorating month old gym socks :) ohhhh i dont want him to grow up just yet!

JOSH STARTED HIS SENIOR YEAR!

if that just isnt crazy. He was 6 years old when kyle and i got married and here he is all growed up! Here is a link to a short video he already created for his production class. the kid has some serious talent!

http://www.vimeo.com/1569461

Now we just need to fine tune those teenager moments :) i'm not sure why God does not give us the ability to "get it" until we are soooooooooooo much older... but i now see how much i DIDN'T get it when i was in high school!

MACKENZIE STARTED PRESCHOOL!

She is just one BIG permanent smile right now! She has been waiting for this moment since last year when kienan started preschool. She runs to me beaming from ear to ear every day after school pointing out her earned sticker for the day. And they let her paint ALLLLLLLL she wants which is a blessing to her (painting was something she was thankful for during our dinner prayer).