What a year

Today was Will's last day of kindergarten.  We took a picture before he went to school this morning, and I was comparing it with his picture from the first day. 


And here is today's picture

He looks so grown up now.  It's amazing how much can change in a year.  I asked Will what some of his favorite things about kindergarten were.

-Learning how to rollerskate for P.E.
-Playing with friends at recess
-Having snacktime
-Watching chicks hatch in his classroom
-Singing songs to remember how to spell words

He's had a really fun year and we are so proud of all the progress he has made with writing and reading, as well as all the fun and interesting things he learned about math, science, and many other subjects.  1st grade here we come!

A Cookie Story

Yesterday Will and Kayla helped me make cookies while Bill was home teaching.  An incident happened that prompted Will to write a short story.

Translation: Once there was two people (Will and Kayla) eating different sugar.  One was eating brown sugar, one was eating white sugar. Then their mother said stop eating sugar. 

And a (very bad) picture of the cookie helpers

And the answer is...

Here are the answers to the quiz in case people were interested

Picture 1 - The inside of our computer tower (I think)
Picture 2 - The trunk window of our car
Picture 3 - Part of the wheel on my wheelchair

What is it?

Will and Kayla enjoy playing with the camera as much as we will let them.  And every once in a while they come up with a picture that makes us go "What is it?"  So I thought I'd have a little fun on our blog.  See if you can guess what they were trying to take a picture of.

Small and simple things

Today Kayla and I had a tea party.  Nothing big, just water and cracker sandwiches.  But seeing the smile on Kayla's face when I joined her was wonderful.

A wonderful time

I feel I should preface this post by saying that I have the most amazing and wonderful husband ever.  The reasons why are certainly plentiful, but for the sake of this post he's amazing and wonderful because he let me go on a vacation completely by myself.  Again.  A couple of years ago I got to go to Utah and this time I got to go to Washington D.C.  One of my best friends got married a couple of weeks ago and I was able to be there.  It was definitely an experience that I will always remember.  Since I could probably go on and on about all the fun and crazy experiences I had, instead I'll highlight some of my favorite parts.  And unfortunately I didn't take that many pictures (and those I did take didn't turn out so well) so you'll have to use your imagination.

-Flying into DC and seeing the Washington Monument from the plane window
-Spending time with old friends and their adorable kids
-Having dinner with my sister-in-law, her husband, and my father-in-law
-Riding the Metro
-Getting lost at least twice - the getting lost part wasn't so fun, but I definitely got plenty of exercise with all that walking
-Seeing all the amazing sites.  We went to the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and walked by numerous other places that I would love to go back and see.
-Meeting new friends
-Getting a manicure with my friend the morning of her wedding
-Being inside the beautiful Washington D.C. temple
-Seeing my friend start her new life with her wonderful new husband

 I definitely missed Bill and the kids at times, but it was so much fun to be able to relax for a few days and not have any responsibilities.  Thanks to all those who helped us out with babysitting, rides, accommodations, and numerous other things.  And of course a huge thank you to Bill for playing Mr. Mom while I got to have fun.  You're the best honey!   

Motherhood Is...

Recently I entered an essay contest about motherhood.  I didn't win, but I feel this essay sums up pretty well how I feel about motherhood, so I thought I'd share it with you.

MOTHERHOOD IS

Motherhood is an interesting word to try and define. It reminds me of the beginning line in A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. For me the best of times include getting a spontaneous hug from my 3-year-old or seeing my 6-year-old make his bed without being asked. It is seeing my children playing nicely together or making special presents for their grandparents. It is throwing a successful birthday party or listening to them describe a fun day at school or a friend's house. Motherhood is the best when I can put my children to bed at the end of the day and feel good about the choices they made, which is often a reflection of how I've raised them. At those times I think to myself “I love being a mother. I am so thankful that God has granted me these two beautiful angels for me to love and raise.” During the best of times I think of myself as “Supermom”; able to do 10 loads of laundry in one day, or make a delicious, healthy snack for my kids that will make them say “Wow Mom, we love you!” These are the times when I can do no wrong and I have the world at my feet.  And then there are the worst of times. Temper tantrums, throwing up, sibling rivalry, messy rooms, etc. These are the days when I feel like letting my husband take care of the kids and escaping to some far off place all by myself. These are the days that I am forced to separate my kids before World War III breaks out. I have been a mother for almost 7 years, and while there are plenty of times when I might toy with the idea of going back to work or getting a full-time nanny, all I have to do is look at my daughter's beautiful face or hear my son tell me a funny story and I remember why I chose to make motherhood my full-time job. Because motherhood is frustrating, hard, exasperating, beautiful, fun, and the most wonderful thing I could be doing with my life.

I love being a mother to Will and Kayla.  They teach me so much every day about love, friendship, service, compassion, patience, forgiveness, and so many other things.  They are active, crazy, silly, creative, amazing children.  Yes I have bad days, yes I want to throw in the towel and quit sometimes, but at the end of the day I don't think I would trade motherhood for anything else.

And A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Next week is General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of the Church are instructed, uplifted, and encouraged in many different topics. Families like ours that have young children often find it difficult to sit still for 4 hours. I've often wondered if Will and Kayla actually get anything out of Conference. Well this morning I was definitely humbled and taught. Will informed us that he wanted to prepare for Conference next week by watching talks from the previous Conference. So we found the link, Will set up chairs for us to sit on in the living room, and we all sat through at least one talk. I definitely felt the Spirit as I watched my children being kind to each other and watching an apostle of the Lord instruct us. I am grateful that Will and Kayla are learning about the importance of listening to Conference and the blessing it can bring into our family.

Our Little Princess

Kayla turned 3 years old on Wednesday. Yesterday she had her birthday party. The theme of the party was princesses. So as you can imagine, there was A LOT of pink involved.




The decorations. Susan kindly offered her services - and her height - to help set things up since Bill wasn't home yet.



The guests. L-R: Emmalyn, Allison, Kayla, Alice, Sophie, Esther. Since this was a princess party some of the girls were dressed up. It was really cute to see them running around in their dresses and crowns that we had them decorate. I think one of my favorite parts of this picture is noticing Emmalyn's crown is backwards. Honorary guests: Will and Justin. Justin's little sister was one of Kayla's guests, so we decided to let Will have a friend there too.


The games. This isn't a very good picture, but we played a couple of games that had a princess twist. One was "hide the slipper" which was a version of "hot or cold", and "castle bean bag toss". You can kind of see the castle in the background.



The gifts. Kayla got a lot of fun gifts this year. Some of her favorites were: fairy wings, princess baby dolls, a princess ball, bubbles, and a purse with all kinds of treasures inside.




The "cake". Originally I wanted to do a cake shaped like a castle, but then I decided that might be a bit much for me to handle. Bill found these cute crown-shaped toppers. And no we didn't get a black candle for the middle. I'm horrible with lighting. That candle has a 3 on it.

This was Kayla's first friend birthday party and I think it was very successful. Although I have to say I'm glad I only have to do this kind of thing a couple of times a year.

What's in a name?

When we moved to Illinois over 4 years ago I knew that there would be a number of differences between Utah and Illinois, among them being terrain and weather. I also knew that being members of the LDS church would put us in the minority rather than the majority, like we were in Utah. But up until recently I would say that the majority of our friends have been LDS as well. Since Will has started school, however, things have changed slightly. He's got at least 2 or 3 friends who are not members of the LDS church. Which has brought up some interesting conversations in our family. For example, when I picked up Will from school today we were talking about calling one of his school friends to come over and play. Will said "Can you call Sister K to see if S can come over tomorrow?" It caught me off guard but didn't totally surprise me to hear him call her that, because up until now all of his friends parents have been either Sister so-and-so or Brother so-and-so. So I did my best to explain that, if someone is a member of the LDS church you call them Sister or Brother, but if they aren't you call them Mr. or Mrs. I think it's going to be interesting to see what happens as Will is exposed to other religions and other ways of thinking beyond what we know as members of the LDS church.