Color Me Mine

Last week we went to a paint your own ceramics store for a Mom and me day.  It was an interesting experience and it took WAY longer than I ever thought it would to paint two things.  We made Father’s Day gifts there.  One for Daddy and one for Grandpa.  We went with all of our cousins on Daddy’s side of the family.  We all went in on a big platter that the kids made for Grandpa.  I think it turned out really cute.  My kids made a bowl for Jason—they are old enough that they did it all themselves including designing it.  Liam cheesing for the cameraEmily working hard to get Dad’s gift just right Jason isn’t usually into this kind of thing, but he really seemed to enjoy it.  He got the letters all ready to put on the outside of the bowl and he was very particular about how he painted it (REALLY not like him—he’s a gitter done quick kid).   This is Em painting the base color onto Grandpa’s platter.  She chose yellow.  She was done with her part of the bowl and all the rest of the kids were still working on their masterpieces (except for Liam who lasted about 15 minutes before he started running around the store and chasing Brooklyn…it’s a miracle they didn’t break anything) so she took care of it for us.  Jason wrote happy father’s day 2010 on the back for us.  Normally he has atrocious handwriting, but for some reason writing with that little paint bottle wasn’t hard for him at all.  Liam was one of the last handprints on the platter.  We only got one other picture of handprints going on the platter and I think my sil would kill me if I put it on here (by this time we’d been there for a couple hours and EVERYONE including Mom’s were ready to go).  So, we left them there to be fired and I went to pick them up earlier this week.  I think they all turned out super cute and when I have a chance I’ll have to take a quick picture of our creations to add to this post.  For now I gotta run get a few more things done for Girls camp.  We leave on Mon.  I hope I survive!

Cousins

My brother in law and sister in law are building a house nearby. It's almost done and my sil has been coming to clean it a little at a time. We've been lucky enough to have her two little girls come play at our house to help her out a couple times (toddlers and cleaning don't mix well--I know from experience). They are seriously two of the most well behaved kids I have ever met. It doesn't hurt that they are so dang cute either. Brooklyn is a couple months older than Liam and I couldn't believe it when she willingly let Liam have the color of playdough that he wanted instead of keeping it for herself. (I can tell she has to share at home with her little sister). Her example has opened my eyes to Liam's 2 year old selfishness. I realized that I need to help him learn to share and think about other kids. It's so easy since the twins are so much older to just make them be the ones that share and give Liam his way all the time. Something to work on. Here are a few pictures of our fun one day. We are all excited for them to live closer so we can see them more often!
Emily and Kate on the swing.

Brooklyn on the swing

















Liam saying "cheese" for the camera

















Jason, Liam and Brooklyn having fun outside.

Little things

This blog post is going to be a bunch of little things that I want to remember. 

Liam has started answering the phone…he’s two so about all you get is hello?  Hi!  okay…and then I take the phone from him.  So, if you call me and he answers I hope it makes you smile. 

Liam is obsessed with being just like his big brother and sister.  The other day Jason asked me if he could call his friend Carter to see if he could hang out.  Liam promptly piped up, “see if Camden (Carters 2 y/o brother) tan hang out too”.  He thinks he wants glasses like Jason and Em.He’s “mowin’ da lawn” here.  He pulls the strap on the back of his stroller and then makes sound effects like a lawn mower and pushes his stroller over the lawn.  This is when he was finished, but I wanted a picture anyway.  ;) 

When we see  a dump truck or a garbage truck  or a train Liam gets so excited and yells, “Did you see it?  Tan you see it Mom?” 

Jason just went on his first official boy scout campout.  The boys tried to pull an all nighter, but didn’t quite make it and then they had to do a 10 mile hike in the rain the next day.  He’s still tired even  though he got a good nights rest last night. 

Em and I are going to girl’s camp next week.  I know it will be fun and I’m really excited to get to go with Em her first year.  It would be a lot less stressful if I could go as a Mom instead of as the camp director though.  :) 

Ho Hum

We have been keeping busy at our house, but not with anything out of the ordinary.  Lots of ballgames, lessons, scouts and young women’s.  Since school has been out lots of playing outside with friends and lots of popsicles to beat the heat. 

I have been a bit crazy trying to get everything ready for Girl’s camp in a couple weeks but other than that things have been pretty ho hum around here. 

We did finally get our garden planted and then the birds promptly ate all the tomato plants we planted.  So, I replanted and put the wall o waters around them in the hopes they will keep out the birds. 

there you go…hopefully I’ll have some more interesting things to post soon! 

Our very own personal...

Captain underpants! I've been trying to get Liam not to be scared of the potty so I bribed him that if he sat on it a couple times I would buy him some Thomas the tank engine underpants. So yesterday we bought the underpants and as soon as we got home he put them on--over his pants. Then he had to sleep with them on over his jammies too. This morning I put them on over his diaper (he still has no idea that he has to go potty before he actually goes) and then put his jammie pants on over it. That just wouldn't work for him because he wants to be able to see them...so we had to put them back over the top. Hopefully he'll figure out where they really belong before the actual potty training has to start...

End of another year

Yesterday the kids had their end of year program. I was really good and didn't even cry or anything about my kids finishing elementary school and moving on next year to junior high. I remember when my parents used to say that time flies and I used to wonder what they meant by that, but seriously since having kids I know EXACTLY what they meant. Everything seems to speed up. Now my babies are heading into a new stage in life. (One I personally hated and struggled through--hopefully they'll have a better time than I did)
This is Em at the program.

Jason is a great singer. Then both of the kids with their teachers. I think we had opposite ends of the spectrum in teachers this year and it was great except for a little bit of jealousy from the child who always had homework towards the child who almost never had homework. It was a great year and now we can look forward to a fabulous summer!  Way to go Em and Jason!  Love you!

Black Belt

When Jason was five years old he started taking karate.  He was in a class called little dragons and it was so cute to watch him.  Over the past seven years he has learned a lot and  this morning he had the opportunity to test for his Black Belt in kyuki-do.  He did a fabulous job at his test and really earned his belt.  We are so proud of him.  He has worked hard and even with taking a few breaks here and there (mostly for baseball) he has achieved this goal he made for himself several years ago.  Here are a few pictures.  bowing in at the start of the test. basic punches Forms Jason’s personal weapon form.  He had to make up a form on his own and the weapon he chose was kamas. More forms sparring/take-downs board breaking (axe  kick) board breaking (palm heel) Shaking hands after receiving his Black Belt from Joe Kelly.  Mr. Joe Kelly has been Jason’s instructor since he was a Dragon.  He hasn’t taught much the past year or so and we’ve missed it.  He has some other great instructors though and Jason has learned from all of them. 

We were told the test would be two hours, but it wasn’t much more than an hour.  It was nice that it wasn’t as long, but a bummer because a couple family members were going to come for the second half of the test to watch Jason and by the time they got there he was getting his belt already. 

It was a great experience for him and he looks forward to growing and learning more in martial arts. 

Busy times

The end of the school year is always really busy.  Why does everything have to happen in May?  I mean field trips can happen in April too can’t they?  Our calendar is so full right now there are NO empty days!  Add to that Jason’s extra karate classes and baseball games twice a week and we have been running like crazy.  Tomorrow Jason is testing for his black belt in karate (I’m more nervous than he is!).  You can be certain I will be blogging about it and posting pictures for you all (like it or not) and hopefully once school is out next week my life will be less busy and I’ll have time to blog more again. 

Birthmother celebration walk

Saturday we went to Provo High for the birthmother celebration/walk (we never did do any walking around the track although we saw a few people do a lap or two) Liam still had a blast and here’s a little glimpse of the highlights. 

It was lots of fun.  I even got to meet Mrs. r from the r house blog—briefly and no picture!  Bummer, but I did meet her.  Kristin can vouch for me on that one! 

I am excited to see what Liam’s birthmom thinks of the cute recordable picture frame we sent her.  I had Liam record his voice onto it and I think it’s adorable…I have to say though that I wish it didn’t cost almost as much to mail gifts as it does to buy them…when did postage get so ridiculously expensive??!!

Hope of America

The twins were both in choir again this year at school and their school participated in the annual Hope of America celebration/performance.  They both love performing in it with all their friends.  Afterwards I was asking them if they were sad it was their last year and they informed me that just because they won’t be performing doesn’t mean they don’t want to go see it next year because they want to see it from the audience’s perspective.  Here are a few highlights.Each school has different colored shirts so that when they sit they make the American flag.  They had lots of different dancing groups perform along with the choir.  this one is an island dance that was pretty cool If you know where to look you can see Jason in this photo.  He’s second in from the left on the sixth row up from the bottom. Em is in this one right smack in the middle of the picture. I love this part of the show—it’s the over 55 dancers and after they dance their number this cute lady comes out she’s 92.  My camera battery died right before she did the splits!  At 92!  That’s how I want to age! At the end they sing a song about lights and they all have flashlights and it’s really fun to watch. 

I’m glad my kids love stuff like this…I’m sure I have many more performances ahead of me. 

Join me!

Tomorrow is Birthmother’s day…did you know that?  It’s the day that we celebrate the wonderful women that made the wonderful decision to place their babies into our families. We love Liam’s birthmom, and we love having an open relationship with her.  At least as open as it can be when she lives half way across the country from us…  So to celebrate birthmothers there is a 5K walk at Provo High school tomorrow at 10:00 am. There will be lots of other things besides just the walk like balloons, games, and snacks and it sounds like tons of fun for the little ones.   Its meant for EVERYONE!  If you are a birthmom, adoptee, adoptive family, or if you aren’t any of those if you know someone who is (if nothing else you know ME so that counts!) and if you don’t really know me come anyway!  Chances are that you or someone you love has been touched by adoption in some way so come celebrate with us!  See you tomorrow!