Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Airplane

Grandpa and Grandma Airplane came up for the weekend a few weeks ago and 

we packed in a lot of fun...

When the kids woke up Friday morning Grandpa and Grandma were here. And it just so happened to be picture day at school so Kylee and Grandma had fun picking out clothes and doing hair. Grandma snapped a picture right before we walked to the corner to catch the bus.

Grandma loves getting a makeover.

We stopped at Frost Me Sweet for some parfaits to share. Those cups are packed full of layers of cake and frosting and they are the best cake I've ever had!

We stopped by Steve's work to share our treats and so his parents could see the campus.

Girl party in the backseat.

Liv is a crack up.

Grandpa Airplane brought all of his electronics and had them all lined up and ready to go for Steve to look at when he got home from work. Let the fun begin!

We were in the process of getting our backyard sprinklers and sod. After school a dump truck brought a load of topsoil and the kids could have played on it all night.

They got sooo dirty.

Olivia, Kylee, Ava (Kylee's friend), and Cody

While the kids were getting dirty in the backyard, we were getting things clean in the front yard. Grandpa Airplane enjoyed using our power washer to get all the bugs off the front of his car.

Aww...Steve wrote my name in a heart on the driveway.

It must be true love.

The kids had to be hosed off before doing anything else.

Then we played a bit and then headed out to our very favorite place to eat.

El Fat Cat Grill! 

It's the best food.

The kids discovered that they love waffles with cream cheese and chocolate chips. They're always experimenting and the weirder the better. Then it was off to soccer!

Kylee

Olivia

Olivia

Kylee

Kylee

Another fun Saturday!

On Sunday Steve took a little nap with his best buddies.

And then he made awesome Mexican food (as usual)...

which always tastes better with fancy soda.

We also watched for the Red Moon on Sunday night while the kids had fun marching around in the dirt.

We're so glad they made the drive up. 

We all loved it!!

FFS: Family Friendly Soccer

This fall we joined a soccer league called Family Friendly Soccer.  It's an awesome program. There's a boy and girl team for each age group. All the teams meet at the same park at the same time on Saturday mornings. Half the time you do drills and the second half you scrimmage. There are no uniforms or travel costs or weekly practices. When I first told the kids that I had signed them up Kylee was pretty upset, but she has enjoyed it, as well as Cody and Olivia.

Somehow I got roped into being the Assistant Coach for the Pre-K B Girls Team (Liv's team).

Olivia

Kylee in orange

Kylee politely kicking her ball at her coach

Liv is standing next to me while I try to convince her teammate that sitting in the middle of the field is a bad idea.

Liv loves to make goals and dribble when we're doing drills, but when it comes time to scrimmage she doesn't like the chaos (hence the hands behind her back and her distance from the ball). Since the first day of soccer she is improving each time though...especially since we talked about listening to the coach and working hard.

We're also seeing Kylee improve. We keep telling her that she's allowed to be feisty on the field. How do you teach your child to be polite and kind off the field and be aggressive on the field?

Cody loves soccer and is doing well. His favorite position is Defender.

His coach is our home teacher (in the green shirt on the right) and he does a great job of teaching them on the field while their playing.

The younger teams get finished earlier than Cody's team so the girls dribble on over to the other fields and then we get to watch the big boys play.

It's easy to spot Cody in his blue soccer socks.

Teaching the 4 year old girl team is lots of fun. They are giggly and silly. If the coach gives them the choice between sitting in a circle and talking and anything else they will always pick talking. One time we were sitting in a circle and the coach asked them to name some rules of soccer. 

The girls shouted out:

"Don't use your hands!"

"Don't run away!"

"Try to make a goal!"

"Don't bite people!"

Then one girl sighed and said, "There are so many rules!"

August & September Pictures from my Phone

Kylee passed off her swimming lessons and is now on Level 3! I love the quote from our prophet, President Monson, "Your future is as bright as your faith." Kylee prayed and worked hard and was able to overcame her fears. 

Shortly after swimming lessons ended, school started. We decided to start the tradition of "Boo-Hoo Breakfasts" since I will miss them so much! 

And the it was off to school! Kylee in 2nd and Cody in 5th. 

The next day it was Olivia's first day of preschool. A great reason to break out the whip cream again. 

She was soooo excited. 

Pretty much every time Liv goes to the bus stop in the morning to send off Cody and Kylee she is fully accessorized with bracelets, headbands, hats, sunglasses, high heels. 

Kylee won a bike from the library as a part of their summer reading program. 

For Family Home Evening one night we went to Krispy Kreme and learned all about how the donuts are made. It was awesome!

2015 Birthday Questions

CODY, age 10

Nicknames: Code

How old are you? 10

What is your favorite color? any kind of green

What is your favorite animal? Humans

What is your favorite book? Harry Potter and Nicholas Flamel books

What is your favorite TV show? Phineas and Ferb

What is your favorite movie? Star Wars and Tron

What is your favorite song? Don’t have one

What is your favorite food? Nachos and Double Bacon Cheese Pizza

What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream and Brownies

What is your favorite drink? Vanilla Sprite

What is your favorite breakfast food? Lucky Charms

What is your favorite snack? Cool Ranch Doritos

What is your favorite outfit? t-shirts and shorts

What is your favorite game? Chess, PowerGrid, Pandemic, Puerto Rico, Settlers, and XBOX Lego games

What is your favorite toy? Legos

Who is your best friend? Don’t have one currently because we just moved to WA

What is your favorite thing to do? play games, eat, play with toys, or play outside

What is your favorite thing to do outside? play tag games or trampoline games

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and any person’s birthdays

What is your favorite restaurant? Five Guys or Cafe Rio

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Nothing

What is your favorite place to go? vacation

Where do you want to go on vacation? Go on a cruise around the world

What do you want to be when you grow up? A Lego Designer

What did you do on your birthday? Went to Boise to see Duncan and Charlie

KYLEE, age 7

Nicknames: Ky

How old are you? 7

What is your favorite color? Blue and Orange

What is your favorite animal? Dolphin

What is your favorite book? Arthur books

What is your favorite TV show? Good Luck Charlie

What is your favorite movie? Cinderella Story

What is your favorite song? Uptown Funk (kids edited version)

What is your favorite food? German Pancakes and Nachos

What is your favorite dessert? Dark Chocolate Mousse Pie

What is your favorite drink? Lemonade

What is your favorite breakfast food? German Pancakes

What is your favorite snack? Dorito chips

What is your favorite outfit? shorts

What is your favorite game? Ticket to Ride

What is your favorite toy? Strawberry Shortcake Cafe

Who is your best friend? Isabella Brenfleck, Darcy Christensen, Bealyn Horford, Vaishnavi Battharum,

What is your favorite thing to do? play outside

What is your favorite thing to do outside? hide and seek, tag, hide and seek tag

What is your favorite holiday? my birthday and Christmas and the 4th of July

What is your favorite restaurant? Chik-fil-A

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Monkey Berta and a warm blanket

What is your favorite place to go? Utah, Nevada, Maryland, Texas

Where do you want to go on vacation? Utah, Nevada

What do you want to be when you grow up? artist and teacher

What did you do on your birthday? Baymax party, went to school and got a birthday hat and pencil

OLIVIA, age 4

Nicknames: Lou, Liv, Livy

How old are you? 4

What is your favorite color? Red and Blue

What is your favorite animal? Giraffe

What is your favorite book? Arthur books

What is your favorite TV show? Sofia the First

What is your favorite movie? Sleeping Beauty

What is your favorite song? I Am a Child of God

What is your favorite food? Apples

What is your favorite dessert? Ice Cream cake

What is your favorite drink? Lemonade

What is your favorite breakfast food? Waffles

What is your favorite snack? Cool Ranch Burritos (Doritos)

What is your favorite outfit? dress

What is your favorite game? Sleeping Queens

What is your favorite toy? Kitchen and Phone

Who is your best friend? Callie Freeman

What is your favorite thing to do? play games

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with scooters and ride in my car

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

What is your favorite restaurant? Cafe Rio

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Lucky

What is your favorite place to go? to a restaurant

Where do you want to go on vacation? to Grandma’s house

What do you want to be when you grow up? mommy

What did you do on your birthday? Ate lunch with Callie Freeman

Cody's Boise Birthday: the BIG 10!

All Cody wanted for his birthday was to be with Duncan and Charlie. So we made a quick weekend trip down to Boise.

The Rich's set up their tent in the backyard and all the kids got to watch a movie and sleep out there with Grandpa Dean.

Our poor kids kept running into the glass door at full speed thinking there wasn't a door there. We'd get one child picked up off the floor and another would smack the door. Finally, Sara gave the kids dry erase markers and had them write all over the glass so they could see it better and hopefully help them keep the rest of their brain cells. They wrote "Danger" and "STOP" and all kinds of funny things.

Bob and Steve were able to sneak in a ride on Saturday morning.

Play-doh!

Aunt Sara helped the girls make their animals that they sleep with out of play-doh. Here is Lucky.

And here's Berta.

Duncan and Cody made a fort.

Water fight!!

Instead of going straight for Grandpa, Liv stooped to a new low: filling grandpa's shoes with water.

Birthday pizza. Papa John's is Cody's favorite.

And Aunt Sara made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting at Cody's request.

All the kids listened really well during family scriptures.

Grandpa Dean brought all kinds of wood scraps for the kids to glue together and make mini tree houses.

Duncan and Kylee

After church we ate a quick dinner and headed home. On the way home we listened to some episodes of "Conversations" on the Mormon Channel and had some awesome discussions as a family. It was a fun ride home.

Thanks to the Rich's for making Cody's 10th birthday a great one!!

Pool Rats

For the last two weeks the kids did swimming lessons. We went to the pool for lessons for about two hours every morning, then we would come home and eat lunch, and then the kids wanted to go to the apartment pool for the afternoon. They pretty much live in their swimming suits now. I have been so happy with the progress they've each made.

Although Cody was already pretty comfortable in the water, he worked on learning proper form for strokes and diving. 

Kylee was not happy with me when I signed her up for lessons and dreaded the idea of having to put her face in the water. During lessons, she would sit at the edge of the pool with her class and look at me like she was being tortured. On the third day, just before her lesson began she started to cry. She didn't want to go in the pool. As I bent down and hugged her, I whispered in her ear, "Do you want to say a prayer?" She nodded. We stayed right there at the edge of the pool as I whispered a prayer in her ear. I prayed that she would learn quickly and enjoy her classes. As soon as I finished the prayer she calmly walked over to her class, got in the water, and didn't look back. As we drove home from the pool that day Kylee said, "that was my best lesson yet!" It was true! We talked about how we had prayed beforehand and how she needs to remember to say a prayer of thanks as her prayers are answered. She did. Right there in the back of the car while everybody else went in the house she said a silent prayer. She felt so good the rest of that day, facing her fears and gaining confidence. The next day right before her lesson, we said another prayer at her request. Again, she made leaps of progress. At her lesson on Friday she was completely different from the first day. She was actually swimming! Her favorite part was jumping off the diving board at the end of each lesson.

Olivia was off and on when it came to her lessons. Some mornings she loved the idea of going and other times it was a wrestling match to get her suit on. But she doesn't mind going under the water now and she is getting better at kicking and feeling comfortable in the water. Her favorite part was jumping from the side of the pool into her teacher's arms at the end of each lesson.

I included a bunch of movies of the kids swimming (below). They love to watch these!