Kate's Baptism

Kate got baptized yesterday. It was quite the amazing experience from my point of view as her father, and judging from her reactions, from her point of view as well.  She is such a sweet girl with a heart of gold. Also, she's sharp as a tack. A very sharp tack. The first speaker asked quite a few questions, and I was quite proud of my little answer machine (meaning she has all the answers, not that she records answers when answering a phone).  Anyway, enough talk, here's what you all have been waiting for:

Program

Kaylynn and Kate

Kate and I

Kate's Letter to Santa

Translation: Dear Saint Nicholas, pretty please will you get me a mini Guitar and a chain for my necklace and some lalaloopsys if you have any. Merry Christmas, Love, Kate (1st Stocking [in the row of stockings]). 

Drives like a champ, or at least her mother....

We took Kate on her birthday date to Wahooz (Go Carts, LaserTag etc).  It was fun, she had her first experience with driving and only one little mishap, which you'll notice.  I really had fun with the Lasertag.

Trendiness

I don't know if any of you have heard of the movie "Perfect Pitch", it's about Acapella (singing without accompanying music). Anyway, there's a part where the main character moves some cups around with some kind of beat or something.  Apparently this was the coolest thing ever, because every girl age 5-12 was obsessed with the "cup game" as we call it in our house. Kate and Faith would tell us how they all practiced the cup game at recess time. This lasted about 2 months or so, because just last week I asked Kate why I never see her doing the cup game anymore. She told me they got bored with it, and now she plays on the swings.

Luckily, she goes to a charter school. It's not that a charter school is that much different than normal public school (it's a free public school), it's just that it's a bit smaller I think so the kids stay a bit more innocent longer.  We know some of the middle school students, and there's only one class of 7th, and one of 8th grade so it's much easier to not have cliques etc. 

Brighton Walking...sort of

After much cajoling, and many threats Brighton finally succumbed and took her first steps! She's done 4 at a time thus far. I expect her to either run or fly by Sunday. Mostly cause there's a group of about 6 parents in the hall with kids all about Brighton's age and she's the only one not walking yet. I don't know if I can take it one more week. Luckily, I'm sure she'll be flying by tomorrow.  

Balance Restored.

Here are some pictures. 

Kate, posing for the camera.

Suzy's loves posing for the camera too!

Jace is usually in his own world. Sometimes he comes out of it and interacts with the rest of us though. 

Faith is really into the Selfie craze sweeping the nation.

I always knew all those hours playing legos as a kid would pay off. 

Yeah, this is what I came home to on Friday. If this kid isn't totally mixed up by High School then Miracles have taken place. 

  

Luckily, you can see where his true heart is (he's asleep clutching his superhero mask and wearing his cape).  He's been going around the house saying "Bawance Restowed".  

Captain Literally

First Taste of Sugar Ever!

We all gathered for a small family birthday party.  Brighton had her very first taste of sugar, or at least that's what was said on the video. By some people. Who will remain nameless.

Here's Brighton trying to play with some of her presents while all the kids gather round like sharks. Or superheroes. Who steal presents from babies. 

Here we are skyping with Grandma and Papa English who are on the mission. I think this toy was Brighton's favorite. She spent 30 minutes putting the balls through the holes. She didn't quite get the use of the hammer despite my expert demonstrations. She did use it later on the coffee table though. 

Halloweeeeeeen

We have an Awesome Fire Ninja (with some sweet moves), Pippy Longstocking, A monarch Butterfly, a beautiful Flower being visited by a bumblebee and Smartie Pants. You can't see it, but I have "SmartiesTM" taped to my pants. 

Our cute little Pippy. 

Big Bad Wolf

It has a Cow, and flowers and a shark

Jace was pretty excitedly telling me about the birthday card "Aunt Shell" (Michelle) sent him, so I decided to get it on Video. This lead to me asking him about the picture that hangs in his room. 

This is a pretty bad picture of a good picture. It originally hung in the room Kate had, but now has transferred to Jace. It's a stream, with a fish in it and a deer drinking from the stream with a bird over head. Jace has some interesting descriptions for the animals. Deer = Cow, then Camel. Sometimes it's a dog. The fish = a Shark. The Bird is sometimes a bird, sometimes a plane. 

Rhymes with Guts

Suzy was asking Kate about her day at school.  She started giggling and told Suzy how they were reading the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) by Roald Dhal. She really started laughing when she told Suzy about the part where the one Giant hit the other Giant in the Guts with a stick.  Like really laughing, like out of proportion with how funny it should have been.

At this point, Suzy with a slightly knowing/suspicious look in her eyes, asked Kate what she thought Guts were.  Kate told her in a furtive voice, "They're your private parts Mom!"

Suzy couldn't help but laugh at that part, as she explained that Guts refers to your stomach area.  Kate was a bit confused, since by the way the whole class was laughing at that part, she figured it had to be private parts in order to be so funny.

Dune (and I'm not talking about melange)

We recently had a fathers and sons camp out that Jace and I actually attended (yes, I broke down and went camping).  It was at the Bruneau Sand Dunes, and we had a grand old time.  

What's more fun than rolling down a hill? 

 One of Jace's favorite things, playing in the sand.

So, apparently you're supposed to remove your shoes and go up bare foot.  I didn't know this, and had probably a cup of sand in each shoe. I was still finding sand a few days after returning home. 

View of the camp site at night. 

It'll Rot your Brain

So, we have a tradition of certain things only being for "daddy". For example, there's "daddy cereal" (which is cereal, that according to Suzy, has absolutely no nutritional value, despite the fact that I can read on the side of the box that Frosted Flakes has 25% per serving of practically everything you need to sustain life).  The kids are only allowed to have daddy cereal on Sunday mornings. Or their birthday.  There's "daddy juice", which is Diet Coke. The kids have been told numerous times that daddy juice is bad for growing brains, so they can't have any (artificial sweetener).

Kate and Faith went to a Birthday party at Pojos, a local arcade.  Kate had rootbeer, which she loves.  Apparently, for the last glass, it came back all funny tasting. Kate, taking after her momma and not wanting to waste food, decided to drink it anyway.  We were picking the kids up, and Suzy had a sip of Kate's "root beer", which she promptly informed her was Coke.  Kate, aghast at the idea that she had just unknowingly partaken of "daddy juice", bemoaned "I hope I'm still good at math!".

I love the rolling hills

So, we took a trip up to Donnelly, ID to the Tingey's cabin over labor day. Jace is starting to talk up a storm, and he's still learning all the proper names for things.  For example, we were headed into the mountains, and Jace kept saying something that I couldn't figure out (he still has a "cute" way of talking).  it was something about steps, so I asked,
"You mean those mountains look like Steps?"
He kept adamantly correcting me, "No! Step mouandaosiufansdfoindfasd (at least, that's what the second word sounded like to me first few times, I may be exaggerating slightly)"
Finally one of the girls said "I think he means foothills"
That's when it struck me, "Step Mountains!" He's starting to put 2 and 2 together (even if it equals 3 right now, as everything does for him since that's his favorite number...see Suzy's latest post).

Also, he loves Cows. It was cute how excited he got every time we saw a cow (which was quite often).

The trip as a whole

So, the Utah trip was great. We left Saturday morning about 10am or so, arrived around 3pm. The trip down was nice and uneventful, we stopped in Tremonton and had dinner at a McDonald's with a play area so the kids were able to stretch their legs as Suzy fed Brighton in the car.  Suzy read Fablehaven #5 to the kids on the way down (and back).  We drove directly to Little Cottonwood canyon to meet Papa Mustache. It was a good 10 degrees cooler (so only 95°).  We had a blast, the kids loved hiking around and playing in streams that ran throughout the campsite.  We roasted marshmallows, had hot dogs, hamburgers, steak and watermelon.  We left about 8:30pm to head back to the hotel.

The hotel check in was fine, despite the least well thought-out parking garage ever. It has 5 levels, but levels  3-5 don't have access to the hotel. You literally have to walk through the structure carrying a whole bunch of stuff until you get to the lower level. Then take the elevator back up.  I wasn't too happy. Luckily some kind of super old people convention was just getting over (okay, maybe it was some kind of concert at the tabernacle or something, but I think the average age of the attendees was 95). I drove the car down to a much friendlier spot.

Then came the sleep period. Or lack of sleep period, often known as night.  4 kids, in the same room.  Yes, it took a while, a long while for everyone to calm down enough to sleep. I think this is why people in the 1800s (including pioneers) worked their kids to exhaustion, cause they all lived in one room huts, or caves or something.

The next day was great, we saw Temple square, the kids loved it. Jace liked throwing money in the fountain (for some reason the kids all ask for quarters. We never throw quarters in the fountain, but they all clamor for quarters. We give them pennies. This will make paying allowance much easier I guess).  Kate liked the "Galaxy" room (see previous post for pictures).  We saw Tenielle (spelling?) and Papa Mustache. On the way back we stopped at Monique's place in Farmington. Unfortunately, Farmington has enacted a series of laws that restrict cell phones to one local carrier or something. I gathered this since my phone barely worked anywhere. Also, they have parks with no visible access. We tried to go to one, but apparently one of the "streets" (the only street leading to the park) has a parking lot in the middle of it.  Look up Woodlands Park in Farmington and you'll see what I mean.  Anyway, we finally got to see Monique and family.  It was fun, but then Faith started felling sick........... (these dots are portentous. Not pretentious though).

We started driving back. At one point, there were a bunch of cones on the side of the road. This is the point where Faith said "I think I'm going to go" (meaning go to the bathroom, diarrhea style) . Suzy let me know that if I didn't hurry up and find a spot to pull over, I would have to clean it up.  We had given her a bag to throw up in just in case. I didn't pull over immediately (my bad) but waiting until we were past the cones (a few hundred yards), but it was too late. She threw up. and diarrhead down.  I did clean it up, Suzy held up the towel while we cleaned up the poor sick girl.  The throw up was the worst. She had forgotten about the bag we gave her. She threw up a few more times on the way, but we made sure she had both hands on the bag.

Then we were home. And we got to sleep in our own beds again!
We had a great time, with lots of good and funny memories.

Temple Square

Little Cottonwood Canyon. And Throw-up

Road trips are always fun! Especially with 4 young ones.  We drove down to  Salt Lake City to see "Papa Mustache" (and stopped to see Temple square and Monique as well). Originally I had a business trip to Utah, but it got moved. We went anyway. We met Papa at a campsite in Little Cottonwood Canyon, it was beautiful as you will see. 

We be Bush Folk. Oh yeah. Sign us up as the next Duck Dynasty family. 

 Papa with Brighton

Sassy Posing at the "Rock Meadow" (So dubbed by the girls after a short climb found the location of lots of rocks, which are like flowers, but harder and less colorful). 

Jace, at the Rock Meadow

Kids Playing in a stream

Throwing Rocks in the water. Almost better than Movies, or the iPad. 

ps we stayed in a hotel. One room, 4 kids.

What do you do when it's potty time

You sing Gangnam style, apparently. Also, twinkle twinkle little star

Jace and the Balance Bike

Jace love's his little balance bike. I hear this helps when they graduate to a pedal bike.

Horsing around

We surprised Faith on her "half-birthday" with a horsey ride. Some friends in the ward have horses and were very nice to let us borrow them for a bit.  Faith was pretty excited, as was I since I love animals. So much. 

A very merry unbirthday

We celebrated Faith's half birthday. Mostly because we usually forget to celebrate her real birthday since it's 2 days after Christmas and on our anniversary.

Here are some things that spontaneously happened.

Things were decorated.

Lots of Girls made "Tie-died" Shirts 

Feelings were bruised (but not for very long) 

A bit of musical chairs 

A fun game where you have a balloon tied to your leg and people try to pop it. By people I mean girls under the age of 8.

Awesomely fun dress up relay races

The old fun "pick a penny out of a bunch of flour using your mouth" game. Kate went first. 

After they saw how much "fun" Kate had, others wanted to to try it. 

Cake? Who needs cake when you can have special Birthday Ice Cream Sundays.