Welcome Snow!

We had our first real snow storm this past week!

It's mostly melted now, but we had fun while it lasted. Katelee threw LOTS of snowballs at me, made snow angels, went sledding down our mini hill, and tromped everywhere in the snow. She especially loved shaking this tree and making it 'snow' on her head. :)I don't really love winter. I don't like cold or being wet. But Katelee LOVES it and she somehow makes the snow seem magical and exciting. And you should have heard the way she laughed and giggled the entire time we were playing in the snow - some of the best giggling I've heard in a long time! Her feelings are contagious! So, if snow makes her this happy, then I say . . .

Welcome Snow!

We're glad you're here. :)

Halloween Rap

Had to do this again, after how much fun we had last year! This year, Kassandra is starring in our movie, too. :)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Click here to see last year's movie.

President Barack Obama

Gerald was standing on a street corner today when the President of the United States drove by and waved. Seriously. A story to tell the kids someday. :)

Sick Day & Shape Search

Katelee stayed home from school sick yesterday.

Will you think I'm a horrible mom if I admit that I kinda love it when she is sick?

Of course, I don't want to see her not feel well and if she is truly suffering then it's horrible. But I love it when she is just sick enough to want to be cuddly and spend time with me, and I love when we don't have to go anywhere but can just cancel everything and be together.

Yesterday was one of those days. She was sick throughout the night and was definitely not well enough to attend school, but she was feeling better enough by morning to enjoy having a day at home with mom. I cancelled music class, and we cuddled up and watched a movie together. (Mars Needs Moms, a fun movie we recommend!) Then we found other quiet day activities to do together. One of those activities was that we went on a shape search. We tried to find all the basic shapes in our home and then take pictures of them. Katelee was the leader of this activity. I took pictures of items only if she told me to, and she took many of the pictures herself. Here are some of the best ones we found. :)

triangle

triangle ?

polygon
Katelee found and named this herself. I was impressed!

hexagons
hee hee!

rectangle

oval

squares

circles

heart

Katelee is all better and off to school today...and I miss her. I'm grateful she's feeling better and that we had a wonderful sick day together yesterday. :)

Friday Night

We had a great Friday night tonight. It made me think a little about the way I've viewed Friday nights throughout my life.

As a child, Friday nights meant the start of the weekend off from school. They often included a babysitter and macaroni and cheese or pizza for us kids while my parents went on a date. I loved Friday nights.

As a teenager, Friday nights were the best part of the week. Friday nights meant going out with friends for some fun, conversation, and maybe a little flirting. Friday nights meant football or basketball games, a movie night at the neighbors' house, or night games at the school.

In college, Friday nights meant a break from the homework grind. I might study all day on Saturday, but Friday night was my chance to take a guilt-free break. My roommates and I would find something fabulous happening on campus, or I might have a date, and I'd enjoy my night of freedom and fun.

But now I am in the midst of a whole different kind of Friday night. Sure, there is still the monthly date night, and there is still plenty of flirting. ;) It's still a night to take a break from some things. But life is so, so different. :)

Tonight, for example, we watched the three daughters of our friends. We took the kids to the park where Gerald and I tried to finish an entire conversation between running girls to the bathroom and giving underdogs on the swings. Then we went home and baked cookies. After that, I painted 40 finger nails and 40 toenails, each with very distinct requests for color patterns and sticker choices. We watched Angelina Ballerina. We all tickled Gerald. We read stories. We played hide and seek. And we had an excellent night. :)

I wonder what I might have thought ten or twenty years ago, if told how I would spend a typical Friday night at this point of my life. And I wonder about how Friday nights are going to continue to change with the passing decades.

Sometimes I miss those carefree days from college and high school. But not too much, because I absolutely love this stage I'm in now. And I am determined to enjoy my Friday nights to their fullest, because someday down the road I'm going to have plenty of time and freedom in my life again. And I know I am going to miss this.

Fall Piano Recital

Our Fall Piano Recital was held on October 8, and I think it was one of the best recitals I have had yet! We had a Halloween/Fall theme; every student played a song related to the theme. The music was great, everyone played their best, and we had a great night. The kids were given the choice to dress up in costume or wear their Sunday best. It was fun to see so many in costumes! A Halloween piano recital just might have to become a tradition ...

Katelee wore her Cinderella dress-up to the recital. (Her real Halloween costume hadn't arrived in the mail yet.) She played the song Costume Party and did a fantastic job. She is really getting good at the piano!

Gerald forgot to videotape her song, but trust us - it was fabulous.

I wore a witches' hat, which the students thought was funny. Unfortunately, I only wore it for about the first 10 minutes of the recital because a little Cinderella stole it and wouldn't give it back.

I played Bach's Toccata in D Minor. LOVE playing that song!

The night ended with refreshments. I made a variety of 'autumn' cookies including pumpkin chocolate chip, spicy molasses, and butterscotch toffee cookies. What a fun night! I love recitals, and I love autumn and Halloween - so this was a really fun combination!

Mystery Couponer

Dear Mystery Couponer,

You and I shop at the same King Soopers grocery store. I've wanted to thank you for leaving coupons throughout the store. I assume you aren't going to use the coupons, but would like someone to benefit from your organization. Tonight, one of the items on my shopping list was three cans of diced tomatoes, and sitting right on top of the cans I was going to grab was a coupon: buy 2 cans of diced tomatoes, get 1 free. This is the fourth time I have found coupons on items I planned to buy, and I happily use the coupons to save a bit of money. So, from one busy mom who feels too hectic and disorganized to get her couponing act together - thank you!

You made my night!

Jennifer

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Katelee had her first field trip this week! She got to go to the pumpkin patch, and I was lucky enough to get to go along as well! We all had a great time!

Here she is, excited to ride the big school bus! Of course, her and her assigned partner had to pick the very BACK row of the bus ... oh, well. :)Once at the pumpkin patch, the kids had a great time.

The slides were one of the favorite things to do!

Farmer Katelee

The kids loved climbing and jumping on the hay bales.

The little maze.

Ready for a ride on the hay wagon.

Petting the animals. Katelee especially loves this little llama.

Playing in the box of dried corn.

Choosing a pumpkin was so hard!

At first she thought she wanted this one.

After changing her mind a dozen times, we ended up with this one.

Nice!

Sitting on it to keep it safe. :)

The whole gang.

Fun times!

A Little of This, A Little of That

A little silliness

Katelee took my bucket of rhythm sticks, my cake pan, my earrings, a couple of leaves and a wood chip and created this guy. She is hilarious!

A little mess

I told Katelee she could roll the pie crust dough for me for a moment. I ran to answer the phone. Gerald walked in a minute later and found half the bucket of flour on the counter, Katelee and floor. Lovely.

A little dilemma

Katelee loves her awesome heart glasses. A while back, I sent her into her room to get dressed for school. She came out looking like this. She ate her breakfast, brushed her teeth, made her bed, did a little playing, got her hair done ... and never touched the glasses. In her mind, they were part of her outfit, not a toy. On the way to school, I debated how to handle this. Should I let her walk into school like this? I thought of my friend, Lisa, who is a master at letting her kids express themselves and be true to their own sense of style. But everything in me wanted to make her leave the glasses in the car. In the end, I didn't say a word. (This was really hard for me!) Katelee happily wore the glasses into school. Her teacher asked her to put them in her backpack during class, but she wore them throughout recess and again as soon as school ended. She was happy. She was confident. She felt stylish and independent. I guess it was worth a bit of embarrassment on my part. Though I still debate if I did the right thing. What would you have done? Luckily, the glasses haven't made another school-day appearance.
A little cousin

We enjoy getting to babysit baby Elijah every now and then. Katelee can't get enough of him! What a sweetie!!
A little bragging

We had parent-teacher conferences this past week, and Katelee's teacher told me that she had given Katelee the end-of-the-year reading test. Katelee passed with flying colors. Her teacher is going to begin assigning her first-grade-level reading material. What a smartie pants!

And finally, a little news

We have a couple who is considering us for adoption! We've met them and emailed a bit. When we went to dinner with them, we had a great time and really felt that we had a lot in common and that we formed a friendship. Our case worker called to say that they were serious enough about choosing us that he was going to pull our profile offline for awhile so no one else would choose us in the meantime. We were feeling pretty excited! And then...we haven't heard a thing from them all week. No response to our email, nothing. And we've noticed our profile is, in fact, still live. Not sure whether or not to get excited. IF (and we realize that this is a IF) things work out, the baby is due November 28. We may get our hearts completely broken. Or we might get a baby! But I feel the that the Lord has told me to embrace the experience and live with hope and faith. No matter what happens, we need to go through this for some reason. So, keep your fingers crossed and remember us in your prayers, and we'll keep everyone updated!

Katelee's Kindergarten School Pictures

We got back Katelee's kindergarten school pictures. We think they turned out cute; she is so beautiful!

Mom's 50th Birthday

Last weekend was my amazing mom's 50th birthday!

Last year, my dad sent each of us kids an email:
"This Saturday mom and I are going to a play in Cedar city for her Birthday "Greater Tuna" at 2:00 PM so we are inviting ya all to dinner About 4:30 Utah time MY treat let me know if if you can come>>>>>Jenn & Britt I know just thought i put it out there maybe on her big 50 next year."

Britt & I weren't able to make it last year (we both live too far away), but we made extra sure that we were ALL there this year. And it was a wonderful weekend! We like to make a big deal out of birthdays, and we tried to make this one extra special!

The kids had a sleepover in grandma's room the first night we were all there. It was mostly play and a little sleep. ;)

A few pictures of the grand kids. I have adorable nieces and nephews. Just wish I could see them more often!

We got to meet baby Trey for the first time. He is ADORABLE! We all loved holding him.

My mom wanted to go out to dinner. So, while the grown-ups went to dinner for grandma's birthday, the kids and the babysitter all decorated the house as a surprise for grandma! There were streamers, confetti, 50 balloons, banners, and more! What fun! Mom was very surprised!
We also surprised her by putting out her gifts, a dozen roses, and a yummy cake! She knew about the top layer of the cake - she requested German chocolate cake - but she didn't know about the bottom layer. We made it as a surprise for her and it shows details from her life and/or things that describe her. There are more up close pics of the cake here.

And we gave her some special gifts. When my dad turned 50, we made him a book titled "50 Memories of our Dad." We made my mom a matching one. Also, we bought her a Charmed Memories bracelet from Kay Jewelers. Melissa told us about these bracelets, and they are really cool! It's something we can add to over time. I think she really loved it.

Great Gandma & Grandpa Klingler came by to celebrate, too.

After dinner, presents, and cake, we had a Wii Dance Dance Revolution tournament! Brittany made a tournament board complete with a winner and loser bracket, and we had a really fun time laughing at each other and dancing. It was pretty hilarious! Guess who was the #1 winner ? That's right - ME! :) Woo Hoo! Guess I have bragging rights, at least until the next tournament - ha ha!

What a wonderful weekend; we loved being together, celebrating my mom, and having fun. We have an amazing family, and we feel so grateful for the blessings of a close family and lots of love and support.