Underpants = Superman

Dalin is in the very early stages of potty training (meaning he likes to wear underpants, but he doesn't really make an effort to make it to the toilet). We've told him that big boys wear underpants and in his mind that means he's faster, stronger and taller every time he wears them. We were at the park today and he wanted to climb on top of the tube slide and I told him I didn't think that was such a good idea. He told me, "I wearing underpants, I stronger!" When Jayden comes over it's almost like he's embarrassed to be wearing a diaper, so he will hurry and change into underwear. He actually does really well for the first half of the day, then I think he feels to much responsibility and he opts for a diaper. I am in no hurry to enter this stage of toddler-hood, so I'm letting him go at his own pace, but I am getting a good laugh this time around.

One more quote from Dalin. As I was taking down the Christmas decorations, he asked me why I was taking them down. I told him Christmas is over. He seemed a little depressed and with every ornament he took off the tree he would say, "Christmas over."

Happy Kwanzaa!

Although we actually celebrate Christmas in our home, I wanted to give some respect to Chris's heritage (in the eyes of our children anyway!).

We had a really nice, albeit insanely early Christmas. We told the kids they weren't allowed to wake us up before 5 am. Kaylee is the only one who has a hard time waiting that long. At 3:37 ( I made her tell me what time it was), after already checking out the loot, she came in and told me she couldn't stop chattering. I remember that feeling from when I was her age, you know the excitement combined with the cold so you can't stop shaking, but I was unsympathetic and told her to go back to bed and get under the blanket. About five minutes later I heard two sets of footsteps coming down the hall. I guess she didn't take my advice. Five minutes after that I hear three sets of footsteps coming down the hall. To their credit they didn't come in to wake us up, but they were not talking in hushed tones. I think they were having a little party or something in the girls room and I could hear it quite clearly. At about four Dalin woke up to join in the fun and I finally gave up my slumbering endeavor and we all headed into the front room. Everyone was happy with their haul, but Aiden tried to turn on the TV after the presents were all open (What! you can't find anything else to entertain yourself?) but we were having none of that. We had breakfast with my family, and more presents, then we came home to try and convince the kids to take naps. Dalin was the only taker, but not by choice. We then had a delicious dinner at my brothers house, with visiting and Wii playing. It was a really nice day, and I was even able to relax, so it was a winner for me.

Birthdays and Snow days

Yesterday was my mom's 60th birthday! We had a nice family party with Mexican food (her favorite) and a "Mom'/Grandma's favorite things game. After that we shared memories her sisters sent and memories from her kids and husband. My dad even made a nice DVD and we put together a real published book of her life. (Check out blurb.com it is really cool and very reasonably priced) Unfortunately, but entirely predictably, I forgot my camera so no pictures but it was really nice nonetheless.

Today the kids didn't have school (parent teacher conferences) but it turned into an actual snow day! Around 11:30 am Ashton came in and said she saw some snow flakes to which I replied, "no you didn't." About an hour later I actually saw the flurries and I had to believe. Having lived in Henderson for my entire life I have seen it snow here before, but nothing that ever stuck for more than a few hours. Today we may be close to breaking the record. As I mentioned before, the snow started at about 12:30 and now at 9:00 it just barely let up. Our driveway is pretty steep, so it turned into the neighborhood sledding hill. Luckily Chris likes to go to the mountains for his birthday so we have snow garb and sleds. Aiden and Dalin were having a blast throwing (but mostly missing) snowballs at Chris. We went to the high school field behind our house which had an even better sledding hill and plenty of space for snow man making. I am usuallly not a fan of sledding, because there are too many people/rocks/trees but I loved it today because none of those things were a problem. Unfortunately I had to leave early because poor little Dalin was freezing and very tired so I took him home to warm up. The rest of the family joined us about 45 min later. The most amazing part of the whole thing is that school is cancelled tomorrow because of snow! An actual snow day in Las Vegas!

First signs of snow. I was sure that was all we were going to get

Driveway sledding

Snow angels and snowman!

You gotta make a living...

Aiden likes to make a snack shack in our home on a regular basis. He stacks pillows around a little slide then gets treats from the pantry to "sell" to his siblings. As you can imagine Halloween was an abundant time for him, you know with all of the extra candy around to sell. One night his cousin Jayden was over while Aiden was in business, and Aiden was quick to loan him some of the money from my change jar. Aiden thought himself quite clever because he had made himself some money. One night when I was saying good night to him he said to me in a sing-song voice, "You don't know where I hid the money." To which I replied in the same voice, "That's called stealing." Aiden's response, "No it's not, it's called getting a job and earning some money." I think the laugh he gave me was worth whatever change he ended up with.

Week in review

Here is the rundown on our fun and busy Thanksgiving week. (Warning! This will be a really long post with quite a few pictures. I will not be offended of you don't make it to the end) Chris's parents (our out-of-towners) were supposed to get in around 10:00 pm on Saturday night, but their flight was delayed so they didn't get in until about 8:00 am Sunday morning. It actually ended up being a good thing though because Chris suggested that they ask to see if they could get a flight a day later since they had lost a day. It worked and instead of having to leave at 7:00am the day after Thanksgiving, his parents didn't have to go until 1:00 pm on Saturday. I know, I'm married to a smarty. So that night we got together with his two sisters that live in town and had a nice family dinner. Chris and his sister and parents were also able to see the "Blue Man Group" which was a lot of fun for them.

On Monday my mother-in-law and my two sisters-in-law (Emily & Megan) drove up to St.George to go to Tai Pan (a super fantastic home decor store) and just have a fun girls day. Chris and his dad were nice enough to watch the kids and they even took them to the park to feed the ducks where they ended up being surrounded by pigeons. After we came home the guys went to a tea party, I mean fantasy football party (they are both pretend so I get mixed up sometimes).

We went to this really cute Thai place in St. George, and here is the proof that I actually ate some sushi! I really don't feel like I have been missing out on anything.

On Tuesday we had our annual family pictures taken and were lucky that none of them included Dalin crying. His progression went like this, trying to cry, trying to pretend he wanted to cry but barely holding back a smile then finally giving in to the funny voices and bunny ears going on behind the camera. The pictures have the same back drops as last year so they look about the same, we're just wearing different clothes. I'm less than excited with how they turned out, so we'll see how long I can stand to look at the picture before I have to get another one.
The kids discovered grandpa Hal's talent for crafting paper airplanes and filled most of Wednesday with various airplane related contests.

Grandma Lynne and aunt Emily provided the kids with a super cute craft project. The girls decoupaged some wooden purses and the boys did frames. They decorated them with some stickers I had in my scrapbook supplies. If you enlarge the picture you can Jayden's frame has a roll of toilet paper and some panties on it. His mom managed to get the "Atta Girl" sticker off before Jayden could notice.

Chris's sister Megan did a fabulous job of hosting Thanksgiving dinner and all of the Edwards family, except for our Texan Lindsay and her family, were able to be there. The food was delicious and we had a great time playing games and visiting.
Those of you who know Chris know of his black Friday tradition. We were this close to having him actually stay home Thanksgiving night, but he decided to check out the Best Buy near Meagan's house. He decided the line was less than formidable so once again he spent the night in line to buy absolutely nothing for himself. At least he got to hang out with his only brother and get a total of four hours of sleep in two days. I did a little shopping after he came home, but I am far from hard core and I only stayed out for about an hour and a half.
On Friday we went to the park to feed the ducks again and although there were fewer pigeons this time around there were still enough that Dalin is sure there are ducks on the roofs around us. We had an official paper airplane contest and all the kids got prizes at an awards breakfast the next day. After some tearful acceptance speeches and celebratory dances Chris and the kids went to drop grandma and grandpa off at the airport. I took advantage of my no kid situation and went shopping again. I got some really great deals so there is a slight chance I could be converted to the black friday shopping, but never the staying overnight part. That night Chris and his brother and his brothers wife went to bingo at Sunset Station and now they are big fans. It was probably the free dobber that won them over, because that is all they came away with.
We had a fun week full of family, and I hope you all had a great holiday as well. And if you made it through this whole post in one sitting kudos to you!

This is what eleven years...

...and six days looks like. I know, I'm lame. But better late than never right? (right?) Chris and I spent the day cleaning the house to get ready for our out-of-towners and then we went to a fancy shmancy steak house for dinner comped to us from one of Chris's friends (I love free!) In honor of our 132 months of marriage I am posting some then and now pictures of your favorite muckus couple. (please excuse our pictures of pictures)

Our engagement picture and love at eleven years.

Wedding Day

My family is so fun!


I was trying to get a "romantic" picture, you know look like we're in love, but it was a little on the cheesey side and we couldn't stop laughing.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As most of you know, a. This is Kaylee, since I say Mom & Dad, and b. today is my parents 11th anniversary!!!!!! Hooray for them!!!!!!!!! Like last year (or the was it the year before?) I have written a blog dedicated to their relationship. Ok, well really I'm going to get my Dad to help me upload pictures. Nevermind, I'll do it tomorrow.

London Calling

Did you know that the north pole is only a 3 1/2 drive from Vegas? Well the train that takes you there anyway. Three years ago my whole family minus my sister and two of my brothers headed to Williams AZ to ride the Polar Express. My dad thought it was so fun he made arrangements for another family trip this year and this time there was only one brother and two sisters-in-law missing (shout out to our Idahoan couple & Danette, we missed you guys!). The package included a hotel room, dinner and breakfast along with the train ride. There were 31 of us this time around and they did a really good job of keeping us together at meal time. There was even hot chocolate and cookies on the train just like in the book, and Santa came aboard to give everyone a bell. We even saw my uncle Brad and his family while we were there. We knew they had plans to go, but we didn't know it was going to be the same weekend. My dad even wore his pajamas and made sure to get pictures with all of his grand kids (oh how he loves being a grandpa!) It was a lot of fun, but not nearly as cold as last time so I felt a little cheated out of my North Pole winter experience.

On Saturday my brother Brian and his wife invited us to come with them to Lake Havasu, which was kind of on the way home. We went from 34* weather the night before to 81* at the lake. We visited the London Bridge (there's the tie in to the title), rented a couple of paddle boats and watched a radio control airplane exhibition. Chris and Brian really liked the planes, but all of the kids thought that was the most boring part. The kids were pretty wiped out and they all fell asleep on the drive home, even Kaylee who almost never falls asleep in the car. It was a great weekend and a wonderful way to start out the holiday season.

Because I'm a Dud

At our ward's Halloween party one of the primary kids asked me why I didn't have a costume. Simply because I'm a dud. Why has it taken me so long to post about Halloween? Because I'm a dud. Anyway here are some pictures of our little ghouls and goblins (or football players and cheerleaders).

My nephew Scott, isn't he the cutest Superman!

My brother Aaron and his kids came with us. (boys: Aiden, Kyle, Scott & Dalin. girls: Emily, Kaylee, Ashton & Abby) My brother Ryan's little girl Kinsey came with us too, but she was being a little camera shy.

The trick or treaters in action.

We only had about five more houses to go, but Dalin was done. He made sure to have a sucker though, or to him happiness on a stick.

Last night for FHE we went to the district to ride on the carousel. Some friends of ours gave us some tokens about six months ago and we finally used them. It was fun, but the parking lot was completely full because John McCain was speaking less than a block away. We could hear the cheering. On our way home we asked Aiden who he thought should be the president. He said McCain. When I asked who McCain was he said, "You know that guy he's kind of brown with a triangle face." I told him that was Obama, and he said, "oh yeah that guy." When I asked him why he said, "Because that other guy is kind of old and wrinkly, and he will probably pass away pretty soon and then we wouldn't have a president anymore."

Happy Halloween, everybody!!!!!!!

You know, guys, this is probably the first Halloween I've had that I don't have one of my uncles on the mission field. In honor of the occasion I will post one of my favorite Halloween poems(that I wrote in school). Here it is:



Five creepy black cats lying at my feet
The first one said, "Do you wish to eat?"
The second one said, "Look! There's a mouse!"
The third one said, "No, dummy, that's a louse."
The forth one said, "Do I look fat?"
The fifth one said, "Your as fit as a bat,"
Than SLAM went my book
And THUMP went my feet,
And the five creepy black cats went to trick or treat

It's Snowing!

This is what happens when you forget to put the flour away.

Bad boy bad boy, whacha gonna do when they come for you...

Last night we had our own live showing of COPS right outside our front window. It was complete with the K-9 unit, loudspeaker warnings, spotlights, guns drawn and a tazer shot. Apparently our across the street neighbors were harboring some sort of parol violator and the police came to collect him. There are two families who live in the house and they called for all of the occupants to come out. It was really sad because after the pol;ice made that announcement seven people came out and five of them were kids (four of them are the same age as my kids). I am sure they were scared and cold. There were two people still left in the house, the mother of the four kids and the suspect. I don't know if the mom just didn't hear the announcements or what, but I couldn't believe it took her so long to get out of the house with her kids scared outside. After she came out the police went in to the house and at one point they pulled a ladder out of the garage ( think they were looking in the ceiling). After about tewnty minutes the guy comes running out of the house and jumps the fence in the front yard. An officer tazzered him but he ran part way up our driveway then turned to the left. We didn't see where they caught him, but only a few minutes passed before they did. our best view came form the girls room and Kaylee woke up when we came in and joined in the looky loo. Everyone is safe and fine, but it was a pretty exciting for our little street.

Pumpkin Patch & Trunk or Treat

It's that time of year again, you know the one where all types of pumpkin patch and costume pictures start popping up on the blogs of the world. Well here is our contribution. We went to the insanely over priced pumpkin patch for FHE this week. I guess the economy is in a slump, but it's kind of crazy where $30 worth of tickets only gets the kids a couple of rides. Enough complaining. The kids had a lot of fun and we never go with the intention of buying pumpkins, so it was a good night.

Last night we had our ward trunk or treat which is always a family favorite. Aiden was an astronaut, Dalin was a football player with Ashton as his cheerleader and Kaylee was a vampiress. Every Halloween I promise myself that I'm not going to make costumes again, and every year I break the previous Halloween promise. This year was no exception, but at least I only made one. The costume Kaylee liked in the store was $25, and I was sure I could make it for much less (or not). I ended up spending at least that much, plus the time it took to actually make it. At least it wasn't to difficult, and I got it done in time. I was telling my brother that I wasn't going to make any more costumes and he said, " You lie, you know you're addicted." He's right, but I'm going to live in my lie for a little while longer.

You know it's a fungus, right?

I have a confession. I am kind of obsessed with infomercials. Yeah, they rank right up there with those teeny bopper shows. I will stop and watch about some product that will change my life for a good 20 minutes. And because they just replay the same footage about how amazing the product is over and over again, that is actually like watching the same commercial eight times in a row. I don't buy infomercial products very often, but I will admit to doing so more than once and none of the things I bought were ever a miracle.

Why the conscience cleansing moment? A few weeks ago I bought an exercise video from an infomercial. It was only $15.00 and it came with a weight ball, green tea supplement and a ten day menu, in addition to the video. I have been on the losing end of my battle of the bulge, so I decided to give it a try. Also Chris's grandpa had diabetes and his dad is currently having a lot of health issues due to his diabetes so it couldn't hurt to have Chris try it out with me. It is a low fat, low sugar, low salt diet and I know it sounds pretty bland, but it hasn't been too bad. We actually get a good amount of food for every meal and two snacks. I have been doing pretty well until today. We are in day six, and you would think that the cravings would be getting better over time, but today I have just wanted more than my menu says I can have (I guess pretzel fish really aren’t that bad, but they are not on the list). Maybe it's because my brain (or stomach) knows tomorrow is our ward trunk or treat and my will power has a slim chance so why not give in now.

Or it might be that today's lunch was two portabella mushroom pizzas. I know that doesn't sound bad, but the mushroom caps were the crust. Have you seen the underside of those things! I guess the fact that I even ate one is a testament to my commitment, but even thinking about it is making me gag. Chris who doesn't mind mushrooms said they were fine, so maybe it's all physiological for me. I don't know what is worse for me, eating the mushroom or the thought of me eating the mushroom (gag!).

I know it's nothing revolutionary, but Chris has already lost 6.5 pounds and I have lost three (both without doing the exercise video, I know we're lazy). So my $15.00 investment has been worth it so far, but no more mushrooms for me!

PS I know you all were going to fall over with shock because it says posted by Chris, but Kristen actually wrote this one.

Loyalties

All of you who read this blog probably know I have lived in Henderson my entire life. Okay there was those two years in Provo, but I ended up getting my Mrs. degree right here in my home town. I went to Basic high school (yes I got a basic education, believe me I've heard that one before) but I never really had a strong affinity for the place. I was pretty involved in school activities so high school was fun for me, but I've always felt kind of eh about the school. I didn't even attend my ten year reunion. Our class did not have spirit, no we didn't! Anyway, our big rival was the gators of Green Valley. Three of Chris's siblings went there for a while, and we don't live to far from GVHS so Chris is a gator fan, but I can not bring myself to cheer for GV! If Basic and Green Valley are playing against each other I will cheer for Basic every time, even if I don't know any one on the team. On Friday I stayed up to watch the late news just to see if Basic had won (they did, apparently they got some talent since I went there). So I guess I do have some loyalty to my alma mater and it will probably take one of my kids attending GV and being honored as their greatest student ever to change my gator hater status.

Two year old check list

1. Discover deodorant and make sure you help everyone in the house put some all over their arms. Check!

2. Go to the grocery store with mom demand the cart shaped like a car, then get out and make a run for it as soon as the popsicles are in sight. Check!

3. Help mom make cookies by turning the mixer on high right after she pours in the flour. It will be like a snow fall inside. Check!

4. Take your new discovery, deodorant, with you when you pick up your brother from kindergarten so every one can enjoy it. It might impede your playtime so give it to your mom to hold. Check!

5. Make sure your mom knows how much you love popsicles by screaming and crying as loud as you can after she cuts you off at four. Check!

6. During homework time work on a art project which includes a green marker and your arms legs and hands. Check!

7. Make your mom so proud by taking the initiative to go to bathroom all by yourself. It will lull her into a false sense of security and she will let you wear Mickey Mouse underpants. Promise with all your two year old heart that you will not make Mickey Mouse wet, but forget about that promise an hour later. Check!

8. Give fantastic hugs and kisses to remind your mom how much she loves you, and to help her forget what you've done today so you can start all over again tomorrow. Check! Check! Check!

Handbag Giveaway

Okay, I totally stole this from my cousin's wife's blog, I never win anything and if I post it on my blog I get more chances to win. Go to handbagplanet.com where they are giving away one handbag an hour for 24 hours to celebrate the launch of their website. So check it out ladies (and gentlemen if you are in need of a handbag). I'd wish you all good luck, but really I hope I win. I'm selfish that way!

All of the day and all of the night...

Chris has been visiting his parents in Arkansas for the last week and he finally returned home yesterday. WOO HOO! I definitely appreciate him more when he is home than when he is away. He had done some computer work for some one he works with whose wife works for an airline, so he gave Chris a buddy pass ticket as payment. The deal with a buddy pass is you fly standby, which means you can have a seat if there is one available. His flight to Arkansas was pretty smooth, but the way home was a different story. His flight left at 6:55 am and was supposed to arrive in Las Vegas at 11:20 am. The key phrase is supposed to. The original flight plan had two stops, one in St. Luis and one in Omaha. Unfortunately the flight from Omaha to LV was completely full and he got the boot. He was redirected to a flight to Pheonix which would then get him home. That flight was supposed to get in at 3:15 pm, but it was delayed and didn't land until 4:00. So after four plane changes and 12 hours of traveling Chris finally made it home, almost. We had tickets to see Les Miserables at the Tuacahn theater in St. George, so after I picked him up from the airport we started our two hour drive to the play.

If everything had gone according to plan we would have made it there with time to spare, but with the way things worked out we were about ten minutes late for the play. I think it was the first live play I had ever seen that was professionally done and it was fantastic! The weather was beautiful, but they do these plays in this outdoor theater all through the summer. It made me wonder how the actors don't melt every night. I actually almost cried when Eponine's character died, something that never would have happened if I was just watching the movie.

My brother Austin was watching the kids while we were gone, and I told him that I didn't care how late they stayed up since they didn't have school the next day. I figured midnight would be the latest any of the kids could handle. Notice the previous post? It was written by Kaylee at 1:11 am! Apparently Austin told the kids the could stay up until 5am, but Kaylee was the only one who even came close and said she got bored and that's why she fell asleep. I guess when you take little kids to get ice cream at 9:45 pm (yeah Austin did that too), it gives them the energy they need for a late night.

* I remembered that I actually have seen other plays, one at the Tuacahn theater even. I went with the singles ward to see the original UTAH! play that theater was built for. Chris and I also saw "The King and I" on our honeymoon in Salt Lake. You'll never guess who was the star, Haley Mills! Yes the very one of Parent Trap and Saved by the Bell fame. I know we are so lucky!

A random fairytale that I made up

Okay, I know it's late, but Austin's watching us, and I haven't passed out from exhaustion (yet :P). Anyways, I am not the slacker and I haven't written an 'actual' post in a while. Well, here we go


Once upon a time there was a girl named Jellrah. Jellrah was the beautiful, spoilt, not to mention snobby princess of Alagica. Alagica was a small country to the east of France. Jellrah, needless to say, had a horrible personality and was a terrible ruler of the beautiful Alagica. But all that was about to change...



"What?!?!?" screamed Jellrah. "I specifically told the chef not to make me pancakes, especially not cold ones!" "Daddy!!!!!!!" Her father,A.K.A King Jelrom, came running down the corridor. "What is it, my sweet?" he asked."Chef Ammali made me pancakes instead of grape crepes, like I asked." Jellrah whined. "I'll take care of it, darling, pumpkin" "Chef Ammali, your fired!"

To be continued..................

Pesky Little Brothers IV

Dalin really enjoys homework time. As soon as I tell the other kids it's time to do their homework he will run and get his paper and crayons, lay himself down on the floor and hum a little song while he colors away. But when he's done I guess he thinks everyone else should be done too. I've caught him a couple of times grabbing the girls homework papers off of the table and crumpling them up and trying to throw them in the trash. We've been lucky that nobody has lost anything so far. Yesterday he grabbed Kaylee's math paper and ran off and tried to flush it down the toilet. The little stinker! If you have ever heard any of Chris's childhood stories you would know that Dalin is completely Chris's kid! If you haven't heard the stories, ask Kaylee and Ashton I'm sure they would be happy to share.

I'm gonna be using this website a lot, so get used to it

My family: picture form

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Thirty Something

There was a T.V. show in the late 80's called "thirtysomething" and although I think I may have only watched a couple of reruns, I do remember thinking that they were pretty old. I looked up the show on imdb (one of my favorite sites) and the actors really were thirty something (of course they are in their 50's now). Today I turn 31. I am officially in my thirties, and it's wierd. My sister-in-law and I were talking and we had to wonder when did we start catching up to the age we used to think was old? I do not feel old enough to be thirty-one, but the stats seem to support that fact (married almost eleven years, four kids, a mortgage, etc. etc.)

Chris has been going to school a couple of times a week and working alot of over time lately so I have had zero alone time. So for my birthday I told him I was going to go shopping and I would be gone for a very long time (it ended up being over four hours). It was so fantastic! I didn't even buy that much, but the fact that I was out by myself with no pressure to go home and relieve Chris was marvelous. I didn't have to convince any one to stay in the stroller or get any one out of the racks of clothes or chase anyone down the aisle or coerce good behavior with a bribe or listen to complaints of being at the store to long. It was as good as a spa day for me! I spent like an hour just trying things on, because I could! It made me happy all day.

The kids cleaned their rooms for their present to me which was what I really wanted. The girls also gave me a pillow that they made themselves, and Aiden gave me a home made rain cloud made out of cotton batting filled with water. I also got a lot of birthday wishes from my family as well. We went to dinner and had Cold Stone ice cream (my favorite) instead of cake. It was a really great day and just what I needed.

The pillow and "rain cloud". You can't really see it in the picture, but Kaylee even stitched mom on the pillow:)

Kids are Funny!

I know all I do is talk about my kids, but really they are more interesting than I am. Here are some of the tidbits from the Edwards abode.

Kaylee, Ashton and I were shopping one day and Kaylee kept pushing all of the clothes back on the rack. When I asked her to stop she said, "I'm doing the store a favor. When I push the stuff back it looks like there isn't as much and people will think they need to hurry and buy it before it's all gone." I love when I get to hear her thought processes.

This is from about four years ago. I found it when I was going through some old e-mails and I didn't want to forget about it again. It just makes me smile. One morning when Ashton was three I was telling her to hurry and finish her breakfast because we had things to do. Her response, "What things, like sing, laugh, dance, play." Yes those are things we should all do.

Okay this one I actually wrote about in another post last year, but just the thought of it makes me chuckle so I will share again. I was in charge of our primary program last year, so I was sitting on the stand to help any one who might need it. As the program was progressing Aiden came up to me to tell me something I couldn't understand, so I quickly shooed him back to his seat. Minutes later he came up to me again whispering what I'm sure he thought was important, but I still couldn't understand what he was saying so I sent him back to his seat again. He started crying a little and I thought it was because I had sent him back to his seat. He came back a third time and I finally understood him. He said, "You told me you would make me some toast before we came to church and you never did!" That one still cracks me up.

Last week while trying to get the kids ready for school and out the door I was feeling very frustrated. On my way out to the car I said, "You guys need to hurry up, you are going to make my head explode!" I then picked up Dalin and headed for the car. He kept looking at my head then told me, "No it not. Your head not splode." Too funny!

Last but not least, my nephew Jayden was staying with us this past weekend and he is a little on the skinny side (that boy is always on the go, I wish I had his metabolism!). He was having dinner and he didn't want to eat very much and I asked if he remembered that we talked about how he needs to get some meat on his bones. He turned to me and said, "What about you Kristen, you need get some meat for your bones!" Oh how I wish that was the case kiddo!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDEN!

In honor of our favorite six year old here are a few of our favorite pictures of Aiden.

Aiden and Jayden have been buddies from the beginning. I know, Aiden looks ginormous next to Jayden. We used to call him Aiden square pants, he was seriously shaped like a brick. (Aiden 2 1/2 months Jayden 2 weeks)

I love this one because Aiden's expression is the same as Cookie Monster's.

Before and after. This is what happens when I leave Chris alone with the babies.

Check out the water action on this one!

Sound asleep with sucker still in hand.

Aiden loves to take pictures of everything, but his favorite subject is himself. We have plenty of close-ups of this boy.


Rocket pinata and cake the day before his birthday. The cake says "Aiden 6.0" can you tell his dad is a computer geek?

We had a family party the day before his actual birthday because there was a school fund raising night at Chuck E. Cheese and for the sake of the parents I didn't want to ask everyone to come to a building full to capacity of little kids. I seriously think the fundraiser nights are the main reason Aiden even wanted to go to kindergarten. He was so excited that his first one was on his birthday. I forgot to bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures from his birthday day, but they didn't sit still for more than a couple of seconds so it didn't really matter. A happy coincidence was that my brother Brandon was in town for last night on his way home from a job interview in Arizona so he was able to come to the party. Happy birthday Aiden, we sure love you!