Monday, May 26, 2008

Kaitlyn's Graduation!

Kaitlyn is now graduated from preschool. I can't believe she is that old and that I will have a child in elementary next year. Which by the way she is terrified for, but we will take things one step at a time. She was very scared to go to her graduation. She cried for about 30-40 min before we went and when we got there she was pretty much bawling. We tried to calm her down and Billysue (her teacher) even tried to calm her down. Nothing was working. So we sat as close as we could, that was pretty darn close and the program started. They started to sing a song and she gradually calmed down. I had one mother ask me if she had the hiccups because of the way she sang the first song, trying to stop crying and catching her breath. I had to post a lot of pictures because I thought it was so funny to see her transformation, how sad she started out and then by the end she was beaming with the biggest smile. Hopefully this experience will help her be brave at the dance recital next week. We let her choose her favorite place to eat afterwords and she decided she wanted a hot dog from Big J's so we headed out there and she was so excited to find out that she got to get a kids meal and even more excited when she saw the cowboy hat that it came out in. Melanie and Kaitlyn were pretending they were cowgirls and talking like them and everything. All in all it was a good night.


Elle and Kaitlyn, both really nervous and sad

A little happier

She smiles

It looks like she is finally having fun


So proud of herself for actually doing it

Sisters

The whole fam!

Billysue and Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn and Elle happy after it was over


Melanie and Kaitlyn at Big J's in thier cowboy hats


Congrats Kaitlyn we are so proud of you!!

Melanie, One of My Best Babysitters

The other day I was trying to get Kaitlyn ready for her pre-school graduation and I asked Melanie to keep Matthew happy. I stuck Matthew in his crib and gave Melanie some books and toys, in hopes that they would entertain both of them. Well the books and toys weren't entertaining enough I guess because this is what I found when I went back into Matthews room.



Melanie had found some stickers. (not any old stickers mind you Kaitlyn's very special stickers she was saving.) She decided it would be fun to put them all over Matthews hair and face. As the looks of it he thought it was pretty fun too. At least it kept them happy and I accomplished what I needed to. I still need to go and buy Kaitlyn some new stickers though.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Black and White Days Parade!

Last Saturday we went to the Richmond parade with the Johnsons. The kids came home with oodles of candy. They had a lot of fun watching Hayley, Blake and Makayla ride in the parade.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A Few of our Favorite Things!

Jumping with Dad

Ballet dancers


Pajama parties, of course with popcorn



Boys Will Be Boys

I am finding out more each day how much different boys are than girls. Matthew's newest thing he likes to do is take his diaper off, especially before and after his nap. I have found him with his diaper off more than once. Lets just say it isn't always a pretty sight. You see I got in the habit of putting him down for his nap with just a diaper on. Biggest mistake ever. So the other day I found him with no diaper and peeing through his crib rails and mess all over his sheets. This is now the end of sleeping in his diaper. I swear my girls never even dreamed about taking their diapers off. So Matthew doesn't kill me when he gets older I thought I would omit the bottom half of him.


Matthew looking down at his diaper and feeling very sad after I got mad at him for taking it off.

The diaper down on the floor next to his crib.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Health Days!

Along with Mothers Day this last weekend we also enjoyed Health Days, Smithfield's City Celebration. We had a lot of fun, Grandpa and Grandma Hiatt came up and joined us for all the fun. We started the day off going to the parade. The kids absolutely loved it and came home with a ton of candy. Kaitlyn even got a stuffed chicken thrown to her and hasn't let it leave her site since she got it. Except the one time I got it away to throw it in the washer to wash all of the back footprints off of it. We then headed to the park for some fun activities. We started it off with the annual ping pong ball drop. The ping pong ball drop is for kids ages 4-12. They have all the kids meet at the field next to Summit Elementary. We then waited for someone to drop the ping pong balls from the sky. This year they had a huge helicopter drop the balls. Man it is a mad dash of kids running for a ball. They then redeem their ball for a prize. Kaitlyn has come away with some pretty fun prizes. This year she got a fairy doll. Melanie was once again too young for this, so she got to go and do a fish pond, and loves the stuffed panda bear she got. The girls also enjoyed jumping in the big blowup fun house.


That night Kaitlyn and I drove out to watch the fireworks. I guess she has my love of watching fireworks and begged me to take her. Of course she didn't have to beg too long. It was fun to do something with just me and her alone. We haven't done that in a really long time and I think we both really had a great time together.
At the parade: Grandma, Kaitlyn, Melanie, Brad, Grandpa and Matthew in the stroller.


Waiting for the ping pong ball drop.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Mothers Day!

So my favorite part of mothers day was the book Kaitlyn brought home from preschool for me. It said:

My mom, I like it when my mom plays with me and holds me. My mom likes to eat meatballs and ham. My mom is always calling on the phone. My mom is really good at telling me to be soft with my sister. My moms favorite thing to do is cook. I love my mom because she rocks me.

oh wow, little did I know that my favorite food was meatballs and ham. I had no idea how much I was on the phone and didn't realize that cooking was my favorite thing to do. Do I really even enjoy cooking at all? I guess we find out who we are from the things our very honest children observe.

The next best thing about mothers day was that Brad finished my baseboards for me. Well at least finished putting them up. Now all we have to do is caulk, putty and paint. Wow these home improvement projects sure do take a lot of time. Here are a few pics with my new floor and baseboards. oh, and notice what a great help Matthew was the whole time. He sure enjoyed working with his dad. I don't know that Brad enjoyed it as much, but thought it was somewhat cute that Matthew kept giving him the wrong tools.