Annika's Baby Blessing

We were in San Bernardino for Aaron's brother Travis getting married--and decided we may as well bless Annika while we were down there as well. Ironic in some ways, as that is also where we blessed Cameron. We officially have the older two blessed in North Saint Paul, and the younger two in San Bernardino. 

It was a lot of fun seeing family, and we are so happy to have this new little girl in our family.

After the blessing--with everyone feeling well. (Yay!)

 Those who participated in the blessing.

These are some pictures of Annika in her sweet blessing outfit. Sure love this girl!

Fourth and Fireworks

This Independence Day, we were pretty low-key. With Jensine due within the week and nearly 100 degree weather (with high humidity), we decided that a day around the house was best. Aaron didn't have to work, so he spent most of his morning (and the previous night) building the boys' Transformers. Building them is fairly straightforward; it is the sorting out all of the different colors (including fivedifferent grays) among the more than one thousand pieces that takes a lot of time. Nevertheless, the boys LOVE when Aaron does this, which is why he does it.

Nothing much else happened until the evening. The boys all took a nap in the afternoon, without which staying up until 11pm would not have happened. At around 9:30pm, we headed to our church lawn. Our Branch building is directly across the street from Independence Park, which is where the city does its fireworks show. So, every year, our Branch membership gets together to enjoy the show.

While waiting for the show to start, the boys (including the largest) played with some sparklers. Cameron was a little scared of the sparks and would go to cover his eyes. Unfortunately, he was holding the sparkler in his hand, while trying to cover his eyes with the same. Needless to say, he did one sparkler and was then content to watch his brothers.

Cameron does love his daddy's shoulders. Combine that love with his love of throwing his hands out and saying "Ta-da" and this is what you get:

Introducing: Annika Joy Kinser

The past few weeks have passed by very slowly in the Kinser house. Eager anticipation by both a very pregnant mother and three very excited soon-to-be big brothers, combined with that of a proud father, pre-wrapped to fit around his baby's tiny fingers, made for a situation in which a baby cannot come quickly enough.

On July 6, 2012, Jensine and Aaron went to the hospital early in the morning for Jensine to be induced. At 4:52 pm (CDT), our family was blessed with our fourth child and first little girl. Annika Joy Kinser was born weighing in at 9 pounds 12 ounces and 21.5 inches in length.

Annika (pronounced ĂN-ĭ-kŭ; pronunciation guide here) is an adorably cute little girl, but she cried a little more than her brothers did. It helps that she came out of the womb hungry, but had to wait for her mother's milk to come in. We stayed at the hospital Friday night while Mike and Joy (Jensine's parents) watched the boys for us. 

On Saturday morning Aaron brought the kids to the hospital and they doted over her for an hour or so. Each took their turn holding her, though Isaac was a little unsure of what to do when she started crying. It was cute to see that their excitement for her coming was still there after she actually arrived. She will be very loved, that is for sure.

On Sunday, Aaron and the boys went to church, though Aaron returned to the hospital after Sacrament meeting to assist Jensine. Aaron returned to pick up the boys after church and brought them to the hospital to help pick up Jensine and Annika. Everyone is home now and happy to be.

 Now that Annika is home, however, the competition for Aaron's time and space has begun. Isaac and Austin seem to want to sit on Aaron's lap mainly to sit by Annika. Cameron (who refers to Annika as "baby 'kah"), however, seems to be struggling a little bit and desperately wanting his father's time and attention. In the end, however, the situation ends up being the same: if Aaron is holding Annika, he is practically holding all four of the kids.  He isn't complaining, however.

Back to Bikin'

As Jensine noted in a previous post, with the warmer weather, the boys and I are taking full advantage of the opportunity to be out riding our bikes. Isaac has moved up to a larger bike and Austin has moved up to Isaac's old bike. Cameron has also moved on to Austin's old bike, but is still working on the whole "pedaling" idea.

Isaac has, of course, been without training wheels since last summer and continues to amaze me with how well he rides, as he continues to absolutely dust his brother Austin (something Austin finds disparaging). 

Austin has been riding with his training wheels up as high as they go and doing pretty well. Most of his crashes have actually been from when the training wheels imbalance him. About a month ago--May 16th to be exact--I took the training wheels off of his bike and worked a little with him. It did not go so well. He actually did alright, but was so scared every time I let go that he would put on his brakes and fall over. I had to run behind him with my hands as the ready and he would go for maybe 50 yards.

Since that time, I haven't worked too much with him, deciding to let him ride with training wheels for a little longer. Late last week, however, I took up practicing with him some more and the improvement, after less than a month, was incredible. He has way more confidence than before and yesterday he took off and I stopped running behind him.

He still needs to work on starting and stopping--something that is difficult when your legs don't quite reach the ground, even with the seat completely lowered--but he is doing so well that they are off for good. We rode for about 2 miles yesterday and about the same again today. He is loving it and has far more confidence than before.

Way to go Austin!!!

P.S. - Cameron, of course, still loves to sit in the trailer and, at the mention of a bike ride, will go out in the garage, climb in the trailer, buckle up, and patiently wait for the rest of us. Very cute.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day. The boys made me the most adorable card. It had a wheel that when I spun it, I would read a new way that they would help me. Austin said he would pick me some dandelions, snuggle with me, and build me something out of legos. Cameron said he would give me a hug and a kiss, and tell me I love you (if I asked). Isaac said he would clean up the living room, do the dishes, and draw a picture for me. It was so sweet, I love it so much. I also received an XXL bag of peanut M&M's...so great. :)

Austin fulfilling one of his helping tasks.

                             

As I'm the primary chorister, I got to conduct the Mother's Day song during sacrament meeting. It was awesome. I told Isaac and Austin on the way to church that they needed to sing loud, because it had been a week since we had sung the song, and some of the other kids may not remember the words as well. They DEFINITELY sang loud enough, and in consequence, the entire primary sang/yelled very well. It was very cute.

The boys and I before church.

Aaron made an awesome dinner. Always makes me wish he could make dinner every night...but I guess there's some kind of work conflict. :) All in all, it was a very nice, fun, relaxing day...so thank you Aaron and boys!

31!

Aaron turned 31, and the boys were more than a little excited about his birthday. They had been planning for over two months what we should do for his big day. They decided we should do an ice cream party, because as Isaac said "Daddy loooooves ice cream". So true. We woke up early in the morning to make some ice cream decorations, and Isaac went a step further to make a pin the ice cream on the ice cream cone game. It was super cute, and very original. I have to say I'm glad I knew what he was doing, otherwise I don't know if I would have guessed. 

Isaac and his game.

We made Aaron treasure map that he had to follow to find his presents. There were little tasks that he had to do at each stop. For one we had him do 31 jumping jacks. The boys thought this whole process was great, and considering I may have forgotten to wrap the presents...a good alternative.

Currently all the boys in my house are obsessed with Angry Birds, and I mean ALL of them. So, when they saw they could get daddy an Angry Bird's shirt, they were thrilled.

 This is a very familiar sight. Aaron tries to take a nap, and invariably has some guests who decide he's slept long enough. This is pretty much how it goes too. Cameron wants to snuggle, Austin wants to be within an arms length, and Isaac needs to tell him something "0important".

We had strawberry cupcakes and cookies and cream ice cream. Very delicious. Everyone had seconds, including Cameron. Though, he was more excited about the frosting then anything else.

Happy 31 years!

Daily Fun

 I love it when the weather gets nice. We can start doing more activities outside, even if it means just going out for 10 minutes to run around. Lately Aaron's been going on bike rides with the boys every night that it's nice. They all love it so much, even Cameron throws two hands up when Aaron asks if anyone wants to go for a ride. Isaac and Austin have both switched to bigger bikes, and they apparently do great. I say apparently, because I don't go on rides with them. Something about being 7 and 1/2 months pregnant and balance. :)

We go to the park almost daily now. I love the differences just from last summer. Cameron is a crazy good climber, and can climb up almost all the ladders. Even more shocking, it doesn't give me a heart attack when he does so. I think part of that is he's my third boy, and the other is that he's just a good climber. 

Austin loves to find sticks at the park, aka guns...and so the games of good guys versus bad guy are a continual part of our time there. It makes for some entertaining conversations to listen to. "The bad guys are taking over the castle, but I have my laser gun blaster that can take care of them!"

I think the other half of our day involves legos. Lots of legos. Here are a few of Austin's creations--which are really all different forms of Transformers. There are the classic ones like Bumblebee and Heatwave, but others as well...like the "baby" transformer who always seems to be crying for the "daddy" transformer. I'm just glad that these, I assume, projections of his own feelings are now being resolved involving transformers.

 Isaac also loves to build, but his creations are more general, and usually more easy to know what it is. This one is a brachiosaurus. It even made it so the tail could bend up and down. He never ceases to amaze me with what he can do. But he does make an effort, and if I give him the time, will tell me step by step how he made something. Makes for fascinating conversations.

 Cameron is our snugglebug. In a huge way. On his bed--we're trying to work away from a crib to help him be more prepared--he sleeps on a gigantic dog, that serves as his pillow. He loves both stuffed animals, and his blanket. But he's also very good at giving kisses, though he thinks it's hilarious to try and do some tongue. We're trying to explain that's disgusting, but he just thinks our reactions merit it continuing on.

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Austin's Fourth Birthday!

Yesterday, Austin celebrated his fourth birthday.  We celebrated his birthday mostly on Saturday so that Jensine's parents could come.  The unofficial theme of this year was Transformers.  Here is my attempt at an Autobot cake.

Austin with his cake.

We went to Pizza Ranch for lunch (a pizza buffet place), then came back for presents, followed by cake and ice cream (homemade Peppermint candy ice cream!).  Austin's brothers were very eager to see what he got.

From Jensine's parents, he got a fishing pole game for the bath, and some Transformers.

From us he got a small transformer (Isaac's choice), sidewalk chalk (Cameron's choice), and two Kre-o Transformers (Jazz and the large Optimus Prime).  (On a side note, getting the regularly $60 Optimus Prime for $22 (Used-Like New) from Amazon was an awesome score.

Needless to say, Austin's favorite Transformer is Optimus Prime (Spider-Man: red/blue.  Optimus Prime: red/blue.  Conincidence?).  He got the first on the left from Jensine's parents, the next is the large Kre-o one we bought him, the next was from McDonald's, the next a small Kre-o one from bought before, and a small Kre-o figure that came with the large Optimus Prime

With our boys' newfound love for Legos, etc., this has become a common sight in our home.  Even Cameron loves to get in on the action.

Yesterday, on his actual birthday, we let him open his present from my parents.  Needless to say, he was excited to get another Spider-Man toy ("enough" would be an impossible amount for this child).

Later in the morning, kids from the branch came over for home-made donuts.  The one girl there was outnumbered 10-1.  They also enjoyed some Spider-Man.

With the addition of the large Optimus Prime and Jazz, we now have five Kre-o Transformers (an excellent combination of Lego-like bricks and Transformers).  These might just be the boys' favorite toys right now.

All in all, a fun couple of days!  Happy Birthday Austin!!!