Happy, happy birthday!!!

Happy Birthday babe, 28 never looked so good! Brandon was lucky enough to have a short day today at school. Since he left so early this morning, the kids and I had his birthday dough-doughs waiting for him when he got home. Right when he walked in Keslie said "Happy bird-day Daddy!" They helped me sing to him, and they also helped him blow out his candles. Keslie knows how much fun birthdays are, so she is always excited to celebrate one.

We went to Pei Wei for lunch, then came home and put the kids down for their naps. Our good freind Jeff (thanks Jeff!) came over and stayed with the kids while Brandon and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. The movie is almost 3 hours long, but is was really good. Those have to be one of our favorite movie series, always funny and so entertaining. We got to the theater 45 minutes early so Brandon could get his favorite seat. (right behind the handicap seating where the rail is, so you can put your feet up.)
It was nice to get out and celebrate Brandon's birthday. I love you babe, I hope you had a great day! Love - K
P.S. Don't you just love Keslie's new shoes?! She picked them out, and they are so cute on her. She wears them with little black gauchos, and I just want to squeeze her because she looks so cute!

Keslie's dance recital...

**Brandon put up the video of her recital in the post below. Make sure you check it out, it's too cute!!!**

Keslie had her very first dance recital on Saturday! She did such an awesome job and it was so much fun watching her and all the other cute girls in her class. I was a little nervous because of her past history in class, but she followed the teacher and did everything she was supposed to. I guess all she needed was an audience to perform in front of!

The second picture is with two of her cute friends that are in our ward. Aren't they adorable?! The third picture is of all the girls in her class. They all had so much fun and it was nice getting to know everyone. Keslie asked me take take her picture with her teacher Miss Rachael. She was so nice and Keslie loved going to class every week.

As much fun as dance was, I think we are going to take a break for a little while. I think we might try try gymnastics or soccer next. We did just finish swim lessons too, so maybe we will take a break from any classes and enjoy the summer.

Brandon took the car today since it was raining earlier this morning, so the kids and I are just hanging out today. I have done some cleaning this morning and plan on tackling the office and bathrooms during naptime. The kids and I have also been playing with their new cars. They have been collecting cars from the movie CARS and they are having so much fun. I need to take some pictures cause it's pretty cute to watch them play together. I am off to fix some lunch for the kiddos and I. Have a great day everyone! - Kaitlyn

Recipe Exchange....

Thursday night was our recipe exchange, and it was so fun and turned out great. We had so much food and everything was so yummy.
We had lime slush, baked ziti, magic bars, chicken tortilla soup, chicken salad on homemade rolls, strawberry spinach salad, cheese souffle' cubes, and bacon roll ups.

We ate way too much and everyone shared their story on how they met their husband. Everyone had such great stories and it was fun getting to know everyone a little bit more.

I had fun planning this party and putting together the table decor. I made everyone a placecard with their initial on it, and everything else came from this great store called Party City. Several of the ideas for the party came from a super creative girl named Talia. I love to read her blog and she is very inspiring. Thanks for the cute ideas!

I am very happy that the night turned out so well, I can't wait till our next dinner party!

Sorry...

I have been sitting here for a while trying to upload pictures, but for some reason it's not working. I will have to try later cause we are taking the kids to see Shrek 3 in a little while. I have cute pictures to share from my fun party last night, so hopefully I can figure it all out.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hmmmm, I wonder who Keslie looks like? Brandon took this picture of Kes and I after church yesterday. I wanted a picture with Jack-Jack too, but he fell asleep on the way home. I guess Nursery really wears you out!
I had a really nice Mother's Day. We had really great talks in church, I was able to take a nap, and Brandon took care of dinner. He also surprised me with flowers and a dustbuster. I have been wanting one for a while, and now I have one! Growing up I always found it a little funny that my Mom would get household appliances for birthdays or holidays, but now I understand why. Anything that will make your life easier is great! Thanks Babe for making my life a little easier!

We took the kids out for a walk after dinner, but we didn't make it very far. We got down to the end of the street when it started to pour. We ran back tto the house and let the kids play on the front porch for a while. They love to ride their bikes and they never want to come inside.

Today Brandon was giving the kids "horsey" rides on his back, and Jack would yell "Haw-He" instead of "Ye-Haw". It was so funny. Brandon and I would start laughing so hard everytime he would say it. Brandon would stop to laugh and Jack would say it again to get him moving, but that would make us laugh even more. He's such a funny little guy.

I think I have talked before about how much of a little mother Keslie is. She is just so funny to watch and listen to. On Saturday we had a Primary activity and they had ice cream at the end. Keslie and Jack were sharing a bowl of ice cream and after every bite she would wipe his face off with a napkin. He kept spilling ice cream on the floor and she would say "Oh be careful Buddy. don't spill it." She talks to him just like I talk to her, and she says the same things I do. She is also very protective of him and watches out for him. Jack is lucky to have such a great big sister!

Brandon started his first day of Tri 1 today. He was pretty excited to finally be starting the program. He even has his white coat now which is so awesome. I need to take a picture of him in it now.

I am having a dinner party this week with a bunch of the P Girls. We are doing a recipe exchange which I am really looking forward too because I need some new recipes. We always have fun when we get together, so it will be a good night.

Have a great week! -Love K

Swim lessons, ice cream, and snakes....

Here are a few pictures that Brandon took the other night at swim lessons. This first one of Jack is so funny because I was trying to get him to float on his back and kick his legs, but he decided to take a thumb break instead. What a funny kid!
Keslie loves swim lessons and everyday she picks out a swim suit and says "go to swimming pool?" I think she and I are both looking forward to summer when we can be at the pool everyday. She loves to play in the water, and I love the wear the kids out so they will take really good naps! :)

Since it was Monday we went out for ice cream after swim lessons as our Family Home Evening. The ice cream was really good and the kids made a big mess of course. As we were leaving it started to rain and a Tornado siren came on. I snapped this shot of the sky because you could see where the clouds were starting to form a tornado. Luckily it didn't form all the way, but we left and hurried home anyway because we didn't want to stick around to see it happen!

Yesterday as were leaving to go get some lunch, we found a surpirse in our garage. I had opened the garage to get in the car, but when we went to close the garage to leave the door wouldn't close. Brandon thought the door had just come off it's tracks so he went to investigate. He came back a few minutes later to inform me there was a snake wrapped around the coils on the garage door. I got out to look and sure enough there was a snake. Brandon called Animal Control to come and get it out because neither one of us was going to do it! When the guy from Animal Control came, the snake was already dead, so he pulled it out and showed us the snake. He told us it was a Rat Snake and that they aren't poisionus, but they do bite. The snake was about 3feet long, but he said they are usually 7-9 feet. I am just glad it was dead and that he took it away with him! I did take a few pictures, but for the sake of everyone reading this I won't post any pictures.

Brandon starts orientation tomorrow and he is nervous and excited. I am super excited because I know how hard he has worked to get to this point. I know the next 3 years are going to be full of lots of hard work and long hours for him, and I will pretty much be a single mom, but it will be so worth it. He's on his way to becoming Dr. Krainik. Doesn't that sound awesome?!!

I have a few projects I am working on, so hopefully I can get them finished so I can share them with everyone. Love you all - Kaitlyn

Happy National Scrapbook Day!!!

So today is National Scrapbook Day, and I am going to celebrate by going shopping for supplies! As soon as the kids are down I am off to the scrapbook store to add to my ever growing collection. :)

I have lots of pictures to share since we have been pretty busy this week. Wednesday was Keslie's last day of speech until June. She will have a new teacher when she starts again since Ms. Emily is graduating. She told us Keslie has done really well and she loved working with her.

After speech on Wednesday we took Keslie to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. The kids had a great time of course, and I think if Keslie could live there she would!

The kids started swim lessons this week. They were supposed to start last week, but they were both sick. Keslie really loves going and is learning to go under the water. Jack wasn't so sure about it at first, but it only took him a few minutes to warm up to it. I think it helps that I have to get in with him. He is learning to float on his back, kick his legs, and blow bubbles in the water. We can't wait till summer now, so we can put their new skills to use!

When we were at Target the other day, Brandon picked up some Thomas the Train underwear for Jack. He is not potty trained yet, but Jack loves Thomas and he is always trying to put on Keslie's underwear. He loves to do whatever she is doing, so now he has more "manly" underwear! He wears them over his diaper and gets very upset if you try to take them off. He is also becoming very opinionated about his clothes too. He has a favorite pair of shoes, and he gets very upset if he doesn't get to wear them.

I hope everyone is doing well. We miss everyone and love you all. Have a great weekend! Love-K

What an amazing week!

This past week was so much fun with Annette here. She flew in Saturday night and stayed till Friday. (She stayed an extra day just for us!) She came to our ward with us, and she sat with the kids while Brandon and I spoke in sacrament meeting. Our talks went really well, and we have gotten a lot of postive feedback about them. We have even gotten a few requests for copies of them!

Monday Annette and I went out shopping for some new decor and we ended up and Peir One for a couple of hours. It was our lucky day though because almost everything we bought was on clearance, and then we got an addtional discount on top of that becasue she's a Designer. We also went to Kirkland's and Hobby Lobby. We lucked out at Hobby Lobby also because all of the picture frames were 50% off. It was so great to find such awesome deals!

The rest of the week was spent painting and decorating. Brandon has the next few weeks off from school so he was great and did a lot of painting for us. I cannot take any credit for any this though because Annette did all of the decorating. I just watched in amazement as she went to work or "play" as she calls it! She has so much talent and everything turned out exactly the way I pictured it. I especially love the photo wall. I have always wanted one, and it turned out perfect. THANK YOU Annette for all of your hard work, you are the best! We are sad that she had to go home, but we are so glad she came to visit us. We are espcially glad she stayed an extra day to help us finish our projects! Thank you!!!!

The kids loved having Mimi around too. Keslie followed her pretty much everywhere she went, she would even wait outside of the bathroom door for her. Every couple of minutes she would say "Hey Mimi", it was so cute to see how happy she was to have her around. Before she came to visit, I was trying to get Jack to say "Mimi" ,but he wouldn't. As soon as he saw her though, he started saying it.

They also loved their special Mimi treats. She made these cute tins for the kids, and every night after they went to bed she would put a treat inside of their tins for them to open in the morning. Jack got a couple of new trains and Kelsie got another Polly Pocket and a My Little Pony. They thought this was the greatest thing ever!

I hope everyone is having a great week. We miss you and love you all! - Kaitlyn

P.S. Sorry these are not the greatest pictures, I don't think they are showing the true color of the paint and all of the decor. We also have a few finishing touches to take care of like finding some lampshades and adding pictures to all of the frames. :)