Category Archives: gymnastics

turtles and basketball (weekend)

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Grandma Debbie came up for a visit this weekend! Kaya was so excited and just couldn’t wait for her to arrive. Grandma brought lots of hugs and surprises for everyone, including Valentine’s candy, Beanie Baby turtles for the girls, and a steamer stock pot for me. Because of spoiling us, she always has much fewer things to pack up when she leaves. We’re just helping lighten her load, right?
_MG_1007We spent a lot of time just relaxing and playing at home. Kaya loved pretending to tuck us in for a nap on the couch.

After Michael got off work on Friday night, we all went to look at another house. It was beautiful and in a great neighborhood… but there was a line of clients to get in and see it! Crazy! We waited in the car for quite a while before it was our turn.

We knew it would sell quickly, and I wasn’t ready to jump into anything yet, so we didn’t make an offer. It was sold by the next morning, after being on the market for only one day!

After seeing the house, we took my mom out to our favorite Chinese place for her first time ever. Kaya hid behind Michael for this picture and Kaelyn was too busy with her cup to turn around! Haha.

On Saturday morning, Michael headed off to a stake basketball tournament. It lasted about 4 hours, and his team made it to the championship! He was sore for days afterward, and sadly, there are no pictures from this event.

Since he was gone, I took Kaya to her gymnastics class. She is getting so comfortable with most of the activities and even told me that she loves her teachers!

Later, we decided to decorate some sugar cookies with Grandma._MG_1014 Michael decorated two cookies. And he ate two cookies. And that was all for him!_MG_1013 _MG_1012 “Cookie decorating” is actually code for “cookie eating”._MG_1018 _MG_1021 _MG_1023 Kaya got a little excited about covering her entire cookie with candy and sprinkles. She made this bunny on the top right, and she was worried because she “missed a spot”. Hahaha._MG_1026 I got a little snowman-happy._MG_1028

We also enjoyed time with Karl and Kaitlyn, although I somehow didn’t get any pictures of their visit. We had church on Sunday, and finally took naps, after not having our regular nap routine for a few days. We were wiped out! Grandma left on Monday morning, and now, we are looking forward to our other set of grandparents visiting next weekend!

five on friday (11/20)

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ONE. Kaya had her last gymnastics class (for this 6-week course, anyway), and that meant that they got to play with the parachute! She was a little uncertain at first, but it turned out to be her favorite activity yet.

Overall, she ended up loving gymnastics. She became more confident around people she doesn’t know well, and is now more comfortable with learning new skills. I’m so glad we signed her up.

TWO. For the past few years, I’ve wanted to get an Angel from the Christmas Angel Tree program… and every year, I always seemed to miss it. Turns out, I never realized how early you have to go pick one off the tree. We were sure to get to the mall on time this year to choose a child, and I am so happy we finally did.

And you know, while you’re at the mall, you might as well get Chinese food for dinner.

THREE. I hosted our little preschool co-op group this week, and we learned the letter “L”! Naturally, we had to make some “lions”. I just love seeing what the kids create and how each one is unique. (Kaya’s is on the top left.)

FOUR. My littlest princess is getting four molars all at once… and it must have been hurting her so badly last night, because she wouldn’t stop screaming and crying, even when we were holding her. It reminded me so much of those unsoothable early newborn nights. My sweet husband rocked and snuggled her nearly all night long. I am blessed.

FIVE. It’s almost a joke to me how often things seem to break around here sometimes. This week, both the microwave and the oven stopped working. It’s like a personal record for me, or something. Hide all your appliances when I come over, because apparently I don’t have good luck… haha.

Happy weekend!

they like to move it move it

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I feel like we’ve been on the move constantly for the past week and a half, and by the end of the day, we’re all exhausted. I’m all about taking any opportunity I can to exercise my kids and wear them out.

I brought the slide out for the first time in a few weeks (it’s been out of rotation), and Kaelyn is finally big enough to climb up all on her own! She instantly fell in love and wanted to do it over and over again. (she definitely said “cheese” for this picture, by the way!)_MG_9966 The sliding party immediately continued the next morning when she woke up. 🙂11062015collage1Kaya has really started coming out of her shell at gymnastics, and she even allows the teachers to help her now. That’s pretty big progress for my shy girl. I’m so proud of her for gaining confidence and skills. (and of course… cue the corny video made by Google…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yY8aGVLqIQ

We’ve had some oddly-warm-for-November weather lately, so we’ve also been out on a lot of walks and have spent many mornings on the playground.

Kaya finally climbed all the way up this huge ladder on her own! I think it took her about 30 minutes the first time, and then after that, she was racing up that thing in mere seconds, over and over again.

Goofy, proud-of-herself grin.

Kaya always loved playing on this part of the playground when she was was about Kaelyn’s age… and I feel like it was just yesterday that I would sit up there with her while Kaelyn rolled around in my belly. Now my baby is this big kid goofing off at the top of the playground. Crazy how time goes so fast!
I love that my kids love to play outside… and as a bonus, I somehow ended up with enough steps to win our “cousin Fitbit challenge” last week! I’ve definitely had weeks with a whole lot more steps, but hey, I’ll take the win anyway.Screenshot_20151108-171019~01

five on friday (10/16)

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Happy weekend! 🙂

ONE. We’re a little bit late to the game (considering when the official school year began), but we started our own little at-home “preschool” with Kaya this week! We saw how our friends were using these alphabet worksheets, and it finally got me motivated to just start with a “letter of the week” kind of program._MG_9519 Can you tell that she was just a little bit excited? She loves to “do school”, and I’m honestly impressed with how quickly she’s learning and retaining information._MG_9514

TWO. We had a play date with friends on Tuesday! Seeing these two little BFFs together never fails to warm my heart. Kaya loves Mia so much- she laughs her hardest when they’re being silly together, and is always sure to hug her goodbye. I never could have imagined that our once tiny little babies would grow to be true friends.

THREE. Kaya nearly begged me to go to the library on Wednesday, so we spent the early afternoon over there. I think my kids were more interested in these bead mazes and pushing the kid-sized chairs around than actually reading any books! I still consider their quiet self-entertainment a success. 🙂

I thought it’d be cute to take Kaelyn’s picture with this pumpkin… but she just wanted help getting out of the chair so she could climb right back into it. Haha.

Don’t worry, we still managed to come home with some fun books._MG_9539

FOUR. Kaya had her first-ever gymnastics class last night! She was SUPER shy for almost the entire time, didn’t even want to look at any of the teachers (never mind letting them help her do anything), and just seemed really unsure of herself. By the end of it, we had her jumping down the trampoline all on her own, and she was having so much fun that she didn’t want to quit. Hopefully next week starts out a little easier for her. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-A0hscQVkY

FIVE. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably being saying it for eternity- I don’t know how Michael does everything he does. School, work, fatherhood, church service, and a side-business… and he doesn’t seem to sleep much. Well, I guess it catches up to everyone eventually, because my sweet husband ate his dinner last night and then promptly fell asleep on the table. I kid you not. I am so grateful for everything that he does for our family.