Halloween 2010

We love Halloween at our house, well, most of us do. Rich can be a bit of a party pooper when it comes to Halloween and costumes. He was gracious enough to dress up as Diego this year, if Diego were to have blonde hair and have a baby tiger pretending to be a jaguar. The plan was for me to be Dora and him to be Diego. Unfortunately I could not find orange shorts anywhere (and Halloween was the week I had a sinus infection and strep throat) so I ended up being a mad scientist instead. Kinley was a fairy for her school party and a "nice witch" for the big night. I think we all had a pretty good time and managed to eat all of our candy in a timely fashion.

Our beautiful little fairy, hairstyling courtesy of our sweet neighbor

Here's our "nice witch" with an awesome face painting job if I do say so myself

I believe the caption for the last picture should read something like "Yankees fans, a symbol of everything that is wrong with America."

Cheer Camp

September was a very busy month for us, especially Kinley. She started pre-school which she is absolutely loving. Then, her life long dream came true, she became a cheerleader. She has been telling me for quite some time that when she grows up she wants to be a cheerleader. Lucky for her our high school's cheerleaders put on a cheer camp. We have a young woman in our ward that is a cheerleader, and is currently Kinley's favorite person, and Kinley was lucky enough to be in her group. Now, if only I could find some type of deprogramming camp to send her to so that she could quit saying the cheers all day. I've been trying to upload a video of their performance but blogger just doesn't want me to. So, pictures only for today, sorry.

Kinley and McKenzie

Kinley after her big performance, and no, she can't just stand normal for a picture

That silly Kinley

As per our usual, Kinley has been cracking us up. Kinley has become a music critic. She absolutely loves music, and just like her daddy, she can tell you who sings every song and then sing about half the lyrics. Last week while we were checking out at the grocery store she began singing. The cashier asked her if she liked music and Kinley responded with, "oh, I just love me some Ke$ha." I should probably be embarrassed that my daughter knows who Ke$ha is, and that she knows a good chunk of the lyrics, but I just thought it was funny.

Now on to my very favorite recent Kinley comment. Kinley and I recently took a quick trip to St. George with my parents and my brother Len. Kinley is now obsessed with Len, she thinks he is just the greatest thing in the world. When we woke up on Saturday morning Len commented that there had been some serious snoring going on in the room. Kinley then says, while pointing to everybody, "Grandpa was snoring, and Grandma was snoring, (then while pointing at Len) and I'm going to spend the rest of the day with you." It was just such a random comment, it makes me laugh every time I think of it.

The very belated birthday post

I would like to blame my lack of blogging on my recent shoulder surgery, however, I had been on a break from blogging even before that. I actually think I have been putting off this post because it's just really hard for me to acknowledge that my baby girl is now 4 and definitely not a baby anymore. Even though I ask her every day just to be my baby again, she assures me it's just not possible. I honestly can't believe that in just another week and a half I will be dropping her off at pre-school. Every day I am amazed by her. I'm amazed at her imagination, her energy, her intelligence, her creativity, and of course, the fact that she has so much to say she just can't stop talking. I hate to break it to her, but whether she wants to be or not, she's always going to be my baby girl.

So, on to the birthday fun. This year Kinley wanted a Despicable Me birthday party. Quite the challenge since no bakeries in town have a kit to make a Despicable Me birthday cake. Thank heavens for the ever so talented Kandis who made an amazing cake for Kinley.
Kinley, being your average 4 year old girl, is obsessed with princesses and Barbies. So naturally, she got plenty of Barbies for her birthday.
Kinley also got this awesome Barbie furniture that her Grandma made for her. She also got this new "princess dress" which is great for twirling in.
Even Uncle Len made it for her birthday. She was pretty excited to have him come for a visit. Kinley managed to get my camera and snap this great picture of Len. He'll be thrilled it made it on the blog. A weekend with Kinley will wear anybody out.

No more T ball

After a month of bribing, threatening, rewarding, and coaxing Kinley to participate in her t ball games while she yells about how much she hates t ball, the season has come to an end. I feel like it ended just in time, my sanity was beginning to slip away and I was out of bribes. Kinley asked if we had a game today, I said no, then true to Kinley's dramatic nature, she dropped to her knees, let out a slow motion "nooooooooo" with both fists clenched. Then she cried for about 5 minutes about how she just loves t ball so much. And then my head exploded.

Lil Slugger

Well here we are, half way through tee ball and I have yet to post about it. The main reason for my slacking is that I am coaching the team and it's super difficult to take pictures during the game. Why you ask? Because I'm running around waving my arms like a lunatic to get the 4 and 5 year olds to run in the right direction and trying to get them to stop dog piling on the ball. Luckily the team is catching on very quickly and allowed for some picture taking today.

Kinley is really enjoying tee ball. All during the games she continually expresses her delight to be there, saying things like "I'm having the worst time ever" and "I quit" and "I just came for the treats". On the way to the game on Monday she was crying tears of joy while yelling, "Why are you so mean to me? Why do you keep making me play tee ball?" It's moments like these that make being a coach and parent worth all the trouble. I should say that she is playing pretty well, she just gets a little bored in the field. I confess, I probably have way too high of expectations for her, but the only thing I really wanted her to inherit from me was my love of softball (and maybe a hint of athletic ability).

The home run trot

Kinley playing catcher, she actually makes a very good catcher

Hey Soul Sister

For your viewing pleasure, Kinley would now like to perform Train's latest hit "Hey Soul Sister". I know it will seem like Kinley is potentially intoxicated, sadly, this is just her personality. She's very "lively" if you will. She normally sings this in a more mild manor, however, she's recently given up napping and becomes rather silly in the late afternoon. So, without further ado, I give you the best rendition of Hey Soul Sister I have ever heard.

Anybody else see a hint of an Elaine dance in there???

Hot and Cold

Kinley absolutely loves music. She has inherited her father's ability to memorize the lyrics to every song. Yesterday she asked if I would record her while she sang some of her favorites. I must say I was rather surprised and pleased with the outcome. Enjoy!

To tell the truth

Kinley has had a bit of trouble lately telling the truth lately. I'm hoping she just doesn't quite understand what lying is, but deep down, I'm pretty sure she does. Today I noticed that Milo's old bed was back in his cage. When I asked Kinley about it she said Milo did it, not her. I said, "so you mean to tell me that our dog drug that bed all the way down the hall, pulled out the new bed, and stuffed that old bed in there?" She said, "yes, and it was totally crazy." And so it begins.

Mother/Daughter movie

This morning our ward had a mother/daughter movie at the theater. We were able to finally see Alice in Wonderland which I absolutely loved and Kinley did too. Before the movie we took pictures of the moms and daughters together. Kinley was lucky enough to get a picture with Reese. Kate (Reese's mama) told them to put their arms around each other, Kinley apparently interpreted this as she should put Reese in a choke hold. Reese's face is classic. Okay Kinley, try it again, be more gentle this time.

Hmm, a little better, still a little "chokey" but still cute.

Well, maybe she just can't help it, she just loves Reese so much.

Reese's Grandma Sheila even came to the movie with us. Before the movie started Kinley said, bursting with excitment, "Kate's mom is sooooo nice to me." Then, near the end of the movie, Kinley tells me that Kate's lap is open and she has to go. Nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" like being told your lap isn't as good as somebody else's. Oh well, better luck next year. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! To quote my friend Janae, "motherhood is not for the weak".

Easter...finally

So it turns out I'm a super lame blogger, so sorry. For a brief period of time I guess I just lost interest in it, or I'm just lame, one of the two. So for your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from Easter. Easter is my most favorite time of year, and not just because it has the greatest candy ever. Kinley had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the Easter egg hunt and dying eggs. She looked like a complete maniac at the egg hunt. We told her to run to the far end and pick up all the candy out there before the other kids got there. She apparently heard us tell her to run around in a manner similar to a ball stuck in a pinball machine.

I told Kinley to say cheese, instead she let out a massive sneeze. Lovely.

This is Kinley playing "Easter Bunny" for her friends. She picked out this awesome outfit and delivered some little treat baskets. Isn't she so sweet?

Tips on wearing flip flops

During a completely bizarre hail storm today, Kinley decided she wanted to go outside and play in it. I told her to get some shoes and socks on and she could go out. Then she laid this wonderful bit advice of on me. "We shouldn't wear socks with our flip flops because it makes Jesus sad." When asked why he would be sad she responded with, "well I've never seen Jesus wear socks with his fancy sandals. It's probably cause it makes him sad." Silly me, I always thought that you didn't wear socks with flip flops because it looked ridiculous and felt uncomfortable.

Here's your choices

We seem to operate on the "here's your choices" parenting strategy. I'm not sure if it's working, but we're committed to it. Sometimes Kinley gets to chose between to perfectly acceptable choices, like what to wear, what to play, etc. However, she primarily gets to chose between what we want her to do and the negative consequence for doing the opposite of what we want. This leads me to a great conversation with Kinley today. Kinley was trying to decide what she wanted to play this morning and exactly what I could play with her. She finally said to me, "Okay mom, here's your choices. Just so you know one of the choices is a real loser choice. You're first choice is to play princesses with me. Choice 2 is to kiss a frog, yuck. Choice 3 is to eat a poisoned apple from the mean witch and then I'll put you in a box." I'm still trying to figure out which one was the loser choice, they all seemed less than pleasant to me.

Humbling

There is nothing like the perspective of a year old to keep you grounded. Yesterday we saw a neighbor our running. Kinley said, "wow, she runs like the wind." I thought to myself, that is so nice, what a sweet little girl. Flash forward to today. Kinley's friend Logan brought some awesome cupcakes over today, some awesome rainbow cupcakes. While eating her cupcake Kinley tells me, "Mom, I wish you could make good stuff like Kandis." My response, don't we all. I would consider myself humbled, however, I was under no illusion that I "make good stuff". Then later today, she told another friend that her mom really loves cupcakes and she can fit a whole cupcake in her mouth. Just like that, I'm back in the game!!!

Watch out Ellen

Kinley has been putting together a little comedy routine. She thinks she's hilarious, I personally think she might need to spruce up the jokes a little. Oddly enough, her randomness does make me laugh. I think Ellen's safe for now, but give Kinley a few years and she just might be breaking into the talk show business, she certainly was blessed with the gift of gab.

This one's for the single ladies

Some parents might be trying to teach their children important things, such as their letters, numbers, etc. Not us. We're just trying to teach Kinley to do things that make us laugh. So far she is catching on brilliantly. Actually, we didn't teach her this, she just kind of learned it on her own.

Obsessed

Kinley has a new obsession, princesses, anything and everything related to princesses. Kinley discovered these little princesses that come with different dresses made out of a stretchy, rubbery type material that makes it so she can change their clothes herself, well, sort of. She has been working very hard to be able to save enough money to buy all of them. She is now the proud owner of all 7 Disney princesses, including her new favorite Princess Tiana. Unfortunately the princesses are super needy and whiney. They can't be left home alone because they will miss Kinley so much. I'm trying to ignore all of their undesirable traits and just focus on how much Kinley loves them.

Some awesome artwork

Kinley has just started drawing pictures that actually look like something more than scribbles. Last week she drew this amazing picture of her dad. I think this is her first drawing of a person. Personally, I think she seems to be headed down a path to creating Picasso like artwork. I really love how his ears are coming out of his eyeballs and the horizontal lines above the eyes would be his hair.

Another famous quote from Kinley

My sweet little Kinley has this horrible habit of drinking her bath water, or just holding in her mouth, or doing other such nasty things involving bath water and her mouth. Rich and I are constantly on her case about this. Well, this week she has really outdone herself. I started her bath and left the bathroom for a few minutes. When I came back in I found her licking the bath tub. I know, completely horrifying. I naturally yelled, "Kinley, what are you doing ?!?" Very calmly and with a shrug of her shoulders she replied, "I'm Kinley. I'm disgusting." Then she returned to her bath toys as if nothing had happened, and I thought that truer words have probably never been uttered.

I would...

I would love to update my blog. I really would. But I can't. I'm too busy playing Groovy Girls, Barbies, princesses, My Little Ponies, and all other things girly. And when I say "playing", what I really mean is Kinley tells me what to say and do, I do it, she reacts, then proceeds with telling me what my particular girly toy would say at that moment. I thought it was really cute and funny when she first started doing it. I don't think it's cute or funny any more. I think it's exhausting. She even tells me if I'm not sad enough, too sad, too grumpy, etc. So after a day of using no creativity or original thought, I really don't know what to put on here any more. I asked Kinley, but she just insisted I pick my princess up and make her do exactly what as she instructs. So like I said, I'd love to update this thing, but until my master tells me what to say, I guess I can't.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We made homemade laundry detergent for a Relief Society activity last week. It was rather fun, and it's super cheap. It ends up costing about a penny a load. Here's the recipe for anybody that wants to try it out.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (you can substitute other bar soap, but I prefer fels-naptha as it's a bit stronger)
1 Cup - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda* (make sure it's the washing soda)
½ Cup Borax
1- 5 gallon bucket (like you use for food storage)

(you should be able to find all of the ingredients in the laundry aisle of most grocery stores)

- Grate Fels Napth bar of soap and add to saucepan with hot water. (If you have a food processor, it will grate it up really nicely. The smaller your pieces are the faster it will dissolve.) Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved.

- Add in melted soap / water mixture

- Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken. (it is normal for it to be only partially gelled and partially liquid, that's okay, just mix it up really good and it will work just fine and will eventually come to a normal gel level)

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap bottle with detergent. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

Use: 1/4 cup per load for top loading (this can be used with front loading machines, I have been told to use half as much, but the only person I know who tried said that half was not enough.... so you'll have to play with it if you have a top loader.

Kinley's best idea ever

After yet another snow storm, Kinley and I headed out this morning to shovel the driveway. Kinley is the complete opposite of helpful, she takes snow from the grass and brings it over to my shovel, certainly slows the process down. When I was just about done with the driveway, I felt a snow ball hit me in the back. I turned around to see Kinley with a big grin. Then she said, "I have a great idea. I will run around like a maniac and you try and hit me with snowballs." Definitely her best idea ever. So for about 15 minutes I threw snowball after snowball at her. I think I have failed to mention that she insisted on wearing her bike helmet and knee pads outside today for safety. So, of course, I was trying to hit her helmet. I know, what an evil mother, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

After a quick snowball fight we came in for a little hot chocolate tea party. Our tea party conversation one of our more bizarre conversations. Kinley was telling me that if I lose all of my blood I will die. Then I will go and live with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and Heaven. I told her Heaven is a place, not a person. She looked at me funny, put her finger to her lips to do some thinking, and told me that Heaven is definitely a person, Heaven is Jesus' best friend. But don't worry, if I die, Kinley is just going to say a prayer and Jesus will send me home again. Some how I don't think she is grasping the whole death concept.

Welcome to Primary

Well it has been an exciting time at our house. Kinley is a Sunbeam. Starting about mid November, we've been on a countdown to primary. Kinley was so excited and talked about it non-stop. Finally, the big day arrived. We head out to church and Kinley spends the whole drive talking about what a big kid she is and she can't wait to go to primary with her friends, and of course that her "bestest friend" Reese was going to be in her class. We make it through Sacrament meeting just fine and send her on her way to primary. I was curious to see how she would do and stayed to watch for a minute. I mean really, she can't sit still and never stops talking, so needless to say, I was concerned for her teachers. Well she went in, sat right down, then about 5 minutes later she came storming out of the room. When I asked what was wrong she said, "it's so boring in there and they won't even let me say the prayer." Oh, poor kid. We let her know that they would be singing soon and she perked right up and headed back in. The next week they asked her to say the opening prayer in front of all of the kids. She was acting like she had won the lottery. I was walking in to help her with the prayer but she told me not to come to her class because she can do it all by herself. I went in anyways but she said the whole prayer by herself, and it was actually a nice prayer, she didn't even thank Heavenly Father for every object in the room like she normally does. I must say, she does make one cute Sunbeam.

Christmas

I really should just say we had Christmas at our house and it was great. I should say that, but I won't. I think Kinley summed it up pretty well when shortly after her sprint to the Christmas tree she exclaimed, "this is the best Christmas ever!" Experiencing Christmas with Kinley helped me to remember the excitement and magic of Christmas. I remember being a kid and sleeping in the same room as my older brother and sister. We would set alarm clocks for like 3 o'clock in the morning and race down to see what Santa had left for us. What geeks, right? I almost felt like a kid again this year watching Kinley, she was so excited about everything and it helped me to more fully appreciate this great holiday season.

This year we asked Santa to just bring Kinley 3 presents to help us remember that the Wise Men brought 3 presents to baby Jesus. Kinley actually wanted about 800 presents, but she was very excited to see her stash under the tree. Kinley asked Santa for a Little Einstein's computer, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and "the ball popper game". She was also dying to get a doctor's kit. Lucky for her, Santa was able to locate all of the items she wanted and her parents didn't do too shabby either.

Here is Kinley testing out her doctor's kit with her daddy. Daddy makes an excellent doctor, but Kinley is showing real potential. I always end up diagnosed with "a bad heart and yucky cough".
Milo was so overcome with excitement that he slept for nearly the entire day. I guess he's just a real scrooge. He didn't even enjoy the stocking Santa left for him. Maybe next year he'll catch some of Kinley's spirit, we all know she has plenty of spirit.

Gingerbread house

Poor, poor Kinley. She has the world's most uncreative, least crafty, worst gingerbread house building mom in the world. However, she does have the mom that is most likely to let you eat too much candy. Here are some pictures at our feeble attempt at a gingerbread house. We have a really great time but our finished product is usually something we hang our head in shame about. Actually, I just tell everybody Kinley did it all by herself, then everybody is way impressed with my 3 year old's mad gingerbread skills.

Oh shoot, here's photographic evidence that I participated...I mean, I was just squishing the frosting down for Kinley, that part is super tricky (wink wink).

Some randomness

Kinley is most definitely the Queen of Randomville. I can't decide is she is creative or just plain weird. A few days ago I came out of my bedroom to find a war going on in the kitchen. Kinley explained that the ponies were the good guys and the Pet Shops had "rounded up some help to destroy the good guys". She also pointed out that the "roller skater girl" was in charge. I'm not sure why they needed to be lined up like this, but once the battle began she would pick one figurine and knock them down then say, "oh sorry, you got killed". For those of you wondering the good guys did prevail and evil was once again defeated.

Now to make the usual quick change of personality that Kinley does, here is a picture of Kinley having a quick pretend tea party at a display in Tai Pan. She is such a strange child, but I sure do love her.

Temple Square

We decided to go to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see the lights this year. It was freezing cold, of course. Kinley was semi impressed with the lights but was soon whining about being freezing. I think the lights are great but it's way too cold and crowded for me. Rich's parents and sister Debbie and her family came along for the adventure.

Kinley with Grandma and Grandpa, Arden, and AJ