Ky & Kels Bday Party

Our friend Elizabeth is totally amazing with cakes and cupcakes. My health has been pretty crummy for a long time, not letting me do things I have been able to do in the past. She has been our angel to make special cakes for the kids so they still have a homemade, fun cake just for them. Her gifts and talents in this area are just mind blowing. Her cakes are always hand done, and so detailed. And so very extra YUMMY! Her cakes are so moist, and sweet, and perfect!
What was even more fun was that when she brought the cake to the party and I saw it, it was the exact picture I had in my mind for her cake. I had never said a thing to Elizabeth about pict ideas. It was just wonderful! Thank you Elizabeth for sharing your wonderful gifts with us!

Kels was THRILLED with her Tinkbell cake. She was just all full of giggles and excitement about her party, but esp about her cake. She has been talking about it non-stop.

Ky decided that he wanted a "lightning" cake. When Colton turned 5 we did a CARS cut-out cake for him. It was shaped as a #5, and we built the racetrack on it. We were going to go for another try at that, but kept running into snags. Kaeli really wanted to do Ky's cake, so I just gave her free reign. She is so artistic in so many ways! She did the racetrack by hand and then filled in all around it. She used Gma Miller's brownie recipe, Gma Afton's frosting recipe, and a whole lot of extras. One of the extras included hand washing all of the CARS Ky wanted on his cake. I came home to this darling pict of all the CARS drying on the countertop. A fun, cute memory.

It was so much fun to just take TONS of picts of Ky's cake.

So many different angles and ways to take picts!

I cant wait to get all these scrapped for Ky so he will have them to look at all the time.

Ky was SO happy and excited about his cake. Spent several minutes pointing to all of the CARS characters and telling me about them. Kaeli did an amazing job, and we are all so proud of her for all of her hard work!

Ky & Kels Bday Party II

I think this is the first year that Kels has really known what was going on and what a birthday is. It was so fun to see her so excited about it.
She really got the hang of ripping all the paper. She knows exactly what presents are!

This book was absolutely perfect for her. She LOVES Tinkbell still, and this was a great addition to her little bedroom library.

It was fun to watch her enjoy her cake. She has been asking every day for weeks about her Tinkbell cake. She told everyone she could, even the missionaries who came for dinner, that Elizabeth was making her special Tinkbell cake for her birthday! She couldnt wait to dig in!

Ky had fun blowing out his candles, and then watching them melt and run down onto the cake. He thought that was the most hysterical thing.

Kaeli bought this hat for him months ago. She has hardly been able to stand it to wait for him to be able to open it. I think she, and all of us, were waiting to see what his reaction would be. He didnt disappoint - and had everyone in stitches of laughter. He knew what it was. The first thing out of his mouth was "I threw this in the garbage at Disneyland! Dad squashed it flat as a pancake and I threw it away!" That was MONTHS ago, and yet the memory was still just as fresh as if it had happened yesterday. I think kaeli was more than pleased that she had gotten it for him. I wish we would have had a video camera to capture all of the adults in hysterics as he continued to chatter about his hat that he had thrown away!

Christy knows Ky well. She just got it perfect by giving him lots of fun stuff with CARS stuff one it, even including a new pair of sunglasses and band-aids!

This awesome gift was from another friend. A big, oversized beach towel with CARS on it too. You can tell Ky REALLY likes it. Kels thinks hers is another blankie. It has been on her bed with her other Tinkbell blankies since we brought it home. Funny kid....

Ky thought he was big stuff that I let him have a piece of EACH cake. He made sure he had lots. Birthdays are the one day that I relax with the treats a bit. You only get to enjoy birthday cake 1x/year!

KY IS FIVE!

It is hard to believe that Ky is FIVE! He is such a big boy now and doing so many things.
Yesterday we surprised him with a party at our local aquatic center. It was a special party just for his little preschool class and our family.
He got SO many fun presents. All of his friends know him very well - he got extra fun games and LOTS of Hot Wheels cars stuff. He has been so cute since we brought them home. We have made a rule that you cant play with toys or open new presents until all of the thank you cards are written. He has been doing a couple at a time, and opening a couple presents at a time. It is just like birthday and Christmas rolled into one! He is loving all of his gifts and the boys spent hours in the TV room last night playing.

Ky decided for this party that he didnt want birthday cake - he wanted doughnuts! We picked out powdered doughnut holes for everyone's lunches and when we went to the store to let him pick out his special doughnut we found his favorite complete with sprinkles. Couldnt have planned it any better. Since we couldnt light the candle inside the pool area, we just put a candle in the doughnut and let him pretend while everyone sang to him. He was very cute. It will be fun to scrapbook all of the picts.

Since Ky's party was right after school, we did cute little sack lunches for all of the kids. Ky chose dino chkn nuggets, baby carrots, apple slices, cheese sticks, and doughnut holes. Since he turned 5, we put 5 of each thing (except the cheese stick) in little baggies for the kids' lunches. It ended up being perfect, and some of the kids even were able to share with younger siblings that came with the other moms. Kaeli put an extra special treat into the kids' bags - special coloring pages and crayons. She hunted online for the perfect pages for each of the kids. Kaeli single handedly did all the prep for Ky's party - she cooked, packed lunches, got things ready. She was an amazing help, and we would have never been able to do his cute party without her! Thank you sissy!!! you are the awesomerest!

The aquatic center has this wonderful little kidney shaped toddler pool. It was the perfect places for all the little people who attended the party. The kids got along really well for the most part, and there are tons of hysterical picts from them playing. I also tried to get video..will have to see how to figure out how to post those too. I think Ky really had a wonderful time playing with all of his friends and just having a special birthday outing. I am extra glad we made it work since it was the only 2hrs of the whole day that we were together as a family. It will be wonderful memories for all of us.

This is a pict of Ky's cute little preschool class. Preschool will be over at the end of this month already. It has been a wonderful year for Ky. He has a super awesome, wonderfully sweet teacher who has taught him amazing things, including learning to read already! He has loved every minute of being at school with his friends and I know he will miss it when it is over. Thank you to all of our preschool friends who joined us for Ky's birthday. An extra big thank you to Miss L for helping the kids get ready, bringing them to the pool, and for everything you have done for the kids this year!

Super Ky

This has been a big week of success for Ky. He set goals, worked hard to meet them, and got BIG rewards today for achieving them. This top pict is of Ky and his KFK instructor. Ky earned both blue AND red stars for setting goals to stay dry all week and for achieving his goals. I really love that all of the instructors get so excited for the kids when they work on ATA goals and values at home. They always make a big to-do about the kids successes. Ky loves his class and his instructor and that helps make all the difference here at home. (this pict is a little grainy because I took it on my phone)

Ky & I set goals last week and he started working on a star chart. If he could stay dry all week, including overnight, then he & I would go shopping and let him pick out his own special underwear. Each block of time he stayed dry, and used the bathroom, he earned stars and cookies (his potty treat of choice). I think that seeing all the stars on his chart got him extra excited. Having the support and encouragement of his preschool teacher has also been a big help. As you can see, he reached his goals. He even exceeded them by remembering to ask, and use the bathroom when we have been away from home. That has been a huge thing. He was very excited to see underwear with many of his favorite characters - Spiderman, Transformers, and Disney! The minute we got home he ran in the bathroom and put on his "Woody" underwear. It is fun to see him so excited. Now that he has met his goals, we have talked about the plan from now on. No more cookies, but a new pair of undies every single day. He is pretty happy with that deal. We are so proud of you, Ky! You really are a big boy now!

Little Boys

What do you get when you cross a 4yr old jumping off the bed, and the floor coming up to meet him?

You get a little boy coming down the stairs screaming his head off, blood gushing from his mouth, a 3/4" gash in his tongue (where both top teeth almost went through), and a phone call to the on-call nurse hotline center after taking 20+min to get the bleeding to stop.

Thankfully, where he bit down is in the middle vs the end of his tongue. Unfortunately, he will have a nasty gash for quite awhile and probably a lovely little scar. Other than the initial trauma, he seems to be taking things quite well. The rest of us are pretty grossed out at the gash...

We have had yet ANOTHER talk about not jumping off things. Unfortunately, it didnt seem to sink in since a short time after this happened Ceana caught him attempting to jump from the wood stove to the short couch in the library...and Kaeli caught him jumping off the top of the couch in the TV room....

He has split his lip open and bit his tongue enough times you would think the lesson would be learned by now....what is up with little boy genes?

What's Really Important

Today when I picked Ky up from preschool, our friend who is his teacher had a very funny story for me.


She had asked all the kids if they had a fun Thanksgiving. All 6 kiddos said "no". She asked if anyone did anything fun, again the answer from the kids was "no". She continued to prompt Ky (knowing where we had been) and asked him directly if there was anything fun about Thanksgiving that he would like to share. His answer: "I got new shoes!" So the truth finally comes out - what is REALLY important to a 4 yr old - not Disneyland or getting kissed on the cheek by Tinkerbell, but his new shoes with running lights on them...

OH, SOOOOO TIRED

Both Ky and Kels have pretty much stopped taking naps....which leads to some very tired and often very cranky kiddos by the end of the day. We usually try to do dinner early (5-ish) so we can get night jobs or homework finished. This last week or so though the kids have not even made it through dinner...
Every once in awhile I let the kids have a "picnic" in the TV room. The boys came in to tell me they were done so I went to check on kels - and this is what I found....she was totally out. Much to my dismay though, when I tried to move her to her bed she woke up. She thought she had had a power nap and was up for hours after that....


Ky has been in a "toast and choc milk" stage - at least we have moved from the only choc milk stage - he was running around crazy when I finally got him to come to the table and eat. I walked away for a few minutes and came back to him totally zonked. I think he did get through 1 piece of toast.....thankfully he was so out that he didnt wake back up and he was done for the night.

Sometimes the only way I get Ky to stop is to gather his blankets and pillow. I had separated everyone one day to just get everyone to chill out for awhile. He finally stopped for about 2 minutes and was totally out. He took a good long nap which helped a ton for us to get through an extra crazy day.

SUPER TIRED

OK, so what is a super hero to do when he is extra tired and just cant find a comfy place to sleep in his own room? Apparently the answer is come downstairs and perch himself on the arm of the couch - yeah, that's WAY more comfy.....

SUPER KY

A friend gave Ky Superman PJ's for his birthday. He has LOVED having them and wears them every chance he gets. He told me he needed his picture taken in his PJ's - and of course, because he is so stinking cute, I obliged him.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Ky & Kels both had birthdays this last week. Lucky little mister got TWO parties! We had a small birthday dinner and cupcakes for him on his actual birthday and then we had a combined party for Ky & Kels with close family friends.

This is a pict of Ky with his cake that a good friend of ours made for him. He was SO excited when he saw Lightning on his cake and knew it was his. Our friend is SO amazing with cakes and the detail and taste were both out of this world. Thanx again TONS Elizabeth for being willing to help me with this! It was perfect!
Ky had a blast opening all of his presents. All of our friends were so generous and this hat has become his favorite gift! He has hardly taken it off and even wears it to bed! Pretty funny little guy. Thanx to everyone for the wonderful gifts for both Ky & Kels - they were perfect and we appreciate that they were given out of friendship and love.

Ky thought it was great fun to get to eat hot dogs out on the deck with all of his friends. We havent been able to eat out there for months so it was an extra special treat to be out there to eat and celebrate his birthday

Ky had us all in hysterics as he tried and tried to blow out his candles. He finally got it though - lots of air, and lots of spit - good thing it was just his....

Cant get any better than cupcakes with sprinkles - that really is a special birthday treat!

BRAVE BOY

A few days ago Ky gave himself a nasty owie. I heard him start to cry - not anything blood-curdling to make me bolt from my chair, just a whimper of sorts. When I got up to go check on him, his lip was split wide open and he was standing on the hearth, bleeding profusly. I snagged him as fast as I could and put pressure on his lip. Looking at it I just knew we were going to end up at the dr office with stitches. Thankfully we have a friend who is a nurse and I was able to get a hold of her to have her come look at Ky. She said she didnt think it would need stitches, but she did seal it with a special medical "super glue". His lip has gone from ugly to worse, and we have been trying to keep ice on it and meds in him to try and help the swelling. Yesterday I was afraid it was getting infected too. My friend assured me that wounds like this stay wet so they get all icky looking but that everything is fine. Whew.
I swear this little mister is going to be my undoing. He is making up for all the other kids never doing the climbing, into everything stage. Even the other boys never did 1/2 the stuff Ky does! You would think that after hurting himself so badly on the woodstove/hearth that he wouldnt go anywhere near it - but no - it is still his favorite place to play, no matter how many times I have to tell him to not get up there, crazy boy!

This pict really doesnt show the damage as well as I hoped but you can see the swelling after I finally got the bleeding stopped
Later the same day. Ky went to a friend's house to play and came home with his lip split open again. I was really afraid we were going down for stitches anyway. I got some motrin in him right away and got more ice on his lip, even holding him wasnt enough comfort though - he really had blown it open again. Thankfully the combo of ice and meds seemed to help tons

My friend and I had a good laugh over this one. She had Ky hold his mouth open while she put on the "super glue". After she was done she told him he could close his mouth - but he didnt. He was kind of in a daze with his mouth wide open. We laughed and laughed. He didnt end up closing or relaxing his mouth until after I offered him some lunch.

He seems to be doing lots better today. He keeps pointing to his lip and saying "hurt" but seems to be back to normal activities and eating. It looks lots better today too, thankfully. It will prob take a long while to get it healed though. What a crazy boy!

BOY GENES - WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

For those of you out there that have boys of all ages, I am sure you can apprecitate the things that I am going to share.

I have 3 very busy boys but I have to admit that Ky is by far my busiest. At 2 3/4 years old he can be a whirlwind, a mystery, and a gut busting riot. Recently he has been cause for more laughter and more concern than ever.

Ky has been dubbed with a new nickname - "spiderman". The child can literally climb anything he can get near. Last week Colton came to tell me that Ky had climbed off his bed (he has the top bunk at the moment, that may change soon...) and onto the TOP of the free-standing closet in the boys room. That freaked me out to say the least, as the closet almost reaches the ceiling. His other favorite place to climb is on top of the toy kitchenette in the playroom, which sits right in front of the window. I am thinking I will be using Spring break to re-arrange lots of furniture.

This last week we made some cookies and had left the pan on the top of the stove with some leftovers for after-school snacks. I was working in the office and I thought Ky was playing in the other room. I happened to walk into the kitchen to find all but 2 cookies gone and Ky proudly pointing to his now chocolate covered mouth and telling me "cookie". Those cookies should have been out of reach, and I cannot even guess how he got up to them. Needless to say there were no after school cookies for the rest of the kids.

A couple of days ago I kind of got my answer to how he probably got to the cookies when I saw Ky reach up and grab the countertop and literally scale the cupboard door by clinging to it with his toes and climb his way up to whatever it was he thought he needed. I also watched as he climbed the cupboard drawers one at a time, again digging in his toes to the tiny space between each drawer. He is still so little, even for being 2. Apparently he is using his lightweight frame to his advantage these days. I am going to need to be more careful about what I leave out on the countertops now I know how he is getting to things.

Besides being a spiderman, he has also become very efficient at finding anything he can stand on or stack up to get to things. He will find the step stool, the piano bench, the office chair, the empire, anything he can get to help him get higher than he should. If there are snacks he will always go for those first, but his other conquests have been getting down multiple DVD's from the entertainment center's highest shelf and undoing them from their cases, turning on or off ALL of the light switches in every room, getting Kaeli's nick-knacks off her bedroom shelf, and getting to the mac & cheese in the storage room. I think I have moved things to a safe level only to find that he can get to things anyway.
Thankfully we still have ONE thing he can't get to - the security hook on the front screen door. He can undo every doorknob and lock in the house, except that one. Here's hoping he doesnt for a VERY long time.

Being a 2 year old always holds its moments of laughter and tears too. He seems to swing from one to the other in a moment's notice and often times causes me to do the same.
Awhile ago Preston happened to be home with us one evening. Caiden came down to the kitchen to inform me that Ky and Colton were happily playing in the playroom - both with tinker toy sticks up their noses. I was already over tired and struggling that day, I knew in my emotional state that I could not stop laughing long enough to go up and discipline the boys. I ended up having to send Preston upstairs to remind the boys about proper play. Anyone who knows me knows that when I get over tired and something sets me into laughing I usually end up with tears streaming down my face and my stomach hurting. This state usually sets everyone else around me into peals of laughter too. This is one of those nights that the thought of the boys with sticks up their noses (something my girls NEVER did) was enough to keep us all laughing until dinner.

On the flip side I think that with only a couple of months to go until Ky is 3, his terrible 3 stage has already begun. Everyone always says kiddos go through the "terrible 2's" - but I have found with ALL my kiddos that we go through the "terrible THREE's". I have a sweet little person, and the moment they hit their 3rd birthday, they turn into a hysterical maniac. Ky has always had a very calm temperment, but has already begun his rampages - complete with kicking, hitting, screaming tantrums. I have set a goal for myself to be more calm in these moments of struggle, and for the most part I am doing well, but it still often times also leaves me in tears when I am already struggling and I cant seem to help Ky be calm. These tantrums have resulted in sending Ky to his bed until he is calm. It often becomes more of a concern to me when he continues his tantrums while standing on his bed (remember that top bunk thing?) and pounds on the walls and throws things. I am trying to be consistent in his discipline. He knows he gets time out, but I think that the bed thing is going have to change, will have to do some more thinking on that one...

Boys and their genes and behaviors continue to be a puzzle to me. My boys will do or say things that my girls NEVER did and then be totally clueless about why they may be in trouble or reminded for the zillioneth time why toys do NOT belong in their noses. They are a constant source of laughter and struggle. I am hoping one of these days I might get them figured out. For now, I take one day at a time and do the best I can.

BLUEBERRY MUFFIN BOY

I had gotten a good night's sleep - which hasnt happened for so long - and after I got Kels down for her nap I was feeling extra energetic and thought a fun project for Ky would be fun. One of his favorite foods is muffins - of any kind - so that is what we decided to make. I really surprised myself at being so relaxed and let Ky do as much as he wanted - which was everything! It was fun to let him because it let me get some super great picts of our fun morning together.

Can you tell that Ky doesnt like muffins at all? I love that tongue - he couldnt wait to get started when I told him we were going to make them.

He did a really great job with all the different steps. It was good practice for me to be patient and it was good practice for him to follow directions and do things by himself. Notice the CARS Filmore in his hand - I think he held onto that thing almost the whole time we were baking. I think he finally put it down when he decided having a muffin in each hand was better - pretty funny kiddo.
He liked watching the mixer - kids are fascinated by the most simple things - things we adults really take for granted every day - he liked watching me put it on the different speeds, he thought it was funny watching the batter fly around the bowl.

Part of our family rules about cooking is that cleaning up is just as important as the cooking. Ky did a great job cleaning up all the spills all along the way.
Ky had fun putting all the papers in the cupcake pan.

I was a bit hesitant to let Ky put the batter in the pan, it has been awhile since he has done any cooking with me. He is in that 2yr old stage "I want to do it myself!" - so I let him. Actually I was very impressed, he did a great job and didnt really make much mess at all - and it let me take lots of fun picts.

As you can see by the look on his face - he was VERY proud of himself that he made the muffins all by himself. He couldnt wait to eat them - I had to remind him they had to go in the oven first and get "cooked". He had a hard time letting me put them in the oven.