Fun in the Snow

So our first big snow hit the other day, and the kids were so excited to get their "snow clothes" on and go out and play. Kaymi was really great about putting on so many layers, but you can probably guess how Stephen felt by the expression on his face in this picture. I'm sure it took us at least a half an hour just to get Stephen ready. First his gloves wouldn't go on and then he whined about how his boots felt funny and he wanted to take them off. We finally bagged the boots I had for him and pulled out Kaymi's old ones. They seemed to fit in a way that satisfied him, so we were finally ready to go out and play!

The snow was pretty dry, so we decided to make a snow mountain instead of rolling a snowman. After we got a pretty good pile put together we decided to try rolling it around a bit. We found some wetter snow on the other side of the house and were able to roll a pretty big ball as the bottom of the snowman. Then Kaymi rolled a head and I rolled the middle of our big guy. Unfortunately, I forgot to take into account the fact that I may not be able to lift the middle onto the bottom. It seems that having a big belly full of baby in front of you is not conducive to picking up a big snowball!

So we rolled the three balls together so that our snowman was at least in some semblance of order. He just looks like he's asleep! When Andy got home later that night we had him go out and put the middle and the head on our frosty fellow.

Luckily it snowed a lot again the next day! The kids had a great time just rolling around in the snow. We shoveled the walks a bit and decided to put the finishing touches on our snowman.

Here's Frosty (as the kids decided he must be called) in his fully finished glory. Each day the kids check to make sure that he's still there. Because he's so big and is in our back yard, he'll probably stick around all winter until all of our snow melts. I have to admit, it's definitely worth the effort of getting everyone ready to go outside. Despite the time it takes to stack on the layers, the time we spend outside is so much fun that I forget how much work it was to prepare! Sounds like there's a life lesson there, doesn't it? I love playing with my kids!

Designer Blogs

A friend of mine is starting her own business designing blogs. The name of her website is "Designer Blogs". She has offered to give ANYONE 50% off any design package until January 10th. I was going to wait until she re-designs mine to tell everyone about her, but since she opened up her sale to everyone, I thought I'd pass along the good news to all of you! She's just getting started and is looking to build her portfolio. She is FANTASTIC and I'm sure will do a great job for you. Her blog is on my "Friends and Family" list (under Mike and Erin Miller) if you want to check it out and see a little bit of what she can do. You can also take a look at her packages and prices here. If you still have some Christmas shopping to do for that "hard-to-buy-for" person (and they happen to have a blog), here you go!

Thanksgiving

What's Thanksgiving without some form of a "Turkey Bowl"? Stephen had a great time playing his own little game. Here he is ready to make a big play! It actually turned into a fantastic tackle. (We'll teach him later that you don't do the tackling when you're the one with the ball.) He totally knocked me down!

Most of Linda's family was able to be there for the big dinner. It was great to see all of them. Linda set an amazing table. The food that everyone brought was of course delicious. My favorite dish is the sweet potato casserole/pudding that Linda makes each year. It tastes good enough to be dessert!

Andy helped his dad carve the turkey. Don't worry, he didn't actually bite into that drumstick.

Kaymi had a great time playing with aunts and cousins. She loves to go to Grandma and Grandpa Soderberg's house.

We had a marvelous Thanksgiving. We feel exceedingly blessed with warmth, shelter, food, good health, great employment, wonderful family relations, strong testimonies, great friends and so much more. I wanted to make a list of things for which I am thankful each day of November and then post it on the blog. I didn't get it done (obviously), but I have felt so much more gratitude in my heart as I've thought about counting our blessings each day.

Our best Halloween yet!

Dan, Rachel and Thomas surprised us by stopping by later Halloween evening. We also had Dave, Linda, Lindsay and Melissa over. It was so fun to be together on Halloween! We enjoyed warm cinnamon rolls together before everyone had to take off for the night.

Of all the trick-0r-treaters that came to our house, this was our favorite! It was such a surprise to open the door and see little Thomas all decked out.

I think Kaymi and Stephen had just as much fun (if not more) looking through their treasures after the Ward "Trunk-or-Treat" as they did trick-or-treating. They've since pulled out their treats multiple times just to see what they have. I keep trying to tell Kaymi that it's all still the same, but she insists upon continually dumping it out and looking at it again and again. Yesterday they even poured all of the candy on top of their Hungry Hungry Hippos game. I guess they thought the candy looked like a better treat for them than their usual white marbles.

Kaymi and Stephen on the front porch with all of our finished pumpkins. We had tons of trick-or-treaters this year. I guess that's what happens when you move from a condo to a house!

Here are the four of us at the "Trunk-or-Treat". We all had a great time. Having never been to anything like this before, I found myself totally unprepared for the amount of candy that we would need. I had four bags of it and still ran out!

Here's Jessie the "horse-girl", as Kaymi called herself, and Buzz Lightyear! Notice Buzz's "laser". He carried that little shooter around and "blasted" everyone while they trick-or-treated.

Andy and Kaymi worked together carving this pumpkin. She decided what the face should look like, and Andy carved it for her.

Stephen and I worked on the other pumpkin. He wasn't very interested in helping me, so I did it mostly on my own. He spent most of the time digging his spoon into the lid of one of the jack-0-lanterns.

The kids LOVE this activity for Halloween. We often paint little pumpkins with my family up in Idaho, but this year we didn't get a chance to do it. So my mom brought us some little pumpkins, and we let the kids go to town. They got to paint their pumpkins however they wanted. Other than the fact that Stephen managed to get some paint on his shirt despite our best efforts at covering him up (that would explain his shirtless-state in the following picture), it was a total success!

Look at that concentration!

The master at work!

So this whole post is totally backwards on its chronological order. I'm still trying to figure out the whole blog thing. You'd think that I'd have it down by now. However, to sum things up, we had a fantastic Halloween. Since I stopped trick-or-treating as a kid, Halloween has never really been something I looked forward to. Since we've had kids it seems to get progressively more fun each year. I may have to even change my tune and start saying that I actually enjoy the holiday.

"It's not the power of the curse, it's the power you GIVE the curse..."

I've always loved simple, feel-good, happy-ending movies, and this one certainly qualifies. We just rented "Penelope", and I have to say that I really liked it. I'm not going to over-analyze it-- one of the quotes at the end of the movie says a lot: "It's not the power of the curse; it's the power you give the curse." We have the power within us to change so much. Sometimes all it takes is just accepting the situation in which we're placed, loving ourselves for who we are and then moving forward. So if you like sappy, happy movies that don't require a lot of deep thinking to get a good moral out of the story, check this one out.

Family Night

I don't know about the rest of you, but we sometimes struggle to find fun Family Home Evening ideas that will hold the attention span of our active two and four year-olds. We've done some experimenting and have actually had a few "family nights" work out to be really fun and memorable. So I've decided to start posting our most successful family night ideas here. If any of you have any helps or suggestions, we welcome them! We're always looking for great ways to teach our kids important gospel principles. So post away... we'll be waiting!

Idea #1

"I Love to See the Temple"

We've taught Kaymi how to conduct family home evening, so that's her job until Stephen gets a little bit older. After she welcomes everyone she'll usually turn the time over to me for the opening song. We started this one with "I Love to See the Temple" from the Primary Children's Songbook. The Primary Chorister in our last ward taught the kids the sign language for the first verse of this song, so we took the opportunity to review this while we sang. After I lead the song, Kaymi usually turns the time over to Stephen or Daddy for the opening prayer. Then Daddy gets to do what Stephen and Kaymi have termed "Picture Time!" (original-eh?) Andy will then share a picture from the Gospel Art Kit and tell a quick story to describe what that particular picture is all about. This week we used a few pictures including those of the temples at Kirtland, Washington D.C., Salt Lake City, and Nauvoo. We talked VERY briefly about the ordinances that we can perform in the temple and also showed the kids the picture from the GAK of a temple baptisimal font. Then we started our lesson time with a field trip (we don't usually go anywhere, but this lesson called for it). We drove the short distance to our nearest temple, the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. On the way there we played "I Love to See the Temple" and talked a little bit more about the work that we can perform for those who have passed away when we go to the temple. We also talked about what we can do to prepare to go the temple. One of the lines from the Primary song talks about how we "promise to obey". So we talked about the importance of practicing our obedience now (we threw in the importance of obeying Mommy and Daddy too) so that we can be prepared to obey commandments we receive and be true to covenants we make later. We got out of the car at the temple and walked around the temple together asking the kids what they noticed and how they felt. Kaymi was so sweet to say that she didn't want to leave because she felt good. It was a great chance to point out that she was feeling the Holy Ghost! We didn't spend very much time there because we didn't want them to get rowdy. After we got home we had our "refreshments" (that was always my favorite part of family night when I was little) and intended to have the kids color the Coloring Page from this year's June Friend magazine. Here's the link to that: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=a6073b4c3713a110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1It got a little bit too late this time, but they both really like doing this activity at the end of family night each week. We usually gauge our success with FHE lessons by how much (if at all) the kids mention what we talked about or did that Monday later on during the week. Kaymi has talked about going to see the temple multiple times in just the past day or two, so I guess it was at least memorable!

It's a....

BOY!

Yep, we had our 20 week ultrasound today and found out that we are having another boy. So Stephen and our new little cousin, Thomas, will have another little buddy to play with! Once we convinced Kaymi that I wasn't having twins (she thought that it was a boy AND a girl for the longest time) she has consistently said that I'm having a boy. Just last week, however, she decided that she wanted a sister instead. It was right after I painted her toenails that she changed her mind. I'm not sure if doing something "girlie" brought about the change of mind or if it was just coincidence. Stephen would always change his mind each time we asked him. I personally have had no feelings one way or the other with this one and neither has Andy. I felt like Kaymi was a girl early on, and with Stephen I just knew I was having a boy. So when those ultrasounds rolled around, I wasn't surprised one bit. With this one I just really didn't know. When asked if I even had an opinion the only thing that I could come up with was that I would probably be a little bit more surprised if it turned out that we were having a girl. Another surprise that we didn't expect was that they moved my due date UP. He's measuring so big that they moved it up 12 days. So instead of a February 6th due date we're now expecting this little guy to make his appearance around the 25th of January. Could I really be that lucky?

I really wanted to post a picture from the ultrasound, but most of them aren't very clear this time around. His head is so far down that they couldn't get a good look at his face and brain. They want to do a follow-up ultrasound next month to see if he's feeling more cooperative. Then maybe we'll get a glimpse of this guy's inevitable Soderberg good looks! :)

(As a side note, I'm not really into painting little girls' toenails and fingernails, but Kaymi has the dirtiest, most impossible-to-keep-clean toenails of anyone I've ever known. Even when they're short she STILL manages to get dirt underneath them. It's amazing. So I finally decided to just paint them for her. We had a fun little morning doing it together. She got to choose the color and the stickers that she wanted. So, my little 4-year old may have red toenails, but we had some good Mommy/daughter time getting them done AND they look INFINITELY better.)

New Camera!

So the camera that we decided to purchase is the Panasonic TZ5. Thanks to all who offered their advice/opinion in our camera search. We were leaning toward a Canon, but when we tried the different models in the store, the Panasonic came out on top for the price we were willing to pay. (If you're looking to pay a little more, we really liked the Canon G9-- We just weren't willing to pay the price for it.) They're relatively new to the digital camera scene, so hopefully this will be a great camera for us. I hope that the picture quality will improve once I figure out all of the settings on this thing. In the above photo of Stephen it was getting pretty dark, so it really gave the flash a chance to do its job. Here are a few more samples of my first attempts at photography with this little machine: It took me forever to get Kaymi to hold still long enough to take this one. She's a little bit out of focus. I might have been too close to her because the camera seemed to want to focus on the leaves in the background. OR it could be that she is so high energy that she hardly ever stops moving. I did take some pictures of the kids swinging that weren't blurry, however, so I don't think that movement was the problem with this one.
This is Kaymi and Andy's sister, Lindsay. I LOVE how this one turned out. They both look beautiful, and I love how their hair falls against the grass with the faces really being the focus.

Finally, a new picture!

Yesterday we had some family pictures taken, so I decided to snap a few of my own with our new camera! It can do much more than I know how to make it do. Just in looking at the few I took, I have some reading up to do. Aside from picture quality, however, Kaymi and Stephen still look adorable.

The Qwest for the Perfect Camera

How I love my little Stephen! He is full of curiosity about the world and how everything works. That's how our qwest began.... with my quick little man grabbing the camera when I wasn't looking and dropping it in the sand. We now know that sand, if only a few granules, "does not play well" with cameras. So after being camera-less for about three months now we've really stepped up the search for that perfect point-and-shoot picture-taker. That's where I really need help. I know that everyone has their own opinions, but we value those of you, our friends and family, the most. If you LOVE your camera, please let us know! If you don't, please tell us what we should avoid. We just want something that will capture those treasured moments with our little ones without too much of the "Hold still!" and "Oh, let's take it again". Is that too much to ask? I look forward to your comments and much needed help!

We're back!

Well, I've taken a LONG break from blogging due to all of the changes in our lives over the past few months. It's been a pretty crazy summer, but we're finally getting settled in our new house! We are really enjoying the space and the yard (it is fully fenced!). We had about 4 weeks in between the closing of our condo sale and the purchase of our home. So, we spent about three weeks with Andy's family and one week with my family in Idaho. We stored most of our things in a trailer provided by our realtor free of charge. We had other things stored with Andy's parents and still other stuff at a storage unit that we rented for the month! I have to say that it's been wonderful to get everything here in one place. It's not all unpacked yet due to a small set-back in the cold storage area of our basement (we found mold-- blah!), but we're hoping to have that all cleaned up soon and without too much expense. We're crossing our fingers. So in the past three months of craziness we've taken a few little vacations, celebrated birthdays (Stephen turned 2!!!!), spent a lot of time with family and moved all of our stuff a few times. Now that things are starting to settle down we'll try to update our blog more often again. We're just excited to finally start getting back into our routine!

Boys Will Be Boys

We had such a fun family night this week. We started out with our usual opening song, prayer and story from the Gospel Art Kit. Then we packed up and went to the park for a picnic dinner. We all sat on a blanket together while eating our dinner and talked about things that we could do to make our family strong and happy. We talked about how doing things together like eating dinner, reading scriptures, playing and even having a picnic can help strengthen our family. Our conversation was only a few minutes long due to the typical attention spans of an almost 4 year old and an almost 2 year old. Then we played on all of the slides and swings until dark. For our treat we picked up ice cream cones at Arctic Circle and came home to eat them. This is a picture of Stephen enjoying his. This is the first ice cream cone that he's ever held all by himself.
Our little Stephen has such a knack for hurting himself. He's always bumping into things, falling down, and other such mishaps. This is his latest little injury (check out his bottom lip-- this was the best picture that I could get-- the inside of his lip looks completely nasty as well). He wanted to climb up on my lap and he tripped just as he got to me. I didn't grab him fast enough, and he hit his mouth right on the edge of the couch and bit right through his lip. That's right-- he bit THROUGH his lip! I guess even little baby teeth are treacherous! We took him to the doctor and he gave us an antibiotic to help keep the wound from getting infected. Other than that there wasn't much more that he could do. One thing I love about Stephen is that he is so tough. Even with injuries like this one he rarely cries for more than two or three minutes if he even cries at all! I sure love my tough little man.

Are we crazy?

We've been talking about this for so long that it doesn't feel real to us yet. We felt like it was time for us to move, so we decided to try and sell our condo. We posted an advertisement on craigslist and on ksl.com. We didn't get a whole lot of response, so we figured things would just take a while. We were fine with that. Summer is finally here and our pool opens soon, so we felt like we could just take advantage of everything we have here while we waited for it to sell. Ultimately, we felt like we had done our part to follow what we felt was the right thing to do. A few weeks later a young couple called us and wanted to walk through our place. Well, to make a long story short, they made an offer and (after quite a few counteroffers) we accepted it. So, our condo is under contract! They really seem like wonderful people that will take good care of the place and make great contributions to the neighborhood. On the flip side, we don't have a place to move into yet!!! So are we crazy? We've been seriously house-hunting for about eight months now and obviously haven't found what we're looking for yet. The Lord is really helping us exercise our faith!

"Kaymi Quotes"

Kaymi is definitely at the stage where she's old enough to understand a lot of things but not old enough to understand which things shouldn't be said out loud! We walked into Seminary Graduation last night just as it was starting. There was a man sitting on the bench in front of us. He had a pretty long goatee. Andy and I didn't notice him, but Kaymi sure did. So just as the prelude stops and the person conducting the graduation starts to speak Kaymi blurts out, "Mom, that man is wearing a funny chin!" The man with the goatee fortunately had a pretty good sense of humor, and he and his family all began to laugh. The woman beside the goatee man turned to Kaymi and said, "It is pretty funny, isn't it?" We sure were grateful that they got a kick out of it.

Different day, different quote: We were helping Andy's sister jump her car, and Kaymi had climbed into the front seat of the car with me so that she could watch all of the action. I was trying to explain everything that Andy was doing with the jumper cables in pretty simple terms so that she could understand. We start the car once everything is in place and then Melissa goes to start hers. Kaymi turns to me and says, "Is it functioning?" I didn't believe that she'd actually used the word "functioning", so I said, "What?" And she repeats, "Is it functioning?" I'm pretty sure that I asked her one more time what she said just because I couldn't believe that she knew how to use such a big word correctly. But that's exactly what she said AND what she meant.

That's my little girl!

This picture just about says it all. I love it. Kaymi has never been the "princess" type, and just to prove it, here she is in "team clothes" (as she calls them) over top of her beautiful Sunday dress and tights. It's Stephen's outfit, but she put it on herself and I couldn't resist snapping a picture. She's beautiful and kind and thoughtful, but she can also be brave and strong and independent. She is 100% unique, and I love her so much for it.

I'm getting old!!!

Going to events like this really makes me feel old! One of the students I taught while I was teaching junior high a "few" years ago just got married! That's right-- I taught her in 8th and 9th grade, and now she's finished her Sophomore year of college and has gotten married. How time flies. It was wonderful to see her and meet her husband. Though they make me realize how much time has really passed since then, I rejoice in moments like this. It's so rewarding to see people that I could see so much potential in as 13-14 year olds growing and becoming such beautiful and successful grown-ups. Elise has always had such a bright countenance, and it was wonderful for me to see that nothing has changed!

Lindsay and Alan

We got to go see Andy's sister, Lindsay, and her date, Alan, before they went to Prom this past weekend. We feel so blessed to be close enough to share these little moments with family. Lindsay looked stunning (and just ask her how good Alan looked), and from what we hear, they had a great time together. Lindsay is so beautiful inside and out. We're so proud of her accomplishments. And we are so glad that she has Alan for a friend. He treats her so amazingly well. Thanks Alan!

The Finale is Tonight!!

We don't watch much TV around here, but a few months ago my mom introduced me to a show that has really pulled me in. I love watching "The Biggest Loser: Couples". I record it each week, and tonight is the finale! It is so inspiring to see people change their lives so much for the better. I always end up crying by the end of the show each week because I get so pulled into the emotion involved in what they're doing. I love the tips on healthy eating and ways to work out that Bob and Jillian (the trainers) share. They inspire me to keep up with my workouts and healthy cooking goals. If you're looking for some motivation to keep up with a goal you've made, check this show out!

I love my kids!

One thing that I love about Stephen and Kaymi is how well they get along. Don't get me wrong, they aren't perfect, and they have their moments when they fight over toys and other such things. But overall, I'm just so grateful that they're great little friends. They do so many cute things together (as illustrated by the pics below) like brushing teeth, sharing snacks and watching movies. I feel so blessed to be able to stay home each day with my two little best friends. And it's all because our favorite BIG best friend works hard at his job each and every day. Thanks, Daddy!

Our "Egg"-straordinary Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with my family up north! We celebrated the birthdays of Colten, Trevor and Mom, had TWO Easter egg hunts, went sledding and snowmobiling, played "Nerts", and just spent a lot of time all together! Most importantly we had an amazing Sacrament meeting on Sunday in my parents' ward. The Spirit was very strong as those who spoke and sang testified of the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for an amazing weekend!

"Mom and Tot" Easter Activity

Kaymi was in such a silly mood the day of our "Mom and Tot" activity! She made silly faces at the camera all day. When she saw this picture she said, "I'm making a silly face. Hailee is making a pretty face." I thought it was adorable.

Our ward has a "Mom and Tot" class that meets every two weeks, and we always do such fun things. Our most recent activity had an Easter theme. We made these really cute "Easter baskets" out of milk jugs and construction paper. They were so easy to make. Kaymi had a great time making hers mostly by herself. Stephen had more fun watching his be made and playing with the glue stick. After we all had our "baskets" made we went outside for an Easter Egg hunt. It was so much fun. One thing that I love most about the Mom and Tot activities is getting together with other moms. I love to stick around after the activity and chat while our children have a chance to play together.
This is Kaymi and one of her best friends, Hailee. They love to play together, and they get along so well. We love to get together with her and her mom.
The three musketeers!
Stephen loved the Easter egg hunt. He had no trouble at all doing that part on his own once he got the hang of it.

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Isn't he such a handsome guy! I am so amazingly blessed to have Andy as my husband. His birthday was a month ago today, but because we were so sick about that time, I wasn't able to get online THAT DAY and post something about him. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABE! We were able to do a fun family party at our place a few days after his birthday, so there was at least a little bit of celebrating that we felt well enough to do. He got quite a bit of money for his birthday, so his mom and dad were kind enough to come babysit one morning so that he and I could go spend it. If any of you know Andy very well you'll know that he is very frugal and will hardly ever buy anything for himself unless coaxed to do so. So I got to help him spend his birthday money! He was in desperate need of some new jeans (all but one pair in the closet had holes in them). After trying on 29 pairs of jeans (with all the different cuts, styles, washes, etc. it really did take that many pairs to find the right one!), we ended up with four that he feels and looks great in! In fact, he looks pretty hot according to me! I love you, babe!!!
Kaymi was SO set on helping put the candles on his cake. I put candles around the outside and then let her put the rest where ever she wanted them to be. They ended up being clumped all around the end of the words "happy" and "birthday". She was SO excited to help.
Here's the lovely cake. Andy's mom knew that we weren't feeling very well still, so she offered to make the cake for me. She's so wonderful. The amateur decorating, however....well, I'm afraid that I have to take credit for that.
Blowing out the birthday candles!! He got them all. Hope you made a great wish, honey!
One of the fun things about Andy's birthday is that he shares it with my youngest brother, Mike. Mike is on his mission right now, so we took this picture and emailed it to him. His preparation day was on his birthday, so he got to see our email and picture THAT day. We love him and are so excited about the work that he's doing right now.