Kaleb's Weekly Highlights

Here's a few things Kaleb looks forward to every week:

1. Garbage Day!! He's faithful about watching for the garbage trucks every week, either out the window or close-up. We have three garbages so that's 6 times (cause the other side of the street) that the big trucks go by. Thursday mornings are fun! (and loud!)

2. Story Time. He loves going to the library, but especially when it's toddler story time which they've had once a week.

This week was an extra cool one cause it was Read ‘n Sing with Nancy Stewart. She had music and puppets and lots of fun things. Kaleb is so shy when we go. He won't talk or do the actions. I feel like I have my own puppet on my lap as I try to get him going. At church the other day, the nursery leader was shocked when she heard Kaleb talking to me. She's like, "he can talk?!" What a silly boy.

3. Mowing the Lawn. He's so excited when we pull out the mower and wants to hold our hand the whole time. It makes it a little difficult to push and maneuver, but all well.

4. Park Days! He loves playing at the park with all the other little kiddos.

5. Cooking on the grill. Here's my future chef grilling up something tasty.

6. Cleaning Day. I fill up a bottle with water and let him squirt while I'm cleaning. He loves it!

Mount Hood Trip

For anyone interested in learning what it's like to climb Mt. Hood, here's Braydan's account with some pictures in between:

This past weekend my friend Wes Dyer and I took on Mount Hood in Oregon. We left on Thursday after work and spent the first night at Timberline Lodge parking lot sleeping in the bed of my pick-up. We spent Friday hiking up to high camp at about 9,000 feet.

Above the clouds

Wes was starting to show signs of altitude sickness, nose-bleed, headache, shortness of breath, and elevated heart beat. I set up our tent and he took a good 4 hour nap and drank a lot of water. He started to feel better by dinner.

Wes melting snow

We built a wind wall on the east side of our tent because that was the direction the wind was coming from. It wasn’t real windy until the sun went down. After the sun went down the winds changed directions and the temperatures dropped. The winds really picked up to about 50 to 60 miles per hour and the temperature was in the single digits. We were planning to wake up at 3:30 am to meet another friend and head for the summit. The winds were so bad that he decided not to come up. We waited in the tent until 4:45 and then decided we should get out of the tent and make a decision to summit or pack up and head home.

We saw about 10 people climbing up the mountain below us and we decided to go for it.

We climbed up palmer glacier towards the hogs back ridge and climbed up the old shoot towards the summit ridge.

The wind was blowing sheets of ice particles that really stung when they hit.

Fumaroles

The air smelled of sulfur from the fumaroles which were exposed near hogs back ridge. By this time our water was frozen solid. We reached the summit at about Elevation 11,300 feet, snapped a few photos and headed down. We reached camp and the winds were still high. We had to be pretty creative to figure out how to take the tent down without it blowing away. After we got the tent put away we started for the truck. I glissaded down most of the way from camp to Timberline Lodge. It was a good introduction to Alpine climbing. I’m looking forward to our next mountain in May, Mount Baker.

Lonely Women

Well, the lonely weekends have begun! Braydan left Thursday to climb Mount Hood in Oregon and doesn't get back until tonight. They'll summit a new mountain each month in preparation for Mt.Reiner. Joy. It's been on the calendar for a while now, but I was still grumpy when he left. Eliza was crying and fussy and Kaleb was pulling on my shirt bugging me about something. The kitchen was still a mess from dinner and just the thought of cleaning up and putting them both to bed made me feel so tired I felt like sitting down and crying. But, I didn't. Luckily I pulled myself together and made it through the weekend fine.

Thursday night, after I got the kids to bed (phew!), I went to Amber's with my baby monitor and had a girl's night (since her husband is gone too). We ate junk food and hung out (and DIDN'T grip about our husbands at all---just for the record). Friday morning I went to some garage sales and got some good deals. Yes!! Except I messed up one. I got this cool frame and as soon as we got home I took it apart and in the process broke the glass. Whoops.

It was a gorgeous day so we also went to Flower World with Amber and the kids. It was so cool!! Shockingly enormous and just down the road in Maltby! It's 18 acres of plants and flowers, one of the largest nurseries on the West Coast. Amber wanted fuchsias, which seemed simple enough, so we found where they were, but discovered there were 120 varieties--a whole green house devoted to thousands of fuchsias. I was a little overwhelmed with all my choices so I got nothing. Nice huh? They had pools and waterfalls with fish and turtles so that kept Kaleb super happy. They also had a park with geese, ducks, and chickens that the kids loved chasing around. Poor birds. I loved the looks people gave us as we walked around. Amber had her baby in the front-pack carrier and was pulling the plant cart. Hannah was pushing Kaitlyn in the stroller and Jacob and Kaleb were walking. I had Eliza in the stroller and all together we looked like quite the circus :) I was sad I forgot my camera.

We went to the park later and had dinner with the Dyers too. We both didn't want to cook so we warmed up leftovers. You know the moments you could cry, but you laugh instead? That was kinda our dinner. I gave Kaleb spaghetti and he was sitting on the stool next to the other kids. Well the next thing you know, the stool flies out and he crashes to the floor. Spaghetti sauce splatters everywhere---floor, counter, stools, and poor Katie. So Kaleb is crying, we're trying to wipe up the mess, Eliza wakes up and is crying, Adelie is sitting in a bouncer chair and we can hear her exploding her diaper, so then she's crying. Amber goes to give her a bath, I hurry and nurse Eliza while trying to get Kaleb to eat something else, and then finally we both get to eat, but by then our dinner is cold :)

All I can say is that I could never be a single Mom! It would be so hard. So, I guess maybe these climbing trips will help me appreciate Braydan more. (Or spite him more? Jk :)

Soccer's Done

Yipee, Braydan's soccer nights are over! I went and watched a game last week and he wasn't lying when he said he was a minority on the team. I asked him how they communicate in the game, like "pass the ball," or something and he said they use, "OY!!" and some other manly grunting noises. Nice huh? Good job playing dear, but I'm glad I have you back to help put kids to bed :)

Prayer Rock

Last night I had to fill in for the Beehive class teacher and we painted prayer rocks. Since I had Kaleb with me, he wanted to do one too of course. He loved it!! I've never seen him concentrate so hard. So when it came time to leave, he wouldn't let anyone near his rock, thinking I was gonna get rid of it (smart boy). He held it close all the way home and through bedtime routine. While I was singing him one last song, he was holding it up in the air admiring it and accidentally dropped it on his face. Holy screaming! After he finally calmed down (and I tried not to laugh at the bump on his head), he was totally over his rock obsession. Hopefully his little prayers continue though. I love how he whispers the prayer cause we're whispering to him what to say. He doesn't really come up with anything on his own yet, except at the end when we say "in the name of Jesus Christ," he hurries and shouts, "A-MEN!" I've tried to work on quieting it down a little, but what can I say, he's got baptist roots.

Sharing

Kaleb was excited to share this with me, so I'm sure he'd be thrilled that I was sharing it with you too :)

(It's all the caterpillars he could find around the yard)

Saturday we went to the children's museum so I finally got to see what all the fuss was about. I loved it. I can't wait until Eliza's older too so she can use the theater part for dress-up.

Kaleb loved the trains table this time, but fortunately for you, I was tired of taking pictures
by then.

Just wanted to make my Dad proud :)

Sheraden and Eliza

Gotta train em' young

This is what happens when . . .

. . . Braydan picks Kaleb's outfit. Front . . . . . . and back. (notice the permanent wedgie)

Easter Highs and Lows

I think I'll start with the Lows so I end on a good note :)

Low #1: So, Kaleb's face pretty much sums up the Easter Extravaganza at Lake Tye. Braydan took him and they came home with ONE Easter egg! I couldn't stop laughing. I guess parents were crazy and running on the field, getting all the eggs before the kids had a chance cause there were a few "prize" eggs. Braydan said one lady sprawled flat on the ground to cover as many eggs as possible. Who are these people? Fortunately, they had real bunnies for sale and he liked petting those. The firetrucks and ambulances came for the kids to see so that also salvaged the morning.

Low #2: I was really looking forward to Sunday church. I play piano for the choir so I knew the songs were special about the Savior and I knew the talks would be good too. Well, I had to be early to practice for choir and brought Kaleb with me. I left Braydan home with Eliza so she could sleep a little longer. She was all ready though and he was ready too. All he had to do was put her in the car seat. So church starts and no Braydan. I thought it was odd, but then sacrament was over and still no Braydan. I went out and called and no answer. I hadn't fed Eliza since 8 and now it was 11:30. So, the first speaker is talking and STILL NO BRAYDAN! Meanwhile, I'm totally missing out on the meeting cause I can't even concentrate. I started imagining horrible things like they got in a car wreck or something was wrong with Eliza and he had to go to the hospital or the car broke down (i know impossible to imagine with our Buick right?) Finally, one of my friend's husbands went to go look for him. Right as he left, Braydan shows up. First I'm relieved, then I'm ANGRY when I find out what happened. He accidentally fell asleep!!! Yeah, asleep!!! And he didn't even get up at 5:30 with baby!

(Eliza's Low Point )

High #1: So, even though Braydan scared me half to death, I still felt the spirit afterwards, especially in the last song we did, How Great the Wisdom and the Love. I felt a powerful witness that Christ lives and loves me.

High #2: Easter dinner. I always get bummed at holidays when other people get together with familes and we don't have any here. But the Dyers saved the day and hosted a wonderful dinner, inviting lots of other familyless people over to share it with. At one point the kids were really loud and running around so Amber had the older kids hide plastic eggs all over the house for the little kids to find. They stayed busy with that for 4 hours!!! I think if Braydan hid eggs around the house, I would be excited to find eggs too.

Overall, a good Easter. We didn't color eggs or hide candy around the house, but Kaleb doesn't realize we're lame parents yet.

Happy Day

Some highlights of the day:

I got TONS of girl clothes from a friend. It was like Christmas! The clothes on the couch are just 6 month pajamas. I think I counted 14 of them! I was so excited that I didn't even mind when Kaleb dumped the boxes (of clothes) on the floor and then threw them at my face one by one as I tried to sort it. Kaleb made some new friends. They're always reliable--whenever he needs them, they're easy to find in abundance.

(he likes to line them up on his pant legs)

Eliza laughing. I decided my favorite sound in the whole world is a baby laughing. I tried to get it on camera, but she was done by the time I got to it. She sure likes when I talk to her. Her whole body just starts wiggling and she coos and talks back.

Fresh homemade bread. My loaves are finally starting to look more like my Moms. Now . . . if only they would taste like hers :)

Blooming flowers. I love spring and my pretty flowers. Especially when a cute little Amelia will pose by them.

The Office. I think my favorite part from tonight was the pancakes shaped like paper.

And finally . . . finding my REMOTE!! I saw Kaleb walking around with it the other morning and then when he wanted to watch something later I couldn't find it. I asked him where he put it and he told me the garbage. I spent the next 30 minutes digging through smelly trash looking but found nothing. So that night I ran the dishwasher like every night and in the morning I always unload it. Well, in the back of the dishwasher was the remote! Yep, I think it's ruined.

Harper Visit

I finally got to see my awesome cousin and her family this last weekend. Her husband had a work thing in Seattle so they came Saturday/Sunday to visit. It was so fun to see Grace and Thomas and all their cuteness. They're both only 4 months older than my kids so Kaleb and Thomas had fun together. Eliza might've spit up on Grace or Grace might've drooled on Eliza, but that about sums up their interaction so far :) We went to the lake Saturday afternoon and then the men folk went to priesthood session. We (or Ashley) gave the boys a bath when we got home. We played games (kind of) that night and had fun catching up. Blogs make it nice so we don't have SO MUCH catching up to do. (hint, hint other cousins). Sunday we ate a lot and watched conference. We snuck in a walk before nap time too. Sorry we didn't take you anywhere cool Ashley! Next time. That is, if we didn't scare you off. Thanks for coming!! Love you guys!!

(I forgot to give you strawberry jam!!! Now you'll really have to come back :)

How I know we've lived in Seattle too long . .

Me: Kaleb, do you want to go play outside?

Kaleb: NO! It's too bright!

What makes me happy . . .

Eliza: my 2 fingers Kaleb: "cooking" Dial soap