House!

(Kelly, this is the first of seven posts.) ;)

We bought a house! We've been here a month now and fall more in love with it every day.  Everyone's been bugging me to post pictures of it, so I'll do one level at a time.

I still need to take pictures of the kitchen and family room to complete the main level, but here's the front room.

Welcome!

This is the view when you first walk in.  Minus the box that's not there anymore. (Yay!)

Other side

 Eventually we'll get a loveseat and single seat in here.  It will be the "visiting teaching" room. I can't decide if I should put pictures up now, or wait until we get the furniture.  I'd hate to put holes in the wall if I'm going to move the pictures someday. Any thoughts?

Shane's baby

This is the piano my mom and Kent gave Shane for Christmas.  It's needs a little TLC, but it's a beauty.  I can't wait until it's all refinished and gorgeous.  For now, though, the sound is great, which is what really matters.  I knew the kids would play on it for a while, but now that the novelty of it has worn off, it's surprised me which of the three kids continues to play it.  Can you guess which one?

Ari.

No, really.  

She absolutely loves the piano and sits gently plucking away at the keys for hours.  It's the only thing I've ever seen hold her attention for more than ten minutes.  She can't even sit still through an entire movie.  But she makes up her own songs, complete with singing, and I love it.  I've tried to record her, but the minute she sees me she yells, "CHEESE!" and stops playing and singing.  I'll get her one of these days.

The rest of the main level will be posted later today! Stay tuned!

Randomness

Y'all know how I love my random posts!  They save me from having to do a lot of little posts.  :)

First up, we had our friends, the Halverson's, over last weekend for dinner and games.  At one point Yuki laughed and pointed to where ALL of the boys were playing the Wii.  The girls were upstairs reading books and playing with dolls.

Boys will be boys

Our new ward doesn't start until 1:00. :(  I tried putting Ari down for a nap at 10:30, but after an hour and 15 minutes, she still wasn't asleep.  Grrr...  That made for one very, very tired child when we got home.  I was getting dinner ready when Shane said, "Come take a picture of this."  Yes, he really did!

All the kids cuddling with Shane.

Dinner was going to be ready in about four minutes when Shane walked over with a sleeping Ari.  He said that her last words were, "I'm not tired."  hahahaha

By this point, though, bedtime would be in about two hours.  I knew if she slept now she wouldn't go to bed until past my bedtime.  We tried everything to wake her up.  Finally, I said, "Put her down.  That will wake her up." What did she do?  Continued sleeping standing up.

She's out

I told Shane to go change her diaper and put her in pajamas.  THAT woke her up enough that she came down and ate dinner with us, then went to bed a little early. (Not two hours, though.)

And lastly, some cute pictures of my adorable kids!

Haircut!

I only get a haircut a couple of times a year, so YES this is special enough for a blog post!

I went back and forth on what to do with my hair, but I'm kinda loving the longer look at the moment, plus it makes it so much easier to keep off my neck while I get my Zumba on.  ;)

I also had to do a post about it so I could show the before and after pics.  Without them, it's really hard to tell that I got a haircut.

Before:

After:

Basically, it just looks a lot cleaner now.  The a-line is gone, so the length is the same all around, which is nice.  It's come a long way since a year ago when the girl botched it up and my regular stylist/friend had to chop it all off to fix it.  So happy my hair is growing out!!

Girl's Night Out

I got together with some friends from my old ward last week and we headed to Denny's for some unhealthy delicious food!

Jess and Kim

Whipped cream shots

Jess, me, and Kim

We had so much fun and the waiter thought we were all around 18-19 years old.  Probably based on our maturity level....  Or he just wanted good tips.

More soccer

Another soccer post.  Sorry!  And just a warning, since this is MY blog, I'm going to be doing some serious bragging about my son in the upcoming post.

Kaden's game last week was interesting.  Because the region he's in does the stupid, ridiculous, absurd, pointless jamboree style, he's never had the same coach or team.  They both change each week and I hate it.  BUT, this past week something unique happened.  Fate was on our side and Kaden actually got paired up with a coach he had the week before, and the week before that, the same coach was the coach of the opposing team from Kaden.  So, basically, the guy had seen Kaden play twice before.  What I didn't realize is that the guy had been paying attention to Kaden.

The guy, Brett, is a really, really good soccer player.  He was talking to me during warm-ups about the type of cleats Kaden has (he was impressed because they're Italian and apparently a really good brand that won't fall apart), then he showed off his footwork for his son.  Anyway, when he found out Kaden was on his team, he was really excited.  Usually, since the coaches change each week, the adults don't know their players' names and since all the kids are #12, it makes it really hard to coach.

Brett's in the red shirt

The game started and I didn't think anything of it, really.  Until I noticed that Kaden was being kept in the game a lot more than he normally is.  The other players (including Brett's own son) were being rotated normally so everyone got their fair share of playing time, but Kaden barely ever sat out.

 

At one point in the third quarter, Kaden ran over to me to get a drink and Brett came over saying, "Are you okay, Kaden?"  Kaden nodded with a mouthful of water. Brett said, "Come back and play! You're my superstar!  I need you!"  Kaden, of course, smiled huge, and ran back out.  That kid never gets tired of running when there's a soccer ball involved.  ;)

 

It wasn't until after that "superstar" comment, however, that I noticed not only how much playing time Kaden was getting, but also that Brett had had Kaden do almost every single throw in for the team (with the little kids, there are a lot).

Kaden can throw really far, which is probably why Brett kept choosing him.  After the game, Brett mentioned a couple of things to me to work on with Kaden saying that if Kaden got those things down, he'd be golden and nothing could stop him.  Guess I'd better invest in one of those canopy things, 'cause we've got a lot of soccer in our future.  :)

Classic Fun Center

Kaden's preschool went on a field trip to Classic Skating in Layton last week.  I've thought about taking the kids there, but after the ice skating fiasco (see previous blog if you missed that), I didn't want to take the kids until they were older.  But then it was his field trip.  I got my little sister, Natalie, to come over and babysit the girls so I could focus on Kaden and help him have a good experience rollerskating for the first time.

What I didn't know was that in the 10+ years since I've been to Classic, they've expanded it from just the rollerskating rink.  It's a kids paradise now.

Slide!

Obstacle course

Punching bags (well, they were after Kaden got to them...)

I couldn't believe how much fun it is for little kids!  Kaden and his buddies from class played at the Pirates Cove for about an hour, and then I was the mean mom and forced him to try rollerskating (when else will it be free?).  He was so, so nervous and kept referencing the ice skating incident, but I assured him this wouldn't be the same.  Mainly because my attention was solely on him.

I got a video of him, but I'll upload it to Facebook instead of here because I'm worried about space issues.  But the video is hilarious.  He uses the walker thing like a 90 year old man; scoots forward a foot, then slowly skate-slides towards it.  But at the end of the video, Kaden looks up with a huge smile and says, "I'm getting really good!"  That made it all worth it. 

After a painstakingly long 15 minutes to go ONCE around the rink, Kaden wanted to get back to the Pirates Cove.  As he was taking his skates off, we saw his teacher, Ms. Brinkerhoff, lacing up.  She was nervous-ish and talking to another teacher about how she didn't want to fall on her face.  With confidence from his time around the rink, Kaden walked over to her and pointed to his walker, saying, "Don't worry, Ms. B! It's EASY!" (I laughed at that.) Then he said, "Do you want to use my walker?" Cutest kid ever!

 

Ms. B is the green shirt furthest on the left.

She got a few helping hands and only fell down once.  Everyone was laughing the whole time we were all there.  I can't decide if the kids had more fun or if the adults did.

Make-Up Classes

Kaden's preschool has a policy where, if you miss a class, you are allowed to do a make-up class in it's place.  The great thing, though, is that he can do ANY of their classes as a make-up class.  They offer so many that I was excited he's had to miss a couple of days this past school year.

The first class I had him do was an art one.  He LOVES drawing and has a lot of natural talent for it (seriously, he's already better than me, but maybe that's not saying much...my stick figures even need help).  He loved the class and learned all about drawing lighthouses that day.  They used paint, markers, and pencils and drew lighthouses with each tool.  It was really fun for him.

The other class I had him try was a tumbling class.  He's a big ole' ball of energy, so I knew he would enjoy it.

Pretty good jumper

He was trying to do a back bend unassisted

Learning the right way to do a cartwheel

He had tons of fun.  We'll have to get him enrolled in a gym-type class over the summer.  Soccer's ending and he'll need an outlet.  :)

Davis County Symphony

About eight months ago, my mom was invited to be a featured performer for the Davis County Symphony's Spring concert.  She was SO excited!  She even convinced my older sister, Suzanna, to join in with her viola that she hasn't played in twelve years.

My grandma and grandpa Ozminski

My Aunt Ellie and her granddaughter, Sophie, who was pretending to be shy.

My Uncle Aaron (my mom's younger brother), and his son, Lance.

 Aaron's wife, Kristy, and their daughter, Leigha, couldn't come because they were at Leigha's dance competition.  Aaron has played the trombone as well for a long time and after my mom's performance was telling everyone that that's the hardest solo he's ever heard and my mom did amazing with it.  :)

My mom greeting her dad and step-mom.

My youngest sister, Natalie, with Suzanna.

I snuck a picture of Sophie.  ;)

Kent and his family.

Lexi and Taliyah

My mom came out for the second song (there were five total) and did her thang.

I tried getting Suzanna, but all I could see were her eyes from where I was sitting.

Ten minutes into the first song, the kids were BORED.

My mom and Suzanna did awesome!  My mom memorized her entire fifteen minute piece.  Sadly, I had the whole thing memorized as well since I listened to her practice it nearly every day for the last six months.  Shane did, too.  

Funniest part of the whole night was when the symphony started their last song and all of my kids suddenly perked up.  Kaden whispered loudly, "Mom!  They're doing the Little Einsteins theme song!!"  It wasn't really the theme song, but it was one of the classical pieces Einsteins uses on their shows.  Sadly, again, I knew the words of the song the Einsteins put to the classical piece and was singing along in my head.

Stuff

This post is a little random.

Just thought I should warn you.

First of all, when I was packing our Ogden house, I made sure to wrap each of my expensive-ish food dyes individually because they were going into a huge box with other stuff and I didn't want any of them to explode and ruin everything else.

Shane mocked me.

He wanted me to just throw them all in one bag and call it good.

Shows what he knows.

Yep.  It would have been ALL over if I hadn't wrapped it!  OCD pays off!  WOO!

In other news, we're still going strong with soccer season.  It's absolutely FREEZING at every game (they are Wednesday nights, so the sun goes down and everyone shivers on the sidelines).

Kaden is the tall #12 in the middle not wearing the green thing.

See him rubbing his hands together?  He wasn't cold, he was excited for the 2nd half to start. ;)

I was unpacking this morning and found a dance costume from when I was seven!  I'm so, so glad I kept this all these years because Lexi is LOVING it.  And she's carrying around the picture of me wearing it as well.

 

 

Ari had to get in on the costume, too.  :)  Then they made me blast Michael Buble so they could dance.  I love my girls!