Monthly Archive

Well, as you might know, Katelyn doesn’t take too well to new things.  Remember the dance lessons?  She was too overwhelmed with fright to have fun, and by the third lesson was just too scared to go back.  I have been dreading the first day of school for this very reason.  I imagined how it would go… she would be frightened to death, crying and clinging to me with all her might.  For this reason I decided to take extra measures to make this transition as easy for her as possible.  It all started with the search for a school.  I signed her up early last year for a wonderful pre-school in Pleasant Grove that I heard about through my sweet mother-in-law, but I wasn’t exactly sure if that was the right choice for Katelyn.  I was looking for something very different from the pre-school that I taught in for a while because I took Katelyn with me and she learned that she didn’t have to participate with the other children or follow the teacher’s directions (she was too young to actually be a student).  So she would never sit on the carpet squares on the floor in nursery because she didn’t have to in that pre-school class.  Anyway, I was a little worried that she would feel like this school in pleasant grove was too much like the one I taught at, and she would go into the same habits she developed there.  I was also wanting to get her into an additional class – should I try dance again?… Tumbling?… Gymnastics?… then at her birthday party I was visiting with Amanda who is the mom of Katelyn’s friend Abby.  She told me about the school she got Abby into – it’s a preschool with desks (solving the carpet square problem) and with weekly gymnastics as well!  That way I don’t have to break her into school and an extra class, I can just do it all in one.  Ahhhhhhhhhh, now that’s nice!  Well, it sounded better to me anyway, but when Jon asked her if she wanted to go to the gymnastics school she got the “dance class” look on her face and said, very firmly, “No!”  I was determined however that this was the right choice.  So Wednesday morning we did her hair cute, and put on her cute new outfit (thanks Grandma Deedee for the new shirt) and found her cute backpack from Clayton and Lauren and to my surprise she did all of this with ease and excitement!  I couldn’t detect any sort of apprehension in her at all!  To ensure that the afore mentioned scene of terror wouldn’t happen – I had Amanda take the first carpool shift so I simply had to say goodbye to her from the house and let Amanda try to distract her from sadness with excitement about school.  It worked like a charm – she didn’t even hint at fright!  She came home from school with a huge smile and bright eyes and a backpack full of the letter B things, and a yellow balloon made into a bumblebee… oh yes, and of course a candy dip ‘n stick!  I was so pleased and thankful and relieved and thought I had been so silly for worrying so much…

Katelyn’s much anticipated 4th birthday party (much anticipated as in for the last 11.5 months) was a lot of fun, and we want to thank our friends who were able to join us in making it a special day for Katelyn. We decided to do a swimming party at our community pavilion complete with a fairly big inflatable pool and a slip ‘n slide.  Katelyn wanted to have a pinata and the one BriAnne picked must have been put together with super glue and carbon fiber…it just would not break no matter how many times it was hit.  So, I eventually lowered the boon and we let the kids take turns beating the crap (well, candy) out of it while it was on the ground. Eventually the mighty crown did spew forth the contents of it’s cavity-inducing coffers. Towards the end we did cake & ice cream and presents, of which she just loves everything she received.  BriAnne and I got her a Barbie scooter thingy which little Ethan has also taken a liking to.  She’s trying to squeeze in every minute she can of riding it in the breezeway before the weather gets too cold.  Thanks again to those of you who were able to attend!
We spent a good chunk of BriAnne’s birthday at a reunion up in Brigham City.  We were planning on leaving the kids there and sneaking off for a couple hours to go to the Logan Temple (the last time we were there was during our honeymoon) but the reunion ended up being so fun that neither of us wanted to leave.  We were able to visit with family who we weren’t expecting to be there, including my cousin who is on leave from Iraq. On the way home from the reunion we dropped the kids off at my parent’s place in P.G. and then went to BriAnne’s favorite restaurant Red Lobster for dinner with our good friends Clayton and Lauren (thanks again for letting us steal you away from H~ for a while!) On Sunday my parents had all of us over for a lovely seafood dinner to celebrate both BriAnne and Katelyn’s birthdays. 
Shortly after our fun birthday adventures, little Ethan decided he was going to let his apparent asthma poke up it’s ugly head again.  For the last week or so, he’s had labored breathing so we put him on the medicine (via the nebulizer) the dr had us put him on last time but after a few doses he was still getting worse so BriAnne ran him to the doctor on Thursday.  They prescribed an even stronger nebulizer delivered medicine and 4 or 5 other things to try.  He seems to be better now, we’re just hoping this is something he is able to outgrow soon! The below picture of Ethan is what happens when Katelyn won’t let him take a whirl on the Barbie scooter.  It’s also the expression he gives just before running away when it’s time to put him on the asthma medicine.  Nice Molers, eh?