Thoughts on Kael and Eden

Derek's mom asked us to type up some facts about our kids such as their personalities, likes, talents, etc. So, I did and when I was finished I thought, "man i really want to remember this". So what do I do? I post it on the good ol' blog. Here are my thoughts on my chill'ins. Love these two kids so much!

Kael:

Personality: Kael is our happy, smiling, energetic 3 year old boy. Since the first time Kael smiled he hasn’t stopped. He is the friendliest person I know and will hug anyone and brighten their day. Kael is 100% all boy and loves all boy things, especially dirt and bugs, which Mom doesn’t love so much, but puts up with because he loves them so much.

Likes:

Kael is my animal lover. I have never met anyone who loves animals more than Kael. (However, I didn’t know Derek as a child, so it may be a close tie.) Kael gets so excited that he starts jumping up and down. He loves all animals. He gets excited over a fish even. His favorite place to visit is of course the zoo where he can see so many different animals. His favorite zoo animal is the giraffe. He is a dog lover for sure, and that is probably his favorite non-zoo animal.

All of Kael’s favorite books are animal books and he has all of the animals memorized. He loves to read books every night before bed and is starting to repeat the words trying to read on his own even though he still has a long way to go before he is reading on his own.

Besides animals Kael loves creepy crawly things such as bugs, snakes, lizards, etc. When we were camping he went lizard catching with his dad and loved to have them crawl on his shirt. They also caught beetles and other bugs. Since there are no cool bugs here at our apartment I frequently find Kael trying to have an ant crawl on his arm or shirt. He often finds worms, snails, and other bugs. They are super cool to him. He would really love a pet snake someday I am sure because he loves his toy snakes and liked touching the snake at the zoo.

Kael is a huge thrill seeker. He also loves the carousel at the zoo and gets devastated when he only gets to ride it once. He loves train rides too. He has gone on the train at the zoo and “Heritage Park”. We have been showing him Disneyland videos and he is super excited just watching the rides, I can’t wait to see him on the rides.

Kael loves being outside. Kael loves to ride his bike and is really good at it now. He also loves climbing trees and playing in the sand box. Sometimes outside we play with side walk chalk and Kael is really talented drawing pictures. He practices his shapes, number, and letters and often makes superb pictures. His favorite shape is a star. His most recent pictures have been a snail and the sun.

Kael has a great love of dinosaurs. He has about 5 bigger dinosaurs and insists on sleeping with them even though they are sharp and pointy and can’t be comfortable. He even has them eat with him. He loves to feed them macaroni and cheese and sometimes even carrots.

Kael is very observant and has been since he was a baby. He recently noticed that some of his dinosaurs have red eyes and some have blue; this lead to him discovering that he has blue eyes and now goes around telling people what color of eyes they have.

Kael can count to 15, and knows most of the letters of the alphabet. He loves to learn new things everyday.

A favorite past time is watching shows. Kael will sit and watch an entire movie and then ask to watch it over again. Some of his favorite movies are Cars, Kung Fu Panda, Finding Nemo, and Tangled (he loves the horse) although there are several more. His favorite TV shows right now are Go Diego Go (full of animals), Dinosaur Train, and Backyardigans.

Kael really loves swimming and playing in the water. He loves it so much that he goes down the big waterslide at the swimming pool all by himself. It says you have to be 50 inches to ride and Kael is only 38. Yup, it is a big slide and he loves it! He can’t quite swim by himself yet, but he sure tries every once in a while and gives Mom a scare. He sees a big kid start to swim and so he takes off and just kind of sinks. He loves the water though and would go swimming every day if I let him.

Eden:

Personality: Eden is our precious and opinionated 17 months old baby girl. She is stubborn, but isn’t shy to give you a kiss to get her way. She is the princess of our house and makes sure everyone knows it. She is 100% all girl and totally loveable in every aspect of who she is.

Likes:

Eden absolutely loves babies. She will find a baby doll and pick it up and hold it, love it, hug it, and care for it. This was ingrained from birth because I have never shown her this. She likes to push them in strollers and feed the babies. She even loves real babies. She goes around in nursery telling all of the girls they are babies and hugs them. She is the youngest, smallest person there because she is only 17 months old and isn’t suppose to be there, but all those little girls are her babies.

Eden loves to play with Kael’s toys. Her favorite toy to borrow is his dinosaurs. She walks around the house hissing from the back of the throat thinking it is a roar, because that is obviously the sound a dinosaur makes.

She loves talking on the telephone and takes it quite seriously. It is business when she has Mom’s cell phone.

She thinks she is big enough to ride Kael’s big boy bike. She thinks it is hers in fact. She doesn’t want any of these tricycles or small bikes. No she is a big girl and already tries to peddle even though her feet don’t reach. She somehow manages to get on and off all by herself.

Eden loves loves loves (did I say loves?) to play in the water. Mostly she likes a big swimming pool, but will play in the small ones, the sprinkler, or anything wet. She loves water so much that when swimming in a pool she sticks her face in and blows bubbles on her own and tries to take off swimming by herself.

Eden likes to just sit and chill in the swing when we play on the playground. She could stay there a long time. She also just mastered the big slide and thinks she is a big kid now.

Eden loves to read books. She is quick to find a book and a lap to sit on.

Eden loves animals. I first thought it was no big deal, but we saw a dog at the park the other day and she went ballistic! Is that a word? She literally was hugging the dog and patting it. It immediately became her dog. She can’t see an animal without pointing and wanting to go see it. She is a definite animal lover.

Speaking of animal lover a favorite place we visit is the zoo. At the zoo they have a carousel. Eden is our little daredevil girl. She would ride the carousel all day long if we let her. Not only the carousel but probably any ride we would take her on. She is a thrill seeker like her brother.

One of Eden’s main talents is to eat. She really loves to eat almost any kind of food. Once I gave her a piece of broccoli and she put it in her mouth and just sucked on it. She wouldn’t spit it out to get a bite of ice cream until she was finished with it. Don’t worry she still wanted the ice cream.

Kael's Date with Mom

On August 19th our student housing had a movie night on the lawn where we watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It was projected up on the apartment walls. It was so fun having Kael take ME on a date. It was way past bedtime, and he loved every minute. He got free popcorn, juice, and a snow cone. The show didn't start until 9 oclock which is 2 hours past his bedtime. By 10:15 we were ready to come home and go to bed. He almost made it to the end of the movie. He started rolling down the hill and going a bit crazy, so I asked him if he wanted to go home and go to bed and he actually said yes. That's my boy. I can't wait to take him to Disneyland. 

 Kael took a lot of pictures to keep him entertained until it got dark enough to watch the movie. This was the big wall they showed the movie on.

 Don't mind our crazy faces, but it was the only photo we got of the two of us on our date.

 Kael loving his snow cone and popcorn.

Kael's Mad Picture Take Skills

We were getting ready to go swim at our Bishop's pool and Kael found the camera and started going. He absolutely loves taking pictures. Honestly he is getting a lot better.

 Don't mind my backside, Eden is super cute.

Eden is 17 Months

Dear Eden,

Life has kind of been a blur the last month. It has been nice to have Dad home and just have some time as a family. Then, Dad started school and you and Kael got really sad. You have become quite the little Miss Independent. You march around bossing us around in your own language that you have discovered. I love it. You are quite the toddler. You have been going to nursery for about 3 weeks now all by yourself. I know you aren't even suppose to go for another month, but with Dad gone or teaching Elders Quorum and me being busy in the Primary it really helped to put you there. Don't worry. You love it! Dad said that he would check on you and that you loved it so much more than Dad just chasing you around the halls. You love singing time too. You act out all the motions and actually sit pretty well in those little chairs. You are the tiniest little person in nursery right now and it is so cute! You love love love babies right now. The nursery leaders said that you would go up to other little girls and want to hug them. You find all the toy babies in the nursery and drag them with you everywhere. You have not cried once though. You have only had pure joy in nursery. You don't seem to miss Mom or Dad one bit. 

You have slowed down on learning new words. However, you are learning your body parts quite well. You can say some of them, but point to your toes, ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hair, and head. You stick your tongue out and spit when I ask for your tongue. I probably shouldn't have taught you that. 

You love going to the zoo just as much as Kael. You have some of the same passions as him and I love that about you both! We were at the park and there was this friendly old dog. You and Kael went crazy. Kael I am used to going crazy over animals, but I didn't expect it from you. It was so cute. You would hug the dog and said dog over and over. 

You still are my good eater and just overall good little sweet princess. You know you are a princess and get away with a lot of stuff you shouldn't, but you are the princess.

You have become quite attatched to your binky and had about 3 with you at all times and couldn't sleep without it. You would wake up at 3 am wanting me to find it for you. That and you have molars coming in. Well, I had to get rid of it. It is so sad and I kind of miss seeing that purple thing in your mouth. It has been over 24 hours and so far so good. The longest you have cried for bed or nap was about an hour. So much better than when I took it away from Kael. I love you little lady bug! I love your spunk and your sweet personality. Stay who you are because you are beautiful, fun, energetic, and so loveable!

Love you forever,

Mom

Oldies, but goodies.

Twinkle Twinkle He's a Star

Here's a bunch of pictures from Kael's birthday party. It was themed "Twinkle Twinkle He's a Star!" Kael has been so obsessed with stars lately.

Here is the star cake that I made him. I ended up making 2 cakes to make sure we had enough for everyone.

The decorations. It was the only picture I took of the party table and it wasn't a good picture.

Kael blowing out candles. He blew them out before we sang and then after as well. He practiced a lot for this day.

 

Party people. Grammy and Gemma. Then one of Eden.

 Dad doing the star pinata. Kael was first up.

 Even Eden had a go at it.

 I should probaby not have used packing tape to make the pinata. That thing was indestructible. Derek had to take a knife to it to get the candy out. Next time I will use masking tape maybe...

 The candy! Kids were walking around with suckers in their mouths and trading them.

 Kael's loot.

 The water balloons! Derek and I spent 2 nights filling up around 400 water balloons. I have to say it was 100% worth every minute. The kids loved them. 

Don't mind Kael's ribs poking out in all the pictures. I really do feed the kid.

 Eden loved the water balloons too. She was soaked at the beginning of the party by jumping in the pool first thing. The girl loves water.

 Kael's cousin Garek was too funny. I caught him popping a balloon on the camera. Here is the before picture.

 And BAM!

 Presents Time!

 All of Kael's friends wanted to help him unwrap his presents. Kael didn't mind and thought it was fun.

 And last, as I was cleaning everything up the cake was last to go, and I hadn't been watching the kids very well. I ended up losing Eden to a stairwell and freaking both Derek and myself out and letting Kael have had it  with his left over cake.

He looked at me and just showed me his hands, so I snapped a picture. He was quite proud of himself.

Some thoughts on health and fitness.

So, lately I have been thinking a lot about weight. Not necessarily mine, but yes a little. Over my lifetime I have been told by many people that, "You are so lucky that you never have to worry about your weight". "You are so skinny, I'd give anything to have your body". "I'm so jealous that you can eat whatever you want and never have to worry about it". And most recently, "I hate you because you are so skinny". This person was joking of course, but were they really?

Honestly, thank you people, I know I am lucky to have such an amazing body from Heavenly Father. I'm grateful for my metabolism. I need to be happy when I am reminded these things so that I remember to thank my Heavenly Father more often.

And, honestly, I am grateful I don't have to be on the other end of the spectrum of comments such as I can't believe you haven't lost any weight...

Sometimes it is hard to listen to so many comments about my weight though.

The stupid world is so obsessed with weight. What the world needs to be worried about is our healthiness.

So... Here are my thoughts recently

MY BODY IS A TEMPLE.


I need to be concerned about what I put into my body.
It isn't just the normal Mormon thoughts of "coffee, tea, tobacco, drugs, alcohol, etc".
What food am I putting into this body of mine? Am I making good choices? Would eating this certain food be healthy if I was pregnant and trying to make a growing baby?

So, no I am not concerned about my weight. I am grateful for that. I am concerned about eating healthy and having a healthy lifestyle.

What people don't know about me is that I love to exercise and yet I hate it as well. I know it is good for me and my body, but it is a struggle. I love to eat yummy food. I love candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, and all the sugary things. We all know that sugar normally makes people gain weight. What is this doing inside our bodies. I know that I physically I don't look like anything is happening to me when I eat these things, but the same kinds of things must be happening in my body to some extent.

So, I am eating healthy. I am keeping my body clean. It is a temple and I would keep the temple clean and pure. I am watching what I put into my body. I am changing my life. This is important to me. So, when people make these comments to me they don't know that I am trying to eat healthy like them. They think that I don't "need" to eat healthy or watch what I eat, but I do! And I am! And, it is hard. I'm not losing weight, but I am doing hard things. I am eliminating sugar and carbs. I am eating healthy things like fruits, vegetables, meats, and nuts. I know I can do this. I know I feel better when I eat this way. I have more energy. I sleep better. I feel better. Taking care of my body is important to me, and it is what needs to be done.

Just try to be a little nicer the next time you think about someone's weight. You never know what they are going through. I'm not upset at the people who have made these comments to me. I understand that people are going through difficult situations and feel the need to comment and for the most part I truly believe people are thinking they are complimenting me on how I look, and for that I am grateful.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
This is the link to the lifestyle that I am going for. It has the exercising that I will be doing and how I am eating.

Wish me luck because I am going to need it.

Kael Turns 3 Today: August 6, 2011

Dearest Kael,

Today was a big day for me. I kept you alive until you reached 3 years old. What an accomplishment for us both bud! I have to tell you that these have been the best 3 years of my life and by far the hardest at the same time. You have brought Dad and I so much joy every single day. Your smile is infectious. You really have grown up so much in the last couple of months. You are speaking so much better. You ask me questions and you demand things. One thing just to embarrass you when you are a teenager when you look back and read this; you like to classify your poop. Yes, it is true. Every time you go you have to tell me or Dad if it is either a big one or a little one. I'm just grateful you can go in the toilet. You have made so many strides and it is really impressive. You love to ride your bike that has training wheels now. You are getting pretty good too. You can almost keep up with the big kids, but you don't mind just taking your time and having fun. You still love love people. Just today you kissed a little girl Sidnie on the cheek out on the playground. It was super cute. You and Eden and Sidnie were all giving each other hugs so you thought she deserved a kiss. You love airplanes, trucks, tractors, cars, helicopters, basically anything that goes. You love animals to pieces. You get sooo excited when you see an animal that you have to love it. You help me clean up when you feel like it. You love watching "shows" aka movies on the TV. Right now you are obsessed with the cars movie. Can you tell you like cars? You also love stars right now. The shape. Obsessed again. I have a book called "You are Special" by Max Lucado and it is a sweet book, and you have had me read it to you every night for over a week just so you can see the stars on the people. You faithfully find wherever it is hiding before bed and we read. I love it. We just snuggle on your bed together and it is our time. You are so so full of energy and love life. You wear me out every single day. You love on Eden every day. You have started trying to help her up when she falls down (or when you push her down...). You eat hot dogs like no one I have ever seen. Some days I think I should enter you into a contest. You have a lot of Heaton in you because you love ketchup. You must have Bradley in you too because you love ranch dressing just as much. You have to have those two things on your plate every meal almost except breakfast though. Just the other night we took you to Red Robin for your birthday because you got a free meal. We asked you what you wanted and you picked a pizza. I was so excited! You knew what you wanted. Well they brought you your favorite things, pizza, french fries, and carrots. You basically drank two cups full of ranch dressing and didn't touch anything else. It was quite gross actually, but it was your birthday meal... You are simply a joy Kael. Dad and I love you so much! Every day is an adventure that is waiting to begin when your eyes open each morning. Keep being who you are because you are special!

I love you buddy!

Love,

Mom

                                        Kael newborn                                            Kael at 1 year

Kael at 2 years old

3 year old Kael today! Opening his birthday present from Mom and Dad.

What? A remote control car? Yes, he's spoiled.

 

 So so excited!