Christmas this year was so much fun! I think I was maybe even more excited than the kids, haha. This was the first time in four years that we had Kylee for Christmas morning, and this was the first year that Tyler was really old enough to enjoy opening the presents. We did lots of activities leading up to Christmas including visiting Santa, going to a couple Christmas parties, playing in the (record) snow, decorating cookies, writing letters to Santa, decorating gingerbread houses, and more.
I also loved how Kylee decided, all on her own, to make a superhero pillowcase for Tyler for Christmas... such a thoughtful gift! It was so much fun teaching her how to sew.
We had the lovliest of weekends celebrating family and remembering the birth of our Savior. It was the perfect Christmas!
Instead of doing gymnastics this fall, Kylee decided to try out hip hop dance... and she fell in love with it! It was so fun to see her practice her moves at home and see how excited she was to go to class each week.
She had a winter recital a couple weeks ago where we got to see her class perform in their full makeup and costumes. I couldn't stop smiling at Kylee - she was so fun to watch! Here's the full performance:
Kylee turned 8 last month, and we were so excited to celebrate her baptism. She was baptized by Matt on Saturday, December 10th, and we were lucky enough to have our own baptismal service, complete with talks, prayers and a musical number, all by family members.
Kylee had really been looking forward to this day. She said she was excited to get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. She was also looking forward to fasting, paying tithing, and going to Activity Days!
We has a little celebration at our neighborhood clubhouse for Kylee after the baptism, and it was such a fun way to cap off such a special day.
A few things about Kylee:
Kylee is as close to perfect as any kid I've ever met. She is kind and thoughtful and smart. I feel incredibly lucky to be her mom.
Kylee is SUCH a good big sister. Her brothers, especially Tyler, adore her. Kylee freely plays with Tyler. One of their favorite things to play together is "school" where Kylee is the teacher and Tyler is the student. She makes up a schedule that includes recess, coloring, snack time, math, reading, etc. Tyler loves this one-on-one time with his sister. Kylee is also sweet enough to let Tyler play when she has a friend over. Tyler thinks Kylee's friends are as much his friends as they are hers because he is always included.
Kylee loves legos, beanie boos (stuffed animals), soccer, hip hop, and playing with friends.
She is an excellent reader and continues to read quite a bit above grade level. She also does really well in all other subjects as well.
Fall is such a fun time of the year... we have birthdays for all three kids, football season, Halloween, and fun fall family activities.
I'm not sure if we did any raking last year :-) I don't think that the leaves on our maple tree fell until like January or February! This year, they fell early enough that we needed to do some fall cleanup. The kids loved playing in the leaves!
As is typical, November is a month that we focused on what we were thankful for. Kylee loves making a "thankful tree", so we hung the tree in our entryway and then added leaves daily with what we were thankful for.
I loved seeing what the kids decided they were thankful for each day. Here is a sampling of what they were thankful for this month:
Earlier this month, two Boise Police Officers and one K-9 Officer were shot when trying to aprehend a fugitive. One of the officers was treated at the hospital and released the next day. One of the officers is still in the hospital with serious injuries. The K-9 Officer, Jardo, underwent surgery and was expected to make a full recovery, but then ended up passing away a couple days later. Needless to say, it was a rough couple weeks there (and longer for the families directly involved)!
I was amazed at how much this shooting affected me. I had met one of the officers briefly one time, and I had never met the other officer or the K-9 (who worked on Matt's team). I was an emotional mess! I broke down in tears multiple times, and for several days after the shooting. I had a hard time even talking with people about it without crying. Someone posted this image on Boise PD spouses facebook group I am a part of, and it is so true...
It really was amazing how close to home this shooting was. I truly appreciated those who reached out to me with calls or texts or facebook messages. My friend Devyn even spent that evening of the shooting with me, so I wouldn't be "alone" with my boys (Matt was called into work right after the shooting occurred). I was constantly checking my facebook group for updates on the officers, and even attended a prayer meeting with some of the other spouses. I found comfort in their presence, and knew even more that my husband holds an honorable position serving our community.
A memorial service was held for the K-9 Jardo. I took Kylee and Tyler. I had told the kids that a bad guy had shot the dog, and Tyler was convinced that bad guy was "The Joker". The memorial service was very nice, and I was thankful to Jardo, who may have saved the lives of other officers that day.
I saw this idea and think I'm going to make it for the door leading out to our garage... I love it :-) And I pray every day that my officer will "come home safe".
It's kind of fun having Kylee's and Tyler's birthdays so close together. We have celebrated each year with a family get together. Kylee gets a "friend" party every year, alternating between us and her mom for who organizes it. I don't think we will do a party every year with Tyler... in fact, I wasn't really planning on starting friend parties this young at all! But with Tyler's obsession with superheroes and his love of playing with friends, I decided to do a little superhero play date. We made invitations and invited a couple of his neighbor friends. We only did a couple small activities (i.e. pin the web on spiderman), and then the kids just ate pizza and played. It was fun to have everyone over... Tyler has missed his friends since it's no longer "scooter weather"!
A quick update on Tyler:
It is rare that we have a day where he doesn't wear some type of superhero costume. He insists on wearing them to the store, to the doctor's office, to grandma's house, etc. He knows every superhero by name and we have made up a little superhero song about any superhero imaginable.
Tyler still has a hard time sharing with his little brother, but then at times he is so sweet, offering hugs and kisses freely. Tyler still throws fits (usually when we leave somewhere that he doesn't want to leave), but they aren't as frequent and don't last as long.
He has the BEST imagination of any toddler you'll ever meet.
Tyler is one smart kid. He knows all his shapes and colors and can name any vegetable or animal or anything else you ask. He does VERY well with staying in the lines when he is coloring. He has started to recognize some of his letters and can tell you a couple of their sounds. We will be working more on letters this next year.
He wishes he could ride his scooter year round, even if it's raining or freezing cold outside. He also LOVES friends and adores his big sister.
Something happened this summer that may have forever changed us! Our cute neighbor boys started coming over (usually after dinner) and asking if Tyler (and Kylee when she was home) could come out and play. The kids would ride their scooters and bikes up and down the sidewalks in front of our house. They became cute little friends... and we became better friends with their parents! It started to be as enjoyable for me as it was for Tyler - the adults would sit out front and talk while the kids played. The "scooter gang" expanded down the street, and more and more kids and parents began hanging out together, several evenings a week. We all love the memories we created this summer, and I am thankful for the friendships that we have all created and strengthened. I LOVE the street we live on, but that is because we have the best neighbors. I am hopeful that we have created some lifelong friendships :-)
On a side note, Tyler has become an excellent scooter rider this summer. He can go super fast, steer, stop, etc. He is a natural!
Putting Tyler in Soccer Tots this fall was the BEST decision. He absolutely loved everything about it. He loved learning the different soccer skills, he loved being around a bunch of kids his age, and he LOVED Coach Steve.
Coach Steve really was fantastic. He was amazing with the kids and taught them soccer skills in a way that really worked for these 2-3 year old kids. They played silly games like:
Don't Wake the Dinosaur: The "dinosaur" (Coach Steve) would be sleeping by all his eggs (balls) and the kids had to go get a ball and kick it back to the castle (net) using their "little kicks". If the dinosaur woke up, they had to stop, put their foot on top of the ball, and say "go to sleep". They could only continue on their journey to the castle when the dinosaur had gone back to sleep.
Building "ice cream cones" with cones and a ball, and then kicking just the ice cream part.
Kicking balls through hula hoops.
Follow the leader through obstacle courses.
Feeding the whale (net) fishes (jerseys) and meatballs (balls).
Coach Steve also had a song that he sang with the kids each week that Tyler thought was pretty amazing. He loved singing it at home during the week. It was so cute. It is sung to the tune "If You're Happy and You Know It"
We all love to play soccer with our friends.
We all love to play soccer with our friends.
We all love to get together.
We all love to get much better.
We all love to play soccer with our friends.
But we NEVER touch the ball with our hands!
We never touch the ball with our hands!
We can kick it, we can head it,
We can chest it, we can knee it,
But we never touch the ball with our hands!
Whenever they got to the word "hands" in the song, the kids would raise their hands in the air and would say "hands" really loudly. Tyler especially loved that part, haha.
I will definitely sign Tyler up again. It was so good to get out of the house, have an organized activity led by an adult other than myself, and let Tyler burn some energy while he was doing something he loved, while at the same time learning skills for a sport I'm sure he will enjoy throughout his youth and maybe even beyond.
As the last few raspberries on our plants are ripening this week (yes, it's November and we are still getting berries from our plants!), I reflect back on what a fun time I had gardening this year. It was so enjoyable and rewarding and I just loved it. One of my favorite things was going out to the garden each morning to check on it - see what was growing, what was ripening, and on the days we were lucky, what was going to be our morning snack. The kids loved it, too. I think Tyler ate 90% of our snap peas, and Bradley couldn't shove the raspberries in his mouth fast enough. Kylee's favorite was the sweet, juicy cantaloupe.
I am thrilled with how well our garden did overall, but I definitely have things I will change next year... like our tomato and pepper plants didn't do that great this year. When it seems like everyone else had these big beautiful plants, mine were wimpy. Needless to say, I am going to spend some time this winter researching to see how to get the best production out of my garden next year. I will be making my garden plan early! I've also decided that I think I'd like to be a Master Gardener. Gardening truly brought me joy this year, and I'd love to have more knowledge and continue to "grow and cultivate" this new passion of mine. I am thinking of starting the program next fall!
On a related note, I was also able to get some canning in this year! I seriously love walking into my pantry and seeing the shelves lined with beautiful home-canned jars. I canned peaches, pears, applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, two different kinds of grape juice, tomatoes, and salsa. Hopefully my jars will hold me over until we have fresh produce from our garden once again :-)
