Swim team!

Welcome summer! It's been all busy fun so far, and it's only june :) I had to start with a picture of my Iris bed. I only got 1 measly flower last year, and this year it looks like there's too many! I love that :)

I signed Alex up for swim team. The Rozeski kids (Jaxen, Madeline, and Elijah) do it and Alex begged to be signed up too. I hesitated, because Alex can't actually swim. But, why let that stop him :) So, every morning we are at the pool. Here's Ms. Lydia (don't judge me with the sugar cereal in a bag, she was sick and slept in...)
Are here's our swimmer! He's already improved a ton, and I'm so excited that he could actually swim a 25 by the end of the year! If he accomplishes that, he'll be a better swimmer than me...
Their team name is piranhas, doesn't he look dangerous :)

Washington DC

I couldn't fit all the pictures in one post... so look at the next post below for more info :)

3D Imax...
Lincoln Memorial, Lydia had just gotten her 2nd wind :)
White House, I wish we could've gotten closer.... darn security.
The US Capitol, while it's pouring rain. It's fun to walk in the rain when you're from Colorado... because we never get that chance!

VACATION!!!

We just got back from a week long trip to DC. My sister and her family lives there, working for the government (that's all I can say :) And we had SO much fun!

Gary (Dave's dad) was able to come up to see us from Charlotte, NC. He toured with us a little, and treated us to delicious food, it was great to see him.
We played a lot with my sister's family. Her kids are the exact ages of my kids, and they were best friends right away :)
Here's Nikki, she's 8 months pregnant and still looks fantastic. She also toured with us, which completely surprised me. I didn't think she'd be up for it.
And here's Nathan reading to the kids, Sonya, Simone, Alex, and Lydia. Thank you Arps for letting us save money and stay with you guys. And thanks for the automatic play dates every night too :) We had a blast!

zoo marathon

First, happy mother's day to all you moms out there! I've been really stressed out lately and decided to push my LONG to do list to the side and go to the zoo all day yesterday! :) A late mother's day present to myself. My parents went with us, and Elijah, my nephew. Enjoy the pictures :)

What's better than being tired after a long day of fun? Not much.

Random

Cleaning out the cameras.... Dave teaching Alex how to meditate :)

The kids always jump and dance to music on our bed in the morning. This day they decided to try ballroom dance :) Alex even would spin Lydia
After an especially errand filled day, Lydia's head is actually resting on Al's :)
And last, the kids have a old digital camera all to themselves. I rarely check the pictures because they're usually blurry close ups of the computer and cookies :) But these were rare gems I had to share :)

Why they chose to take pictures of their bums? Don't know, what's worse, I don't remember them doing this. Maybe I need to get off the computer :)

festival, firemen, pluto

Kite festival 2010 didn't disappoint. The weather was nice, Dave got sunburnt, and the kids actually flew kites on their own! Here's Lydia with her tinkerbell kite (green)

Alex and his transformers kite (big black one in the corner) Al thinks he's pretty cool right here...
Dave and his crazy kite from China. (his grandparents gave as a souvenir when they went there maybe 20 years ago...) It was too hard to fly
I actually got the kite the highest, and Dave took tons of pictures of my victory. Unfortunately, Dave only took pictures of me and not of the kite, so I still have no proof...darn Dave and his zoom fetish.

We also went to the children's museum, and I finally remembered my camera...but not a new battery. I did manage to get Alex posing like the manly firefighter he is :)
And Lydia's new "camera smile" I've been told that this too shall pass...
We also were given some old decorations for Alex's room from a friend with grown kids. One set is the planets, and of course Pluto was included. I didn't tape up Pluto onto Al's wall because I didn't want him to get confused, but he saw the planet in the trash this morning and started crying. I told him that the scientists decided it wasn't a planet anymore, and he got mad. I told him I felt the same way, and then Dave and I made up all these really good reasons for why it wasn't a planet (we really don't have any idea).

So, this afternoon, he asked me to take Pluto down and throw it away. I asked him why and he said, "it's not really a planet". I guess he just had to make peace with it in his own way :)

Happy easter

Happy easter! It was kind of fun to have one whole week of easter, since we dressed up the sunday BEFORE easter this year :)

For actual easter we went over to my parents and had the big hunt...maybe 250 eggs? My family tends to overdo traditions (but I LOVE it ) Wrestling with grandpa...he might have been on a sugar high too...
The hunt
and the loot
by the end the eggs were overflowing the buckets. After the last session of conference we rode bikes and ended up at the park! Alex has finally gotten over his fear of two wheels and can actually keep up with Lydia now :)

Grandma

I found a few pictures, it's fun to look at old pictures...it makes me feel like I can see the future. Can't we all when looking at the past? She said she was a tomboy, but she looks like more of a lady than I ever have :)

I love the contrast between these pictures, candids almost, compared to her parents where no one smiled... I love that technology started capturing emotion
Here is grandma, newly wed, living with her husband (grandpa) in Hawaii during the war. She was about 10 years younger than me in this picture...
And here's the grandma that I know and love. Always with grandchildren (or great grandchildren here) all around her. The hardest part about her getting older was that she couldn't pick up little kids anymore. Although she'd still let them crawl around on her lap even though those little knees and elbows are like daggers!
I love my grandma, I'll miss her terribly. I try to picture her now, reunited with loved ones, and I think of the top pictures...even though she'll always be like this last picture to me.

Snapshots

I've been looking through my pictures lately and realized that I didn't capture some moments. I wish I was better at capturing real life, although zoo trips are good...

and the first time I spiral curl Lydia's hair (it stayed in for 30 minutes)...
But I don't have a single picture of my grandma with these two kids. My grandma just passed away on Monday. She was old and it was her time, I know that she's happier now. But, that doesn't mean we don't miss her terribly already. We would go visit grandma once a week at her home, hospital, twice at a nursing home. I've lived within 5 minutes of her my whole entire life (excepting college). How could I forget to capture that routine of our lives on film? Luckily memories will last, and we've captured plenty of those.

Deacons bench

This is turning into a project blog, I promise I'll get more exciting when summer comes :) In the meantime... another project. We grabbed this beauty from Dave's mom's garage, it was headed to goodwill.

I didn't know what to do with it because it was already very 'antiqued'. It honestly looked like someone (probably Dave and Steve) took a bag of bolts and hit it all over. So, I sanded, painted, and glazed. Into this...
It turns out that I don't know how to use glaze, because I painted on black glaze and it turned the whole thing black. So, I painted it in stripes and then wiped with a rag, and now it has a faux wood grain look to it. I love it.

p.s. if anyone wants any black glaze I accidentally made enough for 25 more of these projects ;)

-isms

These are for me to remember, and you to enjoy :)

After a bath Lydia likes to comb her hair. She doesn't do a great job, but she does look in the mirror and sing "the little mermaid" while she does it....so cute.

Alex made me a beaded necklace at preschool, he has NEVER made me something without a teacher's prompting, so I was excited. In the middle of the necklace are beads that spell out my name...or close, it spells KENDAR :)

Lydia greets Dave at the door after work everyday. She hugs and kisses him and then asks him if he wants to see "his lover". Then she shows him where I am :)

Alex is semi-aware of the news, mostly the bad news. He has saved a few newspapers and worries still about earthquakes and tornados.

Lydia has just gotten out of saying "efelant" (elephant) and "clockolat" for chocolate

We're reading a Tall Tales book with Alex and now he talks like it. For instance he says, "you're as fast as a cat on a tomato bar" They don't make sense, but he says it in a western accent just like we read the tall tales :)

ode to mom

This is probably more like a mother's day post, but when I feel something good, I have to say it :) I have the best family! Both sides are amazing. Dave and I have never felt alone but we always feel independent. How is everyone so good at that?

Anyway, my mom has always told me about her dream to know her grandkids well and have us live close so now that that dream is a reality she really makes the most of this time in her life. Constantly she offers to play with the kids and loves to take them to the zoo, museum, etc. She even took up quilting to make quilts for her grandkids :) This is her quilt for Lydia...

The other reason why she's amazing? She let me pick out these colors and didn't even like them :) but she still took her time to make the quilt anyway....Love you mom!

The desk

Meet Jon Allurud, he's a mystery writer best known for his novel "Lighting always strikes in the same place twice". Unfortunately most of his earlier work was plagerized. (sorry about the spelling).

We went to another murder mystery dinner, I was an actress that had lots of , a-hem, questionable material. It was a ton of fun. And Dave, as always, was in character the whole time :)

Now the desk.... before
after!
Thank you to all who gave suggestions. I painted it a darker brown (chocolate), and took off the laminate top. I then modge podged fabric on top and made a basket liner. I would have two baskets in there but I think I'm just inches too short on another liner. The top is a little bumpy, but it will only impede her writing (which won't happen for a while). Anyway, thanks again!

Dave's birthday!

Dave's birthday was last saturday but he got sick. We couldn't go out to eat, he barely walked through the chocolate festival (not eating ANY samples) and the fancy cake I got him he only ate two bites....poor guy. So it's been kind of a birthday week, I wish I could've made it more exciting for him! 29 never looked so good :)

For Dad's birthday the kids got presents from grandparents :) Lydia ballerina has now learned important words like tutu and leotard.
Alex has always wanted to be a scientist, and his safety glasses made it real. He's currently a paleontologist digging out a triceratops. Sidenote: this is the coolest present, but it's messy. I highly recommend it :)
And last, I need your help! This was Dave's desk when he was little, it's in good shape, but Al already has a desk. I was thinking of how I could make this for Lydia...it's not girl style yet. I don't need big frills, but I want it a little...prettier. The base is wood and the top is like a laminate. If you have any idea at all...please comment!!

Crackers

Meet our first pet (besides bubbles, the fish). This one is a little bit more work than bubbles, but we can pet him (or her). Some friends in out ward had two rabbits that were supposed to be two boys, but they weren't. So they were giving away the bunnies. Yea for us!

Our friend's little girl named it. Alex's choices were straight ear, scratch, and fur head. So we stuck with Crackers :)
It's very calm and hasn't ever scratched or bit us (yet). We let him run around for a while during the day and then he goes, quite willingly, back to the cage. I love it, I admit we got him probably more for me than the kids :)
And of course Lydia, she' growing up and this outfit really showed it off ;)

do I have to name this?

I did a recipe exchange a while ago and my sister gave me this recipe from her in-laws who live in Samoa. It's called no-fuss sushi. It was super easy, and it tasted as good as any california roll I've had. You use tuna fish so it's not scary, we always eat tuna fish raw. They looked good and tasted good...but they smell bad. That seaweed stinks!

We also went to the stock show here in Denver. Dave is the only one that has been before, and I think he was 8. We saw horse jumping, the dog pull (which was hilarious), and lots of HUGE cows! When we left we asked the kids what their favorite part was and Alex said, "the popcorn". At least he was honest :)