Something to celebrate

It has now been 9 days since Landon has had a binki.  Yahoo!  It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  He was pretty attached to it but the nice thing is that he can't say the word binki so there really was no way for him to ask for it.  I think he called it a "bah bah" sometimes but I would just tell him he had his bottle already. 

We were down to 2 binkis and I left one at my mom's and I couldn't find the other one so he had to go to bed without it.  He cried for a little but then went to sleep.  The next morning I figured we should just be done with binkis.  I feel kind of bad because he really did like it, especially at bedtime and nap time but he'll be 2 in December and I didn't want him to have it then. 

So now on to the bottle, this will be harder I know.  We've kind of already tried taking them away and I gave in.  He refuses to drink milk from anything but a bottle.   I figure at his age he still needs the whole milk so I just gave his bottle back to him after 2 days of no bottle.  I am not looking forward to taking it away again.  We are also thinking about getting him a big boy bed.  When Kayleigh was his age she already was out of the crib and she did great with the transition so I am hoping he will too. 

So why the push to do all these things?  Well, baby #3 is on the way!  Yep, I am due March 18th, 2012.   We are excited!  Kayleigh wants a girl very badly and I think we might be in trouble if  it's a boy.  I'm almost past the 1st trimester and I hope that I can get some energy back and not feel sooo tired all the time.  

Lagoon

Yesterday Michael and Kayleigh got to go to Lagoon!  (Aren't they lucky?!)  We figured since Landon won't really know what he's missing this year we'll just save on the ticket prices while we can.  It's so expensive!  What's great though is that yesterday was the last day of 2 for 1 (courtesy of 2 News) at Lagoon.  You just had to mention 2 News when you bought your  tickets. 

They went with Michael's sis and her family.  Kayleigh loves being with Tyler and Brooke, her cousins on Michael's side.  Over the past year Kayleigh has grown a ton and passed the 46 inch mark.  At Lagoon this means you can go on a lot of the "big" rides.  So my little 4 yr. old got to ride Wicked, Colossus, The Spider, The Rollercoaster and the Wild Mouse.  I know, what 4 yr. old gets to ride Wicked?  She absolutely LOVED it!  She says her favorite ride is Colossus.  Michael got a video of her on Colossus and Wicked and while they are way shaky, it's so fun to see her faces and hear her.

Even though she could ride some of the big rides, she still enjoyed the rides in Kiddy Land, too. She likes doing the Bumper Cars and riding the swings. They did Dracula's Castle, for Kay's first time, and she wasn't a fan of that.  They won a couple stuffed animal prizes and enjoyed some junk food. They followed my directions and brought me home some cotton candy, my favorite treat from Lagoon. :-)

Hopefully next year we can all go together as a family. I'll admit I was a little sad I wasn't there to witness Kay going on those rides for the first time, but the videos helped a little. Glad Michael got to spend time with Kayleigh.

Cherry Hill

Ch-ch-ch-cherry Hill, the greatest fun spot you'll ever know!  We went for a day as a family and kind of extended family, my sister and 2 of her girls and my cousin, her husband and 2 of their kids came.  We got there shortly after it opened and literally stayed till closing.  Kayleigh had so much fun!  Michael and I had a lot of fun, too.  It's nice when you can go to a place that is fun for both kids and adults and it's not like you are doing it just for the kids. 

Kayleigh completely shocked us and went down Cardiac Canyon.  She is so brave!  She has recently become tough enough to go under water and I think that gave her some confidence to go down it.  With the water falls you have to go under I really didn't think she'd do it.  I kind of wonder if she did it because her cousin, Grace, did it.  She went down with me in a train the first time and screamed she'd never go down again, but once she got off and Grace said she was going again Kayleigh changed her mind to go down again, this time with Michael.  In the end she went down I think 4 times. 

Last year when we took her she didn't love the blue slides because she went under water at the end and that scared her.  We've been talking to her for a year about it that she needs to try it again.  About a week before we went this year she said she'd try it.  So, she did and she loved them!  She liked to cover her eyes mostly but then I held her hands down so she would actually see and enjoy.  Silly girl! 

The Lazy River was a huge hit!  Kayleigh discovered she could touch the ground and after that she didn't want a tube at all.  Her, Grace and my cousin's daughter, Kaili, just played together in it and went round and round with one of us following them on a tube.  I liked the river because I was able to get Landon to sleep on it.  We went around about 4 times while he slept.  I was on my 5th time around when the dumb water things had to turn on that dump/spray water on you and that woke him up.  Oh well, at least he got a little nap in. 

One of the passes we had had a free game of mini golf.  So Kayleigh (she's free) and Michael went to play during the afternoon.  Then at night after the water park closed I played with Kayleigh again while the boys watched.  Both times when we told them Kayleigh was 4 they looked at us funny.  Michael was like, "I know she doesn't look 4 but she is."  Really, I'm going to have to carry her birth certificate with me now.  :-)

It was such a fun day!  I was so glad Michael could take work off and come with us.  He was a huge help with the kids.  It was fun to have the kids be with their  cousins, too.  They are already talking about going next year.

Stake Daddy-Daughter Campout

(Written by Michael for our family newspaper we do each month.  I thought it was great and why write about it again for the blog when I could just copy and paste!)

For the second year in a row Kayleigh and I ventured out to a campground in the North Fork area with our Stake Father-daughter campout.  This time Erika and I decided that we’d purchase our own tent, to be used for the first time by Kayleigh and me.  (We have been wanting a tent.)  I left work, not nearly as soon as I had hoped, to hurry home and pack up my stuff.  This year we were joined by our good friends and neighbor Bishop Adam Hawkes and his daughter, Maura.  Kayleigh was extremely excited to have one of her best friends join her in our campout, and even in our tent.  (Our tent is a 6-person tent, so plenty big enough for two adults and two little girls.) 

After finally loading the car, we stopped at KFC for what seems to be the traditional daddy-daughter campout dinner.  Unfortunately, it was about 7:00pm by the time we got to KFC so we decided to just eat in the car on the way up to North Fork.  We arrived to the campsite at around 8:00pm, set up our tent, and enjoyed the company of some other “wardies.”  That evening the stake had a few skits and a brief message by President Reich, 1^st Counselor in the Stake Presidency.  His message was about being prepared and how prepared the prophets of old were.  Kayleigh was actually listening pretty well.  After the quasi fireside, we headed back to our little camping spot.  Most of the “wardies” were heading to bed. 

  Of course Kayleigh and Maura were not tired and wanted to play.  So we stayed up in our tent for a little while longer playing Thomas and Friends UNO and Bear Hunt (a “Guess Who” type game).  We all had a lot of fun!

The next morning came pretty early (as it usually does when camping).  Kayleigh and I woke up at about 7:00am while Adam and Maura slept until about 7:45.  We all changed and headed down to the stake-provided breakfast.  By the time we got there, they were all out of syrup for the pancakes.  So we just ate a dry pancake with sausage patties and Sunny-D.  Unfortunately, Adam remembered on the way up that he needed to be to a sealing of a family in our ward.  So he called his wife and arranged to have her meet him in Eden and then they went to the sealing.  Maura decided to stay with us.  We went on a walk to the creek near the campground and threw rocks in the water.  Then we participated in the stake’s water balloon toss activity.  We tried to catch catapulted water balloons and candy with a blanket.  We caught one water balloon and a little bit of candy.  At that point all the activities were finished and most people had left.  Kayleigh and Maura didn’t want to leave, and I was fine to enjoy the outdoors with them.  We played Frisbee and UNO a few more times that morning. They both helped me take down the tent (as we were the last ones there), and started back by about 12:30. 

It was a great time that I am grateful to have shared with Kayleigh.  I have decided that regardless if there is an organized campout sponsored by the church, I will take my daughter(s) camping every year for some quality daddy-daughter time.

Pioneer Concert

We got the opportunity to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Commemoration Concert.  It was amazing!  We left so grateful we got to go.  My parents and brother came with us.  Thanks to Suzy who watched our kids for the evening. 

Their program was in honor of our armed forces and those who have served our country.  They had 2 guest artists, Brian Stokes Mitchell and another lady.  We especially liked hearing "Who Are the Brave?" and "Hymn to the Fallen".  They are such neat pieces.  

We enjoyed how they spotlighted members of the choir/their family members who have served in our military.  One of the spotlights was on Jill Stephens Shepherd, who's mom is in the choir.  Michael went to high school with her and some might recognize her as Miss Utah from a few years ago.  It was fun to hear her thoughts and experiences about serving our country. 

All in all it was a fun night out and hope we can do it again next year!