Preschool Graduation

Today was Doran's preschool graduation (1 of either 2 or 3)! I dressed the boys in the same outfit and they looked so cute.

Doran wouldn't participate in the singing program that the kids did which made me sad but it was cute to watch.

The kids got to release the class butterflies with Miss Julie. They got them as caterpillers and got to watch them through the whole transformation.

You can barely see the butterfly in Miss Julie's thumb.

She gave them all cute pictures of them with her and then wrote a note for them on the back. She asked every kid what they wanted to be when they grew up, no shock Doran said a racecar driver! One little girl said a mom and I thought it was so sweet!

I am kind of sad his first year of school is over! He is growing up a little too fast. Atleast he will be back with Miss Julie for the next year or two. He loves her and I am so glad we have her just right around the corner! She is the best preschool teacher!

sickos!

Last Sunday Doran woke up with croup. He was really sick for 4 days and had to miss his preschool teddy bear picnic. He didn't mind being sick though. Then on Thursday morning Brock woke up with croup! Once he finally stopped barking which was Saturday he just started coughing. Then the cough got worse and worse. On Tuesday morning he coughed for about an hour straight and I decided this wasn't just a lingering cough. We took him in to the doctor and the croup had settled down into his lungs and they were weezing. So he had to do neb treatments to help open them up. He is still coughing but he sounds way better then he did 2 days ago!

Our Garden

Our stake does something so awesome! They have a huge space of land for a stake garden and they divide it up by wards and people can sign up for it in each ward and plant gardens there. We signed up for a plat and not many people did so we got a 21x31 foot spot! Our friends from the ward, The Lucky's, also signed up and we are right next to each other. It is a good thing they signed up too because if they weren't there to motivate me I would have quit when I saw it was nothing but weeds! We are splitting our garden with two other families from the ward too. We planted so much stuff! I am so excited! We planted corn, watermelon, cantoloupe, honey dew, cucumbers, many different kinds of tomatoes, radish, carrots, onion, cilantro, basil, zucchini, pumpkins, and lots of bell peppers and spicy peppers. We wanted to plant strawberries too but then we found out they don't harvest on the first year.

I have been pretty nervous about everything living and thriving. It is a pretty big undertaking and I will be pretty sad if everything doesn't live and harvest! But either way it is a fun way to spend time with friends and the boys love going too.

Potty trained

Brock has been going pee and poop on the big boy potty since March but he was always just forcing it and never knew when he needed to go. Well, last Tuesday morning Seth and I went to breakfast at Kneaders and Brock told us he needed to go potty. I took him into the bathroom and sure enough he went. So we came home and put him in big boy underwear. He didn't have an accident until Friday when he got sick with diarrhea. He had a few problems Friday and Saturday because he was sick both days, but Sunday no accidents. I still can't believe it, but it seems like he is potty trained! He is so smart! He is very proud of his underwear and likes to go potty anywhere we go so everyone knows he is a big boy, or more accurately, a show off! I have been changing diapers since August 1 2006! I almost don't know what to do with myself not having a diaper to change!

Showing off his big boy underwear! Yay Brockrod!

Granny and Poppy's 50th

Saturday night was Granny and Poppy's 50th anniversary party. It was so much fun! They were so cute together in their matching clothes. They had a great turnout. I knew they would because everyone loves them! They are two of the best people I know and such great examples. I love them sooo much!

Doran and Cassie were great little helpers... maybe.

The kids had a lot of fun playing together.

My Mom and Papa K were the party planners! I think they put on the party of the year! (Something was wrong with my camera so lots of my pictures were not clear, very sad!)

Here is a picture of my sweet hubby dancing with his sweet mommy! It was a fun night! Way to go Granny and Poppy!

Hogs n' Dogs

This weekend our ward had a fun activity at the church called hogs n' dogs. The kids all got to bring their bikes and ride around the parking lot and we barbequed hot dogs! It was really fun and it was right up our boys alley!

We brought Jayce with us too. It was the last day Emily and the kids were here so we tried to let the cousins have lots of time together.

Brock loves Seth's motorcycle. He blesses it every single night in his prayer! Here he is wearing Seth's helmet, both our boys have good sized heads!

Chuck E Cheese

Last week the boys went to Chuck E Cheese's for the first time. My step sister Amanda invited us all! We had so much fun!

Both the boys were scared about different parts. Doran hated the stage and the guys on it. Brock hated some of the rides, but they both still had a really fun night!

Preschool

Emily, Cassie, Clark, and Brent have been staying with us the past couple of days. They are in town for Granny and Poppy's 50th anniversary on Saturday! Cassie has been obsessed with school for awhile now so I thought it would be fun if she could go to preschool with Doran this week. His teacher said it was ok too! So here they are this morning ready for Cassie's first day of preschool. Neither of them will tell us what they learned about but we know they had fun!

The boys sure are going to be sad when they aren't staying with us anymore! They are having the time of their lives playing non-stop!

The Wii

So I asked for a wii and wii fit for my birthday and mother's day presents. I got them and I got them early. It has been so much fun having them! The kids all love it and so do Seth and I. Doran is a pro at it. He knows how to do everything with it and now he never wants to watch TV. If it weren't for football we would probably cancel our tv. Here is Brock playing. The love making miis, the characters on it. Every once in awhile I will pull someone up and they will have been changed by Dordor. I pulled up Brock the other day and he was wearing a beanie and red sunglasses that he wasn't before.
Here is Cassie playing. She doesn't like messing up on it very much.
Doran's first favorite game was sword fighting. Then he switched to frisbie and table tennis because he started to get grounded from swordfighting. (He would throw huge fits when he lost! I never knew he was such a sore loser!) Then the wii fit came along and he hasn't played any of those since! He loves playing the obstacle course and getting hit into the water by the huge ball. It is so fun to watch and listen to them play because they have so much fun! It was definatelt a present that the whole family is enjoying! I recommend everyone get one!

Shy

Brock is so funny! The other morning he was jabbering to me and I wasn't repyling because I couldn't really understand him. Next thing I hear is, 'Don't be shy Mommy.' I loved it! He is pretty shy so he always hears 'Don't be shy Brocky!' I guess he feels the need to lecture too.

Doran's rock collection

Doran had his first ever homework assignment this week. I have to admit that I was much more excited about it than he was. When I was little I loved to collect rocks and I always had some pretty cool ones. Granny and Poppy's yard had so many cool rocks and I found them all. So Seth and I bought a few rocks for cheap and then found some. We would ask him what he thought and he would just shake his head. I don't think he will be a rock collector like me....
Now today has been a rather comical day. Doran has said some pretty funny stuff we don't want to forget! First, Seth and Doran were playing swordplay on the wii and Doran said, "You're going down sucker!" Seth and I both busted up laughing and Brock of course repeated it word for word!
Later on we were driving to the store and Doran was paying attention to the traffic lights. He always will yell 'Greens on! Go' or 'Reds on! Stop'. He really loves those traffic lights. Well Seth was turning right at a red light and when Doran felt the car move he yelled, "No Daddy! Its red, you have to stop." Seth tried to explain that you can turn right on a red light if no cars are coming. Doran was so mad! He yelled, "Daddy you ran the red light! I am going to hit your face!" We could not believe it! We were laughing pretty hard. We thought he was going to be our little NASCAR racer not a police officer. It looks like we were wrong. He said later, "You ran two red lights Daddy."

Motorcycles and Fire Trucks!

Anyone who knows our little Brocky knows he is a dare devil. He has no fear of anything! This weekend we went to the motorcycle and rv show at the southtowne expo center and he was in heaven. He was trying on helmets, sitting on dirt bikes and atvs, and running around checking everything out. He cried when I made him get back in the stroller to leave. He had so much fun. Seth always says in a couple of years they will be riding dirt bikes and I just nod my head and think ya right! Well Brock may prove me wrong!

Today we saw a fire truck and ambulance parked and letting little kids in to see. Brock of course loved it and Doran cried to go in the store with me to get milk! They are such opposites!

More pictures

When I say Thanksgiving Point is my favorite place I wasn't lying! We went today to get the kids out and have some fun since our yard was so wet. They had a lot of fun going without the stroller.

When we got to the waterfall part there was a crowd around one of the bridges. This is why! A nesting owl. It is just hanging out on a cliff by the furthest south waterfall. I thought it was pretty cool and Doran loved it. I would love to be there when the eggs hatch but I am sure those chances are extremely slim.

Brock loves his Daddy! I love how he loves to kiss and hug. He probably won't much longer so I have to take advantage of it.

Doran is obsessed with worms all of the sudden. We saw one on a path there and I picked it up and threw it in the dirt. He thought it was pretty cool watching it go down into the dirt. The rest of the time he kept crouching over and looking for more worms.

OUTSIDE!

We have been spending a lot of time outside lately. It has been warm for the last two weeks up until yesterday. The boys have gotten tan and are wearing shorts. They love being outside. The other morning I was outside weeding and the boys were playing on their bikes and my friend/neighbor (and the love of both Doran and Brock's lives) Kenzi texted me to look across the street at the park and the picture above is what we saw! There were tons of deer! It was pretty cool to see. I didn't know deer even came this far down into the valley.

Jayce slept over Friday night. When I woke up this is what I found. Doran is a cuddler! I don't think she was very happy about him laying on her!

A little bit later Brock came out and laid on her too! They are watching Bakugan which explains why Doran wouldn't even look at the camera. This last week he has been saying "My name is not Doran, it is Dan." Dan is the main character in Bakugan. He has had many names: Astro Boy, Junior (Dale Jr.), Battle Force 5 which was later shortened to Burt, and so on!

This is pretty cool! I brought the bikes Santa brought the boys outside now that is warm and Brock knows how to ride it! He will just get on a peddle away. I don't know when kids usual learn how to peddle but Doran still can't figure it out so we thought it was pretty fun that Brock did!

Look at him go!

Last year I posted a picture of a peacock on our house. That night I realized it wasn't that cool when I heard how loud they are! Well this was our neighbors house this morning! There were 6 peacocks just hanging out on the front and side of their house! I had to take a picture!

Ok we are starting to finish the back yard. I decided to take some pictures. I never put pictures of our progress last year so I figured I would now! This picture was taken when we were under contract. It was a jungle!

Here is a picture of one side looking down from the porch. We put in the concrete curbing last summer.

Here is the other side. We also put in mulch last summer with the help of my brother Ry-cracker. Way better but I still need to plant some flowers. I hate yard work!

We had the backyard graded a few weeks ago and brought in dirt and had it trenched. He also trenched the strip up front and we will put grass there when we do the back. Saturday Seth and our neighbor Adam laid concrete in our back yard and this little square up front so people can walk up to the house without stepping in the mud until we get grass. I think it was a great idea Seth had to put it there!

We put road base on the side of the house to extend the RV pad back. Hopefully in a few years we will be able to have it be concrete all the way back.

Here is the pad they laid outback! I think it looks so awesome! I am excited for the yard to be done so the kids can play on it and maybe have a table out here so we can eat too! I am glad we had a neighbor who was willing to help and did such an awesome job! We are gonna owe them big time!

Here is the back. I wish I would have taken a before picture of it too. It was a jungle! Weeds were taller than the deck! Once the sprinklers are in we will probably grade it one more time so it is smooth and then on to the sod! We can't wait to have a backyard!