Lost birthday video

Found this, and it's so funny, I just had to post it, even though it's 3 months late. Enjoy!

Halloween!

Well, here it is, another month gone by... we are having unseasonably warm weather right now, because Pres. Clark asked all the teachers on campus to pray we don't get snow until the roof is done on the new colosseum. Maybe I'll do more when I'm stuck inside due to snow? Then again, maybe not.

This year Elizabeth wanted to be many different things for Halloween. Ariel, a (nice) witch, Sally (from The Nightmare Before Christmas - she's in love with Jack), and finally we settled on a pink cat. We used her dance outfit (pink leotard and tights), and I made ears (used her pink headband), a tail and bracelets, anklets and a wrap around the neck and shoulders with a pink and a black feather boa. I also did her makeup myself! I'm so proud of me!









Kael was a vampire. He doesn't quite get the concept of choose your own costume, so I went to the store Wednesday, found everyone in his size and picked one. The choices were scarecrow, spider or vampire. I thought he might like to be something vicious. So we dressed him up, painted his face gray, with some red around the mouth and called it good. He does NOT like stuff to close to his eyes, mouth or nose. Or water in his ears, btw.










Tristan dressed up as a ninja, like Kael did two years ago(hey, they're about the same age... Kael was 1 month older two years ago than Tristan is now). We didn't do any makeup. He had a great time, though. He really enjoyed the Whoppers (which is good, because they're not my favorite). And I'm sorry, I didn't get a really good pic of him... I'll dress him up again later and take another pic, and post it here.











I painted whiskers and heavy eyeliner on my face and was Elizabeth's mama cat. Matt was a referee vampire, using the teeth that came with Kael's costume but didn't fit in Kael's mouth.

They made quite a haul. We've instituted a new rule. If you're 3 or older, you can eat as much candy as you want the day after Halloween until it's all gone. The dentists say it's better that way.

I'm going to post one super cute pic of Tristan, just because I can't resist...









...And a video of Elizabeth shaking her booty with her tail on...



I don't know why, but my kids are really good at shaking it! Hahaha

September

I really should do this more often... Sorry for the info overload!





Early this month, Tristan turned 1! I don't have any babies right now, and it feels a little weird! Also, we've decided Tristan is old enough now to share a room with his brother and sister, so we've turned the spare room into the computer/music/play/storage room! Suddenly I have so much space, I don't know what to do with it all! Ha! Tristan isn't walking yet, but I'm not worried. He takes things at his own pace, and this is no different.

Matt started school on the 8th. His classes are a good mix of challenging and easy, interesting and boring. He's excited to do the IBC program next semester, in which you get to start your own company. He's also taking a class in web business, for which he is using my business... which brings me to my next tidbit!

I started a candy company! It's called Arienne's All-Natural Candy Classics. I've wanted to for months, but I finally put some candy together and set up a table at a local street fair. I sold 10 bags of my toffee! And no one who tried had anything bad to say about it! One person has even said that she can taste the difference between my toffee and regular toffee, and mine is better!!! Right now I'm in R&D for my next candy, for which I need your help! Everyone who lives near me, I need you to taste my confection concoctions! And everyone's opinion is needed on my poll, to the right. I'll probably end up making all of those eventually, but I need to know which would be the top sellers, just to start. I'm also working on caramel corn, and I hope to make lollipops soon. My spin is that these are all-natural candies, no fake stuff, and it's hard to color lollipops without fake colors! But I will do it!!!! Check out the website at http://www.ariennes.com/ (And we're working on fixing the title... ha!) And feel free to order!



Elizabeth started preschool up on campus this week. She's loving it so far. There's a gecko in her classroom! And yesterday, she held it twice! Hahaha. So to compete with that, I bought a fish for us to have at home. It's a blue Betta, and Elizabeth has dubbed him Cookie Bubbles. We're all really excited. I've never had my own pet before, so we'll see how this works.



Kael started saying something really funny. I told him once as I was bringing him inside that he was going inside because he broke the rules, to which he replied desperately, "I'll fix the rules, Mommy! I promise!" Ah, that kid.



That's the update! Stay tuned for more... hopefully sooner than later!

The Others

I thought Kael deserved his own post for his birthday, so here's the skinny on everyone else!

Tristan now has 7 teeth, almost 8, and crawls in the traditional way most of the time, unless he really wants to go somewhere fast. He's a pretty happy kid most of the time. He adores his sister and brother, though who his favorite is changes several times a day. I gave Rhydon a haircut a few days ago, and he was upset that I wouldn't hold him, so Elizabeth made him go to her room and played with him there for at least a half hour, and I didn't hear one scream! He and Kael are always fighting over the cars and trains. Kael is learning to share, which is nice, but I think eventually we will have to get Tristan some of his own. I can't believe he's almost 1!!! We think he'll start walking soon too. He's only been crawling for a couple of weeks, but he's really progressed quickly, and is already cruising along the furnitrue and trying to stand without holding on to anyone/anything, so with three weeks to go, it's certainly possible.
This last weekend, we went to Utah. Our friends Jerusha and Russell were getting married in Manti, we stayed with Matt's friend Phil et al, and had a party with some other of his friends and their families.
Elizabeth had fun playing with Phil's kids, Callie and Cecily. The wedding was beautiful. And on our way home we stopped by my brother Kelson's house and visited with his family for a couple hours. Right before we left for vacation, they found out they're moving to Michigan this weekend! So we got in under the wire to see them before they left. I got to see my newest nephew for the first time (he's only a month younger than Tristan).
Last bit of news, we got new phones and switched phone companies. We are now on AT&T, so anyone from that network can call our phones for free from their cell phones! Matt's number is the same as it has been since January, mine is different. If you need/want it, email me and I'll send it to you.
Tomorrow's potty day... I'll keep you updated!

Birthday #3 for #2

I have a three year old again! It's just a little crazy to think about, so I try not to think about it! We took the family to a local entertainment place, the Rex, which also houses a movie theater and a bowling alley. I had taken Kael there along with my brother Rhydon, to see Batman: Dark Knight. Kael did pretty well! He recognized who the good guys were versus bad guys. Every time the Joker would come on he would tell me: "That's a mean guy!" And occasionally during scary parts he would run to me and cuddle for a few seconds. Then Batman would come on and start kicking butt and he'd shout, "Yeah! Go Batman! Whoo!" It was quite entertaining, I thought, and luckily the few others in the theater thought so too. In the end, he fell asleep, but he was happy. Before the movie, he showed an interest in their game room, so we decided to go there for his birthday. Some of the games weren't working, so it wasn't quite as fun as we'd hoped, but it was enough for the kids I guess because they didn't want to leave. We won enough tickets for Elizabeth and Kael to each get a couple pieces of candy from the prize room, and then we had fresh made ice cream from Sub Zero there in the Rex.
That was July 31. On Kael's actual birthday, we had pizza for dinner, and a chocolate cake with green frosting. He ate the pizza, but true to form, didn't eat much of the cake. It's never really been his thing. I think we'll have to do a "birthday dessert" of choice, instead of cake. Ice cream, or drumsticks, or what have you. Tristan only wanted to play in it, so I think I might just stick a candle in his baby food or something! haha (His birthday is in just a few weeks... exactly 5 after Kael's.)
For presents, we gave him a Spiderman (loves him!) and a numbers placemat.
My parents gave him a BRIO beginner train set, for which he was ecstatic. Grandma Kathie sent a birthday card and a gift card to Walmart, which we haven't used yet. Per her directions, we are supposed to take him there and let him pick (within reason). So that will happen soon.
All in all, Kael deemed it a great birthday, and he's happy to be 3. Tomorrow we are moving him into big boy undies, no more diapers! I'm nervous, he's excited.

Tristan speaks!

I just had to post this video of Tristan imitating Kael and Elizabeth, and talking to the camera. It's too cute! He also has a new tooth on the bottom. More later!

Jon Schmidt and One Small Step

A couple of weeks ago I got to see Jon Schmidt in concert here at BYU-Idaho! He's only my favorite piano composer of all time, so I was REALLY excited! I took a lot of pics and a couple videos, one of which you can view above, thanks to YouTube.com! He was so great! He played one song upside-down, and he played most of the classics. He had some songs pre-picked, but then he had a section in the middle where he took requests. The show was very interactive, and I was on the third row from the stage! You could tell he really loves music, but he also has fun. My brother Rhydon went too, but we couldn't sit together because the show was sold out! Afterwards I got him to sign my new music book and I got my picture taken with him. The girl taking it cut off the top of his head, but I didn't realize it until it was too late. Oh well. Still cute! Enjoy!

Also new this week, Tristan started taking baths in the big tub. I've embedded a video below, and included the cutest picture from said event.

Well, I'm getting better...

I'm still pretty terrible about this whole blogging thing! lol At least it's only been a month and a half this time.

So, as you can see from the picture, I have colored my hair. The goal was to look like Mary Jane from Spiderman (I love Kirsten Dunst). It took me a couple days to get used to the color, as it was quite drastic and I haven't been a redhead for at least 8 years, but I love it now!

I have decided to homeschool my kids, and I'm way excited! I always felt that the school system was broken, and felt I could have done better under different circumstances, like being able to go at my own pace which was much faster than "the norm", and now I can give that opportunity to my kids. So I'll be starting preschool officially in the fall, and Elizabeth will also be doing two days a week up on campus, because she's a social butterfly in the making. Kael will be participating a little too.

Kael turns 3 next month! And then 5 weeks later, Tristan will turn 1! AHHHH!!! Crazy crazy. Tristan has 6 teeth (yes, I realize that's more than most, but not for our family!), and has started to crawl. Right now he looks like an inchworm, because his but goes up in the air and then he throws himself forward. hehehe Once I clean up the floor and set up a gate on my bedroom door, we'll all be happier once he starts really crawling. He'll be able to follow me or his siblings anywhere, and it's a toss-up about whom he will want to spend more time with!

The next thing for Kael is potty training. I expect it to happen in the next couple of months or so. He's showing a lot of the signs: unhappy in a soiled or wet diaper (or diapers in general, depending on the day), interest in others using the toilet, and waking up with a mostly dry diaper. It happened so gradually with Elizabeth that I don't know how I'm going to do it this time, but I'm sure we'll figure it out!

Matt took classes this summer, and loved them. We're only 3 weeks from a 7-week break from school. Matt also works at the theater still, and it's on full-time mode so it's pretty crazy around here. But he's excited about what he's studying so, I'm rooting for him!

I'm starting my own candy business. I think I have the best caramel corn out there. And I'm working on some other products. The gimmick is that they're all natural, no fake stuff. Yum!

That's it for now. More later!

Up and up and up...

The kids keep growing like weeds! This is my 5th mother's day... oh, I feel so old! And I can't remember what it was like to NOT be a mother, but that's not really a bad thing necessarily...

Elizabeth is already counting down the days to being 5, despite the fact that she won't be until December, 7 months from now! She can count to 20, knows all her capital letters and some lowercase, and can spell Mommy, Daddy, Elizabeth, Kael, and I love you. Her latest obsession is switching between being Ariel and Giselle. She can sing Part of Your World: Look at this stuff, isn't it neat, wouldn't you think my collection's complete, wouldn't you think I'm the girl, the girl who has everything; Look at this trove treasures untold. That's as far as she's gotten so far. And she loves singing the little song Giselle sings to call to the animals. And now she's finally growing out of 3T clothes, at least the pants. Lucky for us she prefers skirts, and now we're going into summer when she can wear shorts that can last us a little longer.

Kael, too, is growing. He's moving up to 3T, so we're glad it's shorts season soon for his sake too. He can count to 15, if you count that he skips either 13 or 14. He can also write the letter E. He's all boy, balancing on ledges, playing with cars and trains and pretending to be a pirate, or occasionally, Elizabeth's Prince Charming. He recently started putting pens and pencils behind his ear like his Dad. He is always making us laugh, and teasing is sister, too often for my tastes.

Tristan is now 8 months old. He can sit up on his own, hands on the floor. He rolls like a log. The only problem is it's only from back to tummy, and since he doesn't know how to roll back, he gets stuck and frustrated. The worst time is at night when he turns over in his sleep and I have to go in and flip him over so he can go back to sleep. He doesn't always go back to sleep, though, as he would prefer to wake up and socialize... ugh. It's like having a new baby again, with all the times I get up during the night! He has two teeth on the bottom, and now 4 more are trying to push through. We expect the first two on top by the end of the week, followed in the next couple of weeks by two more on the bottom. Tristan is just starting to realize that he can make us laugh, and tries to do so often. For his sake, I hope he learns to crawl or walk soon, because I'm tired of carrying him around! We would all be happier. :)

Matt has started a new term in school, and is thoroughly enjoying his classes. Visual media is the one he excels at the most, which surprises him, as he's never thought of himself as artistic. Databases is a challenge that he's rising to. He's also still working at the theater, and will be starting full time work at the end of May, when regular schools get out, and then things will get really busy! School term ends mid-July, and then things will ease up a bit, which will be nice.

I got called as choir pianist in March, which isn't much of a challenge, so much as it is a blessing, in that it gives me an opportunity and excuse to play piano at least once a week. We don't have room for our piano is our apartment, so I don't get to play as often as I'd like. Recently, I started working out with my friend Cortney, and it's really helped my mood, not to mention my waist size. I've also gone wheat and mostly gluten free, and I think the two factors together are really helping me to finally lose that baby weight.

Well, I think that's it for now. I'll try to be better about updating this more often. TTFN!

Test 1-2-3

This is a test. I repeat, this is only a test. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

lol... more later!

Arienne