Mom Needs A Time Out

On September 21-22, I got a time out! I was able to go to Las Vegas with one of my best friends and we to Time Out for Women. Amy Marshall came down from Panguitch that afternoon and we headed in to Vegas. We met some of our other friends at Outback for dinner and then went to the evening event. That night we stayed at the Embassy Suites because the morning event started at 9am and we didn't want to have to drive back and forth from Logandale. We stayed up until 3am talking and laughing and eating room service. It was lovely! We ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed out. It was a lovely experience. There were great speakers and great music and the spirit was there so very stongly. It is so amazing to be around that many faithful women who all believe the same things and are trying to do what is right. After the event we went to Cafe Rio and USwirl before we headed home. Amy stayed the night since we didn't get back to Logandale until almost 7 and she had a 3 hour drive and we were functioning on 3 hours of sleep. I wish I could go to these all over the country. There are different speakers and presenters at each one but I would go and see the same people over and over. I take copious notes and this time it was nice because I had my Iphone and was able to look up scripture references or conference talks that were referred to if I couldn't write fast enough. I think my favorite speaker was Emily Freeman. When I went to Time Out 3 years ago she was there and she was fantastic! She was just as fantastic this time. There was a sister from Sierra Leone who endured many many trials and horrible things when she was a child. Her name is Mariama Kallon. Her whole talk was gratitude and it was amazing! She was so grateful for such simple things that I take for granted every day like spoons and shoes! John Hilton spoke on 542 questions in the Book of Mormon and Brad Wilcox on some of the names of Christ. There were other presenters but those were my favorite!

Wicked

I was able to take Caleb and Cayden to see Wicked at the Smith Center on September 15. We bought the tickets many months ago and we were so excited to go. They both loved it! We went to lunch at Five Guys on the way in. I love love love Broadway musicals. I know that there are powerful messages in music and that music can speak to our souls sometimes more than words can. The talents of these people amaze me and I know that those are gifts from God. That Elphaba had some serious pipes on her and when she sang and belted out those songs I was literally mesmerized and frozen in awe! There were some members of the company who were familiar so that was fun to see them live and in person. The Wizard was the guy from Heavyweights and Reva Shane from Guiding Light was in it as well. What a great time we had!

Kyle's Cake and Presents

We had a monkey themed party for Kyle's first birthday. We invited everyone over for a delicious dinner of Cafe Rio style beef tacos and salads, rice and beans, and salsa. Kyle opened his ginormous pile of presents and then we had cake and ice cream.  I had a lady here from the valley make his this darling monkey cake.  She also made him a little cupcake to eat on his own.  He was not a very happy birthday boy and we did not get many smiles from him most of the evening.  He didn't have a good nap at all that day and so he was super tired.  Plus he is in the baby stage where he is a little shy around people.  I was pretty sad that these pictures don't show his happy smiley face but after the party when everyone had left and he was in tub he finally perked up.  He got lots of new toys and clothes for the fall.  Calley and Cody came down on Sunday for the party and also hoping Cody's mission call would come.  Aunt Dena, Taylor and Lara, Grandma and Grandpa and our family were at the party.  Thanks for coming everyone and for those of you who couldn't come, thank you for sending so many wonderful presents.  He is one blessed little boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

Look at this awesome cake!  The monkey and the bananas are made of fondant and the vine is made of tootsie rolls.

His nummy cupcake.

Messy hair!

His darling Eye Spy blanket from my friend Michelle.

We got him this car that he can sit in and be driven around.  The boys love to push him around the house.

Not a happy birthday boy.

Kyle and mommy and his super darling cake.

First Day of School

And so it begins again. School started on Monday, August 27 and we were up bright and early at 5:15am. The boys started early morning seminary and it starts at 6:10. Connor did not take seminary last year and this year he does not have any open classes available so he is going early.  Caleb takes early morning because all Freshman have to take it in the morning.  Connor has 3 SPED classes for extra help and he is the student tutor for the contained SPED class.  He loves that class and the teacher actually asked for him to be in there.  He gets to help the other kids in there but he also is getting social skills and life skills training like they are.  He and Caleb are in the same Biology class.  Caleb has Guitar, Foods, Theater and Spanish plus his regular core classes.  Cayden didn't have to get up as early as the boys but he was up and at it at 6:45. .  Kyle, who could have slept all morning got up at 5:30 and put a kink in my plans for the whole morning. The boys were pretty excited. Don gave them blessings the night before like he does every year and that is always nice. I walked Cayden to the bus stop so he could ride the bus and know which number his was and where it is parked at the school. Then I went up to the school to meet him there and help him find his class line. Cayden is in 4th grade and in Mrs. Shumway's class.  Kyle stayed home with Don. The last few years Don has been able to be home the first week of school. The years that he has had to travel have been very very hard on everyone so he has just made sure that he is in town to help. I made the kids cookies like I do every year the first day of school.  This time it was applesauce chocolate chip.  We were all pretty darn tired that first night but the kids had a good day and came home excited to talk about their day.  I have been doing this school thing for now for 13 years now!  It is crazy!  This year with the early morning seminary is super hard and we have to make sure everyone is in bed around 9.  Cayden actually started a morning tutoring class on Mondays and Wednesdays that begins at 6:45am and it is  in Overton so those days he has to get up at 6am just as the boys are leaving.  The other days he get up around 7:30 so he can do his homework before school because by the end of the day he is just done and we are both too tired to do homework.  Caleb and Cayden started taking piano lessons in August and they have lessons on Tuesdays.  I try to have Cayden do his piano practicing in the mornings too so that it is not such a battle in the afternoon.  It is nice to have a schedule again and getting up in the morning helps me get more done during the day but boy is it exhausting. 

Kyle Brandt is 11 Months Old

He just keeps getting bigger and bigger!  Highlights this month include:
He is standing up all by himself in the middle of the room.
He goes up the stairs.
He pulls things off the desk.

The books off the shelf.

He pulled the tablecloth to get to the bread on the plate and knocked over two glasses-one of water and one of grape soda.

He pulled the top of his bouncer.

He pulls books off of the bookshelves.
He figured out today that the cabinets open. We are in trouble.  We did manage to put up a baby gate into the kitchen that we hope will keep him out of there for a bit until I get some cabinet locks.
We call him Hurricane Kyle.
He is a super fast crawler and disappears down my many halls faster than The Flash.  Numerous times a day I am hollering-"Where's Kyle?" or "Everybody find Kyle."
He is waving bye bye and knows what it means.
He is giving kisses-open mouth-when we ask him too.
He knows what binki, bottle, daddy, mommy, Cayden, Connor, Caleb and Grandpa mean.
He eats 3 meals a day with still 3 bottles in between.  He is totally off baby food and eats whatever we are eating.  He doesn't like oatmeal that much but will eat it with chunks of fruit in it.  He picks up anything you put in front of him.  We even order him his own food sometimes like a grilled cheese or PB and J if mom has forgotten to make one and bring one for him.  He still has a hard time with pointy crackers like Cheeseits but he loves the Baby Goldfish and Multigrain Cheerios.
I am trying to teach him signs language a little.  Words like more, drink, eat, all done, please and thankyou are just some simple ones that I can remember.
He usually sleeps 10 hours a night.  He doesn't have a set bedtime though but we always try to get him to last until 9pm so that he wakes up around 7.  But if he has naps earlier in the day and is awake by 3:30 or so with his afternoon nap, he is super tired by 7pm and we are trying not let him fall asleep that early because that would mean just a 20-30 minute catnap for him and then he wouldn't go to bed until 11-like he did last night!
He is sleeping in his own room but with he and I both on the mattress on the floor.  I am reluctant to try to move him to the crib after he falls asleep because I am afraid he will wake up.  I also don't want to be running back and forth down the halls all night if he wakes up so I just stay in there all night with him.  I have not slept in my own bed since the first part of June!
He had another ear infection and went to the Urgent Care in Provo in July.  He may have another one after that because he was pulling on his ears alot last week but then he would stop for a bit so I would think he was ok.  Then he would start doing it again.  I never took him in to the doctor because he never had a fever and he never fussed like he was hurting.
He has 4 teeth on the bottom and 3 on the top.
He turns pages in books or tries to rip them out.
He can say the "ah" in "ah oh" when something falls.
He looks for thing when they drop.
He says mama and dada.

This is his Hillbilly Highchair while we were in McGill.

He is wearing mostly size 12-18 month in clothes.  

If I remember to put shoes on him like for church, he promptly pulls them off.

He DOES NOT like the carwash!  

I told myself that I wasn't going to let him watch any TV until he was 2 but I gave in this month and let him watch a few of the Baby Einstein movies we have.  I put him in his bouncer and he will pay attention for a few minutes, then play with the toys and then look back and watch again.  It keeps him busy for a little bit when I am trying to get dinner done.  If he is not in his bouncer, he will crawl up to the front of the TV and pull himself up so he can be closer to the animals.

He realized we have a dog-it scared him the first time he went up to the kennel in the kitchen and the dog moved.

He likes to be on his knees and fling himself forward onto the mattress of me if I am there with him.

We love you Kyle Brandt and mommy already ordered your birthday presents!

McGill

The first weekend of August we took a little trip to McGill to get out of the heat and visit the town where Don grew up before they moved here to Logandale. We drove around McGill and Ely while Don showed us the houses he lived in and the school he went to. We saw the ball field where he played and the playground Grandpa helped get put up for the kids. We saw the old Artic Circle where Don was scarred for life in an incident in the drive through. We stayed at Don's parents house.  It's a house that they bought a few years ago to use when they visit McGill. Connor has been there more times than we can count and the house is where they stay when they go hunting up around Ely so Kyle and I were the only ones that the place was new to. We went to the train station, the Coke ovens, and drove many many miles through the hills and around the area Geocaching and looking for elk and deer.  We had a picnic up by Camp Success, a boy scout camp Don's dad was in charge for a few years.  We even saw a little wood mouse burrowing in the ground.  We named him Phillippe.  We were able to open the house at night and feel the cool night air and rest and relax in a small laid back town.  It was a nice getaway.  On the way home we stopped to Geocache at a dirt road turn off where there was a cattle guard.  It took us a long time to find the cache and Cayden actually fell down through the cattle guard.  He bruised his knees really bad but we were very blessed that he didn't break his leg or ankle since we were in the middle of nowhere with minimal cell reception.  I'm grateful for those tender mercies that we are blessed with each day.

The elementary school.

The ball field.

The playground Don's dad helped get put in.

The train station.

The coke ovens.

Our picnic in the hills.

Geocaching in the hills.

Geocaching at the Alien Jerky store at the ET Highway turnoff.

The only restaurant in Ely. 

Cayden's Swimming Lessons

I put Cayden in some swimming lessons the last week of July. It was at a private residence with a lady who used to work for the Parks and Rec teaching swim lessons a few years ago before she had kids. Cayden was a class with some of the neighborhood kids so we car pooled. The kids were a lot younger than him but he didn't mind and he really needed the lessons. He did a good job and was really comfortable in the water. His teacher said that she would give him private lessons but since it was so close to the end of the summer we decided to wait until next year. He did really good considering swimming is hard for him but he still loves to be in the water to just play.