Sleepy Head

Simeon is a sleepy head. Today, for instance, he threw a fit at 11am because he wanted a nap and I told him he had to wait until after we picked up Rory from school. Daily this child asks to take a nap. Who does that? When he is asleep, nothing wakes him for a couple hours. I often send Josh to wake him and Josh returns saying "Simeon says he does not want to wake up." On an off day last week he did not take a nap until 4pm. We tried to wake him at 5 and 6pm. At the 6pm time I jumped on him, tickled him, kissed him, talked to him to only hear "I'm not done sleeping". I asked "Do you want to sleep for the rest of the night?" and he said "Yes". And he did. Until 5am. On a Saturday.

When I say sleepyhead I do not mean he like to sleep in in the morning. On the occasion he wakes up around 7am but usually wakes up around 6am. That puts a hamper on my waking up early to read the scriptures with peace and quiet. Thankfully we are morning people and even more thankfully ROGER IS NOT COMMUTING 1 1/2+ HOURS TO WORK DAILY ANYMORE! In fact the commute is closer to 10min most days.

I am changing colors because I am changing subjects because of this commuting business. Roger has never ever complained because of his commute so neither will I but I want to share the positives to the temporary change.

1)Leaving between 5 and 520am is not necessary to beat the traffic. Mostly I never heard him leave. He also will not come home hours later than he should because the train doors closed on his face or the parking lot called the 5 freeway overly backed up.
2) Now HE can be the one to take Simeon downstairs, plunk him front of the TV,and give him his morning milk. Better yet, he can give him a shower,
3) He may even actually see Josh and Rory before he leaves too.
4) He can coax me out of sleep to read my scriptures at 530am. One morning I mumbled under the covers I threw over my head "I can't sleep with you rubbing my back" Yeah, I think that was the point.
5) With him being close, if he forgets his phone he's not screwed for the day. Likewise, if I forget my wallet in his car its not the end of the world.
6) He may be able to break away from work to come to school for say the holiday show or whatever. I won't always look like a single mom because I look so young and I forgot my ring at home. That's priceless.
7) Although we live in a very very safe city and I have a great network of friends I really do feel a little more safe with him nearby in this big world.

This short commute will not last forever so I do not feel guilty that I am enjoying this time. What can I say, I love this man and like him nearby.

My Baby is a Sunbeam!

He up and became a sunbeam! What was he thinking!?! He is a baby and has no right. I guess he is 3 and all but still, come on. When Josh went into sunbeams he was 4 days from 4 years old not just turned 3. He had 2 younger siblings already too. Simeon is doing great and is sitting in his seat and folding his arms and such. I guess he is allowed.

PS. Yes, people laughed at me for taking pictures in the hallway!

PPS. I don't imagine there are people reading that do not know I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints but I thought I would mention it any way. If you want to learn more go to www.mormon.org

Anonymity

FYI- I have just figured out how to change color and size. That and I want to make sure that everyone that leaves comments and/or links to my page knows that we don't want our last name or our city known. Publishing our family to the web has some risks and that is my way to lesson it a bit. Thanks in advance!

Grandma Robyn will you leave your comment again with out saying our last name please?

Happy Birthday Joshua!

We have been calling this fantastic kid Jt for a while and Joshy even longer so calling him Joshua was almost weird. We have a Joshua? What a normal name. Kind of like Kelly.
Anyway, somehow we talked him out of a friend party for the second year running and instead celebrated with cupcakes at park day, dinner and cake with the family and then Roger took him to Boomers the next day. I think he still felt special and that is what the celebration is about anyway right?
Jt has always been a serious kid (unlike his siblings) very much interested in learning and becoming like his Dad. He is the kind of kid that changes very very slowly almost imperceptible. These pictures are 1 a year from 2 on and I can barely tell a difference (except 2007 because those are already on the blog). He recognized all the letters by 2, folded his own laundry by 3. was asking about neurons by 4, reading well by 5, going on miles long bike rides by 6, and playing the piano very well by 7.
He is also very giving. He earned a $50 bill a couple months ago by being a part of a panel asking questions about grocery shopping. I never heard more about the money until I was reading a paper he wrote on the wall at school. He said he donated the money to the American Red Cross collection for homes that had been burned here in Cali. The teacher said "You didn't know? He marched right in and donated it. Is that ok?" Of coarse, if you don't mind the tear coming from me.
He is a very special kid spiritually too. He reads his scriptures daily and always has great questions. He has no fear in bearing his testimony about things he is learning. He truly is a fantastic kid.

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After Christmas Week of Party

Right after my brothers left Roger's sister called to say she was coming! She brought her husband and 4 kids which my kids LOVE to play with. It was a week of non stop playing. The kids have never gotten along better including between siblings. Roger's parents were already planning to come during that time and came for alittle longer. We felt truly blessed to have a houseful and I think they enjoyed warm weather and lots of things to do
His parent's gave us all tickets to the Discovery Science center.


We took a ferry to Balboa Peninsula and played on the beach.
That's Simeon on the crazy high ropes. That was the only place he wasn't cranky that day.




We also went to Irvine Regional park and climbed lots of trees. I am still waiting for those pictures. We played lots of games and ate lots of fun. Good fun!

Christmas!

We Swam

We ate Japanese (The tradition is Chinese food but we could not get a reservation for 11 last minute because well, we found out last minute there would be 11)


We opened
We played
Good Fun!

My, Aren't We Adventuresome!?

Kind of. A couple of weekends ago we decided to take the kids biking on some undiscovered(to us) trails. The kids pushed their bike a lot of it because it was either to steep to go down and up.
Roger went down a steep hill first with Simeon in the trailer. He sure made it look easy. Joshy followed suit on his bike where the brakes are from pedaling backwards. Not exactly a mountain bike. Off he goes when he started panicking. I was at the top yelling, "Use your brakes!!" which apparently is the first thought to leave his head. I could do nothing but watch him increasing in speed hoping he wouldn't make a drastic turn that would send him flipping. Thankfully he rode it fast to the bottom and only fell over in a skid stop. First thing he says "I am not bleeding so don't ask!". Then he started bawling from being scared. He skinned a knee but it could have been so much worse.

The next weekend Roger decided to take the kids to find snow. I stayed home to clean and shop. I ended up having the day to myself as Roj was gone for 8 hours. An hour and a half was in the snow. The rest was traveling. Good fun!

Holiday Show

This was the Kindergarten Show st the school. My little Darling!

Happy Birthday Simeon!!

We were in Hawaii on Simeon's Birthday so we finally had a small party for him last week. It was his first friend party which probably has something to do with his birthday being around such a BUSY time of year! It was a typical 3 year old Spiderman party. Not much creativity involved. Notice his frog in a lot of the pictures. Thanks Audra for bringing the camera!

Simeon is such a fantastic addition to our family! He is a boy through and through. His current love is Spiderman but he loves trains, matchbox cars, Little Einstein and such. He has started a new thing for him where he sings everything he says. He would hug and kiss and cuddle all day long if I let him. I have certainly babied him and he gets away with so much but what can I do when he is so cuddly. We love you Simeon!!

Picky, picky, picky!

A I grabbed Simeon out of his carseat he was picking his nose and then he stuck it in his mouth.
I said "Ewwww, Gross!"
He said "No its not. Its really really yummy!"
I said "Rory isn't that gross"
She said "No, I like eating my bugars too."

Rewind 25 years
My sister says "Kelly stop eating your bugars!"
I said "I'm not eating my bugars."
She said "They are stuck on your teeth!"
I said "oh"

Yuck

Back to Bethlehem

Our ward party this year had a fun Back to Bethlehem theme. Everyone was encouraged to wear "Bethlehem Attire" (which I sewed) and visit different shops around the gym. We then had dinner on our blankets on the floor and watched a nativity show. Well, most people watched. Roger and I were asked to put on the show way back in October, days before the magic show. Everything went very well! The night was entertaining and touching.
To keep the spirit of the night right, the children had breakfast with Santa instead of seeing him at the party and took these cute pictures. Good Fun!

Aren't we Silly?

Check this out! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1311016586

Santa Claus is coming?

A couple of years ago my inquisitive Josh asked me in round about ways if Santa was real. I was able to weasel my way around the question without answering. He finally asked me point blank if Santa was real. I asked "Do you want to know what you kids think or do you want to know the truth?" He answered the "The Truth". I told him all about giving and what Santa represents instead of actually being Santa yada yada. The next day he was running around yelling "Santa Claus is coming!!!" I shrugged my shoulders and let him believe what he clearly wanted to believe.

I have started to think that I teach my kids about Santa but I don't walk around telling them about him. After a conversation with a friend I started to wonder if I really do keep the Santa love alive. You tell me.

I don't talk about Santa.
I don't tell them that the big present is from Santa.
If they ask where a present comes from I tell them(ie Target)

I do sing songs about Santa
We may do Santa crafts
We have stocking that are left at the end of the bed
The "big" present is unwrapped
They have to go to bed early in Christmas Eve

Is Santa Claus coming to our house?

Before and After

Yes, Josh is almost 7 and has now lost his first tooth. I think he would have been more excited if it did not hurt so much. Congrats Josh!

Fluke? Probably

Simeon was staring at this Christmas Snow Globe really hard just now. After scrunching his forehead he said "Cookies!" There are not cookies in the picture, just the sign. Fluke? Probably