Christmas Happenings...

So, it's been a while since I've posted and since it's snowing like crazy outside and I feel kind of trapped in my house... I'm not feeling particularly jolly or creative but I guess I better tell about Christmas.

It was a busy busy Christmas season! For some reason adding school and activities (dance for example) into the mix seems to make things busier. People have always told me that things get busier as your kids get older and I can slowly see that happen.

A couple of days before Christmas we had our Bateman Family Christmas party, which was fun, but no pictures...

Christmas Eve Michael worked for half day and then he came home and let me go out and get a few last minute things. I haven't carried on every tradition from when I grew up, but we have opened pajamas (like most people) every Christmas Eve. My mom used to do a big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve... and that's one thing I haven't done. Usually we've gotten hamburgers or take out... and that's just fine with me.

The kids had a great Christmas. Sam kept on saying, "This is the best Christmas EVER!" The kids were really happy with their gifts. Sam had on his list "bell, harmonica, Santa hat" so when he opened those he would say "This was on my list!" He was really fun this Christmas. Michael got a pack of bungee cords and Sam said "Wow, Dad, those are really cool. Were they on your list?"

Katelyn loved everything she got. For example, she opened up a coloring book and immediately started coloring in it. A couple of favorite gifts for her were figurines (like little princesses and Little Einstein figurines) and the kids exchanged gifts this year and Sam got her a little plastic purse from the dollar store and she has carried that around ever since.

We went up to the Gardner celebration Christmas morning, where we have always had the pleasure of seeing Santa. The kids loved seeing Santa and Sam especially (he has really been excited about Christmas this year) was interested in asking Santa all sorts of questions like "Remember when I told you I wanted a bell at the Christmas party?" (the church one).

All of our Christmas is put away, most of our returns are done... So, that's it! Until next year.

Riding the train to see the lights...

For family home evening we went to see the lights at Temple Square. We got on the TRAX station and rode all the way up. The kids loved it (which is why we did it... ) but it took a long time. Nearly 45 minutes. Once we got there it was freezing cold. But beautiful!

Kate's Dance Recital

Katelyn had her dance recital last night. She danced to the Nutcracker's Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies, which (I think) is kind of hard for 3 year olds to master since there are no words to clue the kids in on what to do. But... no stage fright. She was super excited for the recital and even more so that people came to watch her, especially her cousins.

Here she is with Lauren who is an incredible dancer. We've been to a lot of Lauren's dance recital's and Katelyn LOVES her.

One of the highlights of the evening was that her dance teacher requested the kids to wear makeup since the lights wash the kids out. Katelyn LOVED getting makeup on.

Tram Ride

This weekend we went up to Snowbird. If you donated a can of food to the Utah Food Bank, then you got a free ticket to ride the tram. The kids loved it.

Katelyn might have been more excited about the Pringles than the tram ride. If you notice she has chips in every picture.

At the top it was COLD and WINDY, but BEAUTIFUL. We went up to 11,000 feet. It was nostalgic for Michael and his skiing days. We were asked not to throw any rocks, which was a really hard temptation for Sam... just. so. tempting! All these rocks, all these great places to throw them from.

Overheard at our house...

So, my friend the other day was telling me to make sure I write down the "cute stuff" my kids do or else I'll forget. I know I've already forgotten a bunch. But, here's a few for now.

I overheard Sam tell someone "My mom keeps telling people that I'm a cowboy for Halloween, but I'm really a Horseman."

When I pulled up to the drive-thru drop off window at the library to return some books Katelyn yelled out the window "I want a hamburger with no mustard"

...and today I was making dinner and Katelyn said "Can I bite you mom?" I said "No, of course not, why would you bite me?" and she replied, "My teeth are so sharp. I'm like a dinosaur. A cute one."

So, there it is.

Trick or Treat...

The kids had a blast trick-or-treating. They LOVED it. Here they are in their costumes.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Carnival

So, we got a flyer in the mail to attend a Halloween Carnival up the street from where we live (which was to get people in to see their model homes... ) but I took the kids and they had a BLAST! Here are some pics of what the kids did.

Riding on ponies...
Kate LOVED it!Sam, not so much. He was REALLY nervous and didn't want to do it. I made him. I though he'd enjoy it once he was on the pony. But I don't know if he did.
Decorated cookies (they were really yummy sugar cookies, I LOVE sugar cookies).

We went "trick or treating" at a couple of model homes and they had some great treats in there. I wanted to take a picture of some of the cool food. This eye is one of them.

Face painting (Katelyn choose the EEK because it had a K in it, for her of course). And they played BINGO!

This is them painting their pumpkins. They both turned out really cute. Sam wont put his outside and talked Katelyn into bringing hers back inside because he's afraid someone will steal them.

Soccer's over...

It's been a while since we've posted anything. But we haven't done much. Just school and the same old stuff. Sam's soccer season ended. It was a fun season, and he loved being on the team with his cousin Aubrey!

Sam liked soccer a lot, but the most important thing about the games was the snack afterwards.

A day at the zoo...

The kids didn't have school on Monday so we went to the zoo with some cousins.

I'm not usually an animal picture taker, but this baby elephant was so cute I had to. So Cute! It was actually a great day for the zoo. There was hardly anyone there, probably since a lot of people were still in school and it was COLD. It was snowing on the way up there although it never snowed on us while we were there... but it kept the crowds away. There were also lots of baby animals (elephant, monkey, tiger, giraffe) which was fun to see. And all the animals were very active... we even saw a bear fight.

Since there were no crowds and hardly anyone there I let the kids play on the playground (which I've never let them do... ) and the kids had a blast. Jack and Lauren didn't seem to appreciate the pictures as much...

but Sam and Luke LOVED them and wanted their picture taken on everything... it was a regular photo shoot (I wont put them all in here).

I love this picture... because Katelyn ADORES Jack and Lauren , and she's in heaven when they are around.

Where did September go?

I noticed I haven't really posted anything since the beginning of September. And so... here's what we've been up to.

Kate started taking dance...

Katelyn has been dying to start dance... probably because she loves music and dancing but I have to say a lot of it probably has to do with her loving her cousin Lauren and wanting to be like her in every way, and we've gone to see a couple of Lauren's dance recitals. All summer long she would say "I'm going to be three and then I'm going to dance." So, she is actually taking from Lauren's old dance teacher and gave us a huge compliment by saying that Katelyn reminder her of Lauren and looked like her too. So we were of course very flattered.

Sam started soccer...

I actually missed the deadline for soccer where we live, and so I was trying to decide what to do for Sam and my sister told me that there were still openings with her soccer and he could be on the same team as his cousin Aubrey... so as crazy as it sounds to drive to South Salt Lake to take Sam to soccer... I'm doing it. We've had a couple of practises and one game. The game is chaos. A bunch of kids just kicking and following the ball like a herd of sheep. I wont lie and say it was all fun and games... there were a few tears. But in the end I think Sam liked the game.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to on top of Sam's kindergarten and Katelyn's preschool. We've been busy! I can't believe it's October tomorrow.

Sam and his school song

Just a cute video of Sam singing a song he learned at school. I've found out that he doesn't really like to talk about his day very much. And he will occassionally surprise me by singing a song he learned at school, and he's even more willing to if I video him and he's able to watch it. (Don't mind the little girl in the video... she struggles to share the spotlight... but she's cute too).
And no, he doesn't have jam on his face... he got hit in the face with a swing.

Katelyn turns THREE!

I can't believe Katelyn is three. I know it sounds cliche to say time goes by so fast. But when I look at my kids, it's hard to believe, and the time does slip by too fast. If I listed all the things I love about Katelyn it would take too long so I will just list a few.
But first of all, I am glad that Sam and Kate have each other. They are VERY competitive with each other and I hope the friendship side always outweighs that side of their relationship. They definitely have their moments, but they are good friends and look out for each other. If she gets a snack or something while he's gone, she will ask for one for Sam. She is always thinking of Sam and misses him terribly now that he is in school. They are very different in a lot of things, but the one thing they both have perfected (and have inherited from their dad) is their ability to bargain. For example, last night Michael sent Katelyn to her room to timeout. She yelled from her room "Dad, if you let me out I will give you a present, if you don't let me out, I wont be your friend ever again!"
She's just too cute. I know I am biased. She is a little sassy sometimes but she has a strong personality and although sometimes it is hard, I think that will help her when she's older. We went to her 3 year check up yesterday and she's in the 50% for weight and the 90% for height... and growing up too fast!
Here are a couple of pictures to show how much she's changed in 3 short years.

One year old.

Two years old.

And Three! We had cake and ice cream on Saturday to celebrate her birthday. I should put the video on here of her blowing out her candles.. but she very deliberately blew out each candle one at a time.

Kindergarten

So, now that I'm catching up on all the blogs now that I've been back... I decided I better capture the first day of school like everyone else did.

This is Sam on his first day of school.

We've kind of gotten to a rocky start with kindergarten. I'm trying my best to stick it out and hope for the best. The sad part is Sam has been looking forward to kindergarten FOREVER. And, I hope things go a little better this week.

Hawaii Trip

So, we're back. We had a great time. Once Michael, Lyle, Joey and LeeAnn came over we kind of hit the ground running and didn't stop. We did tons of stuff and we're TIRED (could be the time change and it could be that it seems like we've been going nonstop since we came home with Sam starting school, LAUNDRY and getting back into the swing of everything).
Here are a few pics of our time there, and a few highlights. I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but for the most part here were some highlights.

Lighthouse hike. This was a great Sunday activity... got the kiddos out of the house to burn off some energy and it was beautiful. But it was a hike (Jeanna kind of made me think it would be more like a stroll with words like "paved all the way") But it was a hike. But worth it. Very beautiful, but very scary at times. I wondered if our kiddos might tumble off some treacherous edges into the water HUNDREDS of feet below. So, this pic is of our hosts/tourguides/nurse (for when I was violently ill) and we want to thank them for how incredibly generous they were. Jeanna and Lyle were great to let us stay with them. We had a great time! Can't wait to hear where you're moving to next :)

Michael and Lyle paid to go on a shark feeding excursion. They basically got in this cage and let them float out to sea and threw bait into the water. The sharks swam around them and Michael risked a limb and reached out and touched a shark.

Of course the BEACH! Some favorites were Shark's Cove (after we calmed the kids fears that there would not be actual sharks in the water with us) Hickham Harbor beach (or the airplane beach where we could see the airplanes take off and land) and of course Hanauma Bay.

Pearl Harbor / Ford Island Tour with our personal tour guide Major Swapp. Lyle got us on an incredible tour of Ford Island and Pearl Harbor hosted by the Navy. We were able to see a lot of things that regular tourists wouldn't.
Polynesian Cultural Center - Ok, this wasn't a highlight for me. This was expensive and not worth the money if you ask me. But obviously it is for a lot of people because there were a LOT of people there. It's just not my thing. Except for these fire dancers, they were hot (wink wink - just kidding, that's a bad joke).
Shaved Ice - Ok, so I doubt that Mr. Matsumotos (sp? the name of the shaved ice place) is worth the wait in line or the increase in prices or eating it in a parking lot... but the shaved ice is good. And the kids loved their "colorful ice cream" (if you ever go... Melona is a yummy flavor).
Cousins! Sam and Kate both loved playing with their cousins.

Pineapple Ice Cream! YUM. Double Yum, since we had it twice.

Hurricane! No... wait, Tropical storm! No, wait, Tropical Depression!... Ok, just a few rainy and cloudy days

So, before I left for Hawaii my sister informed me that a hurricane was headed for Hawaii, to hit the day after we got here. It worried me a little... but not tons.
When we got here, her boys were uh... scared, no, excited for the prospects of it. People were stocking up on food/water just incase stores had sandbags by the doors.... You could tell it was the talk of the playground.. and then it got downgraded and downgraded again. So, what actually happened (from an outsiders point of view) was a bunch of rainy, cloudy, overcast days which resulted in a lot of humidity. (Jeanna's kids seemed disappointed that nothing drastic happened... what no flooding?!)
But this did not rain on our parade since I did that myself. Not long after my last post I was hit with probably the worst sickness I've had in years. Just down and in pain and achy and tired and throwing up (not too many details for the weak stomached, but enough to let you know how miserable I was) so that lasted through the days of the big storm While Jeanna was gone for things, all I could do was put movie on after movie for the kids where Sam said "I'm sick of watching TV." Poor kiddo.
So, that's why there's been no more pics about our fabulous vacation here in Hawaii. We're hoping to get out to the beach today for the first time since we've been here after the kids soccer games this morning. So hopefully things are looking up!

First Day in Hawaii!

This is just outside Jeanna's back door. Kate loves collecting the flowers that she has in her hair. They are everywhere and grow on trees, and fall off and they are on the ground. They smell GREAT. Jeanna's not here to tell me what kind of flowers they are but there is "beauty all around" around here. Flowers and trees. We went for a walk to keep the kids awake when we got here (because of the time difference) and we passed all sorts of fruit trees as we walked to feed the fish. There were mango, papaya, banana and another kind of fruit that is huge and looks like green grapefruit (again, Jeanna's not here to help with whatever it was).

At first this gave me a little anxiety to have the kids feed the fish here, because I could just see a kid accidentally pushed in. I slowly adjusted enough to take these pictures. We went to the park afterwards and came back and made dinner.

And for all of our efforts keeping my kids up late until 9:30 so that they would adjust to the time difference (which probably ended up to be near 10 after they stopped coming out for hearing scary sounds). They were up wide eyed and bushy tailed at 4 am.

We miss Daddy lots and lots. Michael usually makes Kate chocolate milk in the mornings (she's not a big breakfast eater, and she has chocolate carnation instant breakfast every morning). So, when she woke up at 4 am she said "Can you call Daddy and ask him to make my chocolate milk!"