Wellcome to Dusty and Haydens Birthday

It seems we just celebrated birthdays, we just had a pirate party, but here we are one year older and wiser too! Here is how we spent the big birthday weekend.

We got to start celebrating a day and two early this year. The boys were excited to share birthday cookies with their class.Then the real party began. Dusty woke up and found his gifts waiting for him. He got a bike, a pillow-pet, 2 lego sets a card, gum and also a love note from Gma Palmer. Anderson grandparents gave him a card with cash inside and Salvesen grandparents sent him a police car set. We asked Dusty what he wanted to do for his birthday and he wanted to ride his bike over to the middle school and run a mile. Chris took us to a football game instead, his friend at work has a son that plays football and made arrangements for Dusty go out on the field to meet the football player after the game, and get to check out his football pads. Dusty was so excited! He loves football. But then when there was only 30 seconds left, Brady our football player got injured and had to leave to head to the hospital. Good news, he's not broken! While we were there at the football field, Dusty took advantage of the track and ran his mile. How many kids say they want to go running for their birthday? He must be related to my dad!After football we celebrated both birthdays at Chuck E Cheese. We spent hours and hours there. Dusty was focused on winning as many tickets as possible so that he could buy more prizes. Grand total: 595 tickets!Hayden could care less about the tickest (until it comes time to turning them in for prizes), he spent all of his tokens on the video games.And Kyrie actually had fun this time. She wanted to ride the rides and play the games. Last time she was afraid of everything.

Wow, there are 8 candles on that cake. It seems like there should only be 2!

When we got home, we had a little time to unwind, eat ourself some cake and start our table on fire. Dusty's birthday wish was that we don't burn the house down. Hopefully he can make a funner wish next year! Oh ya, he chose pizza rolls for his special birthday dinner AND we got to sleep on the air beds as a family, WAHOO! We have weird birthdays at our house, the boys birthdays are 1 day apart, Chris's is the day before Halloween and Kyrie's is the day after Christmas. How exciting for them! Now onto round 2, these birthdays are exhausting for me! So we rolled ourselves off of the airbeds and found Hayden's gifts waiting in the other room for him. He also got a bike, two lego sets, a card, some gum, a love note from Gma Palmer, but instead of a pillow pet, he got his absolute favorite, a jumping ball. From the Anderson grandparents he also got a card with some spending cash and from the Salvesens, some Toy Story Walkie Talkies. If you were to ask him what he got, he'll tell you, "a ball", but it's not just any ball, it's a ball that creates the happiest Hayden in the whole wide world. We asked Hayden what he wanted to do for his birthday and he wanted to do nothing and go nowhere so that he could stay home and play with his legos while bouncing around the house. We did however get him out of the house to go for a family bike ride to try out the new bikes.
Hayden got to blow out six candles this year!
For Hayden's birthday dinner, he wanted meatball sandwiches. Then we ate some more cake, and he got a pinch to grow an inch. Usually I make 1 cake mix for the 2 birthdays, I just bake them in 2 round pans. This year Dusty wanted strawberry and Hayden wanted chocolate, so we got 2 full sized cakes in 2 days! I think we ate enough for everyone, Grandma Palmer, we definately ate a piece for you!

This is how we communicate at our house

On Sunday Dusty brought me a piece of paper that had a question written on it, "Can we go to McDonalds tomorrow to get ice cream? Circle YES or NO." I decided that since Chris wouldn't be home that it was a good idea for Family Home Evening, so I circled YES.

Then he got busy making these signs and posted them throughout the house so I wouldn't forget - he even put one in the tub so that I would see it first thing in the morning.

After school he led me to the door to answer his final question. Although we left a half hour late because or handy man was cleaning up after a 6 hour job of replacing our hail-beaten door way and door. Dusty made sure he told me we didn't leave on time, I guess we did kind-of have a contract!
Bed-time ice cream, yum - and I don't know if it was better than our own freezer ice cream, but at least we got out of the house. And Kyrie's outfit, that's a whole other story. She is so big now so why not let her pick out her outfit? Sometimes I don't have much of a choice. I had denim shorts on her several times, but she'd take them off and put these striped fleece pants on that she pulled out of the dresser herself. And the headband, she thinks it's attached, and Hayden's (I mean Kyrie's) Diego watch. She has a great style, and as funny and mismatched it is, I think it is absolutely adorable!
Hayden enjoyed his cone and extended our bed-time McDonalds visit by slowly savoring each lick. We were gone for over an hour, it was weird to not be in a rush, so nice that we could just enjoy, relax and have fun together.
As soon as we walked into McD's Kyrie saw the toy display and as excited as could be, screamed, "BABY, BABY". Luckily you can buy a toy without getting the happy meal and Kyrie became a new mother to Alice in Wonderland. She lifted up Alice's dress and said "diaper!". Yes, she is spoiled, but I didn't get it for her just because she wanted one. I have actually been on the look-out for little babies because she now thinks she has to take them EVERYWHERE! The little babies are so much easier to take to the store and they fit in my bag lots easier than her other babies. So I was greatful to come across a little baby, and was happy to spoil my daughter!

Here she is giving her newest baby a taste.

YUM!

Dusty picked a fudge sundae and scarfed down every last drop, except for what was on his face!


And tonight we went to Dusty's flag-football practice and he was AMAZING! So far football has been his favorite sport to play, he has had a lot of fun. But last season and this year so far he has always just followed the crowd of kids and ran behind them everywhere they went. I told him that I wanted him to keep his eyes on the ball, not the other kids and I wanted him to be the first one to try to get the flags. One of the coaches then told him that when the ball is passed to not automatically run up to the line, he said take a few steps toward the line, keep your eye on the ball, wait to see which direction the ball runner is going, then get him. And the very next play, DUSTY GOT HIM! He pulled his very first flag. The look on his face was priceless. I was so excited for him (it even made me choke up a little). Then the next 4 plays he just about had it, he could have tagged the runner, but just didn't quite get the flag in his hand. I told him to not forget what he did different that helped him get that flag. As soon as we got home from practice, Dusty went straight to the phone to call his dad, he was pretty excited! At Thursday's game, I'm sure we'll see a whole different football player! Congrats Dusty!

Because she wanted to

I was starting to do the dishes after dinner and turned around to see Kyrie sitting on the table drinking the ranch dressing, YUM!

Doesn't every mommy want to share the best with her babies? They both got all they wanted before this sick-germ infested bottle got tossed to wait for a turn in the dump truck.
Kyrie loves to take baths and quite often climbs in the tub and turns the water on (scares me!). She also gets jealous anytime anybody else gets in the tub and thinks she has every right to join in. I think she could swim like a fish all day if I would let her. I'll ask if she wants to get out and she responds with a very loud "NO". She loves blowing bubbles and dunking her face under the water (which is something neither Dusty or Hayden has EVER dared do, but now that she does it, they have become quite brave and made the attempt as well - I guess they can't be out-done by their little sister!).


Yep, I love her - bunches!

4 Year Anniversary

Gosh, has it really been that long? I started thinking about it all last night, wondering how today would go. I am sure it will be pretty much a normal day for me. I just got the boys to school and I will soon try to get Kyrie down for a nap. I will probably work more on my recipe book, get Hayden from school, and go back again for Dusty. We will work on homework and get ready to go to Dusty's first football game of the season - we will eat too! But will I dare listen to the funeral CD or watch the DVD of Tina's life like I have the past few years? In the beginning (when she first left), it was easy for me to do those things. I think listening to the CD and watching the DVD was good therapy. It felt good to cry and to get it all out. It helped a lot. It's not so easy anymore, I don't know if I can do it. I'm already getting teardrops all over my laptop, like the way they fell from my eyes, onto her face as I leaned over her and cried. I can't believe it was 4 years ago today that we said our last good-byes. However, I am thankful we had the opportunity as so many people don't get the chance to say goodbye. Tina I still think of you all the time. When you left, I lost something huge! I felt like there was something more than you being a friend and a sister. I felt some kind of bond that I can't explain. You were also the one person I confided in. I told you EVERYTHING whether you wanted to hear it or not. I felt I could tell you anything and that you wouldn't judge me for it in any way. I called you if I was happy, sad, upset, confused, scared, excited, had something cute to share about the kids, and even when I just didn't have anything else to do. When you left, I instantly became so lonely. For several months when I had something to share I had the natural desire to call you. And then I was hit with reality, you forgot to take your cell phone with you! I could dial your phone number but all I got was your voicemail. And then the phone company started telling me your number was no longer in use. What was I to do? I felt so lonely not having you pick up your phone (that has been the absolute hardest for me). I had to learn to hold everything inside and that was so hard to do. I now have been able to open up to a few others but it's just not the same. I have the fear of being rejected, but with you I knew you loved me no matter what! I still dream about you, in fact you visited me in a dream just a couple of weeks ago, and you were your appropriate age. Most of my dreams you are a little blonde haired 3 year old. I don't quite understand why. And some of those dreams you are kinda my daughter, I don't get it. I am sure you are happy where you are at. Your family seems to be happy, but I'm sure you know that, I bet you see them a lot more than I do. I can't believe it has been 4 years already. It makes me wonder what was so important for you to do up there. Important enough that you were okay with it all! So I guess somehow we have to try to be okay with it all too! What a great example you have been to the rest of us down here. Love ya and miss ya bunches!

Triple protection

This morning Kyrie came down the stairs looking like this.

Here's a closer look. She took off her pants, and put on a pair of Dusty's underware and a swim diaper.

Now there's triple protection!

Then she used her super powers to reach some of our garden tomatoes. She still makes us laugh everyday, this morning she wore just one of Hayden's flip-flops while we walked the boys to school. And last night she walked around the house pointing to herself saying, "See a bub?" (which is her word for boob). Oh well, better now than later!

Ouch

Chris went in to have a little mole removed from his head. He has a few moles that look really scary, but this one was more annoying to him than anything. He came home with a huge bandage on his head, and left it on for a whole day. When he removed the bandage he found out why it was hurting so bad. I think he got way more than what he bargained for. This picture doesn't show it well, but there is a good sized dent in his head from the doctor removing so much muscle from underneath his scalp. He wanted me to take a picture of it so that he could have a closer look for himself, it took me awhile to get the pictures taken - I had to spend a good amount of time laying on the floor with my feet raised up! Now he doesn't want to go back to have the scary ones removed, and I don't blame him (but I don't think I'll let him out of it!).

How great it must be to be a kid!