Jenna's "Moving Up" Ceremony, A Great Weekend, and My Birthday

This past week Jenna's preschool had a "Moving Up/Graduation" ceremony. I have to agree with Mr. Incredible that this is a ridiculous thing to do, but I am obviously in the minority here because they have these for every tiny step in school these days. I would rather they just put on an end of the year program (which is essentially what this is, so just call it that). Anyway...I will get off of my soap box now.

Jenna did a great job. She sang and danced. I have been very impressed with the improvements she has made in preschool this year. She was painfully shy at the beginning of the year. Although still a little shy, she has come a long way with this. The fact that she would get up on stage at all, let alone sing and dance is huge. As many of you know, she has struggled with her speech the last couple of years. We had in her speech therapy in Utah before we moved. Her therapist was great, and helped Jenna improve a lot in the few weeks we were with her. After being in preschool this last year, her speech has gotten so much clearer. She is still working on a few sounds, but the improvement is impressive. I have been really happy with this preschool. She will go there again this next year.

Jenna with her class


Jenna dancing and singing



Jenna and her best friend, Alex


We had a great weekend. On Friday night Derek, Kevin, and Jared went to a father/son camp out put on by our ward at church. It was held in a field in someone's back yard. They had a great time. Unfortunately, they didn't get very much sleep, and therefore they were all very tired and a little cranky (not Derek, just the little boys) the last two days. Getting through church with Jared today was a little difficult. :)

The look on Jared's face pretty much sums up how he has been all weekend. :)


Since the boys were gone on Friday, Jenna and I decided that we would have a girls night out. We had mac and cheese (she had been asking for it for a while) while we watched a movie. Then I painted our nails. After the movie was over we went out for ice cream. We had a lot of fun together. I really enjoyed the opportunity for some one on one time with her. She got to bed a little late (around 8p as opposed to 7:15p), but I was OK with that. The best part was that we both slept late the next morning. I woke up around 9a and she woke up around 9:20a when the boys got home from their camping trip. I haven't slept that late in years. It was awesome!

Isn't she cute?


Saturday we went for a run as a family (Derek and I pushed the kids in jogging strollers). It was fun to run with Derek. Running is something we both love, but rarely get to do together because of the kids. Then I took Jenna and Kevin on a half mile run with me. They have both been begging to run with us. They wanted to go up a big hill. Kevin made it up no problem. Jenna struggled a little, but wanted to keep going. Afterwards Kevin said he really liked it. Jenna said she didn't. She doesn't like the hills. That's a problem in our neighborhood because it is all rolling hills. I told her that we could run on a little track at a park in our neighborhood next time because it's flat. She was OK with that suggestion. Then Kevin rode his bike while Derek and I took turns running with him. He still has some trouble getting up the hills on his bike, but he is learning.

After we all got ready for the day, we went to a kite festival that was being held at Pleasant Grove (a local park with huge amounts of open space). It was fascinating to see all of the kites. The people that put it on had such amazing control over their kites. One guy rode around in a little buggy that was pulled by two kites. Another guy had a kite that could land on a tent and then pop back up and fly again. The kites would do amazing dives and tricks. We even got to see a mini kite fight (those of you that have read Kite Runner will have an idea of what I am talking about). This was a Japanese version, so slightly different than the Middle East version, but definitely neat to see).

A view of several kites at the festival


Jenna and Kevin with their Snow Cones and Cotton Candy. Jenna was not a fan of the cotton candy.


Today is my 29th birthday. One more year in my twenties and then it's downhill from there. Just kidding. I'm actually looking forward to being 30 in some ways (I'm also not looking forward to being 30 in some ways). :) We kicked off the celebration yesterday with Papa John's pizza for dinner. I love their pizza, but now that we live the glamorous college student life again we can only get it for very special occasions (like my birthday, which is a VERY special occasion - haha).

Last night my sister, brother-in-law, and their son, Levi, drove up to help celebrate. We had a great time. Thanks for driving all that way. It made the day special. We all went to church this morning. Then Levi came home with us while David and Rachel went to David's brother's graduation (he graduated from the University of Virginia). Levi slept most of the time, and is the most pleasant child I have ever met, so he was super easy to take care of. Plus, since it was my birthday, Derek did all the work. I just played with Levi. :)

We all took naps today. I take a nap every day, so I would have been sad to miss one today. :) Then Derek made us all pancakes, eggs and fruit for dinner. I love breakfast for dinner. I always have. Derek makes the best pancakes and eggs in the world. It was delicious. We followed that up with a delicious DQ Blizzard Cake. (A tradition we have kept from my family).

Thank you to everyone that called and sent gifts. You are the best! This was a great birthday. It was relaxing and fun. I found myself smiling for no specific reason a lot. Here's to a great year!!!

Jenna, Rachel, and Kevin


Levi, David, and Jared


We promised Kevin we would do a "silly face" picture


Kevin was supposed to make a "normal" face in this one...oh well


Once again, Kevin just will not make a "normal" face


Here's Derek bringing over the cake. That's A LOT of candles. :)


This is Jenna getting ready to lick some of the ice cream off of the bottom of the candles. One of the best parts of having a birthday cake. :)


Me with my cake


P.S. - I added a post about Kevin's trip to the zoo, but because I had started it last weekend, it put it in following the Mother's Day post. Blogging is all for my benefit, but I thought you should know in case you want to see it.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! We had a pretty low key day, which was nice. All of the kids made me a card. They were great! Mother's day is so much more special when the kids make little things for me.

Jared's card had a lot of scribbles on it. Derek had Jared pick out a crayon, so that he (Derek, not Jared) could write "Mom" on it. Jared, of course, picked out a crayon the same color as the paper. I could see it though. :)

Jared's card:


Jenna's card had a bunch of random words on it. It was pretty funny because she doesn't always make her letters correctly, and she forgot to write some of the letters Derek told her, so it had some funny words on it.:) It's supposed to say "she pretty" at the top, but instead it says "petty she." Gee, thanks. On a star she glued to the card it says "spit." That one was on purpose. She wrote "body" on it (I don't know why, so don't ask). However, she accidentally wrote a "p" instead of a "b", and her "d" looks like an "o", and she wrote the "y" far away from the rest of the letters, so it looks like it says "poo." She tried to write "noble" but instead wrote "nople." She wrote the word "secret" (once again, I don't know why). She wrote "I love" backwards, but got distracted and never finished the thought, so we will never know what she loves. I really got a kick out of this card! She is certainly creative.

Jenna's card:


Kevin actually gave me two cards (well three, but I'll get to that one later) and a nice gift that he made at school. The first card he made at school. On the outside it has a flower and says "From your favorite blooming child" On the inside Kevin wrote "you or such cyout ornt you and prity. I love you. Whin the home is dirty I will git riyt to wirck." Translation: "You are such cute aren't you and pretty. I love you. When the home is dirty I will get right to work." Isn't that great! What a doll! Then he drew a picture of a dirty house with him dusting it clean. The other card he made me at church. It said "Mom I love you because" on the outside. On the inside it says "you take cer (care) of me." Then it has some hearts on the back. Very cute. I really do have great kids. He also made this great gift at school with the silhouette of his head. I LOVE it!

This is the card Kevin made at school:



This is the card Kevin made at church:




This is the silhouette Kevin made at school. I am going to frame it.:


I also got a card from a secret admirer who is definitely NOT Kevin (wink, wink). It says "Dear Mom, happy mother's day. Aren't you pretty. Aren't you cute. Love your secret admirer." Then he drew a picture of two playgrounds on the bottom of the card. I love having a secret admirer, and he sure knows all the right things to say. ;) Kevin told me that on the first day of next year I would find out who my secret admirer is. I can't wait!


The card from my "secret admirer":


This is a picture of the kids with their cards they made for me. Kevin was kind enough to hold the one from the "secret admirer", but he covered his face because it wasn't his card :) :


Derek also got me a card. In this house, serious cards don't go too far. We find them to be pretty cheesy and usually just make fun of them (we aren't very sentimental). Of course he waited until yesterday to get a card and all the funny ones were gone. He went to four different stores before he found anything. He decided to get a little creative. He took a card that was sentimental and doctored it a little. It's hilarious. It looks like this really sweet card, but then you read it and it isn't. :) After he doctored it, it read: "Happy Mother's Day to the woman I love. Just one look at the kids when they're with you and I know beyond a doubt that I'm not the only one who is crazy...We all are! Have a wonderful Mother's Day." I laughed really hard when I read it. It was supposed to say "...I'm not the only one who loves you like crazy...we all do." I guess there's no denying the craziness around here!

The card from Derek:


At church they gave all the mothers long stem roses. I thought that was a great gift. I hate it when they give plants. I am so not a gardener. I kill every plant I touch. Derek loves to take care of plants. Every year we get in a fight about the stupid plant they give out for mother's day. I never want to take it, and he always says I have to. Usually I get really annoyed, and he ends up taking it, and taking care of it for a while. He would always take it to work, so I wouldn't feel any obligation towards it. I like already cut flowers. They look pretty. They require no work, and I know they are supposed to die, so I don't feel bad when they do. Obviously all women are not the same. My mom's ward also handed out long stem roses and she was annoyed that she didn't get a plant. Oh well, you guys really just can't please us. :)

My rose:


The primary children (ages 3-11) sang two songs for the mothers ("I Often Go Walking" and "Mother I Love You"). Kevin has always struggled to go up and sing. He is very shy. We told him that he would need to be the brave one this time, since this would be Jenna's first time. When the time came though, he was really hesitant, and didn't want to go. Jenna grabbed him by the hand and drug him up with her. He mostly stood there looking around (even though he knew all the words, we have been practicing at home for the last two weeks). Jenna on the other hand sang loud and clear. She even sang the songs several times for Grandma and Grandpa this evening. She is quite the little performer. It was awesome!

Thunderstorms and The Zoo

We have been having a lot of thunderstorms here lately. Last Saturday Derek and the kids were outside and there was some distant thunder. Jared freaked out and ran inside crying. We coaxed him back outside eventually. He was hanging out with Derek on the hammock when he heard more thunder. This time he didn't say anything. He just got off the hammock and ran as fast as he could inside. On Wednesday night we had a severe thunderstorm. It kept me up because it was so loud. It woke Jared up and he was terrified. Derek calmed him down and went to lay him back in his crib. Right as he did there was a HUGE crack of thunder. That sealed the deal and Jared was not going back to bed. Derek told him he could sleep with us. We are pretty strict about not having our kids in our room, but we felt that this was an OK exception. He slept in between us. I have to say that of all my children he is the easiest to share a bed with. He stays in the same little spot. He doesn't try and press up against you. He even stayed asleep when Derek and I got up at separate times (me to go running, and him to take a shower). Now I have had to practically throw him outside because he is afraid there will be thunder. If he even hears an airplane, he will come inside crying and refuse to go back out even if the rest of us are outside. I hope this is just a phase. :)

Last Wednesday (yes I am a little behind) all of the kindergarten classes at Kevin's school went on a field trip to the Richmond Zoo. It worked out well that it was finals week for Derek, and he didn't have any finals that day. Derek went as a chaperon, but only was in charge of Kevin, which was great. Because Derek drove up separately, he and Kevin were able to stay after all the classes left. They pretty much had the zoo to themselves. It was a great experience for them. Just to warn you, there are a lot of pictures. There were 63 though, so be grateful I didn't subject you to all of them. Ha ha! :)

(Oh, one other thing...I found out the reason we didn't have water one day last week was because of a scheduled upgrade. They thought they could get it done without interruption, but they were wrong. Apparently!!! I was really annoyed when I read that in the local paper. They really couldn't have at least warned us? This is when I really hate monopolies. I don't have any other choice for water. Argh!!)

Enjoy the pictures (You'll notice that Kevin makes a funny face in almost all of the pictures. He refuses to make a "normal" face):

These were some very talented acrobatic monkeys. Kevin thought they were very cool.

I love Kevin's expression in this picture.

That is a huge tortoise behind him.

The children each had a cup of food they could give to the animals. These giraffes would eat out of their hands.

Kevin refused to let it eat from his hand, so this is one of his classmates.

Kevin would only feed the animals that he could throw food to. :)

Kevin and the penguins.

The zoo had a sky ride (i.e. cable cars) that allowed them to see the animals from overhead. Kevin was a little scared at first, but he warmed up (at least a little) by the end.


Derek said when all the Kindergarteners left the noise level in the zoo dropped dramatically. He said the animals were pretty warn out from all the little kids. I think these rhinoceroses paint the perfect picture. I must admit that I often look (or at least feel) like that when my children go to bed each night. :)

The peacocks would just walk along the paths with the people. Pretty cool!

Kevin and the flamingos (sounds like the name of a band, doesn't it?)

Rough Week

This week has been a little rough around here.

It started out well. Monday and Tuesday we a little hot, but there was a nice breeze and it wasn't too humid. Spring is in full bloom here and it is so beautiful. This is my first spring since coming back east after 10 years in Utah, and I am amazed at the beauty of it. I took some pictures of the house. The previous owners did a great job planting beautiful plants, flowers, and trees. Unfortunately I have no idea what types of plants they are.

This tree is a dog wood. Those are very popular here. Charlottesville has a dog wood festival every year. They really are beautiful when they are in bloom. Some areas of the city have rows of them in several different colors.



On Tuesday things were still going well. Jenna had "Field Day" at school. She had been talking about it all afternoon Monday and all morning before school on Tuesday. They had a bouncy castle the kids could jump on. They had some water games (it was 90 here). They had pony rides (that and the castle were Jenna's favorite parts). They did face painting (she wouldn't let me take a picture). And finally, they had "bike day" at the same time so the kids could ride their bikes. They blocked the parking lot so that no cars would get in the way. Jenna had so much fun. I did finally get a couple of pictures of her riding her bike. She is getting pretty good at it.


On Wednesday things started going down hill fast. Kevin got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He came down to tell us that the water was barely trickling out of the faucet. We don't like to be bothered in the middle of the night, so we told him not to worry about it and to go back to bed. Shortly thereafter I got up to use the bathroom. Our faucet was doing the same thing. I told Derek, and he got a little worried that we had a leak. He went out to the crawl space (mind you this was about 5am) to check for a leak. He didn't find anything, so we went back to sleep. When we woke up about 6:30a there was no water at all, not even a trickle. The water company wasn't open for business yet. Derek stepped outside to see if any of our neighbors were without water. Sure enough, no one had water. We are on public water, so there is no excuse for being without water (at least no good one). Everyone that called (myself included) got the run around. They never did reveal why we didn't have water. They said it would be back on around 11am. Like magic it came on at 11am. What a joke! Luckily I have a decent supply of bottled water, so we at least had something to drink. No one could shower (I finally showered around noon), so I decided to clean the house. If we were going to be stuck home dirty I figured I should make the most of it. On top of that, they put a boil advisory in place (meaning we were supposed to boil the water before using it). They didn't bother to actually tell us this, they just posted it at the entrance to our neighborhood. Since I hadn't gone anywhere that day I had been drinking the water. Luckily I was the only one. When I went to the bus stop I found out about the boil advisory, so we drank bottled water for the next two days. Does this seem ridiculous to anyone else? :)

Wednesday afternoon I got a call from the school nurse saying that Kevin had a headache. She gave him some Tylenol. However, when he got home from school I could tell he didn't feel very good. He spent the afternoon in his room (that was due to being grounded for being sassy to his dad and sister earlier in the day). When he came down for dinner he looked terrible and just pushed his plate aside. We could tell he was running a pretty high fever (I rarely take their temperatures, so I don't know what it was). We got him to bed and later that night he threw up. That continued for the next two days. He hasn't thrown up in over 24 hours, so he is improving there. He has also had diarrhea (which I think is improving). He is still running a low grade fever. Curiosity got the better of me on Friday night and I actually took his temperature. It was 102.5, and I could tell he wasn't quite as warm as the night before. He has eaten better today. He seems to have caught a cold on top of everything else though. Poor kid. He missed school Thursday and Friday. He is going to stay home from school again tomorrow. I am hopeful I can send him back on Tuesday. So far no one else has gotten sick, but I am guessing it is only a matter of time.
Here's Kevin asleep on the couch. He has been sleeping a lot.

Saturday morning Derek took Jenna and Jared with him to run some errands. I stayed behind with Kevin. They took some leaves to a big mulching area in our neighborhood. Derek was talking to someone from the HOA and Jenna and Jared were playing in the trunk of the van. Eventually Derek was able to leave, and when he did he realized why they hadn't been bothering him. Jared had found a permanent marker I had left in the car, and had drawn all over the backs of the seats, the ceiling, the walls, the windows and floors. I got it off of the windows, but it stuck everywhere else. For the first time ever, magic eraser failed me. :( (Yes, I have used it to remove permanent marker before). I am going to try toothpaste tomorrow. It may be too late.
Jared's lovely "artwork" (please excuse the crumbs all over the trunk)



Today things seemed to be improving. Kevin is still sick, but I can tell he is doing better. Hopefully this next week will fare a little better for us. :)

Random Experiences from the Week

FYI: This first story is not for the faint of heart. It is also a little graphic.

This week started out with a shocker for us. On Monday morning Kevin woke up early and came down saying that his private part hurt. We told him to go to the bathroom. He did, and that was the end of that...or so we thought. Later that night we were eating dinner, and he started complaining again that his private part hurt. Again we told him to go to the bathroom. This time he was really crying and very upset while he was in the bathroom. I just looked at Derek and said "This is your territory." He replied that he didn't know what he could do, but he would take a look. He was gone a minute or two and Jenna, Jared and I were happily eating our dinner. All of a sudden Derek yelled "Amanda, get in here! I think Kevin has a tick!" I ran into the bathroom and sure enough, a tick had bit Kevin on the tip of his penis. Isn't that awful?! Derek was horrified.
We quickly looked up how to remove it. They are pretty hard to remove. You have to pull really hard and straight so that the head doesn't break off. Any males reading this might be getting queasy thinking about pulling like that. Derek was. :) Derek was able to get it out completely, but we had to hold Kevin down to do it. It was horrible. Kevin recovered fairly quickly afterwards. Derek, on the other hand, took a couple of hours. :)
We called the doctor and she told us what to watch for. I called my sister to tell her, because I just had to tell someone. Her husband is from Virginia, and in med school. He looked up a bunch of stuff for us, and told us some ways to keep ticks off in the future. Ticks are very common here this time of the year. My brother-in-law also told us that it is very common for ticks to bite people in the area where Kevin was bit because it is so dark and warm. As we have related this story to some friends and family, we have learned of many other people who have had a similar experience. Derek and the kids had gone exploring in the woods on Saturday and that is where we think he got the tick. We had neglected to check the kids over after they were done. We won't make that mistake again.

The rest of our week was pretty mild in comparison. Jenna has finally learned to ride her bike (still with training wheels). We bought her a bike last year for her birthday, but she has had no interest in riding it until about two weeks ago. She still needs a little help, but has improved tremendously. I haven't gotten pictures of her riding yet. Hopefully next week.

We have had extremely hot weather for April these last couple of days. It has been in the 90s. We tried to avoid using the AC, but even with the windows open and fans on, it was just too hot. The kids have enjoyed playing outside. The hot weather doesn't bother them. Unfortunately, the AC went out in Derek's car a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully he can get that fixed before it gets really hot and humid. By the middle of this week we should be back to spring temps (i.e. - 60s and 70s). I love spring, so I am anxious to get back to the 60s and 70s. I really need to get some pictures of everything in bloom here. It is beautiful!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures from this week.

Jared got this firetruck from his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa for Christmas. He LOVES it. He plays with it almost every day. I thought he looked adorable riding around on it with the firefighter hat on.

Jared got a few more birthday presents this week from his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. The kids played outside with the chalk and bubbles on Friday. Jared managed to dump all of the bubbles in less than 1 minute. Kevin was heartbroken. I had to remind him that they were Jared's birthday present, so he could do with them as he pleased. Kevin was still annoyed about it.
I was excited that the chalk was HUGE, so it wouldn't break easily. However, my kids managed to break it in less than 5 minutes. I was annoyed about that.


Great Grandma and Great Grandpa also sent Jared an umbrella. He loves his umbrella. He asks for it first thing in the morning. It had rained for several days before he got the umbrella, but it has been nice since he got it. The first few days after he got it, Jared kept saying "Rain, Rain?" It was cute. There is rain in the forecast for this week, so he will be very excited. :)


Both Kevin and Jenna have figured out how to swing on their own by pumping their legs. Kevin figured it out a few weeks ago, and Jenna figured it out this past week. They are pretty excited that they can swing on their own. I am too.



Derek planted some herbs in our planter boxes on the rails of our deck. We have wanted to have fresh herbs for several years. We planted some in Provo, but they didn't take very well. Hopefully these will do better. He planted Chives, Rosemary, Oregano, and Sage. Now I just need to figure out how to use those herbs. If you have any good recipes send them my way. :)


Yesterday we went to D.C. so that Derek and I could attend the LDS temple there. On the way back we stopped at Burger King to get the kids some food. (I had packed them lunch, but had accidentally left half of it at home). They got BK crowns while they were there. Jenna really liked hers and decided to embellish it today with stickers. She is very creative.