Our Time in Utah

While in Utah, I wasn't very good at taking pictures. I was too busy enjoying my time with our friends and family. Our first day there we spent with Kyle's brother Kory and his family. Kizzy and Kendal loved playing with their cousins and it was fun for Kyle and I to spend time with Kory and Amber as they are anticipating the arrival of their #3, a little girl.

Kizzy playing with Andrew
After a day with Kory and Amber we drove down to Provo and settled in. That night we got to see some of our dearest friends Fuzzy and Stacey. Sadly, I took no pictures of our time with them.
The next day we hung out with Jared and Mary Ann which is always a good time. And that evening we went to dinner with Newel and Rachel. Again, no pictures of any of them.

Besides friends we had a lot of fun with cousins! We went to the mall with Ivy and Katie.


Kendal, Kizzy and Ivy in their strollers.

We played at Aunt Sharyn's house with Katie, Melissa, Hannah, Malakai, and Ivy almost every day.
Kyle, Malakai, Kizzy and Kendal

We had the chance to go see one of Kyle's mission buddies, Jeff. Jeff and Brandi's little guy, Dylan, is adorable! He and Kizzy played very well together and when they told him to give Kizzy a hug, he went and gave her a great big kiss right on the lips.


Dylan and Kizzy watching "Curious George" together

And the featured event of the week, Doug's graduation from Highschool. I'm very proud of him for graduating, especially considering how tough the last year has been for our family. Way to go Baby Brother!

Typical boys, trying to get a good picture, and they can't put down their phones. Just kidding, only one of them was on their phone, the other pulled his out of his pocket and staged the pose, can you tell which is faking? I love my brothers.

And last on this post, but not least we had a two year old birthday party for the 'twin' cousins. 2 of my sisters had their kids exactly one week apart and they had the same due date so they call Ivy and Malakai 'twin' cousins. There was cupcakes and baloons and every one had a good time.

The birthday girl.
Somehow I didn't get a picture of the birthday boy.

The cupcakes were delicious, can you tell?

Our Drive to Utah

So my pictures uploaded out of order, so this isn't chronologically correct, but you'll get the idea.
In May we went out to Utah to visit my family who all came into town for my youngest brother's highschool graduation. The drive is long, especially with kids, so we took some stops along the way to break up the drive and make it a little more fun.

Our first night on the road we stopped to sleep in Custer, South Dakota. Custer is a fun town right out side of Rapid City. It's close to MT Rushmore and has many attractions. One of our favorites is Bed Rock City, aka Flintstone Land.

For dinner the first night we stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota home to the worlds only Corn Palace. The sign and pillars in the picture below is made entirely from ears of corn and cornhusks.

Kendal struggled with the hours in the car. He hasn't quite become the road tripping pro that Kizzy has become in her short years. He struggled and fought it, but thankfully he did sleep....some.

Kizzy kept herself entertained easily. She watched cartoons, read books, colored and napped.

One thing that helped Kendal was, he snacked almost constantly. And, since we were on vacation, he ate more junk and sweets than normal, including his first sucker. He was one happy boy!

On our first day on the road we stopped in Jeffers, MN.

Kendal loved our first stop. He loves being out side and he loves the wind, and it was a very very windy day.

I took a lot of pictures of the petroglyphs, but this is the only one that showed up. It was really cool to walk amoung the ancient native american carvings.

"Little House" fans like me will appreciate this picture. Jeffers, MN is about 20 miles from Walnut Grove, MN which is where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived during the years of "On the Banks of Plum Creek" The site that Jeffers Petroglyphs is on is a protected Prairieland that is one of the only protected prairies in the US and is exactly the same as it was hundreds of years ago. It struck me looking at the landscape, that this is what Laura was looking at when she was a child. The picture of course does not capture the scope of the landscape.

And last but not least, to help our Potty Trainee, we brought her potty seat with us in the car, so when she needed to go, we pulled over on the side of the road so she could go. We'd empty the potty on the side of the road (biodegradable, right?) and we would be on our way. It worked great for a girl who notoriously waits until the very last second to go.

More to come, our time in UT spent with friends and family, including Newman Family pictures.

Easter, Finally

Easter this year started off with a fun package from Grandma Newman in the mail. A coloring book and bunny straws prompted Kizzy to start talking about her "Gamma Noonan". The Saturday before Easter we hosted an egg hunt with our friends the Sorenson's and Youngquist's. We had a very yummy brunch of muffins, scones, fruit and juice.

Kizzy found her first egg!

We filled Kendal's eggs with Gerber Graduates Snacks.

Kizzy's stash

Later that night we colored eggs.

I made deviled eggs for Easter Dinner.

Kizzy's all ready for dyeing.

Easter Morning, we discovered what the Easter Bunny brought to our house. Kendal's favorite was the grass in his bucket.

Kizzy's basket was full of toys, most of which were Mickey Mouse themed.

Showing off their new Easter outfits.

Kizzy's Easter dress.

Kendal's Easter clothes. What a cutie!

Bunnies, Babies and Bruises

On Saturday we went to an Easter Egg Hunt with our friends the Youngquists. We had to wait outside for an hour and it was freezing! Kizzy and Hannah stayed warm by eating their chicken nuggets and dancing to the dj's music. Inside they were able to pick out 4 eggs and inside the eggs were numbers associated with prizes. Kizzy won a big stuffed bunny, a purple hat, a coloring book, and some treats.

Kyle and Kendal stayed bundled up to stay warm.

Kizzy met a girl dressed up like a bunny.

Today in nursery Kizzy was playing. Apparently she tripped and fell on a toy. Long story short, she has her first black eye. It's quite a shiner. And this picture doesn't show how bad it is.

On the babies note, I'm so excited at how many babies are coming up in my life, and I don't have to be pregnant! My sister in law is having a girl, my sister is having a boy. My friend Jackie is having a girl, my friend Kimberly is having a girl, my friend Marianne hasn't found out yet and my friend Maren just announced. So many babies! I love it.

Look what I made!

My good friend Maren Cleavenger opened a whole world to me. She took the time to teach me how to crochet. And I love it! I cannot thank her enough for giving me this practical and fun skill. I'm hooked! (no pun intended) Mickey and Minnie Pillows I made for Kizzy's bedroom.

The scarf I made for my Mother in law.

The Minnie Mouse pillow

A bag I made for Hannah Youngquist's birthday

Scarf I made for my mom

Bag I made for Kizzy

Kizzy modeling her hat

Scarf I made for Kurt

Newborn booties that I am very proud of, I created

the pattern for this on my own.

Kizzy and Kendal

Besides the purple bow and the blue hat, I would have a hard time telling these two apart. Lately I've been thinking how lucky I am to have these two little ones in my life. And I want you all to get to know my babies.

Katherine Isabel Holker aka Kizzy

FACTS

-born August 19, 2008

-named for Kyle's grandmothers

THINGS PROMISED IN PRIESTHOOD BLESSINGS

-She chose our family

-She was sent to us first so she could be my helper with her younger siblings

-She and I would have a good relationship

-She will be a blessing in my life

-She was blessed with intelligence and beauty

-She was blessed with strength

-She and Kendal will be good friends

LIKES

-Mickey Mouse

-Doing everything BY HERSELF!

-Kendal

-any toy that is small and pink

-tv (she is a tv junkie)

-Mickey Mouse

-car trips

-the store with the big red balls (Target)

-Mickey Mouse

-stars

-stories

-peanut butter

-Mickey Mouse

-cookies

-more peanut butter

-Elmo

-nursery

-wearing pretty things

-her friend Nanan (Hannah)

-pajamas

-showers and swimming

-And Mickey Mouse

DISLIKES

-Any food that is not peanut butter, cookies, ice cream, french fries, or cheese.

-pants

ATTRIBUTES

-she is so good at sharing

-she also wants to have Kendal included in everything she does

-she is silly

-she is lovable, giving hugs and kisses all the time

-she is strong willed and knows what she wants

-she is very friendly and greets people with "Hi, I Teezee! What's your name?"

-she goes around the house almost constantly singing, some favorites are "twinkle twinkle little star", "I am a child of God" and a large variety of songs that were made up by Kyle and I. (My personal favorite is one she and Kyle collaborated on "I got you, do do do")

-she doesn't nap anymore which isn't so bad once I found she actually has LESS tantrums now than she did when I made her nap.

-she potty trained herself and gave up her pacifier habit completely by herself in the same week

-she is a creature of habit and absolutely NEEDS routines in everything, she has routines within routines (example, brushing teeth has it's own routine, which is part of bedtime routine. Washing hands has it's own routine which is part of potty routine.) It can be tiring to be the only person who can do it "right" and frustrating when you need to speed things up and try to cut corners.

-she is very inquisitive and at the stage where she contantly asks "what's that?" and "what ya doin'?"

-she loves wishing people Happy Birthday

-she has a great imagination and it's really fun listening to her play

Kendal Hyrum Dennis Holker

FACTS:

-He was born June 30, 2010

-Kendal is a different form of Ken, his Grandpa Holker. Hyrum, is after Hyrum Smith and we chose it for the example Hyrum Smith was as an older brother. Dennis is after his Papa Newman who we wanted to honor, we chose this before his Papa was ever diagonosed with cancer. We are especially grateful we gave him this name since his Papa passed away when Kendal was 12 days old.

PRIESTHOOD BLESSINGS

- He, like Hyrum, will be an exemplary older brother

-He is a comfort and a joy to me in particular, but to all in his family

- He was specially chosen for our family_

-He will be intellegent and wise

-He will be a strong leader in the church

LIKES

-Food!

-Playing with spoons

-playing the piano

-Kizzy

-mirrors

-music

-chewing on his socks

-his Grandpa

DISLIKES

-things being taken away from him (he gets bright red in the face and yells in the face of whoever took it.)

-waiting for food

-bonking his head ( other minor bumps or bruises are no big deal but if he bonks his head, not only does he cry in pain, he gets mad and yells at me.)

ATTRIBUTES

-he's mastered sitting up and can scoot on the ground only when lying on his back, he still hates tummy time, so who knows when we can expect crawling.

-he is so happy and easy going

-he is going on 3 solid months of teething symptoms with still no teeth.

-he is a flirt

-he is great at falling asleep in his bed, but nowhere else. (so if we are away from home, he will not nap)

-his way of giving loves is to get a really serious face expression before leaning in and deliberately head butting.

-he is super ticklish

-he lights up like a light bulb when ever he sees Kizzy

-he loves his bath time so much the majority of his head bonks come from him getting so excited he loses his balance.

- if he can't fall asleep right away when we put him down, he taps the side of his bed until he falls asleep.

All in all, I am so lucky and blessed to be their Mommy.

Mickey Mouse?

Kizzy LOVES Mickey Mouse. She goes around the house making up songs about Mickey Mouse and I often hear her chattering about Mickey Mouse. She also sees him in everything. Any thing that remotely resembles a larger blob with 2 smaller blobs as the ears is Mickey Mouse to her. So earlier this evening when I heard her repeating "Mickey Mouse! Mickey Mouse!" from the bathroom, I didn't think much of it. Her chatter became more persistant and when she threw in a few "Mommy! Mickey Mouse! Mommy! Mommy!" I came to see. Well, remember what I said about a blob with 2 smaller blobs? Apparently, Kizzy had gone potty..... enough said. Needless to say, Kyle and I are still laughing our heads off. Priceless. Especially when flushing she called out, "Bye Mickey Mouse! Have fun!"