WANTED: Front tooth by Christmas!

With several more wiggly teeth in the works, Brock is going to be eating nothing but milkshakes soon! Hooray for losing his first front tooth... and he's still in kindergarten! The tooth fairy is staying very busy here!

Like Mother, Like Daughter...

Reese too has developed a LOVE of gardening! She has had a blast playing in the dirt and planting flowers and vegetables with mommy.

She is not afraid one bit to get really, really dirty in the process too.

But then there are times when she is ALL GIRL!!!! GIRLY GIRL!!! Don't mess with her when it comes to her personal purse selections and playing with her cell phone! Man we are in deep trouble!

Clean Floor No More!!!

Do those sad puppy dog eyes on Reese say it all or what! Mom learned a valuable lesson and so did Reese. I had put some 2 liter bottles of soda on the bakers rack shelf in the kitchen and Reese decided that she would try to open one... by dropping it on the floor! It exploded and shot all the way to the back door almost 15 feet away! Note that it was NOT diet either! Pure sugar water all over my clean floors. Brock thought that is was hilarious and wanted to get in on the action... Reese was a little but shocked by the whole episode... I don't think she'll try to do that again. Let's hope not at least!

For the Music Lovers Out There...

Flashback Time - What the rest of us did while the boys were away...

We made the best of the first day by heading to Chuck E. Cheese since it was pouring down rain all afternoon.
Cute now - but someday it won't be her big brother she's riding on the back of a motorcycle with and then we will have heart failure!
Reese's turn to ride - she loved the kids area!
Riding Bob the Builder got big smiles!
Everyone had to ride the tractor with Barney!
On Friday night, Reese had her first ever night at home with the babysitter - no brothers home this time. Mom scored big on her date with Brennan and Brock with tickets to the Bobcats game. Although the seats were not the greatest - we thought we were watching minature men play basketball.
Brennan and Brock had a great time despite the bad seats. Brock was VERY into the whole experience - he cheered so loud, danced with the best of them and booed at the refs when needed!
Too busy watching to take a picture.
Brennan with our $5.50 soda that took 40 minutes of standing in a line to get and then they were out of straws in the entire building. I told the boys they would drink it off the floor if it spilled!
Saturday was gorgeous - we were able to play outside in between watching conference on tv.
Reese just loved swinging with Brennan - what a great big brother he is!
By Sunday, the partying had taken it's toll and Brock amazing fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon!
This little one was not far behind... she had to try and get the Easter Bunny to sleep first. Notice the patting motion of her hand in the picture. She tried to burp the heck out of that bunny!

Happy Easter!

Reese was definitely camera shy on Easter Morning, but she still looked beautiful!!! I had bought this dress for her last summer on clearance at Strasburg Children's Co. and was sooo happy to have it fit her this year! It was well worth the wait!

My aren't they all growing up! Look at those handsome young men!

And yes.. the long "Nauvoo" hair is rapidly returning!

Reese - are you still looking for Easter eggs? ... or CHOCOLATE!

Oh how we loves these kids!!! They truly are the greatest blessings we have!

“May the laughter of children gladden our hearts. May the faith of children soothe our souls. May the love of children prompt our deeds. ‘Children are an heritage of the Lord’ (Ps. 127:3.)” President Thomas S. Monson

Boys Trip 2009 - Salt Lake City, Utah!!!

Salt Lake City Trip 2009

This is only a beginning to the report from the recent trip to SLC for Mark, Tanner and Tate. What a great time they all had and I promise the memories will last for ever!!! Above is a picture of Mark, Tanner and Tate in front of the Salt Lake City Temple for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This is also the temple that Mark and I were married in too - 14 1/2 years ago!!!

In November, Tanner turned 12 and received the priesthood for our church. This is a right of passage and a great responsibility that is given to the young men of our church. Tanner now helps to pass the sacrament on Sundays and also now has several service responsibilities that are associated with holding the priesthood. Our church holds an annual and semiannual conference in Salt Lake every October and April each year. For two days, we are able to watch on tv via satellite or on the Internet, leaders of our church give us guidance and counsel. The meetings are always so uplifting and encouraging on ways that we can improve our own personal lives, as well as our marriages, families and relations with others in our communities.

On Saturday evening, on the weekend of the conference there is a special meeting just for the men and young men in the church who hold the priesthood (ages 12 and up), called Priesthood Session. I had the thought several months back, that it would be such a neat experience for Mark and Tanner to be able to actually be in person at his first Priesthood Session that he was able to attend... and thus began the quest for inexpensive airline tickets. Tate was next in line to take a trip with Daddy so he was also invited to come along on the trip. After a long search we were able to make the trip happen with round trip tickets around $200 and free sleeping accommodations thanks to Mark's parents!

On April 1st, Mark and the boys flew to SLC and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Kenison's to stay. This was also the first time in 4 years that any of our family had been out to Utah, so it was a welcome treat for all. They then spent as much time as possible running all over the valley seeing as many things as they could in the short amount of time they had. They went snow tubing, visited our old homes, saw a pro soccer game, air force museum, etc. There will be many stories that come out of this visit, but for now we will say that it was a HUGE SUCCESS and a GREAT time had by all. I'll have to post pictures in the coming days of all the adventures - they'll have to be a slide show since there are sooo many pictures!

Here begins a new family tradition... Brennan and Brock are already counting down the days till they can take their trip out for Brennan's first meeting... October 2010!!!

Fishing Derby 2009

Tanner casting for the Big One with his homemade stink bait!... ask him for the recipe!
Brennan getting a worm ready for Mr. Stanelle... hoping for a bass today!
Tate was the fishin' king... they flocked to his line! He reeled in over 13 fish in just 2 hours.
Brock even had great success with the Mickey Mouse fishing pole! Time to add to the pole collection - this one's getting a little small!
Miss Fishing Derby 2009 - Reese Kenison... she loved watching all the action and was proud to announce that she "touched a fishy!!!"
Serious business going on here!
Tate was the winner of the First Fish Caught - at 8:07am, just 7 minutes into the race! (Don't mind the scary white eye - gotta love the flash on the camera... he doesn't really have eye issues!)

Why You Should NOT go to MarthaStewart.com for organizational ideas...

Then you end up with some closet that should have music playing when you open it... "Little White sheet sets with blue satin sashes.... Towels that are folded instead of just smashes... Beach towels and washcloths all tied up with string... these are a few of my favorite things."

HELLO!!! I think that I've officially LOST IT!!!! Now NO ONE can change their sheets or touch the towels because Mom will go crazy!!! Blast that Martha Stewart - these are not ideas for REAL people!!!

She Sleeps...

There came a day in Reese's life that she decided she was NOT going to sleep in her crib another day. So we tried and tried to get her to stay there but always found her on the floor...
Or in the rocking chair in her room. Often, it would be accompained by a HUGE mess that she would create in her room. She loved to read all her books and spread them all over the floor, and then she would try on every pair of socks she owned and then pull out all of her drawers of pants and PJ's too. In the end we would always have a very tired little girl and plenty of messes to clean up.
Then one day, I came home to find the above... Mark was watching her while I went to the dentist and he got a call in his office. Thinking that she was contently watching Little Einsteins, he did not check on her because she was quiet and the business call was taking a long time. When I cam home he smiled and motioned out to the family room where she was. I walked into the kitchen and then caught sight of her and RAN to her thinking something had gone seriously wrong - this stiff little body lay FACE DOWN on the hard table and surely this was not by choice. I was TERRIFIED!!! As I got down next to her, I heard a sleepy stuttered sigh, only to find that she was SOUND ASLEEP, sleeping like a baby - right on the hard table! I then grabbed my camera and snapped this shot. How could I resist. I went to Mark and showed it to him, only to find out that he had NO idea that she was asleep out there like that!!! Daddy Day Care - HA!!!
To remedy the sleep / bed boycott problem - and try to fix her from always thinking that she had to sleep in Mom and Dad's room - we gave her our queen size bed and we finally bought a King (after two years of the King size headboard waiting in the garage - but that's another story!) Now we are proud to say that she actually LIKES to sleep in her bed and HAPPILY goes there for naps and bedtime too. Does she stay there all night - well.. we're still working on that, but at least we have more room for her now!

Yes - We are still Alive!

O.K. - So I know that it's been a LONG time since I have blogged and now I'm starting to hear a lot of complaints! While I'm in the process of updating and getting things on here - I'll give you a funny scenario to contemplate...

While at the dinner table a few days ago, the boys where all discussing the latest Fishing Derby at our neighborhood pond... more to come on that later! Everyone was trying to determine what the best bait was that we used. There were some who believed in the good old fashion methods like these...
And others who were a little more experienced chose these...
And then one certain little boy ... BROCK... thought that you should use these...

Because then you would see these...

when the fish FARTS from too many beans!!! You got to LOVE the minds of little boys!!!!

More to come from the Kenison Chaos shortly!