S*O*C*C*E*R!!!!

Tate and Brock have taken up a new sport this fall and are absolutely LOVING soccer!!! Brock would not even stop for a picture the day I had my camera at the games. He would be the one on the ground above - he plays so HARD!!! He goes all out and is FAST!!!!

Our number 4!!! GO BROCK!!!

You never miss Tate's team on the fields with their bright orange uniforms and socks!!! Only sports can get kids to wear these crazy colors!!!

Tate was kind enough to give me a nice smile after the game! It's making for a very busy and chaotic fall with three kids in sports... but all is well!!! Everyone is having FUN and that's what counts!!!

Butterfly Release with Mrs. Baum

A few months ago, one of Mark's clients... Mr. Baum passed away. He and his wife never had any children and had no family to speak of. Mrs. Baum asked if Mark and our family would join her and a friend at a special Butterfly Release that was being done by Hospice. We were delighted to spend the afternoon with her and remember Mr. Baum in this unique way.

The sight of literally hundreds of Monarch butterflies in the sky is an amazing sight to say the least!!!

This shot does not even come close to portraying the sky that was literally FULL of butterflies. A total of 300 were released all at once... in memory of those that have passed on, and the loved ones that we left behind.

Reese was mesmerized by the surprise of little butterflies coming out of the boxes. She held a few of the boxes before the release and those poor little wings were just twittering away inside. They wanted out soooo bad!!!

LOVE IT!!! (oh.. and she had to wear the butterfly dress in honor of the occasion!)

Mrs. Baum and her friend.. it was a beautiful day! This is a friend of hers from high school that she has staying in contact with all these years.

Our handsome and beautiful little crew!!! These kids were SOOOO good that day!!!! It was a Sunday afternoon... hot... and they had to be quiet and dressed up. They were amazing! Thanks kids for being so good!

PINKALICIOUS!!!!!

Reese has taken a great liking to the book...Pinkalicious. In the book, the little girl eats SOOO many pink cupcakes, that she actually turns pink! Well, one day when Reese was sick with a bad cold, I promised her that I would make pink cupcakes for her. As you can see from her face... she loved the whole idea of any food that was pink. Especially cake! She couldn't wait for the cupcakes to be done and had to have... of course...pink milk to go with it! Sorry - they didn't stick around long enough to get any after shots... her brothers ate them faster than she did. I guess they hadn't read the book... what if they turned pink? ha ha ha!

Wendy

Garden Bounty

As I have gotten to the end of my garden, we went out last night to start clearing things off and this was all pulled out in the process!!!

We had so many tomatoes in a web of vines that it was becoming impossible to get to the ripe fruit. With many of them so heavy that they were tipping over the tomato cages, I decided it was time to rip out half of them. Looks like we will be making spaghetti sauce tonight... and maybe some fried green tomatoes!

Thanks to seed potatoes from my friend Oralee... we got all these little guys!

Jalapeno poppers anyone??? Maybe jalapeno jelly... something HOT is for sure in the future with all of these!!!

Surprise find... Mark planted carrots in the spring, but they never came up. Or so we thought!!! In removing the tomatoes from our top bed, Mark found these beauties! What a joy it is to have a garden... if only we could get out kids to eat what comes out of the garden!

Can I just say how much we love this handsome kid!!! Tanner is definitely going through the teenage years in full force, but all of that aside what a blessing he is to our family! I just have to share his accomplishments this summer... as most of you may have heard, Tanner has been running quite the lawn mowing business this spring and summer. After his trip to Utah last spring, he came home determined to rebuild his bank account. He decided that he was going to start a lawn mowing business.. and that day he made fliers, delivered them to the entire neighborhood and had his first two customers by the end of the day. Tanner then spent the majority of the summer mowing lawns everyday... 10 customers on a weekly basis to be exact! He has raked in a load of cash and has been able to save a LOT. With a financial planner as a dad.. you can guarantee that savings was a must!!! He also was able to buy a few items for his business including an old John Deere riding mower and a backpack blower.... and still had a little left over to purchase some fun things too. We are so proud of Tanner and his hard work ethic. He has had several comments from customers that he was giving them a much better service than the professional companies that they had hired in the past... and for a much more reasonable price! Way to go Tanner!!! Keep up the good WORK!!! We are proud of you!!!

Happy Birthday Brennan... #11!!!

Brennan had the joy of spending his birthday on the football field in full uniform for the first time. Pop Warner had the Jamboree that day, which meant, he played four games against other teams in a short 20 minute game of 10 minutes offense and 10 minutes defense. He was THRILLED to have a shirt with his name on the back! Ah the little things that kids get excited about!

Love that Birthday smile!!! It was so hot that day!

A shot of the action...

Brennan's prized birthday present... a cell phone! HELLO!!!! I think that we as parents are nuts... but after having several miscommunications with his coach as to what time practice was over, we decided since he was in middle school too that it was time to get him his own phone. With five kids .. three of them having sports practices at the same time, we are not the typical sporting parents. We just cannot physically sit at all the 2 1/2 hour practices and wait like other parents can. Now at least Brennan can call us when they are done and we can come and get him! He has certainly found the benefits of texting all his friends too!

FIESTA!!! After a long day, I was not ready to make a huge birthday dinner for Brennan that evening... so we went out for his next best thing... MEXICAN! Complete with the sombrero and singing waitors. It was a fun night! Happy Birthday Brennan ... we are so lucky to have you in our family!!!

Brennan's Birthday Present... with a Twist!

Brennan - Getting ready for the big game... totally unaware of the security guard in the background that he soon would become familiar with!

Hmmm..."Dad - do you think they just saw me throw that paper airplane?" I hope not!

Ah - I think I'm in the clear!!! This is my birthday present for my 11th birthday and my first time to an NFL game. ( Brennan was SOOOO excited to go with Mark to the game!)

Well - more details now and the real story... Finally safe and sound back in their seats after being detained in the security / police department. It seems that the security guards were walking around carrying a very heavy stick that evening. Brennan, not knowing that it would be against the rules, threw a paper airplane out into the stadium. It seems that the security guards felt this was something that they should be automatically ejected from the game for. However, when they got down to the police department in the bottom of the stadium, the police thought it was the funniest thing ever!!! They said "Are you kidding? ... a paper airplane? and your 11? " They immediately called the head of security and were escorted back to their seats. Now the security department is trying to find a way to make it up to Brennan since he missed a lot of the game and was scared half out of his whits being treated like a full on criminal!!! We'll have to see how the end turns out, but they were very happy to see the Steelers win against the hometown crowd! The jury is still out on whether or not the Steelers apparel got them kicked out or let back in.

OCD ??? I hope NOT!!!

This girl LOVES to wash her hands... a LOT! Several times a day ... soaking her self in the process each time.

Maybe it's the YUMMY smelling soap... or the fact that it comes out as a really fun foam...

but this is always the result! Soap everywhere and a little girl who needs help to get it all off. We even tried hiding the soap for a day, but that's not a good idea with four boys who struggle to wash their hands as it is! So for now... Reese will still have soap to play in.... and Mommy will have a lot of soggy, soapy clothes to wash. Maybe we'll save money on the laundry soap bill!

Back to School 2009

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Let's Get Ready for Some FOOTBALL!!!

Brennan is in all of his glory this year to be finally able to play football. He has begged for the past few years, but this is the first year that Mom finally gave her consent! All dressed in his gear for the first time... but just for practice. He can't WAIT for his real jersey and uniform.

Heisman Trophy Winner in the making... scrimmage night.

"Do I look like a dork with this red hat on my helmet?" It really was quite humorous! Tomorrow is the Jamboree where he will play several different teams all afternoon and then real games will begin next Saturday. Fall is definitely here!

August Updates to Begin

Well as you can tell from the lack of posts for the month of August... it was a busy, busy month! As you can see from the above post, Reese took advantage of a very busy Mommy and was often found entertaining herself. This picture wins the award though - At least she took her clothes and diaper off before she got in the pool! Between entertaining very bored kids to getting kids back in school, dentist appointments, Dr's. appointments, dental work (.. and more dental work)soccer, football, speaking in Stake Conference and much more...it's truly been a month of Kenison Chaos! Now that things are getting a little more settled, I thought that I better try to catch-up on the blog posts before I am so far behind that it never gets done! So with that... on to more excitement ... and hopefully no more nude pictures of my kids either!

This Girl LOVES to TWIRL!!! Nauvoo part two...

Reese absolutely loved her costume in Nauvoo this year. She was so excited each night when it was time to get dressed into costumes. Her favorite part ... other than going on stage... was being able to twirl in her dress. On this night, I just snapped a bunch of shots... barefoot and all. She cried the night we had to turn her costume back in. She was quite the little actress also. She was cast as Fiona Laird, daughter of Robert and Becky Laird. She loved her time on stage with Shanti and Darren (Becky and Robert) even if the first night she cried into the microphone..."I want my Mommy!" From that night on... she was loving her time on the stage. She could often be heard making up her own lines... talking about loving the temple. Shanti and Darren were very good to ad lib with her during the show as she talked about the temple. It was such a great experience for us all, but it was an extra special treat to see how our children were able to participate and share their love for the gospel... no matter how young they were. We can only hope that we will be blessed again next year to have the opportunity to go and serve. Only 13 more days until applications open for next year!!!