From Wasilla, AK...The Kellys!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Mason Zayne is mobile!

So obviously I haven't blogged much lately - been spending time relaxing and getting those mani-pedi's.... whatever! Amisdt the diapers, dishes, laundry and taxi services to practices, this year is absolutely flying by.

I cannot believe spring break is over and we are beginning the fourth quarter of Brandon's final year in Elementary School. He is currently beginning a Geothermal Power Plant science fair project where he will demonstrate using steam to generate electicity. He also participated in the regional speach competition this last month. He was one of 10 kids that won their school competition and were able to compete at the regional level. He made his dad proud and argued the benefits of hydroseeding lawns. He also just completed both his volleyball and basketball seasons. Inevitably, he had both practices on Mondays and Wednesdays so we were very busy with that. His basketball skills continue to develop and he has become quite the player. We are, without a doubt, so proud of all his accomplishments as well as what a sweet young man he has become.

Donovan returned from his 6.5 week trip with his A'pa and Nana. They traveled to Albuquerque, Dallas, Clovis, San Diego, Seattle, Canada, and many stops inbetween. The favorite stop, without doubt, was Disneyland where he was spoiled beyond belief! I am so glad that he was able to have that special time with them. He returned home taller, more traveled and so much more mature! I don't think he missed us as much as we missed him though - he told me "I think I was having more fun than you, Mom!" With all said and done he has already seen more than twice the world that his dad has been able to travel! He has been working on his alphabet and writing, he knows the alphabet minus about 5 letters, can write his name, and is an amazing little artist. His eye for detail is impeccible. We haven't quite mastered the shoe-tie but it should be a done deal long before the first day of Kindergarten this fall.

Tysen is big and busy. He is now three and very loud. He is our "go-go" child and is always on the move with hoot and a hollar. Literally. I sometimes feel like I should use earplugs around the child. He is such a blessing though and gives the sweetest big-lipped kisses. Between Hot Wheels and his train table, much of his day is devoted to his toys, but he has sparked a deep interest in books and reading as of late. With four children it is sometimes hard to do a nightly story, but we do our best. And sometimes, depending on the length of the book, he can convince us to even read two. He got a pair of kids snow goggles for his birthday and wears them on his forehead all day long, I will have to post a pic of that...

Mason is on the move and he is mobile! Hardly seems possible that he should be pulling up on things, and crawling around, but he is. He is 22 lbs now and just turned 9 months. He can say Mama, Dada and what appears to be a version of Num num.He has kept his crazy blue eyes and has the crazy light hair to go with them. His hair is always standing straight up so we usually wet his hair and let him rock the faux hauk. Phillip says I keep babying him too much but I am just fearing the day when I won't be able to baby them.
I cherish my boys and enjoy every day with them. I love creeping in their rooms at night and watching them sleep so peacefully. They are such blessings, such wonders to behold. For those of you far away, I wish you could see them.

Tysen's Birthday

Our Little Tysen Layne turned THREE!!!

Playing Eskimo Bingo

My two sweet Railway Engineers. I'd ride with them anyday!

We had Tysen's 3rd Brithday party and he wanted a Thomas Train party. I ordered some cute Engineer hats on eBay and got red bandanas to go with them and the kiddos looked so cute. We had family and friends over, ate lunch, played Eskimo bingo, ate cake and whooped it up. Ty tells me he is "big" now.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Family Portrait at -7 degrees

So I was waiting for a pretty day for our annual Christmas card picture. We had had about a foot and a half of fresh snow in the last couple of days and the sun actually peeked out for about a half hour today. I called my parents over and mom played photographer while my dad tried to keep all the little ones staring forward at the camera (a task much harder than it sounds.) lol I haven't decided which of the three pics I will use yet, but I am so late this year, I figure what's another day of deciding? lol. Definitely true Alaskan Christmas pics huh?

Albuquerque, 12/2009

My dear husband watched the three older boys so I could take Mason on a week trip to Albuquerque, NM to visit my grandparents and other relatives. I had such a wonderful time! We traveled to Clovis to see my grandparent's new home and to visit my Aunt Sonia and her family. Temperatures were almost as cold in NM as they were in Alaska! I couln't believe it. They were breaking record temperatures and had the coldest temps on record since the early 1930's. We drank plenty of Hot cocoa though and had fun playing games, eating and being togther. Thank you Phillip!

2009 Gingerbread Experience

So every year since Brandon was about two years old, we have always bought a gingerbread kit at Costco and had fun decorating it together. Last year, Donovan was upset because he was left out so this year I decided we would all have fun and all three boys would construct their own house. Mom and I went to Fred Meyer and they had the kits.... a house or this REALLY cool Gingerbread train. I knew I just had to have a train but the price was $12.99 each! .... That was like $40!Seemed awfully expensive so mom said "that is way too much....... let's just make our own!" Of course, what a grand idea! What fun and how CHEAP and easy! We made our way to the baking aisle and found the molasses. The next stop was to the candy aisle where we shopped for the best bargains. I began to wonder if by the time we added it all up whether or not it was really that "cheap," but it still seemed like the best alternative. And besides that, we were going to have such fun making them, right?

At mom's house that night, with the little kids catching a nap, Mom and Brandon mixed up the dough, he measured it all out into the kitchenaide and had a blast. When the little kids woke up from their naps, they saw all the candy on the table and were ready to go. I had to inform them that we first had to make the gingerbread pieces before we could decorate them. (my first pleas.... but not my last pleas for patience).

We didn't have any cookie cutters to make houses, much less trains, so I grabbed mom's Cutco butcher knife and began rolling out the dough and cutting out various shapes that I thought we needed. "They're not going to match." my mom warned me...But hey, It was going to be fine, I assured her. In order to cool them more quickly, as the cookies came out of the oven, I took them outside in the frigid temperatures to cool. Okay, now mom not only had flour and pieces of raw cookie dough on her floor, but now she also had a cookie fragmet trail from the oven to the counter (where I first thought I would let them cool) to the door and then outside. oops, sorry mom.

Lucky for me, gingerbread cookies, despite how thick they are, cool very quickly at 2 degrees F. Oh wait... "Mom, you need to make the frosting! Quick it is already 8:30!" Mom whipped up her concoction and we were ready to go. I figured we would let Donovan and Tysen go first and then Brandon could spend more time afterwards doing his own. I asked him to be D's helper, and sat down next to Ty. One glance at my train pieces told me that none off them were going to work for the little boys. I looked at the boys who were already getting impatient. Mommy decided to resort to Plan B.... "We're just going to make houses, not trains." I told them. I handed Brandon four pieces for walls and began trying to glue four walls together with white frosting for Ty.

My mind began to wonder....
Hmmm..... Those kits had the pieces already cut out ....and they all MATCHED .....and they had groves IN the board on which they were supposed to stand....funny how I never appreciated the simplicity of it all in years past.
Making four different-sized pieces fit together onto a flat board proved much harder than our usual annual assembly. I happened to notice that at this point, mom has left us and has now joined Dad in the living room, watching t.v.... what?! Brandon and I both managed to get the sides up... with several collapses of course..... and then grabbed the pieces for the roof. .... Great, they were TOO BIG! I grabbed the knife again, ready to remedy that situation... I sliced the piece in half and smothered it with frosting. That oughta make it stick... right?.......wrong. At this point I yelll out the only smart thing to do........."Mom!!!!" (See we may grow up, but we don't ever grow out of it.)

Mom returns to the kitchen with a smug smile on her face, tires not to laugh at me and gets the graham crackers I ask for. I open the package to find out they are all broken.... great. Mom reaches for the second package of crackers, she realizes they are not broken. Awesome! I begin to attach them as a make-shift roof. the graham crackers break .... This isnt working either. This is so NOT as smooth as I had imagined it would all go.... I smile at Tysen and tell him,"Hey! Guess what! We are going to make New Mexico style gingerbread houses... Adobe House Style!" you know, they ones with the flat roofs? I slather on some more frosting and lay graham crackers flat on the roof. Brandon follows suite. Mom is making fun of me at this point so I decide to attempt a second layer of graham to achieve a true raised roof. Ah, and succeed.... sort of.
I notice a darastic color differentiation between the color of the gingerbread and the light color of the graham cracker. Oh well, many houses have roofs that are a different color, right?

Now that it is already late, it is time to start letting the kids decorate. Donovan really got into it. Ty on the other hand, was more interested in eating the candy. It is a good thing I decided to ignore how much he was eating and never really knew exactly how much he had consumed in that sitting. I kept telling him that he was supposed to put them on his house, not eat them....So when reminded, he would take the candy OUT OF HIS MOUTH and then place it ON his house. Yummy. Ty's house has many candies with teeth marks in them or slobberified/chewified pieces stuck on it. So, note to anyone reading this, do NOT eat from the house TY and I made. Or at least you have been forewarned.

The boys finished up and the houses, (despite my mom and I's silly remarks throughout the whole ordeal) turned out REALLY cute. I mean.... where could you buy one of these? Nowhere I tell you! These are Bonafide.... ORIGINAL, BABY! And the boys were so proud of them. Ty was covered in goo but Dad took him and Donovan to go watch a movie. Brandon and I began constructing our Gingerbread Train..... then mom helped up decorate it. We were getting pretty tired at this point but gave it our best efforts. We thought it turned out pretty cute too.

So, even though we figured out we probably ended up paying just as much for them, our homemade gingerbread versions turned out to be a fun success. They were cute, original and a lot of fun. Hey, maybe we have a new tradition.... But on second thought.... maybe that box at the store wasn't so expensive after all! lol Ask me again in about 365 more days.

Enjoy the pics..... and Merry Christmas to you all.... Love,