What have we been up to???

What have we been doing with all of our free time this week? Well in between all of the "That's mine, give it back" and "I'm mad at you!" statements, we have done some fun things. The boys ended Christmas day with a hunting practice. They printed out a target and practiced shooting at it. They of course found a tree to climb!

On Monday we went to The Playground 4 Kids- a huge warehouse filled with inflatables and slides!

One of my Christmas gifts was a new desk to put in the living room so we could get the computer upstairs. I love it!!!! We had an empty desk downstairs and I decided to turn it into the kids' craft area! Connor is in heaven!!! He loves being able to sit down there and create all kinds of wonderful things. I am going to love having that mess downstairs instead of in my living room!!!

We are having a good week, but I am ready for them to go back to school!!! We are having some friends over tonight to ring in the new year and have a friends' wedding this weekend that we are doing the music for. We wish you all a Happy New Year!

Celebrating Christmas!!

The celebrating started last night with a slumber party in the living room. We made pizzas and popcorn and tried to watch a Christmas video. I say tried because the first one we chose was "A Christmas Story". Neither Andy or I had seen it in a long time and didn't remember the bad language so it got turned off within the first 5 minutes. The second one we rented was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and it wouldn't run for some reason. So- Disney's "The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe was on TV and we ended up watching that. There were a few intense moments that we changed the channel for, but all in all they enjoyed it. We had read the book, so it was fun to hear comments like, "That's how I pictured it would look," and "I have been wanting to see this movie for a 150 years," (Connor).

Christmas day started with stockings, breakfast, and then presents. Some of the highlighted presents were a tie blanket for Kaelynn. And for the boys....... RED RYDER BB GUNS!!!! To fill you in on the excitment over these gifts, they are out right now shooting them. Carson couldn't stop talking about it all morning and had plenty of practice on how to cock it, shoot it, and put the safety on.

After a morning of playing with new games and practicing gun safety, we enjoyed a great dinner together. On the menu- ham, twice-baked potatoes, scalloped corn, and lefsa.

For dessert we made a birthday cake for Jesus and a pecan pie. They were both delish!!!!!!!!!!

As much as we miss family, we are thankful that God has blessed us with each other! We hope everyone has had a great Christmas and we look forward to a wonderful new year with new blessings! Merry Christmas!

Brothers and sister!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Julianna!!!

The kids wanted to give their cousin Julianna who lives in East Asia a birthday greeting! It's hard to see the sign, but Connor wrote out Happy Birthday Julianna all by himself!!!!

Snow fort

Thank you to the city of Ames snow plows for providing my children with hours of snow enjoyment. They plowed all the snow from the street onto our property and we now have a 5 ft. pile of snow on the west side of our lot. This was the result of the hour of play on Saturday! Thanks to daddy for all his hard work!

Morning routine needs help

So getting two 5 year old boys out the door to go to school has become quite the stressful event at our house. I emphasize the word boys because I am feeling right now that their attention span when it comes to focusing on the task at hand is shorter than Kaelynn's attention span at the age of two!!! I truly believe that this is somewhat of a boy/girl thing. Anyways, whether I am right about that or not, the morning routine is needing some help. I realized that sending them off to school was pretty much an unpleasant start to the day -every day!!!

We now have a checklist hanging by the door for them to use in the morning. Unfortunately this idea came to me the day before Christmas break, so we will have to implement it in two weeks. Maybe we can practice it some over the break :) If anybody else has any great ideas for a stress-free way of getting your kids off to school- I welcome them!!!

Christmas Program video...

The post with the Christmas program video is now posted. You need to scroll down past the gingerbread house post and it will be next. I wrote the story and tried several times to get the video on and it finally worked today. It posted on the date it was created though! Enjoy!

Gingerbread Houses

Today was a fun day. Kaelynn and I joined the boys at school for a gingerbread house party. We decorated the houses and had a cookie snack and listened to two very cute stories about gingerbread boys. We had a great time and they all did very well on their houses.

I am trying to get the video of the Christmas program on the blog for those who weren't able to tune in on Sunday morning, but for some reason it isn't working too well. I will keep trying though!

Christmas Program

This past Sunday was the children's Christmas program at church. This year the kids sang in both services with the older children helping to lead the worship for the adults. I got the joy of being on worship team this Sunday and so it was a great joy for us all to be able to worhsip together. Connor and Carson's class sang three songs- Come On Ring Those Bells, Away In A Manger, and Baby Jesus We Love You. The last song is defintely the favorite song and I am including a video of that one as they seem to sing the best on that one. We are very proud of them!

Snug as a bug...

So I came home from my afternoon out to find two of my three children sleeping. The lump next to Kaelynn is Carson. He sleeps with a blanket over his head (don't ask me why). Vicki was watching them and Kaelynn went to lay down first. About an hour later she realized she didn't know where Carson was and went to find him. He was sleeping with Kaelynn :) We were out late last night and the kids were very tired this morning. This is defintely a first though. Another amazing part of this is that Kaelynn has taken a nap two days in a row. Yesterday she was down for three hours. This has not happened since she was at least 18 months old. I guess the exhaustion of the season is taking more of a toll on our family than it has in the past. Sweet dreams little ones!!!

Christmas baking

Christmas baking is in full swing around here. We started with one of the kids' favorites and also one of the messiest- almond bark pretzels. I was a little leary after the last few years, as their fine motor skills just weren't quite developed and they usually turned out to be more sprinkles than pretzel. This year I was pleased to see that the fine motor skills for sprinkling in a "not-so-messy" way finally developed (for the boys at least- Kaelynn was another story)!!! It was a much more calm and relaxed adventure and was actually quite fun. I tried to focus on really encouraging the positive and good sprinkling behavior and it was quite catchy. I heard many comments from the boys like: "Wow, that's a great pretzel!" "Don't these pretzels look lovely?" "Mom I sure love it when you cook with me." (That's my personal favorite!)

Notice the two pretzels on the lower right hand side of the picture. More sprinkle than pretzel is the two year old way!!!!

We made it through one cooking adventure and I am optimistic about the rest:)

Winter Wonderland

Winter has officially arrived in Iowa. Not only outside, but in as well. We decided to put up the Christmas tree early this year because of our schedules the next couple of weeks. I love being able to do it as a family and we didn't see a time to do that until after the Christmas musical (which is much too late for my liking). The kids did a great job decorating and really love looking at all the ornaments and asking the story behind each of them.

Yes, it finally snowed and the kids had a great time playing in it. It was a little sticky so they made snowballs and pulled each other around on the sleds. They are finally at an age where they pretty much get themselves dressed in all of their snow apparel. I am asked to help with a zipper here and there, but that's about it. AAAhhhhh!! It's good to be in that spot!

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Updates

I realize it's been a while, but I don't have too much to report. Andy has been pretty busy as we head into the holiday season. He is a very hard worker and really puts his best into what he does. He is very talented and loves his job. Knowing all that helps me to get through these busy seasons. And I know that he would much rather be at home with us. The boys have been doing great in school. We had conferences a couple of weeks ago, and the teacher had wonderful things to say about both of them. They both have made some great friends at school and are especially enjoying recess (what boy doesn't???). They are practicing writing their letters and quite a few times a day ask me how to spell things out so they can write them down. Connor has gone right for the big words like elephant and possibilities. Because he is left-handed he has a hard time remembering which direction a word goes, but we are starting to see improvement already. Kaelynn continues to be a wonderful little girl. She is in a precious stage right now! She has taken to her daddy again. (She went through a period of about 6 months where she really didn't want to have anything to do with him. It broke daddy's heart.) But we are out of that and she is starting to wrap him around her little finger :) (In a good way) In case you were wondering- yes Violet is still around. She mentions her quite a few times a day. She LOVES being a mommy to her dolls and loves to play house with the boys. I continue to keep busy with all of this and more. I did get a few Christmas decorations up last weekend. I know it's not even Thanksgiving, but I love the way garland and lights look on the top of our cupboards!!! We hope you all are doing well!

Counting our blessings...

I found a great idea on FamilyFun.com and am very excited about it. I made a poster with a turkey on it and cut out several feathers. After dinner we each write down something that we are thankful for and put it on the turkey. The kids have loved it! Some of the answers we have gotten are: mommy and daddy :), Jesus living in my heart (from Connor on the first night), a house to live in, family, the gift of music, toys we have to play with, good hunting days (guess who wrote that one...), and food that fills our tummies. I look forward to each day and having the kids really think about all we are truly blessed with. We have so much to be thankful for!!!!

Fall thoughts.....

Fall back!!! Ah the sound of it is music to me ears... or at least it will be in about 5+ years. Carson seems to have a time clock in his body that just does not adjust well to the time changes. He has now been getting up at 5:30am. AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!! And they are off school this week!!! That makes for one long day!!! I'm trying to think of as many crafty, creative ideas to get us through the week as smoothly as possible. I think I've used a few too many exclamation points in this entry already :) Halloween night was a success again this year. Connor was an ice-fisherman (although he was mistaken quite a few times for a coal-miner). Carson was a cowboy, and Kaelynn was an Iowa State cheerleader. We have very generous neighbors who give out the "big" candy bars, so we now have 9 regular-sized candy bars in addition to all of the other candy we received. We still have candy from the last parade we went too as well. Sugar high anyone???????????

Silly moments

I'm trying to let my silly side out a little more during the day instead of focusing so much on keeping a clean house and children with wonderful manners. Don't get me wrong- those are very important and we focus on those most of the day and probably a little too much :) Anyways, this afternoon I told Kaelynn she could style my hair. Connor overheard and joined in the fun and this was the result. Connor even took the picture! I'm sure this picture will come back to haunt me at some point. Oh well!!!

Fall festival pics

Sunday was a much anticipated day in the Kvernen household as it was the day of the annual Fall Festival at church. I'm pretty sure I heard," when are we going to the fall festival?" about 30 times between 12:30pm and 4:15pm. It is a great event with Silly Sally the Clown doing balloon creations (pictured below). Kaelynn got a pink butterfly for her wrist, Connor got a hat with a fish on the end and Carson's first one was a sword. An accidental teeth popping the balloon incident put a damper on that one and he got a red elephant later. Andy won the cake walk his first time and the boys picked out a delicious plate of cookies. They played all kinds of carnival games and won many prizes (which are now mostly in the garbage since they have broken already). Gotta love the energy of boys!!! Connor bravely went up against boys 2x his age in the donut eating contest and perservered to the end!!

The big hit of the night though has always been the giant slide. Last year Kaelynn went down with us. This year she ventured out on her own. Yet another example of how fearless our little 2-year old is. Here is the video of all of them going down for the second time! A great time was had by all!!!!!

Too cute for words....

At least we think so!!!!!

It was bound to happen sometime.......

I was just not ready for it to happen yesterday!!! Yes, Carson is the first Kvernen child to get stitches. He tripped over something in the living room and fell into a corner of the coffee table. He got a pretty good sized gash between his lip and nose. It was pretty traumatic for him as was the process of putting the stitches in. He is not a laid back kind of guy, so it was a trying time for all. This is a picture of him when he got back from the doctors office and the next one is of him this morning when we took the bandage off to put some ointment on it. He got 4 stitches in all. The doctor said it was a pretty jagged cut so it will take some time to heal and he will have an interesting scar. Thanks to all who prayed. He is at school now and is doing pretty well. I prepped him for a lot of questions from his friends. Connor had a lot of trouble with it. He was very concerned for Carson when he was at the doctor and he wanted to go to bed early so he wouldn't have to see the cut when Carson got home. This morning we made him look at it to see that Carson is fine. Connor still wanted to eat breakfast in his room. We didn't let him and he is doing much better with it now that he has seen it. Again thanks for the prayers. They were encouraging to us!

A very special moment!!!

I realize I just posted a few minutes ago, but I have to post this one tonight! Connor accepted Jesus into his heart tonight!!!!!! I was putting the boys to bed and we got into a discussion about heaven and hell. Connor, before tonight has been pretty lukewarm to the idea of salvation and of heaven and hell. Tonight though I could see the wheels turning and I could tell the Spirit was moving in his little heart :) I explained that when we die there are two options, heaven and hell. If he didn't believe in Jesus and that He died on the cross for us and has forgiven us of our sins that he would go to hell. He was concerned that if he asked Jesus into his heart that he would die soon. I told him that it probably wouldn't happen soon, although we will all die and we don't know when that will be, but we need to trust in God for that timing and be ready when it does happen. Normally at this point the conversation ends with him, but I could tell he was still thinking. I talked a little more about forgiveness and what that meant and I told him it was a very important decision- one that would change his life. I then asked him if he wanted to make that decision now and he said "Mom, I want to ask Jesus into my heart." I write this with tears of joy. I prayed that I would be able to be with him at this moment, not knowing if God would grant me that or not. He answered my prayers in a big way and I give Him all the praise!!!! There is a party going on in Heaven!! Andy came home a few minutes after this happened and Connor was so excited to tell him. You may be wondering what Carson is thinking about all this. He normally is the one with the most questions. I always thought he would be the first one to make this decision. Tonight he wasn't ready. I told him that's okay and that I still loved him very much! We are continuing to pray for his heart to be open and trust that God knows when that time will be. We have so much to praise Him for!!

Can't wait for the cold....

The kids are anticipating the cold weather. We had a very fall-like day today with rain, wind, and a high in the low 60's. The sun came out this evening and we went outside for a little fresh air. It lasted about 5 minutes and they were inside looking for hats and gloves. This is the result (not mommy's choices by the way):

For the past couple of weeks we have been scouting out cold weather wear (ie. snowpants, winter jackets, gloves, hats, etc.). You may be thinking, "It's only October, there's plenty of time for that." At least that was my thinking last year at this time. However, Ames stores have the ridiculous mentality that they only need to put out one shipment of cold weather items and when they are gone, they are gone. No more for the rest of the season!!!!! Last year, I tried finding boots at the end of November, not a single one left in a 30 mile radius. I kid you not!!! Hence, I have learned my lesson and the minute I saw snowpants, boots, etc. go out, I snatched them up. Cold weather watch out, the Kvernen family is ready for you!!!

Just like daddy

Connor and Carson love to be just like daddy!!!! Whether doing chores or hobbies, they want to be just like him. He is a wonderful dad and we all feel very blessed!!! Fall football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you daddy!!!

Love,

Carson and Connor

A new friend

Kaelynn usually likes the break from her brothers when they are at school. Today though she was a little lonely and decided to make a new friend. I was downstairs when she came down with a tight fist and exclaimed, "SSHHH, Violet is sleeping." At this point I am thinking that she is talking about one of her dolls who often take naps during the day. Oh boy, was I wrong!!! Violet is the little girl/imaginary friend who lives in her hand. Violet was with us all day long. Most of the time she was sleeping, but sometimes she was playing or walking on her tippy toes on the carpet. She was also carried around in Kaelynn's pocket (even though she didn't have one today). At one point I gave her a kiss and Kaelynn quickly exclaimed, "No don't eat her!" Earlier in the day I interviewed Kaelynn about who Violet was:

Don't be surprised if you see more of Violet later :)

These are a few of our favorite things........

All the kids have favorite things they like to do. Things they do pretty much every day!!! I thought I would capture those things for you! They all love to be outside of course. Carson's favorite thing to do outside is play hunting and fishing. The wagon is his boat and inside it he has his stash of guns, fishing rods, and bait. It really is the best of both fabulous worlds for him! Connor used to be able to sit in there with him, but as of late Carson has too many "toys" and can barely fit himself in there. Like father, like son!!!! Kaelynn loves to swing, once in a while she will let Connor push her. She is quite particular about how one is to push her- standing in the back of the swing pushing with only one hand. She must have been in a good mood this day :) Connor has more ecletic taste when it comes to outside adventures. He usually doesn't stick with only one activity like Carson does. He has enjoyed riding his bike and also likes to play hunting and fishing with Carson, but also likes to catch butterflies and insects as much as possible. The butterfly nets have gotten a lot of use in the past few weeks. He is finally starting to figure out how to keep the butterflies in the net once he catches them. She also loves to climb! She is very coordinated and has mastered getting up and down this rope ladder already. Her mind set is "What my brothers can do, I can do." Mostly that is true. She has no fear and will try pretty much anything. She is very independent too. That has been a good thing until last weekend. We started potty training on Friday and struck out big time. She had made up her mind that she didn't want to do it, and she didn't. After the 8th accident on Monday, I put a quick end to it and told myself it will happen when she wants it to happen. I just wish that would be soon. We are looking forward to not buying diapers anymore :) Another favorite activity during the day is baking or cooking with mom. The girls and I made banana bread this morning. Kaelynn loves to stir and dump things in. Abby is a little too little to help, but she was a great spectator. Both boys are experts at lego boat building. Here you can see a couple of their creations. I would say that a majority of their days are spent with legos in hand. I don't think I have ever seen the same boat twice. Yes, things are quite busy around here, but wonderful imaginations and creativity have produced great times for all of us!

MY princess!!!!!

There is something really special about a boys need to protect people or things. Connor and Carson are very protective of Kaelynn- the #1 princess of the house. Today it was my turn to be the princess. We were playing at a park in town when Carson stopped suddenly in his tracks and looked at me and said "Mommy, you're MY princess." At this point my heart melted and I was on one of those clouds that you makes you think things can't possibly get any better. I'm still on that cloud :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard

On Saturday my baby sister Katie became Mrs. Katie Leonard. It's hard to believe that we are all married now. She married a wonderful man named Rusty and we are very excited for the two of them. The ceremony and reception were absolutely beautiful as was the bride (as you can see!!) Connor and Carson were 2 of 4 ring bearers and Kaelynn was 1 of 2 flower girls. They were so precious and did very well!

Kaelynn did have a small breakdown during pictures. She ended up not being in a few of them. Overall though she did very well for being only 2 years old :) It was a great weekend and a beautiful wedding. Congratulations Katie and Rusty!!! We love you!!!!!!!!

Kaelynn- mommy or pop star?- you choose...

Kaelynn absolutely loves her dolls!!!! Most of her day consists of feeding them, consoling them, putting them to sleep, doing their hair, taking them for walks, and of course changing their diapers. Here she is changing her baby's diaper on the sidewalk of all places. She is too funny!!! She is becoming quite the little lady. She was downstairs with Andy when he decided to go upstairs. He asked her if she was coming up with him and she replied, "I probably won't, could you please leave the light on for me?" Just like that!!!!!!! Singing has become a well heard activity around our house lately. You can hear all three kids singing throughout various parts of the day. The favorite thing to do right now is sing a conversation. I often hear Kaelynn singing phrases like "you need to go to sleep now," or "I love you very much" to her babies. Since I have taken on the music of Kidstuf at church, singing/dance parties are a regular activity for our household. The music is so fun and upbeat and the kids love it. They are even starting to get some of the actions down. I've added these two videos of Kaelynn because they are too precious. These happened on Saturday evening before bedtime. This first one is of her singing to her BOZ CD. We love the air guitar she has picked up from her brothers :)

The second one was caught when she didn't know it. I heard her singing in her room and ran to get the camera. As you can see in the video the radio antenna is her microphone. The last note she hits is our favorite :) Maybe the opera house is where her heart is at???????