Spelling Bee Champ? With a little more practice :)

The boys are at a really fun age right now. They are eager to read and write and are doing a lot of inventive spelling. Carson especially loves to try to spell words by sounding them out. Many times throughout the day he will try to spell out a word and ask me if it's right. He's getting more and more of them right. Today he wrote this sign all by himself for his bedroom door. I know it's hard to see the letters, but can you guess what it says? Hint- start at the bottom!

If you can't read it here are the letters:

DAD- DO GO I CONNOR CARSON ROM LS UL G IN BH R

Translation:

Dad- Don't go in Connor and Carson's room or else you'll get in big trouble.

I think he got tired by the end, because big and trouble are missing quite a few letters. They are both very excited about Andy's birthday coming up and they have been secretly making things for him. Hence the warning sign :)

It's fun to see them eager to learn!

Busy Bees

Yes, we are busy bees around here. Hence the lack of blogging. Our realtor came on Thursday and we have a nice list to work on before she comes back 2 weeks from today to take pictures and put the house on the market. The biggest jobs will be moving all the living room furniture to put new carpet in and getting the landscaping shaped up (which happens this time of the year anyways). I have a whole new perspective on what is necessary in our lives and what is not. I am not one to keep things as we don't have that much space around here as is. The kids will not have boxes and boxes to go through when they are adults (no offense Jan). The Goodwill and Salvation Army are now flooded with things from the Kvernen household. It's a very good thing!!! I might become bald in this whole process though. Keeping a house clean with three children at 5 and under is maddening. I picked up the same teddy bear 3 times in 15 minutes on Thursday as I was cleaning for the realtor to come. The teddy bear was in much danger of leaving this house in the big green can!!! Thankfully it is getting to be nicer weather and the kids will be outside a lot more. The boys think they are going to become rich. I made the mistake of saying they might be able to earn a little cash for helping with some things around here in the next few weeks. Now all I hear is, "mom what can I do to get money?" The dilema with this is that I tried to have them help me clean the bathroom a bit and I ended up with very high blood pressure that day as I walked into a bathroom that was soaking wet. They went a little crazy with the spray bottle, wanting to clean EVERYTHING!!! It takes a lot less time for me to clean things than to ask them to help me. So, here we go!!! If I don't post for a little while, you'll know why!!!

Easter weekend

We had a great weekend with family. Andy's sister and brother-in-law flew up from Dallas on Thursday evening and Andy's dad came Friday morning. It was a busy weekend, but we still had some great play times. The weather was wonderful as we spent a majority of the daytime outside. On Saturday afternoon we let the kids find Easter eggs and their Easter baskets. We usually have to do it on Saturday as things are pretty busy on Sunday morning for our family. Krisanne and Paul hid some Easter eggs around the house and then the kids went to find their baskets. They were thrilled with all of the goodies!!! Kaelynn sporting her new sunglasses from her Easter basket!

On Saturday evening, our church sponsored a community Easter Egg hunt at one of the parks in town. The Kidstuf music team led some music at the beginning to get things started off. (I'm in the middle on the lower level in the red shirt.)

We think there were close to 500 people there. A lot of those people don't go to our church. It was a great time for all. Andy and Krisanne got their air electric guitars out for one of the songs :)

The kids in their Easter Sunday best. Thanks grandma for the great outfits!!!!

We ate Easter lunch out at a hotel in town that is known for a great brunch. It was delicious!!! The Easter bunny was very entertaining for Kaelynn.

We had a wonderful weekend and were reminded over and over again of what a great God we have.

A new title...

I am now a soccer mom!!! The boys started soccer this week through Ames Park and Rec. As you can see they are the red team. Andy coaches them on Monday nights but because of rehearsals can't coach on Wednesday night, so they have a staff member. The little boy (who jumped in the middle at the last moment) is Charlie, one of their teammates. He's got a lot of energy!!! They do a warm-up and then work on some basic skills- dribbling, stopping, kicking with control. It's fun to see how Connor and Carson approach sports differently. Connor is all about the competition. He is focused on getting the ball where it needs to go in the least amount of time. He is also very much a leader. At one point in the scrimmage, his team had the ball. He broke away from the other two (who were fighting for the ball) and started to run ahead. He called back to his teammates, "Hey guys, follow me, follow me." Carson is all about following the rules. He takes his time to do what he is supposed to do. He focuses doing it right too. He tends to be pretty passionate about things, and I think soccer is going to be one of those things. They both love the social interaction of it and love to encourage their teammates. Their soccer team with their Wednesday coach

Playing a game of 3 0n 3. The boy in the middle is Rajat- a great little boy with quick legs!

Puppies

This afternoon (Sunday), we went to Mr. Lee's house to see the new litter of puppies he has. Mr. Lee (as the kids call him) is a family friend who takes Andy hunting and breeds lab puppies. He always invites us over when he has a new litter and it finally worked for us to go. There were 11 puppies- 6 boys and 5 girls and they were all black. Kaelynn had no fear of them and picked them up immediately. In fact she carried this one from the kennel into the house. She was great with them. She had a puppy in her arms almost the entire hour we were there. Connor did pretty well until the puppies started biting his pants. They also tried to make a home in his pocket. He didn't like that so much, but got over it pretty quickly and warmed up to them again. We really wanted Carson to have a positive experience with them since he has such a fear of cats and dogs right now. There was quite a process for him to feel comfortable. You can see the anxiety on his face and the grip on Andy's coat in this picture. This was his station for a majority of the hour. After about 45 minutes and once the puppies had settled down, he sat down in Andy's lap and started to pet them.

After about 5 minutes of that he asked if Andy could hold one and he got a little closer still.

After 2 minutes of that he was ready to start picking them up.

The end result: A smiling little boy with a very cute puppy in his lap.

We are very proud of all the kids, but especially Carson. It was a great experience for him, not that his fear of dogs is gone, but I think we put a little dent in that wall of fear.

I included a little video of Kaelynn with the puppies. She was so cute with them!

Out of the mouths of babes

I was tagged on Facebook on this note: Out of the mouths of babes. I decided to put it on the blog instead because I think grandparents will enjoy this and they don't do Facebook :) I asked my children the following questions and got these answers (I did not coerce any of these answers!!): 1. What is something mom always says to you? No having sweets (Kaelynn) Clean up (Connor and Carson) 2. What makes mom happy? When we say we love you (Carson) Giving you a hug (Connor) 3. What makes mom sad? When we don't listen to you (Connor ) When we are being mean to each other (Carson) 4. How does your mom make you laugh? Being silly (Connor) Being funny (Carson) 5. What was your mom like as a child? Happy (Kaelynn) Didn't make messes (Carson) Liked playing with your sisters (Connor) 6. How old is your mom? 59 (Kaelynn) 31 (Connor and Carson) 7. How tall is your mom? 150 inches (Carson) 50 inches (Connor) 59 inches (Kaelynn) 8. What is her favorite thing to do? Shopping with Kaelynn (Connor) Playing with us (Carson) Shopping with me (Kaelynn) 9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Paint (Carson) Go to the grocery store and Target (Connor and Kaelynn) 10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Buying clothes (Connor) Singing (Carson) 11. What is your mom really good at? Putting pictures in the picture frames (Carson) Painting (Kaelynn) Kidstuf (Connor) 12. What is your mom not very good at? Fishing (Carson) 13. What does your mom do for a job? Clean up (Carson) Kidstuf (Connor) Anything you want to do (Kaelynn) 14. What is your mom's favorite food? Pizza (Carson and Kaelynn) Cheeseburgers (Connor) 15. What makes you proud of your mom? The way you wash dishes (Carson) You're a good mom (Connor) 16. If your mom we're on TV, who would she be? Miss Sally (Connor) (I have no idea where this came from) A weather girl (Carson) 17. What do you and your mom do together? Go for bike rides (Carson) 18. How do you know your mom loves you? You clean up (Connor) You say I love you (Carson) 19. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Target (Connor) Grocery store (Carson)

Happy Birthday Kaelynn

Three years ago our little girl was welcomed into the world at 2:00am, 3/23/06. It's really hard to believe it has been that long already. She is a precious little girl with so much personality. She is very much a girly-girl and loves to get dressed up, put on make-up and finger nail polish (she's not allowed to wear it out of the house :) and be a mommy to her babies. She loves to sing and dance and perform. She tries hard to keep up with her brothers and they are so good to her. She is so beautiful on the inside and the outside and we are sooooo blessed to have her in our family. Take a look at how she's changed: 3/23/06- hours old 3/23/07- 1-year old 3/23/08- 2-years old 3/09- 3-years-old We have already had two parties. We celebrated at a hotel in Minneapolis with Andy's parents on Friday night. On Saturday we went to my parents house to celebrate with my family.

Today we will celebrate as a family at lunch time because of committments in the evening.

(I posted this on Sunday night, but am talking about Monday. I just didn't think I would have much time to post tomorrow).

Happy Birthday sweetheart! We love you so much!