Kate turns 5!

 August 21st Kate turned 5!  It was also the first day of school for Ethan and Anna, and Ethan's first football game.  It was a crazy day.  We started off the day with a few presents and Kate's birthday breakfast of choice-German pancakes.

 A princess bike for our princess.

 I tied a big pink ribbon on her helmet just to make it a bit more exciting for the big reveal :)

Opening presents

Jane needed to try it all out too

 I took the older kids to see "Brave" this summer and they loved it.  Kate has been asking for a "Brave" birthday ever since.

Our delicious German pancakes

Of course Kate was anxious to try out her new bike, but it was a bit crazy trying to get the older two out the door and to the bus.

 Rand worked from home so he could see the kids off on their first day, but since the bus was 20 minutes late he just had to say goodbye and run back home to jump on a client call.  At least he was able to help Kate get a few laps in with her new bike before work.

Jane was so cute and rode around and around on her "bike"

 I was worried that with school starting and Ethan's game that Kate wouldn't feel like it wasn't her special day.  Once I got Jane down for her nap and had Randall listen for her I took Kate on a 'date' to Artic circle.  She got a shake and fries.  I introduced her to fry sauce and she was one happy girl.  It was nice to have some one on one time even for just a little while during that crazy day.

 This is the only picture I got of Ethan's football game... whoops.  They looked so cute snuggled up in the grass.

 After Ethan's game both sets of grandparents came back to our house for grandparents gifts and cake and ice cream. For the first time I made a slide show to music with pictures of Kate growing up.  We showed that before presents and it was really fun to see her change and grow through the years.  I'm not going to lie when I say that I cried the first 5 times that I watched it.  It's fun but hard to see your kids grow up, and with Kate especially so much of her 'growing up' was done in Jersey so that's where most the pictures were from.  It made me miss our home and friends and life there so much....

 Kate was so excited to get a real "Brave crown".  Ethan gets really bugged that the girls call her Brave when her name is Merida....  cracks me up.

 She also got a cute plate and cup with Merida on it, and uses it for breakfast and lunch everyday.

Ethan wanted to try on the crown :)  he also wanted me to erase this picture :)

 G& G Barrett gave her a Merida dress so she was all set with her Brave birthday.

Kate is such a special, spunky girl and certainly brightens up our home and life.  She is sweet and kind and very affectionate.  She often just comes up to me during the day and will give me a kiss and tell me she loves me.  She has been such a blessing to our family.  We love you Katherine Elise!

Calling All Grandmas

This post is basically for me and the Grandma's in Kate's life who love her artwork. I don't know how to rotate the pictures on this computer yet, sorry. I've mentioned often how creative Kate is and it's so fun to see her art evolving. She even makes sculptures with random things around the house. She even made an amazing fish with play dough recently but I didn't get a picture of it.
This is of the family
Family again
Self portrait
I actually LOVE this one. Does it not look picasso-esque?
For the longest time the letters in the bottom corner were her signature. No joke that was the thing she would write every single time. I can see a T, A, i, a. Now you know why her writing her name was such a big deal
This was also one of my favorite's. She drew this one on a lunch sack.
See her "signature" again? Too cute.
Love this one. She recently evolved from Christmas trees at Christmas time to having every dress look like a Christmas tree.


She drew this one the other day and she had been upset with me. I thought she was mad but asked her what it was and she said "I miss Grandma". Good thing we have grandma coming to visit soon.
I was amazed at this one. This is probably the first one that she included her glasses. If I were to wax philosophical I would think that she is finally accepting the glasses to be part of her. She recently has started wearing them full-time without begging or reminders. It's awesome.

I'm trying to decide if I should just let her enjoy her art or if I should look into some sort of creative arts class for her...your thoughts?

We've got spirit-no we don't!

This week Kate was invited to a Valentine Tea Party with a little girl from the ward. She was so excited! It was one of those times I almost wish I hadn't told her about it until the morning of. As soon as the invitation was opened she was asking every ten minutes, "Is it today? How many sleeps? Is it today?" I was going a little bit crazy but glad that she had something so fun to look forward to. She want to be sure to wear a dress because that is obvious tea party attire.
On another note, last week at the elementary school was "spirit week". What does dressing up with weird themes have to do with school spirit? I don't know and I don't care. Actually, I hate it. Every day it was just more tears and craziness. I guess I'm realizing that I am not a fun person. I think wearing pajamas to school is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. I think it's gross, and weird and frumpy and well weird. I was never one of those people that wore pajamas in high school or college, or ...to Walmart(I had to add that one). I insisted after pajama day that Anna wash her pajamas even though I had freshly washed them so she could wear them to school in the first place. She could not understand why I would need to do that. She figured she was already for bed so why change from 1 set of pajamas to another. I told her I had just washed her sheets that day and was not about to have her sleep in her clothes/pajamas from school that she had played in outside, sat in the lunch room, who knows what, then into her clean sheets.

Then there was "wacky" day. Which in my mind wacky is synonymous with weird. I actually thought this day might be kind of fun so I had a hair-do in mind for Anna. I started doing it and it was just too "wacky" for her liking. I asked her what she wanted instead and she said two braids that are braided differently. Well, that's pretty darn wacky! Can you tell my kids are control freaks just like me? So in my craziness and with it being wacky day and all I took it upon myself when doing her braids to put one high and one low. When Anna realized what I had done, it wasn't pretty. She completely fell apart. Apparently too wacky, yet again. I had to time her out for all of her screaming. After she finally calmed down with barely enough time to eat, I pulled the higher pony tail down to make it "at the same level", at Anna's request, but then all that did in her mind was make that braid loser. Basically by the time the kids left the house at 8am I was ready to crawl back in bed and call it a day. I had even pulled Ethan's hair up into 4 little ponytails in the middle to make it a mohawk. He was really nervous about it but went with it. When he came home though he told me that every body just thought he looked either like a girl or a baby.
We also had a era's day where they could dress up and that one wasn't too painful thankfully. The last day was swap day where the kids dressed like adults and the adults kids. Anna was So excited for this. She wanted to dress up like her teacher Mrs. W. I think she really just wanted to wear make up.
I knew her eyelashes were long but boy are they LONG! She looked so pretty after she stopped crying from me curling her lashes with the eye lash curler as requested. The funniest part of that day was the shirt she had picked out as her adult shirt was a glittery girl ballerina. Finally with a little convincing she wore a white collared shirt and an argyle sweater. Did I mention I hate spirit week? Most exhausting week ever.
One more picture of Kate with her valentine invite that she carried with her for days. She came home from the party with a helium balloon, drew a picture on it and it has been her best friend ever since.

4 Years Ago

As I sat wrapping presents for our Kate's 4th birthday tomorrow, I couldn't help but think back to the time of her birth. While I know that reminiscing about a child's birth is a common thing for any mother around their birthday, the memories of Kate's birth are especially poignant.

It was a VERY difficult time for us. It all started 5 and a half years ago.... Randall had just finished graduate school in Arizona and we moved to a nice town-home in Utah, with high hopes of starting up a successful business. Randall and a friend from grad school had won a competition for entrepreneurs and we were gung ho about starting this new venture. He had funding for this project and people that mattered were telling us how successful this venture was going to be. Quite honestly we kind of thought that in a short period of time we would be building our dream home on a hill, making TONS of money and all would be perfect. What we didn't know in our naivete and inexperience is that a lot of people starting a business, even if it is a fantastic idea, aren't always successful. A little over a year later the economy started to take a dive and while things were going along relatively well with the business, our investors no longer wanted to invest. With very short notice we were left without a job or health insurance and I was then 8 months pregnant with Kate.

Needless to say it was a very scary and emotional time. Any pregnant woman is allowed an abundance of emotion but I now was pregnant and didn't even know what home I was going to bring our little baby home to. Let me back up a minute. About a month before all this, when we thought things were going along great, we had even been given the offer to buy our town home and thought that we probably would. We had grown to love the area and I had made some of my very best friends. Things were going along well. Now without a job not only could we not afford to buy the home we were currently living in, but the owner of the home suddenly decided that they needed to move in, and we needed to move out. You can imagine our panic. Randall began interviewing for jobs immediately but as is often the case he was either overqualified, or lacked enough experience depending on the job. This is often the case with job seekers and makes me crazy. Anyway, Randall had a company fly him out to Virginia all expenses paid to interview. The interview went extremely well and they basically gave him a verbal offer and so we decided the best decision would be to move in with my parents, have the baby and wait until the offer came and we could move to Virginia and all would be well.

Weeks later we were moved in with my parents and the official offer never came. We were baffled to say the least. They had even asked Randall if he wanted them to set him up with a Realtor, and thankfully he had declined. He was interviewing for anything he possibly could get. Every single interview would go very well and we kept hoping that any moment he would have a great job. All the while we kept praying that Randall would be directed to a job that we would enjoy and excel at. He even worked at a job selling organic food and freezers in the afternoons and evenings. Yes, with an MBA from an excellent and expensive school, I might add this is what he was his job. Was this humbling? Oh ya. He was miserable as you can imagine. We barely made enough money to pay our 780$ cobra payment so I could be insured when the baby came. Thankfully that job was very short lived.

This time was a blur and due to my physical and emotional state I don't remember all the details exactly but it was about a week after we moved in with my parents that my Mom found out her ovarian cancer had come back and that she needed to have major surgery and begin chemotherapy...again. My Mom was initially diagnosed with ovarian cancer when we were in grad school when Anna was a new baby. This news was shocking as you can imagine and it at least put our challenges into perspective for us. Another week passed and I was still a week out from my due date, but since my Mom needed to have surgery ASAP we convinced my OB who is a family friend to induce me so I could have the baby and get on my feet so I could help my Mom recover from her surgery. What a crazy time it was.

I have been induced with all my babies so this was nothing new to me. I went to the hospital early and after an excruciating and non planned natural birth, our sweet Katherine Elise was born, and she was beautiful and perfect. We brought her "home"(to my parents house) from the hospital on my 29th birthday. While you can't ask for a better gift it wasn't exactly my best birthday. With the joy of this new beautiful baby we still didn't have a good job, and knew that in the next 10 days or so my Mom would be facing a very difficult surgery and recovery.

The time came and my Mom had her surgery and came home shortly after and I was there to help care for her and cook and do all the household things. Thankfully I felt good very quickly after my delivery and my parents ward and my sisters in law were also very helpful. Here is where things become a little more tricky. A week or so after my Mom's surgery my Dad had a routine check for his heart and they found a blockage. Now sadly this is nothing new for us. My Dad's heart is not good and this was only one of many episodes. His health history alone would take 3 extra paragraphs. (love you dad!) So...My Dad went in for his "routine" procedure to have a stent placed in the valve that should have been same day surgery, but with my Dad nothing is ever "same day". It usually involves weeks and several near death experiences.

After Dad's "procedure" he started having pain and some problems that they couldn't explain. After several days with still more pain and complication, he had a heart attack. The heart attack then progressed to where plaque from his heart broke off and went up into his brain causing a stroke. Now, this was all very concerning and traumatic for all of us. But...this same thing had happened when I was pregnant with Anna. We were packing up house to move from Texas to Arizona to start grad school when I got a call from my Mom saying that my Dad had another heart attack, yes I said another heart attack. See? I wasn't exaggerating about these "episodes". I of course jumped on a plane and came home. It was then that he had his first stroke. I digress. So now we are living with my parents, my Mom has just come home from the hospital after having major surgery, and my Dad is now in the hospital in intensive care, and I have a 3 week old baby and am trying to keep it all together. Again, not to say that we didn't have family and ward members, but I do not exaggerate when I say that I would nurse Kate, then drive my Mom to the hospital, and push her in a wheel chair up to visit my Dad. Good times.

The good news is miracles happened with my Dad as they have too many times to count. At the time we weren't sure if he would ever come home at all, or at the very least in a "normal" state. He did recover fully and returned home a few weeks later. It was a very scary time with two invalids to care for and trying to stay a float with very little money coming in and Randall still interviewing like crazy with no better job in site.

It was during all of this that Randall began working for another company. This company was struggling and not well known...but he was offered a job and he felt very strongly that he should take the position. The pay was bad, the job not great, but again he really felt like he should take it...so he did. He learned a LOT and it turned out to be the exact job he needed to learn the skills and gain the experience he would need in the future.

Three months later we were able to move out of my parents house. Both of my parents health was stable, and Randall started a new job with Omniture, now Adobe where he is currently working. If he had not taken that job with the struggling company, making very little money he would not have been offered his current job. Even though it didn't make any logical sense at the time to take that job, if he hadn't taken it, we don't know where we would be today.

Looking back at 4 years ago today I feel many different emotions. During that time I was stressed and struggling. I was thinking: Why us? We are good people. We got a great education, we work hard, we pay our tithing, we serve in the church, I just don't get it. But now I look back and the only thing I feel is an immense sense of humility and gratitude. Our path was laid out before us and I know Heavenly Father had a very specific plan for us. I know that we needed to be with my parents exactly when we were to help them, and they helped us. We would not have been able to make it on our own financially . The job Randall felt strongly about was the exact stepping stone we needed to move on to the next step. It was the exact answer to a very specific prayer. Randall still says he never would have known how much he would enjoy doing what he does, and what a great match for his skill set it would be. If someone would have told me 4 years ago where we would be today, in any regard, I would not have believed one word of it.

I don't know why I needed to write all this tonight but I just felt like I had to recognize and remember how incredibly blessed we have been over the last few years, even then, though we weren't exactly aware of it. It wasn't easy, in fact a lot of it was still filled with struggles, but looking back and having everything fall exactly into place is amazing to me.

Our Kate is a huge part of that. She was an unexpected but pleasant surprise and the reason I write that is because we were at an unsure time in our lives and things with Rand's business were not exactly stable. We weren't sure were we would be a year from then, and our other children were making us feel like we had our hands full. When I look back now, I see what a blessing it was that she came exactly when she did. She was a beautiful and sweet, perfect little person that came when we needed her. We needed her to bring us joy in an other wise difficult time. I think it was healing for both of my parents to hold her as a sleeping newborn and feel her sweet, calm little spirit. She still remains to be nothing but sunshine to us. No matter where we go people are completely drawn to her. She honestly has something about her. We are so grateful that she came to our family. Not a day goes by that she doesn't tell me at least 10 times "Mom, I love you" and reaches up for a kiss on the lips. She melts my heart and I'm so glad that we get to celebrate her birth 4 years ago in the morning.

Our Little Artist

Kate is quite the little artist at out house. I hate to label the kids already, but so far it seems that Anna has a love and talent for dance, and Kate for art. Kate is pleased as punch to be given a tiny little notepad and pencil to draw with. We love the style of her drawings, Always cute little people. I can't wait to see how her art will evolve over time.

Being a parent of these little people is so much fun. Well, most of the time :)

Terrible 3's

Her beautiful, blond locks...
I'm hoping this is her I feel really bad about what I did look.
Like the mullet?


Yesterday I was hoping to have a little "quiet time". Jane was a sleep and Kate was quietly watching a movie while I was upstairs reading. That is until Kate came upstairs with a handful of hair and said "My hair came off". While I know that most kids cut their hair at some point in their young life, none of mine ever have. Surprisingly I didn't really get upset. I think I was shocked that Kate was just calmly standing there with her hair in hand. I couldn't decide if not getting real upset was good or bad. Part of me thought maybe she was looking for a big reaction and didn't get it and that's good. But, part of me thought maybe I should get really mad so she would know how bad this really was. I walked her to her room for time out and she yelled, "I hate you Mom and Dad." I know she's 3 but boy do those words bother me. I don't remember ever saying that to my parents, at least not out loud :) My older kids have NEVER said that either, I'm not sure where Kate has picked that up, but it come up every once in a while. I made her stay in there for awhile and she ended up falling a sleep for a few hours. When she awakened we assessed the damage, and really it could have been a lot worse. While she cut off about 6 inches it wasn't at her scalp or anything like that. I looks kind of like she was cutting herself "bangs" on one side. She didn't cut all the way through so I did cut the little bit of strands under her "whack" and it's long enough to pull up into a rubber and so all in all I'm considering myself pretty lucky. I recently heard that it's the trying 2's and the terrible 3's. I couldn't agree more. Between hair cuts, mouthing off and jumping off the top bunk (twice) This 3 year old is giving us a run for our money.

Beautiful Ballerina(s)

Aren't they cute all dressed up with toes pointed?
Kate doesn't have ballet flats so she figured her rain boots would due.



I love this one of them looking at each other.

Funny enough the one above is my most favorite. Too cute.


For about 3 years now Anna has wanted to be a ballerina. She loves to dance and whenever music is on in our house, which is often, she is found twirling and leaping around. Almost everybook she brings home from school or the library has something to do with ballet . We finally signed her up with a little friend from her school class and she started a few weeks ago. She takes this all VERY seriously and even insists that he hair be pulled back into a tight bun before class. In fact this week we were running a little late and didn't get her hair into a bun. When we got to her dance class she burst into tears because her hair wasn't like a ballerina. So I whipped out her pony tail and made a quick bun and then she was happy. Her teacher said she does a great job and pays very close attention and wants to do it exactly right. She is also taking tap which worried me that we would have constant tapping around but so far we haven't. With all the girls in our house you can't just have one ballerina, so Kate has also been very excited about ballet and has joined Anna on numerous occasions in the living room for some tutoring from Anna. The first day of class Kate had to have tight on and a leotard too. Kate also insisted her hair look "just like Annas." Kate was a little mad when we drop Anna off at class and she doesn't get to participate. Especially because at the beginning of class each girl gets two fairy wands to twirl around with and Kate things that is the greatest! We sure are lucky to have two and in the future 3 beautiful ballerinas.