Gah! I've done it now! I've been needing a kick in the pants to get me back on a better running schedule (one where I actually go running) and this should be it! Thanks to Kelly (if the internet were her dojo, she'd be my running sensei) I'll be running a 10K on September 20. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...
In other "Gah!" news, we're about to embark on a LONG weekend of kitchen remodeling...of sorts. Starting on Thursday we'll be taking apart the cabinets and stripping/sanding them and then repainting them as well as painting the walls and wainscoting. It's going to be a LONG project and Chase doesn't head back to work until next Wednesday. Pray for us. I'll post before and after shots!

Favorite move lines

My SIL had this on her blog and it's a kick to read people's favorite lines from movies.

So what's yours?

Gare Bear's going on a mission!

Garrett received his mission call on Friday! Chile Santiago West! He goes to the MTC November 5. Hooray for Gare Bear!

Frontiers of Flight Museum

A couple weeks ago our playgroup went to this cool flight museum near Love Field. The kids had a blast!

(Never mind the Sepia...I forgot to turn it off). This is a picture of Miles throwing a tantrum on the floor because he couldn't get onto the seat.

All over the museum they had these airplane seats. Who cares about planes? Let's get in the seats!

 

Our tour guide was a WWII vet and he's showing us a picture of him and his plane.

Checking out a Huey!

That's for you, Christy!

This is that REAL Apollo 11!!! That's what the bottom of it looks like after having been burned up on re-entry.

Recent Happenings

So I'm taking Chrysta's suggestion and going with Live Writer. So far? Love it.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I've updated with anything rational. The month of August got started with a bang when Scott and Christy and their brood came to town! My bro just got back from Iraq and it was good to see them. They showed up on Saturday and we ate lunch together before Christy and I took off to Grapevine Mills outlets for some shopping. Can I just say how refreshing it is to leave the kids and spend time with an ADULT?!?! And one of my very favorite adults too! Lucky me!

After shopping we had dinner together before heading back to S&C's hotel to swim. It was, like, 800 degrees outside, the pool water was warm and yet we all ended up freezing! Christy and I couldn't figure it out and whenever we would complain CK would go on with some extraordinarily scientific reason for why that was happening. I just thought it was windy.

Anyway, the kids were all little fishes! Zach is a super swimmer. He was doing so well Christy and Scott were staying busy just trying to keep up with him. Of course that got Cam even MORE excited to keep doing his underwater swimming. Peer pressure can be a good thing sometimes. Ty, on the other hand, was hilarious because he was SO laid back. He had his life jacket on and would just bob around in the water. He'd swim here and there and just kinda go with the flow. He didn't feel any real need to be clinging to mom or dad. He was just pretty content to splash around in the deep end by himself and occasionally he'd paddle over to see us before drifting off again. Funny, funny kid.

Sunday we met back up at our house for dinner. I made homemade tortillas and we had chicken fajitas. At first I thought, "Yeah, fajitas! That's a good, easy Sunday dinner." Obviously I hadn't made fajitas in awhile. It took forever!!! oh well. I thought it was pretty yummy. We had cookie ice cream sandwiches for dinner. The kids didn't like that idea. They just wanted the cookies!

After dinner it was time to say adieu. We're so glad to live close to them so we can see them often. We'll be heading up there in October and Christy and I are going to run a race together. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!

 

After Christy and Scott left my life was consumed with Breaking Dawn, which you all know. The kids, however, maintained an active social life.

Sophie had a quick trip to the cardiologist to get her heart murmur checked. I have one, Cameron has one, I think some of my siblings have them. I wasn't worried. It came back clear and we'll go back in 6 months for a check up. She did relatively well during that appointment, though. I say relatively because the next week was her well child appointment and that went terribly. I hate shots! Poor Soph had to have four. She was a champ, but it's tough to watch them go through that.

One funny thing that came up during that appointment: Sophie's head circumference is literally off the charts. Like, she's in the 120th percentile or something. Little smarty pants! I love her ginormo head! And it complements her 18 1/2 pound body perfectly, I think!

In other Sophie news, that girl wants to crawl so badly she can taste it! She's always pushing up onto her hands and knees and reaching for things. Last Wednesday she started scooting. She looks just like that inchworm puppet from Sesame Street. She puts her face down in the ground, hikes her bummy up into the air and gets her toes under her and then pushes off. It's HILARIOUS! I could watch it for, like, tens of minutes. But, alas, after about 20 seconds of that she gets pretty ticked off and screams at me until I rescue her. She's ALSO trying to pull herself up on things. She's done it once and was able to stay up on her feet for about 10 seconds before promptly falling on her face. She wasn't deterred, though! She's a fighter.

Lastly, she's on table food now. I know that's not exciting for everyone, but it is for me! I think it's so fun to feed her REAL food. And she doesn't seem to be picky...yet. That will come. I know it will.

Moving on to Miles. There's not much to update. He's still not napping much, which has taken a lot to get used to. Every now and then he'll put himself down for a nap, though, and when he does it is the most adorable thing. He'll just grab his blanket and puppy and climb up in his bed and I'll find him snoring away. I love the little angel face of a sleeping child. So perfect and innocent.

The thing that's wearing Miles out these days is probably his newest obsessions: soap and bikes. Now that Miles has figured out how to crawl up onto the bathroom counter I usually keep the guest bathroom door locked. Before he wouldn't ever think to go down the hall to the master bathroom, but now he looks for any available bathroom with pump soap. If I don't hear him for a minute or so I usually take off in a mad dash toward the bathroom and that's where I'll find him sitting with his feet in the sink, rubbing copious amounts of hand soap all over his face, arms, legs, clothes. When I find him he'll say, "All keen, mommy!" At first this was cute, now it's just getting expensive! So the soap was retired to the cabinet above the toilets (right next to the toothpaste he used to compulsively eat). He hasn't figured out how to get to it. But like my dad says, all kids are like squirrels. They'll just keep working on it until they figure it out.

When he's not soaping Miles wants to be outside riding his bike. He got a trike for Christmas last year and hasn't been that taken with it until recently. He's really got the pedal action down and loves to cruise down the sidewalk and say, "I so fast, mommy!" That kid is just the embodiment of awesomeness.

(I like this picture of Miles because his diaper is on backwards. This is how my babysitter put it on him! Awesome! We love our babysitter!!!)

This was supposed to be Sophie's photo shoot but Miles wasn't having it...

 

Cameron. My boy has taken off this summer! He's so different in so many ways! He's gotten really independent and is coming out of his shell. I'm kind of sad that he won't be starting kindergarten this fall because I think he really could have done well. But that's cool.

So Cam's big accomplishments this summer have been swimming, writing/reading, and overcoming some of his shyness.

Swimming: at the beginning of the summer Cameron HATED to get water on his face at the pool. To be honest, he didn't even like going to the pool that much. But little by little he's gotten more and more comfortable with it. We've spent lots of time at our friends' pools this summer and the peer pressure of seeing his friends swimming has helped a lot. I could see him really concentrating and focusing on each new step and it helped him gain a lot of confidence whenever he would master another step. Sometimes I look at him and I'm so proud I think my chest is going to bust open. In three months time he has gone from being scared of the pool to be a fish! I love it and I'm so happy for him!

Cam's also really excelled with identifying letters and words recently. He's such a cerebral kid. He'll often come up to me in the middle of the day, or shout out from the back seat of the car, "Hey mom! P comes from Pizza Hut!" Or whatever sign he just saw. And he loves to take out his magna doodle and write letters on it and then ask us what he spelled. Usually it's ARB. I'm not sure what that means, but who knows, maybe it's the secret to curing cancer and we just don't know it yet. Sometimes, though, he'll switch it up so it says "BAR" at which point I think he's probably already dreaming of the day he passes the Bar exam.

Lastly, my kid is getting so dang independent! He's always been so cautious and he has a pretty shy/quiet side to him. He would get nervous whenever he had to pray or give a talk in primary. But not anymore! He's making friends left and right at the playground or pool. At church he's always raising his hand to give the prayer or help with singing time. When we're out riding bikes he wants to zoom across the street by himself (after checking to make sure it's safe, of course). I don't let him do that yet, but it's amazing to me that he wants to do it!

 

So that's it for us. If you're wondering why I had to write a 40 page blog just remember that this is really my family journal so I want to make sure to get all of these memories recorded for the future!

Talk about good news on a rainy day! This was taken from Stephenie Meyer's website. I know I sound obsessed ( I am ). Don't think I'm weird that I keep blogging about it. I'm just weird in general.
So, anyway, I guess this is BAD news if you're a HP fan (Not I, said the crazy, Twilight-blogging-freak-girl), but good news for the rest of us.

August 15, 2008

Movie News Flash!

So, many of you have heard that the release of the sixth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has been moved from this Thanksgiving to next summer. First and foremost, please know that this schedule change has absolutely nothing to do with Twilight, me, or Summit Films (so enough with the imdb death wishes, okay?). This is Warner Bros. decision, and it was not motivated by anything Twilight-related.

Now for the good news! Though we're all sad to have to wait for Harry Potter, this open spot at the theater creates a cool opportunity. The good people at Summit were thrilled to let me know that now Twilight fans are going to get their movie three weeks earlier than scheduled. That's right—Twilight will be released in theaters November 21st! Let the merry-making commence!

--Stephenie

And for the Bellward obsessed, check out this blog. Hi-freakin-larious.
http://mormonhusbands.blogspot.com/2008/07/breaking-dawn-spoof-part-i.html

I have all sorts of blog entries jumping around in my head right now. However the combination of my Bellward obsession (I just opened up Twilight for the THIRD TIME!!!! WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END?!) and my Olympics obsession (a.k.a. my obsession with watching annoying-ly fit and gorgeous people run, jump, twirl, kick and swim their way to super-stardom - it's bordering on masochism, honestly - oh, and speaking of Olympians, has ANYONE in the Kilgore family noticed that Michael Phelps and Jerry look A LOT alike?! It's getting creepy...) has kept my brain otherwise engaged. I did, however, find this blog and I think every UMC member needs to check it out!
http://nomoremomjeans.blogspot.com/
It's a hot mess.

This is for my peeps (well, mostly for Chrysta). This is a banana bread recipe that I found and it's fantastically amazing. Scrum-dilly-umptious.

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 medium bananas, sliced

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

As a note: I use mostly whole wheat flour. I've made it with white flour plenty of times, but I like the nuttiness (and healthfulness) of whole wheat. I also use fat-free sour cream. The next time I make it I'll be experimenting with substituting applesauce for PART of the butter. I've never had much success replacing ALL of the butter in recipes. Food just needs fat, people. Especially if you want it to taste delicious. I prefer my food tasty. Anyway, if someone beats me to it and tries it with part applesauce please feel free to let me know how it goes.
Also, I don't "slice" the bananas, rather, I mash them really coarsely with a fork so that you have all sorts of lovely banana clumps. Alyssa, did you mash or slice? I'm curious.
Lastly, when I add the sour cream/banana mixture I am really careful to FOLD it in and not overmix it. Who wants tough bread? Not me.

Also, pics of the kids and our fabulous weekend with Scott and Christy are coming up...

The aftermath:
Well, it's back to real life and I'm not sure I want to be here. There's always a little bit of a let down after I've experienced the thing that I've been anticipating. But mostly I'm just not excited to clean my house. That's right. I took two whole days off and didn't clean, aside from a load of laundry here and there and a few dishes. I also didn't cook! But that's good because that would have meant more dishes.
So today this is what my house looks like. I already cleaned the kitchen and made the banana bread (from the bananas that were threatening to dissolve in my fridge). I've also done several loads of laundry and folded a few of them. So, the big work is out of the way. But I thought you might like to see the sacrifice I made (that is, my sanity and a sense of general order and cleanliness) to get my Bellward** fix.
In other news, is anyone ready for the Olympics? I'm so psyched! I love watching people who are so much more motivated and determined than me. It's inspirational.


**I totally just made up the word Bellward. Get it, Bella and Edward. If you see it somewhere else it's a copyright violation!

The verdict:
LOVED IT!

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! You won't hear from me for a couple days. I'm not dead. I'm just living in the world of the un-dead! Hooray!

Do you have yours yet?
Yeah, you. You know what I'm talking about.
Do you have it yet?
Mine hasn't come in the mail yet, but I'm hopeful that Monday will be the day.
So close, yet so far away.

Hmmm...I'll go ahead and mark this as a post that won't be printed off for the family journal at the end of the year. It's more of a small-scale vent.
First, let me say that I love my children. I need them like I need air. They color my whole world in better, brighter hues. I would be a sad, sad girl without them.
So now that that's out of the way...
I'm totally sick of my kids today. They're wonderful and funny, but they're also destructive and self-centered. I know that is how kids are, but some days it's hard to cope with! Take sleep, for instance. I don't get any. Yeah, I know. I have a baby, blah, blah, blah. But she's almost 8 months old! Does she need to get up twice a night? No. Does she anyway? Yes. She has been the hardest to sleep train. And the trickiest! She'll do really well for a few nights in a row. Just long enough to make me think she's changed her ways. I'm so happy that I share the news with friends. Me at the pool yesterday: "Hey Michelle and Shari, guess what? Sophie has been sleeping straight through until 4 AM lately!" Michelle and Shari: "Hooray! That's awesome." Me at 1 AM when Sophie woke up to spite me: "Dang it!" Me at 5:45 when Sophie woke up AGAIN (and this time for good): "DANG IT!"
So as if Sophie's not bad enough MILES has joined in the mix. It's like some big sleep-deprivation study that they're all working on. It's called, "Let's see how much sleep we can take away from mommy before her head explodes." Miles decided last week that naps really aren't for him. He'd much rather stay awake ALL DAY. And while he's at it, why bother sleeping at night, either! Rest and recuperation are SO over-rated. This kid has turned bed-time into some sort of extreme sport. It starts with night prayers where he's jumping all over the bed and climbing on every possible surface of the bunk bed. We pry him off and put him into bed, sing a few songs and leave the room. Before we've even made it out of the hallway he's behind us asking us to lay down with him. We say, "No Miles. It's bedtime," and then put him back in his bed and leave. Again, the kid materializes out of nowhere and is in front of us asking us to lay down. How did he get out of bed so fast? It's like that movie Jumper. Or maybe it's more like Star Trek and he's got one of those tele-port things. I don't know, but it's slightly eerie. Anyway, this charade goes on for at least 30 minutes. We try to be good parents and not get upset. He's only testing our boundaries, right? We follow all of Super-Nanny's greatest tips. We don't talk to him and don't let him have fun. We just pick him up and take him right back to bed and leave. The whole thing is exhausting, honestly.
But if he stayed asleep it would be worth it. But no. He's started having nightmares (I know, not his fault) so around 10:30 or 11 we hear him start crying and have to go in and calm him down. That's pretty easy. But at some point in the middle of the night he ends up in our bed! WHAT? By that time I'm so annoyed and tired that I just don't care and he ends up spending the remainder of the night with us. This happens at least 3 times a week. Grrrr....
So yeah. I'm tired. REALLY, REALLY tired. And to top it off Sophie has decided that she only needs short naps. I think she just gets woken up by the non-napping Miles and then can't fall asleep. But really, can't I just catch a break? Just on this one thing? How am I really supposed to be getting anything done?!!???!?!?!?!?!
Oh, and did I mention it's over 100 degrees today? Heat always makes me feel lovely:) Nothing so beautiful as a sweaty upper-lip and pitt stains at the end of the day. "Welcome home, honey. Give me a hug."

This is what Miles and Cameron are doing as I type. I froze one car, one dinosaur, one Batman and one Power Ranger in ice last week and they are trying to free them. They have two straws (for blowing hot air (which, consequently, they're full of)), a spray bottle, two plastic knives, a plastic hammer and a toy mallet. They've been hard at work for the last 20 minutes and it's looking like it will be awhile yet. So if you need a good way to get the kids outside for a half hour to 45 minutes, try this! They're having a blast!



So, uh, we got a little bored yesterday. I had boxes of Sophie's clothes all over her room getting them sorted and labeled to put in the closet/attic (she's gone through at least 6 boxes of clothes in her short 7.5 months on earth!) and I came across this little ducky costume I bought after Halloween last year. I found it at the Children's Place outlet for $2.99! Halloween can't come soon enough! She's hi-freakin'-larious in this outfit! The boys had to take a turn as well.

White babes and gang signs. G-g-g-gang signs.
I knew you were thinking that, too, Jeni.

Welcome to the dog days of summer, people! Yes, it's hot here. Triple digit temperatures are never fun. But we're finding ways to keep cool and beat the heat. We're big fans of our local library (not sure if they're fans of us, though). We head over there to pick up the latest Spiderman and Batman books and a video or two. We've also become pool moochers. I don't like taking the kids to the community pool because it's always so crowded and it's hard to keep an eye on all 3 at the same time. So I've been mooching off of friend's pools - either in their backyard or in their HOA. If you have an HOA pool that I haven't used yet, don't be surprised if you get a call from me asking if I can borrow the key! Miles and Cameron have become quite the little fishies and Sophie loves to splash just as much.
Today I decided to take a cue from my old BYU friend, Jessica, and do more projects with the kids. This morning I put a couple items in some water and stuck them in the freezer. Once they're frozen the kids will get to try using different tools to get them out of the ice (ie. hack at it with a spoon, spray it with water, use a blow dryer - all under my supervision, of course). That should be pretty successful. Also in the line-up is making a volcano, making ice cream in plastic bags, making disappearing ink, painting pictures and making frames for them, and lots and lots of science experiments! This morning we did paper mache.
In other news (BIG news!), I am the proud aunt of yet another beautiful nephew. Jeni did her own little science experiment last Saturday night and by Sunday morning Stephen Tony Rawlins had joined the world. I won't recount her labor and delivery because doing so makes me jealous. Let's just say it's pretty much the opposite of every labor and delivery I've ever had. But who cares, really? Stephen is gorgeous and I seriously want to just sit around and smell him all day. He's got that new baby smell. Yum.
Lastly, on Tuesday Miles got his front tooth pulled. It was a horrific experience so I'll spare you the details. We still love our dentist, but Miles just knows how to put up a fight. He did have a couple really funny moments (Pre-Novocaine) where he was sitting with the laughing gas over his nose and his tongue was numb from the topical anesthetic they put on his gums. He kept blowing raspberries over and over and over. He must have done it thirty times. Anyway, the kid looks like a hillbilly - I'll be the first to admit it. But he's still adorable. It would take a lot to make him un-adorable!
So that's us in a nutshell. Hope you're all surviving this hot, hot summer!

We are always trying to get good pictures of the kiddos. It rarely turns out, but I thought we got a couple good ones, here.

This picture is out of order. But Brian wanted to see how big HE was compared to Sophie...hmm...
I left Sophie sitting next to her open drawer for a minute (we had been deciding what to wear that day) and I came back to find her doing this. Taking clothes out and throwing them on the floor - which is a favorite game of her older brothers as well! A clothes horse already. Yay!

Okay, so here is Sophie at 7 1/2 months with new cousin Stephen. He's gonna have to work hard to get those legs plumped up!
New mommy again. Of course Jeni looks fabulous after giving birth! Of course.
This is a shot of Natalie and Stephen's first meeting. Natalie wasn't so impressed at first but it didn't take long. She was just really interested in the free saltines.
Paper Mache!
Miles the hillbilly.

BREAKING DAWN NEWS!
For those considering pre-ordering Breaking Dawn I would highly suggest doing so on walmart.com I just got mine and it was under $11 and free shipping! It doesn't guarantee that it will be at your door on August 2, but does say that it will be there on the day or "shortly after." I can handle that to save from paying full price at B&N on August 2 (not to mention having to go to the store and stand in line...).
Can't wait to get my Breaking Dawn on.