Friday, September 2, 2011

12, Underwear Door, SOCCER

The other day Kolton was counting his fingers and he was getting a little frustrated because he kept either counting 12 or 9 each time but he knew that was wrong. He would stick his thumb out and count one and then would put his thumb back in and start with his index finger and go "2-3-4-5" and then do his thumb again as "6." I couldn't help but laugh. He finally figured it out and was back to counting his 10 fingers instead of 12. :)
He has been obsessed with bowling lately. He doesn't have a bowling set so he makes his own. I usually have to set the "guys" up for him in order to play but this particular morning he was proud that he set up his guys all by himself and was getting strikes every time he bowled. :)

Last week during preschool we worked on counting and our numbers. I drew on a paper the numbers 1-6 and gave the boys candy and I'd say a number, they'd find it on their papers, and put that number of candies in the square. Kolton was SO good at it! He is learning so much lately! It amazes me sometimes the things he knows! Like everything he's been taught throughout his life is all clicking at once. Even after school he wanted to do it again and again because he loved it. He would line his candies up in a straight line each time (they were Mike n Ikes). If his lines messed up we'd all have to wait while he straightened them back up.

We also worked on big and small. They had to circle the biggest animal with red and the smallest in blue. Also, you should check out his name on the top of the paper! He's gotten SO good at writing his name all by himself!
Our refrigerator broke on August 10th. I went to go get a pizza out of the freezer to make for Brady for lunch and I noticed chocolate ice cream was dripping out of the bottom of the ice cream carton. I thought that was really weird but didn't really think about it much as I pulled the pizza out. I opened the pizza box and then noticed that the pizza wasn't completely frozen but was a little soft. I then knew something was up. So I moved all the food out of the freezer and in to the deep freezer in the garage (thank goodness we had that!) so it wouldn't all spoil. Brady came home for lunch and confirmed that the fridge and freezer weren't cold. I called a few repair places and set up an appointment for the following Friday with some company. I then decided to do some research online (like I always do) and found out that the noise our fridge was making (a clicking noise) was probably the compressor and that a cooling system in a fridge is covered under warranty for 5 years. So, I called Sears (where the fridge was bought) and had them look up the information on the fridge. I was on the phone with them for 45 minutes and finally figured out that yes we were covered until September 12, 2011--we were just in time! So, they set up an appointment for the next day to have a repairman come out and fix it. Well, about 30 minutes later a lady from Sears calls and tells me that they are over booked for that day and need to reschedule for August 25th! Over 2 weeks away!! I was TICKED!! How can you put me 2 weeks out?! I took the appointment and got off the phone and then as I was thinking about it I thought--you know what?! NO! I am NOT waiting until August 25th! They need to squeeze me in somewhere!! I then called them back 3 or 4 times that afternoon talking to different people trying to get a new appointment. They were all driving me nuts since none of them spoke English. Why do companies do that?! Hire people that speak my language so they can help me!! All they kept saying to me is "I understand how that would be frustrating" or "I can fix that for you" in their really thick accents but then never would fix it. One lady finally told me she'd make me an "emergency repair" and that I'd be called later that day to set up a time within 24 hours to have a repairman come out. Good! Well, several hours past and I hadn't heard from them so I called them again before they closed and talked to a lady who told me I don't qualify for an emergency repair because for those you need to have like medicine or something you have to keep cold. By this point I was just over it. I was tired of talking to these people and tired of getting the run around. I felt completely powerless. I told her I wanted to file a formal complaint against their service and so she "took my complaint" and I got off the phone. SO, we had to wait until August 25th. Luckily we got a compact fridge we were able to use (and many others offered us fridges to borrow--we just didn't have anyway to get them to our house so we stuck with just the one little one) from a family in our ward so we were able to keep some milk and a couple other things. I tell you--I had a really hard time figuring out how to make meals when i didn't have a fridge to keep anything in. ;) Anyway, I'm very grateful we had that little fridge otherwise I seriously don't know what we would have done!! :) I also can't believe we lived out of a fridge that is like 1.5 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide for 2 weeks but we did it! When I told Dylen about how we had no fridge for 2 weeks he said "Wow! Even Paraguayans have fridges!" haha. Anyway, the fridge repairman came on the 25th and fixed our fridge! Yay! It ended up not being covered under warranty because it was the relay and the warranty doesn't cover electrical stuff. The guy was nice though and just charged us the service call charge (which was $70) and not for the part ($142) since he had an extra one in his bag.

Speaking of missionary brothers, Shawn sent me this picture a couple weeks ago of a baptism he had. He had been teaching this girl for a long time and was so excited when she committed to be baptized! They even got to do a beach baptism! I just love this picture! So pretty! That's Shawn baptizing her with two other missionaries as witnesses.

Kolton is an adorably silly little boy. ;) He was sitting the other day and just randomly started calling everything underwear-something like "underwear lightbulb," "underwear door," "face," "leg," "towel," "head," "door," "phone," "Missie," "picture," "car" etc. Anything that came to mind was added the title of underwear. Such a little boy thing to do. :) One of those moments that made me realize this little guy is growing up!

We also had the air conditioner go out last week. Well, not the actual AC unit--we replaced that a couple months after we moved in to our house 5 years ago--but the fan in the furnace wasn't working. At first it started just randomly not starting so Brady would go out there and stick his hand in the fan and spin it--real safe! :) Then it stopped all together so last Wednesday (the 24th) I believe it was, Brady had me go to Locke Supply and buy a compasitor while he was at work. Brady was up from 3-5 doing the route that morning and then when we got home he just went out to work on the furnace and was working on that until 7:45 when he had to jump in the shower and get to work. He replaced the compasitor (a $6 part) that night and the AC was working fine. Then the next day it started making a really weird noise. It sounded like something was grinding or something. So, Brady spent the next two nights taking apart the fan and motor several times trying to figure out what was wrong with it. He was only getting like 2 or 3 hours of sleep each night because he never wanted to take in apart during the day since its been so hot outside--he didn't want the house cooking while he was tinkering around so he'd do it in the middle of the night. Anyway, Saturday morning he decided there was nothing he could do about it so we called a repairman. We lucked out and found this really great guy who came out about an hour later and fixed it for us. It ended up being that the motor was broken. He said that the compasitor was probably getting blown by the motor and that's why when we replaced the compasitor it worked at first but then the motor just blew it out again. It cost $325 for it to be replaced. Not too bad considering all the things that could have been wrong and the fact that our furnace is reaching the end of its life (he told us we probably have 3-5 years before it needs to be replaced) but it would have been so nice if that little $6 part was the only problem...

I haven't taken Kolton out to play in the water in quite sometime with it being so hot. Kade and Emery were over this week, though, so I decided to be a nice mom again and pull out the slip n slide. :) They all had fun playing soccer in their swim suits and jumping on the trampoline and sliding on the slip n slide.

After they were done playing outside (they played for about an hour!) I took them in to take a bath. They were DIR-TY! I took Emery's swimsuit off and her back had a line of dirt on it! I don't know what they were doing out there but they got filthy! This is a picture of the tub after the water drained! Look at all that dirt left behind and I'm sure there was tons more! As I was washing their hair I could feel dirt on their scalps!! Crazy kids! ;)

This is a picture Brittney sent me. Such cute boys!

Kolton had his first soccer practice on Thursday. He's been counting down the days since we signed him up! And for the week before, every morning he'd ask how many days were left until it was the day for soccer! We started at 7...Anyway, he was SO excited and he did SO well! He's such a stud of a player already--at least I think so! ;) He made is dad proud! I was sad I forgot my camera, though, but luckily Brittney got 3 pictures of Kolton that she sent me! Thanks Britt!



I'm so excited for the first game on the 10th of September! I think its going to be so cute! I'm definitely taking my camera to the next practice and FOR SURE the game next Saturday to get some more pictures of him playing!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

6 year Anniversary

Brady and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary on the 5th. In the morning I went to Jeff and Vanessa's and sold some things in their garage sale. I made like $65 or something like that. So, that evening we went out to Ted's for dinner as a family. It was YUMMY! I love that place! Then the next morning when we got back from doing the route (it was like 5:00) and the house WREAKED like natural gas. So, we called the gas company and then sat in the car for like 45 minutes before the guy came to take a look. He walked around our house and couldn't find a leak anywhere but told us that he had 7 calls in our neighborhood for the same thing so something must be going on somewhere around us. Thank goodness we didn't have a leak or anything! So, Kolton and I went to bed and Brady headed down to Norman to try and sell the rest of our stuff. He came home at about 9:00 because hardly anyone had come to the garage sale and he was tired. Jeff and Vanessa then took Kolton at about 4:00 and kept him over night so we could spend time together for our anniversary and then do the Sunday paper without Kolton. It was great to be able to spend the evening together! We are so happy together! We couldn't have asked for a better marriage! Our love has grown SO much since we entered the temple 6 years ago and were sealed for time and all eternity.
Now to take a stroll down memory lane. ;) Here are some pictures from 6 years ago when we got married.















It was such a good day! I'm glad each year we get to remember that day and how much in love we are!

Zoo and Science Museum (August 4th) and some catch-up journaling

On the 4th of August, Kolton and I went with Brittney, Kade and Emery to the zoo and the science museum. Our plan was just to go to the museum, but on our way there we decided to stop by the zoo since its right next door and it was overcast so we thought it wouldn't be too hot. We only made it to the lions, monkeys and elephants before we were done. :) It was actually pretty muggy. The kids enjoyed seeing the animals though.


Kolton, Kade and I then walked over to the science museum while Brittney and Emery went and go the car and brought it over to the science museum parking lot. It felt SO good to be in the air conditioning! :)
I love this picture of the boys. So sweet!! These boys are like attached at the hip. I woke Kolton up last night and he muttered in his sleep--"Where's Kade?" Haha.


We played in the little kid area with the boats, trains, firehouse, and tractor.


After that we headed over to ride the segways, the mirror maze (a couple times) and then we spent a long time letting the kids watch the trains. They would run around the display case trying to race the trains and then run back around trying to get to the other side before the train would come out of the tunnel. They got some good exercise in! I'm not even exaggerating when I say they probably did it for 20 minutes straight!


After that we went upstairs to play in the gymnastics area. The robot was upstairs so I made Kolton go stand by him to take a picture. Kade was super excited but Kolton was a little hesitant. He just doesn't really like mascots. He later, though, went up to him and shook his hand. He thought that was pretty cool. :)

The boys did a LOT of jumping off these mats. They'd jump and roll then run back around and climb up and jump again.


We had a good time. The kids were exhausted by the time we were done. We were there for several hours. Kolton loved it. He gets so bored lately that he absolutely loves it when he gets to do something fun! Its so hot outside that I rarely take him out to play. Maybe 3 or 4 days a week does he get a significant amount of time outside to play. And then even times when I make myself go out there, he'll want to come back inside in a matter of minutes complaining that it is too hot. We are like 2 days away from having 50 days over 100 degrees this summer. Oh the joy! He is growing so much lately! I used to be able to sit on the floor and reach over his head to put his shirt on. Not anymore! Yesterday I was getting him dressed and I couldn't reach over his head! What?! When did this happen? :) He told me the other day "I wish I was a superhero so I could clean my room real fast like this (*swing arms around really fast*) and then be done." Don't we all?! Cleaning his room is probably the worst thing I can make him do lately. He hates it. He gets overwhelmed by all the toys and never knows where to start. We've been working on it though and this morning it was time to clean his room again. He started walking around with a grumpy look on his face but once he started and could see progress he was doing it happily. He was in there singing "I am a Child of God" while doing it. Sweetest thing!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

splash paddin' it up

When I still had hopes that it wouldn't be hot forever, Kolton got to play at the splash pad a couple times one week. Brittney and I took our kids to the one by her house (more convenient then driving to Norman but its much smaller--but Kolton doesn't seem to care).
The boys are crazy while they are there. As he would say, they are "dick-lee-ous" aka ridiculous. Kolton makes such funny faces while playing in the water.


We also had a couple of the Dean boys over (friends from our ward) while their mom was out of town and their dad was at work. We played Kinect, slipped on the slip and slide, jumped on the trampoline, went to the free lunch at the elementary school down the street, and painted pictures.


For FHE on Monday night we played with "air balloons" (water balloons) and the hose in the backyard. It was a blast! Kolton loved that we were out playing with him and we loved having a fun, silly time as a family and seeing how much he was enjoying it. (You like what Kolton is playing with in this picture?:) He does it all the time.)

Kolton tried to get daddy. Brady quickly convinced him it was much more fun to get mommy instead.

We got SOAKED! Which was nice since it was so hot. We actually were pretty comfortable temperature wise. We took turns doing tricks on the trampoline while we daddy sprayed us with water with the hose. Daddy also rolled on the trampoline for Kolton to jump over.

We went over to the Foys last week to make bread. While it was rising we took the kids outside since they were begging to do so. Their excitement didn't last long however. :) They got a couple swings in at the tee...

...rested some in the chairs (but could hardly open their eyes because it was so hot and bright)...

...shot a couple shots with their basketballs...

...hit the tennis ball maybe two times each...

...rode the bike for about 2 minutes each...
...and then it began to hit them....they were HOT and didn't want to play ANYMORE!

This video is from Kade's 3rd birthday party. It started at the splash pad by his house and then we all went back to his house for lunch and cupcakes. Anyway, while we were at the splash pad Brady showed them how you could put the ball in the water and the pressure from the water would keep the ball up in the air. They thought it was pretty cool!!

Now for some cool things that have happened in the last couple weeks...
Brady started a new job! He has gone back to BancFirst! So glad to be out of OfficeMax. He was doing really well with his new business but existing business was horrible. When he quit his boss told him he didn't blame him. His book of business was horrible. Well awesome. Good to know you knew he had a crappy book of business and nothing was done about it. Gotta love it! :) Anyway, he is super excited to be back in the banking world. He is a universal banker and will be working at a brand new branch a mile away from us on 19th street. Right now he is going through training and whatnot until it is done being built. They are shooting for a September 15th opening.
I also found out last Wednesday that my company won the contract up at Tinker and we can finally go back to work! After over 2 months of furlough! Things are still being worked out as far as who is going to be doing what up there but I'm excited to have my job back!
Both Brady and I got new callings in the ward. I was called as a relief society teacher 2 weeks ago and last week Brady was called as the Young Men's 2nd Counselor. He's really excited. I'm excited too. I'm nervous but excited to be doing something in church again (I hadn't had a calling for almost a year). I teach every 2nd Sunday.
We also got a membership to the Y just last week. Brady's work pays for half of it so we thought we might as well try it out. I love it love it love it! We also signed Kolton up for soccer through the Y. We were wanting to do that anyway, but it ended up being free since we are members now! Kolton is super excited! It starts the beginning of September. Hopefully it will cool down some before then!!
Oh and Brady got a motorcycle a couple of weeks ago. Its great! Insurance was $98 for an entire year and gas is pretty much non existent! Its been wonderful to have!
Lilypie Third Birthday tickers