the eve of christmas eve

We started a tradition this year that on the eve before Christmas eve we would all sleep around the Christmas tree. For now that means we sleep around a 12in. tinsel tree but one day it will be a real pine tree. We rented Kung Fu Panda 2 for the kids. Conrad was really tired so we thought he'd fall asleep pretty quick, but just a few minutes into the movie he was up and moving around showing us his kung fu skills. It took a while to get him calm down after the movie, but it was so fun and worth the late night. I think I will always look forward to this night as the kids continue to grow. -Katie

Phoebe with her fork. She is rarely without one of her forks or spoons.

Hook

The other day I was taking Conrad to preschool when suddenly Conrad started getting mad at me and telling me our car could do it. We had watched Cars 2 the night before. It is funny to see what he is starting to pick up on in movies, but scares me at the same time.

I love playing along with his crazy ideas so I had him name the car. It took him a while, but after lots of debating he decided on Hook. While he was at preschool, Phoebe and I went to the store and bought window markers so he could draw eyes on our car. Now everywhere I drive I have to drive with my knees as much as possible or tell Conrad that Hook is tired or lost and needs help. Some days I wish Hook really could drive us around! -Katie

conference

This conference I was determined to get Conrad to watch some of conference with us. I printed out activity sheets online and we tried explaining to him what conference was all about and showed him pictures of the prophet and apostles. He colored the activity sheets for a few minutes, but coloring just doesn't keep his attention for long. He wanted to go off and play so we tried to explain again that they were teaching us about Jesus. Conrad looked at us confused and said, "but I can't see Him."

Even though we didn't hear much of conference because of the two kids we enjoyed yummy cake batter pancakes with extra sprinkles, Ransom managed to beat me in conference bingo yet again and snuck in a few accidental naps.

For the last session we listened to conference as we drove through Provo canyon looking at the fall leaves. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Ransom and Conrad went on a little hike and found a bunch of polka dotted leaves that were really cool while I stayed with Phoebe so she could keep napping in the car. It was a nice relaxing couple of days. -Katie

homeschooled for the day

A few hours after we got home from the hospital, Conrad grabbed his backpack and said that he was ready to go to school. We tried to tell him that he had missed it, but he was determined so we loaded up in the car to go to his teacher's house. She gave him all the worksheets that he had missed so that we could practice at home.

This morning we sat down to work with him on them. He did really good coloring the fruits and veggies. Phoebe could tell that he was having so much fun coloring that she wanted to join in on the fun. When he was done he hurried and hung them on the fridge. His teacher also gave him a bag of m&m's so that he could learn patterns. Ransom and I took turns trying to think of different ways to try and explain it to him so that he would understand. He never did quite catch on but we decided to stop before we all lost our patience. I am so grateful that Conrad is in preschool with teachers that love him and are full of patience as they teach. I love that he can't wait to go to preschool. I think if it were me teaching him all the time that it would be just the opposite because clearly I am not good at explaining things! -Katie

my goofy chef

Conrad LOVES to help me cook. Last night he was fighting getting ready for bed because he insisted that he needed to "cook" dinner. I told him that as soon as he woke up in the morning to wake me up and we could make muffins.

The first thing I heard this morning was Conrad saying, "Momma wake up. We make muffins!" He helped me make muffins until Phoebe woke up and then playing with her was way more fun so he left me to finish making them by myself. Making things with him takes way more time and usually a lot messier, but I love cooking with this little guy. He squeals with delight every time he gets to do anything. He is such a goofy helper. -Katie

Rapunzel

A few weeks ago we took Conrad to the park and he found a Rapunzel doll that someone had left. We couldn't get him to leave it alone but we made him leave it there when we left. Later that day we took him back to the park because he couldn't stop talking about the doll. The next morning he woke up bright and early. He didn't want to eat, he just wanted to go to the park and play with Rapunzel. I had to go visiting teaching that morning so I couldn't take him to the park just yet. I promised him if he was good for me we would go right after and play with Rapunzel. My companion is a TALKER so it ended up taking 3 hours. Conrad was so good the whole time so we hurried to the park but Rapunzel was no where to be found. He cried the whole way home. I did the only thing a mother could do. As soon as Rans got home with the car we loaded up and took Conrad to Target to buy him his very own Rapunzel. I don't usually buy him toys, especially not when he cries but I felt like he definitely deserved it this time!

Everywhere Conrad went, Rapunzel was sure to be there too. When he would brush her hair he would try to sing the song from Tangled. I loved seeing him so attached to her and wondered how long it would last because his attachment to things never lasts for long. Sure enough a few weeks later and he still likes her but only plays with her once in a while. I wonder what his next phase will be! -Katie

Somehow Kelsie has talked me into running a half marathon with her. I hate running. We have recruited Ransom and Ryan (his brother) to run it with us. If my dad wasn't so busy working 2 jobs we would have recruited him too. We had a training schedule but we haven't exactly followed it because we have had sore muscles and conflicting schedules. I can tell I am getting in better shape but I wish I had a few more months instead of a few more weeks before the race. For a little while we thought we would never be able to do it until we learned how to breathe properly, in your nose and out your mouth. It has been a lifesaver! My mom thinks we are crazy and thinks we aimed to high starting with a half marathon so we are determined to show her she is wrong! -Katie

Rans to the rescue

Ransom had taken the kids to play at the park while I finished up a few things at home. Suddenly, Conrad comes running in the house saying something about Daddy having a bird that he got in a tree. Sure enough a few minutes later Rans comes walking in the house with an injured bird. He had climbed up a tree to grab it and carried it home so that he could bandage it up. His leg had a green netting wrapped around it. He got away a few times while Ransom was trying to cut the netting off. It freaked me out as it flew around our apartment. Rans got the netting off, put some neosporin on, even put a band aid on and let the bird free. I know he is going to be an amazing nurse! -Katie

peek a boo

Phoebe loves when we play peek a boo with her. Last night when we were putting Conrad to bed she started to play peek a boo with Conrad. It was the cutest thing to see them play together. I can't believe how fast she is growing and learning. It's so fun to watch, I just wish it didn't happen so fast. -Katie

my little "helper"

Phoebe has discovered how much fun it is to help me with chores. She is good at taking clothes from the washer and dryer and throwing them on the floor. Occasionally she will hand me a shirt with a huge smile on her face or she crawls away to play with it. She has a very good skill at finding any drawer that is slightly open and throwing it on the floor. One day she will actually be able to help, but for now I am enjoying her learn and discover everything she can get her hands on. I love my little "helper". -Katie

Phoebe the Jumping Bean

Phoebe loves her bouncy chair. She can keep herself happy for minutes on end. Sometimes more minutes than others. I love watching her little feet. She always has her little toes curled while jumping on her tippy toes. Sometimes she jumps so hard that she wears herself out and takes a little nap in her chair. I think she is going to have a lot of energy just like her brother and her daddy. -Katie

pretty momma

I have the cutest, sweetest little boy in the whole world. Lately when Conrad comes to wake me up I hear, "You awake momma. You so pretty." or when I get dressed he says, "Momma you dressed. You so pretty." It always makes me smile. Today I was trying on a dress and he sees me and gasps. "Momma dress. You so pretty. Dance with me." He grabbed my hands and we went in a circle until I got too dizzy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this boy! -Katie

sleeping

Phoebe used to be such a great sleeper, but these last couple of weeks she wakes up all of the time. Sometimes I can be found on the couch with Phoebe, sometimes on the couch with Phoebe and Conrad, and occasionally on Conrad's bed because Phoebe's crying woke him up, but never in my own bed. This morning Ransom woke me up by saying, "Katie look where you're sleeping!" She actually slept through the night and I was in my own bed. It was so nice to get a good nights sleep.

-Katie

Flame Job

I got to help Ammon make his pinewood derby car today. I home teach his family and I got a call that he he needed a little help. So he and I drew out the design and cut it out at Brother Shum's house and then came over to our house to sand and paint it. Conrad was very interested in the project and wanted to help. I tried to let Ammon do as much as I could. He was easily distracted but we got through it. He wanted a red car with flames. To keep Conrad from painting the car Katie got him a little clay lion to paint. It was really cool to help Ammon and I could tell that he and his parents really were grateful for it.

Ransom

st. patrick's day

I woke up early this morning to make green pancakes before Ransom left for work. Then I made him come home during lunch so that I could send him on a scavenger hunt with Conrad. They went outside to play while I went to get it ready. I wasn't sure if Conrad would like it yet or not, but he LOVED every second of it and as soon as it was over he asked to do it again. The leprechauns left Conrad a Buzz Lightyear shirt, Phoebe a headband, Ransom some Henry Weinhard's, and of course chocolate gold coins for everyone. I love doing goofy things for random holidays! -Katie

laser tag

Josh planned a time for all of us to go laser tagging. A lot of us had never been, a few of us hadn't been in years, and some of the boys had gone a few weeks ago. It was fun to walk around and see people's strategies. Tyler always stayed in the same spot and you could see the marine in him, Linds would chase me and I could shoot behind me as I ran, Ashlee's vest rarely worked, my mom was usually an easy target because she just stood there and tried to get you, some I rarely saw, and others appeared out of no where and vanished just as fast. It was lots of fun and I think we are all looking forward to playing again. -Katie

Conrad has been busy . . .

knocking on doors and looking for monsters in the closet

being Captain Hook and running around the house saying,

"Where is Peter Pan?"

making delicious chocolate cake. Some days I eat so much cake

throughout the day I'm not sure how I will ever eat again!

building fires

being Buzz with his utility belt or Toby from Astro Boy. Depending on who he is (and it can change within seconds), the rest of us can be Woody (me), Jesse (Phoebe) and Bullseye (Rans) or we can be Cora (me), Trashcan (Phoebe) and Zog (Rans). He gets frustrated if we don't call each other the right names and is quick to correct us!

being a monster

He keeps us laughing and entertained with all the crazy things his little imagination comes up with. Life would be boring without him! -Katie

red toes

For weeks Conrad has seen my red toes and really wanted his toes to be red too. I always try to distract him from it, but last night I just couldn't say no anymore. I looked at Ransom and asked if he would paint them red. He really didn't want to do it, but he was a nice daddy and did it anyways. Today as soon as he saw my family he ripped his shoes and socks off to show everyone his red toes. Every time he sees them he gets so happy. -Katie

our tiny visitor

About a month ago I was in the kitchen and I saw something small dart across the kitchen. I started to freak out. When Rans got home he made this goofy little trap for it, but we never caught it. The next day we bought sticky traps because I did not want to kill it, I just wanted it out of my house. Days went by and there was no sign whatsoever of a mouse.

We finally figured I had just imagined it so we threw the traps away. Well, a couple days ago Rans saw something dart across the floor and then yesterday we found some mouse poop for the first time so we set out some more sticky traps.

This morning Ransom took the kids to church while I finished getting ready. I was doing my hair when I heard something in the kitchen so I went to investigate. Sure enough there was a mouse stuck on a trap. I started to panic because Rans wasn't home so I called my mom. I was secretly hoping she would offer to come get it for me, but she told me to grab a box and gloves and to drive him to a field a few miles away. I stood there for a few minutes giving myself a pep talk then grabbed a box and put a bag on my hand. As soon as I set him in the box I realized I didn't know how to get him unstuck. I googled it and started reading. Everything was saying that there was no way to get him off and then finally I read that you should put oil on it. After a few minutes he got free and started trying to jump out of the box. I didn't realized that they were such good jumpers so I hurried and threw the box outside so he didn't escape inside the house and went to find something else to put him in that he couldn't get out of while I drove him away. I finally found a tupper but as soon as I opened the door he was scampering away so hopefully he doesn't find our house again.

He was the cutest little thing but I am so happy he is out. I have dreams of being attacked by him. Rans has sealed every little nook and cranny we could find so I hope we our done with this problem. -Katie

muffins for breakfast

Last night Conrad wanted muffins really bad so I promised him if he went to bed that when he woke up we would make muffins together. That made him happy in the moment and I figured he would forget by morning. When he woke me up this morning the first thing out of his mouth was, "Momma make muffins." I have got to start being careful what I promise because he is remembering everything! -Katie

a valentine's tradition

All growing up I remember my mom telling us she just saw the mailman drop something in the mailbox even though we already had gotten the mail. We would rush to the mailbox and there would be invitations for a Valentine's dinner. On Valentine's Day people at school would be walking around with flowers, candy, or balloons but I didn't care. I knew at home we would have a beautiful table, delicious food, treats, and a rose from my dad. To me Valentine's Day was spending time with the people I loved the most, my family.

Now that I have my own family this is a tradition that I want to continue because I want my kids and husband to know how much they are truly loved. We celebrated a few days late, but I made a VERY unhealthy meal of things Ransom loves. We had raspberry cream sodas, fancy bread dipped in balsamic vinegar, and spicy chicken pasta. We invited Emily over to have dinner with us. It was nice to have a quiet night together. I love my family! -Katie

breakfast

Ransom loves breakfast and I never really have so I rarely ever make him breakfast so I made a goal to start making him breakfast at least once a week. I have been looking for ideas that I can make ahead of time because he works at 7 or 8am every day and I am NOT a morning person. I found this recipe and thought it looked easy enough. We were up until 1am (probably the reason I am not a morning person!) the night before getting it prepared.

I woke up this morning with just enough time to get them in the oven. Turns out the broil on our oven doesn't work so I had to load up all of the kids and go to my parents to cook them. It turned out to be a much harder and more complicated process to make these, but I made extras so I was able to give some to my family and some buddies at his work so I guess it was better that way! -Katie

image via Pioneer Woman

hide and seek

We got to watch Avery for a couple hours today before we took off for Arizona. Conrad LOVES playing with her. Their favorite game was hide and seek. I would shut the door, count to 10 and knew right where they would be. They hid in the same spot every single time with the blanket on top of them, but it was exciting for them every single time. I love that he has a friend to play with. -Katie

Conrad and Avery

today . . .

Conrad would fly his apple into his mouth and say he was eating Peter Pan. Not sure where that came from!

Phoebe is trying really hard to sit up. She can almost do it all by herself. -Katie

too independent

Ransom is always trying to teach our kids how to do things by themselves. I try to baby them along and want to do everything for them because I want them to stay little, but time has a way of speeding along. Phoebe can already hold her own bottle. It is adorable to watch, but can she already be old enough to do that? -Katie

Indian Food in Panama City

On our way from Caimitillo to Santiago we stayed in a hotel and had some AC and good beds for a night. It was pretty nice. On our way to the hotel we saw a little Indian food place and decided to try it out. It was super spicy! and they served it with this nasty yogurt stuff. The food was not bad, just very strange. For sure authentic Indian food. -Rans

The Iguala Family in Caimitillo

While we were staying in Caimitillo I got to know the Iguala Family. Ben's friend, the Branch President that I mentioned before lives there with his wife and three daughters. The Branch President's mom lives there too just right down the street. Momma Iguala took care of us while we were there, She lent us pillows and blankets for our empty house we stayed in and cooked us breakfast. I missed those Panamanian breakfasts! Fried hot dogs and fried bananas, with rice and juice. As you can see below President Iguala's daughter is stinkin' cute! She would dance for us and show us her toys. I enjoyed meeting some of the people that Ben got to know from his areas, they are buena gente. -Rans

Ransom with Mamma Iguala and the neighbor kid

1. Ben in Caimitillo 2. Ransom in an abandoned house full of plants

3. The baby Iguala girl.

First days of Panama trip

I served my mission in Panama from 04 -06, I just had a chance to go back and visit there with a good friend of mine, Ben. We decided to go back to visit our people. It was a two week trip, kind of a stretch, but Katie is a champion and sweetheart and let me go while she stayed with our two kids. (love you Kate!!) I liked our trip because it was not your typical vacation. We stayed with the people we knew, no matter how humble their house, sleeping on the ground with the bugs with a fan blowing on you all night because its still in the high 80's.

First, we went and stayed with some friends of mine that live near Panama City in a place called Pacora. When I was on my mission that area was out in the middle of nowhere, just a little dirt road going out into the jungle. Now it is a almost it's own city. Jorge lives there. In my last area he was one of our "member missionaries", he would go everywhere with us and him and I have kept in touch ever since. So we stayed at his aunt's house and I got to meet her and his cousins, who are some of the cutest kids I have ever seen! We had a good time swimming in the river and fishing, we even went to the other Jorge's house and got to visit his family. The other Jorge is Jorge's cousin, he is awesome. He is smart, like really really smart. He served a mission after I left and is back now, going to school. It was awesome to see them and meet some new little friends.

After visiting Pacora we went to one of Ben's old areas called Caimitllio. He is friends with the branch president of that area and he let us stay in a house that his brother moved out of. We had it all to ourselves, except for the cockroaches. But the people that we went to visit were great. The little kids are always my favorite. There was a little girl named Brittany that just stuck to me like glue, she had a raspy little voice and asked me a thousand questions. We had a good time with those guys. -Rans

Ransom with Jorge, Alexanrda, Luz, and Daniel.

1. Luz 2. Jorge 3. Daniel
4. Pacora River 5&6. Ben fishing

Jorge Pascasio Ransom Jorge Santos

1. Ransom and Jorge's Aunt 2. Ransom and Brittany
3. Riding the bus in Pacora 4. Diablo rojo bus
5. Ben and Brittany's sister
6. Ransom with the Iguala Family