Motorcycle Progress

Derrick's Shark

Art Try-Outs

Samantha submitted a piano entry to the evening of the arts for her elementary school. She had been working on composing her own piece of music with her music teacher and she played it. It is called "May Flowers". She played well. We have to wait to see if she gets to play for the award ceremony.

Drawing Princesses

KayDee loves to draw, especially princesses. She found this model this time. I think she did pretty well right down to the sparkles.

Cub Scouts-Mechanics

I am a cub scout den leader and Kevin helped me out one den meeting. He helped the Webelos do car stuff: check the oil, change a tire, change a bulb, etc. It was great, although I had to keep reminding Kevin he needed to let the boys do it. He just loves to work on cars, he can't stop himself! :) Too cute!

Tonsils

 We were advised from the Dentist that KayDee should get her tonsils out. She has always snored and slept with her mouth open. The dentist said her teeth were being effected by her breathing through her mouth. I listened and then mentioned it to her doctor when I got the chance. He'd never heard of it but another doctor said that it is a concern. So after a rough couple weeks of KayDee sleeping TERRIBLE and me laying next to her to calm her down, I noticed that she stops breathing too. Problems just kept compounding.

A+B=ENT=Tonsils and Adnoids out. 

We took her to the ENT and he said he knew why she snored because her tonsils were HUGE! Her uvula was exceptionally long as well since with her mouth wide open it still touched her tongue.
We set the date for the surgery and she had her tonsils and adnoids out with a uvula trim.
She recovered VERY well. The worst part was getting over the anesthesia. She had a couple bad moments of pain (about 5-10 min each) and that was that. After a few weeks, all the sudden KayDee was EATING! I really couldn't believe that she kept asking for more food at meals and double the snacks. I think this is the best thing we could have done for her. Her cheeks are a little more chubby already. We haven't heard her snoring for days and she is a much happier child since she sleeps better!

Paper Castle

Kevin made a fun date night with me. We get LOTS of scraps of paper from a friend and so he decided we could use them to make a castle. With the help of a stapler we were successful! The kids ended up playing with it for a few days which made it even more of a success. I love it when Kevin thinks of fun things for us to do.

Stitches

KayDee needed stitches after falling flat on her chin while playing with her brother. They were pulling each other around on blankets and she apparently got bucked off and hit the floor. It was quite the sight to see white fat when she pulled the skin apart. I made the decision quite quickly to take her to get stitches. She ended up with 5.

Flying Kites

 Another attempt was made to fly kites at our house. The wind is just not right...EVER! The wind gusts and then dies in a very sad pattern that makes kite flying near impossible. Just ask anyone who lives here!

 The kids ran and used the wind when it decided to come. They got it off the ground for a bit and that made them happy.

Just run. That is how to fly kites in our town.

Off-Road /Hiking

 We tried to go off-roading with our friends the Beatty's. The weather was supposed to be nice and we were going to hike to a plane crash. Our 4x4 was having unexpected problems and the wind was sooo cold

 

(we felt a little misled by the weatherman!) The Beatty's ended up pulling us a fair way to get us home. Sadly the truck was just out of fuel...
On our way back we stopped at our "Eagle Rock" to have the kids run and play.

 Wade was not convinced the rock looked like an eagle. Where is his imagination?

 Many comments were made on KayDee's getup. Apparantly she dresses like a diva.

 Cramming kids on the rock.

The boys


We went back to the house and had lunch and hot chocolate to warm us up!

The Fort

I loved making forts when I was younger. They love it too!

The Helmet

The Motorcycle

Kevin has been working fairly diligently on his motorcycle. He had a deadline but major sickness and weakness got in the way. It has been extended a few more weeks and good thing it will be running soon since fuel prices continue to go out of reach.
We have been accumulating parts off ebay and autopart stores. The paint job has seemed to be the most important since it needs a gas tank to run and Kevin wants it to look pretty. And look what he has accomplished...drum roll...IT LOOKS PRETTY GREAT! (I added the "great" since it really does look great!).
I like the roadrunner for different reasons than Kevin. He likes it because he loves THAT roadrunner from the cartoon and it totally fits a motorcycle personality. I like it because it has yellow and purple on it. Whatever, as long as everyone is happy. Now it needs a few more clear coats and off it goes to be placed on the bike. The next step is manipulating foam, vinyl, thread, and the base to make a good seat. More projects!

Happy 3rd annual 29th

So Kevin gets another birthday and more cheesecake and more car parts... We love his birthday since we only devote a limited number of candles on his cake. They always represent something and they really do this time too. Two is for the two at the end of what age he really is! Figure that out!
The kids had fun making a card for their dad and drawing pictures that he would like, like trucks. Samantha drew him sitting in the back of his truck. Maybe she wanted him to enjoy the ride from every aspect of his favorite vehicle. Derrick's truck looked a lot like Optimus (?) Prime with the colors he included. I sketched a motorcycle for him. He totally guessed what model I used too (it was easy since it was sitting in the driveway). KayDee danced while we sang happy birthday. I believe his smile was genuine. Happy Birthday Kevin!

That's Hail not Snow

It hailed HARD and sounded like someone was disabling our chimney and working at it for at least an hour. Normally the hail only lasts about 15-20 minutes so this was quite the storm. After it hailed and filled up the yard it calmed a bit and started to melt and then the BIG (as big as this area gets) ones started to fall. They weren't quite so numerous but this is definitely the largest I've seen since we have lived here. I know I take a lot of pictures of the weather but you would too if you lived in our climate!

Mini Bike

Kevin works on many projects and the mini bike has been one of the most popular (and cutest) with the kids. He brought it home one night but didn't have all the parts yet. The kids patiently waited until Dad was done with his 4 day fever and went back to work again so he could bring back the rest of the parts. After much tweaking it worked and even children can maneuver it. There was one point when I wasn't able to make it move without hurting my wrist...but Kevin fixed that quickly by swapping the throttle cable from the parts bike. I was RELIEVED. I hate driving old stuff that hurts!

After a few practice runs the kids put on their bike helmets and enjoyed the ride, with the governor super limited (basically at an idle) so the kids don't go too fast. (Kevin's correcting my spelling, I must be tired :)) Anyways we think it is a great addition to his many projects since we reap direct benefits from it. Now we need to get some real helmets and we'll be ready to go out of our yard.

New Airport

While my parents dropped in for a surprise visit we went and saw the new St. George Municipal Airport. I thought it was just in Washington Fields like everyone said. Well I guess it is if it takes 20 minutes to cross the fields, they're right.
The airport was really nice and I'm glad we were able to see it. Who knows when we would drive out that way again! Kevin's Aunt Lunetta was there with a group she works with, so it was fun to see her there too. The kids were given snacks from their group. I assume it is because they are irresistible children, or just that the group was really nice and my kids were hovering...And we did figure out what the U meant in SGU.