Halloween Pictures

A lion............

Darth Vader....

  Hannah Montana.....

  A bat...............

Fire Station Tour

MOMS club took a tour of the fire station in Beaumont. They got to see where the firemen stay, where they eat, and climb in the fire engine. Each of them also got a turn to spray the hose. They sprayed it across the parking lot and almost to the street. Tyler almost got a car... maybe the fireman wasn't paying attention here? But luckily, there was no harm done.

School Days

Karissa and Kyle started school at the end of August. Karissa's second grade teacher is Alyssa Espalin. She won Karissa over right away by being young and cute and fashionable. She's been a good teacher and Karissa is having a good year so far. She's made new friends in her class and is learning lots of new things. She's gotten to be a great reader and loves Junie B. Jones books. It's cute to watch her reading silently and then burst out laughing at something Junie B. said. Here's Karissa on the second day of school:

Kyle is a kindergartener this year! He has Ms. Powell, who was also Karissa's teacher, and he likes her and likes being in school. He likes to get his homework packet done the first day of the week and not have any homework (except reading) on the other days. Every day he rides his scooter to school, and usually when we go to pick up Karissa he likes to ride his bike.

His class had a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch last week and I went with him. We rode on a hay ride, went in a petting zoo, learned about pumpkins and got to bring home a little pumpkin of our own.

Utah and Idaho trip/ Ford Family Reunion

In August we took a trip to Utah and Idaho. In the words of Karissa, "That was the longest trip I ever took."  It was a long drive, but the kids did well. Karissa and Kyle made books along the trip, adding souveniers (napkins, menus, brochures, etc.) every time we stopped.

We spent a day in Idaho. We were able to see the McBrides, and went out to lunch with them at Millhollow. The kids had a great time playing, and it was so fun to catch up! Being back in Rexburg after so long was really cool. James and I have so many memories of that great place! We were excited to show the kids and tell them stories about our BYU-Idaho and Ricks College days. We took them to a devotional; unfortunately for me, Tyler decided that it would be a good time to try out his new potty training skills, and we spent a half hour in the bathroom while he tried to go. We also visited with our old bishop and teacher, Brother Packer, and James' old boss, Judy Steiner.

We spent the night in Rigby and took the kids to Rigby Lake in the morning. Even though it was cold, they were eager to get in and swim.

We drove back to Ogden where our first stop was the candy factory tour. Tiffany set that up for us, and we went with her and her kids, Jeanette and Sasha. It was interesting to see how everything was made, but we all would have appreciated more samples along the way!

The Ford Family Reunion officially started the next day. We had the largest bedroom in the Vaughns house... for all 6 of us. Needless to say, it was not easy for the kids to fall asleep! We had a great trip spending time with family, though. Some highlights were: Temple square, the family talent show, the Ogden County Fair where all the girls performed "All the Single Ladies,"  and swimming in Willard Bay.

The most awesome foreign exchange student ever!

For the first week in August we had a Japanese foreign exchange student live with our family. Her name is Chinami, and we had such a good time getting to know her. She was great with the kids and they were so sad to see her go! We tried to show her a lot of things. We hiked in Oak Glen, went to a Michael McDonald concert, went to church, the mall, a movie, dinner at BJ's, and a couple of parties with the foreign exchange group. It was a great week! We miss you, Chinami!

Trevor's Helmet

After months of waiting, Trevor finally got his helmet to help shape his head. He's got a spot on the side of his head that is flat. The doctors said that it happens sometimes with babies who are breach like he was. Their necks are at a strange angle in there, so when they get out, one side of the neck is weak. He would always lean to one side when he was really little. I would try to turn his head to the other side while he slept, but whenever I checked again, he was back to his favorite side. Oh, well! 6 months later, we are finally correcting the problem!

The helmet is fairly lightweight. It doesn't seem to bother Trevor much. He wears it all day and all night. The biggest problems are sweating- he drips sweat when it's hot- and other people's curiosity. We get all kinds of questions from strangers at the store. A lot of people think it's because we want to protect him. (I don't think I'm quite that safety conscious that I would make my 9 month old wear a helmet at the grocery store...) 

Trevor will wear his helmet anywhere from 6 weeks to 5 months depending on how fast his head grows and shapes and how good we are about making him wear it. (We'll be good!)

Joy in the Journey- Neilson Family Reunion

James and I were in charge of planning the family reunion for his side of the family this year. With his parents, sisters and their families and us, that was a total of 33 people. We planned it super close to home at the Highland Springs Resort, which was great. There are 800 acres of lavendar fields, areas to explore and things to do. Best of all was spending time with family and seeing our kids grow closer to their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Here are some of the trip highlights:

Hiking at the top of the Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs
Family Talent Show (we performed Keep on from the Brady Bunch)
Swimming
Eating Lucky Charms for breakfast (a very rare treat for our kids)
Gospel Scavenger Hunt
Grandpa Stan's song, "Joy Joy Joy in the Journey... boop boop"

Swim Lessons

For the last two weeks, Karissa and Kyle took swim lessons at the Yucaipa Pool. I was a little concerned because they weren't able to get in to level 2, so James signed them up for level 3. When we saw the other kid in their class, he was swimming around in the deep end with no help, something Karissa and Kyle still can't do! Anyway, there were only those 3 kids in their class, so they got a lot of personalized attention. The teacher was able to help them at their level and they learned some new things. A few times they got brave and jumped off the diving board (even though it took some coaxing). Tyler, Trevor and I sat on the side with a friend and her baby. It was fun to sit and talk while the kids were in the pool.

May

May was a busy busy fun month. So busy that I am just now getting around to blogging about it...

The first Saturday in May (and the last Saturday in April) was spent with James family. James went dirt bike riding with David (his sister Jenny's husband). The next weekend was the funeral of a man in James' home ward, and his sister's father in law, Charles Broberg. He was glad to be able to go to that and we spent the evening with his parents.

Both of my sisters who live out of state came down with their families to visit the next two weekends, so we went out to my parents house to spend time with them. Of course, I forgot to take a single picture of my brand new nephew or either of my sisters! But here's what we did that I DID take pictures of:

Karissa lost 4 teeth in about a week and a half. The tooth fairy almost went broke! Good thing she only gives a dollar..!

Cousins!

Danny and Trevor.

A mom and daughter picture for mothers day. My vision was to have a picture with all my kids, but Kyle couldn't find his church shoes and Ty was already in his car seat, but at least Karissa was willing!

Silly boys eating pudding!

Boy Stuff

Kyle and James in their church clothes. Kyle got new shoes and socks and even agreed to tuck in his shirt and wear a tie- definitely a picture- worthy moment.

James came home from his parents house with this- an e-Bike (a motorized bike) with a "hitchhiker" attachment.  The kids have been having a blast riding around with their dad. Tyler hangs on really well and loves to go for rides. Kyle and James had a father and son night and rode this up to McDonalds to get an ice cream.

Ty and Trev

Tyler and Trevor got their pictures taken together. The photographer tried to take some separately, but Ty was only happy when he had his arm around his baby brother. Ignore the glare, I just took a picture of the picture!

Tyler's officially a big boy in his big boy bed.

Here he is sleeping in/ hanging off of his toddler bed.
I sometimes ask him if he wants to sleep in it, but he always says no.
Earlier this week, he said "Yes!" and stayed in the whole night.
He's slept in there every night this week, but he's come out a couple of times... I think it's a big temptation to him knowing that he can get out!

Spring Break

Before the week started, we sat down with the kids and made a schedule of all the things they wanted to do since they didn't have school. This is how it looked:
Monday-Practice Jump Roping/ basketball. Ride bikes to the park.
Tuesday-Practice hula-hooping.
Wednesday-Meet James for lunch. Read a book.
Thursday- Go to the mall and play at the play place. Return clothes and buy raw milk.
Friday- Go to Mr. B's farm. Play a family game. Restock 72 hour kits. Get an oil change.
Saturday- General Conference. Terry's Party. Meadow's party for Karissa.
Sunday- Easter. Go to Grammy's. General Conference.

We had a good week together. Mr B. was Karissa's long term substitute teacher (her teacher has been out since November). He invited the kids to come visit his farm. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was great. He has all kinds of rare animals. Tyler laughed every time the sheep ran by, and we all got a big kick out of the heritage turkeys. Karissa got to hold a baby chick.

Our fun weekend

I had planned to blog today about our fun weekend, and I'll get to that, but I need to start with a little segment of my day, so that if you don't have kids yet, or if your kids are grown and you don't remember how they were at the age of 2, here's a reminder:

Things that happened today

Tyler dumped out 2 bottles of hand soap all over the floor.
Tyler dumped a cup of water out on the tile. I didn't clean it fast enough. Kyle was carrying a glass plate, with food on it, to the table. For whatever 5 year old reason I can't fathom, he went around the long way, in front of the fridge, in the water spill.... down went the boy, down went the plate, glass and food went flying everywhere.
Tyler stabbed poked Trevor in the lip with a sharpened pencil and made his lip bleed. (Can someone tell me why we can never find a sharpened pencil when it's homework time, but somehow a sharpened pencil is close enough to be a weapon for a 2 year old???)
Tyler found a pair of scissors and cut his pants to bits, while he was wearing them (you can see the holes in the picture above).

So, on to the weekend. We went as a family to California Adventure on Saturday. James' sister Julie got us in (thanks, Julie!) (she works for Disney). We walked on all the rides in Bugs Land. The kids were scared of the 3-D show and we had to walk out in the middle of it. Our favorite ride of the day was Soarin' over California.


On Sunday James and the kids came with me to a ward conference. It was nice to have church together. That afternoon we went to James parents' to celebrate Joy's birthday.
I was going to write more, but hey... it's been a long day.

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

Tyler turned 2 February 27th. When you ask him how old he is, he says "two" and holds up his pointer finger and his thumb. We had a small celebration with just our family and a homemade yellow birthday cake with chocolate frosting. Tyler got a big "fire-fire" engine as one of his presents.

He's really into trucks and asks us to read his truck book over and over (his favorites are the backhoe and the fire engine). 

Karissa:  We like to play babies together. Tyler talks cute.

Kyle: I like to kiss him and beat him up.

James: I love it when Ty ask me to snuggle and gives me kisses and hugs. When I walk down the hall holding him he always points to the picture on the wall and says, "Jesus!" really loud.

Chanelle: Tyler loves to get into my makeup (or make-make as he says). He's a lover and gives LOTS of kisses- to us, to his brothers and sister, to his friends in nursery, to produce that we buy.

We love our two year old!!

Presidents Week

Karissa had a week long school vacation, and James got Monday off for the holiday, and Friday off (he gets every other Friday off).
We spent Monday hiking in Oak Glen. It was a gorgeous day and lots of fun. There was even a little snow and the kids got to climb around in it. The hiking was a little slow because we let Tyler walk part of the way. He didn't want to stay on the path and we kept having to chase him around.

On Friday, we went to Disneyland. We got our "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" tickets by delivering blankets that will go to needy kids. Disneyland was a fun day. We went on a lot of rides, and it wasn't too crowded. We even bought the kids sugar lollypops (they were so excited!). Tyler loved seeing (and hugging) Tigg-Tigg. (I didn't even know he knew who Tigger was!)

Now before I tell this next part, I have to say, "Don't judge me!" (A friend said this to me the other day while opening the door in her p.j.'s at 3 in the afternoon:)  Anyway, we were so excited to get inside Disneyland, and we had to park over in Gardenwalk and take a city bus to Disneyland. On the bus, we realized that we'd left the diaper bag in the car! We didn't want to go all the way back, so we thought we'd just hope for the best or maybe buy some overpriced diapers inside Disneyland. So, we are going along and the inevitable- Trevor poops. We asked the workers and found out that you can get diapers on Main street and we start walking over there, even though it's clear on the other side of the park, when we see.... a diaper on the ground! Manna from heaven! It's unused, totally clean. We laughed and picked it up. Should we use it? Well, of course, a free diaper left there just for us (Karissa said, "Heavenly Father made someone drop this there for us!")  We went on to our next ride and James and the kids got in line while I changed the diaper. Of course, we had no wipes, but as you mothers know, in a pinch, you can use the diaper and do without. Except at those times when you really need a wipe. This was one of those times. Enough said.
So, I'm standing there, trying to change a diaper in the stroller with a diaper delivered from heaven, but no wipes to finish the job. I said a little prayer in my mind, asking for the Lord to send someone with wipes walking close by me, and I would ask them for one. A few people walked by, but none got close enough. Then, a girl walked right in front of me, with a baby in a carrier on her chest- and she looked familiar. "I know you!" I blurted out. Turns out, she is James' cousins' (Daniel Haring) wife. She had wipes, and freely shared them with me. What are the chances someone would drop a clean diaper right in our path? And that, with all the thousands of people at Disneyland, someone I know would walk by with wipes? I don't doubt for a minute that the Lord was aware of our needs and watching out for us! Even for our little needs like diapers and wipes!