12-12-05

Cayten turned 4 on December 12. I am amazed at how brilliant and wonderful he is. He is ahead in many areas. He does things kindergarteners do and thinks he is so big. He now says "I am 4, I don't fight" or "I am 4, I clean up!" He is such a great helper and a cuddle bug. He loves to just snuggle when we are watching movies and stuff. He is so sweet. He will just stop what he is doing and turn to me and say "mom, you are the bestest mom I have ever had" or "mom you are beauiful!" He is constantly giving me compliments and saying things we say all the time. I love him so much and love having him in our home. It wouldn't be the same without him! He had a wonderful birthday. He woke up to presents on the floor. He thought they were for Christmas but I explained to him they were for his birthday. He was so excited. I wanted him to wait til after breakfast to open them but he couldn't wait, and neither could I!




He is OBSESSED with transformers right now. I don't know why, he has never watched the cartoon and only watched the movie once! He got 2 transformers, snowboots, sandals for next summer, and an outfit.

We bundled up and went sledding around noon. He loved EVERY minute of it and we can't wait to do it again!

Birthday Presents

Here is a video of Cayten opening his birthday presents at Cris's parent house after ELMO! We opened them there as we were going to get a HUGE snowstorm (which we did . . . like 18 inches of SNOW) and they wouldn't be able to make it up (even though they still came)!

Elmo Live

For Cayten's birthday Cris's mom took him to Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows up! I was able to tag along and it was such a blast. We went down to West Valley and wanted to find a good pizza place . . . we couldn't find one at all so we decided to go to Smashburgers. It was really YUMMY. And Cayten ate 3/4 of an entire burger along with nearly all his fries. I was so happy!


WHAT TO EAT? I can't decide! (Just kidding, he was just being funny!)


Cayten and Grandma at Smash Burger


Cayten sitting in his seat just before the show started. We were in row 5 so we were really close and it was just plain fun!


My new favorite picture of me with Cayten. Moms aren't in the pictures very often and this one turned out GREAT!


Our first look at Elmo and Big Bird


Almost the whole crew!


I have a TON of pictures like this . . . Cayten couldn't take his eyes off the show!


Cayten being silly!


Cayten getting to shake Elmo's hand!
During intermission Cayten told Grandma "I dream to hug Elmo" We were lucky enough to get him to be able to do that. I was so excited! They run away so fast though so this was as good of picture as I got!

The end of the show!

It was so much fun. I don't think I have had that much fun in a very long time! I am sure Cayten had the time of his life as he can't stop talking about it!

Trains and Lights

Cayten has recently become obsessed with trains and transformers. He thinks Santa is bringing him a transformer . . . this Santa didn't so we shall see what happens! We were able to take him on Frontrunner the day after Thanksgiving to see the lights go on at Temple Square.

Sorry the pictures are blurry. I took my point and shoot camera and I really haven't figured out how to use it very well. All the pictures I take are blurry. I guess it doesn't help that this train was moving quite fast!

Getting ready to board!

Cayten with Auntie! He was SO excited!

The whole crew minus mommy, grandma and grandpa Chinen. (are moms ever in pictures?)


We got to the entrance of Temple Square right as the lights went on. It was pretty neat. We were able to listen to the story of Christ's birth but there were SO many people that we didn't get the full effect. I would like to go again but I don't think we will get the chance.





Rysa was so cuddled up and warm. After the lights we hopped on TRAX and headed to eat dinner at a Hawaiian restaraunt called L&L's. It is oh so ONOS (yummy).

After eating we got back on TRAX and headed to catch the Frontrunner. We had to wait for 35 minutes or so for the train to come. My mom and sisters and Jen's kids were in Salt Lake too looking at the lights. They didn't ride the same train up but as we were getting ready to get off the train, my mom yelled my name and voila . . . they were on the same train as us only we sat on top and they were on the bottom. Pretty Crazy!

eating

I am going to go insane and need some help. My children will NOT eat. I have NEVER had picky eaters. Cayten will say he is hungry, I make lunch/dinner and he will gag and act like he can't swallow it and then spit it out. I am starting to get worried about him. He has dark circles under his eyes and is tired. I have cut out ALL sweets to use them as bribes but not even that is working. Rysa will eat a few bites but not much. I think with her it is more of a growth spurt. Please, any advice would be GREAT!

Been Too Long

It has been way too long since I posted. Life sure does get the better part of you when you have 2 kids, a small side job of photography, a husband, babysitting daily, etc. I have been blog stalking a few blogs to come up with fun things to do this Holiday season. We started off by doing a Thankful Jar. It was a jar filled with papers to count down to Thanksgiving. It was so much fun doing new things every day. One of the days said "I am Thankful for cars. Clean out your car and go get Ice Cream Cones" It was so much fun. I wish I would have taken pictures everyday of what we did. It was always a blast.

One of the days was "I am thankful for my teachers: Take your teachers a plate full of goodies" My children aren't in school so we decided to take cookies to Cayten's primary teachers and the girls I visit teach.

Rysa's cookie . . . oh so beautiful!

Cayten refused to eat his dinner so he didn't get to help decorate the cookies



Another of the days said "I am thankful for my hands: draw or finger paint" and "I am thankful for Turkeys: make a paper turkey" We made these paper turkeys with the little boy I babysit.



Rysa is below her turkey and Cayten below his. What you fail to see however is how covered in glue Rysa's turkey actually is!

I started with my own turkey and gave them each piece separately to build their turkeys.







I made an Advent Calendar yesterday. I have always wanted a cute fun one. I think I found it and it only took me a couple hours to make it.

It is a mini muffin tin. In each of the muffin spots there will be papers with things like "read the story of Christs birth" "have a cup of hot chocolate and watch a movie" "go Christmas caroling" etc. It am excited to start the new tradition.

Those are our ramblings for now. I can't wait to start the Christmas season and do many fun and wonderful things. I hope to get a picture of everything we do for our advent calendar! We are going to see the lights at Temple Square go on on Friday. I have never been there for that. We are going to ride Front Runner and have a grand ole time! Til Then. . .

Fun Times and changes ahead

I know it has been a while since I posted. Life gets busy when you are sick, busy every weekend taking photos, and just having 2 kids!

I LOVE photography. I am so lucky to have found a hobby and joy that is so rewarding to me. The only part I don't like about it . . . taking pictures of my own children. They DO NOT obey me! We have gone out a few times and I was FINALLY able to get some images of them I felt worthy to put up on my wall. I was able to catch a hilarious picture of Clarysa, it truly defines who she really is, ALL SASS!



Cris had a major interview 2 weeks ago. It is for a position in Clearfield for Hill Air Force Base. I have never prayed so hard for something in my life. We have been searching for 1.5 years for a good job for Cris. This one seems to have fallen out of the sky and into our lap. It seems too good to be true and there is this doubt in me that thinks it is. We will find out sometime this week about the position. If we don't hear anything til the end of the week, this week will probably be the longest week of my life.

I have been so BUSY this last month with photography. I have had 3 photo shoots every week and a wedding. The wedding was by far my favorite. You can check out photos here: http://bycallie.blogspot.com

I have a video to post of Clarysa and her dance. She is so crazy and pure cuteness (even if she is all sass)! She talks so much and says her prayers. She is OBSESSED with brushing her teeth. Anytime we walk into the bathroom she wants to brush her teeth. She is learning to jump and she is a DAREDEVIL. She thinks she can do everything Cayten can. We are slowly working on potty training. Not because I want to but because she loves to go. She has pooped and peed in the potty a few times every week. It will be nice to be done changing diapers for a very long time. (BTW- to those wondering after my last post No new babies coming to this home for a VERY long time, I will have to suffer amnesia before that one will happen!)




Cayten is growing like a weed. He wishes he could go to school and so I HATE Utah laws because he is late born and there is nothing we can do about it unless we move to Hawaii for a few months and transfer back. He is so smart and already learning to read some words. He loves sports and is very competitive. I can tell he is going to be just like Cris which could be a good thing but not when it comes to telling me everything that happens wrong! We are working on the sucking of the thumb with him. We promised him a new bike if he stopped sucking his thumb so he is working really hard at it. We have tried everything else so far to no avail.

Contagious

A few weeks ago my kids ended up going through Hands Foot and Mouth disease. It was so miserable for all of us. The kids had blisters on their hands, feet, bums, and in their mouths. Clarysa probably got it the worst. She wouldn't really eat or drink anything and she was in a lot of pain. One of the worst things about this was we were contagious the entire time they had blisters so Cayten didn't get to sing in his primary program. He was so sad and still talks about it. It would have been his first one!

We also just had a scare of the H1N1 (not swine cuz my little sister sells pigs and she hates it when every one calls it that LOL) flu. The little boy I babysit dad got the flu and so I was worried we would get it too but we lucked out and didn't even get a fever.

Cris applied for a job today. Not even 2 hours later he was contacted for an interview this Monday. The job is in Layton so we would have to commute til we could sell our house which wouldn't be for a year and a half. I guess I am getting my hopes up as we don't even know what the pay starts out at or that he will even get the job but we are praying and crossing our fingers!


A few more contagious things . . . These smiles. Such a wonderful thing and you can't help but smile when you look at these faces.

Relief Society Conference and Mo' Bettah Steaks!

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to the General Relief Society broadcast is Salt Lake City. It was THE first time I have been to any sort of Conference. Oh it was SO wonderful, LOVED EVERY MINUTE but why wouldn't you. I was on the lower portion of the conference center


I sat on Plaza Level 10 in the VERY front row. The choir was AMAZING and we could sing as LOUD as we wanted. It was awesome. We could feel the Spirit before the session even started, it was so wonderful. When President Monson and the others walked in, everyone stood and it was silent. It was AMAZING . . . I am saying that word a lot! After the speakers spoke, Pres. Monson was leaving and he waived to everyone, President Uchtdorf blew a kiss to everyone and I am sure Eyring did something too but I didn't see. It was AWESOME.

After leaving the conference center and a few bad instructions on how to drive, we were looking for a place to eat dessert.

We were in Bountiful and this is where Mo' Bettah Steaks comes in! Oh so ONOS! We had Shave Ice there and I was back in Hawaii except for the humidity. It was SO delicious. The only sad part was they didn't have my favorite flavor of Strawberry Cream (which when we were in Oahu, right after we had flown in from Maui, we went to Matsumoto's and got Shave Ice there, I got Strawberry Cream and it tasted JUST LIKE Guri Guri) . . . don't worry if you don't know what that is! They did have Lychee which was DELISH, and I also got Orange Dreamsicle, and Hawaiian Delight. It was glorious with ice cream in the bottom! Here are some pictures below!