"The Shicken's Dead"

On the weekends I make a warm breakfast for the kids. Nothing huge or grand... Usually just scrambled eggs & cheese for Ty, and eggs-over-easy for D & K. This morning I took out three eggs to get started. While I was mixing the first two eggs and getting ready to scramble them, Kailee came over to the stove and asked: "Dad, did you kill a chicken?" I giggled and said, "No sweetie. There wasn't a chicken in the egg. The egg came from the chicken and that's what we're eating."

I proceeded to cook the eggs and served them on the plate for Ty. When I went to get the other egg, it was missing. My first thought was perhaps I had dropped it on the floor and somehow didn't notice it.

Nope.

I then started looking on the counter to see if it rolled away (you know-since eggs always do that...) when I noticed K laying on the sofa in a somewhat-fetal position looking sad. I said, "K K? Are you alright?" She got up and walked over to me with her hands bundled up in her shirt and in quite a sad voice said, "I don't want the chicken to die! I'm trying to warm it up!" I tried not laughing, but how could you not when history almost repeats itself??? (for those of you not familiar-Bec had a similar experience with her mom when she was little) Kailee took the egg off the stove when I wasn't looking and wrapped it up in her pj shirt! She was trying to revive it back to life! She looked so heart broken when I asked her to give it back to me. I had to go into some serious details on the gestation of an egg (and with my last biology class YEARS ago-I couldn't remember any details...) and how we're NOT killing a chicken when we eat eggs. She felt better (or as she says, "Bether") and was perfectly fine eating her eggs-over-easy after-all.

The funny thing was, Dallin listened intently to the entire conversation as if these were thoughts he had thought before, just never asked. Guess this morning was their Intro to Biology lesson!

Step One... change background = CHECK!

You'd think that by now I would've learned how to change the background on our blog! But no...

I can't tell you how many man hours I've spent trying to get it figured out. I came up with this design in Photoshop that I wanted to use as the background-nothing spectacular or anything. Just something to get rid of our Christmas background! Also, something to get the ball rolling with us blogging again... but I just couldn't for the life of me get it to work coming from photobucket.

Then I thought, Alright. I'll just use one of the "cutestblogsontheblock" templates... And still-it took me forever to get that to work... sheesh... you'd think I'd never used a computer before.

Finally. I am here. On the other end of the first hurdle looking forward to more to come. I guess I shouldn't take too long of a break, since we have yet many pictures and stories to catch you all up on!

A Few Firsts

Just a few Firsts that we have experienced this past month:

And for the weak, that 2nd and 3rd pictures from the bottom are GROSS!!!!!!!!!

WICKED!!!!!

I FINALLY got to see Wicked for the first time in Denver with my mom and sister for our annual girls weekend.

BYU Football

We took Dallin to his first game. He was super excited for days when we told him we were taking him to a game.

After hot dogs, cotton candy, hot chocolate and tons of yelling and booing (the refs sucked!!!), we were happy to have an easy win.

SANTA!!!

This year, Ty finally understood Santa. We have taken her to see him at least 5 times. Each time, she adores him and cuddles him. She even says hi to him anywhere and everywhere she sees him (may it be picture, movie, or someone who even looks, remotely, like him).

The ER

Yes, it has finally happened. We have had a late night visit to the ER. Tylie fell out of her crib and hit her head on the dresser. It took 3 adults to hold her down so that the Doctor could fix her, and thats after they wrapped her up in a towel to hold her tight! She was crying so hard, from being held down, that she literally had broken blood vessels all over her face.

2 stitches inside and 5 staples later, she is fine. You would never know that she had a nasty accident last night. She is the toughest little thing I know.

KAILEE

We don't have any firsts for this sweet little girl, but I had to put a picture of her because she is so stinkin' cute!!!!

Who says cartoons aren't educational???

While driving in the car this evening, the kids and I had quite an interesting conversation... Here's how it went:

Kailee: Dad? When you die, we won't have a dad anymore.

Me: I will always be your dad. Even after I die.

Dallin: Will we see you?

Me: You might not see me for a little while, but we are family and we will see each other again.

Dallin: Where will you be?

Me: Well, my body will be buried, but my spirit will be in heaven with Heavenly Father and Jesus.

Kailee: OH yeah! Kinda like when Tom killed Jerry! Remember, Dallin? Jerry's ghost floated up to the sky?

Me: {speechless for a moment, while I gathered my thoughts}

Although we've had multiple talks about the plan of salvation, I thought it would be wise to go into a little more detail after hearing that remark.

I didn't want them thinking I'd have a halo, wings, or legs that faded away without any feet...

Thanks Tom & Jerry for allowing me another

opportunity to teach my children the gospel!

Halloween 2009

Halloween is one of our families favorite holidays! There is no double meaning, you get to wear whatever you want the entire month, Witch Hat Parties, Witches Night Out, Wee Little Witches Weekend, Halloween Parties at school and friend's, Pumpkin Patches, Trick or Treating at Dad's work and door to door, Trunk or Treating, the more makeup the better, scary or pretty, handsome or ugly, and lots of late nights watching "scary movies" ie: The Halloween that Almost Wasn't, Mr. Boogedy, The Bride of Boogedy, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, ESPECIALLY Hocus Pocus. Halloween would not be complete without Hocus Pocus. My kids quote that movie more than any other movie.

Since I can remember, Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I have been a witch every Halloween since I was in 2nd grade. My 3 little friends and I were convinced I was a real witch that year when I used my wand to make her Pippy Long Stocking ponytail stick up without the use of wire. Because of my unusual fascination with Witches, my children have come to believe I am a real Witch, more so than there is a Santa Claus. With this prelude, here are this years pictures.

Dallin is our Fireman, Kailee is a Pretty Witch (cause all us good witches are) and Tylie is Boo from Monsters Inc. She seriously made the best Boo ever.

Dallin and Kailee doing what they do best: Teasing and Posing

Kailee guarding (or is she eating) the Trunk or Treat Candy.

Our ward had a costume contest and to no surprise (yes, I am a prideful mother of a freaking cute child), Tylie won cutest costume. With this being said, she had more fun walking this little devil, than playing with her prize or eating her candy.

I thought it was fun that my friend Camber and her daughter dressed as fellow witches.

(Amy, you bugged out before we could get you and Rylie!)

(Sorry for the blurry picture)

We went trick or treating with the Lybberts. The kids had fun, but Dallin and Tyler were the most diligent.

I am the Room Mom for Kailee's class, so I was in charge of their Halloween Party. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. I am glad that its over. Though, now I have to get ready for the winter party...

Kailee didn't want to wear her hat because it wasn't real. I love how big it is and you cant see her face at all!

Kailee with her "boyfriend". She told me that she "really likes this picture."

Dallin's Class party. His teacher is the best 1st grade teacher ever. Dallin loves her. Leading up to this party, they made frosted Haunted Houses, Halloween books to read as homework, and lots of Halloween poems and activities.

Roses are wood, Violets are...

I always found it a bit funny that someone would go somewhere or do something they normally did on a yearly basis, and immediately the day after start thinking about the next year and how to do it bigger and better. I was never one to do that, until last week.

Three of my coworkers and I formed a group and entered a charity competition/event put on by our local IIDA (International Interior Design Association) chapter, called Fashion Remix. Each team was randomly paired up with a vendor (or manufacturer's rep) and given the challenge to create an outfit out of that vendor's material. The vendors varied from carpet to wallcovering (including tile & stone, laminate, upholstery, furniture, and even resilient flooring). We were paired up with a custom furniture manufacturer-Coalesse. After brainstorming, we came up with a dress design and titled it "Coalesce in Bloom". We designed the dress to be made from wood veneers, reminiscent of Coalesse' custom furniture.

We started on the dress late spring/early summer, and worked on it, the hair accessories, and the jewelry (yes, even the jewelry was handmade from actual furniture hardware!) just about every lunch hour up until the day before the event. We soaked wood in water, cut, let dry, bias taped and sewed each petal on individually. After a few days we found a production line with each of us having a specific task worked best. The woods we used included ebony, zebra, walnut, and maple. The hardware were random pieces the manufacturer sent us-and we could not for the life of us name all the different pieces we were given. One thing's for sure though-they made beautiful jewelry and accessories!

One person from the team was to be the model; that lucky person was Andrae! It took A LOT of work, time, effort-and in Andrae's case-even some blood. After months of preparation, trial-and-error, fittings, and practice "runway walks" the evening of the event had arrived...

Loud music, crowds of people, bright colored lights, runway models, and LOTS of cheering and whistling made the night SO much fun. Not to mention a night out with my wife to an event neither one of us had ever been to or experienced before... Each model strutted her (or his) stuff and owned the runway! We clapped and enjoyed watching what other groups of designers created. Some were extremely creative, and in my opinion gave us some good competition. In the end though, we were and still are please to announce-our team won Best of Show! It was somewhat surreal, as we climbed onto the runway joining Andrae to take some pictures! Some of us asked each other "Did we really just win?" We were on cloud nine! You couldn't wipe the grin off our faces for days if you wanted to! All our efforts had completely paid off!

A few days after the event we went to lunch together, and among other things, started talking about next year's event and what we could possibly do with other materials. My wheels have been spinning and I am so very anxious to work with my group once again... on another winning outfit!

Me, Andrae, and Becky

One of the cool parts about the whole thing was seeing people after people come wanting to take pictures with Andrae. It was one of the best compliments we could've received. There was a professional photographer taking photos before, during and after the event. He posted his photos on his blog. Click here to see the evening's progression, from pre-event dressing room photos (nothing immodest) to group photos at the end of the evening. A couple other links were sent to us with more pictures from the evening; click here or here.

Becky and I before the show

The winning team... Gail, me, Andrae, Justin, and Marbe

Roses definitely were made of wood this year... next year? Who knows. All I know is I am anxious for next year's event, excited to see who we get paired up with and what product we'll have to work with!

The Game of Catch up

Since it has been over a month, I figured I should give a quick update on the past month. School has been great. I really like Dallin and Kailee's teachers. Luckily, I get to go to help in their classes every other week for a couple hours. Because of that, I have gotten to know their teachers really well. Its been a fun and busy month. Between Tae Kwon Do, Football, Gymnastics, T-Ball, school, work, date nights, church obligations, and child entertainment, we keep a busy schedule. I do have to admit how much I love being a Mom to busy kids. Of course there are days when I wish we could just stay home, but I would rather have busy kids than ones who'd rather just watch TV and play video games. Anyways, here's a quick run down on the past few weeks:

Labor day weekend we went boating with our friends the Runia's and hung out at Jessi's parents house the whole weekend. It felt like being at family's, which Gus and I totally appreciated. The kids started calling them Grandma and Grandpa, which they responded to them like they were. Gus fell asleep on their couch like it was his 2nd home. It was a fun weekend to be with "family".

9/11. Our kids are old enough to show them what this date will mean for the rest of our lives. We took them to a field called the Healing Field. There is a flag representing every person who died. They started off pretty reverent, but started to have lots of fun with all the flags.

Along with Gymnastics, Kailee started T-ball this year. She was the only girl on her team. She did better than 1/2 the boys. I think baseball runs through Kerr blood, thanks to my Dad for that!!

September 12th, Gus and I participated in a Relay Marathon with our friends. We did a Husband team and a Wife team. We had so much fun doing it. The guys beat us, but we placed 1st in our division! It was so much fun. Next year, if anyone wants to join in, we are so kicking the guys trash!!

Since Dallin was 3, he has been wanting to play football. Being in 1st grade meant that he finally could. I have never seen a 6 year old more excited. By all means, he is not the greatest athlete, but he is the most entertaining to watch. He had so much fun and loved every minute of it. Just 1 more year of flag and he can play tackle...I am a little scared...

UEA weekend is a weekend in Utah when the kids have a 4 day weekend and the teachers do their thing. I made sure the kids were entertained everyday. We did a pumpkin patch, Gardner's Village, Thanksgiving point, and lots of goodie making and decorating. They were never bored, that's for sure!!!

Dallin had his last game on Thursday. His coach was great. He was so good with the boys. Dallin loved him and was super respectful to him. His team ended up being pretty good. Some of those boys sure have some talent!!!

On an ending note...Kailee officially has a boyfriend. His name is Cameron. He was on Dallin's team and in her class. They call each other their boy/girlfriend, play together, whisper together, and genuinely like each other. When Cameron was in the game, K would go play, but keep an eye on him. As soon as he would be out, she'd coming running to the sideline and be with him. His Grandpa was Dallin's coach and told him all about his girlfriend. When I said something about Kailee, coach asked me how I knew Kailee. When I told him I was her mom, he said that Cameron does not stop talking about her and that I need to keep an eye on them. Seriously...Kindergarten??? What am I gonna do with that girl? At least Cameron is a good kid. Gus and I definitely approve!