Thursday, May 21, 2009

Ketchup Day

I can remember when I was in Kindergarten, Mrs. Schatz would say we were going to have a "catch up day," but my young mind understood it as a "Ketchup day." I waited all day, and no ketchup! So, here you go, young Kim! Here is your Ketchup day! Actually, there isn't any ketchup in this day either (other than with the corndogs we had at lunch). I'm really just trying to get back up to date! So here is May!!

May is the second biggest party month for our families. Lots of birthdays in May! We started out with Carissa turning 3. She had a really cute princess party with pizza and "fruit on a stick" for her birtday dinner (her exact choice).

Our Primary Presidency organized a talent show for our Primary activity and it was a big hit! The kids had so much fun and did a great job! All the families were invited to watch and we all had a great time! Taysum sang "I Am A Child of God" and "I Love to see the Temple." He did so well! He wasn't afraid at all and sang the songs all by himself! Grandpa and Grandma Anderson also came to cheer him on!


For the grand finale, our whole Primary came up and sang, "Old McDonald had a Farm." Taysum and his friend, Payton, were the cats. (Yes, this is pretty much our entire Primary!!)


After the talent show, Taysum and Ken packed up for their Scout campout. Taysum has kind of become an honorary scout in the Lovell 5th ward. The boys and leaders are so nice to him and he loves being with them. Here are the mighty adventurers!




Taysum had a blast and did really well the whole time! He loves the great outdoors and to be with his Dad!


The next fun thing was spending some time with Ken's younger brother, Mark, his wife Alicia and their kids Sami and Ryan. These two cousins are the closest in age to Taysum and Bailey, and they had a lot of fun together. Every year, Mark and his family go to Sheridan for a big leather show there. On their way home, they come over the mountain to spend a couple days with us. We hadn't seen any of Ken's family in 6 months (since Thanksgiving) so it was really nice to see them! The past couple years, we've met them half way at Shell Falls and spend some time exploring around there. I didn't go this time because I had to work, but they had a great time. Here are Alicia and Ryan at Shell Falls.


We took the kids to the park and had lunch. The kids were everywhere and had so much fun!



By Sunday, the kids were worn out and Sami and Taysum both crashed on the couch. We had such a great time with them here!!


Monday, the 18th, was the big day!! Taysum Guy turned 4 years old!! I can hardly believe it! He is so grown up and is such a wonderful little boy! He is such a good helper and brings so much joy and love to our home. He is so good with his littler sister and loves his family very much. He loves to sing and to dance and has done a really good job in TaVaci this year. He loves to make friends and will play with anyone! He loves being outside and doing anything with his Dad. He's great on the trampoline and can still sleep a whole night through bent in half! He loves Thomas and Friends trains and is really into Spider Man. He's really good at saying prayers and has given a prayer, the scripture and a talk in Primary! He's such a happy little boy and he loves to see everyone happy! He says the cutest things: (to Bailey) Crazy princess girl! (It's mostly the way he says it) "Good job, Miss Mom!" "Oh thanks, Mom! It's wonderful!" He keeps us on our toes and keeps us smiling! We love you so much, Taysum!!

You may remember this table from a couple posts ago. Ken worked so hard and spent so much time getting Taysum's table just right! Taysum was so thrilled and he has played with it nearly non-stop since! Ken painted tracks on it, then set up the train tracks on it as well. He painted fields and a river, a road and a farm with pig and cow spelled out (Taysum loves to spell). He also wrote out 1+2=3 and ABC. He put: Taysum's Train Yard
Good job, Ken!



Bailey loves it, too! :)







Taysum is really into Spider Man lately. It's really interesting, because the only times he has seen him is on the cover of the Spider Man movies we have. He is always asking to watch them, but we don't let him. Recently we got him a couple shirts with Marvel characters on them. He LOVES these shirts and Spider Man is his favorite on them. So, we moved into the world of "Big Boy" and had a Spider Man party. We found a fun Spider Man Happy Birthday sign and blew up some red, white and blue balloons. They also had Spider Man plates, cups, and napkins. My mom helped me decorate the Spider Man cake which was pretty tricky! It was SO hot that day and the frosting kept melting!


Grandpa and Grandma Anderson, Aunt Lindsay, CJ, Quinn and Carissa all came over for the party. (Aunt Linday, Quinn and Carissa came over to play earlier in the day, too!) We had pizza, fruit salad, Caesar salad, and garlic bread for dinner. Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream. Then all the kids (Ken counts as a kid) went outside to blow bubbles and have a water fight with Taysum's cool new water guns. He also got a call from Aunt Holly, Uncle Nick A and Uncle Matt. He even had his name and Happy Birthday on the local channel on TV!! Thank you to every one who made it such a great day!


Even Bailey got to open a present from Grammy Penny and Grandpa Ned. She looked so cute with her tiara, wand and princess cape with purple fur trim on the neck!
Ooo la la!
(Yes, we actually snuck in a little pony tail and it stayed!!)



We have just had non-stop, web-slinging action all week! Taysum got a Spider Man movie (and this shirt) from the Lindsays and he just loves it! He already has the theme song memorized. He goes around shooting and "swining" from webs all day! Taysum says, "Spider Man is my hero!" In this picture, he thought it was cool to stand in front of the swamp cooler, because it blew his shirt out, and flex his Spider muscles!


It's been so nice here the past few days! We spent most of the day outside yesterday. Even though it was pretty breezy, it was just right!

Last, but not least!
Happy Birthday to our dog, Tempo today!!
He's 5 years old now!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mommy Moment

So, I had a pretty good "Mommy Moment" tonight. Taysum wanted me to read, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. We read it together, as he has most of it memorized. After the story and a prayer, I asked him if he would like a song. He said he wanted a caterpillar song. I thought for a moment, but I couldn't think of any caterpillar songs. So I said, "I'm sorry; I don't know any caterpillar songs. Can you think of a different one?" He said, "How about....a caterpillar song?" We repeated this a couple times and then I started to think and this is what I came up with:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Song
(Sung to "The Eency Weency Spider")


Once there was a caterpillar, he was very small
Then he saw a lot of food and he ate it all!
He got big and fat and built a nice cocoon
Then he was a butterfy very, very soon.

Probably won't win a Grammy, but it made my little boy smile...actions and all!



Sunday, May 3, 2009

Time Out!!

April is gone and we are already well into May! My little man will be 4 years old in two weeks! It just amazes me how time just escapes before we realize we have it! These are a few fun pictures to sum up the rest of April. I use these large totes for laundry baskets and Taysum and Bailey love to be in them!

I just though this was kind of fun and gives a good taste of her personality! :)


The kids love to box with their Dad...and eachother!


Team Cutler




This is a table that Ken built with his friend, Kent, this past weekend. I was gone, so he loaded up the kids, went to Cody (1hr away) got the lumber, survived Burger King and went to Kent's house to build this table. Kent is Taysum's new buddy. All he talked about that day was going to Kent's house and he even mentioned it in his prayers that night. So, what is this amazing table for? Ken wanted to build it for Taysum to put his trains on. He has a plan to paint it and make it a place he can build all his tracks and have his own personal island of Sodor (Thomas the Train). So this is his birthday present and he already loves it. Sunday morning he woke up asking about the table and just had to go check on it...as you can see, Bailey loves it as well!!




Now for the "Time Out" part of this post. I had the life changing opportunity to participate in Time Out for Women. This is a program put on by Deseret Book Company just for women. It started in 2003 and only toured a few cities in the US. Two years ago, they did a trial in Billings, MT (1 1/2 hrs away) and recieved such a phenomenal response, they have put us on the circuit permanently!! It's kind of like a mini EFY for women. They have incredible presenters, uplifting, inspirational music and just a whole lot of fun!! The presentors this time were (left to right, top row to bottom) Hilary Weeks, DeAnne Flynn, Chris Stewart, Kim Nelson & Kris Belcher. (Thanks Lindsay and Jill...I poached from your blogs ;) )


My sister, Lindsay, and our Mom had been talking about doing this together for a few months. They bought my ticket for me for my birthday (thank you forever!!) It was so great to have the drive up there together and to get to spend the day up there together. Not only did we get to participate in this incredible event, we also went to lunch together at our favorite, Johnny Carino's and afterward we stopped by Cold Stone! It was just a perfect day!





I also had the privilege of getting to sit next to some more of my favorite women! My dear friend Jill, her sister-in-law Echo (just as amazing) and Echo's Mom were there as well. They were so sweet and saved us seats. (I had to work that morning and we just made it.) We were so close to the front and were able to see the presenters really well. There were people from all over WY, the Dakotas, MT and even ID. It was a great group! This is a picture of the incredible Jill and I.





Unfortunately, the rest of the pictures aren't that great...all I have is my camera phone and they didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. I PROMISE Hilary Weeks IS standing with us in this one!!




She was so fun, down-to-earth, encouraging, amazing and talented!! I ended up getting a little star struck and bought 2 of her CDs and her book (which is just incredible!!) and I had her sign my book. She was probably my favorite along with Kim Nelson. His message really touched me and I bought his book as well and got him to sign it. I had it all planned out to say something clever, but when I got to him all that came out was an akward, "My name is Kim, too..." He was so kind and personable. He asked where I was from and (long story short) it turns out his brother is Richard Nelson, has lived in Lovell forever and was one of my Middle School teachers!! What are the odds?!





It was all one inspirational, life-changing, heart-lifting, sacred, FUN experience that I'll never forget! One of the greatest moments was when Sis. Weeks told us she was going to play (and WOW can she PLAY) a song that had no lyrics and she wanted us to just take that time and do what ever we do to connect with our Heavenly Father. So, she gave us this wonderful, inspirational set-up and began to play "Jessica's Theme" from "The Man From Snowy River." It was so amazing and I was loving it! (It was also neat that it was that song, because my sis-in-law, Jessica had her baby boy, Cooper Jack that day as well! Congrats!! We love you guys!!) So I was enjoying the music and two women behind me began to chat...I tried to tune them out...but lost it when one of them said, "All I'm picturing is running horses..." Oh well! There are so many messages and moments I would like to share, but for the sake of time, words and space, I'll just share a few.
This is from Hilary Weeks' book, "Don't worry about what others think of you. Worry about what they think of themselves when they are with you."
Kim Nelson, "If you saw a mother treating her daughter the way you treat yourself, what would you think of that mother?"
DeAnne Flynn, "We were meant to THRIVE, not just survive."
Kim Nelson, "Be hopeful, be genuine, be yourself...it IS enough."
Kris Belcher, "There may not be a cure, but there is always healing."
Hilary Weeks, "All the Good"
She forgets about
The good things she's done
The kind words she said
The tiny victories that no one sees
And the changes she's made
When the count comes in
As she's adding up the day
In the midst of the coulds and shoulds
Help her remember
All the good
Time Out for Women Theme: Sweet Assurance...the certainty that comes when you know life's truths. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith..." - Hebrews 10:22