The Fredericks Family

I've been tagged!

2009-02-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been tagged. For those of you who have never been tagged before, it means that someone somewhere has decided that you need to share a bit more in your blog :) (At least I figure that's why they pick me !) They give you an assignment and you get to fulfill it. This time it was much easier than when I had to show off my toilet, my refrigerator, my closet, etc. and prove once and for all that I am certainly not a clean freak. Here's the tag: Go to your pictures folder, find the 6th picture in the 6th folder and post it with an explanation.

My sister tagged me having posted a great 80's photo of our family. Hilarious. How do you have those pics on your computer anyway? I wish I could share one so funny.

But, here's the pic.

It was taken a few days after my Mom arrived for the birth of Jordan. She arrived on September 8th. We were sure he would be coming that weekend. But, he didn't and here we are at Kyler's Parents Night at the school where he showed off his classroom and continued to announce to everyone that our baby was coming that week. (which he didn't....incidentally Jordan didn't come until the day Mom was scheduled to leave 2 weeks after she came...grrr!)

But, I'm not bitter. Back to Parent's night. The kids decided that the lockers served better as hide and seek spots. You should have seen us. We had the darndest time finding them :). It was cute, though. It took me back to playing hide and seek at home and hiding in the built in lockers in the laundry room. Did we ever do that? I don't actually completely remember, but it seemed like somewhere we'd probably hide.

Now, I get to Tag someone else. How about, Adrienne Bybee, Jenn Moore, Tauna, Heidi, and Cheri. You're it!

Homemade Christmas Gifts

2009-02-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

This was the year of Homemade Christmas gifts. Like so may people this year, we found ourselves looking for inexpensive ways to celebrate Christmas. I'm so glad. It brought back so many great memories of making presents for my siblings. Ryden made a wallet card for Dad...a credit card covered in a collage of pictures of his kids so he can always have their pictures close at hand. Aspen made a pencil holder made out of a peach can, but plastered with pictures of the kids. Kyler drew a beautiful picture. The kids made each other fleece scarves, hats and mittens. Ryden made Kyler and Aspen tooth-fairy pillows and Kyler made Ryden a hand-drawn village mat, complete with Fire Station, the bank, the school, our house, Sierra's house and much more. All of the kids made soap for their teachers. It was so much fun spending so much time helping the kids get into the spirit of Christmas. I honestly think I won't go back to store bought gifts. It just meant so much more this year.

As for Enoch and I, our favorite gift to give was the doll house we bought at a garage sale for $6. We then wallpapered it with scrapbook paper, carpeted it with hand towels and painted the accent walls. You have to check it out.

Then for Aspen's birthday, the boys made her furniture. They were all so cute. I even slipped into her room on Christmas day to play with it for a little bit. It took me back to those days when I was a little girl dreaming of a gorgeous dollhouse. I remember the day my brothers gave me one. It was magical. Somehow, I still love those things.

Aspen the Ballerina

2009-02-12T20:35:00.001-08:00

Here's just a bit of footage of Aspen's dance class. As you can see, they learned all sorts of important moves, like how to get really dizzy and how to make your hair stick up. It's so fun having a girl so I can do all the girly things with her. But, being raised with 3 brothers, she still has the rambunctious boy in her to make sure the bar gets used for the right purposes...

Joy School Christmas Show

2009-02-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

Ryden's Joy School class put on a little show for Christmas. It was really cute when we saw it live, but it became hilarious when we reviewed the footage. I especially love Ryden's one-word catch ons at the end of each phrase and Aspen's game of "Peek-A-Boo" with Jordan half way through. Let me know if you laugh as hard as I did....maybe it's just because I'm their mom!

They also did a little nativity that was so sweet to watch. Ryden was a shepherd...

Kyler and Renen were innkeepers (they asked for help from the audience)

Aspen was Mary and did great. She did have a bit of trouble wrapping the child in swaddling clothes, though. But, she finally just tied him up good and moved on :) Her sweet husband just stood watching with a big grin on his face.

And Jordan was the unexpected modern day visitor who came to see the Babe in the Manger....actually he came to grab it and run away, but Mary did a good job of protecting her baby.

Aspen's Hawaiian Luau Party

2009-02-12T20:02:00.001-08:00

Aspen's Birthday was so much fun to plan, execute and remember. Ahhh how I love when a party goes well. She wanted to have a Hawaiian Luau. Hmmm, I thought, a Hawaiian Luau in December. Sounds interesting. Well, we plastered the house with floral garland, hung flowers outside amidst the bitter cold wind, hung colorful streamers and decked out Aspen in a grass skirt and lei. Then, we gave each child a lei when they got there. We had live Hawaiian radio playing in the background. I actually felt warm in my bright pink capris and flip-flops.

Her cake was a flower and we served it with rainbow sherbet...perfect colors for a luau. The hawaiian pineapple mango juice was served with little umbrellas. It was so cute!

One of my favorite games was the limbo. It was hilarious watching some of the kids work so hard to keep their back arched while others just approached the bar and ducked under. What a riot.

Here's my favorite game of all. Keep in mind, we had 18 kids for the party. Thinking it was Christmastime and a lot of people probably wouldn't come, I let Aspen invite 16 people to her party. All but 1 came!! Add my three kids and you've got 18 kids! It was crazy. At one point, the kids were all bouncing off the walls (right after cake and ice cream, of course). Enoch announced the next game: The rock game. He talked it up to be such a fun game. Here's how you play. Everybody tries to act like a rock. Whoever looks and acts most like a rock wins! It's that simple. All the kids did a terrific job. It was so hard to pick a winner! Except, of course, for Enoch who saved the day and calmed the crowd. They played rock for a good 5 minutes before we felt guilty and decided we should go on with the party :)
On top of all that, Enoch painted hawaiian pictures on each of the kids' cheeks. And we made little sand art jars that each child got to take home. They were so cute and the kids had so much fun.

But, now for the funniest part of all. A woman from church gave me the idea to send each of the kids home with a goldfish. Perfect!! Well, after getting rejected by one pet shop who wouldn't sell goldfish for birthday parties due to animal cruelty acts, etc., Enoch finally found a store that would send him home 25 goldfish to 18 crazy kids. We had them swimming as the centerpiece during cake time. Which worked until one by one they went belly up! The kids were so worried about the fish. One by one we removed the dead ones until we had just enough to still send home with the kids. Luckily, they had already gone through the grieving stage with us so as they left with their fish, we heard some exclaim, "This fish will probably die soon so we have to have as much fun with it as we can right now!". One kid actually came back to the kitchen because his fish died by the time he got to the door. It was so sad, but so hilarious at the same time. Here we are throwing a big hawaiian luau and sending home 5 and 6 year olds with dead fish and a can of sand as their goody bag!! WOW!! We laughed 'til it hurt over that one. I guess I'm starting to see why Pet Shop #1 called it an "animal cruelty act" to send goldfish to birthday parties. Oops!

Icy Fun

2009-02-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

What does icy driveway + large cardboard box equal?

Poor Man's Sledding. Check it out. We had such a blast with this!

Hanging Out at The Food Court

2009-02-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

For family night, we headed up to the Food Court at the mall to play and to see the snow globes. The kids had a blast! Jordan had his first experience with being completely distracted by the opposite sex. Check it out:

And here's our entry for the new Uncle Sam recruiting posters:

Kyler's Chess Tournament

2009-02-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of December, Kyler was in his first chess championship. He did a great job and had a lot of fun. He, and 2 other of his close friends, were all competing, so we had a great time together between events. The cutest moment was when he and his best friend, Hayden, played each other. Hayden hadn't won a game yet. Kyler ended up beating him, but didn't want him to feel sad, so he told him he won. Naturally, that caused confusion with the judges. When the boys ran back to find us, they were hestitant to say who won. We couldn't figure out why but left it at that. Soon, the judges came and asked the boys to come back to the competition room. Confused, we just waited until they came back. Apparently, they had each turned in a win for the game. The judges had them replay and Kyler won again. He was so sad that he won. He wanted so much for his friend to win a game. And here's the irony. Kyler hadn't won one either up to that point, but he was more interested in his friend winning than himself. He is so kindhearted that way. I love him for that.

Dinosaur Museum?!

2009-02-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

On the way back from Arizona, we were excited when we saw a sign for a Dinosaur Museum. We could sure use the chance to stretch out our legs and the kids were so excited to see Dinosaurs. After 3-4 more signs, we got more excited. They had replicas of real dinosaurs, hands-on exhibits and much more!! It seemed too good to be true...a cool museum in the middle of nowhere? As we pulled off the exit, we knew we'd need directions. All that was there was a gas station and a dirt road leading out to nowhere. I ran in and asked about the museum. The attendants gave each other a confused look and then said, "Oh, yeah. I think we had a museum like that years ago, but it closed awhile back. They've now spread the replicas all over the place. There's 2 out front you can see". Wow!! Talk about wasted advertising space! If you're looking for a cheap billboard, I know of 4 you could probably go ahead and use. No one will notice! Still, we had fun and stretched our legs for a few seconds!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

2009-02-01T14:17:00.001-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving, we headed to Arizona for some fun times with my sister, Cheri and her husband Braden. We used to live 3 doors down from each other in Utah, so we were so excited to spend time together again playing games, chatting and having fun. It was a blast. Between the excellent food, the incredible creativity of my sister, and the fun games, we hardly had time for anything but fun. The best part of all was all the fun times the cousins had together. Keara and Taryn were so much fun!! And, Keara successfully got potty trained while we were there!! If only I was that good with my own kids :)

While we were there, we went swimming. While our kids had a blast, Cheri and Aunt Katherine who are both local Arizonians were quite cold. We were the only ones at the pool!! Apparently, 75 degrees is way too cold in Arizona to think about swimming in a heated pool. Jordan especially loved swimming. He'd jump off the edge and swim over and over again. Check him out:

Well, we had a blast, but we soon found that even the kids got too cold after a bit. Their lips turned blue and they shivered while they hustled to the dressing room. Cheri saved the day!! She took them all into the shower and doused them in a hot shower. They just loved hanging out together enjoying the heat!

I got a kick out of Keara when I did Sunday baths while we were there. She apparently doesn't have brothers. She couldn't stop staring at poor Jordan :)
Here's a cute video of the kids in a splash fight:

Thanksgiving arrived and boy did we have the spread! Cheri made the yummiest potatoes, stuffing, turkey and jam. YUM!!! But on top of that, she and the kids had put together the cutest table settings while Enoch and I were at meetings the week before. They made napkin holders, seat covers, and turkeys for each place setting. It was so cute!!

Aspen is notorious in our family for loving the chicken legs when we have chicken. All of Thanksgiving day she begged for a leg. I'm not so sure she knew what was coming with the size of a turkey! But, she ate a bunch of it before she finally gave up.

FHE Idea

2008-11-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share a Family Home Evening lesson that went really well for us tonight. Ryden picked the topic of "You are Special/I am a Child of God". We talked about how even though everyone is different, we are all children of God and we are all special. We talked about how we all have special talents and that everyone, no matter how different they are from us, have something special they can teach us. First we read the book, You are Special, by Max Lucado. Then, we went in the kitchen where Ryden passed out a bowl of plain cookie dough (ie no chocolate chips yet) to each person. Then, everyone picked a kind of candy from their Halloween bag and chopped it into little pieces. These served as the chocolate chips. When everyone finished with their dough, we made the cookies. While they were cooking, we went around the room and said why we thought each person was special. Finally, we ate the cookies. When we tasted them, the kids discovered that even though they were all different, they were all yummy!! We had a great time, it was a great way to use up some Halloween candy, and they learned a good lesson. Use it if it interests you!

Our first snow of the season!!

2008-11-16T15:56:00.001-08:00

On Friday, November 14th, we had our first snow. I didn't expect it one bit!! It was 65 degrees the day before, but on Friday morning we woke up to snow covered ground and snow still coming. I was so excited. I LOVE playing in the snow. As soon as Kyler was off to school and Enoch was off to his meeting, Jordan, Aspen, Ryden and I donned our gear and headed out. We had a blast. We had a snowball fight, made snow angels, and built a snowman. And, then, without much warning, I got tackled by Aspen and Ryden. It was so much fun.

I've had complaints that I'm not seen in enough pictures on the blog. Well, not this time! If you look closely, I'm in the red coat on the bottom of the pileup :)

Aspen and Ryden immediately started a snowball fight. As you'll see in the video, I did not expect what happened next when I started filming Jordan. What a good sport!

For the record, it's hard to take pictures when snowballs are being thrown at you!

It was Jordan's first time playing in the snow. He seemed to be having a great time!! He was so cute out there. Check it out:

The Snow Globes

2008-11-16T15:38:00.000-08:00

One of the traditions we've grown to love about Denver is the snow globe display at a local mall here. It's a lot like the Marshall Fields' Christmas Windows for those of you from Chicago. The perk, though, is that they're located inside instead of outside. A big perk if you ask me. Well, 3 years ago, when we came to visit my brother for Thanksgiving, we went and saw the snow globes. That year the theme was "The Chronicles of Narnja". I remembered it and couldn't wait for them to start this year. This year the theme is "Polar Express". We went this week with our playgroup. It was so well done. Each globe had a button you could push and something would happen. One globe showed a portion of the movie. Another had Tom Hanks voice calling, "All Aboard". Another showed the ticket with the word "Believe" punched out. The third snow globe was big enough for you to walk through. As you walked through, snow fell from above. Naturally, this was the kids' favorite one. They played in it forever, never tiring of the snow falling down. Ironically, as we walked through the mall, one woman asked us if it was really snowing that hard outside!! I had to laugh. Apparently, she hadn't been to the other side of the mall yet!

Anyway, check out the photos and then get really tempted to come for Christmas. We promise to take you! That's an invitation and a plea!

Learning to Read

2008-11-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

I'm so proud of Ryden. He announced several weeks ago that he wanted to learn how to read. So, every day, he and I will spend some time together reading while the kids are at school. He never forgets. He looks so forward to his reading time each day and he's doing such a great job. Check him out!

An Unwanted Critter

2008-11-16T11:52:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, we had a little critter decide that he'd rather warm up in our garage than brave the cold outside. Luckily, just as Enoch was leaving the garage, he noticed a tw0-foot long snake come in and hide behind a pile of concrete mix. It took several minutes, but finally we coerced him out and into the garbage can so the kids could see him later. Naturally, when my neighbor, Annie, came to pick up her son from our house, he told her we had found a snake. Little did I realize how much she loved snakes. She quickly grabbed the snakes and let the kids come up and touch it. They were so excited. She is such a fun neighbor. I just love my neighbors (the people, not the snakes ;)

Once the kids (and Annie) got their fill of the snake, we headed out to a nearby hill to let him go.

I have to tell you about these neighbors. They're so much fun. They have a little boy Ryden's age named Dawson. They play all the time together, but for some reason Ryden won't call him by his name. He always calls him, "The friend that lives 2 doors down". What a nut. Foster, the one letting the snake go in the video, is so sweet. He's in 5th grade and goes to Kyler and Aspen's school. Every day, he stops by and picks Kyler up to go to the bus stop. If I don't quite get to the bus stop on time, he walks them home. What a kid!

Old but Hilarious Video

2008-11-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

I'm going through some old pictures to put together Aspen's scrapbook for the year. I came across this video taken before my blogging days. Enoch and I got such a good laugh, we thought you would too. Enjoy!

Fun with Grandpa Hicken

2008-11-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

The next night, Brent and his family came back for a BBQ and Hot dog Roast with Grandpa. If you can believe it, we celebrated Halloween with 75 degree weather. It was beautiful. So, we took full advantage! It was so much fun spending time with all the family. I have to admit, I tried something new tonight. Instead of the traditional Hershey bars with the S'mores, I had one with a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, one with a Ghiardeli Mint Chocolate Bar, and one with a Ghiardelli Pecan Pie chocolate. Any way you do it, they're all way yummier than a plain old Hershey Bar. I highly recommend it. It was so yummy!!! I got a kick out of my nephews, though. Apparently, they don't like S'mores but love to roast marshmallows. They'd beg and beg people to want more so they could cook them but never had any themselves!!

Brent, Dad, and Jordan in the smoke by the fire

Jordan and I staying warm by the fire.

Enoch and the boys, barbecuing. If you want a yummy and easy grilling recipe, get some Chinese Sweet Chile Sauce. Mix 5 Tbs of the sauce with 1 Tbs soy sauce. Put them in a gallon size bag with the chicken and let marinade for 2 hours. Grill and eat. YUMMY!

Talon, stoking the fire.

We couldn't let Grandpa go without some of this expertise. Our downstairs bathroom toilet had been running water since we moved in. Our goal was to get that fixed before Grandpa left. Well, a new pump and 2 trips to Home Depot later, we have a toilet that works great!! We also have a working ceiling fan, a repaired hole in the wall, a door that now fits its frame and a new toilet seal on the other toilet. He keeps thanking us for all we did this weekend. I don't remember doing anything besides handing him tools!! Thanks Dad!! But, the expertise I'll never be able to repay him for was his incredible "know-how" secrets he left with our kids:

Like how his arms get longer and longer

And how he can "crack" his nose

Aspen tried and tried, but finally gave up because her nose hurt too much!

Halloween Parties Galore!

2008-11-02T21:19:00.000-08:00

Boy, was this the week of Halloween Parties. Fortunately, I just let the kids pick out of our dress up bucket each time we had a party. It sure made Halloween easy for me!

Our first party of the week was the Trunk or Treat at the church. As soon as the kids got off the bus that day, they insisted we decorate our trunk. They did a pretty spooky job of it!

As we entered the church for the party, 4 fourth-graders called out, "ASPEN!!!". Apparently, they were Aspen's "big buddies" at school. They come once a month, I think, to spend time with the Kindergartener's and help them with a craft. They were so excited to see Aspen and she was equally thrilled to see them. They asked me if they could take her with them for the rest of the night. I thought for a split second of the luxury of one less kid to take care of (Enoch was home with Jordan) and immediately responded, "Of course!" Then, we met up with Brent and our cousins. Brent offered to take Kyler and Ryden while I manned the treat-giving by the trunk. There I sat, with no kids to take care of. It was so fun!! And, best of all, they had a blast, too!

The next day, Ryden had a great party at Joy School. He and the other kids had practiced some fun Halloween songs. Check them out!

And for refreshments, they made us homemade Halloween cookies. Sunny did an awesome job of pulling it all off!!

On Friday morning, we headed to the school for a school parade of costumes. Kyler went as an astronaut.

Then, later that afternoon, we headed back for Aspen's kindergarten parade. Per tradition, she was a princess yet again! I helped with her school party, which was so much fun. Here's a funny story, though. The morning class was supposed to join in the all-school parade that Kyler was in. Since Aspen's best friend was in that class, we were waiting for them to come in. But, they never came. I asked her teacher that afternoon what had happened. It turns out that a teacher dressed as a 9 foot alien had come by and a few of the kindergarteners had gotten scared. As Mrs. Kline tried to console them, the parade started moving, with the alien right in front of them. She was bending over, explaining it was a costume, etc. Not, being able to see around the alien, and wanting to stay focused on the kids, she just followed the gown of the alien. 15 minutes later she realized that she had just followed this teacher around the school. He wasn't part of the parade and had gone nowhere near the parade route. By the time they figured it out, it was too late!! Of course, the parents of that class were disappointed when their kids never showed up, but they had a good photo op later in the room! It made for a good laugh later, though!

Finally, on Halloween night, Grandpa Hicken, Brent, Sunny, Talon and Sierra came over for trick-or-treating, soup in a pumpkin (YUMMY!!...Sunny made it) and games. We had such a fun time trick-or-treating. I will tell you, I don't think there's any chance Sierra will ever be fed peanuts when my kids are around. As soon as someone would open the door, they'd yell out, "She's allergic to peanuts!" The poor, unsuspecting people. They'd feel so bad if they couldn't find anything in their buckets without nuts. It took about 12 houses, but the kids finally understood that they really didn't need to say anything. Sierra could give all her nutty candies to her dad, later. (a perk he actually looks forward to, I think)

Another funny moment of the night happened with Sierra (my neice). The other kids had already run up the steps to our neighbors house. Sierra and I were running up behind. Somehow, she didn't see the foot-high step leading to the door. She hit it and feel flat on her face. Her bucket fell and her candy spilled into the bushes. Sad, you'd think, and it was. But, Sierra just jumped up and cried out, "Trick-or-treat" as fast as she could. Meanwhile, I picked candy out of the bush and brushed her off. The funny part came about 10 houses later when we came to another house with a high step. She went to the door, got her candy, and came back to Brent and I, exclaiming proudly, "See? I didn't lose any candy at this house!" Brent (who hadn't been with us at the first house) was a bit confused until we filled him in!

Once the trick-or-treating started dying down, we came home, put the kids down and played a hillarious game of Mad Gab. It was so much fun just staying up late and playing games.

We hope you all had a great Halloween!!

Carving Pumpkins

2008-11-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

Halloween week started with our favorite Family Night activity....

Carving Pumpkins!

I only bought 2 pumpkins, so this year we had each child draw a nose, a mouth, two eyes and two ears. They then voted on which ears, mouth, nose, etc. they wanted on each pumpkin. Here's Ryden with his blueprints:

In the end, the pumpkins turned out pretty neat! When we were all done, we baked us up some yummy pumpkin seeds. I'm so surprised how much my kids love those seeds!! You'd think they were candy!

The End of a Soccer Season

2008-10-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Our week ended with Kyler's last soccer game. He had a great team this year. Because of the move, we registered late in the season. As a result, we didn't get to pick our team. Of course, that's really no big deal when you don't know anyone, but it meant that Kyler was on a team with kids from a completely different school than his. But, in the end, it turned out perfect. The kids and their parents were so much fun. They played a great season...they didn't win much, but they had fun. Here's a few fun shots of Kyler:

After the final game, we hosted an ice cream party and awards ceremony at our house. It was so nice having all Kyler's friends over. I'm glad he got to meet so many great friends. Here's a picture of the coach talking to the boys before the trophies were handed out. I would have gotten a picture of Kyler getting his trophy, but just as that was about to happen, a few of the younger siblings in the background thought it would be fun to wrap the climbing rope around them as they went down the slide. A Mom squealed just as the coach's son went down the slide with the rope around his neck. SCARY!! The good news is we got there in time, he was fine, and the rope came down right away. The bad news is I missed the trophy ceremony.

Soccer was fun, but now we're moving into a new season with new interests for Kyler. He's decided soccer is fun, but not what he loves. He starts basketball in a couple of weeks with Enoch as his coach. Tomorrow, though, he starts Chess Club, which he is so excited about. His best friend, Hayden, signed up, too. They're both looking forward to the District Tournament in December. I can't help but think of the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fisher". Enoch and I keep joking that we're going to be the nervous, uptight parents in the back room hoping our kid will win! I can't wait.

Pre-Halloween Halloween

2008-10-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday, we did a little early Halloweening. I have to admit I've never been so grateful for a trunk full of costumes as I am this year. I just don't feel like I have the time or energy to be creative and make costumes. But, thanks to Mom and Dad and all the costumes they've given my kids over the years, I have a plethora of choices for the kids. It's a good thing, too. Saturday was just the first of 4 different Halloween celebrations the kids are a part of. Anyway, Ryden went as a very cute Peter Pan, Aspen as a beautiful fairy, and Kyler was Micky Mouse. We also took Kyler's friend Hayden with us.

A local Physician's Plaza was doing an early Halloween Celebration, complete with haunted offices and trick-or-treating. This secretary didn't spook Ryden one bit, though.

After trick-or-treating, we went outside where the city had ambulances, fire trucks and police cars for the kids to climb in. We also got a picture with Rocky, the Denver Nuggets' mascot!!

Day of the Dinosaurs

2008-10-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we headed to the museum of Nature and Science for their dinosaur exhibit. It was so amazing! The kids were a little spooked, though, we they turned the corner and were stopped by this:

We saw all sorts of cool dinosaurs. Here's Stegosaurus:

Long Neck:

and T-Rex.

The kids also each got to make some silly putty.

And, they got to be real scientists and help liquid water turn to gas right on their hands!

Slumber Mania

2008-10-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

We just started what I think is a great idea!! For years now, Enoch and I have consistently gone out on a date together each Friday night. Well, a few months back we looked at our budget and realized that babysitting was one of our biggest expenses. We kept trying to keep our dates relatively cheap, but babysitting always cost us $20-30 each week. So, when we moved here, we started a date night coop. Once a month we have all the kids over for movie night while their parents go out. The rest of the month is ours for free. We love this group of kids. Here they are on their first date night movie night. (For those of you interested, the 2 girls by Ryden, the girl by Aspen and the boy on the chair are all Ryan Hunt's kids)

A Zanny Zoo Day

2008-10-26T15:07:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday was free zoo day here in Denver. We went as an entire family, meeting up with Brent's family while we were there. Let me tell you, it was a zoo (pun intended). They estimated that at least 20,000 people were coming to the zoo that day. Even so, it was a blast. I love the zoo here. We had been once before, but on a limited time schedule, so we had missed a lot of the exhibits. The kids loved the giraffes and elephants, of course.

But, they were especially mesmerized by the tropical paradise exhibit, complete with Komodo Dragons, turtles, snakes, and crocodiles. Our picture didn't turn out, but I was amazed at the HUGE anaconda they had. I'd hate to come up on that in the wild!!

You can hardly see it, but there's a huge crocodile right between their heads!
Jordan loved watching the turtles!
The Komodo dragon

The kids were shocked to see they didn't quite measure up to a polar bear!

It was neat to see how much the kids have soaked up from the movie Planet Earth. Throughout the day, one of them would squeal, "Mom, remember this animal from Planet Earth? He's the one that_____" and they'd fill me in on all the unique things the animal did on the movie.

And to top it all off, it was 80 degrees that day. What a perfect day for the zoo in late October! Did I mention I love it here?

3D Creativity

2008-10-26T14:56:00.001-07:00

Lately all of the kids are really interested in developing their artistic talents (which are quite strong, by the way). They'll spend hours every day drawing, copying, tracing, and creating amazing pictures. They definitely have their fathers' talent. Aspen spends most of her time copying pictures from books. She'll just look at the page and then try to reproduce it on a separate piece of paper. Enoch says that's a key talent for later art skills. Kyler, on the other hand, has been spending a lot of time creating 3D art. I don't know when it started or what inspired it, but the other day we came in the room to find Kyler creating a 3D city:

Here's the amazing thing. He would draw a crane for example on a piece of paper. Then, moving continuously to the right, he would draw the back of the crane and then he would draw the opposite side of the crane in perfect mirror image of the first crane he drew. Finally, he drew the front of the crane. Then, he'd cut it all out, fold the four corners and have a perfect 3D vehicle. It was amazing. He did this entire city in an hour or 2. In case you can't tell, there's a fire station with a fire truck (hidden behind the building under contruction), a police station with a police car, and a new building being built by a dump truck, a bulldozer, a crane and a pick up truck. We were amazed!

The next night he surprised us with a "mouse house" he had built complete with separate rooms, halls, and a patio with columns. Check it out:

Their talent never ceases to amaze me. He built this in the 15 minutes it took me to put the other kids to bed. I love having artists as kids. I'm also grateful to their school for sending so many fliers home with the kids each day so I have plenty of scratch paper for them to use up!

The Highland Hustle

2008-10-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

Note: The following posts are in reverse order. Sorry if I confuse you!

On Friday, the kids ran in the Highland Hustle. Every year they do a huge street race at their school. Each grade races through their neighborhood with members of their family. Aspen ran 2/3 of a mile with me. Admittedly, it was quite a workout. Aspen ran a very fast pace, only to be interrupted periodically with sprints. How does she get that energy?

Check out this video of Aspen's start. She's in the middle in light pink. It looks to me like she almost fell. Unfortunately a group of 4 did fall, causing a domino effect among the other students. Aspen got a clean start, though!

Aspen pulling it in at the end
Resting after the race with her friend, Grace.

Kyler was up next with a full mile to run with Enoch. Enoch said Kyler's strategy was to sprint, then walk, then sprint. Unlike me, Enoch got some breaks in between and didn't seem too out of breath at the end!

Pulling it in for the final sprint.

The most fun came that afternoon. I happened to be helping in Aspen's classroom when they announced the winners. We knew there had been several kids in front of us, so you can imagine Aspen's surprise when they called her name!!! They awarded first, second, and third place to both the boys and the girls of each grade. Aspen had come in 6th...the 3rd girl!! You should have seen her. Her class had been instructed to be quiet during the overhead announcement, but Aspen jumped up and down and cheered with her arms without making a sound when she heard her name. It was so priceless to see. She came home that day with a medal!

Kyler did not place in the race, but during all of his gym practice races he had come in 2nd or 3rd. I'm just shocked he finished the race!! He had been sick all week with a cough and cold. Way to Go Kyler!

Campfire in the Backyard

2008-10-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we had a campfire in the backyard. Just recently, I decided what I wanted to spend the last of my birthday money from my parents on...a fire pit for the backyard. I just love sitting around the fire at night. I love roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. It all reminds me of the days when we used to do that in our music room that had an old fireplace in it. A few weeks ago, Enoch and I bought one, but it seemed like our schedule and the weather were always in conflict. Finally, on Thursday, after seeing a dismal and cold forecast for the weeknd, I decided we had to have a hot dog roast before the season ended. We invited the neighbors for a royal feast of hot dog roasting and s'mores. Fortunately for us, their dad was out of town and their mom LOVES hot dogs!! We had so much fun.

Aspen, and her best friend, Grace.

While Enoch was building the fire, the kids played 4-square. Man, did that bring back memories. Remember when that was such a hit in elementary school and Jr. High? I remember I used to be good at it. Enoch and I had a go at it and I think I need some refreshers on how to play :)

Decorating for Halloween

2008-10-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the kids insisted we get the house decked-out for Halloween. This year they had me get really creative with a hanging ghost along with the spiders of yesteryear...

PS-Ryden's on his way to swimming...

Beautiful Fall Colors

2008-10-12T12:40:00.001-07:00

What an incredible week we've had. It started Monday night when we decided to take a hike into the mountains for Family Night to see the beautiful fall leaves. We were given a heads-up about a great place with a nice, easy, family hike. It was perfect and beautiful. The trees were the most amazing color of gold. Unfortunately, many of the red and orange leaves had already fallen, but the gold was worth seeing.

One of the highlights of the hike was discovering the talents of the beaver. Shortly after starting along our path, we came across a swift river. It was beautiful among the trees. As we rounded a bend in the path, though, we found the path was completely under water. It was then that we discovered a tree gnawed clear to the center by a beaver. He had successfully diverted the water from the raging river and created quite a dam. The kids had a blast walking across some stepping stones and some fallen wood to the bridge. Ryden, of course, didn't see the sense in using the stones. He just walked right through the water to the log. Oh well.

The dam the beaver built.

America Has Talent!

2008-10-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

America Has Talent and it lives at my house! Check out this new and upcoming talent!

Furry Critters

2008-10-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

We're experiencing all sorts of little critters around here. Some I love, some not so much. I love watching the squirrels run back and forth across the fence, gathering walnuts from our yard and running to store them for the winter. Bunnies multiply in Colorado. They're everywhere. We love watching them in the yard. Last month, we even had fun rescuing one from our window well. But, this month, Ryden caught a snake. That, I don't love as much. But, the kids were ecstatic when they got off the bus and Ryden showed them his snake.

Of course, we had to let it go in someone else's yard! :)

But, that does remind me of something so funny. Today Kyler brought home his "star student" book. All the kids write him a kind note and then his teacher compiles it for him. We laughed so hard when we read this entry by a sweet little girl (keep in mind 2nd grade spelling):

"My favorite animal is a snack...I want a pet snack but my mom won't let me and my Dad and sister are afraid of snacks. I wish they weren't". Only when she wrote that her favorite snack was a Python did we understand. Of course, the next friend signed hers, "Peas out", meaning of course "Peace Out". We couldn't stop laughing. I can't believe that 2nd graders are saying "Peace Out" to each other, but "Peas out" is even more amazing.

On that note, Peas Out everone!

Jordan turned 1

2008-10-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Jordan is 1. It seems like just yesterday I was begging him to hurry and come into this world. He's so cute and so fun right now. He just makes me laugh every day. His birthday was fun, with Brent and Sunny and their family coming over to celebrate. They gave him his favorite gifts (only gifts actually...I guess I'm cheap when the receiver doesn't know the difference :))

In recognition of the long-held Hicken family tradition, we tried to have Jordan "chase the cake". As you'll see, he was far more interested in the balls strewn throughout the yard!

Of course, that may be because he filled up on scraps of cake while I decorated his!

Tye-Dye Frenzie!

2008-10-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

Last month, I was assigned to be the volleyball coach for the girls in the youth group at church. I love this assignment. I love playing the game again and teaching the girls to love the game. It's so much fun. With teens, though, comes the fun of tye-dyeing! They chose to tye-dye their uniforms (with Enoch's expert tips, of course). The next day, the kids got to try their hand at it.

Of course, I failed to take a final picture, but here's the best I could come up with for now. Stay tuned for all 4 in tye-dye!

Jordan's Walking Progress

2008-09-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick video of Jordan walking. Just yesterday , he started walking like a pro! A'int he cute?

Funny Kids

2008-09-12T10:40:00.001-07:00

It seems like this is the week of laughs. I thought I'd add a few posts of the kids making me laugh! Enjoy!

Aspen and Kyler enjoying a cantaloupe smile!

Jordan "loading" the dishwasher, complete with Daddy's shoes!

Ryden and the smile reformation. For those of you who have tried to take pictures with Ryden in them, you'll be glad to know he's starting to master the picture-perfect smile! Enjoy this video.

And....(drum roll, please!)...Here it is, the photo we've all been waiting for! Ryden's smile on camera!

New Home

2008-09-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

Where do you even start when SO much has happened? I'm just going to jump to August 13th, when we finally found a home. We'd been searching for awhile, but couldn't quite find something that "fit". But, then we found it...a beautiful home in a great neighborhood. We love everyone at church and feel right at home. We've already gotten to know most of our neighbors and absolutely love them.

Two of our favorite features of our home:

The awesome playset for the kids!

And, the basketball court in the backyard for Enoch. Now, he doesn't have to make mid-day runs to the church to shoot some hoops when his brain shuts down while working. Keep in mind these are all pre-weeding. The house was vacant for 2 months before we got it, so it's still needing some help.

I've had so much fun trying to fill this house. We moved from a much smaller home in Reno and decided to leave most of our old furniture behind. We came with just 1 couch, a coffee table, the piano, the kitchen table and our beds. That's it. We assumed we would move into a house of comparable size or smaller, so we figured we didn't need much else anyway. Well, instead we got a bigger house and have been living with it half empty. Well, like I said above in the "I've been Tagged" blog, I started making a list of everything I would love to find for free for this house. Then, I started checking craigslist periodically. The two things I wanted the most were carpet for the basement and furniture for the family room. Well, last week, I found a couch for the family room. Mind you, most couches listed for free on craigslist really should be free. They're dirty, falling apart, etc. Well, I found a Broyhill couch that looked really nice. The problem was that it was listed a week prior, which generally means there's no way it's still available. But, I called on it and it was. The catch was it was really heavy and was on the 5th floor, with stairs as the only way to move it. Still, we went for it. Enoch moved it with a friend and said it was very light and very easy to move. Here's the crazy part....our family room has Terracotta colored walls and green carpet. I know, gross and really doesn't match. Well, they brought home this couch and it has a plaid pattern of terracotta and green. I couldn't believe it. It actually makes the room look like it was meant to match. Then, that same night I was checking craigslist for a chair to match. I found one that was supposedly sitting in an alley not too far from here. So, Enoch headed out at 11pm (aren't we pathetic?!?!) to get it. It was gone when he got there, but there on the dumpster was just enough great carpet to fill our basement. I told my brother about it the next day and told him I was adding more things to my "free" list. He asked me what I had up there now. I responded, "2 bar stools..." He quickly interrupted and said, "oh yeah, I meant to call you. I found 2 bar stools in our storage that we aren't using...do you want them?!?" I had to laugh. So, now I have bar stools, too. This morning I woke up and thought, "I sure would love a bedside table for my scriptures, phone, etc." I added it to my free list and tonight a family down the street put a bedside table out for free!! Crazy! I'm really having fun with this.

So, we're in our home, love it and can't wait for all of you to come visit!

Fixing Up the Yard

2008-09-07T14:29:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been quite a feat trying to get the yard up to par. The house has been completely vacant for 2 months and the yard wasn't cared for much by the renters that were here until then. So, needless to say, the yard has needed some TLC. I've spent several days trimming bushes, pulling weeds, and mowing. I even pulled several stalks of milk thistle that were taller than me!
For family night, we challenged the kids to see who could get the biggest pile of weeds. These pictures were taken near the start of the night. By the end, we had had filled 2 of our huge garbage cans with grass and weeds!

Kyler weeding the sandbox!

Enoch got the task of mowing the long grass! The mower stopped several times in some sections. Finally, we gave up and resorted to weed wacking the area first so the mower could make it through! We finally got it done, though, and after a few more trimmings over the past couple of weeks, we finally have a great yard! As for the weeds, I still have a bit to go!

Jordan....So Cute

2008-09-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

You just have to check out this video. Jordan has a habit that we love. And, at the tail end you'll see him trying to walk. He's such a cutey!!

A New Year of School

2008-09-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Aspen's first day of school.

I drove her to school. She couldn't wait to see her teacher again and meet all her new friends. I can't believe I'm sending another one off to school!

Aspen outside of her school.

Aspen waiting in line with her classmates before entering school for the first time. You could tell the veteran mom's from the first timers. The first timers couldn't leave while the veterans quickly left. One woman exclaimed, "Freedom!" as she left the playground. I have to admit, I was a mixture of both. I can't believe she started school. I'll miss her, but I also look forward to spending some focused time with the younger two.

Kyler started 2nd grade this year! Our school is significantly far from our home, so the kids get to ride the bus this year! Admittedly, I have loved the chance to walk with them to and from the bus stop. It's just a nice chance to stop what I'm doing and focus just on them. We get to talk about all they're excited for and all they did at school when they get home. Kyler loves to take Jordan with us. His longest goodbyes are with Jordan in the mornings.

Aspen and Kyler coming home on their first full day together.

Fun In Colorado

2008-09-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Since we moved here in July, we have had SO much fun. So, following are just a few glimpses at some of the fun times we've had.

We love the weather here. It's almost always perfect weather for a BBQ outside for dinner. Of course, Jordan wasn't expecting the shower he got when Dad bit into his burger!

Shortly after we got here, we went to Lakeside Amusement Park with my brother, Brent and his family. We had a blast!

The entire group taking a train ride around the park

As the other kids got in line for the ferris wheel, Aspen announced she hated ferris wheels. But, just as it was getting ready to go, she changed her mind and wanted to get on. It only took one turn around before she decided she really didn't like them. The attendant tried to stop the ride, but the cart behind Aspen was carrying an older, heavier girl. Each time Aspen's cart would come back to the bottom, gravity would take over and the girl's cart would spring forward, pushing Aspen back up in the air. Poor girl. She got more and more upset until finally after another 4 or 5 rounds we were able to get her off the ride!

Ryden, on the other hand, has no qualms about falling from high heights (nor does his cousin, Sierra for that matter). On this ride, they went way up in the sky and then did a series of free falls. I was shocked they loved it! And, with no hands! I would have been holding on tight to the bar, myself.

Speaking of Ryden and Sierra, they're like 2 peas in a pod. They're such good friends. Ryden wakes up every day begging to play with Sierra. And, when they play, they get along so well. I love living by cousins!

The first day of the Olympics, we held an Olympics of our own at the park by Brent's house. The USA had four athletes representing them and, incredibly, all 4 qualified to compete in several events. Congrats to Renen, Kai, Kyler and Aspen who all received medals that day!

Aspen throwing the Javelin

Kyler on shotput.

Aspen on balance beam

Renen and Aspen racing in the relay races

Kai on hurdles.

Kyler and Aspen on the bike section of the triathlon.

Kyler finishing up his triathlon by diving into the water for his final swim of the triathlon! (what do you do if you dont' have a pool?)

A few weeks after we arrived, Littleton celebrated "Western Welcome Week". There were lots of fun things going on nearby.

The kids got their faces painted.

Shortly after we got in line for the face painting, the line grew exponentially. We called over to make sure Kyler didn't want to get his face painted. He didn't. But, when he saw Aspen and Ryden's faces, he changed his mind. But, by now the line was 45 minutes long at least! So, we improvised and stuck Elmer's glue on Kyler's face followed by glitter! It worked. He thought he had the coolest paint job of anyone!

Aspen and the mask she made.

Daddy, Jordan, and Kyler panning for gold and coming up with a bunch of fool's gold!

The Zoo!! I loved the Zoo. Let me just give you a taste of the zoo life we've experienced for the last 2 years. You park outside a home, enter an office located in the original living room/entryway of the home. Walk out the back door where you'll find a peacock to greet you. Then, you walk around dirt paths where panthers, lions, tigers and monkeys are all separated by chainlink fences. It's neat, but freaky at the same time. You're just not too sure a chainlink fence is going to keep that panther away from you! Going to the Denver Zoo was like a dream come true! We got to see so many animals! Of course, I haven't been able to figure it out. Why did I feel safer now that the animals had NO fences to keep them away from us?!?!
Sierra, Ryden and Aspen, acting like bears!

And, finally, Taste of Colorado. Admittedly, it's a bad picture, but I needed to include the memory of us going there. Here the kids were dancing along with a man doing a One-Man Band. They were doing the funky chicken. Aspen is in the middle with her head turned in white. Ryden is squatting in red.

I've been tagged

2008-08-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've been tagged! I honestly believe that it's my sister's desperate attempt at getting me to update my blog. Well, she succeeded. Or at least, I think she will by the end of tonight. I'm tired and exhausted, but I thought I'd just sit down for a bit and blog finally since I have so much to catch people up on and, more important, since I've been tagged and have to save face. So, for those of you how don't know about being tagged (since I certainly didn't...being a pseudo-blogger myself), when you're tagged, you need to take pictures of the following things immediately. You don't have time to clean them up, rearrange, remodel, etc. Just take a picture and post it. Then tag 5 others. So, if your name is at the end of this blog, then you've been tagged!

1. The fridge
You'd be surprised how much door space you get when you move! Of course, you also find yourself frustrated when you find out in the middle of cooking dinner that you don't have the usuals...lemon juice, worstershire sauce, soy sauce, etc. Slowly but surely, though, the fridge is filling.

2. The closet.

I don't really know which one you want to see. This is the boring front closet. But, it does show that our kids have officially started school here as evidenced by the backpacks on the floor. Keep reading for more on school starting, etc.

3. The Laundry Room

Ok, the laundry room is one room I still haven't officially unpacked and organized. It's a mess but I'm SOOOOO happy to have a nice big open room for laundry (our last home had a small mud room/laundry room).

4. The Kitchen Sink

Luckily, I'm pretty meticulous about getting dishes out of the way. For some reason, dirty dishes in my sink increases my stress level. Weird, huh?

5. The toilet

Good thing it's Saturday and Kyler cleaned this bathroom today. It wasn't so nice yesterday...

6. Your Favorite Room

Ok, this one needs explaining. As you can see, it's not the nicest room in the house, but here's the story. We moved into this great house, with lots more space than our last home. It also had a partially finished basement. Now, that doesn't mean that some of the basement is finished and some of it is not. It means the WHOLE basement is partially finished. It has all the dry wall done, but needed carpet and paint. Now, we're currently renting to own this house. So, right now we're renting and didn't want to put a lot of money into finishing the basement right now. So, we figured we wouldn't really use that space. Boy, was I wrong. I forgot to take a picture of it, but under the stairs, there's a little kids play area, complete with door and window. From day one, the kids have begged to play in the basement. They LOVE it downstairs. And I love it because they have a place to play that's away from the center of the house (you'll understand if you knew our last house). The only problem is that the floor was concrete. They would never go down along because they were scared down there. Well, I started a list when I moved in of the things that I would love to find for free for this house....things that I wasn't really needing/wanting enough to go out and buy, but that I would really love to have. Top of the list was carpet to fill the basement. Well, you'll have to read on for more of the story later, but to make a really long story short, Enoch was driving by a home one day and saw a ton of carpet on the dumpster!! It was all in good shape and filled our basement with only 1 tiny scrap left!! Every time I come down here, I feel happy!! And the kids LOVE it! So, there's why I love this half-done room!

7. Your favorite shoes

I love these shoes. I love dolling up a simple outfit and these are the most versatile, comfortable and fun shoes I have. And, I got them on killer sale which I love.

8. What your kids are doing right now.

Thankfully, they're all sleeping, which is the only reason why I have time to blog. Of course, that's with the exception of Kyler who is using his final stall technique of the night.

9. Your dream vacation.

A cruise with all my siblings and their spouses and my parents. Really, I can't wait to do it with all the nieces and nephews, too, but that may be a ways out considering the ages of all the kids...

10. Self-portrait.

Yep, it shows that we had a blast today downtown. We went to Taste of Colorado (much like Taste of Chicago) and had a great time. But, I'm definitely tired!

As for those who are tagged: Adrienne Lee, Adrienne Bybee, Tauna, Jessica Friberg, and Jenn Moore.

May Mayhem!

2008-06-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, it wasn't really May Mayhem after all; it just sounded good together. Actually, we had an incredible month and loved every minute of it. It started with a trip to Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. We had set some goals as a family and hit them at the end of April. So, on May 10th, we headed over for a great day at the park. It's one of my favorite amusement parks in the whole country, beating out Disneyland and Disneyworld. It's got everything, from whale and dolphin shows to kid theme parks to wild rollercoasters. I love it.

The kids especially loved the bumper cars, the whales, the dolphins, the spinny rides, the swing rides, the rollercoasters, the seals, the water park...Ok, they loved it all. It was so fun to see all of their smiles and hear all their squeals when they'd see a ride they loved.

Aspen and Kyler driving the jeep! Watch out!

Ryden and Daddy on the bumper cars.

The kids getting completely soaked in the water fountain.

Jordan chewing up our schedule...YIKES! But, heck, we're on vacation. Who needs a schedule?!?

After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, Dad, Kyler and Aspen finally got on this spinning ride. Once they were all buckled in, however, they announced that the ride was having technical difficulties (ie, the attendant needed a break) and they closed the ride. Everyone had to get off, but we were sure to get a mock motion picture before they did!

We had such a blast. That night we camped in Petaluma, Ca. Kyler's birthday was on the 12th and his wish for his family party was to go camping. We had a blast with S'mores and Hot Dogs and a big campfire.

On Kyler's actual birthday, Jordan started crawling. About a week later, Enoch decided to teach him to say "Daddy". I kept hearing him in the other room, coaxing him into saying his name. Finally, he came and got me and here's the result:

Just a picture I couldn't resist sharing. Since he's starting to feed himself, mealtime gets pretty messy and is usually followed by a quick sink bath. He's such a cute little ham!

Kyler's school did a penny drive recently for charity. All the kids were supposed to bring in all their pennies over the course of a month or so. They had a goal of like 15000 pennies, or something like that. If they hit their goal, they got a "Crazy Hair" day. Kyler actually went to school like this, but ended up having "normal" hair compared to his schoolmates, who came with mohawks, dyed hair, etc. Needless to say, many of those classmates are now bald as a result!

And, on the last day of the month, Aspen lost another tooth!! This time, she kept it around long enough to get it under her pillow. She's proud to say she's lost as many teeth as Kyler now.

May has been a great month. We feel so blessed. Our design business has taken off and we've been so blessed in our TeamBuilders business as well. It's amazing what happens when you set goals, work hard, stay open minded and have faith. We're now getting ready for our move to Denver in July. I have to admit, it's been a challenge trying to find a place to live long distance, but we're confident we'll find the right match for us in time. We're so excited to finally live somewhere we plan on calling home. We've been moving every 2 years or so since we got married and both of us are excited to settle in.

Well, that's it for May. I'm sure June will bring more fun and more crazy pictures!! Have a great month!

An Overview of the Fredericks' Household

2008-05-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!!

Wow!! Our first blog. I haven't written letters in 6 months because I kept envisioning the day when I would finally start our blog. Well, today is the day. But, since I haven't written letters, I doubt many of you even know what's going on with us, so I thought I'd start our blog off with a brief spotlight of each of our family members (thanks for the idea, Braden and Cheri!!). Enjoy!

Kyler's our oldest and just had his 7th birthday on Monday. This year he wanted to go camping for his birthday, so on Friday night, we headed to Petaluma, California to camp for the night. We had a blast building fires, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and huddling in the tent to keep warm. The next morning, we rented a little banana bike for him that he drove all over the park.

Kyler loves to build things, especially if those things come with tons of tiny pieces that take lots of time and concentration to put together. So, for his birthday we gave him a 1118 piece K'nex rollercoaster. He amazes me. We put together the first one as a family (and took 3 hours doing it). The next night, he took it all apart and built a whole new one in less than 2 hours total by himself. He's so proud that it's taller than mommy!

Aspen is 5 and such a sweet kid. She is mommy's little helper. What would I do without a girl? She really loves to help with all the household chores, from cleaning to baking to feeding Jordan to changing dirty diapers...Ok, maybe not that last part, but she does love putting the clean diaper on. She's such a great helper and I love the time we get to spend together doing it all. Here's one of our favorite videos of her trying to get Jordan ready for bed!

She also has 1 lost tooth (literally, it fell out of her mouth AND she lost it before the tooth fairy came!), 3 loose teeth and a very competitive nature that keeps her asking all her friends how many loose teeth they have so she can be sure to be ahead of the pack!

And, she learned to ride a bike!! And, boy does she love it!! She'll ride and ride and ride!! I love it because I can finally fit all the non-riders (Jordan and Ryden) in the double running stroller while all the riders (Kyler and Aspen) ride their own bikes and I can go rollerblading. We have a blast, though admittedly I'm worn out long before they want to stop riding.

Ryden is a nut, what more can I say? He cracks us up all the time. He just loves to be the star of the show and always does it in the most humorous ways.

He turns 4 in a month and can't wait to have a dragon party, no, a car party, no, a water party, no....In the end, I think we may have a dragon race car party through the sprinklers!

Ryden is spunky. He loves to jump off of anything, climb over anything and explore (and even eat) anything. Ok, I take that back, he won't eat anything I serve him, but he will eat anything that looks interesting on the ground or in the dirt or under a picnic table, if you catch my drift. Unfortunately, I don't get all the photos of him in his spunkiness. Usually, I'm too busy laughing, but here's some fun shots of his huge jumps into the pool!

We discovered there's no need for a dog in the house with a kid like Jordan. A few days ago we found him chewing on daddy's shoe while reaching for the frisbee. When we moved the frisbee, he crawled after it and brought it back!! YEAH!!!!

He's so adorable and so much fun. He is totally content to let the kids do whatever they want to him. He loves to laugh and will just start laughing because you are. It so fun to watch and so nice to laugh so much. He's almost 8 months, has 4 teeth, crawls, eats EVERYTHING and is such a cutie!

Enoch and I are loving this stage of life. So many times, we just want to pinch ourselves and make sure we're not dreaming. We feel so blessed to both be home with the kids. Enoch has also followed some of his life-long passions and has recently launched a webdesign business that's actually pretty amazing. He's having a blast getting his entire vision off the launchpad and life has been fun in the process. I'm so proud of him. Sometimes I'm amazed at how business minded he is. I guess that comes with listening to so many success CDs and reading so many success books. I learn from his vision and perseverance every day. And, of course, I love his silly side!

I'm just loving being a mom. The kids are so loving and so forgiving. They just love being together. I'm so grateful for the warm weather and the chance we have to go on hikes, have BBQs, play outside, go to the park, etc. etc. My kids teach me every day to relax, have fun, and enjoy the moment.

Enoch and I also had a great opportunity to speak at a business conference in Santa Rosa, California. I love public speaking. Enoch and I have so much fun doing it. I will admit, though, this time he was so hilarious that I laughed through most of it. He is so funny. But, he's so good at teaching points through laughter. At one point I actually had tears rolling down my face from laughing and I'm supposed to be composed on stage!!

The highlight of the night: When Enoch surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day the next day!! Way to go Enoch!

Balloon Races

2007-10-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

We had a ton of fun at the Reno Balloon Races this year. We woke up at 4am to get to the "Dawn Patrol" where certified balloons fly in the dark. They did a whole show to music. It was neat to see them light up in the sky. Then, we stayed to watch them fill up the other balloons...we counted at least 75 balloons!!!