August 2012

It's a long one folks... I had to go through 544 pictures for August and this is what I narrowed it down (only about 200 for your viewing). I'm kind of wondering how long my end of the year book is going to look with all these pictures to sift through.... oh boy...

So Dallin was here till August 2nd and we kept him working hard on the bathroom till the night before he left.

 I was happy to get some more work done up there. A lot of times it feels like it will never be done so I've decided that I just need to chill out because there are more important things in life right now than to finish our master bath, like giving Duane ample time to work on his grand rounds presentation that he has schedule to give at the end of October (he's been dreading this for a year now). Every anesthesia resident presents their last year to the entire Anesthesia department and Duane is supposedly supposed to be the expert on the subject that he picked. He has some fun ideas for incorporating the kids into his power point as well. It should be fun. (Mom and Dad Ellsworth, we'll have to send the Power Point to you once it's finished, some time at the end of September hopefully).

Proof that I did participate in the work.

 Putting in the toilet! Yay! With a bad back, Duane was telling Dallin how to move it to get the wax ring in just the right spot.

Tristen helped me discover a way to get all three kids in the stroller at a time. After purchasing the stroller off CL, I discovered how small it was. The weight limit for each seat is 35 lbs a piece (Kalvin is like 45 lbs) and Tristen is right at the 35 lb mark. Anyway, I do really like the stroller and it is very handy for getting around. 

 Tristen LOVES popcorn though I rarely make it because every time I do there's a huge mess! Or in this case, I wasn't watching and Tristen dumped in a whole can of seasoned salt and the rest of the garlic salt.

 My cute little man, Will Man!

 Kalvin likes to be silly some times. This one night, he put both legs into one pant leg then he was run/walking in his messy room and fell on the train tracks. He got a nice bruise on his shin. Ouch! He just has a hard time slowing down some times. He's always busy doing something!

 Dallin brought his long board out with him from AZ. The boys loved it and were always talking about "Dallin's longboard". Well, just a day after he left, Tristen put his skates on in the house and said, "Like Dallin's long board!" He was happy to stop for a picture with his "longboard-like" skates.

 For fast Sunday dinner, Duane offered to make dinner. It was pretty good actually, corn, white rice, and grilled chicken with a sweet and sour strawberry glaze. All from scratch.

 That night after dinner, we went on a walk near the hospital since Duane had to check in on some heart patients. The boys found this tall brick wall and instantly found fun ways to be dangerous.

The wall had to have been a good 12 feet tall.

 Then Kalvin decided he could scale it.

 This is about where he decided he didn't want to go any higher and panicked, not knowing how to get down.

I'm not really looking forward to the day when this little guy joins in the craziness of boyhood. Three boys to keep track of?... How did my mom do it? (I ask myself that question quite frequently)

I just hope my anxiety levels get too high where I need to medicate for it.

 Sometimes I do crazy things, like let my boys help paint... it was a little wild, but overall nothing too traumatizing happened.

 And to protect my hair, a grocery bag. Of course, looking at the picture I notice that I didn't get my bangs in there.

 Yay! Paint on the walls!!!! Should have done a primer coat first though...

 Setup the sprinkler to hit the garden in the corner and the boys slip and slide (they just didn't get their clothes off before sliding...)

 Lovin' the Jenga blocks! (I do have my boys wear clothes sometimes by the way, like when we leave the house).

 If Mom won't let him eat Doritos all day, he'll settle for dried cannery beans.

 He seems almost as content with this option.

 Sometimes working on project while the kids are up, is not a good idea. I was sanding dry drywall mud in the bathroom one day and didn't notice that Tristen had figured out how to opent he partially closed drywall mud bucket. He painted all over the floor and a wooden 2X4. Kalvin saw it and instead of telling me, joined in on the fun.

 I kind of freaked out and panicked and called my dad to get some advice on how to take care of our shoe-free carpet. He reminded me that it is water-soluble and that with warm water it would come right up. It actually cleaned up very easily, but there were a lot tools that he got mud all over that I had to take outside to clean.

 So, to paint, I waited till that night.

 My awesome next door neighbor that gives me all kinds of ideas for getting the boys out for fun things, told me about a butterfly farm at a middle school about 20 minutes away. The honor students from the school have put it on for 14 years in a row now and it's actually pretty cool for being free. Tristen was so proud to get this butterfly on his map (the one that Grandpa Mickelson bought while he was out here. He's been loving carrying it around with him all over town). Actually, the butterfly's seemed to love Tristen (he can be a pretty sweet kid).

 Kalvin enjoyed the butterflies as well.

 Here is about when Kalvin noticed the butterfly's black tongue licking him. It wasn't really his favorite thing because to him, it looked like a stinger, a bee stinger.

 Then it flew up on his shirt. That's when he was finished with the butterfly's for the day.

 Just before leaving someone told me a butterfly was on my hair. They took a picture for me before helping me get it out.

 From the butterfly farm, the student tour guide took us to where they "grow" the butterfly's. They had hundreds of caterpillars and chrisolis's(sp?) (cocoons).

 Then we got to go into a craft room where the boys got their faces painted. A rocketship.

 And a rainbow.

 Tristen asked for a butterfly, but you can see when she didn't paint the butterfly on his whole face, he was a little let down. Other kids were getting one big butterfly on there whole face. When I asked if she would be okay doing that (painting a big on him) she said that she couldn't so I suggested she just do a half on the other side.

 After seeing the other half Tristen was a little happier

 But then after walking away he decided he would have rather had it on his whole face. Oh well.

 After the farm, we went to Wally to pick up Kalvin's birthday present from Gma and Gpa Mick.

 His first guess, a guitar.

 He was right! He was very happy to see it, but then within a few seconds of having it out, it broke when I went to tune it. The knob just crumbled under my fingers... Darn China toys! Love 'em (because they're so cheap) and hate 'em (cause they're so cheap!)!

My cutie! (and you can see his tooth coming in! Now he has three with a third ont he verge of erupt. 

So, what do you do at the doctors office while you wait for the doctor? Is your wait as long as mine? Well, I guess ours isn't too bad. We probably waited like 10 minutes this time. Here's a video of what we did to pass the time. One child sits in the chair while the other child and me mimic their actions.

Kalvin loves to dance. This was a funny one of the videos of him dancing.

So, for his birthday, Kalvin got a guitar, but then after it broke we went to exchange it and
It's hard to see what videos are where, but I think this video is of Kalvin instructing Tristen on how to hold the camera and take a video of him performing at his new karaoke machine. It's sad how much Kalvin sounded like me when I get after him for not doing something just the way I want.

Duane actually really likes the karaoke machine too, in fact the first night we had it, Duane plugged in his tablet for the boys to sing some song and then he himself took over the mic and sang along. I had told them all that dinner was ready, and I and the boys were at the table ready to go, but I couldn't get Duane off the couch away from this song he was singing.

The boys favorite song, "Hey Soul Sister" by Train. Can you hear it?

We went glow golfing a couple weekends ago! The kids had a lot of fun! We only got two clubs for the kids since Duane and I weren't planning on making a serious competition out of it and paid $11 for the hour of fun. So, this place is in the mall (replaced the H&M that moved to another location in the mall) and the only lights inside are black lights. It would be a fun date idea too. I took one picture in the dark to get an idea for how it looked, but then turned on the flash the rest of the time (just imagine that all the pics are taken in the cool, blacklight-lit, dark, department store sized room).

 The boys just ran from spot to spot hitting their balls all over the place. We saw a lot of other kids there and then some couples too.

 Willy was intrigued by the crazy lighting. 

 Loves his blankie! It's a must for going to sleep too.

 I did want to get one family picture and I should have got with one of the many cool paintings they had over the boarder walls, but I decided against interrupting someones game to have them take our picture (and now I'm regretting it).

Kalvin is ready for kindergarten! He's mastered the monkey bars (and outgrown Tristen's shirts as you can see). I didn't even notice him going across till the end and I was a little proud of his accomplishment (they have a zig zag for the extra challenge).

 Duane has always been a big help with the kids and Sunday's is no exception. Nearly every other Sunday, Duane is in charge of getting the kids totally ready for church since I have Branch Council in the mornings. I try to set out the boys clothes the night before, but I don't always get to do that so he's left with figuring that out some times as well. Anyway, one particular Sunday, Duane was combing the boys hair and asked Kalvin what he would like. Kalvin said, "I want it to look like a dinosaur". They have since called it a tent, but this was a big step for Kalvin. I have asked him several times if I could spike his hair, but always insists that he will get laughed at if I do. Ever since he had a mohawk for 40 hours last summer and the went to church with it and got a lot of attention, he's never wanted his hair spiked again till recently.

(flash back the hawk from last summer)

 The butterfly exhibit was our inspiration for painting our faces one Sunday.

A rocket

 And a butterfly.

 And Kalvin painted on me a butterfly

 and a heart.

 Kalvin has always been thoughtful and generous. For lunch one day we were eating green Sponge Bob macaroni (green inspired by Tristen with green food coloring) and William was loving it. Kalvin was sharing bites with him. Well, Kalvin was nearing the end of his bowl of noodles and purposely left the last noodle for Willy. I just thought it was cute to see and to think about how much Kalvin really likes to make others happy.

One more story real quick about making people happy. We were out one day as a family and Kalvin randomly came to me and in a sweet voice said, "Mom, you're an angel." I thought it was cute and asked why he said that, "Oh, I just thought it would make you feel good". It did. What a thoughtful boy!

 One night as I was putting the boys to bed and reading them books as they sit in Tristen's bed watching, I noticed William (who was in my arms) reaching for the bed frame where the boys were. You can see the excitement on Willy's face when I put him up there. He was all smiles for several minutes.

We had so much fun at the butterfly exhibit that we decided to go again when Duane was post-call. He got home around 9AM from working the night before and had about 4 hours of sleep (enough to hold him over for the morning). We had just as good a time the second time, as we did the first.

 A large monarch. Kalvin was a less nervous with the butterfly's this time around.

  I never get tired of this cute smile!

The butterfly's were magnetized to Tristen almost. He must be a really sweet boy...

This picture of Tristen made me think of his cousin, Dale who is only like 3 months younger than Tristen. Can you see the resemblance? Dale is a pretty mischievous boy like Tristen can be so them having a similar facial expression makes me that much more nervous for what their teenage years together will bring. 

(Audra, hope you don't mind I stole this picture) 

 I had to laugh to myself when Tristen purposefully went to the same face painting girl as he did the first time and asked her to do a big butterfly (I laugh because the first time there was a slight communication error between them so I didn't think he'd be so willing to go back to her another time). Anyway, he was a lot more happy with the butterfly this time around.

  Kalvin got a puppy dog face.

So, I'm coming to accept the fact that house projects never end and with the help of Duane and my mom gently counseling me, I've realized that house projects are not the most important thing. We may have to sell our house for less than we would hope for, but in the long run, Duane's education, our kids well-being, my sanity and anxiety levels are all WAY more important than our house and so I decided to check out going to the YMCA. It's is pretty pricey ($86/month) so there is a monetary sacrifice, but I see it as moving our budget around so that instead of going out as a family on the weekends to a restaurant, we'll go swimming at the Y or drop the kids off at the Y and have a date night working out side by side (how romantic, right?). The Y will watch the kids for up to 1 1/2 hours every day while I work out. We are on a trial period right now and I've averaged going like 4 times a week. The idea is that I will go in the morning with the boys 3 times a week and then once a week in the evening we will go as a family. So far, I've really liked it a lot! The daycare ladies are a little intimidating (at least the head lady), but she's good at keeping the kids in line, so I don't think Tristen will try any funny business with her around like he does in nursery goofing off.

I took a picture after the first day I went. In the morning I had gone to the pool with the boys (it's near impossible to find pools out here) which was awesome and they loved it, and then that night Duane and I dropped off the boys and had a good workout.

My sister, April, asked what my goal weight was (assuming I singed up so I could lose weight, which would be nice since I still have 10 lbs to go till I'm back to the pre-pregnancy weight). I am going to lose weight, but my biggest reason for signing up was to have some "me" time during the day and to feel good after working out, so far it's been great! I think I work well with structure and schedules.

There is a nature reserve called Five Rivers less than a mile from the Y. One day as we were leaving the Y a friend asked if anyone wanted to meet here, it was convenient for us since we were so close. It was a lot of fun for the boys. Kalvin and Griffin are pretty much best buds and are both starting Kindergarten at the same school this year. I am so grateful Kalvin has a buddy so close that he can play with. Tristen is a bit of a tag along though when they get together, so it's kind of hard sometimes.

Cinnamon Sugar, gone.

We saw a friend at the Y and then went to Five Rivers together after. We were on the wild turkey trail and saw a small deer about 20 feet away. They must be very familiar with humans because the boys had been pretty rambunctious so had to have heard us. As we continued on, I guess all three boys decided they needed to pee at the same time.

Loving noodles, pasta sauce and a few cherries!

 William started crawling! August 18 at 7 1/2 months and with one tooth in and two others barely peeking through. Way to go, Buddy!

I and the boys took a walk one Sunday that Duane had home teaching and then he had to go to the hospital for a few hours. We walked to our favorite place, the site of the church building! It's coming along!

While Dallin was out here, he drove our manual transmission, Ford Focus when we all wanted to go somewhere since we couldn't all fit in one car. Kalvin and Tristen loved driving with Dallin because he would drive fast (at least they thought so). Dallin would run in lower gears so that the engine sounded louder and ultimately made the boys feel like they were going super fast. Well, every time I drive the focus with the boys now, Tristen will say, "Drive fast like a rocket ship!" I blame Dallin for Tristen always wanting me to "drive like a rocket".

We were at Toys R Us picking up an online purchase and the boys brought their money. As we were leaving they wanted to fly Jay Jay the Jetplane for 50 cents. I let them know how much it would cost (5 chores worth of $). They chose to ride for 30 seconds and pay the 50 cents... crazy kids!

After getting home from the store we saw that we had a package in the mail from Aunt Rachel to the boys. It was a complete surprise for them. So fun! Inside we read a letter that Rachel had nicely written telling how she had included in the package some "blues clues" for me to hide and at the end of the treasure hunt they would find the presents and get to open them. It was so neat for the boys and really made there and my day.

First the boys kid behind the couch in our living room so they wouldn't see me hiding the clues.

Then as we looked for the clues, Kalvin was so good to let Tristen pick up most the clues after quickly pointing out to him where the clue was, then I would read it.

We finally found the presents!

Ring Pops and pop rocks

:-)

I'm not the best mom at protecting my babies from sugary foods at a young age. Is 7 months too early for poprocks?....

Big brother helping little brother to start the lawn mower. Too cute!

So, my brother Vaughn sent a family email out asking what each siblings best mile time is/was. He plans to beat the best time. Mine was 5:48, set my junior year of high school. Kevin has me beat by a long shot, 5:15. Yikes, that's fast! Anyway, while talking to Vaughn we decided it'd be fun to have a Mickelson Family Fun Run the first weekend of October when we come to visit. That got me all energized and excited for the gym the next morning and I busted out 3 miles on the treadmill. The last 1/2 mile was pretty tough because the treadmill was on auto adjust according to my heart rate and I tested it when I had a 1/2 mile to go, but it got a bad reading and said my rate was 83 BPM and so it put my incline % up to like 4%. Anyway, I was pretty beat after finishing, but it felt good to push myself.

After the gym we had several errands to run and so we didn't get home to lunch till 2PM. After eating lunch and getting a good cup of water, I weighed myself just for kicks and giggles and noticed I had dropped 4 lbs from when I first woke up to after lunch. I must have had a lot of sweat!

One of our errands was to set up the primary room for this Sunday's first practice of the primary program!

Here's what the house looks on an average day, usually till about 30 minutes before we expect Duane home from work when have a clean up time make it look decent.

Kalvin has had a lot of fun this month playing with the camera. Here are many of our silly faces: 

  Tristen really cracks me up! I didn't see these pictures till they were on the computer and I just keep laughing at the faces Tristen came up with for Kalvin.

I had to laugh at this one because my eyes are all crazy. Kalvin told me to keep my eyes closed for the picture, but then at the last split second I opened them. I guess my eyes had not adjusted yet and were not looking straight on. Makes for a good laugh. I look like a dead fish!

 In Junior High I would show off my piggy nose by pulling it up. I've got some large nostrils... 

Anyway...

Pita pocket bread was on sale at Walmart so we got some and made pizza for lunch. Kalvin decided to put trail mix on top. I love how creative he is!

Tristen was fine with just pepperoni and cheese (though in this picture he's kinda making a grumpy face, not sure what that's all about).

 Not sure what's so fun about putting clamps on your lips, but Tristen thought it was cool, then Kalvin tried it out too.

 Another house project day with the kiddos. We were taking off the screens from a couple windows since they were dusty and unattractive then we cleaned all the windows nicely. The boys didn't mind helping with that! Kalvin got to do one window and Tristen the other.  Willy was happy in the grass, well at least for the first 30 minutes.

 Kalvin took these pictures on my phone. Tristen is up on the ladder unscrewing the screen.

 After a good two hours of year work with weeding the edges, I got it to looking nice enough for a picture. This picture will go on a flyer that Duane will take to work for interviewing potential residence for next year. They start interviewing in October!

Here's a picture of the house before we moved in 3 years ago:

So, not a whole lot has changed on the outside except the holly bushes are gone (Tristen was constantly eating the berries off them). We planted flowers that we imported from Holland and they looked okay for about a week once they grew up, but now our flower garden needs some serious help (not on the top of the priority list right now).

In the coming weeks I will be deep cleaning. I really anxious to get rid of some of the kids toys. They have WAY too many and I figure the more I can go through now and get rid of, the less I'll have to worry about in January/February when we get a moving pod. 

Actually, I just put my sofa and lazy boy up on Craigslist today (I've got my eye set on a smaller sofa that is smaller and will make our living room look bigger).

This is what we have now:

Willy loves yogurt and being cute!

 Kalvin went to meet his teachers last week (he has two since there are special needs kids in the class)! There is Mrs. Perini and Ms. Abrams. I laughed as Kalvin was trying to remember their names, "Mrs. Abraham and Mrs. Piranha". He seemed right at home in the classroom. I asked him that evening if he was nervous about going to school and he confidently said, "no". I know he will do great in school and make lots of friends. I feel he is very ready for school and so because of that I think it is a lot easier for me to let him go. I will really miss him while he's away during the day, but I am almost equally as excited for my one on one time with Tristen. I hope to work with him some on his letters, numbers, and colors.

Tell me he's not ready for the big day!

 This is what the boys resort to doing during the day when I'm not watching closely... netflix...

 What's worse than grocery shopping when you're hungry? Grocery shopping when everyone is hungry! I'm pretty sure that on days like this it's cheaper to eat some fast food before shopping...

(Can you see Tristen hiding?)

 Who says sour cream and graham crackers don't go together.

 Mommy is mean sometimes... he clearly didn't want to wear these and I wanted a picture with them on.

 We went on a great hike with the kids: Indian Ladder Trail. It's about a 20 minute scenic drive, is a very easy hike, and neat things for the kids to see like caves, creepy spiders and more. I took engagement pictures here about 2 years ago and I should have come back with the kids a long time ago. We have plans of going again in the coming weeks with a friend for FHE.
Kalvin thought he could hike with Liam. That lasted about 5 seconds. 

We went like 15 feet inside the small cave. The boys loved it! It was pitch black hens the funny faces (well, Kalvin probably would have posed the same regardless). 

 An underground creek. The boys were trying to touch the small frogs they found.

 And the most creepy spiders, ever! Their bodies alone were bigger than a quarter! They were just too far away for me to get a close up shot. They were all over in one particular 20 foot stretch of the hike.

And another kind of creepy spider!

 Duane's always had some kind of thing for Captain Morgan and now he's passing it on to Kalvin...

All on his own, Tristen ran up with this small branch of leaves and said, "Here you go mom!". I had to laugh and tell him thank you, but really what do kids think we think about plants? It makes me think of the movie A Bugs Life where the bugs give the ant a pebble because they think "it's an ant thing" and then the ants think "it's a bug thing". I don't know, I just thought it was funny to think about that kids give random plants to their parents because they are trying to show their love and parents accept these sometimes seemingly silly gifts because they are showing their love.

 I'm going to miss when it's not green anymore! I can hardly believe the summer is nearing an end. Our last summer in the beautiful green world! :-(

 On the way out of the state park, we stopped at the lookout point. Beautiful!

Willy crawled about 15 feet on this brick wall. Not really sure where he was going and I don't think he knew where he was going, but he was having fun!

 Duane really wanted to stop by a mom and pop ice cream shop. I was craving a slushy (I have never seen slushy's out here...) so I took a few licks of the boys ice cream. The boys got pretzel cones. Different and neither one of them ate the cones because they had so much salt on them. I wasn't too fond of the pretzel cone either.

 Messy boys..

Scary!

 I can hardly believe that September is upon us! Just that much closer to the winter when we will put our house up for sale (well, end of Feb. or early March), but very cold none the less.