Kason's First Christmas

We have had an extra special week this Christmas week.  Kason really surprised us this week with learning a new word and opening gifts.  We were both happily surprised at how well he opened gifts on Christmas morning.  He would slowly grip a piece of the paper and rip it off slowly.  Of course, he was then too preoccupied with the paper to continue opening, so we would help him by taking it out of his hands. But he was a great sport, and we were happy to let him take his time opening his gifts. It was definitely one of the highlights of our Christmas.  Kason also has continued to say “Mama” repeatedly this week. He says it more and more often.  We have figured out that he associates this word with wanting something, including sleep or food.  We think he might also really know what he’s saying because he does actually look around for his mom when he says it! His mom might just be a little flattered!  He also does this cute little head turn to Grandpa Lindley all the time.  We think it is his way of saying, “Grandpa, let’s play!”

This week also marked my 2 year anniversary at the Post Register.  I am so grateful for that job.  I am able to work with people I really enjoy being around.  It is a great atmosphere at work.  My co-workers also love Kason.  He is one spoiled baby in the office.  They joke that he will be able to do my job better than me before long.  They are so nice to let me bring him in although I know he is not always very quiet.  I’m also so grateful for its flexibility.  I am able to log in to my computer from home and work from home, but I also have flexible hours at work, so I can go in at odd times of the day—whatever fits my schedule.  I really love my job and hope to be able to stay there for a long time!

We have had a very special Christmas this year spent around our family.  We spent Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning with Grandma & Grandpa Piquet.  We had Beef Stew for dinner and worked on a puzzle that evening and all throughout Christmas day.  Kolt and I both really enjoyed doing the puzzle so much that we have done another one at home since.  We watched the Ultimate Gift, one of Kolt’s favorites.  On Christmas Eve, we also had a visit from Santa Clause (Grandpa Piquet, who does many Santa visits throughout the holidays).  It was fun to have Kason sit on Santa’s lap, and I think Santa enjoyed holding both of his grandbabies.  Kason was a great sport, and I think he have recognized Santa’s voice and also like Santa’s beard!

Kason spent all night Christmas Eve awake! He must’ve been listening for reindeer on the roof! So on Christmas morning, we woke up and opened gifts with the Piquet’s.  We enjoyed watching others open the gifts we picked out for them. We also feel very blessed to have Santa stop by and leave lots of things for us also! Some of the highlights on Christmas morning were Kolt’s new hand gun, Susan’s new wardrobe, and Kason’s new baby recliner! I was excited to surprise Kolt with a frame of the ties he exchanged with his mission companions.  After opening gifts, we then ran back to Lindley’s to Skype with Tyler.  It was so neat to have Tyler meet Kason for the first time over Skype.  Kason gave Tyler a great smile! All of the cousins enjoyed talking to Tyler as well.  Kolt was excited that he could understand much of Tyler’s Italian as well.  He looked very happy and healthy over Skype.  What a blessing it is to talk to our missionaries and “see” that they are doing well! We are so glad he is serving the people of Italy at this time and know he is doing what the Lord would have him do!

After our call with Elder Lindley, we went back to Piquet’s to let Kason open his gifts, since he slept through the first round! Great-Grandpa and Grandma Piquet came to visit also! We had a great day resting and working on the puzzle and also having prime rib for lunch! In the evening we came back to Grandma & Grandpa Lindley’s house.  Some of the highlights were our new TV and Kason’s village mat and quiet book.  Grandma Lindley designed the village mat with some of our favorite family places including both grandparents’ houses and Great-Grandpa Piquet’s harness shop.  She also made a great quiet book that is going to be a lifesaver for church!  All throughout the day, Kolt and I couldn’t stop thinking about how blessed we are to have such great family and feel very fortunate to be a part of them.  We had a yummy dinner with the Lindley’s and Natalie’s family and then ended the evening by watching Ephraim’s Rescue.  It was a great end to our Christmas Day!

Thursday evening we had the Lindley Gift Exchange.  We had ribs for dinner and then exchanged gifts afterwards.  I always enjoy being with my siblings and feel like we grow closer each and every time we get together.  We have great visits, and the cousins sure enjoy playing with each other. 

 

Friday afternoon we went began our trip to Utah.  We started by driving down to Logan and eating dinner at Winger’s.  Winger’s is my favorite restaurant and the one in Idaho Falls closed down! We had a great dinner, and I made a point to eat more than I wanted because I missed it! Kolt and I had a great visit during the drive and during dinner.  We really enjoy talking, and I feel like we learn more about each other all the time.  After dinner, we went to Chris Ransom’s sister’s wedding reception.  We enjoyed seeing the Ransom family and talking with Chris.  Kason was a great sport for most of the reception, but got pretty ready for bed around the end.  Chris is one of Kolt’s best friends, so we love any chance we have to come to Logan and see him.  After the reception, we stayed at Grandma Lindley’s home in Logan.  We watched the BYU game and visited until late.  I sure love my Grandma and am very glad that we get to see her as much as we do.  I look up to her in many ways and am always uplifted by her positive outlook on life.  I find myself wanting to get her advice on my aspects of my life, so it is good to visit her and learn from her example and her Spirit.

On Saturday we attended the Lindley Christmas Party at Scott & Teresa’s home.  We had lunch and then did a gift exchange.  I enjoyed visiting with my cousins, including some who I don’t see very often. Kason has a few second cousins who are close in age. He wanted so badly to be able to crawl around with Blake and Jack who are just a few months older than him.  It is amazing how quickly the family has grown and there is now quite a few young kids and babies in the family.  Families are a great blessing!

After the party, we drove down to Temple Square to meet Candace & Justin Ross.  We walked around Temple Square with my parents before they arrived.  Kason stayed warm in the bundle of blankets and fell asleep as we walked.  It was Kolt and Kason’s first time seeing the lights at Temple Square.  We were both amazed at how many lights they put on a single tree down there.  It is amazing and very beautiful! We walked over to City Creek Mall afterwards for a few minutes until Candace and Justin arrived.  They took us back to our car and then we drove over to Iggy’s for dinner.  I’m not sure even what I ate or who the waitress was because Candace and I just talked and talked.  We sure miss them and loved catching up and remembering memories from WWCC.  It was great to have Kason meet Candace too for the first time.  I am kicking myself for forgetting to take pictures, but of course, we had too much talking to do!

After dinner, we drove down to Springville to go to Magelby’s for dessert.  One of Kolt’s mission companions, Dylan Parkinson, was working that night, so we hit dessert later in the evening, so he would have time to visit.  Kolt loved catching up with Dylan and finding out what happened in the field after he left.  It is fun for me to visit the companions and listen to how life was in the field.  While we were there, Dylan told Kolt that a member family from his mission moved to Provo 15 days ago.  He sent an extra dessert home with us, so we could take it to this family.  We were a little worried showing up at their house at 10 PM, but Kolt assured me they would be glad to see us.  I was amazed at their kindness and generosity.  They were excited to see us to say the least.  They were so sweet and giving and can’t wait to see us again.  They seem to be adjusting well and are busy with school and work.  Kason absolutely loved them and smiled the whole time.  He loved playing with their sweet kids.  You could feel the Spirit so strong in this family’s home.  I felt a little silly not being able to understand the Spanish; however, I understood most of what Kolt said in Spanish, but couldn’t understand their Spanish.  We are excited to visit them again!

We stayed the evening at Corey and Janis’ home in Orem and then headed down to Elberta, Utah with my mom for my cousin, Sarah Hiatt’s mission farewell.  She did a great job speaking and will be a great missionary in Canada.  We enjoyed catching up with the Hiatt family; Kolt hadn’t met many of my Hiatt cousins yet, so it was good to visit and have brunch at their home.  

We are so grateful for wonderful friends and family.  We feel very blessed to be a part of such great families and to have such neat friends.  They bless our lives continually.  We are excited to start the new year. Happy 2014!

Kason's Famous!!

Kason is growing and growing.  As we were delivering gifts one night this week, our neighbor held him and said that he must have lead in his behind.  He is a pretty solid baby! He is eating lots of rice cereal and has been doing well with sweet potatoes this week.  He is growing into 12 month clothes. They seem like they will be huge when you look at the clothes, but they fit just right.  He is getting vocal and likes to talk.  He is still trying to crawl, but just rocks on his hands and knees and then flops in different directions.  He started sitting in a highchair this week that sits on the table.  I think he appreciates us not squishing him chunky legs in that little bumbo! He is a great kisser—likes to grab mommy’s face with both hands and kiss it (and sometimes he prefers pinching your neck and then kissing you which doesn’t make his mom happy!) He loves grabbing hair too! Kason seems to be teething as he likes to gnaw on your fingers and other teething toys; Tylenol is our best friend! He learned a new little quirk this week—he now turns his head to the side to look at things.  Grandpa Lindley teases him by turning his head to the side to look at Kason, and Kason loves doing it back at him.  We have been thinking that might be his way of saying he wants to go to someone or get out of a chair or something.  It is pretty darn cute, and we laugh at Kason and Grandpa a lot! 

We have had a great week this week, finishing school and finally getting things done that we have been wanting to do! The big news of the week is that Kason is famous.  He is going to be on the Post Register Born in 2013 Baby Parade magazine flyer and on the cover, coming in March.  His mom is pretty proud.  They picked one of Kason’s picture to go on the flyer that will be distributed to many businesses and inserted in every newspaper.  We think that is pretty cool!

On Monday my mom and I went visiting teaching to our sisters and delivered some dipped pretzels and other goodies.  I sure enjoy this time of year, and it was nice to teach about the birth of our Savior.  Kolt finished his last finals on Monday.  I finished my last finals on Thursday and Tuesday.  I am excited to be done and really nervous about one of my finals.  I am crossing my fingers that I did well on my Accounting final!

We spent a lot of time this week finishing Christmas shopping, delivering neighborhood gifts, and wrapping presents.  On Wednesday, I had my Office Christmas party.  We did our annual Christmas gift exchange and ate some great food! We even had enough to have it for lunch the rest of the week! At the gift exchange, I got a popcorn bowl, popcorn and a movie! We are looking forward to a movie night!

Kolt has been riding his horses all week.  JJ is doing great with his first rides.  Nathan even got to ride JJ this week which he was thrilled about.  Dev (the new horse) has been improving in her ground work.  Kolt is realizing how lucky he is to have JJ, with such a quiet disposition, where Dev is a little more anxious. 

We also spent a couple nights this week going to Brand’s basketball tryouts and practices.  We are beyond excited for his games this season.  We have missed watching basketball games and looking forward to watching him play basketball at Rocky Mountain Middle School.

Kolt and I set a goal this holiday season to get back to pre-baby weight.  Yeah, not a great time of year to set that goal, but it’s when we have the most time!  We have done P90X the past 3 nights and are a little sore, to say the least.  It has been feeling good to finally get going after having Kason.

On Saturday we spent some time redecorating the living room. We almost finished it all except we need one more 5X7 frame on the bottom.  Over the years, I have collected a lot of frames, and lots of black frames.  I painted some additional ones black and decided to make a wall collage that I saw on Pinterest.  I love it! I just need to get a few more recent pictures, but I just love looking and seeing our life on the wall.  We had lunch at Scotty’s. Then we came home and decided to ruin our Christmas, and mount our new TV in our bedroom. We love it!

Sunday we went out to Milo for church at 11 to listen Rope sing in Sacrament Meeting and attend Brand’s advancement to a teacher. We hurried back to our ward at 1 to play the organ and teach Sunday school. We were very excited to listen to Tanner Roberts report his mission. After church we lent our computer to a family in our ward who was talking to their daughter who is serving a mission in the Philippines. 

We are really excited to talk to Tyler in Italy on Christmas day. We are grateful for this time of year to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and we are excited to start Christmas traditions with our new family.

On the Homestretch

Kason is growing at lot at the 5 month stage! He is starting to sleep better at nights.  We have had 3 9-5 nights in a row, thanks to a little delay in responding to his fussiness and lots of bananas and rice cereal! He sure seems like he is close to crawling because he always rolls to his belly and then gets on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth until he lunges forward.  He rocks just like that when he sits on your lap now and likes to be moving! He also loves to bridge on his toes and hands and slides backwards on his head. No wonder he is balding so much!! He is still vocal and loves to jabber.  He loves riding in the car and still always falls asleep in the car.  We haven’t progressed much on food, but we are okay with that as he is definitely growing and still very happy! He officially doesn’t sit on my lap when I play the piano like he used.  He is very intrigued with my hands and loves to grab them when I am playing! He is also a great kisser and often grabs your cheeks and slobbers all over your mouth! It is pretty cute!

We are almost done with school! We have been finishing the last of our projects and papers.  Kolt and I have both taken about half of our finals this week.  Kolt reached his goal this semester of getting 100% on one of his exams.  He got 100% of the last exam in his Anatomy and Physiology class.   He is a great student and is expecting A’s in his five classes.  I have 2 more exams this week including a difficult main accounting class.  I am not quite the “studier” Kolt is, but I’m okay with that! Being a mom is much more fun, and I’m very lucky to have great classmates this semester who help me all the time! I am so grateful for all of the many people who have helped us with Kason this semester especially my mom and my mother-in-law who watched in regularly each week! It is so nice to have family close by and know that Kason is taken care of.  I am looking forward to my last semester of classes which is all online!

Tuesday evening I accompanied a lady in our ward sing with her 2 sisters in her sister’s ward in Ammon.  We only practiced 15 minutes before. They are very talented singers and sounded beautiful.  I told Kolt in my next life, I would love to be able to sing on the spot like that.  After I got home, Kolt went to go play basketball with Brand at the Milo building.  He has been playing basketball with Brand early in the mornings to work on individuals and then playing at the church when the ward gets together.  Brand has 8^th grade basketball tryouts today, and we are excited for him to play basketball this year!

Kolt put together an ISU LDSSA Appreciation Lunch for the custodians at the ISU University Place campus.  He has been planning this event for weeks including arranging food and scheduling a room.  It went really smoothly and his wife is still very impressed that he “planned” all it so well all by himself! He ordered the perfect amount of food and the custodians were very happy.  One of the men there actually told Kolt it was the first time anyone had done something like that since he’d gotten there 13 years ago.  Kolt definitely felt good about that!

Saturday we spent the day doing laundry and watching Brand’s basketball games.  He won them both pretty easily and some scored some big points.  On Saturday morning we also got a new horse.  A family in our neighborhood gave Kolt a horse they needed to get rid of immediately. She is a 3-year old sorrel filly.  She will be APHA registered very shortly.  She doesn’t have a name at the moment, but she is a sweet thing and seems to like JJ too.  Kolt is going to busy during the break riding both of these horses and getting them ready to be sold in the spring.  

Sunday we sang two choir numbers in Sacrament Meeting.  I played the piano for the choir and played the organ.  It was a busy Sunday, but I love doing it.  Grandpa Lindley got to hold Kason up on the stand while we sang.  He was pretty hungry by the end, and Grandpa was a good sport! I took a turn teaching the Sunday school lesson.  We learned about serving more effectively in the church.  Each of the kids read a talk by President Monson and then took a turn teaching us about a quote in the talk, sharing an example, and bearing their testimonies.  We have tried to help the kids learn to teach this year, and it is really rewarding to listen to them at the end of the year and see how far they have come.  I even had Christmas Tree Rice Krispies for them when they finished.  

After church we went out to celebrate Brand’s 14^th birthday! We had yummy ham and potatoes for dinner and then had red velvet cake for dessert! We gave Brand an ISU t-shirt and water bottle with a gift certificate to go to an ISU Men’s Basketball game with us over the break.  We are excited to take him to a college game, and I think he is excited too! After the party, Kolt took Mint Brownies to his home teaching families, and I dipped pretzels for my visiting teaching sisters.  It was a good and busy Sunday!