We have had a fun
week and a half watching Cameron and Ashley High’s 4 kids. Ashley has been a
friend for a long time! They used to live in our ward several years ago, and I
often babysat their kids, so we know them well! We watched 3 boys (ages 9, 7,
and 5) and one of their girls (age 3).
She
and her husband went to Maui for 11 days, so we stayed at their house and
watched their kids while they were gone.
We had a great time! There have been lots of fun times and lots of crazy
times with Kason and 4 of her kids. Kolt and I have learned a lot about having
kids and parenting.
During the first
week,
the kids were on spring break, so
they were home all day.
We tried hard to
keep them busy! Kolt has had classes, and I have been working on my homework at
nights as well as logging into work and printing checks from their house and running
into work late at nights.
Here’s brief
rundown of our adventures with 5 kids:
Monday—Arrived at
High’s home at 6 AM, unloaded the car and tried to unpack, ordered tickets
early in the morning for the Scotty McCreery concert at BYU-I, Kolt played lots
of basketball with the boys, played Scrabble with the boys, played Memory with
Brooke, corn dogs and grapes for lunch, 2 oldest boys practiced piano, gave up
my plan to keep the house spotless while they were gone J haha, Brooke did my
hair a lot, watched Frozen, raced on the blowup toys at Blast-Off—TIRED!!, made Chicken Noodle Soup and rolls for dinner—YUM!!
Tuesday-Kolt and I
dropped the kids off at their Aunt’s house in the afternoon and headed to Utah for
Kolt’s 1st Villahermosa Mission Reunion at the City Creek Mall. They had a pretty meeting room for us and
there were lots of missionaries there. I
felt blessed to meet many of the missionaries Kolt has told me about as well as
his mission president, who was called to be an Area 70 at General
Conference. Kolt was one of the few
married and the only one with a baby.
Kason was great to meet everyone and fell asleep while we were
there. On the way home, we stopped by my
friend Candace Ross’ home to visit with her and husband and family. I love her so much and am so glad to see her
every time we come down. We often go weeks without talking, but when we are
together, it’s like nothing has changed! We were pretty tired driving home that
night, but we made it!
Wednesday-Kolt went to classes for the day, I picked up kids
early in the morning, kids let me take a short nap—THANK YOU!, went on a bike ride, watched Frozen,
got kids’ meals at McDonald’s and played on the toys, went into work after kids
in bed
Thursday-showers/baths, Kason turned 9-months old, worked a
little in the afternoon, watched Frozen, went to volleyball with the Bonneville
18s to help them practice (I’m getting old!), Aunt Shauna and Grandma watched
Kason for the evening, Kolt stayed with High kids, went and rode horses out at
Piquet’s, kids loved riding the horses, Kolt, the High boys and the Piquet
boys played basketball for hours, kids were tired!!
Friday-Kolt watched
kids while I ran into work to print checks, played Clue, watched Frozen, went
out to Piquet’s to ride horses again, boys couldn’t get enough of it, Aunt
Shauna did Brooke’s hair—SO CUTE!!, Carter played on Grandma Piquet’s phone,
kids had a great time
Saturday-Took the
kids to build a Rio 2 Bird House at Home Depot, kids were great painters, went
to the Annual ISU Spring carnival, kids got LOTS of candy, Brooke won a raffle
prize, played lots of games, watched the afternoon session of General
Conference, played Conference Bingo, kids were quite competitive, Grandma High
came in the evening to give us a little break, moved some stuff home, Kolt went
to Priesthood session with Grandpa Lindley, I stayed home with Kason and Grandma—felt
like I was missing a few kids!, went to Jacob Stucki & Hailey Gneiting’s
reception (Jacob is a longtime Piquet family friend and we graduated from high
school with Hailey), came home and slept great!
Sunday-watched both
sessions of conference, caught up on homework for the week, had breakfast for
lunch with the Lindley’s between sessions, went back to High’s early evening,
ate meatballs and pasta for dinner (Thanks Grandma High!), Kolt studied for a
test this week with a friend in the evening.
Kolt and I really enjoyed watching General Conference. I enjoyed the Women’s Broadcast, and Kolt
shared lots of things with me from the Priesthood Session. We are so grateful
for prophets and modern day revelation. One
of our goals is to be better with Family Home Evening on Monday nights.
Monday-Kids went
back to school—YAY!!!, made lunches, sent kids on bus at 7:25, took Kason and 2
younger kids to Kason’s 9-month appointment, Kason is doing great!!-- (more
details below), stopped at Albertson’s to catch some good sales, kids played
outside lots after doing homework, picked up Arby’s and went to a park for
dinner, kids tired tonight!
Tuesday-lunches, bus, shower/baths, enjoyed a little nap
while kids at school and younger 2 taking naps, kids wanted to open a lemonade
stand after school, kids drank all the lemonade earlier in the week, decided to
open an Apple Juice stand instead, kids made some good money, Kolt watched kids
while I went to the 10 year old volleyball practice with Kason, girls were a
little giggly at practice, but got it together by the end--thank goodness!, ran
into work after everyone was in bed
Wednesday-kids had
early release at school, worked a little today, kids wanted to open up the
Apple Juice stand again, couldn’t find more apple juice, decided to make
freshly squeeze orange juice, accidently added too much water, so they tried
selling candy instead, took the kids to Orange Leaf in the evening, all the
kids loved it, Kason even got a few bites and couldn’t get enough!, kids all
ready to see Mom and Dad!
Thursday-got kids
off to school early, worked a little bit, did a little homework for night
class, kids tried to make lemonade from lemon juice for lemonade stand, did
homework, made welcome home banner for parents, hung it up on the door, Mom and
Dad got home, kids so excited, Kason and I went home and ate dinner before my
night class, Kason went on a walk with Grandpa and fell asleep for the night,
Kolt got home from Pocatello lab late
Looking back through this,
we have done a lot! We are so grateful for the opportunity to do this for
Cameron and Ashley. While it wasn’t all roses, we had lots and lots of
rewarding moments. Kolt and I are much more prepared to have a big family of
our own. We are grateful the High’s let
us stay in their beautiful new home. We
have enjoyed being around those kids a lot because they are such good kids and
have felt weird the last few days, since we’ve been home. It seems like we are
forgetting a child! We are afraid those kids are going to dread seeing us
again, but we hope they won’t mind seeing us again at Cade’s baptism!
Friday I left Kason with Kolt and went to work. We did a lot of shopping in the afternoon and
helped Natalie and Brady move a few things. We are excited for their new home!
We had a great time relaxing today!
On Saturday, I
coached my two 10s teams in the morning and then filled in for another coach in
the afternoon. Kolt took Kason in the morning
while I was running back and forth, and then he brought Kason to me in the
afternoon. I was grateful to have Jeanna’s
help in the morning. I enjoy visiting with her on our breaks. Kolt took Kason out to watch Paisley for a
few hours in the morning. Kason took a
bit of a tumble on Paisley’s walker and was a little weary of standing after
that! In the afternoon, Kolt took his mare out and traded her for a 4-year old
Palomino gelding. He is a nice looking
horse that Kolt is going to work on this summer. It was a great trade for us. We are excited
to see how he progresses. As for now,
his name is Pedro, but I anticipate a name change in the future!
On Sunday I played the organ and Kolt taught the Sunday
school lesson. After our block, Kolt and
I went to Tyler Ayers’ homecoming talk. He did a great job. It was great to see the Howard’s,
Parker, and other friends. In the evening,
we had a little birthday celebration for Nathan and Evan. We gave them both a Cars coloring book with
stickers. I think they though it was
pretty cool! We are so grateful for our family.
It is crazy to see them grow up so fast!
Last, but not least,
here are Kason’s updates: Kason is officially 9-months old! He did
great at his 9-month wellness check. He
weighed 22 lbs 1 oz (85%), 31 ½ inches long (99.98%) and has a 86% head. He had some red goopy eyes before the
appointment and found out he had a little pink eye. Within a day of using the
drops, he was completely healed. We are
pretty lucky he was so happy during all the sickness. He has really
turned the corner these last days. Kason
has learned that life isn’t all about him! Imagine that! He has really been great
about learning that lesson; he is such a happy baby and enjoys just going along
with the flow for the most part. He loves
watching kids and seeing every move they make. He has learned to eat all kinds
of new foods—whatever I was cooking, since I didn’t have time to serve him
anything else! He has started eating a lot! He even stood all by himself for a
few seconds today! Kason really enjoyed going to Blast-Off. This kids loves any kind of sports ball. When I put him in the ball pit, he just
froze. He couldn’t believe there were so many of his favorite things. He went
crazy trying to pick just one to hold. The
biggest news of the week is that Kason has gone to sleep by himself without
crying in his crib for 5 days in a row! He
has even slept almost 9 hours on those nights. That has been a lifesaver for
us! It is so rewarding to see him learn and grow. We are so grateful to have him in our family.
