Adam's 9th Birthday

Adam is 9 years old today.  His last year in the single digits.  It's fun  to see his growth and maturity increase with each year.  His current stats are:  60 lbs. and 4'6".  He currently is really into anything electronic, reading, Cub Scouts, Pokemon and other Japanese anime.  He is a great son and a very loving, big brother. 

   

We had a birthday party for him on Saturday.  He had 9 friends (and brothers) there.  He wanted a 'video game' party so that's what we had.  We had a Mario Kart cake, presents, and then lots of video games. 

 In attendance were:  l to r from Adam, Kyler Bennett, Kenji Craig, Cole Thompson, Orion Craig, Cyrus Kentner, Koby Bennett, Gavin Kennington and Matt Kennington. 

 I love this photo.  Even though we had asked the boys to sit on the floor in front of Adam, they just couldn't resist being right there while he opened his presents.

 Playing the Wii--Orion Craig (one of Adam's best friends from school), Matt, Adam and Cyrus Kentner (he's been to all of Adam's bday parties in Garden City--that's six parties).

Airhockey was also a popular game to play.  This was the best Santa present.  Everyone enjoys playing this. 

My Blue-Eyed Boys

18 Months

 I'm 10 days behind.  Gavin turned 18 months on the 10th.  This is a very fun age.  His current stats are:

Weight:  24 lbs.

Height:  31 in.

He is 1/2 inch and 1/2 lb. bigger than Matt was at this age.  Adam, however, was two inches taller and a pound heavier.  So I'm thinking Gavin may be more of Matt's size---which is little.  He is our social butterfly-talking to everyone, either saying "hi" or "bye-bye".  He has started putting together 2 and 3 word sentences.  He is obsessed with the vacuum.  He wonders where it's at, if I've used it, etc.  He has literally talked about the vacuum all day.  Which basically is him saying, "vacuum away?", or "vacuum mama?".  It's cute, but after answering those two questions for the 1000th time in a day, it gets a tad old.    He's in a clingy stage right now.  This isn't characteristic of him, so I'm figuring it's simply a phase.  He enjoys playing with trains, saying thank you, sitting at the piano, and getting his own snacks.  He knows where to get a small tupperware bowl and how to get a box of cereal out of the cupboard.  He attemps to pour the cereal himself.  Sometimes it works and other times it's a big mess.  He loves his little, blue bear.  He calls it "bear bear".  It has a pull string on the back that sings a lullaby when pulled.  He is definitely becoming more of a toddler and less of a baby.  

Adam's Music Program

Adam had his Music Program last week.  He wasn't too excited about singing but did enjoy playing the drums.  The theme was "Heroes".  He had hoped for a christmas program, but perhaps, next year. 

He got to stand in the front row--great for us, not so much for him.

Gavin, on the other hand, LOVED the program.  He had fun clapping after every song, and was very pleased to sit in his own chair.  If he wasn't clapping, he was saying 'hi' (repeatedly) to everyone around us. 

Whirlwind 15 Days

Life has been so busy the past 15 days.  I have traveled the last three weeks.  Our first weekend out of town we went to the temple in Denver.  It was a quick overnight trip.  It was really great to go to the temple and also to see all the beautiful trees in Denver.  The following weekend I flew to Salt Lake City for the memorial on my Nanna.  She had died in England the previous month.  For all of those that couldn't attend the funeral there, we had a family memorial in Utah.  It was really nice to see my siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  It was meant to be just an overnight trip, so I could be back for Sunday.  However, my plane in Salt Lake was delayed a few hours so I missed the connecting flight to Garden City.  I ended up staying the night in Denver.  Originally I was supposed to get home Saturday evening at 8pm.  I finally made it home Sunday afternoon at 2pm.  The frustrating thing was we only live five hours from Denver but I spent 24 hours waiting to get home.  I got home, had Halloween the next night, an awards assembly and class party for the boys and then left again Thursday afternoon for Kansas City.  My friends, Amber & Kim, and I headed up there to attend the Time Out for Women conference.  We spent Friday shopping and seeing the Footloose remake (loved it!), Friday evening at the conference and Saturday as well.  We had a great time.  We got home last night at 11:30pm.  Living out here in the boonies makes us immune to driving 6-7 hours to go somewhere.  I don't know how many times I've said, "it's only a six hour drive--no big deal".  I have no out-of-town plans for this weekend.  Thank goodness.  I've got a couple of weeks to recuperate before Thanksgiving break. 

Halloween

I'm finally getting around to posting Halloween photos.  I know I'm a week late but at least I'm doing it.  We were behind on all Halloween festivities this year.  The day before, on Sunday, I had gotten back in town around 3pm.  That afternoon and evening we quickly decorated sugar cookies and carved our pumpkins.  We attempted to carve Star Wars pictures.  Way too complicated for us!  We eventually gave up as the entire face/picture caved in.  We resorted to the standard triangles.  As for costumes, Adam was Ash from Pokemon; Matthew was the Green Lantern, and Gavin was a Jayhawk.  I went and helped at the school for the class parties.  It was fun for me and a bit embarassing for the boys.  We enjoyed trick-or-treating.  Gavin quickly picked up on what to do.  Each door he said, "treat" and then an emphatic "bye-bye".  Too cute!