Houses, Merry-Go-Rounds and Cereal

I love watching homes get built. Something about the before and after really gets me.  I think it all started when my parents would take us to see our own home in Richmond during the building process. Seeing the big hole in the ground, then seeing the framing go up...the plumbing...and on until  it became the home I lived in for the next 15 years. I remember being so jealous of my parents getting to go on a date alone to the house under construction and having Pizza Hut by candlelight on a card table in their future master bedroom. Talk about the ultimate romantic date!

I love the smell of new homes, too.  That new construction smell just makes me so happy.  I used to plan my runs in high school through new neighborhoods so I could walk through them and smell that construction smell.  About a year ago the lot next to us turned into a beautiful home after about 4 months which was the ultimate treat for me because I got to see daily progress. It went up fast. And it went up beautifully. My friend Megan built her house in the neighborhood this past year and there have been a few remodels as well.  I was nosy with them all and would stop by and peek in on the progress. Each neighbor was great and let the neighborhood walk through once everything was complete. It's really great living in a place where people understand my need to see the finished product.

When Kyle and I were taken to the home of some Virginia Friends just a little over a mile of away that was under construction, the bug bit me again. I had to chuckle because I had passed by this home many times already going on runs whenever I got tired of the river trail. Until then I had no idea I knew the people who were building it.  This was a really fun home to watch.

One evening, after being particularly forgetful and arriving to my dear friend Jennie's bridal shower an entire DAY late (yes, you read that correctly), I found myself with a little extra time. The House was not far from the bridal shower, so I decided to check up on the progress. I walked around the outside and admitted to myself I was really curious about the basement and what Sister W. had planned for it. The lighting, the fixtures, the storage and cabinetry...and the carpet. I was really interested in the carpet. I'm in the market for carpet so I've been paying extra attention to that lately.

Down the hill I walked to peak into the basement. I noticed a man who looked to be enjoying his retirement years walking down the path to their home and I waved. He smiled and approached me, "You know the W's?" he asked.  Startled and not expecting to meet someone else who knew them, I laughed and said, "Why yes I do! Apparently you do, too!"  We had fun connecting the dots about when and how we knew the family and then I asked the man what he did.

"You ever heard of that crazy guy who builds merry-go-rounds to generate electricity in Africa?"

I actually did. I saw a special on it in between conference sessions a session or two (or three?) ago.

"Well, that's me! You should bring your kids over to my garage sometime. I keep a merry-go-round in it."I instantly thought of Cade who is wild about inventions and science and discovery and knew he'd be all over it.  He gave me his card and we exchanged goodbyes.  After a few tries of getting our schedules to mesh between vacations, going out of towns, etc, we finally found that today actually worked!

Talk about the best FHE activity ever. I was so sad that I didn't get pictures. No camera-- not even my phone-- it was dead. But boy the kids had fun pushing it to see how many watts of electricity they could get up to. {For the record, with Cade pushing it was 80. When I was pushing I got it up to 150. I'm not bragging or anything.} For the first 5 minutes of the fun Ruby kept whining and I couldn't figure out why. She wouldn't sit on it to ride, or stand and hold on. Finally when Brother Markum was explaining something to the kids, we noticed Ruby had started pushing it. Oohhh! That's what she wanted to do. She LOVED pushing it.

Brother Markum was really great at explaining to the kids at their level how the merry-go-round worked and the other ideas that he and the students and BYU had tried out.  He was really kind to listen to Cade and his invention ideas, too. He gave the kids photo-something beads that change color in the sun (they LOVED that).

It's really inspiring meeting someone who saw a need and then met it. It all started on his mission to Africa. Brother Markum noticed two key things the schools were missing: Fun and Light. So he came up with the ingenious idea of letting the kids play to get them light so they could go home and study. It is apparent that this man loves  the people of Africa so much. In fact, he was working on a science experiment when we arrived. He was using solar attracting material on his driveway to try and heat water to 180*-- a way to make safe drinking water for the Africans.

I was chuckling to myself that it just goes to show that you never know what can happen as a result of random choices-- I never thought that missing Jennie's shower and house-stalking would lead to my kids getting to meet a "Real Life Inventor" as Cade called it, and their very own test tide on the invention. But I am very glad we did. It was an evening of awesomeness.

Once we got home I was spent-- that 1.7 miles of driving really took its toll on me. (Or perhaps it was the entire day of oppressive heat that finally got to me?) Nothing sounded very good for dinner and before I could even ask out loud, "Kids, what sounds good for dinner?" Sweet Savannah announced she was making dinner.

Curious, I took her up on it and in five minutes she had it ready: Two pyrex bowls -- one filled with Life and the other Honey nut cheerios, and a carton of milk. She set the table with bowls and spoons and beckoned us to the dinner table.

Yes, we had cereal for dinner.

I'd say it was an awesome day.

Aaaaand just when we thought the day was over, Melody and Jon and the kids stopped by for a  impromptu swimming session for 15 minutes as their FHE activity. Naturally my kids had to join in, so if was a fun way to end the evening.

Now for the ultimate laugh-- we had a closing prayer and song in our family room with  Melody's family. Savannah asked Luke to pick the closing song.  He answered, "Dat song dat Tyluh likes." And what song was that? "Tell Me Why" by David Aruchuletta.

Unfortunately none of us knew the words to the song, because otherwise we would have totally sung it. Luke was totally devastated that we instead sang "I Am a Child of God."

Can you blame the kid?

{To learn more about Ben Markum's merry-go-round, watch this brief video. If you are not inspired, your heart is a cold, black rock and you need some anti-Grinchy-Scrooge therapy. Just saying.}

Cade, Our Renaissance Boy

Being the firstborn and the eldest grandchild, I think sometimes Cade gets unintentional special treatment. Translation: he's the only grandchild old enough to participate in a piano recital, therefore my siblings and my parents are supportive and come. They are not yet burnt out of recitals, blessings, baptisms, soccer and t-ball games (not saying one can get burnt out of blessings and baptisms-- but suffice it to say, those things all require time and energy to support.)  I just hope a few years down the road he's happy with just me the girls and myself attending.

For his first recital, it was pretty cute. He played the Indian Dance -- which of course I loved the first dozen times he played it. Then it kind of became a bit...um, repetive. But it was still cute because I was blown away by how far he had come in the last 4.5 months of lessons. I told myself that each time I heard myself subconsciously humming the song while cleaning the house.

The Woodbury/Sheppard/Mann family took up two rows in the Summerhays Music hall in Orem. Cade was first on the program and his teacher told me at least 3 times to make sure not to be late because he was first.  I wondered if she was privy to any other areas of my life that would help her determine my struggle with punctuality (for inquiring minds, I'm currently in my 22nd year of trying to be a more timely person)...or if she had just had experience with the first performer being late before. Because, you see, while I struggle with punctuality in many areas of my life, piano lessons is not one of them. His teacher lives so close, we walk to lessons and Cade is very aware of time so he is on time.  I had him run through his song a few more times before we left-- just to be sure, you know?

Here is Cade practicing "just one more time" at our awesome "piano."

Meanwhile Ruby and Savvy are working on some very important art creations (and wearing matching shirts that say My Mom is Awesome-- shirts I had gotten for myself them for Mother's Day and perhaps I was feeling a little insecure).

We arrived early and were able to snag the front row-- nice for video-taping, but bad for taking an energetic and squawky 19-month old out of the room in the middle of someone else's performance.  

Also good for getting a pre-recital shot of Cade in front of the Grand Piano.

It was so sweet to glance down the row at my family who came to support him. PS Bailey was amazing and sat still and quiet the ENTIRE hour. Amazing. I can not say the same for Ruby.

Some of my favorite moments:

• Cade's look of confusion when striking the first keys and then his sweet teacher scooting him up the scale.  Oh the woes of practicing on a keyboard!
• His legs swinging a the bench. I know before long his feet will hit the floor, but for now I will treasure his "little-ness" and love that they swing.
• Cade standing and looking at the audience after playing his piece-- totally refusing to bow and trying so very hard not smile. 
• Leaving his music at the piano. I know he was embarrassed about it, but I found it so adorable.

As promised, Kyle-- here is the video. Enjoy!

We ended the evening at Panda Express for a celebratory dinner. My mom chuckled and thought my sister Rebecca had bribed him into eating there. Turns out it's one of her favorite places to eat. One more reason for Cade to be convinced that Auntie Rebecca is perfect.

Around the same time Cade's soccer season wrapped up. His final game was uncharacteristically cold. As in FREEZING. Cade was sweet enough to share his jacket with Ruby:

She kept wanting to run onto the field, though. I definitely got an awesome bicep/abs workout that day.

Despite the chilly, windy weather it was an awesome game for Cade. He scored somewhere between 7 and 11 times (the joys of no-goalie soccer and playing on a field the size of a ping-pong table. Next season it will be much, much different!) and was pretty pleased with his performance.

 Cade and his awesome buddy Caleb proudly sporting their medals {yes, that every single child got--whatever though, because he thought it was awesome.} They are great friends. Caleb is moving to Sandy this summer and we are sad as can be about it. 

Caleb's little sister was sweet to snuggle Savvy and keep her warm....

...as well as Ruby, whenever she decided she was going to sit still for a second.  This happened about 8 or 9 times. Kelsey was so patient and let Ruby snuggle in every time without a complaint.

 Lest your hearts be troubled that soccer and piano have taken a break for the summer, Cade is still waxing strong in talent. Today he VOLUNTARILY changed Ruby's dirty diaper. He did a great job, too. And after he told me about it he said, "Mom, all I need to do to be a babysitter is grow up, huh?"


What a cutie. Yes, Cade, that's all you need to do. But please don't do it too fast.

Savvy's locks

...are no more!

I told her the other day we needed to trim her hair. Then she looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, "Mom, can you cut my hair to look like yours?"

This, coming from the girl who has agonized for years that she doesn't have long, thick locks of hair like many of her peers, shocked me.

And melted my heart.

Of course dear. Anything for you!

BEFORE

AFTER!

I was chuckling to myself while trimming Savvy's locks because I was remembering the time my freshman year hall-mate Denise had me cut her hair. Somehow word got through the hall that I cut hair. Except I really didn't. I mean, I could trim my bangs. But that was it.  See, this girl down the hall named Barbie was having her roomie Estee cut her hair. Estee didn't cut hair. Like at all. Not even bangs.  So then there was panic because Estee didn't want to finish the job. So they called me over and I just finished the trim. Everyone liked Barbie's new 'do and so Barbie would say, "Thanks! Estee and Michelle did it." And so that's how people started calling me to cut their hair.  Most of the time I'd turn them down, but for whatever reason, I obliged Denise because even after telling her over and over "I don't cut hair. I'll ruin your hair!" she still thought it would be great for me to take scissors to her locks.

She wanted layers. Layers. I cringe now thinking about:
1. how long it took me to cut her hair. Easily until 3 in the morning.
2. how I had NO idea how to blend.
3. how horrified she must have been when she finally went home-home (this was the night before we were going home for the summer) and had a good night's sleep to wake up and realize, nope, Michelle Sheppard did not know how to cut hair.

I never heard what happened. I hope she went to a real stylist ASAP and got it fixed is all I can say.

But then for some reason the next year for my college ward service auction I gave a free hair cut away. Seriously. Like I hadn't learned my lesson?   I didn't even have good scissors. Much less any more learning to cut hair.

So bless Liz's heart for agreeing to get a trim. She just wanted a trim with a little tapering on the sides. In the middle of finals. It took me like 3 hours to do. {cringe}

I really retired my scissors after that. I mean, even when Kyle and I got married, he always looked for anyone BUT me to cut his hair. I can't lie that it kind of bugged me. But at the same time I couldn't blame him.

I've had two great guinea pigs since, and they don't know any different. Cade lets me cut his hair, and Savvy does, too.

I'll kind of miss getting to do pig tails for Savvy's hair.  It looked so cute!

Finally, a Fun Friday.

Today (or yesterday, rather) was a great summer day.  I like to dub Fridays as "Fun Friday" but I often fail to really put the "fun" in it. I repented of that and I think the day turned out nicely.

The day started off sometime around 7:30 am -- for which I was very grateful. Sometimes my kids can be verrrrry early risers. I just get cranky if they rise any time before 7am. 6:58 is not okay with me. I can handle 7:03. I like feeling in charge of the day and when they are up early, I don't feel like I'm in charge. The rest of the day just seems to follow suit.

The kids were rather playful this morning after breakfast which was great, but made me a little nervous. They have a list of things they have to get done before the fun can start, and I was worried they were not going to want to stop playing{that is another post for another day. Suffice it to say, the little summer routine I've created for them is working out better than I thought. Granted, it has been only a week, so that is bound to change after a few weeks. So far so good though!}.  And, sometimes I don't want them to stop playing because I think it's cute-- and that's how summer should be, too. Full of free, creative play.  And I love it when they are all playing together and getting along.

Finally I announced that I was going to swim my laps, so they needed to "babysit" (they get a thrill out of that, because it makes them feel so grown up).  Savvy was so cute and just hung out by the pool cheering for me while Cade and Ru played inside. Who wouldn't love having a brown-eyed girl hollering, "You're doing great, Mom!" It definitely makes the lap swimming go by a lot faster.

After a few laps Cade hollered out to me, "Mom, can I give Ruby a bath?"

Um yes, please. !!!!

I thought it was adorable. He even put her diaper on and picked out her clothes and dressed her and combed her hair. The boy is amazing. I didn't even know he was capable of this.

I got ready for the day and then made the announcement that if their things weren't done by 11am, they weren't going to get paid for the week for their chores AND I wasn't going to get a babysitter to watch Ruby during her nap so we could have fun.  That was enough motivation and off they went.

Our awesome neighbor girl down the street was available to babysit so after lunch and putting Ruby down for a nap Savvy, Cade and I were off!

The kids bought their movie treats with their own money (rather, Cade spotted Savvy a dollar because she forgot her wallet. She promised to pay him back as soon as he got home). Savvy got Skittles and Cade got Swedish fish. We saw the movie Chimpanzee, a really darling documentary-style flick. We all enjoyed it.  I so appreciate when I can take the kids to such a family-friendly and educational flick.  As we were walking out of the theater Cade and Savvy simultaneously asked for ONE more movie treat.  I shocked even myself and decided to let them. I explained to them I didn't think more sugar was going to be good for their bodies, but it was their choice so long as they bought it with their own money. Of course they were fine with that.

There's this incredible park I drive by whenever I go to the Timpanogas Temple. I always think, "I should take the kids here," but I rarely make it out that way. Finally we were "out that way" and I had the luxury of time so we pulled up. The first thing Cade said was, "Mom, we should come here and play tennis!"  It made me laugh because the playground itself is pretty cool, but he was mesmerized by the 6 tennis courts for some reason. After they explored the place for a bit we played hide-and-go seek.  It was fun being able to play with just the big kids and not stress about keeping track of Ruby. But man, it was hot as blazes outside though and the kids and I got tuckered out quick.

The next two stops were not fun stops per se, but necessary --because again, we were "out that way" and Cade and Sav were fine with it. It's really interesting to me how the dynamics change when one of the children are gone and I'd say on this day, they were better behaved with Ruby not in tow. When we returned home nearly 5 hours after leaving, Ruby was fresh from the pool and looked like she had a great time.

After spending so much time in the hot sun, and seeing Ruby in her suit the kids were in the mood to go swimming. I couldn't blame them.  Normally I would have over-analyzed what was left of our evening thinking, "I need to hurry and get dinner on the table and swimming would get them to bed late!" I often stress out too much over bedtime, which I am trying to get better at-- for the summer anyway. There is nothing wrong with sticking to a schedule in the school year, but I do need to loosen up in the summer.  We swam for an hour which was just perfect. They were ready and willing to get their jammies on and play while I made dinner. It was quick and easy tonight--  Grilled Cheese, Brunswick stew, fresh strawberries and raw veggies. Savvy was so proud she finished her soup before Cade. (she's my pickier eater of the two of them and usually grazes on the fruits and veggies and whines over the main course for 20 minutes). We finished the dishes by 7, called Daddy for scripture and prayers and they were all in bed, tuckered out by 7:30.

I chuckled to myself because I have no doubt that had I said "No" to swimming, Cade and Savvy would have been cranky and grumpy the rest of the evening, slow to eat, slow to get their jammies on, and wouldn't have fallen asleep until 9.

I puttered around for a little bit and at 8pm I was really quite thrilled about the prospect of a quiet evening. I got the Ensign out of the mail and took it up to bed with me to read and unwind. I tilted my head back and thought, "Wow, I'm really, really tired!"

The next thing I knew it was 12:03am. I hope I can get back to sleep.

No adorable photos of the day, but I have plenty of mental pictures I hope to remember always:

Cade running away from me after I tagged him. He swore I didn't get him, but I know I did.

Savvy snuggling up to me in the movie theater.

Cade saying "Thanks, Mom." after we walked out of the movie theater.

The kids chatting, chomping on popcorn in the back seat of the van together.

Cade teaching Savvy how to dive for rings in the deep end.

Ruby saying "Again!" to throwing her up in the air and catching her in the water.

It was a good day. Today I saw the fruits of saying "Yes."  As a parent, it's hard, but I know saying yes as often as possible is a good thing. I also want my kids to have healthy eating habits and get enough rest and so I often shut down and dismiss anything I think would jeopardize that in the slightest. That second treat was hard for me at the movie theater.  I don't regret it though.  It was a special occasion, and it didn't spoil their dinner like I so often am convinced a treat will do.  And Cade recognized he didn't feel so great after eating his box of Skittles and even said, "Mom, I think I'm not going to eat any more treats today or tomorrow."  I told him to try and remember how he felt after eating so much junk in one day. At dinner, the first thing he devoured were the fruits and veggies on his plate. Savvy, on the other hand, made no such comment. Skittles and Popcorn are a good combination, apparently.

Here's to more Fun Fridays, and hopefully more of saying "yes."

Cade our little Cub

At 6:30 Tuesday morning I drove Cade to our church down the street for him to meet his AMAZING scout leaders that were waiting take he and his troop up to Cub Scout Day Camp. 

Wait a minute. Back up here. I have a cub scout?!!!

Where did time go?  Kyle's little camping buddy has gone from this...

 
To this!

He LOVES being a cub scout. Kyle has been great to keep him motivated and pass things off. He was really quick to pass off his Wolf -- he did it in less than a week of being a cub.

Here he is waiting in line patiently for his award.

Before he turned 8 they let him go to the Blue and Gold banquet -- which they have to decorate a cake for.

Remember that birthday cake for Kyle?

Well, Cade had the brilliant idea of just using what was left of it for the banquet.

I couldn't deny the brilliance of it.  So we scraped off Daddy's funfetti icing, made vanilla pudding, added a chocolate for an eye, and thus Cade's Amazing PacMan cake was created.

There were lots of awesome cakes.

So back to Tuesday morning.

My son is a scout-- so he was really excited about this being gone all morning from home doing important stuff.

Here he is being asked, "Hey Cade, is this your very first Cub Scout day camp?!"

Members in his troop. They are such great boys. Boston and Cade are definitely cougar fans and got a kick out of wearing the same hat.

He was gone for about 6 hours.  The girls and I had fun together. Among other things, we went to Target....and then got popcorn and a pretzel. 

 
When he returned home, Ruby was napping and Savvy was at BYU. I had my scout all to myself to hear about his day.

For the first time EVER this boy was animated and excited to share all that he got to do at cub scout camp. Usually after something like this I'd get a brief, "It was fun," and MAYBE ---MAYBE one or two descriptive things before he is ready to change the subject or stop talking so he can go play. Instead, I got a very energetic "I got to shoot a b-b gun, a bow and arrow, do an obstacle course, learn about Leave No Trace, make a square knot, and I made this leather star with beads and....."

He went on and on.

I had tears in my eyes. While it seemed like an every day interaction a mother has with her son, it really just hit me. He is growing up! I was trying so hard to just soak in the excitement, the innocence and joy of my little Cade.

I had him empty his pockets...curious about what treasures he found.

Does your boy like to collect treasures? Mine does. I get a little chuckle every time I do the laundry and  forget to empty his pockets. There's always a little "clang, clang, clang" in the washer or dryer from something that he had collected.

The day had worn him out, so he took off his shoes and socks, untucked his shirt and stretched out on the floor of our family room.

{It's been particularly inviting ever since we sold our couch. It's kind of nice having a big space on the floor not occupied by furniture.}

 

then he got tired....

and took a little cat nap.

So sweet.

I love this boy.

Meet the Boy from Idaho

I'm going to tell you a story.

Almost exactly 11 years ago I met a Boy from Idaho who I thought was pretty great.

He was fun. He was adorable. And, he was not full of himself. 

(Rather refreshing if you ask me!)

There were some other irresistible qualities that I found in him soon after meeting him.

While he was holding an impromptu party at his apartment for the singles ward,

being the sly and snoopy girl that I was,  I casually peered around the corner to his bedroom just to nonchalantly see what I could tell about this Boy from Idaho.

Sound creepy? Yes, it does sound creepy. I did not meant to be creepy. And I was just glancing into the doorway (after all, it was open)

It's kind of interesting the things you can tell about a person from their room.

It was apparent that he was tidy and he was a minimalist. 

(His closet door was open and he had all of I think 3 shirts hanging up in his closet)

He had a list of goals posted above his nightstand to remind him about scripture study and prayer. 

His scriptures were out.

He didn't have a pillow. 

Then I glanced in his fridge. 

It was practically empty.

I started to feel sad for this boy. 

How could he sleep without a pillow?

What did he have to eat?

It wasn't long before some things became very apparent about this guy:

1. God came first, above all else.

2. He was a hard worker.

3. He was frugal.

4. He was not a ladies man.

Each of these qualities about him made him even more attractive. 

So I pursued him.

I asked him out.

(quiet, Kyle. I am telling the story here. )

I began making him lunches and giving him leftovers of our family dinners in Tupperware containers. (Mom, I promise he returned all of the containers)

We loaned him our huge family microwave that was at least 26 years old and weighed more than a couch.

I bought him a pillow and a pillowcase.
A Barbie pillowcase, in fact. I thought I had a pretty great sense of humor.

After several encounters with him I sat him down and told him I liked him.

(for some reason he was not picking up on my not-so-subtle hints)

One quality that took a little bit longer to emerge, simply because we weren't often around young kids, was that he was great with young children. 

Of course every girl swoons over a boy who is cute with children.

I was no different.

I swooned.

{this is the Boy from Idaho. 11 years ago.}

And here we are, 11 years later, with 3 little ones of our own and I could not ask for a better father for my children.
He is still tidy.
He does have more than 3 shirts hanging in his closet.
And he is not quite the minimalist I thought he was.
I love him anyway.
God still comes first in his life.
He is still a hard-working man.
And he is still wise with his money.
He is a ladies man in a very different way.
He loves me and our two little ladies very much and he is our favorite person.

I love coming home from doing errands and finding him on the couch with Ruby, reading her yet another story.

He loves taking Savvy out to the hair colleges to get her nails painted.

He loves taking the kids geo-caching.

He is seriously the only one who can draw Cade out of his depths-of-despair funk {and oh, how glum that boy can get!} and can do it over the PHONE for crying out loud.

He has potty-trained both our children.

He was the one who weaned Savannah off her bottle AND pacifier.

He's taught all of our children how to crawl. (sometimes to my dismay)

Yes, he is pretty awesome.

He is a very involved, hands-on father that is SUPER capable.

He has been from the beginning.

It's really great having a husband who you can leave the kids alone with him for an entire week and all will be well. 

{Minus what he has done to, or rather ADDED to the fridge, freezer and pantry. I try very hard to remain calm}

There is never any doubt in my mind that the kids love him.
For example,
on Mother's Day, I received a cute little questionaire that Cade filled out about me.

I think it speaks for itself. :)

Good to know Cade considers me as sweet and smart as his Daddy.
Kyle is a rare gem, that's for sure.

And I love him dearly.
Thank goodness for cameras to capture our memories together...
Here are a number of my fondest memories of Kyle doing what he does best-- being a Daddy
{in no particular order}

Brand new Daddy at the hospital. Wow, we were so young!

Still workin' hard in the bug-boy uniform...

Kyle has been determined to "bring Cade up right" and allow him to "develop" a love for watching sports. This is one of my favorite pics of all time. 

Apparently watching sports can be very exhausting.

Who says babies don't get dropped off by the stork?  Kyle has been there to catch every single one of ours.  

I'll never forget this airplane ride.  I got to sit by myself while he sat with the kids. Not gonna lie. Best air plane ride ever.

Always willing to try one of Savvy's "recipes"
...and always has his phone in hand. Trying to break him of that habit..

Whenever he drove home to visit us after we moved from Chicago, he always managed to find Cade his favorite treat-- Triple powered push pop at a truck stop somewhere in the middle of the country. Cade is pretty thrilled about it if you couldn't tell.

Sav and Kyle in Seattle, Washington. She loves her Daddy!

Father's Day last year. Marshmallows + Graham crackers + chocolate = great way to use the new fire pit he got.

Having a blast driving crazy at Disneyland!

A man on skates. With dinner. Irresistible!

Drinking Root beer with Cade in the mountains and teaching him how to do "Cheers!" Pretty cute.

Carving on a tree.

the kids are mesmerized.

This is a common sight. Sav loves snuggling with her Daddy.

All finished preparing the Halloween tray. 

Cade and Savvy were disappointed they couldn't trick or treat our door.

Kyle teaching Cade for the first time how to properly make and eat a double decker S'more in the mountains.

Wrestle time is anytime Dad is home. This is when we were living in Barb's basement after we sold our house in Chicago. 

Oh I LOVE how curly Savvy's hair would get in the humidity there. So adorable.

2 years later and she still does this!

For Kyle's birthday this year he was out of town. When he returned we made a cake but pretended it was for the Young Women. The kids put on a charade that they were mad that it was for the Young Women and not for us and even had me take away some of their privileges so he wouldn't have a clue the cake was for him.  I've never seen them so excited about a "plan" in their lives. It was pretty adorable. He doesn't like desserts much, but he's okay with a slice of funfetti cake.
So we delivered. 

Believe it or not, this right here was Kyle's favorite part about our getaway to Hawaii this past February:

Perfectly cubed ice cubes.

I mean really, it doesn't take much to make this guy happy!

Wisconsin Dells, Daddy's birthday-- February 2008. You can't tell by the photo, but a matter of 12 hours after this photo was taken we all came down with the flu. Do you remember the flu of 2008? It was a bad one. I couldn't even lift Savvy. Sadly,we passed it on to Melody who came to visit us that week and she had the bug for months after.

A very common sight around here. He's the best story teller. We love Zaks and Sneetches. They are the best ones on the beaches. 

Bonding with Ruby at just a few days old.

watching an apparently hilarious Donald Duck clip on YouTube.

Holding our babes in our future church building --- we didn't even know it at the time. We were just visiting my sister. Who would have thought we'd spend every Sunday in this building just a few years later?

The last two years Kyle has participated in Science Day at Cade's school.

He takes the experiment he presents very seriously.

I lost count how many times he went to Lowe's for supplies.

The experiment was on erosion. Cade asked him if he could tell the class, "I'm Cade's Dad. And I have a secret. Cade likes princesses and pink ponies." He said that last year and Cade's class got a kick out of it. 

Cad loves his dad to tease him in front of his friends. Must be a boy thing??

My handsome boys on Cade's Baptism Day.

All great men. Four generations of them. All in need of some sunglasses.

 Kyle playing with Ruby at the park in Moab, UT.

I think she misses him the very most when he travels during the summers. 

If she so much as hears his voice on speakerphone she shrieks with delight and comes running.

She could say "Hi Daddy! How are ya?" for 2 hours straight and just delight in him saying, "Hi Ruby!" over and over and over again.

Savvy was thrilled as can be that Daddy did this with her...

Nauvoo, Illinois. In front of the property his ancestors owned. I would like to direct your attention to Cade and Savvy's faces. Notice their orange lips? Yes, that was allllll Daddy. I can't remember if it was a bag of Cheetos or a can of Sunkist. Whatever it was, it was all Daddy's doing. And boy do they love him for that.

 Scotty, Kyle and Ruby visiting Gramma's when she was sick. It's a tender thing to watch your husband lose his mother.

 Kyle is really good at multi-tasking. He can listen to music, swim, and keep track of young toddlers all at the same time. Pretty remarkable.

Sav loved his impromptu visits during the busy pest control summers in Chicago.

Cade and Sav loved hanging out with Pops on the Prairie Path in the Fall.

Devils Lake was a ton of fun.

"Boys Only" Boise State Football Game

There's so many qualities about Kyle that make him awesome.

He's silly,

 

super tough,

oh-so-serious, (riiight)

and most of the time just inexplicably "Kyle."

We love him so much.
He is one awesome Daddy!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, KYLE!

We're sad you're sick today. 

Boo.

To make you feel better, Cade built you this just for Father's Day: