Kaylene’s Mommy Thoughts

Maybe tomorrow.  LOL!

I’ve finally gone through them and got them ready!  Yay!  I had them ready since Thursday (so if you’ve seen these on facebook, sorry for the repeat), but was waiting on Kevin to have some free time he was willing to donate to my cause since I keep forgetting how to publish photo’s by myself, maybe I should have Kevin write me a tutorial, LOL!

There are three separate sets, the ones I took, the ones Kevin took, and the ones Michael took.  Here’s our Lake Texana Trip.  (for some reason Firefox is being a beast, so if the last link doesn’t work, please try the individual links)

Oh, and I also got up the photo’s from Joey’s blessing back in March.  I’ve had them up for a while but don’t think I ever posted a link…. Sorry!

Edited, 7-22-08, I moved this back a couple hours so people could see it past the other long submission. I just love to share my pics, LOL!  Oh and there’s more big news today, I hope I get time to blog it! 

I know this wonderful woman, she’s kind, and loving and always interested in everyone in the best way, I’ve never heard an utter of gossip from her.  She’s never hesitates to call out to you as you pass her and give kind words, or stop as she drives by your home to chat for a little bit.  She usually has a stunning smile or a compassionate hug.  I can’t begin to give this daughter of our Heavenly Father the credit she deserves.  She’s a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother, and not just to those in her family tree.

This woman is Sister Harrison.  She lives in the ward that my parents and in-laws share and is a wonderful friend to both my Mother and Mother-in-law.

And, she’s dying.  She’s leaving this Earth to go and be with our Father in Heaven and brother Jesus Christ.  She is on her last battle in a long fight against breast cancer.  She’s leaving behind some married children and some younger ones, the youngest only 12 and one of my little brothers best friends.

I’m heartbroken, Mama’s and babies shouldn’t have to be separate, and this world is not going to be as wonderful without her sweet spirit in it.  My Poor Mama and Mother in law, I love you two so much and I’m so sad to see you lose such a sweet loving friend, for now.

Sister Harrison was a Young Womens adviser along with my Mother-in-law when I was 16 years old. I occasionally cared for her two youngest children and her mother, who lived in her basement, when her other children were busy.  I’ll miss her sweet personal chats when I visit that old ward.  She was one of the people most excited for Kevin and I as our romance blossomed and we decided to get married, and she cheered us on through our courtship.  She bought me the shiny chrome canisters I registered for as wedding gifts.

My great grandmother lost this same fight close to 50 years ago (Grandpa Jay’s Mom for those cousins), and right now my Aunt Jeni is fighting her fight against this same disease.

Today in church we had an interesting lesson.  I missed much of it as I was bouncing my sweet baby boy, and trying to keep him from fussing, but the story of Joseph and Emma Smith, and their first 5 children was told.

They lost their first born hours after birth, then Emma carried twins, but at birth they passed away.  Nearby, another Mother gave birth to healthy twins after 5 other children, and then passed away.  The twins needed milk, and Emma had it, plus the father of the twins didn’t know how he could ever care for the additional babies and deal with the loss of his wife, and so Joseph and Emma adopted these children. 11 months later a Mob of angry men who didn’t like what Joseph was doing, came and dragged him out into the night to tar and feather him.  The draft from the open door lead to the death of one of their adopted twins.  So of their first 5 children, they only had one living.

How could they cope?  How could they keep going and stay the course???  Suddenly it hit me, it hit me hard, and even though the lesson kept moving, and the teacher was leading the lesson in a different direction I HAD to speak up.

Finally I was able to get a word in edgewise, and I said something to the effect of, when things get tough and we can’t understand the only real way to get through is to cling to the Lord.  That is the side that will get us through and bring us peace, he loves us so much and doesn’t want to see us suffer, but that’s the nature of life.  We can choose to be angry and hurt, or we can bring it to the Lord and let him give us peace and feel of his love for us. I hope I said it in a way that someone who needed to hear what my heart was screaming inside me would hear.

There’s a sweet wonderful sister in my ward who’s just gone through this, she had to place her son in Heavenly Fathers arms and let him go for now, and she’s been such a wonderful example to me and so many other people.  I hope she feels his love and can feel at least a little peace.  If you’re her, and you reading this, thank-you for your example.  Thank-you for your love and sharing your precious son with us and letting us give him a little love.  I hope you feel the love from us, and our thoughts and prayers are helping at least a little.

Anyways, I think this is long enough, but I just want to remind people, please hold your families near, treat them a little more gently, hug them a little longer, take a moment to hold your sleeping child and watch him breath.  And please take care of yourself.

I have been tagged by my friend Rae. So this is my list.

I would like to tag anyone who’s interested, since I know some people don’t like to be tagged.

20 years ago:

* I was 6 and heading for the 1st grade, Mrs. Ball’s class. She was pretty neat!
* Was diagnosed with ADHD, a categorization that still bothers me.
* Had lived in North Logan, Utah for about a year and was enjoying doting on my almost one year old baby brother Nathan.

10 years ago:

* We moved from the Home in North Logan that I’d grown up in and moved to American Fork, Utah.
* I had my first love and subsequent heart break.
* I missed meeting my husband by less than a week as he left on his mission and we moved in (we view this as a good thing).

5 years ago:

* Michael had just turned one.
*We’d just moved to Texas and I was starting to put aside my homesickness.
* I enjoyed a few too many talk shows, news and soap opera’s to pass my time stuck at home.

3 years ago:

* We moved from the suburbs into the city.
* I took the boys to Disneyland with my side of the family while Kevin stayed home working.
* I was WAY hooked on my online forum.

1 year ago:

* I got pregnant with our third boy.
* Kevin and I went through our worst patch yet.
* Michael started all day Kindergarten, crazy days!

This year so far:

* I had my baby, and couldn’t imagine a day without him.
* I’ve taken a much more relaxed view on life.
* Kevin surprised me with my new camera and I’ve REALLY been enjoying it.

Yesterday I:

* Stayed up till 2:30 AM because I just couldn’t possibly go to sleep.
* Watched Enchanted for the first time.
* Went Grocery shopping, and spent almost 2X as much as normal.  I can’t beleive how I’ve got the stocking up bug.

Today I will:

* Go to church.
* Try and get a family picture since my Mom’s been begging for one for I don’t know how long.
* Probably need a nap like nobodies business.

Tomorrow I will:

* Run Kevin to work.
* Pull out my Camera and try to get some unique shots.
* Try to do something fun and sporatic with the boys to combat summer boredom.

In the next year I will:

* Go camping a whole lot more.
* Concentrate on taking my photography business farther.
* Make sure each of my boys knows I love him very much and know he’s very special to me.

This must just check the first page and not the whole thing…  I don’t think I cuss, but I have covered some iffy topics.  I think…

Created by OnePlusYou

Good thing, I guess, my boys accounts both link to my blog.

When Grandpa comes, hooray!

Grandpa spent lots of time with the boys and read them several books.  I think they really enjoyed having him here.

Hahaha, looking back over these photo’s, I think either I’ve just resigned to the chaos, or my memory tricks me into thinking things were more calm than they were…

Grandpa reading to Mike and Joe.

Hi Mommy!!!

The closest I got to a group picture of all the boys and their grandpa together.

Well, one of the closest…

At least Joey was listening.

Well, and Aiden, but only on his terms.

And Michael decided to read on his own.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the new books!!!!

I was at church sitting with my friend Laura S. in Sunday School before it started, and we were chatting, next to me sat this guy I knew about because I knew his family, but he’d been gone ever since I’d moved to the area, and this was our first meeting.  He sat there legs crossed, shoulders hunched slightly forward, looking very uncomfortable and out of place.  Something inside said I had to say something so what popped out of my mouth?

“I know you more than you think I do.”  ***BLUSH***  So “stalker” sounding!!!  Laura could hardly stifle her laughter.  I guess it worked.  He’s said that he was impressed that I put myself out there and was friendly.

Little did I know, this man, now my husband 8 year later, was feeling very removed from the group, thinking nobody knew him at all, and planning to attend a different ward (congregation, for those who don’t know our religion) from then on.  This little gesture on my part sparked the relationship that’s now bloomed into something very loving and strong.

The next afternoon he called me and asked me out, which I panicked and turned him down for, then within an hour he called me again and asked me out again to my releif.  And that Tuesday, the very next day we went on our first date.

The rest is history.

Kevin’s Dad is here on business, and we’re so glad to see him!  We went out to dinner with him lastnight and that was pretty fun.  He’s coming over to our home tonight and then heading home after a few days on the road hopping about the country.

Michael’s currently waiting by his window with the curtain drawn.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he’s “waiting for Grandpa.” :)  I think the boys are loving seeing him for a little bit.

Please excuse the less than wonderful picture, I’m still getting used to my new camera.

Kevin and Grandpa Mark

I cannot beleive it’s gone SO FAST!  I’m excited and sad at the same time.  He’s seriously the best baby ever, he doesn’t cry incessantly, he sleeps well, he spits up, but not too much, he’s happy to hang out and watch the action, he’s happy to get the attention of his brothers and rarely gets overwhelmed by it.  He’s just so sweet!  He’s always smiling and giggling.

He’s just started to do the crawel rock!  I don’t know to be incredibly depressed or thrilled.  He scooted across the tent a few times, so he deffinitly can get around now.  He slept through the night lastnight in his play pen!

Behind the mesh in his play pen~

I guess his will be the first camping pictures shown…

Happy Half Birthday Baby!!!

We’re back from our first real camping trip with children.  It was REALLY fun!  We’re so glad we went, and look forwards to many more mini trips.  The boys did amazingly well.

Yes, that’s right, we went camping on purpose, in the middle of July, in the South…   …and survived.  It actually felt wonderful.

We went to Lake Texana in Edna, Texas.

Friday night we headed down and got there just at sunset, we rushed to set up camp in the setting sun and I took the boys around the camp site in an attempt to set up firm boundaries.  Kevin had to make a store run because between us we’d somehow forgotten to get cash to pay for our spot.  Kevin took Aiden, and Michael, Joey and I stayed back to finish getting things settled at camp.  It was pretty late, and I worried about Kevin being able to get back in, but he made it back, we ate a gas station dinner (we expected some fast food down there, it was sparse) and went to bed.

Yesterday morning we got up at 7ish, enjoyed a “honey bun” breakfast, got ready for the day, since we got there so late, when I woke up early yesterday morning, a man on a motor car drove up and said “Did you arrive late lastnight?” I said yes fully expecting to get an earful since we hadn’t straightened out our tags yet, he kindly wrote us up a reminder so we could get things figured out.  We decided to take a family walk back to the rangers office to pay and explore about.  We’re glad we did because we saw a gator or two.

We brought all of our swimming gear before finding out there are gators.  In fact Lake Texana carries the Texas State record for the largest officially recorded alligator at 14 feet.  All of the ones we saw were 6 feet or less, but it was so thrilling to see and hear them.

Kevin ran to the store and got some stuff we’d left at home, and the boys and I went to a class about alligators one of the rangers was giving.

Kevin’s friend Isani and his wife Joy came and they are SO fun!  I’ve met Isani very shortly on Kevin’s birthday when I brought the left over cake to him from Michael’s class, and never met Joy.  They set up camp and Kevin headed off with the boys to a puppet craft.  I sat and rocked Joey and talked with Joy and Isani.  They are so relaxed and fresh and happy.  We really enjoyed being with them.

We sat around and chatted and for once it wasn’t actually more work with the boys because of the way that Joy and Isani acted towards them, and the boys really connected with them.  That’s not to say that the boys were angels, not by any stretch, but it was nice to have the attention kinda distributed between more responsible adults.  It was like being back home with family.

We took a little walk down to one of the fishing peers and checked out the alligators.  Evening came and we decided to start dinner.  Joy is a vegetarian and she pulled out some exquisite oatmeal raspberry nut bars.  I want the recipe so bad!  It was really fun and insightful to talk with her about food.  Kevin and Isani put together some t-bone and ribs, and cooked them up, and there was a boca burger and a few beef burgers.  Yummy yummy dinner!

After dinner we were sitting talking and these deer would come SO CLOSE.  I grew up going to Yellowstone and the deer there are cattle size, here they’re more large dog size.  They were so close coming up to us.  At one point one walked all the way up to me and nuzzled all along my left arm while I had Joey in my other arm!  Hahaha!  So weird!

The boys wore themselves out playing and drawing in the dirt.  Isani went and got his tambourine, and played and sang for us a little, while the boys danced, it was really cool.  Look at Kevin’s blog labeled “Music, Friends, and Extending Boundaries.” To get to know more about him and his background. Before we knew it, it was 10 PM.  Kevin took the kids to bed while I nursed then rocked Joey to sleep.

We ended up staying up until 12:30 talking.  We didn’t have a camp fire,* so a good part of that was fighting off the raccoons…**

This morning as we were breaking down camp the boys enjoyed their kites that had been bought, forgotten, and mashed about in the trunk a few years ago.  Isani and Joy were saints helping them out with fixing up and assembling then flying them while Kevin and I took care of finishing up breaking up camp.

At around 10 Isani and Joy headed out and we were only minutes behind them.  Michael was disappointed we didn’t go to the playground one last time, but it was nice to suddenly be ready and just go.

Aiden did pretty well on the potty training front, I think partially because it was a concentrated effort to get everyone over to the toilet when needed, but sometimes, He’s start his potty dance and start yelling “Potty train!  Potty TRAIN!”  He only had two accidents, and they were both right in front of the bathrooms.  As Michael puts it, we’re getting closer and closer to Chuck E. Cheese, our families’ official “potty trained” prize.

***  Pictures are still forthcoming, I’m still dealing with lack of space on my computer and too many pictures, LOL!  ***

OK, here are my notes on Lake Texana, skip it if you’re not thinking about ever camping there.

Lake Texana Pros~

Roughly 100 miles or 2 hours drive away.  Close, but far enough to really feel like we got away.

Electricity, more than half of the sites have electricity, I think all we used was about 20 minutes for Kevin to try and charge his useless cell…

Running water at the campsite, don’t know if it was drinkable, but it was nice to be able to rinse stuff and wash our hands as needed.

Showers, ahh!  Nothing better than a quick shower to make a camping Mama or Daddy feel refreshed.

Bathrooms, flushing toilets, fairly clean, and lit at night!

Real playground, school grade, not just a couple of rough logs bolted together etc…

Nature trails all over the place, and free maps too…

Class at 10 and craft at 2 every Saturday for the kids.

Space, I think we had about half an acre, we were near people on either side but had about 100 yards down to the beach, but the bathrooms were close

Shade, some trees, some structures

Water front breeze

Lake front camping, mowed grass and all.

very nice and helpful rangers~ they had so much to offer, when Michael was moping about not getting souvenir’s they handed him a Texas Parks and Wildlife plastic bag and a stack of literature about camping, animals, and Texas treasures.  Also when Isani and Joy arrived, they said “Hi, we’re meeting some friends here” and the ladies said, “Oh you’re with the Steele’s!” and sent them on in!  They’d payed that much attention.

Lake Texana Cons~

Gators~ so no swimming, that is if you mind swimming with an animal that could take your arm off, or worse.

**raccoons~  Seriously not cool…  Lots of them… No fear of humans, and they wrecked everything in the way of food.  One dude left a loaf of bread under his seat in his newly reupholstered boat, and woke up to stuffing and shredded covers.  I should have taken a picture of that…  Also given that my husband was bitten by a rabid raccoon as a teen and had to go through the rabies treatment…  You can figure out the rest…

REALLY noisy.  We slept to an entire cricket orchestra, and we’re not sure what else, maybe we don’t want to know, something reminded me of a squeaky wet gym shoe.  Could be a plus for some, but I listen to nature sounds as my choice of noise many days (just under the rumble of children) and I just REALLY wanted to turn the volume down…

*Currently there’s a burn ban.  You can still have small controlled fires in a grill, but no pit fires.  This turned out fine for us, but could be frustrating if you planned on dutch oven, or foil packet foods.

Will we return?  We REALLY HOPE SO!!!