Weekly Recap #7 March 6- March 12, 2017

(P.S. I wrote this on Sunday, March 12, 2017.  Just took me a while to get it posted on the blog)

This week at the Pace house turned out well.  Although this morning with 9:00 church, plus a late night last night, plus day light savings was a little rough.  Declin was demanding at breakfast for me to put him back in his bed.  I had the same desires, just was a little less vocal about them. ;)  But after afternoon naps for McKay and I and an early bedtime for the kids I think we are going to be just fine.  

McKay's week split 50-50.  50% of his time was spent watching the kids while I went to various things and 50% spent working on the basement.  He has a hard time pulling himself away from the projects downstairs, but he was very kind to watch the kids three evenings this week for me while I had some girl time with friends and Corinne.  I promised to be done with "girls nights" for a while so that he can have the chance to do some things that he wants/needs to do.  

My week started off Tuesday with a birthday dinner with my friend Natalie.  Her birthday is a couple days after mine so each year we go to dinner to celebrate.  We went to Copper Rill which I had never been to.  I ordered salmon for the first time in my life and it was delicious!  Wednesday Corinne and Solomon came up and we got to hang out with them.  It was fun to see Solomon again and see how big he is.  He showed off all of his cool tricks to Magnolia.  It was fun to be able to just hang out and let the babies "play" with each other since most times we have gotten together there hasn't been a lot of down time.  Plus they are starting to interact more (aka. Solomon likes to try and eat Magnolia and she just stares at him and occasionally throws a smile his way).  Corinne and I snuck away for some shopping Wednesday night which was a treat for both of us.  McKay was awesome and handled all 5 kids on his own at bedtime.  We may be able to have a 5th child someday... Probably not twins though.  Thanks for coming Corinne!  Friday McKay worked all day on the basement.  He got some good work done and we now have spots for all of the lights in the basement.  We are putting in can lights everywhere so it can be bright and cheery down there.  Saturday I had my "motivational night" with friends.  Things are going really well with my healthy eating goals aka no processed sugar.  I am still having cravings for candy/treats, but I hope they go away someday.  McKay is so great to support me and I feel really good mentally and physically.  Hopefully I can keep things up for week three!  The motivational night was a great experience with some good friends.  We all shared a bit about our relationship with food over the years and how things have gone and what our current goals are.  It turned into a mini therapy session, but I kind of expected that.  We passed out recipes too.  I will let you guys know about the good ones as I try them!  Some things that I took away for myself from the evening is that I need to drink more water when I am craving sugar.  And while I am not eating processed sugar I still need to improve my vegetable intake.  Nice and uplifting overall.

Adalyn had a good week from my perspective.  She seemed more cheerful overall and didn't complain as much about going to dance and school.  We hardly saw her at all on Saturday since it was a nice day outside and she and her friends were having a dance party in the backyard.  I kid you not.  Friends are SO important to her.  I hope and pray she finds good ones as the years go on.  

Jensen told me that "Even when I is bad you still like me mom" direct quote from him and of course I reassured him that I will always love him no matter what.  Feeling accepted and loved by McKay and I on a daily basis is really important to him right now.  

Declin had to spend sacrament meeting in the hall way since he was talking to loud while playing with his toys.  He has the best pretend play.  He loves his little animals and figurines, and he makes up stories with them while carrying them around the house.  He loves his Magnolia and has been very willing to "share" his mommy.  Anytime she is crying he jumps off my lap and says "you go feed my Nolia."  So grateful that he looks out for her.  

Speaking of Magnolia she got to go on her first big walk in the stroller outside today.  She didn't cry so I am taking that as a good sign.  She definitely can cry, but she is not much of a talker.  She just quietly observes, and then when she is excited about something she shakes her arms and legs.  It is funny, like she wants to say something, but she doesn't quite know how to get it out.  Currently she sleeps in the middle of the guest bed that is still set up in her room since we have no where else to put it.  When she starts to roll more we will have to move her back to her crib which is now in the closet (that basement can't get done soon enough).

Welp that is all from us this week!  These pictures of Magnolia and Solomon together are too cute!!

Love,

Kajsa and Fam

  

Weekly Recap #6 Feb 26- March 5

This week started out normal and got pretty crazy by the end of the week.  I am really looking forward to relaxing a bit tomorrow since Adalyn does not have school and we don't have anywhere to be. 

McKay wrote about the basement progress...

The basement continues to move forward thanks to those who have helped me out. I have almost finished with the HVAC, but because my brother came up over the weekend to teach me how to do the electrical, I am now working on both the heating and lighting. The electrical work is a brand new area of work that I initially was not familiar with. I have been excited about learning and doing the work. Draesen's Dad, Mr. Drew Smith spent hours with me in home depot to help me buy the right stuff, and my brother taught me how to put it all together. Now I just have to finish the work without driving Kajsa crazy with my new found madness.

Cheers, McKay 

As for my (Kajsa's)  week.  It went well.  I finally decided to join McKay and give up processed sugar.  He has been off of processed sugar and desserts since November.  Me on the other hand... I have felt very addicted to sugar and candy etc. since Valentines day and I honestly didn't know how I was going to be able to give it up.  But a few of my friends in the neighborhood were talking earlier this week about giving it up and it just kind of clicked for me right then and I decided to give it up.  That was Tuesday and I haven't had any since then.  We started a little group text to support each other and it has been going well.  The weekend was definitely harder then the weekdays, but I am committed!  Like McKay mentioned in his portion; the basement work continues.  It was all going so well and then we got the quote for the Electrical work.  McKay was not expecting it to be as high as is was (it wasn't the electrician's fault, just a wrong estimation on our part).  So he decided to do it himself.  Gah!  I was really looking forward to having someone else do it, so the switch has been a little rough for me to accept.  BUT McKay is doing a great job at it and Draesen's dad and Laron were super helpful.  McKay spent literally every moment he wasn't sleeping from Thursday to late late late Saturday night working on the basement.  He is a MACHINE people.  I don't even know how he does it.  He is plowing through the work like crazy.  So the status with the basement is that the framing is 98% done.  The H-Vac is 70% done, and the Electical work is 25% done.  These are just my estimations.  :)  While working on it he has also had to deal with all of my emotions that came with it.  At one point I was complaining it was going to take forever and then the next moment I was complaining that he was going to fast.  Yeah I am not the right wife for this job.  But I am proud of him and am grateful for all the time he spends working to provide for our family.  BUT I am putting my foot down when it comes to the drywall/tape/texture.  We are hiring it out!  Nobody try and talk him into it!!

Adalyn is starting into the wonderful world of reading.  She is excited to read her little books and is sounding out words around her like crazy.  Before she learned how to read I was scared about the actual process of trying to teach my children to read.  It seemed complicated.  But now having watched her learning it all year I realized that it is actually quite simple and when a child is ready to learn they pick it up fairly quickly.  I am excited to teach Jensen and Declin.  We had fun this week dong a few activities for Dr. Seuss's birthday.  We counted red fish, made Cat in the Hat, and went to a special story time at the library.  Jensen had a fun week in the mud outside.  He and the neighbor boys dug with shovels for several hours after school and made lovely messes all over my sidewalks.  It is hard to be annoyed though since they had a great time doing it.  Declin loves letters and colors right now.  He plays little games on my phone and they have taught him a lot.  You can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he is trying to figure stuff out.  He makes a lot of statements recently like "this ball is blue" then he looks over at me to get my approval to make sure he is right.  It is adorable.  I also just started him on a probiotic that goes in his milk that I am hoping will help him not get sick so much.  He is always the first one in the family to get a little cold or cough and while they aren't usually that bad he spreads them to the rest of us and it lingers for weeks.  Magnolia had a late 4 month appointment this week.  She is 14 lbs exactly.  I noticed that she doesn't ever "stand" on my lap or really put weight on her legs yet.  I talked to the doctor about it and he thought she was fine.  I think she is too, just being slow about it.  She is getting more opinionated about wanting to be held and included in the fun.  She will let you know if she doesn't want to be set down.  

Having a family has been  so wonderful!  I am grateful to the balancing act that I get to be a part of daily.  There is no one "right" way to do everything (laundry, school, date nights, healthy eating, exercising, etc.), but a lot of really good ways.  I am enjoying figuring out what things work best for our family.

Hope you guys have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Kajsa and Fam

Weekly Recap #5 Feb 19- Feb 25

This week started off with a continuation of our weekend since it was Presidents day on Monday.  All of our visitors from my birthday weekend left around noon on Monday.  McKay continued to work on the basement after they left until FHE.  While he worked I used my sewing machine for the first time.  My Mom showed me how it worked before she left and then I was able to mend McKay's pants and make some simple curtains for our laundry room.  Sewing might not be as difficult as I imagine it to be.  But don't expect a quilt out of me anytime soon.  For FHE we had a lesson about Presidents past and present.  We mostly focused on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and President Trump.  Since Adalyn's school has a patriotic and historical emphasis she knew quite a few facts about all three men and who they were. 

Tuesday and most of Wednesday were busy getting ready and set up for our Blue and Gold banquet for cub scouts that was on Wednesday night.  I put quite a bit of effort and energy into planning it and I think it went really well.  Everyone said that it was well done and that it was a nice evening.  The stake leaders were very complimentary.  I wont lie it felt good to have a few of my efforts be recognized since the majority of my efforts go unseen these days.  haha!  We had about 70 people at the banquet and all of the boys there were able to earn at least one award if not several.  I am really proud of the boys and all of their hard work and really enjoying working with the other leaders.  

Thursday we worked to get even more stuff out of the basement since the electrician was coming on Friday and we didn't want him to have to work around all of our stuff.  So now our 3rd car garage is filling up and I am feeling pretty cramped upstairs.  Oh I hope this project goes smoothly!  I keep dreaming about all of the extra space we will soon have and how I want to organize it all.  Other good news with the basement is that we are pretty optimistic that we will not have to take out a loan to finish it.  We had thought that we might have to take out a small one towards the end (and it was worth it to us to just get it done).  But after getting a nice tax return we think we can squeeze through without a loan which would be really nice!

Friday evening Draesen's sister Braelene (who goes to BYU Idaho) was super sweet and offered to babysit our kids for us while we went on a date.  Awesome right?!  McKay and I decided to go play racket ball at golds gym.  After a few games we worked out for while and then went and split a meal at Rumbi.  It was a fun night.  While out we counted up and I think we have been on 7 dates this year so far.  Which is crazy!  And so fun!  We must either seem super overwhelmed with our kids or our kids are just super cute because we have had several different people offer to watch our kids and date nights have just magically been appearing.  I am not complaining.  :)

Saturday I attended a service project to help with some things for the refugees.  Did you know there are 80,000 refugees in Salt Lake city.  I did not realize that the number was that high.  They told some amazing stories about these families that are coming and I hope I can help them more in the future.  We don't have any in Idaho Falls, but there are 200,000 between Twin Falls and Boise. 

Saturday night we went to our favorite hang out spot... Chick-fli-a for dinner to let the kids run off some of their energy.  Then we put them to bed early while McKay and I did laundry and worked on the basement.

Today (Sunday) we went to a mission homecoming for McKay's cousin Julie.  She just came home from the same mission that Larissa served in (Houston East mission) except she was English speaking.  McKay's parents came up for it and it was fun to see family this weekend too.  We could really get used to everyone traveling up to see us.  Pretty nice to not have to travel the last few months!  But I think we are getting the Utah itch again and may be down in a few weeks. 

As for the kids... Adalyn found her "lost" makeup this morning and declared it the best day ever.  Jensen begged to go to Grandpa Farm's house and he even said that he would help with the goats while he was there.  Declin's "baby" that used to be in his hand is now on top of his head.  Hehe!  I finally moved him into size 2t clothes even thought they are still a little big.  Jensen remembers all of the clothes that we pulled out of the box for Declin and is now having a hard time "sharing" them.  He keeps trying to wear them again, but obviously they are all too small.  Magnolia turned 4 months old on the 22nd.  She is obsessed with sucking on her hands.  We can't keep them out of her mouth and we may be getting our first thumb sucker. 

Anyways that is all from us this week! 

Love, Kajsa and Fam

Weekly Recap #4 Feb 12- Feb 18

This was an extra special week with Valentines Day and my Birthday...

I had a really fun week this past week and I am sad to see it all come to an end. 

It started with a fun FHE on Monday where we made valentines boxes.  Birthday wrapping paper with markers really.  The kids really enjoyed it.  Adalyn is at the stage where she just wants to make cards and write notes all.day.long.  So she LOVED valentines day.  I seriously think she enjoyed it more then Christmas.  I tried to make it a special day for everyone and I think I succeeded.

Valentines day we had French toast and sausage for breakfast.  None of the kids really ate, but it is the thought that counts right?!  Atleast that is what I told myself.  Then we decorated cards all day long and filled up our mail boxes.  Addie's school doesn't have class parties so we had one at home.  At dinner time we decorated the house, put on silly valentines costumes and ate a "red" dinner.  I made chicken parmesan for the first time and it was delicious!  After dinner we opened our little boxes and read each others notes.  I really enjoyed it and hope to make it a family tradition as the years go on.  After the kids went to bed McKay asked the neighbor girl to come over and sit with the kids while he and I went out to cold stone.   

Thursday we went to I Jump.  Again.  This time as a joy school field trip.  Jensen has the cutest little joy school friends.  And no he doesn't have a drooling problem (see the picture below), he just can't reach the drinking fountain very well. 

Friday was my birthday!  McKay stayed home and we cleaned the house.  We had our kids try out their first week of "Friday jobs" Adalyn was assigned the kitchen and Jensen did the bathrooms.  Of course we were right there with them the whole time showing them how to do everything.  But I kept having flashbacks to all those years of doing our jobs after school on Fridays.  McKay also cleaned the baseboards, light fixtures, the laundry room, and the fridge.  That was his valentines gift to me and I loved it!  Friday evening we went out on a date.  We went to Johnny Carinos.  I am really obsessed with that place these days.  Late Friday evening Mom and Dad and Mykelti and Draesen came to spend the weekend with us.  Thank you again for coming!  We loved having you here and we were all a little depressed when you left.  While they were here we were able to get some more work on the basement done.  McKay and Dad got started on the H-Vac and are slowly figuring it out.  It is slow work, but coming along well.  While they worked, mom and I took the kids to the movie Moana.  It was a free showing for McKay's work at a local theater.  We all really enjoyed it!  Saturday afternoon the boys went and played Frisbee golf at the park and the girls went to the mall.  I got a fun new outfit that was all on clearance and a few new pairs of boots on clearance so I had a great time shopping.  :)  Saturday night we had cake and ice cream.  I even got to blow out candles which is always fun even if I am 27 years old.     

Sunday after church we had a delicious Thanksgiving type dinner.  It was very yummy and we enjoyed spending time playing games.  Mom has the new high score for 7 Wonders.  She knocked my old high score out of the water!  My kids loved playing hide and seek Sunday night with everyone.  Adalyn had the biggest grin when she came out of the best hiding spot of the evening.  She thought she was so tricky, it was really cute. 

Thanks everyone for making my birthday weekend special.  I felt so much gratitude all week and feel very blessed.  I am very grateful for my kids and their sweet personalities and for the many people who sent texts and phone calls!  Love you all! 

Have a happy week!

Love,

Kajsa and Fam

3 months old- Magnolia

Magnolia turned 3 months old on Janurary 24th.   

She easily fits into her 3-6 month clothes.  I love snuggling her when she is dressed in her super soft footed jammies.  This is a random fact, but I hate baby sleepers that zip up.  I definitely prefer the sleepers that snap.  I actually ended up getting rid of most of the sleepers that zip because I never used them.  I always feel like the zippers poke out weird and are constantly poking my babies in their necks when they are sleeping.  The snaps are harder to do back up in the middle of the night, but they seem much more comfortable to have them wear.  Random I know!

Magnolia at three months refused to drink a bottle.  She continued to take great naps and would wake up once a night.  She likes early bedtimes which was nice.  She is a great at nursing and is chunking up!  Her chubby cheeks are the cutest.  She still slept well on the go as we took Addie to school or went shopping.  She is still a quiet little thing and hardly makes a peep.

We love her bright blue eyes and her sweet smile.  Each time she smiles her whole body would wiggle and light up.  She loves having people talk to her and hold her. 

Here are a few more monthly pictures of her from the end of January.  We also took some photos of her in the same dress that my mom wore at 3 months old.  she looked darling in it, even if she kept trying to stick it in her mouth.  It must taste good!