Makin Rainbows

Ryan called me outside the other day to tell me she was making a rainbow. I was a little confused. I did not know if she had been in the paint or sidewalk chalk, or what she was doing. She grabbed the hose and had the spray nozzle set on mist. She squeezed the handle and said "Look! A rainbow!" It took me a minute, but when I got down on her level and looked where she was pointing I could see her rainbow. We spent the next 15 minutes making rainbows. I am so grateful for my sweet three year old who reminds me to slow down and look a little harder for the rainbows.

Ryan's Halloween Extravaganza

I love Halloween. Growing up it was almost a religious holiday for me. I spent so much time planning what I would be and then after parading in my costume at school all day, I would come home and want to be something completely different. I never knew why my mother put up with me. Now that I have kids of my own, I understand.

Ryan had four opportunities to dress up this year,

1. Trunk or treat at the church

Princess Ryan riding a pony (no pony in this pic, it got in the way of playing)

2.Halloween party at school

Ryan the Purple Dragon

3.Town of Tyrone business trick or treat

Ryan the Fluffy Fairy Princess

4. Halloween Night

Ryan the Pirate

A little work and a lot of fun!

Jannica and Cameron were a little less high maintenance (thank heaven!)

3 months!

Cameron is 3 months now and so dang cute. Kelly blessed him November first. It was so good to have Kelly's parents here for that special day. They were so happy to leave I am sure, the girls can be a little exuberant sometimes.

Cameron is a little talker, I sometimes think Heavenly Father is up there thinking he is sooooo funny for giving me chatterboxes. I started the dishwasher tonight because it is so quiet, my ears were ringing.

I am so excited to watch this little one grow and to enjoy the sweet moments along with the pull my hair out moments.

(I just noticed that I am blogging under Kelly's name, so those of you wondering how he could have pull you hair out moments, this is Jaimee)

Dove

Hey Ryan, what does your mom look like?

Ryan: "Ummm, let me draw you a picture."

A barrel on sticks? Your mom looks like a barrel on sticks?"

Ryan: "Yup. And her nose is HUGE."

The ultimate poster girl for Dove, thats me!

Peaking early

Cameron is turning into a little trouble maker. He had surgery following a couple of weeks of horrible sleeping due to belly aches and then, not 2 weeks later, the kid gets RSV. I love the kid, but Kelly and I always knew boys were trouble. I am hoping that he is getting all of his "keeping mom busy-ness" out of the way early. I am totally right in thinking this is possible, right? RIGHT!?

At least he is a cute little chunk. He always has a smile for us and really loves his sisters. He talks and talks to me and I am sure what he is saying is important. He will usually sit in his swing for an hour or so at a time. I am so in love with this sweet boy!

Why Christmas

I am having a hard time keeping up with the seasons for the blog wallpaper, so I decided to skip ahead. Merry Halloween!

Jaimee the Hut

This is a picture of me. At least the me that I see in the mirror. You see, I got home from bargain shopping to find that the clothes that I figured were PLENTY big for a gal my size, are

TOO SMALL!

Baby fat GO AWAY.

I don't think yelling at it will work, so next time you see me, ask me how my diet and workout regimen is working out. This may guilt me into exercising some self control and working out.

In turn I promise that, when I look like her, I will not dress up like Princess Leah for Halloween!

A cute blog

I have the dream of one day consistently doing my girls hair all cute.

I was looking for ideas and stumbled across this blog. These hair-do's are definitely Tiffany, Jenise and Shelyse worthy.

One day it could happen for me too, I am just not there yet.

The blog is http://www.princesshairstyles.com . Check it out, there are some amazing hair styles.

My Boys

The male bonding has begun. They have watched a BYU game together, love to nap together, and Kelly has been peed on a couple of times. I LOVE MY BOYS!

Kelly's Big Race

Kelly happened to beat a 9 month pregnant girl in a swimming race, and then bragged about it at work. He was then challenged by a 23 year old girl to a 200 meter race. People got excited about it at work and before he knew it, it was a 9 person race. The date was set and Kelly was grateful that there were other people to race, with 8 other people he had to beat at least one.

The kids and I went up to watch the race, yes, we drove 30 minutes each way, to see the 45 second race. They were very excited and then somewhat let down, it was a touch anticlimactic.

Kelly came in 6th, but he did beat the girl at work, so he is feeling pretty dang cool.

Ryan raced him afterwards and she kicked his buns.

.

For full race footage see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuDn16wDhdA

Pre-School

We decided to put Ryan in pre-school this year. She needs the interaction with other kids and I NEED a break. We were all very excited to have her go, but at the last moment seeing her walk in with the teacher got me all choked up. Kelly laughed at me, so sensitive. She is loving school, her favorite thing is hand painting (they paint the kid's hands and make handprints on paper). She also sings some great prayer songs.

3 Weeks

Cam is 3 weeks old today. I am happy to report that he is still alive and well, despite Ryan's attempts on his life. (She claims that he wants her to hug him, hold him, shove his plug in his mouth, squeeze his head, etc.) He is 9 pounds 3 oz. and getting fatter by the moment.

Sleep is still an issue, he is awake every night at 3 am with a belly ache for about 3 hours. Other than that, this kid is much easier than Ryan was. I think it helps that I can't hold him all the time like I did with Ryan.

Cameron at Week 1

Cameron is now 10 days old. He is still doing great. Mom is really tired. So is Dad. So is Grandma. Ryan and Jac are not.

Cameron James Kartchner

Cameron James Kartchner was born on Friday, August 14th at 8:45pm. He weighs 7 pounds 9 ounces and is 19 and 3/4 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great. The labor was pretty quick and easy. The delivery was very quick and easy.

Swimmin in the ditch

The girls and I came home to find the water guy purging the hydrant, thus filling out ditch with water. I let them out at the end of the driveway and ran in to get the camera. They were loving playing in the rushing water. I was a little nervous about Ryan getting sucked under the driveway, but she steered pretty clear of the hole. Ryan started out fully clothed but then wanted to be rid of her shirt. By the end of it she was begging to take her shorts and underwear off too.

I remember being little and being so excited for the gutters to have water in them. My cousin and I would look for snails, see how much "seaweed" we could pull up, build dams and go fishing. We never caught one, dang it. I am so happy that I live in a community that is still small enough that I can let my kids do all of these fun things.

"Swimming" in one of the left over puddles, Jac looks like a dead body floating in a puddle.

The water was almost completely gone, but Ryan was trying to soak up every last drop.

Jac soon realized that there was "bugs and stuff" in the water, that was it for her. When Jac left, Ryan begged me to take my clothes off and swim with her. I was tempted, but being on the side of the road was a slight deterrent.

This summer has been great, Ryan has become an expert frog, turtle and lightning bug catcher. She and Jannica are protective of the tomatoes and scream at the squirrels to stop eating them. The dirtier they are the better. I am going to miss all of the laid back fun we have had, but I am looking forward to having a little time to myself (kinda) while they are at school.

Random comments

Tonight after dinner we were all enjoying a bowl of ice cream when Ryan says.....

"I LOVE talking to boys."

Kelly and I just looked at each other, dreading the future.

Jon and Anh's Wedding

Last weekend we flew up to Boston for Jon's wedding. He's a high school friend of mine. We took Ryan along and did a little sight seeing on Friday. We drove up to Gloucester north of Boston on the coast. Jaimee decided that we had to try some clam chowder, because that is what you are supposed to do. So we stopped at a nice little restaurant and I ordered clam chowder. At about this time, Jaimee wimped out and went with a boring regular type of soup. Wimp. We also ordered crab legs for our appetizer, because that is what you are supposed to do. Tasty but not something we would order again in the next year or two. There were some beautiful beaches and it would have been alot of fun, if it had not been raining.

The next day we woke up early for the long drive to the Dam Hoi (Vietnamese Engagement Ceremony). It was a fun ceremony where the grooms family presents gifts and introduces the family. Luckily they said yes, so the wedding was able to continue. We drove to the church for a beautiful wedding ceremomy. Then for the party afterwords. I had never met Anh, but she must be some kind of wonderful to be marrying Jon. She was so sweet and it was a pleasure to meet her. The next day we had Dim Sum in Chinatown with the bride and groom. That was a fun experience also. The best part was the chicken feet. It takes just like I imagined chicken feet would taste. Then the couple took the out of towners on a DUCK tour around boston. It was alot of fun.
I'd like to congratulate Jon and And on this wonderful occasion. It truly was a beautiful wedding and Anh is a great person for Jon. May they have many happy years (and children) ahead.

Ryan's First Post

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Wife is Out of Town, So What Do We Do?

Jaimee and Ryan were in Utah last weekend. I was supposed to send Jannica out there on Friday or Saturday, but the flights did not look good. Jannica and I had the weekend together and nothing to do. So what else do you do when you have no plans. We decided to go to the movie theater.

Well I picked up Jannica at 6pm and gave her the choice. We could either go to the movie theater together or we could go to Ireland and watch a movie on the plane. Why not, right? After all, we didn't have anything to do? So 1 hour later we were at the airport with our passports waiting for our seat assignment. 1 hour after that we were sipping mimosas (maybe just orange juice) in our Business Elite seats. 8 hours later we were ready for a full days adventure in Dublin, Ireland.

The first place that we went was to see the Book of Kells at Trinity Unuversity. It is this really old copy of the first 4 gospels in the New Testament. It has some fantastic artwork on its pages and looks really cool. They had a few other old books of the gospels that was interesting to look at. The next stop was a little home from the 1850's where they explained to us how life was then and about this specific family. Kind of interesting. Then we were off to the Dublin Castle. It was a neat place but not as cool as many of the old castles. It had more of a palace feel, than a castle feel. Still neat though.

We checked out one of the shopping districts on Grafton St where there was a lot of street performers. Some fun ones, but nothing to right home about. Except some strange guy running around playing the accordian. It made Jac laugh. The we went to one of the main parks and watched the couples snogging. If you don't know what snogging is then talk to your parents. It led to a great conversation with Jannica though.

So we went to the hotel, watched Susan Boyle get second place live on Britain's Got Talent and went to bed. So then breakfast, ride to the aiport, and back home in Business Elite again.

All in all, a fun little weekend trip with just Jannica and me.

Providence Canyon and Auburn Too

On Sunday, we decided to get a hotel near Columbus so that we wouldn't have to drive too far to go to Providence Canyon.  Well we couldn't find a cheap enough hotel in Columbus, but we found one in Auburn, Alabama.  So we booked it (thanks priceline) packed real quick and off we went.  The hotel had a great pool and the kids loved it.  Later that evening, we ran downtown to explore Auburn University.  It has a lot more character than Weber State.  It was fun and we decided Jac could go there, if she gets a scholarship.   Go War Eagles.

The next morning we drove down to Providence Canyon where we hiked for several hours.  For those who are not familar with Providence Canyon, it was formed by reckless farming and soil  erosion.  There is a 3 mile hike around the canyon and then several small hikes up the canyons.  But these canyons are all made from dirt.  Not like the rock canyons in Utah, but the same colors.  Jac was running up one and tripped on a tree stump and dove to the like she was diving for home plate.  And she ended up as dirty as if she had slid to home plate.  After some whining about how it hurt she was better though.  After a few hours of hiking up these canyons, it started to rain, so we returned to the van.  It was a lot of fun and we'd recommend it to anyone that is looking for a fun beautiful place to hike.  But it is just over 2 hours away, so it can't just be done any day.

Daddy Daughter Braves Games

Ryan and I (Kelly) went to the Braves game against the Rockies tonight for a Daddy-Daughter date.  Don't feel bad for Jac; she got to go to London for a Daddy-Daughter birthday trip.  All day Ryan was excited and telling us about the Championship Basketball Game that she was going to go to.  As we were driving, she kept asking if we were at the Championship yet.  We watched a few innings and then when to the Cartoon Network kids area where she had some fun for 2 innings, then back to the game. She did great watching the game and then she decided that she wanted to be on the big screen.  So after a few innings of her dancing, she was on the big screen.  She almost didn't notice because she was having so much fun dancing.  But she saw herself and had on the biggest grin.  Then she was full of adreniline for the rest of the night.  During the top of the 9th after the Rockies had scored 3 runs, we decided to take off early.  Right as we were leaving a foul ball came screaming towards us, and I caught it (if by catching it you mean sticking your right hand out to catch it and then realizing that this thing is coming at you at a very fast speed and it is probably going to hurt and then pulling back your hand at the last second and letting it rickasahy off of the pole and then diving to pick it up).  So then I gave Ryan the ball because she had just gone for a crazy ride on my shoulders while I was diving for a foul ball.  She immediatley threw the ball back.  What in the world?  I had just risked her life to get that thing and she throws it back!  Well a nice little girl picked it up and returned it to us.  I didn't let her touch it again until we got back to the van.  But once she had the ball back, she wouldn't let it go and snuggled up with it to fall asleep.  

We had a good time and she really did enjoy herself watching the game.  Thanks Delta for the tickets in a great location. 

Jannica's got style

I do not usually wake up when Jac goes to school. Because I work nights, and Kelly has to get up early anyway, that responsibility falls to him. The other morning I was awake early because I was sick and came out to talk to Jac for a minute. I did a double take when I noticed what she was wearing and made her come into the light so I could get a better look. This is what I found....






The leopard print over the black and white polka dots is bad enough, but do you see the leggings over the tights? And the gold shoes?
Just when I think she has got the whole getting dressed on her own thing figured out.....

Easter

A little late, I know.

We went to Pigeon Forge, TN for Easter this year. This is where Dollywood is, for all my friends and fam in the west. We "unfortunately" did not make it to the infamous boobland. We were lucky enough to spend a lot of our time in the Great Smokey Mountains. I think we all had a blast seeing all of the great waterfalls, 2 cute back bears (although they probably would have ripped our faces off), and the real hiking trails. The water in the river was beautiful. Kelly and I would love to go back this summer and do some camping, fishing and floating. It could happen. I will only be like 9 months pregnant by the time we find time to go up there. I am pretty hard core, I could have a nature baby.

We went on a hike that was a mile in and a mile out. It took for-ev-er because we tried to make Ryan walk. To pass the time we were talking about our favorite hikes. Kelly asked Jannica what hers was and she said "I don't know, I really don't like walking that much." totally serious. I have high hopes for her Olympic future. The day before she had a tantrum over the fact that we would not let her go on an 11 mile hike. Maybe this gets easier with boys.

This is Ryan getting ready to jump and grab a leaf to make a boat. She did this everywhere we went.

Easter was fun, the girls got gardening Easter baskets. I thought it was a good idea, but all in all I don't think the girls care much. So next year we may need to come up with some other celebration of Easter. Maybe just an egg hunt with cool things inside.

Garden

I am loving this gardening thing. It goes along with my longing for Martha Stewart-hood. I have been harvesting my lettuce, spinach and broccoli. My carrots, potatoes, sugar snap peas and onions are all growing beautifully! All of which survived the blasted snow storm in March.

Who knew potato plants grew in these little bushy things, Not me!

I just planted 20 tomato plants. I was feeling ambitious. Here's the problem, I think canning time comes around baby time, so anyone interested in giving me a shower gift can give me help with canning. I also planted corn, 3 different types of cucumber (again, ambitious) and some squash. I am ve-e-e-e-e-e-e-ry excited (as Ryan would say).

Another cool thing was that Wal-Mart had some flowers on sale for 50% off, so I dove right in and bought a whole bunch. The front garden is no longer weeds. Now it is a wonderful flower bed! I also planted my shade garden which I have been waiting to do for a while. I finished everything about 11 PM on Friday night before we left for Hawaii. Ahh, procrastination, it is the only way things get done!

Ryan LOVES helping in the garden, she gets to play in the water that comes out of the hole in the hose and she gets to have a Popsicle to keep her busy while I work. Her life is great!

Thanks to Melissa P. for helping me keep the dream alive while I was out of town!

The Ultrasound

A few days ago we took the kids to the doctors office to go see the ultrasound of the new baby.  Jannica was happy because we took her out of school for a few days.  Ryan just knew that we were going to see a picture of the baby.  So the ultrasounds starts and Ryan is entertained for a few minutes.  Jannica is very interested though.  After about 15 minutes the ultasound tech said, "Can you tell what kind of baby it is?"  I (Kelly) screamed out, "It's a boy!"  Jannica echoed my comment by saying, "Yes, it is a boy."  I asked her if she even knowa how we know that it is a boy.  She replied like I was stupid and said, "He's bald.  That's how I know he's a boy."  It might be about time to have that conversation with her.

Well, all three of my girls were a little dissapointed that he'll be a boy.  They'll get over it.  They are both still very excited for a little brother.  And me too.

Boston!

Jannica and I got a chance to get away after her birthday. We were originally headed to Des Moines, Iowa but naturally the flights were oversold. I mean duh, who would not go to Iowa in March? So we detoured to Boston. Jannica has wanted to go because she has been studying the revolution. She was nearly as good a tour guide as the book I bought

We were lucky enough to go with our good friends Shelyce and Mikayla Denison. (incidentally, we have found our new favorite travel companions.) We got there on Friday night and spent the evening at the hotel either in or around the pool. The girls were in heaven and that was all they wanted to do the whole trip.

Saturday we walked the Freedom Trail. This is a 2.5 mile (one way) walk through Boston's historical sites. We saw great things like the church where "America the Beautiful" was first sung, graveyards full of famous historical figures, (one I swear was haunted) like Paul Revere, Mother Goose, Samuel Adams and many more. We also went to see Old Iron Sides (not much to look at, but cool to visit) and the Bunker Hill monument (my personal death trap). The monument is like the Washington monument, and you walk up 294 stairs (at the end of the 2.5 mile walk) to get some great views of the city. Needless to say, I was the last one up. I blame it all on pregnancy, not on the 20 extra pounds that were there pre-pregnancy and the sedentary lifestyle I lead.

We decided to wander back to the hotel (2.5 miles back to where we started). On the way we stopped in Little Italy to enjoy some authentic Italian and the great ambiance. Shelyce was a little skeptical about going, but in the end I think we were all very happy with the choice we made.

Sunday we went to a great ward in a cool old warehouse in Cambridge. Totally awesome to sit through church without worrying if Kelly had taken Ryan potty yet, and to be able to go to Relief Society.

All in all it was an awesome trip. We will hopefully be going again with the Denison's sooner than later.

This is a one of the views from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument. I do not know any of the geography of this city so I will say that you are looking at Boston Harbor where the famous tea party took place.

This next one is of Jac by a Paul Revere statue and the "one if by land two if by sea" church behind it. I don't even remember the whole story, if you want to know you are on the Internet, look it up.

This is Jac and I on a bridge on our way to see Old Iron Sides. A very old ship that has never been boarded or beaten. I thought it was cool, but the money the government has thrown into keeping it afloat is appalling. Freakin' liberals!

Lastly this is a Jac and I in the restaurant about to enjoy our wonderful dinner. Jannica had lasagna and I had fettuccine alfredo. When our food came, Jac exclaimed that she loves fettuccine alfredo (although she refuses to eat it at home). Luckily I like lasagna and so we were able to share and get a taste of a couple of things at the restaurant. The fettuccini was the better of the two, we both agreed.

By way, we are having a boy.

Indiana Jones, Eat Your Heart Out

Sadly, in the Kartchner house, things often go missing. Shoes, wedding rings, phones, socks, remotes, books, clothes, toys, you name it, some unknown beast has eaten them. Well, as of last Sunday, the beast has officially been beaten to the ground and hopefully (but probably not), been expunged from our lives forever.

Kelly was complaining that he could not find the remote for the downstairs TV (MIA for appx. 6-9 months). I jokingly said it was probably with the phone (MIA for appx. 3 months after having it for maybe 3 weeks). I told him that I had checked the couch, but he could check again.

This man generally walks into a room to find something and stands in the same place with his eyes closed for a few minutes and then comes back to tell me he can't find what he was looking for. This causes me to then go and find it immediately because it is in plain site. I divulge this information, only because the following is JAW DROPPING and AWE-INSPIRING and you need to know why.

Back to Sunday.

He does a little looking in the couch and pulls out the phone. Yeah! We were all so happy and kind of laughing that his was not a fruitless search, although he did not find what he was looking for. Excited now, he goes back for more and emerges with the remote control. Wahoo! I thought that puppy was gone for good! I continued to email and not pay attention when he comes in to kneel by the bed. I stopped what I was doing to look at him and he pulls out MY WEDDING RING! He asked me to marry him, and since I was so impressed I had to say yes. I have lost this ring several times throughout our marriage, most recently was four years ago when I was newly pregnant with Ryan. I have been looking for the thing everywhere and had given it up as long gone. We were planning on getting me a new one.

I have vacuumed that couch at least 4 times in the last four years and luckily have never sucked up the ring. I do not know how Kelly did it, but man oh man, he is on the nice list again!

Last thing, just so you don't put Kelly on too high a pedestal (we wouldn't want him to fall), My couch is still all pulled apart and the vacuum still sitting where the cushions should be:)

Some kids can name all 12 apostles.......

Ryan may not be able to tell you what a temple is, who the prophet is or anything like that, but she has memorized something pretty great. If you come over on any give day you will hear my 3 year old singing "honey, honey, how he thrills me, uh-huh, honey honey!" or "Mama Mia, here I go again, my, my, how can I resist ya?" And then to top it off the other day during breakfast she started listing off names "Sam Carmichael, Harry Bright, Bill Austin" and so on. She randomly says phrases from the movie. I have only let her watch it like 5 or 6 times, but, now I have had to hide it because both girls are making every effort to memorize it.
Jannica asked the other day if this was a church movie. I swear we are teaching our girls about standards and stuff, but I think we might need to kick it up a notch.

Sneaky Little Devil

Kelly and I were being lazy and so did not put our "sweet little angel" to bed one night last week. We were letting her lay on the couch and watch a movie until she fell asleep. I had left her alone to go lay on my bed.

About a half hour later, I sent Kelly upstairs to see if she had fallen asleep yet. Kelly came back downstairs after a very short time. He was laughing, and said you gotta come see this.

I followed him upstairs to find this..........

Notice the intricate use of eyebrow pencil, eyeshadow, blush, lipstick and whatever you put on your nose? She has taken the use of markers to a new dimension. We were laughing too hard to get too upset. We learned that blue does not come off for about three days. Luckily her face was mostly green.

I have a similar story from my youth only my older brother was my palette. I guess what goes around comes around.