My Christmas Present

My homemade gift this year was quilting stands that Derek made in his shop. He first brought in a "bird house" he had made out of sheet metal?! I said it was wonderful, but not too sure what he was thinking making a bird house out of sheet metal. Then after that presentation I went to get his present (the quilt) and he quickly set up my real present, the stands. I was relieved! He said he had to make something to through me off because I, just out of the blue, told him to make me quilting stands while he was at his shop working on my present a few days ago. I had no idea that's what he was doing! He had the girls help make them and paint them. I love how Erin and Morgan painted their own names on a post and then Derek put Shannon and Lauren's on too. I have been wanting these for a while, but never told Derek. He read my mind! I have such a neat husband who listens to the things I don't say. I love them!

Our new addition!

Derek and I gave the girls a black lab puppy for their Christmas present this year. The girls named him Sam and he is only 7 weeks old. He is so much fun and has actually been a very good puppy. He goes to the bathroom outside as long as we are on top of things and take him out to do his business. He doesn't bark much at all. He slept through the night the first night home, which I was not expecting. He is definitely a puppy though. He tries to bite the chairs in the kitchen so we put some of that dog repellent on them and I haven't seen him do it since. He has also learned, very quickly, who he can bully and who he can't. The girls aren't use to being around dogs and don't quite know how to tell him to back off when he nips and jumps up. We are continually "rescuing" Shannon and Morgan, but they are both getting much better at being around him. Right now the girls fight over who gets to walk him and I'm trying to enjoy this sense of responsibility they have now while it lasts. Erin has been very good at taking Sam out when he needs to go, and it's even been snowing and raining like crazy. But Sam is definitely Derek's dog. He loves Derek and follows him around everywhere. He even whimpers for him when he leaves the gated area or goes out of the room. We were out shoveling the snow tonight (not an easy job this time around) and Sam stayed right with Derek and tried to attack his shovel. If Derek calls him, he usually comes right away. If the girls or I call, it's a 50/50 chance he'll come. But a very cute addition.

Poor Lauren

Lauren got the scare of her life when Morgan accidentally left the fireplace in our living room on after I told her not to mess with the switch that turns it off and on. I heard a scream from Lauren while I was in the kitchen and it was not a scream of delite. She had placed her hand on the glass to support herself because it is a see through fireplace and she was looking through it. I was trying to run her hand under cool water, but she was fighting me the whole time. I got some burn cream and wrapped her hand in gauze to keep it clean and from her putting it into her mouth. Luckily she left it on, but kept trying to shake her hand off to get it to stop hurting. She cried for over an hour. I felt so bad. This is what it looked like the next morning. I didn't realize she had burnt her fingers so badly too. Poor thing!

Derek and I are convinced that Lauren gets the evening crazies just like any cat or elderly person in the hospital. Before I put her to bed, she likes to find any towel or piece of clothing the girls have left on the floor and drape it over her head. Then she crawls, full tilt, in any direction without the use of her eyes! Derek and I have had to stop her a number of times from running into corners or furniture. She also loves chasing her sisters around the house. Who needs a cat?

I finally finished Derek's Christmas present today, thanks to Kara, for letting me borrow her sewing machine since mine is broken! Derek has this blanket from his childhood that he loves, but never uses. He wanted me to mend it, but this blanket was beyond repairing so my mother in law gave me the idea to use the old blanket as the batting for the new blanket! So, I did! We are all making homemade gifts for each other in the family and this seemed the best idea for me. So I asked my friend Tammy to help me tie it, and I'm sorry Tammy, the thread count was so high it took us forever to finish it. It was so hard to pull the yarn through and some of the batting and fabric from the old blanket was being pulled through too. But it is done and, I think, looks ok! I left the colorful side of the old blanket facing up so you could see it through the white side (kind of like a shadow box). It's fun to see it now that it's done. It will definitely be a warm blanket. I took pictures of the old blanket so I could go back and make Derek a blanket much like his old one, but later on when I have a little more time (ha ha). I didn't display the really torn up parts of the blanket, but this gives you a small taste of what it was like.

Updates

Boy, I am awful at keeping this thing updated, but what can you do? We finally decorated the chirstmas tree (seeing as how it's been up for um... about a week or more!) Now the girls won't leave the tree alone. They like to rearrange the ornaments like I remember doing as a little girl; except they keep putting the breakable and chokable ones within Lauren's reach so I have to go back and rearrange it again! We went through Erin and Morgan's school made ornaments and it's fun to see how they have grown. I have so much fun recording my girls playing with their toys. Elise, you know how Tori was microwaving your baby Jesus from your nativity and how "licious" he was? Well, according to Shannon, our baby Jesus falls into boiling hot lava off of our living room table and gets saved by Prince Phillip and Aurora! What do you think of that? And I got it all on video! How great is that? We also got Lauren playing peek a boo at dinner when she was all covered in chili sauce; so naturally it ended up in her hair, eyes, ears, etc. I'm trying to teach her to nod her head yes because all she does is no. She's finding this very difficult unless she gets her whole body into it. Again, funny on video! We are also getting a black lab puppy for the girls for Christmas and they don't know it, so we thought. We still don't know for sure, but out of the blue Erin has become very adament about Santa bringing her a puppy for Chirstmas. Previously we have told the girls they can't have a dog until we move back to Morgan, but someone Derek knew asked if he wanted to do some trade work for one of his pure bred lab pups. Derek agreed, hence the Christmas puppy. Morgan keeps telling Erin that they can't have a puppy until we move, but Erin just says "I know, but I really want one" so we don't know what she knows if anything. Derek and I are still debating how to give the girls the puppy so if anyone has any great ideas we'd love to hear them!

Katie for President!

Erin asked me today if anyone could run for president and we had a nice little talk about it. It's been kind of fun because she and Morgan, mainly Erin, have been very interested in this presidential race. She thought for a little bit and said "Mom I would vote for you if you ran for president. I think anyone who knows you would vote for you! Can you just say "AWWWWW!" What a sweetheart! I told her you wouldn't want Mom to be president because I wouldn't be able to spend so much time with you. She thought a little longer and then decided that maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea, but she still would vote for me! It's funny because the girls will see me watching the news and say "There's Barack Obama again" or " There's the white haired guy again"! For some reason they can't remember John McCain! At there age I was completely clueless! What smarties!

Spooky!

We went to halloween party a few days before halloween and they had face professional face painters there and Derek was finally convinced that he needed to paint his face, but came away with a lot more! People kept coming up and asking Derek if they could take a picture of his head!I think he got a lot more than he bargained for!

On Halloween night we had quite the range of costume; considering we only have girls. Erin wanted to be a scary vampire, but pulled off Eddie Munster rather well instead! Morgan was our homeless gypsy and Shannon was our beautiful witch! Don't call her a cute witch or she will turn you into a toad! They had a blast going out with Dad for an hour and a half! Derek said most of the homes were shutting down for business so they did a bit of walking. He's a good dad because I would have said let's bag it, go home and eat our own candy!

My girls-again!

I like it when I can find time to take pics of my girls. Shannon's pose is all her own! Lauren is just growing so fast and now crawls using her hands and feet. I haven't had time to crop some of my pics so I apologize for the back ground in the group pic.

update-Morgan's party

Morgan's party went well. I was just surprized with how quiet all of these girls were. I had to keep the conversations going while they had lunch and cake. I played Disney songs and had them guess which movie it came from (they seemed to enjoy that. Shannon guessed "Ariel!" every time). Erin had to break the piniata because the girls would just tap at it and then when the candy was on the ground, they made a circle and checked out the candy before even picking it up! Much different from my days as a kid when you had to make a mad dash just to get your share! I could have kept these girls all day! They had their faces painted with butterflies and I had to take a picture.

Butterfly Piniata

Morgan helped me make a pinata for her butterfly birthday this year. I think it got a little out of hand seeing how big it ended up being. Erin decided she wants a shamrock for her birthday and I'm not too sure I'm up for that.

Funny Girl

I was pulling out the larger sizes of clothes for Lauren and the warmer clothes for Morgan and Shannon today. I was trying shirts on Shannon and putting the rest back in the box when two pistachio shells fell into my lap. I asked Shannon to please throw the shells away for me while I go upstairs to put the "new" clothes away. As I walk up the stairs, I observe Shannon, with her shirt off, places the empty shells on her chest like "Ariel sea shells"! I thought this was pretty funny seeing as how all my girls have this fasination with putting "shells" on their chest at one point or another. She then proceeds to dance in the living room! FUNNY! Those of you who have seen our Erin's interpretation of "seashells" on home video can get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Busy day

Derek had his surgery on Tuesday and all went well as far as I can tell. I didn't get to talk to the surgeon because I was at home asleep because I didn't sleep well the night before and I had to take Lauren to Primary Children's for a renal ultrasound. I didn't want to run off the road so while Derek was in surgery I went home until I got a call that he was in recovery. Luckily, Mom was able to come down to help me with my crazy schedule. I got Derek home around 12:15pm, got his perscriptions, and headed out to get to Lauren's appointment at 1:30pm. To add insult to injury, I sat in the waiting room with Lauren for almost an hour because they didn't get her name back to radiology until I mentioned we had been waiting for a while and everyone that came after us had gone in already. Not happy! But Lauren did great! She played with a toy while they looked at her kidney and bladder with U/S and then we did her VCUG. I was expecting her to scream bloody murder (because that's what Erin did as an infant when she had hers done), but we gave her a sucker and she forget everyone and everything around her! She went to town! They put her cath in and strapped her legs together and she seemed completely unaware, until her bladder was so full she was in pain. They waited a while for her to urinate into the cath, but she would only do spurts. We were still able to see that she has reflux into the right kidney (so now I have to take her to a urologist). After waiting so long they finally took out the cath and untied her legs. As soon as her legs were free she "assumed the position" lifted her legs and let 'er rip! When she was done she put her legs down, feeling much better! She was such a good girl! It was a busy day! Luckily I got my apple sauce canned the day before because I have no time now!

Will it ever end?

We went camping with Derek's family this weekend, which was a joke! First of all Derek is already in pain, but wants to do something "fun" with the girls. Well, the girls were having a blast until Erin was stung in the eye by, we are going to say a bee because we don't know for sure. We didn't have any benadryl in our emergency kit; boy that tells you what kind of nurse I turned out to be. We did have some ice so I made her sit for a spell with some ice to her eye which she complained about endlessly. This picture is not too bad. The next morning, for church, it looked a lot worse! She looks like she's been in a knock out fight!

We took our motorcycles up with us and Derek wants so badly to ride and thought he might get away with riding the girl's bike a little, but I made him get off after I took this pathetic picture. He wasn't very happy with me as you can tell. (I made him smile in one for me).


Over all the girls did have a great time and
got very dirty! Derek slept most of the day Sunday and was still tired when we went to bed for the night. It may be a while before we venture out again.

Kids conversations

I overheard Morgan and Erin chatting in the back seat of the car a couple of days ago. Morgan was saying to Erin,"Respect. It has to mean something doesn't it?" It was funny hearing Erin try to explain it to her.
We were watching the women's water polo on tv during lunch and the girls were in awe because they don't touch the bottom of the pool while they play. Erin saw one of the girls go down and come back up and was saying "she got water in her nose!" I explained that they have learned to blow out their nose while they play so it doesn't get in their nose. Erin explained that she had to plug her nose whenever she goes under water. Morgan piped up "I can blow out my nose under water!" Erin excitedly said " Morgan can blow out her nose! She could go to the Olympics!" Boy, if that's all it takes to get to the Olympics, sign me up!

Three down, One to go!

Shannon is finally potty trained! Derek and I told her if she stayed clean and dry in her underwear for a week, we would take her to the zoo and she did it! I think Erin and Morgan are just as excited or more so than Shannon. (Lauren couldn't care less) But they have been great sisters in helping her along. They cheer her on when she has a success and help her get on the potty when she has to go and I can't get right to it! It was funny because while we were doing the "two steps forward-one step back" routine, we would bring up the zoo and Shannon's response was always " yeah, I can go see the bears and the lions and the zebras and .....". It would get frustrating because she had the idea in her head, but wasn't incorporating it. But now she is working on the night time stuff and she's made some headway. She wants to wear the underwear to bed, but she is still unpredictable. Maybe she's like Morgan was; wet when she wore the training pants, but managed to stay dry with underwear. I'm not sure I'm ready to try that yet. So hopefully we have only two more years of buying diapers. One can only hope!

Since Derek has been laid up for awhile, I've had a lot more to do and less help to do it. Well, I made lunch for everyone last Sunday along with mini vanilla pudding pies. But before the girls could eat their pies, Derek made them say 5 "great" things Mom does for them. They came up with the usual "she cooks for us, she buys us things.." not really what he was looking for so he urged the girls to really think of SOMETHING! Morgan got a big smile on her face and said "she teaches us the gospel" and sits back as though she just made the greatest comment. Derek said that's great now expound on that. Morgan looked at Derek confused at this reponse and said" But Dad that's all we can possibly know!" I almost had pudding coming out of my nose!

New cousins for the Kobe girls

May 1st, Lauren and I flew out to Omaha to visit the newest additions to the Kobe clan. Adrienne Jolene and Sophia Elise Smith are twins born April 22nd. They are very cute and very easy to tell apart. Adrienne is on the left and Sophia on the right and I bet you all can tell who is in the middle! I can't believe that Lauren was that little only 3 months earlier! Lauren did pretty well on the airplane ride out there. She was making friends with everyone especially the lady sitting next to us. At first Lauren wasn't sure whether to cry or laugh at her, but she quickly warmed up. We were in Omaha till the 6th and Lauren got very used to having Mom all to herself. Elise and Trevor had a dinner to go to that Saturday and took the twins with them. They dressed them up in dresses that were a little big still and then wanted to put on some head bands that were given to them by a friend. This friend made them and they were cute, but looked funny on the girls because the flowers stuck out so far from their heads so we put it on Lauren and took a picture. She reminds me of the queen ant from A Bug's Life! We also gave all the girls a bath the same day so we took their pics before their baths. Lauren was getting cream for 3 months and it shows. How cute! It was fun to see everyone, but we are glad to be home!

Salt Lake Marathon

Erin, with her cousin Kayla, ran in the kids 1k during the SLC Marathon. We thought we would be running 1 mile at first but I didn't look at the info very closely, so the girls didn't get to run to their full potential. Maybe in an upcoming 5k! Anyway, they ran with their moms and ran the whole way! They got to meet Elmo, even though Erin made sure I understood that Elmo wasn't real and that it was a person dressed up as Elmo. Leave it to Erin to keep you in the know! They got medals and a T shirt for running in the race. Erin was a little scared before the race because she expected something very different. She said she had pictured a field with grass and lines painted to show you where to run. She also requested that the Union Station, which is where we waited to start the race, could be quiet for a little while. She is a country girl all the way! She was also worried that she wouldn't know where to run if she got ahead of me. I informed her I would be right by her the whole time! She was sure she was going to win the race! Alison told me that Kayla thought the race only consisted of her, Erin, Alison and me! She told Alison that she had a chance of winning this thing! So cute!

Lauren's blessing day

Today Lauren was given her blessing. Derek did a wonderful job as expected; even though he forgot to take his pain meds this morning because we were rushing out the door. He was in a lot of pain and had to teach in Priesthood today too. The girls enjoyed playing with their cousins after church, in the backyard; it was such a beautiful day! We were all burnt on our arms; the girls on their faces too. We spent the whole day ,yesterday, in the backyard getting our garden ready for planting. It takes the first burn of the year for me to remember to lotion everyone up before going outside. Morgan found some grubs in the dirt and was naming them. The first one was named Hate and then she renamed it Derek. The second one was named Katie. So now we know how she feels about her parents. Shannon was playing kitty for Erin and Erin put a jump rope around her waist for a leash. Erin then decided she needed to go inside for a drink and tied her "kitty" to a tree in the yard until she came back outside, then they went for a "walk" around the yard. We just need to move up to Morgan so the girls can get a pet. It was nice finally getting out into the yard and working in the dirt.

Easter

The girls all looked so cute in their new Easter dresses I had to take a "few" pictures after church. They all made a pretty good haul this year after the Easter Bunny came and grandparents pitched in. Shannon did especially well at Grandma Kobe's house because she had had some practice at home with the easter bunny.

Erin's hiphop party

Erin had a hiphop birthday party this year because she wanted to invite a bunch of friends and I didn't want to clean up the mess so we had it at the dance studio that the girls go to. They provide an hours worth of dance instruction and then an hour for eating and presents. It was funny to watch because none of the girls had any idea what hiphop was. So I asked the instructor if she would perform a short dance so they could get a taste of hiphop. After that they played the freeze game (the kids dance till the music stops and "freeze" in any position)and the kids (mainly Erin) really "got their groove on". Luckily we got some of it on video! After dancing and playing games they all had pizza and cake. Erin said she had a good time and would do it all over again. The nice thing was being able to leave the mess behind!

Busy family

The Kobe family has been pretty busy lately. Derek is in the process of framing the rest of our basement in hopes of finishing the family room soon. Katie is still RS president (even after Bro Ballard's talk from General Conference). I'm giving a cheese cake demo at the end of the month to kick off our cooking classes we will have every month. There was a lot of interest in the classes, but not many sisters volunteered to help teach the classes. Erin is working with Derek on her first science project for school (we aren't sure what it will be yet; it's a work in progress). Morgan is rehearsing, with her ballet class, the dance they will perform in June at Thanksgiving Point. Shannon is in the process of being potty trained (we hope), but I had to put a stop to it today because I got a sinus cold and I'm not in the frame of mind to deal with wet undies all day! Lauren is in her own room now (yipee) and we will start training her to sleep through the night soon! Hopefully this will go better than the potty training.