I sit here on a quiet Sunday
evening with another week winding down for the Nutt House. This has been a busy week for us, as is usual
and I’m grateful for the calm that comes with the end of a Sunday as we wrap up one week and start off another. Life can and usually is crazy and busy and if we don't take the time to appreciate the quiet and slowness that we are occasionally blessed with it is hard to find peace and appreciate all the we've been given, and that is something I work hard to do. That said, here is our week....
Kara and Kaden both continued their Kindergarten Prep and
Tinkering for Tots, respectively this week.
Both kiddos are enjoying and excelling at their classes with each of
their teachers providing positive reports back on their progress. Kaden attentively works and participates in
his class and cleans up when finished with one task so he can move on to the
next. I do have to say, I have mixed feelings
on this report. I am happy that he is
doing so well and does help clean up too, but I am slightly baffled at why he
can’t seem to help me clean up here at home with as much ease??!? Kara’s teacher gave her a glowing
recommendation saying in every way possible, she is ready for kindergarten –
skill wise, mentally, emotionally, socially… as if we didn’t already know this
eager young lady is all set for kindergarten.
Now, just if her mom was just as ready!
In the few hours I have one on one time with Kaden after his
Tinkering class is over and Kara’s Kindergarten Prep class ends we’ve made the
most of our time together this past week.
Early in the week we made cookies together with Kaden adamantly
selecting chocolate chip cookies as the time we’d make. It’s been fun to have this one on one time
with him and discover more of his individual personality that creeps out when
his sister isn’t along for the adventure.
Kaden loves to bake and insists on helping with every single step from
measuring out ingredients to turning on the mixer, to scooping out the cookie
dough, and of course, the best part…
licking the beater, and in this case the bowl too!
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| One of my most favorite pictures of the week! |
Later in the week after having made a quick visit to the
mall for some dance attire for Kara Kaden requested that we spend our one on
one time at the mall and he was not going to let me forget that. So, after picking him up from his class, we
headed to the mall where he had fun playing in the kid’s zone, we shared some
cinnamon sugar pretzel bites, visited both the Lego and the Disney stores and
best of all… we rode on the mall train.
That one component right there would have been enough for Kaden, but
fortunately for him, we shared and I treasured each moment, each stop, each
cuddle I could capture out of our mall time. As I ponder on the thought, I've come to the conclusion that this was one of my most favorite
trips to any mall… ever!
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| My favorite, handsome little man |
With the recital over summer dancing is in full bloom and
Kara has been, in her own words, a dancing queen this past week. She’s continuing to work on her solo for our
upcoming trip to National’s in Las Vegas but has also started working on her
new solo that she’ll perform with this next dance season. Additionally, Kara has been dancing away at
classes, her standard dance class, advanced tumbling class which is now
lengthened to an hour versus the half hour it was last season/year and
additionally, she is taking ballet. The
solo she is performing this next year has a lot of ballet techniques and steps
included in it so the addition of a ballet class to her dance regime will help
her immensely. I spent a good deal of time
prepping Kara how ballet is not like the dance classes she is used to, full of
fun music, time to talk with friends, etc. and that ballet would be repetition,
classical music, and attentive listening free of the friend time she is used
to. I was worried about what she would
think, but at least for the first class, she loved it and reported back to me
that it wasn’t as boring as I’d made it out to be and that she had a good time,
which was very good to hear. I just hope
the next report and the one after that, and after that, and so on are all as
positive.
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| My tiny dancer doesn't look so tiny anymore! |
Along with dance and school classes this week brought more
of our standard activities and classes.
After a week off of swim lessons Kara and Kaden were excited to jump
back into swim lessons where Kaden is oh so close to moving up to the next
level. Fortunately, summer is here which
is affording more opportunities for either Brent or the entire Nutt House to go
swimming with and allow additional swim time and practice for both kiddos. Along with swimming, Kaden has had fun at My
Gym where between the open gym play time, his class, and a day camp one-day
last week Kaden relished in over 5 hours of My Gym time. One might think that after 5+ hours he’d be
tired of My Gym for the day and possibly week, but oh no… not our Kaden! He was still bummed to leave and is anxious
to go back. Though we were only able to
fit one friend play date in during the week, where our summer schedule is
somewhat crazy and full we are/I am being extra sensitive to play time and
anywhere, anytime one or both kiddos can have good ole’ play time we are jumping
on that band wagon. At times, cancelling
out on planned activities, though at the end of the day, the play time whether
alone or together is so needed, valued, and enjoyed it is so worth it. When Kaden is playing alone, the bulk of the
time he can be found playing with Legos.
This kid has so much fun with Legos that he could and does spend hours a
day creating, building, and imagining with Legos. While I prefer order and structure to life
the joy he gets out of playing with Legos trumps my desire for a clean house
and for up to a week at a time I am okay with him scattering his Legos all
across the dining room table. Once they
start falling off the table on a fairly regularly basis then that is when it is
time to put them up, and even then, I work hard to keep all of his creations in
tact.
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| Kaden at swim class, so close buddy, so close! |
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| One of Kaden's many Lego creations, he requested that I take a picture of this one and put it on Facebook to share with others |
Throughout the busy week the Nutt House has found time to
gather together as a family and enjoy a couple different activities
together. One came mid-week when we went
to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and to watch a clown from the Ringling Bros. and
Barnum and Bailey Circus perform. Then,
toward the end of the week on Saturday we had a jam packed family day of
activities. We started our day off
joining friends for breakfast at Waffle House.
Where there weren’t any tables big enough to fit us all at the diner the
kiddos were pleased to find out they got to sit at the counter to eat while the
adults took the booth next to them for breakfast. Following breakfast, we headed to the church
where we worked alongside the family we enjoyed breakfast with, the Sypher’s to
clean the church. Once it was clean and
we’d rested up at home we went over to their place for a quick hour of swimming
before racing back home to clean up for a ward baptism that we were going to
attend. Once the baptism was over the
tired Nutt House enjoyed dinner together before heading home to call it a
fairly early evening.
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| Lovin' Kara's goofy expression |
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| Hungry little goofballs waiting for breakfast |
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| Nothing says Saturday morning breakfast like chocolate chip waffles and hot chocolate (filled with ice since it is summer and we are in Phoenix) |
Friday brought our big activity and friend day for the week
where the little Nutts and myself began our adventures by meeting up with
friends at the theater for their summer movie program. The movie we watched was the new Peanuts
movie, which I absolutely adore! I love the
fact that in this movie, for once good ole’ Charlie Brown does get the girl in
the end, he gets the validation for all the good things he does, and his
successes and efforts are recognized by the other kids. Call me crazy, but I do start to cry toward the
end of this movie I enjoy it that much.
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| Snacks in hand waiting for friends to arrive and the movie to start |
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| Disney Jr. knowledge quiz time at the Disney store |
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| Vroom.. Vroom... |
The Reptile Man brought several lizards and snakes with him
to show and educate the children with.
We got to watch him feed the animals, learn where they came from, what
they did and didn’t like and eventually even got to touch a huge snake at the end. I found watching Kaden amusing. We started off at the font of the room where
the kiddos had a front row seat, as Kaden became slightly frightened I watched
him inch his way back until he was no longer on the front row. Once he realized there was nothing to be
afraid of he worked his way back up with his friends and sister so he had the front
and center seat once again. I found
myself amazed, pleasantly, when both kiddos wanted to touch the snake. There was no hesitation, no apprehension,
nothing the kiddos were excited to get in line and carefully pet the snake with
the back of their hands, careful to avoid the snakes tail as it was ticklish to
him. The reptile man was amazing, though
I still do not care for snakes, both kiddos walked away enjoying the reptiles,
unafraid, with Kara even asking if we could have a snake if we already didn’t
have two pets. (The answer would still
be no!)
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| Photo op fun before the Reptile Show started |
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| I think they were being scary dinosaurs but I'm not sure |
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| The kiddos were fascinated the entire time, though when a couple lizards and snakes got a little close for comfort Kara screamed the girly scream |
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| Though I don't like the snake, I do like this picture |
After the reptile show, we headed to McDonalds for some post
show ice cream cones and play place time before heading home and calling it a
day.
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| I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Scream |
We wrapped our week up with a wonderful Sabbath day. Church was uplifting, spiritually filling,
and enjoyable as usual, in Primary, Kara shared a talk with the Jr. Primary on
how the fourth Article of Faith (We believe that the first principles and
ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second,
Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth,
Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost) with some help from
Brent. We were both a couple of proud
big Nutts where Kara improvised toward the end speaking truly from the
heart. This girl has such a strong
spirit about her, I pray it always remains so strong and so focused on the Iron
Rod.
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| A perk to being in the primary presidency is the ability to sneak photos when my kiddos are rock stars in primary! |
Our after church time wasn’t bad either as friends joined us
for a late lunch/early dinner followed by a visit from Kara’s Gigi. Kara was so excited when she was surprised at
the door by Gigi and both little Nutts ran around like balls of energy showing
and telling what mattered most to them for the hour and a half they got to see
her. Our kind hearted little Nutts were
proud to end their night and their week expressing the love they feel toward
their friends and family. And what
better way is there to end any day or any week?
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| Kara reading to her Gigi |
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