Just an Ordinary Week at the Nutt House

The Nutt House appreciated a familiar sort of week over the past seven days.  With household responsibilities caught up enough that though there was still plenty going on throughout the course of the week we did not feel like we were running like chickens with our heads cut off.

With the home front under control (more or less) Monday morning Kaden and I were able to enjoy some momma-son time at the Halle Heart Museum.  We had not been to the museum for several months and the day could not have been any better for our visit.  There was one school class there, but other than that, we had the museum to ourselves.  Kaden quickly headed to the area with hearts from several animals where for the first time, instead of just pressing the button for each heart he actually allowed me to read him the facts describing each animal.  After doing so, he’d try to guess whom each heart belonged to before pressing the button.  This lasted for at least five of the hearts and it was a refreshing treat to try to teach him something in addition to just having fun.  After we were done with the hearts, Kaden darted for the shopping area where he shopped for six ingredients to try to make a heart healthy meal.  It only took a two times for him to select food items that fit the heart healthy criteria!  Once he had successfully created his heart healthy meal he was finished in the area and knowing just where he wanted to go next Kaden headed right for the theater to watch a movie about eating healthy foods.  He jogged across the museum to hand golf through a windpipe once done in the theater.  (The golf clubs were unavailable so rolling the ball with his hand was the best he could do.) After completing over 10 holes in 1 Kaden possessed the confidence of a professional golfer and declared that area complete before transitioning to the area where he could be a scientist exploring blood platelets before calling it a day.  As Kaden and I engage in these special one on one moments I see the little boy I’ve grown to love in all of his goofiness.  At the same time, the glimpses of the boy he is transitioning into are happening more and more often.  These moments cause my head and my heart to freeze as I try to soak in every detail of the moment as there is nothing tangible about these occasions that I can capture with a picture or video yet I do not want to miss or forget when these times occur. I know I am so, so blessed to be able to stay at home and enjoy the precious time I have with both of our little Nutt’s before they are grown enough that spending time with mom is no longer exciting or fun.

My future scientist

Watching and waiting for the ball to make it in the hole

Such a riveting movie!

Shopping is sooo cool!

His mind was blown at the size of the elephant's heart

The magnificent weather we have been enjoying lately continued this week as well.  It has allowed us to have some park playing time, many a moment whether big or small spent out back either jumping on the trampoline or playing in the sand pit.  In addition to these fantastic moments, Friday brought us a rare turn of events where we didn’t need to rush off anywhere right after school and we didn’t have any extra kiddos with us.  To take advantage of this situation instead of driving to the Y then walking the short distance to the school to pick up Kara, Kaden and I left the house a few minutes early with him on his scooter and I carrying Kara’s and we trekked over to the school to pick her up.  The look on Kara’s face when she saw Kaden on his scooter was priceless, she was absolutely giddy about the fact she could scoot her way home.  After several reminders that this was a rarity so it would not be expected this next week, again we headed on back for home with the happiest kindergartner that there ever had been. The last of the heavenly outside activities the wonderful weather allowed for this week was an after church picnic lunch today for the littles who cozied up together in Brent's big chair outback as they ate their sandwiches and chatted up all the important topics in their lives.

This lil' miss loves her some swings!

Nothing warms this Mama Nutt's heart like
the smiles on the faces of these two as
they are playing so well together

His scooting abilities improved 10-fold in the
long scoot to and from the school!

Kara had some special daddy-daughter time at school this week while participating in the kindergartner Pops and Penguins program.  Kara has been preparing and looking forward to this day for several weeks now.  On Tuesday when it happened, the first thing she said after waking up was, “Is today Pops and Penguins?”  She carefully chose the outfit she wore to school that day, picking a black and white outfit so she resembled a penguin herself.  Brent stayed and joined Kara for lunch before heading back to work which made the day even more special for Kara. 

My favorite little penguin

She was so proud of the cookie penguins that
both she and Brent had made that she saved them
to remake and eat them once she was home

With Friday providing more free time than the Nutt House is used to after picking Kaden up from a rare Friday preschool day my little man and I went to Perfect Pear for a lunch date of our own.  During this lunch I observed Kaden trying harder than normal to color within the lines, have me pick the colors he'd use to color next (with my eyes closed) and him watching food being delivered via a side door for the kitchen.  The food for lunch was good, but the company was unequivocally the best part of the meal.  

No Nutt-y week would be complete without kiddo activities.  Kara and her dance group are ramping up their practicing as they prepare for the competition season that really takes off here in a couple of weeks.  While she has been practicing both her group numbers and her solos I’ve started practicing the dance hair and make-up both of which always cause me extraordinary amounts of stress each and every time.  In addition to the practicing Kara, a few of the girls from her competition group and many of the younger dancers performed at a Desert Vista boys basketball halftime Friday night.  Watching the game with Brent and Kaden was enjoyable, especially trying to explain the sport to Kaden.  I am by no means an expert or even know that much about any sport, but I do know enough that I can usually answer Kaden’s questions and surprise myself at how much I do know.  When half time hit I morphed into the beaming dance mom watching our tiny dancer come alive with skills and confidence as they performed.  With half time ending more than an hour past bedtime and Kaden getting a little squirmy during the game we called it a night and headed back for home once we collected Kara.

Get it!!

Mid first quarter group selfie by Kaden

Dance crew for the evening

One thing this little dancer always does well at is remembering
the dance moves.  Now, if she could work on her timing a bit more
she'd rock the dancing world!

"I'm a Monster, I'm a Monster..."

Kaden had an ever-exciting week at My Gym where he managed to slide down head first on the slide.  (who does this???!) His group also played kick ball where he eagerly kicked the ball and ran to his base.  When the game wrapped up and he got to run to 2^nd, 3^rd, and Home all in one move he bypassed the plates and just ran in a sort of circular shape, kind of in the general vicinity of the bases.  Ask him if he ran them all and he emphatically states he did, which leads me to think if he were to ever play baseball he and the umpire may go head to head once or twice!  The highlight of the My Gym week came when the class played hot potato.  The group was to sit on their rear ends and pass the “potato” quickly when it came to them.  Kaden was so enthusiastic about the game that he couldn’t sit still and kept rocking back and forth on his knees.  He’d practically push the potato from the hands of the person handing it to him into the next set of hands as he wanted to make sure he didn’t get caught holding the potato.   Kaden feels about My Gym like Kara does about dance.  We’ll periodically ask Kaden if he’d like to try a different activity and he always says no, he does not want to give up his My Gym classes.  And, My Gym suits Kaden so well.  He isn’t very competitive which makes most sports challenging for him but he’s able to be active and learn skills at My Gym which accomplish what we are wanting to do with and for him.  So for now, we stay a My Gym family.

Because why not go head first toward the ground?

Kickball fun

Attempting a bridge kick-over.  Not as easy as Kara makes it look

Hot Potato, Hot Potato!

During our family counsel last Sunday, we agreed that Saturday we’d enjoy a family day at the Halle Heart Museum, yet as the week started I was hit with an epiphany.  Valentine’s Day is less than two weeks away and next weekend we don’t have any time to work on Valentine cards or boxes so we scratched our Saturday plans and instead spent the bulk of the day creating Valentine boxes and working on so.very.many Valentine cards.  Since we turned the day into a Valentine prep day we made our first batch of Valentine cookies for the year.  The two little Nutts voted to make red M&M cookies instead of sugar cookies for our first batch.  I hope their little hearts can take it if time doesn’t allow for the sugar cookie process on a different day.  After the cookies were made, we had so many that Brent and the kiddos took a plate over to our neighbors then up to the firemen at the local fire station.  The firefighter thanked the group for their treat with a mini tour of the fire station.  Even allowing Kaden to get up in the fire truck and continue to live out his dream of one day becoming a firefighter. 

A princess castle Valentine box for our very own princess!

Finished project

So many cards to write!

and so many for this one, and he isn't even done yet!

Cookie time!

Such focus!

 Saturday evening Brent and I once again were able to go out for the evening.  This really is a record for us!  The most dates I think we’ve been on in a year since even Kara was born and we’ve done like 4 of them in less than 2 months!  I’m so loving this!  We tried out a new to us Italian restaurant called Vincitorio’s and it was ohhh sooo good!  Fresh homemade pasta, homemade sausage, sauces, even homemade cream of mushroom soup.  Definitely delish and definitely a place I’d like to go back to again and again and again.  Just like my date with Kaden, the food was good but the company even better!  I’m enjoying the time Brent and I are making to be together, to make our marriage the priority that it is in our hearts.  Our conversations range from serious to trivial topics but what we talk about isn’t the point as much as the time together itself is.  I mean, while we were at the temple last weekend I looked into Brent’s eyes while we were in the sealing room and I saw the eyes I looked into over 8 years ago.  They say love is spelled time and finally we are finding ways to make the time to help our love continue to grow and I am forever grateful that we are.

We’ve enjoyed a relaxing Sunday here at the Nutt House.  After church, the kiddo’s picnic lunch and family counsel I mentioned to Kara that I wanted to go paint my toenails and that peaked the immediate interest of our mini teenager who eagerly asked if she could please, please, pleeeeaaaasssse paint mine for me.  After saying yes, she did her very best job on my toes before both she and Kaden went to work on my makeup.  For the sake of conversation, let’s just say I am glad we had already been to church as Kaden was going for a tiger-like look while Kara, well, I’m not sure what she was going for.  With my make-up complete, both kiddos did their own make-up.  Kara doing her very best on herself while Kaden turned himself into a tiger.  Following this fun Brent was the next to have his toes done, one foot by each little Nutt.  Kaden put enough polish on Brent’s big toe, even now, many an hour later I would not be surprised if it still isn’t slightly wet.  In addition, his toes themselves are so red it looks as though they belong in a horror film! With Brent’s toes done it was time for our princess to have her fingers all beautified for Valentine’s before wrapping up the makeover party.

 

Doing her very best to get the polish just right

One focused while one goofed

Roar!!!

Having ohhh so much fun!
*and daddy is such a good sport!

With Sunday coming to a close the Nutt House bids adieu to another Nutt-y week as we prepare for the adventures and misadventures that will come our way this next week!

One last picture from the week.  Kaden put together his dinosaur puzzle
then used his dinosaur books to research what each dinosaur was
I'm so proud of his developing love of learning!