I Heart Kearns (for the most part)

Our little house - funnily enough, one of the window panes in the front window was recently broken by the kids, which makes it all the more Kearns :)

We have lived in our house for 5 years!  This might not sound like that big of a deal if you've lived in the same house for many years, but it is definitely a milestone for us.  The longest we lived anywhere else was in Logan for 2 1/2 years while we were going to school.  So when we bought our house we told ourselves that we were going to be here for 5ish years (because that seemed like an eternity) and then probably move.

Now that the 5 years are up, it's pretty obvious that we're not going anywhere anytime soon.  Between adoption debt (almost finished with it!) and just how much we are willing to pay for housing, it's not in our financial best interest to leave.  But besides that, the area has definitely grown on me.  Don't get me wrong - there are still plenty of things that irk me about where we live, but they don't bug me as much as they used to.   Or maybe I'm just emotionally investing myself for the long-term since that's what it looks like it will be.  Either way, for the past few months I've been mentally tallying the pros of living where we do.  And as I've been seeing the good, it's pretty evident that Heavenly Father put us exactly where our family needed to be.  Who knows what will happen in the future and where we might go, but  right now I'm seeing the huge blessings our little family has been given by living here.

So here are some of the specific things I appreciate about our quirky neighborhood, in no specific order:


Proximity:
Our house is right across the street from the elementary.  As a one car family, this has become a can't-do-without.  And with the school right there, our street is one of the first to get plowed during the winter.  Next to the school is a park where we spent what seemed like half our waking hours during the summer, and the church is around the corner from the park.
The library is within walking/kids biking distance during good weather, so that has been our twice a week outing.

School:
The elementary staff has A LOT of experience teaching kids whose second language is English.  The ESL program is well established, and Tam tested into it and began receiving services within a week of being enrolled in school.  Because of the economics of the area, our school is a Title I school so the preschool is free(!), and just across the street at the school.  I don't think we would have been able to swing preschool this year if it wasn't at our elementary, just because of the transportation dilemma of one car.

Racial and Cultural Diversity:
I don't know the exact numbers for our entire neighborhood, but the school enrollment lists only 30% of the student population as white.  The racial and cultural diversity is obvious by the stores and restaurants, and by the churches in the immediate area.  The churches are what I noticed the most when we first moved in.  Within a mile radius there are not only multiple LDS congregations (in English and Samoan), but a Samoan Methodist Church, a Catholic church with services in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and a Baptist church with services in English and Spanish.  The LDS ward that we attend is a pretty interesting demographic, where there are a whole lot of older white people (80+ years old) who are the original homeowner group, and then a smaller group of younger families that is more diverse.  Last year at our ward Christmas party the teenagers and some of the primary kids acted out the nativity story, and as I watched I realized that of the ten or so kids up there, there were only 2 who were white kids born in America.

Wonderful People:
I think this is something that can be said about most places, and I didn't see it as much at first because our neighbors tend to be a bit rougher around the edges, but as we've gotten to know them they are some of the most caring and giving people I've ever met.  It seems like people here just aren't as worried about what others think about them, but are very welcoming and quick to be kind.

Kate turns 4!

Kate had been looking forward to her birthday for quite a few months now, partly because she understands the age upgrade thing now, and partly because she had her heart set on having a pinata at her birthday party.  We were more than happy to make her pinata dream come true.  Seriously, that was her only request for her birthday.  And it was so fun!  The kids helped fill the pinata (with leftover Halloween candy:) ), and then when Grandpa and Grandma came over to celebrate with us Kerry hung it up in our carport.  Kate got the first turn with it, then the boys each got a turn before it got destroyed.  The kids had a blast.  This was definitely a tradition where the boys didn't ask any clarifying questions about why we were doing this.  As we were telling them about it earlier in the day, their reactions were more of "This is the best idea EVER!"

Best Day of Yeb's Life: permission and encouragement to hit something

After the pinata, we went in and Kate opened her presents, and then we sang happy birthday, Kate blew out the long awaited four candles, and we ate cake and ice cream.  The frosting on the cake might have been radioactive judging by its color, but when purple is the favorite color of the birthday girl, that's what you end up with.  It was really cute, though. :)

There must be something magical about being four years old, because Kate has some newfound confidence in her abilities to do things.  The next day at the park, Kate declared that she could go across the monkey bars all by herself "because I'm four now."  Sure enough, she just went right across.

The Pinata Afterparty

Time for Hair

Everything in our life was affected when they boys came home 7 months ago, including the time needed for Kate's hair.  We adapted by getting some girl time in at bedtime so I could detangle and style her hair while Kerry put the boys to bed, and then as our schedule normalized a bit hair time happened in the evening after her weekly hair wash.  Styling her hair is something that I love to do, and we've gotten to the point in our family where there is space for things:  emotional space for everyone to relax just a bit, and more space in our schedule that used to be completely taken up with simply meeting basic needs.  So I've been putting a little of that time toward her hair routine, and trying out some new and more complicated styles.

I decided I wanted to try yarn twists, and Kate was all about the idea when I showed her a picture of the style that had some colored yarn.  What little girl doesn't want pink woven into their hair?

Detangling after showertime

It was pretty time intensive, partially because I was doing it for the first time, but it turned out really well.  We'll see how long we get out of this style.  I'm hoping for 3 weeks.

All Finished!  She is thrilled with it!

Tam's First Day of Kindergarten

First Day of Kindergarten

When the schoolyear started back in August, we briefly thought about enrolling Tam in kindergarten.  We talked to the school and explored what options there might be as far as him going to school just a couple days a week, but it didn't pan out.  And it wasn't the end of the world, because Tam just wasn't ready to go 5 days a week, so we figured we would revisit the decision after Christmas.  As Thanksgiving got nearer, we felt like he was ready, and decided to enroll him after the holiday.  

After submitting the enrollment paperwork, Tam was assigned to a class, and he and I went and met his teacher after school.  I had heard that all the kindergarten teachers were good, so I wasn't really worried about that specifically, but I was still definitely worried about making sure that his teacher understood where we and Tam were coming from.  I wrote up a letter explaining some things about Tam and gave it to her, and she introduced herself to him and showed him around the room.  He was so excited, and kept repeating that this is "my classroom".  

So far Tam has been excited each day to go to school, loves singing a Christmas song they have been learning, and likes to tell me what things they learned.  He has been especially thrilled that there is computer time at school, and proud of himself for listening to the teacher during computer time instead of clicking on whatever random thing he wants to do.  He is obviously very far behind academically, but we're not worried about him catching up as quickly as possible.  He is a smart little guy who learns quickly, but has been dealing with much bigger issues so far.  The academics will come as he is exposed to them and masters the language.

Halloween 2013

Our Halloween celebrations really began last weekend when we went to the Pie Nighters annual Halloween party, a group of friends from college and their little families.  There are quite a few little kids now, and so there were plenty of fun kid activities.

There was a treasure hunt complete with a treasure map, brought by our friends who were all dressed as pirates.  The kids loved it!

Then they got to shoot glowing balloon ghosts with PVC pipe guns and marshmallow bullets.  Tam really got into this one.  Yeb was all about this too, but didn't have the dexterity or patience to load the bullets, so he just ate the marshmallows and hit the ghosts with his gun.  Meanwhile, Kate was scared by all the balloons getting popped by Yeb, so she hung back a bit.

Then there was plenty of time for the kids to play while the adults chatted.  As we were leaving, both Kerry and I practically cried tears of joy that we had been able to bring our little family to something like this, and have it work out so well.  The kids all did fabulously, and there really wasn't any fallout the next day.


Yesterday we decided to make the day as laid back and normal as possible to reduce the anxiety that sometimes comes with exciting stuff.  Kate went to preschool, and had a blast wearing her costume and doing all the fun activities they had going on.  The boys and I had a regular morning, and then after an early dinner we carved pumpkins, then the kids got their costumes on and we went trick-or-treating to a couple of our close neighbors, then to the trunk-or-treat at the church.  The kids all did so well, and were excited to get candy.  We headed home and got them to bed, and were shocked that the day was so stress free for the kids.  It was about as perfect as we could have hoped for.

This is what Kerry wore to work yesterday!  It's actually his high school band
uniform (circa 1970s), and still fits, although I had to hold the keys and phone
when we went out at night because the pants were a little snug. :)  Kate
ended up thinking this was cool, but when we took the picture in the
morning she was just weirded out by how big his hat was.

General Conference October 2013

So as general conference came around, I realized that if we were going to even have a prayer of listening to any of the messages, I was going to have to do some major prep in advance.

 Let me try to explain how excited I was to listen to general conference: For the last 5 months neither Kerry nor I have really been able to get much out of our church attendance because we have either been at home with the boys (before they started coming to church) or we have been going with them to their classes, then simply surviving sacrament meeting at the end, praying that nobody has a major meltdown.

 It's been getting a lot better, but we've just been on our own to keep our testimonies from withering.  So I looked forward to conference as a major opportunity to be spiritually fed.  Somewhere along the mental line I latched onto the fairly unrealistic idea that if I put enough effort into having activities for the kids, they would somehow morph into not 5 and 3 year olds and instead sit and listen quietly.  Yeah, not so much.

Sunday morning, when things were going much more smoothly (and occasionally quietly)

The good news is that after having my unrealistic expectations shattered on Saturday, we made a different game plan for Sunday that ended up working out pretty well for the kids and us.  And, miracle of miracles, there were even a few moments where kids sat and listened!

Soccer!

As the schoolyear rolled around and it was apparent that Tam wasn't quite ready to start kindergarten (we'll revisit the decision in January.  Please pray that he'll be ready! :)), we decided that he still needed some sort of activity that was his own.  We signed him up for rec soccer, and made it into a family activity.  Twice a week for a month we packed everyone into the car to go see him play. 

This is what happens when everyone wants to be picked up at the same time.

 I was a bit worried that the 2 younger kids would be bummed that they didn't get to play, too, but they were fine.  They actually enjoyed hanging out on a blanket on the sidelines and playing with matchbox cars or whatever else they decided to bring to entertain themselves with.  The actual soccer experience for Tam was par for the course, but it seemed like he had fun, so hopefully he'll be excited to do something like this again.  What really motivated him was the fact that there was juice after each game.  And he enjoyed sharing his treat and drink with all of us and making sure that everyone got a sip or a little bite.  He really is such a sweet kid!

Practicing her hair skills during the game