Friday

Friday morning we headed to Temple Square. Mark and I were able to see the Joseph Smith movie while Shoni played with Kendra. My parents flew in that afternoon and then we just had to go to BYU bookstore. Everytime we go to Provo we always go to the bookstore! On our way we stopped at the BYU Museum of Art. I love the picture of Kendra sitting with her Grandpa looking at the painting of Jesus.

Shoni's Class

On Thursday we visited My sister's classroom. She teaches 2nd grade in Springville, UT. Kendra was shy at first, but absolutely loved being with all the kids. She did centers with them and even became a little performer for the kids and teachers.

Angels

We traveled to Provo, Utah on Wednesday, October 8th. Mark worked half that day and we met in the middle so he could return his rental car. We had planned to stop in Moab, but when we arrived it was only 5:30 pm. We knew we could easily make it to Provo by 9:30 pm. But we had already reserved a hotel. To cancel without a fee it had to be within 24 hours prior to check-in time. We thought we'd give it a try.

We stopped at the Super8 in Moab. The manager was very kind and told us that as long as we had a place to stay in Provo she would cancel our stay in Moab with no fee. Their motel was almost completely full so she thought for sure she could fill our room. How kind of her - and we were able to finish the trip in a day.

After Moab we travel on I-70 for about 20 miles before getting onto another highway. Mark, excited to end the trip was going quite fast. Shortly after we got on I-70 we flew past an officer. Immediately his lights went on. We were the only car on the freeway that past him after his lights came on. I told Mark he might as well pull over. He said he wanted to wait to make sure it was him. Of course it was! He finally pulled over. The officer took his license, our registration and proof of insurance and returned to his car. Much to my surprise I wasn't mad at Mark. He deserved a ticket for going so fast! The officer returned and told us he was only going to give us a warning. He then said, "I just want you to slow down so you can get home safely." What a nice guy. Have you ever met such a kind police officer?

Possessive are we?

I took my car in to get the oil changed. Mark can do it, but I won't let him hurt my car - I want it to last a long time! Kendra cried when she saw that people were "hurting" our car. Geez, does anyone else's kids do this? AND we had to get up and discuss various items and when we were done someone had sat in Kendra's chair. She kept whining saying, "that's Kenga's chair, that's Kenga's chair." Distraction usually works but this time she kept going back to the woman sitting in her chair. This happens with everything she thinks is hers. If anyone touches it she cries, whines, etc.

Lately we've noticed the tender side Kendra has. At the gym one of the little girls didn't want to run around, she just wanted to sleep. So Kendra laid next to her and patted her on the back. So sweet. I was surprised that Kendra touched her - she doesn't like it when the other kids touch her.

Our other great news is that Kendra wore panties all day today - and no accidents!!!

We enjoyed watching conference today. I really look forward to it. It's nice to hang out at home for a couple of days with our family. We use to go to the church but that was hard with a little child, so last March we upgraded our internet to DSL.

Life

This just totally cracks me up. Mark use to park at the mall to take the bus until the new bus parking lot opened. We never had any problems parking at the mall. Then, within two weeks of opening, Mark's car was damaged. Yesterday, and this just makes me laugh, someone puked all over by Mark's driver side door. He scooted around and jumped over it to get in. I would've just crawled through the passenger side. I wonder what will happen next week....

Here in New Mexico (and probably all of the southwest) you have to spray every so often to keep bugs out of your house. It has been a few months and bugs are creeping back in. I didn't mind until last night when Mark and I were about to go to bed and I noticed a long crawling critter coming towards my head!! It was another centipede - about 4 inches long, but with giant pinchers. Yeah, Mark's spraying tonight.

Kendra attends the Little Gym for gymnastics. It is probably the most expensive gymnastic program and I wouldn't have enrolled her if I didn't think she needed it. She loves her instructor and playing on the equipment. It's so good for her body. She still has issues with touch. Yesterday at the gym a boy ran into her (they run into each other alot). She began to cry (she's not hurt, just upset someone came into her bubble unwelcomed). The boy went back to say "sorry" and Kendra flipped. I'm sure she thought he was going to touch her again. This behavior has puzzeld me and I haven't known what to do about it. Today, after talking to my friend, I realize I need to validate her feelings and role play with her. Hopefully with time she'll handle it better.

Only If There's Food

Kendra is really into princesses. We found this used Snow White dress and I couldn't resist. She wears it all the time - especially when she wants to dance.

Today we went to Corrales to go to Wagner Farms where they have a petting zoo. Little did we know that it was Harvest Days down there. We had to take a detour just to get to the farm and then when we got there we couldn't get down to the petting zoo. So discouraging. I'll take Kendra next month.

We took Mark's car in for an estimate yesterday. The total damage is $2600. That's half the value of his car! Our insurance will pay all but $250 and they'll even pay for a rental! Isn't that great! Let me tell you about the place we took his car to. It's called car crafters and we took the car there because they work directly with our insurance. Now, when you think of body shops you imagine a dirty greasy place right? Well, this place is nice! It was clean, had a lego table and chairs for kids, and to top it off they had cookies and drinks!! I don't just mean the store bought from a package cookie, they had gourmet cookies that you would get from a deli!! The cookies just made car crafters my favorite place. It's too bad they don't do oil changes.

Making Progress

My child was bald at birth. Her hair growth has been very slow - so I was very excited when I could finally do a ponytail, then two ponytails, and check out what I did the other day!! Her hair is finally growing!

Kendra was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder in April. She was below the 2nd percentile for tactile dysfunction. Basically her brain didn't interpret tactile input correctly. She was such a clean baby and being a first time mom I didn't know any better. The other day for our "snack" we had apples and caramel dip. I was thrilled to see her hands and face!



We take Mark's car in tomorrow for an estimate. We are hoping our insurance will cover most of it and that our cut will be only $250. Our normal deductible is $750.

Seriously People

So Mark takes the bus to work. He use to park at the mall, but ABQ recently made a new transit parking area down the street. Due to this there are no cameras, much to our dismay. When Mark arrived at the stop this evening he noticed that his car had been hit. There was no note, phone number, or insurance card. This was no little scrape either as you can see from the photos. I was miffed! Seriously how rude!

Awakening

So over the course of the last couple of weeks we have had to scrub our living room carpet a couple of times. One spot Kendra puked on and the other she peed. We noticed how white the carpet is where we scrubbed. We had no idea our carpet was suppose to be so white! Guess it's time to rent a carpet cleaner.

The other night I realized something I should have long ago. Kendra sometimes has a difficult time sleeping. This was one of those nights. She just kept crying, exhausted, and unable to relax. I finally did compressions and put some weight on her. She fell asleep soon after that. She needs a lot of proprioceptive input because of her Sensory Disorder. All she needs is a weighted blanket - what an easy fix. I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out!!

Go Cougs!

We decided today to visit Utah yet once again. My sister is in Suessical the Musical at the Scera so we'll get to see her show. AND as luck would have it, that same weekend (Oct. 11th) is BYU's homecoming football game against New Mexico Lobos!! Mark and I will get to wear our true blue while Kendra will sport her Lobo cheerleader outfit! (By the way, everything down here is English and Spanish, so for those of you who don't habla espanol Lobo is spanish for wolf). We're excited to get to go to another game at BYU.

When we drove through Utah in July we didn't have much time and we were rushed. We wanted to see our professors, spend more time at temple square, and go to Thanksgiving point. Plus I wanted to eat at Brick Oven. So, now we'll get to do that!

Just Quarantine Us Already!

So on Wednesday Mark came home and just fell on the couch. That's not a good sign - he's never done that. "Kristi I don't feel good." Great, my entire family is sick! He finally went to the doctor today and got an antibiotic. I just hope the cycle will stop now. Mark was sick a month ago, then passed it on and it's going back around. It started early for us this year. Last year it didn't begin until late October. It didn't end until April. Let's hope we'll be healthier this time around!

Who taught her that?!?!

Kendra and I have watched way too many movies over the past two weeks. I think she is learning new vocabulary from them. One day she said, "Oh my gosh!" Mark and I don't say that and it took me forever to figure out where she got it from - The Little Mermaid. We play a game where she sits on the couch and then I sit on her and she pushes me off, she thinks it's loads of fun. So as I sat on her today she said, "mommy you're too fat!" I still haven't figured out where she learned fat from. I need to be more careful with my impressionable daughter.

I have bugged Mark for years to take me to Disneyland. He is finally okay with going. My brother just went with his family and I talked to him to get a perspective with a young child. He told me that Disneyland is an extremely over stimulating place and asked if Kendra with her SPD would be okay with that. Out of my excitement to go I had forgotten about Kendra's SPD!!! I'm not sure how she'd take it. I thought the beach would be a great sensory experience for her, but maybe Disneyland would be the ultimate!

Kendra loves to talk on the phone especially to her aunt Shoni.