Laughs

The other day Kendra called me from across the living room. She said, "Hi mommy." It totally tripped me out when I saw her eyes! She's only two and she can cross her eyes! It turns out Mark does that to her all the time so somehow she learned how to do it. I got a picture of her and every time I look at it I just crack up!



Kendra mimicks us all the time. She was playing with her bear and a plastic cow. She said, "Bear, there's cow, wanna say hi to cow?" "Wanna say hi cow?" Then she held her bear and swayed back and forth, "Oh you shy, you shy." This is usually the dialogue Mark and I use when Kendra meets someone for the first time. "Kendra, do you want to say hi to (name)?" Then she buries her face in our shoulder and we say, "Are you shy?" Kids are great.

Halloween and Other Events

Kendra is old enough now to make Halloween fun! On the 25th we had our ward trunk-or-treat. Kendra was our cow and Mark and I were the farmers. Kendra went around with a friend to each car. At first she didn't understand. She put out her hand for the candy. After two pieces her hands were full - she didn't know quite what to do when the third piece of candy was offered. When she was done Kendra excitedly came to us and said, "look at my tick or tweat!" She was in heaven with all that candy.

On Halloween we thought it would be fun for Kendra to trick-or-treat with her friend who dressed up as Snow White because Kendra has a Snow White costume too. I had so much fun watching Kendra walk without fear to each door anticipating her wonderful treat!

I haven't written for awhile so I need to backtrack a little. Kendra was re-evaluated two weeks ago. She is average to above average in each developmental area. Her lowest score is in socialization - but honestly, do we really want our kids to be socialized? Reviving Ophelia and Real Boys are two books that talk about the impact of socialization.

About a week ago at 4:30 a.m. I awoke to a loud bang, bang, bang, on our door. I jumped up and grabbed Mark. I thought for sure it was the cops. Who else would bang on our door and wake us up in the middle of the night?!?! I peered out the window - now cop cars. We could hear two voices. It sounded like our neighbor was fighting with someone (maybe his ex) and wanted us to intervene or something. He kept knocking as Mark and I sat and listened. We were not going to open the door and let an angry man in! Word to the wise - do not wake me up and more than that, don't wake my daughter!

Again?!?!

This is so funny. Mark's car was hit, what, three weeks ago? Mine was hit yesterday. I drove down to Kendra's Gym when a big rig truck pulled out. Obviously he didn't see me. Then, everything went in slow motion. I see him pulling out, he is on one side, and the curb on the other side of me. I slam on my breaks but I can't go anywhere, I'm going to get hit, I can't help it. My breaks squealed under the intense pressure and then wham! I sat in shock for a few moments. Did I really just get hit?!?! The guy backed up, and then pulled in front of me to conitinue down the road. I got out of my car and told him to pull into the next parking lot. Luckily my car only has minor scratches in the front bumper. Kendra and I are fine, but can you believe it! After the shock wore off I laughed about it. Our lives are way too funny.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out!!

Saturday afternoon BYU played New Mexico in football. It was so much fun to go to the stadium again. We don't have cable so we haven't been able to follow BYU since we moved. They are a great team and I'm looking forward to the BYU vs. Utah game. BYU beat the Lobos 21 to 3. It wasn't a great game until the 4th quarter. Mark and I want to go back and watch a game next year at Lavell Stadium even though the cougs will be traveling here to play in New Mexico. After the game the players run around the north and west ends of the stadium and give high fives to the fans. It was fun. This was also the first time my parents, who have been BYU fans from before I was born, watched a football game in the stadium!!

Thanksgiving Point

Have you guys ever been to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point? It's amazing! You could easily spend all day there. It is fun for adults and kids with lots of hands on activities. It makes our ABQ museum look pitiful! Whenever we go back to Utah we'll go again.

Suessical the Musical

Friday night we attended Shoni's show at the Scera. The cast did a great job and it's such a fun show to watch.

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.