Sporty

Scott tried teaching Kadee Lynn to fish.  I don't think it's her "sport" yet, as her patience isn't that long yet (I don't think mine is either).  We'll have to find out what day they stock the ponds and go the day after to make it more fun.  Still a cute photo though!

One thing that we love about Texas is how young kids can do sports compared to Utah.  Kadee Lynn loves soccer so of course we signed her up.  Scott is her coach - which has been more babysitting than coaching with how young the kids are.  We were quite surprised (and proud) to see that Kadee Lynn is the best player on her team (no competition at all).   One time her teammate was trying to kick the ball on the wrong side.  Kadee Lynn sat down on the ball so it wouldn't go in since he wasn't listening to her, the coach, and all the parents yelling too. I just love how much she loves playing. Before each game she puts on her pretend armor and crown.  I never understood how fun it is to watch your child do a sport.  Luckily soccer is year round here.

Kadee Lynn has always wanted to do a triathlon since that is what mommy and daddy do.  We told her if she practices riding her bike a lot she could - and sure enough she has finally become an excellent bike rider (still with training wheels but were happy she finally enjoys it).  Even though she knew how to ride she would never try. One day she developed magical powers in the rear wheel so she can now ride great.

 If you have never seen a kids triathlon, they are the cutest and most fun triathlons.  Kadee Lynn was the youngest since you had to turn 4 in 2014 to participate (her birthday is Dec. 28th).  There were about 250 kids and a local news anchor was the MC.  She had an absolute blast and told me it was easy.  Scott ran with her the whole time.

25 meter swim ~ 1 mile bike ~ 1/3 mile run

Sorry about the quality of video.  I was just holding my phone recording video while taking photos with camera in my other hand.  Also, my phone video editor doesn't allow me to take clips out of middle of video - it's a little long but she does talk at the end and is so cute (but I may be biased).

Waiting for the race start.  Scott giving her a pep talk - well probably just comforting her.

 I was almost started crying seeing her sit there by herself as it hit me how big she is getting.  I'm having issues cutting the cord.

 And she's off!  She was smiling the whole way.  These boys must have been so tired after swimming with every single kid.

 Cheese!  She sprinted to transition - so excited!  Time for the bike ride.

 And now time to run!  She was sprinting

yeah she did it!  The MC announced her as the cutest participant ever.  They played Disney music the whole time.  Such a fun day (and we then went to Six Flags after).

Fun in July

When people here that Scott works from 4:00-12:00, they first say, oh thats a horrible schedule.  But it's actually a perfect family schedule if your kids aren't in school.  We have a lot of fun.  Here are a few things we have done this July.

Happy 4th of July!  We went to Allen's 4th of July Celebration.  The girls had fun on rides, but most of all loved getting their hair done like Elsa and Anna and colored!  It took me 4 shampoos to get all that blue out of Kadee Lynn's hair.  Kadee Lynn has so much more fun when Estelle is there.

Kadee Lynn participated in the kids bike/scooter/wagon Parade in Allen.  It was the farthest she ever rode her bike (around a corner of the shopping mall).  She won for best decorated bike!  (She also was the best dressed but I guess she couldn't win both awards)....mommy and daddy loved her prize - a $50 BBQ giftcard.  Woohoo!

 "I'm the winner!"

About every 1.5-2 weeks we go up and visit Grandpa and Grandma Stanworth.  Kadee Lynn loves playing with them.

Daddy had a birthday!  According to Kadee Lynn he is 46 - quite a bit older than reality.  :).

We decided to try out Six Flags water park.  Kadee Lynn wasn't too fond of standing in line for the big rides that we could go on as a family in rafts.  So we stayed in the kids zone.  She was 2 inches too short for the kids slides, which were pretty big - but we managed to sneak her on.  She thought she was such a big girl, especially for going on the tunnel slide by herself.  She cried when we had to go home.

We are huge fans on Little Elm Beach Park.  Scott gets a little bored of making sand castles and playing in water with no waves.  But he LOVES to paddleboard now.  Kadee Lynn is also a big fan.

Unfortunately there aren't any indoor malls in our town.  But we will occasionally drive 30 minutes to one - as it is SO hot.  Lately we have been watching wipe-out and American Ninja warrior as a family.  Kadee Lynn came up with this course at the mall by herself.

Kadee Lynn gave her first talk in church!  She was so excited, as she was sick the week she was supposed to give one in Utah.  Her talk was on her ancestor Elizabeth Taylor (Her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother).  She told me she wants to die so she can go to heaven and see her.  We had a big talk about not wanting to die because she needs to be here for all of family.  Kids are so cute.

Cute video of Kadee Lynn and her cousin Estelle dancing.  This was actually from June.

Kadee Lynn update

Lately Kadee Lynn has been blooming when it comes to crafts, coloring, drawing, and letters.  It's as if one day her desire to learn more just clicked and now she can't get enough.

It took a while to learn to write her whole name, mostly because I kept procrastinating teaching her new letters.  She is a pro at it now.  She loves her name and ALL the letters in it.  She is especially fond of "K" since that is what it begins with.

First time writing her name by herself. 7/16/2014.

Her Dr. Seuss letter book will repeat letters 3 times.  One day at Walmart she saw a k, and started saying KKK, I too chimed in with her like the book.  About after the 3rd time I came to realization that this sounded horrible and I just started laughing.

In Utah she had absolutely no desire to draw and little desire to color.  She would mostly just scribble and occasionally color in the lines.  Now she can't get enough.  We go through so much paper from all of her creations she makes.  She will draw something, cut it up, glue it together, etc.  We will do crafts a few hours each day.  She now is starting to understand how to create her own crafts rather than having me tell her what to do.   She also loves play-doh.  Just this week she started forming animals with them.  I really should take some photos of her more recent projects - they are so cute and much better than what I have below.

 The library has crafts 1-3 times a week. 

"mommy you are a potato, and I have a belly button"

This is a picture of Jesus.  "Look mommy he is really hairy."

I am not only proud of her, but it sure is nice for me to get a little break and have her play by herself.

Woohoo for completing the library's summer reading program (she was proud of herself, but really I was more proud since I did all the reading to her).  :)

This is the cutest letter Kadee Lynn sent to her cousin Cade.  I wrote down exactly what she said. 6/4/2104

Every day she also plays with her Legos and K'nex blogs for a minimum of an hour.  If daddy plays with her it can last over 3 hours.

What do you do in Texas?

May/June 2014

So many people ask me what do you do in Texas (including me)?  With no mountains many outdoor activities are eliminated but we sure have found some way to have fun.

-Visit family

Brian's family live in a beautifully forested area outside of Houston.  The trip was meant to help Kadee Lynn transition since she would be with family.  Although, she was still whining and not her happy herself, and then her and Kayson just can't stand each other for some unknown reason.  Kayson gets along with most kids, and Kadee Lynn gets along with everyone too, but man do they fight with each other.  Poor kids.  At least Kallie and the babies are there too for them to play with!  We sure do love how we can see them every few months now rather than every few years!

Grandpa & Grandma Stanworth live 45 minutes away.  They have a beautiful house, with a pool, dogs, and horses!

My brother Kevin moved here in June to join a dental practice.  He lives 40 minutes away.  Kadee Lynn loves when she gets to play with Estelle.  We laugh because they love each other but oh do they fight since they love all the same toys.  Whenever I ask Kadee Lynn if she likes seeing Estelle she says "Yes, its so hard leaving."  Maybe once they stop fighting so much we can do a sleepover.  

Or have family come visit you!  We are always happy to have visitors.  Grandpa & Grandma Johnston visited for 2 very short, but very fun days. It's always a party with my mom!

-Do sports!  

Everyone in Texas does sports.  I mean our city high school football paid for a $60 million dollar football stadium! Colleges in Utah don't even pay that much.  Before we left Utah, Kadee Lynn went to 2 Karate lessons and loved it.  So we signed her up for 1 month of karate here.  She was so cute, and caught on pretty quick.  I was proud of her for learning discipline as I know its so hard for her to sit still, I think it helped her a lot.  She was SO excited when she earned her ribbons for learning different moves, she cuddled her belt the whole way home.

Of course we continue to play her best sport soccer.  She has also played
tennis a few times (when Scott and I play we will throw the ball to her 5 minutes at a time).  She is actually really good at it.

Video of 4th time she played tennis

Golf of course!  If its too hot, go to Top Golf where its shaded, there are fans, and lots of refreshments.

This is how we walk 9 holes so Kadee Lynn can chose which ones she wants to play

Go to Parks!  

Texas has so many kids parks, splash pads, sports parks, nature parks, dog parks, etc.  They are huge and everywhere,  We sure are loving it.

 riding scooter 1 mile to the park! (she made it half way then sat in stroller)

 feeding the ducks

 kids love water up the keester!

At first I thought this park was awesome.  Now I despise it because I can lose her so fast so I'm chasing her around from down below.  Way too big 

The sand volleyball courts have a shaded play area for kids!  Yeah for sand.

BMX park next to our apartments.

Go to the Library!

Even though I grew up going to the library, I had never taken Kadee Lynn to one before.  Just because I didn't have time with working.  I thought Orem and Provo had pretty good libraries.  They might be larger than Allen's library, but Allen's kids activities are awesome.  There is storytime every day/night which includes singing, dancing, and a craft.  Every day there is a different theme craft activity for the kids.  All of this is free.  Then for doing the summer reading program, Kadee Lynn got a free book, free entrance to the aquarium and Legoland Discovery, and a free meal to a restaurant.  We love these activities especially on hot days.  I decided I am never buying a book again.  We get the best books at the library - most are brand new.  And we can buy gently used books for $0.25.  

 To kick off the summer reading program the library had a little free carnival.

Waiting for the crafts to start.

-Theme Parks

If you want to pay, there are a ton of places to go.  Six flags, zoo, petting zoos, aquarium, tons of museums, Legoland Discovery, arboretum, etc.  We decided to get a pass to Six Flags since its the same price for daily admission as it is for a season pass.  Kadee Lynn LOVED the fast rides.  Next time we will have to bring high heels so she can be a little taller.

-Swimming

Because it gets super hot here everyone goes swimming in the summer.  Okay it hasn't gotten over 100 yet and I dying!  This makes summer in Vegas seem like cool weather.  I guess I'm just use to dry heat.  I've never done so much laundry in my life with us always sweating....it's a good thing I have the time to do it now.  :).

Instead of doing play-dates, the moms in our ward do a swim swap.  Since everyone has community pools all the moms and kids meet at a different pool each week.  Kadee Lynn is use to being the popular girl, so she has been having trouble making friends since she has to go up to the kids rather than everyone running up to her.  But I don't blame her, I too hate making new friends - I feel like I'm back in college being the new girl.

We found a wonderful man-made sandy beach on the lake.  It is the best.  Kadee Lynn could stay there all day. The best of both worlds: sand and water!

-Exploring

-And being silly at home

And on those extremely hot days when we need to get out we go to ToysRUs for a few hours, go to the mega golf stores where Kadee Lynn loves hitting balls, Cabelas, and any other air-conditioned store we can think will provide free entertainment.