Scottsdale

For Christmas, John gave me a treasure chest full of little envelopes. One said take a class of your choosing, another was for a massage, another was for a night of shopping. One was for a trip to get out of the cold. It hasn't been too cold this year, but that doesn't mean we couldn't still take a trip. I decided on Scottsdale, AZ since I found a good deal on a resort there. The rate was good and they gave us $100 food credit per day. So we left the kids behind and enjoyed the sun for two days. First thing that I loved seeing was green grass, I didn't realize how much I'd missed green plants! I also loved wearing my sandals and the desert landscapes. John got to golf of course-that's what Scottsdale is all about. If you want to learn more about his experience there you can visit his golf blog. Unfortunately the only picture I took was of him golfing. I got to drive the golf cart and read a book. The next day we went to a preserve one hour from Phoenix to bird watch and hike. In the afternoon we checked out some beach cruiser bikes the resort offered and rode around the man made lakes in the area. It was a fun trip and so nice to get away for a bit.
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Random Photos:
I forgot to post these months ago, so for documentation sake here they are.
This is Jeffrey before his preschool's Christmas concert. They sang Little Drummer Boy, hence the drum.

This is Jeffrey and his friends Paige and Andrew on a preschool field trip to the Littleton Museum.

Another of Jeffrey trying out John's guitar. He's shown interest in musical instruments. I recently started taking violin lessons-because of John's Christmas gift-and he is very interested in the violin. He watched my starter DVD one day and then was so excited to point out the parts of the violin and could name the correct notes of the four stings.

Jeffrey's 5th Birthday

I'm a little late at posting but here's a few photos from Jeffrey's birthday party. Jeffrey has been talking about his birthday party for about a year so this was bigger than Christmas for him. He helped me plan the cake flavor, decorations, and he made up the "schedule" for the party. (A little type A personality I think). Most of my pictures came out blurry so you can't really tell that we had 12 kids in the house. John forgot he had a class that day and so missed the festivities, but my neighbor's daughter was able to help out. We played a pin the medal on the Power Ranger game, throw candy into a box, and a fishing for candy game. Jeffrey was pretty funny opening his presents-it was like a feeding frenzy. I tried to get him to slow down and thank his friends, and he did thank them but didn't slow down.




On another note, I have to announce that Sammy is now officially potty trained!! He was SOOOOOO much easier than Jeffrey-really it was night and day. He got into this "I want to do everything myself stage" so I thought, well you can go potty by yourself then. He's still in that "fun" stage. I admit I'm not very patient when I have to wait for him to try things out on his own. Shopping with him these days is a nightmare-but I just keep in mind that it will all pass...someday.

Boy...Again!

We had our ultrasound last Thursday and its undeniably another baby boy. He looks healthy and beautiful according to the tech. I was a little disappointed it wasn't a girl but had prepared myself mentally for the boy. A month or so ago John and I had dreams on the same night about having another boy-they were different dreams but still the same night, that's saying something. In my dream, I was giving birth to him and I named him Trenton. I'd never even thought of that name before-but turns out we both like the name so we're sticking with it!

Christmas 08-Yuma, AZ

We headed south this year for Christmas. It was fun to visit with my family. Everyone made it minus my brother Mark as his wife Brooke is expecting soon. We played outside on Grandma and Grandpa's new swing set and at Yuma's new park; which was very impressive, its a huge castle with slides to get down and tons of different ways to climb up and down. We had dinner with Great Grandpa Nelson and my sister Lindsey and Shawn who live with Grandpa now (they recently moved from Kansas back to Yuma). John flew in Christmas Eve as he had to stay in CO to work. He and my brothers Brent and Paul golfed the afternoon he got there-they walked onto a closed course and played 9 holes for free-isn't that a bit dishonest? Christmas Eve night we had Aunts, Uncles, and cousins over for dinner and a program. At the end of the night Santa showed up. Saturday we headed to San Diego to go to the zoo. The kids had lots of fun. It was pretty crowded so we waited in line for about 40 minutes to get on a tour bus. But I learned lots of interesting things like that pigs don't really sweat so you can't say "sweating like a pig" and our cell phones are made out of materials from the rain forest so recycle your cell phones!

"Pappy" got a new train to put around his Chrismas tree. This is Jeffrey, Sammy, Hunter, Riley, and Taylor (my brother Paul's kids) watching the train go around.

Christmas Eve:
The kids got to help Grandpa tell the Christmas story. From right: Hunter as Joseph, Riley as Mary, Danielle as the angel, and Jeffrey as a shepherd. We didn't have any wise men. Not pictured: Tanner as the littlest shepherd.

The disorganized nativity. Baby Jesus is in the shoe box.

Jeffrey singing and playing Jingle Bells while we waited for the big surprise-Santa!

Our kids were terrified of Santa but after a few cousins sat on his lap Sammy made the plunge. Jeffrey hid behind the couch and refused to surface.

Christmas Morning:
Jeffrey checking out his GeoAir from Santa.

Sammy with his new garbage truck.


Brent and Nicole. Brent came to town sporting a new goatte. Apparently once he wore his black rimmed glasses and facial hair on campus (Texas Tech) and was mistaken for a professor.

Danielle-Brent's daughter-enjoying the festivities. Oh and a nice shot of Brent's feet.

San Diego Zoo Trip-not many pics
Jeffrey, Sammy, and Danielle waiting for the Balboa train outside San Diego Zoo. Jeffrey kept saying "I can't wait to ride the train" while jumping up and down.

The "if your child is under 2 you have to ride AND pay" parents.

Thrilled to get front row seats.

The Turkey-less Thanksgiving

We decided to NOT have turkey this year. John and I both don't like turkey. My brother Mark gave us the great idea to have prime rib instead. So we did it! We broke tradition and had prime rib and ham and all the other sides. My sister in law even made stuffing, she insisted we had to at least have stuffing. I got my camera out and took photos before the crowds arrived and then forgot all about my camera while they were here. But I promise we had 10 adults and 9 children in our house; the Bria family, Ridge family, Duris family, and Christenson family. We had tons of yummy food and fun was had by all. The evening was topped off by the Twilight movie for the women, Wii playing by the kids, and football watching by the men.

Numero Tres!!

We're expecting number 3! I'll be 11 weeks on Thursday and the due date is June 11th. I've had my fill of nausea, uncontrollable hunger, irritability, fatigue. And I'm starting to bulge already which didn't happen so fast with the other two. For the past week I've felt pretty good, just tired. Yesterday I went to the doctor and saw "it" on the ultrasound. It moved around for us, wiggling its hands and feet. I'm hoping for a girl but will be happy with a boy-I know how to do boys. Jeffrey insists its a baby sister. So we'll see if John came through for him.

Times Have Changed

Sammy has recently been "painting" on the computer. He has learned to use the mouse, clicking on the colors he wants, holding the button down a bit to paint. I took this picture the other day after thinking how amazing it is that a 2 year old is using a computer! I wonder what technologies will be available when he is my age? (you can also see he was eating Halloween candy. I am posting this pic knowing full well I'm also exposing my dirty desk-somehow I never get around to cleaning it!)

Halloween Night

Halloween night a bunch of my neighbors gathered at one house for pizza before trick or treating. Here is my blurry shot of the neighborhood kids before the mad dash to get candy.

Halloween Parties

Last weekend was so busy for us! Friday night John and I went to a costume party at the Andersen's house. It was lots of fun. John thought it was almost perfect because there was music and food upstairs for the women and pool and foos ball downstairs for the men. I went as a boring witch-although I did have a huge zit at the time and so colored it black. John was Captain Canada-a super hero he made up in college. We took the picture after the party so he's already taken off his red rimmed sunglasses, cape (which I made for him!!), and utility belt. Saturday we had our primary program practice and then a ward Halloween party. Sunday was the primary program-which went great but I'm glad its over, woo-hoo!!

Lipstick and Pinto Bean

This week John was out of town in New Jersey-his favorite place!-but my mom got to come visit for a few days. That has been fun, we went to the Museum of Nature and Science. The kids were so excited to go to the "dinosaur" museum but they ended up being scared of all the life size skeletons. They did enjoy the kid's discovery zone. Someday I'd like to go back with John and explore all the displays.
So now for the stories behind the picture and title. About 3 weeks ago the boys were using pinto beans as cargo for their trains. Being the boys they are, they decided to stick some up their noses. I got one bean out of Sam and one out of Jeffrey. Then that night Jeff was complaining that there was another bean up his nose and that it hurt. He's a terrible patient though and wouldn't sit still long enough for John to check it out. We started to not believe it cause we couldn't see it and then he started denying it as we were trying to stick pliers up his nose. Well Wed. morning he sneezed then ran into the kitchen with a huge snotty bean in his hand, "Look mom! The bean came out!". He was so excited that it had come out, I wasn't as excited, more shocked. Are you kidding me?? A bean had really been stuck in his nose, for 3 weeks! Glad it came out before it sprouted!!
Thursday afternoon all was quiet in my house, too quiet, in fact I forgot about Sammy playing upstairs. When I finally went to check on him he had my lipstick and had smeared it all over his hair, face, arm, my new towel. It was pretty funny, although I did cringe over the clean up process.

Heritage Square

On Labor Day we went to Heritage Square in Golden, CO. We went for two reasons, the train and the alpine slide. The kids LOVED the train, of course. There was lots of screaming and jumping and are waving. Then we started riding all the other kiddy rides and by the time we were done with them, our little kiddies were tired and cranky. So we didn't do the alpine slide much to my chagrin. Oh, well I think the kids still enjoyed it.

Been a While eh?!

Summer has been flying by!! We've spent most of our time swimming, riding bikes, taking a trip to Kansas and OKC, and watching the grass grow then die then grow again. John and the teachers/priest group from church took a week long 50-mile backpack trip. That's the same week I went to KS and OK to visit my sister and college roomy Rachel. John and the young men survived and had a great trip. I'll post a pic or two of his trip. John put a ton of hours into planning and organizing that trip and we are glad that it went off so well and that its over. I did my second triathlon in July-this time with a road bike and it was so much faster! John's job changed this summer, he now has the title of "vice president". With his promotion has come long hours at the office that we hope will abate in a few months. He is also studying for his MAI test-equivalent to a CPA exam for accountants. So he is one busy guy. Jeffrey started preschool yesterday, its a Tues/Thurs class. He was so tired when he got home and actually had homework-which we have already argued about as he wants to do it Friday instead of before Thursday. (Is this a foreshadow of the next 14 years?)

4th of July '08

John's 16 year old brother Spencer stayed with us for a month, he was my live-in babysitter-Oh, yea! It was nice! I missed him when he left. So anywho, John, Spence, and I went to the Rockies game July 3rd. This is the 3rd year we've done it, so John carefully selected our seats so that we would be in the sections that "had" to go down to the field for the post game fireworks show. It was fun-although the game was long, going extra innings. The field's grass was SOOOO nice-perfect.

July 4th we had an indoor BBQ-we need a new barbecue-here are Sammy, their new cousin Isabella, and Jeffrey waiting to be served.

At the Highlands Ranch fireworks show, waiting for it to start. Its a fatal mistake in our house to lie on the floor with the boys around. Sammy has no problem body slamming said person.

Baby Spencer



The fireworks show was a bit weird. They had a small finale, but then kept shooting off these small, dinky fireworks, about every 2 seconds. So we were all waiting in anticipation for the REAL finale, but no such thing appeared. It just ended...so yea, weird.

But before you think I'm ungrateful or have missed the point of 4th of July, let me just say that we in the Kjelstrom family feel blessed to live in this great nation, and for the freedoms we unknowingly take for granted. We salute all those who in the past or present have fought for our country, and especially those who have died doing so.

Wetness

Sometimes Sammy wakes up wet-pee wet-so I tell him "you're wet, we have to change your diaper". This morning I got back from swimming laps (I just throw my clothes over my swimsuit when I'm done and head home) Sammy felt my wet shirt and said "mommy wet!, change diaper?".

Portland/Vancouver

This weekend I took a short trip by myself to Portland and Vancouver to be present at my cousin Afton's wedding. Wow! Portland is gorgeous-so green! I just love greeness. I spent time with my mom, Aunt Kathy, Macki and her husband Rusty. Rusty served his mission in Eugene and LOVES Oregon so he was our tour guide. In a few short hours we went to see some waterfalls, went to the Portland Saturday Market downtown, and visited a rose garden. My brother Brent and his wife Nicole met us at the market for lunch and then we saw them later that evening for the wedding. The wedding was a happy, fun occasion-Kathy, Macki, and I cut some serious rug at the reception-the good ol' electric slide.

The Multnomah Falls- about 600 feet of falling water, 30 miles up the Columbia River from Portland. Pictured from left is Aunt Kathy, my cousin Macki, mom, and me.


My Mum and Me


My brother Brent, his wife Nicole and myself chilling at the wedding reception. Nicole is eating and Brent just looks like that permanently. (Sorry guys, the other photo we took was blurry, this ones funnier anyways).

Mom and Aunt Kathy-almost twins

My First Tri

Saturday I raced in my first triathlon. It was a sprint tri, 500 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run. I loved it. I loved training for it because it was different everyday, not just running. I broke my personal goal by 4 minutes and I was happy to finish but then after I got my times back I kept thinking about how I can be faster-first on the list is not using a mountain bike among road racers, MBs are too slow on the road. Secondly I need to figure out how not to be nervous before the race (is that possible?) so I can breathe during the swim portion. I enjoyed swimming in training, but racing with 4 people in your lane, getting water in your mouth, having no breathing or stroke rhythm is NOT fun! I was so happy to get out of the pool and onto my bike. Well, I'm hooked and will probably do another one in July then wait it out till next summer.

Pura Vida!

John and I recently took a trip to Costa Rica. It was AWESOME!! I could live in the rain forest-John says he needs the Rocky Mountains. Nevertheless, we've talked of someday visiting again. And P.S., a HUGE thanks mom and dad for staying with the kids!!

What we did:

We arrived at 5am-went to a hotel in San Jose and slept. Then did the waiting game for our shuttle to La Fortuna. We figured out quickly that a pick up time of 12:00 really means 12:30 in Costa Rica.

This is the Arenal Volcano. We watched lava flow down at night-here you can see the smoke from the lava.

Zip line through the trees.

Canyoning-We rapelled down 5 waterfalls and two cliff walls. This was for both of us a highlight of our trip. You couldn't beat the scenery or the adrenaline rush.


Cano Negro River Tour-it was like the Jungle Ride at Disneyland minus the cheesy guide and bad robotics. Our guide Hugo was awesome-he spotted birds like the green ibis in the very green trees near the river-which became a running joke afterwards as John for the rest of our trip would cry "green ibis!" whenever we were in the forest

This is what I looked like much of our trip-binoculars never far from my hands.

Our next stop-Manuel Antonio. First day we did some hiking and it was SOOO humid. We sweat (or is it sweated?) a ton, hence my karate kid look here.

Jet Ski Tour-we raced through the ocean and did some snorkeling. John didn't like the warm water so this wasn't his favorite-is he weird or what!

Surf Lessons-SOOOOO FUN!


What We Saw:

We identified about 75 different birds, 70 of those were all new to me so it was exciting if you like birds. We also saw lots of monkeys-howler monkeys that, yes, howl-especially when it rained it sounded like they were letting out a loud "NOOOO!", we saw white faced monkeys, and the endangered squirrel monkeys. We also saw a few sloths which were my favorite aside from the birds-we got to watch one slowly and methodically move from one tree to another. We saw a tree full of iguanas, some caymens, and a big lizard (can't remember the name) hanging out on the beach. There were also a TON of colorful crabs but I didn't get their picture. (Note: the bird pictures were pirated off the internet).
Red legged Honeycreeper

White Crowned Parrot

Blue Crowned Motmot

Keel-billed Toucan-not as big as it looks

Coati

Iguana

This is called a Great Potoo. As John and I were scanning my Birds of Costa Rica book, we came across this bird and thought we'd NEVER see it-you can see how camaflouged it is. Fortunately our guide on the Cano Negro tour was an avid birder and knew this Potoo hung out in this tree.

Caymen

White Faced Monkey

The beach-dwelling lizard

The view from our room in Manuel Antonio.