it's been a while...

I forget that I have this blog...I've been a huge slacker about it.
This is what's new in my life since October

-Braden enjoyed his fall soccer and t-ball. I really enjoyed being the soccer mom this year and Paige is so excited to play soccer just like her brother.

-Braden's enjoying school and hanging out with his friends. Paige is now a Sunbeam and is so happy to be in Primary with Daddy and Braden.

-We went home to Vernal this year for Thanksgiving. Everyone was so excited about hanging out together and just having a great time. The mood this year was different. My cousin Luke passed away on November 12th. He fell from a ladder at his house, he was only 24. He called me right before we left for our trip to Disneyland. We grew up together, I used to babysit him... he was like a little brother to me. He served as a Marine for 4 years and had been working in Fort Hood, Texas as a firefighter. He always wanted to be a fireman. He was fasinated with fire trucks and he was our little pyromaniac. He was living his dream...something he always wanted to do. One of the fireman that he worked with sang, "I Can Only Imagine", it was amazing. Having his fireman "brothers" there helped all of us. The Vernal firefighters put his casket on their trucks and we all followed behind them in our cars to the cemetary. He would have loved it! When I see or hear a firetruck, I miss him.

-We spent Christmas here in AZ. We had a great, low-key Christmas. I made homemade waffles that morning and a turkey dinner that night and in between we just played and enjoyed each other, it was great.

-Another big change in our lives in the past little while is that we're going to have baby #3!!! We get to find out on Thursday what we're having so that will give me a good excuse to update my blog. Paige wants a girl and Braden is fine either way. I was very sick the first 3 months. I was so happy to be feeling better around my 3rd month. I was so miserable! But I'm feeling great now. I'm a little scared about taking care of 3 kids...having 2 was super hard for me. I'm hoping I'll adjust easier this time around. And if I don't, I'll just do what I did last time and just roll with it. Moms can be so hard on themselves sometimes...I think we expect too much at times. A baby is an adjustment and it takes time to get a "normal" routine going. Lack of sleep doesn't help either. It'll all work out...

I'll check back in later to tell you what we're having!
k

the happiest place on earth

We got back a few days ago from our Hammond family reunion. We had it at Disneyland this year and it was a lot of fun. How can you not have fun and be unhappy at Disneyland? We were there 2 1/2 days and the kids had a great time, it was their third time there. The only ride that freaked me out was the Hollywood tower hotel. Never again will you see me on that ride. Braden rode it twice, once with me and once with Aaron.
Paige got to meet her favorite princess Cinderella. Braden loved Star Tours of course. My favorite ride was Screamin' California, loved it!

Saturday...

just got back from a morning full of games...Aaron and Braden got up early and went golfing, next was Braden's 1st soccer game of the season (he scored the 1st goal!) and then we had his t-ball game. I love fall, it's my favorite season...it's like a renewal. School starts, football starts, and of course baseball starts getting really good. I love AZ but I get homesick for Utah this time of year...there's nothing like Utah in the fall.

wish I had loads of really awesome, exciting things to talk about...Oh! I do have something exciting to mention, we got our kitchen countertops on Friday! That was a monumental day. We bought our house in May and since then we've been in the process of fixing it up. It was exhausting to say the least...anytime the kids saw a Home Depot, they would start whining, "No more Home Depot!" It's fun to see how far this house has come. There's something to be said about how rewarding it is to just physically bust your butt. And I have more empathy for Dad and his screwed-up back from all the flooring his done in his life...

so where was I? Oh, we haven't had a kitchen for 2 1/2 months and now I'm almost to the point where I can cook a decent meal.

not much else going on...I'm the soccer team mom this year and I've been teaching after school sewing classes at Braden's school. I have 8 kids in the class- 6 girls and 2 boys. It's been really fun to see how excited they are to learn how to sew...they take it pretty seriously. I'm teaching them how to do embroidery and then some basic sewing stuff along the way. Good times...

That's all for me for now. I need to post some pictures, I'm still trying to figure this stuff out.
k

here goes...

I've always been a faithful journal writer for as long as I can remember so it seems fitting that I start a blog. I have a webpage but I'm too impatient to figure out how to publish it....I swear I'm a little ADD...

So I named my blog "Kriston's Kafe". When I was little, we lived next door to this lady named Rosy. She was this tiny, little lady that was just full of energy. She owned her own cafe in Naples called "Rosy's Cafe". We would go there and every time we did, I ordered the chili...it was the best chili! So when someone would ask me the "what-do-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up" question my answer was, "I want to be a nurse and a waitress and I want to own my own cafe and name it Kriston's Kafe with a K." I have no desire to be a waitress nor have my own cafe and I needed a name for my blog... it seemed fitting.