Nate's Wall of Wisdom

Though many words of wisdom were added after this photo was taken, I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to bask in the glory that is Nate's Wall of Wisdom. (before the humidity killed the sticky notes and they fell all over his bed.)

If you click on the picture, you should be able to read the notes, but I'll translate starting on the top row, from left to right. Make sure to check out the stick people with one fleeing from the other.


1. Never use the boys bathroom.
2. When Ethan bullies me, ignore him. (Fleeing Nate picture)
3. When Alex is on my bed, ask him to get off. Sometimes he says "No".
4. When Ethan tells me something important, ignore him.
5. When Ethan says something mean to me, ignore.
6. When Katelyn bothers me, do not cry. Well, that happens all the TIMES.
7. When there's a problem, tell the truth.
8. When Katelyn's teasing, ignore her.
9. When Dad's flusterd, don't talk near him. but sometimes ("But sometimes" was added after Darrick saw the note and said "WHAT?!" lol)
10. When Alex asks over and over again, ignore him.
11. When someone gives me something, always say "Thank You".
12. If Ethan asks me to play together, I might say Yes or No (so, 50-50 chance is good, eh?)
13. When Dad's fustrated (frustrated), try and help to make him happy. But sometimes not really.
14. When I do chores, help mom.

Obviously, you can see my parental admonishing in there. Apparently, my responses to everyday problems are:
1. Ignore it.
2. Ignore it.
3. Ignore it.
4. Sometimes life happens. Ignore it.
5. Always say Thank You.
6. Be a good helper.
7. Tell the truth.
8. Be polite. If other person isn't polite, IGNORE IT.

This "Ignore It" trend makes me think I know what the paper bag on the head was all about. :-)
Nate Showing Mom How to Ignore It

Graduate in the House!

When Casey graduated this year, we all descended on Prescott for some partying and mayhem. (You know...partying loudly in hotel lobbies, taking up one side of a restaurant with our party of a thousand, staying up until the wee hour of 11PM, burning cop cars, ...that kind of thing.)

The best part is we all ran around with cameras like we were hired to photograph a wedding. Nearly all of us have the same picture taken from varying angles, and since Jami beat us all to the blogging punch, I had to sort through all of mine to see if there were any you might not have seen in her posts yet.

So, here we go...

Graduation Ceremony

Here's Casey's personal cheering section patiently waiting for him to take the stage. I was so impressed by how well the older kids just hung out for almost 3 hours through speeches, reading graduate names, etc. Thank you to Aunt Missi for purchasing the "Shhhhh" bribes just before we arrived. They stuffed their faces so full of sour patch kids before the ceremony began, they had entered the sugar crash phase about the time the first speaker got up. NICE PLANNING!


Waiting for our graduate.


Steve giving me the "I will confiscate that thing" look.


Well, Hello Nurse Waldron! I believe Casey was one of six graduating male nurses. It must have been sooo rough, Casey. All those years, classes full of cute, young nurses-to-be. Hmmm, me thinks I found Casey's motivation for becoming a nurse. ;-) (Well, aside from wanting to save people and all.)



After the ceremony was over, we all gathered outside for some pictures and congratulations. Here's grandpa snuggling with Emily.


Steve, Casey, Dad, and Pete. Getting ready to trash some cop cars! Wooooo!



Alex and Cody decided to have a game of chase. Alex's water bottle had a hole poked in the top, so he was squirting Cody as they ran around the tree. Suddenly, Alex decided he wanted to play something else and walked off, while Cody continued running around the tree laughing...until he realized Alex was gone.

"Heyyyyyy, where go?!"



Grandma's turn to hold the baby.


Here's J vogueing. "Strike a pose. Vogue, vogue, vogue."


This is Casey's "OH MY GOSH, NO MORE CLASS!" look. His friend Michael (on the right), a boss from previous employment, even made the trek to Prescott from New Mexico to witness this historic moment. I love Michael. Not only did he go out of his way to bend Casey's schedule so he could go to school, he also thought I was Casey's younger sister. Whether he was lying or not, is irrelevant. He still said it out loud. :-D

Graduation Dinner

After graduation, Mom and Dad took us all to Outback for some sustenance. The food was good, the company was great, and Casey's prime rib was ginormous! (Sorry I don't have more pictures of dinner. I was stuffing my face.)

Graduation Mayhem

After dinner, we all met at the courthouse downtown to let the kids play in the park and have ice cream.

I had to take this picture so next time I saw Steve I could tell him, "See?! You used to be that little. Now look how tall you are!" Then, while showing him the picture, I'd try to tousle his hair, but realize I couldn't reach that high. Then he'd smack me in the back of the head because I wouldn't see his 6 foot wingspan of an arm coming. Yeah, I think I'll just post it on my blog here.

"Look Steve! You used to be that little. Now look how tall you are!" :-P


My girls looking for puppies to play with.


The kids being silly. (Except for Ethan. I swear he was born with that look. Didn't even cry when he came out. Just looked at me seriously and asked me for food and a computer.)


Now, Singing in the Rain starring Steve as Gene Kelly.


Claire, Emily, and Kate. So cute!


Alex wanting to be part of the photo session.


And now, we break for a 'Casey's Life Lesson Moment'...

The boys brought light sabers to duel with at the park, but they brought only 3, just enough to share with Dallin. Cody was feeling left out and was running around the boys screaming "Cody's turn! Cody's turn!" The boys, of course, kept saying "No, not yet. We're playing."


After watching Cody get shot down multiple times, Casey's veins in his neck began to bulge and his skin turned green. He gathered the boys together and lectured them on the finer points of sharing.


Ta Da! Cody has a light saber. "ON GUARD PEEPA!"


And now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

Our little ballerinas.


Awww. Emmy walking to Aunt Missi.


Grandma and Grandpa took us all out for ice cream. Of course, the kids pick the ice cream with the darkest red and blue dye they could find. "Say AHHHHH!"

The Aftermath

After getting cleaned up and ready for bed, we met everyone at the hotel patio/fire pit for some toasty warmth and hot cocoa.

Fun Before Goodbyes

I hadn't planned on staying overnight, but Mom hooked us up with a hotel, so we couldn't say no. The next day we met up at Dad's hotel to have breakfast, then headed over to check out Casey's house.

Casey's neighbor/landlord has a bazillion cats. The kids kept trying to get the cats to come over to Casey's for some love. A couple of these cats looked like they needed to give up the doughnuts and bagels. HUGE!



After the tour of Chateau Casey, we decided to take a walk to the park. (a long walk, because we got lost)


When we got to the park, we found there was some sort of swap meet that day, but the playground looked relatively empty, so we headed over.

So glad we did! We stumbled upon a Prescott gem; The only remaining playground Merry-Go-Round in Arizona. Immediately, the kids hopped on. Didn't take them long to start learning about G forces.

A man from the swap meet came over to tell us that all of these death spinners had been removed due to a large number of injuries and even death. As I realized I hadn't seen this type of playground equipment since I was a kid and gave him my "Wow, really?" nod, I hear the kids yelling "FASTER!"

Bring on the injuries.




Alex having some water fun.


Ethan conquering the jungle gym.


We had such a blast seeing everyone. Congratulations to Casey on his graduation! And "Thank You" to the Marriot and Prescott for hosting what I'm sure Casey refers to as The Insanity.

Carnival Fun with PapaGranmaStevie

Last night we partied hardy with PapaGranmaStevie (what the kids call Dad, Mom, and Steve to differentiate which grandparents they're referring to). Every year the kids' school throws a carnival complete with Toilet Fishing, jumping castles, junk food galore, and a live band that loves the singers and songwriters of the 70s. This year, PapaGranmaStevie made the trek across town to have some fun with us.

In true Kirsten form, I forgot...no, forgot is the wrong word...I purposely left my camera at home because I thought "Hey! I have this awesome new phone with a great camera. I'll just use that." But, I didn't. I have nothing to show for last night except a mild ringing in my ears (yes, the music was LOUD).

So, I've taken the liberty of creating a few images from some pictures I took at last year's carnival, as well as some artistic renditions of the fun we had.

Let me preface this post with noting that since I started the weight loss contest with my fellow employees (which has now ended and I WON!), I have removed refined products from my house including all desserts, sugar, processed foods, etc. If I didn't make it, we don't eat it. (Which helped me lose 26 lbs to date, by the way.) I make it a big deal on Sundays to make a special dessert because if you have desserts everyday, it's no longer a treat; It's a staple.

(Stepping down from soap box) I had to note that because the kids also have treats on special occasions, such as the school carnival, which is why they went on a full cotton candy-nacho-soda-Eegee-popcorn binge. I don't think they even played games this year. All tickets went to junk food. (I've created sugar hoarders!)

So first, we did this:



Then this:


And some of this:


Then this again:


And some more of this:


And finally this:


Then we moved on to some fun while nursing ourselves back from the junk food coma.

(These pictures are from last year, but ask Steve...it looks exactly the same as this year.)

Here's my Ethan. Goodness how they grow in a year! This year Alex chucked them right into the holes. Tha's mah boy!


Alex and his fire hat he got from his school that day. (Last year)


Yay for prizes!


This picture is from last year, but I've added some "Where's Steve" features to it this year. Here's how the picture would have looked if I'd actually taken one.

There's mom and Kate popping up to say "Peek-a-boo!" Steve wandering around hoping no one he knows sees him there, and Dad and Alex sharing some smoochies.


Here are the boys on the jumping castle. Nice AIR Steve!


Inflation did some damage this year. The Cake Walk was 3 tickets instead of 1 like last year, so we had to bail a little bit earlier. But fun was had by all! Thanks for coming PapaGranmaStevie!

The Fairytale Ball

Every year, Alex's school puts on a family carnival called The Fairytale Ball. They ask all the kids to come dressed up in their favorite costume and bring something for everyone to eat. There were little princesses everywhere!

This was our first year going and Alex really wanted to be a tiger, but fleece Halloween costumes don't jive with 85 degree weather, so we opted for regular clothes.

When we arrived we received goodie bags and a treasure map. There were carnival game stations set up all over the school, the King's Great Dining Hall stocked with all sorts of yummy goodness, and a jumping castle in the parking lot. All of the teachers were dressed up spectacularly, not to mention at school on a Saturday! (Best preschool in town, if you ask me. Such a great bunch of dedicated teachers!)

Ms. Butterfly went easy on Alex in this "Pin the Smooch on the Frog" game. Instead of blindfolding him, she handed him the "big moochie" and told him to put it on the frog's mouth. He looked at her for a second like "Seriously lady? I got this in the BAG!"


Alex in his newly invented game: Kick-Bowling.


Ms. Bee trying to trick Nate with her super fast switcheroo!


Freshly won cupcakes from the cake walk. Mmmmm!


I'm pretty sure he just put the ball right in there. "Granny toss, Alex!"

Getting some grub in the King's Great Dining Hall.


Kate scoring some easy treats.


Time to go fishing!


This game was HARD! Had to throw a ring and land it on the duck's neck. We were there a while. Finally got a token goodie just so other kids could have a turn. :-)

Alex's teacher indulging his tiger obsession.


Humpty Dumpty sat on a spoon...Ready, Set, Go!


We had hours of fun. Towards the end of the carnival, Alex begged to go in the jumping castle. I obliged, but he was so tired he could barely stand up. Check out the video below. Takes him about 30 seconds to realize he wants a nap!



We decided to go at the very last minute this year, so we'll be sure to plan ahead next time and have grandmas and grandpas come!