Shooting

Here are some pics of Gordon taking me shooting. I was a little nervous to shoot, I had only ever shot a hand gun one other time before. It was a lot of fun. I was pretty excited when my first shot grazed the side of the paper, it wasn't a total miss!!

At least I hit the paper a couple times.

Packing Heat!!!

Bugg & Brutus

Bugg left, Brutus right

This is usually how you see Bugg. She likes her butt scratched and always sticks it up in the air for a good rubbing.

Don't let this picture fool you, Brutus is a handfull. He is constantly on the counter trying to get food.


Both the kids love the dogs.

Jaxon

My little sister Suzanne and her husband Russell just had their third baby on Monday, 2-15-10. His name is Jaxon Draper. He is such a cutie. They came over to dinner on Saturday and it was so much fun to have their two girls play with Zach and Kimi and be able to snuggle the baby. It is so fun coming from a large family. There is most always a baby or some sort of event happening. Welcome to the family little guy.

Zach 2.19.10

Zach never stops surprising me with his dinosaur knowledge. He was looking through a book today and was like "mom come in here and see the pachycephalosaurus". So I went into his room and sure enough he had it turned to that page. I'm like seriously, how can you pronounce half these names and how are you learning them so well. The other cute thing he did today was he said his brand new baby cousin Jaxon is strong and he wants to go play with him. I was like babies aren't strong they are little you have to be careful with him, and he was like no he wants to play big like me.

Valentine's for the kids

I wanted to make something for the kids for Valentine's day. So, I decided I would make some name plaques to put on the doors of their rooms. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not very good at projects like these. It took me three days to get them done, but with a little help fom Gordon I did it and they turned out alright.

Kids will be kids

Zach is so smart it is seriously amazes me. I let him do almost anything he wants if I think it will make him learn anything and really kids can learn something from anything so he pretty much does whatever he wants. Not the MOST logical parenting plan, but who knows what is the best way to raise children really? I bought him some new dry erase markers today to use on this book that has the alphabet and how to write your letters and words that use the letters so I told him he could use the new markers if he kept them in his room and remembered to put the caps on them when he was finished. I was working on Valentine's presents for the kids so I went in the kitchen. I little while later Zach came out of his room looking like this.





I never even looked at the book to see if he had practiced writing where he was suppose to. He was so excited that he could write on his fourhead and it was just so hilarious. I dropped him in the tub and washed his face and got what I could off of his body. At least he didn't write on the walls cause then I probably would have had to put him in the corner....probably.

Musuem of Ancient Life

Zach loves dinosaurs. So we took the kids to Thanksgiving Point to the Museum of Ancient Life. This was after the camera had broke so we only got a couple pictures on Gordon's phone. The kids had a great time. They got to see the dinosaur bones, play in the sand and water, color and run around. Zach knows many dinosaur names and liked spotting the dinosaurs he could recognize like, triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, and pteranodons (though technically pteranodons are pterosaurs not dinosaurs). I've had to learn a lot to keep up with everything Zach knows about dinosaurs.

Aquarium

I got an anual pass to the aquarium in Sandy last year because it was only double the price of a single admission and I figured we would at least go twice in a year. Turns out Zach loves the aquarium and we have gone probably five or six times, which is way more then I would have thought we would go. Unfortunately, I usually don't take my camera since we have gone so often. This last time we went I took the camera since Gordon and Kimi came with us. This is when I found out the camera was not working so well and these are the pictures that kind of turned out. Both the kids had so much fun, especially Kimi petting the sting rays. I even finally convinced Zach to touch one.

Petting the sting rays

Frogs

Kitchen Math

I have been trying to think of more ways to teach Zach new skills. I feel like Math and Reading are the two really important things he needs to know and if there is anything I can do to give him a head start in these two areas that I should. I got a book from the library called Math for the Very Young. In it was this poem and I thought it was cute so I would share it. I think that if we can take the opportunities that are there to teach our children that they can learn so much especially in their first years. All we need to do is communicate, if we don't say it they won't learn it. I basically tell Zach everything I am doing and encourage him to speak all the time. Of course, there are times when I sit him infront of the tv so I can take a shower and do the dishes, but for the most part I try to be available to him for any questions and to expose him to as much as possible. A funny thing about this poem for me is that it says "fishes" I don't know how many times I have told Zach that fish is plural for fish, but he still says fishes. Somethings are just harder to catch onto then others. I guess even for adults.



Doing Dishes

By: Dorothy Freedman


There’s not much good to say about the dishes.
Cats don’t do them nor do fishes.
Clean them up nice and bright
They’ll still be back tomorrow night.
But math is there if you’re alert
Sorting spoons, subtracting dirt
Measure soap, add some water
Get to work both son and daughter.
Work together husbands, wives
Don’t forget to count the knives.
Though the dishes seem to multiply
Dividing work will make time fly.

Chemistry

Ever Since Zach was very little I would sit him down on the kitchen floor and give him a couple bowls, spoons, measuring cups and whatever else looked like fun so he could play "chemistry". I would fill up the bowls with water and he would pour, dump, spill and make a mess until him and the floor was covered in water. Some people in my family didn't really love that I let him do this(especially when we were living at my mom's and let him do it on her kitchen floor). Zach loves it so much, and I think it has helped him develop many skills that a toddler needs to learn. Small motor skills, using his imagination, helping clean up when he was finished making a mess. It was also pretty impressive for an 18 month old to say "mom, I want to play chemistry" I love how smart and energetic Zach is. He keeps me on my toes and I am always looking for ways to teach him something new. It is a great way for me to learn new things as well.

New Blog

I have been meaning to start a new blog, so here it is. It just seems a little weird for me to keep posting on kurstinfamily.com being that I am now officially divorced from Taylor. It was also hard to think of a url since I no doubt will be mostly posting about outings with Gordon and his daughter Kimi and so I didn't want to just use mine and Zach's names since we consider ourselves a family but I didn't want to do coles/kurstin. Anyway, life is a little confusing when you are trying to have a blended family. It comes with additional challenges and I guess with that additional rewards. Though I try to not complain (believe it or not I do try...) I no doubt will vent some of my frustrations as that is what usually happens when I sit down and try to write something. For me, as for most I believe writing is very therapeutic and I suppose that is the benefit of me having a blog in the first place, that and being able to brag about my most adorable, brilliant, sweet child. I don't post often as I would like...maybe I will make it a late new years resolution? So, here we go....