Is that a....Fork?

For a couple weeks we had noticed tiny little flakes in our water when we would use the ice dispenser. After getting to the point of pretty much refusing to use the ice, we finally decided one Friday when we really wanted to make some flake free Pina Colada's(virgin, of course) to see what the problem was. So, we pulled the ice tray out, and after removing most of the ice, this is what we found. I was questioning out loud, " How does a fork possibly end up in an ice maker?" John remembered then that the kids had been making their own "homemade" popsicles out of kool-aid, and protein shakes, even water, whatever they had at the moment. We decided to announce that the popsicle craze had to stop as it was becoming a nuisance and making a lot of unnecessary messes. So, as children will do, they looked for a way to hide them. John and I had both pulled a "popsicle" or two out of the ice, but one of the times, it must have been missing it's "stick".

It's kind of hard to see, but this picture shows where the fork had carved into the plastic, thus the white flecks in the drinks. Ewwww!

We left this on an otherwise empty counter as a discussion piece for the next day with the kiddo's. They actually were quite taken with how cool they thought the fork looked, so I'm sure the rest of the please-don't-do-this-again-so-we-don't-have-to-replace-the-ice maker lecture was lost on them.

Braxton Kade, C.K. is 8!!

My Braxton has turned 8 years old today! In the title I put his household nickname of Braxton Kade C.K. The story behind that is when he was about 3 years old he asked us what the rest of his name was since JJ's name was John Edward IV, or the fourth, as we would say it. So we gave him the extension that day of C.K., standing for "Cool Kid" and it stuck. He still refers to himself as such to this day! Since we have just begun this blogging fun less than a year ago, and since, as I've mentioned before, I consider this my Journal of sorts, I have decided this year for each of my children's birthdays that I will provide a probably not so brief synopsis of them to this point. I thought it would be neat to have when I print this off as a book! So feel free to just buzz through the pictures or read through the tidbits! This first picture is Brax at about 2 and it is one of my very favorites.I love this picture. It is Braxton through and through.

On his blessing day at just a couple weeks old

I'm honestly not sure how he survived this much "love" since it was fairly constant!

Braxton Info: Braxton wants to be an astronaut, a cowboy, a piano player, a missionary,and a good husband and father when he grows up. It's not that he hasn't chosen, he has decided that these ARE the things he will be. He's known this since he could put words together to tell us so. I can't wait to watch him achieve his dreams!

Braxton had true colic from about two weeks until he was about 5 1/2 months. He would have crying spells lasting several hours nearly every day. In all honesty, I believe I have blocked a lot of that time period from my memory. But the amazing thing is, when he came out of it, he has pretty much been a very content and HAPPY kid ever since!

Braxton LOVED Popsicles even when you would think they would be to cold for a kid that young Braxton Info: His favorite color is Green

Love the Bald head

1st birthday- and getting some more of that "love" I was talking about

Love from the momma!

Blackmail for later in life! He brought me this dress of Tori's and wanted it on!

Brax and Tori

2nd Birthday

Braxton Info: Braxton ad imaginary friends by the names of George, Stanley,and Hokey-pokey. From a very young age, I'm thinking 3, he would keep me informed of their daily activities and if they were with us at the moment or not. We just sort of went with the flow of things, as he was in definite belief that these were real, yet invisible beings. I would catch him having conversations. It was interesting, but entertaining! It went on for a couple years. He still refers to them from time to time as his childhood imaginary friends.

Learning to be a big brother with Ashlee!

oops! I'm not sure why this is sideways, but this picture is just so funny. Braxton was clearly not happy about something and I'm sure being asked to sit for pics didn't help matters!

JJ and Brax. I seriously have so many pictures of these two together. I think there are several included in this post! They are very close despite the fact that personality wise, they are really not much alike. They started something called "Brotherly Time" where every night they talk about their day, read scriptures and then make up funny( and strange) stories to make each other laugh. Crazy boys making priceless memories, I'm sure!

Braxton Info: Braxton believed (and hopefully still does!) that he had actual superpowers that he just couldn't tell anyone about. He would whisper to me when no one else was even around that he felt very strongly that this was true and he wondered what I thought. I told him of course that I believed with him, anything was possible!

With our dogs we used to have, Xander and Precious

Braxton loves Basketball and can't wait for the opportunity to play on a team someday!

Braxton and Tori

John and Mike Galbraith did Braxton up like this during a trip to the Beach. Braxton couldn't wait to get home and see the picture!

John painted Braxtons face for the 4th

This picture gives a great view of the beautiful silky white locks Braxton had. He had a bowl cut from age 2-6 because of this.

Braxton Info: As mentioned earlier, Braxton want to be a great piano player. His motivation songs that he really wants to learn are Fur Elise and Canon. He's already begun tapping out Fur Elise. I love his dedication!

Braxton has always liked to dress nice and loves outfits with multiple parts.

Braxton got asked to be the " Play Ball" kid at a Silverhawks game that we went to. He got to go down to the middle of the field and yell play ball into the microphone to start the game. He felt very special! He remembers that day very well and still has the shirt in his drawer!

Brax can pose with the best of them when he wants to

He has played rec soccer several seasons and really enjoys the social aspect of it the most

Showing his Husker Pride!

5th Birthday

Looking "up" to his older brother. Classic.

Holding baby brither Kian

Braxton Info: Braxtons' favorite food is Chinese. However, Braxton has never been a picky eater. One of the only things he will not eat is Mac and Cheese

Braxton and his buddy Spencer on the day that Spence moved to Idaho. They were quite the pair.

First Day of Kindergarten.

Braxton seeing how he measures up to JJ.

Halloween 2007 or a vision of the future?

Jumping on the trampoline in the snow at night.

Braxton Info: Braxton loves Star Wars anything, but has yet to see the original movies. We'll have to rent them for him sometime.

Played at a friends house with chalk. I think they got more on them than anything else!

This is Braxton with his "special" friend, Aspen. They met when her family lived here for a year. He thought she was very cute from the first day he saw her. I remember the day he came home and told me about her. After several months of living here, she decided the feeling was mutual, and lets just say, Jenny and I had alot of playdates in the couple of months before they moved. These two still keep in contact by email.

First day of 1st grade

Halloween 2008- Jack Sparrow, the pirate

An interesting snowman....

Like I said, Big Star Wars Fan

This is a classic picture of Braxton teasing. I'm not sure who took this pic, but this is definitely Braxton in action. He can be quite the onery instigator at times!

Gathering his hoard from a pinata bust!

First day of 2nd Grade

Braxton Info: Braxton is such a people person. He is also very versatile. As a result, he can play individually with anyone of his brothers and sisters. He just becomes whatever he needs to be depending on who he is with. It has resulted in him having special relationships with each of them. It's very important to him that everyone feel included.I love it

This is an outfit that Braxton, John, and I designed for a project at school. His cape and front read " C.K. The Green Machine"

Braxton playing with two of his cousins, Bryce and Braden, who were all born the same year, at our family reunion this summer. They have a lot of fun together.

So that is my amazing Braxton Kade Blomstedt, C.K. I am so grateful to have him in our family. He is so fun to be with one on one because he has such a strong imagination, and conversations are always interesting! He works hard and does exceptionally well in school, which I know will help him to achieve his goals, whatever they may be. One of Braxtons strongest attributes, which I haven't even mentioned is his budding little testimony. As a child he truly gave full meaning to me of the term "out of the mouths of babes". His greatest excitement for this birthday this year had nothing to do with presents. He was so ecstatic that he would be getting baptized and going to scouts. He is so excited to be an "official" member and do things of his own merit. For his cake this year, he said he wished we could make one that had a church building on one side, a temple on the other, and scriptures in the middle. I told him that was probably a little complicated for a cake, but a really neat idea nonetheless. I love his enthusiasm. It is inspiring. He is really a great kid and we love him!

Happy Birthday Brax!

Family Pictures

During our Thanksgiving break, we went to Nebraska to be with family. My wonderful sister-in- law (Thank you Staci!) who is very skilled with her camera took these pics for us. I'll just let the pics suffice for the rest of this post!

Winter Fun- Sledding and Gingerbread Houses!

We decided to make gingerbread houses as our Family home evening activity before Christmas. It was lots of fun for the kids. These pictures will give evidence as to why we let them make and eat their OWN. Some things should not be shared! Here is Kian about half way through and his face already has a good amount of frosting around the mouth!

Maybe licking the graham cracker makes it hold together better!

Ashlee worked very hard on her little house! Of course I think she sucked as much icing out of the bag as she put on her house!

Very intense work!

Even the older children do their share of licking! It's half the fun, right! Like I said, as long as everyone is eating their own creations, all is well.

JJ thought the table was a bit crowded apparently.

Camerons finished product, and he is clearly quite satisfied with his work.

And... this is Kian's finished product. Most of the house had already been consumed!

Ashlee is giving the thumbs up for taste! Her cute little house kept falling down so she decided to just start eating.

Tori's house, with porch and all!

Braxton's final outcome!

JJ's house was quite unique! He was uncharacteristically patient!


SLEDDING!

The day before Christmas eve we went sledding with some friends. It was freezing, but of course the kids didn't mind!

Kian

Ashlee

Cam

The Hill!!

JJ snowboarding!

Ashlee!

Braxton on his way back up!

Tori and some friends, Maddie and Kacie.

Braxton isn't holding this sled. The wind is just blowing that hard. BRRRRR!

What we've been up to....

So, since the kids are on Christmas break, I thought that I would let them play as they wish so that I can catch up on some blogging! This decision will likely allow for a new story, or mess, to blog about! So here is what the kiddos have been up to in the last couple months! 1. Playing with Dad's paintings. This took place just before Thanksgiving. John had done a practice picture and then left it in the office( which does have a "child-lock" on it, by the way). The next afternoon I heard sounds coming from behind the closed doors of the office, so of course I ran to get the camera, and this is what I found. Kians' face says it all.

Here he is explaining what happened.

Here is the damage the oil paint did to him. It actually only takes about a day after you wash for all the color to fade off the skin.

and here is the damage the oil paint did to the carpet. It does not fade quite as easily as the skin. John went over it several times by hand and with the steam cleaner and you can still see it faintly unfortunately.

Here is the canvas which we had planned to actually keep with all the cute little foot print all over it, however Cameron decided to try his hand at it, literally, a couple days later and erased all those cute little prints. Sad.

2. Sleeping in strange( creative?) ways or places. On this particular night we took this picture of Ashlee since she was the only one sleeping in "normal fashion, although her head is at the foot of the bed and not exactly on the pillow!

Here is where we found Victoria. Yes, she actually got in Kians crib and went to sleep. Why? I have not the slightest clue, other than it probably just popped into her head and so she thought that she would try it, and since Kian had gone elsewhere, the opportunity was available!

Here is the view of Cameron on this same night. The boys built a fort on their bed and had apparently even snuck Kian down to join in the fun!

JJ and Braxton,and Mickey Mouse in the background there!

Funny stuff!

Here is another night we decided to break out the camera because it was just funny. Braxton is actually sleeping on one of their reading chairs, because as you see in the picture below, only so many people can fit in a twin bed, even when you are little people.

Once again, Kian had been sprung from his crib and joined his brothers for bedtime. And clearly, JJ was very excited about Christmas. It would probably be very humorous to leave a camera in the basement one night and see the funny things they do before bed!

The silly, but cute, boys!

3. Helped cook. I was in an extra nice mood this day or something and so I allowed them to "help" make the dumplings for Chicken and Dumplings. They had a lot of fun, so it was probably worth the clean-up. But only because it was a rare occurrence of course!

4. Opened, drank, and spilled 12 Kool-aid drinks that were for Braxton's last soccer game. Clearly the guilt is written all over him. Again after a good washing and 24 hours, the kid (Cameron) was virtually stain free.

The carpet was not so lucky, and still looks pretty much like this despite several different times and ways of washing. Can you say "carpet allowance" when it comes time to sell this place!

5. Color on ourselves and our brother( and the carpet of course, but I didn't even bother taking pictures of that.)

W thought we should at least make them clean up their mess. Never mind that JJ sat and let them do it!

6. Breaking lamps(Cameron did this while doing gymnastics in the family room) and glass coffee tables. Because of our momentary disbelief and loss of presence of mind, we do not have a picture to show of the glass table that was shattered in about the same place a few weeks before. Still not exactly sure how it happened. But it did. And we sent the kids away so that we could pick up the pieces. Again. We never get sick of this drill.....

7. Playing with toothpaste and smearing it all over beds and pillows (pictures are out of order as this first one is Kian running away after I'd taken a couple pics!)

8.Giving ourselves baths in sinks without moms prior knowledge( or permission, whatever that is). Ashlee had just crawled out of this sink while I got the camera. This is our small half bath on the main floor. She apparently enjoyed herself!

On the exact same day, I found Cameron here! He is watching TV while bathing in the kitchen sink. Where do they come up with this stuff? So the kids have been busy( this is seriously just a sampling of thing I had actually taken pictures of) and of course we have kept ourselves busy just keeping up with them( or rather, cleaning up after them!)

Halloween!.....and New Orleans!

New Orleans, Louisiana November 1-5 2009

Here is JJ the morning that we left on the shuttle bus to the airport. He was already having a good time!

" New Orleans - Starring JJ!"

I love this kid!

Beautiful buildings in the French Quarter!

A wrap around porch on an apartment building that is probably 250+ years old

This was a very amusing moment. This man was playing as we walked by and he stopped and asked JJ to come here and told us to get out the camera. This is the picture John took. JJ's face is priceless. He would not make a good poker player. The man chatted with JJ for a moment and then had him " help" play a quick song for us!

JJ was obviously a bit uncomfortable but it definitely made for a lasting memory!

A little farther down the street we saw this car and then JJ was more than happy to pose!

JJ and his Dad at dinner. Clones!

When we were walking home from dinner on the second night, JJ found this newt on the sidewalk. He kept it for about 36 hours and then let it go in a bush where he had found another one. He was glad it would have a friend!

One day, JJ and I went to an aquarium which was very fun. JJ especially enjoyed the stingray touch pool!

Yes, I realize that everyone else posted their Halloween posts a week or more ago, but the day after Halloween John, JJ and I left to go to New Orleans, LA where John was attending a CME conference. John and I had decided that we don't like to be apart, so that I would try to join him whenever possible on these trips. We then thought that it would present a unique opportunity for one on one bonding time with our children from time to time. So, we started our new tradition with our oldest, JJ. It was a fun time and and there were some really old and beautiful buildings there. The French Quarter was a very cool thing to see (except Bourbon Street((appropriately titled by the way)) which was a very scary place even at 2:30 in the afternoon). For those of you who know JJ, it will make sense to you that he loved the music there! It seemed like no matter where we were there was music playing somewhere, and my JJ was dancing right along to the beat. John told him we probably should just get him a hat so he could join the rest of the entertainers! This is the kid who used to crawl to the dishwasher at 6 months old and bounce to the beat of the swishing! Rhythm is in his blood! The weather was sunshine and between 70 and 74 degrees the four days we were there. Perfect! We are of course very grateful to my wonderful mother-in-law for caring for our other kiddos at our house and for cleaning every edge and corner of my floors and even organizing some of my children's drawers! What a joy to come home to! She is awesome and we love her! So that is the explanation of why my Halloween blog post is happening in the middle of November!

Halloween 2009

I'm not sure why exactly, but once again some of these pics are out of order even though I tried to prevent that. Oh, well! We had a Star Wars theme among our boys this year. Kian was our YODA. I think this is him sending someone away after giving sage advice.

This is a clear expression of what he thinks about having a candy bucket in his hand!

Here is Miss Ashlee as Super-girl. So sweet and innocent!

She must be watching her older sister and picking up some attitude poses!

A classic super-girl pose!

A random moment caught-they love each other!

Something had made him upset, but I can't seem to remember what. I still thought the picture was too cute not to include. Kian has a great "pout face".

My Brax man who was Luke Skywalker along with Cameron.

Here are my skywalkers posing as if they had light sabers, because I wasn't brave enough-or maybe naive is a better word- to actually let them have light sabers to run about with while I was trying to get everyone dressed and ready. They were disappointed, but I was quite sure that would have ended with someone needing stitches. That seems to be the odds at our house.

Cam was really trying to get into character. He cracks me up!

It was fun to watch them bond over being the same thing for Halloween. That's the good stuff! I think Cameron really enjoyed feeling like an equal.

Tori did all of her own posing, I just kept pushing the button. She was enjoying herself and it is always fun to watch her personality. I ended up with at least 15 shots of her but only included a few here.

She was a princess (what else would she be! If the crown fits.....)

And finally my JJ. It seems a little strange for someone so sweet to portray someone who's not, but he was excited to play the part! He was Darth Vader to round out our Star Wars group.

With the mask and and voice box! We can't wait until next year!!

Pumpkins!!

So this is the haul of pumpkins for carving fun this year! This has become an absolute must for the Halloween season at our house. John really enjoys it ( obviously it provides yet another creative outlet for him!) and so the kids have naturally followed suit. The pumpkins seem to be getting bigger every year.....

The cleaning out begins!



These are somewhat out of order(whoops) but this is John helping Cam get ready to poke out his outline.

Of course, half of the fun is just getting messy!

Kian joined in the messy fun too!

Here is Kian trying to put a picture on his pumpkin like he has seen the other kids doing and Mom is busy taking pics so she is not helping yet!
Tori showing us some pumpkin guts!

Here are the older kids punching out their patterns with dad's expert assistance!
I was lucky enough to get to "finish" removing the insides of most of the pumpkins! So now I will reveal the finished products! The kids pumpkins required adult help once they realized they had been a little ambitious in choosing their designs. They all gave it a really good effort though!


John did this one which was appropriately titled "Come Unto Me"
This was also Johns displaying the motto emblem for "Choose The Right"
This was Braxtons'(with some help!)

This was Victorias'(once again, with help!)
JJ completed his all on his own but there was some sadness when he accidentally cut out some areas that were supposed to remain intact. Not bad for doing it all on his own though!!
This was Camerons'(or Johns work, really, but Cam did pick out the pattern!
And this was Ashlees'! We never actually got around to carving Kians' pumpkin!


These are last years pumpkins I thought I would include in this post just for fun since we didn't have a blog last year to display them!





Looking forward to next year already!