From Butterflies to Lizards

Back in South Jordan Alison was obsessed with butterflies and would spend hours outside trying to catch them. Here in St. George it has gone from butterfly catching to lizard catching. They are everywhere here, especially as the weather cools during a rainstorm. So far she has not been able to catch one. If you look in the bottom left picture there is a tiny one between the bottom of the second and third brick from the left. They grow bigger than that but that's the first one Hollie found to take a picture of.

Spencer (Pictures to bribe him with when he is older)

Spencer and Brittney have been playing together while the other kids are at school. One day Britt had her barbie down in the kitchen and had to leave for a moment. When she came back she found Spencer playing with it. She gently took it away from him and he SCREAMED! He threw a horrible tantrum. She ran upstairs and grabbed another barbie for him to play with and he immediately stopped the tantrum. Then the two of them played barbies for a while. I couldn't resist taking pictures of it to embarrass him with when he's older. The picture on the left is to show off his Jack-O-Lantern teeth. For some reason his other front tooth will not pop through and it's been a few weeks since it looked like it would. His teeth and his happy personality just makes us laugh

River Outside Our Front Door

With the monsoon rains we've been getting some amazing storms. This week we were watching the lightening in the sky and the rain pouring down when we saw a basketball (seen in the middled picture) floating down a big rush of water in the gutters. Alison went out to rescue it and the kids begged to play out in the raging waters. Since the lightening had stopped Hollie let them. By the time they got out there the water had reduced significantly but it was still enough to float their balls and a few toys down a ways.

Brittney's World

Brittney has been having so much fun lately. The picture to the left is her chef hat from when they played restaurant at preschool. The top right is when she did her hair "herself!" And the bottom right is of her and a girl a couple houses down who she has been playing with.

"Does This Match"

Kyle came down one morning wearing this. Hollie tried ever so gently to get him to change. He didn't buy into the notion that it didn't match because both the shirt and pants had the same color in them. A small debate started and they decided to ask people on Facebook their opinion. This turned out to be quite a funny post and ended up with 63 comments. Here are a few of our favorites:

 

Brynelle Thomas: Heck yes that matches!!! (Kurt wrote that)

 

Kyle Alverson: This is what I wear to work. I am one of the proud men left in this world that will not let his wife dress him.

Shannon Kirby Ipson: My first thoughts were "Am I seeing through a kaleidoscope?" My eyes had to adjust to the crazy :)

Kyle Alverson: Not every man is as confident as I am.

Bryan J Hurd: Please don't let people see him in public.

Miranda Hardle: Ummm, if confidence is what you want to call it then yes, no man does have as much as you ;) 

Shaie Humphries: I was going to like this post because I thought the conversation was pretty funny, but then realized Kyle might take that to mean I thought his outfit matches. :-)

Kyle Alverson: A man's wardrobe is one of the last freedoms that I refuse to forsake. I can take pictures of a lot of other dudes in my hood that also are bent on retaining this freedom.

Pam Bennett: if you're 80 years old in a retirement center!!!!!

Tiffany Young: But thanks for the laugh!! That picture my be permanently burned into my retinas!! That is a very bold wardrobe choice, maybe that is what the hoods of St George are into now!! haha. I may have to share that picture!!

Matthew Fusano: I think by "dudes in the hood" he means retired old men that can't even see let alone know if what they are wearing matches but I still stand by him wearing what he wants.

Hollie Anne Alverson:  Bryan J. Hurd I'm glad you are enjoying it because we may need your help again to move far away where it is always cold and you have to wear a coat no matter what clothes you chose to wear. Either that or I'll have to resort to Tiffany Young's idea and invest in a comfortable paper bag to wear over my head.

Shannon Mayne Freer:  Lol! This has a name...CLASHING. It is a lesson I taught my girls when they were 3 and dressing themselves. Putting different designs/colors/patterns together is called mix matching...This really reminded me of when I worked in an Alzheimer's unit and we had to hide their clothes. This is what they looked like when they found clothes and dressed themselves. Haha

Shirley Freer: I so happy you and Kyle can have such "fun". Keep it up forever. Kyle, we love you

Trisha Bush texted "Poor Kyle, does he have any self esteem left?"

Kyle responded, "Fortunately for me, my self esteem comes from other sources. If it came from the comments I would be suicidal right now."

There were so many other good comments but we couldn't include them all. Kyle claims he knew it didn't match and was just doing it to drive Hollie crazy. It worked! :)

First Day of School

August 14th was the first day of school for four of the kids. Alison started fourth grade with Mr. Garcia; Tyler started second grade with Mrs. Thomas; Katelyn started first grade in the Chinese
Dual Immersion program so she has two teachers: her English speaking one is Mrs. Murphy and her Chinese one is Mrs. Jia; and Brittney started her first day of preschool with Mrs. Sanchez and Mrs. Hurd. She is also doing an online preschool through Utah Upstart and works at least 15 minutes a day 5 days a week playing reading games as well as learning other fun things. Currently she is on it for almost an hour a day and begs to play the computer. The house is much more quiet now, it's so different!

Katelyn Lost Her First Tooth!

August 11, Kate lost her very first tooth. She was SO excited! The Tooth Fairy came and brought her a gold dollar, a certificate, and a book.

"Brown Vanilla"

Tyler hates chocolate anything. We ordered a white cake for Spencer's birthday but after cutting into it we found the bakery had messed up the order instead making a chocolate cake with strawberry filling. After waiting all day for it Tyler almost started to cry. Kyle told him it was "brown vanilla" so he tried it and really liked it. But if asked, he still hates chocolate. Hmmmm....

Spencer's First Birthday

Our little baby turned one! We just had a small family party and celebrated with a "Despicable Me" theme since we saw the "Despicable Me 2" a few weeks before and Spencer loved the Minions in it. We bought the first movie and watched it after eating cake, opening presents, and swimming. As a tradition we buy the kids a Mylar birthday balloon. Kyle picked up Spencer's and we had it tied to his high chair. Brittney, who is four, decided to play with it and decided to pop it by purposely stepping on it. For her punishment we made her hold up the balloon in all the pictures. Now it is actually kind of funny, but when it happened we were a little upset with her.

Kyle's 40th Birthday

Kyle's actual 40th birthday was a lot quieter. Kyle had the day off and he spent the day organizing things. We went out to Chuck-A-Rama (one of the kids favorite) and just enjoyed time together as a family. Spencer was a hit with all the old ladies at the restaurant.

"Hiking" With All These Kids

One of the activities we did while Kyle's family was down was to go through Snow Canyon and stop for a small hike. We had 12 kids ages 10 and under and 5 adults. Starting with the left front row: Brittney, Luke, Ashlynne, Alison, Wyatt, Spencer, Katelyn, Tyler, Garrett, Bella, Samantha, Athena. Top row: Adrienne, Kyle, Matt, Amy

Other activities we did were biking, feeding the ducks, watching "Monster's University" at the theater, and lots of swimming.

Kyle's Surprise Party

Kyle has told me he never wanted me to throw him a surprise party. With his 40th birthday coming up I wanted to do something special but not get in trouble. When we decided to move to St. George I had the idea to throw him a family surprise party and invite his side of the family down for a few days to celebrate. I knew he would miss seeing them after the move so I thought it was perfect. Months in advance I contacted his side of the family and we started to plan to surprise him on his birthday, August 8th. Everything was going smooth until he found out he'd be out of town on his birthday with work. He thought it was an inconvenience but he had no idea how it messed up my plans for the party. We scrambled and found another date a week early and everyone made their plans and motel reservations. Then the week before the party Kyle's business trip was cancelled. He told me he wanted to plan a trip up to Salt Lake for his birthday and have a big party with his family. Little did he know I was way ahead of him.

On July 31 his brother, Matt, and his family came down along with his mom and her husband. Matt had called in advance to ask if he could visit us for a week. Kyle got work off for a few days to hang out with them. Matt's job was to get Kyle out of the house so we could set up and get everyone there. He told Kyle he had forgotten his swimsuit and Kyle just happened to need one so off they went to the mall to shop. His mom told him she wanted to spend time with Barry and have a nice dinner before coming over so he didn't expect her. Adrienne and her kids came down and drove around Santa Clara until they were cleared to come. We set up and practiced yelling "surprise" until they came back. Adrienne had made a great cake with a Harley motorcycle driving up and over a hill. When Kyle walked in the door he was completely surprised! He had absolutely no clue! We had a barbeque, opened presents, swam, visited and ate cake. It was a lot of fun and was almost perfect. The only thing missing was the other siblings who weren't able to make it.

Dad and Kate Barbequing

 

Sacrament Talks and the Fire Alarm

Busy week for Kyle and Hollie. Not only is our family preparing our home for visitors that will shortly come, but both Kyle and Hollie had to speak in church and Hollie had to teach the Relief Society lesson. Sunday morning we were all settled on the stand and Bishop Ence had just started the Sacrament meeting when the fire alarms started going off and we were told to evacuate. This was something we had not experienced before and to be the speakers made it even more interesting. We stood outside for about 10 minutes while the building was cleared (it looks to have been a faulty smoke alarm because none of the handles had been pulled). While we were waiting the jokes about the Alverson's pulling it to get out of talking were rampant :) One person said they saw Kyle by the fire panel before church. Another said we didn't pull it, but we put a chair up to the handle so one of our kids could accidentally pull it. It was quite funny. The Bishop extended Sacrament Meeting so we still gave our talks (which was good because they had such sweet messages on the atonement). Though we had nothing to do with it we might try it in the future if we have to speak again :) Just kidding.

Handsome Little Man

We had to get a picture of our handsome little guy in his suit. No time for shoes or socks, he's too busy for those and he just pulls them off.

Broccoli VS Diet Coke

For months the kids have been trying to get Kyle and Hollie to stop drinking pop. One night at dinner Alison was complaining about having to eat a couple bites of green beans. She was being so dramatic about it that Hollie thought there was a 0% chance she would eat them and saw an opportunity to get Alison to stop harassing her about drinking her Diet Coke. She told Ali that if she ate all of her vegetables then she would be healthy too and stop drinking soda for the next day. Alison got a devious glint in her eye and started shoveling all of the vegetables into her mouth while her mom sat there shocked. True to her word, Hollie did not drink soda the next day. But at lunch when the broccoli came out Alison said she would eat it all if the same deal was made. What is a mom to do? Hollie went ahead and made the deal. Since then Alison has asked for broccoli from the store so she can continue to keep eating her vegetables to keep her mom from soda. It has even now extended to Kyle not drinking it if Brittney eats her vegetables. Kyle and Hollie have almost completely stopped drinking soda and are trying to be healthy with better eating habits and exercise. The kids LOVE it!

24th of July Family Celebration

After the parade our family went home and started organizing the rec room (a very big task). The kids worked very hard and together we actually got it done. Kyle and Hollie decided to reward the kids with dinner from Olive Garden and a movie. We saw Despicable Me 2 which we all loved. After the movie we stopped for root beer floats and then lit off the little remaining fireworks and sparklers we had. It was one of those perfect days where there was no fighting, everyone was happy, and we just had fun!

24th of July Stake Primary Parade

A new tradition in the newly created Santa Clara Stake we are in is to have the primary children dress up and do a small parade around Gubler Park. The younger primary decorated scooters and bikes to ride, the Achievement Day girls decorated and carried signs, and the scouts wore their uniforms. It was hot! Even though the parade started at 9 the kids were not used to being out in the heat. Brittney helped decorate her scooter but refused to ride it. Since she is a Sunbeam her mom had to walk with her. The bottom right picture is Hollie carrying 5 water bottles and a scooter while walking in the parade. Tyler and Brittney dropped out of the parade halfway through and then went and sat by Kyle. Alison and Katelyn were troopers and walked the whole time and then participated in the songs the primary kids sang during the program that followed the parade.

Tyler and Alison's Pictures

On Sunday the kids have been writing letters to keep in touch with their friends and family. They LOVE getting letters and would love to hear back from those they love. The letter Ali wrote on the right was sent to her close friend in South Jordan. It was so sweet that her mom wanted to include it in the blog so it would be made into the memory book for the family. The picture on the left was drawn Monday by Tyler and is of Spencer walking for the first time.

Spencer learned to walk!!!

Monday July 22 Spencer learned to walk! For the record he was 11 months 13 days old.

Tyler's Painful Week

Monday morning Tyler was in the bathroom when he heard a pop behind his ear and then had horrible pain in his head that made him fall to the floor. He couldn't get up so Kyle had to carry him from the bathroom to the couch where we tried to determine what happened or what to do. He said he couldn't move and soon a couple lumps could be felt on his neck.This greatly alarmed us. Kyle gave him a priesthood blessing, took off work with emergency family leave and after laying down the seat in the van he took a crying Tyler off to the Insta Care. When he couldn't walk into the Insta Care on his own the nurse told Kyle he needed to take him over to the Emergency Room. After he had a hard and painful time getting from the car to the wheelchair he went in to be evaluated. They took blood samples, x-rays, and did tests but couldn't figure out what was wrong with his head and neck. Eventually he was able to get up and walk into the bathroom. They told him to go home and put an ice pack on it and take Ibuprofen. He was miserable. Slowly, each day since then he has been feeling better. His head stopped hurting and the problem just seemed to be his neck. He has had to miss out on a lot of fun activities and the ones he did participate in he was in too much pain to enjoy. It has almost been a week now and he's about back to being his normal, silly self. Hopefully it's a one time weird event and it doesn't happen again.

Oh, and as for why Tyler is wearing winter pajamas in the middle of a hot St. George summer, he says he likes to wear them so he doesn't have to have blankets at night.. All of the kids wear them despite comments from their parents about them being too hot.  Their mother just thinks they are plain weird!

Adventures with Dad

Kyle took Tyler for a drive to explore the canyons around St. George. They found Snow Canyon and decided to go on a hike. They enjoyed it so much that they came home and took Alison and Katelyn back. On the hike they found a lizard and explored a shallow cave.Then they explored more of St. George and found a park with a lake that had big crane-type birds.

Cowabunga Bay 2013

On the way back from the cabin Kyle took the older three kids to Cowabunga Bay.

Random Pics of the Kids

Here are a few cute pictures I found on Kyle's phone.

Playdates at the Park

We have been meeting up with friends to have lunch and play at the park as often as we can. Since it's so hot in St. George many of the parks have water play areas (but not swimming pools because then they don't have to worry about life guards.) This picture was taken at the Ivins splash pad and is showing Alison, Brittney, and a friend from the neighborhood.