New Kids' Pictures

A couple of weeks ago I changed the pictures of the kids that run along the side of the blog. I got several comments from people about how cute they were that I figured I better put a post in with some of my favorites from the shoot.


We did the shoot in September and I thought that I would try something different for us with the warehouse background. (We've always just done outdoors stuff before.) Of course we used our favorite photographer and one of my very best friends Allie. Besides the fact that she is an honorary sissy for me her work is phenomenal. I have links to her photography blog and website if any of you are interested.


Without further ado....Here are some of my favorites....

Ellen 5 Years Old, Trevor 4 Years Old, Levi 12 months old

September Newsletter

I have put a few of these posts on the blog, most of them have remained in the edit stage just to be published when I print the blog at the end of the year. Both my family and Landon's do a monthly newsletter where each member of the family writes a little synopsis of the month in review. It helps to keep us all caught up on each other's lives even when we are far apart. This is our latest synopsis. Most of it is the same stuff that is on the blog, I literally copy and paste one to the other, but some of it is different. It is all things that I want to have down in our family journal, so it gets included here. Read if you want, some of the information is new, but mainly this is just for posterity purposes.

September was a month filled mostly with getting ourselves into a routine and back to the daily grind. There were a few extra fun things to enjoy as well. The month started out with one of those with Jaycee’s baptism. It was a wonderful baptism with lots of kids, although I think Jaycee looked the prettiest. She wore the same dress that Shelly, Annie and Katie wore for their baptisms. It was really neat to see her make such a big step and we are so proud of her decision to do so.

For Labor Day we decided to do a little exploring at Crater's of the Moon with our friends the Olsen's. It was a really windy day, but that actually made it kind of nice, it wasn't too hot. The kids loved going in all of the caves and had fun running around with their friends. We were able to get lots of fun pictures and spend an enjoyable day out in the gorgeous bounty of this beautiful earth.

Later that week we again loaded up with our friends the Olsen’s and headed for the Fair. The only night that we found we had available to go it was raining, but we still decided to try it. It actually turned out not too bad. The worst of the rain came while we were eating and since it was a cold, rainy night there weren't too many people there and we were able to find a sheltered place to eat. After that, the place was ours with very minimal sprinkling. One of the kids' favorite spots is McKee's petting zoo. They had all of the animals put away because of the rain, but we still went in and looked at all of them. When we were walking through the cows Ellen pointed at this cow and said, "Mom, is that where chocolate milk comes from?" I love it!

That same week Trevor started preschool. When Ellen started school this year, the first couple of days of dropping her off were really hard for him. He would cry his little heart out because he wanted to go to school so we were so happy when it finally started for him. When the first day of his preschool came I thought he was going to jump out of his skin. He loved having his own backpack and couldn't wait to get to play with the toys at Miss Leslee's. Trevor went to preschool like he was an old pro. I wondered if he would be nervous about me leaving, but the moment he got there he couldn't wait for me to leave and kept saying goodbye to me. After the first week I haven't been allowed to walk him downstairs to his classroom. When we pull up to the house he tells me "I do it alone, you stay here." There was even a day when I was sitting in the car waiting for him to walk down the stairs to make sure he got in okay. He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at me and said, "You go home." He was very adamant and wouldn't continue down the stairs until I told him I was staying to make sure he got in the house. He didn't like that a whole bunch, but he decided it was better than having me walk him to his classroom. I think he might be embarrassed of me already!

That weekend we were able to celebrate Maggie and Braiden’s birthday with a spectacular birthday party. The kids loved playing all of the games, especially limbo. They also had a lot of fun giving the kids our presents. The party was a huge hit and everyone loved the cake, especially Maggie. Yummy!

September brought Ellen’s first short hair cut. About a year and a half ago she took a pair of fingernail scissors to her hair and cut chunks out of it. You would think that she would have learned her lesson from cutting her hair with scissors once, but all it seems she learned was to use bigger scissors so that she could cut more hair. I got a call from Landon and Ellen while I was on IDX to tell me that she had taken her scissors and cut her hair. I told them I would look at it when I got home and see what I could do. I ended up having to cut about 5 inches off and it left her with a really cute bob. Landon informed her that if she does it again Mommy won’t be the one fixing the haircut, Daddy will. That has her scared, at least for now.

Ellen was able to start dance and piano this month. She is doing a more advanced dance class this year and goes for a little over an hour once a week. She is also learning some really fun songs in piano. Trevor also started taking his very own class this month, Tumbling. It is actually a dance/tumbling class. Since we watch Braiden and Maggie four days a week now, we have Braiden the morning Trevor takes tumbling. So, we decided to sign Braiden up with him. The boys seem to really enjoy it and they are totally cute trying to do their tumbling.

The last fun run of the season was in the middle of September and Katie was able to talk my friend Erica into running with me. (My usual running partner was out due to her pregnancy. Geesh Annie, what do you think you want to have a baby for? :-D) Erica and I were neither of us in top shape, but we thought for sure we could do the 10K no problem. Sadly that was not really a good assessment on either of our parts. Erica ended up having to bring her boys in the running stroller, which on a course that goes through trees from Lower Ross Park to Upper Ross Park proved to be difficult. And of course, I ended up with knee problems again. The story of my running summer. My time ended up being almost double what my 10K speed had been 2 months previous. Eeeek! While it is sad to say that, I really had a very enjoyable time.

The rest of the month was mostly made up of making sure we got to all of our classes and obligations. We had a Stake Harvest Dinner which was a lot of fun with a big bouncy toy and train rides pulled by a four wheeler for the kids. Adasyn had her birthday and we were able to celebrate with her and her butterfly cake. Katie had an angel auction Relief Society meeting where she was able to drum up a few free nights of babysitting. Yeah! Landon spent the last half of his month trying to prep himself for his hunting trip.

The last weekend of the month ended up being really exciting for us. We were able to go to the ISU Homecoming parade with lots of family. Grandma and Grandpa Kunz were in town and the kids loved getting to see them. Mickey and Morgan joined us as well as Norm and Judy. Renee and the kids also joined in the fun with us. The kids made a haul with the candy and loved watching all of the floats. The most exciting thing about that day was the birth of a new nephew, Riley John Kunz. Gretchen and Joe had their 4th son a month early, but Momma and Baby came out just great. We were happy to hear that all went well and that he is a healthy, happy baby. We can’t wait to meet him.

We love you all!
Landon, Katie and Family

An Interesting 10K

The last fun run of the season was in the middle of September and I was able to talk my friend Erica into running with me. (My usual running partner was out due to her pregnancy. Geesh Annie, what do you think you want to have a baby for? :-D)

Instead of the 10K Annie did the 5K with her little family. Jaycee ended up winning her age group. You go girl!

Erica and I were neither of us in top shape, but we thought for sure we could do the 10K no problem. We really should have known better, especially when the morning of the run Erica's husband got called in to work. She brought her boys in the running stroller, which for most fun runs wouldn't have been a problem but this one you have to run through the middle of Ross Park. And when I say through, I mean through. The course goes from lower Ross Park to upper Ross Park through the trees and across lots of grass.
If you have ever run with a stroller, you know that this is enough to tucker anybody out. We of course quickly got behind all of the other 10K runners and soon started getting passed up by many of the 5K runners who started shortly behind us. We were still in good spirits though. The course goes in a double loop for the 10K and at the end of the first loop we knew we weren't doing great, but we were still feeling pretty good so we decided to go ahead and do the second lap.

Looking back, that was probably a mistake. Shortly after we started the second loop, having to do the through the trees trek with the stroller again, we started having problems. Erica's boys, who had been doing fantastic, decided that they were done running. We ended up having to stop several times to help them out. Then about half way through that second lap my knees gave out. Now mind you, this was not my IT Band that has been giving me all sorts of trouble, it was aching too, but my other knee became extremely painful. I fought through the rest of the race, but my pace slowed considerably. Eventually Erica ended up leaving me in the dust so that she could finish faster and attend to her screaming children as I limped my way across the finish line.

My time ended up being almost double what my 10K speed had been 2 months previous. Eeeek! While it is sad to say that, I really had a very enjoyable time. The conversation was great during the run and it felt good to have actually run the whole 6 miles. I don't think I would have felt as good about myself if we had stopped on the first loop. An interesting way to end my running season. Plenty of time to recoup and work up to be killer for the next.

Trevor's First Day of Preschool

Trevor started Preschool in September and he is in love! A lady in our ward does a preschool and it is conveniently just down the road from us. Ellen went there last year and Trevor has been asking when he can go for a whole year now. Leslee was nice enough to let Trevor come play with them on the toys sometimes last year, so he knew it would be fun and literally could not wait. When Ellen started school this year, the first couple of days of dropping her off were really hard for him. He would cry his little heart out because he wanted to go to school. Preschool didn't start for another month for him, but I started telling him about it and trying to get him excited for that. There were several times that we would have to drive by his school and show him where it was in order for him to feel like it was okay that Ellen was leaving him.

When the first day of his preschool came I thought he was going to jump out of his skin. He loved having his own backpack and couldn't wait to get to play with the toys at Miss Leslee's. In all the chaos of the morning I didn't even think about getting a picture of him, so luckily Carlie's mom (The little girl in this picture) did. (Carlie's mom was of right mind and took some pictures of Carlie. Trevor being the ham he was wanted to be in all of the pictures and even asked her to get a picture of him alone. So, thanks Sheena!)

Trevor went to preschool like he was an old pro. I wondered if he would be nervous about me leaving, but the moment he got there he couldn't wait for me to leave and kept saying goodbye to me. After the first week I haven't been allowed to walk him downstairs to his classroom. When we pull up to the house he tells me "I do it alone, you stay here." There was even a day when I was sitting in the car waiting for him to walk down the stairs to make sure he got in okay. He stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at me and said, "You go home." He was very adamant and wouldn't continue down the stairs until I told him I was staying to make sure he got in the house. He didn't like that a whole bunch, but he decided it was better than having me walk him to his classroom. I think he might be embarrassed of me already!

He is so much happier now that he gets to go to preschool and we love all of the things he brings home. What a big boy I have. Where did the time go?

What's in a Haircut

Well, Ellen has had her first true short haircut since she was a little girl. About a year and a half ago she took a pair of fingernail scissors to her hair and cut chunks out of it. Because of the oddity of the cutting with that one I had to call my stylist to have her fix Ellen's hair with layers. It was still able to stay pretty long though.

You would think that she would have learned her lesson from cutting her hair with scissors once, but all it seems she learned was to use bigger scissors so that she could cut more hair. I got a call from Landon and Ellen while I was on IDX to tell me that she had taken her scissors and cut her hair. I told them I would look at it when I got home and see what I could do.

Luckily, this time she did a pretty neat cut job on her hair. She cut a lot more hair off, but it was at least mostly straight and she left it long enough that I thought I could do the cut job myself. It was really disheartening to me as I cut off her hair. Right before I had left for work I had expressed to Landon how beautiful I thought her hair was getting. It was so long and we had straightened it to make it look absolutely gorgeous that day.

I think it actually turned out really cute. Which makes it harder to explain to her why she shouldn't do it again. Landon told her that if she did it again Mommy wasn't going to fix her hair, Daddy was. So far this has seemed to stick in her head that she does not want a boy hair cut.

After she was done she went to look in the mirror and came back to inform me that she kind of looked like me and McKinley (her friend in Kindergarten who also has a bob.) We are sad to be loosing the length, I cut off about 5 inches of hair, because now we can't do as many fun hairstyles. She was really sad when I told her we couldn't do the flag in her hair with it this short. We are remembering some cute hairstyles from when she had short hair and really it is adorable on her. I just hope that next time she decides she wants her hair cut short she will let me know before so that we are not forced into the cut.

Eastern Idaho State Fair Shinnanigans

I love the fair. It is as simple as that. Every year I get so excited as Labor Day draws closer that we can go to the fair. I have passed this passion on to our children as well. Ellen asked when the fair was going to come back at least once a month the whole year if not several times in each month. Landon made the mistake of not taking me one year in the beginning of our marriage and has not made the mistake again. He loves the food and I love everything!

This year we loaded up with our friends the Olsen's and headed out. The only night that we found we had available to go it was raining, but we still decided to try it. It actually turned out not too bad. The worst of the rain came while we were eating and since it was a cold, rainy night there weren't too many people there and we were able to find a sheltered place to eat. After that, the place was ours with very minimal sprinkling.
One of the kids' favorite spots is McKee's petting zoo. They had all of the animals put away because of the rain, but we still went in and looked at all of them. Levi was so animated pointing them all out and telling us about them.

This picture was hilarious. The little boy, Miles, was talking to his mom about the goat when it leaped out and started trying to eat his glove. The goat did it over and over again for us, which was nice so that we could get this totally cute shot. Miles thought it was hysterical.

When we were walking through the cows Ellen pointed at this cow and said, "Mom, is that where chocolate milk comes from?" I loved it!

This was the Olsen's first experience at the Eastern Idaho State Fair. From the looks on their faces I think they had a good time. And we were happy for the company.

He Likes Musicals, eh

Our little Levi man is not much of a movie watcher. This has been a totally new experience for Landon and I because our other two kids were mesmerized by Baby Einstein by the time they were 3 months old. Levi at a year old still hasn't found anything the really entertains him, until recently.

One afternoon he got into our movie drawer and brought Landon the movie "The Happiest Millionaire." It is an old Disney musical that we totally love. Landon put it in to let the older two watch and Levi sat down and watched the movie, just like this....
The musical actually kept his focus. He sat like this for a full 5 minutes. Landon said that he would get distracted during the speaking parts, but whenever he heard the singing and music he would come running and sit mesmerized by the movie. I guess we just had to find his thing....musicals.

Craters of the Moon

For Labor Day we decided to do a little exploring at Crater's of the Moon with our friends the Olsen's. It was a really windy day, but that actually made it kind of nice, it wasn't too hot.

First thing when we got there we decided to have the lunch we packed. Since it was sooo windy we piled the kids in the back of the van to each their sandwiches. Ellen, Levi, Trevor & Reed

My girl is such a babe!

Levi trying to see what everybody else is looking at.

For most of the longer walks we packed Levi up in the backpack. He enjoyed it.

Trevor, Ellen, and Reed

They walked many of the trails holding hands.

Erica striking a pose. Doesn't she look like a seasoned spelunker?

The moment Ellen saw this name she got sooooo excited. She began telling us over and over again that it was her Cave! So, when we got to the sign, I took her picture next to her cave.

The whole group, Blaine, Miles, Reed & Erica Olsen. Landon, Trevor, Levi, Katie and Ellen Ladwig.

This was in Beauty Cave. We didn't make it very far though because none of us thought to bring flashlights. Landon took Ellen and Trevor most of the way down following other people with flashlights. The trip back to the mouth of the cave was a little harder for them because they lost the people with the light.

Katie and Levi walking the trail.

The kids were such troopers that day. They climbed over everything and wanted to go in every cave. They really enjoyed themselves.

The Olsen's emerging from Indian Cave.

The Landon Ladwig Family

While the kids were troopers, they did get tired. Reed decided he needed to lay down at this point for a little rest.

In the middle of the exploring Landon's neck started really aching him. He had strained it somehow the night before and then carrying Levi in the backpack made it flair up pretty badly. Luckily we had a doctor with us (Blaine is in his residency.) After we came out of one of the caves Blaine tried helping Landon relax his neck a little.

All in all it was a really great trip and a good way to spend Labor Day.

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

One night after playing in the back yard Levi came in the house with a face like this. Levi has a constantly running nose. And I mean constant! Match that up with dirt from the backyard and a little bit of dinner that didn't get wiped off good and this is what you get. This picture doesn't truly show it well, but the snot/dirt mixture wraps clear up and into his eyebrows.

A face that only a mother can love!

How do you like your Breakfast?

This morning I made a hot breakfast for me kids. Sad to say, this is not a common occurrence in our house. Not just because I am lazy, but my kids have also now been trained to like cold cereal better than most hot cereals. The importance of this hot breakfast wasn't in it being unusual, but it was also the first time I made hot breakfast before Ellen went to school. Odd as it may sound, I sat there buttering her toast and found myself missing my Grandma Kunz (Ellen's namesake) more than I have in a long time.


Let me explain.


Growing up we lived just down the street from my Grandma and Grandpa Kunz. I loved it! It was great to know that when you wanted to run away from home you knew you had a place to go that was just a half a mile away. Little did you understand that while Grandma would gladly take in a runaway and feed you all sorts of yummy treats, she would also make you realize how great home was and before you knew it Mom and Dad were there to pick you up and you forgot that you ran away.


Being the youngest kid in my family my mom went back to work when I went to Kindergarten. Because my dad was a railroad engineer and was gone a couple of days a week, I would spend those mornings down with Grandma and Grandpa and then catch the bus from their house. This ended once I was in first grade and my older siblings could help me get on the bus, but that was not the end of my mornings with Grandma. In fact, that was just a small part.


In the fifth grade my mom got a job as the secretary of my elementary school which was also just down the road from our house. Grandma's house was on the way and since Joey had started Junior High I got to once again get dropped off with Grandma in the mornings. This time for breakfast, and then off to school.


We continued this all through my 5th and 6th grade years. Every morning I would get dropped off with Grandma and receive the best breakfasts I have ever had in my life. Since I was the only one Grandma had to feed my breakfast was almost always made to order. In fact, there were times that she would call me the night before to see what I wanted in the morning. (Something my dad is still jealous of to this day.) More often than not my breakfast would consist of eggs, Grandma's favorite, juice, milk, and toast. (Thus the tearing up over it this morning.) Grandma found out that I didn't like the crusts very much and that they were just getting thrown away every day, so she started cutting them off for me. She found out that I loved eggnog and so as soon as she could find it in the store she would bring it home and it would take the place of my milk. It would continue to be there until she no longer could get it.


I have taken poking from my siblings throughout the years about being spoiled, and you know what they are right. There are benefits to being the baby of the family. One of my greatest benefits has been these breakfasts with Grandma. They are moments that I treasure and hold close to my heart. Times when I was able to be mentored by one of the most wonderful, lovely, spiritual, beautiful woman to have ever walked this earth.


Thanks Grandma! I think I will have over easy this morning.