The Stander Family

Peeping Tom

2012-02-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

David was working up on our roof over the weekend and happened to have left a small ladder out in the backyard. Brychan was absolutely fascinated with what the neighbors had in their backyards!

He learned that at least two of our neighbors have swimming pools.

"There's another swimming pool, Mommy!"

"We don't have a swimming pool..."

"I like swimming!"

Too bad he's already learning that the grass is always greener on the other side!

Still Here

2012-01-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

In spite of the lack of blog updates, we are still here, and we have managed to do a few fun things this month. However, we have no photos of the few fun things we've done this month. Sorry.

Here's the scoop:

Brychan continues to LOVE school. Kehlton continues to cry every morning we drop Brychan off.

We made a quick trip to Texas to
     1. Visit my family
     2. Visit my grandparents (who are both suffering some serious health issues)
     3. Meet my little brother's fiancee (technically, she wasn't his fiancee until the day after we came home, but whatever!)

David continues to work with the 11 year old scouts and I am still super busy with the YW.

Work is going insanely well for both of us. David and his partners keep reelin' the listings in, and January has been, by far, the busiest month ever for Kadydid Designs. I'm not sure what happened between December and January, but we've had more sales this month than all other months combined. Crazy.

I am signed up for not one, but two, 5K's in March. Perhaps the dumbest thing I've done in awhile; we'll see. Regardless, Biggs and I are getting lots of running/walking in trying to get ready.

And hopefully, we'll do something super fun - that includes photos - soon!! :)

1st Day of Preschool

2012-01-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

Today was Brychan's first day of Preschool!
He is one of four peer models in a special needs preschool classroom at our local elementary school.

The other 3 peer models are in his Sunbeam class at church, so that's extra fun for him

There's only 13 kids and 3 teachers, which Mommy really likes,

and he has school for 3 hours Monday - Thursday.

He was beyond excited this morning. He's been waiting a long time to get to go to school.

However, Mommy is feeling like it wasn't long enough.

I am super excited for him though because I know he'll have so much fun

and I know how much he loves to learn.

Kehlton is not as excited.

He cried for the entire first hour after we dropped brother off.

Although, I think once he gets used to 3 hours of

uninterrupted Mommy time; getting to play how he wants,

he'll quickly learn it's okay! :)

I will say; I definitely like being on the Preschool Teacher side of this experience

much more than I like being on the Mommy side of this!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting around to posting Christmas photos! Better late than never, right?

After a fun day of playing, baking, watching Christmas movies, drinking hot chocolate, putting reindeer food on the front yard and looking at Christmas lights, the boys went to bed (Brychan fell asleep at 6:30!) and Santa made his visit!

Unfortunately, the boys woke up again after Santa had made his visit and noticed all their fantastic loot right before midnight. Needless to say, we stayed up for quite awhile after while the boys played with their bike and scooter. Luckily, they were so excited about the big things that they didn't even notice the stockings, so we were able to go to bed with some Santa surprises still intact.

Christmas morning, Lala showed up bright and early and we all sat around and waited for Kehlton to wake up. Once he did, we enjoyed opening presents, eating yummy cinnamon rolls, drinking eggnog and then rushing to get ready for church! As expected, our Christmas-themed sacrament meeting was absolutely wonderful.

One of the best things about living in Arizona is that we don't have to wait 3-4 months to go outside and play with all our new toys! Lala had Bug riding his bike all by himself in no time...

And Kehlton just enjoyed the rides. It won't take him long to be racing around on that scooter by himself. He already has the foot movement down; he just needs a little bit of practice!

I happened to win a couple of super hero capes on a random blog right before Christmas, and they made great stocking stuffers. I love that it looks like Kehlton has a light-saber or something of the sort in this photo, but it's just a fun remote control car.

We had such a wonderful Christmas holiday!! It was so nice that David had a few days off (I don't go back to work until January 10). We really enjoyed just lazing around the house with nothing pressing to do.

We really missed getting to see all of our family members this year! We hope you'll all decide you need a break from your winter weather and come visit soon!

Visit with Santa Claus

2011-12-18T18:48:00.000-08:00

The first Friday in December was our ward Christmas party. And, as is typical with our ward, it was perfect and super fun. We had dinner, enjoyed a live nativity put on by the primary and sang some Christmas carols.

All day long the boys had been talking about how they would get to see Santa that night. They were so excited!! All through dinner, they kept asking if it was time yet, so when it actually was time to see Santa - they were ready to go! Until they actually saw Santa, of course...

Brychan did okay. He instantly became super quiet and shy. We had to do a lot of reassuring that it was okay and he could tell Santa what he wanted. He did tell Santa that he wanted dragons for Christmas (which is what he's been saying all along and still says now if you ask him).

And this is as good as it got with Kehlton. He would not take one step closer to Santa. Even when Santa offered Kehlton a present, Kehlton just stretched his little arm as far out as he could so he wouldn't have to get any closer. Maybe next year!

My little Bug and I waiting for Santa!! Wish he would have stayed this excited when Santa actually arrived!

Kehlton's Birthday

2011-12-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

Our little guy is 2. His birthday was pretty low key; mostly because of my stellar mothering skills. Things had just been so incredibly busy for the entire month prior to his birthday that I never really had time to plan his birthday. And while I feel horrible about that, I do think he still managed to have a pretty good birthday!

The day before his birthday, Lala and I took the boys to the library, which is one of their favorite things to do. They played for a couple hours and got to bring home all the books and movies they wanted.

Kehlton's actual birthday was just spent at home, waiting for Daddy to get home from work. On my way home from work, I stopped to get him some balloons. They were obviously a big hit, as he fell asleep for his nap still tightly clutching one of his balloons. (Don't worry - I took it away as soon as he had fallen asleep!)

Kehlton loves Winnie the Pooh. This cake is as close as I could get to Winnie the Pooh. I looked everywhere for more Pooh birthday accessories, but they were all for 1st birthdays only. This little beehive cake isn't quite finished in this photo, but I'm glad I took it when I did 'cause the boys ripped into it seconds after I had taken the photo.

After Daddy got home, we had chicken nuggets and apples for dinner (one of K's favorites! For breakfast we had waffles and strawberries...) and then opened presents. Opening presents was really hard for Brychan, but he was a pretty good sport about it, and tried really hard to be patient.

Just a random photo of K...this was after a morning full of crying and rubbing his eyes, but he insisted that he was NOT tired. I set him on the couch, went back to change the laundry, came back and found this. Nope! Not tired at all.

Such a sweet boy! We sure love him - even with all his mischievous ways!!

Glendale Glitters

2011-12-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

Okay. So first of all, a zillion apologies. It's been forever since I've posted anything, and now that I am posting something, the pictures are less than stellar cell phone photos. But, things have been insanely busy over here. A massive giveaway on my other blog. Thanksgiving. Custom Kadydid orders all over the place. Kehlton's birthday. Christmas parties, Christmas parties and more Christmas parties (I've already been to 2 parties, hosted 1 and am hosting another one tomorrow night. After that, that leaves just one more party to attend. I think.). But don't feel too bad. This blog isn't the only thing being neglected around these parts right now!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we decided to head out to Glendale Glitters. It's an entire, month long celebration in downtown Glendale. Lots of food, lots of vendors, lots of activities and LOTS of lights! We went opening night to catch the lighting ceremony.

Brychan was kind of excited about the excursion until he saw this:

And then he was SUPER excited. About riding the bus. The blue one specifically (luckily, that is the one we ended up on!). He could have cared less about the lights, but the bus ride was everything to him.

We walked around for awhile, had some dinner and looked at the lights.

It was a fun way to kick off our holiday season!!

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

2011-11-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

Okay. So I really try to keep Kadydid Designs stuff off of this blog, but I'm going to share what we're doing over there so you can come check it out!

Starting today (Nov. 28), we are having 12 straight days of giveaways from 22 different blogs and/or Etsy shops. There are tons of super cute things - you can check out all of the items on the Kadydid Designs facebook page. Or just stop by the blog. Which I hope you will! :)

Just click on this cute little button...

k. Thanks! And I won't mention Kadydid Designs on here for a long while. I promise!!

Gratitude

2011-11-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

**I put this post on my Kadydid Designs blog and just wanted to make sure it got on this one too. Sorry for the repeat for some of you!

Since this is the week for Thanksgiving, I couldn't let the week end without expressing what I'm most grateful for these days and that's my little family.

Don't get me wrong. I am grateful for SO many things. But my husband and children are what I live for each and every day.

Two darling little boys. Who are 100% all boy. Dirt, grime and go, go, go all the time. Who love each other and are fairly well behaved (most of the time).

This little guy, who turns 2 next week. I overheard David asking him today, "Kehlton, why do you always look like you're into trouble?". I had to laugh; because the answer is that he IS always into trouble. And he knows it. You know that song in The Music Man? The one that goes "Oh yes we got trouble, right here in River City. Trouble with a capitol T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool?" I find myself singing that song in my head on a daily basis dealing with this one. But he has the cutest little mischievous face that melts the hardest of hearts every single time. He's my little clown - he loves to make people laugh and will do just about anything for it!

His big brother, who turns 4 in March. We've had some rough patches in our little family that we've had to bear, and this little guy carried his momma through it without even realizing it. He is already such a tremendous strength to his family. When Brychan was just over a year old, we had a friend make the comment that Brychan had a spirit about him that just made you want to be near him. I hope he keeps that spirit about him. He's my studious one - he loves to learn and is smarter than he needs to be! :)

And then there's their Daddy. Who is just amazing. In fact, right now he's out driving across the valley to rescue Ashley who has a shredded tire on the side of the interstate in the dark. She didn't hesitate to call him and ask for help. I love that people know they can call on him for anything at any time. I love that he's so handy and has to ability to fix most things that those same people are calling for help on! I love that he's such a good dad; that is so obviously in love with his two little boys. He is so good to them and oh so good to me. I got lucky with him, that's for sure.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And that you have family just as wonderful as mine to be grateful for as well.

Family Photo Preview

2011-11-17T14:45:00.000-08:00

Jocie took some photos for us a couple of weeks ago. I'm still keeping them under wraps until I decide how I'm doing Christmas cards (or rather, how I'm having Jocie do our Christmas cards :) ).

But this one is too cute!!

Brothers

2011-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

Carving Pumpkins

2011-11-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of Halloween photos yet? This is the last batch, I promise!

Since we were still kind of leery of the boys returning to nursery on Sunday, we came home after sacrament meeting. We spent the afternoon carving our pumpkins that Grandma and Grandpa Stander were so nice to bring for us! We only carved 3 of the 5...Mommy's fingers were too sore and tired to do anymore! :)

Daddy and Bug cleaning pumpkin guts

Kehlton's silly pumpkin
Brychan's "spooky skeleton"
And his flying witch
Brychan really had so much fun carving pumpkins this year! I expected him to lose interest after the first pumpkin, but he stayed out there with me through all 3 of them!

One last family photo. Halloween afternoon, we stopped by a title company that David works with for their little "in office" Halloween party. I'm glad we did, cause we won $30 in gift certificates for our costumes!

Ward Trunk or Treat

2011-11-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Halloween was our annual ward Trunk or Treat. And, as usual, it was a blast! Chili cook-off, loads of games, yummy treats and way too much candy. Brychan and I also participated in a Flash Mob to Thriller. I know it's on You Tube somewhere...I'll try to track it down. (The youth and auxiliary leaders were the ones responsible for the flash mob. I had told my boys that we were doing a "monster dance" and showed them the real Thriller video. Brychan was so excited when the Flash Mob started that he wanted to do it too!).

A very excited Peter Pan

And a pretty cute little crocodile

And the entire Peter Pan crew. (By the way, in case you were wondering...super cheap, super shiny fake satin is not conducive to flattering photos. At all.)

Keller Williams Halloween Party

2011-10-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Friday night was our first Halloween party of the season, and luckily, we were all healthy enough to go! David's office had a fun party for the staff and all their families at Park Place condos in Surprise.

We actually stayed in one of the condos Friday night, which was a nice change in routine and a lot of fun. David has an entire week that we can use for stays at the condo; we are looking forward to taking advantage of that this next year!

Peter Pan
The pumpkin that David and Brychan carved
Captain Hook enjoying some pizza
And the little crocodile sucking down his juice box, complete with frosting covered face (and hair).
We put the boys to bed in the king size bed, came back to check on them and found them sleeping practically on top of each other. They had that whole huge bed to spread out on, but they just wanted to 'nuggle. Cute!
Saturday morning, I overheard Brychan telling Kehlton to leave the cabinet doors closed, and I told David "it's so nice when Brychan reminds Kehlton to follow the rules". Yeah right. They were locking each other in the cabinets, and Brychan was trying to convince Kehlton to stay in there. Nothing but trouble with those two!! :)
This was a fun kick-off to our Halloween weekend! I will try to get all the other photos up as soon as I can!

Sick Boy

2011-10-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

We discovered Wednesday morning that Kehlton has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. For those who are unfamiliar with it: it is a viral illness that causes fever and painful blistering sores all over the child's hands, feet, inside of their mouths and, in my sons case, all over his little bum. It is highly contagious, so we have to stay clear of everybody until his rash clears up (which could be awhile). I'm hoping that either my oldest doesn't get it at all or that he comes down with it tomorrow so we don't have to drag this out for a month.

So far, yesterday was the worst of it. Kehlton was up all night Wednesday night, and by yesterday, the sores in his mouth were bad enough that he didn't want to eat anything (or take any medication!), just because he had too many owies. He still isn't eating any real food...just lots of pudding, popsicles and milk. After a ridiculously short nap, he screamed for 2 hours solid. I finally reached my breaking point and called Daddy to come home from work. As soon as Daddy walked in the door, all the dramatics ceased. Of course.

But. Since Daddy came home, I was able to treat Brychan (who by this point was feeling severely neglected) to a little one on one time. With a little bit of masking tape, we turned the entire family room into a huge car track.

We had a ramp, a tunnel, a forest and a farm. There was room for cars and for little mice.

We had lots of fun playing, and are still having lots of fun with it this morning.

Even the sickie managed to have some fun.
For a little bit, anyway. :( Here's to hoping this doesn't really last for 2 weeks...

Vertuccio Farm

2011-10-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

I am really far behind on blogging, I know. Life has been SUPER busy the last couple of weeks. A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Stander, many trips to the park, play dates, a trip to the Children's Museum plus work, church and Etsy. Insane! but, here are a few photos from our trip to Vertuccio Farm down in Mesa.

Unfortunately, it was really dark by the time we got there, so we didn't get many photos. We went with Jocie, Hallie and Grandma and Grandpa. It was SO much fun! We will definitely have to make another trip over there before the season is over!

A Hard Knock Life!

2011-10-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

We had a garage sale this morning. In planning for this sale, we knew we would need to include the boys somehow, so we decided to let them do a treat stand. We did this last year with my girlfriend's boys and they made out like bandits! We spent all day yesterday making cookies, frosting cookies and applying sprinkles. Brychan was very excited to earn some money to buy a new dragon (the one he currently has evidently needs a friend).

So this morning, we got them all set up with their little table, reminded them that they needed to smile and say thank you and all that jazz. And then they waited. And waited. And waited. Not one single person would buy a cookie!
Brychan was getting very discouraged and sad. I sent a text out to Lala and Papa, who both promptly called in their orders (thank you very much!!), resulting in Brychan doing a little happy dance in our front yard. But soon after, when everybody kept passing by his table, he was wondering why nobody would buy his cookies.

Finally, a car full of 4 grandmothers pulled up, smiled at the boys and started rummaging. Without any prompting from me, Brychan took a cookie, walked up to one of the ladies, and held it up to her without saying a word. She complimented his cookie, and then he came back to me, sad that she didn't buy her cookie. I (hinting as loudly as I could) told him he needed to use his words and ask the lady if she would like to buy the cookie. My poor son mustered up every ounce of courage he had in his 3 year old little body, walked up to the same lady, held up his cookie (with Kehlton right behind him holding up a second cookie), and asked "Would you please like to buy a cookie?". She. Said. No. I was shocked. He was crushed. Seriously?!? It took everything I had not to cry with my broken hearted little boy. I guess it was a good lesson for him to learn; that people get to make their own choices whether we like it or not. But, really? Couldn't at least one of those ladies have forked over a dollar to make 2 little boys extremely happy?

After nap today, we are going to buy a new dragon. He may not have earned his money, but he worked hard for it. And was a champ about it. And Papa Davis? Your cookies are in the mail!!

Park

2011-09-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry photos have been lacking a bit lately, but we really haven't been doing much of anything out of the ordinary around here! This morning, we met some friends at the park. There would have been more photos if my batteries hadn't died! Hopefully this will tide you over until we do have something more interesting going on!

Brychan, Kehlton, Tirzah and Wes

Friday Fun

2011-09-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

This morning, we decided to pull out some artsy stuff. I'll tell you what, this easel was the best $15 I ever spent at Ikea. The boys LOVE it! Chalkboard on one side, white board on the other, with a roll of drawing paper underneath - fantastic!
Brychan has been working on writing the letters in his name (he hasn't decided if he's right or left handed. He's still completely ambidextrous. Maybe he'll stay that way?).

And who doesn't like a marker tower?
Painting, however, was the biggest hit. Kehlton's masterpiece is already hanging on the fridge waiting for Daddy's viewing.
And Brychan is still working on his. I wouldn't be surprised if he's still sitting there in another hour...

DONE

2011-09-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be a Christmas present for the boys last year. They were going to wake up Christmas morning and find this on the table. I worked fast and furious and got much of it done, but then we decided to go out of town for Christmas and I decided not to worry about it. After all, it won't fit on anyone else's table. Since then, I have been slowly working on it here and there. Yesterday, after almost an entire year, I finally finished it.

So here's their playhouse. The flowers can be picked from the planter, and the mailbox does close.
Brychan is in love with that little owl. And to the left is going to be a garden once I finish all the produce for it. I think I'm going to hang a "clothesline" across the top there too.
The doggie door. Which will have a magnetic bone that they boys can put in the dog dish.
The back window
And some of the produce. The apples and oranges will hang from the trees, and the garden will have carrots, lettuce, pumpkins and maybe some corn on the cob. Or peas? I haven't decided yet.
It's definitely not perfect, but I figure it really doesn't have to be. And the boys love it, which is all that matters! Hopefully it will last for years to come!

Free Entertainment

2011-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Evidently, all you need to keep two busy little boys busy and happily playing together for more than 10 minutes is a mud patch. That's something we don't see too often around here. But after an awesome rainstorm Friday night, they had a blast yesterday
and wanted photos taken of their dirty feet!

Labor Day Fun

2011-09-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we went camping with a few friends from church. Let's see...there was Tom & Tia Hall and family, Brent & Lori Hall (and fam), Jill and Jared Smith, Carl and Debra Lee, Nilda Hitchcock and Chuck and Linda Tinney. We had SO much fun!! Not to mention the delight of getting out of the 100+ weather for a few days. The boys got plenty dirty...Kehlton still has dirt spots that I can't get to come off!

Can you see the little Horny Toad lizard? The boys caught him to play with until K picked him up and threw him away...

First Haircut

2011-08-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Kehlton got his first haircut on Saturday! I was not at all planning on having it done. In fact, I was sure that I was not going to get his hair cut. I wasn't ready for it!! But, when we took Brychan in for a well needed cut, Kehlton really wanted to get his done. So Mommy tearfully said okay. He was very good about it...just very serious (just like his big brother)!

Cupcakes

2011-08-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

So Brychan has been asking the last few days if we could please make cupcakes. He saw this one on my Pinterest page earlier this week, and that is what he wanted to me. Luckily for me, I was able to convince him that plain, chocolate cupcakes were good enough and we could make Cookie Monsters another time.

Cute, though, isn't he?

Oh my goodness it was exhausting with 2 little helpers! Needless to say it took 4 times longer than necessary. But, they had a lot of fun, so it's okay.
They were really good about taking turns, and they are now "patiently" (and by patient I mean asking every other minute) waiting for the cupcakes to cool so we can eat them.

Sometimes the simplest activities are the most fun!

Ummm p.s.? It's a good thing this face is so cute cause his chocolatey little hands have just cleansed themselves on my white, down, mattress topper in the guest bedroom.

All About Brychan

2011-08-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

So this has been a super busy and SUPER fun week for Brychan.

Unfortunately for him, his optometrist said that he needs to wear his patch again for 2 hours every day. Pure torture. We made another sticker chart; this one for a trip to "the movie theater with popcorn and a doughnut" (his exact request...not sure what the doughnut is all about but whatever floats your boat, kid!). He had to wear his patch for 5 days in a row to get to go to the movies. It was not easy, but he did it. And he was SO proud of himself!! I really wish I would have gotten his reaction on video last night as we were waiting for Daddy to come home so we could go to the movies. "I did it, Mom! I got all my stickers all by myself! Now, because I wore my patch and got my stickers I get to go to the movie theater and have popcorn and a doughnut". One proud mamma right here!! By the way, we went to the dollar theater and saw Rio. Afterwards, we stopped by Dunkin Donuts so he could have his doughnut.

This morning, he got to play at Bella's house. I really need to get a photo of them together. She is his "best best friend at church". They are seriously attached at the hip, and if you ask her, Brychan is her boyfriend. He had a fun morning!!

I saw a cute little interview another Mom had done with her preschooler, so I decided to try it out on Brychan. Here's how it went:

How old are you? 3
How old is Mom? 7
How old is Dad? 9
What makes you happy? Toys!
What makes you sad? Being in time out
What does Mommy always say to you? "Don't fight"
What does Daddy always say to you? "Go to time out"(Poor Dave. That is not what he always says...)
What is your favorite thing to eat? Cereal (Funny. He eats at least 3 peanut butter sandwiches a day)
What is your favorite thing to do? Play
What is your favorite TV show? Curious George
What are you good at? Wearing my patch!!(I love it!!)
What is your favorite movie?Finding Nemo (Again. Really? Cause you threw a fit when K wanted to watch it today)
Who is your best friend? Lexy and Bella
What is your favorite song in nursery? Ring Around the Rosies
What do you and Mommy do together? Be friends
What do you and Daddy do together? Play toys
Where is your favorite place to go? The library
What do you want to be when you grow up? A dinosaur!! (Please no....)

I thought his answers were cute, and many of them totally surprised me!

I.C.K.

2011-08-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

I just had to share this.
One of the "hazards" of living in the Arizona desert.
Ashley almost stepped on this at a friends house last night.
She was barefoot (cause who wears shoes here?).
And NO. It is not somebody's pet.
**shudder**

Scottsdale Library

2011-08-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

Last week, the boys and I spent the day in Scottsdale playing with Lala. We spent most of our time at the Scottsdale Library. Their library is just as fun as ours, only a gazillion times bigger!

Riding in the Batmobile. They had an exhibit for comic book super heroes that was pretty fun.

And the children's section of the library is complete with forest and castle. You can see Kehlton climbing over the bridge to get in...

The castle

And part of their play area. The boys had fun with the magnets and flannel board.

We'd heard rumor that there was a Dinosaur McDonalds not too far from the library, so after looking it up on Google, we went to check it out. There was a McDonalds, but no dinosaurs to be found. So, we ate icky burgers in a smelly children's playland for nothing. The boys still had fun, though!

Firefighter Brychan

2011-08-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, one of the new fire/police departments had an open house to show off their new "home". We took the boys to check out all the equipment, and needless to say, they had a blast.

Brychan and Kehlton driving one of the 3 or 4 fire engines they had on display.

Trying on fire gear

The SWAT truck

And driving the SWAT truck

Ever since then, Brychan has been in "Firefighter Brychan" mode. Anytime he hears somebody needing help with anything, he comes running saying "Firefighter Brychan's coming to help!". So dang cute!!

Goals

2011-08-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

So this afternoon, I found this website called Trainer Momma. It is another health/wellness/fitness motivational website. But, it also seems a bit different. She's a wife and mom. She's done it all (and when I say "done it all" I mean lost 50+ pounds) by herself. And she provides TONS of help. Multiple fitness routines (that can be done at home) and LOADS of recipes (that look yummy, easy and are foods my family will actually eat).

Next week, I don't have to work. So it's MY week. I have a massive list of projects I want to accomplish next week. I'm adding this to it. For one week, I'm going to try her "program" (Dave is too...he just doesn't know it yet! :) ). And since I'm telling all of you about it, I have somebody to hold me (us) accountable.

We'll see how it goes! I'll keep you posted throughout the week and let you know if a)I'm really doing my exercises and b)if all her recipes really are as wonderful and easy as she claims!

Wish us luck!!

Lexy's Home!!

2011-08-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Lexy (the beloved babysitter) has been on vacation for 2 weeks. Almost every single day, Brychan has made some sort of reference to her. "Lexy is on vacation with her grandma" or "This is the way to Lexy's house!" or "Can we take cookies to Lexy?" or "I just miss Lexy so much. She's my best friend".

Yesterday, we found out that Lexy had come home a week early (yay!!). After talking to Lexy and making arrangements for her to come over this morning, I told Brychan that Lexy was home. That is all we heard about all afternoon! And last night, at 6:45, the child put himself to bed because he (and I quote)"just wants to go to sleep so I can play with Lexy tomorrow". And he went to sleep by 7:00. At 5:00 this morning when he woke up, the first thing out of his mouth was, "Is Lexy still sleeping?"

Have I mentioned that my kids love her?

Newest Accessory

2011-07-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

These would be the newest accessories to be found in our house.
Nice, aren't they?

We're not sure how, but Dave injured his knee this morning. We spent some time at Urgent Care where they told him what their "guesses" were and told him to see his family practitioner next week to schedule an MRI. So...he's supposed to be laying around resting and elevating until he gets the MRI done.
He's not a very good patient.
He's currently vacuuming the hallway.

This afternoon...
The boys got a couple of new balls to play with!
In an effort to discourage the daily 5:00am wake up call, I decided they needed more "rough and tumble" and less "sit around the house".

So far, they're a hit. Hopefully my plan works!

There's Always a Reason

2011-07-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

(Forgive me while I revert to my "Early Childhood Professional" self for a minute...)

I've seen it a thousand times in multiple classrooms and schools I've worked in over the years. A young child who is typically well behaved and mild mannered starts acting out (in all sorts of ways) for evidently no reason. You ask the parents if there are any changes at home. They both say no. The strange behavior continues, so you ask again. Mom and Dad again assure you that there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary going on and they, themselves, don't understand what is going on with their child. After the behavior continues to be askew, you press the parents one more time to see if anything, anything at all, is out of the ordinary.

And then they come clean.

"Well, we moved him into his own bedroom" or "We are weaning him from the binkie" or "His pet fish went the way of the commode" or "Actually, we are in the process of getting divorced. Mom (or Dad) moved out of the house 3 weeks ago". (You'd be amazed how many parents actually think this is no major influence in their child's life and are clueless to the fact that it does cause stress on their 1 or 2 year old. I understand not wanting to share your personal tragedies, but there are some things teachers need to know.; Not all the gory details, please. Just the bare minimum will do.)

Voila!! THANK YOU!! In that instant, I know exactly how to best help your child. (p.s. I'm not judging you or your current situation, I just really love your child and want to help them in anyway that I can)

BUT. What am I supposed to do when it's my child that is acting out all of the sudden, and I honestly have no clue as to why his behavior is changing?!? No bedroom changes here, the binkie has been gone for a couple of years now and Mom and Dad are as happy as can be.

Luckily, I think we're on the tail end of the behavior swing. I still am unsure as to what set him off. But it's breaking my heart knowing there is a reason behind it, and not knowing how to help him. If only toddlers were capable of telling us how they really felt. All the time.

Imagination Avenue

2011-07-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

This morning, Lala and I took the boys to Imagination Avenue. It's an indoor "city" that is all child sized. They have a fire department, grocery store, Home Depot, a school, a house, puppet theater, a clothing store, a jail and a road that connects all the stores. It's really a pretty cute idea. So here's an overload of photos from our excursion this morning!

Police Officer Stander
Fire Chief Stander
And then they both ended up in jail...
(isn't this the saddest jail face you've ever seen?)
Building who knows what
Shopping at the market

And doing laundry (which is Kehlton's favorite chore to help with at home too!)

AZ Haboobs

2011-07-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

Arizona has some crazy weather during monsoon season. I know everybody heard about our huge haboob that hit on July 5, but we missed out on that one. It didn't make it far enough west to effect us.

Tonight, however, there's another one rolling in. Not as impressive as the last one, but icky nonetheless. The boys are glued to the back door watching the wind, rain (more like a heavy sprinkling still) and clouds. We get really excited when the weather changes around here!!

A Much Needed Update!

2011-07-18T16:17:00.001-07:00

I've been horrible about updating the blog recently. It's not that I don't want to; we just really haven't been doing anything very photo worthy lately. But, I did catch Kehlton being cute this afternoon, so here's a few photos to tide you over until we really do something photo worthy!

*I'm not even going to apologize for the naked baby. My children HATE wearing clothes. They rip them off at the first opportunity they have. I figure - it's HOT! Why make them suffer needlessly? Besides. It gives me less laundry to do!

Sleepover

2011-07-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

On Sid The Science Kid last week, Sid had a sleepover with a friend from school. So naturally, Brychan now wants to have a sleepover. Good thing he just wants to have a sleepover with "Baby K". I can accommodate that.

They had a LOT of fun on their sleepover. All 15 minutes of it!

Unexpected Visitors

2011-07-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

This evening, we drove up to Lake Pleasant for a bit of hiking and playing in the water. I had NO CLUE there were wild burros in that area!! We saw a couple dozen of them in the hour or so that we were up there. Needless to say, the boys were thrilled!

Keeping me BUSY!!

2011-07-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

Okay. So about a year ago, my sister in law was kind enough to let me steal her idea of selling the adorable car seat covers that she made. She made me a beautiful one when Kehlton was born, and I got SO many compliments on it. Everywhere I went! So, I changed the cover just a tad and started sewing. My sister joined in the fun, helping make burp cloths too. We opened an Etsy shop and had a few sales. I got a few more sales just from word of mouth, and then just sort of let the Etsy shop die. Last Christmas, I made tutus for my nieces. I LOVED them (I have to admit I fall pretty hard for anything small and girly). Again, my sister and I thought "ETSY!!!".

Long story short, we had a strange influx of sales the past 2 months. So, I've been working really hard on getting the shop up and going. Really up and going. I'm trying to finish one item a day to add to the shop, we're now on Facebook, and now: we're being blogged about!

So...head on over to Family Ever After, where my friend Rachel is hosting our first giveaway:

A free tutu!! (Made exactly how you like)

Here's to hoping this all really works!

*And for those of you who are tired of being bombarded with Kadydid Designs, I really am sorry. Once we're up and running, I hope to be less annoying!

My New Best Friend

2011-06-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

After months of trial and error and deductive reasoning, along with a chance encounter with a random on-line article, I think this little box is going to solve a lot of problems.

Seems that I have developed an egg protein allergy. Small amounts of fully cooked eggs seem to be okay. ANY amount of uncooked egg is NOT. I, however, am choosing to send in a substitute whenever humanly possible.

Good news? This stuff does wonders for my pancakes. Bad news? My favorite cookie recipe needs a makeover.

An Excuse to Play with Lexy

2011-06-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before how much my children adore our babysitter, Lexy. They love and cherish her. Cannot get enough of her. Getting home from church on Sundays now takes an extra 30 minutes because we must tell Lexy good-bye, that we love her, that we miss her, ask when she's coming to play again, give her a hug and repeat a dozen or more times. If given the choice between Mom and Lexy, Lexy wins each time. Even with Kehlton!! In all seriousness though, I love her too, and I am SO glad my children love her SO much. Makes life a little easier for me.

For the last week or so, Lexy hasn't been able to come over, so everybody involved has been going through some withdrawals. We decided to grab Lexy and head for the Foothills Aquatic Center a few miles from our house.

WE. LOVED. IT!!!

This is just one third of the center. This is part of the baby pool. The water slide? Brychan wanted to go down it SO bad, but was very worried about all the water rushing down with him. He was so brave and finally went down the slide, all on his own. Once on his back and once on his belly. I was so proud of him!!

The boys and Lexy (sorry, Lexy. I know you'll hate the photo, but life in our family must be documented! :) ).

Brychan dipping his toes,and jumping in.
Needless to say, we are pretty darn excited about going back to the pool with Daddy in tow. We really had a lot of fun, and I can't think of a better way to beat the 113 degree heat!

One of the MANY Reasons...

2011-06-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

I LOVE my son.

After a horrible afternoon, I sat in the office, crying uncontrollably. I had just reached my limit and crying was obviously the only reasonable thing left to do (the fact that I have been up since 4:00am going non-stop has NOT helped).

My sweet Brychan, who had just woken up from his nap

(and who I had just snapped at not even 2 minutes earlier),

came and put his little hand on my arm and asked,

"Mommy, what's wrong?"

when I didn't answer, he asked again.

And again.

I was finally able to squawk out that I was sad.

His obvious response was,

"Mommy, why are you so sad?"

"Because I'm not a very good mommy today"

He gave me a huge hug and said,

"Everything will be okay, Mommy. You stay right here."

He left me alone and quickly returned with toilet paper

for me to blow my nose and wipe my eyes.

Granted, it was only about 2 squares of toilet paper,

but it was the thought that mattered.

He again reassured me that it would be okay,

gave me another quick hug,

and went on his way.

What on Earth would I do without that thoughtful, sweet, little boy?!?

Splash Park Fun

2011-06-09T14:59:00.001-07:00

This week, we decided to try a new splash park not too far from here. We invited Lala, Jocie and Hallie to join us for a morning of fun!

The boys both loved these water spraying frogs. They had a blast trying to squirt each other!

And cute little Hallie!

After we got done at the splash pad, we picked Daddy up from his office for a quick little picnic at one of our favorite neighborhood parks. It was a fun, fun day!!

**Thanks for all the photos, Jocie!!**

Brutus

2011-06-06T11:17:00.001-07:00

Last night, my sister called saying she was on the way to the emergency vet clinic with Brutus. He has been pretty sick on and off for the last few months, but meds weren't working this go around. He was scheduled for an appointment this morning, actually, for cancer screening.

As soon as Ashley walked into the clinic with Brutus last night, they just took him to the back without her. And as soon as she told me that, David and I decided that I needed to drive out to Scottsdale to be with her just in case.

Unfortunately, the "just in case" was for good reason. The vet told Ashley that chances were good that he had lymphoma, and because of the symptoms he was showing last night, she suspected that he had a tumor somewhere in his brain. After a lot of discussion and a LOT of tears, it was decided to just let Brutus go peacefully and not have him suffer through his illness any longer.

Brutus was 9 years old: old for a boxer. A boxer who was considered an "abnormality" due to his white coat. But Brutus was the best dog I have ever seen (sorry Kodi!). He was fiercely protective of Ashley and was just as protective of my children. He and Kehlton had a special bond from the day we brought K home from the hospital. They loved each other tremendously. Even on Brutus' sickest days, he would still allow Kehlton to climb all over him. As I was sitting with Ashley and Brutus last night, I just kept wondering if I had taken enough photos of him with the kids over the years.

My sister has seen a lot of heartache over the 7 or so years that she's had Brutus. She has experienced trauma and pain that no person should ever have to live through. And through all of that, Brutus was right by her side. He was her protector, her confidant, her best friend. He will be greatly missed by all of us!

1st Sunday in Nursery

2011-06-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

When did he get so big?!? Well, maybe "big" isn't the right word (because he is still quite small). Grown up? I can't believe Kehlton is old enough for nursery already. If somebody could figure out a way to make time slow down, I'd greatly appreciate it!

As I mentioned earlier, we started Kehlton's transition into nursery an entire month early. If you know my son at all, he does NOT like to be left with other people. He doesn't really even care for meeting other people. I've been taking him to YW with me for months now just trying to get him to warm up to the girls. He is just perfectly happy hanging out with his family. He truly doesn't need to be bothered with anybody else. Pretty much the polar opposite of his big brother.

So this was his first Sunday in Nursery last month.

He looks like a willing participant,

And he looks like he's happy to be there,

But don't let these photos fool you! These were taken the first 5 minutes of his very first visit...before he realized that Mom and Dad don't just stand there next to you and watch you have fun. 5 minutes before the blood curdling screaming began. I really wish I would have gotten a photo of his true feelings for nursery, but my hands were too full of my baby climbing desperately up the front of me, clinging on for dear life.

He is making progress, though. Just this week he decided that he is completely in love with our babysitter (the same one we've been using for months). So maybe this will be the Sunday that he decides he loves nursery, too.

Our Happenings

2011-06-02T15:45:00.001-07:00

The last month has been absolutely insane around here. Hence the lack of blogging. But here's a quick re-cap of events:

May 8(ish) - May 18: My parents and brother came for a visit. It was the first time we'd seen Nathan since he got home from his mission, so that was lots of fun. And the boys had a blast spending so much time with Grandma and Grandpa. Well, Brychan had lots of fun. Kehlton waited until the last 3 or 4 days of their trip to decide to be social. We went to the zoo, the library, and had several trips to the park.

May 13: Mark, Jocie and Hallie move to Phoenix!! Dave and I went to help unload their truck, and unfortunately, I haven't seen any of them since! They have come over a couple of times since they've been here, but I was gone. Hopefully we can get together and play soon, because I've heard that the kids already love each other!

May 21 - May 25: I left my boys behind while I went up to Camp LoMia for Girls Camp with our ward. IT. WAS. COLD!! But, it was also a lot of fun. We had over 30 girls from our ward at camp this year (ours is by far the biggest ward in the stake). I love going to Girls Camp and am looking forward to next year. While Mommy was gone, Daddy and the boys worked on lots of projects, made several trips to the park, played with cousin Hallie and even made a few visits to the office.

May 21 - right now: More sick bugs at our house. The day before I left for camp, Kehlton spiked a fever. The morning I left, he was covered head to toe in hives. When I got home, both boys had nasty noses and coughs, and within 2 days of being home, I had the crud as well. We are all much better now with just minor coughs lingering.

May 31: Back to work for me! I had originally planned on not working at all this summer, but when the opportunity arose for me to just work the field trips for summer camp, we decided it would be worth it. So for 2 months, I am working 6am - Noon, 3 days a week. The boys have an amazing babysitter that comes to the house to play for 3 hours or so. So basically, I'm getting paid to accompany a bunch of elementary school kids to the movies every Friday, and other fun places around the valley (on Tuesdays and Thursdays) while my boys get to play with Lexy (Brychan cries every time we take her home).

June 5: Kehlton's first official day of nursery! He's been going for the last month because we knew it would be a hard transition for him. I was hoping that having big brother in there with him would help ease the transition, but Brychan is so busy with his little girlfriend, Bella, that he can't be bothered to play with his little brother. :) Hopefully, Kehlton will soon decide that nursery really is an okay place to be!

I do have some photos from all these events that I hope to get posted soon. Just wanted to let all of you know we are alive and doing well!!

4 Years Strong

2011-05-18T12:49:00.000-07:00

Today is our 4th anniversary.

4 years doesn't sound very long.

But, in the most positive meaning, it feels like it's been longer than 4 years.

It feels like we've been together forever; like we're "home".

I think the number of trials and difficult situations that we have already weathered together in our short marriage outnumbers what most "newly married" couples have to endure.

Some that would have torn other marriages apart.

However.

I married the most perfect man for me.

A man that loves me, loves our children and loves the Lord.

And because of that, we have been able to turn those trials into stepping stones, and make our marriage stronger rather than weaker.

We celebrated our anniversary on the 19th since we had too much going on on the 18th. Dave surprised me with tickets to the Phoenix Symphony, which was performing The Red Violin and A Midsummers Night Dream.

Spring!!

2011-05-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Okay. So it really feels more like summer. But it is still just spring around here, and here are a few things we've seen on our walks lately.

The adorable goslings. We have 3 of these cute little families that live around here (one major benefit to living in a water community!). We love watching them waddle all over the neighborhood and have just as much fun watching the little ones swim in the lake.

Beautiful cactus flowers. Who knew something so pretty and colorful could come from something so ugly and pokey?

I am still waiting patiently to get a picture of my absolute favorite thing about springtime around here: the quail families that live in our yard. I am in love with those baby quail. They are too cute!! They are also very fast, though, and make it near impossible to catch them.

While You Were Sleeping

2011-05-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

My favorite time to clean the boys' bedroom is after they have gone to bed for the night. They both sleep like logs, so I don't bother them and then I don't have 2 sets of extra hands trying to "help" me with the clean up. If I clean during the day, it never gets done. If I clean at night, I'm done in 10 minutes tops.

The other night Dave came in to help me clean. Kehlton started stirring, so we both froze as to not get caught. He sat up in his crib and it took us a few minutes to realize that he was sleeping like that.

We just let him be...after I was done cleaning, I laid him back down. Two seconds after he laid down, his eyes popped open, he got up, took a drink of water from his sippy cup and just stared at me. I told him to lay down and go back to sleep - which he immediately did.

Turns out that sleepwalking and night terrors are the same sleep disorder. Looks like Kehlton may end up with the best of both worlds!

Tortilla Flat

2011-04-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Originally, we had planned on being camping this weekend up near the Grand Canyon as my uncle finished his race. Although those plans changed, we decided to go ahead and go camping anyway. Instead of the Grand Canyon, we went to Tortilla Flat, which is about an hour east of us.

There are several lakes out this way and it is an absolutely gorgeous area.
The boys were so excited about camping!! Brychan had been asking me every day last week "Are we going camping today?". When I was finally able to tell him yes, he was as excited as could be.

We had fun setting up camp, seeing the Tortilla Flat "museum" and trying Prickly Pear ice cream.

The Easter Bunny managed to find us out there too (the Easter Bunny will be finding us again when my parents come to visit next week).

We had lots of fun playing in the water too! There were many shallow little pools and ponds of water; perfect for 2 little boys to play in!

Hunting for tadpoles with DaddyTaking a little break!

And, of course, throwing as many rocks as possible into the water

The weather in Arizona right now is perfect for camping. There was quite a bit of wildlife in the area too...cardinals, ground squirrels, lizards, coyotes, bats...there was even a tarantula spotted a few yards down from our campsite (Ick! The fact that is was being carried away by a tarantula bee made it even ickier!).

Sunday night after we got home, had dinner and baths, both boys asked to go to bed on their own and were both asleep by 7:00!!! We evidently did a good job of wearing them out. All that extra free time would have been nice to take advantage of, but instead, Dave and I were both in bed by 8:30 ourselves. It was a fun, busy weekend!

**On a side note: After 2 weekend trips away from home with no accidents, and no accidents at home for quite some time, I think it is finally safe to say that Brychan is officially potty trained. WOO HOO!!!!**

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

This year we went to the City of Peoria's annual Easter Egg Hunt again, and had just as much fun this year as we did last year! We took SO many fun photos, so I just picked out a few.

The boys waiting patiently...
Big stuff
Daddy & Brychan getting ready to start Bug's egg hunt. Daddy ran both the boys out to the middle for their egg hunts so they could work their way out while everybody else worked their way in. The strategy worked great for both boys, and they found a lot of goodies!
Looking at the petting zoo
And sneaking candy after being told to put it away. He was missing for awhile; I thought he was with Lala and started getting a little worried when I realized he was not with her. It took us a minute to find him, but he was just hiding in the corner behind the couch, munching away!

Little Beaver

2011-04-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

A few minutes ago, I walked in to find this in my living room:

I immediately asked Brychan to start picking up the pillows because (for the zillionth time) "we do not play with the couch cushions". However. He started explaining to me that this was his dam that he had made in the river with sticks and dirt and mud to keep the water out. Soooo...the teacher in me won out, and the mom in me took a back seat. How could I interrupt such good play?!? And now my little beaver is chasing dinosaurs out of his little dam. Who knew?

Best Friends

2011-04-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

This little boy really loves his dog. Brychan has always loved the dogs, but I think Kehlton loves them even more. He is often found snuggled up somewhere with Biggs, and Biggs is always more than happy to accommodate. The other day I told Kehlton it was time for a nap and he headed straight to the floor with Biggs. He was perfectly content just to lay there with the dog. However, he was not so content when I made him get in his own bed.

And this is why Biggs is so patient with all the "love": he knows it's easy pickins'! Kehlton is always willing to share a snack, or breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.

Sierra Vista, AZ

2011-04-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

**This post is really long...sorry!**

My uncle, Marshal, is a pretty avid bike rider. He's been riding for lots of years and has done lots of races. This weekend, he started a race at the AZ/Mexico border that finishes up at the AZ/UT border. It's like 750 miles of singletrack racing (meaning no paved roads) with a rim to rim hike of the Grand Canyon (bike on his back) before one last full day of riding to finish the race off. I think he's slightly insane. However, I also think it is SO cool!! We went down to Sierra Vista to drop him at the race start and bring his van back up to Phoenix for the duration of his race.

This is the group at the first starting point. There was a second starting point 13 miles up the trail, I believe for those racers just doing the first 300 miles. Marshal has already done that route a couple of times.

Marshal waiting to get started

The original plan was for us to drive his van up to the end of the trail next weekend so it could be there waiting for him. And, it allowed us to sneak in a little weekend camping trip too. However, Marshal called us last night soon after we got home from Sierra Vista saying that he had been battling heat stroke all afternoon and was pulling out of the race. David is on his way right now to pick Marshal up; they should be here later this afternoon/early this evening. We are so bummed for Marshal - we were really looking forward watching his progress, BUT we're also glad he's playing it safe and that he is feeling much better this morning.

After seeing Marshal off, we played tourist for the rest of the day. Our first stop was Tombstone, AZ. The old trains were obviously a huge hit.

The boys practicing their riding skills

After Tombstone, we headed up to Tucson. I am really impressed with Tucson...they have SO many fun things to do there! We will definitely have to take another weekend trip down that way to check more things out.

Here are the boys outside the International Wildlife Museum. Brychan wasn't too sure about getting too close to that lion at first, but he finally braved up!

Snake skeleton

Birds of Paradise

Kehlton checking out the black bear

And the boys walking under the giraffe

My very ferocious lion!!

It was a really fun weekend - a perfect little family getaway. Can't wait for the next one!!

We LOVE Summer!!

2011-04-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know that "technically" it's still spring, and unfortunately for many of you, you're still dealing with snow (so sorry!!). But here, we are in the perfect, pre-summer season. The season where it's plenty warm to play outside, in the water, all day long...without worrying about dehydrating or frying up like little sausages out in the sun. We took FULL advantage of our beautiful weather again today by playing with the hose and some bubbles.

I know this photo of Kehlton is not at all in focus, but it was too cute not to post!

Phoenix Suns

2011-04-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was able to surprise David with a couple of tickets to the Suns game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. I got a killer deal on some amazing seats (thank you, Groupon!!) 3 weeks ago and managed to keep it a complete surprise. David usually figures things out quite quickly, but this one he didn't really know until we got downtown. I was pretty proud of myself! I LOVE watching basketball games. Especially close, nail-biting games that come down to the last second. I get so tense and nervous, but I love every second of it. Last night's game did not disappoint!! We were behind by 4 - 6 almost the entire game, but manged to pull ahead at the last minute. The Wolves rallied though, and at the very last second, tied up the game. The Suns ended up winning in OT, but we had to leave in order to get our babysitter home. I was already feeling bad that we were keeping her until 10:30 on a seminary/school night. :( So...the Suns playing a little defense.... And enjoying a super fun night with my David!!

Random Photos

2011-04-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

Just a bunch of random photos from this weekend. Most of the from the camera phone, so they're a little blurry. Thursday afternoon we spent quite a bit of time at the park. The boys had it all to themselves which is always nice! Plus, the weather here today is rainy, wet and a total of 45 freezing cold degrees, so it's good we got all that outside time in!

Sporting his new hat

And brother carrying his identical hat in his back pocket. How cute is that?

Last night we braved the icky weather to go to a picnic put on by one of David's realtor associations. It really was a lot of fun! Dinner, playing at the park, a cake walk, balloon animals and face painting. Brychan had to get the dragon, of course!

Today we're staying in and bundled up with homemade bread and movies. Hopefully this weather moves out quickly!!

Our Weekend

2011-04-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a super busy one! Nothing really exciting or fun to brag about, but I did get quite a bit accomplished. First off, I painted the living room. I still have part of one wall to finish, but that requires moving the piano, and I'm not quite buff enough to move that on my own just yet. I LOVE the way the living room looks now (well, the paint anyway. It still has a lot of decorating left to go) and I can't wait to start tackling the rest of the house. We enjoyed conference. Really enjoyed conference. Even though they no longer show it on tv here and we have to cram around the computer in the office - it was enjoyable. The homemade cinnamon rolls we had didn't hurt. Kehlton enjoyed it too! Anything with Lala is more fun!! During conference, I finally got the 72 hour kits put together. This is a project that I have been wanting to do for years. It's finally done. Well, 95% done. There are still a few things to put in each pack, but they are at least done enough that we could survive. Everything is in little baggies, clearly labeled to make finding things easier. And 3 of the finished products! David's pack isn't shown because he was still stuffing his. We also did a partial one for Ashley. I can't believe how much work it was getting those done!! But, I definitely feel much more prepared should we have to leave in a hurry.

This weekend we also found a new home for Max...life is just too chaotic and too busy for 2 little boys and a new puppy. He wasn't getting anywhere near the attention he needed here. I can't believe how quickly the house went back to normal and calmed down after he left! He is definitely missed, but I'm happy with the home he ended up in, so all is well.

Next week we start an entire month of fun things that will be much more exciting to blog about than paint and emergency kits. A surprise date night with David (I'm SO excited about our plans and he has no idea what's going on!!), a trip down to Sierra Vista, a trip up to the AZ/Utah border, a visit from my parents and my brother, quickly followed by the end of the school year and then Girls Camp. Lots of fun photos and details to come!

New Skill

2011-03-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who is AMAZING when it comes to saving money at the grocery store. She doesn't really like people to know that she has this hidden talent, but if she hears that somebody wants to learn, she is more than willing to teach. Luckily enough for me, a mutual friend told her I'd love to learn, so she's been spending the last week or so teaching me.

Last week was my first go at "couponing" at the grocery store. My first trip? I purchased $85.00 worth of groceries for $20!!! I was SO excited. I didn't think I could really do that well, but yay me! After figuring out some more tricks while shopping, I went back the very next day and got $35.oo worth of product for FREE. I can't even explain how excited I was, walking out of Frys with 2 overflowing bags knowing that I hadn't paid anything for them.

This is a photo of some of the items I got for free last week...there's still like 9 more things of handsoap not in there a well as some shampoo, conditioner and pasta. The Yakisoba isn't something we normally eat - but for free, I'm willing to try it! If nothing else, it will last forever in food storage!

It is a little time consuming doing all that planning, but to save over $100 in just one week? Totally worth it for me!

Totally Unrelated Side Story:

Saturday during all our cleaning, Brychan and Kehlton were helping David pick up rotten fruit that had fallen from our trees. Brychan was SO excited to find this orange with a perfect little heart on it!

Saturday Fun

2011-03-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

After a morning of nothing but cleaning, yard work, cleaning and more yard work, the entire family took a nap and then headed out for some fun.

First stop was the air show at Luke AFB. We were waiting to see the Thunderbirds, but they were 20+ minutes late, and as you can tell by the last photo, some of us were running out of patience. We still had fun watching the few planes we did get to see and just running around in the back of Daddy's truck.

After the air show, we went to Cabela's to stock up on items for our 72 hour kits that I am finally re-doing. Cabella's is always a huge hit with everybody in our family. On our way out, Brychan had a melt down; evidently he wasn't ready to stop looking at the animals. The woman at the register even tried distracting him without any luck.

After driving down the interstate for a few minutes, Brychan finally calmed himself down. Out of nowhere I heard him say "Mommy, I'm sorry for screaming at you". (Can I just say how much I love it when he does that?!? He's done it just a few times before - noticing on his own that he's done something he shouldn't and then coming to whomever it was he was fighting with to fix the problem.) We talked about it for a minute, I told him what a good little boy he was and that I was so proud of him and then the conversation was over.

Just a few minutes after that, Brychan asked if we were going to see any police officers, to which we replied that we really didn't know. He was very adament that he wanted to see a police officer. I finally asked him why, and his response was: "I want to tell the police officer that I am being good". MELT MY HEART. Sometime last week we drove by an officer parked on the side of the road waiting for speeders. Brychan noticed him and asked what he was doing there. All I said was "The police officer is just sitting there making sure everybody is being good". That was enough to sastify Brychan, and the conversation ended. I am amazed that Brychan not only remembered that's what I said the police officer was doing and then made the connection that he wanted that officer to know that he was being good. Love him, love him, love him!!!

Spring Break

2011-03-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

So far, Spring Break has been WONDERFUL!!! I know I hardly work at all (11 hours a week? If I'm lucky?), but it still makes such a huge difference in my day when I don't have to work. I've been trying to make the most of it with the boys.

After we got rid of all the sick germs, we were ready to start taking advantage of all the sun! It's been close to (if not over) 90 degrees here all week. So, here's the first naked baby photo of the summer. The boys haven't been inside much at all this week.

We also spent an entire morning at the park with some friends. Both boys were totally exhausted by the time we got home and Kehlton even slept for almost 4 hours. It was the best nights sleep our house has seen in a VERY long time. I think we need to spend more time at the park...

Brychan got another H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. hair cut. Seriously. I was so irritated with this girl cutting his hair, which made things worse since she just started shaking so bad. What am I supposed to do with this?!? It lays down only when wet. As soon as it's dry - doink!! Sticking straight up again. Well except for the exceptionally long piece in fron that just curls under. It's enough to make me want to go to beauty school; just so my son doesn't look ridiculous every time he gets a haircut.

We also planted some flowers. I was surprised at how excited Brychan got while we were at the store purchasing all the necessary items for his flowers. We planted his seeds this morning, and he's been dutifully watching over his flowers just like this pretty much ever since. Keeping my fingers crossed super tight that they actually grow. My thumb is the complete opposite color of green!

We still have some more fun things to do before my break is officially over. I also have a list of not so fun things to get done too. Cookies, a trip to the library, friends coming over to play and maybe a trip to Peter Piper Pizza. I can't wait for summer!!

Misery

2011-03-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend was pretty rough. Ashley was with the boys Friday morning while I was visiting with some friends when I got a text saying that Kehlton had just thrown up. I came home to find that he had a fever. I thought it was just a combination of shots and two serious teeth trying to push through, until Brychan came down with that same fever Saturday afternoon.

Luckily, there was no more puking. Maybe that was just because both boys stopped eating for the entire weekend. I could hardly get them to drink anything. Brychan's fever would hit just over 102, I'd hide some Tylenol in his juice and he'd be good until about noon the next day. You know that kid is sick when he's just following me around and falling asleep wherever I happen to stop.

Kehlton's fever consistently hung out at 103. We were alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol for two days straight. I started getting a little nervous Saturday night when it just topped over 103, I couldn't get it to go down and he refused to drink anything. The poor kid was just absolutely miserable. But, as miserable as he was, he HAD to have his shoes on. At one point he went and gathered all 4 pair of his little shoes and wanted me to snuggle him with all of his shoes. I don't know what the deal was, but this is how he looked all weekend. Sad face, rosy cheeks and shoes.Thankfully, everybody is finally all better and back to normal. Which is good because I'm on spring break this week and I wanted to spend it doing fun things with my boys! Being cooped up in the house all day with sickies is not fun!

Homesick

2011-03-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

My little(est) brother is coming home from his mission on Thursday. It's making me very homesick. For those of you who are not members of the LDS faith, all young men are asked to serve a mission for two years (leaving when they are 19), on their own dime. They leave everything behind, put careers and school on hold, and devote everything they have to serving their Heavenly Father.

Nathan has been serving in the Billings Montana mission for the last 2 years. This photo was taken of him and Brychan the morning we dropped him off at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, UT.

Because my parents live in Texas, that is where Nathan will go "home" to. I am absolutely heart broken that I cannot be there to see him when he steps off the plane.

Nathan's 20th birthday

Luckily, we have a family vacation planned for the end of August. I cannot wait!! Not only have I not seen Nathan for 2 years, but I also haven't seen Brock, Missy and their kids for almost 3 years. Brock and Missy haven't even met Kehlton yet, and by the time August gets here they will have a new baby for us to meet. I am lucky enough that I get to see my sister at least once a week. We usually see my parents every 6 months or so. But I HATE living SO far away from my brothers. I miss them horribly. And I'll be glad when I can talk to Nathan on Thursday. Hopefully then I can quit crying everytime I think about him.

Welcome Home, Nathan! We love you and are so proud of you!!!

Stings Like A Bee

2011-03-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

Brychan loves the Tag Junior he got for his birthday. He just sits for the longest time "reading" stories to himself. There is one particular spot in one particular book that he thinks is just hilarious. I managed to sneak a little video of him reading it over, and over and over again. I LOVE that laugh!!

Challenger Space Museum

2011-03-05T20:16:00.000-08:00

This morning, David was taking his scouts to the Challenger Space Museum. Since Brychan's birthday was yesterday, we decided to turn it into a family trip as well. I'll apologize now for the photos...poor lighting + lots of moving targets + cell phone camera does not equate to good pictures!

Learning about the space shuttles

Fascinated with small scale space "equipment and vehicles"
This exhibit had something to do with gravity. My boys just liked the fact that there were magnetic blocks to play with.

In a replica of the International Space Station

Dave overseeing his scouts

It was a fun morning. By the time we got home, Brychan was asking to go take a nap...always a good sign that lots of fun was enjoyed! :)

Brychan's 3rd Birthday

2011-03-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

I think Bug had a pretty good birthday this year. He was so excited all day long. We have birthday presents sitting on our kitchen table waiting to be sent off to a couple of cousins (Payton and Colin...I promise they are coming!), so there has been LOTS of discussions about birthdays lately. He waited very patiently for his "happy birthday day" and was very excited when it finally arrived!

He requested doughnuts for breakfast (and actually asked to have them for lunch and dinner too), so we stopped by Krispy Kreme on our way to take Daddy to work.

And then they both wanted to help make the dragon birthday cake. Such good little helpers!
Brychan got to open one present in the morning to start off his day; he was very happy with what he got...a huge, red fire engine from Grandma and Grandpa Stander. And, by the way Grandma Stander, he wore that shirt all day long, slept in it and did not want to take it off the next morning.

After we picked Daddy up from work, we went to play at the library for a little while and then came home for presents, cake and chicken nuggets with tator tots for dinner. Here, Brychan is showing Daddy how his new Tag Junior works.

And the beloved dragon cake. He knew I was putting it together during nap time, so that was the first thing he asked to see when he woke up. At that point, I hadn't put the wings on (because I knew they would just melt and fall apart). Brychan looked at the cake, looked at me and said "Mom, you forgot the wings!". Nothing gets by that kid. He was finally satisfied with his cake once the wings were in place. :)

Baby K thoroughly enjoyed the cake too!

We love you Bug!!! Hope your birthday was as wonderful as you had hoped!

Las Vegas

2011-03-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

David and I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on a "parents only" trip to Vegas and we had a wonderful time.

We stayed at the Flamingo, which was nice as far as being centrally located, but I will never stay there again. Nor would I recommend that anybody else stay there. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Constantly dripping bath faucet and burned out lightbulbs in our room. I was not impressed. I understand it's a super old hotel, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean that you can't switch out a light bulb as needed, or give the carpets a MUCH needed shampooing. But, enough about that!
They did, however, have a beautiful flamingo habitat in their courtyard.

Monday night we ate dinner at the Italian resteraunt at New York New York and just walked around, looking at the resorts. Saw the Bellagio fountains, gardens and amazing cakes/pastries.

Tuesday we were lucky enough to get free tickets to see the Mac King comedy/magic show. It was fantastic! And clean!! We walked around looking at more of the casinos and later that evening, we went over to Luxor to see the Bodies Exhibition. I was absolutely fascinated with it. There was a part of the exhibit that included fetal development, which was kinda hard to process at first. I got a bit teary as soon as I walked in the room and just wanted to hold all those poor little things. It absolutely broke my heart thinking about how many women lost their babies and now had them on display in Las Vegas. BUT. It was so amazing to see exactly what the fetal development was at each specific stage. I really don't know how anybody can say that a fetus is not a living baby. Especially after having seen this exhibit. I kind of think it should be required viewing for anybody contemplating an abortion. But again, enough of my soap box. Bottom line is that the exhibit was well worth the money. The human body is absolutely amazing!!

After that exhibit, we ran back up to Harrah's for their buffet...YUMMY! We definitely ate way more than necessary!

Wednesday morning, we headed over to the temple and did a few sealings. We wanted to do work for an hour, but because of the temple workers scheduling, we really only ended up working for maybe 20 minutes. It was still enjoyable, though. When we first walked into the temple, there was a woman standing there greeting people coming in. I looked at her and then whispered to David, "Is that Marie Osmond?" It SO was!! She was a new volunteer there, and was even the one that helped me as I rented a dress. I was worried for a minute that she was going to ask where we were from, where we were staying and "Oh! You stayed at the Flamingo, did you catch my show?"; because, no, we didn't. But she didn't ask any travel related questions, so we were good! She really is so incredibly sweet.

After the temple, we went to the Ethel M chocolate factory, bought a few too many chocolates and then headed for home.

It was such a nice, relaxing trip; and so much fun to have David all to myself for 3 days straight. However, we were so happy to come home to see our kiddos!! They had so much fun with Lala while we were gone...she did a good job of spoiling them rotten! We are so lucky to not only have her here, but have an auntie that is so willing to do anything for the boys.

And now that our little vacation is over, it's back to the grind! Wouldn't it be nice if we could just live in a permanent state of vacation? I know I'd love it...

The Library

2011-02-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

This morning, I took the boys to our local library. Sadly, I have never been to the branch closest to our house, so it was a new excursion for all of us! I was so impressed with the children's area...they had a fun play area inside AND a fun little play area outside.

We played with beads,
In the kitchen,
On the submarine (I had originally typed "boat", but Brychan was so kind to point out that it is, indeed, a submarine!)

And with the trains.

We also managed to do a little bit of reading!

We had lots of fun and can't wait to go back!

Information Catch Up

2011-02-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

There is so much going on around here lately that I want to make sure and get it all "journaled". **Yes that means this is a long, boring and wordy post!** By the way, I recently ordered our first year of the blog in a hardcover book and I LOVE it. I plan on doing so each year, and possibly ordering enough copies so my children can also have their own. Such a fun, easy alternative to personal history!

So in the name of family history, here's what's going on.

*David's birthday was kind of skipped over this year. He was sick, we had super sick dogs all day and so it just got lost in all of the chaos. We did manage to spend a few hours at the Glendale Chocolate Affair and Dave and I went to see The Green Hornet late that night (we both ended up sleeping more than watching).

*Kehlton is in love with all things covered in fur. He loves his puppies (as evidenced in prior photos) and this afternoon at the park he spent the entire time chasing the birds while laughing and signing "bird". He says momma, dadda, puppy, hi, and just today started calling Brychan "bubba". Not sure if he's trying to say brother or Brychan, but either way, it's cute. He's still pretty small, but holds his own with his brother. He has figured out how to open his bedroom door, but so far he hasn't seemed to notice that all the other doors in the house work the same way! :)

*Brychan loved Valentine's Day this year. He made each of us our very own Valentine and delivered each of them with a hug and a "Happy Valentine's Day!" He was thrilled beyond belief that he got his very own box of chocolates. And getting Valentines in the mail was almost even better than the box of chocolates! He has a new obsession with giving us a "hug, a kiss and a squish" before bed. We're not sure where the "squish" came from, but he won't let us forget about it! He never ceases to amaze me with the things he comes up with, and many times I have to remind myself that he's not even 3 yet, as I tend to expect more out of him. He loves having his two friends Jackson and Wes come to play once a week.

*I am still in the process of trying to figure out my recent health issues. About 6 months ago, I started getting really sick after eating avocados. I figured it was just a food allergy and stayed away from anything with avocados in it. In January, I was getting sick with a whole new variety of foods. There is no rhyme or reason to the foods that make me sick (ie: I can eat pancakes, but not french toast. And the bread I eat in the french toast I can eat in sandwiches no problem. One morning I'll eat breakfast burritos just fine and the next time they make me sick). Many times the pain is so totally and completely debilitating, so I've missed work, church, YW activities and a lot of house work has gone undone. I don't think I'm ever going to get caught up with the laundry again. David came home one day to find me sleeping in the hallway floor, which is as far as I could get myself after putting the boys in their beds for nap. Blood tests show that it should not be my gallbladder and my thyroid checked out fine too. My doctor is currently treating me for GERD, but until just this week, I had still been finding myself getting sick. Although...I haven't been sick since Saturday (which is a HUGE step; I had been getting sick every 1 to 2 days). I go back to see the doctor next week. If I am still getting sick, then the next step is an ultrasound of my gallbladder. After that, I have no clue.

*David continues to get busier and busier with work. YAY!!!! He and his partner, Doreen, just keep reeling them in. The last wave were all sellers; right now they seem to have a huge influx of buyers. Brychan and Kehlton got to go to work with Daddy today, which is always a huge treat. Brychan loves to sit at Daddy's desk and make phone calls.

*Our 2 year "anniversary" is coming up. So far, this year it's already much easier than last year. I recently decided to write down all my memories and thoughts of that experience, and it seems to have helped tremendously. I don't think about it as much anymore; it's like I know I have all those memories tucked away safely on paper to be revisited if wanted and I don't have to keep all of it up in my head to pop up against my will. Last year, David and I decided that we would do a quick "parents only" trip for our fun day this year. My sister was so kind to take time off of work so she can stay with the boys while David and I head to Las Vegas for a few days. We are both pretty excited about it. We may spend the entire time trying to catch up on sleep, but that's just fine!!

Okay! I think that about does it for now...I consider myself caught up. Phew!

Pillow Pet

2011-02-15T12:28:00.000-08:00

What a Life!

2011-02-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

Just as happy as can be, sitting on the world's messiest desk, eating crayons. What more does a toddler need?

One of THOSE Days

2011-02-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

Today is just one of those days.

I don't feel good and I'm running out of patience with always feeling icky.

I'm tired of cleaning up accidents (from both dog and boy).

I'm exhausted,

(thanks to the adorable new puppy who woke the entire house up at 4:15 this morning),

I have 2 very crabby, very sensitive little boys today who have evidently forgotten how to listen or follow rules,

and maybe worst of all,

I am COLD.

I just want to curl up in my bed with some fresh homemade bread and a good book.

But...

there's laundry to do,

a dishwasher begging for attention,

an entire house needing cleaning,

diapers to change,

boys to take potty,

dogs to take potty,

dinner to be made,

a YW activity to attend.

So...the bed, bread and book will have to wait!

Meet Maximus

2011-02-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

This is Max.

Max is 8 weeks old.

We met Max on Saturday, and he joined our family today, quite unexpectedly. However, we are already quite fond of little Maximus, and he is also quite fond of 2 little boys and the great big dog.

All the boys love playing with each other,

just looking at each other,

And napping/watching cartoons with each other.
What more could you ask for?

***Now for the rest of the story***

My sister had been looking for quite some time to get another dog to keep her dog company during the day. This weekend, after lots of looking and asking Dave lots of dog-related questions, she decided on Maximus (She named him Maximus because her current dog's name is Brutus...) and purchased him Saturday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon, she found out that her apartment complex wouldn't allow Max to live there due to his breed. He is a boxer/shepherd mix. That is the *only* thing we didn't think about and are still quite surprised by it. Evidently pure bred boxers are okay, but anything mixed with a shepherd is not. Go figure.

Anyway, unfortunately for Ashley, she had to get rid of him pronto. It was either sell him or let us take him. So, we took him! This way, Ashley still gets lots of visiting time with the puppy and we get to enjoy playing with him all the time too.

And yes, if you're wondering...potty training a puppy and a boy at the same time is exhausting. And messy. It'll be a race to see who gets done first! :)

Clear and Sunny

2011-01-19T09:31:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of photos from our hours spent outside today. Kehlton was not in the mood for photos!

Dinners Ready!

2011-01-18T12:06:00.000-08:00

This morning, Brychan and his friend, Wes, decided to get busy cooking!

At first Brychan just asked me for a spoon and bowl (which typically happens at least once a day). Pretty soon, both he and Wes were wearing oven mitts, pulling out the muffin tins and "making dinner". They slid the tins in and out of the oven (who knew that so many muffin tins would fit in one oven at the same time?), warned each other to "be careful! It's hot!", and continually served me some delicious dinner entrees. I love it when everyday things turn into hours of happy play!

Fun with K

2011-01-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

Kehlton and I have been having lots of fun today while brother is napping. It's not very often that he'll let us snap pictures of him without him running in the opposite direction!

Pucker up buttercup!
Playing cars

Smiles for momma!

Big brother has been busy potty training this week, and Kehlton is not about to be left out of the fun! He is quite adament that he get to wear big boy underwear too. Is it possible to get so lucky as to have two little boys out of diapers by the end of summer? I'll keep dreaming...

Projects

2011-01-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

For the last few months, I have been super busy with several large projects that are all getting finished up about the same time. Here are the first 2 of my projects that I have finished in the last month or so.

One of the homes that David's business partner has listed had this dresser with a matching nightstand that had been abandoned. I had been looking for a big dresser for the boys to use and was so excited when I found out I could have the set.

This is what it started out looking like. It was nasty, nasty, nasty.

And this is what it looks like now! It's still not perfect, but it's at least clean and usable. And nice enough that I was okay putting it in our bedroom since the boys have no room whatsoever in theirs.
Our main bath has been an eyesore for a long time. And I have been s-l-o-w-l-y been trying to redo it. When there's no extra money for anything, it makes it a little bit harder, but with some help of my sister, we managed to make some improvements.

Here's what we started out with.

And this, pirate themed bathroom is what we now have! We still need to redo the flooring, eventually change the vanity and update the shower, but I like this MUCH better. And the best part? I only spent $150 for the whole thing. Paint, mirror, pictures, decor and Pottery Barn linens. Yay me!!

I still have one more fairly large project that I'm trying to finish up and then I'm going to start on the master bedroom. It is so nice to finally be able to make some cosmetic improvements on the house and make it feel more like our home!

Move Your Body!!

2011-01-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Do you have a New Year's Resolution to lose some extra weight? Then Brychan has the workout video for you!!

Sunday night, David and I were playing a game with Lala when we heard Brychan giving my mom directions on working out. They were doing lunges, squats, arm circles...he was counting down for her and everything. I have no idea where he got this - I haven't done a video at home in months. It wasn't until we heard him tell her "Move Your Body!!" that I decided to get the camera out. We just got the tail end of his work out instructions, but rest assured that he was tiring Grammy out!

*While we were just watching this, Brychan walked in and said "I'm showing Grammy how to exercise!!" I can't believe he rememberd what he was doing!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-04T07:31:00.000-08:00

This year, we were able to make a very last minute decision to head up to Idaho to spend Christmas with David's family. We were there for a week and had a blast! Unfortunately, there was no snow until the day we left, so the boys didn't get to make any snowmen (Brychan was very disappointed). However, we drove 21 hours on the way home through horrible blizzard conditions. Each time we had to get out of the car, Brychan cried "I don't like it, I don't like it" and would dead weight himself making it very difficult to get his coat on and get him out. I think it's okay there was no snow for snowmen in Idaho!

I also didn't really take very many photos; I'm hoping to steal some from others as soon as I'm able.

Before we left, Kehlton played a few tunes.

Opening gifts Christmas morning. Brychan was very excited about this particular toy...we bought the exact same thing for one of his cousins and he wanted to keep it for himself. Boy did he luck out!

Kehlton's very healthy breakfast.

On our way home, we made a quick stop in Salt Lake to visit David's grandmother. It's always fun to visit Grandma Taylor!

When we got home, my parents came for a second round of Christmas. This is the only photo I got of that entire visit. Lala got the boys this desk, and I think it will be put to very good use!

It was a very fun Christmas break! I enjoyed having 2 weeks off, the boys really enjoyed opening presents, playing with cousins and visiting with gradparents. We wish every holiday season could be as fun as this one was!!

Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas!

2010-12-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

We hope that whatever your plans are for the remainder of this holiday season that you fully enjoy it and do so safely!

Happy Holidays!!

*I have to put a plug in for my sister in law who did our card...she is amazing!! Check out her etsy shop, Cards Etcetera, for more adorable cards!*

Holiday Fun

2010-12-20T08:17:00.001-08:00

We have had so much fun this holiday season! Unfortunately, being the awesome mother that I am, I have forgotten the camera for ALL the fun activities, so all we have are a few cell phone photos.

Brychan and Kehlton had their first visit with santa at our ward Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. Brychan was a little shy at first, but quickly warmed up and told Santa that he wanted "presents and toys" for Christmas. Is it too much to hope that those requests from Santa always be so vague? Kehlton didn't care for Santa at all.

At David's office, they did a morning of cookie decorating for all the realtor's children. Brychan had fun decorating (and eating!) his cookies. He also made a little foam gingerbread girl and drank a lot of hot chocolate.
This weekend, Ashley and I did a ton of baking and candy making. I ran out to get some lunch, and while I was gone, the boys quickly ganged up on Lala! You can see Kehlton eyeing the goods...
And Brychan screaming at Kehlton "NO COOKIES!!!!". This, of course, came after he had already stolen one himself.
We have enjoyed driving around looking at all the Christmas lights (our neighborhood goes ALL OUT each year), watching Christmas movies, drinking lots of hot chocolate and singing Jingle Bells a gazillion times (it's Brychan's favorite!!). Yesterday we had fun delivering goodies to all our friends in the area, and tomorrow we have one more cookie decorating party to go to before we get ready to head up to Idaho for a week.

We hope all of you have had just as much fun this holiday season!

Bubble Bath

2010-12-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

Who needs soap and water when you have a box full of peanuts?

Children's Museum

2010-12-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

As a continuation of Kehlton's birthday celebration, we went to the Children's Museum of Phoenix today. We had SO much fun!! I cannot wait until I get my car back and can make a year's membership worth the money. Sorry there's so many photos, but we just had so much fun! Brychan called this giant tub with wings an eagle. And he didn't care for it much, either.

Playing at a light table

Riding bikes at the "trike wash"

Painting the castle in the art room

Exploring with all our senses!

Crawling through tents in the building room

And tasting the goods at the market

Happy Birthday Boy

2010-12-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

My baby turned one yesterday!! How can that be?!?

A few recaps of his day yesterday and then a little bit about why I L-O-V-E this little one so much!

His cake. It taught me many things in the hours that I spent on it. First and foremost that I really don't have the patience for such things, and secondly that as much fun as I think they look, Gingerbread Houses are NOT for me. I just can't. But, both boys loved the cake, so I guess that's what matters, right?

Brychan stared at Kehlton's mountain of gifts piling up over the last couple of days, repeating "It's a party, Momma - a party!!". He did really good and only tore into one present beforehand. He was even pretty good about standing back and letting Kehlton do most of the opening. Today, however, is a different story. The toys may as well all be Brychan's, because he is not up for sharing them quite yet! :)

This little baby dinosaur took the cake. Kehlton really does love all his toys and has been playing with them as much as big brother will let him, but he absolutely adores this little dino. He's been growling at/with it and kissing it all afternoon.

Enjoying his cake!

Getting down to business. At one point, I looked over and he had the entire plate up to his face licking it clean. This boy definitely has a sweet tooth the same size as his daddy's!

Kehlton is such a sweet, happy baby! I love that he is so quick to laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more! It doesn't take much and he is all giggles. I also love that he and his brother love each other so much. There are many times when Brychan is just in such a cruddy mood, and the only person that can get him to snap out of it is Kehlton. Kehlton will get his brother smiling and laughing again when nothing else can.

I've said it a million times - I am positive that Kehlton will be my first trip to the ER with one of the kids. He's a daredevil. And completely fearless. And into everything. And goes non-stop. I'm just waiting for the first round of stitches to come about.

He is also amazingly persistent. He just does not give up! As much as it drives me crazy now, I hope that never changes for him.

And a quick little story about Kehlton joining our family:

Right at Brychan's 1st birthday is when our massive family tragedy hit. And I clung to that little boy as if my life depended on it. Out of all the family members that were there for my support, it was my little boy who was my ultimate lifesaver. I shared that one night with David and he responded that he had had the impression that Kehlton was working just as hard on the other side of the veil trying to keep our little family safe, together and in one piece during that same time. I get teary every time I think about it. But I think that explains why he joined our family so quickly after. We weren't planning on another baby right then and it was a bit of a surprise to find out I was pregnant before Brychan was even 13 months old. It's like he was saying "I worked really hard for my family and I'm not waiting anymore! I'm coming whether you're ready or not!". That stubborn perseverance again... ;) It just really strengthens my testimony of eternal families. I have no doubt that both boys worked equally as hard to help out their parents during that time. Even if they weren't aware of it. And if it's possible, I love each of them even more for it!

Anyway. Happy Birthday my little Baby K. Thank you for being such a fun, loving and snugly little boy. We love you so much!!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun Thanksgiving holiday this year! We loaded up the truck and headed to San Angelo, Texas to spend a few days with Grammy and Papa Davis.

Baby K ended up without a bed in our hotel our first night gone, but he LOVED the arrangements we made for him. He giggled in his sleep all night long! And big brother was very jealous that he didn't get to sleep in a drawer.
We got to eat and eat and eat LOTS of yummy food!
Kehlton's make-shift high chair.
The boys also got to spend some time with Great Grandma and Grandpa Tucker. Brychan's face tells you everything you need to know about this photo shoot...
We also went to a fantastic lily pad park in town to try and get some family photos.
Fresh mistletoe!
And some of the lily pads

Unfortunately, this is the best family photo we got! :)

We had so much fun this week! We also did some shopping and saw a couple of movies (Harry Potter and Tangled were both great!). I am ready to pack up and move to Texas...absolutely stunning old homes for ridiculously cheap, lots of fun things to do, temperate weather and amazing kindness and hospitality. *Mom and Dad; don't get your hopes up! I doubt it will ever happen and it won't be to San Angelo. Sorry!* We really enjoyed our trip!

Book Worm

2010-11-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

This boy loves to read! Books or magazines, he doesn't care! Once he gets in his "reading mood" he will sit for an hour or more just flipping through pages; either silently looking at pictures or reading the story to himself.

Reading books at Lala's last week

Flipping through one of his favorite catalogs to look at...an early childhood toy/supply catalog that I get in the mail.

Box Canyon

2010-11-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

About an hour away from us is a very nice, secluded, beautiful canyon that David just happened to find out about thanks to his Scout Camporee last weekend. We really wanted to go camping up there this weekend, but a certain soon-to-be-1 year old has too much of an icky nose to be sleeping outside. However, we grabbed Lala and met some friends from church to spend some time exploring the canyon for the afternoon.

It was so nice to see fall colors (on real leaves...not palms or cactus) and feel nice, crisp, cool weather!The boys (big and small) had a blast playing in the river at the bottom of the canyon. Brychan had to stop and throw in every rock and/or stick he could get his hands on.

We also climbed LOTS of rocks. *Sidenote: can you believe how dark his hair has gotten?
And Kehlton ate his fair share of rocks. Kehlton also took off across the river by himself. Luckily, that spot was quite low and hit him just above his ankles. He didn't seem to care that it was freezing!
Unfortunately, the batteries in the camera died about 5 photos in and I forgot to put the new batteries in the bag. Oops! We are seriously SO excited about going back as soon as we can!!

A Song

2010-11-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

While Brychan is our dancer, Kehlton is our little singer! This kid LOVES singing - with or without help!

Halloween

2010-10-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

As always, we had a blast at our ward's trunk or treat activity. This year, I had to help out with the Mia Maids booth (tattoos), so I balanced my time between my girls and my family.

David and I before we left the house
Kehlton was not too excited about the whole thing at the beginning, but he quickly warmed up and won the hearts of everyone there!

T-Rex and baby egg suffering through more photos while watching all the other kids play.

Brychan loves to point out that "Kehlton's egg is hatching!" I SO wish I could take credit for his costume, because it's pretty dang cute. But no. I found a lady on Etsy who made it for me.

Kehlton did amazingly well with David and I looking so crazy. He cried at David for a minute, but then got over it. He just kept checking my hair out. I'm sad to say that last night he did appear to be having nightmares all night. :( Poor baby!! So sorry we tortured you!!

We couldn't go without Lala!
And the whole family

My parents were not in town with us...they had their own Halloween party with my Dad's branch in Texas. However, I think their costumes were too cute not to post anyway!!

Brychan will be so sad tomorrow when all the Halloween festivities are over! He's loved every minute of it and spent all week this week practicing trick or treating. We'll do a little bit of trick or treating with him tonight and then call it good. However, I'm pretty excited to start getting him geared up for Christmas!!

Hope everyone enjoyed your Halloween celebrations as much as we did this year! Happy Haunting!

Hard Workin'

2010-10-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

We spent a little bit of time at Daddy's office this week. Brychan LOVES going to the office!

Our future Keller Williams agent. He had several, very important phone calls going on! :)
And a little trick or treating at the office Friday afternoon. (Amy - I hope you don't mind I stole your photos off Facebook! :) )

More Halloween photos to come for sure!!

My Picasso

2010-10-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

Pretty much everyone knows that Brychan HATES to get his hands dirty. He refuses to put them on the ground to help himself stand up, he won't touch food...trying to get him to touch pumpkin "guts" was impossible. He just will not do it.

Today, I planned on the kids fingerpainting a few pumpkins. I didn't think Bug would even consider the idea. I was SO pleasantly surprised to find that he loved it! He stayed and painted for about 45 minutes. This opens a whole new realm of possible activities to do. YAY!!!

Arizona State Fair

2010-10-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, we took the boys to the fair. It has been a LONG time since I've been to a state fair...SO much more fun (and impressive) than the Weber County Fair!

Brychan had fun playing in the sand with the tractors
Kehlton had fun riding the lion
And they both had fun holding and petting the baby bunny.

Of course, this dino was a HUGE hit as well!
Texas had a really fun area set up. We went on virtual kayaking tours.

And had our photo taken at the Alamo.

We (and we I say "we" I totally mean "I") also ate way too much fair food. Why does all that calorie ridden food smell and sound so yummy while you're at the fair? And by the way - deep fried Snickers are absolutely delicious.

I'm hoping Dave and I can make another trip to the fair before it's over for a date night!

'Tis the Season

2010-10-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween. My husband thinks I love it a little too much (although he is a good sport and participates in every way I ask him too!). Luckily for me, my son loves it just as much as I do!!!

He has loved the gel window decorations
And shared them with his friend, Kate.
Today, we made these adorable little cookies. To be perfectly honest, I like the dough much better than I like the cookie - but they're cute and the kids adore them, so now I have a kitchen counter covered in little kitties! (I also think these could be cute for a Bobcat activity when the time comes...)

Brychan thinks they are delicious!!

Sunday...we're making a spider cake. We still have popcorn balls and pumpkin carving to do, as well as costumes to finish up. We have our awesome ward Halloween party to look forward to as well. And hopefully, we can squeeze in a trip to a pumpkin patch.

David and I are "celebrating" all weekend with scary movies every night. I put celebrating in quotation marks because as much as I love Halloween, I detest scary movies. H-A-T-E them. I allow David to watch as many as he wants during October only. And, because I love him that much, I also agree to watch them with him (even though "watching" typically includes my hands over my eyes or my face in a blanket).

I just wish it felt more like Halloween and less like the 4 of July! :)

Orange Tree

2010-10-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful morning outside! The kids were having so much fun picking all the unripe, gross grapefruits off the tree. When they picked all they could off the grapefruit tree, I had them move to the orange tree. Our orange tree produces TONS of fruit and needed to be thinned out - it's nice to have help!

He worked really hard to reach that orange by himself. He did finally get it!

Getting some help from Lala

We can't wait until we can eat our oranges. They are SO yummy!

Grammy & Papa Davis

2010-10-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Over Conference weekend, my parents decided to make a quick, last minute trip out to see us. Although they were here for just a few days, we managed to sneak in lots of fun!

We had lots of time for snuggles,
Time to play dinosaurs with Grammy,
We made, and ate, homemade doughnuts (by far THE BEST homemade recipe I've tried yet. Not sure why the photo is so blurry...)

And played lots of different games.

We love you Grammy and Papa! Can't wait to see you again soon!!

Autumn is Here!!

2010-10-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally cooling off! We spent close to 2 hours playing outside this morning and it was heavenly!!

It was extra nice that we had friends to play with!

And little one isn't the least bit worried about dirt, rocks or pain induced by crawling through the terrain barefoot.

Nor did he seem to mind the shovel-fuls of dirt his big brother kept dumping on his back.

Can't wait for lots more fun outside this winter!

Eye Spy...

2010-10-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we finally got around to ordering Brychan's new glasses. He's getting new frames and everything (we've had his old frames for a year now and couldn't pass up "renewing" the year warranty that replaces frames as often as necessary no questions asked). I'm not gonna lie - there was some serious bribing involved in order to get him into shopping mode.

If Brychan would have had his way, he may have ended up with these "pretty" spectacles ("pretty" being Brychan's definition): (sorry for the blurriness - camera phone on a moving target)
Or these bad boys
But, since Momma was in charge, we left both those pair of glasses at the store and bought a cute pair of simple, silver, wire frames that fit his face quite nicely. You'll get to see those in a week to 14 days. (By the way, I haven't seen his eye turn in like that for well over a month. Yipee!! He hasn't been wearing his glasses for the last few days because Baby Brother has mutilated them quite nicely. I'm guessing that's why his eye is so tired now!)

Brothers

2010-09-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Just a couple quick videos. The first one is of the boys playing together Sunday night.

The second was what we woke up to the other morning (unfortunately it was at 5:00am). Again...it's a good thing they're cute!

Halloween Prep

2010-09-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

So far, Brychan is totally into the whole Halloween thing this year. He is absolutely in love with the pumpkins I bought for the boys. Last night he was walking around the house pretending to be a "Halloween Ghost" (not entirely sure where he came up with that...he does have the book Corduroy's Halloween that we've ready maybe one time. Maybe he was paying better attention than I thought!). So when I got a Better Homes & Gardens magazine in the mail today with a link to make your own virtual jack-o-lantern, we made a bee-line for the computer.

This is Brychan's design. He picked everything out. The grey pumpkin (he says it's blue), the facial features and even the background with the trees. We then promptly emailed it to Daddy.
He's in love with all of his pumpkins. Can't wait to pull all the Halloween decor out now. It's going to be a super fun year with all the holidays and I can't wait!!

It's A Good Thing I LOVE my Kiddos!!

2010-09-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

While in another room, I could hear the kids laughing and having fun and I had just checked on them a few minutes prior, so I thought all was well. It's when I can't hear them that I expect trouble.

And then I walked in to find this:

Instant shock. And I immediately thought, "before you go ballistic, grab the camera because you will want a photo of it later". So I snapped this one photo and then flipped out. So much so that the dog stayed in hiding for several hours after all was said and done. It's pretty bad when the dog knows to stay out of the way and watch his p's and q's. Brychan and I have been through this a zillion times. You do not get into the fridge by yourself. You do not take ANYthing out of the fridge. You do NOT let your brother get in the fridge.

Luckily, I called Dave and he ran home really fast to help shampoo the carpet and couch while I threw 3 slimy children in the bath. For the rest of the evening, Brychan kept repeating to himself "No eggs. No fridge without asking". I think I got my point across.

(Oh and ps...the little girl is in our ward. Her name is Kate, but Brychan calls her Cake. Pretty cute!)

**For all those who have asked, yes: with the help of our shop vac, the Rug Doctor David purchased years ago, and our washing machine...the couch did come clean.**