Some videos

Sorry there's a lot...

She's starting to laugh a lot more easily now (like not JUST for Tyler)! My favorite part is at the end where she sees Tyler and just lunges for him. She LOVES him!


The skin tight jammies, the ballerina dance move and the dainty hand gesture will make this video worth millions when he's a teenager. Bobby's really mad that I taught him though. I guess I can sort of understand why...


The pipes in our house can be really loud and for some reason this particular night, when our neighbors were using their water, the pipes were really loud and they totally freaked Tyler out! For some reason he thought the noise was coming from his little couch and when we said, "oh it's just the pipes." he thought we had said it was the vipers-as in the snake-and he refused to sit on it. Every time we would try to put him on it he would scream and run off of it clinging to us. (it was actually really funny and I wish I would have got that part on camera, but i didn't think about yet.) This video was taken a good 10-15 min. after it happened so he had finally calmed down, but I just thought what he was saying was so funny-especially because it was totally
unprompted.

A little catch-up

Last week Tyler's friend Jillian got to come over and play for a couple hours so her mom and dad could go out and celebrate her mom's birthday! Tyler's still pretty shy around girls (okay everyone really) but Jillian brings out his fun side and he pretty much just follows her around and does whatever she does!

Yes, these were totally posed...but at least he complied and was pretty happy to put his arm around her ;)


I love that she always has the silliest faces for the camera!


She loves to grab his hand and say, "Come on Tyler let's go!"




One day I found his elephant comfortably taking a nap under the TV and I thought it was funny so I took a picture...


Tyler got so mad at me and said, "No mom, you wake ewaphant up!!" So I guess he felt he needed to rescue him.


The other day my super fabulously creative, totally on-the-ball, visiting teacher came over and brought me this "happy meal" that she made by hand just to make a visiting teaching appointment! She puts me to shame.


She even hand made the lunch tray and french fry holder thingy.

*The hamburger is cupcake, brownie and frosting and the fries are sugar cookies. How stinkin' cute is that?!?! She did feel really bad that I couldn't eat it, but knew I would be uber impressed with her mad skillz!

This week I had the opportunity to drive down to Salt Lake and meet with some old BYU roomies for lunch. It was so fun to catch up and get together again! Thanks for setting everything up Ellen!! Ellen (Jake), me (with no kids-thanks Bobby!), Bree (holding Melinda's baby Bree, but also due with her own baby in 2 weeks!), and Melinda. Too bad my eyes are closed and we only took 1 picture! ha ha!


The other day we were going out to have a BBQ with a bunch of people that live in our apartment and Tyler wanted to wear red AND blue flip-flops. I told him he had to choose either red OR blue, but he was not havin' it! He wanted both so I said, "fine. Wear one of each!" And that made him happy. I've decided to choose my battles. Makes life much easier! *Unfortunately this photo-not posed.*


It's official, she's a sitter upper!


She's been sitting up in spurts for awhile, but now I'm able to set her down and walk away and not be afraid she's going to fall over and hurt herself. Every once in awhile she'll tumble over if she's been sitting for awhile, but for the most part she's got the hang of it!

Playing in the rain

So lately I've been really trying to become better about just going with the flow of things and accepting that everything in my life does not have to be run on a schedule. There does not have to be a written script for everyday of my life and it's okay if everything doesn't go exactly as I planned for it to. Some days we have naps, some days we just play all day. Some days we do laundry and some days we let it pile up. Some days we make Tyler eat well balanced meals and some days he lives off McDonalds chicken nuggets and french fries. I've tried to be better about setting up my priorities in a way that what's best comes first (my family), what's better comes next (my calling) and what's good comes last (housework). So far it's working out okay and I seem to be able to balance things a lot better when I'm not trying to make everything a "best".

A couple days ago it was pouring rain outside (well almost everyday the past 2 weeks it's rained, but this one was a really good downpour!). We were coming home from running errands and it was already an hour later than Tyler usually goes down for a nap. We had been out all morning and I still had more errands to run once I put them down for naps before I had to be home that night to babysit for a friend, so I was eager to get him inside so I could be on my way to accomplish the next thing on my list. (BTW-To Do lists and I are becoming quite good friends) Bobby ran Kylee from the parking lot to the porch by our house and I was left to bring Tyler. I put him down on the sidewalk so that he could walk because I was carrying armfulls of groceries. The second I put him down he was off, running the opposite way we needed to go and jumping in any puddle of water he could find (in his flip-flops!). I was yelling at him to stop and please come with me but he would just laugh and run farther away, thinking it hilarious that his mother was getting drenched, waddling after him with jugs of milk and chicken breasts. I finally just set the groceries down and ran after him pretty angry grumbling, "Why now?! I have too much to do!". Then right when I was about to catch him he jumped into a huge puddle of muddy water, totally spalshing me, and started laughing so hard he fell down. I then had what you might call an 'Aha' moment because I realized what I was missing out on. I was focusing so much on this little event in my day that I was ignoring the big picture-and more importantly the importance of the big picture. Here was my little 2 year old boy, enjoying his life to the fullest. Begging me, without using words, to play with him. To enjoy the world from his perspective. To let go of the responsible adult in me and, for just a couple minuets, be a child again.

So I jumped in the puddle right next to him and sat down and laughed with him as the rain soaked us. Bobby came out and looked at us like we were crazy, but I just told him to go up and grab the camera. I wanted a picture that would remind me that sometimes it's more important to say "Why not?" than "Why now?"



And just a couple other pictures of Tyler's fun!






t



Kylee stayed nice and dry :)


He was SOAKED, and freezing!


But it was SO worth it!


Love this boy!


Thanks for teaching me a great lesson Tyler. I love you!

I wanna grow people!

I have an AMAZING friend whom I look up to tremendously for the way she has always been able to face and overcome her trials with faith and integrity. Life has not always been easy for her and has definitely not always been fair, yet she walks with her head held high, and continues to move forward when at times it would have been much easier to give up. From the time I have met her she has been a constant example of faith, love, charity and perseverance and I can not thank her enough for the kind friend she has been to me. I have cried with her, laughed with her and even danced with her and I would give anything to help make her dream of becoming a mother come true. Unfortunately there's not a lot I can do for her in that department, but she has started a blog: I wanna grow people that is meant to be a support group/safe outlet for those of you wonderful woman who are "struggling with wanting to be mommies". I hope by passing on her blog to all of you (and than you passing it on to your friends in a similar situation) she, and those others, will find the support they need to "wait out the storm we call 'trying to get pregnant'".

Stranger Danger!

Oh, I remember a story from Sun. I was gonna tell yall! So this Sun. our Bishop was out of town so we didn't have our early morning Bishopric meetings, but since Bobby's in charge of doing Sacrament we had to still be there about 20 min. early. As soon as we're all situated in the pew, and Tyler is happily coloring away, Kylee starts to fuss so I look for her pacifier so she can take a nap and realize we left it at home. Thankfully we live right around the corner from the church so I hand off my children to a couple who is also there early and drive back home. Now this part probably won't make sense to any of you who don't know the awesomeness that is Aggie Village and where our apartment is, but try to follow. I parked over by the laundromat (which you're not supposed to do) because our building is just behind it and is closer than the "real" parking lot and I was in a hurry. As I get out of the car I see a guy walking towards the parking lot I'm in. He walks past my car, I get out, and I didn't really think much of it other than, "wow, he looks grungy." I get out of my car and start walking towards my apartment when he turns around and starts to walk the same direction I'm walking. I thought hmmm...that's kinda weird but whatever maybe he decided to go a different direction. As I get closer to my building I had this overwhelming feeling that I should NOT go inside my apartment. It was SO wierd. So then I of course start to panick because this guy is obviously following me. (And trust me I know this sounds SOO stupid! It's broad daylight, it's Logan, UT, it's aggie village-all of which =Nothing bad happens, but I'd rather follow promptings I recieve-even if it is something I'm conjouring up in my head-and not have to wish I did later) I turned down a different path, going the opposite way from my apartment, and he chooses the same path. He started to get a little closer to me so I quickend my pace (okay, I really realize that this sounds like I'm writing a horror book but this really IS what happened!). I then chose a different path going back towards the laundromat which would tell me if he really was following me because this is the same place he changed his mind and decided not to go earlier when the chase ensued, and sure enough, he was right behind me! I was starting to get into an area that led away from people so I decided to leave the path and go across the grass towards the street that led back to the church because I knew once I got to the street I'd be safe. And sure enough there's mr. grungy right behind me, crossing the grass. It was everything I could do to keep from taking off in a dead sprint in my heels! Thankfully I saw a guy in our ward across the street walking to church and I yelled at him and asked him to wait for me. I darted off across the street and looked back to see mr. grungy getting to the street but not crossing it. He continued on down the path right next to the street, leaving aggie village. I asked the guy in my ward to walk home with me so I could get Kylee's pacifier and he willingly accompianed me, but he probably thought I was NUTS! Like I said, this totally could have been something I freaked myself out about (I do watch too many NCIS and SVU episodes) but the feeling not to go into my apartment was too strong to ignore. Better to be safe than sorry! Lesson learned? Always have everything I need for church BEFORE I leave the house!

A little somethin'

Well, both my kids are still sleeping (a really big deal!) so I'll just throw another couple pictures on here. Last night we had planned a family evening where we were going to go to the Logan Zoo (really just a monkey and bird exhibit with a couple coyote's and snakes thrown here and there) and then have a picnic at the park right next door for dinner. We wanted to do this because 1. it's the only day this week that it wasn't supposed to rain and 2. the only night this week that both Bobby and I will be home together with the kids. Well recently nothing seems to ever go as planned and of course the one day we make plans something out of the blue happens (I'm learning to be very flexible). About 20 min. before we were going to leave a girl, that moved out of our ward a little over a month ago, called and said she was on the way to the hospital to be induced and needed somebody to watch her 3 year old boy and let him stay the night. What was I supposed to do?! So of course I said we could watch him, but was really sad that our fun family night had to be canceled! But fortunately a sweet couple in our ward was outside talking to Bobby as he was working on a car he's fixing up for a friend, and offered to go with us and let this little boy ride in their car. (His carseat wouldn't fit in ours with the 2 we already have in there) So even though our plans had to be tweaked a bit, and included a few more people than intended, we actually had a lot of fun and really enjoyed our night out as a family. I'm just so thankful for fun people who care!

Anyway, I brought the camera but the memory card was full and after deleting about 20 pictures and taking 5 new ones the battery died. So it was kinda pointless, but here are the few we took...

The other little boy and Tyler






Hillaree trying to get Kylee to smile-not happening. (MB this is the bow you made for her, I wasn't sure if I had posted a picture of her wearing it yet or not, but I love it and she gets lots of compliments when she wears it!)


Then we tried to use Tyler to get her to smile-still not happening.


Oh, and as we were driving home from the zoo, another girl in my ward, who is like best friends with the girl that moved out, called and said that she just got home and would be happy to take this little boy for the night so we dropped him off over there, which was a huge help since Kylee's still waking up during the night!

"Bof" my babies

Whenever I'm carrying Kylee, Tyler wants me to carry him at the same time cause he thinks it's funny-not really sure why-but he loves it, and it's a good work-out for me, so I don't complain too much. But when I do this he always says, "bof (as in both) my babies!" because that's what I say whenever they are doing something at the same time-getting diapers changed, laying on the couch, eating lunch, taking a bath, etc. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are pictures of "Bof" my babies one day when we were bored!!

I know they're all horribly grainy, somehow a setting got changed on my camera and I didn't realize it until after I had taken the pictures. Oh well.






Tyler driving a car. He loves to put a pillow in front of him and pretend it's a car.


waving hello to the other drivers...




Tyler forcing Kylee to give him "5's"-this happens a lot


I know it's nothing terribly exciting, but when it's rainy and cold 6 out of 7 days during the week we get stuck inside doing...nothing terribly exciting. Please give us summer!!

You know...

You know it's going to be an interesting day when your first counselor calls you at 9:00 am and starts the conversation by saying, "So I was looking at the arrest records this morning..."

Good thing it turned out to be nothing! ha ha!

Uh Oh!

Tyler learned how to open the bedroom doors today.



I see early mornings and no naps in our future! Sigh...

Kylee 5 months!

Well I wasn't planning on doing them all tonight, but I'm kind of on a roll and this is the last of the pictures I have so I figured I might as well finish!

Kylee turned 5 mo. old on May 29th and I kind of can't believe it. I went to visit a girl in our ward yesterday who had a baby 2 weeks ago and I can't believe Kylee was that size (actually a pound smaller) only 5 mo. ago, it totally weirded me out! Where does the time go?!?! Sigh...

Kylee-5 mo. She is 12 lbs. 10 oz. The doc's still a little worried about her weight gain so at her 6 mo. appt. will decide if he thinks she should be put strictly on formula or not. I have mixed feelings but don't feel like getting into it...

*Does anybody else think she is the spitting image of Bobby?!



Our matching painted toes-seriously LOVE having a girl!


Kylee LOVES Tyler. He can get her to smile without even trying, can make her laugh in ways I'll never understand, and can get her to stop crying just by going and standing next to her. I finally was able to catch a little of this sibling magic on camera.

I know these are all pretty much the same, I just can't get enough of how happy Tyler makes her!








Lookin' super cute in Tyler's sunglasses!


Once again, smiling up at Tyler...




Tyler really was hugging her even though it looks like he's pushing her away, I just took the picture a second too late! ha ha!

I have a video of her laughing her head off at this weird laugh Tyler was doing, but it's not uploading and I'm exhausted and need to go to bed, so maybe I'll try again later cause it's super cute!

And just one last thing for my mom. My friend Ashley Whitworth had a baby girl at the end of May and they named her Charlotte, but are going to call her Charley. Her nursery colors are black and pink, so as part of her gift my mom and I (mostly my mom) made this for her.

My mom did everything except glue the embellishments on and staple gun the black ribbon bows to the letters, but she wanted to see how it all looked together before I sent it to Ashley, so this is how it turned out! I love it and hope she does too! Thanks mom!!

Lets Swim!

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is go to St. George and have pool parties everyday with my family! (Too bad I can't EVER get tan-I just burn!) This visit was no exception!

This was one of the days when I didn't swim so that I could take the camera out and get some pictures!

Kylee LOVED the water! She was in the hot tub which wasn't hot at all, just a tad warmer than the pool so it was perfect for her!


Tyler kickin' around in his spiderman float from auntie amanda!




Wow dad, that is one awesome hat! Where can I get one?! :)




Still lovin' life!


Nate and Tyler


Sorry, I really just can't get enough of her cute cabbage patch face!




Just another picture of my dad's sweet sun hat. Yes, that is a flap coming down off the back. To protect the neck of course...


Yes I'm aware that my skin is white enough that I could have been one of the vampires in twilight. I'm from Logan, I was wearing a sweatshirt today because it was freezing cold! For crying out loud it's June 8th can we please get some summer here?!






And just a couple other random pictures from the week...




Can we say...Drop. Dead. Gorgeous! Watch out boys!!










Can't wait to see 'yall again soon!