25 Weeks

Only 15 more weeks to go!  Here I am at 25 weeks.  The baby is around 13 1/2 in long and weighs a pound and 1/2.  He's very active and seems to move around for about 3 hours straight every night around 8-11pm or midnight.  It seems like he's extremely low as he kicks things I didn't even know existed!  It's so fun to feel him move and we've yet to pick a name, but hopefully that'll come soon!

Things

Things I have been craving to do lately:

Find or make the cutest boy blue/brown crib set for a really good price....aka. CHEAP!

Figure out and decide a name for the little guy

Edit photos..but I haven't taken any recently

Learn and study something about photography

Scrapbook my wedding pictures in a 12X12 album

Make/sew something fun

Go to the temple

Stay at THIS or THIS hotel for a night!  Can I just say....A-maz-ing?! (I know this one is NEVER going to happen, but I've still been wanting to go!)

Dreaming about getting a new car but in reality hoping that the one we have will last a couple more years so we don't have to go in debt to get a new one.

It's a little early...

I know it's a little early to celebrate Valentines Day but I changed my background to fit the occasion.  I'm actually pretty excited for this years V-day because that weekend Hyrum and I get to celebrate our 4 year anniversary!!  Our real anniversary isn't until March 17th but since Hyrum's in school and he'll have a 3 day weekend because of a holiday on Monday, Feb. 16th, we decided to celebrate it that weekend!  We don't know what we're doing yet, but we're excited nonetheless!  Happy very early Valentines Day!!!

Just a little break

Okay so don't think I'm completly ridiculous for thinking I could potty train a brand new 2 year old! Other people do it all the time right?  She had all the potty training signs except for one or 2 so I assumed she was pretty much ready. 
This last week has been completely INSANE!  Between accidents every 10-15min, Kyla's "Terrible Two" temper tantrums which started right during potty training, and all of my crazy pregnancy hormones it has been one heck of an emotional rollercoaster!!!!!  After noticing Kyla wasn't progressing in the potty training department for a couple days, we decided to take a little "Potty Training Break".  Probably mostly for my sanity and at least until my emotions get under control...if that ever happens!  haha.  Maybe I'm just not patient enough or creative enough to deal with this mess as of now or maybe Kyla just needs a few more weeks before we try picking it up again.  Either way, we're not totally stopping the potty training but just not pushing as hard as before.  I still take her to the potty after meals and sometimes in between, asks her if she needs to go and if she's dry and still am giving her treats for every good potty thing she does.  The last day or 2 since the break, I have already felt SOOO much better emotionally, Kyla's sleeping better at night (because since potty training, she's been refusing to sleep at night or during naps which means the whole family didn't get much sleep the last week), and now we just have to work on that "Terrible Two Syndrome"! :) 

Anyway, you can laugh at me if you want or think that I'm a quitter but really...I'm laughing at myself, and I'm not totally quitting...and besides, if you had all of this on your plate dished up to you all of a sudden, you'd feel a little overwhelmed too wouldn't you?  WOULDN'T YOU?!  Well, nevertheless she'll eventually be potty trained and at least we tried when we THOUGHT we were all ready.  At least for next time we can all know what to expect.  Okay, enough of this totally rambling post...you'll be hearing more about this in a few weeks or months I'm sure.

As for other news...Hyrum's brother Kenne returned home from his mission from the Houston Texas East Mission!  He came in yesterday and Kyla and I went to see him come off the plane.  It was so fun to see him!  Kyla only met him before he left and she was only 2 weeks old but she gave him hugs anyway when we saw him...even though she seemed a little nervous!  It probably helped that we've shown her pictures and have talked and prayed about him many times.  Sorry no pictures this post.

Anyway, WELCOME HOME KENNE!!!  We're so excited to have you back!

Potty Training Update

Kyla has been doing so extremely well with potty training!  Granted there have been lots of times the past couple days where I've wondered if she really was completely ready and even a few...okay lots of times where I was frustrated with the whole process mainly because I didn't even know what I was doing or if anything I was trying to do was working. 

Yesterday we put her in panties for the first time all day.  We stayed home the whole day and she ran around with no pants on.  It was quite cute actually.  I can't believe she's becoming a big girl!  Everytime she went potty we had a big "POTTY PARTY" for her!  We blew up a balloon and put some streamers up and sometimes had party hats on.  She loved it and got so excited about it.  Plus she also got a special treat. Anyway, she had about 10 or more accidents but had 5 successful trips to the potty.  Today, so far, she has only had 3 accidents which has cut those in half compared to yesterday morning alone!  So that's a HUGE improvement!!!  She's had 3 or 4 successful potty trips already today.  I'm so proud of her!  It's so crazy to think that she was in diapers last week. It's been interesting to see her learning through the whole process too. Hopefully things will continue to go well through the rest of day and through the weekend!  If things keeps improving like they are, we will have a potty trained Kyla by Monday!  YIPPIE!

Best Friends Forever

 

Sometimes when Kyla and I are getting ready for the day she likes sitting on the bathroom counter. While looking in the bathroom mirror, she looks at me, gives me a big hug--cheek to cheek--and says, "Best Friends!"  She is just so sweet! I love having a 2 year old daughter as a best friend!  She's who I talk to the most everyday, laugh with, eat with, cry with, play with, and love.  I feel so blessed to have such an amazing little girl who I do truly consider my best friend!  I'm glad she thinks so too.  

Family Christmas Pictures

So I know this is a little late but we took these family pictures ourselves intended for Christmas cards.  Since we all know how that went (seeing as it's past Christmas and we never sent anything out), here's what some of the best pictures look like!  There's a bunch but enjoy!

 

  

  

  

  

 

  

 

 

 

After all this time...

....our car is finally fixed!  Or so we hope!  We took it in a total of 3 times and they now understand what the problem is...or could be.  They fixed a couple of little bolts that needed to be tightened and said if it doesn't turn on again then we'll have to get something replaced which will be about $300.  YIKES!  So we're hoping the problem is forever fixed (all is well so far, for today anyway!) and that we won't need to pay that atrocious bill!  Don't you love cars? :)

Day #2--Things people don't tell you about potty training

**This is just a record for me to keep track of what's going on. You don't have to read it if you don't want too...unless you're potty training and need some help too!!**


Potty Training a 2 year old when she's tired and hungry is nearly impossible.  I've learned that I need to keep her with a full belly and make sure she has a good nights rest and good naps, otherwise, training is going to be unsuccessful for this little one.  Granted, we did get 3 successes this morning, but 2 times nothing happened when put on the potty and there were 3 wet/1 dirty diapers.  I think she's noticing changes because she's been acting more upset, she had a rough night last night and a rough time getting her down for a nap.  She's been more independant today but more cuddly when it comes to sleep time where she wants to be held and rock consistantly.  We're not giving in and rocking with her once we lay her in bed.  I hope that doesn't put a damper on potty training..if so, it may just take a little longer.  So much for potty training with ease...I knew it was only a matter of time before something came up! :)

It has officially begun!

What, you ask?  Potty Training!!  We started sometime yesterday and have taken a casual yet frequent approach to it and it's been pretty successful I must say.  I'm sure the worst is yet to come but it definitely hasn't been as bad YET as I assumed it woud.  Some people can potty train their kids in 1-4 days but I think we're going to try to do it a little more relaxed and try to have it accomplished in a couple weeks...whether that means sooner or later, we'll just have to see.

We've started where we have a potty time schedule where we take her to the potty after meals and snacks, before and after nap, and before and after bedtime.  We're going to try that consistantly for a week or so and then start taking her a little more in between those scheduled times as well.  We've been rewarding her when she asks to use the potty, when she sits on the potty and then have been giving her a double reward if she actually goes potty.  It's actually working!  I've had no clue how to even start with this and even after reading articles and books, I still didn't know how to go about it...especially since every child is so different.  I guess the trick has been to actually get it started then it'll seem easier after that.    I'm sure you'll be hearing success stories and not so successful stories through this whole learning process for both Kyla and us as parents but we are so proud of her and her learning and growing up to be such a sweet little girl!

GO KYLA...we can do this!

The Truth about Cars...

...is that they never work!  Even brand new cars need continuous love and upkeep like oil changes, tire rotations or new tires, windshield wiper fluid, etc.  Well, as we all know the older a car gets, the more problems there are.  We have an 11 year old used car which is pretty much a disaster waiting to happen and considered REALLY old (but probably not ancient..luckily) in the car world.  We are the 3rd owners so we have no idea what could have happened before or if the previous owners even took care of it.

Well the point of it all is the story of our lives this last week!  Here's what happened:

We decided to take Kyla to go see a movie at the theater as our last big family thing before Hyrum started school again.  We saw Bolt on Saturday and it was so good!  Kyla loved it!  She sat through the whole thing and still talks about it and prays about it too! 

Well after the movie was over we went out to the car to go home...our best luck happened and it wouldn't start.  Kyla and I went back inside while Hyrum tried to fix or at least attempted to see what could have been wrong (we both know absolutely NOTHING about cars).  Well after an hour, it still wouldn't start.  Hyrum's parents came to get us and take us home and they were so nice to let us use their van for a day and 1/2 since they have 2.  We left the car over night and decided to go see if it would start again later the next day.  Well...it did!  But we drove it directly to the shop and had someone get to fixing it the next day.  They fixed it on Monday morning for cheap...or so we thought.  We were glad it didn't cost us an arm and a leg.  To make a longer story shorter, Hyrum had to make a trip to Idaho Falls on Tuesday before school started.  He pulled up to the place he was going, did what he needed and went back to the car  to come back home but instead of coming home he was stuck...the car didn't start again!  He considered staying there for the night with one of his uncles but after about 3 hours of trying to get the car to work, it started up and he came home. 

Weirdly enough, it started again today 3 times and has been fine.  The sad thing is, is that we've probably figured out the problem when the mechanics, who did a thorough inspection (or so they say) couldn't even fix the original problem.  Anyway, it couldn't start this evening again but after some wiggling of wires and discovering that there are 3 wires that are not even fused together anymore, we hope we've solved the problem and can get it fixed soon.  We took the car back over to the mechanics place tonight in hopes that tomorrow it will REALLY be fixed!  Phew...sorry for the long story but I wanted to document the event.  Wish us luck with our car!!

The Time Has Finally Come...

...to announce what the gender of this baby is going to be!  As you can see I changed the background to blue, thus giving you a BIG clue that we are having a BOY!!!  We are so excited for Baby Boy Denney to enter into our lives.  It'll be much different taking care of a little boy but I know it'll be so enjoyable and rewarding!  Luckily I've had 2 younger brothers to take care of so I kind of know...slightly...what we're in for!  Anyway, just wanted to tell you all the good news!

 

**Sorry about the really REALLY bad picture...It's blurry and I had to take it with my camera instead of the scanner!  If you can't tell, it's the profile picture of our little guys face!**

Kid Tag

I've seen this tag on a few of my friends' blogs and decided to do it.  It turned out so cute and funny!

1.  What does Mom always say to you?
Kyla: BARNEY!!! (she said it in a very excited and happy way..haha)

2. What makes Mom happy?
Kyla: sad (apparantly being sad makes me happy??  I don't know about that...)

3. What makes Mom sad?
Kyla: in the mouth (she said this because she's getting her last molars in and Kyla always feels sad when her mouth is hurting)

4. How does Mom make you laugh?
Kyla: does the chicken (haha!!)

5.  How old is Mom?
Kyla: 2!

6. How tall is Mom?
Kyla: Stand up!

7. What does Mom like to do?
Kyla: Be hungry (Apparently she think I eat a lot..which I guess I do being pregnant and all...)

8.  What is Mom's job?
Kyla: Naw...how about, Barney Bag!

9. What is Mom's favorite food?
Kyla: Potatoes and Soup

10. How do you know Mom loves you?
Kyla: kisses and I love you (I was so glad she knew that I loved her!  Yay! hehe)

Happy New Year!

I know yesterday was new years but we were just so focused on Kyla's birthday that now I have time to focus and reflect on this past year and some new goals and resolutions I have set for myself.  Our stake had a New Years Eve party that was pretty eventful so we played there for most of the night.  There was dancing, giant twister, wii games, board games, karaoke, and lots of pizza and food!  Kyla LOVED the dancing part of it and she is quite the cute little dancer!  We stayed in there most of the night.  We ended up coming home around 11:15 and had Kyla in bed by 11:30pm because she was just so out of it and exausted that we felt bad keeping her up any longer...especially with her birthday the next day.  We wanted her to enjoy it and not be too cranky. :)  We didn't take any pictures with our camera but we took some on our new phones we just got!  So pictures of New Years Eve will have to wait.  For now, here's a picture of our new phones we got for free!  They're the coolest phones WE'VE ever had (yeah, it's not the iphone..so what?!) so we're pretty excited about that.

It's a slider phone, really shiney and the very first phone that has a built in wireless bluetooth with the phone!  It's way cool and way fun.  Since our contract was ending soon we got new phones with a renewal of our contract...sweet!

Here's a recap of our 2008 Year:

January--Kyla had her 1st birthday and Hyrum started a new semester.  He was extremely busy but worked hard and finished the semester off (in April) really well!  The Rexburg Temple open house was also in January and Hyrum and I both got to volunteer to help with a bunch of things.  It was very memorable.

February--We got our new digital piano basically for free!  We also had the Rexburg Temple Dedication and were privledged to be able to be seated inside the temple for the dedication.

March--We had our 3rd year anniversary, Kyla was officially weaned from nursing and slept through the whole night...finally, and signed a contract to move into a bigger apartment which are the ones we are in now.

April--We moved and Hyrum got Mario Kart Wii for ending the semester so well!

May--Hyrum was looking for a job and started a computer business.

June--Hyrum and I left Kyla with Grandma and Grandpa Denney for a night and went to Lagoon in Utah!  We were enjoying the warm weather, went to an air show, bowling, and Hyrum and I spent our first week apart.  It was so hard!  But it was fun because Kyla and I got to fly down to Washington to spend time with my family and see my youngest brother graduate from High School.  Hyrum found an amazing computer programming job which was an answer to our prayers.

July--Had a crazy adventure river tubing, went to Downata Hot Springs, got a cute new swimsuit, and celebrated Kyla's 1/2 birthday.  Decided it would be best if Hyrum kept working full time through fall semester instead of going to school to save up some money.

August--My brother Brian returned home from his mission, Kyla got her first hair trim, went to a family reunion camping trip, went to a street festival and the zoo.

September--Hyrum's sister, Heidi had her cute little boy, went to Utah with family and went to a BYU game and saw my friends! We also found out we were pregnant and Kyla was showing signs of potty training!

October--My brother Brian came up to visit us and met Kyla for the first time and we watched General Conference.  Also, one of my best friends came home from her mission. Kyla was a Lion for Halloween and had lots of fun trick or treating...we were punk rockers and scared everyone else off their rockers...haha!

November--Hyrum and I both had our birthday's and spent them well.  My Dad came to visit for Thanksgiving and had a ton of family events.  We got a real Christmas tree and set things up for Christmas.

December--I turned 20 weeks pregnant and 1/2 way done!  Finished all our Christmas shopping, Kyla saw Santa and was so excited for Christmas, some of my bestest friends came up to visit, we got new used couches, we got FEET of snow and played in it, went sledding, built snowmen, and had an amazing Christmas and New Years!

There ya go everyone...a recap of our 2008.  We can't wait to see what happens in 2009!  Happy New Year!

Kyla's Birthday

Today is our dear sweetheart Kyla's birthday.  I can't believe that she has just turned 2!  I can't help but think of the labor and delivery to get her into this world and then the first 2 quick years that we've been able to spend with her.  She's growing up to be such an amazing little girl.  She's so smart, kind, compassionate, and loving.  There's been a lot of learning as parents these 2 years and I know that the learning will only keep going as she grows up and learns more as well.  I am so blessed and grateful to be a mother of this beautiful angel.  Happy Birthday Kyla!  We love you!

Kyla a few hours old

 

  

Kyla now! The new 2 year old eating her cupcake! :)

Kyla had an Elmo Party so I made these Elmo cupcakes.  They turned out pretty cute!

Some of the decorations

Here's the birthday invitations I made.  The nose is a pom pom, the eyes and mouth is from cardstock and the mouth is made out of felt.  They turned out better than I thought they would.

Kyla opening some of her gifts

Our family!