Aden Tyler Kowallis

Hyrum's sister Heidi had her beautiful baby boy this morning!  We are so excited to have another nephew.  Kyla has been saying either "Heidi's baby" or "Aden" all day today.  I think she's pretty excited to have a new little cousin to play with.  Congratulations to the new parents!  Aden has dark hair and has Heidi's dimples!  He's absolutely perfect and adorable!  After an extremely long and hard labor, they are all well, happy and healthy.  Here is a peak at what the cutie pie looks like.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADEN!!  We love you!

 

Aden Tyler Kowallis

September 23rd, 2008

5:00 am

5 lbs 14 oz

18 1/2 inches

  

The Happy Family

Our Utah Weekend Trip

We had such a fun filled weekend!!  We hardly got any sleep during our trip but it was all well worth it.  Hyrum's parents took us down to Utah to attend a BYU football game.  It was so much fun and every seat was filled.  BYU is doing so well this season!  We played Wyoming and won 44-0!  Go Cougars!  They gave away free BYU t-shirts which was so nice since Hyrum and I didn't wear any navy blue to match the team.  We definitely had a blast! The coolest thing that happened was probably before the game started.  We saw President Uchtdorf come out of his car on the way in the to stadium.  We watched and said HI to him as he was only a foot away.  We were lucky enough to snap a quick picture right before we said hi!  It was so fun to think that even apostles and prophets come to watch football!

 

After the game, we went to Hyrum's uncle's house for dinner.  Then I got to spend some time with my bestest friends in the world, Bonnie and Karianne!!  We've known each other since middle school and high school.  I am so blessed to have such wonderful and best friends for this long!  It was just like old times.  Laughing for no reason at all, sharing stories, secrets and memories and enjoying spending the little time we had together.  Hyrum stayed at his uncle's house with Kyla and put her to bed there so I could enjoy some girl time.  It was very much appreciated and I'm so blessed again with a loving, understanding husband who would go let me have fun!

 

*As you can tell I got some sun at the game earlier that day which is why I look horrific!*

In fact, Kyla was so tired from the day, she fell asleep in Grandma's arms while everyone was watching a movie.  Grandma was proud and happy! :)

We stayed the night at Hyrum's uncle's place and then went to church with their family.  They had a missionary coming home and a missionary leaving so they both got to speak on the same day.  It was really fun.  They both are and will be good missionaries!  We left after lunch on Sunday to come here.  Here are a couple other cute pictures we took while playing outside during the Sunday lunch!

 

Grandpa and Kyla

Swinging

Matching

Daddy-Daughter Cuteness

Our Family

Flower Focus 

Thanks to EVERYONE who made this weekend so awesome! 

Sewing Projects and a New Look

I got a sewing machine from my in laws this last Christmas and I was so excited about it!  I just started using it for the first time this last month.  Sewing is so much fun for me for some reason.  Granted, I'm not very good at it, and need help most of the time, it's still fun to create something new from random blocks of material.  My sister-in-law Heidi had her baby shower last weekend and I made her baby boy, Aden a cute blanket.  If I didn't have her in mind while making it, I totally would have kept it.  I love it!  See for yourself.

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THE WHOLE THING













I also got my haircut yesterday and here's the result!  I love how it turned out.

 

And here's one of Kyla.  She loves coloring pictures and this one is so perfect of how she really does it.  She gets so into it sometimes!

                                                                                  

Rememberance

I know how much this day of September 11th changed history, changed America and changed people's hearts.  Only a brief 7 years ago the news of a terrorist attack flooded the nation and the world.  Sorrow and sadness filled everyone's minds and I bet there were more prayers given out that day by everyone around the whole world than on any other day.    Here's a video I put together a couple years ago for one of my classes to remember such a significant event.  I will always remember the tender feelings I had the morning of Sept. 11th, 2001 and how much I knew of Heavenly Father's love for each and all of His Children at that specific moment in time.  How grateful I am to be an American!!

What?! A Free Giveaway?!

I don't know about you, but I love free giveaways.  Although I never win, it's still just as fun to try.  My husband's cousin Leslie is in the Tupperware business and to celebrate her almost 100th post, she's giving away some really cute stuff.  CLICK HERE to check it out and see if you could win!!

Oh and do you like my new layout?  Thanks to my friend Carly C. for showing me this website.  It's amazing and has a ton of cute backgrounds.  Check it out HERE.

Hope one of you wins that prize!!

Most Talented Singers in my Opinion

Being a Music Major I have been around many very talented people.  Here are some of my top favorite "famous" singers that get my vote for being the most talented.  Although there are MANY talented singers that I've met personally that might even be more talented than the ones I have "voted" for, this is just for fun and people that everyone knows. :)  Someday I hope I can be a better singer and be just as talented and amazing as all these people.  I have a long ways to go though but at least it's a good goal right?  Who gets your vote?

#1--Josh Groban

Do I even need to say anything about him?  He sings in languages he doesn't even know and then wants to study and learn them all.  Here's a quote by the talent himself:  "After using four different languages on an album, it's tough to decide which one I'm gonna actually learn to speak. I always study the lyric, make sure I know what I'm singing, and try to get the pronunciation as perfect as possible."  HERE is a video of his song "You Raise Me Up".  

#2--Celine Dion

 I've always been a huge fan of Celine.  Not only is she beautiful but she has such passion and such a full and vibrant voice.  I'd love to take lessons from her. HERE is a video of one of her songs.

#3--Whitney Houston

 Big fan of Whitney.  I know she's probably considered old school now, but I still think she has amazing talent. Whatever happened to her anyway?  HERE is a live video.

#4--Bianca Ryan

This girl is impressive.  I first saw her on a TV Show called "America's Got Talent" when she was 11.  All I had to say then was, WOW.  She sounded so mature singing wise.  If I didn't know she was 11, I seriously would have thought her to be 30!  She wasn't perfect but definitely room for improvement. Now she's 14 years old and has just gotten even better since then!  I own one of her CDs and she just impresses me with every song.  So inspirational and so talented!  Here's a clip of her singing on "American's Got Talent".

#5--Mariah Carey

I've liked some of her songs, but never was a huge fan of hers.  Don't get me wrong though because she has talent!  I put her in the #5 spot because even though I don't necessarily like everything about her, she has a vocal range like no other. She can sing almost 6 octaves (I'm not even kidding.  I looked it up to make sure.) and anyone who can sing that many deserves to be one of the most talented singers out there.  Even though this doesn't show her range, here's a live video of her in 1993.

#6--Charlotte Church

I don't know if many of you know who Charlotte Church is.  My mom actually owned a tape of her I think and she was known for her classical singing at age 11.  Another young artist.  She is from Wales so is mainly a British Artist.  In 2005 she switched from classical to pop and has been a big hit in the Welsh pop industry.  I haven't heard her a lot, but I just remember listening to her a few times when I was younger and I just remember how beautiful and talented her voice was.  She also has sang a duet called "The Prayer" with Josh Groban on his first CD when she was 16.  HERE is a clip of them singing together.

#7--Alicia Keys

She's never been a favorite of mine style wise (mainly because I'm not a huge R&B or rap fan) but she has an amazing voice, was trained and plays piano extremely well AND writes all her own music.  Plus she plays and sings at the same time at her own concerts.  How can that NOT be talent?!  Here's another video.

#8--Melinda Doolittle

All those American Idol Fans out there should know who I'm talking about.  She's had talent from the beginning!  Again, I'm not a huge R&B fan which is what she ended up doing but her voice reminds me of those black girl attitude styles that I absolutely love! Click Here (this isn't her best performance ever but it's showing you why I like her.)

#9--Hyrum Denney

Okay okay, so he's my husband...so what?!  Even when I barley knew him I thought he was a fantastic singer.  The very first time I heard him sing was in our vocal class and I honestly thought he could have been, if not already, one of those people you hear off of an EFY CD.  I loved it!  Hyrum's singing voice fits my style and what I like.  His composing and arranging skills are just as amazing and he puts so much emotion and feeling into it.  He's a close tie to Kenneth Cope but since Hyrum's my husband and he's written songs especially for me and because I love him dearly, he beats Kenneth by far. :)  I unfortunately don't have any of his good music recordings on this computer so here is him and his group singing for an Oreo Contest.  It'll have to do for now I guess.  CLICK HERE

#10--Kenneth Cope

Lets face it, some of these LDS singers and writers should be a lot more famous then they already are.  They have the Spirit in their songs which I guess should have made Kenneth my #1.  He puts such emotion and feeling into each song it's hard not to have him as a favorite. Here's his Never A Better Hero.

Well there ya have it folks.  Completly random and completely my own opinion.  I was looking for something to do so thought this seemed like a fun idea. Hope you thought it was fun too!  Who gets your vote?!

Random

I don't have any pictures for this post but here's an update on things that have happened in the past few days.

This past Saturday we went 4-wheeling with Hyrum's family.  It was so much fun!  Kyla didn't ride, but had plenty of fun playing outside in the dirt.  Despite the accident that mom had, it was a fairly decent adventure. :)  There were beautiful mountains and trees and a nice river.

Something else that has been going on is Kyla is showing some early signs of potty training!  I don't think it's anything that will happen now but probably pretty soon.  She always lets me know before or after when she has to "do her thing" :)  There's a few other signs that she has that I've read about.  Anyway, I don't know hardly ANYTHING about potty training so any advice??  Am I starting her too early to potty train?  What potty seats are the best ones to get?  Are the portable toilets better or the seats that go onto the adult toilets better for learning how to use them?

The last thing that has been happening is that I've been thinking of taking a continuing education class at BYU-Idaho.  The classes I'm thinking of taking are CPR which would get me CPR certified, Digital Photography which would help with my desire to be a better photographer or Jewelry Making which would be a fun new hobby to pick up.  Which one(s) would you choose?