Toy Story and a Kyla Update

Kyla's new thing is "Woody and Buzz" from Toy Story.  She could watch both movies all day long everyday if we let her.  She absolutely LOVES them.  Her Grandma/pa Denney have a couple Woody and Buzz toys that she plays with all the time.  Everytime we tell her that we're going to go visit Grandma she says, "Woody, Buzz!"  Shows what her priorities are right now eh?  :)  Anyway, if any family members are looking for Christmas or Birthday ideas for this little squirt, you won't fail with anything related to Toy Story!  She's hooked!  I'm not complaining, I love Toy Story myself and it's way better than her Barney phase....that could be phasing out...?  I guess we shall see!

Another recent update on Kyla is potty training.  I mentioned a few posts back that she was showing the signs for potty training.  Well we bought a potty seat and she likes it.  We've set her on there numerous times with nothing except for last week.  She actually went to the bathroom in the potty for the first time so we were all proud of her.  She got a little scared though since that time so we've been giving it a break for awhile.  Now her new thing is she just takes off her pants and diaper every moment she can until we chase her down and put them back on again...that little stinker!

She keeps growing and getting smarter.  She can definitely count to 10 now with very little help, talks in sentences non stop and is becoming quite an artist!  She can draw a circle and a rainbow really well and gets pretty good at drawing hearts and other things we tell her to draw.  She's so creative!  Anyway, that's all on Kyla for now I guess.  Check this out....isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?!

 

*Just so you know, last week she was trying to put her swimsuit on top of her clothes and was getting frustrated so I helped her out.  She was so excited and wore this around the house for quite awhile! (Sorry about the messy house in the background....maybe someday it'll get clean.)*

A Nice Visit

Not only did we enjoy General Conference and our fun tradition (see our last post) this weekend but we also enjoyed having my brother Brian visit for most of the day with us on Friday.  He came up here with some friends Thursday late at night and left Friday evening to go to Utah for Conference.  It was so nice to see him!  Kyla loved him and warmed up to him really fast.  She calls him Uncle By By (meaning Uncle Bri Bri).  She sure showed off for him a lot with her creative dance moves and non stop talking.  She made us laugh the whole day! 

We went up to the temple and we walked around there for a bit and got some pictures.  Then we went to campus and showed him around there for a little while too (he might be coming to BYU-Idaho soon).  Afterwards, we went to lunch at the famous Craigos, a very good pizza place, and met up with one of his old mission companions. We came back to our place and played Wii, made cookies and played a board game before he had to head out.  It was a short visit, but it was fun nonetheless.  Here are some pictures we took of our fun day!  Thanks for stopping by to say Hi Brian! We love you and miss you already! :)

 

  

  

 

Our General Conference Tradition

We LOVE General Conference time ( for more information on what LDS General Conference is CLICK HERE) because that means we get to have fun as a family and be spiritually uplifted.  When Hyrum and I first got married we made up a few traditions that we thought would be fun for our future family.  We thought of a really fun way we could get our children to be excited and enjoy listening to the Lord's prophets and apostles.  Here's what we do:


Friday night we have a fun dinner together, rent a movie and set up a tent in our living room (or wherever we can that's inside).  We watch a movie together in the tent and then read this scripture which goes along with why we set up the tent.  We have the door of the tent facing the TV which would be the temple and then also because the prophet will speak to us through the TV when conference is on.  Here is a picture of us in our tent!

Saturday we watch conference together as a family.  We have lots of treats and snacks.  Before conference starts, we give each of the kids a little gift (something from DI or the $ store) that they can play with during or after conference (depending on the age).  This represents a wonderful gift that Christ gives us to be able to listen to conference and hear His words.  Saturday night we sleep in the tent again and wake up watching conference in the living room. 


Sunday we spend time together watching conference, playing conference BINGO, coloring pictures and doing activities of the prophet and other conference things, etc. 


Monday for Family Night we talk about what we learned about conference and have a family testimony meeting.

There ya have it.  Our General Conference SPACTACULAR Event!  :)  Feel free to use any of the ideas we have to help your family enjoy this special time.  I'm sure we will be thinking of more ideas as time goes on to add to this event.

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.

               BACK                                    FRONT

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!!