Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Family Vacation

After a highly stressful semester and not placing a foot out of Rexburg or Idaho Falls for months, we decided to take a very much needed family vacation this last weekend!

We went to Salt Lake City, Utah!  I know it's not that exciting for some, but we didn't want to travel too far and we still wanted a place that had some fun stuff to do so Salt Lake was the perfect destination for us!

We left Friday morning and our first stop was the Gateway Mall in downtown SLC.  We walked around, looked in a bunch of stores, had lunch and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and water fountains.  Afterwards, we headed to our hotel and went swimming for quite awhile.  This was Kyla's favorite part of the vacation I think!  She is definitely not afraid of water and loved jumping in and floating all by herself in her swimming ring. 


 
  
After we were done swimming, we walked back to our room.  She looks so cute wrapped up in the little towel!
 We then went to Denny's for dinner and went back to the hotel to watch a few movies before we all passed out. 
 
Sitting at Denny's Restaurant

That night was a little rough for all of us seeing as Kyla was up coughing for a few hours and couldn't go back to sleep and the beds weren't as comfortable as we hoped for a pregnant woman. :)  The hotel was awesome though and we'll definitely stay there again.
 
At our hotel room

Even though we were still tired the next day, we went swimming again in the morning after breakfast, got ready and left to go to the Discovery Gateway Childrens Museum.  It was so awesome and Kyla loved every bit of it!  We took probably a hundred pictures of her at the museum exploring everything!  Here are a few of her favorite activities:
 
They had a cute little miniature shopping center (perfect size for kids) where they could put all kinds of pretend food in their baskets and then use the cash register to check out.  Kyla had so much fun!

 
She also enjoyed making sandwiches at the shopping center too. :)

  
They had a fun little play house with a small sized kitchen and living room.  Kyla enjoyed setting up the table and pretending to eat her snacks.  They even had a pretend fridge door you could open with food inside, as well as a stove and cupboards!  It was awesome!

 She also enjoyed playing dress up with a bunch of costumes they had around the museum.  Here she is dressed up as a cow.  She also dressed up as a fish, a yellow bird, a cowgirl, and a construction worker!

The museum also had a "ball" area where the kids could put balls into different holes, air suctions, and other things.  She had so much fun and honestly probably could have spent most of her time in here!  If you've never been to this place, I highly recommend taking your children here!  It's awesome!


Besides what you see in the pictures, there was also a water play place where kids could put balls in the water, or their hands or whatever, a farm area where they had pretend chickens they could put away in their coops and a lifesize horse they could pretend to play on.  They had a small climbing wall, building activities, drawing centers, magnet building, puzzles, etc.  Kyla probably played with everything there at least once!

We then left for a lunch break and was planning on going to the Aquarium in Sandy, UT but we were all so tired that we decided to opt out on that and took Kyla back to the Museum to enjoy it a bit longer instead.  We were kind of sad that we missed the Aquarium but we'll have plenty of opportunities to go again. Besides, it saved us money and some travel time so it was worth it!

After we spent another hour or 2 at the museum we saw a bunny at the Build A Bear Workshop as we were heading out.  Kyla called it the Easter Bunny and she was so excited to take a picture with her.  She gave her hugs and a high five!
As we were heading back to where our car was parked, we walked to Temple Square and showed Kyla the temple and the "BIG Jesus" statue (as Kyla called it). 

She loved looking up at it and loved looking at the planets and stars that surrounded him too.  We then walked back to our car and headed home.  Kyla ended up falling asleep in the car within about 10 minutes and slept most of the way. 
 
(Watching a movie on our portable DVD player in the car after she woke up)

We all went to bed early that night and even got to sleep in a little!  Kyla is still making up for lost sleep time.  Oh well....she was perfect through our vacation and it was so worth all the fun and exhaustion!

Lastly, for all our friends over there in Utah, sorry we didn't have time to visit with you!  We wanted to make this a family only event but we did think of you and really wanted to see all of you.  Honestly, if we made the time to come visit all of our friends who are down there right now, it would have taken us the whole weekend!  Hyrum has mission buddies who he has been wanting to get together with forever and I have some very close, dear and best friends who I would have been soooo very excited to see!  Especially since one just had a baby, it was my best friends birthday, and another one had a baby while we were there!  Anyway, since I know all of you down in Utah read our blog, we hope you'll forgive us for not visiting this time!  We love you lots though and I'm hoping we'll make it down there again soon to visit!

Cheers, for a wonderful much needed trip together as a family...it definitely created some great memories and bonding time!

Monday, April 13, 2009

The Weekend--Easter, Friends and a Baby Shower

What an awesome weekend we have had!  It was busy, filled with lots of events and exhaustion, but it sure was a lot of fun!

 
(don't you love her morning do? :))

On Friday morning, the Easter bunny came to our house!  We woke Kyla up early and she found her Easter Basket.  The Easter Bunny hid some eggs around the house and she went on a little hunt to find them.  She got candy (of course), markers, paints, playdough, and a stuffed bunny in her Easter Basket.  She sure was excited!  Later that day, we went to Walmart and got to see the Easter Bunny!  They took her picture and she was so happy!  She gave him a high five, a hug, and said thank you.  She kept commenting all day about how she got to see the easter bunny and see his ears wiggling.  :)


Later that evening, my best friends Bonnie, Karianne and Jamie from High School came to stay and to attend my baby shower.  It was the first time in about 3 years or more that all 4 of us have actually spent some time together!  It was such a sweet reunion.  Hyrum watched the kids while us girls went out for ice cream and some girl time! Although we ALL regretted staying up until 2:30 am chatting away, it was so worth it...even if we all were exhausted, and the 2 of us that were pregnant felt sick the next day. :)  The kids didn't even get to sleep until almost midnight that night (from all the excitement) and woke up at the crack of dawn the next day so they were just as tired, or more...but not too cranky surprisingly!  It's amazing that just a few short years ago we could stay up all night talking and not be at all tired but it's such a different story now.  Does that consider us....old? 


Saturday morning our ward had an Easter Egg hunt at the park so we all went to that and watched as Kyla and Makella (Bonnie's 2 year old), hunted for easter eggs filled with more candy!  Makella seemed to be more entertained by scooping up the dirt and bark by the playground for a little while until she realized what was happening. :) 

 
*Cute hugs from the best buds!*

Afterwards, we went to Hyrum's parents house where they put on an easter egg hunt for the grandkids.  The eggs were filled with candy and money!  Kyla ended up collecting over $7.00!  WOW! 
While at Grandmas house, Kyla also got a little Easter gift.  A cute skirt that she made and a pretty white shirt!  She's wearing them in the photos above.  She looks so adorable in the outfit.  After all the eggs were found the kids played on the swing set in the backyard.  Kyla was doing really good sitting on a "Big Kid" swing for the first time!  Go Kyla!
We then went out to lunch and then was off to the baby shower!
Kyrstina, Chris and Heidi, my wonderful sister in laws, were all so kind to throw me a nice little baby shower for Tayven!  A few friends and family came and they were all so generous and kind!  I was overwhelmed, humbled and am so grateful for their generosity.  I feel so blessed to have amazing family and friends in my life.  Tayven sure is going to be a cute little boy in all of the adorable things he got.  Thanks to everyone who came and made it special for me!  It will be a memory I'll never be able to forget! 
 
*Everyone who was at the shower minus Brenda (mom in law) who was taking the picture*

 
*All of the things that we got at the shower*
A little while after the shower was over, my good friends left for home.  Kyla took a little nap and then we headed back over to mom and dads house for an Easter Dinner.  It was delicious!  Hyrum, Kyla and I ended up going to bed really early that night and we all even got to sleep in!  It was great.
Sunday afternoon we attended our church meetings and Kyla was excited to pay her first Tithing to the Bishop of our ward.  Since she got $7.00 for Easter, she put her .70 in an envelope and handed it to the bishop right after sacrament meeting.  The look on her face was priceless and you could tell that she was so happy about it!  After church we then went up to Grandma Sharlene's house for yet another delicious dinner!
Well that was our weekend!  Like I said, it was filled with lots of fun.  We are having a busy week this week too since we are cleaning the house, reorganizing bedrooms, getting baby stuff like car seat and bouncer out of storage and more.  I'll keep ya posted!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope we can all remember the true meaning of Easter this year.  I know that Christ died for everyone one of us.  He paid the price and atoned for our sins.  He did this because he has a love for us that we can't ever fully comprehened in this mortal life.  He did it because he wants us to live with him and our Father in Heaven again.  He has made everything possible.  He rose from the grave, conquered death, left the tomb and lives again.  I know that he lives! I love my Savior with all my heart and am so grateful for all that he has done for me. He understands each one of our lives more than we may even understand ourselves; thus, he will always be there for us.  How grateful I am for this wonderful knowledge and testimony in my life.  Have a great Easter Sunday and enjoy this amazing video from our apostle Elder Holland.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Amazing!

So if you couldn't tell with some of my posts, I tend to talk about my cute and awesome daughter occasionally (as I'm sure any mother would) being so happy of her achievements and accomplishments.  Well this post is yet another one of those posts of how amazing Kyla is at art.  Take a look for yourself


She colored this picture all on her own.  I told her what to color and she stayed in the lines amazingly well for a 2 year old!  Impressive?  I think so!  I am so blessed to have such a talented and sweet loving little girl!  I wouldn't want her any other way!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Great Weekend


This weekend has been lots of fun!  General Conference is always such a fun time for our family!  We have started many fun traditions in the last couple years to keep conference fun and alive in our home.  I posted a  blog in October about some of our traditions we do.  Click HERE if you would like to read them.

All the talks were so amazing and I always finish listening to conference more willing to try harder and be better, having a more positive attitude and feeling joyful and happy.  I am so grateful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and knowing that we have a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson here on the earth to guide and direct our lives in the way that Heavenly Father wants.  We truly thank our God for the Prophet!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

TWINS?!

So I went in for a routine pregnancy exam this morning and they ended up doing another ultrasound.  I about passed out when the ultrasound tech said, "Uhhhhh....this is weird."  I was almost in tears as I gulped out, "What?  Is everything okay?"  She said, "Yeah it's fine.  I've just never missed seeing twins before!"  "What?" I said.  "Yeah, I guess you're having twins!!"  They brought the doctor in and they were both so embarrassed that they missed it!  Hyrum and I were in complete shock!!!  Especially because I don't even look like I'm pregnant with twins at all!!!  We are sooo excited but really nervous about what to expect. The one on the left is the one they discovered and he's another boy!  The one on the right is Tayven.  We're going to need a lot of help.  Any advice?!



















Oh and by the way........


APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Hope you've had as much fun as I have!  I knew no one would believe me, but it sure was fun and has totally made my day to see everyone's responses to the news.  Thank heavens it's not true this time (although I definitely would love to have twins one day)!  Have a very happy April Fools Day! :)

Monday, March 30, 2009

Belly Comparison


So here's how different I am carrying this little boy.  On the left, I was pregnant with Kyla and the right is the current one.  I am a little farther out but lower it seems this time around. These pics are both taken at around 33 weeks.  What do you think...can anyone but me see the difference?  What differences do you see?