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Due March 13th

2011-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Kylers 4th Birthday

2011-09-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

Kylers Birthday was so fun this year. He was excited for months, and since he had been to a few birthday partys, he was even more excited for his party. Every night when we put Kyler to bed, before we leave his room he says, "Mom I have a question" then he goes on to say " I want a blue house a blue room, and blue dog and a blue mommy and daddy" Every night the items change but every night it's the same blue theme. So we decided to have a blue birthday party. We all wore blue, had our guest where blue, and we even sprayed our hair blue. Unfortunatly our camera is broken so these pics are terrible, and we didnt' get one of the blue family, but here is what we did get.

Blue table

We made party hats which turned out to be really fun.

Kids modeling their hats.

Then we had them fish in the blue pond. The kids threw a fishing pole with a bucket on the end over the blanket and Brian filled it with goodies. We also did a cool blue shark pinata, but didn't get a picture of us before the kids tore it apart. Good times.

Blowing out the candles of his blue cake with blue frosting and blue writing.

Happy Birthday Kyler man. We LOVE YOU!

To sum it all up...

2011-05-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

November 2010- Loved this house, so we bought it.

December 2010 - Found some leaks in the roof so we patched them, then celebrated Christmas.

January 2011 - Kitchen was moldy so we remodeled it.

Moldy Kitchen

Kitchen with no mold
New Kitchen

February- The hard drive on our computer died, so I'm using all these pics from facebook :)

March 2011 - Found another leak in the roof so we put a tarp over it, and started praying for hail. Also my parents visited (separately of course)

April 2011- Atlanta Temple Open house. While cleaning temple it hailed.

May 2011 - Air conditioner went out so we replaced it. Not so sure I love this house. Fighting with insurance company to pay for a new roof

June-WE RUN AWAY TO ARIZONA FOR A WEEK IN A VACATION HOME WITH A POOL!!!

Yup, that sums it up!

Happy Birthday Quinners!!

2010-12-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my little bundle of joy is one year old today! I'm constantly thinking how darn stink'n cute he is. Quinn is just so....awesome! He's just so happy and sweet. He's quick to smile, loves to give cuddles and kisses, and is just such a good boy! He took his first steps on Christmas day, and then promptly fell and smacked his head :( He's started saying just a few words, "ice" and "that". He loves the "if your happy and you know it" song and knows right when to clap. We love our little Quinners SO much, and are so grateful he's part of our clan. Love you Quinn!!

We started today with the birthday streamers and balloons. He loved it. We also went outside and rode "bikes" together, then finished it off with pizza and birthday cake. It was a great day.

A Night We Won't Forget

2010-11-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

It was a "normal" night like any other. The only difference was Brian and his brother Phillip were going to pick up a washer and dryer that I had arranged to buy from someone on craigs list. They left in Phillips truck about 7:30. I put the boys to bed and watched TV waiting for them to return. Well, it turns out the man I spoke with didn't tell his wife that they were coming, so when they got there she was currently doing some wash. So Brian and Phillip went to the nearest cold stone to wait it out. By 10:00 they still weren't home. I'd been up since 5, and decided to head to bed.

One of my most irrational fears is taking a shower when I'm home alone. I'm not sure where this fear comes from. I've never seen the movie psycho, but I'm very familiar with the shower seen. Anyway, I thought twice about jumping in the shower before heading to bed, but decided to deal with the fear and get in. A few minutes later I hear this weird noise that sounds like taping. It happens a few times and I think, hum...maybe Kyler has gotten out of bed, so I continue to shower knowing he'll find his way into the bathroom. I hear more noise and more taping, but no Kyler and I start to freak out. I think to myself, stay calm, I'm sure everything is ok. But nothing is making sense, Kyler would have just come in, Brian would have at least been calling my name, so who is taping!! Then I start hearing loud banging and commotion down stairs, and I know it's not Brian because I would hear his voice and that's when I start realizing someone is breaking into the house. I hear the taping again and turn off the water to try and figure out what it is, but it immediately stops. I'm so terrified I don't know what to do. Someone is in the house. I lock myself in the bathroom and pray harder then I've prayed in a long time that Brian will come home NOW before something terrible happens. I'm paralyzed with fear, hunkered down in the bathroom when I hear Brians voice screaming my name running up the stairs and I knew I was right. He must have come home, realized someone had broken in and was frantic to make sure I was ok. I open the bathroom door, grab a hold of him and we both break down in tears.

Then he grabs me and says, "I've been looking for you for 45 min! I called the police, I couldn't get in, I thought you were hurt or worse!" That's when I realise that everything I'd been hearing was Brian trying to get in the house. Because he had gone with Phillip in his truck, he hadn't taken his keys, and couldn't get in when they got back. Brian must have gotten home shortly after I had gone upstairs. He called, knocked, and rang the door bell, but I didn't answer. So they figured I was in the bathroom and waited. After 5 minutes they called, knocked and rang again...nothing. 10 min....nothing. Then they started to get worried. Phillip opened the mail slot in the door and started calling my name...nothing. He could see the baby monitor through the mail slot and could see by the lights that his voice was reaching upstairs, so why wasn't I answering. Brian jumped the back fence and started taping on the windows...nothing. So they decided if they could wake up Kyler maybe they could figure out what was going on, but no matter what they did, no one inside was responding. Brian feared the worse. He called 911 and the fire department was on its way. The operator told him the fire department would probably have to break down the door, so Brian decided he couldn't wait and was going to break a window if he had too. He grabbed a hold of the storm window and yanked so hard he pulled the screws right out of the frame. Then luckily, the actual window wasn't latched and he was able to open it and dive through. He ran upstairs calling my name and found me scared to death in the bathroom.

That whole night we had a hard time shaking the feeling that we had almost lost each other. I'm so thankful that nothing really happened and that we were both safe. In the mean time we are enjoying feeling a renewed sense of gratitude and love for each other. I'm also grateful that we can laugh about it now, and that what was a terrible night has only brought us closer.

Halloween and Fall Pics

2010-11-02T10:02:00.001-07:00

I took the boys across the street over by some of the beautiful fall trees and took some pictures. I was pretty happy with the way they turned out considering I was by myself. This was the only shot I got of the two of them, a bit blurry which was disappointing, but still cute.

This was the Saturday before Halloween. We went to Boo at the Zoo. It was fun to see all the little kids dressed up. This is Kyler and I sharing my first carmeled apple.

Pictures from our ward Party. We had fun running the doughnut eating contest booth. The boys had fun getting their faces painted, throwing bean bags, and decorating cards.

Kyler eating his "doughnut on a string"

I didn't realise till later that Quinn was eating the little peices that fell to the floor. ^~^

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-26T16:03:00.001-07:00

Random

2010-10-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Just a bunch of random pics.

This was how we found Quinn one night when we went to check on him. He must have been sitting up and just fallen asleep, silly boy.

Our favorite playground. Kyler loves this "spider web". He even pretends to catch flys and eat them. He has such a fun imagination.

Quinn loves the swings, which is nice, because Kyler never has.

The Cumming county fair. We had fried oreos, snickers, and a turkey leg. It was great! (the snickers was the best)

Gotta love the zoo. I don't know if I'll renew my pass since the house we are trying to buy is about 45 min from the zoo, but we've loved it while we've had it.

My cute boys. They still love to cuddle on the couch together in the mornings.

Air show at Dobbins air force base. We had a great time. The boys were troopers as this one was a lot LOUDER then the other. But, we got to see the Blue Angels which was pretty cool.

Quinn plugging his ears while I gave him his bottle. I thought it was hilarious.

Highlights from Utah

2010-09-30T06:18:00.001-07:00

Our trip to Utah was so great. We had so much fun being with family and friends. I tried to pick just a few of the pics that we took. So here are the highlights.

The airport and airplane, the boys did relatively well. It was midnight our time when we finally got there.

Being at my Dads included chill'n and wrestling with the "unkeys" Unkey Dave and Jeff that is.

Mini Golf with my Dad

West Jordan Park with the G&G Smith, Scott, Becky, Kennidee and Braxtyn

Quinn enjoying all kinds of table food

G. Smith, Brian and Scott refinished this excavator. Kyler loved it.

Scott and Becky brought this bounce house, Kyler was in love.

Quinns first real hair cut.....before

and after...

Aquarium with G. Smith

Thanksgiving point children's Garden with G.Larsen, Richard, Jessica, and Madison

Silver Lake with my side of the fam

Kylers Birthday cakes. First my Dads...

My Moms....

And G&G Smiths, by the third one he actually blew out the candles (he was just SO tired all the time while we were there)...that's him after he's blown out the candles.. if you can't tell :)

Just chill'n with G&G Smith in the back yard

Sushi with my siblings. I did much better once I started cutting the rolls in half, I was having a really hard time putting that much food in my mouth at once.

Getting to see Rachel and Cole, and Andy and Jenny whom I didn't get pictures of :( and even a girls night out with Aly and Tricia...no pic again :(

Brian surprised me with a girls shopping day out. It was a blast. I got some really cute things I never would have bought with out my cute sisters there to help me out.

ARGGGG!!! It drives me crazy that I can't insert a pic where I want one on blogger, and that I can't just drag a pic all the way down. I just accidentally deleted a cute pic of my mom and Quinn at Tracey Aviary, but getting it back to this point would be torture...sorry mom, I'll have to send it to you.....that said..

Tracey Aviary with my Mom

The boys in the airport on the way home

You made it to the end! Congrats! Thanks to all who made the time and effort to come see us and to host us. We LOVE YOU!!!

Cousins

2010-08-25T10:34:00.001-07:00

Kyler LOVES his cousins. Every night when I'm putting him to bed he'll ask me to hold him. So I scoop him up in my arms and as he closes his eyes he says. "I miss my cousins mom" He just can't get enough of them. He idolized Ethan, he want's to be where ever Ethan is and do what ever Ethan's doing. And he and Savannah??? We'll I still think they were twins born to two different mothers :) Anyway, we had some fun times with our cousins this summer. The zoo, and babysitting. Here are some pics of the memories.

Braves Game

2010-07-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to go to an Atlanta Braves BB game for a LONG time. Ok, for about a year :) So while my mom was here Brian surprised me with tickets! We had a great night out. It was nice to do something besides dinner which is usually all we have time for. The game was perfect, entertaining, but we also had plenty of time to just talk and laugh. It really was perfect. I love you my hubby. Thanks for the great surprise.

Us at Turners Field.

Our seats were closer then I thought, this was the sign at the top of our section, so we were 10 rows or so lower than this

View from our seats.

4th of July Fun!

2010-07-05T10:49:00.001-07:00

This 4th of July we were determined to see a good fireworks show. While living in Utah we always spent the 4th with Brian's Aunt and Uncle and did our own firework show which was ALWAYS a blast and we missed it terribly, but we were ready to see some REAL fireworks. Last year we actually did everything we could to see the fireworks at South Jordan town days but after sitting in the back of the truck for a few hours we realized they had canceled them :) Anyway, I guess people from GA don't go to Stone Mountain on the 4th because of the insane crowds. So we had many people tell us NOT to go. But we ignored them and went anyway and had a GREAT time!

Of course no trip to Stone Mountain is complete without a ride on the train. Kyler didn't like it this time for some strange reason, hence the classic "stugs" looks.

We played mini golf this time and Kyler acted like he had waited his whole life to get that putter in his hand. HE LOVED IT! From start to finish he never got tired of it, which made it all the more fun for us.

We have been trying for some time to find Quinn a "doggie". Kyler has loved his dog and best friend Hobbes, so the search was on for one for Quinn. We found a match made in heaven, this is Quinn and his new bulldog George. We thought the bulldog was appropriate since Quinn was born in GA.

We were worried about the crowds when we got there because we had to park literally a mile walk away from the entrance to the park. But when we got to the lawn it wasn't crowded at all. We found a nice shady spot, ate our dinner, left our blanket there and proceeded to enjoy all that Stone Mountain has to offer. When we got back to our blanket though, this is what we found. People PACKED shoulder to shoulder as far as the eye could see, it was crazy. Thankfully our blanket did it's job and we had a perfect spot to watch the laser show and fireworks.

2010-06-24T06:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary My Love!

2010-06-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

From the moment I saw you,
I wanted to meet you.
From the moment I met you,
I wanted to know you.
From the moment I knew you,
I was in love with you.
From the moment I loved you,
I wanted to share my life with you...
And from that moment to this moment,
And for all the moments to come,
I will love you with all my heart.

Potty Training

2010-06-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

What is the definition of being potty trained? I have learned that many people have different definitions for this term. And the book that says "potty train your child in one day" DEFINITELY has a different definition of potty trained then I do :)

If my child is potty trained they: Very rarely have accidents; know how to tell you when they need to go; and can go on outings without having to take an extra pair of under ware and pants :) This can not be taught in a day...in my opinion :)

Having that said I did learn a lot of fun things from the "potty train your child in a day" book. Kyler had a lot of fun teaching "baby" how to use the potty. And I think it did a good job of teaching him the basic concept.

We had a "beach" themed potty party and had a really fun day. We drew on the "board walk"(wrapping paper taped to the floor that made a path to the bathroom), fished for ping pong balls in the pool. Ran in and out of the streamers hanging from the bathroom door. Watched lots of potty videos and read lots of potty books. We also had a treasure hunt and made waves in a two liter bottle.

Fun things we did to make sitting on the potty lots of fun were: Silly string, stickers, tattoos, lotioned each others feet, face painted (with my eye liner), looked in a mirror, and took pictures.

It's taken Kyler about 2 weeks to be accident free. He didn't ever make it through the night so at the end of two weeks, when he was accident free during the day and at nap time, we decided to put him in pull ups. So far, it's been just fine. (and it decreased the amount of laundry I was doing by leaps and bounds) I can't say that having him potty trained is nicer then having him in diapers, but, I think the hardest part is over now, and hopefully it will just get easier. Here are some of the pictures we took in the process!

We played lots of peek a boo. I love this picture because it shows how he intertwines his fingers when he covers his face. LOVE IT!

Kyler took this pic of Baby going potty too.

Kylers self portrait

Kyler as a Kitty. The face painting and then looking in the mirror was his most favorite activity. Fun times!

Peachtree-Dekalb Airshow

2010-06-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time at this local airshow a few weeks ago. It was BLASTED hot, and after about 2 hours I was starting to worry about Quinn, plus I was miserable, but then we found a nice shady spot with a breeze by a hanger and enjoyed the rest of the show. The view wasn't nearly as good as right by the runway...but hey, it was a good compromise.

Kyler loved exploring the helicopters and firetrucks
This was our favorite group: Team RV, it was crazy cool seeing 12 planes fly so close together.This group was fun because they were so loudSelf taken family pic...ya gotta love em :)We had a great time, and hope to attend more in the future.

Memorial Day

2010-06-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

We spent a wonderful Memorial day weekend at Mistletoe State Park and didn't take a single picture! Isn't that terrible! I think it's a sign that camping with a two year old and a baby keeps us very very busy.
We had a great trip, we went with Phillip and Jamie's family, and a family from their ward, the Hills. Both of which own Kayaks. So between the three families we had 4 kayaks and 1 canoe, and boy did we have fun. Our biggest adventure was when Brian was in the canoe with Kyler and two of his cousins. They saw some swells coming so Brian was trying to turn the canoe into them, but with only novice paddlers to help they didn't make it in time and over they went! I was back at camp, but could hear Kyler crying from there. I figured he was just being cranky until they showed up completely soaked. Brian saw it coming so was able to grab Kyler and push him to the top once they were under water, Morgan (6) did good about getting herself to the top, but Savannah (3) was no where in sight. When Phillip (her father) didn't see her come up, he bailed his Kayak and started swimming to try and help. Thankfully all it took was lifting up the canoe to see cute little Savannah holding on for dear life to one of the benches.
Even though everyone was ok, neither Kyler nor Savannah wanted anything to do with the kayaks or the canoe for the rest of the trip.
All and all we had a great time playing in the water, hiding from the rain (yes, it always rains in GA when we go camping) and enjoying fun company.

Well..at least I don't have to clean between his toes

2010-06-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

He's SO TWO!!!

2010-05-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Quinn Starts Solids!

2010-05-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe he's already starting solids!! He's so cute!

Mothers Day

2010-05-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

I had SUCH a wonderful Mothers Day. It was SO nice to be able to just enjoy our day. Don't get me wrong, I totally missed being able to spoil my mom. But it was nice to have my own mothers day too. Brian was amazing and spoiled me rotten. The morning started with Strawberry cream cheese crepes and the cutest card ever! Then we headed to church. Then we came home and relaxed in the hammock. Brians gift was a new hammock stand that he made and installed in the back yard. It's so nice to have a place to just kick back away from the clutter of the house. Then came dinner. Brian made steak and shrimp, with a wonderful little side dish he made up out of shrimp, coconut, cashews and kiwi...it was SOOO YUMMY. I felt totally spoiled and loved. Thank you my boys!

Quinn is 4 months!

2010-04-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Man time flies.I remember my neighbor telling me that 4 months was her favorite age. Kyler was 4 months at the time and I thought she was absolutely crazy. But I've come to realize that breastfeeding tainted my perspective of everything with Kyler, because Quinn is now 4 months and he is SO MUCH FUN! He smiles all the time, and is rolling over both ways. He even is scooting. He lays on his back, arches, then pushes with his legs. He can get pretty far, it's crazy! He is 14lbs 3 oz, (45 %) and 27 inches (75th %). We got a box from Grandma and Grandpa Hunt. Quinn got a new outfit and Kyler got a new book. I couldn't get Kyler to look at the camera. He was trying to figure out how to get the lady bugs off the page.

Quinn rolled over for the first time. I totally missed it, I was in the other room with Kyler and when I got back he was on his tummy! Then just a few days ago he was playing with a toy and rolled from his tummy to his back.

Kyler and Quinn still love to hang out together. For the most part Kyler is pretty good with him. I've come to realise that Kyler likes to bully kids that are younger then him...or smaller at least , so he loves to roar in Quinns face and I mean ROAR!!! It's not my favorite thing, but we're working on it.

Mistletoe State Park

2010-04-17T10:15:00.001-07:00

Well, any of you who keep up with facebook know that when my family came out to visit last week we were planning on camping at the beach. We'd been planning it for months, I reserved the campsite before Quinn was even born! So as the day approached we did all we needed to to get ready, we borrowed tents and sleeping bags, bought all the food, arranged for a second car. Finally the day arrived, I was packing food when I thought, I should call and confirm our reservation just in case. So I called and the terrible happened. Our reservation had been made for the NEXT week. And of course being spring break, nothing was available on the beach in either Georgia, South Carolina, or Florida. So we asked for ANYTHING by water and they found one site...yup, the last one. Mistletoe State Park had one opening, so that's where we headed. It was only two 1/2 hours east of us, so that was nice. We were planning four to the beach. All in all (meaning after I stopped crying and got over it) we had a beautiful site, and had a good time.
What was most important was getting to spend time together.

We got Kyler a head lamp and he loved it of course. Headlamps are the BEST when your camping. This was the area of the lake reserved for swimming, it was really nice. The sand was even nice, so we had a great time swimming and building sand castles. Kyler even got in and swam even though the waster was cold. He was so brave!

My favorite though was watching the sun rise over the lake with all three of my boys. Brian would get up with Kyler in the morning, so this was the only day I caught the sunrise, but man was it beautiful.

This is the view from our hammock at our campsite. The hammock sure was popular, I think we all were fighting for time in it. I know I didn't get enough time in it, but I'm sure there will be other trips.

We did get one big storm. It POURED, and the wind was blowing which gave us horizontal down pour. Needless to say Kyler and I ended up hunkered down in the tent (Quinn was already asleep) until it passed. It was actually one of my favorite moments, laying next to Kyler, talking about the rain and thunder as he slowly fell asleep in my arms. He hasn't fallen asleep in my arms since he was tiny. It was fun. The next day was a bit cold so we all sat in our tent and played games...we even somehow managed to entertain Kyler too. It was a good trip all in all....maybe we'll do the beach next year.

Easter

2010-04-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter. We colored eggs Friday night, and Kyler was in heaven! What?!? I get to hold an egg with out help, and dunk it in this colored stuff all by myself! Are you serious! Of course almost all of them ended up cracked, but they actually turn out kind of cool that way.

Kyler has started to avoid the camera. Or maybe it's that he does the opposite of whatever I ask him to do, so when I say "Kyler look at the camera" this is what I get.

The Easter bunny came to our house Saturday morning and Kyler has been telling me that every day since. Bunny...came...my...HOUSE! he yells, with pauses in between and everything. Its pretty cute.

Quinn's Easter photo op, and 3 month pictures. He's so dang cute!

I yelled "Hey Kyler" to get this one, hence no smile :)

Stone Mountain..again

2010-03-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

While Ryan and Julia were here we went to Stone Mountain again. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I hope we have weather like that when my family comes out in a week and we go to the beach. Kyler actually participated this time, it was SO fun to watch him climb and explore. Brian of course loved it too. Ryan and Julia had a great time on the ropes course, then we enjoyed lunch together at Miss Katie's....mmm...fried pickles my FAVORITE!! We also enjoyed the 4 D movie (Kyler only survived it), the ball barn and the tram ride. Great times....can't wait till we go back again.

Favorite low fat side dish

2010-03-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Seasoned Potatoes

Approx one potato per person
Seasoned Salt
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line large cookie sheet with foil. Peel (or don't peel) potatoes and chop into small pieces. Spray cookie sheet very heavily with cooking spay. Spread potatoes evenly onto cookie sheet. Spay potatoes with cooking spray and then sprinkle with Seasoned salt. Cook in oven for approx 30 min, depending on how big your potato pieces are. Stir and sprinkle with season salt half way through cooking. They are done when you can pierce them easily with a fork. Yummy!

Lemon Cashew Chicken

2010-03-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Lemon Cashew Chicken

3 4 oz chicken Breasts
Lemon Pepper seasoning
Juice and zest of one lemon
6-9 cashews
1/2 Tbs Olive oil

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle chicken on both sides with lemon pepper seasoning. Add chicken to skillet. Cut lemon in half and squeeze juice from both sides over chicken, remove seeds. Grate zest from both sides of lemon onto chicken and into pan. Cook about 20 minutes turning chicken occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink. Chop cashews finely, add to top of chicken and serve!

So.....tired...

2010-03-20T05:17:00.001-07:00

So, the bliss of Kyler making the transition to his toddler bed only lasted one week. THIS week has been the longest week of my life. Kyler has stopped taking naps and has been waking up several times at night, and it takes FOREVER to get him to go back to sleep. We started doing the silent return to sleep method suggested in "Healthy sleep habits happy child" and nights are starting to get a bit better, but naps are still a nightmare. I end up spending two whole hours walking him back to his bed! The book says that 90 % of kids are still taking naps at his age, I just wondered what everyone thought. I added a poll in the right column to see if I just need to work harder, or is it really more common for kids this age to be napless. Also, any suggestions would be welcome! :)

Quinn

2010-03-16T05:56:00.000-07:00

Quinn is doing so good. He's now 2 1/2 months old. Crazy huh. He's such a happy baby and smiles all the time. In fact one of my favorite things is putting him back to bed after his nighttime feeding. I swaddle him up and he gives me these huge smiles, I give him a kiss and he goes to sleep ALL ON HIS OWN!!! It's so great. He's not much of a cuddler so he's put himself to sleep from the very beginning. At his two month check he weighed 11 lbs 10 oz and was 23 1/2 inches long. That's the 75th percentile!!! GO QUINN! (Kyler is still under the 10th percentile)

Our favorite nick names for him are Quinnickers, and Kyler's Quinny Quinn. Here are some of my favorite pics of him ranging from 7 weeks to just a few days ago.

New Bed!

2010-03-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

We finally took the initiative to get Kyler into a toddler bed. YEA!!! I've been reluctant to move him out of his crib, just because I'm worried nap time will go away, and we WOULD NOT be surviving without nap time. So far (today's nap time) he has done fine. So lets hope he continues to take naps....here's to hoping.

We got the bed from some friends of Brian's brother. It was in perfect condition, came with the mattress and was a stellar deal. So it's been sitting at Phillips house until we were really ready to make the switch. Kyler LOVES it! He was so sad this morning when Brian explained to him that he couldn't take it down stairs with him, but that it had to stay in his room for sleeping times. :) He went to bed just perfectly last night. He loves the light that really works in the front, and the toy box up front as well. So far this change has gone smoothly....lets hope potty training in a few weeks goes just as smoothly.

The Zoo

2010-03-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

We have a membership to Atlanta's zoo, so when the weather was BEAUTIFUL last Saturday we jumped at the chance to spend it outside as a family! We love the zoo, Kylers favorites are of course the carousel and the train. Quinn did so good, I know this picture is terribly overexposed, but it was the only one we got!

Inspiration

2010-02-24T16:34:00.000-08:00

So I have been inspired by many of my friends by blog and facebook to eat better and work out more. For some reason, when I know that other people are sacrificing to spend the time to exercise or are doing more to eat right it makes it easier for me to do so also. In this quest to eat better I have found it incredibly difficult to find good low fat recipes that I can feed my family. SOO in an effort to inspire others and help make it easier for you to find low fat recipes I'm going to occasionally post the low fat recipes we have tried and liked. Keep in mind these aren't chicken enchiladas, or grilled cheese sandwiches, but they are "make agains" for us in our effort to be healthy. In turn if you use the recipe and like it, and are inspired to try some recipes of your own and like them, I'd love to get some recipes in return. Here goes!

Mango Chutney Chicken

1 ripe mango seeded peeled and sliced

1/4 cup craisins

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

2 Tbs Cider Vinegar

2 Tbs Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp crushed mustard seed

1/8 tsp salt

1 lb Boneless skinless chicken

1 tsp five-spice

In medium saucepan combine half of the mango slices, the craisins, green onions, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard seed, and salt. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer covered for 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from heat.

Meanwhile chop the remaining mango slices, set aside. Rub both sides of the chicken with five-spice powder. Grill Chicken until no longer pink int the middle.

To serve stir the chopped mango into cooked mango mixture, serve on top of chicken.

Nutrition facts per serving:

205 cal

6 g Fat

2 g fiber

17 g protein

We used a fresh mango because I happened to find one at the store but you can also find canned mango these days in the produce section.

Enjoy!!!

1 vs 2

2010-02-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

Well it's been 7 weeks, and we have semi started to get used to our schedule. I say semi because we started bottle feeding yesterday and it has thrown us for a little loop, but in general we've acclimated to normal life, minus sleep :)

I spend a lot of time thinking about the differences between having one and now having two. I love having two for many reasons, and think that the adjustment to two isn't NEARLY as hard as adjusting to your first. Here are the reasons why.

1. Even though my epidural never kicked in, I now know I can have an enjoyable birthing experience. Kylers was horrific, Quinns was painful but quick. Now I won 't be so terrified if there is a third :)

2. Life is busy, which is SO good. With Kyler all I thought about was Kyler...why wasn't he sleeping, why didn't he eat well, am I playing with him enough, is he learning what he needs to. With Quinn I don't have the time to think about most of those things. I still wish I had more time to play with him, but when it comes to eating and sleeping, I do the best I can and don't worry about the rest because I have Kyler to be with too, and that helps take the stress out of things.

3. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. This time around I haven't read any books (except what to expect the first year). And I LOVE it! I was so stressed out that Kyler wasn't doing what the "books" said he should be doing. I enjoy Quinn so much more when I just let him do his thing.

4. Family time. It's been so fun having family time. Having both boys in the tub as Brian and I play with them, then we BOTH get to be apart of bedtime and it feels like family time instead of a chore because we're both tired.

In short, I was scared spitless for Quinn to come. I wasn't sure I was cut out for two kids. But now I'm SO glad we took that leap of faith and prepared for Quinn when we did. It's shown me that babies can be a joy, and that I can follow my heart and things will turn out right. Good luck to all my friends who are expecting baby one, or two, in the next few weeks!!!

What Kyler's Been Doing

2010-02-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

He loves to hang out with Quinn. He is a really good big brother and is very protective. When we go places and people want to look at Quinn he gets in the way and says "My baby Quinn!" We are still getting a lot of rain. Brian went out and jumped in the puddles with Kyler. He loved every minute of it.

Hair cuts, hair cuts, hair cuts. Kyler continues to get a hair cut every 4-6 weeks.

This was our favorite! Brian brought this box home from work. Kyler had a BLAST! It was better then a ball pit. It made a HUGE mess of course. All fun things do.

At last but not least, watching TV with Quinn. He loves to push the stroller into the living room and hold Quinn. It really is the cutest thing ever.

Baby Quinn One Month

2010-01-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it's been a month! I can't believe how fast it's gone! Quinn is growing like crazy. His one month check is tomorrow. I can't wait to see how much he's grown. I have a feeling he's going to be out growing his big brother before we know it.

Quinn has been a joy to have around. He's a good baby. He turned his head on his tummy at two weeks, and loves tummy time. He'll be rolling any day now, he loves being on his side. He's sleeping in 4 hour stretches at night...so thats better then three :) We love you Quinn!

This is Quinn's classic face. When he's awake and content he usually looks like this :)

This was our favorite outfit that he has now outgrown..crazy! I don't know whats up with the picture. Oh well.

Classic spread eagle :)

Kyler and Quinn

2010-01-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

Kyler loves his new baby brother. We are loving having Quinn in our home. Brian loves to cuddle with his boys, and can't seem to get enough time with them.

Kylers favorite thing right now is to "hold baby Quinn" and " watch a oovie" They are so cute on the couch together I just had to get a video. Enjoy!

Introducing Quinn Alexander Smith

2009-12-28T15:38:00.001-08:00

Quinn joined our family Dec 28th at 1:31 am. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 in long. We were taking the Christmas tree down when my contractions started getting more noticeable and closer together. Around 10:30 they were 4-6 min apart and we headed for the hospital. I was disappointed when they checked me and I was only at a two, but I shouldn't have been because 45 min later I was at a 4. They started an epidural about 12:20, but 20 minutes later I was at an 8 and the epidural still wasn't working. They came in at 12:50 and placed a second epidural but by the time it was time to push I was just barely starting to feel my legs go numb and still feeling every contraction, even temperature on my belly. So needless to say, I did something I NEVER EVER thought I would EVER do. And that is have a baby naturally. Not by choice of course. I'd take this experience, 4 hours with very little paid medication, over the 26 hours completely drugged any day. We are both doing great, and I've been up and walking around all day, even took a shower...needless to say this has been a MUCH better birthing experience. We are so glad that Quinn is here healthy and strong.

Christmas at Stone Mountain

2009-12-21T16:51:00.000-08:00

We went to Stone Mountain again on Saturday. They sure know how to make it feel like Christmas. With all the lights and even snow we really were feeling the Christmas spirit.

The train ride was great. Lots of lit figures, and a southern telling of the first Christmas. Complete with the Angles that say "Hey y'all, a baby is born" And the shepherds say "Ya reckon we should go find the baby" It was a classic southern experience, and so nice to have some Christ in Christmas.

They had a parade with Mr. and Mrs. Clause, and the best part....the Snow Fairy who actually makes it snow. Kyler was in heaven, he's been seeing snow in cartoons for the last few days and was so excited to see it for himself. We sure miss the snow, so it was fun to pretend for a while.

There's no place like home for the holidays...

2009-12-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

I love my home around the holidays, their's just something about lights that make me happy...

My 37 week pic...two weeks left after tomorrow (give or take!)

The Busy Month of November

2009-12-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

The month of November is always a busy one. We started by celebrating Brian's 30th birthday. We had a group of friends from Brian's work over for an appetizer/dessert evening. We made lots of yummy food including: Sausage stuffed s, spinach artichoke dip, brochette, guac, cheesecake, tarts, apple crisp, and homemade egg nog ice cream...yummy!

My birthday came the following week. I woke to strawberry cream cheese crepes for breakfast, and then had a blast making pies for Thanksgiving. Brian wasn't suppose to give me anything for my Birthday because wanted to combine our birthday's and Christmas, and then save for a piano that we'd get sometime next year. He surprised me with the piano bench, and then totally shocked me when he told me the rest of the piano was in the car....here's proof.

I absolutely LOVE it! It's been so fun to play, and has brought the spirit of music back into our home.
Thanksgiving was GREAT! We were all still getting over being sick, but that didn't stop us from eating like crazy. It was my first Thanksgiving were I actually cooked all the food and was "in charge" so to say. We celebrated at Phillip and Jamie's house, so it was nice to have family to be with. I loved how the table turned out. Very festive.

After turkey nap...he's NEVER fallen asleep on a couch like this before, it was so cute.

My sisters and I had a great time at the zoo with Kyler before they left. We loved watching the lion roar, the gorilla's wrestle and the otters being fed. Kyler of course loved the carousel and the train.

What a great month!

Happy Birthday My Love

2009-11-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday My Love!!
Some things I love about Brian:
* He makes me laugh
* He loves cream cheese as much as I do
* He makes me feel like all my dreams can come true
* He has the most amazing heart...I wish everyone knew his heart like I do
* He gets excited when I get the itching to have a dinner party
* He loves the outdoors
* He's taken me on so many adventures, I know our life will never be boring
* He tells me I'm beautiful, and somehow I believe him every time he says it.
* He's the best Daddy ever
* He listens to me and is supportive
I'm so glad your mine, I hope you have a perfect day!

Stone Mountain Park

2009-11-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

So we went to Stone Mountain Park last Saturday while Brian's parents were here. We had a great time. For those who don't know what Stone Mountain is, it's kinda like Mount Rushmore, but for The South. There is this big granite monolith that has three of the confederate generals carved on it, and then they built an amusement park (kind of) around it. We had a blast!

Brian had fun doing the high ropes course. I didn't get to watch him do much of it because Kyler had bigger and better things to do, but Brian said it was a lot of fun.

Kyler LOVED the train, the kid was in heaven, we could have done it all day and he would have been happy.

Grandpa, Savannah and Kyler watching the train pull in, the whistle was pretty loud.

Getting ready for Snow Mountain, in the winter months they make their own snow and make a big sledding hill. How fun is that!

They have a big tram that takes you to the top of the granite mountain. It has a pretty incredible view.

We also enjoyed the big ball barn, eating lunch on the lawn, the Indian pow-wow, and a 4-D movie. We plan on going back several times during the year. Great family fun.

Halloween and Amicalola Falls

2009-11-08T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics from Halloween. My nephew Ethan was baptised on the same day, so we spent the day playing with their family. Kyler was a monkey as you saw before.I was a butterfly...lame I know....and the grim reaper with the monkey. Brian had another wonderful Halloween. We went to a neighborhood party and he had a blast scaring all the teenage s, and trying NOT to scare all the kids. He just walks in the room and everyone starts talking about him, he's like the Santa Clause of Halloween and loves every minute of it.

During the day we went to a place called Amicalola falls, it was SO PRETTY!!! It was pretty cold because it had rained all night and that morning, but it stopped raining long enough for us to enjoy the beautiful autumn leaves.

It was a great day. Thanks to all who came.

Ward Halloween Party

2009-10-29T06:00:00.001-07:00

We had a great time at our ward Halloween party. We all dressed up, but we only got pics of Kyler, typical. Brian was his very scary 10 foot Grim Reaper, and I was a clown. We'll get better pics on actual Halloween.

Kyler loved bobbing for apples, the bean bag toss, and the basketball toss. Brian and I were in charge of the doughnut eating contest which was a lot of fun. The evening wrapped up with a chili cook off and trunk or treating. It was a busy fun filled night.We just put Kyler to bed in his costume, he was so tired. When we checked on him when we went to bed this is what we found. So cute!

Surgery

2009-10-27T05:57:00.001-07:00

So Kyler had surgery yesterday. He's had an umbilical hernia since he was little, the hope was that it would close up on it's own. They like to wait until their two to do surgery, and have to have it done before their 3 if it doesn't close up on its own. Kylers was so small that the surgeon was worried that the little bits of intestine that stick out would get stuck, then things would become an emergency situation, and we didn't want that to happen, so we opted to go ahead with the surgery.
So we couldn't feed him anything after dinner on Sunday, and his surgery was scheduled for 1:00pm Monday. I could give him apple juice and water, that's it. You can imagine how long that held him over. Poor guys was supper cranky by the time we got to the surgery center. He kept looking in the diaper bag for treats, he just didn't get why I wasn't feeding him, I felt terrible.

The surgeon ended up having an emergency procedure to do, so we waited for quite some time, but they gave Kyler some loopy juice to help with the anxiety. He was hilarious! When we checked in they put a hospital bracelet on and he hated the thing, the completely tore his first one off and they had to give him another one. But once the loopy juice took effect he thought his bracelet was the coolest things ever. He also had a blast playing with a hair net thing. He kept putting it over is face and laughing. Brian had fun playing the "touch this" game and watching him completely miss his target. It was nice to have some relaxed laughing time with him before he had to go. Then we put him on the stretcher with three nice nurses and watched him roll down the hall, he just waved...it was so cute and so sad all at the same time.

Then the wait. They surgery was actually really short 15-20 min, I can't imagine waiting for hours, 20 min was long enough. Everything went fine, we went into the recovery room and Kyler was one cranky little boy. He was still pretty out of it, so there wasn't much we could do to comfort him, he kept trying to pull his IV out, and pull his bracelet off again. It was hard to have to hold him down and comfort him at the same time. Once they got him all unhooked and ready to go we were anxious to get him outside to see if we could get him to stop crying. No such luck, he was just mad at the world. So we put him in his car seat and drove as fast as was legal (not fast enough). He screamed the whole way home, he hated being strapped down in his car seat. He kept arching back and I kept thinking....."eeee....don't pop your stitches please...." When we got home I unbuckled him and he flung himself on the floor of the car. Sigh, I felt so helpless. We gave him some space, and then Brian went for a long walk with him, it was a nice day and we hoped the sunshine would help. When they got back he was still whimpering, but at least he wasn't screaming. Finally he let me sit on the couch with him and was happy watching cars.

Brian then set out to get he and I food, and fill Kylers pain medication. He got the run around on where he could fill the prescription, so two hours later he got home. I felt so bad for him, thanks Brian for dealing with all that crap when you really wanted to be home with us. While Brian was gone I finally looked at the bandage and got a little worried. It is just a big clear plastic bandage, but is was full of lots of bright red blood. I was pretty sure it didn't look like that when we left the hospital. So then I was worried that he'd popped his stitches. I paged the surgeon and he said to fold up some gauze and tape it over the plastic bandage just to add more pressure to the wound. Then tonight we will remove the plastic bandage and put a large waterproof band aid over it. So hopefully that goes well. We weren't suppose to touch the bandage till his follow up appt next week. So we'll see how that goes tonight.

Then we all just watched movies on the couch and then carried Kyler to his bed about 9:00. We layed him down and just sat with him until he fell asleep. It didn't take long. Brian and I were exhausted and headed to bed shortly after. I thought for sure I'd be up with him most of the night, because he's a tummy sleeper, but he actually slept all night! I could believe it. I kept waking up and turning the monitor up way high so I could hear his breathing just to make sure.

It still hurts him to move his tummy this morning, he doesn't like sitting up, or the process of picking him up or laying him down. I assume because he automatically flexes his tummy muscles. We'll just chill this morning, and then I'll see if I can get him walking around a bit. I'm thinking that some of it is just feeling the bandage there, especially with the added pressure of the gauze. So hopefully he'll get use to it and things will get better .

Thanks to all of you who kept him in your prayers. I know they helped!

Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

We carved pumpkins for family night the other night. We had a great time. This was the first time doing it just us. We usually do it at least twice with our families, but it was fun to do our own thing this year. I sure missed how creative my family is though....we were thinking of you!

I think Kylers favorite part was picking out the pumpkins, even if it was just at a grocery store.

Kyler had no fears about cleaning out the inside. He loved it! These pics are terrible, our camera is on it's way out.

Tada! We had fun putting them outside and sitting on the grass and playing while we ate pumpkin cream cheese bars...mmmmm. It was a great night. I'm so thankful for my family!!!

Sunday Best

2009-10-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Kyler looked so cute this Sunday, I couldn't help but take a few pics. He's so big...when did that happen?!?

Things That Never Cease to Amaze Me

2009-10-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

1. Some of the things Kyler eats:

Raw Onion (His Favorite)
Raw Potato
Avocado
Artichoke
Frozen Peas

2. Brian eating tomato (he wouldn't touch the stuff before we were married)
3. How good a bath feels when your pregnant
4. That I live in Atlanta!
5. That I married Brian Smith...one of the "smith boys" my best friend always talked about
6. Watching the leaves change in the Fall
7. Thinking about how Kyler came to be
8. Where all our money goes
9. How my husband loves me so much
10. How blessed I am

What are some things that never cease to amaze you?

6 Months Along, and Block Fun

2009-09-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

6 months gone, 3 more to go! Our little boy is growing just great, and I'm feeling great.
We got Kyler some blocks for his birthday, his favorite thing to do is knock down the towers other people make, but he's slowly learning how to make his own stacks. I loved these pics of he and Brian playing, Brian's always so good about coming up with new fun ways to play with toys. The yellow block has a hole in the middle you just can't see it.

Flooding around our Home

2009-09-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well if you've been watching the news you've probably heard about the flooding in Atlanta. It all started a week ago Sunday. It rained like it normally does here off and on through out the day, but the rain continued...Monday...Tuesday...Wednesday...and all through the week. The following Sunday night we got a crazy storm, the thunder and lightning were amazing...except that it was 4 in the morning, any way after that the rivers and streams had had enough, and things started to swell...and then Monday afternoon we got hit again, 12 inches of rain in an hour. That's when everything went under.

Our apartment complex has a nice golf course, this is what it looks like now, you can see a flag right in the middle. These pictures were taken on Tuesday, so a day after everything was at it's worst. You can see the mud line of where the water was the highest on the bushes and trees in the background.Another view of the golf course. This one taken from the road. Again you can see the mud line. Also notice the fence the water took out when it was at it's highest, it covered the fence, the road I'm standing on taking the picture, and all the houses behind me.This is a bridge in our complex that Kyler and I had gone walking across just a few days earlier This is the house across the street from us...again the day after so you can see the water line...so sad.

We are lucky enough to live on a hill in our complex so we have so far been unscathed. The 12 apartments next to us flooded last week, not to mention the homes at the bottom of the golf course like the one pictured above. We definitely weren't hit the worse, some neighborhoods are completely underwater. When I went to pick up Brian from work Monday night, I saw first hand the mayhem. Every street I tried was either under water or had trees and power lines down. It took me 2 hours to go less then three miles. We ended up eating dinner at the hospital with Brian to wait for things to calm down. I left the house at 20 to 5 to pick up Brian and didn't get home till almost 9. I feel blessed to have had no problems. Our heart gos out to those who have been affected. It's suppose to rain all this week again...I hope we have recovered enough to get through it.

Happy Birthday Kyler

2009-09-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Kyler! I can't believe your two! Time has flown by so fast, and yet it seems like you've always been a part of our family. We love you!

We started the day off with the Birthday Tunnel. He loved it! We'll definitely make this a family tradition.Then we went to the local Chick Fa La and played in the play place. It's been raining here for three days now and it's not supposed to let up anytime soon, so it was nice to let him run around some place dry.

And Daddy even showed up! What a fun surprise, his meetings were amazingly canceled today so he got to join us for lunch, it was a wonderful treat.

Then we had a quiet afternoon, enjoyed breakfast for dinner (Kylers favorite) and webcamed with grandparents. After that we opened presents and had birthday brownies. Kyler was a pro.

It was a great day, I was sad for it to end. Happy Birthday bud, your the best!

Cheesecake

2009-09-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Recently our ward had a talent show. We aren't really the creative type (at least most of the time) and we didn't get our acts together enough to do any kind of preforming talent. So we decided to make some cheesecakes. We made our versions of a Smore's, Pumpkin, and Key Lime cheesecakes. They were a hit. We had a great time making them together as a family.

Lake Conasauga

2009-09-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

For Labor day weekend we went to Lake Conasauga with Phillip and Jamie and their family. We had a great time. It was SO nice to get up in the mountains where the air is cooler, and boy was it cooler. It rained almost all day on Sunday, but I'd take rain camping over the hot city heat anyday. Phillip has a canoe, and borrowed another so we could all be in the lake together. We had a great time.

Kyler loved all the bugs the rain brought.

Video's of Kyler

2009-09-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is for all the fam who have been dying to see what Kylers learning these days. The video is about 4 minutes, but I think it's all so worth watching :) Hope you all enjoy!

Boy Names

2009-08-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Since we have such a hard time agreeing on boys names we have begun looking in strange places to find names. We have looked at lists of countries, makes/models of cars, and my favorite...the periodic table. These are the names I like the best from that list:

Name (Nickname)
Tungsten (Tung)
Polonium (Polo or Loni)
Ununoctium (Ununo or Nocti)
Thorium (Thor)

With so many great choices on the table it was hard to narrow it down to these four. So we will be taking a vote from here. Out of these 4 choices which do you like. The name with the most votes by the end of December will be the name of our new little boy. Have fun voting.

Way down yonder...

2009-08-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

...on the Chattahoochee never knew how much that muddy water meant to me. :) The Chattahoochee River is right next to us, so we decided to check it out. We found a nice picnic table right by the water and we had a nice picnic. Before long we had guests, and Kyler LOVED it! We have ducks all over by where we live because there is a golf course in our complex, but we can't feed them. So it was nice to let Kyler finally feed these.

We only started feeding four, but before we knew it we had almost 40!

This is Kylers favorite thing to do lately. He is wearing a diaper, just in case you are wondering :) It sure is easier to make dinner when he's not trying to drag me off every three seconds.

Kyler has been in love with Brian's bike. We don't keep it outside because it rains so much, and because it's so buggy in our backyard. So every once and a while Brian will let Kyler climb on and go for a spin around the dinning room. He loves it!

1+1=2

2009-08-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

Brian + Tiffany = Kyler and.....

New Baby Boy! We finally got our ultrasound done and found that Kyler will be expecting a baby brother! We are really excited. It will be fun to see how different this little one is from Kyler. The pregnancy has already been very different. This little tyke is a mover, it's been really fun. The only hard thing is.....boy names, sigh. Any suggestions are welcome!

Is it Worth it to You?

2009-08-12T05:37:00.000-07:00

Are all grocery stores created equal?? Before I moved to sugar house I would have said yes. That is before I became addicted to Dans, the grocery store that always gave Kyler a balloon and free cookie, and even delivered gifts to my door about twice a year. I knew their produce was a bit more expensive, but Kyler got a balloon!

Anyway, I have had Dans withdrawals ever since we've moved from that area, and have now gotten use to the regular grind of the grocery store...and now I've discovered Publix. Sigh
It just happens to be the store closest to our house, and I love it. Here's why.

There is always someone in the produce area. Kyler almost always gets a free banana, orange, or apple, and I have someone to ask questions like is there a difference between bell peppers and sweet peppers.
A few times a week they have this recipe station that has a recipe to try and then a bag with the all the ingredients and the recipe inside.
Kyler always gets a balloon with a cute toy weight
The checkers actually remember Kylers name
They insist on helping me out to my car, which I though was a little strange at first. But now that Kyler is getting heavier and harder to carry since my belly is getting bigger, I LOVE It! Someone loads all my groceries in the car while I get Kyler buckled and make sure the prices on my receipt are right. Then as that wonderful helper walks away with my cart they always thank me for shopping at Publix.

So my question is...is it worth it??? I know the store is more expensive then it's competitors. I know I'd save a few bucks if I go to walmart, where I can't ever find anything and the closest associate are the checkers. But shouldn't I expect more from my grocery store??? What do you think?

The Secret to Great Skin

2009-08-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know the secret to great skin, great exfoliation. And where do you get great exfoliation, just spend a weekend camping on the beach. :)

We just spent a great weekend at Hunting Island State Park in SC. And man was it HOT! I don't think I've ever camped in weather like this before, and I'll be the first to say that I didn't like it at first. I'm not a hot weather person, and I'm not in love with sand either, but I got over both and had a great time.

First, this was my reaction when Brian walked in with the camera! Yea, it's found. He found it in the pocket of one of our camping chairs. Who would have thought. I'm just glad we found it.

This was the view from our campsite. It was a beautiful beach, calm and peaceful in morning, winds in the afternoon, which meant better waves. This is the storm front our first night. It was a crazy storm, but mostly just lots of rain.

The kids had a great time being together.

Ode to Kylers eyelashes:

Something about the beach and the sun made me notice even more how long Kylers eye lashes are. People mention it all the time, but I just really noticed it even more this past weekend. Heres a few shots.

Now things have settled back to normal. Brian started work today, and crashed on the couch when he got home. It's nice to be back to being just us.

BUGS - by Brian

2009-07-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

So we are almost completely moved in. Most of the boxes are unpacked. The ones that aren't will probably stay hidden until the baby comes. As we have been unpacking we realized we have guests (I mean pests) in our house.

Meet the Scutigera Coleoptrata; Also Known As the House Centipede.
Although I have been told they are not poisonous/dangerous to humans (unless you have a rare alergic reaction to a bite; and they rarely bite humans) I get chills down my back everytime I see one run. With 15 PAIRS of legs this thing can run 16 inches per second...who wouldn't be a little squeemish! I bought a bunch of insect killer but have now read that this won't kill them. It seems the only way to get them is with sticky traps. I guess the upside is that they are carniverous. They will keep the spiders and other small bugs away. So...anyone want to come visit? You can stay for dinner!

Missing in Action

2009-07-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, Atlanta has found Brian, Kyler and I all healthy and happy. We are still unpacking a few boxes but we are starting to see the corners and floors which is really exciting. Our camera however is still missing in action. So until it decides to show itself posts will be boringly only text. Sorry. Our place is nice, and in a good part of the city. The second day we were here the air conditioner broke and we spent one HOT night in the Atlanta humidity, but thank heavens it was nothing serious and was up and running the next morning.

Kyler is adjusting well, we had a few rough nights, but he's now adjusted to the time change and sleeping through the night. He's had fun rediscovering all the toys that have been boxed up for the last 6 months. I thought of keeping them boxed till his birthday, and re gifting them, but they've been invaluable in the unpacking process. We went to visit Phillip and Jamie yesterday, he LOVES playing with their kids. Life without cousins would be rough. I'm glad we have some family close, even an hour drive is worth it to see cousins.

Brian and I are enjoying the extra time we have together. Brian will officially start on Aug 3rd while we wait for his Georgia Licensure to go through. Mean while I'm slowly, and I mean slowly getting to know the streets in the area. It's absolute madness out here. There is no such thing as a straight street, and none of them keep the same names for long. Plus there are so many trees and bushes, good luck seeing more then 100 feet in any direction. Brian has been really patient with me as we've driven around. Driving in places like these pretty much terrifies me, so he's been really nice. I did finally drive to the grocery store and back without a hitch on Saturday, I was pretty proud of myself (pathetic I know).

Our ward is pretty eclectic, Georgia Tech University is in our ward boundaries, so we have quite a few young families which is nice. We have three sets of missionaries assigned to our ward, which pretty much includes all of the major Atlanta city area. It's definitely NOT a Utah ward, but hey, we're not in Utah anymore are we. :) I'm excited for the change.

Anyway, hopefully we find our camera soon and then I can post pics of our place and the area, it really is beautiful, it reminds me of Oregon, green and huge trees. We miss all of you, hope things are going well!

Ready, Set, GO!!

2009-07-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

Well, everything in our life is about to change. We have accepted the position in Atlanta, GA and will be leaving within the week. CRAZY HUH!!! We have everything ironed out and feel like this is a great career move for Brian. Brian and his Dad will be driving our car and truck full of stuff across the country starting this Thursday the 9th. Kyler and I will follow on an airplane (thank heavens) the following Tuesday the 14th. The job is for a one year fellowship, then we'll re-evaluate at that time. We'll look for rehab openings in Utah again, if nothings available we may stay in Atlanta (if they want us) for a few more years, or find something a little closer to home (ie Colorado, Arizona, California). Brian is nothing but excited for the new experience and to be working with the amazing people at the Shepard Center, I'm a little nervous because...

I'M PREGNANT!

Our next bundle of joy is due to enter the word on Christmas Day (trust me we didn't plan it that way) :) I've been doing pretty well, but am nervous to be away from friends and family when the baby arrives. My "mothers" have been very supportive and both will visit in December, so I'm sure everything will be fine.

We love and will miss all of you! Feel free to come visit us in Atlanta, we'd love to see you!

It's Official!!!

2009-06-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Wahooo!!! The weight has finally been lifted. Brian has officially passed his board exam and is now an official Physical Therapist. I have waited to see this face for 3 years!!! When ever we'd finish some difficult time, like finals, I'd always be so excited for him to come home and be done, but he'd always reply " I still have......a year of school....another semester....to pass my boards." BUT NO MORE!!!! We are officially done with tests!!! Thanks to all of you who prayed for Brian on this test. He was really nervous about it, the practice tests weren't going very well and the doom cloud overshadowed him for most of the last week. He's happier then I can remember seeing him now. Thanks to everyone for your support!

An update on where we are in life. We are currently living with Brian's parents until we accept a job offer. We had two potential offers and now are just working on one. Utah Valley Regional Hospital offered a full time position in acute care, but we ended up turning it down because Brain really feels like he need to be in Rehab. So our current offer is from The Shepard Clinic in Atlanta, GA. It's a one year fellowship opportunity working specifically with Spinal Cord injury patients, which is right up his alley. It's really his dream job....minus the salary. We really would love the opportunity to work there, but we have to meet our basic necessities, so Brian has been working with them on housing and such to see if we can make it work. We hope to hear from them sometime in the next week. So, we're just waiting right now. Hopefully I'll keep you all posted!

Finally! The Zoo

2009-06-17T12:48:00.001-07:00

I have been totally absent lately. It's hard not living in your own place, partly because your routines just get all messed up. But I'm starting to get a little better at getting back to the things I use to do. Life has slowed down now that Julia's (Brian's sister) is married and almost all of the family has headed back to their respective homes. So now I have some time to Blog! Yea! Last week we went to the Zoo before Kylers cousins headed home. We had a great time. Kyler loved the Elephants and could have watched them all day.

The Rhino's were a little scary because they were so close, but he was brave.

All the cousins, minus Kennidee, plus Grandma and Kiki. Kyler even looked at the camera!

Kyler loved the Carousel, until it started moving, good thing I got the picture first!

On our way to ride the train it started to rain, hard! But that didn't stop the kids from having a blast, thanks Kiki for humoring Kyler, he loves puddles!

The 8th Day Lament

2009-05-23T15:13:00.001-07:00

I know some of you will think this is pathetic, but today I have have been away from Brian more days in a row then all the other days we've been apart in our marriage put together. He comes home tomorrow AND I CAN'T WAIT!!! He's flew to Atlanta last Saturday to interview at the Shepard Clinic. He stayed with Phillip and Jamie and is now driving across country with their family to get here for Julia's wedding. It's been a really long week, and I've missed him terribley. Kudos to all you wife's who have husbands in the military or have jobs that take them away often. I couldn't do it! I LOVE YOU BRIAN!! Come home to me safely.

The Cake

2009-05-14T18:26:00.001-07:00

So I just wanted to give a quick thanks to Jenae Meservy who did the cake for Brian's graduation party. I had been dreaming of a U cake for Brians final Graduation for as long as I can remember. So when the time came near I was excited to put the plans into action. I contacted a bakery close to where we lived in American Fork who has the most wonderful little pastry shop. They also do custom cakes, so I told them what I was thinking and they gave me a quote that sent all my dreams crushing to the ground....there was NO WAY I could afford to get the cake.
I told my mom of my dilemma and she contact Jenae. We grew up just up the street from Jenae and her family, she now has started her own wedding cake and flower business. My mom gave her a call and gave me this wonderful surprise on the day of Brian's graduation party. Jenae did such a wonderful job. Not only did the cake look amazing..it TASTED amazing!!! Of course nothing less then chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate for Brian. The whole cake was edible except the scroll and the top of grad hat. I couldn't have dreamed up anything more perfect! Thanks Jenae!!!
If anyone is interested in her work, she has a website, http://www.petalsandcrumbs.com/

Graduation!!!

2009-05-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that right. Brian has FINALLY GRADUATED!!!! It felt SO good, and I wasn't even the one graduating! The ceremony was really nice. Everyone who spoke had great things to say. Of course we were all waiting for the moment when they said......Dr. Brian Clark Smith....I don't think it had really sunk in until that moment.

I'm so proud of you Brian, you've worked SO hard all these years, and you did such a good job of balancing school and family life. I hardly ever felt neglected, and that is an amazing accomplishment all on it's own! You are an amazing Physical Therapist, and any patient would feel privileged to have you on there team. I love you Mr, I'm glad we made the journey together.We had a really nice party the next day. Thanks to everyone who came and supported Brian.

I tried to get the big "Dr. Brian Clark Smith" on video, but the audio was a little slow..bummer, here's what I got. Wahoo Brian!! I love you!

Carthage, Nauvoo, and Steamboat Springs...The second part of our Journey home

2009-05-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

We were able to stop by Carthage and Nauvoo on our way home. What a beautiful area. It's amazing to me how things were kept and preserved even after all these years. Like Carthage jail was actually a home for many years, and yet they never replaced the door with the bullet holes in it. I think that's pretty cool. Anyway, this is Carthage, it was a beautiful spring morning, and we were the only ones there, I was really neat to be in the martyrdom room alone. What a powerful place.

Then we headed into Nauvoo and had lunch by the Nauvoo Temple.

We didn't have time to see very much so we took a guided tour on a horse drawn wagon, Kyler loved every minute of it.

As we'd ride by, all the missionary couples would come out of the houses and wave hello, I loved this picture because it seemed just perfect for how things might have been then.

We had fun meeting the missionary couples, and seeing some of the artifacts, we would have loved to see the play the missionaries put on, but we just didn't have time. We'll definitely have to go back!

Then we headed into Steamboat Springs Colorado. The original plan we to camp in Rocky Mountain National Park, but this is what we found...

Needless to say we didn't camp. Instead we stayed in Steamboat Springs, which is a lot like park city but not as hoity toity. We stayed in a cheap off season hotel that was really nice, and spent our days in the hot springs.

We didn't take any pictures because we were in the water the whole time. Kyler loved it, he got so use to it by the end, he'd step off the stairs, go under water, and just blink up at us. It was pretty funny. It was a great way to end our journey home.

Our Trip Home...the first few days

2009-05-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

We headed back to Utah on April 27th and said goodbye to Gastonia. There are a few things we will miss, but we are excited to see family and friends again. We started the trek by going to Great Smokey Mountain National Park. It ended up being more of an adventure then we planned. Campgrounds are still first come first serve because it's still the "slow" season, so we figured we'd be fine, but when we started getting close it was hard to ignore the 10,000+ motorcycles riding in and out of the park and surrounding area. The place was CRAZY!!! We went to the closest campground..full "go to this campground" they said, "it will for sure have sites", so we drive another hour and a half through the park to that campground....full!!!! It was getting late and we were frustrated with the lack of communication between campgrounds. So the ranger says "go to this campground, it will for sure have sites." Sound familiar, and of course it's another hour and a half away. So we put on our fake smiles, and headed to our last chance. We were lucky enough to get one of the last spots, and felt bad for the endless cars that drove around even in the middle of the night looking for spots.

We ended up loving the campground, and took a trail from the campground to a falls called Hen Wallow Falls. The hike and the destination were beautiful.

The park was beautiful and we hope to be able to go back sometime and spend some more time there. We then packed up and headed to Cincinnati to spend some time with my cousin Tara and her family. It was so nice to be "home". We felt right at home and spending time with Tara and her family will definitely be the highlight of our trip home. We went to a local aquarium one day, and enjoyed playing games and watching the kids play the rest of the time.

Believe it or not, Grant and Kyler are exactly the same age, they were born 5 min apart, you'd never know it by comparing their sizes, Grant is wearing 24 month cloths, Kylers still in 12 months :)

Katie was SO good with Kyler, he'd grab her hand and drag her places, it was so cute!

We sadly said good bye to the Arnesen Family, and made the drive to Nauvoo....which we'll save for a later post....Utah here we come!

Success!!

2009-04-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

Going to the grocery store has been more and more of a nightmare lately. Yes I know I only have one child, but Kyler can be a handful. He's decided he doesn't like sitting in the cart anymore, and he hates holding my hand, so a 5 min stop at the store usually turns into a 30 min hunt for Kyler. His newest antic is standing up in the cart (where he's suppose to be sitting) and then when I come to sit him down he throws his arms around my neck and squeezes. I'm pretty much helpless, and he loves it.

Needless to say, I'd had enough, so yesterday I decided we were going to the store for just a few things and he was going to stay sitting the entire time...no matter what. I was good to my word, and Kyler let me know he hated it. He SCREAMED the entire time. Poor thing had puffy eyes and a runny nose and I'm sure I looked like a tyrant of a mother. But today when we went to the store, he started to pull his foot up, I calmly said "Kyler, sit" and he did...the ENTIRE TIME! No fussing, crying, whining, or other antics. SUCCESS!

I'm sure he'll test me again, but even just today was worth it!

A Weekend with Dave

2009-04-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

My brother Dave came out to visit us, it was great to have him here for the weekend. We did some fun things as we discovered more of North Carolina.

We went back to the Children's Museum, Dave had fun hanging out with Kyler

My face when they asked me to touch the snake....no thankyou

Then we went to a dirt track race. I LOVED IT! I never really understood nascar, or why people would want to watch a car go round and round a track. Now I TOTALLY understand, it was so COOL!!! To watch these cars go around those turns, and all the sliding and crashing and loosing wheels and the excitement of watching a car go from last to first, it was probably the funnest thing we've done, I would go back in a heart beat.

Then on Saturday we made the drive to Chimney Rock.

Me and my Bro

Kyler kept pretending to fall asleep, it was pretty cute

They have a little cafe at the top. We stopped there for lunch. It was fun to eat right by the window and enjoy the view.

Then we took a hike to Hickory Nut falls. It was beautiful, and the chill from the falls felt really good.

Last but not least we took this small trail especially for kids. It had little areas with something the kids would enjoy every few feet, Kyler loved to finally get out of the Kelty (the child carrier) and hike for once :)

Then Sunday night before David left we had to Celebrate his Birthday. It's not till the 28th, but we'll be on our way back across the country, so we had to celebrate while he was here. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting, his favorite.

Thanks for coming Dave, we know who loves us the most! :)

Kylers Portraits

2009-04-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

We finally got Kyler's 18 month pictures taken. Thanks to everyone who commented on the outfit choice. We ended up going with both the brown and the green. We got more cute shots in the green for some reason. Anyway, Kyler is getting so big, and he's smarter then I give him credit for most of the time. He's learning new words every day. His newest are "tees"=trees, and "ool"=cool. He's also testing the law of gravity, climbing on kitchen chairs and jumping off the couch. His favorite time of the day is still picking up Daddy from work, after which they shake of the stresses of the day by wrestling on the living room floor. We love Kyler SO much, he makes us better people.

Easter on the Carolina Beach

2009-04-14T06:13:00.001-07:00

Easter in paradise. I'd do it again every year if I could. We were SO blessed to spend a wonderful weekend on Carolina Beach State Park. The weather was suppose to be terrible (tornado terrible) but we prayed real hard, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. We spent several days on the warm beach, and warm nights in our tents. This was the last weekend we'll get to spend with Phillip and Jamies family, we'll really miss them. Here are the highlights of the trip.

A "Real" Southern Experience

2009-04-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

So, while Brian and I are here, we wanted to make sure we tried some real southern BBQ. Every state in the South boasts about it's BBQ, and sense we live in a area with a lot of mom and pop type stores we were excited to go try the real thing.

So I start researching places we could go, looking at reviews, asking around. And I always ended up coming back to R.O's Barbecue. It's been around sense 1946, and advertises, "The slaw flows at R.O's" Now if that doesn't sound southern I don't know what does. :)

So we map quest it and head out. As we find it we notice a line of guys all in R.O's attire hanging out on the side of the building, as we pull up, one of them comes to our window and says, "What can I get,cha" (of course in a deep southern accent). By now we've realized that it's a curb side type place. We tell the guy that we've never been here, and he heads off to get a menu. As we looked over the menu we realized it could have been in another language. Things like sliced cue with slaw, hush puppies, and cherry sundrop, are things your not going to find on a menu at home. So we went on the wild side, and got two large cues with slaw (because we heard the slaw was out of this world), some hush puppies (which the waiter finally described as fried cornbread, but he really had to think about it, it's like trying to describe what a french fry is to someone who doesn't know what a potato is) and Brian got a cherry lemon Sundrop. The waiter described the drink as "It's just sundrop with lemon and cherry's and stuff to make it all special" all in southern, it made us laugh. When we asked what Sundrop was he said "Ya'all's never had sundrop?? Oh, you'll be back" Pretty much it's like carbonated lemonade.

He brings everything hot to our car, and that's it. We headed to a park to eat, sense Kyler doesn't do well with food in the car :). We munched on the hush puppies as we went, they grew on us and we actually really liked them by the time they were gone. Our sandwiches were a completely different story. You could see the slaw even before you unwrapped the sandwich there was so much of it. I came to the conclusion that their "slaw" is like really finely chopped cole slaw in kind of a creamy BBQ sauce. The meat is thinly sliced pork. It was pretty good, most of the slaw is on the wrapper, so the middle of the sandwich was kinda dry. The flavor was unique, which is what we were going for. All in all we decided we probably wouldn't go back, but that we're glad we went and that we'd recommend going if you want a "real" southern experience.

What a Weekend

2009-03-29T14:14:00.001-07:00

Our plan was to meet Phillip, Jamie, and their family in Brevard, the land of many waterfalls, for a great weekend of camping and hiking. This is what the drive looked like:

Brevard advertises about 250 waterfalls in the area. We were excited to see as many of the falls as we could in one weekend. - Brian

If you can't tell, it was raining, and hard. It had been for about 2 days, so we hoped that it would clear up. We got to our campsite, and it was beautiful. It was a very nice area that even had a hot tub! We talked with the camp hosts, and they said that the rain was supposed to clear up soon, but that it would rain again the next day. So we said, BRING ON THE RAIN! And went to set up the tent....it started to rain harder. We got it set up and went to get the gear, it rained harder. Brian went to buy some extra twine to make some adjustments to the rain fly to keep us more dry...it rained harder. Needless to say, after only an hour we were soaked, and our tent was already overwhelmed. There was no way we were going to make it two days, and Jamie has a 6 month old, I just couldn't do that to her. So, we rolled up the tent, rain and all, and headed into Brevard. This is us after we tore down camp, you can't really tell but we are SOAKED!

I consider myself to be a good/prepared camper. I feel a little embarrassed that we had to clear out for a little rain. (Actually it was A LOT of rain). We have camped in rain, snow, and sleet before, but this was too much for our tent. Rain was coming in every seam, through the zippers, and through the rainfly itself.

We ended up at Holiday Inn Express where we got the last room they had. When we walked in we realized they'd made a mistake and had given us a suite. SWEET! So we called Phillip and Jamie and told them not to cancel plans but to come join us. We didn't want to hide anything from the hotel so we asked the lady at the front desk if it was ok if we invited our brother and his wife since we had a pull out bed. "You have a pull out bed??" She said, "did I give you a suite, Huh, I must have, sure invite anyone you want!" NICE!

After a long night of trying to get 5 kids to sleep in the same room, we woke up excited for a great Saturday. Heck with the rain we were going hiking! This is Kyler and Brian getting all ready.

The rain scared us out of camping but we were definately hiking.

Our whole group, heading to the first falls.

Jamie, Lydia, Morgan, Savannah

Our family, staying dry. (We weren't staying completely dry but we were having fun.)

Because of all the rain, the rivers rise and it becomes a kayakers dream. It was awesome watching them come over the falls.

We were talking to one of the kayakers and they said that this river is not good for kayaking unless it is raining. The water is too low without the rain. So we feel lucky actually that we were there when they were. It was great to see them go over this fall. It was about 20 feet high. I want a kayak.

This is the second hike we took, it's the falls in the Last of the Mohican's, it was really pretty.

All in all, we stayed pretty dry, our pants and shoes were wet, but it was so fun it was worth it.

We went to Pizza that night at a little hole in the wall place, and spent Sunday morning flying kites in park. It was a great weekend. Full of adventure!

Our next camping trip is planned for two weeks, we are going to the beach. We are hoping for nice beach weather. This video is of little Savannah pretending she is a duck. She is so darn cute.

POPCORN!

2009-03-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn Popping on the apricot tree.

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise.

Popcorn popping right before my eyes.
I can take an armful and make a treat,

A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn't really so, but it seemed to me,

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

Help! I need opinions

2009-03-19T06:35:00.001-07:00

Which outfit do you like best? I want to get his pictures taken, but I can't decide which outfit
Brown?

Greeen?
(I don't want to skew the results...but this is my favorite! - Brian)

Or Overalls?

A Day in the Life of Kyler

2009-03-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

Happy 1 1/2 Birthday little man, we love you!!

Warning: This video is EXTREMLY long (about 8 min) it's probably something only a Grandma would love, but feel free to surf through it :)

If you don't want to watch the whole thing (but I think it is darn cute, Tiff did a great job) you should definately fast forward to the last minute. It is funny - one of his favorite things to do is put a blanket over his head and run around. Cracks me up every time.

Discovery Place Childrens Museum in Charlotte

2009-03-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

This was Charlotte on Friday. It was the perfect day to spend inside a museum. So we headed to the Discovery Place Children's Museum. It's a lot like Discovery Gateway, except they have this wonderful little place for kids 6 and under. It was GREAT! Kyler could explore all he wanted and didn't have to worry about being run over by a big kid. He started at the playdoh table. He'd never played with playdoh before so it was very interesting. The ladies at the table (employee's) had so much fun showing him all kinds of neat things he could do. He loved it.

Then on to the most popular activity for the day, the water table. Kyler could have stayed here all day, it never got old. Brian and I decided we are going to have one of these in our back yard, simple, yet oh so fun. I think Brian had just as much fun as Kyler.

It was fun watching Kyler learn new things. He's growing so fast, and he catches on to things like lightening.

He was in love with this shopping cart. Once he discovered it, he took it with him every where he went.

They had this barn with "animals" sticking out of them, you could push the button under the animal and it would make it's sound. Kyler was terrified of it. He'd get brave and pet it, but the minute the button was pushed....run away!

At lunch time we went to a place called Rock Bottom for lunch, it was fun to walk the streets of downtown Charlotte, even if it was a bit rainy. Then we went back to the museum and watched a short kids film called Fly Me to the Moon on their IMAX dome theatre. It was pretty cool, the dome really made it feel like you were moving, the thing was HUGE! Kyler was scared, mostly because of the loud sounds, but he held on to me tight for 10 minutes, and then zonked! So he even got nap while we were there. It was perfect.

Then we explored the upstairs, everything from a rain forest, to the circus, to lots of fun fish tanks. Kyler loved this mirror triangle, he'd turn his head and laugh, and turn his head and laugh, it was great.

We got home, ate dinner and all went to bed. It was a great day, no temper tantrums, just lots of good wholesome fun!

Our New Home and Crowders Mountain

2009-03-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

Brian is working four 10 hour days a week. So we get wonderful 3 day weekends to play.

First, here is our "furnished" apartment. It's funny EVERYTHING they gave us was either black, or white. Exept our couches which are brown...interesting I know.

Notice: white dish towels, white toaster, black microwave

This is our little piece of home. Some of the few things I actually brought with us. Magnets from all the fun places we've been.

Everything on the bed is white. Sheets, blanket, comforter, pillow cases....it's kinda fun. Excuse the box as a side table. I sleep on that side, and I had this terrible cough for a while, so I needed the humidifier close.

Again notice: White towels, white bath mat, white shower curtainThis is the outside of the building. It's really pretty right now with all the tree's in bloom. We really like the complex, the people are really nice, but it's not home that's for sure. Our first weekend free we went to a place called Crowders Mountain. They call it a mountain because the ground goes up a little, so it must be a mountain. Anyway, it was a beautiful day. We took some hiking trails, then found a nice spot by a little stream to have lunch. Kyler loved putting his toes in, and throwing rocks. It was a great day.

Kyler has had this thing with sticks. Because there are so many trees there are sticks EVERYWHERE! He loves it. Everytime we go to the playground he gathers sticks. It's not uncommon for him to have three of four in a hand at once. He'll pick up one he wants, take a few steps, then he'll spot another one that looks interesting. So he'll try and pick it up, but realise he has to many in his hands already, so he takes inventory, decides which one needs to go, then picks up the one he wants, takes a few steps and the whole thing starts all over again. Silly boy, he could do that all day.

Next stop, Discover Place childrens Museum in Charlotte.

Bored with Spaghetti?

2009-03-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

So, I was going to post all about our new place, but for some reason I can't get the pictures to transfer from the camera...hope it's just being lame for the moment, and not something seriously wrong with the camera.

Anyway! Sense I can't post without pics I thought I'd post about what we had for dinner last night. I was planning on spaghetti, but really wanted something new. So this is what I did, and we loved it. Brian even had seconds, and he's not much of a spaghetti person.

I tried a new sauce that I really liked! All pasta sauces have a lot of sugar, but this actual has a sweet flavor. The brand was Classico, Flavor: Traditional Sweet Basil. Trust me on this one, you'll taste the difference.

Then I used Italian sausage instead of ground beef. I bought it in the round tube, and only used half. I browned it in a frying pan, then added it to the sauce. In the same frying pan I added a bit on olive oil and sauteed some mushroom and onions. This way Brian could just have the pasta and sauce, while I could still enjoy the veggies. It turned out really yummy!

Same easy spaghetti, totally different taste!

Georgia and finally....home??

2009-03-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

The few days we spent with Phillips family were SO nice. The bug that hit Brian really took over so he slept most of the days and nights we were there :) But Kyler was in heaven. Little kids to play with....all the time!!! This is great! Morgan was so wonderful with him, she'd just hold his hand where ever he went and played with him so well.

It was so fun to see Phillip and Jamie and their kids. We are excited to be able to spend some time with them while we are out here. I can not believe how much the kids have grown.

The first day we were there it was almost 70 degrees, so we all headed out to the back yard. Kyler and Morgan played golf, and Ethan taught Kyler all about dirt and rocks.

And then the rain started....We stayed in all the next day, but that didn't keep the kids from having a great time.

We set off for our new home in North Carolina on Saturday, it was still raining, and rained clear till Sunday. Kyler did pretty well on this 3 1/2 hour drive, in this pic he has his hands over his ears and is pressing and releasing to hear the change in sound. He was getting a kick out of it. I thought it was pretty cute.

Wahooo!! Almost there!

The whole drive there I was nervous. Nervous to meet the people I'd been emailing at the apartment complex for over 3 months now. Nervous to see our new place. Nervous that everything would be how it should....what if we show up and it's a dump...what if we get there and we have no furniture...what if they have no idea who we are....ahhhhh! Needless to say I worried. And I guess I had good reason. We got there and the people were great, they gave us our keys, we opened our door....no furniture. Yup, just a big empty apartment. We went back to the office only to find that our furniture order had never been faxed. FRUSTRATION!!!! So they put us in their Model apartment, which was full of REALLY nice stuff, all of which Kyler couldn't touch, no doors, no kitchen stuff, I almost would have preferred to stay in a hotel. They promised us our furniture would be delivered first thing Monday morning, but guess what happened Sunday night.

It snowed.

To put it in the words of our apartment manager "we haven't seen this much snow sense I was a little kid". A whole whopping 3 inches. The whole city closes down. Schools were closed for 2 days....yes 2 DAYS! Brian didn't have to go into work on Monday, and our furniture still wasn't delivered. One more day trying to survive in a place that wasn't ours.

Since we were in an apartment without any cookware or microwave or any other kitchen items we had to eat out alot. It got old fast. As we were leaving the hostess told us "you guys be careful, the roads are dangerous". This was during the first part of the snow storm, the snow was barely sticking and the roads were still clear. Everyone was driving really slow and being careful. It would be great if drivers in Utah would settle down when it snowed. I think in Utah we don't tell people to "be careful" we tell eachother "good luck". There are enough crazy drivers that you are lucky to get through a snowstorm without some idiot crashing into you.

Things slowly returned to normal in the city by Tuesday afternoon, which is when we got our furniture finally. I spent today grocery shopping and unloading suit cases, finally making a home cooked meal, and trying to help Kyler get adjusted. Poor kid, he really need life to just be normal for a while.

Overall I like our place, the furniture etc is all nice, our walls are bare, but at least it's a place for us to call our own for a while. I'll post some pics of our place when we get it more put together. Remember, we have an extra bedroom if anyone wants to come stay!!!

P.S Rachel Seppie...they have a Ross and a TJ Max...I'm tell'n ya your meant to visit this place!

Day 6 and 7, On to Kentucky

2009-02-27T10:20:00.001-08:00

We are getting pretty good at this packing up thing, and Kyler loves it every time. Today we are heading from St. Louis, to Kentucky. About 4 1/2 hours. One they was we cross into Indiana for a short while

And then on into Kentucky. It was a really beautiful state. Of course everything was gray and dead as we drove by, but I could just picture it in the spring, it would have been breath taking.

We were headed to Mammoth Caves National park, and on the way, our car hit the 30,000 mile mark. If we still had our Mazda, we would have hit 100,000.

I really miss my Mazda. I was excited to see it turn 100,000. But this car has been a blessing for us. I don't know how we would have gotten everything here if we were still in the small car. Hopefully I can avoid the crazy drivers out there and see this car turn 100,000...almost there.

Kyler has learned that he hates his car seat, he fights tooth and nail when it's time to go somewhere. When we packed up for this trip, he screamed for almost an hour, there was nothing I could do to calm him down. He finally fell asleep, and Brian said a prayer that he might get some of the sleep that he needs. After the prayer he made a comment like "wouldn't it be cool if he slept the whole way there". Ya right I thought. Oh ye of little faith! He did! He slept for almost 3 1/2 hours! It was incredible. Thank heavens for the power of prayer and great husbands!

When we got to Mammoth Caves National Park, we went to the picnic area for lunch. There were so many trees I so wished we could have been there during the spring. A herd of 7 deer joined us. Kyler was mystified. We were the only ones there, so it was kind of magical. Then we headed back to the hotel to just hang out. Kyler and Brian were so cute on the bed watching cartoons. We ordered pizza in the room and all went to bed early.

The next morning we packed everything in the car and headed into the park for our Cave tour. We took the New Entrance tour, which includes the Frozen Niagara tour. It was about 2 hours and Kyler was perfect! There were about 15 people on the tour with us, the Ranger said in the summer they usually have 150, so it was fun to have a small group and get a more intimate approach to the caves.

We are fans of National Parks. I think it would be great to visit all the national parks. This park is different from what we are used to because it is all under ground. This tour starts out by going down a lot of steps. At the lowest point we were about 250 feet below the ground. I am glad Kyler did so well.

Then we set our sights for Cumming Georgia, to visit Phillip and Jamie (Brian's Brother and fam). It was supposed to be a 5 1/2 hour drive but right as we started a Semi lost it's contents all over the highway. We ended up going only 5 miles in an hour and a half. Kyler slept most of that time, so when we actually got on the way he was already to be done. I kept him busy with food and movies for the most part, but after we stopped for dinner he had had it. We were about 45 min from Phillip and Jamie's when he started to cry. There was nothing I could do to console him. He cried for half an hour and then threw up all over himself. Joy. We pulled over to clean him up and get the gunk out of his car seat. I didn't have anything to dress him in, so Brian just wrapped him in a blanket and tried to calm him down while I cleaned up. Then a cop pulled up behind us. He was just making sure we were all right. We told him our story and then he was on his way. A few seconds later another cop pulled up. This one stuck around till we were all packed up again and on our way. Thank heavens Phillip and Jamie's house ended up being just around the corner, I'm not sure we would have survived much longer.

I was sooo frustrated. Kyler was so tired but refused to fall asleep, a 5 1/2 hour drive took us 7, the weather was terrible (it was raining) so I was stressed with driving, and then Kyler decides to throw up just to top it all off. I wanted to blast the music on the radio but Tiffany wanted it off, she couldn't handle more noise. We were starting to get mad at eachother just because we were so frustrated. It is a good thing we are done driving for a while. It has been great to travel with Tiffany, we make such a good team. But after more than 32 hours in the car we were all ready to be done.

Phillip and Jamie were wonderful. They were the safe haven from the strom that we so desperately needed. They were great to help us unpack and get the car cleaned up the rest of the way from Kyler. Thanks to them for all their help.

It's been great to be here. Kyler has had a blast playing with his cousins, and Brian and I have had some time to rest and recuperate. It will be fun playing with Phillip and Jamie and their family while we are in North Carolina. We have several fun trips planned.

Day 5, St. Louis

2009-02-24T18:22:00.000-08:00

The day started with a yummy breakfast. I love that hotels these days have these cool waffle makers that make it safe and easy for guest to make their own warm breakfast. We only had 4 hours of driving ahead of us. The drive was uneventful, Kyler did sleep for an hour and 20 min which made things a lot more manageable. We stopped for the day in St. Louis, we heard a lot of good things about the zoo and the arch so we planned to spend the afternoon looking around.

The Zoo is free, as long as you can find someplace to park, if not..it costs $11 to park. It was a little chilly outside, but the sun was out, and we were like the only ones there. Most of the time we were the only ones looking at the exhibits. It was kind of nice. When you enter they have this statue of the sea lions. Kyler loved it.

And then around the corner are the real sea lions, I totally thought it was another statue. They were just sunning themselves on the rock.

Kyler loved the Polar bear, it kept sticking it's head up and looking right at us. Everything seemed so close, it was nice not to have bars or glass.

The Penguin exhibit was the best. Man can those things swim, and they can stop on a dime. They were so fun to watch. The St. Louis Zoo has the largest penguin exhibit in the nation. I was watching one really closely and realized to soon I was to close, yup, I got drenched. Brian couldn't stop laughing.

The zoo was great. Many of the animals were on vacation. They take a lot of their animals to different zoos for the winter. But it was still fun to see the ones that were here and it was great that we were one of the few people there. Also, as Tiffany said, the penguin exhibit was great. It was the best I have ever seen. You can get close enough to touch them, if you dare to get bit. - Brian

Then we headed over to the St. Louis Arch. It was really impressive. We got there late so we didn't get to take the ride to the top, but that's ok. We enjoyed taking pictures. Here are our favorites.

Then we headed to our hotel in Illinois. It just happened to be close and a good price. And we got to add another state to our list.

Kyler now knows that when we enter a hotel lobby, somewhere are these fun carts that he gets to ride on. He had so much fun helping Daddy unload the car..yet again.

More family fun time! We headed for the pool. This was a really nice facility, probably the nicest we've stayed in. The pool wasn't real warm though, so we'd spend a few minutes in the hot tub and then play on the pool chairs. Kyler was SO good. He was an angel all day. I have to remember in the moments that he's a screaming terror, it's only because he doesn't know whats going on, and he really just wants to play.

Day 4...the long drive through Kansas :(

2009-02-23T19:43:00.001-08:00

Day four we loaded up early because we had a 9 hour drive ahead of us. We started out optimistic. Kyler had fun playing with his new lap top (we got it at a toy store that was going out of business) for a whole 5 min and that's when we knew this drive was going to last forever.

We heard that the drive to Kansas was not to be envied. We read a shirt in a gas station that we thought summed it up pretty well. It went something like this...

We drove through Kansas and saw some wheat. We drove some more and saw a cow. Then we saw some more wheat. After some more driving we saw a telephone pole. After which we saw a cow in some wheat next to a telephone pole...Next time I''m flying.

Yup...that pretty much sums it up. The only thing that broke up the monotony was lunch. Our friends Rachel and Cole were always talking about their favorite taco place in South Dakota. Taco Johns. We just happened to find one and couldn't pass up the opportunity. We love and miss you Rachel and Cole!!!

I don't have a picture of the Missouri state sign because it comes somewhere in mess of freeway, and it was really late, and we were all ready to be done. But we did it. We got through Kansas in a day. We got to the hotel and took Kyler swimming because the poor kid and been through a lot. He deserved some fun. Then we all hit the sack, so glad our longest day was over.

Ya know...It might have been pretty if it were green. But since it is winter everything is dead and brown. It is a little disorienting driving through Kansas. I am used to having mountains to get my directions from. But in Kansas, if we would make a turn I would lose track of what way we were facing. I am glad we are out of there. ---Brian

Day 3 of our Trip Across the Country

2009-02-21T19:18:00.000-08:00

Day 3 was SO fun! All play and no traveling, and boy were we glad we had this day. Day four is a l..o...n...g...day. Anyway, we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon and monkey bread (it's like cinnamon rolls on steroids), thanks to Ken and Amy, then we packed lunches and loaded in the car. Our first stop was Seven Falls. It was a bit cold, but the sun was warm.
Seven falls is a series of waterfalls that you see from a series of really long steep stair cases. I think we did over 500 stairs that day. This is Ken and Amy's family headed up the stairs.

All of us at the top of one of the view points. The falls were frozen, so they weren't real spectacular from far away, but up close they were really neat because you could see the water running underneath.

Jill, Tanner, and Kyler. Jill did so good, she climbed almost all those stairs all by herself.

After we enjoyed a quick lunch in the sun by the falls, we loaded up in the car again and headed to Garden of the Gods. It's like a mini Moab in Colorado Springs. This is there version of balancing rock. We got out and let the kids run around, Kyler loved every minute of it. He was running so fast, Brian was having a hard time holding on to him.

We walked around the park, and the kids were all so good. There was this one rock that had a small crevas that a small child could walk all the way through. Tanner and Jill were doing it so Kyler decided he wanted to try, I helped him as far as I could go, and Brian reached for him as far as he could from the other side, but that still left a few steps he'd have to do on his own. He started toward Brian but then got scared and I thought for sure he was going to get stuck, but he finally grabbed Brian and everything was ok. Needless to say we were both too busy to get a picture :)

We came home tired and hungry. Kyler was sporting a fever again...103, so I fed him early and put him down to bed. He's still had the fever off and on (I'm typing this on day 5), but we've kept the motrin handy, and he's been ok...teething maybe??? who knows. Then we had a wonderful dinner, Salad, fruit smoothies, and homemade pizza...with the best pizza dough ever :) We shipped the rest of the kids off to bed, and stayed up laughing at Kens stories. It was a great day. We so would have loved to spend more time with the Pollary family. They were so wonderful to us we were sad to leave. Hopefully our paths will meet again soon.

This was a really fun day. It was nice to get out and just play. It was fun to see the water behind the ice falls. There were some fun formations of ice. It is too bad the pictures don't do justice to the beauty...I guess pictures rarely do. Garden of the Gods was also fun. It seemed out of place. I am used to state parks like this being somewhat secluded. This one, however, was right in the middle of suburbs. I wouldn't mind living in a neighborhood next to this park.--Brian

Day 2 of our Trip Across the Country

2009-02-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

Kyler slept till 7:30 (ahhh!!! angels sing), so we were all awake and ready to start another day. We had cold cereal in the room, packed the car and headed to Denver. The drive through the Rockie Mountains was beautiful, lots of fresh snow, and clear blue skies. I wanted to get a picture, but after I took this one of Kyler I must have misplaced my camera.

It was a beautiful drive. I am glad we had good weather. It would have been a nightmare if we were driving in a storm. We have been blessed with good weather, a good car, and a good kid. He has done well with the driving. Let's hope it stays that way. ---Brian
Don't worry I eventually found it. Here is the Denver sky line.

We met my cousin Ken and his family outside the Denver mint. The Denver mint is the only place west of the Mississippi to make coins that are actually in circulation. We took a tour and learned all kinds of nifty tid bits of information. You can't take ANYTHING in with you, including strollers, purses, phones, camera etc..so I only have a picture of the outside of the building.

The Mint was a fun place to tour. It was fun to learn about and see the process of making coins. It makes me want to be a numistmatist. The day we were there they were making pennies. Did you know it costs 1.8 cents to make a penny. We are losing millions of dollars to produce that little coin. Also the machines can make about 13 coins per second. I havn't done the math again but I think they said it was a million coins each day. Thats Nuts!!! ---Brian

On our way to Colorado Springs, we stopped to see the Denver Temple. It sure reminded me of the Jordan River Temple. The kids got out and ran around for a while. I kept Kyler in his seat because trying to get him back in it after the mint was a fiasco :)

We caught a glimpse of ship rock also.

We ended the day at Ken and Amy's house, with a wonderful home cooked meal, and warm comfortable beds. Amy has been the perfect host, she thought of everything, from a pack and play all set up and ready, extra blankets on the bed, wash cloths, and even shampoo and conditioner in our shower. We haven't wanted for anything. We are excited to post about day 3, we had a great time running around Colorado Springs.

Day One of our Trip Across the Country

2009-02-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

Day one felt like fifty all wrapped in one. I didn't think we would EVER get everything out of that place. We took like fifty trips to my Dads house (who's kindly storing all our stuff), and then we still ended up making last minute trips to my Moms, not to mention all the stuff we threw away just because we didn't want to deal with it. Sigh...but it's over, and we are now ON OUR WAY!! WAHOO!!

I am so tired of packing and un-packing and packing again. I tried to pack the crib as a favor to Tiffany...that didn't work out. I barely got everything else in. Now that we are packed the hard part is behind us...only 36 hours of easy driving awaits. ---Brian

Kyler is starting to climb! He always wants to see the doggy outside at grandma and grandpa Smiths house, so we've put a stool by the window so he can look when he want. I think this is what started it. He had a blast playing with his crib bars, up down, up down, up down.

We got everything in the car, and I don't think we could have fit one more ounce of food or anything else we might have needed. Kyler was lucky to find a spot :)

We finally got on the road about 2:00, Kyler did pretty well, he slept for about 45 min, and then had fun playing with his bag of animals he got in Vegas. We entered our first state about 5:00!

We were so excited when we got to Grand Junction. We were originally staying in some budget hotel, but I decided to try out priceline. The budget hotel was going to cost us about 70 dollars, but priceline got us a three star hotel for only 45 bucks! And they had an indoor pool!

Our only disappointment was that the pool ended up being closed. I was so sad, I was looking forward to some fun family time in the pool. Oh well, we had fun running around the room and playing with Kyler in the tub.

This is Kylers room :) We put the pack and play in the entry way and used the comforter from the bed to separate it from the room. It actually worked really well, he didn't even cry when I put him down. He talked to himself for a while and then went right to sleep. And now Brian and I are enjoying catching up on blogs, myfamily, and reading. Ahhhh...this is the life. Tomorrow.....Denver and staying with the Pollary's. Can't wait!