Thursday, December 17, 2009

Gingerbread House

Shyler's visit with Santa at Tim's work party... she was so excited until she got in the room with him. This would have been great to put with our Christmas cards, but we just got it... so at least you can enjoy it now.

For Family Home Evening this week we made our Gingerbread house. Not our best one ever, but we still have fun making one every year!

Shyler was so excited for the candy, we had to slow her down! She was just dripping from all of the juice! She loved the Mike-n-Ikes Tim got! She also had fun being able to decorate her own graham crackers!

Showing off her work, she liked the snowflake ones the best and really did put most of the pieces in place herself.
Mommy and Shyler working away!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Happy Holidays!!!

We have been so busy with the holidays, but we have been having a great time enjoying the season and being with family and friends. Here we are on Thanksgiving at Amanda's sister's house. Look at that belly! It's there really it is.... and don't worry I am having killer heartburn, and am feeling huge for those of you who think I am not that big!

Shyler had fun at Tim's work Children's party. Our little helper! She got to make this cool craft project with tissue paper and glue on a glass jar that had a handle on it and it turns into a really cool lantern. They even supplied a little battery operated candle! Shyler, however really only helped with about 3 pieces and then was done and enjoyed watching mom get her fingers all gluey.
They had a game room and Shyler loved playing the games and getting a prize out of the giant stocking. She also loved carrying around her cool treat back that she got to decorate.

32 week picture and getting even bigger! This baby is a lot lower and bigger than Shyler already, but other than that I shouldn't complain too much, he was healthy at a 30 week ultrasound and already weighed 3 1/2 lbs and growing bigger! He is still a big kicker and lets me know he is there. We are so excited to see him when he finally comes out to meet us!!!


Monday, November 16, 2009

Not much news

So not much is new with us. Baby boy is getting so big in my tummy and as always during every stage of your pregnancy, I feel huge!!! He kicks all the time and sometimes I think I'm going to have a bruise from all of his hard kicks! Only 11 weeks left and with Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of the fun stuff in between these next 11 weeks are going to fly by. Next week we will have more exciting news as we get a 30 week ultrasound to check a spot on his head. We hope to see that he is getting so big and is doing great!

Here I am last week at 28 weeks
Here I am at 28 weeks with Shyler, I think I'm a lot bigger already!!


We are excited to spend Thanksgiving with Amanda's family in Fort Collins and then go out with all of the crazies and go shopping!! It will be a fun next week! You'd think I would have a picture of Shyler to put up here at least, but we keep forgetting. Most likely it would be one of her newest fashion trends, don't worry, I'm sure there will be many more to come!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Happy Halloween for real

Luckily this was not how we had to spend Halloween. Just a few days before! She looks so cold in this picture. We tried to play in the snow, but when she won't wear her gloves the snow can be pretty cold.

She did like how I showed her she could kick the snow off with the side of the house, but that's about all she liked.

Like many of our friends we also got a little cabin fever. I was going crazy! I got her to sit still, sort of, long enough to try out two french braids in her hair. I was pretty excited I could actually do it and she has hair long enough already!

Now that Halloween has come and gone we are thinking that it is one of Shyler's favorite times of the year. She loved the trunk or treating that we did and her favorite candy is a lollipop! She was really good at finding them and unwrapping them. On Halloween night we were with Tim's sister Jeannette at their ward trunk or treat and she kept appearing with a new sucker, I think she had like 5 in that one night! Silly girl!


Here she is ready to go! She liked wearing her costume for the most part and when she didn't want to wear it Tim just told her she was going to get candy so she had to put it on and she listened.

After it was all said and done, she LOVED her loot! She of course found a sucker and opened it up after she dumped out the entire contents of her bucket on the kitchen floor

This is what happens when daddy is in charge and you have a very independent toddler. This is how Shyler woke up to me this morning. Polka dot footie pajamas, her blue stripped shirt that she now loves because it is blue and, please note the next picture, her elmo socks! Apparently she insisted on the sock picture as well during her photo shoot last night. She loves taking pictures now and after you click she says, " see, see, shyler see"


This is Lindsey, I get to watch her once or twice a week and her and Shyler are only a month apart. Today they were trying out Fruit Loop necklaces. (Thanks Dre for the idea) They both loved them. Not so good at the construction part of the project but they liked eating it. Lindsey had already gobbled hers up by the time I got the camera and was happy to just munch away.

But here is Shyler loving her fruity edible necklace

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Ok so it's not Halloween yet, but we have been having fun getting ready for it! We went to the pumpkin patch and farm to get in the mood with Tim's parents, Uncle Mel, Amanda's Mom and Tim's sister Sarah and her family. Shyler and her cousin are finally starting to like to play with each other and have a good time! We are happy for them and can't wait to see if they will be good friends as they grow up. We are also excited for our little guy on the way. We just found out Tim's sister who is only 6 weeks behind us is having a boy too! We will have two little guys running around that will also be best buds! We hope that the other 2 sisters are able to have one so we can have a round of cousins within a year of each other, that will be so fun!!!

The two farm boys so excited to see an oliver, bringing back so many memories for them!
Shyler loving the little kid maze
Mel and Calvin sitting in the patch
Sarah Calvin and Roger
Why is Shyler squating like that? We're not sure but she does that a lot lately for pictures, she is so silly!
Shyler got to try out her costume early at the Trunk or Treat for Tim's parents ward. I was at a baby shower so I didn't even get to see how cute she looked and I also had the camera, thank goodness for camera phones. Shyler also discovered the joy of the trunk or treat and the candy that comes with it! She loved her glow in the dark braclets one car was passing out.

What happens with Shyler in the bathroom while mommy is getting ready for the baby shower... somehow she slipped them under the lid. Didn't know that was happening I thought they were just on top of the toilet... needless to say we are down a few hair elastics and barrettes.

After her fun time at the Trunk or Treat she was so excited she didn't want to go to bed, and like most nights tries to procrastinate... well Sat night she found her headband and we couldn't stop laughing at how silly she looked and the cheesy grins she was flashing.

On Monday we braved a rough cranky morning and took a trip to Colorado Springs to visit Shannon and Travis and Dre and Lexi met us down there. It was fun to visit with old friends and to watch the little ones interact. I think Travis is afraid of Shyler and all of the hugs she tried to give him, and Lexi wished Shyler would stop following her and getting in her space. Shyler has a problem with personal space sometimes. I wish they were more cooperative while I took pictures, but they loved giving hugs goodbye

And Lexi waved goodbye to her too

Last night we had a chance to carve our pumpkins! This is the first year we actually both carved our own! We had Tim's sister Karen over to carve with us. Shyler wasn't so into it, but maybe because she had an upset tummy. Mine is on the left with Tim's in the middle and Karen's on the Right. We have learned that we like the templates but we are not smart enough to follow our dots that we poke so we outlined the dots with marker so we would know where to carve. It worked out great and will have to be something I do from now on!


Happy Halloween! We hope you all have a great weekend!


Monday, October 12, 2009

24 weeks down... so much more fun to go

So we have been slackers again and should probably post more often than once every 4 weeks. But we have had a lot of fun the last 4 weeks and have been busy doing a lot of the same and some other fun stuff. I am 24 weeks along and am still growing big, but staying busy with the family.

I love this candid picture of Tim and Shlyer reading together! She loves to read!
GO RAMS! Shyler was all set to cheer on her favorite college ram team and she even let me try to do her hair, of course I had to let her play with the bathroom cups. Maybe they haven't been winning because she hasn't been wearing her cheerleading outfit to cheer them on... we'll try next week.

One night after a good day, Tim decided Shyler deserved a real treat before bed so Shyler got oreos! They are her favorite and when she sees a package of them she gets super excited! She is a big fan of licking off the icing!
You can't have oreos without milk! Yum!

Our biggest adventure was taking a trip to Utah! We packed up and took my mom out with us to visit some friends and to get away. We didn't end up going to a session of conference, but we did get to go to the Salt Lake Temple.

It was so nice to be together in the temple and to feel the spirit. It was also great to visit our friends the Jacobsen's. I got a fun girls night with candy and The Hannah Montana movie and trying to learn a dance while Tim went to the BYU vs. Utah State football game. He didn't really care who won, but he had fun with that very, very different college football game experience.


So if you are ever in the American Fork area with kids they have this great place called Kangaroo Zoo. It was so cool it was a giant room full of different bounce castles! Shyler was a little apprehensive at first but then ended up having a great time!

Here she is going down one of the slides
Going down with Hyrum, her boyfriend

Playing on the alligator with daddy watching
Trying to climb up the ladder in the obstacle course

After a fun time with the Jacobsen's we also got to visit Tim's mission companion, Mitch and his wife, Shannon. They were so nice to let us come visit and watch conference with them. Too bad for them they had to watch it with a very energetic toddler. We hope they were able to get a message out of it. On Sat. night when the boys went to the priesthood session us girls went shopping! Don't go to a mall in Salt Lake on the same night as the priesthood session. Craziness!! It was fun and we got some great stuff. Shannon who is expecting their little guy in Nov got some new clothes and I found little our little guy a couple of things.

The drive home was ok. I had to drop Tim off in Rock Springs, WY for a work trip and then drive the rest of the way. Luckily I had my mom with me so help keep Shyler entertained. We busted out the DVD player and that was very helpful. The fact that I was driving wasn't bad, it was the fact that I was driving in rain, sleet, snow, fog... you name it, it fell on us.

Our latest adventure, which might be one of our craziest is that we ran the CSU homecoming race this past weekend. It was 16 degrees with a couple inches of snow on the grass and snowing while we ran!!!!!! We are crazy but we actually had a lot of fun! Thankfully my mom watched Shyler so she didn't have to be subjected to that, but Tim's sister Jeannette, Tim and I all ran the 5k!!! I won't say that we had good times, but we ran the whole time and I like to remember the weather conditions and the fact that I am 5 1/2 months pregnant... can you tell I'm pretty proud of it? Since it was so cold we didn't bring our camera to document it, but we got our shirts and you could find our time and name if you really wanted to know on the website. That is my 4th year in a row running the race and I love our tradition of running this race. I also love our breakfast tradition of Silver Grille's cinnamon roll french toast afterwards... YUMMY!!!!


Thursday, September 17, 2009

IT'S A...


It's a BOY!!!!!!!
We had our 20 week ultrasound today and we are excited to share that we are having a boy! It took about 2 seconds on the screen to see him showing himself off we could tell right away. He was very cooperative and the technician got great shots and we got to see all of his perfect little parts! Amanda's mom watched Shyler during our visit since it was during nap time and when we got home she was teaching her how to say brother... sounds like bra- der, so cute!!!


He looks like he is blowing a bubble if you look close enough. We had fun watching him swim around and kick A LOT! He is an active little guy and is practicing for when he gets out and has to keep up with his sister.


Here I am at 20 weeks. I feel big and comparing to when I was pregnant with Shyler I am bigger and have gained a little more faster. Hopefully I don't gain a ton more. Luckily I am feeling well and not too much is happening except for getting full fast, so sad when something is so tasty! I have gotten over the super tired phase as well, but I do love my sleep!


We can't forget about our little princess, the other day she was so tired she fell asleep on me at like 11am before lunch and so I just put her in bed. She slept for 2 hours and then was ready for lunch. She has also been doing very well in her big girl bed. She stays in it for the most part, even at night when she doesn't want us to leave she will stand up and cry a little but then will lay down and go to sleep eventually. Hopefully that is not a jinx on us, and she keeps it up. In the morning we love that she gets up and knocks on the door and calls for us! Soon she'll be able to reach the knob, but for now we love the knock!


Sporting a fresh bang trim and an old hat from when her Great Grandpa Irwin ran for state legislature. She just loves hats!

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

A little of this and a little of that....

So I haven't posted in a while because I didn't think we had much to talk about, but then we had a super busy weekend and have lots to share!!!!

Starting on Thursday night we started painting our family room. We have slowly been going room by room painting and this was one of the last big ones we really wanted to do. We are almost done making it look pretty but the paint job alone is great! It is the same colors that are in the living room and kitchen because we figured it was all kind of open to each other and we wanted a nice flow. For those of you that have been in our house we also re-arranged too!


We have a kid, can you tell? We want to get those little bins to put in those 4 little cubby holes in the entertainment center. We also want to get slip covers for the couch and recliner so it will match a little better and new blinds for the window.

This wall had 3 wood shelves that we took down and patched up.


The view from the kitchen table


On Sat. I had to work, but Tim wanted to get out and enjoy our beautiful mountains. They left at 6:30 and drove to the top of Mt. Evans!

The Moon at 6:30 am

The mountain goats
Shyler sitting at the official marker, her first 14'er

Our little monkey mountain climber!

GO RAMS!!!! We can't forget that we had a fun Sunday night watching the Rams beat the Buffs!

On Monday we finished out a long weekend with a trip to A Taste of Colorado. We love going and enjoying the variety of food and looking around. We went with Tim's sister Karen and his mom and dad. We enjoyed a tasty buffalo burger along with a few other treats!

Shyler liked the ear of corn she split with her daddy

But, she LOVED the snow cone she got to split with her mommy, well more like took over!

Our final event of the long weekend involved the purchase of Shyler's new bed! She fell out of her crib last week and has been trying to climb out for a while. So after lots of thinking and a chat with her pediatrician we decided on a twin bed on the floor for now. We kept her up late while we set it up and washed her new sheets. Then I had to stay in there with her until she fell asleep. She slept all night and did really well and is super excited to have a new bed! She kept pointing at it while we were re-arranging her room and the bed was downstairs. We also rearranged so that when our next little one comes there will be a spot ready for the crib to go back.
Shyler also got her 18 month check up this week and what a surprise she is where she always is in the percentiles.
34 1/2" ~ 97 %
23 lb 5 oz ~ 25%
She is still our tall skinny girl!!!

Big yawn for the big girl!