....California Dreamin'....

Such a Merry Christmas!

2012-02-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

We were happy this year to be able to spend Christmas with Kyle's side of the family in Washington. We even stayed home for Thanksgiving to make sure we would have enough time to enjoy the holiday together. We had so much fun watching Anabelle really enjoy Christmas and get excited about the Christmas trees and presents and fun activities! She had recently discovered her surprised and excited face and loved to use it whenever possible so that just made her excitement that much more fun!

Yes there are a lot of pictures... Its Christmas:)

Opening her pajamas from the elves with grandma and then wearing them over her fleece ones because they are bit too big. ha

Going through stocking goodies with dad.

I love this girl! She is too funny and adorable in anything!

First time bowling with us and she really loved it. She wanted to carry and push the ball all by herself. Of course we gave her a little help:)

Grandma and Grandpa "enjoying" all of the baby toys inside their cool fort with Anabelle.

A packed car meant lots of fun for Anabelle!:)

And a gingerbread house competition! She got to be the judge and Kyle tried to persuade her. But in the end I think she was just pointing to what Grandma pointed to last! Sorry Ash and Brian. HAHA

Thats ours with the red and green dots. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

The only picture I have from Christmas Eve. She was getting tired but we were still playing the magical christmas chimes and Grammy and Papa's. Ha

Her first baby doll! She was really excited to see it and hold it and it was so sweet! We were so glad she was excited to have one. Then she dropped it and walked away.:) Thats about how long she is interested in it for now!

Cute picture taken by grandma!

Her "Perry" dolls from the mall with grandma. She picked them out and grandma couldn't resist because of the way she liked to carry them around like that by the nose:)

Of course like usual there was lots of yummy food and eating out and us siblings had a lot of fun together!! We even left Anabelle to be put to bed by grandma and grandpa so we could go to a Christmas play. It was not easy on me to say the least but she did great and we really do have fun together with our family and we had fun in downtown Seattle on our own!

Not only did we have fun in Seattle this year, but man were we spoiled. It was even before Christmas came this year that I kept saying, I already feel so blessed with everything we have been given that I don't need anything more. We were so lucky to see both grandparents this December and were grateful for the generosity that was given! As usual:)

Out on the Town

2012-01-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

We never can get over how cute this girl is to us!! We got her this silly little hat one day and she is so sweet she leaves it on:) Love this girl!

Stopping for one of our most favorite meals! Calzones at Jonnies on 3rd St. We lost count how many times we came here long ago!

Not long after Grandma and Papa took us to see the fish at the aquarium, our great friends Whitney and Chapin offered to take us along with their free passes. Yes please:) This is Anabelle taking a closer look at the scary sharks. She doesn't know they are scary yet, but just seeing her so close to an open tank of sharks gave me a case of anxiety! For some reason I get this feeling like when I am close to a high ledge and it seems I could randomly lose control and fall, I was always afraid I'd some how be able to fall in with the whales or something as a kid.

Taking a ride on a hermit crab.

Like I said, she doesn't know they are scary and so she was trying to feed her cracker to the large mouth lined with teeth:)

It was so cool, there were a bunch of people sitting and watching the seals be trained and get their exercise, but when Kyle put Anabelle up on the ledge the guy had seal come right to her and say hi!

They shared a little smooch!:)

She also loves water so much that she was happy to stick her fingers right into the touch tank of sting rays and we got her to touch one a couple of times. Silly girl. I was proud of myself for doing it too and they feel surprisingly cool. Like a hard snail. They are slimy!

We were excited this time that the birds were out and we could feed them. They attack you for this yummy nectar juice. Anabelle usually loves animals, but she thought these were a little too close for comfort and she just wanted to get out!

She is giving me the "why on earth would you make them come over here" look:)

Thanks for the fun day guys!

Surprise, Surprise!

2012-01-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

Kyle and I were anxiously awaiting the day to spill the news... Baby number two is on its way!!

I think I was a little more anxious as I was dying to be truthful about having been miserable and stop pretending to be ultra lazy just because:) I was beginning to think our friends would assume I was a bum! Plus, this belly is growing faster than last time and I felt like every glance was lingering and that everyone was eyeballing my belly as if they knew exactly what I was hiding! ha Hooray for baby and for sharing the excitement with everyone!

One fun thing about Anabelle is that she is a true girl and she loves her accessories! I can usually convince her to keep in a hair bow or headband just by telling her how pretty she is and letting her see in the mirror. Once she sees how great she looks, she is happy to show it off for everyone. We thought these mittens were adorable and were so surprised when Anabelle seemed to agree. She would actually leave them on for long amounts of time and then ask for them to be put back on if they fell off. Shes such a silly girl and so much fun!

This girl loves her blanky. She is seriously attached along with those ever present binkis. She took a little time out from play in order to indulge in both:)

Grandma Broadbent sent this fun Christmas package and we had a good time with it. Once again, Anabelle had fun checking out her new accessory in the mirror!

I realize that our videos are all sideways. We are so smart.

Enjoying some music at the ward Christmas party. Kyle insisted she wear the antlers for part of it:)

Anabelle and I had a little date to Pinkberry on the Promenade while Kyle was home sick with the flu. I felt bad leaving, but he was quarantined in the bedroom and we needed a house break. Yum!

You won't feel so bad for Kyle knowing that I got it myself just two days later. It was the most terrible flu too!! We were both absolutely miserable and wiped out!! I had a little break down after one whole day of misery and not getting to hold or kiss my baby for the first time ever. I had already been sick for weeks and this just sent me over the edge. My body ached like I had fallen from a three story building. If you were one of the few to avoid it this year, count your lucky stars!

How lovely are thy branches

2012-01-03T21:25:00.000-08:00

We decided last year that we really wanted to get a real tree even though we would be gone for Christmas and now we love our new tradition! There is nothing like having the real thing. Anabelle was a bit more help this year too:) She was so funny pushing around the massive orange cart and we were surprised that she could push it around all by herself!

Yup just right. We found it!

I guess she decided a free ride was just as fun as pushing it herself:)

Home for the Holidays

2012-01-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this picture doesn't have anything to do with the holidays, but I couldn't leave it out. She just looks so cute despite those scary looking arm bandages. At least they are scary to me! My poor baby had to have blood drawn and it didn't go too well. Luckily I had Kyle to hold her down because I was getting sick just being in the room and knowing what was happening. I was so worried it would go badly and it did. They couldn't get blood and had to poke her twice. I think the first guy was just dumb and didn't do it right and hurt my poor girl!! She still woke up from her nap smiling and beautiful as usual:)

This picture is funny because it captures me in the back being sick prego mom during the phase that was secret to everyone else. Sadly for Anabelle this was my status many a mornings while I was enjoying morning (more like all-day) sickness and exhaustion. Pulling out the Christmas decorations is always fun and exciting for me so I was glad she was able to enjoy playing with them in the meantime:)

I mentioned before that we were home for Thanksgiving. Although we were very much missing our usual family time for the holiday, we were pleased with how yummy our little dinner turned out and had fun together.

Kyle wasn't about to have Thanksgiving without his family's traditional orange rolls and made his first attempt on his own. They turned out great and Anabelle loved them!

This picture wouldn't rotate. Ugh. But I still thought they were very cute!

Our yummy feast! It was well worth the work and we enjoyed it for the next couple of days:) We were happy that Anabelle loved the potatoes and turkey just as much as we did!

Mmmm Turkey

Anabelle is somehow always more likely to relax and lay back with Kyle more so than she ever does for me! She usually demands my complete attention at all times!! I thought it was so funny to find them both kicked back like this! ha

Visitors!

2011-12-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

I don't think its any secret that when it comes to decision making, I am the worst. Second only to my mother:) Thanks for passing that one on mom. Anyway, in a lame attempt to keep our apartment owner happy we decided to stay here this year for Thanksgiving and it was our turn to visit my family. I hated missing out on family time!!! It's so much harder during the holidays! But we had a pretty sweet little dinner here on our own and luckily for us, my parents decided they would come for a visit before Christmas so that we could at least be together for a short time. Yippee!

While they were here we got SPOILED!!! They were excited to get Christmas shopping done since we wouldn't be together and then we decided it would be fun to let Anabelle play with her big gift while they were here to play too! They got her a little kitchen and she loves it!!! One of the first things she did was go put her hands under the faucet and try to wash them. I think she was wishing water would really come out, but she has been learning to pretend and still does it all the time. She like to "cook" the food and stir anything and everything that is on the stove. We call the silver pot her hot chocolate pot and she loves to stir it and then poor it in her little cup for me to drink. Its so cute to see her learning so much and I love to sit with her and see what she comes up with!

We were trying to enjoy some sunshine so we planned a picnic at the marina. It was a little chilly but it still felt nice to be out in the fresh air! After being sick for a couple of months, I was missing my vitamin D! Papa showed Anabelle how to feed the birds and she thought it was so cool. She wanted to try and one flew up and snatched it right out of her hand! She didn't like that so much. Ha

Anabelle showing grandma the seal we found. She loved it and wanted us to take her to see it up close to bad!

Grandma and Papa also took us to the Long Beach aquarium and we all loved it! It was the perfect activity to get out of the yucky rain outside. She loves animals and had fun getting right up to the glass to see the big fish!

Giant Fish!

We didn't want to miss the sharks outside so we braved the rain and daddy let Anabelle wear his hat for cover:)

Look we found a daddy in this one! ha

I Give Up...

2011-12-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well, as many of you know, I am terrible at keeping up with this blog. I make myself all kinds of empty promises that I will catch up entirely and then be really great at it. The tragic truth is that I planned to be all caught up before Anabelle turned one and then disaster struck our picture files. Kyle kindly moved ALL of our family photos over to an external hard-drive in order to make more room on the computer and they have been a completely unorganized and almost impossible to track down mess ever since. One day I got really motivated and tried to find pictures for all kinds of posts I was behind on and made a separate folder complete with dates and labels, only to learn that when you unplugged the hard-drive again, somehow all the files I thought I downloaded disappeared. I was SO discouraged! I basically decided it was impossible and have been terribly behind ever since. So, I am finally going to suck it up, give in, and start off with where we are at now so that I don't continue to forget all the fun adventures we are having as I put it off any further! Heres to giving it another go:)

To Grandmother's House We Go!

2011-11-10T17:08:00.001-08:00

Just before we were off to Utah to spend Christmas with Grandma and Papa, Anabelle got a Christmas blanket from Grandma Broadbent in the mail. She liked it!

Anabelle all bundled up and ready to drive through the pouring RAIN all the way to Utah. We were lucky once again though and she was really good all the way there. Other than a couple of expected stops and a couple of very messy diapers, we made it!!

We had fun watching Kai and Anabelle have some bonding time too. Kai shocked everyone by standing up next to her chair to get a good look at her face! He held himself up just like that for minutes until somebody grabbed him again:)

Traditional bowling with the whole family. We love when the Scherer family is with us and we have so much fun doing all the fun activities together! Not to mention they were all meeting Anabelle for the first time, Great Grandma Scherer included!

Another tradition, the nativity of course! This was the innocent and beautiful beginning...

And then the rest of the crew arrived and things got a little more interesting... but even more fun:)

My mom and sister planned a night of minute to win it for everyone and we had a blast!

Back and grandma and papa's house the grandkids got to open there first present, their Christmas PJs!

We were sure that Anabelle would be the one to wake us early, but she was so tired that my sister came and woke us all up. Of course the only mornings Anabelle wants to sleep in we have to be getting up:) She was so tired that she kept sleeping until we were half way done with opening presents, but then she was happy and loved all her new goodies!

Matching cousin jammies:)

We may have had a few issues posing the kids:)

Kyle went to "check" on Anabelle. More like fall asleep holding her binki in. Sleepy heads:)

Matching Christmas outfits:)

She got this sweet jumping toy from grandma and papa and we were so excited that she could already sit in it! She loved it and we were excited to have a break for our arms!

Late night family games! Even Jared tried to be a good sport and play along!

Cute little snow babies!! Keeping each other company while we played lazer tag. Again and again:)

We thought it would be fun to introduce the "skittle game" to the Gibson family. Everyone actually did really well and we were cracking up the whole time! Even Nanny joined in the fun- she's that cool:)

Heather was resourceful and used her "upper lip!" Too funny!

But in the end... I won it. I think the fact that I am a professional junk food enthusiast might have had something to do with that.

Our New Years Eve wasn't complete without the hot tub so we braved the FREEZING weather and Landon cleared a path with the shovel so we could get in. Us brave ones that is:)

Anabelle decided to wake up just in time to celebrate the New Year with us and we thought that was a wonderful idea. Just made our night that much better!

Happy New Year 2011!

We had so much fun and were so grateful to be able to spend the holidays with our families! We did so many fun things together and made so many great memories. To mention a few, lazer tag till we dropped with our family and cousins, sledding in the freezing cold, shopping, games, Kyle and I making dinner for all, Christmas Eve at Nannies, being together, it was the best!

Gettin' Into the Christmas Spirit

2011-11-10T16:51:00.001-08:00

I am seriously missing some of our Christmas pictures right now:( So here is just a look at what I've got. We went to a "tree lot" just down the road from our house to pick out our first Christmas tree as a little family. Even though it was slim pickings and was right off of the busy road, I was immediately consumed with holiday spirit and we had fun picking out our favorite (small and cheap) tree!

I also decided that it would be fun to make us a set of matching stockings this year since we didn't actually have any of our own. Kyle and I picked out the fabric and I got to it making up my own design as I went. Winging it as usual. I was happily surprised with how they turned out and as you can see Kyle had a little fun in the process!

He persuaded me to attach them to my face as well, but I was laughing too hard to even get out a HoHoHo. Its nice to have a husband who brings humor into all our adventures!

Thanks for letting me borrow your sewing machine Dana:)

Anabelle trying out her new little coat (Christmas present) because we were too excited to wait and see how it looked. We figured she wouldn't remember when present time arrived anyway:)

We had fun shopping for our own baby for the first Christmas ever and having her with us just made the Holiday season feel more exciting and special than ever before! We were loving every minute of the new adventures and excitement that came with our amazing little gift!

Our Greatest Blessing!

2011-11-10T13:45:00.001-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving it was our turn to be with Kyle's family and so we packed up and crossed our fingers that her first plane ride would go smoothly. Kyle was scared that she would cry and people would be mad, but I was terrified that her ears would hurt and she'd be screaming in pain and I would be trapped with absolutely no way to help her. Turns out, she was great! She slept and ate and we made it the whole way without any problems.

However, once we got there, it was freezing!! But they were ready and waiting in the airport for us with two different snow suits like this just in case one was better than the other:) We thought she'd be ok, but as soon as we stepped outside we realized we were under estimating the weather and popped her right into this silly suit. She looked like a stiff little star and I just couldn't stop myslef from immediately thinking, "I can't put my arms down!" haha

Look at that sleepy little angel baby:) We wasted no time going downtown to shop and see Pike Place Market and even though I was pretty sure it was too cold for her even in this suit, she did amazingly well and slept in the Bjorn all bundled with mom. I laid her down while preparing to feed her in Nordstrom and couldn't help but take a picture of her stiff little body:)

She was in high demand the moment we arrived and I did my best to share her with all the anxious and waiting family! Luckily they eat a lot at that age so we still got some snuggle time in:)

Anabelle's seat for Thanksgiving dinner. At only two months, she was basically already too big for it. She's such a big girl!

Stephanie always decorates beautifully and has tons of accessories but my favorite part was when the kids making the seating cards made one for Anabelle! It was so fun to have our new little baby with us and to see her name up on the table with ours! Everyone knew what we were grateful for that year!

Grandpa was so patient waiting for his turns to hold Anabelle and would offer to hold her at just about every meal, waiting to eat his food until after we gotten ours. He knew it was the perfect time for everyone else to be preoccupied, but I thought it was really sweet!

Out to dinner with the family!

Beautiful sleepy head:)

I was never very good at pumping and keeping up with nursing, but when I got the chance it was so nice to give her a bottle and not have to sneak away! I loved seeing Kyle feed her with a bottle too.

Kyle had been excited to shoe shop for our kids long before we were even ready to start our family. He had so much fun when she was ready to keep shoes on those tiny feet! He is always good at mixing up the colors and outfits a bit:)

We had so much fun sharing her with all of Kyle's side of the family and felt so happy that she was so loved and adored by everyone! She was and still is our greatest blessing and our love for her has far exceeded any expectation either of us could have ever had! Some things are worth waiting for. We can't get enough of this happy,beautiful, and sweet girl!

Blessing Day

2011-09-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

Since we knew Cal was going to have to wait longer to meet Anabelle and we knew we wanted to have family in town for her blessing day, we decided to bless Anabelle during Grandma and Grandpa Broadbent's visit in November. We also took too long to pick a dress for her to wear and couldn't find one that we loved, so grandma offered to sew one for her instead. We picked out a pattern and some fabric and she worked really hard and it turned out super cute!! I wanted a more modern looking one than old, long, beaded and lace ones, so this made me so happy!

I made her headband out of some extra dress fabric too so that was kinda fun and we were ready to go! The white blanket we used that day was made by her Great-grandma Gibson who knitted baby blankets for each of her grandkids to use for their babies before she had passed away. I loved my grandma very much and miss her, so it meant a lot to me!

Dad was so nervous about the blessing and if Anabelle would cry, that he forgot to ask the Bishop to join the circle:) He thought we would join in automatically. Other than that, it went great and Kyle did a really good job and Anabelle was happy.

Until.... we tried to take pictures with her! Every time we tried to pose for one, she would start crying and just wanted to be asleep. Probably had something to do with us pulling her binki out:) That didn't exactly improve the quality of the family picture.

Haha what sad face!

Hooray for Grandpa!

2011-09-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Poor Grandpa was so sad that he had to wait this long to meet his first grand daughter and it wasn't easy for Kyle either. But in the end we were just happy and relieved that he was healthy and healing after our little scare! We were so excited when he was ready to come out and meet her!

If you look closely, you can see that Grandpa's hand/arm were still getting better, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from some snuggle time with Anabelle!

The weather was still so great for November! We got to do lots of fun outdoor activities while they visited.

Including another day at the beach. Gotta love that!

Grandpa and Anabelle enjoying the shade for a rest.

We even got to take advantage of the free babysitting and get out for a swim together! Since I am too afraid to get in the ocean alone, this was the perfect time to enjoy the amazing weather:)

More picture taking by grandma. I just like Anabelle in this picture!

I love how Stephanie looks super happy in this picture. Babies!!:)

We had a lot of fun during their visit as always, but it was great to have Cal come and be back to himself after all the worrying we had been doing about his health! It was pretty scary for a while there and all I could do was hope that we wouldn't be welcoming a new life into our family while being forced to say goodbye to another that we weren't ready for!

Two Eskimos and a Penguin

2011-09-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, Kyle and I got this little penguin costume before I was even pregnant. Years before Anabelle in fact. We just found it on sale at the store our first year of marriage and thought it might be a fun thing to save for a future kiddo. Then we realized that the chances of timing things right for a baby to fit in this was slim. Guess we got lucky with this one because she is one cute penguin:)

I on the other hand, have always been challenged in the costume department and always have the hardest time coming up with something fun. Which is where the two eskimos come in to play. We figure a family theme is popular these days and so we went with it. With such a new baby and no big plans, our only halloween festivities consisted of a ward trunk or treat. Kyle was such a trooper and wore one of MY fury vests and even let me slather on some eyeliner to complete the eskimo look. The best part was getting asked if we were egyptians all night long.

But we had the candy and some make-shift trunk decorations and joined in the fun! In the end we were glad we had some way of being a part of the festivities and were glad that Anabelle got to sport the long awaited costume after all.

In the end we were completely satisfied with our costume selection as everyone else seemed to be freezing cold or hiding their babies in their cars while we were perfectly toasty and Anabelle took a little snooze in her sleeping bag-esk attire:)

Beach Baby

2011-09-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Oct. 27th- just one day past a month old we decided to take Anabelle to the beach for the first time. We were still having some of that amazing fall weather and it was hot out! I just remember thinking that I didn't want her to be too hot even in the shade and that she would enjoy the fresh air in her swimsuit. The only one she had was 3-6 mo. but this big girl filled out quite well:)

Kyle went that morning to get this awesome shade tent for us and it worked out perfectly! It was nice to feel like we had our own little space out in the middle of the open beach.

We had never seen this happen before. Or else we just didn't pay attention to it. But the whole beach was covered in these tiny little clam shell things. I still can't believe how many there were. I felt a little bad too because you could see they were alive and you could help but walk all over them.

And we found sand dollars all over which we hadn't seen before. We kept thinking we had found the smallest one, and then we would beat that with another.

She was so good and we loved being able to get back to the beach and share one of favorite activities here with her! It was the first of many beach days to come!

Oh How I Adore You!

2011-09-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

If you take pictures like we do, then you know how crazy hard it is for me to sort through and pick just a few to blog about! I have the hardest time not wanting to post every picture I find. I guess it doesn't help that I think my baby is SO cute and that EVERY photo needs to displayed:) I tried to document every little milestone (basically every day) and all the memories are so fun! Here are just a few from her "tiny phase" that I loved so much!

Some people say they love it when they pass the newborn phase because they start to smile and respond. But somehow Anabelle always seemed to have a smile for us and I loved it so much! I love how she looks so small all curled up in her dads arms.

I was really excited to get her cute tights and leggings. Love that cute bum!!

This was on her first trip out when we went to Malibu.

Kyle had taken these on his phone in the hospital so I didn't even seem them for a long time. But when I finally discovered them, they were two of my most favorites!

Along Came an Aunt

2011-09-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

We can't forget that Grandma didn't come alone. Yes grandpa was stuck at home, but we were super lucky to have Aunt Ashley join the party a few days later. She flew in from Rexburg to meet Anabelle and go to a best friend's wedding up in Santa Barbara. In order to maximize time together, we decided to make the trip up there to go along. Anabelle's first road trip! It really did actually take longer than we thought to get there, but Anabelle did amazingly well the whole trip! They are such good troopers when they sleep 90% of the day:)

Even though she spent most of the night asleep in her blanky, she had lots of admirers and looked super adorable in her little pink tool dress and black sweater!

Ashley and Grandma were very patient with us as I was still pretty much in recovery mode and not super "get out and go" yet, but we did go down to the pier for Anabelle's first time and we ate some of their delicious ice cream from the Soda Shop.

We were just happy she could come meet her niece and play for the weekend and Anabelle got a lot of good snuggle time!

Washed Ashore

2011-05-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Pictures, pictures, pictures when grandma is here! I bet if she hadn't have been there I wouldn't have been brave enough for this next shoot. I had a vision in my mind of the exact picture I wanted of our little family so I was really excited to be able to have her here to make it happen. Then I had another brilliant idea for my super neat antique store find. Got to have beach pictures when you live this close.:)

Not to worry... Kyle was standing by to grab/rescue her in case ANYTHING tried to get anywhere near her!:) I was thinking this shot would be impossible, but when we got to the waters edge, the wind calmed and the sunlight got soft, and Anabelle was completely content in there!!:) She fell asleep and snuggled right in oblivious to where she was!
This was the one I wanted so bad and I love it. It is on our family room wall in a frame that Kyle made for us.

And this was the entire view:) She looks so mini!! Of course if we had planned to have our whole body in it we would have posed her more nicely. We were just trying to make sure our legs were the only thing showing so we had to hold her arms up. Poor baby. She looks so teeny!

Nice To Meet Ya

2011-05-24T20:09:00.001-07:00

Grandma Broadbent finally got introduced to her first grandbaby! I secretly knew all along that grandma was going to have a really hard time waiting once Anabelle arrived, but Kyle's parents decided to let my parents have a visit first and then come. Everyone was of course extremely sad when grandpa couldn't make it because he was home sick, but we were happy that grandma could meet her at last.

Of course one of the first things we did when grandma came was hit some stores for shopping! Anabelle was giving us a little fashion show even though she still had some growing to do:)

And of course, another thing we did while grandma was here.... take pictures!! I loved my Anabelle photo shoot but I was happy to get some family pictures with her. I know Stephanie was happy to finally have some willing subjects!:)

Thanks grandma for helping us! It would have been pretty tricky trying to figure out how to do these on our own!!

Curly Locks!

2011-05-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

More bath-time curls! I loved those curls so much!

I love this picture of her hair for two reasons. A) because you can see it so well and how soft and fluffy it was. B) because her and Kyle look like hair twins:) I always said she had his same hair line:)

Sleepy Heads!

2011-05-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

I was always wondering how in the world I could do it with the second baby if my first wasn't willing to sleep all the time!! Thankfully with your first you can try to squeeze in naps when they do. Plus, we love extra cuddle time!!

Sleeping in her bed right next to mom! This cradle was the most perfect street find ever! We actually found it on the curb walking down the street while babysitting. The owners were tossing this gem out! All we did was replace one piece and give it a new paint job. It worked perfectly and Anabelle really loved it.

The fun begins...

2011-05-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

I know it is no secret that I love to take pictures. Add a newborn to the mix and I am loving it even more! But my very own?! It was the best!!! I just kept snapping away and couldn't help it because of course to me everything that she did and every way that moved was just the cutest thing ever! I was so anxious to get some pictures done because I knew she could only be this small for such a short time and I was so happy with what I got. She is just the most beautiful thing I have ever seen:) Here are just a few.

I love this one because even though Kyle was just trying to move her hands for the picture you can see how tiny she looks compared to his hand! You can't always tell because she is so filled out for a newborn:)

There are so many poses of this picture where she just looks so cute it's so hard to choose just one!

My mom helped with the photo shoot and she very patiently acted as my assistant! Sometimes when I feel I am in a time crunch I like to move fast and so she was doing her best to keep up with my being bossy. Moms are the best!!!:)

This last one was taken a couple of days later I think and of course she refused to close her eyes and sleep. Instead she decided to go potty on dad but I will spare you the proof.

*****

These ones were jus a couple I loved and had to add. You know it was hot if we weren't bundling our precious new addition! She looked SO cute!

Snuggles for dad her first morning at home.

I love to see the temple...

2011-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

Our second family outing was to walk around the grounds of the Los Angles Temple. I was still recovering slowly and wasn't up for much but I knew I wanted to get out of the house for a sunshine break! The most relaxing and peaceful place that came to my mind was the temple so we went for Anabelle's first visit. It was a nice break but a little windy so I was of course protective of my precious babe. I am also not sure how many babies have been nursed in the gardens at the temple, but you can go ahead and add her to that list.:)

So Happy Together

2011-05-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Being home with my snuggly little baby was pretty much the happiest I had ever been in my life! Yes I was very tired, but I think more than anything, I wanted to go take naps with her just because I wanted to be with her for every minute of every day. And if I wasn't sleepy I was happy to just lay and admire my beautiful girl! People try to warn you and prepare you for the changes that happen when you have a baby, but in my opinion, there is no way to know just how much you could love this new tiny person with every ounce of your being. I had heard of the "baby blues" before and that your hormones can mess with your emotions, but I had no idea just how much this could really control me. There were NO baby blues for me! Instead, I was elated and experiencing levels of happiness and joy that I had never known before. Ever heard of a natural high? That was me. I felt like someone had slipped me some drugs because I couldn't even find a way to contain all this happiness and love. Tears came and went over and over any time I sat and thought of how blessed I was to have my little miracle home with me!

My mom took this picture of us on our first full day at home. I way laying next to her to get some rest when another little miracle happened right before my eyes. She had started on her back, but without any fussing or opening her eyes, she gradually rolled herself toward me onto her side until we were touching. I couldn't believe it! I called my mom to make sure there was some proof to this story. She accomplished this little by little but in the end she had rolled onto her side placed her arm on top of mine and then eventually linked her arm over mine. I had never heard of any 4 day old babies rolling over before! Apparently she missed our physical connection and wiggled her way over to me. My heart was gushing with love and contentment!! Whether or not it was something she really did mean to do or not, it made me feel so good as her mommy and I will never forget it. (Looking at pictures like these I still can't believe that her entire body once fit inside my belly!!)

Daddy daughter time! I had to give others a chance to snuggle her every once in while...:) Kyle holding her the day we got home! She really loved her Daddy-daughter time too. She would just sit and stare at Kyle and he would talk to her about anything she wanted to hear! Well, when he wasn't telling me what a cute baby we had of course. She was wearing a cute little jammy suit on the way home with a hat and all, but since it was SO hot out and our little apartment has no A.C., we took off all of her clothes just after we got home and let her cool down. She spent the next few days in onesies and tank tops making it that much easier for us to admire her adorable little baby squish!

First bath at home with mom and dad! I was so excited to give it a try and to see what her reaction would be. I also couldn't wait to wash all the oils out of her "baby duck feathers" soft wavy hair and see what it would look like all shiny and clean! She did great and we were so excited to see all the tight little curls that formed the minute it was washed. Such a curly head!! I loved it and thought it was adorable!

Kyle did a great job of keeping the "men" entertained while us girls were home-bound with baby Anabelle. Holding the baby is great and all, but I guess they need a little more entertainment in a day:) They rode the bikes down to the beach and swam in the waves! It was so fun having them here with me and we were so glad that Jared was able to fly in too to be with us for a few days!

Grandma Gibson was such a good helper!! I wished that she had gotten to the hospital a bit sooner to comfort me, but when she did make it, things just seemed to get a little bit easier. I think her most important job was comforting me when I got emotional over anything and everything to do with Anabelle:) On top of that she did everything this brand new mom didn't want to and more! Grandma and Grandpa had the shelves and freezer fully stocked for us before they had to leave for home. Gotta love that!!! It was really neat to be able to share this whole experience with the ones who had known my whole life how much this blessing really meant to me! I also thought it was so cute how adamant my mom was that Anabelle was REALLY smiling back at us! Not that I didn't agree with her. I am still positive that she was too!

Proud grandparents of their first grand-daughter!!:) We needed a break from the house and thought Anabelle was ready for her first outing so we went up to have lunch and see Kyle's school and it's amazing view! My dad actually thanked us for house break afterward:) It was beautiful and relaxing and the sunshine felt great. I was just a little proud as I had my baby out for all to admire for the first time. I just knew everyone would be as smitten with her obvious beauty as I was!

My Dream Come True!

2010-12-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it, I'm finally a mommy!! Little miss Anabelle has made my dream come true:) I cannot believe she is already 12 days old! Almost two weeks?! Where has the time gone? I have been trying to get to this blog post every day since we have been home, but life has gotten so busy it has taken me this long! But let's start at the beginning... (Prepare yourself, lots of details ahead!:) )

After a Dr. visit on the 23rd where I received no encouragement that she was planning to come on time, I was trying to prepare myself to wait another week and most likely be induced. But this girl had other plans! Saturday felt just like all the other days for me. I was looking for ways to speed things along, so we decided to walk to the promenade by our house and look at strollers again. We found an amazing deal and happily strolled out of there with a new stroller, grabbed a Jamba Juice and headed home. Still no changes, but my body was feeling pretty tired after that as it usually did after a good walk, so we passed up going to the pier to walk around all night looking at an art display. Good thing too! ha We went to the grocery store for a couple of things that night and I remember saying in the car, I just can't imagine what labor is going to be like for me, I think I should feel more nervous? I was right!! We got ready for bed that night with no idea what was about to hit. As soon as I said our prayer and we laid our heads on the pillows, I jumped back up out of bed because I had a really bad pain in my tummy! Kyle thought I was kidding and laughed at me, but I told him it wasn't funny and it hurt! We were both wondering what would happen from there, but it didn't take long. It was 1 AM on her due date and she apparently knew it was time to come! From then on there was pretty much constant pain and I was having a really hard time even distinguishing if contractions were starting or stopping so we were having a hard time timing anything. Not wanting to leave too early, I had Kyle call the ER to tell them the pain was REALLY bad and see what they said. They told him, "4 min apart for two hours before heading to the hospital." I flipped out because I couldn't imagine staying home like this for two whole hours, but Kyle was convinced that we needed to stay home for that long and told me I should just take a shower. I was already running around the apartment trying to figure out what to do with myself to handle the pain. Being clueless I jumped in the shower thinking I would just use the time to get all ready. YEAH RIGHT! Contractions were already right on top of each other and I could barely get myself to finish my shower and get my hair washed out. I realized the two hours meant nothing if the 4 minutes apart was never even a part of my labor. ha First timer + panic = not thinking straight. I told Kyle to get things ready to leave ASAP as I yanked a comb through my hair and tried to function well enough to get dressed. I was down to the car before Kyle could even gather everything up, and not caring about the time, I was shouting for him to hurry! By now it was 2:30 in the morning (a serious blessing I now know!!!) and so thankfully we had no traffic and made it there in like 7 min. I was begging him to run every red light, but he resisted:) We parked the car at the doors of the ER and I marched in and told them I NEEDED A ROOM! Thankfully the girl at the desk could see I was serious and came right over for my name and got a man to wheel me to labor and delivery. I felt a little like the crazy ladies on TV begging for drugs, but I could tell that things were going way too fast and was scared to death that I would be too late for an epidural! It was all I could think about with the pain being non-stop and feeling as though I couldn't stand to endure even one more contraction. I felt the pressure and was afraid she was already on her way without me having anything to do with it! It felt like an eternity, but they finally asked all their questions, the Dr. came in and told me I was at 7cm (wow!), and the anesthesiologist showed up. To my dismay, this was the first of many residents to take part in my labor and she took what felt like an eternity to get the thing in! I just kept asking (practically begging), "how much longer? how much longer?" the nurse just told me it was normal to take that long and it was almost done. So not true, but what can you do? All I know is, if anyone ever asks me if they should get one, I will say YES!!!! I was able to calm down, talk to Kyle and even try to relax while we waited to hear it was time to push. Finally, the time came (of course we were too anxious and excited to actually get rest) and the Dr. simply said, “Ok you are ready, do you want to push?” So I nervously said YES! It took a few tries to figure out how to even push because (honestly, I felt stupid) I couldn’t feel anything! I didn’t realize it would be like that. But, it wasn’t long until they told me she was almost there and I could even feel her head!

Unfortunately, this is where things went downhill. The plan was to have her placed on my chest and stay for the next hour. Instead, just as soon as we all took in how big she actually was, she was put on my chest and I anticipated that first cry. All I knew was that I needed to hear her cry, but it didn’t come. I was immediately saying over and over that she wasn’t crying! They fumbled around with the suction and tried to clear her airway but I wasn’t hearing anything and started to panic. Watching this happen inches from your face has got to be the worst thing you could experience the moment after your baby has finally arrived. They took her from me and over to the little table out of my line of sight. Thankfully I finally heard her cry and was so relieved!! But I wanted her back and she wasn’t coming. Instead I heard that her oxygen was low, then that she had a fever, and then that her white blood cell count was off and she was going to be taken to the NICU instead of staying with me. I was CRUSHED! Not to mention all the while this was going on, there were like 5 young obnoxious nurses all standing around my brand new baby who I had barely seen saying loudly how cute she was, and chatting, and seriously making me frustrated that I couldn’t see her myself!! No fair!! This was really hard for me being stuck there helpless. On top of all this, the nurses were failing to get me pitosin for my uterus to contract as the Dr. was impatiently telling the resident that I was losing a lot of blood. Kyle kept reassuring me that the baby was going to be ok and that she was doing just fine, but I just couldn’t understand why she couldn’t be with me if she was ok. Thankfully, I was able to hold her for just a couple of minutes before she had to leave.

Even though I was, and still am grateful for those minutes, letting her go once again so soon was extremely hard for me! I felt like I had waited so long for this moment and the only thing I never wanted to happen was becoming reality. Kyle left with her and I was alone. My emotions were all over the place and I couldn’t console myself. First, I wanted my baby, second I wanted the never-ending stitches (with the Dr. verbally guiding the resident with every stitch=me wanting to strangle someone and even more discouraged) to stop, and last I wanted my mommy to come hold my hand and tell me things were going to be ok. I had none. I don’t think I have ever felt so alone in my life. About an hour later, the stitches ended and Kyle was able to be with me for a few minutes between trying to be with both of us and give me all the updates on poor Anabelle. My nurse told me that after two hours I could leave the recovery room and see Anabelle…. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough!

Things finally started to look up. We went right to the NICU and I got to hold her again! It felt so strange having to get permission to hold my baby. At times like these, it is so hard to trust that they are trying to do what is best for you and baby and I was even feeling resentment towards them. I hated that I seemed to be the last of the decision makers. Just after the nurse walked up and said Anabelle would have to stay there for 48 hours and they didn’t know if I was going to be able to breast feed or not… her Dr. walked up, checked her out, and then said very casually that she would be able to come to our room and get her medicine there in just a short time. I was SHOCKED and SO happy!!! I was in disbelief that things had suddenly gotten so much better!

I wish I could say that the drama ended here, but it didn’t. I can’t say it was all bad though it really wasn’t! I think that was the hardest thing for me to understand. Everything seemed to be ok. She was in our room with us and seemed to be doing just great but at the same time we were waiting the 48 hours for test results and she was getting antibiotics through shots and blood tests in between. I loved having my mom and dad with us!!

They were a huge support and comfort to me and kept my mind at ease. I felt so lucky to have my husband, my dad, and my brother in law all there and ready to give our little baby a blessing! I also knew that my mom had sent out the call for our family to pray for her and I knew that nothing could help her more. However, this couldn’t keep my heart from breaking every time she had to experience yet another painful shot, test, or check-up. You could just tell that she was traumatized and therefore, so was I. I just kept saying her cry was like a trigger to my own tears and since I couldn’t do anything to stop the pain for her, I cried with her instead, which of course got grandma crying with both of us. Two days, a lumbar puncture, and many blood cultures later, she was given the all clear and we got the BEST new yet!! She didn’t have menegitis, or sepsis, and she wasn’t going to be staying another ten days, she was coming HOME!!! What a blessing. I couldn’t help but feel that once we left the hospital all the bad and scary news would be behind us and we would all be ok. Funny how we work that way, even knowing that that was probably the safest place for all of us.

We made it home safe and sound and have been enjoying our little miracle every minute since then! Family truly is the greatest blessing in our lives and I am so grateful for mine!! I love being a mommy and Anabelle has made me happier than anything else in my whole life! The tears didn’t end after we got home. I cried every day with gratitude for her once we were home and I still do whenever I think of how blessed I am!

Photo Shoot!

2009-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, I realize it has been WAY too long since we have posted on here! We really aren't very good at this. I think I am really going to start trying to be better at this! (I say that every time right?:)) It is getting late, so I will leave the more lengthy post for tomorrow, but I saw this pic. and wanted to post it. Kyle just helped me with another Nicholas photo shoot at work and I was actually pretty happy with a few of the pictures! Yeah! And this is very surprising because OH MAN is he one hard kid to photograph!!!! But we both worked up a sweat and kyle was a good helper. I haven't even looked through them all yet, so I plan to put up a couple more, but here is one of my favorites!!

More pictures...

2009-05-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Julien had fun with Jared because he was the only one who actually let him get wet. Sorry mom. ha

Snuggling! If you know Julien you know he loved it! haha Just trying to keep him warm after being in the cold water.

Pretty much as far as they went. Wimps:)
Jared being a good uncle!
I had to convince her to play, but once she did she got into it:) She did pretty well!

We got visitors!

2009-05-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

I think it would be fair to say that April was a busy month at our house!! It all started when my mom decided to bring Jared here for his birthday surprise. Then Dana told us she would be flying through to go to Julie's wedding (her sister-in-law) in Canada and she wanted to stay for a couple of days. Lucky! Then, Kyle's mom decided to come for a short visit to keep kyle company while he had spring break at school and I was working the whole time. Sounds busy right? Well, turns out my sweet grandma Gibson wasn't doing very well after her most recent fall and sadly she passed away. I loved my Grandma very much and wasn't going to miss her funeral and so we quickly started throwing together plans to get me there on time. Out of the blue Dana called me and asked if she could come early for her visit and fly there with me. Of course! We were both so happy we were able to be with our family and to show our love for our Grandma! Dana stayed an extra couple of days there in Ut, came back for the night, then left early the next morning to Canada. Kyle's mom came and we had a lot of fun. She took us for lots of yummy food and even though I was working all week and weekend they were troopers and came to see me both Friday and Saturday and helped entertain Nicholas. Thank goodness:) I think it was like the next day or something Dana was back and just 4 days later my Mom and Jared were finally here!! I was so excited!! I had been waiting to show her my new home for a long time now! The weather didn't quite cooperate with us and sadly we had a little bad luck. We drove to Huntington Beach only to find wind and clouds! WHat? Wish we had seen that one coming. But our guests tried to be positive and make it fun anyway. thanks guys:) Sunday we walked down to our beach and again, the weather was not ideal. It was a little chilly. Then we got all excited and bundled up to walk down and ride the ferris wheel on the pier, only find that all the Jewish people had rented to the whole place out!!! So not cool. What are the odds? I have never seen that before! Despite a few let downs I completely loved having my family here with me and only miss them more than ever! I want us all to be close to each other so badly! So Broadbents and Gibsons... start coordinating. haha:) I mean it! Thanks for coming everyone and I am looking forward to the next ones already!

Kyle gave Julien a hairdo while his mom was at the store.... :) Her response was, "Do I have to leave it that way now?" haha He was feeling it in the car and trying to look up and see what was on his head:)
Julien's favorite thing to do at our house was walk around outside and kick the leaves. Poor kid didn't have any cool toys to play with!
It wasn't warm enough for swimming but at least everyone got to play some smashball. I guess Jared played too long because he claimed that was how he got really sore!
My mommy loves me. ha
Huntington Beach! Thank goodness the sun made an appearance. And for those who are interested, there is a Subway!:)

Ashley the Super Model:)

2009-02-14T23:36:00.000-08:00

Ashley is always willing to be the victim when it comes to photoshoots! haha It was getting late and the weather wasn't exactly ideal (it was freezing and a little rainy), but she was a trooper and we had fun! People walking by would look her up and down like.... hmm I wonder who that girl is? Like they were really curious about what we were doing! haha

Meet Nicholas!

2009-02-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

Obviously, being a nanny, I spend a lot of time with this little guy. He is a sweetheart and I have really enjoyed being a big part of his care and watching him learn and grow. But my favorite part is always when Kyle comes to see us or when we get to watch him together!! We have a lot of fun playing with him together and he has so much fun with Kyle!
We got this outfit for him for Christmas and when he finally got to wear it we thought it was so cute! And so I took lots of pics:)
Nicholas loves to pull the cloth off his face and play peek-a-boo with you! It's a for sure way to get a laugh, but he really loves pulling it off Kyle's face and they laugh really hard! It's cute:)
I am pretty sure that since the first time Kyle came over he has been putting his hats on Nicholas. Its pretty cute! He just leaves it on there, until of course it falls over his face and he can't figure out how to pull it off:)

Go KYLE!!

2009-02-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

Kyle is playing basketball on the ward team and doing great! Our ward is all about having fun and that makes it fun for all of us! I am proud of him for getting out there and getting to know some of the men in the ward better! Go team:)

Happy New Year Seattle

2009-02-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

We left the beach and landed in the SNOW in Seattle!! We had so much fun with Kyle's family celebrating the New Year!

Stephanie helped (by doing almost all the work:)) me and Ashley sew really cute aprons!! We got to go pick out our fabric and design the rest! They are so cute!!

Sykart is super fun!! We all wore the jumpsuits so that everyone would know we were legit! :) I am pretty sure I got lapped by these three at least once! ha They are so fast!

Isn't funny that although we never knew it, our families used to visit some of the exact same places?! Maybe were saw each other before and never knew it!! haha Snoqualmie falls is really pretty, but we weren't about to try hiking down there in the rain. It was cold!!

Cosmic bowling and I WON! haha Ok maybe not. But we had fun!
Ash and me at the Thai restaurant. I was worried about liking it (I hate peanut sauce) but I got some yummy shrimp and would be happy to go back any time!!

Thanks Nan for the Mexican Christmas!!

2009-02-08T22:00:00.001-08:00

We were so lucky this year to celebrate Christmas with family in the coolest place! If you know me, you know that I love the sun and the beach, so I was in paradise! Endless fun and endless food (chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles)! :) We snorkeled, swam, kayaked, pet turtles, repelled, zip lined, and had a blast! Enjoying it all with family was the best part!

Home Sweet Home!

2009-01-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

We never knew how much the Santa Monica pier was on TV until we lived next to it! :)

We have had a lot of fun living by the beach!

This is our new car! We had to have another so that I could work and Kyle could go to school at the same time! I want to paint it some day:)

How can we sum this up?!

2009-01-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

Although Kyle's last post says that he hadn't posted for a while...... now it really has been too long! So, needless to say, a lot has happened since then, but we are going to give this another shot. If you are ready for an update, bare with me and I will try to sum it up without writing a novel! Although we had a rocky start (as in not having a home yet as we were driving off in our moving truck) we finally made it here to sunny So Cal and are really enjoying this beautiful area! And we have been counting our blessings all along the way! We were saved by a LDS couple managing apartments here who were willing to bump us up their list of friends and give us a home! Ever since then they have been on the look out for us and we have been able to create a friendship with them that we are so grateful for. Our church building is just down the road (we thought it would be halfway down the state :)) and we have met so many supportive and uplifting people there.

Kyle is really enjoying his school with it's gorgeous ocean view and doing a great job there! I was lucky to quickly find a job as a nanny for a sweet baby named Nicholas. Although I would make a few adjustments to the job if I could, I know I am lucky to have one that can support us in our journey for now! Plus its fun to watch Kyle step in when we get the chance to watch him together for an evening.

We have had the sunniest Winter ever. Not only did we have an AMAZING christmas vacation in Mexico, but we have had weather lately in the 70's and 80's in January and loving it! We love to walk down to the beach and over to the pier and they even have my favorite, cotton candy! We were so lucky when Kyle's parents came to help us move in and are excited to share all of our discoveries here with future visitors! We are waiting for you!:)

Its been a while!!

2008-09-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well I have to apologize, blogging really is like a journal to me! I blog for about a week then I put it off and forget and by the time I remember to write again, so many things have happened that I don't even want to attempt getting it all down! But we are going to try and be better at this.....if we have the time!! Anyways, we made our move to California. After lots of looking we caught a break and got an apartment only 5 blocks from the beach in Santa Monica. I go to school in Malibu every Tuesday and Thursday and it only takes about 20 minutes to get there. So the drive is worth it! Amy is finding nanny jobs and making us money so our bank account doesn't totally fizzle during these next few years! So things are going good for us....we're adjusting and figuring out how to manage things while i'm at grad school! Its pretty crazy!! But we are liking being in the nice weather and close to the beach!

An evening with our CLOSE friend!!

2008-06-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

So we got a surprise the other night. Our friend David called us up and said he would love to come visit with us and our boys and even sing a few songs!! Crazy huh! The boys loved it and well...Amy and I loved it too! He sang "Angels" one of the songs he sang on that popular TV show and he also sang "Be Still My Soul" his favorite church Hymn. Id have to say that was definitely my favorite part. Hearing him sing something that he really loved...it was pretty cool. He hun around and answered a bunch of questions. We thought it was pretty cool at how really humble he was about everything...He really is pretty shy and goofy (in a good way!). Anyways, we snapped a few photos and thought we'd put them up here for everyone to see!! Hope you enjoy!! Don't be too jealous!! Ha ha

PS- He actually just did a devotional at our school so it wasn't just us and our boys and him there was an additional 250 people ha ha!! But it was really awesome and everything else in my story above is non-fiction (which means it is real! Ha ha).

Adios!

Kyle and Amy

I'm a Graffiti Artist!!

2008-05-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

So I found this wall in West Jordan and decided to tag it up with some of our names!! Okay just kidding this is on the basketball court on campus! We had some fun with sidewalk chalk...well I had a little more fun than the boys, the kinds got bored after a little bit then went back to playing tag! I wanted Amy to take a picture of me drawing the names and I thought she was but when I got in and looked at the pics I realized that I got chopped out... oh well she's the photographer so I must have looked weird in the picture or something :)!!

Fun in the Woods!

2008-05-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

These blog things are like journals for me because I write for like 3 days in a row and then I forget to write for weeks!! Okay its only been about 1 week but it seems like forever because so much goes on with our work!! Anyways, we had a really fun activity with our boys Wednesday afternoon and evening. We took all the blue shirts (those that are eligible, meaning that they have good grades and have been having good behaviors) to American Fork Canyon for a little cookout!! Ha ha.... We just roasted hot dogs and made smores. The boys loved it one, because any food other than the food at the school is a delicacy and two, they got to play out in the open by a stream and FIRE!! They had a blast and so did we... it's so fun to see them actually enjoying what's going on in their lives at certain times. To see them be able to earn fun things makes us hopeful for them. Although it can be pretty frustrating when the next day they seem like a completely different person!! Ha Ha

Random Comment!!

2008-05-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Okay... For some reason Amy and I like to rent and watch random movies that we haven't really heard about before. Our most recent adventure was this nice little flick "Lars and the Real Girl". I'm not gonna tell you what it's about, lets just say you'll probably think we are crazy if you watch it. It pretty different but surprisingly We liked It!!

What a Day!!

2008-05-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

I don't really know where to start! Today was one of those days that was just crazy!! Aaaaah well the first part of the day I guess. Lets see...let me give a run down. We woke up and I had to deal with on of the boys getting pretty mad and hucking rocks at the windows in the home, then when we got back from dropping the boys off to school I got into a very interesting bout of words with one of the therapists at our school. After that got resolved, which it took about an hour to do, we ended up having an emergency meeting to discuss the situation! It went pretty well and everything got resolved! Sorry I can't go into details or I might get into more trouble!! Ha ha....anyways, Amy and I didn't have time to go work out because of all of our meetings so I went and tried to find out when our stinkin stimulus check is supposed to get here and then came back home and got ready for work!! The boys were actually pretty good today and for the most part did what they were supposed to. Amy and I did get to take some of the boys that have been doing well off campus! We went to KFC and then the nicklecade (one of our new hangs!! HA ha jk)! It was a bunch of fun and the boys really appreciated the chance to get away from the home!! All I know is that I sure would appreciate getting a breaK from this place if I was in their spot!! Anyways, the rest of the day went great. Hopefully tomorrow we can get back to the gym...usually Amy's the one that gets me motivated to go... good thing or I would probably just sleep a lot longer. Although I do get up earlier then she does most days! Ha ha she probably wont like me saying that!

Nice Weather and the ropes course!!

2008-05-06T07:14:00.001-07:00

It was so nice out here yesterday! Probably around 75? Maybe that's just me exaggerating but it felt so nice to be outside all day. Amy and I washed the car before work then relaxed a little bit before we went to pick up our boys. We got to go to the ropes course today (which is here on campus) and do the high ropes! It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. The boys do these activities so they can work on teamwork and communication and really when they are doing them they seem like completely different people, trying to overcome an obstacle together rather than trying to compete or rip off each others heads!! Here are some pics...

We did the Giants Ladder today!

Here we Go!!

2008-05-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

So my mom and sister have been bugging Amy about making a "photoblog" so I decided that it might be fun to do a little blog thing about what's going on in our "crazy lives" right now! And trust me it's not an understatement when I say CRAZY!! We are working in West Jordan at Westridge Academy (formerly the Utah Boys Ranch). We've been here since last August and we have loved, well endured, lets just say LOVINGLY ENDURED every minute of it!! Ha ha... We are in charge of the younger boys on campus. We live with them in our group home kind of thing. Our apartment is seperate but connected by a door. Anyways, right now we are in charge of 14 boys between the ages of 9 and 14! It's definitely crazy and a challenge every day but we are learning so much from our little, BIG, family!! So, pretty sure that most of our posts are going to deal with our work since we pretty much live what we do 24/7! So hope it keeps ya interested!!