The Mills Family

Life in Connecticut

2011-12-14T11:33:00.001-07:00

Hello from Connecticut! What a crazy 3 weeks this has been! We have finally gotten settled in our new house and it’s starting to feel like home I’m not going to lie, it’s been a rough couple of weeks. I have greatly missed all our family and friends in Utah. But I am back to my old self and really starting to enjoy Simsbury. We have a wonderful ward and a great neighborhood (in fact 2 weeks ago, some of the neighbor kids came over and raked all the leaves in our front yard). It’s been kind of an adjustment to this slower paced lifestyle. For the most part, everything is either 20 to 30 minutes away going on 2 lane roads. I have been so used to Utah driving, that I practically beat my head against the steering wheel when someone goes the speed limit (heaven forbid). There are a lot of things that I will just have to get used to. I’m still in mourning over all the awesome home décor stores that were in Utah. I am excited for this new adventure and look forward to all the fun trips that we will go on. We are planning a New York trip soon to see the huge Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Yay! Kylie starts preschool next month and is excited about that. Sierra has been sick for a week and a half now with 2 ear infections and a horrible cold. We haven’t had any snow yet which surprises me. Not really looking forward to CT winters It will be beautiful, but I really hate driving in the snow.

Well, many of you have asked to see pics of the house. Here are some videos of it so that you go see the layout a little bit better. Hope you all have a great week!

Video 1 of the downstairs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCKiEmg9j5I&context=C2b71aADOEgsToPDskJkeGxzrOxGSv-viLrM2HAN

Video 2 of the upstairs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlG5PeoG2IY&feature=context&context=C2b71aADOEgsToPDskJkeGxzrOxGSv-viLrM2HAN

Roomates

2011-11-18T18:15:00.002-07:00

Do any of you have old roommates from college that you just love to death? Well I do and I was able to visit 2 of them last week My first stop was to Cathedral City to visit my friend Janie from BYU. She was kind enough to spend all day with me and my girls 2 days before she had her sweet little baby. It was so fun to catch up with her and to just enjoy having girl time. Funny how after 4 years of not seeing each other, we picked up right where we left off. Thanks again Janie for a great day with you and your kids!

Kylie hanging out with Janie’s kids Ayson and Macey

Janie why are you so white???

A few days later I went to see my old roommate Camie from BYU-Idaho who lives in Oceanside. 10 minutes before arriving at her house, Kylie decided to throw up her entire bowl of Trix all over herself…. Luckily Camie is such an awesome friend who helped clean Kylie off and gave me the materials I needed to clean up the vom. Camie, you are such a layed back person, thanks so much for all your help! We had a fun time at her house and then at Ruby’s at the Oceanside Pier. Oceanside is so beautiful! Thanks for a great day!

(PS Heather I wished you didnt live 7 hours from Anaheim. I would have loved to see you too :))

The kids having fun on the pier

So get this. This pelican comes to this spot so regularly that they gave him a name and his perch to sit and scare passerby's that don’t know he’s real. He keeps pretty still. It’s amazing how many women I heard scream when they realized he was real and that they were very close to him…

This fisherman got this starfish. Wish I had taken a pic with Kylie next to it because it was HUGE!

Newport Beach Temple

2011-11-07T20:23:00.001-07:00

So apparently there is a temple 20 minutes from our apartment. The bishop mentioned it in sacrament on Sunday and I told Austin I wanted to check it out later on that day. It was so nice to walk around the temple grounds. It is a beautiful temple and it just makes me realize again how grateful I am to be a part of this gospel and that I know I will be with my family forever

Visitors!!!

2011-11-07T17:06:00.001-07:00

On October 27th, Austin’s mom and dad came out to visit us for Sierra’s birthday. I had been looking forward to that day for quite some time It was sooo nice to have them here for 5 days and I didn’t want them to leave. Wendy and Howard, I hope you know how much your visit meant to us. It has been so incredibly hard to leave all our friends and family and it meant so much to us to have you here for Sierra’s birthday

The day after they arrived, it was Sierra’s birthday. So in celebration of her special day, we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. What? Sierra wanted to go! Oh my gosh, can we say a FANTASTIC day! Seriously, we hardly had to wait in any lines and the roller coasters are out of this world. My favorite ride was the X2. Amazing. We had such a fun day together. Kylie and Sierra were so good. They had a fairly big kid area that had rides that Kylie could go on. The place was dead, so she got to go right on all the rides. Thanks again you guys for watching the girls for some of the rides And Wendy, you are such a fearless mother in law! I would so love to go on the Superman again with you!

On Saturday we headed to Balboa Beach to spend a few hours in the sun. It was a gorgeous day that day. I am so going to miss the ocean…

Sierra found herself a beach hunk

LOVE this picture

You can’t go to the beach without burying your daddy

By far, the best 2 photos from their trip…Miss you guys!

That night was our ward’s trunk or treat. It was…different. I’m used to our old ward’s trunk or treat where you go around to each car and they give you candy and then you eat yummy food and then go to their carnival inside. Man, they did such a great job. At the one we went to this year we ate chili and hotdogs inside and they had like 3 games you could do, and then you stood in a line and they gave you candy. I shouldn’t be complaining, it was fine and Kylie had a good time. I guess it just made me miss our old ward…again. Kylie decided she wanted to be a witch this year, so I did her face all up and she looked pretty frightening if I do say so myself She won a DQ gift certificate for having the scariest costume. I was so proud of her! Lol.

Sunday we celebrated Sierra’s birthday. I cannot believe a whole year has gone by! And boy what a year it has been! We stuffed ourselves silly with food and cake. I felt kind of bad about the cake I made her. I really couldn’t go all out because all of my cake pans, rolling pin, icing tips, etc are in CT. So I did an easy sheet cake. We did a beach theme for her and all in all, it was a great little party Sierra didn’t know what to do with her cake. She kept reaching for it halfway, then pulling her hand back. It was so funny. I decided just to start feeding it to her, and she eventually got the hang of it.

The goods

On Monday we just hung out at the apt most of the day and then swung by the Anaheim Marketplace. Wendy got some Mexican Vanilla and a few necklaces, so that was good Afterwards we got ready to go trick or treating. Ok, just so you know, I LOVED trick or treating when I was a kid. Loved it. We would go for hours getting so much candy we could barely carry it. I’m still pretty intense when it comes to getting candy with my kids. I love just going door to door with them. Well, since we are in an apt complex, we couldn’t go door to door, and I sure as heck was not going to some random neighborhood. So I guess the malls pass out candy. Lame-o, I know. The closest mall to us was going to give out candy from 4 to 7. We got there at like 5:30, and 90% of the stores had run out of candy. It was pathetic. I mean first of all, Im taking my kid trick or treating at a mall. No offense to those of who do that, it was just so weird to me and it didn’t feel like Halloween at all. But Kylie didn’t mind, and its not like she needs all that candy anyway, because I would have more than likely eaten most of it. Anyway, the night got better after we went back to the apt, had home made chili and apple pie floats (amazing by the way, look it up at www.ourbestbites.com) and then watched Psycho.

Here are a few pics from that night.

Our little kitty cat. She kept on that make-up the whole time we were at the mall, but 30 seconds before I took the camera out to snap a pic, she had smeared it all over her face. Little booger…

The next day, Howard and Wendy had an early flight back to Utah. It was so hard to say goodbye. I miss you guys so much and thanks again for making Sierra’s birthday so special for us!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Sierra

2011-10-27T16:34:00.001-07:00

10/28/11

So technically tomorrow is Sierra’s birthday, but we will be at Six Flags all day so I wanted to post this now. I cannot even believe my little baby is going to be 1 tomorrow. Where did this year go??? Seriously, I can hardly believe it. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. Getting to the hospital and being dilated to a 9. Having to wait for my doctor to get to American Fork from Salt Lake. And then I pushed a few times and there was my sweetheart. Sierra has been a HUGE joy in our lives. She is the happiest, smiliest baby. She makes this funny sound with her mouth and loves to point and squeal at everything. She started walking last week, and now nothing can stop her! She is getting in her 2 front teeth and it appears they will look like Kylie’s did– a gap big enough to drive a semi through She knows what a doggie says and if you tell her, “Sierra, high five!,” she sticks her little hand up. She will also blow you a kiss, which is about the cutest stinkin thing ever. She loves her big sister to death and instantly has smiles for her when she walks into the room. I love when she lays her little head down on my shoulder and when I get one of her open mouth slobbery kisses I don’t know how we lived our life without that little girl. I am so blessed to have 2 wonderful children and an amazing husband. Sierra, I love you baby girl! Happy Birthday tomorrow!

My baby is walking!!!

2011-10-22T19:39:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday Sierra decided that she wanted to walk! It was so awesome! I can’t believe how fast my little munchkin is growing up. I also noticed today that she is getting one of her top teeth in. I took some pics tonight of her waddling around

Aquarium of the Pacific

2011-10-22T19:22:00.002-07:00

Today for our Saturday adventure, we headed over to Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. It is apparently one of the largest aquariums in the US. I must say, I was impressed. My absolute favorite part was the 3 story high tank full of sharks, small fish, sting rays, a sea turtle…it was awesome. Loved seeing the sea otters and lions. Saw some giant spider crabs that were intense to see. Seriously, I would not want to be in the same tank with those guys! Sierra loved to get her face right up to the glass and point at the fish. Austin’s favorite part was feeding these really cool birds out of this cup in his hand. It would have been more fun for me if they had crapped on him…I’m joking! We had tons of fun today and I look forward to next weekend when Austin’s mom and dad come out for the weekend!!!

This was cool, they had touch pools that you could touch sharks and manta rays.

I wish you could tell from the pictures how enormous these things were.

Disneyland!

2011-10-21T22:53:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we took a trip to the happiest place on earth…yes, the beloved Disneyland. Kylie has been sooo excited to go here since we moved to Anaheim. I really was not wanting to go during UEA, but Austin thought it might be the only day we could go (I refuse to go on the weekend). When we first got there, ALL the cool rides were closed. I mean every single awesome “big person” ride was closed. So that in turn made the lines for the kiddy rides extremely long. The first half of the day, I was not really enjoying myself. But after I realized that this day was about making Kylie happy, not me, it got better The other rides opened up again and we were able to go on almost all the rides we wanted to. I really can’t even imagine what that place is like in the summer. Pure insanity I’m sure. Must say, I loved the Fast Passes, Baby swaps, and single rider rides. Made things go sooo much faster! I did a single rider on the Indiana Jones ride. 10 seconds into it, the ride shut down. We sat in the dark for about 5 minutes and then the lights came on and we sat for another 15 or so. I was right under a cooling vent and froze my butt off. So I was kind of miffed because it was only suppose to take like 15 min total to ride the ride and get back to Austin and the girls. Ended up taking almost an hour. When the ride finally started working again, they let us ride again, so that was nice. I LOVED the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. The Jungle Ride was great. Had a hilarious tour guide who made cheesy jokes throughout the ride. Kylie loved all the fast roller coasters. After one of the rides she goes, “Mom, that was so freaking awesome!” (Yes, I know, I need to be better at telling her not to say freaking because it is becoming a part of her everyday vocab ). Kylie got to meet Snow White, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse. She was sooo shy meeting Mickey. It was so cute though. Kylie loved It’s a Small World. She kept saying she wanted to go back on it, but I think I would have to shoot myself. It was cool and all, but that song being played over and over and over…Instant insanity. Anyway, at the end of the day Austin said that we should come back here one more time before we move. I was like, “Wha, wha, what? Really!” I’m holding him to that Really wish it wasn’t so much money for one day. All in all, it was a great day and I really hope we get to go back in a few weeks.

Loved capturing her face on this ride. She LOVED spinning faster and faster. I’m getting sick just thinking about it…

Life as beach bums

2011-10-21T22:24:00.001-07:00

Sierra loves sand and sucking on sticks. What’s sad is I’m not sure how long she had been chowing down on this fish smelling stick, but it was long enough to take a pic

I told Kylie to strike a pose

San Diego Zoo (10/07/11)

2011-10-21T22:04:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to the San Diego Zoo. I had such a blast there! We started off with a bus ride that took you through 80% of the park. The zoo is HUGE! We got to see so many animals up and about (which was nice because when we saw them later on the day when it was 90 degrees, they were all sleeping). There were tons of people there that day taking their sweet time looking at the animals, so it made it difficult sometimes to see anything. I wanted to run them over with my stroller. Where does all this anger come from? Anyway, Kylie had a blast and Sierra was sooo good the whole day. They had 2 different aviaries, which I loved. Saw some incredible birds that day. Also enjoyed the aerial tram that took you from one side of the park to the other. After we left the park, we ate at this hole in the wall Mexican restaurant in a scary part of town. I seriously thought I might get shot. Anyway, it was so worth it because their food was AMAZING! I ate a chimichanga that was the size of Sierra. No joke my friends Loved the freeway view for most of the way back – perfect view of the ocean….

These guys were so fun to watch when they played in their pool.

I obviously don’t understand how these cutouts work…

Beautiful animal, put could seriously rip your face off in 2 seconds. Look at that stare…

Love this guy!

My 3 favorite people!

Changes

2011-10-03T11:00:00.002-07:00

Hello all! Wow, I have been slacking! So much has gone on since my last post, so here goes.

First off, we moved! Boo. Its funny. When Austin and I first got married, I kind of resented the fact that we would probably live in Utah the rest of our lives. Then a few years later, I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving. It was a really hard decision to make. Austin and I both knew if he ever wanted to move up in his company, we would have to move – I just didn’t know it would come this soon. After a week of praying, we got our answer the morning that Austin was suppose to make his decision. From that point on, things have all come together for us. We put our house up for sale the beginning of August and 2 days later it was under contract. Crazy? Just a little. Austin had been working in Cali for several weeks and he knew he would probably be there until the end of Oct (his company bought a company in Anaheim and they have been working on hiring a Controller for it. Until then, Aust has to be there) and it was so hard having him gone all week. Well, he asked his boss if we could live out there with him and they said yes So we packed up our little house (well the movers did) and we drove out here to California! I must say, leaving our neighborhood was sooo hard. I have made some fantastic friends that I will miss dearly. It’s funny how for the past several years I have complained to everyone how little our house was and how cramped we were. Now I would give anything to move back. But knowing that this is where Heavenly Father wants us to be in our lives right now has made it a little bit easier. Plus, I am having the time of my life right now. There is so much to do here! Our apt has a pool, we live 20 min from the beach, there are zoos everywhere, tons of malls and stores… Oh and we live right down the street (literally) from Disneyland. Havent gone yet, but are planning to go in a few weeks. We are also planning a San Diego zoo trip. Here are some pictures of our adventures so far!

Here are pics from Newport beach on two different trips. One was when Howard and Wendy went with us (thanks again for driving out with us!) and one was later on that week

Here was when we went to the Irvine Zoo. Such a cute place to go! They had a pumpkin patch, train ride, horse rides, the zoo part…so much fun!

Laguna Beach. My absolute favorite beach so far!

The Santa Ana Zoo

This past Saturday we went on a 90 minute boat ride from Balboa Island. What a blast that was. We got to see some celebrity homes, sea lions, and tons of boats Such a perfect day.

John Waynes modest home.

Shirley Temples home

The guy who started up Yahoo.

Where they shot some of the Gilligan Island scenes.

So we went house hunting for a week in Aug in CT. and we found a house we really loved. If you were to ask me several months ago if I thought we could find a house in less than a week, I would have thought you were crazy. Just another confirmation to me that this is where we need to be. I love this house. Its 3x the size of our old house and has so much storage! I love it. Plus is has a walk-in closet in the master that I just fell in love with! Here are some pictures of it:

The living room

The dining room and then the sun room

Sun room

LOVE this kitchen!

This room is right off the kitchen. I think we are going to turn it into an office/den area.

This house has 4 bathrooms. Do you know how much I hate to clean bathrooms??

Master

So this room is right off the master. I think most might use it as a nursery, but I’m going to make it into my craft room. I have a craft room guys! You have no idea how excited I am for that…

MY WALK IN CLOSET!

Sierra’s room

Kylies room

Kylies bathroom. Yes, my 4 year old has her own bathroom. I used to make fun of people at the Parade of Homes when I saw that their little munchkin had their own bathroom….

Guest bedroom for whoever wants to visit!

The basement

We close on the house next week. I couldn’t be more excited!

Well, we miss you all very much and look forward to the day when we get to come visit Until then, here’s to another day of adventure!

Yay Baby!

2011-05-20T10:57:00.001-07:00

Guess who has her tickets waiting patiently by her bedside? Me, duh! Thanks Wendy for coming along for the ride :)

2011-05-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

I checked out this cute little book from the library a few weeks ago. If you haven’t read it, go pick it up. It only took me like a half an hour to read. Anyway, there was one part of the book that made me cry. I know, I know, it doesn’t take much to make me cry :) But it really made me stop and think and reevaluate how I spend my time with my children. She says,

“Extraordinary moments can happen in the middle of ordinary days. I was on a mother-daughter dinner date with Calli, who was nine at the time. Through a mouthful of macaroni and cheese, Calli giggled as she recounted a game of freeze tag she played during recess that day. Then it hit me… I will spend eternity knowing Calli as an adult. But tonight, right here, right now, and for the next few precious years, I have the rare privilege of knowing her as a child. What a gift to experience the children in our lives as children! For a brief moment during the journey of mortality, we get to watch them laugh, learn, experience, grow. Yes, in the middle of an ordinary day, it was an extraordinary moment.”

You know, it wasn’t like this was some breaking news to me about knowing my girls as adults for the rest of eternity, but really hit me that I should really enjoy these few years when they are kids. Time is flying sooo fast, and some days I think, “Good grief, I spent more time cleaning the house then I did playing with my girls.” I’m not saying I should, from now on, keep my house in utter disarray, but I should make sure to always find time just for them during the day. Anyway, it was a really cute book and I just wanted to share that part of it with you all :)

Ice-cream scoop

2011-05-10T20:02:00.001-07:00

This little chica is in swimming lessons. She loves being in the water, which is good because we are going to live at the pool this summer :) Whenever I ask her what her favorite part of her lesson was, she always replies, “When we learned how to ice-cream scoop!”

Pics of my two sweet pies

2011-05-10T19:54:00.001-07:00

Can i just tell you that I LOVE being a mom to these two sweetie pies! Seriously, they make each day more wonderful than the last. Here are some pics of them over the past few weeks.

Thanksgiving Point

2011-05-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

I’m back from the dead! Goll, I’m not sure why it has been so hard to update my blog. Anyhoo, I will try and be better.

Last Saturday we went with Austin’s family up to Thanksgiving Point to see the Tulip Festival. In the 9 years I have lived in Utah, I have never been. Boy have I been missing out! I think the brochure said there were over 4 acres of land that these tulips are planted on. It was beautiful. Here are several of my favorite pictures.

Just a few pictures

2011-02-01T14:43:00.001-07:00

Not much new to tell, so I’ll just post a few pictures of the girls :)

Presenting the Queen & the Princess

2011-01-21T19:07:00.001-07:00

Tonight Kylie wanted to play dress up...with Sierra. Sierra was less than willing to comply with her majesty's request, but she cooperated for at least 5 minutes :) Here are a few of the pictures I took.

And we’re done…

I need to outsource my blogging to someone in India…

2011-01-10T23:31:00.001-07:00

Wow, I have successfully become one of those bloggers that doesn’t write anything for months. I can’t believe how the time just flies by now with 2 kids. I use to have a few hours a day when Kylie took a nap to update my blog if I needed to. But sadly Sierra quit taking naps at the same time with Kylie, so I’m lucky to get anything done.

Let’s see, I guess I need to start back in November. It was our turn to have Thanksgiving with my family in Illinois. We were able to visit for 10 days, and it was sooo nice to see everyone. I really hate living away from my family. It bites. Anyway, where was I… It was really nice to just relax while being there. It was fun to hang out with the fam and eat great food. We tried out a few new restaurants that I had never heard of in Springfield. They were featured on Man vs. Food and boy will I be heading back there again! The first place was called Darcy’s Pint. They are famous for their horseshoes. Now I have come to learn that no one out here knows what a horseshoe is…well the kind you eat anyway. You take a piece of Texas toast and pile hamburger meat (or chicken, ham, breaded tenderloin, etc) on it, then top it with french fries and cheese sauce. Holy crap its good! We ate there twice while we were there :) Then we ate at the Cozy Dog. Apparently they claim to be the inventors of the corn dog. It was insanely good. Yeah, I ate a lot while I was home…which is why I look like a porker right now. We also went to see Lincoln’s Tomb, his house, and the State Capitol Building. I had not been to Lincoln’s tomb since I was a kid in grade school. I got a little teary eyed while there. His monument is HUGE! Anyway, his home was pretty cool too. The capitol building was awesome! I was bummed that we missed being able to see a tour of it, but we at least got to see a little bit of the inside. Anyway, thanks mom and dad, as always, for a great time at home :)

We had a photo shoot in the park :)

Abe Lincoln’s tomb

Brenna and Kylie having fun in the gift shop at the Abe Lincoln sites

Abe Lincoln’s house

Kylie in front of the capitol building

Inside the Capitol building in the ceiling

December…wow, where did that month go???!!! There seemed to be something going on all the time last month. Christmas was a blast this year, especially since Kylie is old enough to kind of get what is going on. This IS the last year I can go shopping for that kids Christmas presents. She remembered everything I got her..stuff I had bought 2 months prior as well! It was funny, I had bought her two horses at Wal-mart and I had wrapped them individually. She got the first one unwrapped and then exclaimed, “Where’s the other one?” Good grief… We sadly did not take any pics of Christmas morning. What is wrong with us! Here are few pics of my sweet girls.

Kylie got a doctor kit for Christmas and these are her doctor glasses :)

We blessed Sierra on January 2nd. And of course we forgot to take pictures. So I will be having Austin get in his suit again and we’ll dress Sierra up in her dress and I’ll take some pics. I swear, I thought you were suppose to forget to take pics of like your 5th kid, not your second!

I celebrated my 29th birthday on January 3rd. Of course Austin spoiled me like usual :) I had a great birthday.

And that takes us to today! I signed Kylie up for swimming lessons in April. Can’t believe my little baby will be 4 this year. I am having a blast being home with my girls. I am REALLY looking forward to summer again so we can get out of the house more often. Well, it’s off to bed! Until next time..

A couple of cute pictures…

2010-11-05T15:12:00.001-07:00

I couldn’t resist posting these. I tried to do a photo shoot with Sierra, but she started freezing her butt off, so I had to end it pretty quick :) Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pics from this morning.

10/28/10: Sierra’s Debut

2010-11-02T16:34:00.001-07:00

I was beginning to wonder if Sierra was ever going to decide to be born. I had been feeling the best I had ever felt up until then and I was really starting to wonder if my doctor was going to have to induce me. The calendar due date for her was the 28^th, but when I got my ultrasound, it said the 27^th. So I told everyone the 27^th because hey, I’ll take a day earlier! Well, the 27^th came and went, but in the wee hours of Friday, around 4:30 in the morning, I started having contractions. Finally! They were about every 6 minutes and they weren’t very painful. I’m so glad Austin decided to stay home from work. And to think I told him he didn’t need to… Anyway, about 11:00 they started to get more painful and were coming around every 4 minutes. Austin asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I said heck no. I didn’t want to be sent home and they were in no way as painful as when I had Kylie. So I continued to sit around in misery while I had the contractions. We watched Finding Nemo with Kylie and the contractions started getting worse. Again Austin asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I said I would wait it out longer (do you see a pattern here?) 12:30 rolls around and by this time I’m crying with each contraction. I still didn’t want to go just yet, so again, we waited. 1:00 gets here and they are coming every couple of minutes and I’m like bawling my eyes out. I started to feel pressure down below and I suddenly realized that I should probably go to the hospital. I had to deliver at American Fork Hospital which is about a 15 minute car ride. In that time I had about 10 contractions. We hurried upstairs and the nurse checked me out to see how dilated I was…come to find out I was an 8! She said my water could break any minute. They hurried and called my doctor, who just happened to be in Salt Lake at the time. It was his day off... Great timing on my part, eh? It took a while for them to get a hold of him. He said he could be there in 20 minutes. Everyone thought I wouldn’t make it by then. To top it off, the anesthesiologist was in surgery. Apparently 5 other women either were or had been scheduled C-sections before I got there. Yeah, it was a busy day at the hospital. I started to freak out. I had always kind of wanted to go natural just to prove to myself that I could do it, but as I was lying there in horrific pain, I wanted some drugs! They finally were able to get the anesthesiologist up there to see me. There was no time for an epidural, so I had to get a spinal. I.hate.spinals. I couldn’t feel a THING down there and I hated the feeling. Another doctor who works across the hallway from mine showed up and was ready to deliver the baby if needed. I kept praying my doctor would get there. Well, the odds were in my favor that day, because my doctor finally showed up. He broke my water and 10 minutes later, out came our little Sierra. I was kind of bummed that it took 10 minutes, because I knew I could have pushed harder, I just couldn’t feel a dang thing! Anyway, words cannot describe how I felt to see my little daughter. She was so beautiful and perfect. She weighed 7 pounds 13 oz and was 20 inches long. She had all her fingers and toes (which hey, that’s like the first thing you check for right?) and she was just gorgeous. I was kind of worried about not having another name picked out for her because with Kylie, I wanted to name her Sierra but when she finally got here, she definitely did not look like a Sierra. But this little girl did. I think it fits her perfectly. The rest of the evening was kind of a blur. I ordered dinner while Austin was in the nursery watching Sierra get her first bath. They have room service there now. They had all these different foods you could choose from and imagine this – it was excellent! I think I gained 5 pounds from their food. After dinner I called to get some meds because I was cramping a little blt. This nurse comes in, who I have nicknamed Helga (she was kind of a stocky woman with long gross hair) and she gives me, without telling me what I’m taking, 2 Percocet and an Annaprox. Ok, I puke if I don’t have an anti-nausea pill to go with Percocet and this dingaling gave me 2 of them. I was kind of out of it and didn’t even think about asking her what she was giving me. Oh, and then she goes to “massage” my stomach and I swear she did it as hard as she could…4 or 5 times. I almost hit her. I really, really couldn’t stand that nurse. So after a while I start to go to la-la land. Luckily I didn’t throw up. They took me down to my room and for the next 2 days, that was my home. All the nurses were wonderful and I was recovering a lot faster with this baby then with Kylie. It was so nice to just lie around and relax. A funny story about Kylie. First off, after Sierra was born, we were all saying how beautiful she was and Kylie looks at us and goes, “I’m beautiful too.” Oh boy, let it begin. That night as I was nursing Sierra, Kylie goes, “Eww, gross.” I said, “Kylie that’s how you used to eat when you were a baby.” She goes, “I didn’t like it.” Ha ha, too funny. Now every time she sees me nurse she says, “That’s kinda funny.” Kids. :)

Well, I am day 2 at home by myself with 2 kids and it hasn’t been that bad. Sierra sleeps ALL the time and Kylie is constantly vying for my attention. Sierra is a pretty good sleeper as well. All in all, I had a wonderful delivery experience and I am soo happy to have my little daughter with us!

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

Last night we carved our pumpkins for Halloween. This was the first year that Kylie seemed interested in wanting to help with her pumpkin, although she had NO interest in scooping out the pumpkin guts with her hands. Come on, that’s like a kid’s dream come true isn’t it? Playing with slimy orange stuff? She chose a Mickey Mouse design and Austin helped her cut it out. He used his Dremel tool for most of it. I had my doubts, but that thing really did a great job at carving out the design. Well, I guess it depended on who used it. Austin was a pro at it. Me…not so much. It kept jumping around in the pumpkin and I was afraid of what it would do next :) I chose Jack Skeleton from Nightmare Before Christmas. Yes, it was a beginner level design, but I can’t for the life of me do intricate pumpkins. That’s up Austin’s alley. He did a wolf one and it looks amazing. He pretty much did it all with his Dremel tool. Anyway, it was a fun night and I was glad I was able to do it before the baby came, which by the way should be any day now. I have 4 more days left until my due date. My doctor is on vacation until Sunday, so Sierra can come any time after that :) We are all so excited to see her. I’m even more excited that we have everything ready for her too. Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend. Wish me luck this next week!

Sierra project

2010-10-18T14:50:00.001-07:00

This past week, I have wanted to make a canopy car seat cover for Sierra. I found 3 different tutorials online and just used a little bit of each one to come up with my own. It was sooo dang easy if anyone is interested. I could email you the sites if you want. Anyway, I thought it turned out cute :)

Here’s what the underside looks like

36 Weeks

2010-09-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

Well, let the countdown begin! I can hardly imagine that in 4 weeks or less our little daughter will be here. Anyway, here is a pic of me and all my fatness. And of course I had to throw in one of princess Kylie :)

Timpanogos Cave

2010-09-28T13:46:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I told Austin that I wanted to hike up to Timp Cave. It has become a tradition every year to hike it (not to mention that Austin’s great grandpa discovered one of the caves). Sooo I’m 35 weeks pregnant and I tell you what, I felt fantastic going up there! I got a bunch of strange looks and comments about doing it, but it didn’t induce labor, so I was fine :) Kylie walked the whole time and she was such a trooper. It was a great Saturday outing.

What a little poser :)

A camping we will go….

2010-09-28T13:36:00.001-07:00

A few weekends ago, Austin and Kylie and I went camping up in the Uintas. From our previous camping trip last month, I knew this was probably going to be the last time I went camping for the year. Even though we have a great air mattress, it is REALLY hard for me to get a good night’s sleep being this far along. So we had one last hurrah as a family :) Our campsite was awesome. It was on top of this hill that bordered this beautiful river. I love listening to the river at night. Anyway, Kylie and I helped Austin bring logs and branches over for our fire. Austin found this tree that we propped up next to our campsite that we lovingly named our Nightmare Before Christmas tree. It was awesome. Austin also found some cow pies that he used periodically in the fire. Yeah, they smoke A LOT and burning poop is just…weird. Anyway, that first night was FREEZING! Austin said it was suppose to be like 33 degrees or some insane temperature like that. I had my sleeping bag and 4 blankets on top of me and my face still froze off (come to find out the next morning we hadn’t zipped up the tent door that we were sleeping next to all the way). On Saturday we saw Spencer Falls and Cataract Gorge. We also did another hike later on that day, but I can’t remember what they were called. We were pretty tired that night. It was fun to sit around the fire and roast marshmallows and hot dogs. Kylie LOVES camping. She loves playing in the dirt, throwing rocks, playing by the river, hiking…she’s going to be some guys dream come true one day :) On Sunday we took it a little easy in the morning and then headed off to Whiskey Island Lake. So getting to the lake was kind of torturous for me. It was pretty much up this mountain, over 3 boulder fields, stepping over fallen trees…I was a sweaty gross mess by the time we got to the lake. I will admit that hike kicked my butt and I was very close to bludgeoning myself in the head with one of those stinking boulders. But we did finally make it and it was an incredible lake. It was so quite and peaceful and the lake was so clear. We rested for a while and before I knew it, it was time to make the trip back. We took a different route back and it was a million times easier with only one boulder field to hike across. I was much happier and the hike was so much more enjoyable. We went back to camp and packed everything up and drove home. It was such a great weekend.

Burning poo

Our Nightmare before Christmas tree. You can’t really see it, but we decorated it was string, and a tent stake that we found.

Spencer Falls

Cataract Gorge

Little lake we ate our lunch at on Saturday

Whiskey Island Lake

Solitude Ski Lift

2010-09-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of the month, we went with Howard and Wendy up to the Solitude ski lift. Kylie had a blast going up it. We hiked this really awesome trail and found this little lake nestled at the top of the mountain. After we rode the lift back down, we did another hike to Donut Falls. That was such a beautiful hike. The falls were incredible, and had I not been so fat and pregnant, I would have joined Austin up to the top of the falls. He took some really neat pictures of what it looked like up there. Made me jealous. Oh well, next year I guess :) Kylie decided to crap her pants on the way down…yeah I had left a change of clothes and wipes back at the car. I can really be a forgetful mother sometimes. Austin had to wash her stinky bum off by this little river. But other than that, it was a fantastic day!

At the bottom of the ski lift

Our incredible view

Donut Falls

Fun at the playground

2010-09-28T12:55:00.001-07:00

Last month we took Kylie over to Sunset Elementary to play on the playground. Of course this is one of Kylie’s favorite places to go :) Here are a few pics from that night.

Anniversary

2010-08-30T13:56:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, Austin and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Our anniversary was on the 20th, but Austin was in South Carolina. So this past Friday, Austin took the day off and we all went for a little hike. We went Little Cotton Wood Canyon (or was it Big Cotton Wood??? Pregnancy brain…) to Secret Lake. It was such a nice day out and it was awesome to get out and get some exercise. Right when we were leaving the lake, it started raining and thundering (love thunder in the mountains), and eventually turned into a downpour, but we were to our car by then. It was a gorgeous hike :)

So I asked Kylie to turn around and put her hands on her hips…instead she whips out this face and Austin and I about died laughing….

Later that night, we dropped Kylie off at the grandparents and went up to Salt Lake. Austin said he would take care of the night and I told him not to tell me what we were doing. We showed up at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, where my first surprise was eating at The Roof. I ate there once before, but it had been about 8 years ago. Ever since then, I have wanted to go back. So I was more than happy to be eating there :) I stuffed myself silly and enjoyed every minute of it. After that we went on a one hour horse drawn carriage ride around Salt Lake. Our horse’s name was Charley…a better name would be gassy Charley. He let one rip that about blew us all away. Then this dog scared him and he kicked his hind legs back and kicked his poop bag that had saw dust shavings in it all over me. I still don’t know if the bag was poopless or not… All in all, it was a wonderful anniversary. Thanks so much Austin for such a great night!

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to us!

2010-08-20T10:09:00.001-07:00

5 years ago today, I was sealed to my dear sweet hubby Austin :) I am so grateful for him and for the wonderful husband and father that he is. I’m grateful for this gospel and for the knowledge of knowing that we can be together forever as a family. I love you Austin!

Hogle Zoo

2010-08-19T21:21:00.001-07:00

Two days ago I went with my friend Jessica and her little boy Nico to the zoo. It was so flippin hot outside, but we had a blast :) Thanks again for coming with me Jess!

So this Cheetah was pacing back and forth in front of this window. It seriously looks like they are having a little conversation. If they were, I bet it would go something like this:

Kylie: “Hi Cheetah! You’re pretty!”

Cheetah: “Hi girl. I’m going to eat your face off.”

30 Weeks

2010-08-18T15:33:00.001-07:00

Well, today I am officially 30 weeks! Wow, this is going by fast! After many name searches, I think we are going to name her Sierra. I am so excited to meet her. Just now, I had Kylie put her hand on my belly because she was kicking like crazy. After a few seconds, the baby kicked REALLY hard and Kylie got this really scared look on her face and pulled her hand away. It was seriously the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Anyway, things are going great!

Bryce Canyon

2010-08-18T15:26:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago we headed up to Bryce Canyon with Austin’s family. I had never been before and was looking forward to seeing new things. All in all, it was a fantastic place to go. The only 2 things stopping it from being a perfect weekend was 1 – it was COLD and rainy most of the trip, and 2 – the alternator went out on the Jeep. Austin had to drive 85 miles to the nearest Checkers to pick up a new one. It actually worked out rather nicely because he went on Saturday, and it rained the majority of the day. So it wasn’t like we were missing out on hiking or anything. Here are several pictures from our trip.

Austin turns 30!

2010-08-18T15:06:00.001-07:00

On July 31st, my dear sweet, OLD hubby turned 30. Ok, so 30 isn’t that old. Heck, I’ll be there in a year and a half. Good gravy… ANYWAY, we went up Provo Canyon and had cake and ice-cream with the family. I made a very special cake for Austin this year. If I do say so myself, it was a rather crappy looking cake. See for yourself…

Ha ha, I crack myself up…

Kylie got to spend time with her little cousin Andy. It was beyond hopeless to get these two to look at me at the same time for a pic. But I still managed to get some cute ones anyway :)

That last pic was taken right before Andy almost fell over backwards. LOL….

Austin, I hope you had a great birthday my dear. I sure love you!

My little Kylie

2010-08-18T14:57:00.001-07:00

My, my, my, has it been a month and a half since I have blogged??? I don’t really have an excuse, other than I’m lazy and lately I’m trying to cram as many books as I can read before the baby comes. So I’ve been using my free time to read instead of blog. I’ve read some really awesome books lately (The Help, by Kathryn Stockett is one of them). So anyway, let me catch up a bit.

I did a little photo shoot with Kylie several weeks ago. She actually sat still and posed. Her thing lately is to look anywhere but the camera. Anyway, here are some cute ones of her.

Kylie turns 3!

2010-07-07T12:50:00.001-07:00

Today is my little Kylie bug’s birthday. I can’t believe 3 years ago she was born. Where has the time gone!!! She is my little sweetheart and I don’t know what we would do without her. I hope she knows how much I love her to pieces. Happy birthday Kylie!

24 Weeks

2010-07-07T12:25:00.001-07:00

Well today I am 24 weeks…man this is going by fast! I really enjoy being pregnant and I just can’t wait to see our little girl in 3 months. I am going to have to put this kid in karate or something because she is ALWAYS kicking me! Anyway, here ya go mom. Here’s a pic of me and my tummy :)

Morning at the park

2010-06-29T21:22:00.001-07:00

I have discovered a cute little park south of Wal-mart in Orem. Thanks Melissa for telling me about it :) It has a play area, a duck pond, a fountain, tons of flowers, and this huge swing thingy. Yeah, don’t know how else to explain that last one, you’ll just have to see for yourself. We took a bunch of bread today to feed the ducks, and I was happy that they were actually hungry. Kylie spent the majority of the time eating the bread instead of throwing it, but I think she had fun :) She loved playing in the fountain…which I don’t blame her because it was hotter than Hades outside. Anyway, I thought I should at least post something since I haven’t for a while. There really hasn’t been anything new going on. I will be 23 weeks tomorrow and I must say, this child is WAY more active than Kylie ever was. Pretty much everyday I am able to see her move in my belly. It’s kind of creepy still sometimes to think there is an actual human being in there, but it’s still pretty cool :)

I hope you all have a great 4th of July weekend!

That kid has the biggest cheeks… :)

A visit from my brother

2010-06-18T14:13:00.001-07:00

My younger brother Shane was on leave from the military for a few weeks and was staying in Vegas for that time. He came up last Saturday to spend the weekend with us. It was really nice to see him – just wish it was more than once a year :) Saturday morning we had a big breakfast with him and my other brother Damian and his family. Later that afternoon we took a hike up to Upper Falls in Provo Canyon. I had never been there, but I really enjoyed the waterfalls and the hike. Later that afternoon we decided to take Shane on a ride through the mountains. I hope he enjoyed his stay here. We love you Shane! Come back again!

Me, Damian, Shane

Shane taking in the scenery

Grand Gulch

2010-06-18T13:59:00.001-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend, Austin, Kylie, and I went to Grand Gulch with Austin’s brother and wife. We had a lot of fun and saw many Indian ruins. We had an awesome campsite and really it would have been the perfect weekend had it not been for the bugs. These little black ANNOYING bugs were everywhere. They bit too. The first day we were there, Kylie and I didn’t have any hats or anything and our heads got bit quite a lot. They also liked flying into your ears. I was waving my arms so much trying to shoo them away and slapping myself every 2 seconds that I honestly looked like I was having a fit. Austin bought us some bandanas that night, so we were much better the rest of our trip. Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Indian Writing

And we’re having….

2010-06-05T21:52:00.001-07:00

A GIRL!!! I cannot tell you how happy I was today to hear that we are having another girl! Not that I have anything against having boys, but I would have given ANYTHING to have a sister near my age. I had to wait 15 years before my sister was born, and then I left for college when she was 3. So I am excited for Kylie :) We have a few names picked out. So far we’ve been thinking about Sierra, Jayden, Brielle, and my favorite – Kennadi. What do you think? I get fixated on a new name like every month so we will just have to see! But for now, enjoy the 2 pics of our little girl.

I love her little hand by her face.

Her cute little feet :)

Bridal Veil Falls…Check!

2010-05-27T13:01:00.001-07:00

So a few weeks ago I made a list of all the things I wanted to do with Kylie this summer. One of them was to go to Bridal Veil Falls. There is this awesome trail that goes right by the waterfall. Kylie had a blast throwing rocks in the water. Why is that such a fascination??? Anyway, at one point of our walk, I decided to go for a quick run. Now I haven’t ran like that since before my surgery. I made it about a half mile before I got a little winded. Let me just say that it felt fantastic! I miss running so much. I hope I can run at least a little bit every once in a while.

I have been enjoying this weather and look forward to checking more things off my list :)

I LOVE this picture!

The Hogle Zoo

2010-05-24T15:36:00.001-07:00

Last Friday Austin took the day off and we went to the Hogle Zoo. It was freezing cold and crowded, but we still had a great time. I love how excited Kylie gets to see all the animals. I’m hoping to take her to Wheeler Farm soon. I’ll have to wait until the weather warms up…it was SNOWING today. Unbelievable. Must be global warming right!

Kylie LOVED the carousel.

We went to this bird show that was so cool. The American Bald Eagle was my favorite by far.

After the zoo we were going to do this hike up to this waterfall, but we ran into a bunch of snow and we ran out of time. Oh well, it was still fun for Kylie to throw rocks in the river.

Check out the awesome pooch on me… :)

Moab

2010-05-24T13:13:00.001-07:00

Wow, I haven’t been on here for a while :)

Two weekends ago we went to Moab with our neighbors. It was such a blast. Austin and I went up early Friday afternoon and we got there about 4:00…there wasn’t an open campsite anywhere. We spent 2 hours looking and finally we decided to go up this road that was about 20 minutes from Moab and we found an awesome campsite. It was far from the road, we had no neighbors, and the best part was we didn’t have to pay to stay there.

We spent all day Saturday in Arches National Park. We did the Devils Garden trail. It was really fun. We did have a minor accident. We were taking the trail back to the parking lot, and Lance slid off this rock and dropped about 8 or 9 feet and landed on his heels. It was kind of scary. He could barely walk and we still have 3 more miles until we reached the car. It was getting late into the afternoon, so Austin and Kylie and I went ahead and Austin got some more water, jackets, headlights, etc. and I went and found a ranger to go and help him. I had just found a ranger to come help us out, when Austin drives up saying Lance was almost to the parking lot. I guess when were were gone, two doctors came along the trail and had two hiking poles which Lance used to speedily make it back. It was a blessing I’ll tell you what. I’m so glad the situation wasn’t any worse.

Sunday we went to one more arch and then went home. The weather was fantastic and we all had a great time. Thanks so much for going with us Teeples!

Our Campsite

Kylie’s new frog chair :)

We saw plenty of these

Our favorite neighbors, Lance, Bethany, and Roxann

Austin on top of Muscle Man Arch

Austin and Kylie

What an exhausting week

2010-04-26T13:32:00.003-07:00

Oh my dear friends, it has been one heck of a week. 2 things happened that proved to be most exhausting and draining. First, we decided to get new carpet. It’s funny that a lot of people who come to our house for the first time think we had nice carpet. Oh contraire. You should look in the corners of the room where no one steps on it…its’ a different color and it’s not smashed to smithereens. Two Saturdays ago we moved all the big stuff out into the garage. Austin also ripped up Kylie’s carpet and the hallway. We thought we would be able to get the carpet within the next few days, but Lowes got a little slow on us and it wasn’t until the next Friday that they came and installed it. Moving everything out of the house wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was still tiring. I absolutely love the new stuff! I took a pic of the old and new carpet, but with the lighting you can’t really tell a difference. But mark my words my friends, there is a difference! Kylie christened our new carpet by peeing on it.

The second thing that happened, which I deemed that day the worst day of my life, occurred last Wednesday. Austin, Kylie and I went to the doctor for my 12 week check up. I was so excited to hear out little baby’s heartbeat. As I lay there on the table, the doctor put the little thingy on my tummy and I was excited because I heard it! But then he kept moving it around and then you’d hear a heartbeat again, but he said, “That’s yours.” After about 5 minutes I start bawling. He can’t find a heartbeat. My baby is gone. These were the thoughts that ran through my head. I was devastated. The doctor tried again for about 5 minutes and still found nothing. It was at this point that he sat me up and said that I should get an ultrasound tomorrow and if they still can’t find a heartbeat, then I would need to go to a gyno to start the process of getting rid of the baby. That sounds horrible and he didn’t use those exact words, but that’s what he meant. He told me how his wife had had 2 miscarriages and its a very hard time. Honestly, he seemed pretty positive that I had had a miscarriage. I left that office in a daze. All I could think about was my baby that I didn’t have anymore. That night was the worst night of my life. I cried and cried and pleaded with Heavenly Father to please give me my baby back. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Austin gave me a blessing that night and I felt His arms wrap around me and I knew that I was going to be alright. The next day I got a call from the doctors office saying they were ready for my ultrasound. I called Austin and he met me at the hospital. I wasn’t ready to hear the news. I wanted to wake up from the nightmare. We got all the paperwork done and the guy came and got us. As I got on the table and he started the ultrasound, I braced myself. The first shot I saw was this jumbled mess that kept moving around. My first thought was, “Oh my gosh, thats my baby and it didnt fully develop and those are all the parts floating around.” I know, morbid. Then he moved it around some more and there was my baby…it’s beautiful, sweet, whole body with it’s perfect arms and legs and hands and feet. It was so beautiful. And there was a heartbeat. My baby had a heartbeat. That jumbled mass that I first saw was him/her moving around like crazy. I hadn’t lost my sweet baby. It was almost like it was saying, “Here I am mom, I didn’t leave you!” I cried again for the billionth time…but they were happy tears. I’m not sure what happened the day before. Maybe my little kiddo was exploring for the day. Maybe it really was a miracle. Whatever it was, I am so thankful I can still be it’s mommy…..

This is what you get when you leave a jar of Vaseline in arms reach of a 2 year old.

2010-04-26T13:03:00.001-07:00

You get a head to toe greasy, slimy child.

A Visit from the Fam

2010-04-26T13:01:00.001-07:00

Several weeks ago my mom, dad, and sister came out to visit. My brother and his wife had a baby a few months ago, so the grandparents got to see both their grandkids :) It’s always good to see everyone and we were able to do some fun things while they were here. We went to the Bean Museum, the Dinosaur Museum, saw “The Last Song,” had a picnic, ate good food, and just spent some quality time as a family. I hope my sister decides to come to BYU for college because her sister and niece miss her a lot!

My mom

My dad

Kylie was more interested in the dinosaur toys then the actual dinosaur bones.

“I have a big head and little arms…”

LOVE this picture that Brenna took.

Isn’t my sister gorgeous!

Pooped out

PLEASE COME VISIT SOON!

Kylie at the park

2010-03-30T12:40:00.001-07:00

Thought I would share some pictures of Kylie yesterday at the park. Austin and I were both commenting how big she is getting. If you can’t tell, she LOVES the park. I think she would go everyday if I let her.

Want to hear some good news?

2010-03-17T18:38:00.004-07:00

Well, after knowing for about 3 weeks now, but not wanting to jinx myself until I went to the doctor and knew for sure, I can now tell the whole world that I'M PREGNANT!!! Oh my gosh, I am so happy right now. I am due October 28th and everything is looking good so far. I can't believe next month they will be able to hear the heartbeat. I mean seriously, that is crazy. I haven't been sick or anything so everything is looking like it will go the same way when I was pregnant with Kylie. I'm so happy I can finally start telling people. Anyway, just wanted to share the good news!

Coming home…

2010-03-08T14:13:00.001-07:00

Oh my, Sunday was a sad day. We had to say goodbye to our wonderful little niche of the world. Austin and I are so ready to go back again. Anyway, I digress…

After leaving the hotel, we headed out to Saint Helens, Oregon. Oh yes, more Twilight stops :) This town cracked me up. It was a dump. It was so fun to see the Twilight places, but at the same time some of them were hard to recognize as they were in the movie. My favorite place was Bella's house.

Dress Shop

Restaurant that she eats dinner with Edward (still having a hard time seeing it..)

Bookstore

Parking lot that the men were harassing Bella

View Point Inn where they shot the Prom scene. Actually a really beautiful place. Has an awesome view, but forgot to take pictures.

Stopped to see the Latourell Waterfall after that.

After that we headed over to Bridal Veil Falls. Really liked this waterfall.

We then stopped at our last place on our trip – Multnomah Falls. AMAZING! Honestly, the coolest waterfall I have ever seen. You actually walk up the mountain to stand on that bridge. From there, you can go another mile to stand at the very top of the falls, but Austin’s foot was hurting so we didn’t go.

And that was our trip! Hope you enjoyed the pictures. It really was a wonderful vacation :)

This is taking me forever…

2010-03-08T13:47:00.001-07:00

Ok, seriously, I don’t know what my problem is. Not sure why it is taking so long to post about our Oregon trip! So here goes.

On Saturday we went to the Seaside beach and searched for sand dollars. We found a TON! That was so much fun to do. After that we went to Ecola State Park.

Loved the lighthouse out in the distance.

Really, really enjoyed this area. Awesome views.

We then went to Indian Beach where they shot the beach scene in Twilight (you know, La Push). This was a really cool beach. We were able to see some tide pools as well.

We went to see this cool place called Treasure Cove. There was a fence around the edge of it, but if you happened to hop the fence by accident (wink, wink), you stood out on this ledge to see this awesome view :)

Our next stop was short sands beach. I really liked this beach. We spent a lot of time playing at this one :)

Our last stop was Tolvana Beach where we got some great sunset pictures. The sunsets were so amazing out there.

After that, we ordered some pizza and relaxed in our hotel. By this time I was getting sad because we had to leave the next day. I want to go back!

Day 2 of our trip

2010-03-02T14:33:00.003-07:00

Are you ready for some pictures???? :) I’m telling ya, it was so hard to pick just a few because Austin took some amazing pictures. So just suffer through the endless beauty. Jk.

Friday we went to Cannon Beach. This is where the impressive Haystack Rock is. I loooooved this place. So pretty.

Cute, I know :)

These little guys were all over the place.

Couldn’t believe the hundreds of starfish we saw on our trip.

Funny story about this picture. I was out exploring and was trying to come back to the shore. I guess the tide was really high when I was trying to get back because all of a sudden I was trapped on this rock. I know it doesn’t show it very well, but if I had stepped off that rock, I would have been up to my waist. So I just had to wait and look like an idiot until the water lowered and I could jump to the next rock :)

Here is a quick picture of Arcadia Beach.

Our next stop was Cape Meares. On our way there, we took this short trail to see this HUGE Sitka Spruce. I’ll let you read the sign. It was such an impressive tree.

Look how big that tree trunk is!

Our next stop was the Cape Meares Lighthouse. On the way we took some pictures of the huge cliffs that bordered it.

Here is the lighthouse.

On our way back to the car, we stopped to see the Octopus Tree.

Here is Manzanita. We ate lunch in this town. Funny story about that. We were going to eat lunch at this Pizza place that we read was really good. But they didn’t open till 4:00. So the closest thing to us was this pub. I didn’t really want to eat at a pub, but they had a menu on their door and the prices were reasonable so we went in. After we sat down, the waitress comes over, puts a hand on my shoulder and says, “Are you over 21 hon?” I’m like “Um.., yeah, I’m 28.” I was so embarrassed! I mean I saw the sign on the door that said 21 and younger would not be permitted inside, but I SERIOUSLY didn’t think I was going to have a problem!!! Yeah, I take back all my comments about how it doesn’t bother me when people think I’m younger than I look because I was peeved…

Our next stop was Rockaway Beach where there is this awesome arch rock.

By this time, it was getting close to sunset, so we went to Oceanside to take some sunset pictures.

Before we headed home, we stopped at Munson Falls. It was getting pretty dark by this time, but we were still able to see the cool waterfall.

I couldn’t believe all the amazing things we saw that day. Sooo looking forward to going back.

Oregon Trip

2010-02-26T15:06:00.002-07:00

As most of you know, Austin and I went to Seaside, Oregon on Feb 17th and we stayed until the 21st. It was such a FANTASTIC trip. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone. We dropped Kylie off at the grandparents house and we drove to Boise, Idaho Wednesday night. The next day we drove into Oregon and made a few stops on the way before we made it to Seaside. They were mostly Twilight stops. So if you think I’m a big dork, just skip the remaining post :)

We originally were going to see Multnomah Falls first (quick scene in Twilight that Edward and Bella walk past) and I didn’t feel bad about this stop because it actually looked really cool. But Austin decided that he would like to go see Mt. Hood. Mt. Hood is an impressive mountain. It’s HUGE! Also, at the base of the mountain is a ski lodge called Timberline Lodge that they filmed “The Shining.” So that was pretty cool to see.

It actually took longer than we thought to find the place, so we decided to skip the falls for another day and head on to the other Twilight spots. It was like 3:00 by this time and we both hadn’t eaten any lunch, so I was excited that our next stop was going to be the Carver Cafe. I was excited to eat there because had read online that it was great food. But wouldn’t you know it, they were closed for the day. Just my luck.

Next stop was where they filmed the scenes right after Bella tells Edward that he’s a vampire. They had like 6 different shooting locations all in one spot. It was funny because you think it’s going to be in the middle of the woods…yeah it was behind this parking lot of a restaurant.

(Where Edward rips the tree trunk out)

(Just wanted to show you how mossy everything was)

Our final stop was the Cullen's house. Again, you think this house is going to be in the middle of the forest, but it’s in downtown Portland. The street ends in their private driveway, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures…mainly because I was chicken and with all those dang windows, I didn’t want them to come running out and yelling at me. Oh well.

By this time it was getting late and we still had an hour drive to Seaside. I was sooo happy to finally get there. And can I say, this was one of the coolest hotels I have ever stayed at. Let me give you the grand tour.

Entry way leads into the full kitchen.

Bathroom

Living room/Bedroom

Living room/dining room

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this place. If you are ever in Seaside, stay at the Rivertide Suites. Anyway, thats all for day 1. I will update the rest of the trip soon. (We took 980 pictures, so it may take me a while to post all of our trip).

New Flooring

2010-02-17T09:42:00.001-07:00

What happens when you have an awesome neighbor who comes over and helps you??? You get new floors installed in 2 days :) Austin and I decided to upgrade from our ugly linoleum and buy some laminate hickory flooring. I love it! We did our entry way and the kitchen. It looks soooo good, I’m not sure why we waited so long to do it :) Here are some pictures:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Well, I better start packing. Austin and I are headed to the Oregon coast today! So excited! Have a great week everyone!

Cleopatra or Homely looking????

2010-02-13T10:16:00.001-07:00

So a few weeks ago I decided to do the unthinkable and dye my hair dark…with no highlights…and with bangs. Daring you say? For me it is. I have not been dark haired since I was a….hmmm…I’m going to have to think about this for a minute… sophomore in high school. That was 11 years ago. Anyway, I really liked the bangs at first, but I don’t know if I like them now. The first time Austin saw me he was kind of blown away by how different I looked. He said I looked Cleopatra’ish. Then the other night I was saying how I probably won’t get bangs again because I don’t like how they make me look and he goes, “Yeah, they make you look more homely.” I’m like WHAT! I’m like do you even know what that word means!!! I proceeded to tell him that if you call a girl homely you’re basically telling her that she has a sweet spirit and that’s about all that’s going for her because she’s butt ugly. I said what did you think that word meant! Well, he thought it meant more traditional looking. Either way, it’s not good :) Oh well :) You win some, you lose some.

Ooey, gooey popcorn :)

2010-02-02T13:15:00.001-07:00

So after FHE last night, Austin and I thought it would be fun to pop some popcorn. We had bought one of those air popped kind that you put on the stove and shake it all around as it pops in the tinfoil. We thought Kylie would have fun with it…well she could care less. Plus I put the burner on too high and burned the crap out of it. It was awful. So much for dessert :) But then I remembered this caramel popcorn recipe I’ve been wanting to make forever, so we made that. Kylie was much more interested in this kind of popcorn. I think the kid ate 1/4 of it :) Here is my little cutie pie stuffing her face.

She makes the same facial expression as me when sugar is around….

Oh, and I did get bangs and my hair is dark, but I need to go tanning because I look kind of vampirish so you’ll have to wait for a pic :) But lets just say I LOVE IT!

Hope you aren’t expecting something exciting…

2010-01-29T15:28:00.001-07:00

Sorry to all my faithful followers (I think I have 2…maybe???). It has been a slow and uneventful month. We haven’t even really taken any pics of ourselves, so I quickly took a few yesterday of Kylie. I’m really stumped on what to write about. I guess I could tell you something funny that Kylie said the other day while we were eating breakfast. She looks at me and slams down her little fists and says, “Where’s my Krabby Patty formula???” I must admit, I was at a loss for words. Probably because I was laughing my head off :) That kid says some hilarious things sometimes. Oh, like the other night when she was singing, “Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin like a fool with your pants on the ground.” LOL. HilARious. That’s a song a hopeful American Idol contestant sang a few weeks ago. Google it, it’s dang funny.

Question for you all. Should I get bangs? I’m getting my hair done on Tuesday and I have been debating if I should get bangs. I mean, I haven’t had them since I was like in grade school. And I remember really hating them. But that was back when I didn’t have my amazing hair straightener. I guess I’ll give it a whirl. Don’t laugh if it turns out dorky.

Are you all excited that New Moon comes out on DVD March 20th!!!!! So excited. And the next movie comes out in theaters in like June. Yippee!

Well, that’s all I’ve got. I should have a few posts up my sleeve next week, so stay tuned :)

Every time Kylie watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she has to be holding her Mickey stuffed animal :)

The Princess and the Frog

2010-01-07T15:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Kylie and I went to see the Princess and the Frog. I was a little worried taking her there myself because I didn’t know if she would try and run around the theater or anything. But she did really, really well. She started off by sitting on the chair next to me, but when the movie started, she climbed onto my lap and stayed there the whole time. As I held my sweet little girl in my arms I just smiled knowing hopefully soon we will be able to bring another beautiful baby into this world. And life was perfect at that moment.

My birthday!

2010-01-04T15:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 28…yeah, I’m getting old. I had the best birthday! Thanks for all the birthday wishes from everyone, they made my day :) I had to post my favorite present of all.

Wait for it….

My very own leg lamp like from the movie, “A Christmas Story!” Austin got this for me and seriously, I almost peed my pants from the excitement :) I know most of you think I’m weird, but that movie has been one of my families all time favorite Christmas movies. When we went to drive around and see peoples Christmas lights last month, there was a house that had a leg lamp in their window and I thought that was the coolest thing ever! Anyway, I’m a little sad that I will only have a few days to enjoy it before it gets put away with all my other Christmas decorations. But hey, at least I have something to look forward to for next Christmas!

Our December Adventures

2010-01-04T15:39:00.001-07:00

This Christmas we were fortunate enough to be able to spend it with my family in Illinois. We had waited too long to buy plane tickets and since we have to buy Kylie one now, we decided we should just drive to Illinois. We left on December 18th, and after taking a much longer route to my house (by almost 3 hours of extra driving. I told Austin if we didn’t get there soon I was going to fling myself out of the car) we finally arrived. We could not have asked for better weather. The roads were clear the whole way. It was so much fun to see everyone again. I had seen my mom and dad and sister this past June, but it had been since last Thanksgiving that I had seen Dylan. We kind of took it easy the rest of the day because we were all pretty much brain dead from the nonstop 23 hour drive there. Here is Kylie passed out in her TInkerbell bed mom bought her.

My mom had to work until Wednesday and Dylan and Brenna had school until then too. So we didn’t do a whole lot those first few days. I was able to help decorate their tree. I love decorating Christmas trees. Ahhh…

Of course we had to have a rousing game of Wii bowling :)

We all had the chance to go out to eat to Olive Garden. It was so stinking good. Love this picture except for Kylie. She looks silly.

On Christmas Eve we all went over to Grandpa Howard’s house. We had Pepper steak (my FAVORITE!) and it was nice to spend time with everyone. Grandma and Grandpa Farber had some gifts for Kylie and she had a blast seeing what new goodies she got.

My beautiful sister :)

My Grandma and Mom

My Grandpa Howard

Christmas came and Kylie was so excited to open all her presents…and mine and Austin's and dads..you get the picture! She is so funny. Every present she would open, there would be an intake of breath followed by a “oooohhh!’ So cute.

I think the best gift given was a new guitar to my brother from my mom and dad. His face was priceless. :)

The rest of our stay was fun and I miss them already. We left on December 27th. We were really blessed to get home in safety. The day before we left the Interstate was closed in 10 different spots that we needed to go through because of snow. The day we left they were all opened again. We spent the night in Cheyenne, WY and then got back home later that day. The roads were awesome. The day after we got back, it snowed a TON here in Utah. So like I said, we were grateful to get back in safety.

Kylie opening her presents at home.

This picture is hilarious. It looks like she is ripping the paper off with her teeth. I’m pretty sure she didn’t get that anxious to open that present..

Kylie at Austin’s mom and dad’s house opening presents.

I miss you guys! Thanks for an AWESOME Christmas. Thanks to everyone for the great gifts too :)

Snowmen!

2009-12-12T15:37:00.002-07:00

Today, Kylie and I went outside to build a snowman. After rolling the snow to make the middle, I realized I had made it way too big and I couldn’t lift it up. So I decided we should make a daddy, mommy, and Kylie snowmen :) Kylie had so much fun helping me and it was nice to get outside. We have had a lot of snow lately and I just haven’t really wanted to leave the house. Anyway, here are some pictures to enjoy of our little Kylie bug :)

Our snowmen family :)

Are you ready for Christmas yet?

2009-12-04T22:39:00.001-07:00

I am!!!

Some lovely visitors

2009-12-01T16:36:00.001-07:00

I knew I should have posted like 2 weeks ago when everything was fresh in my mind, but then I probably would have bored you to death with my ramblings, so here is a cliff note version of Ryan and Tiffini’s stay.

So Austin’s brother Ryan lives out in Ohio. We don’t get to see their family very often, so it was nice that they were able to come out to see us for Thanksgiving. Their kids are adorable and we had so much fun hanging out with them. Here are a few of the highlights.

Yes, Wendy, Ashley, and Tiffini and I went to see New Moon. Duh! I really really liked it. I thought it was much better than the first one. A lot less biting her lip and and making impatient noises from Bella. I do believe I’m going to have to go back and see it again :)

Kylie LOVED hanging out with her cousins. She is going to be such a good big sister. I think she loved McKinlee the best :) She was constantly giving her kisses.

Brightyn

Hayden

Family Pictures

I thought this picture turned out so stinking cute.

Thanksgiving Point Petting Zoo

The Living Planet Aquarium

Thanks for the great visit you guys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T08:26:00.003-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I just wanted to let everyone know how thankful I am for all the many blessings that have been sent my way. I will forever be grateful for my husband Austin and for the hard worker that he is. He constantly lets me know how much he loves me and I am just grateful for all that he does for me. I'm grateful for my little Kylie. Being a mom has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. That little girl is the sweetest thing that I have ever seen. I love being able to be home with her. She is such a joy to be around and I'm so thankful Heavenly Father let us be her parents. I'm thankful for my in-laws and all that they have done for us over the years. They are always willing to help out in any way and I'm so thankful for the love that they constantly show us. To my parents, who have been such good examples to me and the rest of my siblings. They always did what they could to provide the best for us. They have become my best friends, and I wish we lived closer so I can see them more, but I'm grateful for the opportunities that we have to visit a few times a year. I love you guys!

And most of all, I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and for my Savior Jesus Christ. There have been many times in my life that I have been given second chances and I will forever be grateful for that. They have seen the person I could become. I would be lost without this gospel and without the knowledge that I will be able to spend eternity with my family. I pray I can always strive to do what is right and to always be a good example to others. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving this year :)

Christmas Trees

2009-11-13T15:07:00.003-07:00

Hello everyone. Sorry, I will not be posting any new cute pics of Kylie because our camera has been sitting in our hall closet collecting dust. But I do have a very important question to ask...Where do you buy your Christmas trees? And I'm talking about the real thing. Not some stupid fake one. Sorry, I am all for real trees. Well, except maybe for last year. I do believe there was an egg sac left over from some stupid momma spider because we had all these little spiders crawling around the floor. AND I do believe there was a dead animal carcass somewhere hidden in the tree because the thing started stinking like...well a carcass. It was sick. That has never happened before. But anyway, we've always gotten our tree from the lot next to the Planted Earth store on State street in Orem. It's like diagonally from the Scera pool. So my friends, I ask, where is the best place with the best price to buy my tree? I've always wanted to cut my own tree down and don't know where to do that or how much it costs. Anyway, please let me know!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T11:32:00.002-07:00

Well, Halloween has come and gone, but we sure had a lot of fun! We went to our ward’s trunk or treat and Kylie was able to get a bunch of candy. She was mainly interested in the suckers and would therefore grab one if it was in the bowl. She would never grab the good stuff! :) After that we went up to AF to see Howard and Wendy and Austin’s grandma. By the end of the night she had quite the haul. I am now officially sick of her candy. Literally, I think I ate 1/4 of it. Yes, I’m addicted. My name is Linley and I’m addicted to delicious fattening candy :) Anyway, hope you all had a great Halloween!

Let the Halloween festivities begin!

2009-10-30T14:39:00.001-07:00

This past Tuesday our ward had their Halloween Carnival. I had never been to one before because it’s mostly for the Primary kids, so it was fun to take Kylie. She got candy and toys and even got her face painted. I’m pretty sure she had a good time :)

Here’s my little Tinkerbell :)

Austin and I, (ok, it was my idea) decided to put our wigs on Kylie. Here she is with Austin’s wig holding his gold teeth (Austin is going to be a Redneck). She looks so stinking ridiculous in this mullet wig.

Now that’s what I’m talking about! How cute is she!

Austin’s work had their Halloween party today, so Kylie and I went up to see Austin. Isn’t he…hot? :)

Tonight we are going to Howard and Wendy’s for a Halloween get together. I’m excited to make caramel apples again and eat good food. I’m going to be so fat this weekend. Now where did I put my stretchy pants?...

Brandon!

2009-10-30T14:17:00.001-07:00

So on October 19th, we picked my brother Brandon up from the airport. He reported to the MTC on the 21st and we were blessed to be able to spend some time with him before he left for 2 years. I hadn’t seen Brandon since last Thanksgiving, so it was fun to spend time with him. Kylie cried every time he would look at her, but by the time we had gotten home from the airport, he was her best buddy. On Monday we carved pumpkins. On Tuesday we invited my brother Damian and his wife Jenelle over for dinner and home made caramel apples. Ok, get this. My dad was called to the Las Vegas mission. My brother Shane was called to the exact same mission. My brother Damian was called to the Los Angeles Spanish speaking mission – and that is where Brandon is going. Weird huh! Anyway, Austin, Damian, and Jenelle were giving Brandon advice and telling him funny stories about their missions. It was fun to hear of everybody’s experience out in the field. The next day we took some pics of Brandon in front of the temple and then headed over to the MTC and dropped him off at the curb…literally. I really don’t like how they just have you pull up, get out their bags and say “See ya!” I missed seeing the video and being with Brandon just a little be longer. But anyway, we said our good byes and of course I cried. He is going to make such a great missionary though. I love that kid. We’ve gotten a letter from him and he seems to be doing great. I know he will do an awesome job :)

Tracy Aviary and Hogle Zoo

2009-10-30T13:58:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago we headed up to Salt Lake to go to the Tracy Aviary and the Hogle Zoo. I had never heard of the Aviary place before but by golly, it was such a fun place to go! It’s in Liberty Park and it’s not that expensive to get in. They had the coolest birds there. Kylie loved it. We went like an hour after it opened and we pretty much had the place to ourselves (not unlike our zoo experience…). Here are so of my favorite pictures.

I see you….

This guy looks like a dinosaur

Bald eagles are so pretty

After seeing all the birdies we ate lunch at Liberty Park and then headed over to the zoo. Yeah, the zoo was a popular place to go that day. Plus they had like this hippie mother earth group there that was doing some sort of convention. It took about 20 minutes of waiting in line before we got our tickets (to the zoo, not to see the hippies). Anyway, it was such a beautiful day out and we saw a lot of animals that usually are hiding or sleeping the other times we have gone. Kylie was in heaven. We wore her out halfway through though. She said, “I want to take my nap.” So we laid the back of her stroller down and she was out like a light. Here are some more pictures of our day.

I call this monkey “Soaked in pee and baked in the sun”

I loved seeing the baby elephant :)

So this girl standing next to me was blowing on a piece of plastic between her lips and this baby tiger DID NOT like it. Of course the girl thought it was funny so she kept doing it…

All girl

2009-10-30T13:35:00.001-07:00

Meet Ms. Princess. Kylie is such a girlie girl and I LOVE it! There are many days when she will get all dolled up. It’s so stinkin cute.

Here is she is pointing to herself and telling the cat that her name is Kylie. She said, “Hi, I Kylie.” She started doing that the day before at Wal-mart. She was sitting in the cart and I had just put a couple of gallons of milk in beside her. She looks at the milk and says (pointing to herself), “Hi milk, I Kylie!” I about died.