It's Really THIS Cold!

 It's chili out there today and Kylie decided it was necessary to go out like this. I am pretty sure just a little jacket would have done the trick, but she's always looking for a excuse to wear that hat and scarf. Maybe they help with the hurricane-like winds we have whipping through here.

Duck Pond & The Playground

It's been a long time since we've been to see the duck. I wanted to see how Jase would like them and I knew Kylie loved them last time we were there so I figured she love them again. I was WRONG. For some reason she was mortified. I don't really blame her. There is one big white goose that is mean! It hisses like crazy and your sure it's out to get you.

Kylie was content to throw her bread for the swing (the hissing goose is the white one on the very far right)

or stay really close to Jeremy. She finally figured out that they would only come near her when she had bread in her hand. She was glad when it was gone.

Jase on the other hand LOVED them. He thought they were so funny. He got a kick out of them.

He wasn't scared one bit!

There was park near by so we let the kids play for a minute.

Jase has mastered the slide going down on his stomach. I think the first time he went down he thought it was like the stairs, but I think he likes the slide better!

Kylie is always up for a good playground. She loves the outside!

Jase peeking through the hole.

It was fun to get out and enjoy the finally nice weather and spend time together. Last night in Kylie's prayers she said, "I'm thankful we could go play at the park and see the ducks, and if they got close too us then we could just kick them." I am not sure Heavenly Father appreciates us kicking his ducks, but like I said that one is mean...

Hurricane Felix

Remember Hurricane Felix that hit Central America in 2007? Well since then it made it's way to my house and has taken up permanent residence here! It sometimes goes by the name of Jase, but either name is appropriate really.

You always know where he has been because there is always a mess left there. I promise I keep an eye on him. He's good and knows how to get the job done quickly. The toilet paper happened while I was brushing my teeth. I was getting dressed while he was playing in the garbage. He's always got a spread of toys out around him at all times and the pots & pans and Tupperware are a daily occurrence. He keeps me on my toes and maybe someday when he is old enough to really help me clean up he won't be so inclined to make such big messes!

What Have I Done?

I introduced nickjr.com to Kylie a couple weeks ago and ever since she has been seriously compromising my computer time! She loves it and has figured out how to work the mouse pretty quickly. I am sure it won't belong before she is explaining to me how to work a computer. Between that and working an iPhone this girl is on top of her game in the technology world.

Turning 20-10 in 2010

It's true, I'm married to a 30 year old! Holy cow! How did this happen? I think Jeremy is slightly in denial... atleats he denies any gray hair!

I thought for a long time it would be fun to have a big surprise party for him to celebrate, but as it got closer and closer I became way too much of a chicken and didn't dare do it.  I was afraid I couldn't pull it off and it would end up super lame, so instead we just had a very low-key weekend. Jeremy and I went out  to dinner and a movie on Friday night then tonight we made smoothies and had cake and ice cream with the Dyers.

Jeremy's not a huge cake person, but we made one because Kylie LOVES to help and I wanted to put 30 candles on it. 

 

Notice all the smoke? We were nervous the fire alarm may go off. Good thing we  had a window open!

I guess Jase got over his aversion to cake and dug right in. He was a mess when he was finished, but he loved every minute of it. Every once in awhile I would hear him just chuckle to himself as he ate!

We all know Kylie loves a good birthday party and today was no exception. She loved the celebrating and can hardly stand that her birthday is next!

Happy Birthday to Jeremy! I am grateful he was born 30 years ago and it really doesn't matter how old he is, it's just a reminder that's it's my turn in a few years!

Sunday Best

 We have either been out of town or up in Cedar (where it's cold, and I didn't want Jase wearing his shorts) ands so today was the first time the kids had a chance to wear their Easter outfits and I think they look pretty dang adorable. All growing up we had a little tradition, I guess you would call it, where my dad always picked out mine and my sister's Easter dresses. Jeremy decided he liked that idea and wanted to pick out Kylie's. I think he did awesome and she loves the dress too. Jase is my handsome little boy that only has 6 more weeks until nursery, HALLEULIA!! By the way, don't let his standing fool ya, he's still can't walk. Actually I am convinced he CAN, he just WON'T!

Also, speaking of church I just want to say how thankful I am for Kylie's Sunbeam teachers. They are awesome! Kylie loves primary and her teachers put in an insane amount of effort into each lesson. A couple weeks ago they learned about animals and she came home with a really neat picture she was so excited about. They have also made a special effort to bring her valentine treats and an Easter gift. She feels so loved by them and I am grateful for the love of the gospel and learning they are helping to instill in her that I pray will continue throughout her life.

So Envious

If you look closely you can see the start of what will be an amazing summer golden brown tan! Something I have never experienced for one second in my life. I am grateful (and I am sure she will be grateful someday when she cares) she was blessed with Jeremy very tan-able skin. I'm so jealous!

Jase's Hang Out Spot

Jase is in motion ALL. DAY. LONG. That kid never stops. He is always into something, climbing on something, eating something or pulling something out. He's loaded with energy. It's rare he's content just hang out unless he is sitting in his stroller outside watching kids play or hang out at this big window watching what's going on in the neighborhood.  The day I took this picture there was a big noisy dump truck and some workers outside that caught and kept his attention for what I consider a really long time (maybe 5 minutes). Anytime they would dump a loud load of concrete into the truck he would get excited and chuckle to himself  then continue to watch intently. My poor windows suffer greatly, but I figure it's worth the sacrifice! He's a funny little guy and just I wish I could predict what kind of ruckus he was planning next!

Kylie's Special Day

Today at preschool Kylie was the Special Student for the day and it was a total surprise to her. I filled out a little paper about her and as the teacher read about her the kids were suppose to guess who it was. Kylie was so excited when it was her. I also snuck in some brownies for her to share with the class. Being special also meant you get to be the princess for the day (boys in her class get to be pirates) which is perfect because when I asked Kylie what she wanted to be when she grew up she immediately said a princess. 

When I went to pick her up from school today she was just beaming. She also finished her worksheet very first today and did an awesome job and was awarded an extra treat for doing so. I also had a good long chat with her teacher and she said Kylie is doing amazing. She has improved immensely from a couple months ago and excelles in most areas. She is more focused and becoming way more confident in herself and in her work. Her teacher beats money she'll be reading by this time next year. She's a good little worker and I am grateful for her attitude and willingness to try even when it's hard.  Kylie is one SPECIAL little girl! I think we'll keep her!

Kite Flying

Kylie has been dying to fly to her kite. She woke up Monday morning, came into my room and immediately looked out the window. She saw the trees were blowing and she said, "Mom, the trees are moving. That means it's windy. We can fly my kite!" Well, it was freezing then it rained on and off throughout the day. Finally after Jeremy got home from work there was about a 10 minute break where it wasn't raining, the winds weren't fiercely blowing and it wasn't quite dark so he took advantage of it and took the kids down to the park to fly.

Kylie loved it!! She really thought it was so cool. She's afraid the kite will blow away so she won't let the string out very far, but she's pretty good at keeping it under control.

Can you see Jase? He's enjoying the kite from his cozy stroller.

Easter

was really fun for us this year. I loved having it Conference weekend and I am grateful for the instruction and guidance we received this time. We have some pretty inspiring and amazing leaders and we would be a fool not to take what they say to heart and follow it.

Easter celebrating started on Friday for Kylie. Her preschool had an Easter Egg Hunt at the park along with a "BBQ." She enjoyed playing and came home with a basket full of goods.

The Easter bunny shows up Saturday at our house so we can have that day to play and then focus on the real meaning of Easter on Sunday. Kylie was super excited about the whole thing. The way she has been talking for months I think she thought Easter was an extension of Christmas. She had herself a pretty long list of things she wanted the Easter Bunny to bring. She didn't seem too disappointed though  when she saw he  definitely doesn't bring as much as Santa.

She loved the hunt for her basket. She thought the Easter bunny was pretty funny to hide it under the stairs especially since he hid Jase's behind the chair which was really easy to find!

Jase didn't really get what was going on

But he seemed relatively pleased with a basket full of stuff.

In the afternoon the kids participated in a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt down at the park.

Naturally Kylie was all over it. Her Aunts had coached her on how to score a lot of eggs. She took it to heart and came home with her fair share.

Poor Jase on the other had really needs to learn to walk!! If only he realized what he was missing!! Good thing Dad stepped up and help the kid out.

I think they both walked away pretty happy! Well, at least Kylie did...Jase crawled!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

My dad so generously offered to watch Kylie and Jase for us so Jeremy could work while I was gone with my mom and sisters. Along with the help from my sister Lexie, my sister-in-law Erin and anyone else he could recruit to help him they got along just fine. I sent them with two pages full of instructions hoping to make their lives a little easier (my dad and sisters, I mean) I came home to find all was well except for one minor mishap, Grandpa had gotten Kylie dressed and she was wearing Jase's size 9 month pants as capris!!! It was so funny!

The second she caught wind of that though she wanted them off immediately! She took off upstairs and was ticked I was taking a picture of her. If that's the worst the thing that happened the whole time I was gone then I think they got along pretty well!!

We also celebrated my grandma's, my brother Austin's and my birthday while we were there.

Kylie insisted everyone wear party hats.

Baby Alex liked his...

Jase DID NOT! That poor kid has something against birthdays and I can not figure out what it is.

On our way home we were stopped at the Dam for over 2 hours! Do you even know what that does to a kid that already hates to be strapped in his car seat? It makes him crazy. We let him sit up front with grandma for awhile. That seemed to help for a minute.

"Remember Girls, What Goes Down Has To Come Back Up"

That was the first thing my mom said to us as we started our 9 mile hike down the Grand Canyon towards Supai.

My mom, two of my sisters, Ashley and Amanda and I, along with about 11 other women spent 4 days amongst some of the most beautiful things in nature I have ever seen.

The hike down took us pretty much a full day. We took our time as we enjoyed  each other's company the beauties that surrounded us.

The long day definitely called for something refreshing. Nothing better then a giant Otter-Pop to do the trick.

As we walked through the village we were amazed at what we saw. It's definitely a whole different world down there.

It was super fascinating to watch the helicopter. It takes 4.5 minutes to fly to the top and land. The natives use that and mules to get EVERYTHING they need down to them.

We went to church Sunday morning and meet the most amazing couple. They flew down just to provide sacrament meeting that day. Thank Goodness we were there because only one other person showed up. The church was tiny, but had everything we needed. It was a really neat experience!

The rest of our time was spent exploring the falls, caves and mountains.

We were even pretty willing to scale some serious mountainsides to get to some beautiful falls.

It was very worth it though

Some water was deep enough to dive in. It looked freezing to me so I didn't participate, but those who did looked like they had a great time.

These were the very last falls we saw and they were by far my favorite. I thought they were beautiful I think mostly because they were surrounded by green. We climbed up really close to them, sat on a rock and watched them. They just seemed so refreshing to me.

This whole experience just reminded me of how blessed we are to live on this earth. I know I don't appreciate it like I should all the time, but it's beautiful and this was a good reminder for me.

Last of all, was our hike out. It was a doozy. The 9 miles down turned into 9 miles up. It wasn't too terrible until the last mile which were killer switchbacks

But we survived and made it out. (Don't judge us we look terrible, but we are alive and still have all our toenails)

And last but not least, I do need to give a shout out the mules and horses that carried our stuff down and back out again. If it wasn't for them we never would have made it!