It's that Time of the Year

I love Christmas trees, the lights in my neighborhood and being with family, but I also love Christmas cards! It probably stems from my love of photos too :). This year Shutterfly is offering 50 free Christmas cards if you blog about their deal. This deal is great because not only do I love FREE Christmas cards, I love Shutterfly's quality! I've ordered pictures from my study abroad from them and used their site to email slideshows. It's great!

Here are some cute ones:

You can look at more here.
Or if you're a little late getting cards out this year, why not do a double-whammy and send a photo thank you card?

Now if I can just get Kyle to smile for the camera ...

Being Thankful

We're thankful for a lot of things over here. We've had a great year and feel really blessed. We finished Kyle's "Thankful Tree." These were his unprompted responses every morning to my question, "What are you thankful for?"

• Dada
• Mama
• Nolan
• Buzz Lightyear
• My big ball
• Woody's Hat
• Kyle
• Mickey Mouse
• My motorcycle
• Wonder Pets
• Crayons
• Blue Toy Story Show (Toy Story 1 DVD is blue)
• to go potty
• Kyle's hands
• fan in my room
• Buzz Lightyear (again)
• my bed
• Dada's socks
• my toilet paper
• Mr. Potato Head
• My Jesus
• Woody's Car
• My 'puter (computer)
• Mama Mr. Potato Head
• Nolan's chair
• My underwear
• Zurg
• Papa
• My lightbulbs (he calls his tennis shoes his lightbulbs)
• My helmet

  If I ever did try to suggest something to him (Kyle, are you thankful for nursery?) He would answer something like, "For my underwear!" He did not want any help. It was a great way to start our morning and really helped me to think of things I was thankful for during this season.

  We had a great Thanksgiving at a friend's home with with other friends and other nice people that we were happy to meet! It was a full house full of good food, lots of kids, good food, and lots of adults. I made mashed potatoes and continued the tradition of the seven layer jello.

    I'm especially thankful for the three boys I have in my life. I love them so much and feel so lucky to be the "Princess" as Kyle sometimes refers to me of this house. TRay is the best husband and dad. Kyle copies his.every.move. and Nolan can't stand to look anywhere but at his dad when Tim comes home. 

    Kyle has turned into such a good little guy this year. It is so fun and rewarding for me to see him grow and learn new things. He loves to be with his friends. When we come home from being with friends he says, "We had fun today!" and another favorite line is, "That'll be perfect!" He has the best giggle. He is still very active and physical. Every morning he asks me, "Where we goin' Mama?" while I'm getting him dressed. He loves to go places. He will now talk to Nolan a little bit saying, "Hey buddy! Whatcha doing?" and loves to make him laugh. I'm thankful for that and for when he tells me I look pretty. It makes my day.

  Oh my Nolan Bear. I have never held such an easy-going baby. Heavenly Father has really given me a special gift when Nolan was born. He is the perfect fit in our family. He smiles so easily and loves to look at his brother or dad. I'm so thankful that he's patient, happy even when he doesn't get a long nap due to our outings, and that his rolls are so squishy. He is the best!

We hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Our Christmas tree is up and decorated and our five decorations are out. Kyle is really hoping Santa will bring him a lollipop! 

Computer Man

Kyle has discovered the computer. Well, what I should write is that he has discovered how to help himself to the computer. Evidence:

 I like that he grabbed his basketball for this one:

Well tonight he helped himself to the computer again. And besides finding three open windows of an ad for belly-fat blasting, something even better happened tonight. It was so sweet and I wanted to document it.

  I was in my room getting ready to go run an errand when Kyle came over to me and stated, "I'm lookin' at stuff Mama." He went back to the computer and excitingly started yelling, "It's Diamond Mama! Diamond is on the 'puter!" Of course I had no idea what he was talking about. He was looking at this:

Somehow Kyle got onto Facebook and this picture was a small little rectangle in the upper right-hand corner. Those in my family now know what "Diamond" meant-- he was referring to my cousin Dallan, pictured with his beautiful, younger sister Chelsea. 

  I said, "His name's Dallan, Kyle. That's Dallan. He's your cousin." Kyle replied, "Dallan. He touched my hair!" 

This just made me smile and touched me just a bit. Dallan is a living miracle. There are many physical things he can't do, but one thing he loves to do is put his hand on the top of your head. I still can't believe Kyle remembered that. I can't remember the last time we were with Dallan! 

It had been a long day, but that just made my night. With Thanksgiving just a couple of days away, it reminded me how thankful I am for family... and how lucky I am to be able to know and love my extended family and that Kyle does too.

Kyle's "Class"

About six weeks ago I signed Kyle up for a dance class. Tim never gave me the ok to do it, but I went ahead and with his request, only referred to it as Kyle's "class" and not "dance." Every Friday Kyle went to his "class" and loved being with his buddies and Miss Nanci.

Today's recital was a treat. Unfortunately my memory card was full during the taping of each song, so I didn't get the entire thing. But you'll get the idea.

If you ever want to know what they're supposed to be doing, watch Hugh. He's much closer to doing the real thing. He's to the left of Kyle when you're watching it:


Perhaps our child dances to the beat of another drum. I could not stop laughing!:


While in his own world he missed his turn to do the summersault. I think he was incorporating Buzz Lightyear laser-shooting moves.

The boys: Jacob, Jens, Hugh and Kyle:

 Sweet, PATIENT and beautiful Nanci with the boys:

 Mi familia:

It was a great Saturday morning! Don't worry, soccer will be next...

Ode to Jennifer

I have known you most of my life.

I remember primary and our first date.

I never though it would lead to a wife.

But I am grateful that was my fate.

It is hard to imagine you not in my life.

I can't wait to take you on a date.

I hope today is a special day.

That you feel loved by those around you.

Whatever you want today just say.

I love you and all you do.

You teaching our kids makes my day.

Happy Birthday! Let's go buy something new.

I love you. Happy Birthday! I can't wait to spend time with you tonight. I am grateful to have spent many birthdays with you and look forward to many more. 

From My Christian Child

Out of the mouth of my child this morning:

Me: "Kyle, what are you thankful for?"
Kyle: "I'm thankful for.... thankful for.... Zurg!"

Me: "Kyle, are you thankful for Jesus?"
Kyle: "No. I can't be thankful for Jesus. I thankful for Zurg!"


*In case you don't have a 2.5 year-old obsessed with Toy Story in your home, Zurg is the evil bad guy Buzz Lightyear fights in Toy Story 2.

This is our "Thankful Tree." We had some friends over for FHE on Monday and had a lesson on being thankful and then the families went home with the supplies to make their  own tree too. I got the idea from another girl in our ward (Thanks Jenny!). Every morning until Thanksgiving we take a couple of leaves out and Kyle tells me what he's thankful for. Then I write it down and he puts the leaf on the tree.  So far Kyle has said he's thankful for:

-Dada
-Nolan
-Mama
-Crayons
-Mickey Mouse
-Wonder Pets
-Mr. Potato Head
-Woody's Car
-Mama Mr. Potato Head (Mrs. Potato Head)
-Zurg

Today was the first time I tried to get him to say something else (Jesus), but this boy is very independent. Hopefully we can work on being thankful for more things besides his toys :).

This sums Kyle up these days. His Toy Story "friends,", Cardinals hat (can't leave the house or sleep without it) and nachos (his lunch of choice).

I love his belly.

I was in the middle of changing Nolan's clothes the other day when I told Tim we just had to take some pictures. This boy is so scrumptious!

 I love this photo of Tim taken by Kyle:

And of course, Kyle was trying to block Nolan in the beginning:

They're both growing up so fast. Wipe a tear.

Four Months

A month ago today, Nolan turned four months! (Yes, I'm a month behind...)

At his four month appt. he was 21 lbs. 2 oz. We love every lb and ounce of him!

Nolan also started laughing this past month. As I was giving Kyle a bath, Nolan and I were supervising when he just started laughing at Kyle putting his bath toys away. It was so cute. I ran and grabbed my phone and was able to capture some of it!



I looove this baby!