Bye Jared

We said good bye to Jared a few days ago. We tried to get him to stay longer, but he had things to get back to. So in the cold, at a very early hour I took him to the airport. We were all sad to see him go, but I think Dayton and his friends took it the hardest. Jared and Dayton were good buddies, wrestling or playing guns at some point every day. They even walked to Burger King one day for lunch. And the neighborhood kids always seemed to trap him into some game they made up. The day he left one of the little boys came over and asked, "hey, where is that big boy"?

Camrie, who was a little shy at first hardly left Jared alone. She would crawl over and pull the plug on his computer, or start pushing any button she could reach. But her favorite thing to do was try to get his food or drink. He learned real fast that anything on the ground was hers.

We tried to keep him entertained while he was here, and although there was a lot of down time he did get out some. He and Kyle played basketball, tennis, we went out to eat,(Cafe Rio our favorite place), and he and Kyle went to a Jazz game. We tried to take him sledding in the mountains, but there was no snow, so we went for a nice drive through them.

We are so glad he came to see us and hope he comes again soon. But next time Dayton wants you to bring presents for him like grandma does!

Oh Christmas Tree

I forgot to add these... The day after Thanksgiving we decorated the outside of our house and then did the inside. Well, I did the inside, but we all did the tree. Dayton has been really fun with Christmas this year. He has gotten into everything, (the lights, candy, Christmas movies, Santa, reindeer...), and it started with the tree. He loved putting the ornaments on and made sure every single one we have made it on the tree. If you look close you will see that there is nothing on the bottom two feet of the tree. That was in preparation of Camrie. She has been much better then we thought with it, but anything she can reach is pulled off. But so far so good on her pulling the tree over.

Outside Christmas Lights

We spent last weekend getting ready for Christmas. I could not wait any longer so I started on the inside Thanksgiving night. Friday, Kyle and Jared climbed up on the roof in the cold to put the lights up. This went much smoother than last year with a ladder and Jared's help.
I wanted to show how high they were. This was not even the highest spot, but you get the idea.

Dayton was a great assistant when he was around. He spent most of the day playing with his friends in the backyard and sneaking popsicles out of the freezer when mom was not looking.

Camrie was lots of help too. She would have been on the roof if her mom would have let her. She loves being in on the action.

This was about half way done until we decided to do the whole roof. They were such good sports. I told them what I wanted and they did it. You can't see me but I was a good gofer, running in and out to get what they needed.

Dayton was a great ladder holder. He thought this was a great job and took it very seriously. He kept trying to sneak up there, telling me that he would take them them the next set of lights. Good try buddy!

Not Already

Today I had to do something I never had to do before. I had to try to find the number for poison control. I was putting away the dishes and Camrie was playing on the dishwasher, like she always seems to do when it is open, when I found her with white hands and a white face. I screamed and grabbed the dish soap. I read what to do and followed their directions, except I called my mom instead of poison control which I figured would be faster. The dishes were clean so there was not much for her to eat and by her face I knew she did not like it. So all is well, but this is the first scare she has given me, and now I am going to look up the number for poison control.

She was not happy with me for throwing water in her face and mouth.

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was quiet and relaxing. We are used to lots of family around, but this year was a little different. Thankfully Jared was here so we had some family to eat our Turkey with. I really doubt that I would have made all that food for just us, but who knows I do love Thanksgiving leftovers. So I made all the traditional food for just us and we had a really nice time. Kyle and Jared even ate at the table, with the game on in the background, with the kids and I, so I consider that a success. It was my first time making a Turkey, and after lots of phone calls to the moms it turned out pretty good. We had a good day with food and football.


I am not the biggest fan of pie, but it is tradition, so I asked the guys what they wanted and they asked for Apple. So I bought one that looked good. A few hours after the turkey had settled and naps were over we ate our pie and ice cream. The ice cream was good, but the pie not so much. We ate it, but nobody had seconds and next year I'm making brownies.

Dreaded Dentist

Kyle and I kicked off our Thanksgiving holiday with a long over due trip to the dentist. I knew I had a few cavities from a previous appointment but had not gotten them filled because I was pregnant, yes almost a year ago. Kyle was looking forward to it less then me because he knew he had a bad tooth. Anyway, we went last Tuesday. Kyle went right before me so when I got there he was checking out. I noticed he had quite the goody bag and found out that he had to buy a special tooth brush, and on top of that he had to have a root canal the next day. I walked in hoping I would have a better experience then him. No wonder he was dreading it so bad.
I had just what I expected, several cavities that I completely blame on Camrie because I have not had a cavity since middle school. I got home and was talking to Jared asking him if he heard about Kyle and he said, "yeah his root canal, six cavities, and two wisdom teeth need to be pulled".
It seem Kyle forgot to tell me a few things. Now I really know why he was dreading it so bad. But he had his root canal last week, so 1 down and 2 to go.

Uncle Jared

This past Tuesday Uncle Jared, Kyle's brother, came to visit all the way from New York. He has never been out west and was pretty impressed with the mountains. We already have him trained by getting up with the kids each morning, if only he changed diapers.
We have not been doing too much, there has been a lot of football watching, a few dart gun fights, and some wrestling with Dayton, but other then that just a lot of hanging out. I have used him a few times to watch the kids, but who can blame me, free babysitter!

Saturday night we all sat around with some friends watching the BYU/Utah game. It was fun watching it out here because there are some die hard fans. Though we enjoyed the game it was nice not having to sweat through this one; I have enough of that with the Yankees, Giants and Syracuse.

So far we have had a great time with Jared and are glad he is here for a couple more weeks. We love having family for holidays.

Like Father Like Son

Last night we were hanging out in the family room watching the Giants beat the Eagles. Dayton, who was upstairs watching cartoons, came down and sat by me on the couch. Kyle who was on the other couch took the blanket he was using, wadded it up and threw it at Dayton. I was reading, and this happens pretty much every night so I did not even look up, but then I heard Dayton say, "thanks dad". I looked over and burst out laughing.

Blinded by the hit, the blanket nailed Dayton in the face, but stayed in a ball and Dayton just put it behind him and thanked his dad for the great pillow.

Halloween Get Together

Some of my family came and hung out on Saturday. It had been a while so it was fun to get together and hang out eat and play.

The weather could not have been better so we spent a lot of time out side. The guys made up some sort of wiffle ball game. It got quite competitive as it went into extra innings. They kept breaking balls or losing them over the fence, but I know they had a good time and I am pretty sure they all felt it the next day.

The girls just sat around watching the guys and the kids.
The kids spent a lot of time on our neighbors trampoline, thank goodness for great neighbors.
They jumped and played games and tried jumping over Aunt Jenny, but she kept getting kicked so that game ended. Good times.

We could not have the babies together and not get a picture. They are getting so big so fast. Wish the other 2 could have been here so they could all be together. We love having babies around. We put them in their costume one more time for a quick picture. Camrie was by far the hardest one to work with, but they are still cute. Tayla was a fairy, Emery was a cow, and Camrie was a ballerina.

Trick-or-Treat

For Halloween Dayton was the Red Power Ranger and Camrie was a ballerina. Kyle stayed home to pass out the candy while Jaci, Mitch and I took the kids out. All was going great till it started to rain. That's when we lost Camrie, Jaci and Mitch, but nothing was going to stop Dayton. Even though he told me he was not happy about the rain. Luckily the rain stopped and we made it around half the neighborhood.
We went through 10 bags of candy and ran out. Dayton got so much candy he was dragging his bag, & towards the end I was carrying it in between houses. We had a great Halloween and Dayton is already asking when we can trick-or-treat again.

Dayton is showing you his Power Ranger moves.

Here is our ballerina. I was worried that she would not keep the headband on, but she was too busy eating the tutu to worry about the headband, so we were good.


Thanks to my sister Jaci and her husband Mitch, who came to visit for Halloween, we were able to get a family picture.

Here is the after with all our candy. Dayton, who trick-or-treated for almost 2 hours, walked into the family room and dumped all his candy out. Well, not all of it because he ate some right after he got it from the houses. I am not sure who was the most excited him, Camrie or Kyle. They all pretty much dove into it.

Camrie helped herself to all the candy she could get her hands on. Finally I had to pick it all up and put it away because the kids would not leave it alone. But how can they help it, their mom eats candy for breakfast and their dad takes it to bed.

Pumpking Carving

So we have been going to carve pumpkins all week, but things kept coming up so tonight we made sure we got the right pumpkins and gave them their faces. We had to do a little convincing, for some reason Dayton kept wanting weird ones, but we found one we all agreed on. So we came home to carve them and I have been so excited to do this with Dayton because he has been really into Halloween this year. So we got everything ready and the pumpkins all clean and then Dayton would not touch them. He wanted Kyle and I to clean them out and all he wanted to do was stab them with a fork. He finally gave up on that when he realized that he was never going to be able to. And after about 15 minutes he asked if he could watch cartoons. I could not believe it, I thought for sure he was going to love this but I guess he thought it was an adult thing because all he wanted to do was watch tv.

I got him a spoon to help me clean it out but he said it was too messy, so I got him a bigger spoon but I still could not talk him into it. He was a good fan watching on the side lines though.

Here they are ready for their big night! Camrie got a smiley face just like her, & Dayton asked for a mean face.

Field Trip

Dayton's pre-school class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch this week and we had a great time. I was sad because it was a lot colder then I would have wanted, but that did not stop the kids from running and playing. It was a great pumpkin patch with more things to play with then we had time for.

Aren't they cute, you would not believe how hard it was for me to get this picture. The last thing they wanted to do was sit and take pictures, but I got my way. I only took a few because it was so cold, and all Camrie wanted to do was eat the hay.

There were 4 huge slides for the kids to play on. We had to drag a few kids away from them to get them to the other things. There was one slide that was made for adults (very high and very steep), Dayton climbed up it several times but the worker guy always had to bring him back down. I tried to stop him the 3rd time but I was not fast enough and he finally went down it, but there were no smiles and he just said he was going to go back to the smaller slide.

Here all the kids rode the animal choo-choo train that they loved. Again we had to fight to get a few of them off.

We went on a hay ride where we saw the farm and got to pick carrots, onions and corn. (Well the farmer picked them, we just watched). But we got to bring some home. The kids loved the hay ride, it was very bumpy.

All the kids got to get out and pick a pumpkin, the farmer cut it off the vine and they could take it home. Dayton picked about 7 before he finally decided on "the one". I think his favorite part was picking the pumpkins up and throwing them as far as he could. I thought he was going to get yelled at for sure.

Play Time

Camrie is quite the mover, so I often put her in her pack-n-play to let her play and keep her in one place. She is content to play here for a little while and then wants to get out, but yesterday I was busy doing this and that and noticed she was playing in there for longer then normal and seemed to be having a pretty good time. I went to check on her and found she had a friend with her. I hope they will always be this close.

9 Month Check - Up

Took Camrie to the doctor last week for her 9 month check up. All was normal, Dayton tagged along after making sure it wasn't for him and played with all the toys and made Papa Mike read every book they had. Camrie was weighed and measured and came to 18 lbs and 27 inches tall. Both of which are in the 30%. Her head was in the 60th %. Camrie's doctor asked if larger heads run in the family. I could not help myself and laughed out loud because my whole life I have been teased by my family for how small my head is and I have learned Kyle's is on the smaller side from buying him hats. So our little Camrie is not as chubby anymore but apparently has a big head. I am not too worried, she has a lot of growing to do, it just made me laugh.


I did not expect her to get any shots, but she got 2, and the worst part was that she know it was coming. She would not take her eyes of the nurse no matter how hard Grandma and I tried to distract her, and though there were some tears she took it like a champ. But now I know why she started crying as soon as we walked into the room. Poor thing, at least we are almost done getting shots for a while.

You'll Never Guess...

So they have been saying on the news that we might be getting some snow, but we didn't really pay attention. Just last week we were in shorts and t-shirts. The weather has cooled down a lot, but if we were going to get snow it would only be a little bit.
So this morning when I went to feed Camrie at about 7 as I was heading back to bed I saw that the ground was covered with snow. I thought to myself "oh I hope it lasts long enough for Dayton to see when he wakes up", there was maybe 2 inches. Well it was still snowing when we got up and did not stop for the next 5 hours. This is what we got...

Dayton tried to go play in it but did not make it very far. So Kyle went out with him to shovel and he did not make it very far. He shoveled the walk way and then they headed to the back.

We just wanted to show what we were seeing. Usually when it snows it is nice out, but today it was pretty cold. After I took a few pictures Dayton asked if he could go back inside. Too bad Grandma and Papa Mike left, they would have gotten stranded for sure, and this would have made them feel right at home. Who would have guessed that we would get snow before Kyle's hometown in New York.

The first snowman of the season was built right in our backyard. It was the most perfect snowman snow I had ever seen. Had we had a few uncles, (Jay, Jared, Deck, Cache, or Brady) around I am sure there would have been a few snowball fights.

Here he is, I was surprised he was this small the way he started out, but the builders said they ran out of steam. And we know he has no arms, but Utah has no trees so how are we supposed to find branches for the arms. And you can't tell, but the nose is not a carrot, it is a few orange candies put on a popsicle stick, what can I say, I was not prepared for snow.

It stopped snowing just after Frosty was built, and we are not sure how much we got, but we know it is well over a foot! It was fun, but we hope it is not a glimpse of the future winter ahead for us. It did make us think it was December and I asked Kyle if we could put our Christmas tree up, but he turned me down. Oh well, maybe next snow storm.

Vacation Wrap Up

Another week with Grandma and Papa Mike. It was not as fun as it could of been because they both were sick with colds, but they were champs about it. Our days were pretty laid back with some walks around the neighborhood, (mostly done by Grandma Jody and Dayton, no matter how hard they tried to get me to go)! And our nights were mostly staying in with movies and games. It is possible we broke the record for most Yahtzee games ever played in a week. There were a few card games in there too. We did get out of the house a little, as it is tradition for Jody and I to go shopping, and Kyle had 4 softball games. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Rio, and walked to the store for donuts on more then one occasion. The trip that we waited so long for quickly flew by and is now over, but it was a great 2 weeks with lots of fun memories, (minus the colds).

Here we are at one of Kyle's games. We had great weather the whole time, but this night did get a little cold. But that did not stop us from having fun. It took some bribing to get Dayton to take this picture.
Kyle played great while they were here, but did not hit a homerun in any of the games. And wouldn't you know it, this past Friday night he hit 2 homeruns, one being a walk off game winning homerun. Parents just bring too much pressure I guess!

Camrie being spoiled by Grandma. Any little cry and Grandma to the rescue!

For some reason Papa Mike was the most fun to climb on. Most mornings I found him playing with the kids and it went on all day till they went to bed. Camrie learned to climb up on things while they were here and the first thing she climbed up to was Papa Mike.

Here we are one night just playing around. Camrie did this on accident almost falling off the couch and thought it was such a fun game. Dayton of course had to join in on the fun.

We Have Visitors

After asking me for 2 weeks if Grandma was coming today, Grandma Jody, (Kyle's mom), and Papa Mike finally got here. Kyle and Dayton picked them up from the airport last Friday and we have been having fun ever since. We started off with a busy weekend with them only being here about 2 hours before we had to take off to go to Kyles game and then Saturday we went out for lunch and headed up to Park City. None of us (accept Kyle about 8 years ago to ski), had ever been there and it was as beautiful as everybody had said it would be. We did some window shopping and then headed to the outlets for a little real shopping. Things have calmed down a little since then but we have stayed busy with football, baseball and a little Yahtzee.
Sadly Grandma Jody has caught a cold, but seems to be over the worst and Papa Mike is still in awe over the mountains. We just love having them here. Every time Dayton leaves for school he asks me if they will be here when he gets back. Not sure what we are going to do when they do leave, its a good thing they will be here for another week.

Dayton knows Grandma always brings him presents, and poor grandma did not even have her luggage yet when Dayton was already asking for them. It killed him that he had to wait till they got home and had dinner before it was time for presents. Mike and Jody had not even been here an hour and all the presents were open and being played with.

Here is Dayton trying out some toys. He is trying to sit on his new Spider Man chair but was a little rough and kept falling over.
Camrie got presents too, but she was more interested in the paper. And has seemed to take a liking to Dayton's things more then her own. I fear the teasing has already begun.

Lying Around

It's no secret that we love Sunday's. They are relaxing and a little lazy. I was in the kitchen making a fantastic dinner of grilled cheese and tomato soup for Kyle, and rice for Dayton, (both of which they chose, not my idea), while Camrie was crawling around my legs. I turn around, look down and this is what I found.

For what ever reason these two thought this kitchen rug would be a nice place to lay around.