Room with a VIEW

Steve has been wanting to do this project for awhile and I have been putting him off because it was too cold to have a hole that big in our house... When we decided to stay home Easter weekend I knew I couldn't keep him from doing some project, three whole days at home and he gets anxious. This is the project he choose! I was gone a couple hours Friday morning and came home to a hole the size of a sliding glass door. Not too bad considering what was coming. He worked all day Friday and boarded up the hole that night, we woke up to snow on Saturday so the boards stayed up until noon on Monday. He took a half day and had some friends come over to help. And this is what the house looked like Monday afternoon. YEAH!



Johnny loved the construction, he played outside on the "gate board" all day Friday!



Johnny was a great helper, he wanted to do everything Steve was doing. I had to keep telling him to spit out the nails... what?! dad puts them in his mouth...



And this is what the house looked like Tuesday morning. It has been a week and a half and you can imagine, or maybe not, the changes that have taken place since then. I will share some more pictures when I find the camera and computer at the same time. We are living in a bit of chaos right now. It will be so nice when it is all done, just have to keep telling myself that... :)!!

Snowflake Temple

We took a trip to Snowflake, AZ last weekend to go to the temple. Steve went with the young men for baptisms, I did a session and the kids played at the church with friends from our ward. It was great! Snowflake is about 2 hours away so to leave them in Flag for a temple trip means 6+ hours of babysitting... This way it was only 2 hours, plus they got to go to the temple too. They were excited to see temple and loved looking at the waterfall and flowers. They thought it was cool to touch the temple, which I thought was sweet. It was a great day.

Easter Weekend

We had an eventful Easter weekend. We thought about going to Utah but decided 3 days was not long enough and the weather said snow for Utah... Then we thought about going to Phoenix but we wanted to go swimming and 70 degrees is too cold for unheated outdoor pools... So we decided to stay home. We had some great Easter surprises for the whole family. Starting with an Easter egg hunt, and by hunt I mean Steve and I helping the kids find the eggs which were all in plain sight... "Ky, why don't you look in the lamp, or the piano, or behind this cushion..."



Johnny and his Easter basket. The first couple eggs he found he just opened them and ate the treats, we finally convinced him to fill his bucket with eggs...



And then there was the surprise for Steve and I, SNOW!!! We got about 4 inches.



It was perfect snowman snow...



Our daffodils were trying so hard to bloom... they were still beautiful in the snow and survived it, they look great today!



The kids Easter basket/sand bucket were great for building a snow castle!



Just like our sand castles and Lego towers this lasted until the flag went in and then Johnny and Kyla started to kick it down. I think they build them just so they can destroy them. We had fun in the snow, it was an unexpected Easter treat. And we still got some swimming in at our INDOOR pool here in Flag.



By Sunday morning the snow was gone and it was a beautiful Easter Sunday!



Silly Johnny.



"HAPPY EASTER!!!" We tried really hard to get a cute family pic with the timer, this was the best, I should put up all the attempts, it was pretty funny. OK, it is funny now looking at all Ky's funny faces, not so funny at the time when all we were asking was for two kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile and couldn't get it to happen.

Happy Easter

We read a book about a girl who made paper flowers and Ky wanted to make some too. We improvised a little with the gold pipe cleaners... This will be our Easter bouquet, if it lasts... they are in danger of a different kind of wilt called Ky and John playing with them. Especially the two with a lady bug and bubble bee.



Coloring Easter eggs. Coloring not dying, Kyla didn't get that dying can also mean changing the color... I guess the whole family does that face on cue.



Ky in her "dance class clothes", I convinced her to put pants on for dinner... I remember wearing my blue leotard with the big block G on it all the time when I was little, it is fun to think of Kyla doing the same things I did.



Johnny only wanted one egg and one color... blue. He kept taking it out and putting it back in, by the end of the night it was cracked...



"Easer eggs!!" When we tell Johnny to say Happy Easter he says "easer eggs!"

"No, I Johnny!!"

Johnny is a month from 2 and is showing it. He is growing up so fast! He is at a really fun age, he makes us laugh all the time and surprises us with how much he knows. He can count to three, before he jumps off something way too high of course... He knows some colors, blue, green, orange, yellow, and "pink for Kyla!" One time when he said his name I teased him and said "no I'm Johnny." He thought that was hilarious, "You mommy, I Johnny!" Now he does it when we call him nicknames like buddy etc. "NO! I Johnny!" He loves trains, he asks Steve to "play trains" as soon as Steve is in the door, if that is shot down he goes for the second favorite, "daddy, kate board?" Beave had his skate board out on a warm day last week and Johnny fell in love! Johnny also loves backyardigans.... "Surf's Up" is his favorite right now. He does the "triple whip", a "rad move" from the movie... Ky and Johnny's version of it is a 180 to a 360 depending on how well they spin. Beave was trying to catch him doing the triple whip the other night, he got the wind up...



Johnny's awesome nap hair!! Sometimes I get it combed again after a nap but not this day... Also note the drool poised to drip off his chin... if I tell him he is drooling he will wipe his chin with the back of his hand, no idea where he picked that up, Beave says it is from the big sis. Probably that and a lot of other things!!



Handsome Johnny and the big sis. They still love to play together, yeah! When Beave or I reprimand Kyla, Johnny thinks he needs to join in on the lecture. "NO DO THAT KY-LA!"



Johnny does this face on cue for Beave.



I love to see the changes he makes everyday and all the new things he is learning. It is crazy to think he will be a big brother in a couple months, he prays for the new baby but I don't think he gets what "new baby" really means for his life... fun ahead!!

SPRING BREAK

We don't technically have spring break at our house but our friends do so we go on our annual camping trip during their spring break. This year we went to Snow Canyon, near St. George, it was farther away than we usually go but lots of fun and sun! It was a little nostalgic for me, I grew up vacationing in red rock. I loved the moment this pic captured, even from behind...



The colors of this picture are amazing, blue sky, red rock and the green... perfect!



We had a few mini lessons about erosion, again some nostalgia, my mom used to give us geography, history, and horticulture lectures as we went.



A little deceptive... this is the same arch from the above pic...



No camp out is complete without S'MORES!!



Kyla loves the BIG marshmallows, and prefers them "not marshed" meaning not roasted.



We spent some time playing in the sand dunes. Steve here being a big kid... needless to say we were all covered!!!



Swimming in the sand.



Johnny loved the sand too, I loved that I finally found a hat that he will wear. Hats usually last 30 seconds but he loves "Lightning a Queen" so he will keep this one on!

Sweet Awakening

My morning usually starts with Johnny or Kyla climbing into my bed and waking me up. I am not much of an alarm person, no need for one right now... Today was unusual, I woke up to Johnny coming out of his room, he likes to shut his door... hard, and then to Kyla and Johnny talking.
"Johnny, are you awake?" Kyla
"Yeah. Bumpy blanket. Softy. Dogie." Johnny naming all the things he slept with.
"Go get them." Ky
"Bumpy stuck." John
"I'll help ya." It is music to my ears when I hear Kyla say that!!
Then for the next half hour they read stories to each other. Kyla was pretty accurate, she memorizes books and "reads" them to herself or to me "when she is the teacher." It was a blissful half hour laying in bed being lazy listening to my two sweet kids being sweet together.
Then it was the 3 ring circus of breakfast, getting dressed and out the door for errands, the usual, but what a great way to start a day!!

What Johnny and Kyla have been up to...

Kyla and Johnny made some video to send to their grandparents... (Thanks for the idea Belle, they love to watch your songs and wanted to do some too!)
ps You have to go to the BOTTOM of my blog and pause the music to hear the video...

What Steve has been up to...

Steve has been wanting to "fix" our closet for awhile. It was poorly designed and always seemed messy. We emptied the closet Friday night, and this is the pile... it amazed me how much stuff you can stuff into a closet!!


By Monday night we had a new closet. He added the shelves for shoes, we were both amazed by the number of shoes we own... He added a second rod on my side, so now both sides have two rods, with a foot at one end of my side that is full length for dresses... smart guy to think of that. He also put in cedar paneling behind the clothes, I didn't take a picture before we put all the clothes back in.


He has also been wanting to fix the stairs that go into our "basement." The previous owners converted the garage into a big family room, as much as we love the space it is not the prettiest room around. (and we really miss a garage!!!) We have gone back and forth on our ideas for the room, turn it back into a garage or fix it up to be a nice space... After three years we decided not to decide and just fix the things that really bug us, future garage or not. So here are the stairs before. They just carpeted the garage stairs, so they were smaller, squeaky and well ugly. They left the door jam, just took the door off the hinges and painted...


Steve took advantage of the kids and I being in Utah for a week and tore out the old stairs. He built new stairs and added the banister. He took out the door jam and made it into an arch. I surprised him and came home a day early so I got to help with the clean up... but he did the rest solo. He likes to work that way, no kids or wife to slow him down or demand his attention...


The arch really made a difference, it feels so much less like a converted garage and more like part of the house. Ky and John wanted to be in all the pictures. This one Ky is showing her pink princess phones. Two because she lost one 6 months ago and got a replacement, then the closet clean out this weekend produced the missing pink princess cell phone.... one less missing toy to keep my up at night. :)

Beave's artistic side

Our January break from snow is over, the storms have started again. With the last one Beave took some cool pictures. He likes to experiment with the camera, I am more of an "auto" kind of person...
sunrise

night sky


OK so this one is mine, how can you tell? KIDS!!

DONE!!! for now...

I took over the kitchen table and the kids were slightly neglected but I finished John's scrapbook!!! Well up to Jan 2009, I am already a month behind... I think if I do each kid's book in 6 month chunks I can keep up. It will probably take me the next 6 months to get Kyla's caught up, I have a year and a half of pictures to do. I went through our pics to print Ky's and noticed the older they get the more pics I have of them... I guess I am not into pics of babies laying around. :) She is anxious to "help" me, we can finally use all those cute girlie stickers we didn't use in Johnny's book.
It was fun to look back at all the things we have done in the last year and a half. Johnny has, of course, changed so much in that short time. When Steve was looking at the book he said he didn't remember Johnny being as happy as he looked in the pictures... Johnny was a BIG mommy's boy!!! He didn't smile too much for Steve for a long time. Now they are best buds and Beave thinks John's smile can fix just about anything! I love this little guy, so full of personality!

IT'S A...... MONKEY

I had my ultra sound last week... Going into it Kyla was betting on a girl and I thought it was a boy. Johnny and Kyla came with us, Johnny was pretty quiet taking it all in until halfway through when he yelled "monkey!!" Ky and I both lost... it's a monkey. The little one may get called monkey a time or two but the doctor says it is a... BOY!! Kyla was OK with that because she has the baby girl in her tummy.
So the end of June we will add another boy to our bunch and Ky and I will be out numbered. Steve says Kyla is girlie enough to out girl 5 brothers and is excited for John to have a brother to counter act it all.
The baby is developing well and everything checked out, which we are grateful for. A healthy baby boy... monkey.

the warm Phoenix ZOO

It is crazy to me that I can drive 2 hours and go from freezing to HOT! Saturday we left our snow and cold at home and went to warm up in Phoenix, it was high 70s! Kyla and Johnny loved the zoo, it has been awhile since we have gone to one. Johnny called everything a Zebra, until he saw the real ones! Kyla liked the Wallabies the best, you can go in with them.

Kyla hitching a ride from Beave. By the end I was wishing for someone to give me a ride, maybe not a shoulder ride though...


This mommy orangutan kept one long arm on her baby while she slept, he wasn't too into sleeping but his choices were limited... you can learn a lot about parenting from the wild... :)


Kyla doing her best lion roar!


The real guy was far less fearsome than she was...


Johnny and mom.


This flamingo cracked my up, I didn't know their legs could bend that way...