CONGRATS BRIAN!!!!!

Well...all his hard work paid off again! He GRADUATED this past week with his Master's in Banking that he's been working on. It's a 3 year program and most of it is done online throughout the year. However, they all meet up at CU-Boulder during July for 2 weeks for classes. (I think I might have explained that already in a past post so sorry if that was repeat!) Anyway: this last year they did a bank simulation program and were divided up into groups where they managed their own bank (pretend bank...of course...all on this computer program) and made all the decisions for their bank. While they did this for just 2 weeks...the time period for their bank was really 2 years. Well...out of all the banks in his community...HIS BANK WAS NUMBER ONE THE WHOLE TIME!!! So he ended at "top of his class" you could say! :) We're so proud of him and all his hard work!!! Brian and I got to go to his graduation on Thursday night. There was a reception before and it was fun to mingle and stuff while Kylie was home with my parents. Then my parents took us out the next night in celebration as well. So we were lucky enough to have a few night to celebrate the Brian we all love so much!!! CONGRATS, BRIAN!!! I'm so proud of you and love you so much! Thanks for all you do for our family! (He really is amazing...if any of you were wondering or had any doubts! :) I am SO LUCKY to have him as my husband, and I am well aware! :) )

Brian with his degree! (Well...the folder anyway. As you are probably well aware...they send the actual certificate in the mail later.

Just Some Fun in the Rain...

We got a Colorado rainstorm the other day. Meaning...it was a huge downpour that lasted for about 10 mins. It drizzled a few minutes after that. This is when Grandpa took Kylie outside. Mama had to follow because it was so cute. Grandpa was trying to get Kylie to not freak out about the small drops that were falling. (She loves the pool and such but doesn't really like sprinklers or anything like that for some reason.) Well...when Grandpa went to play in the water that was running at the end of the driveway...she was intrigued.

This is her watching him wondering if she should venture out...

I had to take a pic of this. Kylie has to put her shoes on by herself these days. She usually gets them on the right foot, but she was in such a hurry this time that they were on the wrong foot. So cute. She also LOVES these shoes SO MUCH. Whenever we are out, she always shows everyone her shoes. She'll point to them and say, "Shoe!" "Mickey!" "Daisy!" She loves them. Grandma got her these...along with Mickey and Daisy.

Sweet Kylie with sweet Grandpa. They had so much fun. Her first rainstorm adventure. :)

She was so happy! I was proud for getting a picture with her smiling...even if she isn't looking at the camera. She always turns straight-faced whenever I bring the camera out. So funny.

Anyway: so that was Kylie's first real rainstorm adventure. She has so much fun and did NOT want to go back inside. She kept asking Grandpa to go outside and splash...once we finally made it back inside. Can I say that this kid is so stinking cute enough?! :) She's SO CUTE!

Pool Fun...

So we've been in CO for a bit over a week, and it's been a lot of fun. I forgot to post these pics that I took last week. I kinda have forgotten to take my camera places, so these are all I've taken so far. Dumb me. Because we've done lots of fun things. And last night, we had other family in town and Brandon and Leah and the kids came up along with Ryan and Shannon (Brandon's best friend since we lived in TN). So there were a TON of kids here at the house and I didn't get ANY photos! So sad. They were all so cute. Anyway: back to these photos...my parents have a pool in the neighborhood and a FABULOUS park. So we go to at least one of these places every day. Here are a few pictures from the pool. I'll try to get more photos this week as we're out and about.

Uncle Cams and Kylie

Kylie strutting her stuff. :) I wasn't sure if she would love the pool this summer, but she does. It's so much fun to watch her. We tried to go today...I got her all ready...we walked over there with her Uncles Matt and Cams...and we found out it was closed. Kylie was SO SAD and cried as we turned around. It was so sad...she was so excited! Hopefully tomorrow it's opened!

How cute is my baby in her cute little towel Grandma got especially for her?! :)

Colorado Fun...

So we left yesterday and came to Colorado. We will actually be here for two weeks. Brian is doing this Master's in Banking program and has to come to classes for two weeks in the summer. There are only a few of these programs in the country, and luckily there is one at CU-Boulder, like 15 mins from my parents house. So Kylie and I have gone with him the past two summers and we all stay at my parent's house. Anyway: we really enjoy the time because it does give us lots of family time. We love our family time because we just don't get it much. Since we've had Kylie, we don't travel near as much as we should...and so we don't see our families as much as we would like. So while we have to come to Colorado anyway, we try to take advantage of the time. About 1/2 of Kylie's cousin's live here, and I LOVE getting them together. I just found this picture of them on my parent's computer, so had to share. These are my oldest brother's and his wife's kids. They are SO CUTE and I LOVE the time we get with them. Aren't they beautiful! Just thought I'd share. I'll try to keep updating as much as I can while I'm here as well.

Fun Summer Days...

I am totally loving these summer days. Utah is a bit hot these days, and sometimes too hot, but it's not snow so I'm not complaining! Kylie LOVES to go outside, so we go out in our backyard a lot during the day. I'm so thankful for a fabulous backyard with a fence and everything so we can enjoy this weather. Kylie has this water table toy that she loves as well, even if it gets her a little wet. So we spend a lot of time filling that up and playing with that. We also play a game we learned from "Yo! Gabba, Gabba!" if anyone has seen that show. A bit annoying, really, but we did learn something fun with it. Anyway: we sing "Run in a Circle, now, Run in a Circle" while we are doing just that...running around. Then I say, "Now, Freeze!" Well Kylie gets in this squatting position with her arms out and totally freezes and gets this huge smile on her face. It's hilarious. I just laugh my head off and we both totally enjoy it. It's fun when Daddy gets playing too. :) Anyway: what fun summer activities are you doing and enjoying?! Kids are so much fun! They just really make life interesting and make you enjoy so much more!!!
Kylie is coming down on hill now so we can play the "Run in a Circle" game. She just loves it and laughs and smiles the whole time.

I just LOVE this picture of her. I think it's so cute and precious!
This is the water table she loves to play with. Many of our days have been spent here. Kylie will even bring me a pitcher and say, "More water" if it's even a little bit empty.

As far as a "What is Kylie doing these days" update...Kylie is talking SO MUCH these days. She is putting words together, repeats everything after us, and just talks all the time. (We have to majorly watch what we say now! I dropped a cup of fruit that was in our fridge the other day, and got juice everywhere. I said, "Crap!" and Kylie immediately starts saying, "Crap! Crap!" It was kinda funny, but still....gotta watch it! :) ) Our favorite thing she says is when she eats something yummy that she likes she says, "Mmmmmmm...Delicious." It's so funny how she says it. She knows all her colors, can kinda count (skips 1, but does 2, 3, and 4), and says SO MANY words I couldn't even mention them all. She put on this pink boa today that Grandma Van Camp got her for her birthday (Thanks Grandma!!! She LOVES it!) and as she wraps it around her she says, "Pretty! Pretty Pink!" (It's pink by the way.) Anyway: it's lots of fun. My little buddy and I have lots of fun during the day! On a not so positive note...she throws HUGE tantrums too. She will just have some major freak outs if I tell her no on anything. The fun Terrible Two's, I guess. Any thoughts on how to nip these in the bud? :) I am always telling her to be patient (because you can never do anything for her fast enough) so it's funny when she says "patience" too. So there are a few Kylie stories. Enjoy! :)

Happy 4th Activities!!!

We had a great holiday! It was fun to be together as a family. We spent the morning just doing things together and enjoying Brian's day off work. (We like when he's forced to take time off work! :) ) Then we put Kylie down for a nap and I had to do some work in my stamp room. (For those of you that don't know...my friend and I do a booth at the Farmer's Market once a month during the summer where we sell our stamped crafts and so there is always lots to do right before we go. The 5th of July was our 2nd time doing it. I show some of the stuff I make on my stamping blog, Design With Ink, if you care about that. :) ) Brian stayed downstairs with me and just hung out so we could at least be together. He's so nice. :) Then we went to my FABULOUS Aunt Jan's house for a fun BBQ. There was a huge table of yummy and delicious food and we had a great time spending time together as family! Thanks for everything, Jan! We had a great holiday and hope everyone else did as well!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

Jan and Doug

My beautiful grandparents! Aren't they cute!! These two are so amazing, selfless, and people whom I admire! I LOVE you two!!!!

Mandy and Tyler

Grandpa entertaining Kylie on the swing and getting her to laugh. It was so sweet!

Holden and Kylie LOVED playing with my grandparents dog, Annie.

Kylie loves swinging, so when she saw this swing...she of course had to take a turn!

My hottie brother, Matt. Isn't his smile amazing?! I guess that's why he's going to be a dentist. Changing one set of pearly whites to look just like his at a time! :)

Brian and I.

Kylie is very observant and always likes to know what's going on. There were kids playing over the fence, so Uncle Matty had to take her to show her what was going on.

Garden Pics...

So I have pictures from the 4th to post, but Brian wanted me to put photos of the garden on our blog, so I wanted to do this first for him. His parents have a massive garden in their back yard and we want to show them ours. We know it's piddly compared to yours, mom and dad, but we have to start somewhere! :) This post is just for them, but if anyone else cares...feel free to enjoy our garden pics as well. :) We had the people that did our fence make some garden boxes for us. We wanted them to be pretty and cute. :) Then Brian filled them with top soil, so hopefully we could have a fruitful garden this year. (We weren't the best at doing a garden in our old house. We would plant one, and then not really make sure it had enough water, weed, or anything like that. Then we would wonder why we didn't have anything produce in it. :) ) And we now have squash, zucchini, watermelons, cantaloupe, green beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and I think that's all growing in these two boxes! Every day we look at it and everything seems bigger and more massive than the day before. We can't wait until things are big enough to pick. I LOVE fresh veggies from the garden! Brian took these photos on the 4th, and it's already changed a bit. But here is our garden:

We have two boxes...with a little pathway between them and also in the back and side where the fence is.

Green beans on the left, then peppers, than our massive tomato plants

These are our tomato plants and we think they are going to take over soon. They are even bigger than this now!

How cute is our little baby squash that's already growing?!

These are our squash, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, and cantaloupe plants.

Anyone is welcome to come visit and have some yummy fresh veggies when it starts producing! Mom and Dad, we hope you're reading this! :) We miss you guys!

Happy 4th!!!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS 4th of July and enjoys all their celebrations! I will post photos of our days activities later on tonight, when they've all happened. :) But I wanted to do a special post dedicated to my amazing Grandma. She passed away in October of 2000, yet it feels like just yesterday at times. I miss her SO MUCH. She was such an amazing woman. And she LOVED the 4th of July. I always think of her on this day and so I wanted to record my thoughts today. I remember whenever we were visiting for the 4th, there would be many a celebration. We would start out the day EARLY at the big Provo parade (some started even earlier...3am-ish...to make sure we had seats). Then we would usually have a big picnic at the park, play time on the front yard, and OF COURSE our own fireworks show before we would watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. I'll never forget those times and the way her face would light up when she was watching the fireworks in the sky. I guess I get my love of America from her, because I LOVE the 4th as well! Anyway: Happy 4th Grandma!

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL! This was taken at my brother's wedding...just shortly before she passed.