Happy Halloween!!!

I hope everyone is having a FABULOUS Halloween! I'm super impressed with how fast I'm getting these pictures up, if I do say so myself. :) Although, before you are too impressed, don't be. :) I have to do it now because tomorrow (actually today I guess) we leave early in the morning to go to Chicago. We are going to visit Brian's family. So....it's either now or in a week. I figured you might want to see Halloween pictures closer to the "now" time frame. :)

Today I was giving Kylie the run down of how the day was going to work. I was telling her that after her nap Daddy would come home and then we would put on her monkey costume and go Trick or Treating. Well....she got SO EXCITED when the doorbell rang before her nap because when Brian comes home a lot of times he will ring the doorbell and have Kylie come and get him at the door. ANYWAY....the doorbell rings and she RUNS to the door all excited. She says, "Daddy!! Trick or Treat Daddy!!!!" It was so sad for her that it was just the UPS man delivering a package. She went outside on our porch just saying, "Daddy?! Trick or Treat Daddy?!" Poor thing. And then FIRST thing she says when I go her in room to get her up from her nap is, "Find Daddy! Trick or Treat! Get Pumpkin! Trick or Treat!" It was so funny.

Having a child makes Halloween SO MUCH more fun! I guess I mentioned this, but Kylie was a little monkey this year. I love that she could care less. It's going to be a lot harder when she actually has an opinion. Although this year...it was pretty funny. I had no idea how to do a monkey face on her. So....I just colored her nose with brown make-up. It was so funny because I kept telling her I was putting a monkey nose on her. So after I was done she kept saying, "No monkey nose!" and "I don't want monkey nose!" Funny girl. :) I guess I should be excited because she doesn't want make up just yet. :) Every morning when I'm putting make up on, she always wants it on as well. She's TWO!

Anyway: on to the pictures...

My sweet monkey getting ready for a night out in the neighborhood. She kinda freaked out when I got her costume on, surprisingly. However, when Daddy was putting her shoes on, she was fine and all ready!

Leaving our house. We both wanted to take her so we put a bowl of candy on our porch with a note saying to take candy. We knew we wouldn't be gone long and it worked out great.

How cute are they?! I know it's a bit blurry...had my camera on the wrong setting. Still think it's precious though. :)

Kylie pulling her Daddy to the next house. (As you can tell we haven't made it too far...our house is the one facing the camera behind these two.)

Ahhhh...how cute is she?! And dare I say....maybe she is Curious George?! Her face looks a little mischevious. :)

Of course we had to stop for a candy break. :) We had already been to like 5 houses. The little Trick or Treater needed a pick me up!

But how could you ever decide between chocolates?!

Better have a look at what else I have in here. :)

Phew! What an exhausting time! Glad I'm home! I better have a sucker.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

More Zoo Time...

No....this is not a repeat of last post. :) This post is about another trip to the zoo. Kylie talks about the animals she sees at the zoo all the time, so we decided to head back last week. Betsy and Sophie ended up joining us this time. It was so much fun. We rode the little train they have there, along with the carousel this time. (The girls actually rode that twice.) It was a lot of fun and they were SO CUTE! I'm sure we'll go back to the zoo soon, but maybe I'll stop posting the photos about it and post something else. :) Anyway....here are the pics from our day...

We first went to the monkeys. The girls LOVED watching them all run around. They were HYPER today and just running all over. (The monkeys...not the girls...although the girls did have their share of running around too. :) ) I don't know if you can see in the 2nd photo, but the "grandpa" monkey came RIGHT UP to the glass and stared at the girls. It was SO CUTE. The girls just stared back, in awe.

Then we went outside to see the monkeys out there. There was a little baby monkey and it was SO CUTE! He was SO HYPER! He was running SO FAST all around, while mommy and daddy monkey sat there nibbling on grass (and to be honest.....looked so tired!). It was so cute to watch them.


There is this big metal elephant by the real elephants. I tried to get a photo with Kylie...but as you can tell...she wasn't too thrilled. :) That face....so funny. :) This elephant makes weird noises and it's a bit freaky. Kylie seems to like that part though.

There is a little tunnel you can walk under where there are 2 windows to watch the Rhino's in. Turns out...one was at the window munching on some grass. It was so crazy to see them so close. Kinda cool.


LUNCH TIME! I forgot to pack a lunch, so I grabbed some Wendy's before we got there. Kylie wanted NOTHING to do with her chicken nuggets and just wanted whatever Sophie was eating. It was SO FUNNY when Sophie started feeding Kylie her yogurt. :) I love how she shows Kylie how to open her mouth big and wide for a bite! :) Then Kylie grabs Sophie's apple and digs in. Betsy was the one with the "magic bag" this time. :) (Usually I have some snacks for the girls in my purse when we go out. This time...it was all Betsy! Kylie wanted everything that came out of their lunch bag. It was too cute! :) )

This train ride was TOO CUTE! Kylie was TOTALLY into it....as you can tell from the look on her face in that last picture. She would just look all around and try to figure out what was all around her. It was TOO much fun. In that 2nd picture...you might notice Sophie munching on something. We wanted to get a picture so we had Kylie take the Starburst out of her mouth. She handed it to Sophie to hold, and Sophie just grabs it and pops it in her mouth. It took Kylie a minute but then she started looking around noticing the bad deal she got. :) Maybe you had to be there, but Betsy and I couldn't stop laughing. It was so funny! Anyway: Kylie did NOT want to get off this train. She loved it!


After the train, it was on to the Conservative Carousel they just put in. All the animals on the carousel are endangered species. The money the raised building this (people donated $5000 to have a plaque with their name on it under each animal), I believe went to save these animals. Anyway: this was Kylie's first ride. She DEFINITELY did NOT want to get off. She loved it. Look at my big girl.....she's growing so fast!

Although I try....Kylie does NOT look at the camera when I get it out. So thanks, Betsy, for taking 100 photos to try to get one of her looking at the camera. Maybe one day! :)

Sophie was NOT happy that I made her look at me to take a picture. She was watching herself go round and round in the mirrors. :) But hey....she listened to me and actually looked at me! :) So thanks Sophie!

This is Kylie's second ride around. We went with a zebra this time. Look at my big girl!!!! (Again....so annoyed the camera was out!)

Look at these two! Ok...the most awesome thing about this day is that practically NO ONE was there! Usually it's so crowded, but it was GREAT having the place pretty much to ourselves! So these girls took advantage of it. They ran around like crazy. And how cute are they...holding hands and walking around. It was so cute! :) By the end of the day...Sophie was a bit sick of it, but it was so cute while it lasted! :) Thanks girls for a fun time!

Zoo (and more) Day!!

Brian took the day off on Friday for a FUN FAMILY DAY! Brian's parents were suppose to come visit us the end of this week and into next week and Brian had scheduled the time off. We found out his parents weren't able to make it, but he decided to take Friday off anyway so we could have some fun family time. We decided to take Kylie to the zoo. We told her all about it the night before and it was ALL she could talk about. She would walk around listing animals she was going to see. It was so cute. We'd hear her say, "Giraffe, Elephant, Lion," and on and on. Then she got mad that she wasn't going right then. She wasn't happy we weren't going bye-bye at bedtime! :) So we got her up in the morning, got ready, and headed out. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and Kylie LOVED her time there! After the zoo, we went back to our house for a quick nap for Kylie (while her parents wished they could take one too! :) ) and then woke her up and headed back out. Brian found new friends through an organization he's been involved with at work and they have had us over a few times to play games. So we went there Friday night. It's really fun and Kylie even was really good this time. She even played with other kids!!! (Anyone that knows Kylie knows she is pretty clingy to Brian and I and doesn't really enjoy playing with other kids she doesn't know. Once she knows them and feels comfortable with them...she's great. But she is pretty cautious at first.) So it was a fun day and night for all of us! Here are some photos to document our journey...

The first stop was to see the monkeys. She got SO EXCITED! She would watch them for a minute and then turn around to look at one of us and just laugh. She didn't want to leave this place at all! ...

As a parent, one of the things I LOVE is being able to show my daughter new things. So things like the zoo are so much fun because she gets to see all sorts of new things. We have seen zebra's in books we have and stuff, so when we showed her the zebra she knew what they were right away and said "ZEBRA!". It was so fun for her (and for us to see her!) to see them in real life. She got so excited!

(Yet again...I'm the one that takes the pics so it seems that it was just Brian and Kylie at the zoo. :) I was there! I promise! :) )

When we saw the elephants, Kylie tried to act like them. She puts her hand around her nose and makes this sound that I guess is what she thinks they do when they lift their trunk. It's so funny.

And here is my FAVE picture from the day. She would cover her mouth with her hand and just laugh! I think this PICTURE is SO DARLING!!! Her whole face is all lit up and I love it!

Kylie did have some fun moments with both her parents today and HEY! We did get a picture with mom! :) (After handing Dad the camera and saying, "Here...take a picture of Kylie and I please." :) )

So Kylie kept saying, "Go find Lion! Go find Lion!" We thought she really just wanted to see a lion so we were off to try to find her one. Little did we know, this is what she wanted. She remembered these from when we were here before....

She just needed a drink of water! :)

And our self-portrait for the day! I always hate having people stop what they are doing to take a picture of us. Especially when they are trying to take care of their own kids. : ) So I took a self portrait. Too bad it didn't turn out well. At least we are all together and that's what counts, right?! :)

By the end of the day....Miss Clingy to her parents turned in to Miss Independent. She was leading Brian and I around. I didn't let her go far from us AT ALL (of course) but it was fun to let her take the lead and take us just where she wanted to go. :) I just have to say....ISN'T SHE SO CUTE?! :) (Sorry....can't help it!!)

Hope you all had great weekends as well!

What's in a name?

So I did this "Name Meaning" thing. It's kinda fun. See what your name says about you! :)

What Ashley Means

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic “Type A” personality. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

Ok...I feel SO bad that I haven't posted lately. I had no idea it's been so long! Wowsers! I'll be better!

I wanted to post some photos, but I do apologize for the quality. I totally forgot my camera yesterday, so we used Brian's Blackberry's camera. But we went to Sophie's birthday party yesterday and it was so cute! She turned 3 and it was a cupcake birthday party. It was at a cute cupcake store called So Cupcakes in SLC. The kids each got to decorate (and eat!) 2 mini cupcakes, opened presents, and got a cute party favor from the store at the end. It's Sophie's birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!!!


When we got there, we saw a ton of birds in the parking lot. This is Kylie running off to chase them. She LOVES them and tries to catch them. She loves how when she runs for them, they all fly away in a big flutter. She laughs and laughs and wants to do it again. :)


These are Kylie's cupcakes with Daddy helping her to put the frosting on them. Of course she wanted pink frosting. :) She's very serious about her frosting. (That was actually the only party she would eat. She would lick it all off and then bring the cupcake back to Brian or me to frost again.)

Birthday girl in her cute cupcake birthday dress. She even has a cupcake necklace on. Too cute!

I was trying to get her to take a bite of the actual cupcake. She mostly just got frosting and preferred that anyway! :)

Adding some sprinkles.

Checking it out trying to see exactly where the most frosting is on the cupcake. :)

I LOVE YOU KYLIE! You are too funny! :)