Van Camp Family Fun

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T19:51:00.001-08:00

Hope you are all having a great day with your pilgrims! :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

Halloween night we went to the Warnick's house for a FABULOUS party! We had a blast. Here are some shots...

I wish I got a better pic of the table because it looked so great and of course there was lots of yummy food! I did get a few close-ups...

Here are Em's fabulous candy apples!
And YUMMY cinnamon rolls! And some fabulous company! Cutie Jan and Doug
Grandma and Grandpa

Hug time with Matty and Kylie!
And Kylie and Bailey!

Em and I took the girls upstairs to get dressed in their costumes to go Trick or Treating. Kylie was making some funny faces for me. The two cutie girls all ready to go make their entrance!

These two girls have such different personalities. It's so funny to see them in action. They both showed them with their entrances. Bailey walks in the room and does a huge somersault in her costume. :) I wish we would have gotten that on film for sure! :) She is TOO CUTE!!!
Then Kylie gracefully walks down the steps and quietly steps in to the room. She was so cute and darling. :)

Trick or Treating was great! The girls don't last too long...which is great. :) But the girls had fun going up to the door and knocking...hoping for a treat. :)

Here are the cutie Warnicks...Baby Jack was home with his Grandma.

And here are the Van Camp's

And Baby Jack!!! He is SO cute and precious!

All the kiddos together

And Matty turning in to Minnie Mouse as well!

Happy Halloween! Hope you had a great one as well!

Halloween Fun...

2009-10-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun Halloween week. Kylie got to go to a fun Halloween party at one of her neighborhood friends house where they...
Decorated cookies (or just ate lots of frosting)...

Played "SPOOKY"...

Kylie LOVED that game!

Put the spider on the web...

Bounced the ball in the bowl...

And a photo shoot...

It was a great party and Kylie had a blast!

Kylie also had a Halloween party at school. (Although I only got a pic of her at the door...all the kids were dressed up so cute!)

I even got to go out with some friends for a fun night. We went to a "Witchapalooza" show at Gardner Village.

Before the show we walked around and saw all the fun witch decor they have out. Here are a few...

We had a great week before Halloween!

Zoo Trip with the Warnicks...

2009-10-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last week Kylie and I met up with my cousin, Emily, and her two kids at the zoo. We had a blast. Kylie and Bailey are just 9 months apart and they play really cute together. It was fun to see them. And Baby Jack is getting SO BIG and is SO STINKING CUTE! He is such a good baby and really slept most of the time. He is just precious. Here are some pics from the day...
Cutie girls walking down the stairs together. It was great because not many people were there so the girls could roam a bit more.

Look at this cute thing! He is just absolutely precious!!!!

This was the CUTEST thing! This baby elephant, named Zuri, was born Aug 10th. I hadn't seen her yet and was so excited. She was smaller than I thought she would be and seriously...she is just so cute!!!!

Cousins!!! I'm so glad we live in the same state so we can hang out!

Cutie girls being forced to stop playing and take a picture together. :) Love their faces. :)

Going back to what they wanted to do....checking things out in the "wilderness" and seeing what they can find! :)

Girls posing on the tigers.

Another baby we saw...a little baby giraffe. Seriously....too much fun and so cute!!!

Kylie with one of her faves....the penguins. She loves seeing these things...and I do too! :)

The whole time the girls just wanted to go on the carousel. This is definitely a hit with the kids. They had their pic of whatever animal they wanted. Kylie wanted the giraffe and Bailey wanted to ride with her mama on the peacock. The girls actually had a little "discussion" as to what this was called before getting on. Kylie was calling it a "Merry-Go-Round" and Bay was calling it a "Carousel." They would say, "NO! It's a carousel." Then, "NO! It's a Merry-Go-Round." It was quite funny, actually. They kept going back and forth...a bit too much like adults. :)

Ky and I on the carousel!

And cutie Jack, Bay, and Em on the peacock. Love this pic!!!

We had a fun day at the zoo...then even got to take a few mins to go to lunch afterwards. It was a good day and we all had fun.

Caribbean Cruise...Videos

2009-10-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some video's I took of Kylie while we on our cruise...

First one up is Kylie singing "Book of Mormon Stories." Kylie starts her 3 year old Primary class at church in Jan so we are trying to teach her some songs before. :) She LOVES to sing!

Next up is some more singing...by the poolside this time...

Then just some swimming around. I think she is SO CUTE just swimming. :) And I love how she keeps checking out that guy swimming in the background. She is always very aware of her surroundings and I think she just wanted to make sure he was keeping his distance. :)

And last up...my baby girl at her own dance party. I danced with her...of course! :) ...but I didn't get a video of that...sorry! :)

Caribbean Cruise...Part 2

2009-10-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

It was fabulous being on the cruise boat, but of course we wanted to get off when we could. We had a lot of fun seing the different sites. Most of the time when we got off the boat, we went to a local beach of some sort. Kylie LOVES the beach so of course that was what we voted to do. We tried to find beaches where we could snorkel as well, because Brian and I love to do that. We were lucky and went to some fabulous beaches. The first one we went to was on Grand Cayman. The beach was a bit rocky here, but still crystal clear waters and fun in the sun! We even got to take a tender boat to shore. (These are just smaller boats like a water taxi that take you to the big boat to the port at shore when the water is too shallow for the cruise boat to go to.)

My cutie parents on the boat.

Cutie Kylie getting all lathered in sun block. (She has such pale, porcelin like skin that we HAVE to lather her up every hour or so to keep her from getting fried.)

Playing in the water with Grandma.

Every so often Kylie needs a little break from the sun. :) Even after all that sun block...when we are out in the sun for a long time...we take her out of the sun. I just thought it was so funny we needed to get a pic of the set-up. :)

During our trip we went to the BEST beac I have EVER been to. Seriously...it was AMAZING! There were palm trees all over. We set up our beach chairs right under the shade of a palm tree and it was amazing!!!

I know I got some pics of us in the water, but they may be on my mom's camera. I'll have to get those and update this. :)

We took a bus about 20-30 mins to the beach, so when we were headed back to the boat...Kylie was able to have a nap. She was just precious sleeping on her Daddy's lap.The BLUEST water I have ever seen in my life was in Cozumel. OH MY GOODNESS! It looked like they just poured blue food coloring in the water. You can't even tell from the pictures, but it was AMAZING!!!We saw schools of fish just swimming in the water right off the port. (I couldn't get any pics of them, but they were all sorts of colors and I was so glad Kylie got to see them!!!)

I loved this shot. These two MASSIVE ships right next to each other. You can compare them to the people that are right beside the boats to see how massive they are.

Cutie Daddy and daughter.

When we weren't at the beaches....we weren't done with the water. :) Seriously...Kylie would be in the water ALL day every day if she could. So here are some pool pics. She loved just to have her life jacket on and swim about. It was TOO cute! Jumping to Daddy. Shortly after this...she started just jumping in by herself.

Little girl in her happy place. :)She also loved this balcony. I took this one morning. I heard her wake up, get out of bed, and open the door to the balcony. I got up and watched her and she just went over to this chair, laid down, and just stared out at the ocean. She didn't make a peep or try talking to anyone or anything. Just woke up and headed out here. She LOVED it!

Hanging with Grandma and Grandpa. And on the balcony with Daddy.

And Grandpa. Don't know where I am in all these pictures. I think I have some of our whole fam on my mom's camera, so again...I'll check and update later. :)

We found this teen room that happened to be empty. It was a "train station" theme and there was music playing. So Kylie had her own little dance party. It was too cute. :)

Our Dancing Queen! She loved this place. :)She would climb in the suitcases too and pretend to be all packed up. The green "bracelet" that she has on is one all the kids had to wear. They had to have it on the whole time as a safety percaution. It told them the "muster station" we were assigned to...where we would go as well in case she was seperated from us. To keep it from bugging her the whole time, we established it as a cool accessory. :) It was her "cruise bracelet" and she ended up loving it. :)

Hanging with Grandma

And with Daddy

The last day they had part of the crew get up on stage so we could cheer for them. They really have an amazing crew. We had SUCH a good time and really can't wait to go back!!!

Our last day, once we were off the boat and at the airport...I think we had about 8 hours to kill before our plane too off. Yeah...crazy. But as you can see...we set up camp. We had lots of stuff with us and it actually went kinda fast. Wasn't too bad at all. Good-bye cruise! Until next time! :)

Caribbean Cruise...Part 1

2009-10-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

The end of Sept-beginning of October we were lucky enough to go on a family cruise. Brian, Kylie and I went, along with my parents. It really was SO MUCH FUN and I miss it lots. :) We left from Miami and then sailed to Cayman Islands, Isla Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. Then of course ended back up in Miami. We were gone just over a week, it was a 7-night cruise. We flew to Miami first and had to stay there a night and wait to get on our boat the next day. Kylie is great on planes, she loves flying actually. She loves the window seat especially. :) I bought her this little toy she is playing with right before we left and it turned out to be a great investment. :) She played with this for a LONG time!!! In Miami....we had a horrible hotel experience, so we were even MORE EXCITED to get on that boat the next day! :) And while we were waiting in lines to get checked-in and ready to get on board the boat, they had this FABULOUS play area for Kylie to play in. So it was a blast from the beginning!
It was my parents first cruise...so the second we got on the boat I snapped a picture of them...
After we got on the boat, we had a little bit before we could go in our cabin. So what did we do first thing?! Ate of course! We ate SO MUCH food this trip. They have delicious food 24/7 so you have to take advantage of it, right?! :) After we ate some lunch, we went to our cabins to check things out, wait for our luggage to get there, unpack, hang out on our balcony and check out the ocean, and wait for us to sail out. Before we did sail out though, we had to go to our safety "training" they make you go to. It was SO HOT and miserable while we had to wear our life jackets. We were all packed on to one of the decks. And seriously...they PACK you in there like sardines...and you are on this crevice of the deck so there is no breeze and you have this big life jacket on and it was just not fun. Worth it...but not fun. :) (I did get a picture with my cell phone camera so I'll have to update that picture later.)

When we were in our cabin....Kylie LOVED hanging out on our balcony from the moment she saw it. That was where she preferred to be.She would just sit there and stare out at the ocean. Her mommy loved it too. :)
Hanging out on the balcony made us all want to get in the water. And although I was DYING to just dive off my balcony in to the ocean, I was pretty sure that wasn't the safest thing to do. :) So we opted for the pool instead. :) But after we went to our safety training and got unpacked and had a few hours to digest our lunch, we headed to our dinner. On a cruise you can either choose early seating for dinner (at 6:00pm) or late seating (8:00pm). Since we have Kylie...we went to early dinner. And turns out...smart move. Because the first night when we went to our table (you have the same table/waiters every night) we saw this view...Our table had a FABULOUS view...and we got to see the day turn to night each day. It was FABULOUS and amazing and I loved it! These were some of the fabulous things we got to eat...

Shrimp cocktail (Brian had this every night...our waiter even learned he liked to have two of these, so he started just automatically bringing him two of these each night)

LOBSTER! (My fave night...I LOVE lobster...it's one of my fave things!)

And this AMAZING Chocolate Melting Cake. May not look like much, but WOW! It was SO GOOD! :)

This was our table number.

Ky and Daddy hanging out during dinner.

When we get back from dinner to get refreshed before going to the shows or walking around the decks of the ship or whatever we did, we were greeted in our rooms by an animal like this... Our steward would make us one of these each night, and it was a different animal each night. Sometimes there were even cookies. We loved coming in to a clean room after dinner to get ready for our night. :)

Then we would usually go to the night's show (they had a HILARIOUS juggler one night, dancers another, a magician, comedians, etc, etc.). They had great shows.

Then we would often come back, put Kylie to bed, and hang on the balcony. It was great because our cabin was right next to my parents, so we opened up the door that separated our balcony's and just wandered to each other's rooms. Kylie would disappear from our cabin quite often to head to Grandma's and Grandpa's. She LOVED being able to be so close and go see them whenever.

I LOVED hanging out on the balcony and reading a book or just stare out at the ocean and contemplate how small we are in the scheme of things. (Seriously...staring out at the vast ocean makes you really think about all sorts of things....I LOVED it!!!)

Here is just the first portion of our cruise adventure. More will be coming soon! :)

A Girl After My Own Heart...

2009-09-22T12:20:00.000-07:00

Kylie is growing so fast! I'm sure many parents relate to this, but she seems to grow taller every day. Since she has grown out of almost everything she owns....I did some shopping the other day. I ended up going online to get most of what I wanted, because they never have sizes you need in the stores. Anyway: since I shopped online I told Kylie that a box of clothes for her should be coming in a few days. She was SO EXCITED about it and every day she asked if the box was here. She couldn't wait. As soon as it got here....she ripped the box open and couldn't WAIT to see what was inside. She was SO EXCITED!!!! I could barely make her wait so I could take a picture before she opened the box. :)

Patiently waiting for her crazy mom to snap a picture of this event that probably doesn't need to be documented. :)
Grabbing stuff and just so excited to see what is in her box and get to the bottom.

Hugging some of her favorites. :)

It was too cute watching her. She brings so much light in to my life and I am so glad I am blessed to be her mother!

PRESCHOOL IS HERE!!!

2009-09-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

The day has arrived. My daughter is starting her MANY years of SCHOOLING! I can't believe it. Makes me SAD!!! Seriously...WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?!?! (I'm sure I'll be saying that many times in my lifetime!) This morning started out early. At about midnight last night I was laying in bed and remembered, "SHE NEEDS A BACKPACK!!!" So got up earlier than originally planned so we had time to grab her one before school. I had to wake her up this morning too, and she did NOT want to get up. So I started telling her that we were going to get ready to go to preschool. She got a bit of a smile on her face. Then I told her that we were going to go get a backpack for her first and her smile got even bigger. It was so cute. :) Here she is on the way to school... Does this look like a face that is ready to start SCHOOL YET??!?! Then here she is at her classroom door. SUCH a big kid!!!!

Right when you first get there, they have puzzles at each seat. (There are 16 kids total in her class.) Kinda helps them have something to focus on as the parents all leave. Kylie loves puzzles so she was excited. Here she is with her teacher, Miss Ali. She's darling.

Then this is as I'm leaving I snap one last picture....and she could not have CARED LESS that I was leaving. I was able to hold my tears until I got in to my car, and then I'm not going to lie....it was TOUGH. I cried a bit the whole way home and then when I pulled in to my garage, I saw a caterpillar on the driveway. I cried more. (She LOVES to find caterpillars and she wasn't there to see it with me!!! What's a mom to do?!!) Then I walked in to an empty house and it was SO SAD and just kinda lost it a bit! I know...I know...I was being a bit dramatic. But SERIOUSLY...she has been my LIFE these past three years! It's been just her and I all day, every day! Change is hard, give me a break! :) I couldn't wait to go pick her up. And when I got there, this is what I got to see...

Seriously...HOW CUTE IS SHE?!?!? :) I wanted to peek in on her a bit before she saw me so I could see how she was doing. But she saw me the second I walked to her classroom door, and she yelled, "MOMMY!" and RAN to me! How could I resist THAT?!? That was THE BEST!!! :) Then I wanted to take her picture out in the hallway. Another mom was doing the same thing and Kylie runs over to them and says, "I want to get in too!" She wanted to get in their first day pictures. :) I think she's going to do just fine. Then I decided to take her to lunch to celebrate her first day. She picked a local burger joint here so that is where we went...

She sat in the booth across from me and just chatted away and told me stories about her first day. I asked her after she told me a few things how preschool really was and she says, "Mom, I already told you!" She is getting TOO old! But she loves it and was so excited to go back. :) I couldn't ask for more than that.

And then the whole rest of the day she wouldn't take her backpack off. She would fill it up with her fave toys of the moment and carry it around with her wherever she went. She is so cute and I'm happy today went as well as it did. GOOD LUCK KYLIE! I wish you the best year!!!

Pre-Preschool!

2009-09-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Kylie starts Preschool on THURSDAY!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm so anxious about it. I keep having weird dreams about her and I think it's because I'm so anxious about her leaving. I know, I know. She will go for four hours a week total...two hours for two days a week...it isn't a big deal. BUT STILL!!! She is my only child and I'M NOT READY!!! But I know she is. So that is why I'm trying to be a big girl and let her branch out a bit. Anyway: the reason this is being brought up now is because today we went to her Open House today. She got to meet her teacher, see the other kids in her class, and kinda check things out. I'm so glad they do this. I think this will help things. :) For both of us. :) She's so excited and can't wait to go. I think it will be so good socially for her. Anyway....I didn't get any pictures taken today of her at school, but I snapped a few of her at home.

Oh my dear, Kylie! I LOVE YOU! You are growing up SO FAST!!!!

Colorado Weekend...

2009-09-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we traveled to Colorado for a fun family event. My sweet niece, Lexy, was getting baptized. This is a big day for her and it was SO GREAT to be there for her. She is SO SWEET and was SO EXCITED!!! Here is a fabulous picture of this beautiful girl...

And here are just some snapshots of the weekend. Kylie and her Grandpa Brown...

All these cutie cousins together! Crae, Camden, Kaylee, Kylie, Lexy. I am SO HAPPY that we got ALL of them together and actually ALL LOOKING at the camera! WOW! :)

Some more pics...

Kaylee is one beautiful little girl. She is a sweetie...

And of course Uncle Matty needed some play time with his nieces and nephews...

We had a great weekend and were sad to see it come to an end! Hopefully we will all be together again soon!

Temple Square...

2009-09-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

We also went to Temple Square while the Smith family was visiting us. It was a lot of fun. Temple Square is so beautiful and I love going there. We also toured the Conference Center. It was fun to show the kids all these cool things and see how excited they were to see them. Before we even stepped too far from the car, they had to stop and play...There is a big Christus statue in one of the Visitor's Center on Temple Square and it was great to take the kids up there to see it. I love the peaceful feeling that is in that room.

We actually got all the kids together in one picture...

Here is a beautiful shot of the Temple and I love the American Flag there as well...

Cutie cousins holding hands...

More cutie cousins holding hands...

It was so much fun seeing the cousins together. All of the Smith kids were SO GREAT with Kylie and they had so much fun being together.

I loved getting to see my nieces and nephews as well. Here is sweet baby Cienna, and Kylie not too sure about what is going on. :)

Sweetie Kylie gazing at the temple...

Here is the whole Smith clan...

Now...for me to get this everyone in this picture as well as the whole temple...I had to be a bit creative. I was laying down on the ground and it was quite funny the positions I had to make sure I got every one. Well...we had quite a good time laughing at me, and then when we finally got a few shots...the kids decided to come attack me. :) (In a fun way.) It was too cute and I was able to get a picture of Kenny and Kirsti coming to get me. :)

We had a great day with the Smith's and had so much fun visiting Temple Square!

Children's Museum Fun...

2009-09-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to have the Smith Family visit us just a few weeks ago. We went from a family of three to a family of 10 quite quickly. :) Our house guests: Brian's sister Amy, her husband Brent, and their 5 children: Kenny, Diggy (Douglas), Kirsti (Kirsten), Allison, and Cienna. Kylie LOVED having time with her cousin and we loved being able to play with our nieces and nephews and having some adult chats with the adults. Brent's mom was even able to stay with us a few nights and it was a blast having her as well! One of the first things we did was head to Discovery Gateway down in Salt Lake City. It's a great Children's Museum and all the kids had a blast! We even got a membership there, so we will be heading back frequently...especially during the horrible Utah winter months! :) I LOVE having fun indoor places to go to entertain Kylie when it's freezing cold outside! :) Anyway: we had a blast and here are some of the pics...

ALL the kids actually at one place at the same time! Incredible! They all loved playing with these balls. They have all sorts of different tubes and such that you can drop the balls in and send to different places.

Kylie LOVED sitting in this helicopter. Intermountain Health Care donated a retired helicopter and this was definitely a hit! Kylie just sat here for quite awhile. She even got to borrow Mommy's sunglasses so she could be extremely comfortable. :)

Kylie up on a big horse they have there. You can even "feed" it bales of hay!

Driving a truck while another kid puts gas in the car. :)

Sweet little Diggy playing some grand music!

Kylie playing with her cousin!

Brent helping his kids climb the rock wall!

Then he had to take a turn and here he is from the other side of the rock wall!

We had a lot of fun. I'm amazed at how many pictures I didn't get. They have this darling "store" to shop at, this "garden" where you can plant different things, a water area where you can mine or something like that, and my favorite....a DARLING mini house with a living room, kitchen, and all sorts of fun areas to play that I want to build in my house. :) Thanks for coming Amy, Brent, and the kids!!! We had a blast!

More Kylie...

2009-08-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of Kylie. :) We were outside one day (when Grandma and Grandpa were here) and I grabbed a camera while Kylie was running around and twirling and just being the sweetie she is. :) Here is my sweet baby...

Look at her cute face! :)

Posing with Grandma for a minute. :) Just forgot to get Grandma in the picture. :)

Starting a twirl

Thinking about what to do next while she has her audience captivated with her every move. :)

"Why I'll just stand here and see if they still grin at me!"

Running around. (I know it's blurry, but still oh so cute to her mama. :) )

I LOVE LOVE this picture!!!!!

" Ahhh....gotta take a break from performing." :)

" What's going on over there? Maybe I should go see!"

"Nah...I'll just give Grandpa BIG HUGS!"

We have lots of fun with Kylie and she really is such a good girl. She starts preschool in a few weeks, and I think I'm going to die inside a little. This is just the beginning of her venturing out in the world....ahhhhhhhh!!! How do you stop them from growing up so fast?!??!? This is going to be a tough step...I just know it. But it will be good socially for her, and so I have to keep telling myself that! :)

Kylie Time!

2009-08-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Kylie has grown SO MUCH!!! She just seems taller and older every day!!! Where is my baby?!?! Thought I better post some pictures of her that I have snapped around the house before she is driving or something! Here is my sweet girl...

I made this gift bag for something, but Kylie quickly found it and named it her purse. She throws it over her shoulder and says, "Goodbye Mommy! Going to see Daddy! Love you!" It was too cute. :) Blurry pic, but thought it was kinda fun still. She was going out with her purse. :)

And had to show me some of her silly faces before she headed out.

Another day where she actually posed for me! (It's hard to get a picture of her actually looking at the camera!)

I tried another self-portrait of the two of us one day to try to get her looking at the camera....and it WORKED! :)

She actually does get tired sometimes and has to rest! :) (Although it doesn't really feel like it! :) ) We've been adjusting to no naps for awhile now. She still needs them and gets tired during the day. But if she has them, she doesn't go to bed until midnight!

Gathering some friends to take outside with her and Mommy! :)

Wedding Fun...

2009-08-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

I LOVE weddings! It's so much fun to see the happy couple and share in a small way in their special day! It's fun to give them your best wishes and gather with family and friends! Seriously...LOVE them! A few months ago we were able to go to my cousin's! The reception was BEAUTIFUL and so much fun. I can NOT believe I didn't get a picture of the gorgeous couple! Reagan...you were BEAUTIFUL!!! :) Here are a few pictures I did get...

We went to dinner beforehand with my parents that came from CO and my Grandpa. Here they are! :)

Grandma trying to get Ky to pose...but she won't have it! :)

My oldest bro and sis in law came all the way from CO so they could be there! Aren't they cute?! :)

My Dad with his cute sister! I love these two! :)

My cute cousin, Ethan, with his cute family!

And my cute daughter! I had to take this picture because she was just sitting here dancing to the music lost in space. It was SO FUNNY AND PRECIOUS! Then I decided I better capture it on video! She is SO CUTE! :) She was totally oblivious to the crowd gathered around watching her. We were cracking up (you can hear Grandma) and loving the show. : ) Here is the video...

I can't believe how many people I DID NOT get pictures of! But we had a lot of fun and it was good to see everyone! CONGRATS to the happy couple!

4th of July 2009!!!

2009-07-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

I LOVE the 4th of July! I just love celebrating the country where I feel so lucky to live, and to celebrate all of the people that gave their lives so we could enjoy the freedoms we have. It's so humbling and amazing to think about. We had a great day as well. We went to the annual 4th of July BBQ at my aunt Julie's house. Then back at our house, Kylie's Grandma Brown kept the tradition of my Grandma Brown and got sparklers for us to do outside. Then we went driving to find some fireworks to watch! Kylie called them "Burps" and was SO EXCITED when she saw them! Which warmed my heart because I LOVE LOVE LOVE fireworks!!! :)
Here is part of the back yard that we had the wonderful 4th BBQ. The kids are so lucky and had so much fun playing! This was also part of the site of the annual croquet game that can get a bit brutal. :)

One of the darling hostesses showing how lucky we are! :) We are lucky enough to have The Sweet Tooth Fairy in our family so we get visits from her at our parties. Seriously....HOW LUCKY! :) And yes....they taste as good (BETTER!!!) than they look! :)

Kylie goes straight for the frosting...smart girl! :)

Here is my cutie mom and my sweet Grandpa's girlfriend having some girl chat!

Here is my FABULOUS brother Matty and his darling girlfriend, Becca.

And the star of the show is sweet Tatum! She changed her outfit quite a few times throughout the day and she ALWAYS looked SO CUTE!!!! :) She's a precious girl...that's for sure!!!!

Sparklers back at the house! Here is Kylie having her first sparkler lit! She loved them, but didn't quite know what to do with them. She's so cute! :)

Sparklers all over the place!!!

My precious Kylie!

And look at this GORGEOUS sunset that we have from our back yard! I hope they don't build more out here for awhile so we can keep this view! :)

Here is our journey in trying to find some fireworks to see! We drove all over and it was just so crowded everywhere (of course). :) We ended up parking on an overpass to get a view of a few different fireworks shows going on. Then we headed home and found out that we had a great view from our porch! (Like Brian suggested from the beginning!) But it was a lot of fun and we had quite a few laughs! :)

Hope you had a great 4th of July!

A MONTH Late!!

2009-06-28T10:33:00.001-07:00

Looks like I need to be playing blog catch up again! Here are pics from Kylie's birthday party A MONTH ago!! We had a family BBQ to celebrate. It was a lot of fun. We even had family from Wisconsin come visit us! :)
We had dinner first. Here is the kids table. :) (The party was Mickey Mouse themed. I took Kylie to the party store and let her pick whatever she wanted. Mickey it was!)The adults ate in the dining room right next to the kid's table. Look at those two babies we were lucky to have join us! They are both SO CUTE! :) And THANK YOU Brad, Dana, and Alan for flying in today so you could be there! :)

We had pictures for them to color and the birthday girl helped set it all up.After dinner we went outside and let the kids run around. And run they did! They had a blast chasing each other and playing around the garden. (Don't know why but kids LOVE going to our garden boxes and walking around them and stuff. It's so cute. And I'll have to post new pics of our garden because I can't believe this is what it looked like a month ago. It's all green and huge now!)

We had a little bubble machine going too that was a lot of fun. The kids chased these all over.

Then on to the pinata. This was fun to watch. So timid at first...

Then Tyler entered the scene to help!!! I loved watching both of their faces!

Sophie got her turns as well and they all got quite in to it.

Since little Bailey didn't want to try, we let Holden go at it and crack it! He must have learned from his Dad! :)

There was a lot of candy for these kiddo's and they loved gathering it all up!

Since Holden was our winner for breaking it, he got to wear what was left of it! He looks just precious with it on his head! Even matches his shirt! :)

The beautiful girl that I actually got to turn around to look at me during all the festivities. :)

She got her Minnie cake and did a great job blowing out the candles...

..and an equally good job eating the cake and getting frosting all over! :)

Then on to the presents. She was so excited for this. She was totally in to it. Would open one up, and then set that aside quickly and open another. Usually she is a slow present opener, but not today! :)

And then I tried to get a pic of the kids by the Mickey picture, but as you can see it didn't work so well. I think it's so funny and cute of them all! Kids are the best! (We didn't even get all the kids in it...we missed Caleb and Finley!!!)

At least Sophie was willing to pose for me! Thanks dear! I appreciate it! :)

We had a great time and Kylie still loves to talk about her birthday party! Thanks everyone for coming! :) I can't believe my baby is 3 already! Where DOES THE TIME GO?!?!?! I miss my baby! But it's so fun to watch them grow up!!! Happy Birthday sweet Kylie!!!!

Kylie's Birthday...

2009-06-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted these yet. Sorry! But we had a great time for Kylie's birthday! We had a BBQ the Sat before her birthday that was a blast (I will post pics of that soon too!), then we continued the celebration throughout the long weekend. We even had some FUN and WONDERFUL guests there the whole time! Brian's brother and his family (Brad, Dana, and Alan) came to visit and it was a BLAST!!! We had a great time with them and we're SO GLAD we got some time with them. Here are some pictures from our celebration...

We thought it would be fun to have Kylie pick out some things herself at the store for her birthday. We had some presents for her already, but took her to the store to have her find some things she loved. She LOVED being able to play with some toys at the store and get to take some home! :)

Kylie LOVES bubbles. Seriously...if I would sit there all day and just blow bubbles she would be so happy. Well luckily...they have things that will just sit there and blow bubbles for you now! I found this octopus that I got for her birthday BBQ for the kids. It was fun. Then when we went shopping we found another one...

This mega one was a HIT! It blows these HUGE bubbles and bubbles in bubbles and stuff. We spent quite a bit of time playing with this outside.

Here she is running around getting her bubbles. She had full reign of the porch. :)

And what were the Dads doing while we were playing with bubbles?! Well...the boys were chatting landscaping. After we went shopping for Kylie...we did a little shopping for our yard. Brad and Dana are PRO Landscapers so we wanted there help while they were here. The boys planned it all out for us...thanks! Now we need to go buy everything and start planting!

And the view of them both...Kylie running around with the bubbles and the boys chatting landscaping.

During our celebration, we also went to the zoo. (Of course because Kylie LOVES this place!) Here are the visitors that we LOVE at their first trip to the Hogle Zoo!!!!

Looks like Kylie is sleeping here, but she's bending down to tell her Daddy something very important. :) They are SO CUTE together! When Brian is around....that is who Miss Kylie wants to be with. :)

Brad and baby Alan checking out some monkeys. TOO CUTE!!!
The brothers and their kids with the gorilla. They are all loving this pic...can't you tell?! :)

And Baby Alan sitting up there all by himself?!?! :) Wow! (Thank heavens the gorilla was tall enough and such so Brad could hide behind it for us to get this picture!)

Cousins together hanging out on the big metal elephant at the zoo! :)
We had to take the train ride too! Look at this cute family! :)
There are some big hills to walk up and sometimes we just need a little help. :)

So since you can't really tell...there is a kangaroo sleeping under that tree. Why the picture?! Well these three and headed off to Australia to live for a few years. Brad's job is taking them there. (LUCKY'S!!!) Anyway: we wanted to get a picture of the first time Alan ever saw a kangaroo! See....you guys can move to Utah and still have the same things to see! :) Hehe.
Kylie's fave thing to do at the zoo may just be to ride the carousel. So of course we had to do this. Here is Kylie handing the attendant her ticket. She was excited...although you can't tell by her face. :)

And here is Daddy/Daughter about to start their ride. I believe we rode this like 3 or 4 times this day.

Baby Alan with his Daddy riding it as well. Don't think he had the same love for it as Kylie but it was still so cute! :)

I have more pics to share. It was SO MUCH FUN to celebrate our beautiful daughter, Kylie. And have Brad, Dana, and Alan there too. We MISS YOU GUYS!!!!

Jamaica...Part 3

2009-05-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

We've been back for awhile, but I just wanted to update with the last of the pics I will be posting on our trip...
We went out a few of the nights to take some pictures by the BEAUTIFUL sunsets they have there. LOOK HOW COOL this picture is. I LOVE it! It looks like we use Photoshop to add Kylie and Brian in, but we didn't! :) This is how it looked when I snapped it. Too fun!!!

Kylie and I posing.

And Matt posing with his significant other. :) (Apparently he's taken pictures like this wherever he goes. Then when he gets married, we really can Photoshop his woman in and instantly they will have been on all these trips together! :) )

We went on a glass bottom boat tour while we were there. To be honest....snorkeling is so much better, but this was a fun way for Kylie to see some fish! :) She loved it and looked so cute in her life vest!

Kylie LOVES to swim! Which is good because 90% of the time we were here, we were in the water or by the water! :) It's so hot...you just want to be in the water at all times. :) There is a lazy river here that is actually quite fast. It's great. Although instead of using inner tubes, you just wear a life vest. It was better because you got to actually soak in the water and be taken around. Anyway: we took the life vest Kylie had on over to one of the pools when Matt and Brian went scuba diving, because she wasn't liking her floaties. It was SO CUTE to see her swimming around. She would just tip over at first, but after working with her for a few minutes, she just LOVED to swim. It was so cute. When the boys got back, we took a quick video of her...

After all that swimming....you must take a break and sip on some fun "Blended Fruit Punch" while you are swimming! (The boys loved to go get these fruit drinks all day. BFP and the Creamsicle were the faves.)

That cutie girl totally focusing on her treading water. :)A great shot of Matt jumping in the water. :)

We went on a little walk down the beach and found some people selling their homemade Jamaican crafts. It was super fun. We both bought a turtle carved out of wood and this was the artist. He called himself a "Jamaican Mountain Man." It was fun.

Brian surprised Kylie and I with a nail appointment together. :) HOW CUTE is she?! Propping her little feet up and holding SO STILL while she got her nails done. She loved it and kept talking about it the rest of the trip. :) My little pretty girl!

Matt taking some time to hang with Oscar.

Kylie LOVED the Sesame Street characters all around. We went to the shows they did at night. The first time she wouldn't get too close. Then all she wanted to do was get up on stage. She would go over to the stairs and start climbing up there to give them a hug. They wouldn't let her up there, of course, but it was so funny. My little shy girl wanting to get up on stage! :)

A family photo taken on one of our nightly beach walks. (Man....posting all these pictures is making me a bit Jamaica-sick! I want to go back!!!!! :) )

One of our fave restaurants is "Kimonos." It's a Hibachi style cooking place. This guy...Marlin...was THE BEST! He was hilarious! He sang all sorts of songs for us and was so entertaining and fun!

One of the nights, Brian surprised me with a private candlelight dinner. It was sunny at first, but we got to watch the sun set right next to the ocean. It was so wonderful!

Here is our personalize dinner menu. (Brian got to pick all the food we would be having.) It was YUMMY!!!!

Look how talented our server was! Yes....we were impressed! :)

Meet Fritz. (Matt on the left, Fritz on the right) We had to get a pic of him because seriously...he was EVERYWHERE! We would see him MULTIPLE times every day. (He worked there.) All over the place. It was quite funny. We actually expected him to be on our flight home with us! :) He was quite a nice guy and we had funny chatting with him. The employees here really are the best! They are so friendly and so good with the kids and so much fun to be around!!!This is the dive boat that would take the guys scuba diving. Brian and Matt went a few times while we were there, and I never got a pic of them. So here you go! :) They had a good time doing it. Next time it's my turn! :) I can't wait to get certified! I just thought this was cool. In the gift shop window, this was on display. The umbrella, sun, and beach chair are made out of flip flops! I think I need a display like this in my home! :)

So they have this desk where you can conveniently book your next trip while you are currently enjoying the one you are on. Brian made frequent stops here! :) We actually did book another one for next year, but we are going to cancel it. (So sad.....I know. But not really. We are cancelling it because we are going to visit Brian's brother and family in Australia!!!! They are moving there for a few years and we want to make sure we get out there while we are there!) Anyway: there was our Jamaica trip. It was a blast and I HIGHLY recommend this if you want a fun family vacation! We know we are hooked! :)

Happy Birthday Kylie!!!!

2009-05-25T16:56:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Sweetheart! My baby girl turned 3 today! I can't believe she is so old! Where did the time go?! It made me cry a bit last night when I really thought about how old she is. She has grown up so fast and is changing all the time. I love to watch her learn new things each day. I love to hear all the funny things she says. I LOVE when she will tell me she loves me out of no where. I love to see the sweet girl she is becoming. I LOVE THIS GIRL!!!! We've had a fun day today and we had a fun party for her on Saturday. I'll post more later because we're still celebrating today, but I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you baby girl!!!!!!

Jamaica...Part 2

2009-05-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

At Beaches resort they have the Sesame Street Characters around at certain places. Then a few mornings they do a big character breakfast. Kylie LOVED doing this! They all come around to each table and take pictures with the kids and then they have a "dance party" with all the kids afterwards. It was so much fun to see Kylie get so excited. Here she is with all of them...

You didn't have much time to get a photo, so you get what you get. But right after this picture, she gave Zoe a BIG hug!!! It was so cute!

I always loved Elmo myself. :) So I got from behind the camera to get a pic with him too! :)

This was so cute. Each of the characters would come out one at a time. So there was occassionally some waiting time. This is how she would sit and wait and watch for another character to come out. Then she would scream and get so excited whenever they came out! :)

At the dance party afterwards, we all got some time with the characters.

Kylie just wanted to hug all of them over and over again!

Bert and Matt just chillin'! :) I love this photo! :)

I finally caught a smile on her face with the camera! She loved Abby Cadabby and thought she looked like Ginger on "Johnny and the Sprites" show. We had a blast doing this and then seeing the characters throughout the resort on the rest of the trip.

Jamaica Fun...Part 1

2009-05-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

We left for a fun family vacation on April 30th. Brian and I went on our honeymoon to Jamaica, to a Sandals (couples only) resort. Brian has been dying to go back but we wanted to take Kylie. So we headed to Jamaica to a Beaches resort (the family version of Sandals) and had the TIME OF OUR LIFE! It was SUCH a blast! We took Matt, my brother, with us. He just graduated from college and so we wanted to give him a big congrats! :) Plus, we wanted someone there that could watch Kylie for us so Bri and I could have some alone time. Anyway: here is part 1 in our journey to Jamaica!

Our plane left SUPER early. 6:00 am to be exact. That means we were up at about 4. Here is Kylie and I on the plane. She's a bit tired...can you tell?! :) We flew in to the Montego Bay airport. How much luggage do you need for 3 adults and one child for one week?! We are NOT light travelers! :) (Plus....have to take advantage of the 2 free checked bags you can take on an international flight! :) ) Couldn't quite tell before how tired Kylie was?! Well...how about now? She was SO TIRED she almost fell asleep sitting on our luggage as we were going through customs. :)

When you get through customs and all of that, they have a Beaches representative waiting for you. They take you into this posh room with air conditioning (something to NOT take for granted!), cool drinks, comfy furniture, nice bathrooms, etc, etc. You wait for your bus here. Then we got on a bus and took about 1 1/2 hour drive to our resort. It was interesting to see more of Jamaica and how they live/shop/etc.

We got to the resort, checked in, and then went to get some dinner. How yummy does this food look?And this?! It was YUMMY! :) This was just the beginning of wonderful food all week long. :) That first night as we were walking around the resort, Kylie found these animals around. There is a trash can inside, but all she cared about was hugging the dolphin. :)

That next day we got up (and ate a yummy breakfast) and headed where else?! THE BEACH...

Here is Kylie all ready to go and heading down the stairs.

We had to stop by and say hello to another one of her animal friends that was basically right outside our door. :) She LOVED this frog and always wanted to say hi when we left. :)

After we said hello to the frog, we headed out to the beach, and saw THIS...

HOW AMAZING! It was absolutely gorgeous! This is the swim area that is marked off. There are jet skis and stuff that go around outside this area. Those yellow rings there are SO MUCH FUN. They are basically floating trampoline type rafty things. They are attached to a cinder block down in the ocean so they stay pretty put where they are. And you can lay out and get some wonderful sun while you are in the ocean water. The water is PERFECT temperature. It cools you off enough from the hot sun, but isn't chilly at all.

We weren't so sure how Kylie would like the sand/ocean, but she loved it. She loved to play in it, loved the waves (they weren't big at all!), and always wanted to go to the beach. She loved to get out in the water and she also loved "build sand castle." That is what she told us when she wanted to get out of the water. :)

Kylie LOVED playing with Uncle Matty in the water. He would be a dolphin and all sorts of things to keep her attention on him. :) Kylie thought her parents were quite boring after she had some time with Matt in the water. Here are just some other pictures of us at the beach throughout the days (we spent a LOT of time here!!! :) ) ...

Here are the rafty things up close. Kylie LOVED getting in these and playing. We would often times be laying in them with her. I need to get one of these to take with me any time I go to the beach now. :)

Little Kylie splashing around.

I sent Matt and Bri to get a massage at the spa so Kylie and I had some beach time alone. Here's a try at a self-portrait gone kinda bad. Oh well....you can kinda see me still and Kylie looks darling. :)

I love this pic of Kylie staring out at the vast ocean. Oh she's cute. :)

Another day bundled up in her towel taking a rest from all the fun.

And walking in the SOFT sand on her way to build a sand castle with Matty. (The sun is SO HOT here...we tried to keep her protected as much as possible. My fabulous friend Margret sent her this outfit and it was perfect to keep her out of the sun but wasn't too hot. :) Thanks Margret!!!)

Having fun building the castle

Then smashing it down!!!

And then walking off to the water to wash off a bit.

(This is the end of the pictures for now, but don't worry....we have more on the way! :) )

SPRING FUN!!!

2009-04-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

I love spring time! I hate when Utah skips Spring because it's the best! We have had a few fun Spring days this year, in between the snow and rain that keeps returning! This weekend was fun because my parents were here! They came in last week, and just left today. We miss them already! Kylie loves family time and it's so much fun to see her interact with everyone. Matt even came up and spent a few days with us. On one of those sunny spring days, we played outside for a bit. Here are some fun pics...

Kylie loves to sit in her little chair and catch some of the sun's warm rays...Fun Uncle Matt thought that she was having too much fun without him so he had to join her!...
Then Matt got bored and had to see what other fun they could have with the chair...

He spun her around and around and around. Clearly they both loved it...

Kylie LOVES her Uncle Matty. She gets SO EXCITED whenever he comes around! And who wouldn't?! He's super fun! I just wish he would give us all a turn and spin/throw/flip/etc. us all like he does Kylie! :) After all that spinning...Kylie had to take a break, sit with Grandpa, and try on his shades! :)

HAPPY SPRING!!!!!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-21T11:19:00.001-07:00

A little late in posting this, but we had a great Easter! We got up and got all ready for church. We have church at 9am, and I knew we wouldn't be able to do the Easter basket stuff before church. So when we got home we found out that SURPRISE!!! The Easter bunny had come to visit! He even left some eggs filled with yummy treats for Kylie to find. She found all of them, and they led her to her Easter basket! She had fun going through everything in there. She took out every last piece of "fluff" in the basket to make sure she found every last thing. :) Then we had lunch and nap time for a little bit. After that, we had PJ time and just spent the rest of the day out in the sun playing. It was a great family day!

After church I tried to get a picture of her, but she just didn't want to look at me...

Kylie finding her first egg of treats...

After church we had our own little photo shoot in our yard...

Being silly Kylie while Mom is trying to get her to smile...

Sweet baby girl and her Daddy...

Playing outside with her car that she got last Easter and playing with bubbles. WE LOVE THE SUN!!! :)

I hope all of you had a great Easter!!!!

Seriously Hilarious...

2009-04-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

Ok...seriously....SO FUNNY! Go check out this site...

SEXY PEOPLE

You'll die laughing! :) SO FUNNY! People actually send these in for other to laugh at. Gotta love the "good old days."

It's Potty Time!!!

2009-04-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well what have we been doing the past few weeks?! Why yes....we have FINALLY been potty training! We had some set backs getting started. I was about to start her right around Christmas time, but she broke her arm. That put us back a bit. Then we went out of town a few times and all of that....and we just now finally had a few weeks in a row to dedicate to it. We are going out of town the end of this month, so I wanted to make sure we had done it by then. I just have to say, and then I will show you a few fun pics, that Kylie has done WONDERFUL! We really have only had a few accidents all together. (However....big HOWEVER here....she still wears a diaper to bed so I am SURE we will have lots of accidents when that happens. We are in the process of getting her big girl bed all ready so we can start that process. :) ) But she does such a good job. I have found that if we explain things to her before they happen, she really does well with change. She just needs to know what to expect. :) Anyway: today was the longest we had been gone from the house since we started, and I had extra clothes with us just in case. Didn't need them at all! She told us every time she had to go to the potty and she did GREAT! Ok...this is all more info than anyone reading this cares to know, but I want to record this for us too. :) On to some pics...

Both of those first two are from the first day we started. She basically sat on her pink potty all day...so I finally brought it out of the bathroom so she could watch her shows. :) She went quite a bit this first day. She had an accident or two the little bit she wasn't sitting on the potty, but she seriously sat here most of the day. She became a bit more adventurous as time went on and would actually leave her potty. :) I think this was the 2nd or 3rd day after we started. This is how she ran around the house for days....no pants. :) We had a lot of fun playing around the house and just focusing on Mommy and Kylie time. Here was a try at a self portrait. I actually am shocked Kylie is actually looking at the camera!

Anyway: it's been almost 2 full weeks now and she is doing great. I'm so proud of her. She just keeps growing up so fast!

Grandma Fun!

2009-04-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

This post is back-tracking a bit. Brian's mom came out to stay with Kylie when we went to Hawaii. She was SO NICE to come for SUCH a long time! She even came out a few days before so we could spend some time with her before we left! If she was coming all this way...we wanted to hang with her too! :) She came in Thursday night, so we had Friday and Saturday with her. Friday we decided to take her to do one of Kylie's favorite things. We went to the ZOO!!! We were so excited, and we even had more family coming with us! My aunt, Jan, and her husband, Doug. Then my cousin, Emily, and her daughter, Bailey. Brian even took the day off so we could all spend some time together. Well....Kylie woke up WAY TOO early! It was like 6am. So by the time we got to the zoo, she was EXHAUSTED. So it was somewhat of a bust. It was still fun to see the animals, but Kylie wasn't very cooperative. :) We still had a good day....we just weren't able to stay as long as we hoped. :) We always have to start at Kylie's favorite thing...the monkey's. She LOVES watching the little guys jump all around. Didn't get any in this photo...but this is how she watches them. :)

Here is Jan, Doug, and Bailey checking out the monkey. Emily insisted on not getting in the photo...but take my word for it....she is ONE CUTE pregnant gal! :)

Brian and I posing for a shot. Not the best pic, but hey! We actually got a pic together so better post it! :) (Since I'm usually the one taking all the photos we don't get a lot of pics together that aren't self-portrait shots. :) ) Brian, Kylie, Bailey, and Doug all watching the rhinos. (Thanks Jan for this pic! :))

Usually Kylie is running around like crazy at the zoo. Today....she mostly wanted to ride in the stroller. Here she is taking a break for a snack too. :)

Bri, Ella (Brian's mom), Kylie, and I all together.

Our last stop was the carousel. Kylie LOVES this ride! She loves giraffe's too....so I made sure to get her on one. The one that actually goes up and down too! She so stinking cute. :) This was her fave part of the day, I have to say. :)

Here we go at trying to get a pic together. Yes....another poor self-portrait try! :)

And the two spectators watching us go around and around.

We did have a fun day but wish we could have stayed longer!

Hawaii is my FAVE place!!!

2009-04-01T15:14:00.001-07:00

Brian and I just got back from a FABULOUS Hawaii trip. We left on March 22nd and got back March 28th. Brian's mom was SO WONDERFUL and flew out here to watch Kylie so Brian and I could have a trip just for the two of us. It was SO GREAT, although we missed Kylie LIKE CRAZY and couldn't stop talking/thinking about her. I earned this trip from Stampin' Up! so it was a FREE trip for us! Can't get much better than that. This was my first time to Hawaii, and I have to say....I found my PERFECT place to live!!! OH MY GOODNESS! The weather was PERFECT! I would say 80's ish the whole week, sunny, and so not humid. It was PERFECT. Such a wonderful trip. Here are LOTS of pictures to give you a glimpse into our vacation...

Right when we got off the plane in Kona, there were people there to guide us to our bus to take us to our hotel. Before we got on the bus, we all got "leid" of course! :)

This is where we stayed. I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! WOW! is all I have to say. It was SO BIG and SO MUCH to see just being there. It was so big they had trams and boats to take you all around if you didn't want to walk. We mostly walked so we could see everything, but it was fun if we were feeling lazy. :)

There was a big ocean fed lagoon in the hotel. You could go snorkeling there and all sorts of stuff. The big waterfall is where a lot of the fish were, as well as sea turtles and eels and stuff. I was INCHES from the turtles...we were totally swimming together! It was amazing!!

Here is another view of the lagoon. You can see there is a beach right there on the lagoon as well. This was not as busy as I thought it would be. Seemed most of the people hung out by the pools.

And yes...this hotel even had DOLPHINS! They were SO CUTE! :) You could swim with them and stuff, but we never got around to doing that. Next time. :) (Because we WILL come back here! It's amazing!)

This was the view from our HOTEL ROOM! It was SO WONDERFUL waking up to this!!! Absolutely incredible!

Here is our try at a self portrait of us on our hotel room balcony.

This was taken our first day there walking around. We are in the corner because who wants to look at us when there is that beautiful ocean back there! :) (I guess that's what the photographer was thinking anyway! :) ) But right behind us is where you could see whales jumping out into the ocean. We were lounging on some lounge chairs one day and I looked out and saw a few whales just jumping and all sorts of stuff out there! It was amazing!!!! And I have to say...this first day walking around I just thought....oh my goodness. I totally feel at home here. I need to live here. Brian was on board as well. So maybe one day....we'll be islanders! :) Seriously...I think I was born for island life. :) This is MY PERFECT place and now my absolute FAVE place that I have ever been to! It's amazing! A girl can dream, right?!?!? :)

There were quite a few waterfalls at this resort. One of them had a walkway behind it. Of course I had to take a picture looking out at the resort. Amazing!

Cutie Brian as we were lounging by the pool. (I was a bit sunburned at this point so we were taking it easy while the sun was at it's hottest. :) )

One of the days we went to downtown Kona and did some shopping. We stopped to eat at "Bubba Gump's" while we were there. We ate out on the patio and this was our view to the side. Right in front of us was the BEAUTIFUL ocean! It was amazing. I looked out at the ocean that was just below us and saw HUNDREDS of bright yellow fish. Seriously, I couldn't believe how many I saw! I tried to get a good picture, but just couldn't.

While we were in town we picked up a few real estate magazines. (Seriously....we are sold on this place! One day! :) ) Brian took a few mins during our fabulous lunch to look at a few. There are some good deals out there! Hehe.

So on Tuesday, we took a Circle Island Volcano Tour. It was great! It was a bit long on a bus, but we got to stop a LOT of places and see SO MANY things! It was amazing to me how different the climate can be. We went from hot to rainy to rain forest to volcano to perfect. It was crazy. And I was amazed at how GREEN it was on one side of the island. The picture above doesn't do it justice, but it was almost neon green. I grew up in Tennessee, where it is quite green. It did not even come close to this. It was gorgeous!

One of our stops was a Kona Coffee place. This is just a shot I got when we were high up on a hill. I don't drink coffee, but I hear this is the best coffee ever. The pure Kona coffee sells for like $40.00 a pound or something like that. It was fun to see.

We also went to a black sand beach. I thought that was pretty cool. It was SO WINDY here! Seriously....the wind was so bad it would totally push you the way it was blowing. The sand was much more coarse than a regular beach too.

Here are my feet in the black sand. See how much more coarse it is? You don't sink in it like normal sand either.

We even had a friend greet us! :) I guess these turtles hang out here a lot. It's illegal to get closer than like 5 feet from them or something. However...my friend Sherri wasn't looking and just walking along the beach and didn't see him. She almost stepped on him! Kinda funny because apparently there are people watching them that you can't see that will arrest you if you get close. Luckily we didn't have to bail her out of jail! :) But he is SO CUTE! And HUGE!

Here is a shot of the rain forest we visited. SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Bri and I in the middle of the rain forest! :)
We also got to walk through the Thurston lava tube. Lava tubes form when lava flows for so long the top lava hardens while lava is still flowing through it. So these tubes form. When the eruption is over, and the lava has all flowed out....this is what was left. It was really cool to walk through it and imagine the lava flowing through there.
Brian and I causing a traffic jam behind us so we can get a picture in the tube. :)
Here's a picture I got to show how huge it is. We are all so small compared to this. And just FYI...these tubes are all over the island. This is just one of the bigger ones or something.

We ate lunch at the Volcano House where you are actually looking out on the volcano's. Then we got to go even closer. I guess there used to be a better viewing point than where we were. But just a few months ago there was an eruption and it took out that viewing point. Luckily, it was at night or there would have been a lot of casualties. Crazy, really. How amazing and quite humbling these volcanoes are!

We also stopped at Rainbow Falls. I am just amazed at all the beautiful sights we saw in just one day. Every turn and every mile you could see a million amazing views. It was incredible and something I won't ever forget. I need to get back into photography and go back here to capture some more of these sights. It was amazing!

One of the days we went to a local beach. LOOK HOW GORGEOUS! You pull into a parking lot that is quite a bit above the actual beach. So you get to walk down this path until this comes in to view! And yes...the water is REALLY that beautiful! It was so fabulous! Brian wanted more waves though...it was quite a calm beach. And having crystal clear ocean water is a bit of a scary thing too. You see all these shadows coming at your under the water by your feet. Kinda freaks you out at times. :) Then you realize it's just your shadow or Brian's shadow and you're ok. :)

One night most of the gals in our group that earned their cruise and their hubby's went out to dinner. It was a lot of fun to all get together and laugh and talk and hang for a yummy meal. We then went to an ice cream place afterwards for some ice cream. :)

Our last night together Stampin' Up! did a HUGE luau for us all. It was SO AMAZING! We ate all sorts of yummy Hawaiian food, saw these SUPER CUTE hula girls, saw all sorts of amazing shows on stage, fire dancers and everything. It was SO AWESOME!!! Definitely a highlight of the trip!

At one point in the show, the "host" of the evening called up the Stampin' Up! leaders to show them respect. It was really a neat experience.

We got these handmade lei's when we first got there. So cool. Then behind us you can see that hotel building. When the shows started and the music got loud, everyone that wasn't in our group (so there weren't there) came out on their balcony's to watch.

At one point...these guys on stilts came out and let us get pictures with them.

After the luau, some of our group got together to play some card games. It was a lot of fun to have one last night of laughs together before we all left the next day. SO SAD!!!

Mark and Wendy came a bit late, so they had to wait for a break in the games so they could join in. Why not start a game by yourself while you are waiting?! :)

Now I just have to say....Stampin' Up! TOTALLY spoils us on this trip! We got lots of pillow gifts delivered to us while we were there. The first gift were these bags. Brian got one and I got one. The one I got matches the travel pouch they sent us before we went with all our travel documents in it.

This one is filled with a new stamp set, ink pads, accessories, etc. SO FUN! :) This was what we needed to make our projects there that they had for us. This was my fave thing to get, of course! :)

HOW COOL IS THIS?! Such cool packaging, and inside were yummy Hawaiian treats for us. SO MUCH FUN!

Then this is a sarong from a local guy there that makes them. I LOVED this!

Then our last gift was this aloha necklace. I love this and I'm going to wear it to remind me of my dream to live in Hawaii some day! :)

So there was our trip in a nutshell. It was SO MUCH FUN and I'm SO GLAD I had that opportunity to go. Too bad I had to come home to AWFUL weather in Utah! No wonder I want to move there so bad! :) I HATE WINTERS! :) But aloha and mahalo (thank you) for reading! And BIG THANKS again to Grandma for doing SUCH A GOOD JOB with Kylie! :) THANK YOU!!!!

Friend Time...

2009-03-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

My goal was to get all caught up with this blog before Brian and I go out of town on Sunday. We leave EARLY EARLY morning on Sunday, and we are going to HAWAII!!! I'm so excited...I have never been there. I actually earned this trip through the Stampin' Up! stuff I do and it's going to be a BLAST!!! Anyway: after this post I am JUST ABOUT caught up. I have a few more pics from this week and our trip to the zoo today that are on my camera that I need to upload, but YEAH!!! So last Saturday I had a GREAT day! My good friend Tara, a college roommate, took me out to lunch and movie for my birthday. It was SO GREAT and we had a BLAST!!!! (WHY DID WE NOT GET A PIC DEAR TARA?!) Then when we got back, a friend of Brian's from college and his wife and son surprised us by stopping by. We have all became good friends, and we hadn't seen them in SO LONG! So it was great to see them and get caught up. They just had their first baby a few months ago and he is SO CUTE! We're so glad we got to meet him!!! Kylie was IN LOVE with him!!!! She even got to hold him...
How cute are they both?! :)

Love it!!

My precious baby girl...(just got a new camera and still trying to learn it so sorry for the blur!)

The cute family with a little addition. :)

Father and son

LOOK AT THIS SWEETHEART! Sorry it's a bit blurry! Thanks guys for a fun Saturday!

Road Trip Buddy....

2009-03-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Kylie and I recently returned from our FIRST ROAD TRIP together as Mommy and Daughter team. My mom recently had surgery, so we went out there for a bit to help my parents out. Brian had to work and I was too cheap to get him a plane ticket back to Utah so he could help me drive. So Kylie and I journeyed across the HORRID road of I-80 through Wyoming to get to Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house. I was really worried because Kylie can be very high maintenance. But we made it and actually had a good time. At one point...yes...I got a bit stir crazy. Anyone that has traveled with me for a long road trip knows I can get a bit antsy. (And that's probably an understatement.) But Kylie handled me just fine. :) At one point in the journey I decided to document this trip. Here's my sweet Kylie...

Then the "self-portrait" trying to get us both in! :) ...

Then on our way home we stopped at the famous Rawlins McDonald's. Seriously....ANYTHING you have here is so yummy. :) (Maybe it's because you are SO SO bored with the road and just want to do ANYTHING but drive it tastes so good. :) ) So here is my sweet baby eating her yummy lunch...

We had a great time in CO with Grandma and Grandpa. I didn't get any pictures though!!!! It was good to be out there and get to help them out. The time flew, and we miss them lots!

Girly Girl Time...

2009-03-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

When my parents were out visiting in February, Kylie and Grandma Brown had some fun playing. Kylie is SUCH a girl most times. : ) She LOVES jewelry and make-up. So Grandma let her play with hers. Such precious moments.

Gotta love that face! :)

Having Some Fun With Toys...

2009-03-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Catching up some more....another day in February....

How cute is this girl?! I had my camera out and she wanted me to take her picture. How could I resist? :) Then she needed a picture of some things she loves.....

Her plastic doll with her bathtub...

And her rocket! All her "friends" are in their proper place inside and she LOVES this toy! She has played with this for hours and hours and often has to take her "friends" to bed with her. :)

I love you Kylie! :)

Daddy/Daughter Time...

2009-03-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Still playing catch up. :) I caught this wonderful moment in February. :) I love watching Kylie and Daddy interact. If Brian is around....Kylie CLINGS to him most times. It's so cute. Here they are enjoying some books...

Then we tried to get a self family portrait. :) Hey...it's the thought that counts, right? Not necessarily the outcome. :)

We Miss You Camer...

2009-03-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

I should have posted these photos before I posted the ones with Cameron (although we now call him Camer since that is what Kylie calls him) at the Missionary Training Center. These are a few shots of Camer's last days before he headed out on his mission. WE MISS YOU CAMER!!! We are proud of you and excited for you, but we miss your smiley face!

Camer with his Mommas!
Camer with his oldest brother, Brandon, and Daddy! Can you tell they are related?! :)

A more casual shot of these three.

Camer with Leah, Brandon's wife, and one of their DARLING sons, Crae!

Camser with his oldest neice...Lexy. So cute!

Update on Camer and his mission: he really is doing great! He's adjusting so well and seems really happy. If any of you want to write him a letter...just let me know and I can send you his address. He is very faithful at writing letters (he emails most but we've already gotten a few letters from him) and I'm sure he'd love to hear from anyone from home! :)

It's SWEET time!!!

2009-03-10T22:09:00.001-07:00

My ever impressive cousin (well, my cousin's wife....but we're cousins! :) ) just opened up a cupcake bakery in Provo, UT. She's had a website for a long time now where she sold her baked goods and let me just say....she does AMAZING things! They look good, taste INCREDIBLE and I'm just so impressed with her. Her amazing "cake bites" have even been featured on the Rachel Ray show. ANYWAY....her website is: www.thesweettoothfairy.com if you want to check them out. I highly recommend ordering some cupcakes and having them shipped right to your house. You'll be amazed! :) We were in Chicago for her cupcake shop big grand opening, so when we were in Provo taking Cams to the MTC....I had to go by to say hello and check things out. Her store is SO CUTE and the treats are so yummy. Kylie waited so patiently for her cupcake (they are a busy store!) and here she is devouring her well earned treat....
Had to take a break after eating most of the frosting...

I just can't even stand it...Kylie is just so cute! :) (Sorry for the gush for a moment.) Thanks Megan for opening this store so we can get your treats whenever we want! :) GOOD LUCK and love you lots!

And Cameron is off...

2009-03-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

My littlest brother is growing up so fast! I can't believe it! My once little Cameron is so not little anymore. AND....he just left for TWO WHOLE YEARS! Where did he go?! Why...he is off to serve a mission for our church. He is going to Fresno, California to serve. I'm so excited for him and he's grown up so much from this experience already! Here are just a few shots of our last little bit of time with him for the next 2 years....

Before he left, we all went out to dinner as a fam. Didn't get many pics...but I did LOVE this picture of Kylie and her Grandpa Brown! LOVE LOVE IT!

This is an awful pic of me, but hey....it's my sweet brother and I...so oh well! I love this kid. He was my buddy growing up....and I can't believe how old he seems these days! Where did my little Cam-Cam go?!??!?

All missionaries start at the Missionary Training Center (MTC). We took Cams there on Wednesday, Feb 4th. It was a sad day, but I'm so proud of him. Here he is with our parents....and Kylie wouldn't leave Grandma's side. :) I could of cropped it out, but how could I?! :)

Three generations here....my Grandpa, Cams, and my Daddy. Cute and amazing men...all three!!!

My two younger brothers...Matty and Cam-Cam. Love these guys! Brandon, Leah, and fam...we missed you all LIKE CRAZY!!!!

And Cam-Cam and Kylie. They have a really cute relationship. It's amazing to me how much Cameron LOVES his nieces and nephews. They all love him right back! I got to talk to Cameron real quick when he was at the airport flying off to Fresno. When I got off the phone Kylie says, "Can Camer (she calls him Camer) come play for ONE MINUTE?!" (Said with great emphasis....she's in a phase thinking if she says one minute anything can happen because it's such a short time. :) ) Then I told her a bit about why he couldn't come and why we wouldn't see him for a long time. She looks at me with this totally pouty face and says, "That makes me so sad." It was so sweet. I swear...this kid is 2 going on 16!

WE LOVE YOU CAMER AND WE'LL MISS YOU!!!

Family Photos...

2009-03-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

I guess all these posts for our Chicago trip will be backwards, so sorry! Here are some of the shots we took on Saturday morning...

The whole gang all together

Cutie cousins all together! This was a tough shot to get, but so worth it!!!

Here are the Utah Van Camp's all together

How sweet is this baby girl?! I LOVE this shot! Although you can tell which arm her cast was on...she still was holding it funny. But man...that face is so yummy! :)

Brian's parents. Love this shot of them!

Love this shot of these three as well! Grandma with her two kids. SO CUTE!

Then Mom and Dad with all of their kids. This is such a great one too...I think. Ok...so I like them all. I think we got some great shots. Hope you enjoyed the photo shoot too! :) We had such a great weekend with the whole family! We DEFINITELY need a repeat sometime soon! Thanks everyone for all you did!

PLAY TIME at the Water Park...

2009-03-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

The whole family had an absolute blast at the water park. It seriously was SUCH a fun place and I hope we go back soon. Considering it's only like 5 mins from Brian's parents house, we probably will be back! :)

The cute Smith family all "Water Parked" up!
Here are the Van Camp's all "Water Parked" up! :) The craziness of the day!Funny story...Brian's mom doesn't own a bathing suit. I'm pretty sure we all warned her she would want to go get one. She didn't....but of course couldn't resist the fun. :) So she ended up in the lazy river, going down the slides, etc....in her clothes. It was quite fun to be a part of it!

Yes...yes....Doug and Ella ended up going down the slide together! Ella fell out at the bottom of the slide, and Ella saw the inner tube go right over her. :) It was quite funny and we're so glad they got in on the fun!

Kylie LOVES these fountains. She actually LOVED this whole place and did NOT want to leave. We were there for hours and hours and hours and then she STILL did not want to go. It was fun to see her have so much fun! She even got to play with Grandpa in the fountains. I LOVED watching this....SO CUTE!!!

Cutie Kylie sliding down the slide.

Karen and Grandma didn't want to go down the slides and such but they watched from the hotel. It was fun knowing we had fans. :)

Hotel Fun...

2009-03-10T20:48:00.001-07:00

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. These shots are a mix of the time we were there, but here are some fun shots at the hotel...

Cutie cousins...Diggy, Kylie, and Kirsten. The BEST thing about the hotel is the time the cousins get to spend together. It is SO MUCH FUN for me to watch Kylie interact with them. I wish we had SO MUCH more time with them so they could all be best friends! But they had such a good time together. I loved it!!!
Brad and Dana were nice enough to provide this bed for Kylie again. It is a princess sleeping bag with a blow-up mattress underneath it. Kylie LOVES LOVES sleeping in it whenever we visit so HOW NICE were those two to bring it to the hotel?! She just wanted to hang out in it all nice. Too funny. And actually...the cousins wanted Kylie to sleep with them in their room. Bri and I were all for it! :) It lasted a few minutes until we tried to leave the room. :) But it was worth a shot.

Smith Family kids all cozy and cuddle up with each other. TOO CUTE!!!
We celebrated Mike's birthday while we were there as well. His birthday was the 1st of Feb. So we had a party for him and then he and his girlfriend went to the arcade to play. He then took all his tickets that he won and got gifts for all his nieces and nephews. It was SO CUTE! He got little pillows for the girls and soccer photo frames for the boys. It was so thoughtful and cute. Here is Kylie with her Uncle Mike and her pillow he gave her. She LOVED it and carried it around with her everywhere. She called it her sponge and kept asking for it over and over again. :) Too cute!

Alan and Kylie hanging out holding hands. This was the day we left. This little Alan is SO STINKING CUTE! Thanks Brad and Dana for bringing him to our family! :)

CHICAGO HERE WE COME...

2009-03-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Brian's Dad turned 60 this year! On February 4th to be exact. Brian's family was throwing him a big surprise birthday party for the occasion. Since all of Brian's family lives out in the Chicago area, we were the only ones that wouldn't be there. So they flew us there to join in on the fun. We all ended up staying at this FABULOUS place....called Key Lime Cove. It's a hotel with an indoor water park. And you are only allowed to go to the water park if you are staying at the hotel. This was a quick trip and here were the plans....we got there Friday afternoon. We all met up at a restaurant where Brian's Mom and Dad were coming to meet up with us. The story was Brad, Dana, and Alan (Brian's brother and his family) were going to take them out to dinner for his birthday. The SURPRISE was we were ALL there! So they were brought back to where we all were and we gave him QUITE the shock! He was so surprise and I am SO THANKFUL we got to be there to share in the celebrations! After dinner we all went back to the hotel to hang out and play. Then Saturday morning we went to a photo studio and got family pictures taken since we were all together. Then the rest of the day was spent at the water park. It was SO MUCH FUN! Seriously...this place was a blast! Then Sunday we got to hang out with Brad, Dana, and Alan before we headed back that night. (We actually got to hang out longer than we though because we kept getting emails from Delta telling us our flights had been changed to hours later...then it was earlier...than later....than whatever. We'll just go to the airport and hope for the best! :) ) Here are some pics of the surprise dinner...

The birthday boy opening his presents. Brian's mom, Ella, surprised him with a SPEEDO bathing suit. We all had a good laugh at the shock of his face. Then she gave him this letter to ease his mind. This was when we told him the plan that we were going to the hotel/water park for the weekend.

This is Brian's Dad, Doug, with his wonderful sister, Karen. I love this picture of them both.

This picture is just purely precious. Three generations right here! Brad, Brian's brother, his Grandma, and his son, Alan. Too cute!!!!We took up quite a bit of space at the restaurant. Here is just part. We still had a few more tables. :) This was a fun night all together.

THE DAY CAME!!!!

2009-03-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

One month and a day after this bright pink thing was put on her broken arm....
IT CAME OFF!!!!! On January 26th, we went to the orthopedic and got her CAST OFF!!!! YEAH!!! I was so excited! We didn't get any pics (sad) but I just have to say....she did SUCH a good job! I was worried sick about how she would react to the SAW that was going to cut it off. (Ok...so maybe I was a little worried sick about how I would react! :) I never had a broken bone so didn't know what I was getting in to but knew I didn't want a saw coming towards my baby's arm!) The ortho also told us that kids kinda freak out most times when you take off the cast because the last thing they remember before they had it was that it hurt. But they were fine with the cast so they don't want it off. Anyway: I prepped her all week and kept talking to her about it. I told her that it was going to be loud, but she would be ok, etc, etc. Well....we walk into the doc's office and she says, "It's going to be loud. But I'm ok." :) So she seemed to remember. :) Anyway: she LAUGHED the whole time it came off. I was SO PROUD of her! She did NOT want to move it afterwards and was a bit upset all day when she would accidentally move it or if we asked her to move it or something. But she did SUCH a great job and I was SO IMPRESSED!!!! Oh....and yes...as much as she loved to show people her cast when she had it, she LOVED to tell them all about it being taken off too! Everyone she saw wherever we went, she would hold up her "special arm" (what we called her broken arm during this whole ordeal) and say, "It went BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ and then CAST OFF!" all excited. :) Too cute. :)

Bored?! Go Shopping!

2009-03-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

Around Jan 18th, we were hanging out at the house. Well all got really stir crazy (Brian was home too) so we headed off to the mall. Why not, right?! And I have to say....it is SO MUCH MORE FUN shopping for Kylie than for either Brian or I. So don't ask me how, but we ended up at Gymboree. Brian was on Kylie duty since I get a bit distracted in that store. :) I came to the back and see this.... She loved sitting in those chairs they have and watching their TV. Too funny. A ploy to keep the kids happy so the parents keep shopping?! I think so! :)

I asked her to look up at me and this is the look she gives me. Could she be more annoyed I'm ruining her fun?! :)

"Really, mom?! You have to be doing this now?!" Too funny!

Yes...cast still there!

Our First Pet...

2009-03-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

The same day that Kylie put on her Daddy's shoes, she wanted to make sure I got pictures of her first pet. She got this over a year ago but it's recently become her best friend. She had to take it everywhere. So when I had the camera out she says, "Take picture of Doggy!" So I had to snap a picture of her first pet...
Then she had to get a picture of her walking her Doggy....
Then of course she had to hold it...

She was so excited to get these pictures. Of course she had to look at the camera's display screen after each photo to see it herself. She loved this little game and she LOVED getting photos of her Doggy.

Big Shoes To Fill...

2009-03-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

Yes...I AM alive! Since I'm getting calls/emails from people wanting to make sure I'm still alive...I figure it's better time to play catch up. See...life got crazy. Then before I knew it I was SO BEHIND in blogging that I just couldn't make myself play catch-up. It was a bit overwhelming. But I'm going to attempt to get it done now! So here we go! :) I'll try to give dates as best as possible so I can keep record of everything myself!
One day in mid-January Kylie walks up to me and says, "Look Mommy! Daddy's Shoes!!!" Kylie LOVES LOVES her Daddy and really misses him while he is at work. So she was so excited to put these on to feel like she was with Daddy at work a bit. :) Here's a close-up...

Now a bit of info on the cast. Kinda hard to see these pics and remember how hard it was to watch my baby girl have a cast. But she did SO WONDERFUL!!!! I can't believe how good she did with it on. She actually liked it and it was the first thing she would tell everyone when she met them. Mom and Dad definitely had the harder time with it than she did. I still can't believe she broke her arm. Poor thing!!! Anyway: she sure looks cute with it on! Oh...and yes I had to cut the sleeves off some shirts so her cast would fit.

Wow...it's been awhile!

2009-01-29T22:22:00.000-08:00

Ok...so I have lots to update! So sorry I've been gone for so long. I more need to write this post for myself...I'm not adding pics of anything right now. But we have had a busy January, and I will update soon! I feel like if it's in writing I will do it. :) But we are headed out of town tomorrow morning for a quick weekend trip. Then when we get back I get a few days to spend with my brother before he heads off for 2 years on a mission for our church! So after that....I will get updated so I can remember what has been keeping us so busy! Oh...Kylie got her cast off today! BIG NEWS!! :) I am SO EXCITED. I was a nervous wreck and kept talking to her about it so she would know what to expect. Well she did AMAZING! I was ready for the tears that were going to come for both of us. But when they used the saw to cut it off....she LAUGHED!!! She laughed the whole time! I was amazed! It was loud and scary to me but she was LAUGHING! :) My big strong girl!!!! I'm so impressed with her! The hard part has come after the cast was off. She definitely favors that arm and doesn't want to move it much. By the end of the day she was moving it more, but I'm sure it will take some time. Anyway: will update more soon! SORRY! Hope everyone is doing well!!!

Happy New Year Re-Do!!!

2009-01-04T10:51:00.000-08:00

We had another holiday bust just a weekish after our Christmas spent in the ER. Brian and I were both sick with the flu. It was MISERABLE! And we had fun plans that day as well. Betsy and Sophie were coming up to our house to spend the night. It was Kylie first sleepover with a friend. We were excited, but it obviously didn't work out when it was suppose to. So....we had a re-do New Year celebration this Friday night. It was a lot of fun. Betsy and Sophie came over for our sleepover and we tried to make it a fun sleepover for the girls (and us! :) ). There was yummy party food, they got to stay up late to play, we made a pretend "house" for the girls, and just had a lot of fun. Thanks for coming over Bets and Soph! Come back soon! :)

This was the very intricate and involved house we made. :) The girl's would NOT stop playing in this and Kylie made us keep it up long after the girls went home the next day. :)

The sweet girls in their house. It was fun to listen to them talk and play together with no adult getting in their way. :)

Sweet Soph eating her apple. She prefers holding the whole apple and eating it. Low maintence child. :)

Kylie with her "special arm" chowing down on her apple. She prefers her apples in slices with the skin removed. High maintence child. :)

Cute Betsy getting some snuggles with Kylie. Too bad Ky isn't looking at the camera.

The stairs became the car the girls drove around town. :) Not sure why they have to be laying down to drive. :) But both girls kept trying to go up a stair to be behind the other so that they were in the back seat and not driving. It was funny.

We had a great night and it is just so much fun watching Kylie grow up, have conversations with her friend, have a very active immagination....and just realize she isn't a baby anymore. She's a big growing up girl. (Can't help but be a bit sad at that!!!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hope everyone had a GREAT holiday!!!!!

Cast Day!!!!

2008-12-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

Kylie has a pretty new pink accessory. :) Yes....she got her PINK cast! And boy is it pink. We love it. The Orthopedic they referred us to has been closed since this happened, so we didn't know until today if we were going to get in until today or tomorrow. But Mama Bear was going to do what she could to get her baby in today. :) I called right before they opened and their computers were down. So I had to call back in an hour. It was quite a long hour, but finally....I called and we got in. I was relieved but so nervous. (Although I've had a nervous pit in my stomach through this whole experience so whatever.) Brian took the day off today so we could all be there. I just have to say that Kylie did AMAZING!!!! I was so proud of her and impressed with her! She actually did NOT want the splint to come off. The doc told us that kids actually get upset when you take them (and the cast) off because the last time they remember not having it on...their arm hurt. I thought that was interesting. Anyway: she was a bit upset when we (actually I got to take it off) took it off but she was so brave. The Doc looked at the x-rays and actually thinks it might just be fractured and not broken. But she's in a cast anyway, and we go back in a week to get it x-rayed again with the cast on. She should be in it for about 4 weeks. I was SO NERVOUS about how she was going to react. I have been talking to her about it so she would know what to expect. And I just have to say...she did AMAZING!!!!!! She really did. She only whimpered a few times, and never even got a tear. Mommy got to sit right by her and even help a little with putting the cast on. Best news....the cast is WATERPROOF!!!! You can totally get it wet and everything. (I have my doubts and kinda don't believe it. She might still have baths with plastic bags over her arm. :) But they say she can get it totally wet, soak it, whatever. Just rinse it so there isn't soapy water in it.) I thought that was a cool feature. Anyway: I just have to say that my baby girl has adjusted SO WELL to all of this. I have learned a lot from her through this whole experience. She is so brave and strong and I'm so proud of her. Here are a few pics....

I was trying to get a pic of the cast and told her to show me her cast. This is what she did. :) She's too funny.

Standing by her kitchen with her new accessory. (And by the way...she doesn't have to wear the sling thing anymore. But I think it's a comfort thing for her because she wants to wear it. So I keep adjusting it because it always shifts behind her. She's just too funny!)

So every time I ask Kylie to smile she gives me this crooked smile and brings her finger up. I think it's precious.

I almost had a decent picture of her and her cast and then she moved right as I was taking it. So I kinda cut off part of her face, but of course it's still a cute pic. :)

And how sweet is my Aunt Karen?! (Well, it's Brian's aunt, but we're much too close for me to call her aunt-in-law! :) ) Our doorbell rang today, and THIS is what was delivered to us (well, Kylie) from her....

A yummy cookie bouquet!!!

Here's a bit of a close-up.

And here is Brian enjoying a cookie with some milk and some light reading. :)

Kylie preferred to eat all the frosting off the cookie first and then gobble up the cookie. I know I might have said this a time or two, but she is too funny!

All in all, things went really well today. I'm so glad the cast is on and hopefully the healing part will be quick. The doc did say that if it's a fracture sometimes they can "slip" or something like that. Then that would mean surgery to pin it together. So we are praying that won't happen...of course. Then another thing I'm worried about is she has eczema. It's not bad if we keep some cortisone on it when it starts to show up. But with it in the cast....I'm really worried that it will flare up. So we'll be praying for that not to happen as well. All things considered though....things are much better now that the cast is on and healing can really begin! Sorry for all these details. But hey! I want this stuff recorded. :)

Temple Square Fun...

2008-12-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Brandon (my oldest brother), Leah (his wife), and all their kids came to visit just before Christmas. (I know this post is out of order since I already posted about Christmas. :) ) We had a great time together. One of the coolest things to do during Christmas time in Utah is go to the lights that are at Temple Square downtown Salt Lake City. It is AMAZING how beautiful of a job they do putting the lights on the trees. It is one thing that is FOR SURE to give me Christmas Spirit. There is such a feeling of love, peace, and joy just walking around Temple Square. It really makes me contemplate the true meaning of Christmas.

So Brandon and Leah and the kids got here last Saturday. There were 2 things on their list of things to do that day.....eat pizza from "The Pie" (it's this AMAZING pizza place that is right on the University of Utah campus) and go to Temple Square to see the lights. Even though it was FREEZING cold....we all wanted to be apart of it! However...instead of eating at the pizza place...we picked it up and took to the KeyBank tower downtown (where Brian has his office) and ate in one of the boardrooms there. It was a FABULOUS idea because the kids were able to run around, we had plenty of room, and we were able to be together as a family.

The kids had a great time drawing on the white board with all the colorful markers.

Look at this pizza. It is HUGE!!! That is my oldest brother's hand that I had him put over the pizza so you can tell how big that pizza is. This one pizza fed 8 adults and 4 kids. Plus we had leftovers. It's SO HUGE!!!

Some pics from some chair races we had there. The kids LOVED it!

While we walked to Temple Square...these two cutie cousins held hands. Lexy is such a good big cousin. She's so good with young kids.

My whole fam together.

Sweet Kaylee. I love this picture of her.

Three of Kylie's cousins: Kaylee, Crae, and Lexy

My sweet Kylie all bundled up.

A SO NOT VERY MERRY Christmas!!!!

2008-12-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

This hurts my heart as I write this....but this is how our Christmas went from great to the worst in just a second. We had finished with Christmas morning, had breakfast, finished Kylie's presents, played for a long time with new toys, and just had some great family time. Now it was lunch time and then soon to follow nap time for Kylie. Kylie was eating some peaches up at our kitchen island, Brian was putting dishes in the dishwasher, and I was in the family room. I heard a fall in the kitchen and ran right out in there. Kylie had fallen off the stool onto the tile floor below. I took her from Brian so I could cuddle her and calm her down because of course she was crying. She landed on her arm, and was holding her arm saying "Hurt. hurt." I knew something was wrong right away because she wasn't calming down at all. She would try to use her arm to play with a new toy or something and as she would reach out to get something her hand would shake and she wouldn't move it very far before she pulled it back saying "hurt, hurt." After about 15 mins we decided we should get her checked out at the ER. So Brian and I headed out. We had a wait in the ER room....of course....and during that time she started using her arm and moving it a bit. So we thought maybe it was just a fracture or something because she was playing and having fun. We finally made it back into the room and then of course waited again FOREVER! They finally came in to take x-rays and we really didn't think it would be that bad. Well....the doc comes back and tells us my baby's arm was BROKEN!!!!! My 2-year old broke her arm. It was just a small break (I could barely see it in the x-ray) but it was BROKEN!!!! My heart broke right along with it. So they set it in a splint and then we will go in on Monday or Tuesday to get a cast. Kylie was SO BRAVE and SO GOOD!!!! It was only when strangers (the nurses, docs, etc.) came near her that she cried. :) She is such a big girl.

I told her if she could be a strong girl that I would get her whatever treat she wanted when we were done. Well, she wanted french fries. Ummmmm.....well.....everything is closed on Christmas day. Hmmmmmmm. We were communicating with my parents and brothers that was at my house during this whole thing. So Grandpa jumps in the car and goes driving all around to try to find anything open. NOTHING was. So plan B. Matt finds some potatoes at our house and he MAKES HER SOME FRIES! How sweet! So this is her enjoying the yummy treat her Uncle Matty made her. Look at her sling. Still makes me weep!

Here she is resting her arm, eating her fave cereal....Fruit Loops, and watching her show. She only stayed here a few mins, but hey....I get her arm elevated when I can. :)

This has been a big adjustment for all of us. Kylie has adjusted the best....I have to say. :) Her mommy on the other hand.....not doing so well. It breaks my heart to see her little arm in the sling. She's been SUCH a trooper through all of it. I guess things like this really open up your eyes and make you see just HOW MUCH LOVE you can have in your heart for such a little girl. Any parents out there that have gone through this....how do you deal?! It's SO SAD and SO HARD to see your child go through something like this!!!! I wish I could take her place. Anyway: wanted to let you know how our Christmas was! Hope yours was better!!!

A Very Merry Christmas...

2008-12-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

We had a very merry Christmas morning. Kylie got a kitchen and LOVED it! She couldn't stop playing with it. And hasn't stopped playing with it since then. I love Christmas mornings. They are so magical and fun. Add an excited child to the mix and I just can't think of anything better. Kylie was so excited and just LOVED the experience. It took forever to open presents because after every present was unopened we had to open them all up to play with them. I love watching her excitement and enthusiasm. We took a break for breakfast after all the adults had their presents opened and Kylie was halfway done. :) It was great having my family here as well. My parents and two of my brothers were here for Christmas and we had a blast. My brother, sister in law, and kids were here just before Christmas (I'll post some pics of their trip here in a bit) and we definitely missed having them here. Of course they had to get home for Santa to come! :) Anyway: Christmas morning was fabulous, but the next post will explain why it turned into my worst Christmas....

She couldn't stop smiling at this kitchen. She LOVED it!!!

She got right into cooking!

She picked up the phone to call Santa to thank him. Then as she opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Van Camp, she goes over to the phone and picks it up and says, "Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Camp!" It was SO CUTE!!!!

Merry Christmas Early....

2008-12-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

So Brian gave me my Christmas present early. It's a.....
Blackberry Storm! What a thoughtful gift. :) He knows that I LOVE the internet so why not have it available to me at all times? However....I know the majority reason he is giving me this is because I give him a hard time about being on his BlackBerry ALL the time....ALL hours of the day. He wants me to get sucked into it too so it's more acceptable for him to be so addicted. :) Whatever the reason...I'm still EXCITED! :) But...it's kinda been driving me crazy getting used to it the little bit I've been able to play with it tonight. So....do any of you have a Blackberry that can tell me if it's worth it or not? Anyone have the Storm? And do you like it? I have 30 days to try it out and want to make sure I want to keep it before my time is up. Brian has the Curve one or whatever it's called. And it has actual buttons...not the touch screen thing that the Storm has. His seems a bit easier to use, but maybe not once I actually get used to mine. So anyway...any thoughts?! :) Thanks for sharing any advice you have! :) Hope you are all doing fabulous and getting ready to have a Merry Christmas!!!!

My Accessory Girl....

2008-12-12T17:05:00.001-08:00

Kylie LOVES her sunglasses, bracelets, necklaces, rings, whatever accessory she can find. When she finds a pair of her sunglasses, she will wear them around all day. It's too funny. So today she comes up to me with these sunglasses on and says, "Look mommy!" I then ask her if she is my accessory girl. She replies, "NO!!! I your buddy!" I guess I'll take that. : )

Jazz Fun Time...

2008-12-08T17:11:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again! Brian gets tickets to the Jazz game for he and his team so they can take clients. Last Wednesday we went to the game for our first game of the season. We like going "suite" style because you have your own private room with seats that give you a great view of the full court. You have your OWN bathroom, you don't have to fight the crowds, they feed you yummy food and dessert, etc, etc. Brian and I both comment that we just would not enjoy games anymore if we had to go sit in "regular" seats. :) Sorry, we've been spoiled. :) Anyway...we usually find a babysitter for Kylie, but we ended up taking her tonight. I was a bit worried about it because it's a "work event" but I guess sometimes it pays to be the boss. :) Brian was excited to take her. I thought she would love it, and she did. It was hilarious watching her. We got there and she walked right out to the seats and just watched intently at all that was going on on the court. (It was just set up and then warm up time at this point.) Then when the game started she was totally into it. She would not take her eyes off it and she would TOTALLY cheer whenever everyone else did. It was so cute! :)
The Delta center.....I mean Energy Solutions Arena (I'm still boycotting that name...I think it sounds dumb)....had all these trees lit up for Christmas. Kylie LOVES seeing Christmas lights so had to snap a pic of her standing amongst them. :) Isn't she precious!

This is the scene that captivated her attention from the beginning. Nothing too exciting going on, but she loved it. Little did she know how exciting it was going to get! :)

She made herself right at home. :) She would rotate between the seats intended for game watching and the seats intended for eating some snacks. :) Too cute she is! :)

The best Mommy/Kylie picture I got. :) Yeah....I really gotta work on getting Brian to take some pictures of us. :) Kylie, of course, loved eating some ice cream towards the end of the evening!

It was a great evening. We had a lot of fun and am so glad that I got family time the whole night!

My Silly Kylie....

2008-12-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

So a funny Kylie story from yesterday. I have not been good at recording these like I should. (What?! I'm a bad mom I guess!) So I'm going to blog this funny thing to make sure I do have it down. :)

I'm really working on getting Kylie to listen and obey when Mommy or Daddy tell her to do something. (She is pretty good about it, but she is a 2 year old too. :) ) Anyway: yesterday I told her to do something and she wasn't coming. So I tell her again, "Kylie....you need to obey Mommy when she tells you to do something." She then says, "Ok! Well, here goes nothing!"

I about lost it. I thought it was so funny. Kids are the best, aren't they?! :)

Gift of Music....

2008-12-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

So what is this you ask?!?!? Why....it's a new addition to our family!!!! Meet our new piano! :) We are SO EXCITED! Here's the story....Brian's mom is a piano genius. She can turn a old broken piano into a work of art! Now....I have no musical ability, but I really want my kids to! And Kylie LOVES LOVES LOVES music. Every time she sees a piano...she runs to it and wants to play on it. So....we have been bugging Brian's mom to get us one. :) (What?! We aren't needy! :) ) She had been talking about finding one and coming to fix it out here. But we knew she was having problems finding one. Well...on Monday she called to tell me to expect a delivery the next day. I was expecting the postman to bring whatever this delivery was. What a SURPRISE it was to me to see a guy standing on my porch with a piano in a truck behind him! I could NOT believe it! It was SUCH a SURPRISE!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM!!!!! She ended up finding on that BYU was getting rid of. It looks/works great still so she doesn't even have to do anything to it. (Well....except tune it when she comes out to visit. Although it's not like I could tell if it was out of tune or anything, so I think we're ok here! :) ) Kylie and I were so excited and had a lot of fun pretending we could play the piano all day. :) Now I have to try to have some musical ability so that I can play a song when she comes to visit in March! :) We are so excited though and love it so much! It's gotten lots of use already this week! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

We have it in our living room, which is just to the right when you come in the front door.

Look how cute this sweetie is playing the piano. :) This last pic....she's trying to do the "slide" (or whatever that's called) and it's so cute. She always wants to play it together, and it's so much fun. I am so excited she loves music!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-12-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We went to Colorado to visit my family. My youngest brother in leaving in February to serve a mission for our church. And so my Mom and Dad wanted to get us all together for a few days to have a big family hoop-la. So my Dad got us all hotel rooms close to their house so we could all get away and no one was distracted by normal life things. It was a BLAST! We had our own spaces to be in, but since we all had suites there was hang out space for everyone as well. We went out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel. Brian and I did this last year, since we had just moved, and it was a FABULOUS thing! Other than waiting for an hour for a table....we were just able to sit back and relax the whole day. Didn't have to cook, clean, etc. It was great! We hung out, shopped, went swimming, tried to have game nights, and just had a great time together. We even ended up spending an extra night there because we had so much fun. It was a great weekend! Thanks Mom and Dad for the FUN! It was great to all be together for a few days as a family.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!

Brandon and Leah also had their friend come up on Thanksgiving morning to take a big family picture. I need to get those from them and will post them when I have them. But that was fun to have a big family picture taken. So thanks for organizing that Bran and Leah!!! The pics below are just a few pics I snapped myself. The professional ones will come soon. :)

I saw the girls sitting on the steps while other pictures were being taken. I ran over there to snap some pictures.

Then we brought all the cousins together on the steps. Aren't they darling?!!!!

I got a picture of Handsome Crae. How cute is this?!?!?

Kylie with her Grandma and Grandpa Brown. Ahhhhh.....more preciousness. :)

Back to our room where sweet Lexy read to Kylie. The kids LOVED hanging with Kylie. It was so cute.

Crae with two of his girls. This was a momentary pause between running up and down the hallways. They would all pause on their imaginary start line and would say, "Ready, Set, GO!" Then they would all run down the hall. It was really sweet watching Kylie play with her cousins and having fun.

PJ hang out time. Kylie did NOT want to get dressed each day...she just wanted to hang in her PJ's. I guess you can't blame her. :)

The final night we tried ONE MORE TIME (we attempted each night, it just didn't seem to work out) to have a game night. We got some games of Candy Land in....
Yes...yes....the adults all joined in on the Candy Land fun along with the kids. But no adult games. :)

It was fun being able to lounge around with each other as well. Leah hanging and Grandpa/Dad Brown with Kaylee and Cameron hanging on the couch.

Giving the Gift of Life

2008-11-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

This is one amazing story. In honor of Thanksgiving week, this was just on the 10:00 news. If you need an inspiring and touching story, grab some tissues and watch this video clip. Jeremy and Amanda are good friends of mine and we all happened to be working together when this happened. They are such amazing people and by watching them go through this trial in their life, I was strengthened. They are amazing people and I know I am a better person for knowing them. My heart goes out to them and it always will! (I love you guys!)

This story makes me cry bucket fulls already...and then I cry even more because I know how an organ donation can change your life. I have been on the receiving end (when my Dad received his liver transplant) of an organ donation and it's amazing the sacrifice that it obviously is. I will be eternally grateful for the liver my Dad received.

Anyway: watch this video clip and get ready to cry. It's so touching and well worth your time.

I was 14 again...for at least a night!

2008-11-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

Yes...it's true! Thursday at midnight....I went with my cousin, Em, to see "Twilight" and I was so excited! Am I 14, you might ask?! Why no. I'm not. Did I have a toddler to get up with and entertain the next day?! Why, yes. I did. Did I get to take a nap before like old people are suppose to do?! Why, no! Did I get home at 3:30 in the morning?! Why, yes! Was it worth it....YES! It really was. I had a blast with my cuz, and we laughed our heads off. We even we able to take this "Twilight-y" pic of us. I think it was appropriate and was NOT a mistake of camera being on the wrong settings! I knew what I was doing and this is just what I wanted! :) It was a good movie. Always hard for me to enjoy a film after reading the book. You just can't put the same intensity into film as you can reading it. But it was good, and I'm excited to see the other movies that are sure to follow.

Thanks, Em, for working this all out for us! I had a blast! And "pop" will always make me laugh! :) LOVE YOU!

Dining at La Caille

2008-11-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

There is this restaurant in Salt Lake (well, Sandy) that I've always wanted to go to. We finally went last Wednesday night. It's this French restaurant called La Caille. My dear friend, Tara, baby-sat Kylie so that we could go celebrate Brian. He was getting inaugurated onto the Board of Directors for the Utah Apartment Association, and they had a special dinner for him and the others. It was a fun night and the place is BEAUTIFUL! The grounds are AMAZING and we ate in this BEAUTIFUL room that had all sorts of live vegetation growing up onto the ceiling, walls, etc. Maybe it doesn't sound so beautiful, but trust me...it was! :) I meant to get pictures, but the dinner/speeches went longer than we thought so we kinda hurried out. So I found the one online, and then we did take one self portrait while we were sitting there. Sorry it's really not a good pic! But my husband looks handsome, so I'll sacrifice. :) The food was really amazing, in case you were wondering. :) Congrats, Brian! :)

The joys of life....

2008-11-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say that I love my husband!! I had a bad couple of days on Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday I was going to get the mail, and I just said, "OH!" As I walked out on my porch, someone else was walking up with a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers. She says, "Are you Ashley?!" Well....for those....you bet! :) My hubby sent me these gorgeous flowers to cheer me up. I am just so thankful for a caring and loving husband that always takes such good care of me. That is truly my greatest joy in life! I LOVE YOU BRIAN! Thank you for all you are and do!

Here are the gorgeous flowers....

Trip to Great Grandma's...A Play...and Blessing Day...Day Six

2008-11-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

Thursday was our last day there....we headed out EARLY Friday morning. We were sad that it was almost over, but we did have a fun and busy day. We did A LOT of driving today! We started out heading out to Brian's Grandma's house for lunch. Brian's mom lent us her van so Brian, Brad, Dana, Kylie, Alan, and I could all go together. So THANK YOU! :) It was about an hour and 1/2 there. It was great to see and spend time with fabulous Karen and Grandma! They had an amazing feast there for us. We chowed down and stuffed our faces. Then we found out that was JUST appetizers! So then they brought out our "lunch" food. It was all so yummy!

Then from there, all of us headed out (including Grandma and Karen) to go to Brian's sisters town (about 2ish hours away) to see Kenny and Diggy in a play. It was SO CUTE! They did SUCH a great job and we were SO GLAD to get to be there for it! Kylie LOVED it. She just could not take her eyes off the stage and just clapped for them the whole time.

Then we headed back to the Smith house. Amy had AMAZING food for us there as well. DARLING Cienna was blessed at their house as well. It was an amazing night. We were so happy we got to be there for both blessings, and feel the spirit so strongly in both homes. It was SO GREAT to have Kylie spend time with the cousins and get to know them. It was so great to get to hang with all the family and be together. It was SUCH an amazing trip and I hope to come back again soon! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Kylie had so much fun playing with all her cousins. This was the first time meeting Allison, at the bottom right hand corner, and we were SO HAPPY to finally get some time with her!

How cute are they! Kylie's cousins are SO CUTE with her. Kirsten took quite a love over Kylie. She would just pick her up and carry her around (there isn't much difference in height there), and just always wanted her to play with her. It was PRECIOUS!

Kylie hanging with Cienna....the girl we were all gathered at their house for! :) She is so precious!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture. How precious is this?! Kylie with her Great Grandma. I think it's too cute. :)

Kylie with Grandpa and Grandma Van Camp. She keeps asking to see pictures of them too. She misses you guys!

The darling Smith family! How cute are all these kids (and their parents?!)?! :) We LOVE you guys!

We took a big group picture this night and I can't believe I don't have any pics of the boys dressed up for their play! I will get some from Amy and post those later!

Hope you enjoyed this trip! We had a great one! :) Oh....I'm not posting about Day Seven because that day stunk! We were up at 4am, Brian's mom took us to the airport at 4:30am and then we got home just in time for an afternoon nap. I was catching up on that day for a few days! :) But THANK YOU EVERYONE for an AMAZING trip and all you did for us! We are SO APPRECIATIVE and had SUCH a good time! Come visit us and we'll be out there soon!!!!

Hanging out...Dinner with friends...Treat at Grandparents...Day Five

2008-11-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

After we were up so late watching election stuff on Tuesday night, we all got up and at 'em a bit late in the morning. We hung out for a little bit and then did a little shopping that morning. We rushed home, put Kylie down for a quick nap, and then Brian, Kylie, and I head out again. We went to dinner with Brian's friends from high school, Michelle and Ted. Michelle's husband, Kenny, their CUTE baby Charlie, and Michelle and Ted's parents joined us. I forgot my camera!!! So I don't have any pictures of that! So sad! Then we went to Brian's parents house so that Kylie could play with the dogs and Brian and I brought a yummy pie for dessert. It was SO SWEET because Kylie sat on Grandma's lap and they played the organ together. (Brian's mom is an AMAZING piano/organ player!) I can't BELIEVE I didn't have a camera for this so I'm SO SORRY! It was so cute! But we had a great day!

Baby Alan....how cute is this face?! :)

Kylie and Alan finally being buddies! :)

Election Day...Treat Tour Day...Park Day...Day Four.

2008-11-17T10:47:00.000-08:00

Busy day today! Very close to Brian's parents house they have a Jelly Belly factory. You ride on this little train thing and get free Jelly Belly's at the end, so I thought that would be a fun thing to do with Kylie. So we got Grandma involved, along with Brad, Dana, and Alan, and we all headed out.

They had this car out front, and Kylie actually stood there to pose in front of it. :)

This is the train you take the tour on. It had a ton of cars attached to it.

Ok....this picture is made COMPLETELY of Jelly Belly's!!! They had a TON of these pictures of all sorts of different pictures that I thought this was amazing. I thought this one was especially appropriate for election day. :)

The clan (minus the photographer) on the train getting ready to leave.

Ahhhhh....precious little family! :) Love these guys!

And what else can I say?!? LOVE LOVE LOVE this little girl! :) She LOVED the train and kept asking for a "treat" that she knew we got at the end. :)

Kylie mostly sat with Dad on the train, but she did come back with Grandma and I for a minute. A beautiful self-portrait. :)

And the treat they gave you at the end. Ahhhhh...feel so appreciated. :)

Kylie hanging out, eating her treat with Daddy and Uncle Brad (that she called Daddy a time or two....they look quite a lot alike. :) )

Talk about "kid in a candy store." Can you find the child?! There was SO MUCH candy here! They even had a "sampling station" where you could try all sorts of things for free. Brian and Brad made each other eat one of the ones from the "gag" section. I think one had to eat an ear wax Jelly Belly and one vomit or something. I think I have those wrong, but you get the idea. :) GROSS! :)

After the Jelly Belly factory, we went and played at a park right by there. It was a lot of fun and was SO GREAT having SUCH AMAZING weather!!!!! It seriously was SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I think Dana got better pictures at the park, so I'll get them from her and then share. :) But HOW PRECIOUS is this picture?!?!? :)

And this one?! Cutie Grandma and Kylie. Kylie kept asking to play with Grandma and Grandpa. It was so cute.

Then when we got back, Brian and I kept Alan so Brad and Dana could go put their vote in. How's this for a poster child for his campaign. We should have started before the election! :)

HE IS SO CUTE!!! :)

And this is probably my fave pic from the whole trip. HOW PRECIOUS IS THIS!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture! :) You guys are DARLING! :)

This was a busy and very fun day! We watched the election reports all night long and Brad and Brian went and picked up a sushi dinner for us all after the kids were in bed. Ok....I guess just after Kylie was in bed. :) It was a super fun day. I'll always remember where I was on this day of history.

Meeting Derek....and YUMMY food...Day Three.

2008-11-17T10:39:00.001-08:00

So we got to meet our nephew, Derek, on Monday. Ella, Brian's mom, watches him while Derek's mom and Mike (Brian's brother, Derek's dad) works. So she brought him to meet us. HOW CUT IS HE?!?!??!? His smile is so big and infectious. And his big blue eyes....so captivating. He's a year old, and just so stinking cute. We are so glad we got to meet him...it's been too long! We love you Derek! :) It was fun getting to hang out with him and play with him for a little bit.

Then that night we went with Brad, Dana, and Alan to my fave restaurant....Cheesecake Factory. I LOVE LOVE this place! I wasn't sure what to get because their menu is SO BIG. So I followed Dana's advice, and we got the same thing. It was SO YUMMY and still so yummy when we both ate our leftovers for breakfast the next morning! :)

Then after dinner, we walked around the outdoor mall that the Cheesecake Factory was in. It was such a great mall (in Milwaukee, WI) and we had a great time!

Alan's Blessing Day....Day Two.

2008-11-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, Brad and Dana were having Alan's baby blessing. We were so excited to be there for it! Most of the family came, and Brad and Dana did an amazing job planning everything! They had a delicious dinner and treats for everyone, and provide a wonderful place for the family to all hang out and talk. We even all got to meet some of their friends from their ward out there. It was a GREAT day/evening and I'm so thankful we were there! Of course we had to get some family pictures....

The whole Van Camp gang! Sorry all the adults aren't looking and stuff, but had to choose the pic where most of the kids are looking. :)

The proud parents...Brad and Dana with DARLING BOY, Alan! He is SO SWEET!

The Smith family...aren't they all darling!!!

Kylie was down on her knees checking out this bush...and I paused to take a picture. All the kids rushed over to get in the pic with her. It was TOO CUTE!!!

All the cousin's on the Van Camp side. Starting from the left: Cienna, Diggy (Douglas really...but we call him Diggy), Allison, Kylie, Kirsten, Kenny, and Alan.

The siblings, Amy and Brad, and their new babies. They are only about a month apart. It's Brad's first baby and Amy's fifth.

It was so much fun watching Kylie with the cousins.

Here she is with Kenny and Diggy. Being the oldest cousins on the Van Camp side, they took great care of Kylie.

It was such a beautiful day with such a strong spirit. I have thought of this day many times since, and it always brings a smile to my face!!!! Thanks for allowing us to be a part of this incredible day!

It's Chicago Time!!! First Day!

2008-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, November 1st we headed off to Wisconsin/Chicago area to visit Brian's family. We were really excited because it's been awhile since we had been there, about 18 months. And since that time, ALL of Brian's brothers/sister now lives there! They all live within about 1 1/2 hours from each other. So Brian's 2 brothers and sister, Brian's parents, and Brian's Aunt and Grandma all live by each other. We're always missing out on family stuff, so we're so excited to go see everyone. We even had FOUR nieces and nephews to meet! Two nieces from Amy (Brian's only sister) and then a nephew from Brad and Dana (Brian's brother), and then a nephew from Mike (Brian's brother). We were so excited to meet them! And they are ALL so cute! :) (Pictures will be coming of these babies! :) )

We started out our trip at the airport...of course. :) We had prepped Kylie for it and she was so excited to be going on an airplane. She was really good all throughout the trip, but we have to admit it was a bit exhausting keeping a 2 year old entertained on the airplane. She was kinda all over the place. It was great having her own seat though, so we had all 3 seats in the row and she could move freely. Brian only got 2 hours of sleep the night before, and I only got 3, so we were tired anyway. :) It all worked out and she was darling.

Sweetie Kylie looking out the window at the airport watching the planes.

When we got there, Brad (Brian's brother) picked us up from the airport and we got to go back to their house and meet Alan (The FIRST of the four nieces/nephews we get to meet!) and see Dana.

How LUCKY are we to get to stay with this sweet baby! He is TOO CUTE! Look how PRECIOUS he is here sleeping on one of the many car rides we took throughout this trip.

We were staying at Brad/Dana/Alan's house for this trip. They had a great set up for us and were FABULOUS hosts! We had our own room, own bathroom, they had the CUTEST Princess bed set up for Kylie, all sorts of toys and a bike for Kylie, and made us feel so welcome! THANKS GUYS!!!! We just hung out at their house the rest of the day, and Brian's parents came over to have dinner with us. Brad and Dana made a DELICIOUS dinner and we had some fun together. Kylie was so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Van Camp again! She LOVED playing with Grandpa. And the next morning she wakes up and says, "Go see Grandpa! And Grandma too!" It was precious. (Sorry for the lack of photos of this day/evening!)

***Note: if all these pictures/comments get boring for you, I won't be offended if you don't read them all. I want to have a journal of this trip, and I'm using my blog to do so. :) So maybe you'll get bored. :) Sorry! :)

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-10-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

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! :)

Backyard Fun...

2008-09-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

These pictures are a few weeks old, but I just realized I hadn't posted them yet. Better late than never. :) My best friend just moved from a few miles away back to Salt Lake City. (SUPER BIG TEAR!!!!! Even though it's not that far away, I'm SO SAD she won't be so close anymore.) Anyway: our daughters are best friends too and play so well together! We almost don't have to entertain at ALL which is FABULOUS! :) They came over for dinner right before I went on my trip, as a last little hurrah. We played out in the back for a few minutes until we started getting swarmed by the wicked mosquitoes that are here in West Kaysville! Anyway: here are some pics of the sweet girls...

They LOVE to play by the garden. They just walk around and around it and then when we let them, they love to pick stuff. It's precious.

My beautiful daughter! :) She's SO CUTE! :)

Brian and Kylie just planted this tree in our backyard (and they planted even more while I was out of town) and Kylie loves to go over by it and look at it. It will be crazy to watch them both grow over the years! (Speaking of which...parents out there...how do you keep from getting so sad at how fast these kids grow? Last night before bed we were saying our family prayer, and I just started crying over how big Kylie is getting! She's not a baby AT ALL anymore...she's turning into a big girl! It's a bit sad, I must say! Not that it isn't a blast watching her grow, but I don't want her to grow up!!! So sad!)

The best little friends "hugging it out." They love to hug each other and it's so cute.

After we played outside, we came in to have a treat. Here are a few pics of the girls eating them...PRICELESS!!! (You might notice a few differences in how they eat their cookies! :) )

A trip to myself (with 120 others!)

2008-09-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bad poster, huh?! I'll try to be better! I'm SORRY! This will be a fairly quick post...I just wanted to document a trip I just went on. For the first time in what feels like FOREVER, I went on a trip ALL BY MYSELF! (Ok..not all by myself exactly...but all by myself meaning no family was with me.) It was an all expense trip paid by Stampin' Up! Why?! You might ask?! I won an award through them (along with about 120 others) that earned me the trip. They flew us all to St. George and we had FIVE DAYS to do very little. :) They had a few events planned for us, but most of it was free time/relax time. I had an AMAZING TIME! They spoiled us rotten and it was wonderful. :) I met new friends, got closer with other friends, hung out with SHELLI (the co-founder and President of Stampin' Up! and someone I admire GREATLY!), and just had a BLAST! I shared more of this on my stamping blog, but I wanted to document it here as well. I missed my family SO MUCH and couldn't wait to come home and give kisses and hugs to both Brian and Kylie. I think they both missed me a bit too. :) But they had some fun Daddy daughter time and Brian is SO AMAZING! I came home and he had the house spotless, some landscaping done, the garage all organized, other places in the house organized, and he had a gift on my pillow since I'd gotten so used to that while I was away! :) (Yes...every night when we got back to our hotel room there were gifts on our bed! SO FUN! :) ) Anyway: it was a great time, but it is good to be back. Here are a few photos...

This was on my door as I checked in to my room. What a fun welcome! :) We had the whole hotel, so Stampin' Up! kinda took over. They set up an an area called The Gathering Place and they had all sorts of comfy couches, chairs, LoveSac type things, and THIS! There were a few of these around the room, and you could just come, fill up one of the silver buckets with whatever candy you wanted. They kept this thing stocked the whole time. :) It was such a fun touch!

These were how the tables were set up for our first night welcome dinner. So pretty! I LOVE the pink/black/and white theme throughout the week!

Brandi (on the far left) is my upline and who I hung out with most of the week. It was GREAT to get to know her more and have fun with her! Wendy, in the middle, was with us a lot as well. She is darling too and so much fun to get to know! ("As we discussed"...thanks girls for a great time! :) )

This was one of our gifts that was left in our room. Probably my favorite! :) It had a new stamp set, some ink pads, and some ribbon! SO MUCH FUN! :)

Shelli is the one on the far left. I really do admire her for all that she has accomplished as a female in a "males business world." This is the 20th year Stampin' Up! has been around and it has grown SO MUCH! It's amazing, really...but I'll spare you the details! :) I'm SO impressed with so many things about her and I feel so lucky to get to hang with her a bit this past weekend!

In the Gathering Place they also had these comfy blankets to cuddle up in. We all wanted to take them off to our rooms when no one was looking. Well, Stampin' Up is SO NICE they gave us ALL one the last night we were there! They are FABULOUS! :)

Stampin' Up!'s manufacturing plant where they make all their rubber stamps is actually in Kanab. One of the days we took a trip out there. Shelli and Sterling (her husband) made this park for the city of Kanab. It's only fitting that the stuff under the playground equipment is leftover rubber from the rubber stamps! :) It's all shredded up, but you can totally find pieces of stamp sets if you look! It was SO FUN to play with and more bouncy than you might think. (I know..it's rubber. I still didn't think it would be as bouncy as it was!)

Our last night there they took us all out on buses for a destination unknown! :) Well, it ended up being at a Country Club up Snow Canyon. Actually...this is where High School Musical 2 was filmed. Anyway: they had a whole area set up for us with a big movie screen just for us, yummy food, a whole treat stand for us, and our blankets on each of our chairs. It was GREAT! It was perfect weather, and we just sat there under the stars and watched the movie, "No Reservations." It was such a perfect night and the perfect end to a fabulous trip. THANKS! It was truly wonderful! (Ok...this turned out to be not such a short post! Sorry!)

My cutie pa-tootie daughter!

2008-09-05T10:09:00.001-07:00

I love just watching Kylie play and interact. My mom and dad just took Cameron, my youngest brother, to college in Rexburg, Idaho. SO....they are NOW empty nesters. They are both a bit nervous about this. I think it will be great though. :) I'm just freaked out that Cams is AT COLLEGE! Where does the time go? Anyway: my parents drove through Utah while taking Cams to school so they have been at our house a few nights. It has been so much fun seeing how much fun Kylie has playing with them. She LOVES Grandma and Grandpa Brown. She's always asking for them, calling for them throughout the house, and just is always making her attempts at getting them to play whatever game she wants to play at the moment. Anyway: Kylie was finally content playing by herself for a small portion of the morning, so I got some pics of her. I really need to take more pics....I'll get some of her with Grandma and Grandpa later today.

Here's my grown up little girl. She talks SO MUCH! She puts full sentences together...and has for awhile. She is always amazing me at how fast her little mind works. It's funny because she calls me "Mommy Ashley" sometimes too. She'll use my name especially if she is trying to get my attention. She say, "Mommy! Mommy!" Then she'll pause and say, "Ashley!" It's so funny. Last night she just puts her hand on my cheek, looks at me, and says, "Mommy Ashley." I love her little voice.

Another reason I love summer...

2008-08-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

(yes...yes...this is our ACTUAL tomato! Isn't she pretty! :) )

WE GOT OUR FIRST RED TOMATO OF THE YEAR!!!! Now this might not be exciting for some of you, but it is for us! :) We tried a garden last year and just didn't put the work into it that we needed to. So we didn't get much. But this year, we had our garden boxes built, put in top soil, got things actually planted, we visit it every day (or most days), we weed, etc, etc. So.....we want some good stuff from it, right?! Well....we've had squash, zucchini, some peppers, peas, and string beans. And we have watched the tomato's growing. They just have stayed green. Well....on Saturday Brian went to the garden and found OUR FIRST RED TOMATO!!!! (I will say...I love everything we grow in our garden but tomato's are my FAVORITE thing to grow yourself and eat fresh. I think this is one that taste's TOTALLY different than what you can buy at stores.) We were so excited so of course had to document the experience.

So here we are both taking our first bite. I love them plain, but for this first bite we had some cracker and cheese with it. Yum-Yum!

Yummmmy....it was delicious. This is all that was left after we finished. Brian even had fun with the top of the tomato. We got as much out of it as we could. We have a lot more green ones on the vine that should be ripe soon. Come visit us and we'll give you some! :)

A side note: while we were trying our tomato, Kylie had to have a popsa-popsa-Popsicle.

So more documentation. HOW CUTE is she with a messy face?! :)

I love this girl! :)