Saturday, November 29, 2008

Why we love Daddies: Our Friday Night Camp-In

Doesn't it seem like Daddies always do things that are more fun? I try to do fun things, but they just don't seem to compare. My fun things are outings, going to the park, or making play dough. Daddy fun things are always a little more extravagant. For example, last night Patrick decided we should set up the tent in our living room. Just for fun. When he suggests things like this, I tend to think mostly about the work it entails, while he thinks solely about the fun. So we attempted to set it up in our living room. It was a bust. Our tent is actually bigger than our living room. But that didn't stop Patrick. He then decided we ought to try to set it up in Kaiya's room. We had to move furniture around and it still barely fit, but we got it set up. Next we put Kaiya's playpen and an air mattress inside and we were all set. Kaiya played in it for a little while before it was time for dinner, bath, and bedtime. I thought she might be nervous about sleeping in a strange place, but she seemed to like it. She kept pointing at the walls inside and saying "tent" every two minutes. Very cute. She fell asleep and we went in when we were ready for bed, and we all slept in a tent. In Kaiya's room. And cleaning it all up this morning was a lot of work. But it was a lot of fun and we made a memory. That's why we love Daddies.



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Thanksgiving Fun




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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Friday, November 21, 2008

You Guessed it!

Amazingly enough, everyone guessed correctly! We are pregnant again! Thanks for all of the congratulations and well wishes. So far this pregnancy has been SO different from my last. I have hardly been sick at all, just tired, I haven't fainted, I can eat pretty much whatever (except for a baked potato, yuck), and my baby belly has already appeared. The tentative due date is May 15th, and we are about 15 weeks along. So far, so good! We also want everyone to play our baby game, and guess the gender, due date, etc. It's really fun, so please guess if you haven't already! Just click on the yellow expectnet link on the right. We will continue to update you on any new developments, and in the meantime we'll be searching for the perfect name, waiting to find out baby's gender, and prepping Kaiya on becoming a big sister!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

She's Not Always Serious...

The other day Kaiya started making these crazy faces. We thought it was pretty funny, so we wanted to share them on the blog. Don't mind my incessant laughter; she wouldn't keep doing it if I stopped laughing at her. Turn the sound off if you must.

And just something Daddy has been teaching her...

Friday, November 14, 2008

We'll give you 3 guesses...

1.)

2.)

3.) The newest edition to our sidebar (Click on the Expectnet link). Happy guessing!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Good Times in Hagerman






With so little to do for fun in Hagerman we've been pressed into finding new things to do for fun. One activity is fishing. Did you know over 90% of the trout served in American restaraunts comes from the Hagerman Valley? Neither did we, probably because we rarely eat fish and when we do it's usually in sushi form. At any rate, because of all the hatcheries here, there is great fishing. I hadn't fished much in years but starting in fall I started going out about once a week with my buddy Dylan. Luckily he knows more than me about it so he can help out, but he's not obsessive about it so it's still fun. We certainly haven' t caught anything that will win any records, but it's still a fun weekly activity.



A Masterpiece

We bought Kaiya some of those bathtub crayons and she's in love. They're actually really cool. They write really easily so she doesn't have to press hard (which can be a problem with regular crayons), she can write under water, and they wash off so easily. They are a great toy in the bathtub. One problem: she recently began sampling them as food. I thought taking them away once or twice when she did that would cure her, but to no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting kids to NOT want to eat crayons?


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Halloween Cupcake

I made pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes for Halloween, and we decided to let Kaiya have one for her Halloween treat. She went to town on it! Doesn't she just look satisfied in that last picture?




The Costume

By request:) here are some of the shots my mother in law took of Kaiya in her costume. You can see it a little better in these photos than in the ones I took. The first one is what I started with. I sewed it all by hand because sewing machines and I do not get along. Usually, I'll attempt to sew about once a year, and then remember why I don't like it, but this turned out to be a really fun project, and something I might even attempt again!









Saturday, November 01, 2008

Halloween!

Our Halloween was great this year. It was a lot of preparation and work, but it was really fun so I guess it's all worth it. On Thursday, we had our ward party, but before getting ready and going to that we carved our pumpkins from the pumpkin stand.


This picture is kind of scary, with me wielding a knife so close to Kaiya, but rest assured no harm was done.



Here's the end result with our little family of pumpkins. Patrick did his and Kaiya's.



Kaiya, checking out the pumpkins



This isn't a great picture, but I wanted to get the back of her costume so you could see the wings.

The costumed family on our way to the ward party. In case you couldn't tell, I am a bumblebee, Kaiya is a ladybug, and Patrick is a tattooed biker guy.

Here's Patrick and Kaiya at the ward party with their prizes for WINNING the nursery age and the adult costume contests. I was so excited about it. I made Kaiya's costume, so I was especially proud of the win. We almost lost to a cute kid in a poodle costume, but luckily, the ladybug won out. Some people in the ward had thought that Patrick wasn't wearing a costume, but was just some guy off the street in for the free food. I think many were relieved when he went up to be judged for the contest. I told Patrick that I was so excited that we were a family of winners and he said, "yeah, well, except you". If you know Patrick you know that's funny, not mean, but I thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

I wish I had taken better pictures of Kaiya in her costume. It turned out so cute and I was so pleased with it. I am not very proficient in sewing, so it was definitely a project for me, but I really enjoyed doing it!

On Halloween day we had our friends Dylan and Cassey over for a mini Halloween party. That meant another day of baking and cooking and cleaning for me, but luckily Ginger, who was out for our ward Halloween party, stayed the night and played with Kaiya while I got things done in the morning. We had a good time with them too. We had a Halloween dinner, plenty of treats, and watched Hocus Pocus after Kaiya went to bed. Of course by the time they got to our house, I was exhausted from days of sewing, baking, cooking, decorating, and cleaning, so I didn't take one picture! I'm mad at myself now, but I guess it will have to live in our memories (and on our blog). Halloween was really fun this year. Now we just have to put all our decorations away and get ready for Thanksgiving!




Pumpkin Stand

On Tuesday we had plans to go to a pumpkin patch with our playgroup. When we got there, I quickly observed that it was nothing more than a fruit stand with some pumpkins and gourds. Apparently, the other moms thought it was just as good. Oh well, we had fun once I got past the disappointment of not getting pictures of Kai in a real pumpkin patch this year. She ran around getting into mischief while I tried to force her to pose so I could get some good pictures for my scrapbook (and the blog, of course). Needless to say, I didn't get many good pictures and Kaiya caused some trouble. Here are some of the sort of okay pictures we got:
This is Kaiya when I tell her to smile for me. So cute!
This is Kaiya and her friend Amy trying to hug the fruit stand mascot.


Kaiya kept stealing apples from the buckets and here's a shot of her eating her loot. I think she took 4 or 5 and would carry them around, take a bite or two, then drop them. Luckily the lady who runs it was really nice and didn't even make us pay for them, although I offered.

Kaiya with her playmates Amy and Reid (still eating the apple)


She was so excited to see "pump-mm"s and kept running around pointing them out to me.


Kaiya picked out this pumpkin to be her very own. She carried it around for quite a while and was so excited to bring it home.



We enjoyed our day at the pumpkin stand, and I don't think Kaiya even noticed that it wasn't a patch.