jeff + amy + kaylie+ audrey

The 6th place our 3 year old will have called home

2012-02-09T03:47:00.001-08:00

I am pretty sure my husband is part gypsy.

I wanted to put a tour of our place in the book...here it is.

This is the one picture of our apartment we had seen before we met. Minus the suitcases and stroller of course. Needless to say we were a little worried...are those brick floors? But it was really the only thing in our price range....well scratch that; nothing is in our price range here, but atleast for sky high rent we got two bedroom. It was the only one, that and it was so close to Jeffs office. so we figured for a few months we could deal with anything.

We were plesantly surprised when we walked in. First off, the "brick" is actually smooth tile, and it is heated and so not awful like brick as we were anticipating. In fact I think the whole apartment is heated by these floor as we do not have a thermostat anywhere. Secondly this is the kitchen above. And while it is about the size of our closet at home, it is modern, white, clean and practically new. A germaphobe like me couldn't ask for more. well perhaps a spatula, bowls.

This is the bathroom. It is also germaphobe approved. Whenever anyone showers there is condensation on every apartment window and we open the windows for a little bit. The girls love that tha shower head is detachable. It is a little awkward in that if you open the front door you see right into the bathroom, and even if you have the bathroom door shut, it is the only door in the whole house that is see through. strange? I have considered hanging newspapers up for privacy, but it is not exactly like people drop by or anyone comes over. The toliet has two flushes, you can gues what number one and number two are for.

Our living room/playroom. Don't you love all the white furniture and glass. Perfect for any household with one or more toddlers I would say. This picture was obviously taken right after the housekeeper ( yes, that IS pretty awesome) had been over. As evidenced by the lack of toys, toys, melted cheese wax wrappers, dirty diapers, kaylie wardrobe change discards;sippy cups, did I already mention toys.

The housekeeper speaks italian. The first day she came, I was sure to be there. I wasn't sure if they had keys or not. She walked in and spoke to me in german, and quickly realzied that I did not understand...then she said what I can only assume was the same thing in french and italian . Then I said to her I only speak english...she chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. What kind of country is this? You speak 3 languages and you are cleaning my aprtment. I must be the most unemployable person in the whole country.

And the best part of the living room, besides the apple tv that streams me American cartoons for my children when they decide at 2 in the morning that they are still on Mountain Standard Time... is the windows with no screens that open easily and so wide an adult person could easily step out of them and fall two stories to the ground. Obviously not awesome. I walked in to discover Kaylie sitting on the back of the couch one day near a window she had opened herself.

Panic. Hug Kaylie dearly. Rearrange furniture.

Our room. It has lots of great light, and a little view. We probably would have been okay with just the one bedroom since Jeff actually never sleeps...ever, and even if he is chances that both girls are also sleeping is slim. The best part if I open my window I can hear my neighbor...a profesionaly trained opera singer at all times of the day. That is not sacrasm, I love it. Somedays I will be just at home, listening to the screaming and crying of girlies, making lunches, washing clothes, and forget where I am ...and then I will hear her belting out italian solos, and I go oh...thats right...I am in some awesome place. And I appreciatively listen to her . And sadly all she gets in return for her performance is screaming and crying through her side of the paper thins.

The girls room. They are sharing a room better then I expected. Especcialy Audrey who has been in a playpen and has been doing mostly just fine. We were really unsure if there was a second bedroom becuase it was only listed that there was a single bed and a double bed in the apartment not that it had two bedrooms, but hallelujah just for the extra closet. Kaylie walked in and the first thing she said after she smacked her head on the shelf by her bed," was why are there nothing on the walls" and then by the next day had three of four coloring pages taped up to fix her problem.

It is not briarwood lane by any means, but we are definately more comfortable then we expected here. It is amazing how little you actually need. Well perhaps I will spring for a spatula.

Bits of Normal

2012-02-07T04:42:00.000-08:00

It is a freaking ice box over here. Really it is. Is it making the news back home? I am curious. Googling places to visit while planning our weekend here we saw temperatures at like -11 degrees. We even got snow down by the lake Needless to say, we decided the best place to be was home. Snug in our apartment.

But we are not homebodies, and so after a half day at home snug we bundled ourselves up and went "exploring" as Kaylie calls it. That is what we say when mom and dad set out to find someplace fun for your girls and so, even though we are armed with our subway schedules and our iphone trasit apps, not being 100% sure we will be able to locate what we are after, we do not make promises of anything fun. Failure to navigate properly and spootty buisniess hours over here lend themselves easiliy to disspointment.

We were not dissapointed in the least.

To the delight of little girls....."starbies". A place like I have never seen before. Like the Chick fil a playland and jump on it had a baby and then it grew exponentially. This place was great. The girls were giddy. Kaylie ran from one thing to the next at super speed, giggling, and told us she wanted to come here every day. For as difficult as I would expect it to be to get there agian sans dad I am sure we will give it a try.

Audrey scram "jump-in, jump-in" like the entire time we were there. They had a ball. And it felt like the familiar type of fun they are used to.

Tiny throwing balls at Jeff....she has quite the arm for a baby girl.

And then by happy accident,and mostly my delight, we stumbled onto this....

Yes, mexican food. And it tasted much like Mexican food. And sitting inside a resturant that reminded us of "on the border", we felt at home. Jeff and I both agreed on that....also looking at all the pictures of cancun made us agree to go someplace warm when we get home. Forget Europe, next time I get on a plane it will be headed to Phoenix. It broke our per diem, but guacomole and homemade tortillas are totally worth it in my book.

And then last, but certainly not least for weekend adventures, Movenpick. Not an accident. We are well aware of the location of the ice cream shoppe....we are Carpenters after all. The girls absolutely hate it here can you tell?

So in the end, even though I had begged and pleaded with Jeff to let us go someplace , and he thought it was best between his load of work and the freezing temperatures to stay put, he was probabllly right. Especcially if we left it up to a poll....the girls would vote this was thier favorite weekend yet. That I in the end I am glad for the low key weekend and the chance to rest up. No not for anything big or exciting....think me, and the girlies, alone in a mostly strange place ( here) where we don't know anyone, and we have no car or telephone. Jeff is off to someplace else for work for a few days and I am to say the least; anxious about it.

Wish us all the luck you have.

Thanks

we came; we saw it all; we ate....Munich

2012-02-05T12:30:00.001-08:00

Why, hello there beautiful.

The Theatinerkirch. Coming out of the Underground this was our view. To say the least we were in awe. Especcially because this was not even what we were coming to see, but something we more just happened upon on our way.

This to. The Residence. Massive. Intricate.

What we came for, the New Town Hall and the Glockenspiel. Of course we timed our visit so we could be present when it went off.

Like a giant cuckoo clock with tons of moving parts and levels. It tells two stories, one of a joust and a royal wedding, and one of the ending of the black plague. The girls were wondering when the show was going to begin - like this is it?

Okay, what we really came for....

I am pretty sure Bavarian cream is at its best in Bavaria. That Audrey has no idea what to do with a donut.

Then this guy...The old Town hall. Not spectactular, but worth a mention since it survived that Black Plague those glockenspiel characters can't shake.

And this guy, Karlzplatz,the old city walls built in the 13th century.

And lastly the Frauenkirche, also built in the 1400's.

There were a few tourist so we went inside too, Sunday services were under way . Kaylie lit her first and most likely only prayer candle. And then a old man approached her as he left, speaking German she did not understand and handed her a Saint Maria charm , and then he handed one to Jeff for Audrey and then one to each of us. It was a very sweet gesture by this local who I am sure had only came to attend Mass. And then he was gone like a ghost before we could even tell him Dankashane.

Besides thier medival and religous history, most of these buildings have a place in the story of World War II and Hitler's uprising. We did not explore much of that part of Munich histroy, lack of time, and young eyes and ears. But is was easy to imagine the city back then just the same.

Mostly because on a Sunday the place was pretty deserted, so deserted that our voices echoed off the buildings and it seemed most locals we did encounter was most likely old enough they were present for it all. Sunday is a very quiet day pretty much everywhere, so it is usually slow, but it is also ridiculously freezing right now.

Audrey chose to keep moving to stay warm, while Kaylie refused to get out of her cocoon of a stroller we had made her.

Should I be wrapping things up here. We were so suprised at how close together everything was, and easily accessed too. We had seen everything we had wanted to see and still had the evening ahead of us. So now starts the impromptu part of our trip....we will call it Modern Munich.

But first, a nap.

Tiny finally let us bundle her up too.

And then the evening.

The BMW Welt/Museum, Kaylie thinks the 3 serires BMW is for her....she is 3 you know.

The Olympic Park

the Aquarium.

And Dinner

Brats, and more of those Nutella Crepes that keep finding thier way to me

These girls serioulsy know thier way around good food.

And Lastly ( I promise) some details that could not be left out...

and an angel ...or two.

Fit For the Princess

2012-01-31T05:06:00.000-08:00

To get excited, before our "move" to Switzerland we told Kaylie that Switzerland was fun becuase we would get to play in the snow a lot, and that we would see lots of castles. While we have seen a few, we had yet to go inside. Finally we set out to do so. It had been snowing all night so everything was covered in white. It really made it all the more magicial.

The drive there around the black forest was agian incredibly scenic. Yes I said drive...we rented a car, and Kaylie was perhaps the most excited of all of us. She kept asking if we were going to keep it, and whose car was it? Looking back we are pretty sure we had the setting on the tom tom wrong, because we never once got on a freeway in almost 100 miles. Becasue of that it was a little longer of a drive then we expected. I entertained the children by telling them stories of the real history of the black forest...and by that I mean the versions of Robin Hood and Snow White that I could best remember as told by Walt Disney. We read up as much as we can before we go on these little trips, but there is just so much history we are not familiar with.

This was a two for one trip. We saw this little guy too on the way there.

When we got to Neushwanstien's castle, we had to park our car at the bottom of a hill, and then take a horse carriage up to the top. It was at the moment that Kaylie decided that this was Phillipe-the horse from Beauty and the Beast- for all those not fluent in the langauge of little girls, and from then on she was convinced that this was Belles' castle.

Her excitment could not be contained! While seeing Europe without children would be a less difficult/different experiece, it would certainly be less joyful.

On the way up, Tiny was holding Jeffs hat in her hands ( mostly because all the horse trotting was making her look green, and I wanted something ready just in case, as vessel for catching vomit). We were lucky in that she held her stomach, but Jeff was unlucky. Tiny took that hat and casually tossed it out the carriage. Jeff jumped out after it and then had to walk up the steep icy hill. The other riders laughed at her as she cried over the dissaperance of her father. Good thing she is cute.

This one too. While last time we went to a touristy spot it was the little one that attratced the crowds, Kaylie posed like this for about two seconds and the paparazzi ...aka hoards of Japanesse tourist..came from out of nowwhere.

The exterior of the castle is spectacular. Another reference to Walt Disney, he apparently modeled his castle at Disneyland after this one. This one is not a real castle, in that it is only 200 years old, and not from the Renissance. It was built by the crazy king Ludwig. There is a lot of speculation and mystery concerning his insanity certification and his death, in that they were probably false, and political moves. I am a nerd and am totally fascinated by all of this stuff.

The inside was over the top and grand. We could not take pictures inside; this is from google. We had a hard time understanding what our guide was saying through his thick accent, but no problem at all. It just so happens that Kaylie is a world renound expert on all things Belle and she was able to tell us which room was belle's, where the candlestick sings his song, the west wing, and off course where the Beast locks up Belle's dad. This one was easy. It was the eight story tower that spiraled straight up that Kaylie refused to walk up, and Tiny slept through. Lucky me, I got to carry the lighter of the two.

Although for the walk down the hill, both girls wanted dad. Good thing, even with 50 punds of children in his arms, he is guaranteed to have more coordination coming down an icy sttep hil then mom...for sure.

And of course what good is a day trip without soveniours and snacks. We almost decided to see something else, because parts of this castle are under construction, and we are so glad it did not change our minds. It has been Kaylie's favorite thing to date, and it is at the top of my list too. Anything with happy little girls I am in favor of.

And then a boat why not?

2012-01-30T04:27:00.001-08:00

The Swiss have a reputation for transportation. And rightly so. Since we have been here we have been on just about every type of public transportation that could exsist, and get around without a car completely. While a car would come in handy some times.....picture me carrying our groceries, and two children home from the market to our apartment every other day. And I used to complain about what a hassle the Walmart is...ha! It is usually unessicary to have a car, because there are always train, trams, buses and today; a boat.

It is really not to cold to be sitting out, Audrey just refused to take her coat of. She is in love with it that silly girl. That and all the birds. I just happened to have part of a roll in my coat pocket, and jeff showed the girls how the seagulls would catch pieces of it mid air... to Tiny's delight.

It took us to Lucern, a quiet little mid evil town about an hour away from us. We were impressed the minute we stepped off the boat.

We had set out to see the Lion Monument. We were able to easily find it using our ever expanding German. The German vocab we have learned the fastest has been animal names soley from an app game the girls have on the ipad. Who says kids ipad time is un-valuable. So far it has assisted us in finding "the Lowe" and kept me from buying "Pferd" meat (horse meat) to cook for dinner. I say .99 cents at the app store well spent.

We were all really impressed by the monument. It is dedicated to the 800 Swiss martyrs that were killed, trying to protect Marie Anntoinette during the French Revolution. They were defending a palace they believed her to be in, and sadly she was not even present. But it is all about the loyalty of the men. It was a hallowed and reverent place.

Maybe I felt that way anyways becuase my children were actually quiet. Here is Audrey telling me to be quiet. The minute we walked through the gates she started roaring, and then after she had looked at him for a minute she started to shush us all. She thought the lion was sleeping. Kaylie asked why the lion was sad. Niether of them noticed he was actually dying from being stabbed in the back

The other thing we came to see was the chapel bridge. It is almost a thousand years old. It used to be a dungeon and a tourture chamber. Now it can be rented out for parties and weddings....irony?

I am not sure what Kaylie is so happy about in this picture. It could even be nothing. She is becoming quite the little poser lately.

The city itself was beautiful and worth the visit. There was an estate up on the hill, that Kaylie decided was Cinderellas castle. She said later it was her favorite part of the day. She was such a tropper walking around all day. We hopped on a bus to ride home and she made herself a bed out of my and her coat and was asleep before the bus even pulled out. A long day for everyone all around.

Preconcived notions

2012-01-27T05:04:00.001-08:00

Is this getting old....three blog post three consecutive days? Take me off your reader if you want; I won't be offended. While I am keeping this up and running recently as a way to stay connected to family and friends back home, my ultimate purpose is so I can morph it into a photo scrapbook and journal ( those blurb book really are quite wonderful) for the girls when we get back home.

So keep reading if you want, but you have been warned.

Before we actually looked at Switzerland recently as we researched it back home, I pictured our new adventure to look something like this....

I am wondering if you are getting the whole picture here...

So while were we are in Zurich and it is much MUCH more milder....it is warmer then salt lake for sure. We had yet to see any snow. And Kaylie, being the unforgetting type, reminded us everyday that we had told her we would build a snowman when we got to Switzerland. So of course, we do whatever we can to please the little girlies, and took them to the tallest peak within an hour or so from us to locate said snowman materials. It involved walking, a tram, a bus, an air gondola, and lastely a train. Quite the ride, which was obviously part of the fun. Of course once we got where we were going it was a blizzard. One a nice day there would have been excellent views and an great day of sledding. Instead there was brief rides on a dad powered sled, hiding out in the cafe, and playing in the snow that had been shoveled off the cafes porch.

We did get that snowman ( in miniature), and some of those views in the end; but the highlight of the mountain was tourist after tourist that stopped us to take a picture of the girls. Probably to document the terrible parents that take thier children up the summit in a blizzard.

Like tons of toursits, like stalking us down. I am going to say it was because they are the cutest girls in the universe. I know I am biased, but come on..

Audrey lasted about ten minutes at a time outside and then would cry "cold, cold"; a new word for her ;and she and I would go warm up in the cafe. Kaylie was a tropper the whole time, freezing, and trying her very best to have that good time she was after.

Misson accomplished I'd say.

Daily duo

2012-01-26T06:26:00.001-08:00

These are my girls. Boy they are getting so big and grown up. We spend a lot of time together every day... I mean every minute of every day, untill, at the end, they and I both fall exhausted in to our beds.

It is not all fun and games here in Zurich though, you know. For us it is, but not all for Jeff.

See, business as usual. Three a.m. aviators and some red bull... that's how he rolls. ( If he ever looks at this blog her might not like all this blog time attention). He is a very hard worker, and still somehow is a wonderful father to those beautiful girls I already mentioned. And while he works all day, we play. We are loving his new commute.

‎
He is the green arrow. We are about three streets up....muhlebachstrasse; if your eyes are that good. The google map directions say 1 minute....or if you prefer to walk (which we do), 7 minutes. A 7 minute commute, a huge change from the one hour plus trek from SR-92 to Kimball Junction everyday, right? We get to see him in the morning before he leaves. And he always comes home to have dinner too, even if he still has to go back to work, it is 7 minutes walk to come home and say goodnight to the girls. And that my friends is a huge improvement.

And so...why we do miss our friends and family back home, it sure is nice not to miss our husband/dad for once.

Here is Tiny looking for her dad. On nice days, we take some bread down to the lake, you can see it is right across from the office, and feed the swans while we wait for Jeff to come over and say hello.

Yes; I know; Kaylie IS remarkable close to the edge of falling into the lake.

The girls love feeding the birds, seeing thier dad, and if they are lucky he will take them to the train station and buy them lunch.

And besides getting to see dad midday, we are rewarded with this eye candy on our walk home.

The opernhaus zurich. Some daddy daughter time for the girls and some archetectural ooogling for mom.

The view of the lake aint bad either.

For both of you reading this blog.

2012-01-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, I mean you ...our mothers.

For any of you else who stumbled upon this or, or saw it update on your blog reel, don't get excited...not that you would. I can gurantee that this new blogging thing will only last the few months we are
1. doing something exciting for once, and
2. my household takes approximately 30 minutes to clean, it being 600 sq ft aka I have some spare nap time available.

Here we are on our first excursion to the Zurich zoo. It involved me getting on a tram, transfering trams and a bit of walking, but we found our way there with little difficulty and were quite proud of ourselves, it being our first attempt to use public transportation just us three girls.

Here they girls are on a tram...at this point the ride there is still fun for them. I fear

that when we do go home to the states our children will ABSOLUTELY NOT sit in a car seat anymore. That is with out a full on tantrum.

We got ourselves a little pushcart to stroll the zoo with. The girls were delighted. It felt like to them they were in a Disneyland ride....powered by mom. It also put them up taller then they would be so they loved that. We were really worried that things were going to be so expensive here in Zurich...it being the fifth most expensive city in the world and all. And it is, for sure ( $8 for a pack of tortillas) but they sure do give you a break for kids. The zoo admittance for the kids was free ; as were there tickets on our transportation getting here. This cart was even free to use. Most places we have seen do not charge for children untill they are six. Why aren't there more mormons here...all those kids free of charge?

It was a great little zoo with a tons of big ticket animals, whom all seemed really close . There were even two areas that were completely inside and heated to rainforest like temperatures. A plus on a cold Swiss day. See what I mean by real close. If it is below a certain temperature at 1 in the afternoon, they let the penguins loose to wander free through the zoo. They march together like they are in a parade.

While kaylie was delighted by the fact that she was within handshaking distance of a penguin ( if penguins were formal like that ) Audrey was less so. She refused to enjoy the penguins anywhere but the saftey of her vehicle.

Kaylie told me after only a short time in the park that if I bought her a treat she would let me stay. Quite the degotiater I'd say. I readily agreed thinking a hot griddled crepe filled with nutella would hit the spot....that nutella is going to ruin me here. She insisted on only popcorn. Why is it that my girls favorite part of outings is the treats?They must be my daughters.

My favorite part of our outing...little sister falling asleep on big sister without so much as a whimper from either party.
That and not getting lost on the way home. I know that Kaylie can sense my anxiety about getting around here. I wasn't sure exactly how much untill today when I stuck my head inside of one of the trams for a minute to take a look at the schedule, Kaylie full out screaming hysterical and pulling on my shirttails telling me it was not the number 5, afraid I was getting on.

I am feeling like I am sort of getting the hang of things here. Not really though. I tried to purchase us a bottle of water in between trams transfer and wound up with a bottle of carbonated. That and I still cannot for the life of me figure out how the washer works. Seriously.

We will tackle one thing at a time. Trams today, european appliances some other day perhaps.

photo wow

2010-10-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

The family picture hanging in our family room was short the latest member so I enlisted my sister, conviently a very talented photographer to help us update it. Here is what she had to work with...

- one napless toddler and a very serious infant who were
both freezing. They lasted approx. twenty minutes before actual screaming broke out.

Yeah she really worked magic and I am pretty thrilled about how they turned out.....obviously. So excited am I, I am blogging for the first time in months.

See what I mean about magic?

P.s You can get her magic for your family too....

crystalfreemanphotography.com

Our tiny Tiny

2010-08-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

I have been so awful at keeping up with the blog lately.... we have been trying to live up summer as best we can. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped of our little one a week ago on her blessing day. Only a week has past and she seems like she had grown exponentially even since then. We call her tiny Tiny and chunky monkey. They contradict one another as nicknames, but suit her so that is that.

"happy" one month b-day

2010-07-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

This little one turned a month old on Sunday. I can't hardly believe it/am really really sad. She doesn't even resemble a newborn anymore, and is so incredibly long it seems. We love her easy going, happy, sleepy, sweet, self more and more every day.

Here is Kay making a similar face when she was just a bit older. Audrey's eyes are much lighter, but if she is asleep, it looks like I am holding the same little baby I had two years ago....except for that fact. She is sleeping.

Kay hardly did any of that.

FAIR FUN

2010-07-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

We set out to have a haphazard, fly by the seat of your pants day Saturday....as much of one as you can have, while still making sure you packed a diaper bag anyways. At the end of our day of fun we were on our way to the bowling alley in American Fork when we found the fair set up and inviting us. Kaylie is still talking about the rides this morning. This is a picture is her personality perfectly....fearless, carefree, enthusiastic, happy.

Well, almost fearless anyway.

While the carasoul and a mini train and a donald duck boat where some of her favorites, the ferris wheel was probaly not. She kept telling me " its not scary" and asking me if we would "touch the sky" and really put on a brave face, but for most of the ride held each of my hands with one of hers very tightly.

Snow cones were in definate order.

And don't forget about Tiny. She was there too, being a tropper as always. She was sleeping and sweating the whole time.

B_E_A_U_T_I_F_U_L

2010-06-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

We are feeling lucky at our house. Audrey is still taking it easy on us....mostly by sleeping a lot. Also, by cooperating with her momma when I tried to take some pictures of her as a newborn. Not to make comparisons, but a certain other child I have tried to photograph for the past two plus years has not been so photogenic in the sum of her entire life as our little Audrey has been in her almost two weeks.

Sisters are pretty great though.

Here we are reading stories, and "helping" give the baby a bath. Is it awful that I took a picture of Kay dumping water on her sister before I stopped her?

Kaylie insists that this is how they must sit together when she watches her movies...holding the baby's hand. Sweet.

she is my little baby sunshine

2010-06-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

She's Here.....Hooray!

2010-06-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

At 4:39 pm on June 11, 2010 Audrey Rose Carpenter made it to be with us at last. Should I start from the beginning?

A mostly uneventful day as far as birthdays go. Jeff thinks this picture he took of us if fuuny - thanks for your support babe. After being checked about 4 'o clock we had resigned ourselves to a slow progressing labor, and even called family to say that it was going to be a while. At 4:30 our nurse came in and looked under the sheets and then started running around like crazy and laughingly said that the dr. would probally make it. He walked in and in seconds we could hear our little girls first cries.

She weighed in at 7 lbs even ( the exact same as sister) and 19" long. We think she is the most amazing adorable thing ever.

Mom loves her. Dad loves her.

And big sister Kaylie loves her the absolute most. She is always giggling about the tiny baby and just giddy about her baby sister. This morning she woke up and ran into our bedroom and said "good morning baby sister, wake up"...forget about mom. Whenever we do something she want to make sure that baby sister is coming to. She loves to give her tiny kisses and tell her " I lub you baby sister"

Audrey is so much fun and so easy. She loves to sleep, and hardly makes a fuss about anything. We love how tiny and precious and beautiful she is. I especcailly love what a cuddly little bundle she is and am loving today now that she has started to open her eyes and look at us. She loves eating her hands, sleeping in her boppy pillow and cuddling with her mommy. We couldn't be more blessed.

2010-06-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today, in effort to have a special day with Kay before little sister gets here, I took her to thanksgiving point. While we were there I had a conversation with her in which I told her we were at Noah's ark. And, that if she wanted to come back another day she could just tell me "Noah's ark". I had her repeat this to me a few times so she would learn the name of this place.

A few minutes later she ran over to me, and I asked her " Where are we right now?"

"Arizona" she answered.... without hesitation.

This makes me sad and smile at the same time. She and I would go to a splash park at least once a week for five months out of the year in Phoenix, and I love how her little mind put two and two together to deduce that we must be in Arizona if we are at a splash park.

On a side note.... Does everyone know about this park at Thanksgiving point?

I have been asking around after it since our move back, only to be looked at like I was making up a story. I had this vivid memory of being of a place like this, but had started to think I must have dreamed it up since no one seemed to know what I was talking about. By chance, the wife of Jeff's co-workers mentioned it the other day, and I was elated to find that one, there was a splash park near by to take Kaylie to, and two, I was not crazy.

2010-05-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

I just put Kaylie down for a nap, and then went upstairs to the kitchen. A few minutes later she appears in Jeff's arms- apparently there is going to be no nap today. She sees that I am making brownies and the following conversation takes place.

"I help you mommy"

"I help you mixing"

"Mixing the brownies" ( in a sing song voice as she mixes)

"Mixing the brownies"

"Making the brownies for daddy"

I add - "and Kay kay"

She continues

"And mommy...

And baby sister"

"Lick the mixer, pour it in the bowl"

Jeff and I mostly are responding to this in laughter, and then I say rhetorically “ where did you come from”

"From my bed.

I guess we have made a few batches of brownies around our house. Enough so that my barely two year old know the process step for step and can repeat it to me.

In all seriousness Kaylie; really where did you come from?

2010-05-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Kaylie is so hysterical....to us anyway. Lately she has a few "catch" phrases that she say constantly and I wanted to get them written down so I wouldn't forget. You can her one of them in the video...she say "it's my favortie."

You may need to scroll to the bottom and pause the music player

She also says

"pretty please" with a pouty voice and all

" it's delicous" which I am trying to prompt her to say in the video, but I can't get her to say it

" just pre-tricking you" which is pretending and tricking rolled into one purpose

"it's in my story" which is a line from her favorite show Super Why.

"I'm still working on it" which is her cousin Kate's line, but she has picked it up too.

"I need you" which just melts our hearts/trys our last nerve depending on the hour of night.

Perception

2010-05-11T09:56:00.001-07:00

Meet John Smith. Maybe you have already made his aquaintance. He is from the movie, Disney's Pocohantas.

Unfortunately, my sweet Kay has decided that he and I resemble one another.

She has been carrying him around for the last couple of days calling him "mommy", cooking for "mommy", giving this "mommy" things wrapped in blankets that she calls presents.

Hopefully it is just the yellow hair and blue eyes....perhaps the fact that he too wears his boots over his jeans.

I am finding it funny the way a child's mind works.

Just today she has been carrying him around with this sheep/puppy thing calling them "mommy and baby sister" which comfirms to me that she does, in fact believe that I am pregnant with a kitten. She has been touching my belly button (which is no longer concave with my abdomen), or as she refers to it " the kitty's nose" and laughing.

She is going to be sorely dissapointed in 4 weeks, when I bring a baby home rather than a pet cat.

Two years old!

2010-04-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

It was Kaylie's birthday yesterday. I had intended to make it a good day for her without nessicarily letting on that it was her birthday. Mostly because ever since she was at Kate's birthday a few weeks ago, she has been telling me that when it is her birthday she was going to get presents too.
Not that my sweet child is not getting a birthday present, we just have plans to celebrate with family and her party later this weekend and the birthday fun that she is expecting is still to come. After a visit from both grandmas, two cousins, dad coming home early ( and an assortment of small treats and presents that came with those visitors) a trip to the aquarium, chick-fil-a, the dinosaur museum, and blowing out candles she may have had a complete birthday already.

A little about Kay at two

She weighs 26 lbs, and is 34" tall ( right at 50% for both height and weight.)
Her hair is always in her grey eyes.

She loves bubbles, outside, playing in water, going to the park, cartoons, blocks, books, coloring, painting, puzzles, playdough, playing with kids and Toby, music and dancing, and to run and be chased.

Her favorite foods are eggs, "noodle soup" ( spagehtti O's), chicken noddle soup, "meat" ( the deli slices), go-gurts, "pull-pulls" ( tangerines), grapes, green beans, strawberrys, peaches, tic-tacs and pez candy.

She can say anything and everything and I am amazed how far her languge has come in the past couple of months...some of my favorite phrases she says daily are "me too", "I hear it", "I see it", "help-a me momma", "I happy", "silly goose" and of course "I lub mommy". She is also so polite alway saying please and thank you, no thanks and excuse me.

I love that she can expresss exactly what she sees or needs. Todays examples -
She saw construction on the side of the road and said "what a mess...clean it up..oh-well"

Toby was waiting around for some lunch to be dropped his way. I gave Kay three animal cookies for dessert, and walked out of the room for a second. When I came back she was gone and I found her in her room on her bed cookies in hand. She told me "no toby, eat my cookies" and it seems she was hiding in her room from toby's cookie snatching ability.

She spilled water on her shirt, removed her shirt and said " my shirts wet, I need new shirt".

She knows her letters, numbers, shapes. Everyday she suprises me with her smarts.

Her favorite songs to sing are ABC's, popcorn popping, five little monkeys jumping on the bed, book of mormon stories, and tonight's gonna be a good night ( yes - black eyed peas)

She loves Finding Nemo ( and can repeat some of the lines), Tinkerbell, Mickey Mouse, and Super Why.

She is ever so sweet. She is alway putting her hand in her shirt and bringing it out so carefully acting like she now has a tiny baby in her hand. Then she will say "tiny baby'', and kiss her imaginary baby or rock it or give it to me.

The other day we were playing with her disney dolls and I asked her which was her favorite - she told me Goofy, I told her mine was Minnie and she picked up Minne and said " here mama has Minne" Like I told her I liked her doll and she gave it to me.

She is the best helper and loves to help. She changes the clothes from the washer to the dryer, unloads the dishes and puts soap in the dishwasher, sweeps and mops, cooks, bakes and sets the table, puts clothes in the hamper, rakes the yard, and empties the trashes.

She is always giving us hugs, kisses, and kitty kisses, and loves to cuddle.
She loves to be silly and laugh.

I love my little bear so much and am so proud of her. I love her sweet and happy disposition. She keeps Jeff and I on our toes, and laughing out loud. Happy Birthday my big girl.

EGGS!

2010-04-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

We took Kay to her first Easter egg hunt this past weekend. It was a free event at This is the Place Heritage park. Even though it was bitter cold, we thought we would get out and take advantage of our downtown home while we are here.

The hunt was crazy. There were probably at least a couple thousand people there, and I heard someone say that there were only 10,000 eggs. With all the whole park, you would think that they would have plenty of room to hide them, but the put all the eggs in about a half acre space. Needless to say we didn't put Kaylie down untill the hunt was over for fear she would be trampled by the anxious children and aggressive parents.

Jeff and I were laughing over the ridiculousness of it all, yet Kaylie seemed to be having a great time...which made us have a great time too. She got three and a half eggs for her effort. And when I say she I mean, Jeff got two and I got one and we handed them to her to put in her basket. They have provided hours of entertainment for us back at home as Kaylie hides them for me and tells me to go find them several times a day.

Also this week we colored some eggs just for fun. Eggs + crafts = kaylie fun. She loves all things crafty ; painting, coloring, playdough, and even more so... she loves eggs.

Every morning for breakfast she asks for eggs. If I leave the fridge open for a second to long she sneaks in there and takes the carton of eggs out. She knows how to crack and open her own eggs. And now, now that they are exciting colors, she has an even stronger affinity towards them. Next week at her two year old appointment, I plan on asking the doctor if eating this many eggs ( two a day every day) is too many for a toodler.

Most families color their eggs as a traditon, and then maybe eat and egg salad sandwich or two, and the rest go bad. Not at our house. We may have to boil and color some more before this weekend because we are down to two eggs ....two yellow eggs.

Maybe from the pictures above you can tell, but she has an affinity to pink as well these days.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

2010-03-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

We went to see Disney on ice with Grandma, Crystal and Kate last night, about which Kaylie could not have been happier. All day before hand Kaylie kept asking me when Kate would be here, and telling me that Kate was coming to her house to see Tinkerbell. Then she was going to be Tinkerbell and Kate was going to be Mickey. ( Kay would not believe me untill she saw it that Kate was going to be a princess.)

Although asking after Kate in not unusual - she does this every day about 8 or 9 times. Whenever we get in the car she tells me Kate's house - like I am driving cab and she is telling me her final destination. It is no doubt that Kate is her favorite person right now.

Here the girls are patiently waiting before the show begins....smiling, and yes screaming with anticipation. At one point there were even tears of excitement being shed over the Disney party.

Waiting in line with Grandma to buy a fairy wand, and waving our wand during the show. The wand was a hit and Kaylie even took it to bed with her last night. After she fell asleep I went in her room and took it out of her bed. Usually when Kaylie wakes up in the middle of the night she asks/cries for " mama". But not last night, she woke up and a asked for her wand....Seriously.

This isn't a great picture of the any of us, but heaven forbid we slow down for a minute to take a picture....Tinkerbell is inside.

Also, Kaylie sitting intently watching the show. She was riveted. She clapped. She danced. She waved. She shouted the characters names. She looked over to make sure Kate was doing the same thing. It was magical.

Thanks for inviting us to Disney, Kate!

Lastly, our tinkerbell all dressed an ready before the show. I am so pleased with this costume. Mostly because it was created the day before, in a nap time with clothing we already owned, $6 in supplies from the dollar store and Kaylie's yellow and green watercolor paints.

Sure beats a $20 dress up and driving all over town to try to find it.

Fab Freebie

2010-02-23T16:02:00.000-08:00

I found this today online. A free 8x10 alphabet print from Kind Over Matter.

Just go to http://kindovermatter.blogspot.com/2010/02/freebie-alert-kind-over-matter-abc.html and you can get one of your very own in six colors to chose from. I always see things like this I like on etsy, but can never make the $15 commitment.

Simple. Graphic. Free

Perfect for the new little girl x 2 room I have been dreaming up lately.

BeanBox

2010-02-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

Tired and bored of being inside - this cold weather is killing us- I was determined today to find something new to do inside. Luckily it is not hard to be inspired via the internet/bloggers, and saw this.... http://www.themotherhuddle.com/.

Easily replicated with $4 in dry beans and a trip to the Walmart, and perfect for a morning free of boredom. If I was thinking about it I would have grabbed some alphabet letters to hide in the "sand", but we are plenty entertained with hiding animals, and using kitchen utensils as "sand" toys.

And, well, making a mess too.

Added bonus - leftovers. Seems like a dreary day, perfect for taco soup.

Guys and Dolls

2010-02-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday we took Kaylie to the pool in Kamas for the second time in the short time we have been in Utah. It is quite a drive just to go for a swim, but the pool is full of fun things for youngsters, and is warm enough ( 85') that it makes swimming with a blizzard outside not quite insane. That and the chance to meet up with Kate and Brielle, and Kaylie is in heaven.

And just in case you were wondering.... just because she is a Utahan once agian, doesn't mean she can't still swim like a Phoenix.

My littlest valentine

2010-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about living right downtown.....there are 101 place to take a picture. I used to always be keeping my eyes open in phoenix for a single brick building, with the purpose of wanting to use it as a photograph background. There is probally a brick building in every color within 5 minutes of our home, perfect for photgraphing my littlest valentine in front of.

Another great thing....tons of little bakerys perfect for buying my littlest valentine a heart shaped treat.

Above Kaylie is telling me (incorrectly) that she is two years old. Not that I am going to teach her differently.

Hoping everyone a happy valentines!

We are ready?

2010-02-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

We have a few months to go with this baby number two, but today after a doctors appointment, Jeff mentioned the fact that maybe it is time to start getting stuff ready. To which I answered "Aren't we already?"

Do little girls need anything more?

2010-02-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

We made it to salt lake city, and are now residing in our fourth home in our daughters short 21 months. For being as particular of a personality as she is she seems to be adjusting better than I expected.

Does anyone elses two year old seems to be a little OC? She has little tantrums over things not being exactly right, not having a towel with a fish on it to get out of the bathtub, setting the table with the exactness of miss martha, finding peices of lint on the carpet and picking them out to throw away.....really you would think I would have a cleaner house.

But she has taken to the changes with flying colors...I guess after four moves, moving is routine for her.

Happy New, New, New - New Year

2009-12-31T16:02:00.000-08:00

So what is it that is making the Carpenter family's new year so new...and happy?

The first new is a new job for Jeff. There were many things he loved about his old job at Troon ( like the golfing perks), but his new gig is better in a lot of ways too. The new company is a software company and his first day was new year's eve. The opportunity came really just hours before we were supposed to close on our new house here in phoenix. I have really just decided to not plan. You never know what is going to happen around here.

The second new thing is a new home/state for all of us. Back to Salt Lake City we are coming....it is where the new job is. It seems a little ridiculous to head back to four more months of winter when it is a beautiful 70' outside, but somehow that freeze just feels like home. We are sad for many reasons to be leaving ( I am sure there will be a longer post later about all of that), but also excited to see what downtown has to offer us, and for all the chances Kaylie will have to see her grandparents and cousins.

She looks happy about moving in this picture, but really she screams uh-oh, or no-no when anything gets put into a box, or taken of the walls.

The third new...and most exciting thing is the new baby. We have know for some time that we were soon going to be a family of four, but earlier this week we found out that it will be another sweet baby girl and really we couldn't be more thrilled. Although this pregnancy has been heads and tails different than the last ( a lot more time feeling green), I felt from the beginning that it was another girl. Or at least I have really wanted it to be another girl. My sisters are some of my favorite people and best friends, and I really wanted a relationship like that for Kaylie. That and baby girls are just sooooo sweet and everything of theirs is so much more cute.

To bad, we can never decide on a girl name. With each pregnancy from the beginning we have said if it is a boy we should name him....and we both agree. But when we try to think of names for little girls we couldn't disagree more.....any suggestions?

Kaylie's Christmas Top Ten

2009-12-31T07:31:00.000-08:00

There were so many wonderful things about our Christmas this year I didn't know where to start so here is Christmas from Kaylie's perspective in top ten form.

#1 Cousins ... she doesn't usually have so many palymates at once, and was thrilled, especcially with all the big kids.

#2 Spending time with her great Grammy ... She came all the way from California for Christmas and all of us were really thrilled to spend some time with her. She is one of my favorite people in the enitre world and it was the best part of christmas for sure.

#3 Meeting uncle Craig .... he returned from his mission in Taiwan, and since Kaylie is not yet two, they haven't ever meet. Fun for the rest of us too, especcially since he seems well adjusted to real life already.

#4 The food .... She has been a picky eater lately ( not like herself), but with so many good things to eat, she was able to find something.

#5 Sledding/Snow ... before we could even tell her what it was ( this is the first time she can remember being in snow) , she announced "ice" and was off stomping through it in her boots.

#6 The Choo-choo .... Grandma Anderson had a choo choo in her basement, and whenever kay could break free she was headed down the stairs to check it out.

#7 All the animals ....I didn't get a picture of it, but her favorite thing was Grandma Georgia's kitty that she chased all around the house yelling "meow" at and making her cat hands, and lied on top of whenever she got the chance. Two new to her dogs and Toby made things good too.

#8 Some of her favorite presents... a sled form her aunt Carol ( which she sat in like a bed, and even got pulled around in the house with). A tinkerbell doll from her Grandparents Carpenter...she is also watching her Tink movie in this picture, another hit. And her little table from Grandparentes Anderson ( Kay has loved little tables ever since she started "school" and sometimes even sets the coffe table at dinner time so she can eat at a little table.

#9 "Chrithsmas" ... this is what Kaylie calls all the lights and decorations. She points them out wherever we go.

#10 Not Santa.... I am so glad I didn't waste me time taking her to see a Santa. He came to the Carp family party and when she walked into the room she said " Ho-ho-ho" and then procedded to scream at him.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well! What were your top ten.

Cheese for Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

We had Thanksgiving at home this year. Jeff's parents and brother came down from UT to spend the holiday that included black friday shopping, a trip to zoo lights and of course a feast that the Luke family joined us for. We made enough food for like thirty people and have been eating thanksgiving day sandwiches....mmmm, my favorite, from the leftovers ever since. My favorite thing - Kaylie has decided this weekend that she will cooperate with pictures and even says " cheese"....hooray, I hope it last.

2009-11-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

Kaylie has been wrapping her babies up in blankies and putting them to bed in the corner for a long time, but now she has taken it to a whole new level. She dumps all the toys out of their bins, wraps the babies in blankets, and them uses the bins as beds.

I thought it looked like a hospital nursery with alll the babies lined up in thier isolettes.

maybe not.....now it seems she is playing mortician.

Scroll down for more kaylie posts.

2009-11-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

The best Elmo ever. If you know Kaylie, you know she is in love with seasme street, particularly Elmo. We were at toys r us this weekend and we saw this costume on halloween clearance for three dollars....can't bet that. She was going crazy when she saw herself in the mirror.

Our Halloween Lady

2009-11-10T07:55:00.001-08:00

Better late than never I guess. Little K, being the little lady that she is was a little lady bug for Halloween. She carried her little pail like it was a purse and struted her stuff from house to house and trunk to trunk. We even took her to jeff's work to trick or treat desk to desk so she really had the hang of things, trick or treating three times.

CANDY! CANDY! and a Spider. Here she is enjoying her post trick or treat goods. The best part is she only really likes suckers, so mom is gettng most the good stuff :)

She is still getting a kick out of this sticky spider a week and a half later too. She wiggles it at us saying "boo!", and answering herself with a "aahhh!"

The Great pumpkin

2009-10-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

To me, a pumpkin patch is an essential halloween memory, so I was so excited when I found a "pumpkin patch" here in Phoenix. So the pumpkins aren't actually growing in this field. ( I am pretty sure that pumpkins won't grow in the desert), but someone did take them time to unload them off a truck and scatter them in the tall grass like they had grown there.

Kaylie was in love with the pumpkins. She counted each of them and touched each of them. She climbed on them, kissed them, and picked out a little tiny one that she was treating like a baby.

Hooray for fall!

Is summer over then?

2009-09-30T22:19:00.001-07:00

The rumor is that today was the last 100' day of the year here in the valley of the sun. Which means, that I guess what we have here now is fall. I don't know if I will ever get used to "fall" here, or summer for that matter. Here is our K though- she apparently has no problem with our AZ weather....it just means she has more time to play in the water.

At the zoo's water park - Community lifeguard

The splash park at the mall - Floating in the backyard

Aaaaaaants!

2009-09-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

I have a toddler, therefore it goes without saying that there is food on the floor....often. And when there is food, there is ants. In the last two weeks I have been attacked by ants three times.

Not just any ants either, monster venomous crazy ants that leave welts twice the size of ordinary mosquitoes bites and itch accordingly. Rapid moving, skin seeking, evil ants that before I even notice I am standing near them, climb up my body, under my clothing or into my hair.

I have never seen ants that respond so quickly to the morsel lost by small hands to the floor.....or ants that are so aggressive.

Ants that would send a grown women full speed, fully clothed into a swimming pool.

Come to think of it, I have heard about ants of this nature...in a work of fiction. "the posionwood bible". Maybe you have read this novel; maybe you are familiar with the description of this African demon ants that can destroy a village or take a life. The kind of ants that send entire villages running for the nearest body of water seeking escape of carnivorous insects.

Must be instinctual

100% GIRL

2009-09-08T11:47:00.001-07:00

This is Kaylie in her element. Notice the tutu and the elmo socks....oh yes and of course the baby. Our little girl is obsessed with babies....babies, babies, babies. She feeds them, rocks them, puts diapers on them, dresses them. At night she takes every one of her babies and stuffed animals and puts them to bed all over the playroom, covering them each with a blankie and telling them "nye-night." We have to take one with us everywhere we go.

Yes, even swimming. I told her to go get her swim suit so we could go swimming one afternoon, and she cam back with her swim suit in hand and her baby dressed like this in one of her swim tops.

What fun.

Just in time for October...

2009-09-08T08:32:00.001-07:00

It is official. K has been saying a word that sounds just like Dracula. She only has approximately 10 words that she uses on a regular basis, and so I thought that this word that she says was probably her meaning something else, but no. Sadly it is Dracula. She just walked over to me with a flashcard with "the count" on it and said it...Dracula. Not "doogie", not "kitty", not "sippy"... "Dracula".

On a side note. Dracula, in which she is referring to "the count" is her second sesame street derived word after "Elmo". Two words of ten....way to go Jim Henson. We rarely watch the program, but are not lacking in sesame street paraphernalia...obviously.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho....

2009-08-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

It was a year ago this week that I worked last.

And, over the course of the last year, several times I have either saw something I wanted to purchase and decided I missed the money; or saw an episode of Grey's and decided I missed the excitement....or atleast the adult conversation. I would go on Monster and apply for positions, then change my mind and decide someone needed to be here to make the maccaroni and impersonate Elmo.

This time I didn't talk myself out of it along the way, and now that I have a parking pass and badge there is no retreat. I am rationalizing it saying that it is good for Kay,.... that a day or two away from me will be good for her....although I am not sure how I am fairing. Mostly I am not sure how to deal with the guilt. I feel so bad when I pick her up, the rest of the day I let her do whatever she pleases.

Tonight she had two packages of tinkerbell fruit snacks for dinner. Pretty sure she is going to bed at when-ever-she -wants 'o clock too.

Tired yet sleepy K?

FOR SALE OR RENT

2009-08-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

If you or anyone you know is intrested in renting...or possibly buying our home in traverse mountian (lehi), let us know. It is the perfect home for a family ( 5 bedrooms) and in the best neighborhood ( I miss it so .)
We are looking for trusworthy/responsible people.
It will be available the first week of Sept.

Leave a comment if you want more info or picts.
Thanks

DELTA DISASTER and a QUART OF HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY JAM!

2009-08-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

So Monday tops the list for most ridiculous days ever. You know a day is ridiculous rather than horrible when you can look back and laugh at its ridiculousness the next day.

Kaylie and I had been in Utah visiting while Jeff was doing some business. We don't like to be alone while he is away, so we tagged along. We did have to come home a few days before him however, and after Monday I am pretty certain I will not be traveling alone with Kaylie any time soon. Not becuase Kaylie was acting...well... like a toddler; but mostly because it seemed everyone that works at the ariport was acting like one.

It starts when we are in the line for security. There is an older couple behind me, and the older man keeps asking the airport staff is someone will please help his wife get to her gate. He is apparently not flying with her today. At least three employees tell him no. He appeals to them saying that his wife has a heart condition, and just looking at her you can see that she is frail. They tell him he should have asked for an escort pass, and no they cannot give one to him now.
I ask the man if he would like me help his wife. Not out of compassion, unfourtunatly. Mostly becuase after twenty minutes of witnessing how ridculously helpless the security staff seem to be, I am furious. ( Those of you who know me well, know how passionate I am about hating poor customer service.)

It was like talking to a machine with those people. It was like they had an algorithm of what to do, and could not come up with any solution using thier own brains. I am wondering if these employees are just very real looking robots....the type one might encounter over the telephone, with only programmed answers...sans heart and brain. I had a good chance to study these "people" as it seemed the aiport is almost entirely staffed with their kind.

Back to our story... now I have a toddler, a frail women, and now three bags that I have to get to two different gates on opposites sides of the airport. We continue through security. Kaylie and I are through...shoes off, shoes on agian. There is a hold up with the elderly women, and I go back to see if I can help.

Apparently this women has not been in an airplane in the past decade, and it seems she has numerous items that appear on the NOT FOR CARRY-ON list in her bag, which she intends to carry on ...not excluding a quart of homeade strawberry jam.

The lady at the security desk tells her she has to go back, and check the jam. This jam making centurian has a flight to catch in twenty minutes. There is no time to check it. I suggest that they throw it away. If you are the grand-daughter who was anticipating this jam in Austin, I am sorry.

Now we are through security, and I can quickly see that we need assistance, so I ask another idiot employee if he can call for a cart or a wheel chair at least. That will be about twenty minutes. WE DON'T HAVE TWENTY MINUTES. There is a couple of wheelchairs over behind secuirty and I ask after them. They look at each other like I have said something in a foriegn languge. Apparently the only answer for getting a wheelchair on thier algoriothm is to call for one. Looking around and seeing if one is available would be to much work.

Before they can answer me I have the old lady in a wheel chair, Kaylie on me hip, and all three of our bags and am headed towards jammy Grandma's gate. I am certain we are a spectacle, although apparently not spectecale enough to warrant assistance from anyone who is employeed for the reason of assistance. We are half way when we are stopped by a fellow passenger who volunteers his assistance.

THANK YOU fair man in the pastel polo. His gate wound up being next to our elderly women's and he said he would help her the rest of the way.

Now Kaylie and I are racing to our gate. I am out of breath.
THANK YOU tall skinny man headed out of E-70 who offers to carry our carry-on. We make it just in time for Kaylie to lie down in the middle of walking traffic and put her head on the airport carpet trying to rest, before we are boarding.

Seated next to us is a extra large man. I was already dreading a flight with a wiggly toddler in my lap, and now we have even less room than normal. THANK YOU large man whose eldest is headed for UofA in the fall. After the seat belt light went off, he moved to the only empty seat in the whole plane leavng Kaylie with a seat of her own. He said he was going to move so she could have it. Maybe he was just tired of all the climbing, noises, and kicking that accompanies a toddler on an airplane. Either way it made the next two hours bareable.

The ride was un-eventful, except for another encounter with a ridiculous stewardess. I asked the women for a bottle of water, and cup of ice. Not becuase I am picky, but becuase I know that water without a lid is likely to wind up in my lap in the prescence of K. She hands me a cup of water. I hesitate, and try to give it back.

"What is this?" she asks.
The water you just gave me.
"You don't want it anymore?"
No, she will spill this.
"So is it garbage?"
Sure...yeah...it can be garbage. I am completely baffled at this womens density.
"I cannot accept garbage at this time."

Solutions people. If you are in the businees of customer service, answers are not answers unless they are solutions.....that sounds like a good business motto.

She walks by with her cart and I pour the cup of water into the carpet.

Then I sit back and start thinking about what it will take to get us the rest of the way home........CAR KEYS.
They are with Jeff in Utah.

I get to the ridiculously difficult to navigate Phoenix airport, and know that I am locked out of my car...and my house.
I rent a car and a car seat. It is broken. They have a dozen or so to chose from and not a single seat seems road worthy. I point out to the Enterprise assitant that it is the law to replace car seats every five years, and these all seem at least that old. His lack of apathy is not suprising today. He tells me he has no kids so he doesn't know if these are good of bad child seats. Bad....I tell him, very bad.

I am driving home in our rented Impala, kaylie has fallen asleep, and I now have to figure out how to break into our home. Jeff calls me and suggests that it will be easier to break into the car. We can use the garage door opener to get in. I turn the car around.

We drive back towards where my car is parked, and I located a help call box.
THANK YOU parking garage engineer. Your descion to place this box on the outside of the elevators allows me to drive right up and call to see if someone will help me break into my locked car....keeping Kaylie in the car asleep. Someone is coming to help me. We drive to where our locked car is parked.

THANK YOU Heavenly Father. The only open parking space in the whole row is directly next to our locked car and I can park right next to it while I wait for assistance. It takes them thirty minutes to come, and Kaylie get to sleep the whole time since I didn't have to get her out to wait next to our locked car. This is huge.

Now we have a way to get into the house....and a descent seat. The car alarm that went off while we are breaking into my car has woken K up, but we are twenty minutes from home, and we have survived. I know that I can get the spare keys to my car at home, turn the Impala around and return it then take the shuttle back to the airport, then a shuttle to the parking garage and retrieve my car, but the task seems daunting after today, and with a toddler I feel like it is more than I can handle.

THANK YOU to the sweet, extremely pregnany]t woman, and her tall and slender husband...you know who you are... for helping me get my rental car back, and watching K. I was overwhelmed to the point of tears when I thought about returning to the airport. Thanks for sparing me that experience.

I know this blog is mostly a proud mommy blog and picts of Kaylie. That being said, you know it has to be big if I blog about it and it is not K. related. That and, like I said I have a passion for hating companies with poor customer serivce. After everything from the day, two things stickout in my mind...how ridiculous people employeed at the airport were and all the tender little mercies we were given along the way.

When we were leaving my parents house the morning of the preceeding story my dad asked me..."Would you ever let me fly you and Kaylie?" I said no. The risk of private planes is not something I'd like on my daughter.

Dad, I am reconsidering your offer now.

Carlsbad Vacation

2009-07-27T12:15:00.001-07:00

Family picts on the beach -Kaylie her usual grumpy picture taking self. She is a joy all of the time, but the we try to take a picture of her and she throws a giant tantrum. I cannot figure it out. Pictures with her making a plain face rather than and angry face were the best we could get.

2009-07-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a week at the beach, and kaylie is definately a Carpenter, in that she loves the beach! She was crazy happy over the ocean, and as soon as she saw it, she started pointing and squealing for it. And as soon as we put her down, she ran full speek towards the water. She had so much fun splashing, and playing in the sand, and at the park, and at Disneyland, and with her cousins. She was non-stop going for a full week. She has been sleeping great since we got home, resting up from all the fun.

They made it !

2009-07-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

My dad and little sister are in Tanzania this month. They sent this email to my mom yesterday.

"I only have a couple of minutes. I'll try and write more later
We made it!!!! Very hard!!!! Maybe 150 started and only 12 finished. We were two of them. Our trip is going absolutely perfect. No problems at all. Very safe here.
I miss you a ton!!!! Can't wait to tell you all the details.
Ali says she loves you and miss you a bunch too. "

Sounds like they made it; the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I am so proud of them, but had no doubts they would do it. My dad thinks he is Indiana Alan and that little sister of mine is the toughest cookie I know. I am really proud of them...proud and a little jealous.

What and awesome experience.

2009-07-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

This girl keeps me laughing....she is the silliest.

She is learning how to dress herself lately. Today she has decided that swim diapers work well as hats and sleeves.

We went to the children's museum this weekend agian on free Friday. The staff was putting tattoos on the kids as part of the party. She hardly noticed it until we went to get her in the bath later that night. When she found it she was quite proud of it.

2009-07-06T10:04:00.001-07:00

We hope everyone had a fun fourth of july....here is a picture of K. doing what she could to stay cool at a city celebration over the holiday.

take me out to the ball game....

2009-06-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

What kinda 14 month old sits through 7 innings of a baseball game?

We bought Jeff tickets to see the Diamondbacks and Angels game for father's day. I bought cheap seats because I thought that with Kaylie we would be lucky to make it through 3 innings. And even if she did, I didn't think we would be able to tolerate sitting in the heat.

I couldn't have been more wrong. By the time we got to the 7 inning stretch I was more done with the game then Kaylie was. And the stadium is amazing, completely air conditioned and comfortable - it was really worth going just to see Chase satdium.

Her favorite part...a dancing taco and a dancing yogurt cup.

Girls just wanna have fun

2009-06-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Jeff's sister Michelle and her girls drove out to Phoenix for a visit....in the heat of the summer too, what troopers! We had so much fun mostly swimming in the pool. All the girls, even Kaylie, really like the arcade a lot also. Kaylie was in heaven with some big kids around 24-7 to play with her, she really wouldn't have cared what we did as long as the girls were there too.

Hope you three had a fun visit.

We sure did!

Moms Fighting Stains

2009-06-17T13:41:00.001-07:00

HELP!!!!!
This stain treater - dual action spray and wash - is the best out there. I would buy a bottle about every month, and had yet to lose a single article of clothing to stains. Even with everything that a toddler eats/gets into. It was a little miracle in a bottle.

And now I cannot find it anywhere.

Over the last two weeks, I have been to Walmart, Target, Fry's, Albertsons and Walgreens. I have tried four other products. And I have a pile of about half of Kay's clothes with stains that will not come out.
Please tell me if you see it at a store you shop at, or what products you use that do the trick.
And if you do see some....grab it! It is the best stuff out there.

The Progression of a Surivior

2009-06-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

We sing the song "Survivor" by Beyonce at our house. It is Kaylie's theme song. I have no doubt that if my daughter was born hundreds of years ago and had to be a "hunter or gatherer" she would have had no problem. Survival of the fitest would not have left her behind. She has mad survivor skills.

All for the sake of hunger and a complete love for anything edible she has....

At 7 months old she found a tangerine in the back of the car, peeled it and ate it while buckled in her car seat. I was driving....completely unaware.

At 8 months she learned that if ever she was hungry there was alway food under her high chair and she could just crawl over there. I suppose that is why she threw so much of it on the floor while she was eating. Saving some for a long winter a.k.a another time when food was not so readily available to her.

As soon as she could walk she started going into the pantry and helping herself to whatever struck her fancy.

I have seen her catch flies and frogs with her bare hands.....don't worry I don't let her eat these.

She has been known to go and get washclothes, still wet from morning baths and suck them for water.

Last month she figured out how to open the frezzer and get herself popsicles.

Today she got into the diaper bag, found a granola bar, opened the wrapper and ate...no porblem. Should a 14 month old know how to do this?

And if worse comes to worse, she knows she can always turn to the dog. Not her favorite option, but hey if you are starving?

And I feed her four meals a day and multiple snacks....really I do.

I'm a survivor (what),
I'm gonna make it (what),
I will survive (what),
Keep on survivin'

* Today jeff handed her back a boxed happy meal, thinking she would look at the characters on the box and be entertained with them until we got home to eat. Oh no.... when I got her out of her carseat in the back she was slready working on her fries. It is like she barely needs us anymore.

Blurbs

2009-06-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

I was turned on to this product by an old girlfriend, and my sister....both great photographers. If it had thier seal of approval, I knew it was a good one.

A blurb is a photo book that you create with a program that you download for free. You just upload your picts, type some text, a few points and clicks and you have a real book. I have seen a lot of photo product books out there, but this one comes more close to commercial grade than anything I have seen.

And the best part...it is super affordable. I just sent in Kaylie's one year book. A total 182 pages, probally around 600 photos and journaling of her first year. It is only going to cost around $50. I couldn't even print all those pictures for that much. Some of the pictures in the book are a full 8x10 print too.

I also made a small book of a vacation. It is much smaller, but it is only going to cost $16. I couldn't even by a nice photo album for that.

And it just got even better. This last week I opened up my computer to find an update to install. Now you can create your own layouts, move image and test boxes and adjust sizes.

I feel like I am Zelda and I just unlocked some new weapon. This blurb thing just got a hundred time better.

It really is worth checking out http://www.blurb.com .

the hills are alive

2009-06-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

If there ever is a Sound of Music remake, I will be suprised if it is not shot in Heber and Midway. It is so gorgeous. I couldn't get over how beautiful everything is this summer.

We were in Heber for a few days to see my little sis graduate from Wasatch. Go Sis! She is going to Utah State like me to so... Go Aggies!

Some pictures of Kaylie in my parents yard. There really was a ton of good ones, but I kept it to four for the blog.

I love the way her face is in a question the same time the flower is drooping.

Seriously gorgeous

Very hills are alive.

She loves her dogs....kisses for Oreo

way behind

2009-06-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Crystal and Jake came down for a little visit. While they were there we took the chance to take the girls to the children's museum. It was so great. If any of you are every in the Phoenix area with your young kids you will have to let us take you. Everything was geared towards toddlers but even as an adult I was entertained by it all.
My favorite thing was this pretend grocery store. When I was little, my parents would take Crystal and me to the children's museum in Boston and our favorite thing was the little grocery store there. We used to go the first Friday of every month in Massachutes becuase it was free. Funny enough....the Phoenix museum is free on the first Friday too. Twenty plus years later it seems they are running children's museums the same way.

It is working I guess

I just loved this picture of the girls laughing together in their pajamas. For two girls that are a genetic half match, it is funny how different they are.

Both in personality and apperance.

Thanks for the visit Freeman famliy.

How things change!

2009-05-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

I remember anniversaries Jeff and I celebrated before kaylie was born involving nice resturants and theatre tickets, or weekend vacations. Our six year anniversary was Saturday and how did we spend it.....meeting with the real estate agent, an Elmo party, and Jack in the box drive thru. How Romantic.

How things change?

Strangely enough we didn't mind. We were together, that is all that matters really . Love ya babe.....happy anniversary!

2009-05-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

We are swimming about everyday, and kaylie is really starting to get the hang of it. She even tries to blow her water wings up herself.

Lake Pleasant Campers

2009-05-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

We made our first Arizona camping trip to the Lake...nothing like camping in the desert in the summer. It was actually quiet beautiful and we had a good time.

We had our second encounter with desert wildlife. Wild burros. They came to steal our licorice, but Toby, the watchdog scared them away....
If he is not getting any, there is no way he is letting some donkey get any.

We went on a hike in search of tortoise, but it must have been even too hot for them, so we jumped in the lake.

Also, look how good a hiker our little girl is becoming.

Oh, what do you do in the summertime...?

2009-05-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

Kaylie already knows how she will survive the desert heat. Eating ice pops in the pool. I know I am awful...she eats almost three ice pops a day. I say almost three because I am bound to steal a bite or two. She even knows how to get them out of the freezer by herself, so there is no stopping her.

Also, Jeff spotted a snowie shack on our way from church. A rarity out here, ...and my summer survival necessity.

Looks like we are ready, Summer. Bring it on!

" Heeeeyy yoooouuu guuuyyss!

2009-05-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Also, does anyone remember the movie Goonies......what child of the 80's doesn't right. Kaylie reminds me of Sloth in the second picture.

......a cute Sloth.

I know I am a mean mom.

Chicken Little

2009-04-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

I am obssesive compulsive at times.....a hypochodriac, nuerotic worrier too. I hate that I am that way. It can be a tiresome habit.

The H1N1 virus appeared in the headlines this past weekend, and I have been diligently watching CNN. I have made the CDC website one of my computers favorites, as well as many of the links Crystal put here .

I decided today to not take Kaylie to the library per the usual. Limit our public exposure.

I just got back from the Walmart where I purchased all the things the CDC is recommending to have on hand for the pending pandemic as well as filling the holes in our food storage....

I was not the only one there stocking up.

Many people I noticed had on latex gloves. All the hand sanitizer has been bought up... masks too. I went to Walgreens and it was the same story.

Many of the schools are closing here in Phoenix.

I know I am always the first to worry, just wondering if you are worried to.

Hopefully we will all look back on this in a month, and sigh....smiling at ourselves for being so worked up. Hopefully.

one year photos!

2009-04-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

I made kaylie take pictures to mark the one year milestone.....i am not thrilled with how they turned out, but after only 15 minutes we lost all ten ballons and our patience with each other.

saturday splash!

2009-04-26T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is a spash pad near our house. Kids and water...it couldn't get any better in Kaylie's opinon. These picts were taken with a phone, but you get the idea.

Hollywood

2009-04-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Our little K is spending more of her time walking than she does crawling these days. It happened so fast; a week ago she was only learning to take a step or two, and now she is cruising. The beginning of this video she is actually video taping herself, and then at the very end she starts to throw a fit.....why? Because our daughter is either a narcissist or the next Hollywood starlet. K wants me to give her the camera. She is in love with herself on screen and cannot get enough of herself performing. I am finding that I get the video camera out less becuase of the tantrums over the camera.

Even if I am at the computer she will come over and stand next to the chair, arms in the air asking to be picked up. I cannot get her to watch cartoons for 10 minutes, but she will sit on my lap on the computer and watch home videos of herself for an hour. I find it hilarous....

Maybe she'll do comedies.

O mexico !

2009-04-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

We went to mexico for spring break with my parents and Ali. It was so fun to be able to get away with them. As you can see from the few pictures I took, we swam and swam a ton....of course, kaylie was in heaven. The resort was so nice, and only a few hour drive from our house....thanks mom and dad for the vacation!

P.A.R.T.Y !!!

2009-04-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

We had a b-day party for Kaylie last week. We celebrated with my family, that was visiting from Utah and our AZ family, the Lukes. Kaylie was really in to it all. She understood opening presents......

she attacked her cupcake .......

and I had a lot of fun creating something special for my special K!

One year old!

2009-04-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Kaylie is a year old today and I am so sad my little girl has grown up so fast. Everyday we have so much fun as she learns to do new things. A little about Kaylie at one.

she weighs 22 lbs.

she has 4 teeth.

she has taken 15 steps in a row.

she has slept through the night once.

she can say mama, dada, night-night, hi, nose.

she loves ballons, books, food, bubbles, babies and kids, toby, birds, airplanes, flowers, mirrors, elmo, puzzles, photos, and car keys.

her favorite things are swimming, reading, music, playing buckin' bronco, swinging, and bathing.

her best tricks include standing up, walking, clapping, waving, tickling, playing peek-a-boo, pointing to things when you name them, getting undressed, climbing the stairs, high-fives, giving toby love, giving kisses and talking on the cell phone.

her favorite foods are blueberries, tomatoes peaches, oranges, chicken noodle soup, spaghetti, beans, guacamole, turkey, ice cream, juice boxes, and ice.

she doesn't like sitting down, sleeping, brushing her teeth, riding in the car, the blender, things in her hair or baby food.

Last year on this day, in the first few hours of our little girls life, I remember my first thoughts.... that she was the most precious thing I had ever seen...that I was instantly head over heels in love with her. I remember thinking that she looked like a rock star... mostly because the nurses had but a neon orange and lime green bow in her hair. I remember we called her baby girl, because we had yet to decide on her name, and I was in complete in awe that she was ours....still am.

kaylie on april 13, 2008 and kaylie on april 13, 2009 - 9:33 pm PST

happy birthday baby girl!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter and...hello!

a finished project

2009-04-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

I have a tendency to start craft projects and never finish them. I get almost obsessive about whatever the project might be, and then fizzle. At last a finished product.

I have wanted to make K. a homeade doll for some time, and I finally found a really cute, real easy pattern here at martha http://www.marthastewart.com/article/black-apple-doll.

Don't you love the vintage bird fabric? It had been in my craft stuff for a long time and I have been waiting to make something wonderful out of it. My mom helped me some with the sewing....I know I have mentioned by dislike of the sewing machine before. I started it by hand, but the stitches weren't one year old proof. I am pleased with her and think she will be a perfect birthday present for K. next week.

It worked last time...

2009-03-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

Last time I posted a pict of Kaylie outside in the backyard, we had a ton of visitors find there way down to visit us ( more about that below)... any excuse to get out of the cold Utah spring I guess. So here goes agian.

We were eating ice cream cones outside the other day, and I decided Kaylie is almost a year, and it was hot, so I let her try ice cream for the first time. She thought it was funny how we used our toungues to get the ice cream off the cones, and even more funny how toby used his tongue to get the ice cream off her.

Also, these pictures may already be disgusting to some readers... I am letting a dog lick my baby on the mouth. That being the case, I want to point out that my child is wearing a diaper, it just doesn't appear that way, from the angle of the camera.

I am not completly without hygenic standards.

March Madness!

2009-03-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

I don't follow basketball closely so I will not be posting about the real march madness, that is just what we have been calling it around here lately. This month has been and will continue to be crazy busy. Every day but three this month we have either had a visitor, or been visiting. I usually give Jeff a hard time when he posts things, becuase they are tooo long, but this is pretty long too...sorry!

The madness started when Johnny came down for a tour of phoenix....of course it involved golfing.

Then just the girls headed to Utah to visit the Freemans and the new babe and also spend time with my parents.

Ali was nice enough to drive back to AZ with me, and boy the drvie went a lot faster having someone besides an 11 month old to talk to....she stayed the week to play.

Jeff's parents came down to visit, enjoy the sunshine, and tell Kaylie happy b-day, early.

And the madness only continues...we are leaving tomorrow to have a getaway vacation with some Lehi friends....more to come later. Busy, but fun!

WHAT A FABULOUS DAY!!!

2009-03-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

Where do I start??? I flew in from frigid Green Bay, Wisconsin late Friday night and what a change from one night to the next. Our Saturday was one of the best since moving to Arizona. Since our pool is not heated, we have had to wait for the water to warm up and we finally enjoyed the pool for the first time!!! Below are a few of the pictures from our day in the sun!

Hey Daddy! Let me into the backyard!!! Kaylie is as mobile as ever. She hasn't exactly got the walking thing down, but she can go wherever she wants as long as there is something to hold onto.

The next part of our morning involved a little golf lesson on our little putting green in the backyard! I'm not sure if she does this just to make her daddy happy, but she absolutely loves the little putting green in the back. She has already learned that the ball is supposed to go in the hole!

As soon as Kaylie is able to walk on her own, I guarantee that she will have her own set of plastic golf clubs to play around outside with!!!

Mommy! Let me in!!! The one thing that we know for sure is that Kaylie is in love with the water! She would spend all day splashing and playing if we let her. Even before she gets her swimsuit on, all she wants is to be in the water.

Speaking of loving the water. The funniest thing happened! We were in the pool and Toby (our beagle) was barking like crazy because we were in the pool and he wasn't. Well, next thing we know, we hear a splash and here he comes. He found a floatie and jumped right on. Also, the picture of the splash is me jumping into the pool. Since I'm in the middle of a "Biggest Loser" competition and I don't want to show how far I've come, this is the only picture I'm revealing at this time (more out of embarrassment than anything)!

WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!!!

for he's a jolly good fellow...

2009-02-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

He is finally here. Crystal and Jake had there baby boy Monday, and boy is he a cutie. I can hardly stand not being out in UT to see him and already have big plans to meet him soon. I think the next best thing to having a new baby around your house is having your sister have a new baby around her house. I couldn't be more happy for them. Congrats you guys.

Any resemblance between the cousins?

Samuel

Kate
Kaylie

AWAY FROM HOME

2009-02-24T18:54:00.000-08:00

It's never easy leaving a beautiful wife and amazing little girl at home, even if for just a short week. It makes it even harder with Kaylie being at that age where everyday brings something new and exciting. I keep thinking of that commercial where the Dad keeps taking pictures of the stuffed monkey until he gets home. Well, I haven't purchased a stuffed animal (who knows, maybe tomorrow!) but this is my attempt to check in at home and let my girls know how much I love them!!!

In order to get a visual, the picture below (The one above is of Kaylie in my chair at work in Scottsdale)is a picture of the back of the clubhouse here at Oneida Golf and Country Club in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

As you can tell, this isn't exactly the prime time of year to be visiting out here. And as you can see, I'm not out here golfing!!! I am pretty sure the high today did not get above freezing and I heard that Scottsdale was around 85 degrees!!!

Anyway, I just want my precious wife to know how much I love her and miss her. She truely is the greatest wife and mom anyone can ask for. She has done an amazing job raising our gem of a little girl and I am very excited to get back on Friday to see them both.

Love ya tons!!!

More than mom blog.....

2009-02-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

I realize that the past few weeks have been even more uber momifed than even they normally are....so for all you readers out there who would like something to read that is more intresting than playgound gossip, check out these blogs...amazing women who somehow seem to have it all, and do it all... well. Plus the images on thier pages are amazing.

www.stephmodo.com

www.designmom.com

www.jordanferney.blogspot.com

www.ohjoyblogs.com

inchmark.squarespace

katiedid.squarespace

Tales of Motherhood

2009-02-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

This post is indulgent, but I could not help myself....I am in love with my little gilr today. And since her dada is away from us right now, I thought he might enjoy this post as well. It seems everyday our Kay grows up so much and I wanted to capture the last 24 hours.

1. Kaylie came with me to primary yesterday, where I attempted to play the piano and occupy her simutaneously. She showed me...she know just what to do with pianos and when I would play, she stood on her tip toes and played the keys as well. Then one of the teachers took her and held her while we had music time. They were all sitting in a circle, and I could just see it on her face how delighted she was to be with all the big kids. Every minute or so, she would look over at me to make sure I was still there and then she would giggle when she saw, that I saw, what a big girl she was.

2. We went to the grocery store today where we ran into a girl from our ward. After stopping to say hi and talk for a second, we went our different ways. " See ya later...bye...and kaylie is waving her little bye bye hand without being promted.

3. Kaylie has an stuffed elephant in her bed and when I put her down to sleep I pull his tail and he makes a song. I put her down for her morning nap and she slept for an hour and a half. I was just thinking that she had been asleep a long time when I heard her musical elephant start. I went in to find my girl rocking her stuffed puppy and of course making music from the elephant to help him fall asleep too.

Today it is fun to be mom.

itchy itchy..scratchy, scratchy...

2009-02-13T14:42:00.000-08:00

Day one down...ten to go, or so I am told. We were looking forward to a long three day weekend, a celebration of Kaylie's 10 months and valentines. That is until we woke up Friday morning to find a spot covered daughter. Do kids even get chicken pox anymore? I thought since the vaccine was so popular, it wasn't so commonplace. Apparently infants carry their mothers antibodies for chicken pox for around 9 months, but are not eligible for the immunization until 12 months leaving a three months window where they are vulnerable to the virus. And poor miss K. picked it up somewhere just in time. It only furthers my feeling that Arizona is like a second world country at least in some areas and especially when it comes to the healthcare system....another post for another day. In the meantime has anyones kids had the pox, and if so what did you do to soothe them? She is actually handling it quite well, itchy, but not fussy about it...though she is not sleeping well. We did make a stop to the Walgreen's on our way home from the pediatricians to stock up on oatmeal and that pink anti-itch lotion...and of course a princess tea set since we are feeling sorry for ourselves today.

Happy Valentines...

2009-02-12T06:33:00.001-08:00

I took some picts of kay for valentines day and added some text with an editing feature...I like the block one especcially, but look at those eyes too!

Drive-In Movies

2009-02-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I went to the movies for the first time in 10 months. In pre-Kaylie days we would go and see the latest shows once or twice a month for fun or if for any other reason so we could be in the loop when we taught the high school kids Sunday school, but we are more likely to Redbox it these days. That is untill our recent drive in discovery. This weekend we went and saw "He is just not that into you" and "Seven pounds" at the double feature drive in movies. We put up our beach chairs, filled the back seat of my Rodeo with pillows and blankets and watched the newest releases. At first Kaylie was excited to peek out the window and watch, but when she got tired we just put her to sleep in her make shift bed in the back of the car and didn't have to worry about disturbing the other movie-goers if she woke up or cryed or whatever. It was only $6 for both shows and we could bring our own treats....fabulous!

Like Father...like daughter

2009-01-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Jeff took Kaylie to teach her to have a love for golf. They went to the FBR open here in Scottsdale and watched the pro's. They saw all the big name players practicing for the tournament this weekend. Chris DiMarco (if you are not a golf fan, one of the top players) and his wife even came up to Jeff and Kaylie to say hello, sign her ticket and tell Jeff she was beautiful. I am sure glad they had a fun time on their first daddy - daughter date.

Here they are watching the players hit at the driving range

Here they are...that is Stuart Applebee in the background

Watching golf makes your mom sleepy too baby girl

2009-01-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

Are you sick of this...

Could you use a little more of this...

Maybe a trip to vist us in AZ is in order....you are always welcome, the guest bedroom is ready, and the pool is getting warmer everday!

Fabulous AZ finds

2009-01-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

So I know I have been MIA for almost a month....it has been BUSY here....but here I am again. Just wanted to share some of my top new finds since moving here to Arizona.

#1 Shane's Rib Shack....if any of you have had smokehouse in Orem, it is like that only more messy and more delicousousness.

#2 Chick-Fil-a....most of you are probably thinking about that disgusting booth in the mall, but here they are free standing restaurants like a Burger King would be. I could write an entire post about this place. We don't eat Wendy's nuggets anymore. The chicken is so good and stands alone, but then they have a Polynesian sauce and a house sauce that are finger lickin good as well. And they are so tailored to kids here. On Tuesdays they get a free 4 piece meal, fruit cup and juice, they have little sanitizer towelettes to wipe down hands after playing in the play area, and they even give you kids place mats for them to eat off of.

#3 Smoothie King....I know they have these all over, and their smoothies are delicious, but they get a mention for also giving kids free smoothies. One day a week they have parent appreciation day, and if you go in with your kid, they make them a smoothie to, on the house.

#4 Woody's frozen yogurt...we just found this place since the second move, and it is going to be hard to keep ourselves from it... especially since it is only a 5 minute walk from the house. If any of you Wasatchers remember Carolines frozen yogurt at the Tri-Mart, this is what it reminds me of. They have 8 flavors of yogurt at a time, but there are always new flavors to try, andthey charge by the ounce so you can get more or less....more please.

#5 Marshall's Home Goods...this is like the best TJ Maxx you have every seen. The one here is so nice, and it is the size of a Walmart. They carry high quality brands ( I have seen Seven Jeans there for 29.00), but my favortie stuff is in the home section. I could honeslty spend hours, not to mention a lot of money in that store.

Hey, what can I say...I like eating out and I love a bargain.

2008-12-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

Please scroll down to the bottom of our blog and pause the music player....you HAVE to hear this. Our little girl knows her dolphins and speaks their language too. To bad she won't be running into any porpoises out here in the desert.

2008-12-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

We went home to Utah for week for Christmas and enjoyed every minute of it. It was so fun to watch Kaylie and have her first Christmas. We loved getting to spend time with family and we definitely got our fill of snowy weather. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas too!

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!

2008-12-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Number one is up and number two is on it's way. Two front teeth for christmas are certainly in order. I don't think she will be wishing us "merry christmas" however...with or with out teeth, that is just to much for an 8 month old to say

blog problem

2008-12-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

I am having this problem when I try to post pictures. Instead of uploading the picture when I am writing the post, it uploads all the computer languge for it. It makes it so I can't arrange picts and text the way I want. Someone please help. what do I do so it shows the picts

Phoenix Zoo

2008-12-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

We thought we would try out the zoo, now that Kaylie is a little older and it is finally cooler out here. The zoo is huge,and Kaylie took it all in. She was just about as intrested in all the other kids running around as she was with the animals. You can see in last picture...it was a lot to take in.

2008-11-29T20:56:00.000-08:00

At the last minute, we decided it would be best if we just stayed home for Thanksgiving. I was sad we could not spend it with family, but happy that I got to spend it with the two favorite people...Jeff and Kaylie. We did all the traditionals...Jeff played turkey bowl football, kaylie and I watched the parade on TV, we made ourselves a turkey dinner. It even rained, and we all went out for a walk in it after dinner. It was a very low-key, but wonderful day.

Here is Jeff carving up the turkey....he did a good job cooking that bird

Like mother, like daughter...we love turkey!

There are so many things in my life that I am grateful for, but my great husband and sweet girl are at the top of my list.

Garbage or Gold?

2008-11-25T22:51:00.001-08:00

Is there someone you know, that it feels everything they touch turns to gold? Well lately I feel that everything I touch turns to garbage. From big things like the house we are renting in Arizona going into foreclosure, to little things like ruining cupcakes that I made with a box mix and everything in between. There used to be a book when I was a kid called " Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." and I feel like I have been living mine own version of this book over and over agian. Ugggh!
Then my new favorite pick me up song plays on pandora and Jeff and I run and dance around the kitchen while Kaylie laughs hysterically at us. Later, on our first cool feels like fall day, Kaylie and I get under a blanket and fall asleep cuddled together in the middle of the afternoon. This is golden...maybe things are turning around.

2008-11-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

I just love this picture of Kaylie and her great grandma Wood. It is just captures how truely sweet my grandmother is, and how much she loves each of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Kaylie is 7 months old, and they finally got to met. It was under sad circumstances, my grandfather passed away after a battle with cancer and we went to California for his funeral. We miss him dearly, but know he is in a better place and isn't in pain anymore. I only wish he could have met Kaylie. He would have had so much fun with her. Both my grandparents have been such an example to me in my life and I love them so much.

Our Halloween Fun

2008-11-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun this month, and I took so many pictures of our Kaylie that I had to post more. For actual Halloween Kaylie and I went to trunk or treat with the Luke's...we love that you live in AZ too! We had a great time riding a hay ride and seeing all the trick or treaters. My favorite part of Halloween is seeing all the cute kiddy costumes, and there were a ton of kids there. The best part of Halloween was picking Jeff up from the airport though, we have been lonely this week while he was working in Wisconsin.

Happy MC-Halloween!

2008-10-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

So it is Halloween in two days, I am am just now getting my decorations out. Mostly because I was using a lot of my stuff to decorate the trunk or treat I already posted about and I didn't want to set it up twice. Also because Halloween just snuck up on me...it is like 95 degrees outside still, so my mind says it is August. I find it premature when I am at the Walmart and there are orange and black and candy everywhere, and then I remember it is October . I guess I have to look to the seasonal aisle rather than the seasons to tell me what time of year it is.
Some of my most favortie halloween things are things I inherited from my mom that we had around the house when I was a kid. The first is chicken mc-nugget trick or treaters. Yes, chicken mc-nuggets....I am pretty certain they were happy meal prizes. The pieces of their costumes come off and can be interchanged. The second are these plastic buckets that I like to use a luminares and line walkway on halloween night. I have 15...that is 5 of each face...one of each for every child in my family. And, if I remember right, a happy meal came inside.
I have these cravings for a simple mcdonald's cheeseburger sometimes...ketchup, mustard, pickles, processed cheese and the thinnest beef pattie . I feel like when I was pregnant, I ate pretty much only .89 c cheeseburgers from mcdonald's the entire month of Nov. Don't judge me, please. If they still came with such awesome prizes I don't think I would have any reason not to eat cheap cheesburgers all October.

Yabba-Dabba-Do!

2008-10-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

I hope you can tell who we are ...maybe a famous prehistoric family - the Flinstones? I am actually really proud of these costumes. One reason being that I only spent mabye $10 total on all three, and mostly becuase they did not require me to sew anything. I have this fear of sewing machines...a fear and a complete inability that causes me to avoid them at all cost. Who know you could make three halloween costumes by cutting, gluing and tieing. Wilma's dress is made of three old pillow cases that I cut apart ,Pebbles skirt is tied together, and Fred's shirt is made of peel and stick felt...sooooo easy! We are at our ward's trunk or treat that was on Saturday. I was called to be the activity leader in our ward like the day we moved in soI am so relieved that it is over with, and hooray that it went so well!

Our visit to Utah

2008-10-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Just Kaylie and I flew out to Utah to visit for a few days. Mostly I was missing my family and craving the fall season in Utah. We had a lot of fun, especcially Kaylie. There were so many people for her to play with and my parent's spoiled her course. And you really can't beat Heber in the fall can you? I went a little picture crazy...sorry if there are to many. The picture to the left is Kaylie on our flight. She is becoming pro at this airplane thing. We had a whole row to ourselves on our flight there which made it so easy. The flight home wasn't as wonderful....I finally gave Kaylie and tootsie pop to calm her down. She loved it!

Kaylie and her grandma playing the chase game and Kaylie and Brielle playing...Brielle was curious about Kaylie's hat, and Kaylie was really curious about what is on Brielle's head, (that is hair baby girl, one day you'll have some too.)

A four generation picture and a picture of Kaylie and her grandpa and great grandpa. She was so fascinated by great grandpa daryl's deep loud voice.

Kaylie's cousins take her on a walk to the river. She was loving facing forward in her stroller and I was loving that she got to wear some of her cold weather clothes before she grew out of them.

We tried to take pictures of the Kate and Kaylie together on two occasions. It is amazing how two girls that are a half exact gene match can look so different. And I know... enough of the cute pink hat.

My baby is 6 months old!

2008-10-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Kaylie is 6 months old already! She is the light of our lives, and it has been so much fun to watch her as she learns new things and is becoming her own little person. In honor of her half birthday, this post is all about her....aren't most of my post just that anyways.

Top 10 nicknames:

1. "_____ bear". Fill in the blank + bear...angel, littlest, baby, whatever you like.

2. " bear bear". I know this is sort of the same thing as above, but we use this more than even her real name.

3. "sister". No this isn't an announcement! We called crystal, sister when we were growing up, and now I find myself calling Kaylie that. Can also be combined into "sister bear" and yes, we read the Bersteain Bears.

4. "girlfriend" Said like a "sister" would say, and I mean a sister from "the hood" not the kind above...oh I am so suburban it is disgusting.

5. "kaylie schmaylie". I know, creative with the rhyming aren't we.

6. "monster". said with affection.... almost always

7. "pretty girl". Well, isn't she

8. " polywog". given to her by her gramps, because of her love for water. Who knows a polywog better than a "carp".

9. "little piggy." one day a boy she is dating will read this and it will embarrass her. I only bring this one out when she is eating.

10. "kay kay". I am trying harder to not say baby words like "baba" and "doggie", but sometimes this slips out like a baby version of "kaylie".

Top 10 things Kaylie likes:

1. Toby; the dog

2. Sleeping in our bed; we aren't winning this battle, more in another post.

3. Watching t.v.; she is mesmerized by the picture but we don't let her watch it really.

4. Water; pool or bathtub, she take it either way.

5. Peek -a-boo; she like to be the one who is hidden.

6. Ice water in a glass; not to drink, just to hold or put her face against...it really is hot here.

7. Her feet; she like to play with them and eat them.

8. Being tickled

9. Having her ears cleaned; so much so that sometimes I stick my finger in there to calm her down.

10. Rolling over; she just learned this and every time she does it she smiles big and waits for applause.

Top things Kaylie doesn't like:

1. Getting clothes on; I have let her wear her pjs all day on multiple occasions so I wouldn't have to ruin her mood.

2. Sleeping in her own crib; really what are we going to do.

3. Peas; will gag until we stop them coming.

4. 9:00 church; she was so easy at the 1:00 time, now at least one of us is in the lobby with her at all times...we have yet to make it past the sacrament being passed.

5. Sitting in her carseat; except when she is really calm.

6. Bottles or pacifiers; she has done a complete '180 on these compared to when she was first born.

What a Day!

2008-10-12T18:06:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was such a great day! First off it almost feels like fall this weekend. I know most of you Utahns are watching the snow fall, so when I say it cooled off I mean it wasnt warm enough to go to the pool. We also didn't have anything planned, so it was a day of looking for fun. Up first, the park. We found it by accident. Kaylie was screaming to get out of her carseat so we just pulled over into the first parking lot. She must have known what she was doing, becuase she loved it! The swings, this frog, the slide.

Then we last minute decided to find some sort of pumpkin patch. I found one on the internet that said something like" pumpkin patch, hay rides, petting zoo, children crafts, food, music..." Sounded pretty good. Well there were eight pumpkins sitting on a hay bale at a full fledged dairy farm. They did have a couple things, and Kaylie didn'y know any better to be dissapointed. It turned into be so much fun just watching her enjoying everthing so much.

This girl takes her pony rides seriously folks

She grabbed everything and wouldn't let go...this pumpkin, the tractor wheel, the horn on the saddle.

I loved this pict...they both had such great expressions

What are you watching?

2008-09-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Have you been watching good t.v? Last week ABC called it National Stay at Home week because of all the season primeres. Thankfully becuase of TiVo, we don't have to stay at home to catch all our favorites, but Monday nights that is where you will find this family. We call it "good t.v. night". We are following Chuck, How I met your Mother, CSI: Miami, the Office and Grey's anatomy. Chuck starts tonight, and it might be our favorite...hilarious. What are you watching?

Our International Traveler!!!

2008-09-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

So Kaylie is only 5 months olds, and already traveling internationally. Okay, not really, but we did have a fun road trip this past Saturday. This past weekend, our friends Amy, Preston, and cute Autumn came down from Salt Lake to visit. On Saturday we took a road trip to Nogales Mexico and crossed the border!!! We stayed just long enough to bargain with some of the locals (see the pinata purchased by Preston below), take a few pictures, and that was it.

Kaylie and Autumn are only 3 weeks apart and Kaylie loved having a playmate around the house for the weekend. Whenever she got close enough she tried poking or grabbing her cute friend. Thanks for paying us a visit Jensens...we had fun!

Mesa Temple

2008-09-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

We found the mesa temple today. It is actually only like 15 minutes away. It just kind of appears. We are driving through downtown and then there it is. It is pretty in its own sort of way....not palacial like most temples I have seen. It is more like a washington monument meets mexican ruin. Looking at the picture above it kind of reminds me of what a temple might have looked like in ancient times. It was fun to walk around the grounds, obviously with Kaylie we couldn't go inside. It is wonderful though how even just being on the outside of the temple you can feel the spirit.

Top Spot

2008-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

So we live in Arizona now. Sometimes I forget this, I guess I am still getting used to the change. When I do remember it, I think that it is okay that we do. For those of you that I talk to regularly you may remeber a time when I wasn't okay with the fact that we were going to...live here I mean. There are things that I like about here and there are things that I miss about Utah, but here is home so that is that.

I have been in the process of unpacking our things and everything that goes into movin in. I was unpacking a box that was our office stuff; jeff had packed up the boxes of office stuff and I came across a paper that was from several years ago, on the bottom it said 2005. It was a quiz we took on the internet, from a website www.findyourspot.com. I can kind of remeber doing this and we must of been in our St.George apartment. Anyways the website ask you all sorts of questions about what you like and need in a plave to live and then gives you your top 25 places. Many of you have probally done this and if you haven't it is kinda fun so you should.

Funny stuff... reading our list, mind you it is 3 years old, it says that fountain hills, AZ is our number one place. Fountain hills is about 12 miles north of where we are now. That being the case, we decided we had to visit it this weekend. It is famous for having the largest fountain in the world. It is a very small town (think Heber 15 years ago) and kind of isolated from the rest of the towns by the mountains. It is quaint and pricey and I don't know how it made it to our number one top spot, but it was fun to check it out.

Lucky for us we already live in our number 2 spot...scottsdale, AZ. If only I had known it was our number two spot before we moved...maybe I would dragged my feet a little less.

Happy 29!

2008-09-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Jeff! We hope you are having a great day and want you to know what a great husband and dad you are. We love you soooo much. Thank you for all you do to take care of us. Sorry you have to go to work on your birthday...come home soon so we can celebrate!

Love,

Amy and Kaylie