Saturday, March 31, 2012

My March Madness

March has been CRAZY busy for us.  We moved into our house (pictures to come) on Feb 24th, and since then we've been doing so many of the little finishing touches that needed to take place along with just trying to get back into the routine of a normal life again. . . . . . . . .and I guess we've still been trying to throw some fun into the mix as well. 

We had our first quarterly Kyhl Family Fun weekend in Cedar City since Tyson and Abbey were in charge.  Let me just say that it was like a holiday for my girls.  They had a blast!  Nothing like an entire day of play and sleepovers with cousins.

We played games. . . . . or at least tried to keep the children from cheating at every round while they played games!

The kids ran wild yelling and screaming all over the house.  I think that was their favorite part actually!

Story time:


Tyson & Abbey created a really cute "Children's Fair at the Park" activity.  It was a hit.  Check out my gangster baby:

Relay Races:




I'm not sure how we ended up with a picture where both Tyson and I look so miserable because it really was fun!

Brielle was awesome at the egg run!  Jackson (left) of course was brilliant too but I sure got a kick out of the look of concentration on Breezy's face :)


Play time at the Park:
Taylee is pretty fearless at the park which is awesome because Brielle is just the opposite.  Breeze loves it too, she's just a lot more scared of slides than Tay bug is.  There were a few times that Trav and I were wondering where Taylee was, and sure enough she was going down the big slide by herself, sometimes head first!  It was hilarious too because on that particular slide she doesn't just come to a stop at the bottom, she goes sailing off and usually face plants it!

Utter Joy:



Hitting our hard boiled eggs with golf clubs:

 Taylee became distracted by the delicious taste of the eggs!

Riding bikes:

We really did have a great time so here's our shout out to Tyson and Abbey for an awesome job!


OUR MINI STAYCATION:

Travis had business meetings in SLC & Layton so while he was in meetings, the girls and I swam, ate, told stories, and had a blast jumping on beds at the hotel!  Brielle kept saying, "I just love our vacation!"

Swimming was a little bit harder on me because they didn't have a kiddie pool.  And Taylee was not OK with being held the entire time.  Like I said, she's fearless at these things.  She kept jumping off the steps and throwing herself into the water directly away from me.  Then she'd come up choking, gasping for air, and laughing. Meanwhile, I was having a mini heart attack trying to keep Tay above water while simultaneously trying to keep my airway open since Brielle was on my back squeezing my neck so tight just holding on for dear life!  I'm sure it would have been quite the sight for anyone there, but quite luckily for me we were alone.
I love their legs!  Bree is just so tiny and Tay bug still has some baby fat on her legs that I just adore!




Brielle and Taylee had their 1st visit to the dentist!!  I was worried they'd be scaredy cats the entire time but they were somehow perfect.  My coworkers were just waiting for them to throw major fits or start puking from their hatred just so they could give me a hard time but thankfully it didn't happen!  I guess it helped that mom got to clean their teeth. 




ODDS & ENDS:
Brielle sipping  downing her sparkling cider from her very own special "goblet" while at Grandpa and Grandma R's:

Trying on cowboy boot's with Grandpa Jack:


Brielle was lucky enough to get to hold baby Dylan (Ryan and Misty's beautiful boy) on the day of his blessing.  She LOVED every second of it!

Brielle often says her tummy hurts, and it's usually so she can get her hands on a princess bandaid.  And of course, if Brielle has one, then you can bet your booty that Taylee does too.  That girl follows her big sister's every move. Head tilt and all:

Check out Taylee's face in this picture.  I'm afraid I'm going to be pulling that exact same look when Brielle is learning to drive a real vehicle. 

Proof that we did actually do some work on the house:

Decorating our Easter baskets:

We were lucky enough to have Randy come for the weekend.  Travis took him Canyoneering at Baptist Draw in the San Rafael Swell.  Don't worry about me though.  I was just working, trying to earn some money for our family while they were having the time of their lives!  Lucky Boys!


Ladies, check out those forearms.  He is single at the moment!




Today we were able to enjoy general conference. . . . . . . OK well sort of.  We did manage to get a little distracted by the antics of our 3 year old and 1 year old!

Poor Randy couldn't catch a break.  Those girls would not leave him alone for one minute.  Everywhere.  They could not adore Uncle Randy more than they do.  They climb all over him and NEVER let him out of their sight!



What a trooper to color eggs with his nieces!

Easter Egg Roll:
I've got to admit that I'd never even heard of rolling your Easter eggs down a hill until I met Travis.  It made absolutely NO sense to me when he told me that was a tradition he'd always done.  It seemed like a waste to me because why on earth would you not eat them in a delicious egg salad sandwich?  However, after my second year of being a roller, I admit that I love it.  Not only do I LOVE creating new traditions (or carrying on old ones) with my family, but my girls just can't get enough of this.  It's fun to race your eggs down the hill and then see the splash of color in the bland desert surroundings from hundreds of smashed pieces of colorful egg shell.  My favorite part however, is the egg fight that is pretty much inevitable in the end.  I will admit that Travis won this round.  I WILL win next year though!


The girls literally get mad at me if I'm too slow putting the next egg in their greedy little hands!


Watching the race.  I'm not sure if Taylee doesn't understand the rules, or simply understands them too well because she ALWAYS throws her egg WHILE we're saying "On your mark, get set. . . . . "  That little stinker knows how to win!


Why not try to resurrect the beaten eggs as best we can for round two?

HELLO SPRING!



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Boob.

There.  I said it.  I've been a big boob lately.  And actually I really hate using the word "boob" as a description so let me change that to crybaby.  I don't know what's wrong with me lately but I seem to cry at the drop of a hat.  And no, I'm not pregnant.  Menopause, perhaps?  Seriously though, I used to be tough.  It was a rare day when I'd shed a tear and yes, it's slowly gotten worse since I've become a Mom.  However, these last few weeks have really done me in and I have no good excuse.  Yeah, I've been under some stress with this house building, and preparing to move, and yada yada yada but nothing REAL.  So why would I cry while watching a rerun of "The Voice" when the sweet young man didn't get picked by the judges. . . . . . . .  or be on the verge or bawling when one of my fabulous young women sent me a text OFFERING to babysit for me.  I didn't even have to call her, she came to me.  Amazing huh?  Oh and Brielle spilt half a box of cereal on the floor and I didn't have my broom because it's out at the house.  Normally I'd kinda laugh at the irony of it, but instead I just wanted to curl up in a little ball and cry.  I cried while watching "Wipeout".  Isn't that supposed to be hilarious?!  Normally it is!  I love a show that invites you to laugh at others' misfortune! Anyway, last time I had eyes full of tears, Brielle and Taylee both sat on my lap to comfort me and Breeze said, "It's OK Mom, we're being good and not makin' a mess."  At that very second Taylee reached over and slugged her sister right in the face.  And you know what I did?  I LAUGHED.  I found it hilarious.  There's something not quite right here! 
Anyway, hopefully things will become a little bit more "normal" very soon.  We're going to be moving very shortly.  I can't wait!   I certainly have a new respect for single moms, that's for dang sure.  We have been so so busy, but I have to say it feels awesome to be able to accomplish something like building a house.  Again.  There's an entirely different pride envolved.  It feels good.  I wired just about every outlet in my house and for someone like me (OK or good at lots of things but not great at anything really), that's exciting.  I'm proud of that.  Except for the part when I was stripping wires and had done 3 rooms already so I wasn't really thinking about the power source. I'd asked my husband if I was good to go.  I was SHOCKED so badly it went up my jaw and down my left leg.  Craziest thing ever.  Hey. . . . . . . maybe THAT's the reason for my hormone craziness!!!  I just had my aha moment!  I went to Trav and told him what happened.  He looked at me and said, "Oops, sorry".  Oops?  That's it?  I would have attacked the man but I couldn't feel my left side enough to jump.  I would have just fallen.. . . . . . and then probably cried :)

Here are the few pics I've taken in the last month:

Checking out the bunnies at the neighbors.  Tay was super brave while brielle hid behind me the entire time.

Taylee especially loved feeding them carrots. . . . . and sneaking a bite for herself in between giving the bunny little tastes.


Valentines DaySequence of Events:
I really wanted a picture of them like I do most holidays.  So I took this one.  Decided I didn't really want the sippy cups in the pic. . . . . .

Taylee was NOT happy to stand there for a second picture.

So I did what any mother would do and bribed her with a piece of candy. But then Brielle wasn't smiling.  Dang.

And all Taylee wanted was her candy. And now so did Brielle.

Climbing and reaching for her tootsie roll.  A picture at this point is not going to happen.

But I still have another cheeser who will do anything for that grape tootsie.

Yep, even a pic with Mom.

Now we're all happy.  Well, sorta.  I never did get a cute pic of them both!  But at least I finally got a smile from Taylee and a great big hug from Breeze.

Since Trav was working on the house all night and I had YW anyway, we went out to lunch to celebrate.  The girls really don't get to see their Daddy too often, so we took them along.  They were so happy to see him.  Can you see Taylee's drool?!

We had New Beginnings tonight for Young Women's, and I always like to see pictures of these types of events in other wards to get ideas and whatnot so here's what we did for "Arise and Shine Forth".  We chose a firework theme.  Even did a flash mob to the song, "Firework".  We had sparkly gloves that lit up and flashed and we turned off the lights so it was pitch black besides the gloves.  It turned out pretty fun, and funny too but that's another story. 
Here they are practicing:

We did the baby picture guessing game while everyone trickled in.



They all had nametags and of course I had to find a way to sneak in my favorite candybar so I wrapped these butterfinger bars in a quote about shining that I got from pintrest.

I really like my calling working with the young women, but I'll admit I'm glad this night is over.  Now, it's MOVING TIME!