Updates

It has been forever since I updated the blog...sorry. I am now over 15 weeks pregnant! We find out in 4 weeks what we are having and we can't wait! Our 2nd appointment was good; the heartbeat was 154 beats per minute and the baby is growing. I have started feeling flutters this past week which makes me super excited! I decided we better take a picture. I feel a lot bigger this time around but so far even with Thanksgiving and the Holidays I have only gained 2 pounds. Now that I'm in the 2nd trimester I'm feeling much better and we are having fun getting ready for Christmas! Lexie loves taking all the "balls" off the tree so I hope the tree survives.

Here I am at 15 weeks.

Lexie is now almost 16 months old! At her 15 month well check a couple weeks ago she weighed 23 lbs (48%) and is 31 inches (61%) I have a hard time believing she only grew 1/2 an inch in 3 months, but the measuring didn't go so well this time. She freaked out with the medical assistant, the pediatrician, and especially the girl who came to give shots. It was so much easier when she didn't know what was going on, but she has turned into a little smarty. Lexie jabbers all the time now and has a lot of words in her ever-growing vocabulary. Her newest favorite words at the moment are "cocka" - clock, "pemple" - temple (followed by her singing "I Love To See the Temple"), "cracka" - cracker, "kitty" (followed by "mow, mow"), "chairs" (which she loves to use to climb up to the table), and she loves the "tee" - tree.

Here she is on one of her favorite things and favorite words...stairs. She loves going to my parents house and climbing the stairs.

For Christmas, Bryan's work gave him a brand new IPOD Nano. He was super excited because there is no way we could afford to buy one right now. Well, Lexie wanted to try it out and she absolutely LOVES it. This first picture is of her making one of her silly faces. She is into making really funny faces these days and it really makes us laugh.

Here she is dancing while listening to the IPOD music, and the other picture she thinks the IPOD is a cell phone. Kids are so techno-savvy these days!

Here is Lexie helping me cook, and here she is playing the keyboard which she loves (I hope she keeps it up).

The day before Thanksgiving we met up with Kirsten, Mark, and Britton for a little visit. It was fun to see them as always! Aren't Lexie and Brit so cute!

Well, I hope to be better at updating in the coming weeks and months. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas Season. We are really trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas this year by remembering Christ and all he has done for us, along with being more thankful for our many blessings. It is such a great time of year and we are grateful for all of our friends and family and all you do for us. We love you!

Here We Go Again!!!!

We just got back from the Dr. and here is the first photo of our newest addition set to arrive around May 31, 2010!Here I am with Lexie after getting a "positive" in September!

We are super excited to add to our family and can't wait for Lexie to be a big sister! I am feeling pretty good...just way tired and I do get a little sick at night. I will definitely be happy to get to my 2nd trimester when I feel a lot better and have more energy. We are happy to share our news with everyone! Everything looked good in the ultrasound today and the heartbeat was a good, strong 173 beats per minute! The cutest thing was watching the baby dance around in there, which kind of reminds us of how much Lexie enjoys dancing.

Halloween Fun

Lexie was a pirate for Halloween this year. Surely the cutest pirate I've ever seen and she even got the "Arrr" down too. She really enjoyed seeing all the dressed-up kids who came trick-or-treating.

Here are a few pictures in her costume

Lexie LOVED her pumpkin as you can see in the pictures. Bryan was the only one who got his carved this year. Mine became dinner-in-a-pumpkin for Sunday dinner and Lexie's is probably going to become pumpkin pie sometime soon!

And what is Halloween without some yummy food. We made Halloween sugar cookies earlier in the week and had a delicious Jack-o-lantern pizza for Halloween dinner. Mmmmmm!

Fall Leaves

So I am finally catching up on the blog. There are two new posts after this one. Maybe with the weather turning cold I'll be able to spend more time blogging. For FHE this week we decided to go look at the fall leaves for our activity. We left later than we planned so it got dark sooner than we wanted, but we did get to see many pretty leaves while we were driving. Here are a few pictures.

Lexie with Mom & Dad.

Lexie looking at the leaves and posing.

This picture turned out so cute!

Farewell Elder Hoyt

Last Wednesday my brother Matt left on his mission to Omaha Nebraska. A few weeks ago we spent the weekend visiting my family and we were all together (minus Pete who is still serving his mission in Houston, Texas). My brother Eric (who is in the Air Force) and his wife Tracie were also visiting so it was fun to get together and see everyone.

Family Photos

The day my parents took Matt to the MTC they stopped by and dropped Jen off to play with me and Lexie for the day. Here are some pictures of the final goodbye for two years.

Jen and Lexie had fun playing at the park.

Our Baby is Growing Up

At 13 months Lexie is turning into a little girl and not so much a baby anymore. She has such a cute personality that has really started coming out as she learns to communicate better each day. She is learning a lot of new words and can pretty much tell us what she wants. She loves to sing and sometimes in my nursery class full of 3 year olds she is the only one who will sing during singing time. Lexie's favorite songs right now are "Old MacDonald" - her favorite part of that song is E-I-E-I-O and making the animal sounds - "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam", "Winnie the Pooh" and pretty much every song she hears she sings and dances. Her favorite animals are dogs a.k.a. "roof roof's" and cats. Whenever we are at a store or a public place she waves and says "hi, hi, hi" to people passing by which always makes a few people smile. She sure makes us smile each day and brings such a great spirit to our home.

Here are some pictures from this past month.

Wearing Great-Grandpa Mickelson's hat.

Eating pizza and playing with our neighbor's bunny Bryan found outside our house one day after work.

At the playground. Lexie loved the slide (picture by Jennifer), eating wood chips and picking dandelions.

One of Lexie's new favorite things to do is sit in the bottom of the bookshelf and play with bowls. She is getting quite the imagination!

Bryan's Birthday

Yesterday Bryan celebrated his 34th birthday. Lucky for him it was Labor Day so he didn't have to go to work! Sunday evening we had cake because Annie was staying with us that night. The cake isn't that awesome because I made it in a hurry and was lazy so I didn't make the right kind of icing to decorate with...but it tasted great and that's all that matters. Here are some pictures from Sunday night:

Our Family

Bryan and his cake...he loves to pretend eat things in pictures.

Bry and Lexie. She enjoyed eating some of that cake.

Monday for his birthday we got up and Bryan opened his presents. Here are a couple pictures. He loves Terry Brooks and a new book just came out a few weeks ago so he was excited about that, and he likes getting new clothes for work.

We also got to go to lunch just the two of us since Annie so graciously offered to watch Lexie for us for a while. The rest of the day we just took it easy and topped the day off with some ice cream.

I decided to do a little tribute to my man...

34 Reasons I love Bryan Lyman:

1. He is the best husband ever!

2. He is the greatest daddy in the world!

3. He is so good with kids – I found this out before we even had any.

4. He is extremely good looking!

5. He doesn’t look a day over 25…most people think I robbed the cradle even though he’s almost 6 years older than me.

6. He gives the best hugs I have ever had.

7. He also gives the best kisses. ;)

8. He has an amazing singing voice…I wish he would use it more!

9. He is a music lover just like me and we enjoy singing at the top of our lungs in the car when we go on trips.

10. He is a great writer and writes romantic poetry to me.

11. He is the most intelligent guy I have ever known.

12. He knows so much about so many subjects and likes to learn.

13. He knows how to fix just about anything, or can figure it out.

14. He works hard and is a good provider for our family.

15. He has a great laugh that is totally infectious.

16. He has a very fun sense of humor and can make me laugh.

17. He is laid back and calms me down in stressful situations.

18. He is a worthy Priesthood holder.

19. He is a man of integrity.

20. He has a strong testimony and lives his religion at all times.

21. He supports me in everything I do.

22. He tells me he loves me several times a day.

23. He never leaves or returns without kissing me goodbye or hello.

24. He constantly tells me how beautiful I am and compliments me on just about everything else too.

25. He helps me do dishes and other household chores when I’ve had a rough day at home, even after he’s had a long day at work.

26. He is a great cook and isn’t afraid to create new recipes.

27. His first priority is always his family.

28. He is always optimistic and has faith even when things get tough.

29. He helps me be a better person.

30. Even though he doesn’t enjoy sports, he will watch them with me.

31. He always puts my wants above his.

32. He is very giving and always wants to do more to help others – especially his family.

33. He is sensitive and romantic…what girl doesn’t love that?!

34. He is my one true love and mine for eternity!!

I LOVE YOU BRYAN!!!