Family Fun

2011 in Review

2011-12-31T21:05:00.007-07:00

2011 was another crazy year for our family with plenty of changes and fun times. Luckily the stress of a job change and a new baby weren't in the mix this year; however, we did move again...this time back to our house in Cedar City. We love having our own place back that we can make into a home our family can enjoy for the next few years. The kids have responded really well, getting back into a much better routine and just loving the extra room to run around and play. Here are some family pictures from October 2011.

The kids are growing up so fast and we are trying to enjoy every minute of them!

A few highlights from 2011:

Hoyt has grown tremendously in 2011. He turned 1 in May, then 18 months in November and started Nursery!

Lexie turned 3 in August; she enjoys learning everything, can now write her name, and is starting to figure out how to read.

Angie turned 30 in July and loves staying home where she is kept on her toes by both kids every day.

Bryan now works from home full-time and goes up north once a month to work in his office.

Bryan and Angie celebrated 5 years of marriage in August and were able to go on a much-needed Anniversary trip to San Diego! We teach a CTR 6 class in primary together.

We have been so blessed in 2011 and thanks to Bryan's awesome job, have met a lot of our financial goals. We have built our 6-8 month emergency fund, fully-funded our HSA, started a Roth IRA, and one of the biggest accomplishments was paying off Bryan's student loan making us debt free except for the house--and that's next! We were also able to purchase something I've been wanting for a long time. Here is my main Christmas gift that we got about a month early...a digital piano! I'm so excited to start playing again and the kids are excited too!

Here's to another fantastic year in 2012!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T12:36:00.023-07:00

This year we were excited to have Christmas Eve & morning in our own home. Everything was ready for the big day so Friday I cleaned the house so Saturday we could just relax and enjoy. For dinner we had ham and potatoes and I even made some pumpkin pie. We also got a special treat--some sparkling grape juice which Lexie wasn't so sure of, but Hoyt kept asking for more.

After dinner we read the bible account of the birth of Christ and watched "Joy to the World" which has songs by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and shows the story of the First Christmas. We then put all the Christmas presents under the tree.

Lexie really wanted to make cookies for Santa so we made chocolate chip cookies and put them on our "Cookies for Santa" plate (thanks Kirsten). She was super excited! I love having little kids because they were in bed asleep by 9:00.

Here is our house Christmas morning...

I woke up at 7:30 and took a shower and about 8:00 Hoyt woke up and I woke up Lexie so we would have enough time to open gifts and get ready to go to church. The kids were way excited about their Santa gifts. Lexie has been talking about her "Pink Princess Laptop" for months and Hoyt got a "Talk & Teach Turtle". Santa was really nice and the kids loved their gifts.

Here they are playing with their new toys.

Lexie was also excited to get a candy cane full of candy in her stocking. Here are the kids with their loot from their stockings.

Hoyt enjoyed getting some fun new toys. Books to read and new cars!

He was especially fascinated with this big present which ended up being more Mega Bloks which has been one of his favorite things to play with recently.

Lexie had fun opening presents. Christmas books from her friend Britton, and princess hair accessories from Hoyt.

Grandpa & Grandma Lyman gave the kids this dog to bounce on and they have had fun with him.

Lexie was excited to get all 3 Toy Story movies! And she had fun taking pictures of everyone with her new camera.

Hoyt's race track was a hit with both kids!

Here are a couple videos we took. I missed when Lexie first got to her laptop, but she was still waking up so the reaction was pretty subdued. Hoyt was having a great time with his new toys.

I think I spoiled Bryan more than the kids this year, but he deserves a little spoiling. One of his favorite things I got for him was a Mythbusters t-shirt and matching mugs. That is by far his favorite show so he was excited. He also likes to collect hardback books from his favorite authors so I got him the full hardback set of Fablehaven.

We both got new slippers which are so nice and comfy!

We both got DVDs of TV series we enjoy. Bryan got "The King of Queens" and I got "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman".

I love this picture with my stocking because David Archuleta was in the background singing. That concert was awesome when we went live last year, and I enjoyed watching it on DVD this year! I was also excited to get a new baking set with nice pans and a cooling rack which I haven't even had since I've been married.

This picture of the kids eating breakfast was the last picture I took on Christmas and for the rest of the week. We should have gotten pictures before church, but we had to hurry out the door to be on time. I absolutely loved going to church on Christmas! I've heard other people say this, but I wish we could go celebrate Christ and take the sacrament every Christmas Day!

After we got home from church, we finished packing up and headed to spend a few days with my family. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the kids opening presents from my parents. Hoyt got a new truck with cars and Lexie got a trunk of dress-ups which she loves and wears most of the time now! We had fun visiting with everyone and going to my Grandma Hoyt's house Christmas evening and seeing all the family. The kids had fun playing for a few days and we headed back home on Tuesday. I'm really excited to be able to have Christmas as our little family, and I enjoy being able to spend time with the rest of the family during the holidays as well.

Merry Christmas 2011 from the Lymans!

Tis the Season

2011-12-23T21:58:00.022-07:00

Warning...LONG post with lots of pictures ahead. We had a fun December this year! I was happy to get my Christmas shopping mostly done by Thanksgiving so we could just focus on enjoying the holiday season as a family. The first week of December we got a pretty good snowstorm and had about 8 -10 inches so Lexie wanted to get bundled and play in the snow.

They were out there for an hour and got the bottom 2 layers of a snowman done, but then it got too cold and after that day it started warming up again so the snowman didn't quite get finished.

The Christmas tree was a challenge this year with Hoyt and we could only have decorations on the top half or he would pull them off. I only got this one picture of the kids decorating the tree.

But I did get some video of the kids dancing to Christmas music. It was so cute and we did this several times during December.

I took a few pictures the day after we decorated the tree. The kids were excited about all the Christmas decorations, especially the tree!

Also the first week of December, Lexie wanted to send a letter to Santa. I wrote the letter and she asked for a pink laptop and a candy cane with candy inside for her stocking. She also asked Santa to bring Hoyt a toy he would like. I took a picture of her mailing the letter even though she didn't want me to take a picture of her with the letter. The next pictures are of Lexie singing with the primary at the ward Christmas party. She was so excited they let the older nursery kids going into primary next year sing with the primary.

This shows how huge our primary is and this is not even close to the full primary because not everyone came to the ward party. We have 3 nursery classes with around 20 kids in each!

This is just a random picture from December, but it is so cute! Hoyt loves to climb in the dryer when I am doing laundry and Lexie climbed in with him so I decided to snap a picture. Love these silly kids!

One weekend in December we decided to go to St. George and have some fun. We decided to eat at one of our favorite places...Olive Garden! We all enjoyed a fantastic meal!

Next we went to the St. George Temple to see the Christmas lights. Of course it isn't Temple Square, but it was decent weather and just right for our kids. Lexie wanted to get a picture with Jesus in the visitor's center.

I love this temple and it looked awesome with all the lights!

Here are the kids looking at the nativity. The reason for the season!

Lexie wanted to get a picture with me on the temple steps, and this is the best I could get of Bryan and the kids.

After the temple we went to the mall so I could grab a few things and Lexie got to see Santa. We didn't get pictures because you couldn't take your own, and professional pictures were way too expensive, but it was so fun to watch her meet him and sit on his lap. At first she liked seeing him but said she was too scared to go meet him. Bryan gave her a pep talk and she finally decided to do it, but by that time there was a line so we had to wait for a while. She was so cute talking to Santa and he was one of the best I have seen. So overall it was a fun little outing for our family!

I was determined this year to make to the Melody Miss program in Orderville. This was Mrs. Lamb's 43rd year to do Melody Misses and my mom, Mickell, Jodi, Jen and Pete were all involved so I was determined to make it over! They did not disappoint and it was a really great performance that brought back a lot of memories from the years I spent in Melody Misses.

I love Mrs. Lamb! She is one of the best ladies I have ever known and I'm so grateful for the years she was my teacher and she has been such a great friend to me and my family through the years. She is also my awesome friend Amy's Grandma. I was so glad I was able to talk to her and give her a hug after the performance.

My Mom also put tons of work into making the program a success and Pete helped out on some songs on the keyboard.

Jen did a great job on her solo, and Mickell and Jodi did a pretty duet. I'm glad I got to go!

The Monday before Christmas I needed a quick idea for an activity so we bought a gingerbread house kit to decorate. Hoyt was ready for bed soon after we started so we put him to bed.

Lexie had fun helping put candy on...and eating the candy. Here she is with the finished product.

I'm not much of an artist so this wasn't the best, but Lexie had fun and that's all that mattered.

It was a great month full of fun and hyper kids. We enjoyed watching some of our favorite Christmas movies like Muppet Christmas Carol, The First Christmas, Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, Elf, Charlie Brown Christmas, and Lexie's favorite this year was Frosty the Snowman. We had fun dancing to Christmas music, looking at Christmas lights, and reading Christmas stories. And Veggie Tales taught Lexie the true meaning of Christmas. In her own words she would say "Christmas isn't about toys, it's about Jesus".

18 Months!

2011-12-11T19:40:00.003-07:00

I can't believe my little boy is 18 months old. He's handsome, cuddly, and so much fun!

We just took him to the Dr. and here are his 18 Month Stats:

Height: 33 3/4 in (81%)

Weight: 26 lbs (47%)

Head: 19 in (60%)

There is so much I could say about this little guy. He is a mama's boy for sure and I love his hugs followed by "yuh you" which means "love you"! He is starting to talk a lot more and use words we can understand. The other day I told Lexie "that's not nice" and he quickly repeated "das not nice". He started singing songs before he really started saying words. His favorite song right now is "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam"; he sings "a subeam" and throws his arms in the air for emphasis. He can also sing most of the ABCs, and if he sees a letter O he points to it and says "O"; also, if he sees any letters on signs, on clothes, in books, or anywhere else he starts singing the ABC song. His favorite show is "Super Why" and he loves to sing the songs and dance. The kid just has music in his soul because he is constantly singing, dancing or both. His favorite toys right now are Mega Bloks (every morning he goes in Lexie's room to get them and comes out with them saying "bloks, bloks") and he loves Lexie's dollhouse because he can open and close the door. He is seriously a little OCD because he gets obsessed with opening and closing doors and you cannot get him to stop. The sad thing is, he is tall enough to reach the doorhandles at church so his first few times at nursery haven't gone so well because he can escape already. He will use anything he can find to stand on so he can turn the lights on and off and we have to keep the chairs out of the kitchen or he will climb up and stand on table. He is a really good sleeper now and goes down usually around 8:00 p.m. and gets up at 8:00 a.m. Lately when he wakes up he starts yelling "Mommy, Mommy" and if I don't get in there fast enough he changes to "Daddy, Daddy" which is super cute and always gets us laughing. He can eat with a spoon really well now, but sometimes it's just not fast enough for him so he uses his hands to shovel it in. One of his favorite foods is cereal and any box in the kitchen he points and says "cereal". He seems to prefer his left hand so that would be interesting for a house full of righties to end up with a lefty. He loves balls and is getting quite good at throwing them. He is completely attached to his sports blanket and loves pointing out all the different balls. I also love that he enjoys watching sports with me, especially football! I'm pretty sure he is going to be a little athlete and with a name like Hoyt it was bound to happen. :) His laugh is so infectious and his smile just makes me melt. I love you my little man!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-12-05T22:18:00.005-07:00

This year we had Thanksgiving with the Lymans and Bryan's Bentley cousins. James, Jenny, and Bethany came to stay with us Wednesday night. My kids were so hyper about having company that getting them to bed took way too long so we were a bit tired the next day. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the church across from the Temple in St. George. I was glad we fed our kids before heading down because they didn't eat anything. All they wanted to do was run around with the other kids and play. Lexie and Bethany had a great time and would never stop for a picture so this is the best I got.

A bunch of us decided to take some of the kids to the park to play. The weather was pretty nice until it was getting dark and we decided to get back to the church. Hoyt had fun on the slide.

I wasn't able to really take pictures because the only thing I did the entire time was follow Hoyt around the church. He enjoyed exploring and opening every door in the entire church...yes at only 18 months he can open doors. I was VERY tired by the time Thanksgiving Day was over! Bryan at least got to visit with his cousins he hasn't seen for a long time. And I really don't mind having some bonding time with this handsome little dude!

We had such a great view of the temple and I took this picture at the perfect time of day. Love it!

We had planned to head over to visit my family for the remainder of the weekend since Bryan's family all left Friday morning, but my sister was really sick so we decided to stay home and have a relaxing weekend just the 4 of us and it turned out to be quite nice! Friday we slept in and stayed in our PJs for the majority of the day which was just what we needed after a tiring Thanksgiving Day. We went to the store in the evening when the Black Friday crowds were gone and I think I spent a whopping $2.64 or something. Saturday we went to Pizza Factory in support of Small Business Saturday and thanks to American Express we got a FREE delicious meal! We went to the park and then just again relaxed at home with the kids. While at the store, we did let the kids ride the little merry-go-round and they were perfectly happy. Even though I was disappointed to not see my family, it really was a nice, relaxing weekend we all enjoyed--especially Bryan who got a much-needed break from work.

We have been given so much this year and are grateful for many things: our eternal family, the Gospel, our Savior Jesus Christ, our house, Bryan's new job which provides us with the things we need. There is so much more; we are truly blessed!!!

Funny Kids!

2011-11-20T12:33:00.007-07:00

These 2 little munchkins are the light of my life. In addition to bringing me a great deal of joy, they make me laugh several times a day. I love how kids find happiness in the smallest things...like a night out on the town getting ice cream cones at Arctic Circle.

Lately Lexie has been saying the funniest things and I wanted to write them down before I forgot.

The other night was actually really touching because she decided to "write" me a letter. She read it to me and said in her exact words: "Dear Mommy, I hope you realize that I love you very much!" I kind of got choked up with that one.

We went to the store one night and were looking at some Christmas stuff (because it's just everywhere in the store) and Lexie said "Why don't they have Thanksgiving stuff? That's just silly!" I agree that it is kind of ridiculous that I can't find any Thanksgiving decorations anywhere. For our front door window, Lexie and I printed and colored pictures of pilgrims, turkeys, etc. so we could celebrate Thanksgiving first before the craziness of Christmas hits.

One of Lexie's new favorite movies is the Liken the Scriptures David & Goliath and she keeps saying "Goliath is REALLY HUGE" and "He's the hugest guy in the world". Now, I don't think Thurl Bailey is that huge, but he is a big guy with a great voice! The other funny thing is that she associates giants with Jack and the Beanstalk so she keeps asking to watch "Goliath and the Beanstalk".

Because I did most of my Christmas shopping online, a lot of packages have been coming to our house. My kids have loved having bubble wrap and the other big air bubbles used for packing to pop. So when another box with big bubbles came the other day Lexie was so excited her response was: "Oh my cow, thanks for buying these bubbles!" I guess next year we'll forgo buying toys and just get some boxes and bubble wrap for the kids; it would provide hours and hours of entertainment and fun!

Lexie loves for me to go play in her room and she likes to have parties. Here is a video of our latest one that turned into a dance party. Hoyt was really getting into it, but wanted to play with the camera when I tried to video them.

Hoyt is getting so big and finally starting to talk and say things we understand. I know most of this post was focused on Lexie, but I will do an 18 month post for Hoyt soon and write more about him.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T22:00:00.025-06:00

Our Halloween festivities started the week before when we decorated sugar cookies for FHE. As you can see, the kids had more fun eating the cookies than decorating, but they were yummy and it was fun.

I forgot to take pictures before the plastic wrap was on for some deliveries, but here is a plate of Halloween cookie goodness!

The next activity was carving pumpkins which we did Saturday evening. We almost didn't get pumpkins because we waited so long to buy them and 2 stores were out of good ones, but thank goodness Lins had plenty!

Bryan carved this pumpkin for the kids and they loved it!

Lexie asked every morning for about 2 weeks if it was Halloween. The day it finally arrived she asked to "Go to Halloween" a.k.a. trick-or-treating. She couldn't wait to put on her costume and go get some candy! I thought for sure Lexie would want to be a princess this year since she is really into that right now. I was looking at a costume store online that was having a big clearance and saw an ice skating costume and she said that's what she wanted to be. So I also found this future Olympic champion costume for Hoyt and thought it would be super cute to have them both be future Olympians. I was actually watching the 2008 summer olympics in the hospital while in labor with Lexie and watched the 2010 winter olympics while about 7 months pregnant with Hoyt so I guess that is just in their blood.

In the afternoon we went to SUU and visited some of my friends and let the kids trick-or-treat there. We then went trick-or-treating to some of our ward, but Hoyt had been sick for a few days and still wasn't 100% so after about 20 minutes we figured he was done. I stayed with Hoyt and handed out candy while making dinner and Bryan took Lexie trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. She LOVED it this year and her pumpkin got full after only going for about 45 minutes total. Once she got home she enjoyed handing out candy to the other kids who came to our house.

Future Michelle Kwan and Michael Phelps?

For dinner I thought about getting a Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's but it was more than I wanted to pay so we just made our own pumpkin pizzas that were super yummy!

The kids enjoyed their Halloween meal.

Hoyt in his other Halloween outfit.

After carving the kids pumpkin, Bryan carved his huge pumpkin and here they are all lit up. I kept my pumpkin to make dinner-in-a-pumpkin later in the week! Happy Halloween!

Catching Up: This & That

2011-10-23T18:04:00.012-06:00

The past few months I have worked on and off to catch up my blog. My goal has been to be up-to-date so I can get back on schedule and blog every week so I won't forget as many details. Well, this is the last post that gets me there...hooray! It is kind of a random post of a few events I wanted to blog about, but didn't have enough pictures or info for them to each have their own post so here we go.

I am laughing just looking at this picture. This is our cute little "Super Hoyt". The kids found the shades they used in the hospital when he was on the bili lights and they would wear them, but it was a little dangerous having their eyes completely covered because they were running into walls etc. Bryan cut eye holes and this is what resulted. I think it's hilarious and cute.

Lexie always likes to be with me in the kitchen cooking. Here she is helping me make some pizza for dinner.

September 30, my brother Matt returned from his mission to Nebraska! This is my 4th RM brother; there is one more to go, but he still has about 5 years. Luckily for us, Matt flew into Cedar so we all headed over to see him fly in and come off the plane.

I didn't get any pictures of our little family with the missionary, but here are some with my parents and little sister. Lexie had just turned 1 when Matt left and I was about 5 weeks pregnant with Hoyt, so a lot has changed in 2 years!

I did get a picture of Hoyt and Bryan waiting at the airport.

After the airport, we had everyone over to our house for pizza and cake. It was my immediate family and my Mickelson Grandparents. We had a great time eating and visiting. I made him a cake with our high school colors which goes perfectly with the Halloween season. :)

The next day was Saturday General Conference, so we decided to head to my parent's house to visit. We also wanted to see the leaves on the mountain. We didn't know it then, but it was the last time for us to go up the canyon and over the mountain because of a massive landslide that will take many months to fix. And to top off the trip, Lexie got carsick because she was trying to see the pretty leaves. She gets the motion sickness from my family (you should see us at Lagoon all downing dramamine), but usually she closes her eyes and takes a nap so she won't get sick. We didn't have time to stop and take pictures but I did get a few out the window of the car. I love fall!

So far October has been somewhat uneventful. Bryan is still working hard at his job and we appreciate all he does for us. It's so nice to be back in our home, and I feel like the kids are so much happier and have settled into a nice routine. They are finally on an amazing sleep schedule from 8 or 8:30 p.m. to 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. The hard part for me is getting to bed at a decent hour because I get so much accomplished in the evening while they are sleeping. We still need to finish painting, unpacking, and fixing the backyard; but we are healthy, happy and loving life!

On to a few more random pictures. The kids were really into a DVD about shapes and it was so cute we had to take a picture. Also, the other day Bryan bought me yellow roses which was cute. When we were first dating, he bought me yellow roses and told me they meant friendship and it became a joke between us. When he brought them to me the other day I asked if he wanted to be my friend; luckily, he is my best friend!

And now I am caught up!!! I hope I can stick with it and keep the blog current so I can remember all of the small things that go on with our family. I'm sure my slacking off has cause less people to even read my blog, but my main objective is keeping a journal and history of our family. Until next week...

Bryan's Birthday!

2011-09-26T23:47:00.015-06:00

We were in SLC for Bryan's Birthday this year. We played on Monday for Labor Day, he worked in his office on Tuesday, and Wednesday was his B-day and no one was working in his office that day so he decided to take the day off and make up the time that weekend so we could play some more and enjoy the day as a family. We wanted to take our kids to Temple Square. We had lunch at the Lion House and while walking there I saw one of my idols, Sherri Dew. I smiled and said "Hi" to her and she said it back. I have heard her speak in person before, read her books, and listened to her in conference--she is amazing. After our lunch we decided to go see the sites.

The kids in front of the Christus Statue.

Lexie took this picture of the statue.

Bryan was taking the above picture of me and the kids in front of the temple, then a nice lady took a picture of our family together. We are grateful for temples so we can be together forever!

Lexie loved all the flowers on Temple Square. She was smelling all of them, and ended up picking one to go in her hair.

The kids loved the fountains, but they wouldn't look at the camera.

On our way back to the car, we went and checked out the new Deseret Book across the street. Outside the store, there was another fountain that Lexie wanted to play in.

We did a little necessary shopping and then headed to Provo to meet up with Pete for Bryan's Birthday Dinner.

Here are the kiddos having fun in the car.

For dinner Bryan chose his favorite Los Hermanos. I forgot to get pictures inside with Pete because we were wrestling kids, but I got one of Bryan coming to the car. We had yummy food and it was a great way to end the trip and head home.

Lexie insisted we make Bryan a cake and sing to him, so the next day that's what we did. His favorite is white cake with chocolate frosting and we stuck a candle in there for fun. I didn't have 36 candles in the house. :) We love you Bryan and hope this is a fantastic year for you!

Labor Day: Down on the Farm

2011-09-26T23:41:00.009-06:00

For Labor Day we decided to head north so Bryan could work in his office the next day and we could have some fun with the kids. We decided to take the kids to Wheeler Farm to see the animals. I'm sad I didn't even know about the farm when we lived 5 minutes away from it, but we're glad we checked it out this time around. The kids LOVED seeing the animals and playing on the playground. I'm sure this is just the first of many visits.

Hoyt really loved the ducks and geese and kept trying to make sounds like them...super cute!

Lexie had a blast feeding the ducks and geese!

We got to pet some sheep, see cows and many other animals.

And the huge playground was a hit with the kids.

Here are some videos of Lexie feeding the animals and Hoyt trying to sound like them. :)

After the farm I was so excited to go have dinner with my awesome friend Cindy and her new husband Matt. It was great to catch up with her, even with my kids being crazy and tired. We then headed over to say hi to Stan & Kristie's family before heading to our hotel.

The next day, Bryan worked in his office while the kids and I headed to my friend Amy's house for most of the day. Lexie was excited to play with Emily and I was happy to visit with Amy and catch up with her. We picked Bryan up from work, went to dinner at Olive Garden, did some shopping, then went back to our hotel where we went swimming. I didn't get pictures that day, but it was fun!

Well Check Stats

2011-09-26T23:40:00.010-06:00

We took the kids in for their well-checks on September 1st. They are growing up so fast, checked out healthy, and are surpassing all the developmental milestones. Here are the stats...

Lexie at 3 years old:

35 lbs. (84%)

3 feet 2 3/4 inches tall (85%)

Silly Lexie likes to dress up, and she loves her baby kitty.

Hoyt at 15 months:

24 lbs 6 oz (44%)

32 3/4 inches (87%)

I really love my sweet, blue-eyed boy!

3!!!

2011-08-23T10:02:00.017-06:00

My baby girl is now 3! I can't believe that 3 years ago little Lexie came into the world and made me a Mom. It has been the best experience to watch her grow and I look forward to many more years of us growing together. Her birthday was the day after we got home from CA, so we decided to stay at my parent's house one more night so we could celebrate with the entire family the next day. Here is the little birthday girl all ready for church.

Hoyt kept trying to climb the outside of the stairs, so my dad finally just let him sit up there and he thought he was pretty cool. Lexie then had to join in and sit up there too.

Our birthday parties are simple, but fun. We had a tasty Papa Murphy's pizza dinner after church. Lexie wanted Rapunzel cupcakes for her cake this year. I needed to do something simple since I just got back from vacation and I thought it all turned out way cute.

I loved the cupcake stand I found and Lexie enjoyed eating cupcakes and playing with the Rapunzel rings.

Happy Birthday to you...

The gifts...she loves her Rapunzel dress from Grandpa & Grandma!

She opened her big gift when we got home that night.

Both kids have enjoyed that gift.

At 3 years old Lexie has grown up so much. She loves life and enjoys so many things. Her favorite color is pink, and she is really into Princesses right now. I love how her imagination has grown; listening to her conversations with her toys and animals is always entertaining. She is constantly trying to use big words she has heard and thinks she is a really big kid. Potty training took a while with the 2 moves in less than a year, but once we were back and settled in our house she just starting going on her own and has done great since even at night! Lexie has know her alphabet and sounds of all the letters, colors, shapes and much more for quite a while and is starting to learn to write her name. She loves to have books read to her and then she will sit and "read" them to herself and knows some of her favorites by heart. She also loves going to the library to get new books, then playing at the park that is next to the library. She constantly begs to go ride her new trike outside. Her favorite show is Clifford the Big Red Dog and we often have a little Lexie dog in our house running around; the other day she even told me she had an appointment at the groomers. Her favorite food is pizza and she loves milk, apples, ice cream cones and chocolate; but she has recently started asking for vegetables so she can grow big and strong! Lexie loves going to nursery and singing "I Love to See the Temple" and many other fun songs she learns there. She always reminds us to read scriptures at night, and her prayers are really sweet and sometimes even funny because if she wants something she will pray to get it: like the night she prayed we could eat cookies and go to bed. She also makes me laugh because she tries to imitate me by taking her purse everywhere and has to put her credit cards and coupons in so she can be like Mommy. She is a great big sister and Hoyt just loves her so much and enjoys playing with her--even though she occasionally likes to steal toys and tackle him.

We love our sweet, bubbly Lexie Lou...Happy Birthday!!!

Anniversary Trip Days 3 & 4

2011-08-21T11:02:00.049-06:00

Day 3 we were able to sleep in a little bit with no kids to wake us up. We did have to be up in time to get our complimentary breakfast, but that was worth it! We finished getting ready and our first destination was the gorgeous San Deigo Temple. There were tons of weddings going on that day, but we were able to find a parking spot eventually and we were able to do a session. For me it was the best part of the trip! We found a nice guy to take some pictures for us.

After the temple, we grabbed some lunch and headed to Legoland. Bryan really wanted to see it since he loved Legos as a kid. It was cool to see everything made of Legos and Bryan had fun taking a trip back to his childhood, but that park is really intended more for little kids so we didn't ride many rides or anything, but had a good time.

Loved the restroom sign!

The Lego store was really awesome and my brother would have gone crazy in there.

I had to get a picture with the buffalo!

Bryan with one of his hero's.

We did a little shopping at an outlet near Legoland, then we headed back south toward San Deigo and we were driving not far from the ocean. We stopped at the beach and it was the first time for Bryan to see and touch the ocean and he thought it was really cool. I was excited because I hadn't been to the ocean in 12 years!

Bryan seeing and touching the ocean for the first time!

Our names in the sand.

Enjoying the beautiful beach together. It was the perfect end to another wonderful day on our trip.

After the beach we drove around to look for somewhere to eat, but it got dark and we were tired so we headed back to our hotel and just got Chile's to go since it was right next to our hotel and we ate in our room and went to bed early since we had to be up and on the road early the next morning. We were going to go to one attraction Saturday morning, but a few days before our trip we found out my cousin was having his reception Saturday evening so we had to just get up and hit the road by 7 a.m. to get back in time to get our kids and go to that. We got up and got ready to go, grabbed some complimentary breakfast and were on the road at 7:30 a.m. Besides stopping for gas and a couple stores, we drove straight back and passed my parents heading to the reception just outside of town. We unpacked everything, changed, then headed to the reception. I didn't get many pictures but these were cute of Lexie & my cousin's daughter Ta'Kara and Hoyt love the fountain.

Hoyt loved the "horse" swing. My aunt Merilee had fun playing with him. He started saying "Wee!"

Anniversary Trip Days 1 & 2

2011-08-21T11:02:00.035-06:00

For our 5th Anniversary, we decided to take a much needed vacation without the kids. Our last real vacation was our honeymoon so we figured we deserved at least one trip every 5 years. Our destination this year: Sunny San Diego (although the weather wasn't quite as sunny as we thought it would be).

On the morning on August 10 we packed ourselves and the kids and drove to drop the kids off for my family to tend for the rest of the week. It lengthened our drive by about 2 hours, but well worth the awesome babysitting services! We got out about an hour later than planned so we were already behind, but as the drive progressed we had made up about an hour by the time we reached just outside Las Vegas. However, they were doing some sort of closure on the freeway all through Vegas so we moved a mile in about an hour and had to get off and drive through the city, get gas, then find our way back on to the freeway that was open. By this time we were 2 hours behind schedule. We took sandwiches and snacks to eat on the way and I'm so glad we did because if we would have had to stop and get food we would have been even more behind. We finally arrived in San Diego and found our restaurant of choice called the Studio Diner. The deal was that we bought a $25 off a purchase of $35 or more for $2 online and we thought it would be no problem to get to that amount, but the hardest part was eating it all since their portions were huge. We got an appetizer and I got the Count of Monte Cristo sandwich that was awesome and Bryan got fish & chips that had a huge filet of fish. We got dessert to go and ate that later in our hotel. Yummy food, fun atmosphere and we ate for under $20 when tip and everything was figured in...awesome for CA!

We got so far behind that our plans for that night were shot since it was dark and cold. We gassed up and went to our hotel to try and get some rest for our busy day 2.

Our hotel for our last 2 days was paid for because we bought new tires from Big-O and they were having a promotion to get a 2 night stay at a nice hotel in CA. We decided to go for 3 nights so we had to buy a hotel on Priceline for the first night. Being such a cheapskate I bid low and got a room at the Kings Inn Hotel. The rooms weren't horrible, except for a musty, cave-like smell but we knew for about 10 hours we didn't need anything fancy. The next morning we were getting ready to leave the hotel and as we were checking out I saw some kids I recognized...yes, the Bonhams were staying in the same hotel as us on the same night. We thought it was hilarious that we would run into family in San Diego. We decided to all go to the Waffle Spot restaurant and Aaron generously bought us breakfast. It was tons of fun to see them and get to hang out for a little bit.

After Breakfast, we headed to the San Diego Zoo. It was a little cold that morning and we didn't have jackets with us, but after an hour or so it warmed up and actually was perfect weather and not too hot. We first took the bus tour of the zoo which gave us an idea of what we really wanted to visit on foot. We had lots of fun!

Pretty view from the zoo skyride.

Love to sit and watch the apes...they are awesome!

Cute Panda Bear and HUGE Elephant.

After the zoo we headed to Sea World. We had planned on doing our steak dinner between, but we were 2 hour shy of the restaurant opening so we decided to eat snacks and eat dinner later that night.

I absolutely love sea turtles. Aren't they amazing creatures?!

And what would Sea World be without Shamu. Such a great show...with the exception of one thing. As the show was ending and I was taking some videos, a seagull pooped right on us getting Bryan on the arm and me all down the back of my shirt. Some nice people sitting behind us had Clorox wipes so I was able to get most of it off before we had to walk around again, but it was not my favorite moment of the trip.

Loved the sharks and penguins!

On the Sea World Skyride, the view was beautiful and you could see the ocean in the distance.

Bryan's always wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show, but we've never been able to go. At Sea World they have Cirque De La Mer which isn't quite the same thing, but was pretty cool. Here are a few pictures.

Now these guys were super amazing and strong.

After Sea World we headed downtown to the Gaslamp district to Urban Bar & Grill for a nice steak dinner. I had Filet Mignon for the first time and it was amazing! Bryan also enjoyed his sirloin, and again using the $2 internet deal our $70 meal came in around $40! It was a great meal to end a fun day. We were exhausted and headed for a much nicer Holiday Inn Express where it smelled great and we got a wonderful night sleep!

5 Years!

2011-08-21T11:01:00.012-06:00

5 years ago...August 11, 2006 - The beginning of our eternal family.

Seems like a lifetime ago, yet just the other day all at once. I am extremely lucky to have found the perfect guy for me, my best friend and the love of my life. We have been through so much in just 5 short years. To me it seems that since we married later than most of our friends, everything has been crammed into a shorter period of time. Here are some of the highlights of the last 5 years:

~ 7 job changes between us in the first year of marriage.

~ Bryan went back to school and finally graduated.

~ Bought our first home.

~ Had our first baby girl just 3 days after our 2nd Anniversary.

~ Added a baby boy to our family 20 months later.

~ A job loss and new job within 2 months of having a new baby.

~ Moved to Sandy, then back to our house in Cedar 10 months later.

~ Lots of laughter, tears, stress, and joy!

I love you Bryan. Thanks for the best 5 years of my life so far.

Here's to eternity...

Princess Room

2011-08-21T11:00:00.004-06:00

When we moved back into our house I knew I wanted to make it feel more like home, especially for the kids. So when there was a really great paint sale at Sherwin Williams we decided we should buy paint and decorate. Because Lexie's room was the only one really organized we started with her. She wanted us to paint her room pink, but I am not a fan so we went with a really pretty purple and decorated with princess stickers and pink princess bedding with a pink valance for the window. It turned out super cute! The pictures don't do it justice but it gives you an idea.

We got an amazing deal on her dresser and the bookshelf was built by one of my brothers and we painted it to match the dresser.

Lexie and all her animals love her new princess bedding which we got for an awesome price!

The shelves and nameplate we painted for Lexie before she was born and they match the room great! The valance is cute too and I love the picture of Christ with the children.

Princesses everywhere!

We haven't been able to paint and decorate Hoyt's room yet, but hope to get to that very soon.

More July Fun...

2011-07-27T20:54:00.015-06:00

July was a busy month full of activities and hot weather. Here is an overview of some of the activities. We decided to check out the July Jamboree and it seems to be getting more crowded every year and harder to even walk around so it's probably not something we will be doing for a while...especially with kids. But they did enjoy the balloons they got from SUU Athletics.

And Bryan enjoyed seeing some fancy cars...

My awesome friend Kirsten and her 2 kids came to stay with us on their way to CA. I didn't get pictures like I wanted because I had a huge sinus headache and wasn't thinking clearly. Lexie wanted to sleep on the floor with Britton, but we told her she had to sleep in her own bed. These two are so cute and like to play together.

We got a steal on some new shoes and Lexie was trying to jump and show off her sparkle shoes that light up. I should have done a video because they pictures don't do justice to how cute it was.

This day we were shopping and were getting paint at Sherwin Williams for the kids rooms. While waiting for them to get it mixed for us, we decided to grab some lunch at Top Spot. Lexie had hit her breaking point and wouldn't wake up to eat her food. But Hoyt was wide awake and ready to dig in!

For me it's just the little moments with my kids that make life worth while. Sometimes I get my camera out and take a picture like this day when she was using her basket as a hat. Love this girl.

For Pioneer Day we decided to try and not be boring and check out the Cedar parade. Um, for the most part big mistake. This was our favorite float...the Dutch Oven Drum Corps. :)

My kids were just not enthused and it was hot and the parade was slow with huge breaks between things so they lost interest pretty fast.

I also enjoyed the 9th Ward Kazoo Band.

Lexie got her Frisbee then she was ready to go. We left the parade early and went to the store to get popsicles and headed home since Bryan didn't have the day off and had to work.

We also decided to take advantage of Lexie still being 2, so we took the kids to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie at the theater. I'm pretty sure that's the last time we'll be doing that for a while. It's a good thing the movie was just over an hour because Hoyt was done about 10 minutes before the movie got over. Lexie loved it and said "Pooh Bear was HUGE". I thought the movie was sub-par and not near as good as the original. We got a picture of Lexie and her Pooh Bear by the big sign in the lobby.

Lexie, Pooh Bear, Hoyt, and Bryan.

Overall we had a crazy month. We were supposed to go north to a wedding reception for my friend Cindy and do some other fun things, but the kids had fevers for a few days so Bryan went up alone and worked in his office since we had already paid for a hotel. We still love being back in our own house and have had such a fun summer!

14 Months & Running

2011-07-27T20:53:00.006-06:00

My little guy is already 14 months old! Around my birthday, he finally started to act like he was going to walk by taking a few steps on his own. About 2 week later, he really took off. These pictures and videos were taken the day he turned 14 months. I forgot to post his stats at his 1 year well check. Because of the move, we didn't get him to the Dr. until a few days before he was 13 months. Here they are:

Weight: 23 lbs 8 oz (54%)

Height: 31 inches (77%)

Head: 18.25 inches (43%)

Such a handsome little dude!

Every time I tried to get a video he struggled. He is just running everywhere now! Because he started walking so late, when he decided he would rather walk than crawl he could walk clear across the house.

Hoyt was being so silly with this pretend mushroom from the play food. He actually plays more with Lexie's kitchen and toys than her.

I just can't believe how fast my baby boy is growing up! He is easy going and not in a hurry to do things. He's been slower at everything than Lexie was, but just moves at his own pace enjoying life and having fun. He brightens my day with his hugs and is such a cuddly guy who likes to smile and laugh. He is a little OCD at certain things like he has to close any door that is open. He will sit and open/close things for hours. He also loves to climb anything and everything. He hasn't shown any interest in talking at all, but he loves to sing and can sing most of the ABC song and parts of many other songs as well.

We love our little Hoyt boy!

Independence Day Weekend

2011-07-07T12:59:00.027-06:00

My family tending for my birthday date worked out perfect because we were already heading over to spend the weekend for the Independence Day celebrations. Saturday we went swimming with the kids and had a great time, but I forgot my camera so I didn't get pictures. Later that day we decided to go to the playground. I knew it was hot that day, but it was in the high 90s and when we got to the park it just seemed way too hot to want to be out very long.

Resting in the shade.

Even with the heat, Lexie had to try out every slide.

And the girls had to swing too...

Sunday we just went to church then had dinner in Kanab with family.

Monday was the 4th. We got up and Bryan made waffles with my new waffle iron, then we all went to the parade. Here is our little family all decked out in our patriotic gear.

Hanging with the family....

This picture shows the entire parade in one shot...pretty short one.

My sister was in charge of the games at the park so she enlisted the help of my entire family to run everything. Luckily my parents had 9 kids and 6 of us, plus Bryan and my Dad went to the park and helped the kids play games until we were out of prizes. Nate was helping with the slip'n slide and Lexie had such a great time!

After we were done at the park we headed to Kanab to have an awesome Dutch oven dinner and watch fireworks with all the extended family. It's a yearly tradition and my aunt and uncle own a house right across from the city park so their lawn has the best view of the fireworks in town.

We went over to the park during the entertainment before the fireworks and Lexie played with Ta'Kara in the splash pad. Lexie wasn't sure about getting wet, but after some encouragement she finally got wet and had a great time. Hoyt wasn't as happy to be strapped into his wagon, but he did great for the most part.

After getting dried off and into a change of clothes, Lexie HAD to go down the slides again and again. If kids weren't going down fast enough she would just get ahead of them and go. I do not understand where she gets her energy from, but she had fun!

After a long, hot day it was finally time for the fireworks. I was worried Hoyt would freak out and hate them because of the noise, but he seemed to do fine. Lexie liked the pretty colors, but as you can see in this picture she was super tired by this time.

Pretty...

I love the fireworks in Kanab, just like in Cedar because of the loud echo from the mountains. You just don't get that everywhere and the show was really great this year. Family, Food, Fun and Fireworks...the perfect 4th of July!!!

Turning the big 30

2011-07-07T12:59:00.012-06:00

Turning 30 didn't seem like a big deal. And really, it wasn't. I didn't think too much about it until 1 week before my birthday when we had a surprise 50th Birthday party for my Mom while my military brother and his wife were in town. I didn't get many pictures from that night, but it was a lot of fun and we really did surprise her big time. And it got me thinking about her 30th birthday party. I was 10 years old and remember thinking how old that seemed at the time. So then it hit me--that really doesn't seem that long ago, which means I am going to be 50 before I know it. But my mom has aged well and doesn't look a day over 30, so as long as I have that good fortune, even that won't be a big deal. I thought her cake turned out great!

She really was quite surprised which is really hard to do!

I didn't take any pictures on my actual birthday, but it was a pretty good day. I got my hair cut, which is always nice and relaxing. In the afternoon, my parents were over picking up my sister, so they took our kids home with them so Bryan & I could finally get a much-needed date! We went to St. George and first had dinner at Olive Garden--my favorite! Then we were able to go do sealings at the temple--one of my favorite things to do with my husband! After that we did a little shopping. Bryan bought me an awesome double Belgian Waffle Maker which I have really wanted for long time. He also insisted on buying me this beautiful cake.

We drove to my parent's house that night and the kids were already passed out. So the next day everyone sang to me and we ate cake.

So far, 30 is looking pretty good. I have been so blessed and I'm comfortable where I'm at in life at this point. Happy Birthday to me!

Summertime Fun in June!

2011-07-07T12:58:00.013-06:00

I didn't take pictures in June until 1/2 way through the month because the first part of the month was spent still trying to get unpacked and settled. We are still working on that, but trying to also get out and enjoy the summertime! The kids have been so content to be back in our house with more room to play.

One day I walked in and found them both in the toy bucket being silly.

Here is Hoyt at 13 months enjoying his own Gogurt. He really just wants to eat whatever I am eating, so when I make something for myself to eat I have to make sure there is enough for both of us.

Lexie is the queen of crazy sleeping (she gets it from both parents). We had the rocking chair in her room for a while and some nights she would play and read books in the chair until she just passed out.

One of Lexie's favorite things to do is go to the park. She loves to swing and slide, and slide, and did I mention slide? This particular day she was trying going down backwards. She would stay and play all day if we let her. This park is right next to the library, so we've been having fun going and finding books like "Clifford the Big Red Dog" which is also her favorite PBS show right now.

Hoyt likes to ride in the stroller and observe all the kids playing. But I know he really just wants to get out, get dirty and crawl around.

This is the only picture I got on Father's Day. Lexie was so excited to give Bryan his card and chocolate. The first thing she said was "You are going to share your chocolate with me, right Daddy?" Bryan is a great Dad to our kids and I'm grateful for all he does for our family. I didn't get a picture, but we also got Bryan an office chair so he could be more comfortable while working from home.

We have also gone swimming a few times this summer, but I haven't gotten pictures anywhere except the Kanab pool when we went to an extended family FHE. We have also been to the new Acquatic Center in Cedar and we're excited to be able to go year round since it's indoors. I know this might sound funny, but the most fun we had swimming was at the Orderville pool. They don't allow any floating toys in the Cedar pool, so in the small town pool we could use a little boat for Hoyt and he just absolutely loved hanging out in the pool just floating around. Lexie also had a lot of fun.

Here is Hoyt and Bry enjoying the water.

Lexie had fun playing with my cousin's daughter Ta'Kara who also shared her floaty tube. Lexie loves the water, but does NOT like water to get in her face.

She was a little scared, but got brave and went down the pool slide.

We've gone to several parks around town and both kids enjoy just being outside and having fun in the warm weather. It seems like it was a long winter and now we just want to be out having fun!

It's also nice having Bryan's work schedule be so flexible so we can go out and do things during the day if we want, then he will work a few hours in the evenings on those days.

Even though the parks are fun, it will be nice to get our yard done so there will be a place for the kids to run around and play right out the door. We are hoping to get that done while it's still nice.

The Move

2011-06-17T11:33:00.018-06:00

If I have learned one thing this past year it is this: Never move twice in less than a year. If I would have known we would be moving back to our house only 10 short months later, I would have left a lot of things at our house that really didn't need to be hauled up and back. But we really had no idea this is the direction we would go.

At first we thought we could just do 2 loads using a Uhaul trailor, but after our 1st load, we figured we probably needed a moving truck. I found a good deal on a moving truck, but it had to be on Thursday, May 26 for 24 hours, and Bryan had to drive to Cedar, pick up the truck, drive to Sandy, load the truck, drive and then unpack in Cedar. I had most everything packed by the time Bryan got the truck to Sandy so we figured we could have the truck loaded and be on our way in a few hours. Oh how wrong I was! First of all there was a mass exodus from some apartments in our ward, so the EQ was too busy to help us which left Bryan to take loads down the elevator to the truck.

We started loading about 4 p.m. and at first it seemed to be going well, but it seemed that more stuff just started to appear and felt like we were never going to be done. We got the kids in PJs and figured we could for sure be heading out by midnight. Well, somewhere around midnight the kids fell asleep on the floor. Here are some pictures...they make me a little sad because I felt so bad their beds were packed and Bryan and I were so exhausted from packing and moving that I just didn't know how we were going to drive, unpack, and have our moving truck turned in by 9 a.m.

Lexie is a pretty crazy sleeper. These pictures were only taken a minute apart and she is in a completely different position.

We were about 95% done by about 2:30 a.m. but we could take no more so we decided to rest and wake up at 5:30 a.m. to finish up and hit the road ASAP. So on only 2-3 hours of sleep we got up and finished everything. Bryan called the truck rental place and they said if we had the truck back by 2 p.m. we wouldn't be charged anything extra. We hurried to finish up packing, cleaning, then grabbed breakfast at Burger King and hit the road. I was driving the Tribute with Hoyt, and Bryan was driving the moving truck with Lexie. She was SO excited to ride in the moving truck and I'm sad I didn't get a picture of her in the truck, but I was sleep deprived and we were in a hurry so I never did get one.

I called my parents and asked for a few of them to come help us unload the truck so we could get the truck back by 2. We were looking at only 1 - 1 1/2 hours to get everything unloaded, the truck filled with gas and turned in. Luckily our kids were angels and let us just drive straight with just a short stop to gas up the truck. When we got to our house, I was keeping track of the kids while Bryan started to unload. Thankfully our awesome neighbor Brother Armstrong just happened to be home and he came over and helped Bryan unload for probably 1/2 hour before my family showed up which was such an answer to our prayers. We are also super grateful my Dad, Mom, and a few of my siblings came and helped us get the unpacking all done and helped get everything returned just in time! Right as we got here unpacking the Dish Network guy came to set that up for us, and our Internet people came at the same time so in just a few hours of arriving home we had TV and Internet! It felt SO GREAT to be back in our house! We made a lot of progress getting unpacked the first weekend we were back, and hopefully we will be completely settled sooner than later. Home Sweet Home!

Annie & Rob's Wedding

2011-06-17T11:33:00.015-06:00

May 20-21, we traveled up to Logan to attend the wedding festivities for Bryan's sister Annie and her now-husband Rob. Friday we drove up and checked into our hotel which was super nice. By bidding on Priceline, we were able to get a great deal on a room in the brand new Springhill Suites. After getting settled, we headed over to James and Jenny's house and the girls (and Hoyt) attended Annie's bridal shower. Bryan went with the rest of the guys to work on the park decorations for the wedding the next morning. After the shower we went back to the hotel and our kids were hyper and excited to be staying in the hotel, but we did get some sleep eventually.

Saturday morning we got up and had a nice, hot continental breakfast then we all got dressed and ready for the ceremony.

Here are the kids in their wedding attire.

Lexie and her cousin Bethany were the flower girls. Bethany did a great job dropping the flower petals, but Lexie just wanted to pick the petals up and put them in her basket.

Lexie looking for petals, and the bride & groom saying their vows.

Here are some pictures of Bryan and his siblings, now all married!

A good looking group!

Annie & Rob with all the nieces & nephews.

And here is our little family. Thanks to Bryan's cousin Shandra for taking some pictures for us!

The kids had fun blowing bubbles at the reception.

Lexie blowing bubbles, and my 2 handsome guys!

Hoyt had fun in his new wagon with cousin Patrick...

...and Lexie had fun giving them rides around the park!

And everyone danced the night away...including the flower girls!

The Move: Pros & Cons of City vs. Country Living

2011-06-16T22:21:00.003-06:00

Since this blog has become my journal I wanted to post about our decision to move back to Cedar City and also record my Pro/Con list for moving and Sandy vs. Cedar. I want to write it all down so in the future when we have to decide where we want to live I can look back and remember what I like and dislike about living both places.

First of all, when we bought our house almost 4 years ago we really had no plans of leaving Cedar City. I guess no one really plans on losing a job and having everything turned upside down, forcing you to make a move that you really didn't plan for or even want. I think too much change in a short period of time is hard, and combined with the hormonal shifts of just having had a baby made it even more difficult.

Bryan found a condo for us to live in and I was very nervous to move into a place I had never seen. When we first got there I didn't think it was too bad...until all of our stuff was moved in and I realized we couldn't fit everything in such a tiny space after having a house.

Condo Cons:

1. The kitchen--it was more of a kitchenette you see in a hotel which made it very difficult to cook and move around.

2. The paint--it was ugly, drab, and everything was painted the same color including walls, doors, and baseboards.

3. The bedrooms--way smaller than our house with tiny closets and hardly room to walk around once you put a bed in them.

4. Storage space--there was hardly any storage space througout the entire place and they wasted a lot of space.

Condo Pros:

1. The washer/dryer--we had a nice front-load washer that cleaned our clothes great and was super quiet. I liked it so much I can't wait to save up and get one for myself.

2. The view--I loved looking out the window and seeing beautiful mountains; also from where we lived we could see 3 temples!

3. The location--close to everything and right in the heart of the Salt Lake Valley. Also, less than 2 miles from Bryan's work!

When our renter told us he was going to be moving out in May we first started trying to find a new renter to move in. I half joked/half seriously started talking about moving back to our house and having Bryan commute because he had only been working in the office 2-3 days a week so we figured he could just work up there Mon-Wed then be home the rest of the time and it would have been cheaper to rent a place for just him and make our house payment than it was to rent our house and pay rent up there. As Bryan was discussing his dilemma at work, his supervisor suggested he just move back to Cedar City and work from home and told him if he only saw him once every couple months in the office that would be fine with him. So instead of searching for a renter for Cedar we began advertising for someone to buy the remainder of our contract in Cedar. Here is our Pro/Con list:

Sandy Pros:

1. OUR WARD! Cresent 16th Ward has been the best ward we have lived in since we've been married. The people were friendly and welcoming and we felt more at home the first week there than we ever felt in years at other wards. We made friends easily and felt wanted and appreciated; and we really enjoyed our callings

2. Shopping. I'm not a huge shopper, but when I need something I love having options. And with so much competition I could get great deals on just about everything. It's also very nice to be just down the street from Costco and several other awesome places to shop.

3. Closer to Bryan's family. Even though Bryan's parents were about the same distance away, we saw them more because they came north for appointments and family gatherings. Also, we were able to see some of Bryan's siblings more often.

Sandy Cons:

1. Time. Everything took longer. There may have been more places to shop, but getting there, shopping, and getting home took 3 or 4 times the amount of time it takes in Cedar. I hated sitting in traffic and the fact that I couldn't go grocery shopping in less than 3 or 4 hours.

2. Cost of Living. Our rent for a tiny condo was more than our house payment in Cedar. And rent is only going up. Even though things like gas and groceries are a bit cheaper there, you have to buy gas more often because of sitting in traffic and the distance and time it takes to get from one place to another.

Cedar Pros:

1. Time. We can go to 3 stores, the library, play at the park and be home in less than an hour. It makes me feel like I can spend more time with my kids and not feel like I'm rushing around all the time.

2. OUR HOUSE! We get to live in our house that we love, that we can fit everything in, that has a garage, that has a yard for me to grow a garden and let the kids play outside. Even better is not losing money to rent and putting that extra money toward the house which will help us pay it off faster so we can be debt free!

3. Closer to my family. With 9 kids and 1/2 of those still at home, there is always something going on with my family so it's nice to be close so we can be there for family gatherings.

4. Size. We really like the size of Cedar City because we were small town kids and enjoy the comforts of country living. I like going places and seeing people I know, and I like being familiar with the town.

Cedar Cons:

1. The Ward. There are a lot of great people in our ward, don't get me wrong; but I have had a hard time fitting in and finding friends. Perhaps it's because we live on the wrong side of the ward in the smaller houses, or maybe it's because everyone has small kids and are just too busy to make much of an effort. Mostly I think it's because people associate most with those in their neighborhoods and not much outside of that. Whatever the reasons, I wish our ward had the same feeling as the ward in Sandy. I'm hoping to just make a better effort to make others feel welcome and maybe in return I'll find some friends and feel more comfortable.

2. Shopping. With only 2 grocery stores now and 1 Walmart, it's hard to get everything you want/need especially when it comes to coupon items. But so far I've been able to still get great deals and find most of what I need. Luckily we'll be heading north quite often so we can stock up on some things then.

After considering everything we decided that the obvious choice was to move back to Cedar City. We prayed about it and felt like it was a good choice for our family at this time. We might move back north after we are able to sell our house, but when the time comes we'll have to weigh the Pros/Cons again and see which place wins.

Hoyt's 1st Birthday!!!

2011-05-18T13:46:00.025-06:00

Hoyt is now 1 year old! Hard to believe it's been a year since my handsome little boy entered the world. He completely stole my heart and I love this little guy so much! He is such an easy going, loving little boy. He loves to give hugs and just cuddle which I just love because his big sister is the complete opposite. I love his big blue eyes, his infectious laugh, his easy temperament, and his amazing hugs! His birthday came at a pretty crazy time for us because we decided to move back to Cedar City by the end of May. The week of his birthday we took a load of our stuff from Sandy to Cedar City, and met with our renter to check the house and give him his deposit back. We decided to stay south for the weekend to celebrate with family.

The first order of business on his birthday was to have Great-Grandma Mickelson give Hoyt a haircut. Here are pictures with his long hair and sitting on the stool getting ready for the big event. He is so easy going that I thought he would be fine with the haircut. I didn't take into consideration that Hoyt is scared of noises, such as the vacuum, so the buzzing noise of the clippers, mixed with being held down on a stool was just too much for the poor little guy. He screamed the entire haircut and after didn't want anything to do with me. Luckily after a few minutes he was happy and ready to party!

Here is the finished product...so handsome! He really enjoyed eating pizza for his birthday dinner.

Pizza time!

The big gift we got Hoyt we wanted for both kids and since his birthday is first we gave it to him. It is an awesome wagon that the kids love and we will be able to have fun walks to the park and get good use out of it this summer!

Hoyt loved it so much he pretty much sat and played in the wagon his entire birthday. He kept pointing to the ceiling fan but we laughed and said he was saying #1 since he is now 1!

More presents...

For his cake I decided to do farm animals because according to Bryan, Hoyt's first word was E-I-E-I-O...not exactly a word, but he loves "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". I'm no professional, but it turned out cute.

He really wanted to tear into the cake! Thanks Great Grandpa and Great Grandma for coming to the party...and for the haircut. :)

Here is a video of Hoyt singing "Old MacDonald"; also all of us singing Happy Birthday and him eating his cupcake.

Yummy!

And here is our little family. I have a hard time getting both silly kids to smile for pictures. They always smile until we take pictures.

Me with my little birthday boy - then & now. People always joke about momma's boys, but even though I have a great bond with Lexie, it seems there is a different kind of bond a mom has with her son. I'm so happy to have both my kids and I love to watch them grow and learn new things every day. It makes me such a better person being a mother and I couldn't be any happier to say: Happy 1st Birthday Hoyt! Mommy loves you forever!!

Playing Together

2011-05-18T13:46:00.006-06:00

I decided to do a shorter post since these pictures were on their own and didn't fit anywhere else. Hoyt's favorite thing to do is go and play in Lexie's room, especially with her kitchen. He started using the organization bins to stand on to make himself taller. He always wants to look out the window of the condo, but is only tall enough if he stands on the bin. He will stand for long periods of time just looking outside. He also needs something to stand on to be tall enough to reach things on the play kitchen. Another thing about Hoyt is that he has to have the door shut. If any door is open in the house he will go over and shut the door. He isn't walking yet, but he can climb on the couch, Lexie's bed (where he gets stuck then starts screaming), and to the top of the stroller (yet again gets stuck and starts screaming). He can crawl 90 miles and hour, stand alone for several seconds and take a few steps between furniture, but he really has had no desire to take off walking quite yet.

This day the kids were playing together in Lexie's room. I love those moments when they are both happily playing at the same time. It is more like side-by-side playing than interactive play, but they really enjoy being together, laughing, and having fun!

Lexie is really getting into imaginative play, and it is so much fun to listen and observe what she is doing. I need to start writing down specific examples of what she does so I can remember and share them. She is starting to play more with her baby and be the mommy. She will also treat her animals like babies too, like today when she prayed for her puppy who she was putting down for a nap. She wants to say all the prayers on the food and family prayers. With the new imagination has also come nightmares about monsters, etc. but we have told her she can pray not to get scared and some mornings she will get up and tell me Heavenly Father and Jesus helped her not be scared. That is such a great thing for a parent to hear! Even though she likes reading books, Lexie would rather have bedtime stories that are made up; I am not so creative so my stories aren't that great, but Bryan loves making up stories so I usually send him to put her to bed. She is currently obsessed with Clifford the Big Red Dog and still loves Super Why because she knows all of her ABCs, is now learning what sounds each letter makes, and is even interested in spelling words. She also enjoys singing and making up her own words to songs which can be super hilarious. Her favorite movie since Easter has been Tangled and she loves to sing the songs and make up stories about Rapunzel and Eugene. One day she was kissing her kitty and I asked what she was doing and she held up the kitty and said "This is Eugene and I'm Rapunzel"...so funny! These kids are just growing up so fast and I need to document small moments so I can always remember these fun years in our lives!

Easter 2011

2011-05-18T13:43:00.011-06:00

This year our Easter was pretty low-key, but the kids had fun! Saturday morning we got a visit from the Easter Bunny who left us some fun treats in our baskets!

Not quite sure what they are looking at...

Lexie went straight for the candy...but she loved her baby kitty.

Hoyt also really liked his basket contents.

This is a cute video of him checking out his basket, then dancing while watching his new DVD. He was really getting down until I started recording, but I got a few seconds of the dancing.

Later in the afternoon we decorated eggs. Lexie loved it and for several days after kept asking to color more eggs.

Sunday morning I gave the kids some new church clothes to wear for Easter and they looked super cute in their spring outfits!

I love this picture of the kids and Bryan; and we got one with me.

We had a great Easter season and had FHE lessons about the atonement and resurrection so we could focus on the true reason for the Easter season. Lexie also enjoyed watching the Easter Veggie Tales during the month of April. Hopefully our kids will continue to learn about our Savior and fully appreciate all He has done for us in making it possible to live again someday with our families!

April Adventures

2011-05-18T13:25:00.010-06:00

In March we waited and waited for good weather so we could go outside and have some fun. Finally, on April Fools Day it wasn't a joke that it was super nice outside! We decided to load up the kids and take them to a park. Hoyt enjoyed being in the stroller.

Lexie loves the park, especially slides! She enjoyed going down all of the different slides and running around with the other kids. She really likes to be outside so we are hoping for lots more nice weather!

After going to the park we decided to grab dinner at Firehouse Subs. Here are my two cute fire fighters.

Speaking of fire fighters, one day we decided to go get ice cream at Baskin Robins because they had .33 cent ice cream cones. The fire department was there and Lexie got to meet some real fire fighters, look at their cool firetruck, and even sit in the truck to get her picture taken. She was excited because she loves big trucks!

During the priesthood session of conference, my awesome friend Julie came to visit me! I haven't seen Julie for several years and hadn't ever seen her little girl except in pictures. It was so much fun to visit and catch up. She was one of my best college friends that I met when we both worked at the SUU Bookstore. I had so much fun not only working with her, but outside of work as well. I went home with her a few weekends, and she went home with me a few times too. I went to her mission farewell, visited her soon after she came home from her mission, went to her wedding, and she came to my wedding. She has a beautiful little girl Izze who had a fun time playing with Lexie. Here they are riding together on Lexie's car. Thanks for coming to visit Julie, you are an amazing friend! (I'm just sad I didn't get a picture of me and Julie...next time!)

This video of Lexie and Hoyt is hilarious (to me at least). The first part is Lexie trying to eat a Gogurt while she is falling asleep. The next part is Hoyt jabbering away which is super cute! You might notice he's wearing the same clothes as the previous video, but it is purely a coincidence that he was wearing the same thing both days. I love my silly kids!

Lexie went to her very first friend birthday party in April. It was for her friend James from nursery and my friend Elizabeth's son. They had the party at a place called "Bouncin' Off the Walls" and Lexie was in heaven! She loves blowup toys, especially the big slide! Daddy had fun taking the kids down the slide and playing with Lexie.

Hoyt mostly loved the bounce house. He could have spent hours in there. He would crawl around and just laugh even when bigger kids were bouncing and he would fall down. He loved it!

Lexie had such a great time at the party and some days she tells me to get ready so we can go to another party.

Lexie is such a silly girl sometimes. Whenever I get out the camera she wants me to take her picture even if she is in her jammies. The other picture was her being silly and putting her pullup over her head. She thought it was hilarious. She is now almost completely potty trained, except at night, but we have had several nights when she wakes up dry so we are making progress! When we got back from Christmas she insisted on wearing underwear. It has taken a lot of patience, but I'm hoping she'll be 100% trained before her birthday.

Hoyt turned 11 months in April. He was excited when we got out some of the toys Lexie played with at his age. This little chair was a big hit!

One evening when we were getting ready to eat dinner Lexie got out her witch hat from Halloween and put it on Hoyt. After we took his picture, she wanted a picture too. Ok, she seriously has the same clothes on in almost all the pictures in April. I promise my kids do have more than one outfit each, but between getting dirty and just wanting to change clothes several times a day you never know what they are going to end up wearing. If it were up to her, Lexie would just live in her swimsuit all the time. This summer she probably will.

This is just one of those things that makes me smile. They dumped the toys out of the bin and Lexie wanted to give Hoyt a little ride. He was grinning the entire time!

March Stuff

2011-05-05T21:35:00.018-06:00

I keep thinking I will get caught up on this blog soon, but I just haven't been able to keep up. I feel bad I have had to do entire months in single posts, but once I am caught up I am going to try to blog once a week or more. With that said, here is my attempt to catch up on the month of March. I didn't take many pictures...again. I really want to get back into blogging each week so I don't forget all the little things that happen. My kids are growing up so fast and being with them every day and just enjoying the little things are such priceless moments.

Every time we go to the mall, Lexie wants to ride the carousel. We don't usually carry cash, so we haven't been able to let her go, but we finally did one day so we let her ride and she was super excited! We were a little worried because she gets motion sickness and it is a small carousel that spins fast, but she seemed to do just fine.

Hoyt was a little tired and ready to get home for a nap.

In the middle of March, my uncle passed away from cancer and we went down to his funeral. We picked up Pete from Provo and all drove down on Wednesday evening. A funny story about the drive down (it wasn't really funny at the time but is now). The wind was blowing against us the entire way which was making us get horrible gas mileage. Also, once our gas gauge shows 1/4 tank it drops way fast and around Beaver it hit that point. We decided not to stop and gas up in Beaver because the price is usually tons more than other places. We usually get the best deal in Panguitch so we figured we could make it since it was just over 40 miles. Well, just after we started over Bear Valley with over 30 miles to go, our gas light came on. I had this happen to me one time before when I was just past Duck Creek heading to Cedar and had around 25 miles to go. I just coasted down the mountain and ended up being just fine. So we knew there was still some in the tank once the light is on, but we never really tested it because who really wants to run out of gas? Well, we were all pretty nervous and it was the longest 30 miles of my life, but we made it and all got a good laugh...next time I don't think I will take the risk to save a few dollars. The funeral was Thursday morning, and even though it wasn't the best of circumstances, it was great to see so many family members that we haven't seen for a while. We decided to just stay the entire weekend and enjoy some family time.

Friday night was the Jr. Prom, and for those of you not familiar with the small town prom traditions, the Jr. class spends numerous hours transforming the gym into their theme. It is also a community event and not just the high school kids go to the dance. Parents, community members, and kids of all ages look forward to attending the prom. Pete was nice and watched our little munchkins so we could go on a much-needed date. We had never gone to a dance since we met, so it was fun to go dance the night away at the Prom.

Here we are all dressed up and ready to dance!

Sisters! We were missing Jen in this picture because she was in getting food at the tea party. Oh, and Mickell won Prom Queen! Both my teenage sisters are beautiful and fun to be around...much more popular than I ever was back in the day. :)

Here are some pictures of the decorations. The theme was "Alice in Wonderland" and it looked really awesome in there!

My mom helped build the catarpillar so I had to take a picture. And here is Bryan dancing with Jen who is wearing Mickell's "crown" and holding her flower she won for being Prom Queen.

The big event of the night is the Jr. class performing the "Promenade" they practice for weeks. They did a great job. Here is Mickell and her dance partner with their ending pose. And here she is dancing with our Dad. It was a way fun night! I helped Mickell do her hair and she looked gorgeous in her dress! I had so much fun dancing with my handsome husband enjoying the decorations, atmosphere, and music!

Hoyt turned 10 months in March! I know I say this a lot, but he is such a sweet boy with a very mild temperment. The big accomplishment at 10 months is Hoyt FINALLY started sleeping through the night! It was very difficult having him get up in the night for so many months. Lexie was such a good sleeper from just 3 months old, and still is a fantastic sleeper. Adjusting to a baby not sleeping through the night was getting exhausting. After the big switch to formula a few weeks after he turned 9 months he started getting satisfied and his sleep went from 6 to 8 to 10 or more hours he was sleeping at night. I started getting uninterrupted sleep at night and it really did a lot to make me feel more human again! You can also see a little double chin in these pictures which meant he was putting on weight again which really made me feel better.

In this picture you can see his 2 little bottom teeth. So far he has 4 teeth: 2 top middle and 2 bottom middle.

This is a really cute, short video of Hoyt saying Mom and laughing.

Feeling the Love in February

2011-04-28T08:41:00.003-06:00

February always seems to come and go very quickly...maybe that is because it's a short month. I didn't take many pictures, except for our Valentine Day celebrations. Lexie was super excited to make Valentine cookies. The weekend before V-day I made heart sugar cookies for us to decorate. Lexie had fun decorating, but mostly she liked the icing.

She was up ready to decorate. Here are some of the cookies. Yum!

In February, Hoyt turned 9 months old! Here are his stats:

Weight: 21.01 lbs. (58%)

Length: 29 in. (75%)

Head: 18 in. (63%)

I was a little worried when he had gained less than 2 lbs from 6-9 months. I knew he wasn't nursing as much as he should, and I felt like I wasn't providing him what he needed. He was doing great with solids and I had been trying to get him satisfied with those, but he still wasn't sleeping through the night and I really thought that part of it was that he was still hungry. I had been trying on and off since he was 7 months to supplement with a bottle and have him take one in case I needed to leave him with someone else; however, he was strongly refusing. The Dr. wasn't extremely concerned because his iron levels were good and he hadn't dropped too much, but I knew he needed formula to grow better. I bought formula (which made me glad I nursed for the first 9 months of his life because that stuff is expensive). I tried to first get him used to taking a bottle by pumping and giving him breastmilk, but he struggled even wanting to take that. Basically because I hadn't tried the bottle soon enough when he was a baby he didn't want to even try. I would try to pump and barely get an ounce so I knew my milk was almost gone. After getting him to take the breastmilk bottle a few times then refuse the formula we determined that he did not like the brand we were using. I researched and found out that Similac tastes the most like breastmilk so I went and bought some ($$ ouch!) and he didn't flat out reject it like the generic. Then he got sick, which actually ended up being a blessing because he couldn't breathe when he nursed and eventually after fighting with him for hours he took a bottle! I decided to just switch him over completely and I could see him starting to fill out again and seem more satisfied. He started sleeping longer stretches and even slept over 10 hours a few nights so that was the long 3 week ordeal we had to deal with which really took up most of my month (maybe that is why I didn't take many pictures). Also, at 9 months Hoyt didn't have any teeth yet. But just a few days later a tooth poked through and 3 more came in within 2 weeks after that. So with the teething, learning to take a bottle, and a long sickness, it was a rough month for our little guy. He started standing up to everything and walking around the furniture. He is so good natured and patient with his sister, most of the time. He does love to eat and feed himself finger foods. I know he is growing now because we had to switch him to 12 month clothes. I enjoy my snuggly little guy!

Lexie hit the 2 1/2 mark in February. She is just growing up into a little girl and is a big burst of energy! She is really tall for her age and towers over everyone in nursery, even those several months older. She loves to sing, especially primary songs. Here she is doing "If You Chance To Meet a Frown" holding the picture and doing the faces.

Lexie always has on opinion on what she wants to wear and already loves to shop for clothes and shoes (and she doesn't get it from me). She goes through phases where she doesn't want to eat anything and then the next day she eats everything all day long. She loves to go on slides and wants the weather to warm up so she can go to the playground every day. She loves animals and gets so excited when people in our building ride the elevator with their dogs. She also loves her brother and just wants to play with him all the time. And as you can see she's going through a stage of only wanting pigtails in her hair. Lexie knows all of her ABCs and always amazes me with the things she knows, especially about the scriptures. She loves nursery and I can tell her teacher enjoy having her in class. She's also starting to say some pretty funny things. When I remember them I need to write them down.

Here are the kids in their Valentine's Day clothes from Grandma, and getting presents from Mom & Dad.

Lexie liked her stuffed animal, coloring book and candy.

Hoyt loved his musical book.

I made Bryan his favorites for dinner. We had pepper steak with rice, a peanut-butter cream cheese pie for dessert, and sparkling cider. Sadly, we didn't get pictures of us on Valentine's Day, but I want Bryan to know what an amazing husband and father he is and how grateful I am to have such a handsome, smart, kind and loving Valentine!

My Silly Kids in January

2011-01-31T13:36:00.016-07:00

January was a busy month getting back into a routine after the holidays. It marked 5 months since the big move and we have still been working on getting settled into our new surroundings. January is always kind of a depressing month because the holidays are over and the weather is bad, but we tried to have some fun together. Here is our month in kind of a long post...

Hoyt really did enjoy the jumper but this day he was just too tired and fell asleep. But that didn't keep him from jumping in his sleep as you can see in the video.

Lexie got her parent's crazy-sleep-position genes and I thought this picture was so cute of her sleeping with Pooh and Kitty on the couch.

Lexie is always wanting to "hold" Hoyt, but he's getting a little too big now. He is really patient with her trying to mother him.

Here are some pictures of Hoyt getting to have a bath in the ducky tub. He loves to splash and I love his cute face and big blue eyes!

Lexie likes to dress up in her Halloween witch dress. I thought it was funny she put that on with her Christmas socks...in January. The other pictures are of the kids getting ready to head out of the house.

One of Lexie's favorite things to do is to go to Arctic Cirle to eat a hamburger and play on the slides. The Arctic Circle in Draper is the best fast food restaurant I have ever been to...not for the food necessarily (although they do have great ice cream), but for the amazing service and atmosphere; and it is always packed. They give complimentary small cones, bring your food and treat you like you are in a sit-down restauarant. Lexie loves the play place so we go there at least once a month.

Hoyt turned 8 months old this month. Time has really flown since he was born and we can't imagine our family without him. He is so easy going and is enjoying crawling everywhere allowing him to get into everything and harder for me to keep track of for sure! I decided to get some pictures of him in the rocking chair Grandpa and Grandma Lyman gave to us. Such a handsome little guy!

Hoyt finally grew out of his infant carseat and one day at Costco they were having a great deal on a convertable carseat just like Lexie's so we made the transition. The kids used the big box as their playhouse for a few weeks until it was completely destroyed. Sometimes I think toys are overrated when a box is the only toy kids need.

Here is my pretty Lexie girl all ready for church. These pictures kind of weirded me out because they look a lot like pictures of me when I was this age. When we got back from spending time with my family over the holidays, she decided after seeing Jen wear underwear and go potty she would too. So ever since then she has worn underwear. She's not completely trained yet, but getting there. She is a burst of energy and keeps us on our toes every single day. She stopped taking naps soon after we moved so she is up with me all day and is my little sidekick. We are still working on teaching her to share with her brother, but she loves him so much and can't wait for him to wake up and play with her every day.

Being a mom is definitely the best thing I have ever done with my life and I love these little munchkins more than anything in the world! It isn't always easy, especially when we all get sick (which has happened a lot recently), but always worth it!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-31T13:35:00.010-07:00

Happy New Year Everyone!!! We are looking forward to 2011 and excited to see what it will bring for our family. We drove back home from being with family on New Year's Day. We all pretty much got sick over the holidays so it was a rough week between Christmas and New Year, but that's what happens with family togetherness. It was crazy getting everything packed into our car and turned out to be an interesting drive home. Lexie has gotten car sick several times in her short life, and for some reason she decided that particular drive would be a good time to get sick. Because of the trip, I had no clean laundry so the only thing I had to dress her in was one last pair of pajamas. We stopped and got her all cleaned up then kept driving. By the time we hit Provo we were starving so we decided to try and celebrate New Year's a little bit and we stopped at Los Hermanos for some yummy Mexican goodness. I only got a picture of Bryan and Lexie. I was behind the camera, and Hoyt was sleeping.

Lexie was really cracking us up because she LOVES the chips and salsa there. It is a little spicy, but she loves it anyway. This video of her eating it was hilarious because it was hot, but she just couldn't stop. I love what she does with her tongue. Silly girl! :)

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Reflections on a Crazy 2010

2011-01-31T13:34:00.006-07:00

2011...already flying by at wharp speed! I am hoping this year is a lot less eventful than last year. I wanted to reflect a little on 2010 since blogging is the only "journaling" I have been able to do recently (I am trying to catch up).

Last year in January we found out we were having a baby boy. I was shocked because I just knew it was another girl. This probably sounds silly, but one reason I was stressed about having a boy is having to buy clothes for him since all I had was baby girl clothes. Then another stress came when we found out we needed to switch insurance plans and it was going to cost us thousands more to pay for the baby. Worth it? Yes! In our budget? No! But we set up a plan to use tax refund money and everything we could put in our HSA. So we spent the next few months preparing the best we could to welcome our little guy into our family. Lexie started nursery and I got taken out of nursery and made a VT Supervisor which was the perfect calling for my situation at the time. And for the first time since we joined that ward I finally started to feel accepted and like I was making friends. They say when you start to feel comfortable is when change comes. As if a new baby isn't change enough...right?!

So in May our little guy joined our family and we were so excited! He's perfect and so cute! The thing that frustrated me was that they knew he was at high risk for jaundice and instead of sending lights home with us, it got so bad that he was hospitalized. I wish Dr.'s would try to look out for patients, especially when it comes to cost...but that is a topic for another time. Adjusting to a new baby isn't always easy, especially learning to deal with physical, emotional, spiritual and temporal demands each new child brings. We were handling things pretty well, but we knew that we just weren't earning the income that would really allow us to get where we needed to be. (Or always pay all the monthly bills and groceries etc.) I strongly believe in staying home and not letting other people raise my kids so I knew we would have to look for other options for Bryan. He had been made financial promises at work that weren't kept because of the economy, but we didn't feel his job was in any danger. When the baby was just over a month old I started looking at possible job postings and there actually was a decent job at the university that I thought Bryan should apply for, but he didn't really want to do that because he felt unsettled already at his job and didn't want them to think he was trying to jump ship. The next Sunday we paid a significant amount of tithing and a larger-than-normal amount to fast offerings and prayed really hard for something to work out so we could provide for our family. That Thursday our baby turned 6 weeks old and Bryan went to work like any other day. At lunchtime he came in with a box of his things from work and told me he lost his job. There was no explination given just "You're job is no longer available" and "Pack up your stuff and leave." The situation was not handled well at all and was a huge blow to my sweet, sensitive husband. It's easy to think at first "How is this an answer to our prayers? We need a better income, but this gives us NO income". Then after a few hours of crying and being in shock we picked ourselves up and figured there must be something really great out there for us. Of course I expected there to be something in southern Utah so we could stay in our house, but Someone had other ideas.

The first 3 weeks we applied for many jobs. We also were trying to figure out options for our house because we started to feel like we would have to move to get a decent job. That created more frustration about the abrupt end to his job because we found out they could have done something to help us...if we still had income. So we just kept searching and finally the end of the 3rd week we started getting some calls. Bryan did some phone interviews for jobs in northern Utah, and they set up some in-person interviews for the next week so we headed north. Bryan ended up interviewing for about 5 different jobs and did about 8 interviews in 3 days. We headed up on Tuesday and by Friday he had an amazing job offer at ACS making more than double our previous income...but they wanted him to start the next Monday. So we headed home Saturday and Sunday night Bryan headed up to work for the week. That first week he stayed in a hotel and found us a condo to live in just over a mile from his office. The first 3 weeks Bryan worked Monday-Thursday then came home on weekends. I started trying to find someone to rent our house in Cedar. I went to visit some of my friends at SUU and one of them suggested someone she knew to rent from us so the next day he came to check it out. Within a week of getting a new job and finding a place to rent in Sandy, we had someone to rent our house. Everything worked out and we couldn't deny that it was meant to be!

Just 3 weeks after starting a new job, we packed up our entire house in one day (with help from only my parents and a couple of neighbors). We finally pulled out of town around 1 a.m. and had planned to drive the entire way that night because we had the EQ from our new ward all set up to help us move in the next day at noon. By the time we hit Fillmore we were falling asleep so we checked into a cheap hotel and slept for about 4 hours then hit the road and arrived in Sandy just as the EQ showed up. They got all of our belongings from the moving truck to our condo in only an hour...it was amazing! We are still trying to get everything organized and after downsized are trying to get rid of things we don't need. At least we know it is temporary and eventually we are hoping to get into a nice house. We love our new ward which has really helped with the transition. I am on the "Extra Relief Society Meetings Committee" and Bryan is an assistant Priest Quorum Advisor. Lexie really loves nursery and I think she has some of the best nursery leaders anywhere with a great weekly plan and the kids really respond. Hoyt enjoys going to RS with me and flirting with all the little girls around his age. Another thing I really like where we live up here is how close everything is to us. We have many options for shopping and recreation. We also get to see Bryan's family much more often which is nice for us and especially for our kids to be around their cousins. I do miss Cedar City where I lived for over 11 years, and I miss being close to my family. But we know this move was the right thing to do and are excited to see what the future holds for our little family.

Christmas Fun 2010!

2010-12-31T16:07:00.030-07:00

For Christmas this year we spent over a week visiting my family. I will say that I wasn't a huge fan of packing all the presents and I think a shorter trip next time would be better for all of us, but we really did have a great Christmas!

We didn't have to get up until almost 9:00 which was very nice! Santa found us and brought Lexie "Super Letters" and candy. Hoyt got a monkey that sings songs when you push his hands and feet.

Hoyt also wanted to play with Lexie's super letters.

Lexie was most excited about her candy from Santa. She also liked her train.

She also got a trash truck from Toy Story 3 because she loves to watch the trash truck come dump the dumpster just below our condo every few days. And she LOVES Super Why so she got a Super Why talking action figure and an Alpha Pig because she loves his "amazing alphabet tools".

Hoyt woke up long enough to see his Santa gift and open his basketball toy. Bryan says I am getting him started early, but with a name like Hoyt he has to like basketball. :) He didn't want anything to do with presents after that and here he is snuggling with Uncle Pete which he did a lot all week. He went down for a nap and opened the rest of his presents later, but I didn't take more pictures.

Bryan was super excited to finally get a Wii! He has been wanting one since they came out and we could finally afford one this year! He also loved his hot chocolate and socks from Jodi.

I hate to include these lovely photos of myself, but Bryan was really good to me this year and got me an awesome new little camera and a cute, very-warm winter coat! We may have gone a bit overboard with the gifts this year (although we did stick to our budget), but we are way blessed and had a great time with old and new traditions and most importantly remembering our Savior's birth...the true reason for the season.

This is one of our many crazy games of "Apples to Apples". It's fun to play late at night when we are all a little silly and we laugh for hours. Fun family bonding time. (We were all skyping with Eric and Tracie during this game so that is where everyone is looking).

Here is cool-dude Hoyt with Grandpa Hoyt's work hat on backwards. He had a lot of fun with Grandpa, Grandma and all his aunts and uncles.

Lexie was dressed up the entire week also in Jen's princess dresses mostly. She also decided to try on Grandpa's work hat and sunglasses and I had to take a picture. She also decided to try the basketball basket on her head. She had so much fun playing and did not want to go home after a week of playing with all her aunts and uncles...especially Aunt Jennifer!

Sunday night at Great-Grandpa & Grandma Hoyt's house. I spent almost every Sunday night growing up at my grandparent's house just a few blocks from my house playing with my cousins and just visiting family. I have a lot of fun memories and now my kids get to make some memories there also.

A few other things we did during the week: Bryan and I ate lunch at the new restaurant down the street from my parent's house and the food was excellent! We were also able to go see "Dispicable Me" at a theater in Kanab for a customer appreciation from our awesome insurance agent (and cousin) Aaron. I did get really sick starting Christmas Day which was not fun (the kids and Bryan all had it the weeks leading up to Christmas), but other than that we had fun playing Mario Kart and eating lots of yummy food. Here's to the end of a crazy, but good year!

Christmas Concerts & Festivities

2010-12-31T16:07:00.019-07:00

This year during the holidays there was a lot to do near where we live so we tried to take advantage of some of them. My favorite were all the Christmas concerts! FM100.3 always has mini-concerts during lunch in the mall so we went to a few and they were really good!

The first concert we went to was Jim Brickman...I am a big fan so I was super excited to see him perform in person!

And our family got to meet him after and get some things signed.

The next concert we went to was Wayne Burton and Voicemale. Some of you may not know that Bryan's brother James was one of the original members of Voicemale at Utah State. It was a great concert!

The last concert we went to was Jon Schmidt and Joshua Creek.

Jon Schmidt is such a great performer as you can see, with lots of energy and fun music! He even did an encore after the radio broadcast.

Joshua Creek was a fun group with some great songs!

The best concert of the season...and the most exciting for me was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with David Archuleta. Everyone probably knows how lucky you had to be to get tickets, but we were able to get 2 tickets for Friday night. Annie and her friend Rob came down to tend the kids so Bryan and I could go on a much needed date to the concert. We rode TRAX to Temple Square and got to see some Christmas lights and I think that was one of the best concerts I've been to in my life. The Orchestra was amazing, the Choir was inspiring as always and David Archuleta sounded awesome! One of my favorite moments was when President Monson came in pushing his wife in her wheelchair and 20,000 people stood in complete silence. We also got to see President Uchdorf and his wife come in and it was just a very special evening for us. The only problem we had was on the way back down the TRAX train wouldn't let us off at our stop because the button was broken so we had to go to the next stop and wait for the train to go back up to where we were parked.

This year I didn't decorate too much for the holidays (we still don't even have anything on our walls yet), because the place is small and it is only a temporary spot. We did put up our little tree and Lexie and Hoyt wouldn't leave it alone. Hoyt started army crawling that month so he would crawl over and grab the lights and ornaments.

We also decided to go to Festival of Trees since it was so close to our house. We saw a lot of cool trees there that were a lot more fancy than ours. This one was cool for a sports fan like me. It had signed memorabilia from Steve Young, the Jazz, Real Salt Lake, U of U, and much more. They had people closely monitoring this tree for sure!

Lexie by the Winnie the Pooh tree while holding her Pooh Bear.

This picture shows the sticker on her face that turned out to be traumatic. We went to the kids corner place and Lexie said she wanted her face painted. Well, they went to put the sticker on her face, but when they stuck the sponge on her face with a tiny bit of water she flipped out and started screaming and people thought she was being tortured or something. Ah, adventures of a 2-year-old!

The nativity tree was really cool. I took a picture for my mom because she loves to collect nativities so I thought she would like the tree.

Free Day at the Aquarium

2010-12-31T16:06:00.014-07:00

In December The Living Planet Aquarium here in Sandy had a free fee day for Salt Lake county residents. We needed to get out of the house and Lexie was super excited to go see fish. When we got there in the afternoon there was a line clear around the building so we weren't sure if we wanted to wait it out, but we heard there were some buses that had to take kids back to school in time to go home so once a bunch of those kids left they would let a lot more into the building. The wait ended up only being 15 minutes and once we got inside it was pretty crowded but we still got to see everything. Hoyt slept in his stroller covered up the entire time and Lexie had fun looking around at everything. At first she wanted to touch the stingrays, but once we got up to the water she decided she really didn't want to stick her hand in with those things.

Here are a few pictures of our adventure. Lexie and Daddy had fun checking out all the different sea creatures!

I wish we could have gotten a closer view of the cute penguins during the feeding but the place was packed so we will have to go back when there are less people.

Looking at more kinds of fish.

Lexie liked the coral and tropical fish. You can see Nemo on the left. :)

Thanksgiving

2010-12-31T16:06:00.010-07:00

Thanksgiving week for us was determined a little by the weather. We left a day early because of the "blizzard" that ended up not being so bad, but it did give us an extra day to spend with my family. Lexie and Hoyt had a great time at Grandma & Grandpa's house! I didn't take many pictures that week for some reason, but we had a great time with extended family and also had some yummy food!

We stopped at Burger King on the way down and Lexie had to get a crown. All week she dressed up in Jen's princess clothes and wore her crown. She tried it on Hoyt so here is Princess Lexie and Prince Hoyt.

Here is Hoyt trying on another hat. Love that cute face with his big eyes and sweet smile!

Thanksgiving day we spent in Kanab with most of the Mickelson family. We had a great dinner with all my favorite traditional Thanksgiving dishes, and then we had a short Christmas party since we were all together. We had our festivities at the church, and after dinner the parents took many of us on a "Memory Tour" of the stake center in Kanab which was the first church built there, but they are tearing it down to build a new stake center in a few months. It was cool to hear memories from my Grandparents, and my Mom and her siblings. I also have memories there from growing up because it was also my stake center for my growing up years.

Lexie had a great time playing basketball with the big kids and playing on the stage (here she is peeking out the curtain).

The day after Thanksgiving my cousin Amanda opened up a salon for the day in my Grandma Mickelson's house so I was able to finally get a haircut! After the haircut my Aunt Merilee was kind enough to take some pictures with her nice camera for our Christmas card. It was a struggle to get Lexie to cooperate, but here are the pictures we chose for the card. I think they turned out cute.

Hoyt at 6 months old in his Christmas sweater vest.

The only way to get pictures of Lexie was to let her play on the slides at the park. It was freezing cold and she had her pretty new Christmas dress on, but I thought this picture was cute of her.

And here is the Bryan Lyman family 2010.

Hoyt's 6 Month Update

2010-12-10T09:58:00.006-07:00

I can't believe my baby turned 6 months old in November. Time has flown and we can't imagine our home without this happy, content, super-cute little guy. Here are his 6 month stats:

Weight: 19.05 lbs. (76%)

Height: 27.75 in. (89%)

This kid is solid! Lexie was always long and skinny, but as you can see he is tall and heavy. I took some pictures soon after he turned 6 months and had so many cute ones, but here are just a few. I love his huge blue eyes and cute smile. I have never seen a more content baby in my life and can't complain at all because he really is such a good boy.

At 6 months Hoyt is rolling and scooting all over the floor and rocks on his hands and knees so I know he will be officially crawling very soon. He has been sitting self supported for several weeks, but he would rather dive forward so he can scoot around, and sometimes he just flippes back with no warning so we have to keep soft things behind him. He has been drooling and chewing like crazy for weeks but still hasn't cut his first tooth yet. He is now eating solids 3 or 4 times a day and is much more opinionated about food than Lexie was, but he does really love to eat! He also loves his sister and likes when she plays with him and makes him laugh. He likes to say "dadada", squeal, and make tasmanian devil sounds. We are grateful he is both healthy and happy.

He likes his exersaucer.

Now a little update on Hoyt at 5 months since I never posted that month. Here are a couple pictures I took of him at 5 months. He started rolling from back to stomach just before he turned 5 months so that definately made him a lot more mobile which he has really enjoyed. He also found his toes and constanty likes to grab them and chew on them. He also really found his voice and started to squeal and babble which has made it hard to sit through church.

We also tried starting solids at 5 months and as the pictures show he was not impressed with rice cereal...or any cereal for that matter. I stopped trying for a couple weeks then just started fruits and veggies. Now he will eat most kinds of cereal as long as there is fruit added. These pictures really crack me up.

Lexie Update

2010-12-09T11:30:00.009-07:00

In November we finally took Lexie in for her 2 year well check. Luckily our pediatrician Dr. McCune, who has been Lexie's doctor since birth, recently moved north and we are able to take our kids to his new office!

Here are her 27 month stats:

Weight: 29.32 lbs. - 70%

Height: 35.75 in. - 75%
Lexie has definately turned into a 2-year-old! She is high energy and likes to go at full speed exploring everything, testing all the limits, ripping, running, jumping, smiling, laughing, playing, sliding, and keeping us on our toes. I don't know when she went from being my little baby to a smart little girl, but she is my little friend and starting to be a good helper. She likes to take care of her baby (Pooh Bear) just like mom, changing his diapers and putting him down for naps. And Lexie loves being a big sister to Hoyt; she can make him smile and laugh much faster than mom and dad can and she likes to say "It's ok Hoyt" if he is upset.

These pictures are from our Christmas card photo shoot and she would not sit still, but we at least got a couple of pictures we could use.

We took a few pictures at the park and all Lexie could focus on was the slide. She LOVES to slide. She really likes going to Arctic Circle to eat a hamburger and go down the slides. She is really into learning her ABCs, "reading" us stories, singing songs, dancing around, "talking" on her cell phone (especially to her grandparents), watching her favorite shows "Super Why" and "Dinosaur Train" and her weekly favorite Disney movies...this week it is "Cars" and "Aristocats". She also really loves the temple. From our house we can see 3 temples, the closest being the Jordan River Temple. We were driving home from the store the other day and I heard Lexie talking to Hoyt in the back. She said "Look Hoyt, there is the temple. It's so pretty!"

We love our sweet brown-eyed girl!

Halloween & Fall Fun

2010-11-21T18:31:00.007-07:00

October was a fun month for us. The weather was great (most of the time) and we were able to get in a few fall activities. We spent a weekend in Logan with James, Jenny, Bethany and Annie. Here are a few pictures from the pumpkin walk.

Lexie really enjoyed her chocolate cookie...and she loved riding the bus. We also went to the USU Homecoming parade and Lexie was excited to collect lots of candy!

Another fun fall activity was carving pumkins. Lexie loved hers!

For Halloween Lexie was a witch and Hoyt was a puppy.

We went to Stan & Kristie's house where Bryan's parents were staying for the weekend. We had dinner, then Bryan took Lexie trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. She had fun except for one guy in a scary mask scaring her really bad, but Bryan told her she could scare him back so she still brings it up and says "I scare that guy...RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!" Hilarious!

Family Time & Lagoon

2010-11-05T10:35:00.008-06:00

In September we were able to spend a couple weekends with my entire family (minus my brother who is on a mission). During one of the weekends together we went to Lagoon and had a super fun time! Although most of my time was spent in kiddieland, my parents did watch the kids so Bryan and I could go on The Rocket and a few other adult rides. I didn't get tons of pictures and don't have the pictures everyone else took yet, but here are a few. Lexie really enjoyed all the rides she went on with Jen, especially the cars.

Bryan had a great time drag racing with Dad and Eric!

Another hit ride was the train. We rode it more than once and Lexie really wanted to go again and again. Hoyt was so happy all day and never complained at all.

We spent another weekend at my parent's house with everyone and were grateful Eric and Tracie were home for a couple weeks! We were able to get some pictures. Here is a good couple picture of me and Bryan & a cute one of the kids in their Hawaiian clothes from Aunt Annie.

The family.

Silly sibling picture.

Hoyt with Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Mickelson.

Tracie holding Hoyt, Jen & Lexie.

Lexie & Jen helping Eric blow out his candles, Eric making Hoyt laugh.

It was a fun 2 weeks and I'm glad we got to spend some quality time together!

4 Month Update

2010-10-13T11:26:00.005-06:00

In September, Hoyt turned 4 months! His Dr. appointment stats:

Weight: 16.8 lbs (84%)

Height: 25.75 in (79%)

Yep, this kid is solid! He is such a happy baby and started sleeping really well through the night somewhere between 3 and 4 months. His personality is very laid back and he loves to laugh, smile, and coo at us. He is also a hit in public because he smiles and talks to everyone. He especially loves laughing at his big sister! He started rolling front to back right before 4 months, and I think it would have been much sooner if he would have had more tummy time, but with big sister around, and the move, he hasn't had much time on the floor.

Hoyt is still such a snuggly baby and loves to be held and cuddled, which I love. He likes to read stories, play with toys, and chew on his fingers and toys...everything goes in the mouth! We think he is the cutest little guy there is with his huge blue eyes and adorable smile!

Here are a few pictures from the week he turned 4 months.

My two handsome guys. :)

Lexie Turns 2!

2010-10-10T22:08:00.004-06:00

In August Lexie turned 2! Things were crazy at the time with Bryan working away from home and just visiting on weekends. Luckily her Birthday fell on a Saturday so he could be home. Some of the Hoyt family came over to celebrate with us on her special day! Lexie loves the PBS show "Super Why" so here is my attempt at a "Super Why" cake. Not great, but she loved it so that was all that mattered!

Blowing out the candle and her cute little grin!

Nothing is better than a pizza party and she cooked us all some great food with her new kitchen!

What's a kitchen without food? She loves to cook!

She also loves her new dollhouse from Grandpa & Grandma Hoyt, and the princess pj's were a hit!

I think Lexie was a little spoiled, but despite a few terrible 2 side-affects, we love this little girl and are so happy to have her in our family. Because of the move and insurance changes etc. I haven't taken her in for her 2 year checkup, but we know she is tall compared to most kids her age. She has such a fun personality and loves to laugh and make her brother laugh too.

Lexie's very favorite things to do are sing and dance, and she knows words and actions to many songs. Some favorites are "Sunbeam", "Child of God", "ABC's", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Happy Birthday" and many more. Lexie knows all of her colors and counts to 10. She loves reading stories, coloring pictures, learning ABC's on the computer, going to nursery, and going to the store. She is obsessed with trucks and really enjoyed riding with her Dad in the moving truck. On trash day she stands at the window to see the trash truck pick up the dumpster. She also loves animals and has a huge stuffed animal collection, but she really goes crazy when she sees real animals and wants to pet them. Also among her favorite things are slides, swings, playing at the park, and swimming. As you can see, Lexie has a love for life! She really enjoys spending time with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

We love you Lexie and are grateful you are growing up and learning many new things!

3 Months!

2010-08-19T14:22:00.007-06:00

My little Hoyt boy is now 3 months old! He is such a good baby and rarely cries now unless Lexie is beating on him, he's way hungry, or he just wants to be held. He's still a snuggly little guy and is getting quite chubby which is super cute! He is sleeping pretty good now and only gets up once in the night around 4 to eat but sleeps long stretches before and after which has been nice! My only complaint is how much he spits up because Lexie never did; but besides changing us both several times a day, things are great! I love this sweet little guy SO much and I'm glad he is in our family! (I don't know his stats for this month, but all I know is he's getting a lot bigger.)

Hoyt is really smiling, laughing, and cooing now which is such a fun stage! He's got the prettiest blue eyes and he sure knows how to melt his Mommy's heart!

Sometimes Lexie thinks she's the baby and wants to play with the baby toys. But other times she wants to be the Mom and hold the baby even when he's crying.

Lexie really wanted to get in on the picture taking action. Those are two good lookin' kids if I do say so myself...and I do!

Love those sweet faces!

4 Years & Big Changes

2010-08-12T08:49:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary! Sadly, I didn't even get to see my sweet husband, but we are going to celebrate later when things calm down. The past 4 years have been the best of my life! Bryan is the best husband any girl could ask for, and I probably don't quite deserve how amazing he treats me! He is so loving and caring to me and is the same way with our children. He is an amazing father and I'm so excited to share the rest of this life and all of eternity with him! I'm grateful we chose to get married in the temple so we can have those blessings and give them to our posterity as well. Happy Anniversary!!

Our lives have changed a lot the past 4 years, but the past month has just been plain crazy! Having another baby we kind of knew we needed a bit more income so we prayed about it and as always paid our tithing and fast offerings. After paying a big chunk to our ward the end of June, along with praying about our situation, we started talking about Bryan applying for some jobs. Before he even had the chance to spruce up his resume, a few days later, he unexpectedly lost his job. We didn't see it coming at all and kind of wondered how that could be a blessing, but we tried to have faith that this would work out for the better. We just tried to keep a positive outlook and started sending out resumes and filling out applications. We tried to enjoy the July celebrations the best we could while waiting to hear back from potential employers. The first 2 weeks were kind of rough and we didn't really get any calls; then all of sudden about the 3rd week the calls started coming. After doing a few phone interviews we had one company call for a 2nd in-person interview and they sounded really positive about hiring Bryan so we made plans to head up north. As we got ready to go we got more calls and appointements for interviews up in the Provo/Salt Lake area. He ended up doing about 6 interviews that week and was offered probably the best paying job with a big corporate company with lots of amazing benefits. They wanted him right away so we headed home that weekend and Bryan headed back up and started working that Monday. All of August so far has been spent with him living in Sandy during the week then coming home on weekends. The most amazing part of this whole thing is that in a matter of a week he got a job, started working, found a place to live just 1.5 miles from his job, we found a renter for our house, and now off we go to move to the big city for this great new opportunity. We know everything happened for a reason and we are grateful for the Lord's hand in our lives and for the blessings we get from paying our tithes and offerings!

Going to the Zoo!

2010-08-05T16:28:00.008-06:00

We saved our Cache Valley cheese wrappers the past few months so we could go to Hogle Zoo for free this summer. The day finally arrived last Thursday and Lexie was super excited! She loves animals and just seeing her reaction was the best part of the trip. Every time she would spot a new animal she would giggle and say "Cute!" The pictures aren't in exact order, but I'm too tired to switch them so here goes:

One of Lexie's favorite things we did was to ride the train. I love the looks on her face in these pictures. She was really into the ride. (Yes, that is a scrape on her face from a previous incident with a sidewalk.)

Here are all four of us on the train! Lexie has her new stuffed giraffe that she got at the zoo.

Mom and Lexie with a monkey in the background. The monkeys were Lexie's favorite! Hoyt slept pretty much the entire time in his stroller and I got this cute picture of him smiling in his sleep (he's appropriately wearing his giraffe shirt).

Lexie and Daddy liked seeing the penguins! And one of main attractions at the zoo right now is the new baby elephant Zuri...so cute!

Bryan's favorite animal was the huge gorilla eating a jar of nuts, and I really liked seeing the giraffes. It was a way fun day and I'm glad we were able to go even in the blazing hot weather.

2 Months Old

2010-08-05T16:04:00.005-06:00

Hoyt is now 2 months old! He is growing up so fast and getting chubby. I wasn't sure how much he had grown until we took him to the Dr. Here are the 2 month stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 11 oz (75%)

Height: 23 in (55%)

Head: 15 in (13%)

He survived his first round of shots and didn't have much of a reaction.

Here's our cute little man!

I am seriously so grateful for this little boy and love having him in our family! He is really smiling, cooing and trying to laugh which is so much fun. He likes to be held and cuddled and is a really great baby.

Smiley guy!

Our handsome guy all dressed up for church.

July 4th & 24th Celebrations

2010-08-05T14:03:00.008-06:00

This year we spent the 4th & 24th of July with my family doing small town celebrations. The 1st of July was my birthday; I didn't get any pictures this year, but it was a pretty good day. Bryan took me to Pizza Factory for lunch, then we drove over to stay with my family for the holiday and had a BBQ topped off with cake and ice cream.

For the 4th (which was actually on the 3rd since the 4th was on Sunday) we enjoyed sleeping in, having breakfast with the family, then took some family photos when we were in our red, white and blue.

Our cute family.

Lexie had a great time going and playing some games at the town park. She got some fun prizes including her awesome sunglasses.

After games at the park they had free swimming at the town pool. Lexie was excited to go to the pool and swim with Jen! She did stay close to the edge but still had fun.

I didn't get any pictures in the evening, but we went to Kanab for our traditional dutch oven dinner and fireworks at my aunt Merilee's house. It was awesome as usual--great food, great family, great fireworks, and a great Independence Day party! Sunday we went to church and relaxed with the family. On Monday we decided to have another family get together at the Hoyt ranch. We went out and had a BBQ/Dutch oven dinner and Lexie was in heaven playing in the great outdoors with plent of dirt, rocks and sticks.

We also had a fun Pioneer Day on the 24th! There is nothing quite like being in a small town with a rich pioneer heritage to really get you into the spirit of the holiday. I have fond memories of the 24th of July in my hometown. In the morning we got ready and headed down the street for the 20 minute parade.

Waiting for the parade to start. Hoyt had a really nice time.

Bryan and Lexie watching the parade & Lexie with her candy!

Primary float with Jen & Lexie waving to Aunt Mickell and Aunt Jodi on the cheerleader float...or golf cart I guess.

We went to the park after and got some lunch and Lexie and Jen learned how to make homemade ice cream in a bag.

Later in the evening we went up to the town park for a free awesome BBQ/Dutch Oven town dinner which was really good. We are grateful for the founders of our country and the pioneers who settled here for all they sacrificed to give us such a great place to live! July is always fun to celebrate, be with family, and show gratitude for our blessings!