Christmas 2013

I always think reading blog posts about other people's vacations are boring (unless of course the vacation takes place somewhere super cool). Utah, is only kinda cool so I'm going to keep this short and sweet, and combine my millions of photos into a few collages, and combine the thousands of words I could say about our vacation in Utah into a few short sentences.

1. Spending time with family. Games. Food. Movies. Laughing. That pretty much sums up our vacation.

2. My favorite part of the trip was going to the Jordan River Temple. Every time I go to the temple, I always feel so much closer to my Heavenly Father, and  I feel uplifted. I love the temple.  The closest temple we have here in NC is about 2 hrs away, and it is so hard to find babysitters for that long...so we took advantage of being so close to so many temples in Utah and of course free family babysitters!

3. We went to see the Christmas lights on temple square. We had 21 family members (including our nieces and nephews) come with us. It was hilarious trying to all stay together with the other 800 families that were there too. The outdoor nativity presentation was beautiful too with the Christmas story being read from the bible, music, and lights.

We've only been home 2 days, and we already miss our families so much. We are looking forward to our next trip to Utah!

Oh ps. My sweet parents  (who are serving a church mission in Chile) were published in an article in the Liahona magazine! Kyler's name was mentioned in the article....in the words of my mom "How's your Spanish?" ;)

Snow much fun

The flight here (to Utah) was about 4 hours. We didn't have any layovers which made the trip relatively easy.  We had to wake up around 5:00am in order to make our flight which tuckered Kyler out, and he actually slept on the plane for awhile!

As seen on instagram, after our plane landed and Kyler looked out of the window for the first time and saw white stuff all over the ground...he said: "Look! Sand! We are at the beach!!" He wasn't too disappointed when he figured out it was snow and discovered that he could build snowmen, have snowball fights, and go sledding.

Jared still has his allergy to cold, but taking his allergy meds plus keeping him bundled extra warm at all times plus only going outside for short periods of time, has helped keep his allergic reactions under control. 

Brooke's blog

Yesterday at a church event (here in Utah where we are currently visiting) I had the opportunity to meet Brooke- an amazing woman who has overcome some extremely difficult trials with her pregnancy. She shared her very powerful testimony with me and I admire her for having so much faith amidst her trials. If you have some free time you should check out her blog and read her story- you won't regret it. Here is a link to the beginning of her story where it all started to go wrong ....Londyn McCall. 

3 years 1 month doctor's check up

On Friday, Jared and I took Kyler in for his annual doctor's check-up.  Kyler decided to be scared of the doctor's office and TERRIFIED of the doctor himself this year- it was kind of funny, until he started crying :(

scooting as far away as possible from those black scary things on the wall

Kyler is 100% healthy! I was glad to hear that Kyler's hips are growing the way they should be (we had a hip dysplasia scare last year). He is 31 lbs and 36 inches tall- a little on the short side, but healthy none the less!

Santa Came Early

We have been lame gift givers to Kyler this year. The reason? He is still too young to expect or care about presents, and this will probably be the last year we can actually get away with it. hah. Poor little guy didn't get a birthday party this year, and we didn't buy him any gifts (besides a few dollar store balloons). We gave him some toys that a friend had given us because her son had outgrown them (a few train sets, legos, and a kid tool bench). He didn't care that his presents weren't new- he loved his birthday and his presents! Especially these little Lego Diego things:

Anyways, Christmas has been/is going to be a lot like his birthday. Basically this year is like:  if it is bought in the month of December then it is a Christmas present! For example, Kyler needed a new car seat this week. Bam! Santa came early:

Besides, birthdays are about celebrating another year of life, and Christmas is about the birth of Christ.

Who needs presents anyways?!

Not my 3 year old :)

Pregnancy with Kyler- 8 facts

One of my friends on facebook tagged me in this "pregnancy facts" thing and gave me the number 8.  I thought I would just make a blog post out of it, because it will probably be too long for a status. Here we go!

1. I got pregnant with Kyler the second month of trying.

2. I loved being pregnant and felt so good the entire time, and never got any morning sickness.

3. I craved powdered laundry detergent so bad! I wanted to eat it but of course knew better so I didn't haha, but I just loved to smell it!

4. I had the linea nigra on my belly when I was pregnant- it faded away 11 months after he was born.

5. Jared and I both wanted our first baby to be a boy before we even got pregnant. We were thrilled at that 18 week ultrasound when we learned it was a boy!

6. I had a planned c-section because he was breech. His cord was tightly wrapped twice around his neck.

7. Kyler didn't cry after he was born, and they whisked him away into another room without showing him to me. I was scared he wasn't alive, but he cried a minute later.

8. My belly didn't grow hardly at all the last month of my pregnancy (Kyler did grow but my belly size stayed about the same). My doctor attributed my "measuring small" to low fluid levels (that makes my body sound like a car). I had to have about 8 ultrasounds because of this, and loved getting to my baby so many times before he was born.

Here are my 8 month belly and 9 month belly pictures side by side. Usually the last month is when the belly grows the most, but mine looked pretty much the same. Can you guess which one is 8 months and which one is 9 months?

The one on the left is 9 months and the one on the right is 8 months.

Your turn for the pregnancy facts game now...I give you the number 7!

Enjoy more fully the sunlight

This week is super busy and stressful for me, especially tomorrow. I read this quote today and loved it: "Don't be gloomy. Don't dwell on unkind things. Stop seeking out the storms, and enjoy more fully the sunlight." -Gordon B. Hinckley

Soooo....instead of worrying and being stressed out, I'm focusing on the good things that have happened recently. Like last weekend and how much we enjoyed that sunlight at the beach... :)

Usually when we go for walks on the beach we look for sharks teeth, sea glass and other cool shells. On our walk last Saturday Jared found a very cool shell... as sea turtle shell! At least that is what I think it is....I'll let you be the judge.

Last weekend was the first time Kyler actually enjoyed played in the sand! Usually when we are at the beach he just runs around like a crazy child and splashes in the water, but this time he played for hours in the sand just burying seashells and finding them again. So fun to watch :) 

It was a little bit chilly at the beach, but not bad at all. Especially compared to Utah- which is where we will be at the end of next week! We're really excited to see our families-we haven't seen most of them in 1.5 years!

Focus on the good.