Family Pictures 2013

My sister, Emily, snapped some pictures of us while we were at the beach last week. They turned out ADORABLE!! Check out her website: Funfetti Photography

We had to add balloons in the picture...they are a part of our everyday lives. Kyler is obsessed with them.

We had to sacrifice a lot for this picture. (Jared got sand in his hair and I got wet by the wave behind us.)

I cant decide if I should use this one for my blog header or the one above. Thoughts? Maybe I'll switch it up half way through the year? hmmm So many pics to choose from!

I love this goof ball

Aunt Emily took away his balloons and he wanted them back. haha!

 I'm forever head over heals for this guy :D

Looking so much like his daddy lately!

I Guess It's Moving Week

I'm blogging from my phone here while putting my feet up to rest for a minute. Moving is exhausting. Despite the fact that we are nowhere NEAR done unpacking, I am pleased with the way things are going. At church on Sunday somebody asked Jared what time we would be moving this week. Then BAM Monday afternoon right when we got our moving truck we had 7 young men at our door ready to help. It was awesome. I love that about church. There are always so many people wanting to help and serve each other. So yeah...if any of you readers out there are moving anytime soon and need help, I PROMISE you I can get you some free movers. Even if you aren't Mormon and you live across the country in tiny city I've never heard of before...ask me, I dare you...I can get you free happy helpful people ready to serve :)

We still have a few more things at our old house and some cleaning to do...hopefully we'll be completely done moving and unpacking by Friday! Here are a few pictures (and maybe a video of I can get it to upload from my phone). I was labeling some boxes and Kyler came and sat down next to me with a crayon and started "helping me". He's so sweet.

Kyler misses his grandparents. He asks about them multiple times a day:

I can't thank everyone enough for the help we have received moving, the people who have watched Kyler for us, and of course my parents for renting us their house while they are in Chile for the next two years.

ps I just got our little family pics back that my amazing sister snapped last minute of us on the beach...Anyways, more later. So much to do!

A New Hobby

This week Jared and I started a new collection of sharks teeth! It's easiest to find them in spots of the beach that look like this:

If you look closely in those patches of broken shells and rocks you can find sharks teeth. 

....Your turn!....Can you find the sharks tooth? (It is the same one that I found pictured above.)

It is easiest to spot a sharks tooth when you are walking by and the tooth catches the sunlight just right...sharks teeth are very smooth and shiny!

 Our cute little helper likes to hunt for sharks teeth too!

Jared found 387 sharks teeth this trip! I just grabbed a couple from the stash and snapped a picture...here they are:

We like to have contests to see see who can get the most, or find the best sharks tooth in a certain amount of time. It's quite addicting once you get going.

What are some of YOUR family hobbies/collections?

A Lucky Leaf Father's Day

We are at the Lucky Leaf beach house (on Topsail Island) spending time with my family this week. This is the last time our whole family will be together before my parents leave on their 2 year church mission in Chile! ....and lucky me, I got to spend time with my baby daddy AND my daddy today (father's day)! I love these boys!!



Kyler refused to look at me because he was too busy enjoying a piece of candy. It's okay kid, I know the feeling. Candy is awesome.



 

I don't have a picture of my whole fam (it was taken on my sisters camera) So I'll have to post it later, but I did snap a quick picture of all the grandkids together...for once none of them were crying (thanks to candy)! haha. Why do kids hate pictures so much?

 

With so many little ones that have different nap schedules, it is hard finding quiet places to put them down for naps, so some of them sleep in the walk-in closets, but in Kyler's case? He naps in the elevator:

 

I brought his toddler bed mattress from home, and it fits perfectly in the elevator. It is nice and dark and (some-what quiet) :-0

 

Welp, I'm off to take a relaxing Sunday Nap here: (this is where you are supposed to be jealous haha)

Sunday naps are the best. Yes?

Haircut

It was time. Time for this messy haired babe to get a haircut.

 My friend Taya cut it- I was too nervous to do it myself, and didn't know of any good kid hair cut places to go. So she chopped it off...and it looks adorable! It's especially a nice summer cut- his old shaggy mop hair must've been hot!

"Flash too bright mom!"

He is a goof ball:

He came up with this next pose all on his own:

That would be an air mattress in our living-room in the background of this picture.  Last week we had a tent in our living-room and this week an air mattress? Yep! We inflated it to see if it was leaking air, because we might need to sleep on it next week at the beach house when we go for family reunion. Including nieces and nephews, there are 20 people on my side of the family now! It's crazy how fast families grow. Anyways it IS leaking air...probably because as soon as Kyler saw it he climbed up and started jumping on it. Can you blame him? Isn't waking up to a giant bouncy house type bed in your living-room every kids dream?.....but take a look at that cute little innocent face though-there is no way he could ever do anything wrong! Like poke a hole in our pricey air-mattress.... haha love him anyway!

How to Eat Veggies Like a Toddler

Hello peeps dat are reading my mom's blog. It's me, Kyler here! I hears some of yous dont eat ur veggies right, so ima teach you how to eat veggies da right way. Okay?

Understand? It's not tooo difficult. Veggies aren't so bad after yous gots dem smothered in ranch. Just don't forget da spitting out part after da ranch is gone. Dats da most important step. Okay I gots to go take my nap now. Peas out!

Boy You so Sly

Ky has become quite the clever little guy. He knows how to get what he wants. He does this many ways, but two ways in-particular:

1) He says things so sweetly I can't help but give in. For example:

Me: "Kyler, go to your room. It's time to go to bed."
Kyler: "No thank you. Snuggle?"

*Next thing I know Kyler, Jared, and I are all snuggling under a tiny blanket in our room instead of Kyler sleeping in his own room. He knows that I love it when he says "no thank you" instead of "NO!" and that snuggling is my weakness.

2) He purposefully slurs his words, so that you have to clarify what he is saying and then he uses it against you like it's your own idea. For example:

Kyler: "aw gona pawk!"
Me: "You want to go to the park?"
Kyler: "Okay."

Kyler: "adama ice keem."
Me: "You want ice cream?"
Kyler: "Okay!"

*Next thing I know I'm pushing him on a swing when we should be grocery shopping and serving him ice cream before bed and I'm thinking: "Wait. What just happened. How did he do that?"

Another example:
Kyler: "balloon agaba en lawer shower."
Me: "You want me to put your balloon under the water like it's in the shower?"
Kyler: "Okay."

*Next thing I know I'm in the pool with my clothes on getting soaked just to give a balloon a "shower".

Thanks auntie Courtney for sending us so many cute pictures from this weekend!

I don't know how he does what he does, but this boy has me whipped!

Two Scoops Please!

We had a wonderful weekend full of trips to the pool and spending time with family. The boys worked on home improvement projects while us girls did important things like making ice cream sundae that we dipped in caramel and sprinkles...trying to be SO pinteresty. They looked cute for 14 seconds and then all of the sprinkles slowly dripped down the sides...buuuut pretend you don't know that and think that they are perfect. Okay?!

My parents are leaving on their church mission to Chile in just a few short weeks, so we have been spending a lot of time over at their house. Now Kyler is COMPLETELY infatuated with them...especially my mom.

Time for Kyler to get a haircut?

Whenever it's time to go home, he wraps his little arms around my mom's neck and says "Stay at Snamma and Stampas? Bye bye mama, bye bye dada!" My feelings probably should be hurt by this, but for now, I think it's adorable.

Babes in Hairland

My friend told me about this amazing website called Babes in Hairland. It's chucked full of adorable hairstyles, and step by step tutorials! I don't have any girls, but a lot of my friends do, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites on the blog. Look how cute:

Step by Step tutorial here

Step by step tutorial here

Step by step tutorial here

Step by step tutorial here

I actually use the last one (the rope twist braid) on my own hair. It works great for keeping my long side bangs out of my face at the gym, and looks cute too!

Bird Nerd

A mother bird decided to build her nest on our front porch! I wanted to see her babies earlier this week, but unfortunately I was too short (even standing on a chair). So I grabbed my camera and tried holding it over my head while pointing the camera down near the entrance to the nest (being careful not to touch anything), but all I could see from my camera was black. Lame. Meanwhile the mother bird was sitting on a near by tree glaring at me for getting so close to her nest, so I quickly went back inside. I thought about trying to get a picture of the nest at night, that way I might be able to see the nest via the BRIGHT flash on my camera, but then I thought that the mother would probably be sitting on her nest at night, and I didn't want to make her an angry bird (bahaha pun obviously intended because I'm so funny). Plus, I've heard that sometimes mothers will abandon her nest if they smell human on them, so I think I'll stay away.

The bird nest is up inside that column. This picture was taken from my window (blurry finger prints complements of Kyler)

I've been watching the mother bird through my window. Does this make me a creepy bird stalker? hmm... She brings worms back to her [noisy] babies every 10 minutes all day long (and I used to think sitting on a comfy chair nursing was a lot of work). This mama bird on my front porch pricked my curiosity about birds, and she is the reason, my friends, that I have become a bird nerd. SO, do ya want to hear some nerdy bird facts? Sure you do!

1)"Scientest know that many females two-time; that they even practice divorce. There is jealousy between birds; there are home-wreckers. Some females competing for attention of a male have been caught smashing their rivals' eggs by biologist in Sweden." (PBS) ----Talk about bird drama. LOL

2) "Sometimes the eldest of the birds in a nest will share its food with the youngest and weakest. After 3 weeks the nestlings are all the same size." (PBS)

3) I would write down the 3rd interesting fact, but then you probably wouldn't watch the youtube video below. SOOOO.....WATCH this youtube video!!! Make sure you watch the whole thing. The last part is the best.

Isn't that the most disgusting thing you have ever seen in your life?!?! You're welcome. Seriously...and I used to gag just wiping a baby bum with a wet-wipe. bahaha....them mother birds have it rough. Oh and here is the link where I got my birdy nerdy facts...you know you want to read it:  http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/home/  and if that is not enough birdy nerdy-ness for you...you can watch The Life of Birds series with me on Netflix. YES! 10 whole episodes people.

Fake Camping

We love real camping don't get me wrong, but there just wasn't time to for 'driving to the mountains' in this weekend's schedule. Okay, and to be completely honest I just finished all of our beach trip laundry and I didn't want to come home and have 4 more loads of laundry to do. (Haha does that tell you how much I despise laundry?) Anyways, so because of the time and laundry issues, we set up a tent in the living room. (Does this make us weird? Oh well, we had fun!) It was the perfect temperature, there weren't any bugs, plus we got to watch a movie through the opened tent door. We even ate S'mores-they would've been better toasted over a fire, but they were still delicious nonetheless. (Can you go wrong with chocolate and marshmallows?)

Kyler LOVED playing in the tent.We left it up Saturday morning, and Kyler's little friends enjoyed playing in it too!

Fake camping is fun! You should try it.