Some fun things about Kiley

I haven’t blogged for a while and thought that since my house is somewhat clean, the shopping is done and Kiley is asleep for the afternoon, I should do some catching up. I will try to make this as painless as possible for those who read and for my poor fingers that are doing the typing.

The last few days, Kiley has been a hoot to be around. She has been doing some of the funniest things…at least, they’re funny to us. The last few days she has been carrying a basket around. She not only carries it with her but she then sits in it and has us pile all of her “stuff” on top of her. This “stuff” includes: keys, 3 or 4 blankets, a Winnie the Pooh (or 2), Minnie “Ne Ne”, a bucket of blocks, and a ball. Now some of these things are interchangeable with others around the house, but these are the ones she has the most. The other day, she actually tried to take a nap in the basket. My favorite part is when she tries to climb in and gets stuck laying across the top of the basket. She yells for help and once we get her out, she starts to laugh and then starts all over again.

Kiley loves the snow. That, or she just loves being outside. We put on her snow boots at the end of last week and she about had a come apart. She just wasn’t sure about these new shoes. We went and played outside. She had fun, unless she was actually in the snow. I figured that she would throw a fit the next time we tried to put her boots on but she got so excited. Then on Sunday, I told her to get some shoes to wear to church. She came running in with her snow boots and a giant grin. We told her she had to wear different shoes to church and she was not so happy about that, but she finally gave in.

We have had 2 big snow days this last week. Saturday, we woke up to about skiff of snow in some places and close to 2 feet in other places…just in our yard. Chad was a champion and got out to snow blow the driveway. It snowed about another 4 inches on Monday, and one more time Chad went out to snow blow. He sure is a good guy! He does a lot to take care of us. He also gave in and put Christmas lights on our house. We took a walk around the block at the beginning of last week. Many of the houses in our neighborhood were lit up with Christmas lights. After the walk around the block, we both felt like our house was boring and dark because not only did we not have Christmas lights up, we rarely turn on our porch lights. So we decided to buy some. It ended up being a ton cheaper than we thought and the 2 strands of lights we got fit our house absolutely perfectly. There couldn’t have been a better fit. So now, we are festive inside and out.

This past week, Kiley has also come up with a new trick. She had been reading some books by herself in the family room. She got up to go into her room, which is common so I didn’t think anything of it. A few minutes later I realized it was way too quiet for her good so I went to check on her. She had climbed into her ball bin and fallen asleep. I snapped a few pictures and then I moved her to a blanket on the floor so she wouldn’t suffocate or wake up with a really stiff neck.

Last, but not least, this week we’ve learned a little more about our sweet girl’s character. While in nursery on Sunday, a little girl about a month younger than Kiley had come in to test the waters. Her dad let her warm up a little and then he stepped out just to see how she would handle the whole situation. She just kind of looked around and you could tell she was feeling a little bit lost and confused. Kiley had been sitting on the other side of the room reading books. She looked over and saw this friend and went over to her. She wrapped this little girl in a huge bear hug and tried to lead her over to where she had been reading. She patted the chair and tried to get the little girl to come over and sit down. This little girl was really not sure what to do. Kiley then went over and gave her another big hug. This, however, scared the little girl and she tried to get as far away from Kiley as possible while Kiley was still trying to hug her. I went and pulled Kiley away and Chad picked up the girl. Well, Kiley was not at all happy about that. She ran over to Chad and made him hold both of them. A mom, who was in there with her little boy, started to laugh and made a comment about Kiley being jealous. She laughed when I told her that Kiley was jealous because Chad was the one doing the comforting and not her. She is so sweet and has such a loving personality. I’m just hoping this personality sticks around when her little sister gets here in 17 weeks. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Christmas Tree Hunting...a cactus story.

Literally!!! We went hunting for a tree. The Monday after Thanksgiving we went for a drive looking for the perfect tree. It took a little while and quite a bit of pain to get it, but it is now standing tall and proud in our family room. We found it and kept driving a little more to see if there was anything better. We had taken a side road and got out to walk around. We let Kiley get out to stretch her legs and she tried her best to follow her dad everywhere he went. She thought it was so fun to be outside hiking around looking for a tree. Chad had gone down the road a little ways to see if he could find any great trees and Kiley and I were following quite a ways behind. Kiley saw him coming back through some trees and decided she needed to run to catch up to him. Unfortunately she tripped.

Now usually this is no big deal. We just tell her good job and to get up and try again, which she 90% of the time does without any second thought. This time, however, we were not so lucky. When she tripped, she landed right on a cactus. She cried for a second and then screamed when we tried to take some of the needles out of her hand. As long as we weren’t touching her hand, she was fine. There were a lot of needles though and they needed to come out. We had to hold her down and pluck the needles out of her hand. She hates to be pinned down and started screaming. Now I’m pretty sure she was crying about being pinned down and not from pain since we had to go through the same screaming earlier in the day when we pinned her down to cut her fingernails and every night when we have to brush her teeth. I felt bad though and so did Chad. He was the good one who plucked as many of the needles out as she would let him.

So this ended our Christmas tree hunt quickly. We drove back to where we saw the tree, got out and I took the first shot with Chad’s 20 gage shot gun. Chad took the next 4 shots and luckily the tree finally broke since we were then out of shells. Our tree only took 2 shots last year to get down. Anyway, we came home and decorated it. Kiley has some scabs on her hand from the cactus, but didn’t complain much about it. Once or twice she did show us her hand and get a big frown and tell us that it was bothering her. But for the most part, she hasn’t complained about it. Just don’t try to hold her hand to look at it; she’s afraid you’ll try to pin her down.

Sad girl after being tortured by Mom and Dad.

Chad has the tree loaded up and ready to go.

Thanksgiving!!

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Salt Lake. While we were there, Kiley got to see ALL of her cousins. Lindsey, Riley and Asher came in from Sacramento for the week, so Kiley got to spend a lot of time with Asher. We also took a drive up to Logan for the day on Saturday to see Emily, Ryan, Joslyn, Evan and 3 day old Mark. It was a lot of fun and Kiley loved having someone to play with almost all the time.

I also got to spend some time Wednesday night with 2 of my favorite people of all time: Sara and Erin, also known as Whitty and Tigger. Sara made us dinner and we just spent the night talking, laughing, reminiscing, and just having a grand old time. If you had been a fly on the wall, you never would have guessed that we hadn’t spent time together in over a year and a half. You would have thought that we hung out every weekend. I love those 2 girls and wish that I lived closer so I could see them more often. Unfortunately, we were lame and didn’t even take a picture.

Thanksgiving this year was at “the Farm.” That’s what we call it anyway. It was actually in a church in Centerville and I don’t know if there is a farm anywhere too close anymore. We get together with my grandpa’s brothers and sisters and their kids and grandkids and great grandkids. It’s quite the shindig. We have dinner and then play BINGO for some great prizes (lots of toothbrushes.) Then everyone listens to the story of the Turkey with the Terrible Temper. Then the kids get to break open a piñata, (also has some tooth brushes and dentist stuff, along with candy.) We have a few dentists in the extended family! After that, it is pretty much clean up, visit and go home. There’s lots of good food and company and we had a good time.

That night and Friday night, we played games with Kristi, Josh, Lindsey, Riley and my parents. That ended up being a lot of fun. Usually we play something like Mexican Train which can be fun but gets old fast. This time we played Mad Gab which made for some funny moments and we also played ultimate charades. This was hilarious and will be played again soon…I hope!!

Saturday we went with Scott and Britt to Logan. Emily had her baby on Tuesday and so we went up to see him. We haven’t seen Emily and her family since May so it was really nice to be able to see them again. John, Christine, Preston, Ken and Sally were also there. It was a fun trip. We wished we could have stayed longer, but mostly we wish every day that Emily will move her family back to Cedar!!! Kiley absolutely loved her baby cousin. She just wanted to be by him all the time. She kept giving him kisses and rubbing his tummy and just looking at him. I really hope she is like that with her sister!!

After getting back to Salt Lake, we met my family at a restaurant for Asher’s birthday party. It was pretty fun and Asher loved opening his presents. Kiley was really good until the end. By the time we got around to cake, she was completely worn out and ready for bed. She sure was happy though to see Aunt Heather. We had to take off early Sunday morning so we could be back in time for church and nursery. It was a great week and wonderful to see all of our family members. And of course, eat Turkey!!

Kiley loves her dog

Kiley and Asher took turns pushing each other

Kiley won the fight for the moment. Asher was not happy at all!!

Grandpa teaching Kiley how to golf.

Hanging out watching tv.

Telling Great Grandma all about ice cream.

Kiley, Grandpa, Mark, and Joslyn

Kiley loves her cousin Mark. I hope she loves her sister just as much.

New camera, Moab

We got a new camera!! It came as an early Christmas present in early November. Chad found it on sale for cheaper than its ever been and we've been saving up for a while now to get it. Chad wouldn't even let us try to put it under the Christmas tree. It was opened and used within moments of arrival. That night, over 400 pictures were taken with this new beauty. Almost 100 just of me brushing and flossing my teeth. They were not pretty pictures!! Well, we love our camera. And here we have just a very small amount of those pictures.

Cheesing it up for the camera!

We also went to Moab in November. Here are some picts from that trip.

Kiley loves the Kitty

Kiley and Grandpa

Balanced Rock

All worn out from hiking

Kiley with great Grandma and Grandpa Palmer

Kiley also has been a big helper. She helped us clean out the fridge one morning. She got mad at her dad because he wanted a turn and she didn't think she was done yet.

Some pictures from October

My way of playing catch up for October is to just show you some quick pictures of what we've been doing. Hope you enjoy. Oh and our family pictures we took (I mentioned them a few posts ago) they are posted of facebook for those who have not yet seen them and wish to do so. 

Kiley's first trip to a swimming pool. She hated it!

Hiking up in Parowan Canyonn

Daisy sporting the witch hat. She wasn't a fan.

Kiley loves to read books while sitting by herself in her own chair. 

Its a ....

I know you've all been dying to hear so let me tell you...

We're having another Girl!!

We had our ultrasound today. She was moving around a whole lot, which is not unusual. She kept herself hidden pretty well through most of the ultrasound, but with how much she moves it was only a matter of time till she gave us a good shot. Anyway, we are excited to have another girl and we are excited we can stop calling her "it." However, the decision of what to actually call her is going to be a long and painful process.
We have a boys name list a mile long and absolutely no girls names. So hopefully we'll be able to find a good name sooner than later. We do have a few more months to go but it would be nice to not have to decide in the hospital. So the dreary process begins. Any great ideas, go ahead and post them. Just don't be offended if you some how find out we hate the name you suggested. I am a little bit picky.

This is our latest 3D picture of the little one. I'll save her some embarrassment and not post the picture of her tell all.
Well, we hope you all have a fabulous day! And really, we are open to suggestions of names!!

Well, This is the only picture I've been able to load in about 3 weeks. I've been trying to get pictures up and our internet is being junk. So, I'm giving up on pictures and just deciding its about time to post about some of the fun things we've been up to lately.

Kiley is now almost 16 months old. She has kind of spunked up lately. She is climbing all over things and trying to find new ways to get what she wants and when she wants them. This has been fun to watch, but a little tiring as well. She loves to climb on the kitchen chairs and will no longer sit in her booster seat. She has to be just like the grown ups and eat from a plate while sitting in a grown up chair. She has loved to push the chairs around the kitchen since she figured out how to walk and LUCKILY she hasn't yet figured out that if she pushes the chair and then climbs she can get whatever she wants in the kitchen. Hopefully she won't figure that out for a long long time!!

A few weeks ago, we went to a beautiful canyon south of Cedar to take some family pictures. We were hoping the leaves would be changed and beautiful. They were beautiful, but only just begun changing, so they weren't as pretty as they were last year when we went. We did get some cute family pictures though. If you want to see them, you need to look at Facebook. Chad was able to post them there.

We have been in the nursery now since around August. We have 3 nurseries in our ward and would have a fourth if they had an available classroom. We have the youngest kids who are just coming in. The best part about nursery is that we don't have to chase Kiley around for 3 hours of church. She loves nursery and playing with the kids. She is a little bit of a punk though. She's figuring out how to share but only likes to if its her choice. She may be the youngest(since she's not supposed to go in until January) and possibly the smallest(but has the biggest belly), but she doesn't let the other kids push her around. She is a fighter and fights back when someone steals her toy or does something she doesn't like. This is not always a good thing.

Chad's elk hunt was last week and the week before. He wasn't able to get anything but it wasn't all his fault. A day before his hunt started, there was a massive landslide about 8 miles up Cedar Canyon. There have been many landslides here in the last few years but this was the worst of all. They thought it would take about 30 days to get it fixed and now they are saying it "may" be fixed by June. Chad's favorite hunting spot is not very far up the canyon and usually takes 15 to 30 minutes to get to. However, with the landslide, he had to travel all the way to Parowan (20 minutes), up Parowan canyon, through Cedar Breaks N.M. and then down to his spot. This made for about 60 minutes of traveling time instead and about an extra 60 miles or so.

Expecting...

So I thought it was about time to let the word out about our new adventure we will be undertaking. 

If you've heard rumors, I will put the rumors to rest. We are moving to Peru. Wait, just kidding. That was supposed to be my brother-in-law. 

We are going to be adding a new little addition to our family in April! Yes, you read it right! I am pregnant and am due April 5, 2012. That means that I am 11 weeks. 

Kiley is sometimes excited about being a big sister and sometimes not very happy at all. For example, at our doctor's appointment on Thursday, she was not happy at all. Especially when her dad or the nurse tried to hold her. Let's just say that having an ultrasound while holding a 1 year old is not all fun and games. However, whenever she sees the pictures of the ultrasound on the fridge, she gets very excited to look at them. I'm sure she doesn't fully understand what is going to happen and how her world is going to turn upside down, but we're working on it slowly. Oh and in case anyone is wondering, Kiley will be 21 months when this new baby arrives. 

We've switched doctors to the doc that delivered Kiley. We already have great things to say about him. The best part of my whole appointment was that he sat down and talked to me about my concerns and what he thinks might be the best options. The fact that he sat down is what impressed me the most. He wasn't in a hurry to get out and move on to another patient. And had Kiley been more cooperative, he probably would have just kept talking. 

And for everyone's information...Kiley will most likely not be joining us for many more doctor appointments. I'm just going to leave her home with Daisy. They can keep each other company and I'm sure they will have lots of fun together! (Just kidding, about leaving her with Daisy. We will be finding a babysitter.)

Well, that's all the news I have right now! I hope you all have a fabulous day!!

This is probably how she really feels!

I can't tell if it is yawning or trying to eat something.

It moved when the Dr. took the picture so its feet are alien like.

Hiding from the camera

Life...

I've realized that I have been doing a horrible job at keeping things up to date. Part of that problem may be the fact that instead of blogging about myself, I'm way too busy reading about everyone else. Well, there were only 2 new posts for me to read today and now that I've read them I thought I would do some updating of my own.

Back in August, Chad and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary!! I cannot believe it has been that long. In four years we've had many awesome experiences we wished would never end, and we also have had some experiences we hope to never experience again. For our anniversary we spent the weekend at my Grandparent's cabin. I have been really wanting to get Kiley up there again and was glad it all worked out. One morning, Chad had gotten up early and headed out fishing. While he was gone, I had given Kiley some toys to play with and she was content to play by herself. I decided to play a little pool in the next room (mostly so I could get some good practice and beat Chad...again!) Well, I kept checking on Kiley and she was just happy as could be. She came into the room holding a little toy horse and growling like a tiger. (During this week, everything said "roar.") As I looked over at her, she was covered in blood. I knew it couldn't be serious since she was as happy as a growling horse, but I was a little bit nervous. I took her into the bathroom to wash her off and realized she had somehow cut her finger. It just looked like a paper cut but was pretty deep. It would not stop bleeding even after putting pressure on it for a good 10 minutes (which isn't easy with a 1 year old.) I put a band-aid on and she chewed it off. So I put another band-aid on and taped it with masking tape so she wouldn't be able to get it off. I got her down for her nap and by the time she woke up she had stopped bleeding. During her nap, I went to clean the toys and amazingly enough she had almost every toy covered in blood. There were probably 50 different pieces including little animals, a cow, horse, and school yard. Don't worry, they all got nice and clean. Those toys may not have been cleaned since the early 1980's when they were purchased! I still have no idea how she would have cut herself, but it was a very interesting few minutes.

We also took some time and went down to the Park City Tanger Outlets. I haven't been there for quite a few years so it was fun to walk around. I got a waterproof jacket, which I've been in need of a few times with some of our hikes we've been on. And Chad got a shirt. We're lame and didn't get anything for Kiley, but she had fun running around the stores and hiding in the clothes racks. My sister, Heather, also came up one of the days. It was fun getting to spend time with her. Kiley loves her Aunt Heather and loved playing with her all day.

So also in August, my parents went on a cruise with my grandparents and all of my aunts and uncles. Everyone but my dad and grandparents went to Scotland a few days early since they had never been there and all wanted to go. They then met my dad and grandparents in Denmark to begin their cruise. They went to Denmark, Germany, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. There may have been one other stop but I can't remember. My mom was out of the country for half of a month. I really wish I could have gone with them. I'm sure they had a blast. Every time I ask my mom if she had fun her reply is, "Yeah it was fun. But what's Kiley doing?" So I haven't really heard. Hopefully she'll tell us all about it next time we're up there.

For Labor Day weekend, Chad had to work at the Iron County Fair everyday. He helps run a booth for Southern Utah Mortuary. On Monday, Kiley and I went with him so we could spend time looking around. I am so used to going to Swiss Days in Midway for Labor Day and was sort of expecting that on a smaller scale. Well, smaller scale is an over statement. There were probably 10 food vendors and maybe 20 booths. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more. But they did have a petting zoo. That was cool, but Kiley was scared of the animals. They also had all kinds of rides, but we didn't go on any because they weren't really Kiley rides. The only ride that was for her was riding in a boat, but she would have jumped out to play in the water and that would have been an adventure.


This last weekend, we had Chad's parents in town. Ken ran the Red Rock Relay which is a 186 mile race from Brian Head, through Cedar to Enterprise and down through St. George ending just outside of Zion National Park. We watched him run 2 of his 3 legs. The second leg was at 2 am so we slept. He did a great job. He was one of the oldest in the group and had 3 hard legs. Some of the younger guys had the easy legs, just sayin'! He did awesome and we were very proud of him. Kiley wasn't always happy about spending 2 days in the car but she sure was happy to see her grandpa and cheer him on. While waiting for Ken to start his third leg, we went hiking in Zion Natl. Park. Chad took his dad dove hunting on Saturday. Ken brought back 5 and Chad brought back 1. They had fun though.

Ken getting ready to run first leg.

This is what Kiley thought of riding in a car all day. Oh and she's eating donut holes. That kept her happy.

Running past Navajo Lake.

With the doves

Hiking in Zion

Hope everyone is having a great week!