Merry Christmas

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We traveled up to Los Alamos, NM (where it is SOOOO cold). We had such a good time, and Kyra loved all the attention from Grandma and Grandpa.

As we were packing to go, I looked over and Kyra was lightly, using her hands to drum on Kyles head. I asked her what she was doing and she said "I'm giving Kyle a blessing!" She then said "Amen". So we had a very quick discussion about blessings. I thought she understood what I was explaining, but for the rest of the night she gave a blessing to anything she saw....her shoes, the dog...etc. So I guess we will be working on that one for FHE.

We left at four in the morning, hoping to avoid a winter storm that was supposed to hit. The storm ended up not being as bad as was predicted, but it actually worked out great because the kids slept quite a bit on the way.

On Christmas Eve we visited with Karls greandparents, and an aunt and uncle, and lots of cousins, and second cousins. Kyra loved her cousins! They were two little girls, a little older than Kyra, that were willing to play ring around the rosies a million times.

Kyle also liked playing (aka stealing and drooling on his cousins toys) with everyone as well.



On Christmas Eve we made cookies to leave for Santa, and also made reindeer food and sprinkled it outside. The next morning Kyra went out to see if the reindeer had eaten the food, and she found a bell, that they reindeer must of dropped! She was really excited about that.


Christmas morning was so much fun. Kyra got a tricycle, and a princess tent. Kyle got a tickle me Cookie Monster. I got a new printer (If you can imagine, the one we bought 6 years ago for $20 wasn't really cutting it anymore) and Karl got a Wii (as a graduation and Christmas present).


While we were in New Mexico, we were able to go to the Albuquerque temple, and Karl did the work for his grandfather. The temple was beautiful.

Kyra wasn't really sure what to think of the snow. She would want to hold it, so we would let her hold some, and then she would cry because it was cold. So we would take it away, and she would cry because we would take it away. When we left to come
home, our car's temperature said three degrees!


This is Karl's sister, Pamela, with her husband Matt, and their adorable baby Ethan.


The one thing that you will never see in Tucson, but I guess is pretty normal in Los Alamos, is the amount of wildlife. This is a video, right out side Karl's grandmothers apartment, of ten deer just playing.


It was a really fun week. At night we either played Wii or watched Lost until midnight. Karl, Karl's sister and brother in law, and myself looked pretty pathetic after the first night of playing the Wii..we were so sore. It was great to just be able to relax and not worry abour school or work for a while.

We are very blessed to be able to see both sets of grandparents for Christmas each year. So we had Christmas, the sequel with my parents this morning. We had our traditional strawberry, ice cream and waffles for breakfast. They were so good. Kyle I think liked the wrapping paper as much as anything!

Kyle got a little baby push/ride car to go with Kyra's tricyle. I think a good business idea would be to open a neighborhood parking garage for all of your kids little ride on toys!


We hope all of you had a special Christmas!

43 days...

I am so excited!

GRADUATION!

This past weekend we traveled back to Las Cruces for Karl's graduation! It was so cold. I'm not just being a pansy because I have been in Tucson for too long. One woman standing in line waiting for graduation had to be taken care of by paremedics for hypothermia!
On Friday night we went and saw the new movie "Enchanted" with Bobby and Sharon. It was a great movie. We laughed alot. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to babysit. Saturday was graduation. I am so proud of Karl for the hard work that he put into this degree! I don't think he quite knows what to do with himself now.





We leave on Friday to go to Los Alamos, to be with Karl's parents for Christmas. Then we will head back home, to have Christmas the Sequel with my parents on the
29th! Kyra is loving that idea. Karl has a total of 18 days off. We are really excited to have him home.

I love my husband.

I really do love my husband. He isn't the handiest guy in the world but he really does try. Yesterday I noticed the the hose that goes from the dryer and connects to the wall had come off at the wall. So Karl got out his tools and reattached it within a couple minutes. So I put in a load of laundry into the dryer and noticed that it was a little louder then it use to be. I mentioned it to Karl, and he said "I'll see what I can do." He got up and closed the laundry room door. I really love my husband.

Kyra's version

We have a Little People nativity which looks like this:


After we set it up, Kyra was playing with it, and added a couple of her own special touches.



Maybe we should go over the nativity story again. Karl particularly likes the catapult.

Catching Up...

I didn't do very well about keeping up with the blog over the last month. So...here is the run down.
We discovered that Kyle loves corn!

Kyle is old enought to sit on his own in the bathtub, which makes it so much more fun!


Thanksgiving was great. One of our friends gave us the great idea of a "Thankful Tom" box. Everyday we would add more thingst to the box, that we were thankful for Kyra loved it. She loved looking for pictures in the Friend. Then on Thanksgiving we shared everything that was added to the box. This was our "Thankful Tom". That night after we finished our Thankful Tom, I was holding Kyle in the recliner, and he accidentally fell over the side of the chair. It was only a foot, maybe a two foot drop, but he landed directly on top of his head, and appeared to jam his neck. He acted like he couldn't take a breath, and became completely stiff throughout his entire body. We immediately called 911. After what felt like an eternity, he took a breath and started to cry a little, but stopped very quickly. The ambulance showed up, and checked him out completely. They said that he probably got the wind knocked out of him, causing him not to be able to take that initial breath in. Of course I feel horrible. A friend was coming over to take Karl to a priesthood session, and arrived right after the ambulance. So he was able to help give Kyle a blessing. It does amaze me how much little children are aware of what is going on. Since then, every time Kyra says a prayer, she says "Please bless baby brother because he bonked his head. But he got a blessing and is all better." Also, whenever he falls now, which is quite a bit since he is trying to walk, she runs over and asks me "Is Kyle okay?". I say yes, he just fell down. She gives him a kiss to make it all better, and asks if he needs a blessing. If only we could make our faith that simple.

The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Phoenix. For Karl's birthday he got tickets to go see the Suns play. We drove up Friday, went to Si Senors (our favorite Mexican food place) and went to Ikea. That night we went to the game. The kids did great. Everytime someone would miss a basket, Kyra would yell "Almost, good try though!" She really got into it when the crowed would chant.



The next day we went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was so cold (well for Arizona)! But the kids loved it. They had a children section, wih a "cow swing", and tractors to crawl on, a little barn to run in and out of, and a cave to explore. It was a great weekend.

Our attemt at putting Kyra and Kyle on the cow swing at the same time.




Kyle is such a boy. His favorite things to play with are cars, tractors or trucks.

I guess its time to baby proof my MAKEUP DRAWER!

The Pumpkin Princess!

Today at the library the Pumpkin Princess visited Storytime. Kyra loved it! Apparently the Pumpkin Princess only visits when the wind is blowing. So they taught all the kids how to sound and act like the wind. I think Kyra might have a future as a wind imitator. The Pumpkin Princess read some stories, and then all the kids made leaf necklaces, just like the one that the Princess wore. They each got a glittery leaf stamp, and a "wind whistle" too. Well the whistle is already broken, the necklace has been chewed on by Kyle and the dog (Maybe at the same time, at one point), and Kyra licked the stamp off, but tonight she said "Remember the Pumpkin Princess, Mommy" (like it was a million years ago)and waved her hands in the air, while trying to sound like the wind. "Thank you for taking me to storytime. I like the Pumpkin Princess". Kyra's new sentence for the day: "I missed you so much today Daddy. Please stay home with me."
I have been working on my RS lesson lately, which is about "Strengthening Families". The thing that has really struck me is the affect that I have on what my children say, think, and do. I am grateful for that blessing, but am becoming keenly aware of its responsibility.

WHOO HOO!!!

For the past 4 days I have tried so hard to not rock or feed Kyle to get him to go to sleep. The theory is that once he can figure out how to put himself to sleep, then he will start sleeping through the night. Well the first night was horrible...an hour and half later he was asleep, after many tears. But it has been getting better each night. Last night once he feel asleep he slept from 7:30 to 3:30..(8 hours)which is huge. Well the big news is that tonight he PUT HIMSELF TO SLEEP. I laid him down, completely awake, and he just laid there, didn't cry, and just fell asleep! WHOO HOO!!!

Relief...

Kyle is on the mend. The antibiotics he was given yesterday seemed to have really helped. Today we took him back to the doctor. As soon as we got to the office, the doctor, and 3 of the nurses ran over and said how good he looked compared to yesterday. I am very grateful for good doctors (she called twice yesterday to check on him) and modern medicine. The doctors best guess is that maybe in inhaled something into his lungs, causing him to instantly start coughing so much. Then his body noticing the irritant started sending cells and fluid to the area, causing the pneumonia. That would also expain, why he started cough and then ran the fever 2 days later. Usually it is the other way around. He is on antibiotics for 10 days, and the doctor said to expect him to keep coughing for about 6 weeks, until all the junk gets cleared out. Thank you for all of the prayers for our little guy!

Our little guy...

Kyle hasn't been feeling very well the last couple days. He started coughing Saturday night. He seemed to be feeling better yesterday, but we kept him home from church to just give him a little more rest. Last night he had a pretty rough night, and woke up with a 102 degree fever. We took him to the doctor this morning. After some very uncomfortable chest x-rays they determined that he has pneumonia. They gave him a injection of a major antibiotic. We will go back tomorrow for another injection and more x-rays. Hopefully his fever will break, and his lungs look better! So if you will say a little prayer for Kyle, we would appriciate it.

Our little Fairy and cute Charlie Brown!

Tonight we went to the Irwins for a Halloween Party! Kyra plays with their little girl Bailee, and Kyle is the same age as their second little girl Eli. So it is always so much fun to hang out. Kyra loved the party. She went as Tinkerbell.

Kyle was Charlie Brown. He is teething!

The party was a "gross out" Halloween Party. So everyone brought something gross, but edible. This was ours. My parents were very into Halloween. Every year they had a "Haunted Front Yard", which was usually a 20 person production...everything you can think of. So now whenever I put up anything for Halloween, I have to ask Karl "Is this what normal people do?" Karl said no to this food item, but oh well!

It was so much fun!
This is Kyle with Eli, who for some reason everytime Kyle sees her, he tackles her. Silly boy.

We also went to the zoo with Bailee and Eli this week. This is Kyra and Bailee laughing just for the sake of laughing!

Suns Game!

A couple weeks ago the Suns had their annual scrimmage here in Tucson. It was great. Kyra loved it. It was such a fun evening..we ended up getting free tickets, and sitting only 3 rows up from the bottom, and even sat in the section where the players come out of the tunnel!

Rodeo

We recently went to a rodeo with some friends. Kyra and her friend Bailee got their arms painted with a picture of a unicorn (whick Kyra loved). They also had this wheel thing you could spin and win a prize. I won 2 shot glasses with the words "Desert Diamond Casino". Whoo who!!! What on earth do I do with 2 shot glassess. Well I ended up just throwing them away..Karl suggested keeping them until I wanted to get released from my calling and then using them during a white elephant gift exchange.

It was a rough day.

Okay...Kyra was on one this day. Right after this I made the comment "Kyra Elizabeth if you don't stop being naughty I'm going to beat you (note frusterated mom tone, not actually going to do it tone). No sooner had I said those words, the phone rang. It was a local church group asking for a donation, but their opening line was "Hi we are from the local something church, do you know of anyone that could use a prayer right now."

Matching PJ'S

So I had this brilliant idea of buying the kids matching pj's and taking some photos! I kid you not these were the best we were able to get.




We are regrouping.

Busy, Busy Busy

It is funny how if you don't keep up on blogging, suddenly you can feel very behind!
Of most importance is that Karl passed his oral graduate boards!!! I am so proud of him. So all he has to do now is get a B in his last class, and then he will graduate in December. And, if he gets an A in that class, he will gradate with a 4.0 with a Masters in Industial Engineering, with an Empasis in Operations Research! I really couldn't ask for a better guy.
We were lucky enough to be able to schedule his oral boards during homecoming week of our alamater, NMSU. We went to a volleyball game on Friday night, which was great. Our team is ranked in top 25 in the nation! They won the first 2 games, lost the next 2 games, and then were down 14 to 9, and came back to win 16 to 14. Kyra and Kyle were chosen as some of the cutest kids and put on the jumbo bigscreen, and Kyra got a miniture volleyball with all of the players signatures. The next day while Karl was doing his oral, Sharon (our friend from college) and I took the kids to feed the ducks at the pond. These ducks knew what was up. They came running up the second they saw the bread, and started circling.


The next day was the homecoming parade.

Karl swears it was the cheerleaders who suggested the picture.


This is us at the Homecoming game with Bobby and Sharon. We actually won! Kyra would sing the Aggie Fight song and get to the part where they spelled A-G-G-I-E-S, but she would just say whatever lets popped in her head..A-X-I-J-K-L.


They recently remodeled our stadium!

It was really such a fun weekend. The kids LOVED Bobby and Sharon!

What a big boy I am!

Kyle is now 6 months old. We love having him in our family. We can't get enough of his smiles. Recently he started crawling, standing up in his crib (aka giving Mommy a heartattack) and can even sit in a big boy booster at the kitchen table. We love our little guy.

Can you tell they are related?

Kyra


Kyle


Kyle


Kyra