Girls Night!

I had game night at my house last night. We have one about every month with all the girls in my old ward. I wish I had Harmony Ward back. Anyway, I'm glad that I still get to do stuff with my friends in the ward even though I moved. We really have a blast every time we get together! This morning Preston said, "You girls sounded like you have a really good time last night." I told him we usually do exactly that every time. I don't know whether it's because we do it late at night, but we always end up laughing our heads off, usually at mine or Andrea's expense but some one as got to be that person right?

Anyway, it was a big success we had 9 of us here and it was super fun! The deal is that whoever hosts does the treats. I had been so excited that I got to do game night that I had been planning for a week. I don't mean to brag but I made some really super yummy treats. I'm glad that everyone came and I promised that I would pass around some of my recipes that I used.

Thanks again everyone for coming it was really fun!

Fruit Salsa

1 8 oz can of crushed pineapple, (do not drain)
8 oz of strawberries chopped fine
3 kiwis peeled and chopped fine
2 mangos
2 T brown sugar
1/3 c orange juice

Mix pineapple and brown sugar well. Add all other finely chopped fruit and orange juice. Toss and chill. Serve with cinnamon tostada chips.

I'm sure if you wanted to you could do different fruit... I did add a peach to mine last night.

Cinnamon Tostada Chips

Preheat oven to 400˚. Cut flour tortillas into strips. Lightly spray with water. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a Ziploc bag. Put strips in bag and shake until coated. Place in single layer on baking sheet. Bake 8-10 min or until lightly brown and crisp. Cool on wire rack.

Or just buy them at Food City. They fry theirs which makes them way better!

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And if you want the Almond Danish Swirls is one of Paula Deen's http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/almond-danish-swirls-recipe/index.html

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They are yummy, easy, and impressive too!

Dolly Continued

I thought I'd try giving Kya a new dolly, I've since named her Abbie so that she doesn't get confused. Yes it is the same doll but the updated version. If you notice her face is a bit different but her clothes are the exact same! This is how Dolly started off, she really was a cute doll, until she got dreads.

The only thing is now is that she has to have both of them. I haven't had the heart to get rid of Dolly so for now she has two! I know, I know she is my first child though!

Dolly

For those of you who don't know this is dolly!

And Kya LOVES Dolly

Yes she is a white doll with dreads, I swear it didn't start out that way. When I first got her, her hair was in two pigtail braids. If you have seen Kya with me though, she is clinging to my hair ALL the time. And she got to a point where she wouldn't go to sleep unless she had my hair. I wasn't about to rock her to sleep every night so I found Dolly. I'm not original with names for toys as you can see.

I had gotten Dolly when Kya was about about 5 or 6 months old. Dolly was perfect, she is soft everywhere but her head and hands, AND she had doll hair, unlike some soft dolls I'd found with yarn hair. She was only $5 and so I thought I'd try my luck. I gave Kya this doll to sleep with so she'd have hair to fiddle with while she fell asleep and I would be able to have my head. Surprisingly enough the first night she had Dolly it worked she didn't need my hair! And, might I add, that for the first month or so I brushed Dolly's hair, all the time! But somehow it ended up looking like she does and it is past the point of help. Someone tried to tell me that if I put conditioner in her hair and comb it out from the bottom up it would be as good as new... however, this kind person had never looked real closely at Dolly's hair. No I have never tried it but really?... REALLY!

REALLY!

So here is the real story that was just background. Kya really loves Dolly, but she doesn't NEED Dolly all the time. But there are times that if she has Dolly it's hard to get Dolly out of her arms. This was the case last night, Kya already had Dolly and we went to take a bath. Although it does look like we bathe with Dolly she has never been in the water. Before I put Kya in the tub I was trying to explain to her that Dolly can't go in the bathtub. Kya had a death grip on Dolly and wouldn't let me take her. I thought by reasoning with her and showing her her other fun toys in the bath that she would put Dolly down. But she wouldn't. So I thought I'd reason with Kya after her clothes were off... NOPE, that didn't work either. I found it really sad to rip Dolly away from her just to take a bath. So I kept reasoning, "Dolly can't get wet... she'll wait right here for you..." so on and so on. I thought that maybe if I set her in the tub without water she'd realize that baths are fun and she didn't need Dolly for a bit. But that wasn't the case either. Every time I'd try to even touch Dolly, Kya SCREAMED at me! All the while I was finding this behavior quite funny, because she'd never needed Dolly like this. So finally I knew she wasn't going to give Dolly to me so I had to take her. Honestly that was every sad. I had to literally pry Dolly out of my poor daughters death grip. Even after I had her Kya reached up and snagged Dolly's lushes hair. So after I had untangled Kya's fingers from Dolly's hair Kya almost turned in to a possessed child. She was so angry with me! Needless to say it was one of the shortest wash downs and Dolly was back in Kya's arms!

Fun Day, Funny Girl

So today we went to the lake! I haven't been for about a year, can you believe that? Well since we don't have a boat anymore I guess it's not that unbelievable. I really felt like wakeboarding but I know that would be a bad idea being 6 months prego and all. But I still enjoyed being there.

So, here's the story, we got invited to go yesterday, but I had gotten busy doing other things and had completely forgotten to find a babysitter... and by the time I remembered it was midnight. The plan was to be out the door this morning by 5:45 am which would leave us no time to find a babysitter in the morning either. I had gotten everything ready and I was set to bring Kya with us to the lake, but I decided to take a long shot and see if my mom happen to be awake. I texted my mom's phone (which is always in the kitchen) to see by any chance she was awake, and in by the kitchen. HALLELUIAH, she answered right back. Being the loving mother she is she took her without any hesitation, yes even at 6 am, and TOTALLY saved the day. It was so much fun to not have to worry about her on the boat. So THANK YOU, thank you, THANK YOU, so SO much again MOM!

Here is just a short clip of Preston, I have a longer one but it would have taken forever to download so you get the clip that only has one trick.

Preston on the air-chair.

Tonight Kya was walking around with a cup of water. She usually does really good with not spilling it but she spilled a little on the floor. I had her get the towel and clean it up herself, she thought that was cool and spilled the rest on the cup just to clean up a new spill. She really is a good helper! And since she's been in nursery she loves to clean up and sing the "Clean Up" song.

Her's goes like this: "Neen up Neen up, du du dada dada da, neen up neen up..." It really is the cutest thing ever.

Lately Kya has been a bit clingy and she doesn't like me to accomplish much sometimes. So the other day when she didn't throw a fit as I got in the shower I was surprised. I was even more shocked that when I got out she was still fine. I got a little worried because I knew she was in our room somewhere but she had been being quiet and that usually means-- you really need to find your toddler. So as I got out I called out and I couldn't really hear her. I looked around and didn't notice that she was in my closet hiding. She thought she was so funny, cuz I heard her giggling, when I said "Where's Kya?"

She wasn't doing anything mischievous, she was just shutting herself in a suitcase and hiding!

Silly silly girl!

My Humps, My Lovely Lady Humps

CHECK IT OUT!
I can't help but sing that song all the time, you can just picture me dancing like Fergie with my lovely lady humps... I won't show you. Cause you are laughing just thinking about it aren't you? Yeah thanks!

So this is what I look like 6 months pregnant. I'm definitely feeling pregnant these days and probably feel bigger than I really am. Some girl in my new ward, who by the way is pregnant too, had to ask, "You're pregnant?" I hope I didn't make a bad face because by this time yeah... I think I look pregnant! What do you think? I didn't want to be rude but it's one of those times where you wish you could give one of those "Here's your sign" responses. Like "Nope, I just swallowed a bowling ball and it's just now digesting." But YEAH that would be a little rude and I don't know anyone THAT well yet in the new ward.

Oh and this one has nothing to do with humps, just that she is the cutest thing ever! I guess she once was a hump too!

What's Happening

I've gotten really good at keeping up with pictures and small funny things that go on with us but here is a real update for all to enjoy.
I'll start off with Preston. Preston has stumbled into the best job he could have ever found. I don't think it was just by chance because I really feel that the Lord was there to lead us in his decisions about work. It turns out that the exact thing that he has been wanting to do for quite a while now is actually a reality. He now works for a company called PhoenixMetro.com, which in short gives the public deals and coupons for multiple different services, companies, and restaurants. He originally was thinking about starting up something from scratch, but in the awesome chain of events he found a great guy that had already established PhoenixMetro.com. Both of them seemed to click right away. He runs the website and was looking to find someone to help do the sales and build the company, and Preston was looking to do exactly that and needed someone to run the website. So it really has been such a blessing. Preston is so excited to be doing something that he cares about and loves doing, and from my perspective it really shows. I'm so glad that work is not so wearing on him, and it always helps to be doing something that you love.
Preston has also started up soccer again. It is good for him to get out and be active for a while, it's hard to slow that guy down. The league just started last week and they play a game every week for the next month or two. Preston is a pretty good soccer player, well he is just a good athlete in general so I guess it wouldn't matter the sport.
Next I'll brag about my sweet girl. Kya is growing up so much. She really is just big and not a baby anymore. She is officially 18 months and has been in nursery for 3 weeks. For the most part I think she does well. I hope that's really true because her nursery leader is about the nicest person I've met, and that is what she tells me. I don't really doubt it though, Kya is a good girl. Kya's favorite movie is Finding Nemo. We watch it EVERYDAY, I can recite it from start to finish! It is so cute she will grab the remote and put her hands out and say, "Where's Mee-mo?" she'll repeat it until the movie is actually on.
She has picked up some signs that she does usually use them in the right context, they are "more, please, and again" and for thank you she sometimes blows kisses because it's just about the same. She also picks up new words everyday too. It's fun to hear her say actual word instead of just jabber all the time.
She is very helpful, or tries to be most of the time. She'll help with small tasks and even wants to do some of the big ones. Yesterday I was cleaning the toilet and she came in and acted like she wanted to do it. I told her she was too little to clean the toilet, so then she proceeded to throw a small fit by throwing her binkie down and pouting a bit. I felt bad for depriving her of such a great privilege and let her help with the toilet bowl scrubber. I think that really made her feel like a big girl!
As for me, I've been trying to get organized, and adjust to being more tidy. I have found out that leaving my whole house to clean up on Saturday is not fun. I need to start doing more of a daily clean up schedule. Which I'm going to be starting this next week.
I feel better in our new ward now, the first couple of weeks I felt funny and a little out of place. For one thing I didn't know anyone and Preston knew about 5 families right off the bat. I now feel a little bit more comfortable and can pick out a few names and faces that I are familiar to me. I knew it wouldn't take long but I still felt weird the first few weeks and I'm glad that, that feeling is disappearing. There are a lot of good families and everyone is very nice.
Sorry Grandma you may not want to read this part... We have caught/killed more spiders than I have seen in my entire life around here. Being on a new lot seems to have that perk to it... lots of bugs share my home. I have reacently become obbsessed with thinking that every spider is a brown recluse, and that they have bit me or Kya. Which I don't think I've actually seen any and I'm pretty sure we haven't gotten bit either! But in my defense there are a lot of spiders and a lot of them are really big ones. I did find out though that wolf spiders usually will not bite unless they are provoked. And I hate to admit it but most of the spiders around here do look like wolf spiders and not brown recluse.
All in all, we are doing good, adjusting well and having fun.

Yup, Vultures!

Do you see the two birds sitting on our back fence, at first when we looked out we just thought they were chickens or something. But no, they are VULTURES, yup vultures on our back fence, just chill'n waiting for something to come up dead evidently.

This one if you look right in the middle of the picture there is one spreading out it's wings!

By the middle of breakfast there were 4 out there but I didn't feel like interrupting my yummy crepes to go take a picture of the 4 of them, but believe me, they were out there.

Daddy's First Groupie

We have had Guitar Hero for a while now but this was the first we've played our own and on the new big screen! Kya's got the hang of rocking out! She sure had fun dance'n to the songs daddy was shredding!

Precious

I thought this was the cutest picture and I got it in one shot!

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I should be a photographer I know... This is what I did for Preston, I took photo's of different things around the house and spelled LOVE.

House Update

So we have gotten a few things done, the carpet on the stairs looks AWESOME! It was put in earlier last week.

I got a new bedspread and I've put it all together, finally, and I actually do make my bed everyday now!

And the painters are finishing the final touches on everything. They should be done with the touch ups tomorrow! It already looks a lot better.

Slip-n-Slide All Night n It'll b Sweet

Some friends had invited us to the park to join them slip-n-sliding. It was HUGE! The plastic went all the way down the retention basin and it was covered in soap and we borrowed a neighbor's hose to slide down. Kya wasn't to sure about it but Preston sure had fun!

She held on to her chip the whole time!

We had the ASU game to go to afterwards and Preston was soaked! I didn't go down for that reason I didn't want to be soapy and soaked for the whole game. But he did hang his shirt out the window on the way to the game so it wasn't too bad for him.

Lazy Mom, Obedient Girl

Last night was kind of a late one. Preston and I didn't start a movie until 11 so we kind of knew it was going to be a little bit tough this morning. (Because our master bedroom is ALL windows and we now wake up with the sun!) So this morning at 6:45 Kya started her I'M AWAKE yell down the hallway. Any other morning I probably would have just gotten up but I just didn't feel like it today. So I got up to go to the bathroom, because that's usually when this prego mama has to get up and go anyway, and on the way I passed by the intercom, and said into it, "Kya, lay down and go back to sleep." Not thinking it would work I relieved myself in the pottyroom and started walking back. To my surprise she had quieted down and she really DID go back to sleep! I climbed back in bed and slept til 8! The latest yet in this glass house! Kya is a SUPER obedient kid, with a lot of things, it's just awesome that she even listens to me over the intercom!

Playing LOTS!

The other day Kya went down pretty hard on the concrete and skinned her knees for the first of many more to come, you can see them a little in this picture.

Kya loved that we have SO much space to run and play... we are always running and playing!

Cutest Girl!

What a funny girl! We got to go to IHOP for breakfast! And she was a HOOT!

Isn't this the cutest outfit ever! My mom got it for her, she was getting all the other grandkids back to school clothes and she couldn't leave Kya out on the cute clothes! Thanks again MOM!

She's a little tired in this one but its cute!

Planter -- Sandbox Same Thing!

We have some planters in the front that we decided to wait to plant flowers in until it cooled off, and go figure its Kya's favorite place to play. She is always super dirty!

Kya tried to eat the dirt, and then with her dirty hands tried to get it out of her mouth.

AWESOME!

Fun at the Grimes

For all of those who are thinking in your head, "Hey they didn't come to visit US" the Grimes' did call to invite us.
AND we didn't die we just moved... so come visit us too!

So it was really funny we all were eating cookies in the front room and Preston had just finished his milk so he filled the cup up with water, (luckily!) and Kya climbed up in his lap and spilled the whole cup in his lap!

Looks like he peed right on the couch!

Stuck

Ok so it's not very often that Kya will let me out of her sight during the day. So when she was fine with playing in the entertainment room while I walked out of it, I decided to go upstairs and take a shower. I took a pretty quick one but when I hopped out I listened for her she sounded happy but she was calling. Yelling really or like she does when she wakes up. I was still in my towel upstairs so I yelled down to her, "Come here!" I heard her respond, "NO!" (Her usual response to any question.) I threw some clothes on quickly and came down to check on her. I thought I had heard her in the entertainment room where I left her, but there was no Kya. So I turned around and looked in the family room and still didn't see her. Then I heard her call again, a little confused I turned around again and heard some sound coming from the shut powder room in the hallway. She had gone into the bathroom and shut herself in the dark. And she was totally fine and happy! She used to do that in our other house in the pantry... she apparently loves hiding in the dark.

Anniversary

All because two kids fell in LOVE!

And then there were two!

I noticed that I don't take many pictures of just us anymore, Kya's usually more cute than we are.

We have done a lot and been through a lot! I'm so glad it's been with my sweet hubby! I wouldn't have it any other way! Preston is so kind and loving. I know he cares for me and loves me! He is such a strength to me, he is my best friend and he is a great man. I am super lucky to have him.

Soon after we were married I had to be in the hospital for about 2 weeks. He was always right there for me and did so much for me. That attitude of giving and doing so much for me is still there. I know he would do anything for me and it's good to know I can count on him!

He is a spiritual giant. He really helps me to be better in a lot of different areas of my life. He is a good example to me and I know that he will be that for our kids too! I watch him in his daily routine and he makes doing the right thing easy! I have seen that in him for a long time, he constantly works on things to make himself and us better!

Mine and Preston's story starts out so funny. I love it. There are many times that Preston and I will sit and talk of all of the details of how we first met started dating and got to where we are. I'm glad we had such a great base, and after a while we both couldn't live without the other. Preston always knows how to make me laugh. He surely does keep me entertained.

My love has grown throughout the years and I love every minute with my sweetie!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!