Working Out

Kyler and I decided we need to start getting into shape!! Ok, so Kyler didn't really decide that but he has been working out a lot lately. He has been doing sit-ups, no more messing around with crunches, and pull-ups. He likes to show off his amazing abs!! I, on the other hand, have been positively influenced by some friends at church to start working out as well. I am still doing crunches and have not quite made to pull-ups yet, but I just started this week. To be honest, I have not really worked out and gotten into shape since I played volleyball, so I have a LONG way to go. Kyler is good motivation; he likes to play with the other kids while we get into shape!!

Kyler has progressed to full on sit-ups. He does this all the time while I am trying to change his diaper. He's all about making things easier for me!!

On Sunday at Kenney's Grandparent's house, Kyler reached the top of the table and tried to pull himself up. Kenney is only making sure he doesn't fall, he's not holding him up. All I can say is, "Like father, like son." Kenney is amazing at pull-ups too!

These are some more picture from Thanksgiving. About 80% of the pictures, Kyler had his mouth wide open!! Silly boy!

My Kitchen

Kenney had a lot of lonely time on his hands while Kyler and I were in Missouri. He decided to finish our kitchen! It looks amazing. He painted the counter tops to let them sit almost a week before we started using them. Every square inch of the kitchen has been painted now! The floor is all that is left on the inside of the house now!!!

Before

It was very dark so I guess they painted the ceiling blue to make it lighter!!

It also seemed small before we lightened it up

After

I LOVE my black counter tops!
Kenney is amazing. I glad we don't have to spend $1000s to make our
house look so much better.


We decided to keep the hardware and just give it a face lift. It was much cheaper to paint it than to buy new stuff. We are also missing one cabinet door.

A Happy Thanksgiving

This year we traveled to Missouri for Thanksgiving. My mom flew to Texas the week before and drove with Kyler and I to her house. Kenney followed a week later because my family did not think they would have enough time with Kyler if he was only there 3 or 4 days. We already knew, with Auntie Shandi being there, no one else would be able to hold him!!

On the way to Missouri. He was amazing in the car!!

After one of his Thanksgiving Feasts

Reading with Daddy

One of his Aunties that love him so much!!

Kyler had never been so spoiled!! I'm not sure if he ever cried unless he had to have his nose wiped. He loved all the new toys, new places, new people and ALL of the attention. He had an audience for everything. I loved being able to get out and go shopping and spend time with my family too. We missed Kenney terribly while he was stuck at home all by himself. He said we can't leave him that long again.

While we were in Missouri we went to 2 of the auctions that my parents go to and get amazing deals, like all the furniture for our house! We saw some pretty good stuff. My mom, sister, and I went Black Friday shopping at 3:30AM!! Believe it or not, it was fun too. Lots of crazy people though. We did get some amazing deals! I cut 10 inches of my hair off!! I feel like a different person now. I did it while Kenney was still in Texas, but I think he missed us so much he didn't care that I only had half the hair I used to!! Thanksgiving was amazing. We had great food and company. Papa Dude made what he calls the Cadillac of brussel sprouts (they were actually really good, I don't even like brussel sprouts). Mom also made some awesome soups while I was there, my favorite! Kyler wanted to eat everything that everyone else had, and he pretty much got it. Mostly, Kyler was super spoiled and had a great time.

Jason took some pics of Kyler and some family pics. They turned out so good!!

Kyler in his Granddaddy hat

Two Cool Hat-Wearing Dudes

Papa Dude figured out that Kyler likes to destroy things. This video proves how much fun it seems to be

Papa Dude also found Kylers fascination with water fountains. He absolutely loved this thing. It had to be moved from the bedroom to the kitchen because he made such a mess.

Now that Kyler had been offically spoiled, this is how he feels being at home with boring Mom who won't pick him up all day!! Poor Kyler

Who Needs Toys?

I have decided that toys are WAY over-rated. How many kids actually play with toys?? Most of the kids I have babysat and now my own child prefer to play with other things. Kyler would rather play with a milk jug, bugs,TV remotes, cell phones or the toilet than his real toys. Who needs Christmas toys when you have trash?!?

Kyler is defiantly mobile and is everywhere. He is finally learning to sit himself down once he stands up. His two little front teeth are also becoming much more noticeable. He eats like a monster now. He eats 'real' food 6 times a day on top of his milk. He absolutely refuses to nurse so he gets a bottle that we have to force down his throat 2 times a day. He looks a little more chunky to us, but he is not what anyone would call chubby!! Every time we go into public someone will, without a doubt, call him a girl. "She's so pretty" "Look at her pretty blue eyes" What do have I have to do to get people to understand that he is a BOY!! Goodness. What can we say, he is a handsome baby!!

Believe it or not, those legs are much more full than they used to be!

There are those big blue eyes

Kyler found a tiny cricket to play with. When he gets really excited he starts to pant like a dog and move his hands and feet. It never fails, every time!

This is the milk jug he found by the trash one day. He played with it forever, chasing it all over!

Our House Part 2

The inside is almost done!! We can't wait until it is officially finished. Kenney will be able to breath much better and not constantly feel like he needs to be working on something. We have been able to get most of it done pretty quick, but at times it seems like all the little things take FOREVER!! A lot of the before pictures are blurry. Sorry, I didn't realize that as I was taking them. No going back now!!

Kenney is most proud of our laundry room. He feels like it went through the biggest change. I wish I had taken better before pictures, but he actually fixed a big hole in the wall where the room was actually separating itself from the rest of the house!! He did a great job as usual. We painted every wall in this room too, boring white, but fresh and clean.

Laundry Room Before

Kenney jokes that they left us a washer!! Yes, it was extremely disgusting.

There was a leak in the pipes to go along with the detaching room. If you follow the corner you can see where it starts to detach. I didn't take a picture of the big hole. Sorry.

After

Much Cleaner!!

The hole is no more

Our dining room had some lovely stripes across the whole room. The floor also had a very strange half-circle thing going on. We were never able to understand why it was like that. The ceiling in here was blue so we painted everything in here too. The floor is still a work in progress because we have had a lot of issues. Hopefully soon we will have one floor pattern instead of two.

Dining Room Before

Sorry it's so blurry.

Dining Room After

Our green is a little brighter than I expected, but I love it now. I was going for more of a sage green to transition from the earth tones in the living room, oh well!!

I forgot we still had tape from painting the counters. The kitchen will be getting painted counters soon.

Our room had the least transformation. We had painted the living room, dining room, Kyler's room, the kitchen, and the cabinets by the time it came to our room. We were sick of it and decided to just move in. We did scrape off the nasty popcorn ceiling texture and painted the ceiling. We didn't have the energy to paint the paneling. It was not nearly as offensive as the living room so we haven't done it and I don't know if we will.

Bedroom Before

This dark but it's the back wall

The corner shelves from the living room continued in the bedroom!!

Bedroom After

Our bedroom set was given to us as well as everything else. I have never seen furniture this color, but I really like it.

This is almost a week late, but I VOTED!! I hate to admit it, but this was the first time I voted. I never took the initiative and got absentee ballots while i was in college in Idaho and Utah. Last week, Kenney and I took Kyler and we voted!! I was very proud of us. I am very grateful we live in a place that allows all of our voices to be heard.

Happy Halloween!!

I think I had a lot more fun than Kyler did this Halloween. I loved getting him all dressed up in his costumes and showing off my cute baby!! On Wednesday night we went to a church Halloween party. Our family dressed up as thugs and wore super baggy clothes. Brock, our brother-in-law, let us borrow some of his stuff. I even wore pants that were too big for him; they were a size 40 waist!! We had a good time seeing everyone else dress up too.

Saturday we dressed Kyler up in his giraffe costume and went downtown to get some candy. We didn't actually take him around because there were a lot of people and candy was running short, and let's face it, was Kyler really going to eat the candy?? We went to Kenney's Nanny and Papa's and then went to his parent's house a little later. Kyler didn't quite understand the costumes, but he was a super good sport!

Our Little Thug

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

Kenney's Mom and Dad with a real black-eye

My Adorable Giraffe

Halloween day we just had fun with family and hung around the house. Kyler is learning how to pull up on things and walk around. He hasn't quite grasped how to let go and sit down. He gets really scared and does not want to let go. He makes some funny sounds, faces and poses while avoiding the inevitable fall to the ground!!

Home Sweet Home

Kyler very comfortable in our new home

(I went in to get him one morning, and this is how I found him. I thought it was so cute.)

I have finally started to post pictures of our house!! Yea for me! We have spent a lot of work and time trying to get this house somewhat presentable. We have painted almost every square inch!! Before we moved in, we painted most of the house and did most of the flooring. We had a lot of help from Kenney's family too. It was a great effort on everyone's behalf! Thanks for all the help!!

The living room was completely made over from ceiling to floor. We removed extremely nasty and stained carpet and put in new flooring and painted everything. The furniture was all given to us. I think in total we spent not quite $500 on the living room. The bathroom had carpet in half of it, ugly paint colors, and was very dirty. I think we spent maybe $100 on that room. Kyler's room/Guest room pretty much only got a paint job. I have posted before and after pictures so don't be frightened by the before pictures. I also have only posted 3 rooms. The others are coming.

Living Room Before

Notice the ugly paneling. It was very dark in this room.

3 layers of wallpaper were fun to remove!! There were at least 1 corner shelf in every corner with wire coming from everywhere and over 100 holes to caulk in the walls.

After

Besides the decorative items, the rug, and the DVDs, everything was given to us. We really appreciate all the efforts made to furnish the house.

We love love love our tall ceilings. I think it is my favorite part of the house.



Bathroom Before

Too bad we had to get rid of our lovely ocean view!

The toilet seat had to go too!! I didn't get a picture of the carpet, but from the cabinet to the back wall there was carpet. The window above the toilet had seashells and rocks glued to it. We haven't quite remove those yet.

After

I actually thought the purple was going to be a little darker, but it works! The floor is 100 times better! We still need to get new hardware, but that is coming.

Indoor light fixtures would be nice also. We'll get some eventually.

Kyler's Room Before

The walls were nicely sponge painted and this awful brown color. The ceiling was blue.

He has the best lighting in the house!

After

We have put the guest bed in his room for now. I was trying to go for a beach theme in his room, but we could not find the kind of fabric we really wanted. My mom and I settled for the red fabric with palm trees, cars and surf boards. I wanted something like the material hanging from his crib. Oh well, this is cute too!!

His walls are actually striped. You can't see them very well because of our camera, but there are stripes of the same color: one stripe is high gloss paint and the other is flat. I love it!! You have to be here to appreciate it.