We love Fridays because...

...it's trash day!! 

Seriously the highlight of Tyler's day. He runs to the door as soon as he hears them in our neighborhood and waits patiently until they're in sight. And then he talks about it all day; that he got to see the "trash truck". Well, its more like "ta tuh" but I know exactly what he is talking about!!

Growing growing

Not long ago, I was buying LUVs size 3 for my little Tyler. Yesterday Jackson graduated to size 3s and I can't seem to wrap my head around it! I know they last for awhile, but how does my newborn fit in the same diapers Tyler did just months ago?!

Tyler loves to point at Jackson and say "me baby"

My Thinking Space

We LOVE our new house and have been working hard to get all situated. This weekend, I focused on our bedroom and I finally have a space that makes me feel peaceful. Here's a sneak peek at our new house:

my favorite place to sit and think- (notice the little baby on the floor!)

Future Invention

I always feel guilty after I make a post with tons of words and no pictures. So here's a picture for those visual people out there (me included):

This is the way we usually take walks, unless I plan on taking a long walk where Tyler needs to be buckled. Otherwise, I like this arrangement and think that someone needs to invent a double stroller in this fashion. They've got side to side and front to back, but why not up and down?!

I really do like the double stroller my parents got us. It is Kolcraft's Contours Options (Tandem) and the seats are removable and can be facing inward or both forward and one seat can be replaced for the bars to hold a carseat. It's great! But the seats are still behind boxes in the garage. One of these days I am going to organize my garage and get them back!! and then I will take a picture to show you!

100 Random Things I Have/Haven't Done

Things I have Done (so far)

I've done the ones in blue... I know this tag is about 4 months old. I'm a little behind (and pretending my sisters tagged me back then!)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars- on top of a houseboat at Lake Powell, camping multiple times, on the trampoline.
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii- twice. Once with my fam, once with my gparents & Sarah. Hopefully sometime with Jeff.
5. Watched a meteor shower- coolest thing ever!
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain- ha! I swore I'd never climb R mountain when I went to BYU-I. I said it outloud multiple times. I climbed it twice. Once barefoot. Don't ask. Stupidest thing I've ever done.
9. Held a praying mantis- no but I've held a live crab and I screamed the whole time!
10. Sang a solo- you do NOT want me to do this. I did sing a duet in 6th grade. Only cuz my friend wanted me to. I don't think anyone I know has it on tape- even if they did I don't think I'd want to watch. It would probably be painful. I have a HUGE fear of singing in front of people.
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea- This was actually one of the scarier "adventures" that my family had :)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept overnight on a train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill- it wouldn't be worth it for me. I'd feel guilty all day.
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden a gondola in Switzerland- nope but I've been on one in Park City, UT.
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise- for our honeymoon
33. Seen Niagra Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen Amish country
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing- no but my friend Amy wanted to take me for my bday, I was too sick and then I got too fat for a few months. Now I think I'm almost ready!
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David- only in the textbooks!
41. Sung karaoke- ha! at Bodhaines and on singstar
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt- lots of times
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing- one of my favorite things to do with my daddy-o!
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling- BOTH
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in movie- we tried to go see a horror movie on Halloween one year. The thought of it freaked me out. I was secretly glad when they told us the screen was broken!
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business- does an etsy store count?
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen- not got served, but served others. We did this for youth conference down in L.A. one year. It was a great experience and I remember being VERY grateful for my many blessings!
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies- my next door neighbor used to let me go with her every year. We had a red wagon and everything.
62. Gone whale watching- I've gone probably 4 times. (Long beach, San Diego, Hawaii, Mexico...) Saw ZERO animals and puked the whole time. Every time. It was aweful! I will probably never try again!
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma: No- I hate needles. But Jeff donated plasma weekly in Rexburg for our date money!!
65. Gone sky diving- no thanks.
66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp
67. Bounced a check: only once and it'll never happen again- I bought a stupid white sweater & used the wrong checking account, had to pay a ton of bank fees and I will never hear the end of it! :)
68. Flown in a helicopter- in Hawaii. Beautiful!
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy- my mom has boxes of Barbies and Playmobil in her garage.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt: twice. One for my mom and one for Jeff. Both in the same month!
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades: kind of but I'm gonna mark it cuz it's close enough. We went on an airboat ride in the Central Florida Everglades and saw tons of alligators! SO COOL!
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone- fractured my wrist when Kt pushed me off the trampoline! and I break my little baby toe over and over every summer!
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle: I don't think we were speeding but I hated it the whole time. Dangerous things make me so nervous.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person: We backpacked to Havasupai Falls (12 miles) and back (12 more miles) one spring break. Craziest thing I've ever done. My feet & back hurt for weeks! Check out the link to see how crazy this was: Note the camels and the helicopter landing pad. I would have given ANYTHING to be able to ride a camel/helicopter back up. Please kill me now.

http://www.havasufallsgrandcanyon.com/
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper- family pictures for the store, 4th of July cheerleading parades, BYU-I cheer team, wedding announcement
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House: we lived in VA for two summers, but I never went then. I went to D.C. campaigning with a Republican Committe for one week. It was my last chance and I finally got there!
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating: lovely. Caught fish, Jeff cleaned them, cooked them and we had a feast. It's a little different when you see them alive, watch them die, then eat. Kinda makes my stomach hurt.
88. Had chickenpox- yes and my mom took naked pictures of me and my sis! (I think I was 9)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. One cavity or less

I tag: Hillary Hess, Molly Miller, Lake Rhodes, Becca Foust and anyone else who wants to do it- It's pretty easy- no pictures involved.

I LOVE Sundays!

Church doesn't start until 1 so we get all morning together. And now we have lots of light when we get home, so we love to play together!

Yesterday we set out to fly Tyler's new Buzz kite...

Whenever it would go down he would run after it

...and drag it back to start again.

can't you just hear him saying "oh no, m' tite!"

all tangled up- it happened everytime!

Here we are sittin' on the maymee. (Every mailbox is a  mailman!)

2 Months Old!

Last week (amongst all the commotion of the move- hence the late post) I took Jackson to his 2 month check up. He is 13.10 lbs, and still growing! Doc says he is doing great and took his shots like a champ. I'm trying to find some solution for his super dry skin (that could turn into eczema if I don't take care of it-doctor's orders). Anyone have any favorite lotions for babies? He gave us a prescription for something to use from then neck down but his face his pretty dry. I've been using Eucerin and like it but he gets all peely about 1 hour later.

Jackson is my perfect sleeper. He is asleep by 11 and wakes up once until 7 am. He started this once we moved him into our closet and I've been brand new ever since! We have both slept great this last week. We are LOVING our new house- it just feels like our home now. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get a chance. For now, I've been doing one area at a time and slowly getting organized. Tyler's been great at playing by my side and Jackson watches us busily working!

King for a Day

For Tyler's birthday, we celebrated by doing all of his favorite things:

opening lots of presents...

playing with something dangerous (dry ice--daddy's present)

mowing the lawn with bubbles (he played with that for about 3 hours today!!)

ate hotdogs and cheese and of course, bapple juice (his favorites)

played in his new sand box with friends

slid down his new slide (thanks Atkinsons!)

got messy in the bath tub (a must after having sand in the diaper!)

he did a great job blowing out the candles...

and had a pretty funny looking frosting mustache to prove how yummy that cupcake was!

Singing Bappy Birthday...

This is the first time I have EVER posted a video on my blog. It takes me awhile to figure things out like this. We don't have a video camera so it is from my phone. I just found out I could email my videos to myself and then download them here.

Tyler and I have been singing songs at bedtime lately and the other night he just started singing along with me. The first time it happened I was laughing so hard I couldn't sing at all! 

Today is Tyler's bday so we have been practicing all day long!! More bday pics to come!

All Smiles

At almost 8 weeks, Jackson's personality is really starting to show. He is so easy going! Which is a total blessing since we've been so busy. We are moving next weekend so I've been packing every spare chance I get. When he's not eating or sleeping, he's usually just watching us ever so quietly. He loves his swing and bouncy chair. He's sleeping a lot better too. And he just started to smile! I'm so happy I got one on camera. Sorry its a little off center- I kept trying but its hard to do the baby talk and try to keep his eye contact with a big camera in the way! 

Cute Crazy Tyler

This little stinker is about to be 2 and boy is he showing it!

No this isn't chocolate on his face. But luckily it isn't poop either! He came in the house crunching on mud and dirt! My big mistake was to say "Eeew gross!" Cuz then he started spitting everywhere! I wasn't sure whether to yell at him or laugh (this wasn't the first time and I've told him MANY times to not eat mud). I decided to laugh and made him pose for a picture.

This photo is for Grandpa and Grandma Clark! He LOVES his backpack and today decided to stuff it full of his animals. He wore it for a couple hours until he found his wagon and decided that  would be a fun way to carry his pals too. Thanks for the cool gift. (He's also wearing his cool Shrek shirt and loves to press the button for anyone who tells him they like his shirt!)

So one day Jeff was playing a new song for me on the laptop. It is called Poker Face and says "PaPaPaPoker Face" Tyler was the only one listening to the song at the moment and started singing "BaBaBa"..."BaBaBa"...It was so hillarious!

A Return to Virtue

A new value has been added to the Young Women's Theme. 

The Young Women’s theme is recited by Latter-day Saint girls aged 12-18 each Sunday across the world:

"We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowlege, Choice and  Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation."

I've been studying what VIRTUE means: "a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards...Virtue begins in the heart and in the mind, is nutured in the home, and is the accumulation of thousands of small decisions and actions." 

Sister Elaine Dalton has given many talks on virtue and they are all really awesome. Check them out if you have some extra time:

A Return to Virtue

Stay on the Path

Look toward Eternity!

Not so bad...

Looking back at yesterday (after getting some sleep) it was not so bad...

I'm usually really good about finding the good in all things. Here are the great things that happened on my bad day:

My friend Becca and her son Zach came over to visit and play

I saw some friends at the park, it was a nice surprise

Tyler wasn't feeling well and I cuddled him to sleep. Its been months since I was able to do that

Jeff brought home dinner (Burger King at 8:30 pm, but hey I didn't have to make it)

Within minutes of writing my bad day post, my neice Lily (almost 4yrs old) called to sing me a song (click here if you'd like to hear for yourself!), and tell me a joke: "Knock knock. Who's there? Chocolate. Chocolate who? Chocolate Kirsti!" It made me laugh. At the end of our visit, she said, "Are you having a good day now?" How could I answer no?

Today was definitely a better day. To prevent yesterday from repeating itself, I spent the day with friends. Tyler got to play with Zach and I got to visit with Becca and Ashna. Jackson even had a buddy to play with (look at)! It was nice to escape all the responsibilities of housework for a day and I really enjoyed the good company!

Not a Good Day

Today was a hard day... my house is a disaster, my incision is sore, I smell like spit-up and I feel like I could brake down and cry at any moment.

Just in case you wanted details...

In the 10 or 15 minutes it takes to nurse the baby, Tyler will: remove all the cushions off the couch, try to blow his nose on my arm, insert my breast pad into the DVD player, try to remove the baby's face from my you-know-what, and smear oatmeal all over the chair, floor and wall. This last act was just the topping on the cake at 6:30 pm and has decided that I am in fact having 2 kids instead of the once planned 4 or 5...

I'm sure my lack of dealing with this has nothing to do with my lack of sleep (right) and the fact that I'm still mourning over the loss of Nemo AND I miss my mom, dad, cousin, mother-in-law, and father-in-law. Please come back!

The good thing about a bad day? Tomorrow has to be better! 

Poor Nemo

This is not a toy. This is the real fish we found on the floor by the tank. Nemo pulled a Nemo and jumped out. We were looking for him all day in the tank, filter and pumps. Never once did we think to look for him on the ground. By the time we found him, he was dry and crispy. I almost cried.

Just so you know, I was screaming as I was taking the picture. Who lets their kid touch a dead fish? Me.